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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34512-8.txt b/34512-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6050bf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/34512-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9931 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rosalind at Red Gate, by Meredith Nicholson + +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: Rosalind at Red Gate + +Author: Meredith Nicholson + +Illustrator: Arthur I. Keller + +Release Date: November 30, 2010 [EBook #34512] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSALIND AT RED GATE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: The carnival of canoes] + + + + + + +ROSALIND AT RED GATE + + +_By_ + +MEREDITH NICHOLSON + + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +ARTHUR I. KELLER + + + + +NEW YORK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1907 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + +NOVEMBER + + + + +TO MY MOTHER + + + + +_Rosalind: I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a +lion._ + +_Orlando: Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady._ + +As You Like It. + + + +"_Then dame Liones said unto Sir Gareth, Sir, I will lend you a ring; +but I would pray you as ye love me heartily let me have it again when +the tournament is done, for that ring increaseth my beauty much more +than it is of itself. And the virtue of my ring is that that is green +it will turn to red, and that is red it will turn in likeness to green, +and that is blue it will turn to likeness of white, and that is white, +it will turn in likeness to blue, and so it will do of all manner of +colours._" + +Morte D'Arthur. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I A Telegram from Paul Stoddard + II Confidences + III I Meet Mr. Reginald Gillespie + IV I Explore Tippecanoe Creek + V A Fight on a House-Boat + VI A Sunday's Mixed Affairs + VII A Broken Oar + VIII A Lady of Shadows and Starlight + IX The Lights on St. Agatha's Pier + X The Flutter of a Handkerchief + XI The Carnival of Canoes + XII The Melancholy of Mr. Gillespie + XIII The Gate of Dreams + XIV Battle Orchard + XV I Undertake a Commission + XVI An Odd Affair at Red Gate + XVII How the Night Ended + XVIII The Lady of the White Butterflies + XIX Helen Takes Me to Task + XX The Touch of Dishonor + XXI A Blue Cloak and a Scarlet + XXII Mr. Gillespie's Diversions + XXIII The Rocket Signal + XXIV "With My Hands" + XXV Daybreak + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The carnival of canoes . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +"We must take no risks whatever, Helen." + +Three white butterflies fluttered about her head. + +"Where's your father, Rosalind?" + + + + +ROSALIND AT RED GATE + + +CHAPTER I + +A TELEGRAM FROM PAUL STODDARD + + Up, up, my heart! Up, up, my heart, + This day was made for thee! + For soon the hawthorn spray shall part, + And thou a face shalt see + That comes, O heart, O foolish heart, + This way to gladden thee. + --_H. C. Bunner_. + + +Stoddard's telegram was brought to me on the Glenarm pier at four +o'clock Tuesday afternoon, the fifth of June. I am thus explicit, for +all the matters hereinafter described turn upon the receipt of +Stoddard's message, which was, to be sure, harmless enough in itself, +but, like many other scraps of paper that blow about the world, the +forerunner of confusion and trouble. + +My friend, Mr. John Glenarm, had gone abroad for the summer with his +family and had turned over to me his house at Annandale that I might +enjoy its seclusion and comfort while writing my book on _Russian +Rivers_. + +If John Glenarm had not taken his family abroad with him when he went +to Turkey to give the sultan's engineers lessons in bridge building; if +I had not accepted his kind offer of the house at Annandale for the +summer; and if Paul Stoddard had not sent me that telegram, I should +never have written this narrative. But such was the predestined way of +it. I rose from the boat I was caulking, and, with the waves from the +receding steamer slapping the pier, read this message: + + +STAMFORD, Conn., June 5. + +Meet Miss Patricia Holbrook Annandale station, five twenty Chicago +express and conduct her to St. Agatha's school, where she is expected. +She will explain difficulties. I have assured her of your sympathy and +aid. Will join you later if necessary. Imperative engagements call me +elsewhere. + +STODDARD. + + +To say that I was angry when I read this message is to belittle the +truth. I read and re-read it with growing heat. I had accepted +Glenarm's offer of the house at Annandale because it promised peace, +and now I was ordered by telegraph to meet a strange person of whom I +had never heard, listen to her story, and tender my sympathy and aid. +I glanced at my watch. It was already after four. "Delayed in +transmission" was stamped across the telegraph form--I learned later +that it had lain half the day in Annandale, New York--so that I was now +face to face with the situation, and without opportunity to fling his +orders back to Stoddard if I wanted to. Nor did I even know Stamford +from Stamboul, and I am not yet clear in my mind--being an Irishman +with rather vague notions of American geography--whether Connecticut is +north or south of Massachusetts. + +"Ijima!" + +I called my Japanese boy from the boat-house, and he appeared, +paint-brush in hand. + +"Order the double trap, and tell them to hurry." + +I reflected, as I picked up my coat and walked toward the house, that +if any one but Paul Stoddard had sent me such a message I should most +certainly have ignored it; but I knew him as a man who did not make +demands or impose obligations lightly. As the founder and superior of +the Protestant religious Order of the Brothers of Bethlehem he was, I +knew, an exceedingly busy man. His religious house was in the Virginia +mountains; but he spent much time in quiet, humble service in city +slums, in lumber-camps, in the mines of Pennsylvania; and occasionally +he appeared like a prophet from the wilderness in some great church of +New York, and preached with a marvelous eloquence to wondering throngs. + +The trap swung into the arched driveway and I bade the coachman make +haste to the Annandale station. The handsome bays were soon trotting +swiftly toward the village, while I drew on my gloves and considered +the situation. A certain Miss Holbrook, of whose existence I had been +utterly ignorant an hour before, was about to arrive at Annandale. A +clergyman, whom I had not seen for two years, had telegraphed me from a +town in Connecticut to meet this person, conduct her to St. Agatha's +School--just closed for the summer, as I knew--and to volunteer my +services in difficulties that were darkly indicated in a telegram of +forty-five words. The sender of the message I knew to be a serious +character, and a gentleman of distinguished social connections. The +name of the lady signified nothing except that she was unmarried; and +as Stoddard's acquaintance was among all sorts and conditions of men I +could assume nothing more than that the unknown had appealed to him as +a priest and that he had sent her to Lake Annandale to shake off the +burdens of the world in the conventual air of St. Agatha's. High-born +Italian ladies, I knew, often retired to remote convents in the Italian +hills for meditation or penance. Miss Holbrook's age I placed +conservatively at twenty-nine; for no better reason, perhaps, than that +I am thirty-two. + +The blue arch of June does not encourage difficulties, doubts or +presentiments; and with the wild rose abloom along the fences and with +robins tossing their song across the highway I ceased to growl and +found curiosity getting the better of my temper. Expectancy, after +all, is the cheerfullest tonic of life, and when the time comes when I +can see the whole of a day's programme from my breakfast-table I shall +be ready for man's last adventure. + +I smoothed my gloves and fumbled my tie as the bays trotted briskly +along the lake shore. The Chicago express whistled for Annandale just +as we gained the edge of the village. It paused a grudging moment and +was gone before we reached the station. I jumped out and ran through +the waiting-room to the platform, where the agent was gathering up the +mail-bags, while an assistant loaded a truck with trunks. I glanced +about, and the moment was an important one in my life. Standing quite +alone beside several pieces of hand-baggage was a lady--unmistakably a +lady--leaning lightly upon an umbrella, and holding under her arm a +magazine. She was clad in brown, from bonnet to shoes; the umbrella +and magazine cover were of like tint, and even the suitcase nearest her +struck the same note of color. There was no doubt whatever as to her +identity; I did not hesitate a moment; the lady in brown was Miss +Holbrook, and she was an old lady, a dear, bewitching old lady, and as +I stepped toward her, her eyes brightened--they, too, were brown!--and +she put out her brown-gloved hand with a gesture so frank and cordial +that I was won at once. + +"Mr. Donovan--Mr. Laurance Donovan--I am sure of it!" + +"Miss Holbrook--I am equally confident!" I said. "I am sorry to be +late, but Father Stoddard's message was delayed." + +"You are kind to respond at all," she said, her wonderful eyes upon me; +"but Father Stoddard said you would not fail me." + +"He is a man of great faith! But I have a trap waiting. We can talk +more comfortably at St. Agatha's." + +"Yes; we are to go to the school. Father Stoddard kindly arranged it. +It is quite secluded, he assured me." + +"You will not be disappointed, Miss Holbrook, if seclusion is what you +seek." + +I picked up the brown bag and turned away, but she waited and glanced +about. Her "we" had puzzled me; perhaps she had brought a maid, and I +followed her glance toward the window of the telegraph office. + +"Oh, Helen; my niece, Helen Holbrook, is with me. I wished to wire +some instructions to my housekeeper at home. Father Stoddard may not +have explained--that it is partly on Helen's account that I am coming +here." + +"No; he explained nothing--merely gave me my instructions," I laughed. +"He gives orders in a most militant fashion." + +In a moment I had been presented to the niece, and had noted that she +was considerably above her aunt's height; that she was dark, with eyes +that seemed quite black in certain lights, and that she bowed, as her +aunt presented me, without offering her hand, and murmured my name in a +voice musical, deep and full, and agreeable to hear. + +She took their checks from her purse, and I called the porter and +arranged for the transfer of their luggage to St. Agatha's. We were +soon in the trap with the bays carrying us at a lively clip along the +lake road. It was all perfectly new to them and they expressed their +delight in the freshness of the young foliage; the billowing fields of +ripening wheat, the wild rose, blackberry and elderberry filling the +angles of the stake-and-rider fences, and the flashing waters of the +lake that carried the eye to distant wooded shores. I turned in my +seat by the driver to answer their questions. + +"There's a summer resort somewhere on the lake; how far is that from +the school?" asked the girl. + +"That's Port Annandale. It's two or three miles from St. Agatha's," I +replied. "On this side and all the way to the school there are farms. +The lake looks like an oval pond as we see it here, but there are +several long arms that creep off into the woods, and there's another +lake of considerable size to the north. Port Annandale lies yonder." + +"Of course we shall see nothing of it," said the younger Miss Holbrook +with finality. + +I sought in vain for any resemblance between the two women; they were +utterly unlike. The little brown lady was interested and responsive +enough; she turned toward her niece with undisguised affection as we +talked, but I caught several times a look of unhappiness in her face, +and the brow that Time had not touched gathered in lines of anxiety and +care. The girl's manner toward her aunt was wholly kind and +sympathetic. + +"I'm sure it will be delightful here, Aunt Pat. Wild roses and blue +water! I'm quite in love with the pretty lake already." + +This was my first introduction to the diminutive of Patricia, and it +seemed very fitting, and as delightful as the dear little woman +herself. She must have caught my smile as the niece so addressed her +for the first time and she smiled back at me in her charming fashion. + +"You are an Irishman, Mr. Donovan, and Pat must sound natural." + +"Oh, all who love Aunt Patricia call her Aunt Pat!" exclaimed the girl. + +"Then Miss Holbrook undoubtedly hears it often," said I, and was at +once sorry for my bit of blarney, for the tears shone suddenly in the +dear brown eyes, and the niece recurred to the summer landscape as a +topic, and talked of the Glenarm place, whose stone wall we were now +passing, until we drove into the grounds of St. Agatha's and up to the +main entrance of the school, where a Sister in the brown garb of her +order stood waiting. + +I first introduced myself to Sister Margaret, who was in charge, and +then presented the two ladies who were to be her guests. It was +disclosed that Sister Theresa, the head of the school, had wired +instructions from York Harbor, where she was spending the summer, +touching Miss Holbrook's reception, and her own rooms were at the +disposal of the guests. St. Agatha's is, as all who are attentive to +such matters know, a famous girls' school founded by Sister Theresa, +and one felt its quality in the appointments of the pretty, cool parlor +where we were received. Sister Margaret said just the right thing to +every one, and I was glad to find her so capable a person, fully able +to care for these exiles without aid from my side of the wall. She was +a tall, fair young woman, with a cheerful countenance, and her merry +eyes seemed always to be laughing at one from the depths of her brown +hood. Pleasantly hospitable, she rang for a maid. + +"Helen, if you will see our things disposed of I will detain Mr. +Donovan a few minutes," said Miss Holbrook. + +"Or I can come again in an hour--I am your near neighbor," I remarked, +thinking she might wish to rest from her journey. + +"I am quite ready," she replied, and I bowed to Helen Holbrook and to +Sister Margaret, who went out, followed by the maid. Miss Pat--you +will pardon me if I begin at once to call her by this name, but it fits +her so capitally, it is so much a part of her, that I can not +resist--Miss Pat put off her bonnet without fuss, placed it on the +table and sat down in a window-seat whence the nearer shore of the lake +was visible across the strip of smooth lawn. + +"Father Stoddard thought it best that I should explain the necessity +that brings us here," she began; "but the place is so quiet that it +seems absurd to think that our troubles could follow us." + +I bowed. The idea of this little woman's being driven into exile by +any sort of trouble seemed preposterous. She drew off her gloves and +leaned back comfortably against the bright pillows of the window-seat. +"Watch the hands of the guest in the tent," runs the Arabian proverb. +Miss Pat's hands seemed to steal appealingly out of her snowy cuffs; +there was no age in them. The breeding showed there as truly as in her +eyes and face. On the third finger of her left hand she wore a +singularly fine emerald, set in an oddly carved ring of Roman gold. + +"Will you please close the door?" she said, and when I came back to the +window she began at once. + +"If is not pleasant, as you must understand, to explain to a stranger +an intimate and painful family trouble. But Father Stoddard advised me +to be quite frank with you." + +"That is the best way, if there is a possibility that I may be of +service," I said in the gentlest tone I could command. "But tell me no +more than you wish. I am wholly at your service without explanations." + +"It is in reference to my brother; he has caused me a great deal of +trouble. When my father died nearly ten years ago--he lived to a great +age--he left a considerable estate, a large fortune. A part of it was +divided at once among my two brothers and myself. The remainder, +amounting to one million dollars, was left to me, with the stipulation +that I was to make a further division between my brothers at the end of +ten years, or at my discretion. I was older than my brothers, much +older, and my father left me with this responsibility, not knowing what +it would lead to. Henry and Arthur succeeded to my father's business, +the banking firm of Holbrook Brothers, in New York. The bank continued +to prosper for a time; then it collapsed suddenly. The debts were all +paid, but Arthur disappeared--there were unpleasant rumors--" + +She paused a moment, and looked out of the window toward the lake, and +I saw her clasped hands tighten; but she went on bravely. + +"That was seven years ago. Since then Henry has insisted on the final +division of the property. My father had a high sense of honor and he +stipulated that if either of his sons should be guilty of any +dishonorable act he should forfeit his half of the million dollars. +Henry insists that Arthur has forfeited his rights and that the amount +withheld should be paid to him now; but his conduct has been such that +I feel I should serve him ill to pay him so large a sum of money. +Moreover, I owe something to his daughter--to Helen. Owing to her +father's reckless life I have had her make her home with me for several +years. She is a noble girl, and very beautiful--you must have seen, +Mr. Donovan, that she is an unusually beautiful girl." + +"Yes," I assented. + +"And better than that," she said with feeling, "she is a very lovely +character." + +I nodded, touched to see how completely Helen Holbrook filled and +satisfied her aunt's life. Miss Pat continued her story. + +"My brother first sought to frighten me into a settlement by menacing +my own peace; and now he includes Helen in his animosity. My house at +Stamford was set on fire a month ago; then thieves entered it and I was +obliged to leave. We arranged to go abroad, but when we got to the +steamer we found Henry waiting with a threat to follow us if I did not +accede to his demands. It was Father Stoddard who suggested this +place, and we came by a circuitous route, pausing here and there to see +whether we were followed. We were in the Adirondacks for a week, then +we went into Canada, crossed the lake to Cleveland and finally came on +here. You can imagine how distressing--how wretched all this has been." + +"Yes; it is a sad story, Miss Holbrook. But you are not likely to be +molested here. You have a lake on one side, a high wall shuts off the +road, and I beg you to accept me as your near neighbor and protector. +The servants at Mr. Glenarm's house have been with him for several +years and are undoubtedly trustworthy. It is not likely that your +brother will find you here, but if he should--we will deal with that +situation when the time comes!" + +"You are very reassuring; no doubt we shall not need to call on you. +And I hope you understand," she continued anxiously, "that it is not to +keep the money that I wish to avoid my brother; that if it were wise to +make this further division at this time and it were for his good, I +should be glad to give him all--every penny of it." + +"Pardon me, but the other brother--he has not made similar demands--you +do not fear him?" I inquired with some hesitation. + +"To--no!" And a tremulous smile played about her lips. "Poor Arthur! +He must be dead. He ran away after the bank failure and I have never +heard from him since. He and Henry were very unlike, and I always felt +more closely attached to Arthur. He was not brilliant, like Henry; he +was gentle and quiet in his ways, and father was often impatient with +him. Henry has been very bitter toward Arthur and has appealed to me +on the score of Arthur's ill-doing. It took all his own fortune, he +says, to save Arthur and the family name from dishonor." + +She was remarkably composed throughout this recital, and I marveled at +her more and more. Now, after a moment's silence, she turned to me +with a smile. + +"We have been annoyed in another way. It is so ridiculous that I +hesitate to tell you of it--" + +"Pray do not--you need tell me nothing more, Miss Holbrook." + +"It is best for you to know. My niece has been annoyed the past year +by the attentions of a young man whom she greatly dislikes and whose +persistence distresses her very much indeed." + +"Well, he can hardly find her here; and if he should--" + +Miss Holbrook folded her arms upon her knees and smiled, bending toward +me. The loveliness of her hair, which she wore parted and brushed back +at the temples, struck me for the first time. The brown--I was sure it +had been brown!--had yielded to white--there was no gray about it; it +was the soft white of summer clouds. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed; "he isn't a violent person, Mr. Donovan. He's +silly, absurd, idiotic! You need fear no violence from him." + +"And of course your niece is not interested--he's not a fellow to +appeal to her imagination." + +"That is quite true; and then in our present unhappy circumstances, +with her father hanging over her like a menace, marriage is far from +her thoughts. She feels that even if she were attached to a man and +wished to marry, she could not. I wish she did not feel so; I should +be glad to see her married and settled in her own home. These +difficulties can not last always; but while they continue we are +practically exiles. Helen has taken it all splendidly, and her loyalty +to me is beyond anything I could ask. It's a very dreadful thing, as +you can understand, for brother and sister and father and child to be +arrayed against one another." + +I wished to guide the talk into cheerfuller channels before leaving. +Miss Pat seemed amused by the thought of the unwelcome suitor, and I +determined to leave her with some word in reference to him. + +"If a strange knight in quest of a lady comes riding through the wood, +how shall I know him? What valorous words are written on his shield, +and does he carry a lance or a suit-case?" + +"He is the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance," said Miss Holbrook in +my own key, as she rose. "You would know him anywhere by his clothes +and the remarkable language he uses. He is not to be taken very +seriously--that's the trouble with him! But I have been afraid that he +and my brother might join hands in the pursuit of us." + +"But the Sorrowful Knight would not advance his interests by that--he +could only injure his cause!" I exclaimed. + +"Oh, he has no subtlety; he's a very foolish person; he blunders at +windmills with quixotic ardor. You understand, of course, that our +troubles are not known widely. We used to be a family of some +dignity,"--and Miss Patricia drew herself up a trifle and looked me +straight in the eyes--"and I hope still for happier years." + +"Won't you please say good night to Miss Holbrook for me?" I said, my +hand on the door. + +And then an odd thing happened. I was about to take my departure +through the front hall when I remembered a short cut to the Glenarm +gate from the rear of the school. I walked the length of the parlor to +a door that would, I knew, give ready exit to the open. I bowed to +Miss Pat, who stood erect, serene, adorable, in the room that was now +touched with the first shadows of waning day, and her slight figure was +so eloquent of pathos, her smile so brave, that I bowed again, with a +reverence I already felt for her. + +Then as I flung the door open and stepped into the hall I heard the +soft swish of skirts, a light furtive step, and caught a glimpse--or +could have sworn I did--of white. There was only one Sister in the +house, and a few servants; it seemed incredible that they could be +eavesdropping upon this guest of the house. I crossed a narrow hall, +found the rear door, and passed out into the park. Something prompted +me to turn when I had taken a dozen steps toward the Glenarm gate. The +vines on the gray stone buildings were cool to the eye with their green +that hung like a tapestry from eaves to earth. And suddenly, as though +she came out of the ivied wall itself, Helen Holbrook appeared on the +little balcony opening from one of the first-floor rooms, rested the +tips of her fingers on the green vine-clasped rail, and, seeing me, +bowed and smiled. + +She was gowned in white, with a scarlet ribbon at her throat, and the +green wall vividly accented and heightened her outline. I stood, +staring like a fool for what seemed a century of heart-beats as she +flashed forth there, out of what seemed a sheer depth of masonry; then +she turned her head slightly, as though in disdain of me, and looked +off toward the lake. I had uncovered at sight of her, and found, when +I gained the broad hall at Glenarm House, that I still carried my hat. + +An hour later, as I dined in solitary state, that white figure was +still present before me; and I could not help wondering, though the +thought angered me, whether that graceful head had been bent against +the closed door of the parlor at St. Agatha's, and (if such were the +fact) why Helen Holbrook, who clearly enjoyed the full confidence of +her aunt, should have stooped to such a trick to learn what Miss +Patricia said to me. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CONFIDENCES + + When Spring grows old, and sleepy winds + Set from the South with odors sweet, + I see my love in green, cool groves, + Speed down dusk aisles on shining feet. + + She throws a kiss and bids me run, + In whispers sweet as roses' breath; + I know I can not win the race, + And at the end I know is death. + + O race of love! we all have run + Thy happy course through groves of spring, + And cared not, when at last we lost, + For life, or death, or anything! + --_Atalanta: Maurice Thompson_. + + +Miss Patricia received me the following afternoon on the lawn at St. +Agatha's where, in a cool angle of the buildings, a maid was laying the +cloth on a small table. + +"It is good of you to come. Helen will be here presently. She went +for a walk on the shore." + +"You must both of you make free of the Glenarm preserve. Don't +consider the wall over there a barricade; it's merely to add to the +picturesqueness of the landscape." + +Miss Patricia was quite rested from her journey, and expressed her +pleasure in the beauty and peace of the place in frank and cordial +terms. And to-day I suspected, what later I fully believed, that she +affected certain old-fashioned ways in a purely whimsical spirit. Her +heart was young enough, but she liked to play at being old! Sister +Theresa's own apartments had been placed at her disposal, and the +house, Miss Patricia declared, was delightfully cool. + +"I could ask nothing better than this. Sister Margaret is most kind in +every way. Helen and I have had a peaceful twenty-four hours--the +first in two years--and I feel that at last we have found safe +harborage." + +"Best assured of it, Miss Holbrook! The summer colony is away off +there and you need see nothing of it; it is quite out of sight and +sound. You have seen Annandale--the sleepiest of American villages, +with a curio shop and a candy and soda-fountain place and a picture +post-card booth which the young ladies of St. Agatha's patronize +extensively when they are here. The summer residents are just +beginning to arrive on their shore, but they will not molest you. If +they try to land over here we'll train our guns on them and blow them +out of the water. As your neighbor beyond the iron gate of Glenarm I +beg that you will look upon me as your man-at-arms. My sword, Madam, I +lay at your feet." + +"Sheathe it, Sir Laurance; nor draw it save in honorable cause," she +returned on the instant, and then she was grave again. + +"Sister Margaret is most kind in every way; she seems wholly discreet, +and has assured me of her interest and sympathy," said Miss Patricia, +as though she wished me to confirm her own impression. + +"There's no manner of doubt of it. She is Sister Theresa's assistant. +It is inconceivable that she could possibly interfere in your affairs. +I believe you are perfectly safe here in every way, Miss Holbrook. If +at the end of a week your brother has made no sign, we shall be +reasonably certain that he has lost the trail." + +"I believe that is true; and I thank you very much." + +I had come prepared to be disillusioned, to find her charm gone, but +her small figure had even an added distinction; her ways, her manner an +added grace. I found myself resisting the temptation to call her +quaint, as implying too much; yet I felt that in some olden time, on +some noble estate in England, or, better, in some storied colonial +mansion in Virginia, she must have had her home in years long gone, +living on with no increase of age to this present. She was her own +law, I judged, in the matter of fashion. I observed later a certain +uniformity in the cut of her gowns, as though, at some period, she had +found a type wholly comfortable and to her liking and thereafter had +clung to it. She suggested peace and gentleness and a beautiful +patience; and I strove to say amusing things, that I might enjoy her +rare luminous smile and catch her eyes when she gave me her direct gaze +in the quick, challenging way that marked her as a woman of position +and experience, who had been more given to command than to obey. + +"Did you think I was never coming, Aunt Pat? That shore-path calls for +more strenuous effort than I imagined, and I had to change my gown +again." + +Helen Holbrook advanced quickly and stood by her aunt's chair, nodding +to me smilingly, and while we exchanged the commonplaces of the day, +she caught up Miss Pat's hand and held it a moment caressingly. The +maid now brought the tea. Miss Pat poured it and the talk went forward +cheerily. + +The girl was in white, and at the end of a curved bench, with a variety +of colored cushions about her and the bright sward and tranquil lake +beyond, she made a picture wholly agreeable to my eyes. Her hair was +dead black, and I saw for the first time that its smooth line on her +brow was broken by one of those curious, rare little points called +widow's peak. They are not common, nor, to be sure, are they +important; yet it seemed somehow to add interest to her graceful pretty +head. + +It was quite clear in a moment that Helen was bent on treating me +rather more amiably than on the day before, while at the same time +showing her aunt every deference. I was relieved to find them both +able to pitch their talk in a light key. The thought of sitting daily +and drearily discussing their troubles with two exiled women had given +me a dark moment at the station the day before; but we were now having +tea in the cheerfullest fashion in the world; and, as for their +difficulties, I had no idea whatever that they would be molested so +long as they remained quietly at Annandale. Miss Pat and her niece +were not the hysterical sort; both apparently enjoyed sound health, and +they were not the kind of women who see ghosts in every alcove and go +to bed to escape the lightning. + +"Oh, Mr. Donovan," said Helen Holbrook, as I put down her cup, "there +are some letters I should like to write and I wish you would tell me +whether it is safe to have letters come for us to Annandale; or would +it be better to send nothing from here at all? It does seem odd to +have to ask such a question--" and she concluded in a tone of distress +and looked at me appealingly. + +"We must take no risks whatever, Helen," remarked Miss Pat decisively. + +[Illustration: "We must take no risks whatever, Helen."] + +"Does no one know where you are?" I inquired of Miss Patricia. + +"My lawyer, in New York, has the name of this place, sealed; and he put +it away in a safety box and promised not to open it unless something of +very great importance happened." + +"It is best to take no chances," I said; "so I should answer your +question in the negative, Miss Holbrook. In the course of a few weeks +everything may seem much clearer; and in the meantime it will be wiser +not to communicate with the outer world." + +"They deliver mail through the country here, don't they?" asked Helen. +"It must be a great luxury for the farmers to have the post-office at +their very doors." + +"Yes, but the school and Mr. Glenarm always send for their own mail to +Annandale." + +"Our mail is all going to my lawyer," said Miss Pat, "and it must wait +until we can have it sent to us without danger." + +"Certainly, Aunt Pat," replied Helen readily. "I didn't mean to give +Mr. Donovan the impression that my correspondence was enormous; but it +is odd to be shut up in this way and not to be able to do as one likes +in such little matters." + +The wind blew in keenly from the lake as the sun declined and Helen +went unasked and brought an India shawl and put it about Miss Pat's +shoulders. The girl's thoughtfulness for her aunt's comfort pleased +me, and I found myself liking her better. + +It was time for me to leave and I picked up my hat and stick. As I +started away I was aware that Helen Holbrook detained me without in the +least appearing to do so, following a few steps to gain, as she said, a +certain view of the lake that was particularly charming. + +"There is nothing rugged in this landscape, but it is delightful in its +very tranquillity," she said, as we loitered on, the shimmering lake +before us, the wood behind ablaze with the splendor of the sun. She +spoke of the beauty of the beeches, which are of noble girth in this +region, and paused to indicate a group of them whose smooth trunks were +like massive pillars. As we looked back I saw that Miss Pat had gone +into the house, driven no doubt by the persistency of the west wind +that crisped the lake. Helen's manner changed abruptly, and she said: + +"If any difficulty should arise here, if my poor father should find out +where we are, I trust that you may be able to save my aunt anxiety and +pain. That is what I wished to say to you, Mr. Donovan." + +"Certainly," I replied, meeting her eyes, and noting a quiver of the +lips that was eloquent of deep feeling and loyalty. She continued +beside me, her head erect as though by a supreme effort of +self-control, and with I knew not what emotions shaking her heart. She +continued silent as we marched on and I felt that there was the least +defiance in her air; then she drew a handkerchief from her sleeve, +touched it lightly to her eyes, and smiled. + +"I had not thought of quite following you home! Here is Glenarm +gate--and there lie your battlements and towers." + +"Rather they belong to my old friend, John Glenarm. In his goodness of +heart he gave me the use of the place for the summer; and as generosity +with another's property is very easy, I hereby tender you our +fleet--canoes, boats, steam launch--and the stable, which contains a +variety of traps and a good riding-horse or two. They are all at your +service. I hope that you and your aunt will not fail to avail +yourselves of each and all. Do you ride? I was specially charged to +give the horses exercise." + +"Thank you very much," she said. "When we are well settled, and feel +more secure, we shall be glad to call on you. Father Stoddard +certainly served us well in sending us to you, Mr. Donovan." + +In a moment she spoke again, quite slowly, and with, I thought, a very +pretty embarrassment. + +"Aunt Pat may have spoken of another difficulty--a mere annoyance, +really," and she smiled at me gravely. + +"Oh, yes; of the youngster who has been troubling you. Your father and +he have, of course, no connection." + +"No; decidedly not. But he is a very offensive person, Mr. Donovan. +It would be a matter of great distress to me if he should pursue us to +this place." + +"It is inconceivable that a gentleman--if he is a gentleman--should +follow you merely for the purpose of annoying you. I have heard that +young ladies usually know how to get rid of importunate suitors." + +"I have heard that they have that reputation," she laughed back. "But +Mr. Gillespie--" + +"That's the name, is it? Your aunt did not mention it." + +"Yes; he lives quite near us at Stamford. Aunt Pat disliked his father +before him, and now that he is dead she visits her displeasure on the +son; but she is quite right about it. He is a singularly unattractive +and uninteresting person, and I trust that he will not find us." + +"That is quite unlikely. You will do well to forget all about +him--forget all your troubles and enjoy the beauty of these June days." + +We had reached Glenarm gate, and St. Agatha's was now hidden by the +foliage along the winding path. I was annoyed to realize how much I +enjoyed this idling. I felt my pulse quicken when our eyes met. Her +dark oval face was beautiful with the loveliness of noble Italian women +I had seen on great occasions in Rome. I had not known that hair could +be so black, and it was fine and soft; the widow's peak was as sharply +defined on her smooth forehead as though done with crayon. Dark women +should always wear white, I reflected, as she paused and lifted her +head to listen to the chime in the tower of the little Gothic chapel--a +miniature affair that stood by the wall--a chime that flung its melody +on the soft summer air like a handful of rose-leaves. She picked up a +twig and broke it in her fingers; and looking down I saw that she wore +on her left hand an emerald ring identical with the one worn by her +aunt. It was so like that I should have believed it the same, had I +not noted Miss Pat's ring but a few minutes before. Helen threw away +the bits of twig when we came to the wall, and, as I swung the gate +open, paused mockingly with clasped hands and peered inside. + +"I must go back," she said. Then, her manner changing, she dropped her +hands at her side and faced me. + +"You will warn me, Mr. Donovan, of the first approach of trouble. I +wish to save my aunt in every way possible--she means so much to me; +she has made life easy for me where it would have been hard." + +"There will be no trouble, Miss Holbrook. You are as safe as though +you were hidden in a cave in the Apennines; but I shall give you +warning at the first sign of danger." + +"My father is--is quite relentless," she murmured, averting her eyes. + +I turned to retrace the path with her; but she forbade me and was gone +swiftly--a flash of white through the trees--before I could parley with +her. I stared after her as long as I could hear her light tread in the +path. And when she had vanished a feeling of loneliness possessed me +and the country quiet mocked me with its peace. + +I clanged the Glenarm gates together sharply and went in to dinner; but +I pondered long as I smoked on the star-hung terrace. Through the wood +directly before me I saw lights flash from the small craft of the lake, +and the sharp tum-tum of a naphtha launch rang upon the summer night. +Insects made a blur of sound in the dark and the chant of the katydids +rose and fell monotonously. + +I flung away a half-smoked cigar and lighted my pipe. There was no +disguising the truth that the coming of the Holbrooks had got on my +nerves--at least that was my phrase for it. Now that I thought of it, +they were impudent intruders and Paul Stoddard had gone too far in +turning them over to me. There was nothing in their story, anyhow; it +was preposterous, and I resolved to let them severely alone. But even +as these thoughts ran through my mind I turned toward St. Agatha's, +whose lights were visible through the trees, and I knew that there was +nothing honest in my impatience. Helen Holbrook's eyes were upon me +and her voice called from the dark; and when the clock chimed nine in +the tower beyond the wall memory brought back the graceful turn of her +dark head, the firm curve of her throat as she had listened to the +mellow fling of the bells. + +And here, for the better instruction of those friends who amuse +themselves with the idea that I am unusually susceptible, as they say, +to the charms of woman, I beg my reader's indulgence while I state, +quite honestly, the flimsy basis of this charge. Once, in my twentieth +year, while I was still an undergraduate at Trinity, Dublin, I went to +the Killarney Lakes for a week's end. My host--a fellow student--had +taken me home to see his horses; but it was not his stable, but his +blue-eyed sister, that captivated my fancy. I had not known that +anything could be so beautiful as she was, and I feel and shall always +feel that it was greatly to my credit that I fell madly in love with +her. Our affair was fast and furious, and lamentably detrimental to my +standing at Trinity. I wrote some pretty bad verses in her praise, and +I am not in the least ashamed of that weakness, or that the best +florist in Ireland prospered at the expense of my tailor and laundress. +It lasted a year, and to say that it was like a beautiful dream is +merely to betray my poor command of language. The end, too, was +fitting enough, and not without its compensations: I kissed her one +night--she will not, I am sure, begrudge me the confession; it was a +moonlight night in May; and thereafter within two months she married a +Belfast brewer's son who could not have rhymed eyes with skies to save +his malted soul. + +Embittered by this experience I kept out of trouble for two years, and +my next affair was with a widow, two years my senior, whom I met at a +house in Scotland where I was staying for the shooting. She was a bit +mournful, and lavender became her well. I forgot the grouse after my +first day, and gave myself up to consoling her. She had, as no other +woman I have known has had, a genius--it was nothing less--for graceful +attitudes. To surprise her before an open fire, her prettily curved +chin resting on her pink little palm, her eyes bright with lurking +tears, and to see her lips twitch with the effort to restrain a sob +when one came suddenly upon her--but the picture is not for my clumsy +hand! I have never known whether she suffered me to make love to her +merely as a distraction, or whether she was briefly amused by my ardor +and entertained by the new phrases of adoration I contrived for her. I +loved her quite sincerely; I am glad to have experienced the tumult she +stirred in me--glad that the folding of her little hands upon her +knees, as she bent toward the lighted hearth in that old Scotch manor, +and her low, murmuring, mournful voice, made my heart jump. I told +her--and recall it without shame--that her eyes were adorable islands +aswim in brimming seas, and that her hands were fluttering white doves +of peace. I found that I could maintain that sort of thing without +much trouble for an hour at a time. + +I did not know it was the last good-by when I packed my bags and +gun-cases and left one frosty morning. I regret nothing, but am glad +it all happened just so. Her marriage to a clergyman in the +Establishment--a duke's second son in holy orders who enjoyed +considerable reputation as a cricketer--followed quickly, and I have +never seen her since. I was in love with that girl for at least a +month. It did me no harm, and I think she liked it herself. + +I next went down before the slang of an American girl with teasing eyes +and amazing skill at tennis, whom I met at Oxford when she was a +student in Lady Margaret. Her name was Iris and she was possessed by +the spirit of Mischief. If you know aught of the English, you know +that the average peaches-and-cream English girl is not, to put it +squarely, exciting. Iris understood this perfectly and delighted in +doing things no girl had ever done before in that venerable town. She +lived at home--her family had taken a house out beyond Magdalen; and +she went to and from the classic halls of Lady Margaret in a dog-cart, +sometimes with a groom, sometimes without. When alone she dashed +through the High at a gait which caused sedate matrons to stare and +sober-minded fellows of the university to swear, and admiring +undergraduates to chuckle with delight. I had gone to Oxford to +consult a certain book in the Bodleian--a day's business only; but it +fell about that in the post-office, where I had gone on an errand, I +came upon Iris struggling for a cable-blank, and found one for her. As +she stood at the receiving counter, impatiently waiting to file her +message, she remarked, for the benefit, I believed, of a gaitered +bishop at her elbow: "How perfectly rotten this place is!"--and winked +at me. She was seventeen, and I was old enough to know better, but we +had some talk, and the next day she bowed to me in front of St. Mary's +and, the day after, picked me up out near Keble and drove me all over +town, and past Lady Margaret, and dropped me quite boldly at the door +of the Mitre. Shameful! It was; but at the end of a week I knew all +her family, including her father, who was bored to death, and her +mother, who had thought it a fine thing to move from Zanesville, Ohio, +to live in a noble old academic center like Oxford--that was what too +much home-study and literary club had done for her. + +Iris kept the cables hot with orders for clothes, caramels and shoes, +while I lingered and hung upon her lightest slang and encouraged her in +the idea that education in her case was a sinful waste of time; and I +comforted her father for the loss of his native buckwheat cakes and +consoled her mother, who found that seven of the perfect English +servants of the story-books did less than the three she had maintained +at Zanesville. I lingered in Oxford two months, and helped them get +out of town when Iris was dropped from college for telling the +principal that the Zanesville High School had Lady Margaret over the +ropes for general educational efficiency, and that, moreover, she would +not go to the Established Church because the litany bored her. +Whereupon--their dependence on me having steadily increased--I got them +out of Oxford and over to Dresden, and Iris and I became engaged. Then +I went to Ireland on a matter of business, made an incendiary speech in +Galway, smashed a couple of policemen and landed in jail. Before my +father, with, I fear, some reluctance, bailed me out, Iris had eloped +with a lieutenant in the German army and her family had gone sadly back +to Zanesville. + +This is the truth, and the whole truth, and I plead guilty to every +count of the indictment. Thereafter my pulses cooled and I sought the +peace of jungles; and the eyes of woman charmed me no more. When I +landed at Annandale and opened my portfolio to write _Russian Rivers_ +my last affair was half a dozen years behind me. + +Sobered by these reflections, I left the terrace shortly after eleven +and walked through the strip of wood that lay between the house and the +lake to the Glenarm pier; and at once matters took a turn that put the +love of woman quite out of the reckoning. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +I MEET MR. REGINALD GILLESPIE + + There was a man in our town, + And he was wondrous wise, + He jump'd into a bramble-bush, + And scratch'd out both his eyes; + But when he saw his eyes were out, + With all his might and main + He jump'd into another bush, + And scratch'd them in again. + --_Old Ballad_. + + +As I neared the boat-house I saw a dark figure sprawled on the veranda +and my Japanese boy spoke to me softly. The moon was at full and I +drew up in the shadow of the house and waited. Ijima had been with me +for several years and was a boy of unusual intelligence. He spoke both +English and French admirably, was deft of hand and wise of mind, and I +was greatly attached to him. His courage, fidelity and discretion I +had tested more than once. He lay quite still on the pier, gazing out +upon the lake, and I knew that something unusual had attracted his +attention. He spoke to me in a moment, but without turning his head. + +"A man has been rowing up and down the shore for an hour. When he came +in close here I asked him what he wanted and he rowed away without +answering. He is now off there by the school." + +"Probably a summer boarder from across the lake." + +"Hardly, sir. He came from the direction of the village and acts +queerly." + +I flung myself down on the pier and crawled out to where Ijima lay. +Every pier on the lake had its distinctive lights; the Glenarm sea-mark +was--and remains--red, white and green. We lay by the post that bore +the three lanterns, and watched the slow movement of a rowboat along +the margin of the school grounds. The boat was about a thousand yards +from us in a straight line, though farther by the shore; but the +moonlight threw the oarsman and his craft into sharp relief against the +overhanging bank. St. Agatha's maintains a boathouse for the use of +students, and the pier lights--red, white and red--lay beyond the +boatman, and he seemed to be drawing slowly toward them. The fussy +little steamers that run the errands of the cottagers had made their +last rounds and sought their berths for the night, and the lake lay +still in the white bath of light. + +"Drop one of the canoes into the water," I said; and I watched the +prowling boatman while Ijima crept back to the boat-house. The canoe +was launched silently and the boy drove it out to me with a few light +strokes. I took the paddle, and we crept close along the shore toward +the St. Agatha light, my eyes intent on the boat, which was now drawing +in to the school pier. The prowler was feeling his way carefully, as +though the region were unfamiliar; but he now landed at the pier and +tied his boat. I hung back in the shadows until he had disappeared up +the bank, then paddled to the pier, told Ijima to wait, and set off +through the wood-path toward St. Agatha's. + +Where the wood gave way to the broad lawn that stretched up to the +school buildings I caught sight of my quarry. He was strolling along +under the beeches to the right of me, and I paused about a hundred feet +behind him to watch events. He was a young fellow, not above average +height, but compactly built, and stood with his hands thrust boyishly +in his pockets, gazing about with frank interest in his surroundings. +He was bareheaded and coatless, and his shirt-sleeves were rolled to +the elbow. He walked slowly along the edge of the wood, looking off +toward the school buildings, and while his manner was furtive there +was, too, an air of unconcern about him and I heard him whistling +softly to himself. + +He now withdrew into the wood and started off with the apparent +intention of gaining a view of St. Agatha's from the front, and I +followed. He seemed harmless enough; he might be a curious pilgrim +from the summer resort; but I was just now the guardian of St. Agatha's +and I intended to learn the stranger's business before I had done with +him. He swung well around toward the driveway, threading the flower +garden, but hanging always close under the trees, and the mournful +whistle would have guided me had not the moon made his every movement +perfectly clear. He reached the driveway leading in from the Annandale +road without having disclosed any purpose other than that of viewing +the vine-clad walls with a tourist's idle interest. The situation had +begun to bore me, when the school gardener came running out of the +shrubbery, and instantly the young man took to his heels. + +"Stop! Stop!" yelled the gardener. + +The mysterious young man plunged into the wood and was off like the +wind. + +"After him, Andy! After him!" I yelled to the Scotchman. + +I shouted my own name to reassure him and we both went thumping through +the beeches. The stranger would undoubtedly seek to get back to his +boat, I reasoned, but he was now headed for the outer wall, and as the +wood was free of underbrush he was sprinting away from us at a lively +gait. Whoever the young gentleman was, he had no intention of being +caught; he darted in and out among the trees with astounding lightness, +and I saw in a moment that he was slowly turning away to the right. + +"Run for the gate!" I called to the gardener, who was about twenty feet +away from me, blowing hard. I prepared to gain on the turn if the +young fellow dashed for the lake; and he now led me a pretty chase +through the flower garden. He ran with head up and elbows close at his +sides, and his light boat shoes made scarcely any sound. He turned +once and looked back and, finding that I was alone, began amusing +himself with feints and dodges, for no other purpose, I fancied, than +to perplex or wind me. There was a little summer-house mid-way of the +garden, and he led me round this till my head swam. By this time I had +grown pretty angry, for a foot-race in a school garden struck me with +disgust as a childish enterprise, and I bent with new spirit and drove +him away from his giddy circling about the summer-house and beyond the +only gate by which he could regain the wood and meadow that lay between +the garden and his boat. He turned his head from side to side +uneasily, slackening his pace to study the bounds of the garden, and I +felt myself gaining. + +Ahead of us lay a white picket fence that set off the vegetable garden +and marked the lawful bounds of the school. There was no gate and I +felt that here the chase must end, and I rejoiced to find myself so +near the runner that I heard the quick, soft patter of his shoes on the +walk. In a moment I was quite sure that I should have him by the +collar, and I had every intention of dealing severely with him for the +hard chase he had given me. + +But he kept on, the white line of fence clearly outlined beyond him; +and then when my hand was almost upon him he rose at the fence, as +though sprung from the earth itself, and hung a moment sheer above the +sharp line of the fence pickets, his whole figure held almost +horizontal, in the fashion of trained high-jumpers, for what seemed an +infinite time, as though by some witchery of the moonlight. + +I plunged into the fence with a force that knocked the wind out of me +and as I clung panting to the pickets the runner dropped with a crash +into the midst of a glass vegetable frame on the farther side. He +turned his head, grinned at me sheepishly through the pickets, and gave +a kick that set the glass to tinkling. Then he held up his hands in +sign of surrender and I saw that they were cut and bleeding. We were +both badly blown, and while we regained our wind we stared at each +other. He was the first to speak. + +"Kicked, bit or stung!" he muttered dolefully; "that saddest of all +words, 'stung!' It's as clear as moonlight that I'm badly mussed, not +to say cut." + +"May I trouble you not to kick out any more of that glass? The +gardener will be here in a minute and fish you out." + +"Lawsy, what is it? An aquarium, that you fish for me?" + +He chuckled softly, but sat perfectly quiet, finding, it seemed, a +certain humor in his situation. The gardener came running up and swore +in broad Scots at the destruction of the frame. We got over the fence +and released our captive, who talked to himself in doleful undertones +as we hauled him to his feet amid a renewed clink of glass. + +"Gently, gentlemen; behold the night-blooming cereus! Not all the +court-plaster in the universe can glue me together again." He gazed +ruefully at his slashed arms, and rubbed his legs. "The next time I +seek the garden at dewy eve I'll wear my tin suit." + +"There won't be any next time for you. What did you run for?" + +"Trying to lower my record--it's a mania with me. And as one good +question deserves another, may I ask why you didn't tell me there was a +glass-works beyond that fence? It wasn't sportsmanlike to hide a +murderous hazard like that. But I cleared those pickets with a yard to +spare, and broke my record." + +"You broke about seven yards of glass," I replied. "It may sober you +to know that you are under arrest. The watchman here has a constable's +license." + +"He also has hair that suggests the common garden or boiled carrot. +The tint is not to my liking; yet it is not for me to be captious where +the Lord has hardened His heart." + +"What is your name?" I demanded. + +"Gillespie. R. Gillespie. The 'R' will indicate to you the depth of +my humility: I make it a life work to hide the fact that I was baptized +Reginald." + +"I've been expecting you, Mr. Gillespie, and now I want you to come +over to my house and give an account of yourself. I will take charge +of this man, Andy. I promise that he shan't set foot here again. And, +Andy, you need mention this affair to no one." + +"Very good, sir." + +He touched his hat respectfully. + +"I have business with this person. Say nothing to the ladies at St. +Agatha's about him." + +He saluted and departed; and with Gillespie walking beside me I started +for the boat-landing. + +He had wrapped a handkerchief about one arm and I gave him my own for +the other. His right arm was bleeding freely below the elbow and I +tied it up for him. + +"That jump deserved better luck," I volunteered, as he accepted my aid +in silence. + +"I'm proud to have you like it. Will you kindly tell me who the devil +you are?" + +"My name is Donovan." + +"I don't wholly care for it," he observed mournfully. "Think it over +and see if you can't do better. I'm not sure that I'm going to grow +fond of you. What's your business with me, anyhow?" + +"My business, Mr. Gillespie, is to see that you leave this lake by the +first and fastest train." + +"Is it possible?" he drawled mockingly. + +"More than that," I replied in his own key; "it is decidedly probable." + +"Meanwhile, it would be diverting to know where you're taking me. I +thought the other chap was the constable." + +"I'm taking you to the house of a friend where I'm visiting. I'm going +to row you in your boat. It's only a short distance; and when we get +there I shall have something to say to you." + +He made no reply, but got into the boat without ado. He found a light +flannel coat and I flung it over his shoulders and pulled for Glenarm +pier, telling the Japanese boy to follow with the canoe. I turned over +in my mind the few items of information that I had gained from Miss Pat +and her niece touching the young man who was now my prisoner, and found +that I knew little enough about him. He was the unwelcome and annoying +suitor of Miss Helen Holbrook, and I had caught him prowling about St. +Agatha's in a manner that was indefensible. + +He sat huddled in the stern, nursing his swathed arms on his knees and +whistling dolefully. The lake was a broad pool of silver. Save for +the soft splash of Ijima's paddle behind me and the slight wash of +water on the near shore, silence possessed the world. Gillespie looked +about with some curiosity, but said nothing, and when I drove the boat +to the Glenarm landing he crawled out and followed me through the wood +without a word. + +I flashed on the lights in the library and after a short inspection of +his wounds we went to my room and found sponges, plasters and ointments +in the family medicine chest and cared for his injuries. + +"There's no honor in tumbling into a greenhouse, but such is R. +Gillespie's luck. My shins look like scarlet fever, and without sound +legs a man's better dead." + +"Your legs seem to have got you into trouble; don't mourn the loss of +them!" And I twisted a bandage under his left knee-cap where the glass +had cut savagely. + +"It's my poor wits, if we must fix the blame. It's an awful thing, +sir, to be born with weak intellectuals. As man's legs carry him on +orders from his head, there lies the seat of the difficulty. A weak +mind, obedient legs, and there you go, plump into the bosom of a +blooming asparagus bed, and the enemy lays violent hands on you. If +you put any more of that sting-y pudding on that cut I shall +undoubtedly hit you, Mr. Donovan. Ah, thank you, thank you so much!" + +As I finished with the vaseline he lay back on the couch and sighed +deeply and I rose and sent Ijima away with the basin and towels. + +"Will you drink? There are twelve kinds of whisky--" + +"My dear Mr. Donovan, the thought of strong drink saddens me. Such +poor wits as mine are not helped by alcoholic stimulants. I was drunk +once--beautifully, marvelously, nobly drunk, so that antiquity came up +to date with the thud of a motor-car hitting an orphan asylum; and I +saw Julius Caesar driving a chariot up Fifth Avenue and Cromwell poised +on one foot on the shorter spire of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Are you +aware, my dear sir, that one of those spires is shorter than the other?" + +"I certainly am not," I replied bluntly, wondering what species of +madman I had on my hands. + +"It's a fact, confided to me by a prominent engineer of New York, who +has studied those spires daily since they were put up. He told me that +when he had surrounded five high-balls the north spire was higher; but +that the sixth tumblerful always raised the south spire about eleven +feet above it. Now, wouldn't that doddle you?" + +"It would, Mr. Gillespie; but may I ask you to cut out this rot--" + +"My dear Mr. Donovan, it's indelicate of you to speak of cutting +anything--and me with my legs. But I'm at your service. You have +tended my grievous wounds like a gentleman and now do you wish me to +unfold my past, present and future?" + +"I want you to get out of this and be quick about it. Your biography +doesn't amuse me; I caught you prowling disgracefully about St. +Agatha's. Two ladies are domiciled there who came here to escape your +annoying attentions. Those ladies were put in my charge by an old +friend, and I don't propose to stand any nonsense from you, Mr. +Gillespie. You seem to be at least half sane--" + +Reginald Gillespie raised himself on the couch and grinned joyously. + +"Thank you--thank you for that word! That's just twice as high as +anybody ever rated me before." + +"I was trying to be generous," I said. "There's a point at which I +begin to be bored, and when that's reached I'm likely to grow +quarrelsome. Are there any moments of the day or night when you are +less a fool than others?" + +"Well, Donovan, I've often speculated about that, and my conclusion is +that my mind is at its best when I'm asleep and enjoying a nightmare. +I find the Welsh rabbit most stimulating to my thought voltage. Then I +am, you may say, detached from myself; another mind not my own is +building towers and palaces, and spiders as large as the far-famed +though extinct ichthyosaurus are waltzing on the moon. Then, I have +sometimes thought, my intellectual parts are most intelligently +employed." + +"I may well believe you," I declared with asperity. "Now I hope I can +pound it into you in some way that your presence in this neighborhood +is offensive--to me--personally." + +He stared at the ceiling, silent, imperturbable. + +"And I'm going to give you safe conduct through the lines--or if +necessary I'll buy your ticket and start you for New York. And if +there's an atom of honor in you, you'll go peaceably and not publish +the fact that you know the whereabouts of these ladies." + +He reflected gravely for a moment. + +"I think," he said, "that on the whole that's a fair proposition. But +you seem to have the impression that I wish to annoy these ladies." + +"You don't for a moment imagine that you are likely to entertain them, +do you? You haven't got the idea that you are necessary to their +happiness, have you?" + +He raised himself on his elbow with some difficulty; flinched as he +tried to make himself comfortable and began: + +"The trouble with Miss Pat is--" + +"There is no trouble with Miss Pat," I snapped. + +"The trouble between Miss Pat and me is the same old trouble of the +buttons," he remarked dolorously. + +"Buttons, you idiot?" + +"Quite so. Buttons, just plain every-day buttons; buttons for +buttoning purposes. Now I shall be grateful to you if you will refrain +from saying + + "'Button, button, + Who's got the button?'" + + +The fellow was undoubtedly mad. I looked about for a weapon; but he +went on gravely. + +"What does the name Gillespie mean? Of what is it the sign and symbol +wherever man hides his nakedness? Button, button, who'll buy my +buttons? It can't be possible that you never heard of the Gillespie +buttons? Where have you lived, my dear sir?" + +"Will you please stop talking rot and explain what you want here?" I +demanded with growing heat. + +"That, my dear sir, is exactly what I'm doing. I'm a suitor for the +hand of Miss Patricia's niece. Miss Patricia scorns me; she says I'm a +mere child of the Philistine rich and declines an alliance without +thanks, if you must know the truth. And it's all on account of the +fact, shameful enough I admit, that my father died and left me a large +and prosperous button factory." + +"Why don't you give the infernal thing away--sell it out to a trust--" + +"Ah! ah!"--and he raised himself again and pointed a bandaged hand at +me. "I see that you are a man of penetration! You have a keen notion +of business! You anticipate me! I did sell the infernal thing to a +trust, but there was no shaking it! They made me president of the +combination, and I control more buttons than any other living man! My +dear sir, I dictate the button prices of the world. I can tell you to +a nicety how many buttons are swallowed annually by the babies of the +universe. But I hope, sir, that I use my power wisely and without +oppressing the people." + +Gillespie lay on his back, wrapped in my dressing-gown, his knees +raised, his bandaged arms folded across his chest. Since bringing him +into the house I had studied him carefully and, I must confess, with +increasing mystification. He was splendidly put up, the best-muscled +man I had ever seen who was not a professional athlete. His forearms +and clean-shaven face were brown from prolonged tanning by the sun, but +otherwise his skin was the pink and white of a healthy baby. His short +light hair was combed smoothly away from a broad forehead; his blue +eyes were perfectly steady--they even invited and held scrutiny; when +he was not speaking he closed his lips tightly. He appeared in nowise +annoyed by his predicament; the house itself seemed to have no interest +for him, and he accepted my ministrations in murmurs of well-bred +gratitude. + +I half believed the fellow to be amusing himself at my expense; but he +met my eyes calmly. If I had not caught a lunatic I had certainly +captured an odd specimen of humanity. He was the picture of wholesome +living and sound health; but he talked like a fool. The idea of a +young woman like Helen Holbrook giving two thoughts to a silly +youngster like this was preposterous, and my heart hardened against him. + +"You are flippant, Mr. Gillespie, and my errand with you is serious. +There are places in this house where I could lock you up and you would +never see your button factory again. You seem to have had some +education--" + +"The word does me great honor, Donovan. They chucked me from Yale in +my junior year. Why, you may ask? Well, it happened this way: You +know Rooney, the Bellefontaine Cyclone? He struck New Haven with a +vaudeville outfit, giving boxing exhibitions, poking the bag and that +sort of fake. At every town they invited the local sports to dig up +their brightest amateur middle-weight and put him against the Cyclone +for five rounds. I brushed my hair the wrong way for a disguise and +went against him." + +"And got smashed for your trouble, I hope," I interrupted. + +"No. The boys in the gallery cheered so that they fussed him, and he +thought I was fruit. We shook hands, and he turned his head to snarl +at the applause, and, seeing an opening, I smashed him a hot clip in +the chin, and he tumbled backward and broke the ring rope. I vaulted +the orchestra and bolted, and when the boys finally found me I was over +near Waterbury under a barn. Eli wouldn't stand for it, and back I +went to the button factory; and here I am, sir, by the grace of God, an +ignorant man." + +He lay blinking as though saddened by his recollections, and I turned +away and paced the floor. When I glanced at him again he was still +staring soberly at the wall. + +"How did you find your way here, Gillespie?" I demanded. + +"I suppose I ought to explain that," he replied. I waited while he +reflected for a moment. He seemed to be quite serious, and his brows +wrinkled as he pondered. + +"I guessed it about half; and for the rest, I followed the +heaven-kissing stack of trunks." + +He glanced at me quickly, as though anxious to see how I received his +words. + +"Have you seen anything of Henry Holbrook in your travels? Be careful +now; I want the truth." + +"I certainly have not. I hope you don't think--" Gillespie hesitated. + +"It's not a matter for thinking or guessing; I've got to know." + +"On my honor I have not seen him, and I have no idea where he is." + +I had thrown myself into a chair beside the couch and lighted my pipe. +My captive troubled me. It seemed odd that he had found the +abiding-place of the two women; and if he had succeeded so quickly, why +might not Henry Holbrook have equal luck? + +"You probably know this troublesome brother well," I ventured. + +"Yes; as well as a man of my age can know an older man. My father's +place at Stamford adjoined the Holbrook estate. Henry and Arthur +Holbrook married sisters; both women died long ago, I believe; but the +brothers had a business row and went to smash. Arthur embezzled, +forged, and so on, and took to the altitudinous timber, and Henry has +been busy ever since trying to pluck his sister. He's wild on the +subject of his wrongs--ruined by his own brother, deprived of his +inheritance by his sister and abandoned by his only child. There +wasn't much to Arthur Holbrook; Henry was the genius, but after the +bank went to the bad he sought the consolations of rum. He and Henry +married the Hartridge twins who were the reigning Baltimore belles in +the early eighties--so runneth the chronicle. But I gossip, my dear +sir; I gossip, which is against my principles. Even the humble button +king of Strawberry Hill must draw the line." + +When Ijima brought in a plate of sandwiches he took one gingerly in his +swathed hand, regarded it with cool inquiry, and as he munched it, +remarked upon sandwiches in general as though they were botanical +specimens that were usually discussed and analyzed in a scientific +spirit. + +"The sandwich," he began, "not unhappily expresses one of the saddest +traits of our American life. I need hardly refer to our deplorable +national habit of hiding our shame under a blithe and misleading +exterior. Now this article, provided by your generous hospitality for +a poor prisoner of war, contains a bit of the breast of some fowl, +presumably chicken--we will concede that it is chicken--taken from +rather too near the bone to be wholly palatable. Chicken sandwiches in +some parts of the world are rather coarsely marked, for purposes of +identification, with pin-feathers. You may covet no nobler fame than +that of creator of the Flying Sandwich of Annandale. Yet the feathered +sandwich, though more picturesque, points rather too directly to the +strutting lords of the barn-yard. A sandwich that is decorated like a +fall bonnet, that suggests, we will say, the milliner's window--or the +plumed knights of sounding war--" + +With a little sigh, a slow relaxation of muscles, Mr. Gillespie slept. +I locked the doors, put out the lights, and tumbled into my own bed as +the chapel clock chimed two. + +In the disturbed affairs of the night the blinds had not been drawn, +and I woke at six to find the room flooded with light and my prisoner +gone. The doors were locked as I had left them. Mr. Gillespie had +departed by the window, dropping from a little balcony to the terrace +beneath. I rang for Ijima and sent him to the pier; and before I had +finished shaving, the boy was back, and reported Gillespie's boat still +at the pier, but one of the canoes missing. It was clear that in the +sorry plight of his arms Gillespie had preferred paddling to rowing. +Beneath my watch on the writing-table I found a sheet of note-paper on +which was scrawled: + + +DEAR OLD MAN--I am having one of those nightmares I mentioned in our +delightful conversation. I feel that I am about to walk in my sleep. +As my flannels are a trifle bluggy, pardon loss of your dressing-gown. +Yours, + +R. G. + +P. S.--I am willing to pay for the glass and medical attendance; but I +want a rebate for that third sandwich. It really tickled too harshly +as it went down. Very likely this accounts for my somnambulism. + +G. + + +When I had dressed and had my coffee I locked my old portfolio and +tossed it into the bottom of my trunk. Something told me that for a +while, at least, I should have other occupation than contributing to +the literature of Russian geography. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +I EXPLORE TIPPECANOE CREEK + + The woodland silence, one time stirred + By the soft pathos of some passing bird, + Is not the same it was before. + The spot where once, unseen, a flower + Has held its fragile chalice to the shower, + Is different for evermore. + Unheard, unseen + A spell has been! + --_Thomas Bailey Aldrich_. + + +My first care was to find the gardener of St. Agatha's and renew his +pledge of silence of the night before; and then I sought the ladies, to +make sure that they had not been disturbed by my collision with +Gillespie. Miss Pat and Helen were in Sister Theresa's pretty +sitting-room, through whose windows the morning wind blew fresh and +cool. Miss Pat was sewing--her dear hands, I found, were always +busy--while Helen read to her. + +"This is a day for the open! You must certainly venture forth!" I +began cheerily. "You see, Father Stoddard chose well; this is the most +peaceful place on the map. Let us begin with a drive at six, when the +sun is low; or maybe you would prefer a little run in the launch." + +They exchanged glances. + +"I think it would be all right, Aunt Pat," said Helen. + +"Perhaps we should wait another day. We must take no chances; the +relief of being free is too blessed to throw away. I really slept +through the night--I can't tell you what a boon that is!" + +"Why, Sister Margaret had to call us both at eight!" exclaimed Helen. +"That is almost too wonderful for belief." She sat in a low, deep, +wicker chair, with her arms folded upon her book. She wore a short +blue skirt and white waist, with a red scarf knotted at her throat and +a ribbon of like color in her hair. + +"Oh, the nights here are tranquillity itself! Now, as to the drive--" + +"Let us wait another day, Mr. Donovan. I feel that we must make +assurance doubly sure," said Miss Pat; and this, of course, was final. + +It was clear that the capture of Gillespie had not disturbed the +slumber of St. Agatha's. My conscience pricked me a trifle at leaving +them so ignorantly contented; but Gillespie's appearance was hardly a +menace, and though I had pledged myself to warn Helen Holbrook at the +first sign of trouble, I determined to deal with him on my own account. +He was only an infatuated fool, and I was capable, I hoped, of +disposing of his case without taking any one into my confidence. But +first it was my urgent business to find him. + +I got out the launch and crossed the lake to the summer colony and +began my search by asking for Gillespie at the casino, but found that +his name was unknown. I lounged about until lunch-time, visited the +golf course that lay on a bit of upland beyond the cottages and watched +the players until satisfied that Gillespie was not among them, then I +went home for luncheon. + +A man with bandaged arms, and clad in a dressing-gown, can not go far +without attracting attention; and I was not in the least discouraged by +my fruitless search. I have spent a considerable part of my life in +the engaging occupation of looking for men who were hard to find, and +as I smoked my cigar on the shady terrace and waited for Ijima to +replenish the launch's tank, I felt confident that before night I +should have an understanding with Gillespie if he were still in the +neighborhood of Annandale. + +The midday was warm, but I cooled my eyes on the deep shadows of the +wood, through which at intervals I saw white sails flash on the lake. +All bird-song was hushed, but a woodpecker on a dead sycamore hammered +away for dear life. The bobbing of his red head must have exercised +some hypnotic spell, for I slept a few minutes, and dreamed that the +woodpecker had bored a hole in my forehead. When I roused it was with +a start that sent my pipe clattering to the stone terrace floor. A man +who has ever camped or hunted or been hunted--and I have known all +three experiences--always scrutinizes the horizons when he wakes, and I +found myself staring into the wood. As my eyes sought remembered +landmarks here and there, I saw a man dressed as a common sailor +skulking toward the boat-house several hundred yards away. He was +evidently following the school wall to escape observation, and I rose +and stepped closer to the balustrade to watch his movements. In a +moment he came out into a little open space wherein stood a stone tower +where water was stored for the house, and he paused here and gazed +about him curiously. I picked up a field-glass from a little table +near by and caught sight of a swarthy foreign face under a soft felt +hat. He passed the tower and walked on toward the lake, and I dropped +over the balustrade and followed him. + +The Japanese boy was still at work on the launch, and, hearing a step +on the pier planking, he glanced up, then rose and asked the stranger +his business. + +The man shook his head. + +"If you have business it must be at the house; the road is in the other +direction," and Ijima pointed to the wood, but the stranger remained +stubbornly on the edge of the pier. I now stepped out of the wood and +walked down to the pier. + +"What do you want here?" I demanded sharply. + +The man touched his hat, smiled, and shook his head. The broad hand he +lifted in salute was that of a laborer, and its brown back was +tattooed. He belonged, I judged, to one of the dark Mediterranean +races, and I tried him in Italian. + +"These are private grounds; you will do well to leave here very +quickly," I said. + +I saw his eyes light as I spoke the words slowly and distinctly, but he +waited until I had finished, then shook his head. + +I was sure he had understood, but as I addressed him again, ordering +him from the premises, he continued to shake his head and grin +foolishly. Then I pointed toward the road. + +"Go; and it will be best for you not to come here again!" I said, and, +after saluting, he walked slowly away into the wood, with a sort of +dogged insolence in his slightly swaying gait. At a nod from me Ijima +stole after him while I waited, and in a few minutes the boy came back +and reported that the man had passed the house and left the grounds by +the carriage entrance, turning toward Annandale. + +With my mind on Gillespie I put off in the launch, determined to study +the lake geography. A mile from the pier I looked back and saw, rising +above the green wood, the gray lines of Glenarm house; and farther west +the miniature tower of the little chapel of St. Agatha's thrust itself +through the trees. To the east lay Annandale village; to the northwest +the summer colony of Port Annandale. I swung the boat toward the +unknown north of this pretty lake, watching meanwhile its social +marine--if I may use such a term--with new interest. Several smart +sail-boats lounged before the wind--more ambitious craft than I +imagined these waters boasted; the lake "tramps" on their ceaseless +errands to and from the village whistled noisily; we passed a boy and +girl in a canoe--a thing so pretty and graceful and so clean-cut in its +workmanship that I turned to look after it. The girl was lazily plying +the paddle; the boy, supported by a wealth of gay cushions, was +thrumming a guitar. They glared at me resentfully as their +cockle-shell wobbled in the wash of the launch. + +"That's a better canoe than we own, Ijima. I should like to pick up +one as good." + +"There are others like it on the lake. Hartridge is the maker. His +shop is over there somewhere," and Ijima waved his hand toward the +north. "A boy told me at the Annandale dock that those canoes are +famous all over this country." + +"Then we must certainly have one. We could have used one of those +things in Russia." + +The shores grew narrower and more irregular as we proceeded, and we saw +only at rare intervals any signs of life. A heavy forest lay at either +hand, broken now and then by rough meadows. Just beyond a sharp curve +a new vista opened before us, and I was astonished to see a small +wooded island ahead of us. Beyond it lay the second lake, linked to +the main body of Annandale by a narrow strait. + +"I did not know there was anything so good on the lake, Ijima. I +wonder what they call this?" + +He reached into a locker and drew out a tin tube. + +"This is a map, sir. I think they call this Battle Orchard." + +"That's not bad, either. I don't see the orchard or the battle, but no +doubt they have both been here." I was more and more pleased. + +I gave him the wheel and took the map, which proved to be a careful +chart of the lake, made, I judged, by my friend Glenarm for his own +amusement. We passed slowly around the island, which was not more than +twenty acres in extent, with an abrupt bank on the east and a low +pebbly shore on the west, and a body of heavy timber rising darkly in +the center. The shore of the mainland sloped upward here in the tender +green of young corn. I have, I hope, a soul for landscape, and the +soft bubble of water, the lush reeds in the shallows, the rapidly +moving panorama of field and forest, the glimpses of wild flowers, and +the arched blue above, were restful to mind and heart. It seemed +shameful that the whole world was not afloat; then, as I reflected that +another boat in these tranquil waters would be an impertinence that I +should resent, I was aware that I had been thinking of Helen Holbrook +all the while; and the thought of this irritated me so that I +criticized Ijima most unjustly for running the launch close to a +boulder that rose like a miniature Gibraltar near the shadowy shore we +were skirting. + +We gained the ultimate line of the lower lake, and followed the shore +in search of its outlet, pleasingly set down on the map as Tippecanoe +Creek, which ran off and joined somewhere a river of like name. + +"We'll cruise here a bit and see if we can find the creek," I said, +filling my pipe. + +Tippecanoe! Its etymology is not in books, but goes back to the first +star that ever saw itself in running water; its cadence is that of a +boat gliding over ripples; its syllables flow as liquidly as a woodland +spring lingering in delight over shining pebbles. The canoe alone, of +all things fashioned to carry man, has a soul--and it is a soul at once +obedient and perverse. And now that I had discovered the name +Tippecanoe, it seemed to murmur itself from the little waves we sent +singing into the reeds. My delight in it was so great, it rang in my +head so insistently, that I should have missed the creek with the +golden name if Ijima had not called my attention to its gathering +current, that now drew us, like a tide. The lake's waters ran away, +like a truant child, through a woody cleft, and in a moment we were as +clean quit of the lake as though it did not exist. After a few rods +the creek began to twist and turn as though with the intention of +making the voyager earn his way. In the narrow channel the beat of our +engine rang from the shores rebukingly, and soon, as a punishment for +disturbing the peace of the little stream, we grounded on a sand-bar. + +"This seems to be the head of navigation, Ijima. I believe this creek +was made for canoes, not battleships." + +Between us we got the launch off, and I landed on a convenient log and +crawled up the bank to observe the country. I followed a +stake-and-rider fence half hidden in vines of various sorts, and +tramped along the bank, with the creek still singing its tortuous way +below at my right hand. It was late, and long shadows now fell across +the world; but every new turn in the creek tempted me, and the sharp +scratch of brambles did not deter me from going on. Soon the rail +fence gave way to barbed wire; the path broadened and the underbrush +was neatly cut away. Within lay a small vegetable garden, carefully +tilled; and farther on I saw a dark green cottage almost shut in by +beeches. The path dipped sharply down and away from the cottage, and a +moment later I had lost sight of it; but below, at the edge of the +creek, stood a long house-boat with an extended platform or deck on the +waterside. + +I can still feel, as I recall the day and hour, the utter peace of the +scene when first I came upon that secluded spot: the melodious flow of +the creek beneath; the flutter of homing wings; even the hum of insects +in the sweet, thymy air. Then a step farther and I came to a gate +which opened on a flight of steps that led to the house beneath; and +through the intervening tangle I saw a man sprawled at ease in a +steamer chair on the deck, his arms under his head. As I watched him +he sighed and turned restlessly, and I caught a glimpse of +close-trimmed beard and short, thin, slightly gray hair. + +The place was clearly the summer home of a city man in search of quiet, +and I was turning away, when suddenly a woman's voice rang out clearly +from the bank. + +"Hello the house-boat!" + +"Yes; I'm here!" answered the man below. + +"Come on, father; I've been looking for you everywhere," called the +voice again. + +"Oh, it's too bad you've been waiting," he answered. + +"Of course I've been waiting!" she flung back, and he jumped up and ran +toward her. Then down the steps flashed Helen Holbrook in white. She +paused at the gate an instant before continuing her descent to the +creek, bending her head as she sought the remaining steps. Her dark +hair and clear profile trembled a moment in the summer dusk; then she +ran past me and disappeared below. + +"Daddy, you dear old fraud, I thought you were coming to meet me on the +ridge!" + +I turned and groped my way along the darkening path. My heart was +thumping wildly and my forehead was wet with perspiration. + +Ijima stood on the bank lighting his lantern, and I flung myself into +the launch and bade him run for home. + +We were soon crossing the lake. I lay back on the cushions and gazed +up at the bright roof of stars. Before I reached Glenarm the shock of +finding Helen Holbrook in friendly communication with her father had +passed, and I sat down to dinner at nine o'clock with a sound appetite. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A FIGHT ON A HOUSE-BOAT + +The best composition and temperature is, to have openness in fame and +opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power +to feign, if there be no remedy.--_Francis Bacon_. + + +At ten o'clock I called for a horse and rode out into the night, +turning into the country with the intention of following the lake-road +to the region I had explored in the launch a few hours before. All was +dark at St. Agatha's as I passed. No doubt Helen Holbrook had returned +in due course from her visit to her father and, after accounting +plausibly to her aunt for her absence, was sleeping the sleep of the +just. Now that I thought of the matter in all its bearings, I accused +myself for not having gone directly to St. Agatha's from the lonely +house on Tippecanoe Creek and waited for her there, demanding an +explanation of her perfidy. She was treating Miss Pat infamously: that +was plain; and yet in my heart I was excusing and defending her. A +family row about money was ugly at best; and an unfortunate--even +criminal--father may still have some claim on his child. + +Then, as against such reasoning, the vision of Miss Pat rose before +me--and I felt whatever chivalry there is in me arouse with a rattle of +spears. Paul Stoddard, in committing that dear old gentlewoman to my +care, had not asked me to fall in love with her niece; so, impatient to +be thus swayed between two inclinations, I chirruped to the horse and +galloped swiftly over the silent white road. + +I had learned from the Glenarm stable-boys that it was several miles +overland to the Tippecanoe. A Sabbath quiet lay upon the world, and I +seemed to be the only person abroad. I rode at a sharp pace through +the cool air, rushing by heavy woodlands and broad fields, with an +occasional farm-house rising somberly in the moonlight. The road +turned gradually, following the line of the lake which now flashed out +and then was lost again behind the forest. There is nothing like a +gallop to shake the nonsense out of a man, and my spirits rose as the +miles sped by. The village of Tippecanoe lay off somewhere in this +direction, as guide-posts several times gave warning; and my study of +the map on the launch had given me a good idea of the whole region. +What I sought was the front entrance of the green cottage above the +house-boat by the creek, and when, far beyond Port Annandale, the road +turned abruptly away from the lake, I took my bearings and dismounted +and tied my horse in a strip of unfenced woodland. + +The whole region was very lonely, and now that the beat of hoofs no +longer rang in my ears the quiet was oppressive. I struck through the +wood and found the creek, and the path beside it. The little stream +was still murmuring its own name musically, with perhaps a softer note +in deference to the night; and following the path carefully I came in a +few minutes to the steps that linked the cottage with the house-boat at +the creek's edge. It was just there that I had seen Helen Holbrook, +and I stood quite still recalling this, and making sure that she had +come down those steps in that quiet out-of-the-way corner of the world, +to keep tryst with her father. The story-and-a-half cottage was +covered with vines and close-wrapped in shrubbery. I followed a garden +walk that wound among bits of lawn and flower-beds until I came to a +tall cedar hedge that cut the place off from the road. A semicircle of +taller pines within shut the cottage off completely from the highway. +I crawled through the cedars and walked along slowly to the gate, near +which a post supported a signboard. I struck a match and read: + + RED GATE + R. Hartridge, + Canoe-Maker, + Tippecanoe, Indiana. + + +This, then, was the home of the canoe-maker mentioned by Ijima. I +found his name repeated on the rural delivery mail-box affixed to the +sign-post. Henry Holbrook was probably a boarder at the house--it +required no great deductive powers to fathom that. I stole back +through the hedge and down to the house-boat. The moon was coming up +over the eastern wood, and the stars were beautifully clear. I walked +the length of the platform, which was provided with a railing on the +waterside, with growing curiosity. Several canoes, carefully covered +with tarpaulins, lay about the deck, and chairs were drawn up close to +the long, low house in shipshape fashion. If this house-boat was the +canoe-maker's shop he had chosen a secluded and picturesque spot for it. + +As I leaned against the rail studying the lines of the house, I heard +suddenly the creak of an oar-lock in the stream behind, and then low +voices talking. The deep night silence was so profound that any sound +was doubly emphasized, and I peered out upon the water, at once alert +and interested. I saw a dark shadow in the creek as the boat drew +nearer, and heard words spoken sharply as though in command. I drew +back against the house and waited. Possibly the canoe-maker had been +abroad, or more likely Henry Holbrook had gone forth upon some +mischief, and my mind flew at once to the two women at St. Agatha's, +one of whom at least was still under my protection. The boat +approached furtively, and I heard now very distinctly words spoken in +Italian: + +"Have a care; climb up with the rope and I'll follow." + +Then the boat touched the platform lightly and a second later a man +climbed nimbly up the side. His companion followed, and they tied +their boat to the railing. They paused now to reconnoiter--so close to +me that I could have touched them with my hands--and engaged in a +colloquy. The taller man gave directions, the other replying in +monosyllables to show that he understood. + +"Go to the side porch of the cottage, and knock. When the man comes to +the door tell him that you are the chauffeur from an automobile that +has broken down in the road, and that you want help for a woman who has +been hurt." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then--you know the rest." + +"The knife--it shall be done." + +I have made it the rule of my life, against much painful experience and +the admonitions of many philosophers, to act first and reason +afterwards. And here it was a case of two to one. The men began +stealing across the deck toward the steps that led up to the cottage, +and with rather more zeal than judgment I took a step after them, and +clumsily kicked over a chair that fell clattering wildly. Both men +leaped toward the rail at the sound, and I flattened myself against the +house to await developments. The silence was again complete. + +"A chair blew over," remarked one of the voices. + +"There is no wind," replied the other, the one I recognized as +belonging to the leader. + +"See what you can find--and have a care!" + +The speaker went to the rail and began fumbling with the rope. The +other, I realized, was slipping quite noiselessly along the smooth +planking toward me, his bent body faintly silhouetted in the moonlight. +I knew that I could hardly be distinguishable from the long line of the +house, and I had the additional advantage of knowing their strength, +while I was still an unknown quantity to them. The men would assume +that I was either Hartridge, the boat-maker, or Henry Holbrook, one of +whom they had come to kill, and there is, as every one knows, little +honor in being the victim of mistaken identity. I heard the man's hand +scratching along the wall as he advanced cautiously; there was no doubt +but that he would discover me in another moment; so I resolved to take +the initiative and give battle. + +My finger-tips touched the back of one of the folded camp-chairs that +rested against the house, and I slowly clasped it. I saw the leader +still standing by the rail, the rope in his hand. His accomplice was +so close that I could hear his quick breathing, and something in his +dimly outlined crouching figure was familiar. Then it flashed over me +that he was the dark sailor I had ordered from Glenarm that afternoon. + +He was now within arm's length of me and I jumped out, swung the chair +high and brought it down with a crash on his head. The force of the +blow carried me forward and jerked the chair out of my grasp; and down +we went with a mighty thump. I felt the Italian's body slip and twist +lithely under me as I tried to clasp his arms. He struggled fiercely +to free himself, and I felt the point of a knife prick my left wrist +sharply as I sought to hold his right arm to the deck. His muscles +were like iron, and I had no wish to let him clasp me in his short +thick arms; nor did the idea of being struck with a knife cheer me +greatly in that first moment of the fight. + +My main business was to keep free of the knife. He was slowly lifting +me on his knees, while I gripped his arm with both hands. The other +man had dropped into the boat and was watching us across the rail. + +"Make haste, Giuseppe!" he called impatiently, and I laughed a little, +either at his confidence in the outcome or at his care for his own +security; and my courage rose to find that I had only one to reckon +with. I bent grimly to the task of holding the Italian's right arm to +the deck, with my left hand on his shoulder and my right fastened to +his wrist, he meanwhile choking me very prettily with his free hand. +His knees were slowly raising me and crowding me higher on his chest +and the big rough hand on my throat tightened. I suddenly slipped my +left hand down to where my right gripped his wrist and wrenched it +sharply. His fingers relaxed, and when I repeated the twist the knife +rattled on the deck. + +I broke away and leaped for the rail with some idea of jumping into the +creek and swimming for it; and then the man in the boat let go twice +with a revolver, the echoing explosions roaring over the still creek +with the sound of saluting battleships. + +"Hold on to that man--hold him!" he shouted from below. I heard the +Italian scraping about on the deck for his knife as I dodged round the +house. I missed the steps in the dark and scrambled for them wildly, +found them and was dashing for the path before the last echo of the +shot had died away down the little valley. I was satisfied to let +things stand as they were, and leave Henry Holbrook and the canoe-maker +to defend their own lives and property. Then, when I was about midway +of the steps, a man plunged down from the garden and had me by the +collar and on my back before I knew what had happened. + +There was an instant's silence in which I heard angry voices from the +house-boat. My new assailant listened, too, and I felt his grasp on me +tighten, though I was well winded and tame enough. + +I heard the boat strike the platform sharply as the second man jumped +into it; then for an instant silence again held the valley. + +My captor seemed to dismiss the retreating boat, and poking a pistol +into my ribs gave me his attention. + +"Climb up these steps, and do as I tell you. If you run, I will shoot +you like a dog." + +"There's a mistake--" I began chokingly, for the Italian had almost +strangled me and my lungs were as empty as a spent bellows. + +"That will do. Climb!" He stuck the revolver into my back and up I +went and through the garden toward the cottage. A door opening on the +veranda was slightly ajar, and I was thrust forward none too gently +into a lighted room. + +My captor and I studied each other attentively for half a minute. He +was beyond question the man whom Helen Holbrook had sought at the +house-boat in the summer dusk. Who Hartridge was did not matter; it +was evident that Holbrook was quite at home in the canoe-maker's house, +and that he had no intention of calling any one else into our affairs. +He had undoubtedly heard the revolver shots below and rushed from the +cottage to investigate; and, meeting me in full flight, he had +naturally taken it for granted that I was involved in some designs on +himself. As he leaned against a table by the door his grave blue eyes +scrutinized me with mingled indignation and interest. He wore white +duck trousers turned up over tan shoes, and a gray outing shirt with a +blue scarf knotted under its soft collar. + +I seemed to puzzle him, and his gaze swept me from head to foot several +times before he spoke. Then his eyes flashed angrily and he took a +step toward me. + +"Who in the devil are you and what do you want?" + +"My name is Donovan, and I don't want anything except to get home." + +"Where do you come from at this hour of the night?" + +"I am spending the summer at Mr. Glenarm's place near Annandale." + +"That's rather unlikely; Mr. Glenarm is abroad. What were you doing +down there on the creek?" + +"I wasn't doing anything until two men came along to kill you and I +mixed up with them and got badly mussed for my trouble." + +He eyed me with a new interest. + +"They came to kill me, did they? You tell a good story, Mr. Donovan." + +"Quite so. I was standing on the deck of the houseboat or whatever it +is--" + +"Where you had no business to be--" + +"Granted. I had no business to be there; but I was there and came near +getting killed for my impertinence, as I have told you. Those fellows +rowed up from the direction of the lake. One of them told the other to +call you to your door on the pretense of summoning aid for a broken +motor-car off there in the road. Then he was to stab you. The +assassin was an Italian. His employer spoke to him in that tongue. I +happen to be acquainted with it." + +"You are a very accomplished person," he observed dryly. + +He walked up to me and felt my pockets. + +"Who fired that pistol?" + +"The man in charge of the expedition. The Italian was trying to knife +me on the deck, and I broke away from him and ran. His employer had +gone back to the boat for safety and he took a crack at me as I ran +across the platform. It's not the fault of either that I'm not quite +out of business." + +An inner door back of me creaked slightly. My captor swung round at +the sound. + +"O Rosalind! It's all right. A gentleman here lost his way and I'm +giving him his bearings." + +The door closed gently, and I heard the sound of steps retreating +through, the cottage. I noted the anxious look in Holbrook's face as +he waited for the sounds to cease; then he addressed me again. + +"Mr. Donovan, this is a quiet neighborhood, and I am a peaceable man, +whose worldly goods could tempt no one. There were undoubtedly others +besides yourself down there at the creek, for one man couldn't have +made all that row; but as you are the one I caught I must deal with +you. But you have protested too much; the idea of Italian bandits on +Tippecanoe Creek is creditable to your imagination, but it doesn't +appeal to my common sense. I don't know about your being a guest at +Glenarm House--even that is flimsy. A guest in the absence of the host +is just a little too fanciful. I'm strongly disposed to take you to +the calaboose at Tippecanoe village." + +Having been in jail several times in different parts of the world I was +not anxious to add to my experiences in that direction. Moreover, I +had come to this lonely house on the Tippecanoe to gain information +touching the movements of Henry Holbrook, and I did not relish the idea +of being thrown into a country jail by him. I resolved to meet the +situation boldly. + +"You seem to accept my word reluctantly, even after I have saved you +from being struck down at your own door. Now I will be frank with you. +I had a purpose in coming here--" + +He stepped back and folded his arms. + +"Yes, I thought so." He looked about uneasily, before his eyes met +mine. His hands beat nervously on his sleeves as he waited, and I +resolved to bring matters to an issue by speaking his name. + +"_I know who you are, Mr. Holbrooke._" + +His hands went into his pockets again, and he stepped back and laughed. + +"You are a remarkably bad guesser, Mr. Donovan. If you had visited me +by daylight instead of coming like a thief at midnight, you would have +saved yourself much trouble. My name is displayed over the outer gate. +I am Robert Hartridge, a canoe-maker." + +He spoke the name carelessly, his manner and tone implying that there +could be no debating the subject. I was prepared for evasion but not +for this cool denial of his identity. + +"But this afternoon, Mr. Holbrook, I chanced to follow the creek to +this point and I saw--" + +"You probably saw that house-boat down there, that is my shop. As I +tell you, I am a maker of canoes. They have, I hope, some +reputation--honest hand-work; and my output is limited. I shall be +deeply chagrined if you have never heard of the Hartridge canoe." + +He shook his head in mock grief, walked to a cabarette and took up a +pipe and filled it. He was carrying off the situation well; but his +coolness angered me. + +"Mr. Hartridge, I am sorry that I must believe that heretofore you have +been known as Holbrook. The fact was clenched for me this afternoon, +quite late, as I stood in the path below here. I heard quite +distinctly a young woman call you father." + +"So? Then you're an eavesdropper as well as a trespasser!"--and the +man laughed. + +"We will admit that I am both," I flared angrily. + +"You are considerate, Mr. Donovan!" + +"The young woman who called you father and whom you answered from the +deck of the house-boat is a person I know." + +"The devil!" + +He calmly puffed his pipe, holding the bowl in his fingers, his idle +hand thrust into his trousers pocket. + +"It was Miss Helen Holbrook that I saw here, Mr. Hartridge." + +He started, then recovered himself and peered into the pipe bowl for a +second; then looked at me with an amused smile on his face. + +"You certainly have a wonderful imagination. The person you saw, if +you saw any one on your visit to these premises to-day, was my +daughter, Rosalind Hartridge. Where do you think you knew her, Mr. +Donovan?" + +"I saw her this morning, at St. Agatha's School. I not only saw her, +but I talked with her, and I am neither deaf nor blind." + +He pursed his lips and studied me, with his head slightly tilted to one +side, in a cool fashion that I did not like. + +"Rather an odd place to have met this Miss--what name, did you +say?--Miss Helen Holbrook;--a closed school-house, and that sort of +thing." + +"You may ease your mind on that point; she was with your sister, her +aunt, Mr. Holbrook; and I want you to understand that your following +Miss Patricia Holbrook here is infamous and that I have no other +business but to protect her from you." + +He bent his eyes upon me gravely and nodded several times. + +"Mr. Donovan," he began, "I repeat that I am not Henry Holbrook, and my +daughter--is my daughter, and not your Miss Helen Holbrook. Moreover, +if you will go to Tippecanoe or to Annandale and ask about me you will +learn that I have long been a resident of this community, working at my +trade, that of a canoe-maker. That shop down there by the creek and +this house, I built myself." + +"But the girl--" + +"Was not Helen Holbrook, but my daughter, Rosalind Hartridge. She has +been away at school, and came home only a week ago. You are clearly +mistaken; and if you will call, as you undoubtedly will, on your Miss +Holbrook at St. Agatha's in the morning, you will undoubtedly find your +young lady there quite safely in charge of--what was the name, Miss +Patricia Holbrook?--in whose behalf you take so praiseworthy an +interest." + +He was treating me quite as though I were a stupid school-boy, but I +rallied sufficiently to demand: + +"If you are so peaceable and only a boat-maker here, will you tell me +why you have enemies who are so anxious to kill you? I imagine that +murder isn't common on the quiet shores of this little creek, and that +an Italian sailor is not employed to kill men who have not a past of +some sort behind them." + +His brows knit and the jaw under his short beard tightened. Then he +smiled and threw his pipe on the cabarette. + +"I have only your word for it that there's an Italian in the wood-pile. +I have friends among the country folk here and in the lake villages who +can vouch for me. As I am not in the least interested in your affairs +I shall not trouble you for your credentials; but as the hour is late +and I hope I have satisfied you that we have no acquaintances in +common, I will bid you good night. If you care for a boat to carry you +home--" + +"Thank you, no!" I jerked. + +He bowed with slightly exaggerated courtesy, walked to the door and +threw it open. He spoke of the beauty of the night as he walked by my +side through the garden path to the outer gate. He asked where I had +left my horse, wished me a pleasant ride home, and I was striding up +the highway in no agreeable frame of mind before I quite realized that +after narrowly escaping death on his house-boat at the hands of his +enemies, Henry Holbrook had not only sent me away as ignorant as I had +come, but had added considerably to my perplexities. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A SUNDAY'S MIXED AFFAIRS + +Of course, in company with the rest of my fellow-men, I had always tied +the sheet in a sailing-boat; but in so little and crank a concern as a +canoe, and with these charging squalls, I was not prepared to find +myself follow the same principle; and it inspired me with some +contemptuous views of our regard for life. It is certainly easier to +smoke with the sheet fastened; but I had never before weighed a +comfortable pipe of tobacco against an obvious risk, and gravely +elected for the comfortable pipe.--_R. L. S., An Inland Voyage_. + + +The faithful Ijima opened the door of Glenarm House, and after I had +swallowed the supper he always had ready for me when I kept late hours, +I established myself in comfort on the terrace and studied the affairs +of the house of Holbrook until the robins rang up the dawn. On their +hint I went to bed and slept until Ijima came in at ten o'clock with my +coffee. An old hymn chimed by the chapel bells reminded me that it was +Sunday. Services were held during the summer, so the house servants +informed me, for the benefit of the cottagers at Port Annandale; and +walking to our pier I soon saw a flotilla of launches and canoes +steering for St. Agatha's. I entered the school grounds by the Glenarm +gate and watched several smart traps approach by the lake road, +depositing other devout folk at the chapel. + +The sight of bright parasols and modish gowns, the semi-urban Sunday +that had fallen in this quiet corner of the world, as though out of the +bright blue above, made all the more unreal my experiences of the +night. And just then the door of the main hall of St. Agatha's opened, +and forth came Miss Pat, Helen Holbrook and Sister Margaret and walked, +toward the chapel. + +It was Helen who greeted me first. + +"Aunt Pat can't withstand the temptations of a day like this. We're +chagrined to think we never knew this part of the world before!" + +"I'm sure there is no danger," said Miss Pat, smiling at her own +timidity as she gave me her hand. I thought that she wished to speak +to me alone, but Helen lingered at her side, and it was she who asked +the question that was on her aunt's lips. + +"We are undiscovered? You have heard nothing, Mr. Donovan?" + +"Nothing, Miss Holbrook," I said; and I turned away from Miss +Pat--whose eyes made lying difficult--to Helen, who met my gaze with +charming candor. + +And I took account of the girl anew as I walked between her and Miss +Pat, through a trellised lane that alternated crimson ramblers and +purple clematis, to the chapel, Sister Margaret's brown-robed figure +preceding us. The open sky, the fresh airs of morning, the bird-song +and the smell of verdurous earth in themselves gave Sabbath +benediction. I challenged all my senses as I heard Helen's deep voice +running on in light banter with her aunt. It was not possible that I +had seen her through the dusk only the day before, traitorously meeting +her father, the foe of this dear old lady who walked beside me. It was +an impossible thing; the thought was unchivalrous and unworthy of any +man calling himself gentleman. No one so wholly beautiful, no one with +her voice, her steady tranquil eyes, could, I argued, do ill. And yet +I had seen and heard her; I might have touched her as she crossed my +path and ran down to the house-boat! + +She wore to-day a white and green gown and trailed a green parasol in a +white-gloved hand. Her small round hat with its sharply upturned brim +imparted a new frankness to her face. Several times she looked at me +quickly--she was almost my own height--and there was no questioning the +perfect honesty of her splendid eyes. + +"We hoped you might drop in yesterday afternoon," she said, and my ears +were at once alert. + +"Yes," laughed Miss Pat, "we were--" + +"We were playing chess, and almost came to blows!" said Helen. "We +played from tea to dinner, and Sister Margaret really had to come and +tear us away from our game." + +I had now learned, as though by her own intention, that she had been at +St. Agatha's, playing a harmless game with her aunt, at the very moment +that I had seen her at the canoe-maker's. And even more conclusive was +the fact that she had made this statement before her aunt, and that +Miss Pat had acquiesced in it. + +We had reached the church door, and I had really intended entering with +them; but now I was in no frame of mind for church; I murmured an +excuse about having letters to write. + +"But this afternoon we shall go for a ride or a sail; which shall it +be, Miss Holbrook?" I said, turning to Miss Pat in the church porch. + +She exchanged glances with Helen before replying. + +"As you please, Mr. Donovan. It might be that we should be safer on +the water--" + +I was relieved. On the lake there was much less chance of her being +observed by Henry Holbrook than in the highways about Annandale. It +was, to be sure, a question whether the man I had encountered at the +canoe-maker's was really her brother; that question was still to be +settled. The presence of Gillespie I had forgotten utterly; but he +was, at any rate, the least important figure in the little drama +unfolding before me. + +"I shall come to your pier with the launch at five o'clock," I said, +and with their thanks murmuring in my ears I turned away, went home and +called for my horse. + +I repeated my journey of the night before, making daylight acquaintance +with the highway. I brought my horse to a walk as I neared the +canoe-maker's cottage, and I read his sign and the lettering on his +mail-box and satisfied myself that the name Hartridge was indisputably +set forth on both. The cedar hedge and the pines before the house shut +the cottage off from the curious completely; but I saw the flutter of +white curtains in the open gable windows, and the red roof agleam in +the bright sunlight. There was no one in sight; perhaps the adventure +and warning of the night had caused Holbrook to leave; but at any rate +I was bent upon asking about him in Tippecanoe village. + +This place, lying about two miles beyond the canoe-maker's, I found to +be a sleepy hamlet of perhaps fifty cottages, a country store, a +post-office, and a blacksmith shop. There was a water-trough in front +of the store, and I dismounted to give my horse a drink while I went to +the cottage behind the closed store to seek the shopkeeper. + +I found him in a garden under an apple-tree reading a newspaper. He +was an old fellow in spectacles, and, assuming that I was an idler from +the summer colony, he greeted me courteously. + +He confirmed my impression that the crops were all in first-rate +condition, and that the day was fine. I questioned him as to the +character of the winters in this region, spoke of the employments of +the village folk, then mentioned the canoe-maker. + +"Yes; he works the year round down there on the Tippecanoe. He sells +his canoes all over the country--the Hartridge, that's his name. You +must have seen his sign there by the cedar hedge. They say he gets big +prices for his canoes." + +"I suppose he's a native in these parts?" I ventured. + +"No; but he's been here a good while. I guess nobody knows where he +comes from--or cares. He works pretty hard, but I guess he likes it." + +"He's an industrious man, is he?" + +"Oh, he's a steady worker; but he's a queer kind, too. Now he never +votes and he never goes to church; and for the sake of the argument, +neither do I,"--and the old fellow winked prodigiously. "He's a mighty +odd man; but I can't say that that's against him. But he's quiet and +peaceable, and now his daughter--" + +"Oh, he has a daughter?" + +"Yes; and that's all he has, too; and they never have any visitors. +The daughter just come home the other day, and we ain't hardly seen her +yet. She's been away at school." + +"I suppose Mr. Hartridge is absent sometimes; he doesn't live down +there all the time, does he?" + +"I can't say that I could prove it; sometimes I don't see him for a +month or more; but his business is his own, stranger," he concluded +pointedly. + +"You think that if Mr. Hartridge had a visitor you'd know it?" I +persisted, though the shopkeeper grew less amiable. + +"Well, now I might; and again I mightn't. Mr. Hartridge is a queer +man. I don't see him every day, and particularly in the winter I don't +keep track of him." + +With a little leading the storekeeper described Hartridge for me, and +his description tallied exactly with the man who had caught me on the +canoe-maker's premises the night before. And yet, when I had thanked +the storekeeper and ridden on through the village, I was as much +befuddled as ever. There was something decidedly incongruous in the +idea that a man who was, by all superficial signs, at least, a +gentleman, should be established in the business of making canoes by +the side of a lonely creek in this odd corner of the world. From the +storekeeper's account, Hartridge might be absent from his retreat for +long periods; if he were Henry Holbrook and wished to annoy his sister, +it was not so far from this lonely creek to the Connecticut town where +Miss Pat lived. Again, as to the daughter, just home from school and +not yet familiar to the eyes of the village, she might easily enough be +an invention to hide the visits of Helen Holbrook. I found myself +trying to account for the fact that, by some means short of the +miraculous, Helen Holbrook had played chess with Miss Pat at St. +Agatha's at the very hour I had seen her with her father on the +Tippecanoe. And then I was baffled again as I remembered that Paul +Stoddard had sent the two women to St. Agatha's, and that their +destination could not have been chosen by Helen Holbrook. + +My thoughts wandered into many blind alleys as I rode on. I was +thoroughly disgusted with myself at finding the loose ends of the +Holbrooks' affairs multiplying so rapidly. The sun of noon shone hot +overhead, and I turned my horse into a road that led homeward by the +eastern shore of the lake. As I approached a little country church at +the crown of a long hill I saw a crowd gathered in the highway and +reined my horse to see what had happened. The congregation of farmers +and their families had just been dismissed; and they were pressing +about a young man who stood in the center of an excited throng. +Drawing closer, I was amazed to find my friend Gillespie the center of +attention. + +"But, my dear sir," cried a tall, bearded man whom I took to be the +minister of this wayside flock, "you must at least give us the +privilege of thanking you! You can not know what this means to us, a +gift so munificent--so far beyond our dreams." + +Whereat Gillespie, looking bored, shook his head, and tried to force +his way through the encircling rustics. He was clad in a Norfolk +jacket and knickerbockers of fantastic plaid, with a cap to match. + +A young farmer, noting my curiosity and heavy with great news, +whispered to me: + +"That boy in short pants put a thousand-dollar bill in the collection +basket. All in one bill! They thought it was a mistake, but he told +our preacher it was a free gift." + +Just then I heard the voice of my fool raised so that all might hear: + +"Friends, on the dusty highway of life I can take none of the honor or +credit you so kindly offer me. The money I have given you to-day I +came by honestly. I stepped into your cool and restful house of +worship this morning in search of bodily ease. The small voice of +conscience stirred within me. I had not been inside a church for two +years, and I was greatly shaken. But as I listened to your eloquent +pastor I was aware that the green wall-paper interrupted my soul +currents. That vegetable-green tint is notorious as a psychical +interceptor. Spend the money as you like, gentlemen; but if I, a +stranger, may suggest it, try some less violent color scheme in your +mural decorations." + +He seemed choking with emotion as with bowed head he pushed his way +through the circle and strode past me. The people stared after him, +mystified and marveling. I heard an old man calling out: + +"How wonderful are the ways of the Lord!" + +I let Gillespie pass, and followed him slowly until a turn in the road +hid us from the staring church folk. He turned and saw me. + +"You have discovered me, Donovan. Be sure your sins will find you out! +A simple people, singularly moved at the sight of a greenback. I have +rarely caused so much excitement." + +"I suppose you are trying to ease your conscience by giving away some +of your button money." + +"That is just it, Donovan. You have struck the brass tack on the head. +But now that we have met again, albeit through no fault of my own, let +me mention matters of real human interest." + +"You might tell me what you're doing here first." + +"Walking; there were no cabs, Donovan." + +"You choose a queer hour of the day for your exercise." + +"One might say the same for your ride. But let us be sensible. I dare +say there's some common platform on which we both may stand." + +"We'll assume it," I replied, dismounting by the roadside that I might +talk more easily. Bandages were still visible at his wrists, and a +strip of court-plaster across the knuckles of his right hand otherwise +testified to the edges of the glass in St. Agatha's garden. He held up +his hands ruefully. + +"Those were nasty slashes; and I ripped them up badly in climbing out +of your window. But I couldn't linger: I am not without my little +occupations." + +"You stand as excellent chance of being shot if you don't clear out of +this. If there's any shame in you you will go without making further +trouble." + +"It has occurred to me," he began slowly, "that I know something that +you ought to know. I saw Henry Holbrook yesterday." + +"Where?" I demanded. + +"On the lake. He's rented a sloop yacht called the _Stiletto_. I +passed it yesterday on the Annandale steamer and I saw him quite +distinctly." + +"It's all your fault that he's here!" I blurted, thoroughly aroused. +"If you had not followed those women they might have spent the +remainder of their lives here and never have been molested. But he +undoubtedly caught the trail from you." + +Gillespie nodded gravely and frowned before he answered. + +"I am sorry to spoil your theory, my dear Irish brother, but put this +in your pipe: _Henry was here first_! He rented the sail-boat ten days +ago--and I made my triumphal entry a week later. Explain that, if you +please, Mr. Donovan." + +I was immensely relieved by this disclosure, for it satisfied me that I +had not been mistaken in the identity of the canoe-maker. I had, +however, no intention of taking the button king into my confidence. + +"Where is Holbrook staying?" I asked casually. + +"I don't know--he keeps afloat. The _Stiletto_ belongs to a Cincinnati +man who isn't coming here this summer and Holbrook has got the use of +the yacht. So much I learned from the boat storage man at Annandale; +then I passed the _Stiletto_ and saw Henry on board." + +It was clear that I knew more than Gillespie, but he had supplied me +with several interesting bits of information, and, what was more to the +point, he had confirmed my belief that Henry Holbrook and the +canoe-maker were the same person. + +"You must see that I face a difficult situation here, without counting +you. You don't strike me as a wholly bad lot, Gillespie, and why won't +you run along like a good boy and let me deal with Holbrook? Then when +I have settled with him I'll see what can be done for you. Your +position as an unwelcome suitor, engaged in annoying the lady you +profess to love, and causing her great anxiety and distress, is +unworthy of the really good fellow I believe you to be." + +He was silent for a moment; then he spoke very soberly. + +"I promise you, Donovan, that I will do nothing to encourage or help +Holbrook. I know as well as you that he's a blackguard; but my own +affairs I must manage in my own way." + +"But as surely as you try to molest those women you will have to answer +to me. I am not in the habit of beginning what I never finish, and I +intend to keep those women out of your way as well as out of Holbrook's +clutches, and if you get a cracked head in the business--well, the +crack's in your own skull, Mr. Gillespie." + +He shrugged his shoulders, threw up his head and turned away down the +road. + +There was something about the fellow that I liked. I even felt a +certain pity for him as I passed him and rode on. He seemed simple and +guileless, but with a dogged manliness beneath his absurdities. He was +undoubtedly deeply attached to Helen Holbrook and his pursuit of her +partook of a knight-errantish quality that would have appealed to me in +other circumstances; but he was the most negligible figure that had yet +appeared in the Holbrook affair, and as I put my horse to the lope my +thoughts reverted to Red Gate. That chess game and Helen's visit to +her father were still to be explained; if I could cut those cards out +of the pack I should be ready for something really difficult. I +employed myself with such reflections as I completed my sweep round the +lake, reaching Glenarm shortly after two o'clock. + +I was hot and hungry, and grateful for the cool breath of the house as +I entered the hall. + +"Miss Holbrook is waiting in the library," Ijima announced; and in a +moment I faced Miss Pat, who stood in one of the open French windows +looking out upon the wood. + +She appeared to be deeply absorbed and did not turn until I spoke. + +"I have waited for some time; I have something of importance to tell +you, Mr. Donovan," she began, seating herself. + +"Yes, Miss Holbrook." + +"You remember that this morning, on our way to the chapel, Helen spoke +of our game of chess yesterday?" + +"I remember perfectly," I replied; and my heart began to pound +suddenly, for I knew what the next sentence would be. + +"Helen was not at St. Agatha's at the time she indicated." + +"Well, Miss Pat," I laughed, "Miss Holbrook doesn't have to account to +me for her movements. It isn't important--" + +"Why isn't it important?" demanded Miss Pat in a sharp tone that was +new to me. She regarded me severely, and as I blinked under her +scrutiny she smiled a little at my discomfiture. + +"Why, Miss Holbrook, she is not accountable to me for her actions. If +she fibbed about the chess it's a small matter." + +"Perhaps it is; and possibly she is not accountable to me, either." + +"We must not probe human motives too deeply, Miss Holbrook," I said +evasively, wishing to allay her suspicions, if possible. "A young +woman is entitled to her whims. But now that you have told me this, I +suppose I may as well know how she accounted to you for this trifling +deception." + +"Oh, she said she wished to explore the country for herself; she wished +to satisfy herself of our safety; and she didn't want you to think she +was running foolishly into danger. She chafes under restraint, and I +fear does not wholly sympathize with my runaway tactics. She likes a +contest! And sometimes Helen takes pleasure in--in--being perverse. +She has an idea, Mr. Donovan, that you are a very severe person." + +"I am honored that she should entertain any opinion of me whatever," I +replied, laughing. + +"And now," said Miss Pat, "I must go back. Helen went to her room to +write some letters against a time when it may be possible to +communicate with our friends, and I took the opportunity to call on +you. It might be as well, Mr. Donovan, not to mention my visit." + +I walked beside Miss Pat to the gate, where she dismissed me, remarking +that she would be quite ready for a ride in the launch at five o'clock. + +The morning had added a few new-colored threads to the tangled skein I +was accumulating, but I felt that with the chess story explained I +could safely eliminate the supernatural; and I was relieved to find +that no matter what other odd elements I had to reckon with, a girl who +could be in two places at the same time was not among them. + +Holbrook had not impressed me disagreeably; he had treated me rather +decently, all things considered. The fact that he had enemies who were +trying to kill him added zest to the whole adventure upon which my +clerical friend Stoddard had launched me. The Italian sailor was a +long way from tide-water, and who his employer was--the person who had +hung aloof so conservatively during my scramble on the deck of the +house-boat--remained to be seen. From every standpoint the Holbrook +incident promised well, and I was glad to find that human beings were +still capable of interesting me so much. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A BROKEN OAR + + We are in love's land to-day; + Where shall we go? + Love, shall we start or stay, + Or sail or row? + There's many a wind and way, + And never a May but May; + We are in love's hand to-day; + Where shall we go? + --_Swinburne_. + + +The white clouds of the later afternoon cruised dreamily between green +wood and blue sky. I brought the launch to St. Agatha's landing and +embarked the two exiles without incident. We set forth in good +spirits, Ijima at the engine and I at the wheel. The launch was +comfortably large, and the bright cushions, with Miss Pat's white +parasol and Helen's red one, marked us with the accent of Venice. I +drove the boat toward the open to guard against unfortunate encounters, +and the course once established I had little care but to give a wide +berth to all the other craft afloat. Helen exclaimed repeatedly upon +the beauty of the lake, which the west wind rippled into many +variations of color. I was flattered by her friendliness; and yielded +myself to the joy of the day, agreeably thrilled--I confess as much--by +her dark loveliness as she turned from time to time to speak to me. + +Snowy sails stood forth upon the water like listless clouds; paddles +flashed as they rose dripping and caught the sun; and the lake's wooded +margins gave green horizons, cool and soothing to the eye, on every +hand. One of the lake steamers on its incessant journeys created a +little sea for us, but without disturbing my passengers. + +"Aunt Pat is a famous sailor!" observed Helen as the launch rocked. +"The last time we crossed the captain had personally to take her below +during a hurricane." + +"Helen always likes to make a heroine of me," said Miss Pat with her +adorable smile. "But I am not in the least afraid on the water. I +think there must have been sailors among my ancestors." + +She was as tranquil as the day. Her attitude toward her niece had not +changed; and I pleased myself with the reflection that mere +ancestry--the vigor and courage of indomitable old sea lords--did not +sufficiently account for her, but that she testified to an ampler +background of race and was a fine flower that had been centuries in +making. + +We cruised the shore of Port Annandale at a discreet distance and then +bore off again. + +"Let us not go too near shore anywhere," said Helen; and Miss Pat +murmured acquiescence. + +"No; we don't care to meet people," she remarked, a trifle anxiously. + +"I'm afraid I don't know any to introduce you to," I replied, and +turned away into the broadest part of the lake. The launch was capable +of a lively clip and the engine worked capitally. I had no fear of +being caught, even if we should be pursued, and this, in the broad +light of the peaceful Sabbath afternoon, seemed the remotest +possibility. + +It had been understood that we were to remain out until the sun dropped +into the western wood, and I loitered on toward the upper lake where +the shores were rougher. + +"That's a real island over there--they call it Battle Orchard--you must +have a glimpse of it." + +"Oh, nothing is so delightful as an island!" exclaimed Helen; and she +quoted William Sharp's lines: + + "There is an Isle beyond our ken, + Haunted by Dreams of weary men. + Gray Hopes enshadow it with wings + Weary with burdens of old things: + There the insatiate water-springs + Rise with the tears of all who weep: + And deep within it,--deep, oh, deep!-- + The furtive voice of Sorrow sings. + There evermore, + Till Time be o'er, + Sad, oh, so sad! the Dreams of men + Drift through the Isle beyond our ken." + + +Ijima had scanned the lake constantly since we started, as was his +habit. Miss Pat turned to speak to Helen of the shore that now swept +away from us in broader curves as we passed out of the connecting +channel into the farther lake. Ijima remarked to me quietly, as though +speaking of the engine: + +"There's a man following in a rowboat.", + +And as I replied to some remark by Miss Pat, I saw, half a mile +distant, its sails hanging idly, a sloop that answered Gillespie's +description of the _Stiletto_. Its snowy canvas shone white against +the green verdure of Battle Orchard. + +"Shut off the power a moment. We will turn here, Ijima,"--and I called +Miss Pat's attention to a hoary old sycamore on the western shore. + +"Oh, I'm disappointed not to cruise nearer the island with the romantic +name," cried Helen. "And there's a yacht over there, too!" + +I already had the boat swung round, and in reversing the course I lost +the _Stiletto_, which clung to the island shore; but I saw now quite +plainly the rowboat Ijima had reported as following us. It hung off +about a quarter of a mile and its single occupant had ceased rowing and +shipped his oars as though waiting. He was between us and the strait +that connected the upper and lower lakes. Though not alarmed I was +irritated by my carelessness in venturing through the strait and +anxious to return to the less wild part of the lake. I did not dare +look over my shoulder, but kept talking to my passengers, while Ijima, +with the rare intuition of his race, understood the situation and +indicated by gestures the course. + +"There's a boat sailing through the green, green wood," exclaimed +Helen; and true enough, as we crept in close to the shore, we could +still see, across a wooded point of the island, the sails of the +_Stiletto_, as of a boat of dreams, drifting through the trees. And as +I looked I saw something more. A tiny signal flag was run quickly to +the topmast head, withdrawn once and flashed back; and as I faced the +bow again, the boatman dropped his oars into the water. + +"What a strange-looking man," remarked Miss Pat. + +"He doesn't look like a native," I replied carelessly. The launch +swung slowly around, cutting a half-circle, of which the Italian's boat +was the center. He dallied idly with his oars and seemed to pay no +heed to us, though he glanced several times toward the yacht, which had +now crept into full view, and under a freshening breeze was bearing +southward. + +"Full speed, Ijima." + +The engine responded instantly, and we cut through the water smartly. +There was a space of about twenty-five yards between the boatman and +the nearer shore. I did not believe that he would do more than try to +annoy us by forcing us on the swampy shore; for it was still broad +daylight, and we were likely at any moment to meet other craft. I was +confident that with any sort of luck I could slip past him and gain the +strait, or dodge and run round him before he could change the course of +his heavy skiff. + +I kicked the end of an oar which the launch carried for emergencies and +Ijima, on this hint, drew it toward him. + +"You can see some of the roofs of Port Annandale across the neck here," +I remarked, seeing that the women had begun to watch the approaching +boat uneasily. + +I kept up a rapid fire of talk, but listened only to the engine's +regular beat. The launch was now close to the Italian's boat, and +having nearly completed the semi-circle I was obliged to turn a little +to watch him. Suddenly he sat up straight and lay to with the oars, +pulling hard toward a point we must pass in order to clear the strait +and reach the upper lake again. The fellow's hostile intentions were +clear to all of us now and we all silently awaited the outcome. His +skiff rose high in air under the impulsion of his strong arms, and if +he struck our lighter craft amidships, as seemed inevitable, he would +undoubtedly swamp us. + +Ijima half rose, glanced toward the yacht, which was heading for the +strait, and then at me, but I shook my head. + +"Mind the engine, Ijima," I said with as much coolness as I could +muster. + +The margin between us and the skiff rapidly diminished, and the Italian +turned to take his bearings with every lift of his oars. He had thrown +off his cap, and as he looked over his shoulder I saw his evil face +sharply outlined. I counted slowly to myself the number of strokes +that would be necessary to bring him in collision if he persisted, +charging against his progress our own swift, arrow-like flight over the +water. The shore was close, and I had counted on a full depth of +water, but Ijima now called out warningly in his shrill pipe and our +bottom scraped as I veered off. This manoeuver cost me the equivalent +of ten of the Italian's deep strokes, and the shallow water added a new +element of danger. + +"Stand by with the oar, Ijima," I called in a low tone; and I saw in a +flash Miss Pat's face, quite calm, but with her lips set tight. + +Ten yards remained, I judged, between the skiff and the strait, and +there was nothing for us now but to let speed and space work out their +problem. + +Ijima stood up and seized the oar. I threw the wheel hard aport in a +last hope of dodging, and the launch listed badly as it swung round. +Then the bow of the skiff rose high, and Helen shrank away with a +little cry; there was a scratching and grinding for an instant, as +Ijima, bending forward, dug the oar into the skiff's bow and checked it +with the full weight of his body. As we fended off the oar snapped and +splintered and he tumbled into the water with a great splash, while we +swerved and rocked for a moment and then sped on through the little +strait. + +Looking back, I saw Ijima swimming for the shore. He rose in the water +and called "All right!" and I knew he would take excellent care of +himself. The Italian had shipped his oars and lay where we had left +him, and I heard him, above the beat of our engine, laugh derisively as +we glided out of sight. The water rippled pleasantly beneath us; the +swallows brushed the quiet blue with fleet wings, and in the west the +sun was spreading a thousand glories upon the up-piling clouds. Out in +the upper lake the wind freshened and we heard the low rumble of +thunder. + +"Miss Holbrook, will you please steer for me?"--and in effecting the +necessary changes of position that I might get to the engine we were +all able to regain our composure. I saw Miss Pat touch her forehead +with her handkerchief; but she said nothing. Even after St. Agatha's +pier hove in sight silence held us all. The wind, continuing to +freshen, was whipping the lake with a sharp lash, and I made much of my +trifling business with the engine, and of the necessity for occasional +directions to the girl at the wheel. + +My contrition at the danger to which I had stupidly brought them was +strong in me; but there were other things to think of. Miss Pat could +not be deceived as to the animus of our encounter, for the Italian's +conduct could hardly be accounted for on the score of stupidity; and +the natural peace and quiet of this region only emphasized the gravity +of her plight. My first thought was that I must at once arrange for +her removal to some other place. With Henry Holbrook established +within a few miles of St. Agatha's the school was certainly no longer a +tenable harborage. + +As I tended the engine I saw, even when I tried to avoid her, the +figure of Helen Holbrook in the stern, quite intent upon steering and +calling now and then to ask the course when in my preoccupation I +forgot to give it. The storm was drawing a dark hood across the lake, +and the thunder boomed more loudly. Storms in this neighborhood break +quickly and I ran full speed for St. Agatha's to avoid the rain that +already blurred the west. + +We landed with some difficulty, owing to the roughened water and the +hard drive of the wind; but in a few minutes we had reached St. +Agatha's where Sister Margaret flung open the door just as the storm +let go with a roar. + +When we reached the sitting-room we talked with unmistakable restraint +of the storm and of our race with it across the lake--while Sister +Margaret stood by murmuring her interest and sympathy. She withdrew +immediately and we three sat in silence, no one wishing to speak the +first word. I saw with deep pity that Miss Pat's eyes were bright with +tears, and my heart burned hot with self-accusation. Sister Margaret's +quick step died away in the hall, and still we waited while the rain +drove against the house in sheets and the branches of a tossing maple +scratched spitefully on one of the panes. + +"We have been found out; my brother is here," said Miss Pat. + +"I am afraid that is true," I replied. "But you must not distress +yourself. This is not Sicily, where murder is a polite diversion. The +Italian wished merely to frighten us; it's a case of sheerest +blackmail. I am ashamed to have given him the opportunity. It was my +fault--my grievous fault; and I am heartily sorry for my stupidity." + +"Do not accuse yourself! It was inevitable from the beginning that +Henry should find us. But this place seemed remote enough. I had +really begun to feel quite secure--but now!" + +"But now!" repeated Helen with a little sigh. + +I marveled at the girl's composure--at her quiet acceptance of the +situation, when I knew well enough her shameful duplicity. Then by one +of those intuitions of grace that were so charming in her she bent +forward and took Miss Pat's hand. The emerald rings flashed on both as +though in assertion of kinship. + +"Dear Aunt Pat! You must not take that boat affair too seriously. It +may not have been--father--who did that." + +She faltered, dropping her voice as she mentioned her father. I was +aware that Miss Pat put away her niece's hand with a sudden gesture--I +did not know whether of impatience, or whether some new resolution had +taken hold of her. She rose and moved nearer to me. + +"What have you to propose, Mr. Donovan?" she asked, and something in +her tone, in the light of her dear eyes, told me that she meant to +fight, that she knew more than she wished to say, and that she relied +on my support; and realizing this my heart went out to her anew. A +maid brought in a lamp and within the arc of its soft light I saw +Helen's lovely head as she rested her arms on the table watching us. +If there was to be a contest of wits or of arms on this peaceful lake +shore under the high arches of summer, she and I were to be foes; and +while we waited for the maid to withdraw I indulged in foolish +speculations as to whether a man could love a girl and be her enemy at +the same time. + +"I think we ought to go away--at once," the girl broke out suddenly. +"The place was ill-chosen; Father Stoddard should have known better +than to send us here!" + +"Father Stoddard did the best he could for us, Helen. It is unfair to +blame him," said Miss Pat quietly. "And Mr. Donovan has been much more +than kind in undertaking to care for us at all." + +"I have blundered badly enough!" I confessed penitently. + +"It might be better, Aunt Pat," began Helen slowly, "to yield. What +can it matter! A quarrel over money--it is sordid--" + +Miss Pat stood up abruptly and said quietly, without lifting her voice, +and turning from one to the other of us: + +"We have prided ourselves for a hundred years, we American Holbrooks, +that we had good blood in us, and character and decency and morality; +and now that the men of my house have thrown away their birthright, and +made our name a plaything, I am going to see whether the general +decadence has struck me, too; and with my brother Arthur, a fugitive +because of his crimes, and my brother Henry ready to murder me in his +greed, it is time for me to test whatever blood is left in my own poor +old body, and I am going to begin now! I will not run away another +step; I am not going to be blackguarded and hounded about this free +country or driven across the sea; and I will not give Henry Holbrook +more money to use in disgracing our name. I have got to die--I have +got to die before he gets it,"--and she smiled at me so bravely that +something clutched my throat suddenly--"and I have every intention, Mr. +Donovan, of living a very long time!" + +Helen had risen, and she stood staring at her aunt in frank +astonishment. Not often, probably never before in her life, had anger +held sway in the soul of this woman; and there was something splendid +in its manifestation. She had spoken in almost her usual tone, though +with a passionate tremor toward the close; but her very restraint was +in itself ominous. + +"It shall be as you say, Miss Pat," I said, as soon as I had got my +breath. + +"Certainly, Aunt Pat," murmured Helen tamely. "We can't be driven +round the world. We may as well stay where we are." + +The storm was abating and I threw open the windows to let in the air. + +"If you haven't wholly lost faith in me, Miss Holbrook--" + +"I have every faith in you, Mr. Donovan!" smiled Miss Pat. + +"I shall hope to take better care of you in the future." + +"I am not afraid. I think that if Henry finds out that he can not +frighten me it will have a calming effect upon him." + +"Yes; I suppose you are right, Aunt Pat," said Helen passively. + +I went home feeling that my responsibilities had been greatly increased +by Miss Pat's manifesto; on the whole I was relieved that she had not +ordered a retreat, for it would have distressed me sorely to abandon +the game at this juncture to seek a new hiding-place for my charges. + +Long afterward Miss Pat's declaration of war rang in my ears. My heart +leaps now as I remember it. And I should like to be a poet long enough +to write A Ballade of All Old Ladies, or a lyric in their honor turned +with the grace of Colonel Lovelace and blithe with the spirit of Friar +Herrick. I should like to inform it with their beautiful tender +sympathy that is quick with tears but readier with strength to help and +to save; and it should reflect, too, the noble patience, undismayed by +time and distance, that makes a virtue of waiting--waiting in the long +twilight with folded hands for the ships that never come! Men old and +battle-scarred are celebrated in song and story; but who are they to be +preferred over this serene sisterhood? Let the worn mothers of the +world be throned by the fireside or placed at comfortable ease in the +shadow of hollyhocks and old-fashioned roses in familiar gardens; it +matters little, for they are supreme in any company. Whoever would be +gracious must serve them; whoever would be wise must sit at their feet +and take counsel. Nor believe too readily that the increasing tide of +years has quenched the fire in their souls; rather, it burns on with +the steady flame of sanctuary lights. Lucky were he who could imprison +in song those qualities that crown a woman's years--voicing what is in +the hearts of all of us as we watch those gracious angels going their +quiet ways, tending their secret altars of memory with flowers and +blessing them with tears. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A LADY OF SHADOWS AND STARLIGHT + + Still do the stars impart their light + To those that travel in the night; + Still time runs on, nor doth the hand + Or shadow on the dial stand; + The streams still glide and constant are: + Only thy mind + Untrue I find + Which carelessly + Neglects to be + Like stream or shadow, hand or star. + --_William Cartwright_. + + +It was nine o'clock before Ijima came in, dripping from his tumble in +the lake and his walk home through the rain. The Italian had made no +effort to molest him, he reported; but he had watched the man row out +to the _Stiletto_ and climb aboard. Ijima has an unbroken record of +never having asked me a question inspired by curiosity. He may inquire +which shoes I want for a particular morning, but _why, where_ and +_when_ are unknown in his vocabulary. He was, I knew, fairly entitled +to an explanation of the incident of the afternoon, though he would ask +none, and when he had changed his clothes and reported to me in the +library I told him in a word that there might be further trouble, and +that I should expect him to stand night watch at St. Agatha's for a +while, dividing a patrol of the grounds with the gardener. His "Yes, +sir," was as calm as though I had told him to lay out my dress clothes, +and I went with him to look up the gardener, that the division of +patrol duty might be thoroughly understood. + +I gave the Scotchman a revolver and Ijima bore under his arm a +repeating rifle with which he and I had diverted ourselves at times in +the pleasant practice of breaking glass balls. I assigned him the +water-front and told the gardener to look out for intruders from the +road. These precautions taken, I rang the bell at St. Agatha's and +asked for the ladies, but was relieved to learn that they had retired, +for the situation would not be helped by debate, and if they were to +remain at St. Agatha's it was my affair to plan the necessary defensive +strategy without troubling them. And I must admit here, that at all +times, from the moment I first saw Helen Holbrook with her father at +Red Gate, I had every intention of shielding her to the utmost. The +thought of trapping her, of catching her, _flagrante delicto_, was +revolting; I had, perhaps, a notion that in some way I should be able +to thwart her without showing my own hand; but this, as will appear, +was not to be so easily accomplished. + +I went home and read for an hour, then got into heavy shoes and set +forth to reconnoiter. The chief avenue of danger lay, I imagined, +across the lake, and I passed through St. Agatha's to see that my +guards were about their business; then continued along a wooded bluff +that rose to a considerable height above the lake. There was a winding +path which the pilgrimages of school-girls in spring and autumn had +worn hard, and I followed it to its crest, where there was a stone +bench, established for the ease of those who wished to take their +sunsets in comfort. The place commanded a fair view of the lake, and +thence it was possible to see afar off any boat that approached St. +Agatha's or Glenarm. The wooded bluff was cool and sweet from the +rain, and a clear light was diffused by the moon as I lighted my pipe +and looked out upon the lake for signs of the _Stiletto_. + +The path that rose through the wood from St. Agatha's declined again +from the seat, and came out somewhere below, where there was a spring +sacred to the school-girls, and where, I dare say, they still indulge +in the incantations of their species. I amused myself picking out the +pier lights as far as I had learned them, following one of the lake +steamers on its zigzag course from Port Annandale to the village. +Around me the great elms and maples still dripped. Eleven chimed from +the chapel clock, the strokes stealing up to me dreamily. A moment +later I heard a step in the path behind me, light, quick, and eager, +and I bent down low on the bench, so that its back shielded me from +view, and waited. I heard the sharp swish of bent twigs in the +shrubbery as they snapped back into place in the narrow trail, and then +the voice of some one humming softly. The steps drew closer to the +bench, and some one passed behind me. I was quite sure that it was a +woman--from the lightness of the step, the feminine quality in the +voice that continued to hum a little song, and at the last moment the +soft rustle of skirts. I rose and spoke her name before my eyes were +sure of her. + +"Miss Holbrook!" I exclaimed. + +She did not cry out, though she stepped back quickly from the bench. + +"Oh, it's you, Mr. Donovan, is it?" + +"It most certainly is!" I laughed. "We seem to have similar tastes, +Miss Holbrook." + +"An interest in geography, shall we call it?" she chaffed gaily. + +"Or astronomy! We will assume that we are both looking for the Little +Dipper." + +"Good!" she returned on my own note. "Between the affairs of the +Holbrooks and your evening Dipper hunt you are a busy man, Mr. Donovan." + +"I am not half so busy as you are, Miss Holbrook! It must tax you +severely to maintain both sides of the barricade at the same time," I +ventured boldly. + +"That does require some ingenuity," she replied musingly, "but I am a +very flexible character." + +"But what will bend will break--you may carry the game too far." + +"Oh, are you tired of it already?" + +"Not a bit of it; but I should like to make this stipulation with you: +that as you and I seem to be pitted against each other in this little +contest, we shall fight it all out behind Miss Pat's back. I prefer +that she shouldn't know what a--" and I hesitated. + +"Oh, give me a name, won't you?" she pleaded mockingly. + +"What a beautiful deceiver you are!" + +"Splendid! We will agree that I am a deceiver!" + +"If it gives you pleasure! You are welcome to all the joy you can get +out of it!" + +"Please don't be bitter! Let us play fair, and not stoop to abuse." + +"I should think you would feel contrite enough after that ugly business +of this afternoon. You didn't appear to be even annoyed by that +Italian's effort to smash the launch." + +She was silent for an instant; I heard her breath come and go quickly; +then she responded with what seemed a forced lightness: + +"You really think that was inspired by--" she suddenly appeared at a +loss. + +"By Henry Holbrook, as you know well enough. And if Miss Pat should be +murdered through his enmity, don't you see that your position in the +matter would be difficult to explain? Murder, my dear young woman, is +not looked upon complacently, even in this remote corner of the world!" + +"You seem given to the use of strong language, Mr. Donovan. Let us +drop the calling of names and consider just where you put me." + +"I don't put you at all; you have taken your own stand. But I will say +that I was surprised, not to say pained, to find that you played the +eavesdropper the very hour you came to Annandale." + +A moment's silence; the water murmured in the reeds below; an owl +hooted in the Glenarm wood; a restless bird chirped from its perch in a +maple overhead. + +"Oh, to be sure!" she said at last. "You thought I was listening while +Aunt Pat unfolded the dark history of the Holbrooks." + +"I knew it, though I tried to believe I was mistaken. But when I saw +you there on Tippecanoe Creek, meeting your father at the canoe-maker's +house, I was astounded; I did not know that depravity could go so far." + +"My poor, unhappy, unfortunate father!" she said in a low voice; there +was almost a moan in it. + +"I suppose you defend your conduct on the ground of filial duty," I +suggested, finding it difficult to be severe. + +"Why shouldn't I? Who are you to judge our affairs? We are the +unhappiest family that ever lived; but I should like you to know that +it was not by my wish that you were brought into our councils. There +is more in all this than appears!" + +"There is nothing in it but Miss Pat--her security, her peace, her +happiness. I am pledged to her, and the rest of you are nothing to me. +But you may tell your father that I have been in rows before and that I +propose to stand by the guns." + +"I shall deliver your message, Mr. Donovan; and I give you my father's +thanks for it," she mocked. + +"Your father calls you Rosalind--before strangers!" I remarked. + +"Yes. It's a fancy of his," she murmured lingeringly. "Sometimes it's +Viola, or Perdita, but, as I think of it, it's oftener Rosalind. I +hope you don't object, Mr. Donovan?" + +"No, I rather like it; it's in keeping with your variable character. +You seem prone, like Rosalind, to woodland wandering. I dare say the +other people of the cast will appear in due season. So far I have seen +only the Fool." + +"The Fool? Oh, yes; there was Touchstone, wasn't there?" + +"I believe it is admitted that there was." + +She laughed; I felt that we were bound to get on better, now that we +understood each other. + +"You are rather proud of your attainments, aren't you? I have really +read the play, Mr. Donovan: I have even seen it acted." + +"I did not mean to reflect on your intelligence, which is acute enough; +or on your attainments, which are sufficient; or on your experience of +life, which is ample!" + +"Well spoken! I really believe that I am liking you better all the +time, Mr. Donovan." + +"My heart is swollen with gratitude. You heard my talk with your +father at his cottage last night. And then you flew back to Miss Pat +and played the hypocrite with the artlessness of Rosalind--the real +Rosalind." + +"Did I? Then I'm as clever as I am wicked. You, no doubt, are as wise +as you are good." + +She folded her arms with a quick movement, the better, I thought, to +express satisfaction with her own share of the talk; then her manner +changed abruptly. She rested her hands on the back of the bench and +bent toward me. + +"My father dealt very generously with you. You were an intruder. He +was well within his rights in capturing you. And, more than that, you +drew to our place some enemies of your own who may yet do us grave +injury." + +"They were no enemies of mine! Didn't you hear me debating that matter +with your father? They were his enemies and they pounced on me by +mistake. It's not their fault that they didn't kill me!" + +"That's a likely story. That little creek is the quietest place in the +world." + +"How do you know?" I demanded, bending closer toward her. + +"Because my father tells me so! That was the reason he chose it." + +"He wanted a place to hide when the cities became too hot for him. I +advise you, Miss Holbrook, in view of all that has happened, and if you +have any sense of decency left, to keep away from there." + +"And I suggest to you, Mr. Donovan, that your devotion to my aunt does +not require you to pursue my father. You do well to remember that a +stranger thrusting himself into the affairs of a family he does not +know puts himself in a very bad light." + +"I am not asking your admiration, Miss Holbrook." + +"You may save yourself the trouble!" she flashed; and then laughed out +merrily. "Let us not be so absurd! We are quarreling like two +school-children over an apple. It's really a pleasure to meet you in +this unconventional fashion, but we must be amiable. Our affairs will +not be settled by words--I am sure of that. I must beg of you, the +next time you come forth at night, to wear your cloak and dagger. The +stage-setting is fair enough; and the players should dress their parts +becomingly. I am already named Rosalind--at night; Aunt Pat we will +call the Duchess in exile; and we were speaking a moment ago of the +Fool. Well, yes; there was a Fool." + +"I might take the part myself, if Gillespie were not already cast for +it." + +"Gillespie?" she said wonderingly; then added at once, as though memory +had prompted her: "To be sure there is Gillespie." + +"There is certainly Gillespie. Perhaps you would liefer call him +Orlando?" I ventured. + +"Let me see," she pondered, bending her head; then: "'O, that's a brave +man! he writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths and +breaks them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover; as +a puisny tilter, that spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff +like a noble goose; but all's brave that youth mounts and folly +guides.'" + +"That is Celia's speech, but well rendered. Let us consider that you +are Rosalind, Celia, Viola and Ariel all in one. And I shall be those +immortal villains of old tragedy--first, second and third murtherer; +or, if it suit you better, let me be Iago for honesty; Othello for +great adventures; Hamlet for gloom; Shylock for relentlessness, and +Romeo for love-sickness." + +Again she bent her head; then drawing a little away and clasping her +hands, she quoted: "'Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday +humour and like enough to consent. What would you say to me now, an I +were your very, very Rosalind?'" + +I stammered a moment, dimly recalling Orlando's reply in the play. I +did not know whether she were daring me; and this was certainly not the +girl's mood as we had met at St. Agatha's. My heart leaped and the +blood tingled in my finger-tips as memory searched out the +long-forgotten scene; and suddenly I threw at her the line: + +"'How if the kiss be denied?'" + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"The rehearsal has gone far enough. Let us come back to earth again." + +But this, somehow, was not so easy. + +Far across the lake a heavy train rumbled, and its engine blew a long +blast for Annandale. I felt at that instant the unreality of the day's +events, with their culmination in this strange interview on the height +above the lake. Never, I thought, had man parleyed with woman on so +extraordinary a business. In the brief silence, while the whistle's +echoes rang round the shore, I drew away from the bench that had stood +like a barricade between us and walked toward her. I did not believe +in her; she had flaunted her shameful trickery in my face; and yet I +felt her spell upon me as through the dusk I realized anew her splendid +height, the faint disclosure of her noble head and felt the glory of +her dark eyes. Verily, a lady of shadows, moonlight and dreams, whom +it befitted well to walk forth at night, bent upon plots and mischief, +and compelling love in such foolish hearts as mine. She did not draw +away, but stood quietly, with her head uplifted, a light scarf caught +about her shoulders, and on her head a round sailors cap, tipped away +from her face. + +"You must go back; I must see you safely to St. Agatha's," I said. + +She turned, drawing the scarf close under her throat with a quick +gesture, as though about to go. She laughed with more honest glee than +I had known in her before, and I forgot her duplicity, forgot the bold +game she was playing, and the consequences to which it must lead; my +pulses bounded when a bit of her scarf touched my hand as she flung a +loose end over her shoulder. + +"My dear Mr. Donovan, you propose the impossible! We are foes, you +must remember, and I can not accept your escort." + +"But I have a guard about the house; you are likely to get into trouble +if you try to pass through. I must ask you to remember our pledge, +that you are not to vex Miss Pat unnecessarily in this affair. To +rouse her in the night would only add to her alarm. She has had enough +to worry her already. And I rather imagine," I added bitterly, "that +you don't propose killing her with your own hands." + +"No; do give me credit for that!" she mocked. "But I shall not disturb +your guards, and I shall not distress Aunt Pat by making a row in the +garden trying to run your pickets. I want you to stay here five +minutes--count them honestly--until I have had time to get back in my +own fashion. Is it a bargain?" She put out her hand as she turned +away--her left hand. As my fingers closed upon it an instant the +emerald ring touched my palm. + +"I should think you would not wear that ring," I said, detaining her +hand, "it is too like hers; it is as though you were plighted to her by +it." + +"Yes; it is like her own; she gave it--" + +She choked and caught her breath sharply and her hand flew to her face. + +"She gave it to my mother, long ago," she said, and ran away down the +path toward the school. A bit of gravel loosened by her step slipped +after her to a new resting-place; then silence and the night closed +upon her. + +I threw myself upon the bench and waited, marveling at her. If I had +not touched her hand; if I had not heard her voice; if, more than all, +I had not talked with her of her father, of Miss Pat, of intimate +things which no one else could have known, I should not have believed +that I had seen Helen Holbrook face to face. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LIGHTS ON ST. AGATHA'S PIER + + The night is still, the moon looks kind, + The dew hangs jewels in the heath, + An ivy climbs across thy blind, + And throws a light and misty wreath. + + The dew hangs jewels in the heath, + Buds bloom for which the bee has pined; + I haste along, I quicker breathe, + The night is still, the moon looks kind. + + Buds bloom for which the bee has pined, + The primrose slips its jealous sheath, + As up the flower-watched path I wind + And come thy window-ledge beneath. + + The primrose slips its jealous sheath,-- + Then open wide that churlish blind, + And kiss me through the ivy wreath! + The night is still, the moon looks kind. + --Edith M. Thomas. + + +On my way home through St. Agatha's I stopped to question the two +guards. They had heard nothing, had seen nothing. How that girl had +passed them I did not know. I scanned the main building, where she and +Miss Pat had two rooms, with an intervening sitting-room, but all was +dark. Miss Helen Holbrook was undeniably a resourceful young woman of +charm and wit, and I went on to Glenarm House with a new respect for +her cleverness. + +I was abroad early the next morning, retracing my steps through St. +Agatha's to the stone bench on the bluff with a vague notion of +confirming my memory of the night by actual contact with visible, +tangible things. The lake twinkled in the sunlight, the sky overhead +was a flawless sweep of blue, and the foliage shone from the deluge of +the early night. But in the soft mold of the path the print of a +woman's shoe was unmistakable. Now, in Ireland, when I was younger, I +believed in fairies with all my heart, and to this day I gladly break a +lance for them with scoffers. I know folk who have challenged them and +been answered, and I have, with my own eyes, caught glimpses of their +lights along Irish hillsides. Once, I verily believe, I was near to +speech with them--it was in a highway by a starlit moor--but they +laughed and ran away. The footprints in the school-path were, however, +no elfin trifles. I bent down and examined them; I measured +them--ungraciously, indefensibly, guiltily--with my hand, and rose +convinced that the neat outlines spoke of a modish bootmaker, and were +not to be explained away as marking the lightly-limned step of a fairy +or the gold-sandaled flight of Diana. Then I descended to St. Agatha's +and found Miss Pat and Helen loitering tranquilly in the garden. + +America holds no lovelier spot than the garden of St. Agatha's, with +its soft slopes of lawn, its hedges of box, its columned roses, its +interludes of such fragrant trifles as mignonette and sweet alyssum; +its trellised clematis and honeysuckle and its cool background of +vine-hung wall, where the eye that wearies of the riot of color may +find rest. + +They gave me good morning--Miss Pat calm and gracious, and Helen in the +spirit of the morning itself, smiling, cool, and arguing for peace. +Deception, as a social accomplishment, she had undoubtedly carried far; +and I was hard put to hold up my end of the game. I have practised +lying with past-masters in the art--the bazaar keepers of Cairo, horse +dealers in Moscow and rug brokers in Teheran; but I dipped my colors to +this amazing girl. + +"I'm afraid that we are making ourselves a nuisance to you," said Miss +Pat. "I heard the watchmen patrolling the walks last night." + +"Yes; it was quite feudal!" Helen broke in. "I felt that we were back +at least as far as the eleventh century. The splash of water--which +you can hear when the lake is rough--must be quite like the lap of +water in a moat. But I did not hear the clank of arms." + +"No," I observed dryly. "Ijima wears blue serge and carries a gun that +would shoot clear through a crusader. The gardener is a Scotchman, and +his dialect would kill a horse." + +Miss Pat paused behind us to deliberate upon a new species of hollyhock +whose minarets rose level with her kind, gentle eyes. Something had +been in my mind, and I took this opportunity to speak to Helen. + +"Why don't you avert danger and avoid an ugly catastrophe by confessing +to Miss Pat that your duty and sympathy lie with your father? It would +save a lot of trouble in the end." + +The flame leaped into Helen's face as she turned to me. + +"I don't know what you mean! I have never been spoken to by any one so +outrageously!" She glanced hurriedly over her shoulder. "My position +is hard enough; it is difficult enough, without this. I thought you +wished to help us." + +I stared at her; she was drifting out of my reckoning, and leading me +into uncharted seas. + +"Do you mean to tell me that you have not talked with your father--that +you have not seen him here?" I besought. + +"Yes; I have seen him--once, and it was by accident. It was quite by +accident." + +"Yes; I know of that--" + +"Then you have been spying upon me, Mr. Donovan!" + +"Why did you tell me that outrageously foolish tale about your chess +game, when I knew exactly where you were at the very hour you would +have had me think you were dutifully engaged with your aunt? It seems +to me, my dear Miss Holbrook, that that is not so easy of explanation, +even to my poor wits." + +"That was without purpose; really it was! I was restless and weary +from so much confinement; you can't know how dreary these late years +have been for us--for me--and I wished just once to be free. I went +for a long walk into the country. And if you saw me, if you watched +me--" + +I gazed at her blankly. The thing could not have been better done on +the stage; but Miss Pat was walking toward us, and I put an end to the +talk. + +"I came upon him by accident--I had no idea he was here," she persisted. + +"You are not growing tired of us," began Miss Pat, with her brave, +beautiful smile; "you are not anxious to be rid of us?" + +"I certainly am not," I replied. "I can't tell you how glad I am that +you have decided to remain here. I am quite sure that with a little +patience we shall wear out the besiegers. Our position here has, you +may say, the strength of its weaknesses. I think the policy of the +enemy is to harass you by guerilla methods--to annoy you and frighten +you into submission." + +"Yes; I believe you are right," she said slowly. Helen had walked on, +and I loitered beside Miss Pat. + +"I hope you have had no misgivings, Miss Pat, since our talk yesterday." + +"None whatever," she replied quickly. "I am quite persuaded in my own +mind that I should have been better off if I had made a stand long ago. +I don't believe cowardice ever pays, do you?" + +She smiled up at me in her quick, bright way, and I was more than ever +her slave. + +"Miss Holbrook, you are the bravest woman in the world! I believe you +are right. I think I should be equal to ten thousand men with your +spirit to put heart into me." + +"Don't be foolish," she said, laughing. "But to show you that I am not +really afraid, suppose you offer to take us for a drive this evening. +I think it would be well for me to appear to-day, just to show the +enemy that we are not driven to cover by our little adventure in the +launch yesterday." + +"Certainly! Shall we carry outriders and a rear guard?" + +"Not a bit of it. I think we may be able to shame my brother out of +his evil intentions by our defenselessness." + +We waited for Helen to rejoin us, and the drive was planned for five. +Promptly on the hour, after a day of activity on my part in cruising +the lake, looking for signs of the enemy, we set forth in an open trap, +and plunged into country roads that traversed territory new to all of +us. I carried Ijima along, and when, after a few miles, Helen asked to +take the reins, I changed seats with her, and gave myself up to talk +with Miss Pat. The girl's mood was grave, and she wished to drive, I +fancied, as an excuse for silence. The land rolled gradually away into +the south and west, and we halted, in an hour or so, far from the lake, +on a wooded eminence that commanded a long sweep in every direction, +and drew into the roadside. Ijima opened a gate that admitted us to a +superb maple grove, and in a few minutes we were having tea from the +hamper in the cheeriest mood in the world. The sun was contriving new +marvels in the west, and the wood that dipped lakeward beneath us gave +an illusion of thick tapestry to the eye. + +"We could almost walk to the lake over the trees," said Miss Pat. +"It's a charming picture." + +Then, as we all turned to the lake, seeing it afar across the tree-tops +through the fragrant twilight, I saw the _Stiletto_ standing out boldly +upon the waters of Annandale, with a languid impudence that I began to +associate with its slim outlines and snowy canvas. Other craft were +abroad, and Miss Pat, I judged, spoke only of the prettiness of the +general landscape, and there was, to be sure, no reason why the sails +of the _Stiletto_ should have had any particular significance for her. +Helen was still looking down upon the lake when Miss Pat suggested that +we should go home; and even after her aunt called to her, the girl +still stood, one hand resting upon the trunk of a great beech, her gaze +bent wistfully, mournfully toward the lake. But on the homeward +drive--she had asked for the reins again--her mood changed abruptly, +and she talked cheerily, often turning her head--a scarlet-banded +sailor hat was, I thought, remarkably becoming--to chaff about her +skill with the reins. + +"I haven't a care or trouble in the world," declared Miss Pat when I +left them at St. Agatha's. "I am sure that we have known the worst +that can happen to us in Annandale. I refuse to be a bit frightened +after that drive." + +"It was charming," said Helen. "This is better than the English lake +country, because it isn't so smoothed out." + +"I will grant you all of that," I said. "I will go further and +admit--what is much for me--that it is almost equal to Killarney." + +There seemed to be sincerity in their good spirits, and I was myself +refreshed and relieved as I drove into Glenarm; but I arranged for the +same guard as on the night before. Helen Holbrook's double-dealing +created a condition of affairs that demanded cautious handling, and I +had no intention of being caught napping. + +I am not, let me say, a person who boasts of his knowledge of human +nature. Good luck has served to minimize my own lack of subtlety in +dealing with my fellow-creatures; and I take no credit for such fortune +as I have enjoyed in contests of any sort with men or women. As for +the latter, I admire, I reverence, I love them; but I can not engage to +follow them when they leave the main road for short cuts and by-paths. +The day had gone so well that I viewed the night with complacency. I +read my foreign newspapers with a recurrence of the joy that the +thought of remote places always kindles in me. An article in _The +Times_ on the unrest in Bulgaria--the same old article on the same old +unrest--gave me the usual heartache: I have been waiting ten years for +something to happen in that neighborhood--something really significant +and offering a chance for fun, and it seems as far away as ever. + +From the window of my room I saw the Japanese boy patrolling the walks +of St. Agatha's, and the Holbrooks' affairs seemed paltry and tame in +contrast with the real business of war. A buckboard of youngsters from +Port Annandale passed in the road, leaving a trail of song behind them. +Then the frog choruses from the little brook that lay hidden in the +Glenarm wood sounded in my ears with maddening iteration, and I sought +the open. + +The previous night I had met Helen Holbrook by the stone seat on the +ridge, and I can not deny that it was with the hope of seeing her again +that I set forth. That touch of her hand in the moonlight lingered +with me: I thrilled with eagerness as I remembered how my pulses +bounded when I found myself so close to her there in the fringe of +wood. She was beautiful with a rare loveliness at all times, yet I +found myself wondering whether, on the strange frontiers of love, it +was her daring duplicity that appealed to me. I set myself stubbornly +into a pillory reared of my own shame at the thought, and went out and +climbed upon the Glenarm wall and stared at the dark bulk of St. +Agatha's as I punished myself for having entertained any other thought +of Helen Holbrook than of a weak, vain, ungrateful girl, capable of +making sad mischief for her benefactor. + +Ijima passed and repassed in the paved walk that curved among the +school buildings; I heard his step, and marked his pauses as he met the +gardener at the front door by an arrangement that I had suggested. As +I considered the matter I concluded that Helen Holbrook could readily +slip out at the back of the house, when the guards thus met, and that +she had thus found egress on the night before. + +At this moment the two guards met precisely at the front door, and to +my surprise Sister Margaret, in the brown garb of her Sisterhood, +stepped out, nodded to the watchmen in the light of the overhanging +lamp, and walked slowly round the buildings and toward the lake. The +men promptly resumed their patrol. The Sister slipped away like a +shadow through the garden; and I dropped down from the wall inside the +school park and stole after her. The guards were guilty of no +impropriety in passing her; there was, to be sure, no reason why Sister +Margaret should not do precisely as she liked at St. Agatha's. +However, my curiosity was piqued, and I crept quietly along through the +young maples that fringed the wall. She followed a path that led down +to the pier, and I hung back to watch, still believing that Sister +Margaret had gone forth merely to enjoy the peace and beauty of the +night. I paused in a little thicket, and heard her light step on the +pier flooring; and I drew as near as I dared, in the shadow of the +boat-house. + +She stood beside the upright staff from which the pier lights +swung--the white lantern between the two red ones--looking out across +the lake. The lights outlined her tall figure distinctly. She peered +about anxiously several times, and I heard the impatient tap of her +foot on the planks. In the lake sounded the faint gurgle of water +round a paddle, and in a moment a canoe glided to the pier and a man +stepped out. He bent down to seize the painter, and I half turned +away, ashamed of the sheer curiosity that had drawn me after the +Sister. Nuns who chafe at their prison-bars are not new, either to +romance or history; and this surely was no affair of mine. Then the +man stood up, and I saw that it was Gillespie. He was hatless, and his +arms were bared. He began to speak, but she quieted him with a word; +and as with a gesture she flung back her brown hood, I saw that it was +Helen Holbrook. + +"I had given you up," she said. + +He took both her hands and held them, bending toward her eagerly. She +seemed taller than he in the lantern light. + +"I should have come across the world," he said. "You must believe that +I should not have asked this of you if I had not believed you could do +it without injury to yourself--that it would impose no great burden on +you, and that you would not think too ill of me--" + +"I love you; I am here because I love you!" he said; and I thought +better of him than I had. He was a fool, and weak; but he was, I +believed, an honest fool, and my heart grew hot with jealous rage as I +saw them there together. + +"If there is more I can do!" + +"No; and I should not ask you if there were. I have gone too far, as +it is," she sighed. + +"You must take no risks; you must take care that Miss Pat knows +nothing." + +"No; I must see father. He must go away. I believe he has lost his +senses from brooding on his troubles." + +"But how did he ever get here? There is something very strange about +it." + +"Oh, I knew he would follow us! But I did not tell him I was coming +here--I hope you did not believe that of me. I did not tell him any +more than I told you." + +He laughed softly. + +"You did not need to tell me; I could have found you anywhere in the +world, Helen. That man Donovan is watching you like a hawk; but he's a +pretty good fellow, with a Milesian joy in a row. He's going to +protect Miss Pat and you if he dies at the business." + +She shrugged her shoulders, and I saw her disdain of me in her face. A +pretty conspiracy this was, and I seemed to be only the crumpled +wrapping of a pack of cards, with no part in the game. + +Gillespie drew an envelope from his pocket, held it to the white +lantern for an instant, then gave it to her. + +"I telegraphed to Chicago for a draft. He will have to leave here to +get it--the bank at Annandale carries no such sum; and it will be a +means of getting rid of him." + +"Oh, I only hope he will leave--he must--he must!" she cried. + +"You must go back," he said. "These matters will all come right in the +end, Helen," he added kindly. "There is one thing I do not understand." + +"Oh, there are many things I do not understand!" + +"The thing that troubles me is that your father was here before you." + +"No--that isn't possible; I can't believe it." + +"He had engaged the _Stiletto_ before you came to Annandale; and while +I was tracing you across the country he was already here somewhere. He +amuses himself with the yacht." + +"Yes, I know; he is more of a menace that way--always in our +sight--always where I must see him!" + +Her face, clearly lighted by the lanterns, was touched with anxiety and +sorrow, and I saw her, with that prettiest gesture of woman's thousand +graces--the nimble touch that makes sure no errant bit of hair has gone +wandering--lift her hand to her head for a moment. The emerald ring +flashed in the lantern light. I recall a thought that occurred to me +there--that the widow's peak, so sharply marked in her forehead, was +like the finger-print of some playful god. She turned to go, but he +caught her hands. + +"Helen!" he cried softly. + +"No! Please don't!" + +She threw the nun's hood over her head and walked rapidly up the pier +and stole away through the garden toward St. Agatha's. Gillespie +listened for her step to die away, then he sighed heavily and bent down +to draw up his canoe. When I touched him on the shoulder he rose and +lifted the paddle menacingly. + +"Ah, so it's our young and gifted Irish friend!" he said, grinning. +"No more sprinting stunts for me! I decline to run. The thought of +asparagus and powdered glass saddens me. Look at these hands--these +little hands still wrapped in mystical white rags. I have bled at +every pore to give you entertainment, and now it's got to be twenty +paces with bird-guns." + +"What mischief are you in now?" I demanded angrily. "I thought I +warned you, Gillespie; I thought I even appealed to your chivalry." + +"My dear fellow, everything has changed. If a nun in distress appeals +to me for help, I am Johnny-on-the-spot for Mother Church." + +"That was not the Sister, it was Miss Holbrook. I saw her distinctly; +I heard--" + +"By Jove, this is gallant of you, Donovan! You are a marvelous fellow!" + +"I have a right to ask--I demand to know what it was you gave the girl." + +"Matinée tickets--the American girl without matinée tickets is a lonely +pleiad bumping through the void." + +"You are a contemptible ass. Your conduct is scoundrelly. If you want +to see Miss Holbrook, why don't you go to the house and call on her +like a gentleman? And as for her--" + +"Yes; and as for her--?" + +He stepped close to me threateningly. + +"And as for her--?" he repeated. + +"As for her, she may go too far!" + +"She is not answerable to you. She's the finest girl in the world, and +if you intimate--" + +"I intimate nothing. But what I saw and heard interested me a good +deal, Gillespie." + +"What you heard by stealth, creeping about here at night, prying into +other people's affairs!" + +"I have pledged myself to care for Miss Pat." + +"It's noble of you, Donovan!" and he stepped away from me, grinning. +"Miss Pat suggests nothing to me but 'button, button, who's got the +button?' She's a bloomin' aristocrat, while I'm the wealth-cursed +child of democracy." + +"You're a charming specimen!" I growled. + +It was plain that he saw nothing out of the way in thus conniving with +Helen Holbrook against her aunt, and that he had not been struck by the +enormity of the girl's conduct in taking money from him. He drew in +his canoe as I debated with myself what to do with him. + +"You've got to leave the lake," I said. "You've got to go." + +"Then I'm going, thank you!" + +He sprang into the canoe, driving it far out of my reach; his paddle +splashed, and he was gone. + +"Is that you, sir?" called Ijima behind me. "I thought I heard some +one talking." + +"It is nothing, Ijima." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE FLUTTER OF A HANDKERCHIEF + + As a bell in a chime + Sets its twin-note a-ringing, + As one poet's rhyme + Wakes another to singing, + So once she has smiled + All your thoughts are beguiled, + And flowers and song from your childhood are bringing. + + Each grace is a jewel + Would ransom the town; + Her speech has no cruel, + Her praise is renown; + 'Tis in her as though Beauty, + Resigning to Duty + The scepter, had still kept the purple and crown. + --_Robert Underwood Johnson_. + + +The next morning at eight o'clock I sent a note to Miss Pat, asking if +she and the other ladies of her house would not take breakfast with me +at nine; and she replied, on her quaint visiting-card, in an +old-fashioned hand, that she and Helen would be glad to come, but that +Sister Margaret begged to be excused. It had been in my mind from the +first to ask them to dine at Glenarm, and now I wished to see this +girl, to test, weigh, study her, as soon as possible after her meeting +with Gillespie. I wished to see how she would bear herself before her +aunt and me with that dark transaction on her conscience. The idea +pleased me, and when I saw the two women coming through the school +garden I met them at the gate. + +Breakfast seems to be, in common experience, the most difficult meal of +the day, and yet that hour hangs in memory still as one of the +brightest I ever spent. The table was set on the terrace, and its +white napery, the best Glenarm silver and crystal, and a bowl of red +roses still dewy from the night, all blended coolly with the morning. +As the strawberries were passed I felt that the little table had +brought us together in a new intimacy. It was delightful to sit face +to face with Miss Pat, and not less agreeable to have at my right hand +this bewildering girl, whose eyes laughed at me when I sought shame in +their depths. Miss Pat poured the coffee, and when I took my cup I +felt that it carried benediction with it. I was glad to see her so at +peace with the world, and her heart was not older, I could have sworn, +than the roses before her. + +"I shall refuse to leave when my time is up!" she declared. "Do you +think you could spend a winter here, Helen?" + +"I should love it!" the girl replied. "It would be perfectly splendid +to watch the seasons march across the lake. We can both enroll +ourselves at St. Agatha's as post-graduate students, and take a special +course in weather here." + +"If I didn't sometimes hear trains passing Annandale in the night, I +should forget that there's a great busy world off there somewhere," +said Miss Pat. "I am ashamed of myself for having been so long +discovering this spot. Except one journey to California, I was never +west of Philadelphia until I came here." + +The world was satisfactory as it stood; and I was aware of no reason +why it should move on. The chime of the chapel tower drifted to us +drowsily, as though anxious to accommodate itself to the mood of a day +that began business by shattering the hour-glass. The mist that hung +over the water rose lazily, and disclosed the lake agleam in the full +sunlight. Though Miss Pat was content to linger, Helen, I thought, +appeared restless; she rose and walked to the edge of the terrace, the +better to scan the lake, while Miss Pat and I talked on. Miss Pat's +gift of detachment was remarkable; if we had been looking down from a +balcony upon the Grand Canal, or breakfasting in an Italian garden, she +could not have been more at ease; nor did she refer even remotely to +the odd business that had brought her to the lake. She was, to be +explicit, describing in her delightful low voice, and in sentences +vivid with spirit and color, a visit she had once paid to a noble +Italian family at their country seat. As Helen wandered out of hearing +I thought Miss Pat would surely seize the opportunity to speak of the +girl's father, at least to ask whether I had heard of him further; but +she avoided all mention of her troubles. + +Helen stood by the line of scarlet geraniums that marked the +balustrade, at a point whence the best view of the lake was +obtainable--her hands clasped behind her, her head turned slightly. + +"There is no one quite like her!" exclaimed Miss Pat. + +"She is beautiful!" I acquiesced. + +Miss Pat talked on quickly, as though our silence might cause Helen to +turn and thus deprive us of the picture. + +"Should you like to look over the house?" I asked a little later, when +Helen had come back to the table. "It is said to be one of the finest +houses in interior America, and there are some good pictures." + +"We should be very glad," said Miss Pat; and Helen murmured assent. + +"But we must not stay too long, Aunt Pat. Mr. Donovan has his own +affairs. We must not tax his generosity too far." + +"And we are going to send some letters off to-day. If it isn't asking +too much, I should like to drive to the village later," said Miss Pat. + +"Yes; and I should like a paper of pins and a new magazine," said +Helen, a little, a very little eagerness in her tone. + +"Certainly. The stable is at your disposal, and our entire marine." + +"But we must see the Glenarm pictures first," said Miss Pat, and we +went at once into the great cool house, coming at last to the gallery +on the third floor. + +"Whistler!" Miss Pat exclaimed in delight before the famous _Lady in +the Gray Cloak_. "I thought that picture was owned in England." + +"It was; but old Mr. Glenarm had to have it. That Meissonier is +supposed to be in Paris, but you see it's here." + +"It's wonderful!" said Miss Pat. She returned to the Whistler and +studied it with rapt attention, and I stood by, enjoying her pleasure. +One of the housemaids had followed us to the gallery and opened the +French windows giving upon a balcony, from which the lake lay like a +fold of blue silk beyond the wood. Helen had passed on while Miss Pat +hung upon the Whistler. + +"How beautifully those draperies are suggested, Helen. That is one of +the best of all his things." + +But Helen was not beside her, as she had thought. There were several +recesses in the room, and I thought the girl had stepped into one of +these, but just then I saw her shadow outside. + +"Miss Holbrook is on the balcony," I said. + +"Oh, very well. We must go," she replied quietly, but lingered before +the picture. + +I left Miss Pat and crossed the room to the balcony. As I approached +one of the doors I saw Helen, standing tiptoe for greater height, +slowly raise and lower her handkerchief thrice, as though signaling to +some one on the water. + +I laughed outright as I stepped beside her. + +"It's better to be a picture than to look at one, Miss Holbrook! Allow +me!" + +In her confusion she had dropped her handkerchief, and when I returned +it she slipped it into her cuff with a murmur of thanks. A flash of +anger lighted her eyes and she colored slightly; but she was composed +in an instant. And, looking off beyond the water-tower, I was not +surprised to see the _Stiletto_ quite near our shore, her white sails +filling lazily in the scant wind. A tiny flag flashed recognition and +answer of the girl's signal, and was hauled down at once. + +We were both silent as we watched it; then I turned to the girl, who +bent her head a moment, tucking the handkerchief a trifle more securely +into her sleeve. She smiled quizzically, with a compression of the +lips. + +"The view here is fine, isn't it?" + +We regarded each other with entire good humor. I heard Miss Pat +within, slowly crossing the bare floor of the gallery. + +"You are incomparable!" I exclaimed. "Verily, a daughter of Janus has +come among us!" + +"The best pictures are outdoors, after all," commented Miss Pat; and +after a further ramble about the house they returned to St. Agatha's, +whence we were to drive together to Annandale in half an hour. + +I went to the stone water-tower and scanned the movements of the +_Stiletto_ with a glass while I waited. The sloop was tacking slowly +away toward Annandale, her skipper managing his sheet with an expert +hand. It may have been the ugly business in which the pretty toy was +engaged, or it may have been the lazy deliberation of her oblique +progress over the water, but I felt then and afterward that there was +something sinister in every line of the _Stiletto_. The more I +deliberated the less certain I became of anything that pertained to the +Holbrooks; and I tested my memory by repeating the alphabet and +counting ten, to make sure that my wits were still equal to such +exercises. + +We drove into Annandale without incident and with no apparent timidity +on Miss Pat's part. Helen was all amiability and cheer. I turned +perforce to address her now and then, and was ashamed to find that the +lurking smile about her lips, and a challenging light in her eyes, woke +no resentment in me. The directness of her gaze was in itself +disconcerting; there was no heavy-lidded insolence about her: her +manner suggested a mischievous child who hides your stick and with +feigned interest aids your search for it in impossible places. + +I left Miss Pat and Helen at the general store while I sought the +hardware merchant with a list of trifles required for Glenarm. I was +detained some time longer than I had expected, and in leaving I stood +for a moment on the platform before the shop, gossiping with the +merchant of village affairs. I glanced down the street to see if the +ladies had appeared, and observed at the same time my team and wagon +standing at the curb in charge of the driver, just as I had left them. + +While I still talked to the merchant, Helen came out of the general +store, glanced hurriedly up and down the street, and crossed quickly to +the post-office, which lay opposite. I watched her as I made my adieux +to the shopkeeper, and just then I witnessed something that interested +me at once. Within the open door of the post-office the Italian sailor +lounged idly. Helen carried a number of letters in her hand, and as +she entered the post-office--I was sure my eyes played me no +trick--deftly, almost imperceptibly, an envelope passed from her hand +to the Italian's. He stood immovable, as he had been, while the girl +passed on into the office. She reappeared at once, recrossed the +street and met her aunt at the door of the general store. I rejoined +them, and as we all met by the waiting trap the Italian left the +post-office and strolled slowly away toward the lake. + +I was not sure whether Miss Pat saw him. If she did she made no sign, +but began describing with much amusement an odd countryman she had seen +in the shop. + +"You mailed our letters, did you, Helen? Then I believe we have quite +finished, Mr. Donovan. I like your little village; I'm disposed to +love everything about this beautiful lake." + +"Yes; even the town hall, where the Old Georgia Minstrels seem to have +appeared for one night only, some time last December, is a shrine +worthy of pilgrimages," remarked Helen. "And postage stamps cost no +more here than in Stamford. I had really expected that they would be a +trifle dearer." + +I laughed rather more than was required, for those wonderful eyes of +hers were filled with something akin to honest fun. She was proud of +herself, and was even flushed the least bit with her success. + +As we passed the village pier I saw the _Stiletto_ lying at the edge of +the inlet that made a miniature harbor for the village, and, rowing +swiftly toward it, his oars flashing brightly, was the Italian, still +plainly in sight. Whether Miss Pat saw the boat and ignored it, or +failed to see, I did not know, for when I turned she was studying the +cover of a magazine that lay in her lap. Helen fell to talking +vivaciously of the contrasts between American and English landscape; +and so we drove back to St. Agatha's. + +Thereafter, for the matter of ten days, nothing happened. I brought +the ladies of St. Agatha's often to Glenarm, and we went forth together +constantly by land and water without interruption. They received and +despatched letters, and nothing marred the quiet order of their lives. +The _Stiletto_ vanished from my horizon, and lay, so Ijima learned for +me, within the farther lake. Henry Holbrook had, I made no doubt, gone +away with the draft Helen had secured from Gillespie, and of Gillespie +himself I heard nothing. + +As for Helen, I found it easy to forgive, and I grew eloquently +defensive whenever my heart accused her. Her moods were as changing as +those of the lake, and, like it, knew swift-gathering, passionate +storms. Helen of the stars was not Helen of the vivid sunlight. The +mystery of night vanished in her zest for the day, and I felt that her +spirit strove against mine in all our contests with paddle and racquet, +or in our long gallops into the heart of the sunset. She had fashioned +for the night a dream-world in which she moved like a whimsical shadow, +but by day the fire of the sun flashed in her blood. + +We established between ourselves a comradeship that was for me +delightfully perilous, but which--so she intimated one day, as though +in warning--was only an armed neutrality. We were playing tennis in +the Glenarm court at the time, and she smashed the ball back to me +viciously. + +"Your serve," she said. + +And thus, with the joy of June filling the world, the enchanted days +sped by. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE CARNIVAL OF CANOES + + Thou canst not wave thy staff in air, + Or dip thy paddle in the lake, + But it carves the bow of beauty there, + And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake. + --_Emerson_. + + +I had dined alone and was lounging about the grounds when I heard +voices near the Glenarm wall. There was no formal walk there, and my +steps were silenced by the turf. The heavy scent of flowers from +within gave me a hint of my whereabouts; there was, I remembered, at +this point on the school lawn a rustic bench embowered in honeysuckle, +and Miss Pat and Helen were, I surmised, taking their coffee there. I +started away, thinking to enter by the gate and join them, when Helen's +voice rose angrily--there was no mistaking it, and she said in a tone +that rang oddly on my ears: + +"But you are unkind to him! You are unjust! It is not fair to blame +father for his ill-fortune." + +"That is true, Helen; but it is not your father's ill-fortune that I +hold against him. All I ask of him is to be sane, reasonable, to +change his manner of life, and to come to me in a spirit of fairness." + +"But he is proud, just as you are; and Uncle Arthur ruined him! It was +not father, but Uncle Arthur, who brought all these hideous things upon +us." + +I passed rapidly on, and resumed my walk elsewhere. It was a sad +business, the shadowy father; the criminal uncle, who had, as Helen +said, brought ruin upon them all; the sweet, motherly, older sister, +driven in desperation to hide; and, not less melancholy, this beautiful +girl, the pathos of whose position had struck me increasingly. Perhaps +Miss Pat was too severe, and I half accused her of I know not what +crimes of rapacity and greed for withholding her brother's money; then +I set my teeth hard into my pipe as my slumbering loyalty to Miss Pat +warmed in my heart again. + +"It's the night of the carnival, sir," Ijima reminded me, seeking me at +the water-tower. + +"Very good, Ijima. You needn't lock the boat-house. I may go out +later." + +The cottagers at Port Annandale hold once every summer a canoe fête, +and this was the appointed night. I was in no mood for gaiety of any +sort, but it occurred to me that I might relieve the strained relations +between Helen and her aunt by taking them out to watch the procession +of boats. I passed through the gate and took a turn or two, not to +appear to know of the whereabouts of the women, and to my surprise met +Miss Pat walking alone. + +She greeted me with her usual kindness, but I knew that I had broken +upon sad reflections. Her handkerchief vanished into the silk bag she +wore at her wrist. Helen was not in sight, but I strolled back and +forth with Miss Pat, thinking the girl might appear. + +"I had a note from Father Stoddard to-day," said Miss Pat. + +"I congratulate you," I laughed. "He doesn't honor me." + +"He's much occupied," she remarked defensively; "and I suppose he +doesn't indulge in many letters. Mine was only ten lines long, not +more!" + +"Father Stoddard feels that he has a mission in the world, and he has +little time for people like us, who have food, clothes and drink in +plenty. He gives his life to the hungry, unclothed and thirsty." + +And now, quite abruptly, Miss Pat spoke of her brother. + +"Has Henry gone?" + +"Yes; he left ten days ago." + +She nodded several times, then looked at me and smiled. + +"You have frightened him off! I am grateful to you!"--and I was glad +in my heart that she did not know that Gillespie's money had sent him +away. + +Helen had not appeared, and I now made bold to ask for her. + +"Let me send the maid to tell her you are here," said Miss Pat, and we +walked to the door and rang. + +The maid quickly reported that Miss Holbrook begged to be excused. + +"She is a little afraid of the damp night air of the garden," said Miss +Pat, with so kind an intention that I smiled to myself. It was at the +point of my tongue to remark, in my disappointment at not seeing her, +that she must have taken sudden alarm at the lake atmosphere; but Miss +Pat talked on unconcernedly. I felt from her manner that she wished to +detain me. No one might know how her heart ached, but it was less the +appeal of her gentleness that won me now, I think, than the remembrance +that flashed upon me of her passionate outburst after our meeting with +the Italian; and that seemed very long ago. She had been magnificent +that day, like a queen driven to desperation, and throwing down the +gauntlet as though she had countless battalions at her back. +Indecision took flight before shame; it was a privilege to know and to +serve her! + +"Miss Holbrook, won't you come out to see the water fête? We can look +upon it in security and comfort from the launch. The line of march is +from Port Annandale past here and toward the village, then back again. +You can come home whenever you like. I had hoped Miss Helen might +come, too, but I beg that you will take compassion upon my loneliness." + +I had flung off my cap with the exaggerated manner I sometimes used +with her; and she dropped me a courtesy with the prettiest grace in the +world. + +"I shall be with you in a moment, my lord!" + +She reappeared quickly and remarked, as I took her wraps, that Helen +was very sorry not to come. + +The gardener was on duty, and I called Ijima to help with the launch. +Brightly decorated boats were already visible in the direction of Port +Annandale; even the tireless lake "tramps" whistled with a special +flourish and were radiant in vari-colored lanterns. + +"This is an ampler Venice, but there should be music to make it +complete," observed Miss Pat, as we stole in and out among the +gathering fleet. And then, as though in answer, a launch passed near, +leaving a trail of murmurous chords behind--the mournful throb of the +guitar, the resonant beat of banjo strings. Nothing can be so soothing +to the troubled spirit as music over water, and I watched with delight +Miss Pat's deep absorption in all the sights and sounds of the lake. +We drifted past a sail-boat idling with windless sails, its mast +trimmed with lanterns, and every light multiplying itself in the quiet +water. Many and strange craft appeared--farm folk and fishermen in +clumsy rowboats and summer colonists in launches, skiffs and canoes, +appeared from all directions to watch the parade. + +The assembling canoes flashed out of the dark like fireflies. Not even +the spirits that tread the air come and go more magically than the +canoe that is wielded by a trained hand. The touch of the skilled +paddler becomes but a caress of the water. To have stolen across +Saranac by moonlight; to have paddled the devious course of the York or +Kennebunk when the sea steals inland for rest, or to dip up stars in +lovely Annandale--of such experiences is knowledge born! + +I took care that we kept well to ourselves, for Miss Pat turned +nervously whenever a boat crept too near. Ijima, understanding without +being told, held the power well in hand. I had scanned the lake at +sundown for signs of the _Stiletto_, but it had not ventured from the +lower lake all day, and there was scarce enough air stirring to ruffle +the water. + +"We can award the prize for ourselves here at the turn of the loop," I +remarked, as we swung into place and paused at a point about a mile off +Glenarm. "Here comes the flotilla!" + +"The music is almost an impertinence, lovely as it is. The real song +of the canoe is 'dip and glide, dip and glide,'" said Miss Pat. + +The loop once made, we now looked upon a double line whose bright +confusion added to the picture. The canoe offers, when you think of +it, little chance for the decorator, its lines are so trim and so +founded upon rigid simplicity; but many zealous hands had labored for +the magic of this hour. Slim masts supported lanterns in many and +charming combinations, and suddenly, as though the toy lamps had taken +wing, rockets flung up their stars and roman candles their golden +showers at a dozen points of the line and broadened the scope of the +picture. A scow placed midway of the loop now lighted the lake with +red and green fire. The bright, graceful argosies slipped by, like +beads upon a rosary. When the last canoe had passed, Miss Pat turned +to me, sighing softly: + +"It was too pretty to last; it was a page out of the book of lost +youth." + +I laughed back at her and signaled Ijima to go ahead and then, as the +water churned and foamed and I took the wheel, we were startled by an +exclamation from some one in a rowboat near at hand. The last of the +peaceful armada had passed, but now from the center of the lake, +unobserved and unheralded, stole a canoe fitted with slim masts carried +high from bow to stern with delightful daring. The lights were set in +globes of green and gold, and high over all, its support quite +invisible, shone a golden star that seemed to hover and follow the +shadowy canoe. + +We all watched the canoe intently; and my eyes now fell upon the figure +of the skipper of this fairy craft, who was set forth in clear relief +against the red fire beyond. The sole occupant of the canoe was a +girl--there was no debating it; she flashed by within a paddle's length +of us, and I heard the low bubble of water under her blade. She +paddled kneeling, Indian fashion, and was lessening the breach between +herself and the last canoe of the orderly line, which now swept on +toward the casino. + +"That's the prettiest one of all--" began Miss Pat, then ceased +abruptly. She bent forward, half rising and gazing intently at the +canoe. What she saw and what I saw was Helen Holbrook plying the +paddle with practised stroke; and as she passed she glanced aloft to +make sure that her slender mast of lights was unshaken; and then she +was gone, her star twinkling upon us bewilderingly. I waited for Miss +Pat to speak, but she did not turn her head until the canoe itself had +vanished and only its gliding star marked it from the starry sisterhood +above. + +An exclamation faltered on my lips. + +"It was--it was like--it _was_--" + +"I believe we had better go now," said Miss Pat softly, and, I thought, +a little brokenly. + +But we still followed the star with our eyes, and we saw it gain the +end of the procession, sweep on at its own pace, past the casino, and +then turn abruptly and drive straight for Glenarm pier. It was now +between us and our own shore. It shone a moment against our pier +lights; then the star and the fairy lanterns beneath it vanished one +after another and the canoe disappeared as utterly as though it had +never been. + +I purposely steered a zigzag course back to St. Agatha's. Since Helen +had seen fit to play this trick upon her aunt I wished to give her +ample time to dispose of her canoe and return to the school. If we had +been struck by a mere resemblance, why did the canoeist not go on to +the casino and enjoy the fruits of her victory? I tried to imagine +Gillespie a party to the escapade, but I could not fit him into it. +Meanwhile I babbled on with Miss Pat. An occasional rocket still broke +with a golden shower over the lake, and she now discussed the carnival +and declared the gondola inferior for grace to the American canoe. Her +phrases were, however, a trifle stiff and not in her usual light manner. + +I walked with her from the pier to St. Agatha's. + +Sister Margaret, who had observed the procession from an upper window, +threw open the door for us. + +"How is Helen?" asked Miss Pat at once. + +"She is very comfortable," replied the Sister. "I went up only a +moment ago to see if she wanted anything." + +Miss Pat turned and gave me her hand in her pretty fashion. + +"You see, it could not have been--it was not--Helen; our eyes deceived +us! Thank you very much, Mr. Donovan!" + +There was no mistaking her relief; she smiled upon me beamingly as I +stood before her at the door. + +"Of course! On a fête night one can never trust one's eyes!" + +"But it was all bewilderingly beautiful. You are most compassionate +toward a poor old woman in exile, Mr. Donovan. I must go up to Helen +and make her sorry for all she has missed." + +I went back to the launch and sought far and near upon the lake for the +canoe with the single star. I wanted to see again the face that was +uplifted in the flood of colored light--the head, the erect shoulders, +the arms that drove the blade so easily and certainly; for if it was +not Helen Holbrook it was her shadow that the gods had sent to mock me +upon the face of the waters. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MELANCHOLY OF MR. GILLESPIE + +I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; nor the +musician's, which is fantastical; nor the courtier's, which is proud; +nor the soldier's, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is +politic; nor the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all +these: but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, +extracted from many objects; and indeed the sundry contemplation of my +travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous +sadness.--_As You Like It_. + + +I laughed a moment ago when, in looking over my notes of these affairs, +I marked the swift transition from those peaceful days to others of +renewed suspicions and strange events. I had begun to yield myself to +blandishments and to feel that there could be no further interruption +of the idyllic hours I was spending in Helen Holbrook's company. I +still maintained, to be sure, the guard as it had been established; and +many pipes I smoked on St. Agatha's pier, in the fond belief that I was +merely fulfilling my office as protector of Miss Pat, whereas I had +reached a point where the very walls that held Helen Holbrook were of +such stuff as dreams are made of. My days were keyed to a mood that +was impatient of questions and intolerant of doubts. I was glad to +take the hours as they came, so long as they brought her. I did not +refer to her appearance in the parade of canoes, nor did Miss Pat +mention it to me again. It was a part of the summer's enchantment, and +it was not for me to knock at doors to which Helen Holbrook held the +golden keys. + +The only lingering blot in the bright calendar of those days was her +meeting with Gillespie on the pier, and the fact that she had accepted +money from him for her rascally father. But even this I excused. It +was no easy thing for a girl of her high spirits to be placed in a +position of antagonism to her own father; and as for Gillespie, he was +at least a friend, abundantly able to help her in her difficult +position; and if, through his aid, she had been able to get rid of her +father, the end had certainly justified the means. I reasoned that an +educated man of good antecedents who was desperate enough to attempt +murder for profit in this enlightened twentieth century was cheaply got +rid of at any price, and it was extremely decent of Gillespie--so I +argued--to have taken himself away after providing the means of the +girl's release. I persuaded myself eloquently on these lines while I +exhausted the resources of Glenarm in providing entertainment for both +ladies. There had been other breakfasts on the terrace at Glenarm, and +tea almost every day in the shadow of St. Agatha's, and one dinner of +state in the great Glenarm dining-room; but more blessed were those +hours in which we rode, Helen and I, through the sunset into dusk, or +drove a canoe over the quiet lake by night. Miss Pat, I felt sure, in +so often leaving me alone with Helen, was favoring my attentions; and +thus the days passed, like bubbles on flowing water. + +She was in my thoughts as I rode into Annandale to post some letters, +and I was about to remount at the postoffice door when I saw a crowd +gathered in front of the village inn and walked along the street to +learn the cause of it. And there, calmly seated on a soap-box, was +Gillespie, clad in amazing checks, engaged in the delectable occupation +of teaching a stray village mongrel to jump a stick. The loungers +seemed highly entertained, and testified their appreciation in loud +guffaws. I watched the performance for several minutes, Gillespie +meanwhile laboring patiently with the dull dog, until finally it leaped +the stick amid the applause of the crowd. Gillespie patted the dog and +rose, bowing with exaggerated gravity. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I thank you for your kind attention. Let my +slight success with that poor cur teach you the lesson that we may turn +the idlest moment to some noble use. The education of the lower +animals is something to which too little attention is paid by those +who, through the processes of evolution, have risen to a higher +species. I am grateful, gentlemen, for your forbearance, and trust we +may meet again under circumstances more creditable to us all--including +the dog." + +The crowd turned away mystified, while Gillespie, feeling in his pocket +for his pipe, caught my eye and winked. + +"Ah, Donovan," he said coolly, "and so you were among the admiring +spectators. I hope you have formed a high opinion of my skill as a dog +trainer. Once, I would have you know, I taught a Plymouth Rock rooster +to turn a summersault. Are you quite alone?" + +"You seem to be as big a fool as ever!" I grumbled in disgust, vexed at +finding him in the neighborhood. + +"Gallantly spoken, my dear fellow! You are an honor to the Irish race +and mankind. Our meeting, however, is not inopportune, as they say in +books; and I would have speech with you, gentle knight. The inn, +though humble, is still not without decent comforts. Will you honor +me?" + +He turned abruptly and led the way through the office and up the +stairway, babbling nonsense less for my entertainment, I imagined, than +for the befuddlement of the landlord, who leaned heavily upon his scant +desk and watched our ascent. + +He opened a door, and lighted several oil lamps, which disclosed three +connecting rooms. + +"You see, I got tired of living in the woods, and the farmer I boarded +with did not understand my complex character. The absurd fellow +thought me insane--can you imagine it?" + +"It's a pity he didn't turn you over to the sheriff," I growled. + +"Generously spoken! But I came here and hired most of this inn to be +near the telegraph office. Though as big a fool as you care to call me +I nevertheless look to my buttons. The hook-and-eye people are +formidable competitors, and the button may in time become +obsolete--stranger things have happened. I keep in touch with our main +office, and when I don't feel very good I fire somebody. Only this +morning I bounced our general manager by wire for sending me a letter +in purple type-writing; I had warned him, you understand, that he was +to write to me in black. But it was only a matter of time with that +fellow. He entered a bull pup against mine in the Westchester Bench +Show last spring and took the ribbon away from me. I really couldn't +stand for that. In spite of my glassy splash in the asparagus bed, I'm +a man who looks to his dignity, Donovan. Will you smoke?" + +I lighted my pipe and encouraged him to go on. + +"How long have you been in this bake-oven?" + +"I moved in this morning--you are my first pilgrim. I have spent the +long hot day in getting settled. I had to throw out the furniture and +buy new stuff of the local emporium, where, it depressed me to learn, +furniture for the dead is supplied even as for the living. That chair, +which I beg you to accept, stood next in the shop to a coffin suitable +for a carcass of about your build, old man. But don't let the +suggestion annoy you! I read your book on tiger hunting a few years +ago with pleasure, and I'm sure you enjoy a charmed life. + +"I myself," he continued, taking a chair near me and placing his feet +in an open window, "am cursed with rugged health. I have quite +recovered from those unkind cuts at the nunnery--thanks to your +ministrations--and am willing to put on the gloves with you at any +time." + +"You do me great honor; but the affair must wait for a lower +temperature." + +"As you will! It is not like my great and gracious ways to force a +fight. Pardon me, but may I inquire for the health of the ladies at +Saint What's-her-name's?" + +"They are quite well, thank you." + +"I am glad to know it;"--and his tone lost for the moment its +jauntiness. "Henry Holbrook has gone to New York." + +"Good riddance!" I exclaimed heartily. "And now--" + +"--And now if I would only follow suit, everything would be joy plus +for you!" + +He laughed and slapped his knees at my discomfiture, for he had read my +thoughts exactly. + +"You certainly are the only blot on the landscape!" + +"Quite so. And if I would only go hence the pretty little idyl that is +being enacted in the delightful garden, under the eye of a friendly +chaperon, would go forward without interruption." + +He spoke soberly, and I had observed that when he dropped his chaff a +note of melancholy crept into his talk. He folded his arms and went +on: "She's a wonderful girl, Donovan. There's no other girl like her +in all the wide world. I tell you it's hard for a girl like that to be +in her position--the whole family broken up, and that contemptible +father of hers hanging about with his schemes of plunder. It's +pitiful, Donovan; it's pitiful!" + +"It's a cheerless mess. It all came after the bank failure, I suppose." + +"Practically, though the brothers never got on. You see my governor +was bit by their bank failure; and Miss Pat resented the fact that he +backed off when stung. But the Gillespies take their medicine; father +never squealed, which makes me sore that your Aunt Pat gives me the icy +eye." + +"Their affairs are certainly mixed," I remarked non-committally. + +"They are indeed; and I have studied the whole business until my near +mind is mussed up, like scrambled eggs. Your own pretty idyl of the +nunnery garden adds the note _piquante_. Cross my palm with gold and +I'll tell you of strange things that lie in the future. I have an +idea, Donovan; singular though it seem, I've a notion in my head." + +"Keep it," I retorted, "to prevent a cranial vacuum." + +"Crushed! Absolutely crushed!" he replied gloomily. "Kick me. I'm +only the host." + +We were silent while the few sounds of the village street droned in. +He rose and paced the floor to shake off his mood, and when he sat down +he seemed in better spirits. + +"Holbrook will undoubtedly return," I said. + +"Yes; there's no manner of doubt about that!" + +"And then there will be more trouble." + +"Of course." + +"But I suppose there's no guessing when he will come back." + +"He will come back as soon as he's spent his money." + +I felt a delicacy about referring to that transaction on the pier. It +was a wretched business, and I now realized that the shame of it was +not lost on Gillespie. + +"How does Henry come to have that Italian scoundrel with him?" I asked +after a pause. + +"He's the skipper of the _Stiletto_," Gillespie replied readily. + +"He's a long way from tide-water," I remarked. "A blackguard of just +his sort once sailed me around the Italian peninsula in a felucca, and +saved me from drowning on the way. His heroism was not, however, +wholly disinterested. When we got back to Naples he robbed me of my +watch and money-belt and I profited by the transaction, having intended +to give him double their value. But there are plenty of farm-boys +around the lake who could handle the _Stiletto_. Henry didn't need a +dago expert." + +The mention of the Italian clearly troubled Gillespie. After a moment +he said: + +"He may be holding on to Henry instead of Henry's holding on to him. +Do you see?" + +"No; I don't." + +"Well, I have an idea that the dago knows something that's valuable. +Last summer Henry went cruising in the Sound with a pretty rotten +crowd, poker being the chief diversion. A man died on the boat before +they got back to New York. The report was that he fell down a hatchway +when he was drunk, but there were some ugly stories in the papers about +it. That Italian sailor was one of the crew." + +"Where is he now?" + +"Over at Battle Orchard. He knows his man and knows he'll be back. +I'm waiting for Henry, too. Helen gave him twenty thousand dollars. +The way the market is running he's likely to go broke any day. He +plays stocks like a crazy man, and after he's busted he'll be back on +our hands." + +"It's hard on Miss Pat." + +"And it's harder on Helen. She's in terror all the time for fear her +father will go up against the law and bring further disgrace on the +family. There's her Uncle Arthur, a wanderer on the face of the earth +for his sins. That was bad enough without the rest of it." + +"That was greed, too, wasn't it?" + +"No, just general cussedness. He blew in the Holbrook bank and +skipped." + +These facts I had gathered before, but they seemed of darker +significance now, as we spoke of them in the dimly lighted room of the +squalid inn. I recalled a circumstance that had bothered me earlier, +but which I had never satisfactorily explained, and I determined to +sound Gillespie in regard to it. + +"You told me that Henry Holbrook found his way here ahead of you. How +do you account for that?" + +He looked at me quickly, and rose, again pacing the narrow room. + +"I don't! I wish I could!" + +"It's about the last place in the world to attract him. Port Annandale +is a quiet resort frequented by western people only. There's neither +hunting nor fishing worth mentioning; and a man doesn't come from New +York to Indiana to sail a boat on a thimbleful of water like this lake." + +"You are quite right." + +"If Helen Holbrook gave him warning that they were coming here--" + +He wheeled on me fiercely, and laid his hand roughly on my shoulder. + +"Don't you dare say it! She couldn't have done it! She wouldn't have +done it! I tell you I know, independently of her, that he was here +before Father Stoddard ever suggested this place to Miss Pat." + +"Well, you needn't get so hot about it." + +"And you needn't insinuate that she is not acting honorably in this +affair! I should think that after making love to her, as you have been +doing, and playing the role of comforter to Miss Pat, you would have +the decency not to accuse her of connivance with Henry Holbrook." + +"You let your jealousy get the better of your good sense. I have not +been making love to Miss Holbrook!" I declared angrily and knew in my +heart that I lied. + +"Well, Irishman," he exclaimed with entire good humor; "let us not +bring up mine host to find us locked in mortal combat." + +"What the devil _did_ you bring me up here for?" I demanded. + +"Oh, just to enjoy your society. I get lonesome sometimes. I tell you +a man does get lonesome in this world, when he has nothing to lean on +but a blooming button factory and a stepmother who flits among the +world's expensive sanatoria. I know you have never had 'Button, +button, who's got the button?' chanted in your ears, but may I ask +whether you have ever known the joy of a stepmother? I can see that +your answer will be an unregretful negative." + +He was quite the fool again, and stared at me vacuously. + +"My stepmother is not the common type of juvenile fiction. She has +never attempted during her widowhood to rob the orphan or to poison +him. Bless your Irish heart, no! She's a good woman, and rich in her +own right, but I couldn't stand her dietary. She's afraid I'm going to +die, Donovan! She thinks everybody's going to die. Father died of +pneumonia and she said ice-water in the finger-bowl did it, and she +wanted to have the butler arrested for murder. She had a new disease +for me every morning. It was worse than being left with a button-works +to draw a stepmother like that. She ate nothing but hot water and +zweibach herself, and shuddered when I demanded sausage and buckwheat +cakes every day. She wept and talked of the duty she owed to my poor +dead father; she had promised him, she said, to safeguard my health; +and there I was, as strong as an infant industry, weighed a hundred and +seventy-six pounds when I was eighteen, and had broken all the prep +school records. She made me so nervous talking about her symptoms, and +mine--that I didn't have!--that I began taking my real meals in the +gardener's house. But to save her feelings I munched a little toast +with her. She caught me one day clearing up a couple of chickens and a +mug of bass with the gardener, and it was all over. She had noticed, +she said, that I had been coughing of late--I was doing a few +cigarettes too many, that was all--and wired to New York for doctors. +She had all sorts, Donovan--alienists and pneumogastric specialists and +lung experts. + +"The people on Strawberry Hill thought there was a medical convention +in town. I was kidnapped on the golf course, where I was about to win +the eastern Connecticut long-drive cup, and locked up in a dark room at +home for two days while they tested me. They made all the known tests, +Donovan. They tested me for diseases that haven't been discovered yet, +and for some that have been extinct since the days of Noah. You can +see where that put me. I was afraid to fight or sulk for fear the +alienists would send me to the madhouse. I was afraid to eat for fear +they would think _that_ was a symptom, and every time I asked for food +the tape-worm man looked intelligent and began prescribing, while the +rest of them were terribly chagrined because they hadn't scored first. +The only joy I got out of the rumpus was in hitting one of those +alienists a damned hard clip in the ribs, and I'm glad I did it. He +was feeling my medulla oblongata at the moment, and as I resent being +man-handled I pasted him one--he was a young chap, and fair game--I +pasted him one, and then grabbed a suit-case and slid. I stole away in +a clam-boat for New Haven, and kept right on up into northern Maine, +where I stayed with the Indians until my father's relict went off +broken-hearted to Bad Neuheim to drink the waters. And here I am, by +the grace of God, in perfect health and in full control of the button +market of the world." + +"You have undoubtedly been sorely tried," I said as he broke off +mournfully. In spite of myself I had been entertained. He was +undeniably a fellow of curious humor and with unusual experience of +life. He followed me to the street, and as I rode away he called me +back as though to impart something of moment. + +"Did you ever meet Charles Darwin?" + +"He didn't need me for proof, Buttons." + +"I wish I might have had one word with him. It's on my mind that he +put the monkeys back too far. I should be happier if he had brought +them a little nearer up to date. I should feel less lonesome, +Irishman." + +He stopped me again. + +"Once I had an ambition to find an honest man, Donovan, but I gave it +up--it's easier to be an honest man than to find one. I give you +peace!" + +I had learned some things from the young button king, but much was +still opaque in the affairs of the Holbrooks. The Italian's presence +assumed a new significance from Gillespie's story. He had been party +to a conspiracy to kill Holbrook, _alias_ Hartridge, on the night of my +adventure at the house-boat, and I fell to wondering who had been the +shadowy director of that enterprise--the coward who had hung off in the +creek, and waited for the evil deed to be done. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE GATE OF DREAMS + + And as I muse on Helen's face, + Within the firelight's ruddy shine, + Its beauty takes an olden grace + Like hers whose fairness was divine; + The dying embers leap, and lo! + Troy wavers vaguely all aglow, + And in the north wind leashed without, + I hear the conquering Argives' shout; + And Helen feeds the flames as long ago! + --_Edward A. U. Valentine_. + + +In my heart I was anxious to do justice to Gillespie. Sad it is that +we are all so given to passing solemn judgment on trifling testimony! +I myself am not impeccable. I should at any time give to the lions a +man who uses his thumb as a paper-cutter; for such a one is clearly +marked for brutality. Spats I always associate with vanity and a +delicate constitution. A man who does not know the art of nursing a +pipe's fire, but who has constant recourse to the match-box, should be +denied benefit of clergy and the consolations of religion and tobacco. +A woman who is so far above the vanities of this world that she can put +on her hat without the aid of the mirror is either reckless or +slouchy--both unbecoming enough--or else of an humility that is neither +admirable nor desirable. My prejudices rally as to a trumpet-call at +the sight of a girl wearing overshoes or nibbling bonbons--the one +suggestive of predatory habits and weak lungs, the other of nervous +dyspepsia. + +The night was fine, and after returning my horse to the stable I +continued on to the Glenarm boat-house. I was strolling along, pipe in +mouth, and was half-way up the boat-house steps, when a woman shrank +away from the veranda rail, where she had been standing, gazing out +upon the lake. There was no mistaking her. She was not even disguised +to-night, and as I advanced across the little veranda she turned toward +me. The lantern over the boat-house door suffused us both as I greeted +her. + +"Pardon, me, Miss Holbrook; I'm afraid I have disturbed your +meditations," I said. "But if you don't mind--" + +"You have the advantage of being on your own ground," she replied. + +"I waive all my rights as tenant if you will remain." + +"It is much nicer here than on St. Agatha's pier; you can see the lake +and the stars better. On the whole," she laughed, "I think I shall +stay a moment longer, if you will tolerate me." + +I brought out some chairs and we sat down by the rail, where we could +look out upon the star-sown heavens and the dark floor of stars +beneath. The pier lights shone far and near like twinkling jewels, and +in the tense silence sounds floated from far across the water. A +canoeing party drifted idly by, with a faint, listless splash of +paddles, while a deep-voiced boy sang, _I rise from dreams of thee_. A +moment later the last bars stole softly across to us, vague and +shadowy, as though from the heart of night itself. + +Helen bent forward with her elbows resting on the rail, her hands +clasped under her chin. The lamplight fell full upon her slightly +lifted head, and upon her shoulders, over which lay a filmy veil. She +hummed the boy's song dreamily for a moment while I watched her. Had +she one mood for the day and another for the night? I had last seen +her that afternoon after an hour of tennis, at which she was expert, +and she had run away through Glenarm gate with a taunt for my defeat; +but now the spirit of stars and of all earth's silent things was upon +her. I looked twice and thrice at her clearly outlined profile, at the +brow with its point of dark hair, at the hand whereon the emerald was +clearly distinguishable, and satisfied myself that there could be no +mistake about her. + +"You grow bold," I said, anxious to hear her voice. "You don't mind +the pickets a bit." + +"No. I'm quite superior to walls and fences. You have heard of those +East Indians who appear and disappear through closed doors; well, we'll +assume that I had one of those fellows for an ancestor! It will save +the trouble of trying to account for my exits and entrances. I will +tell you in confidence, Mr. Donovan, that I don't like to be obliged to +account for myself!" + +She sat back in the chair and folded her arms. I had not referred in +any way to her transaction with Gillespie; I had never intimated even +remotely that I knew of her meeting with the infatuated young fellow on +St. Agatha's pier; and I felt that those incidents were ancient history. + +"It was corking hot this afternoon. I hope you didn't have too much +tennis." + +"No; it was pretty enough fun," she remarked, with so little enthusiasm +that I laughed. + +"You don't seem to recall your victory with particular pleasure. It +seems to me that I am the one to be shy of the subject. How did that +score stand?" + +"I really forget--I honestly do," she laughed. + +"That's certainly generous; but don't you remember, as we walked along +toward the gate after the game, that you said--" + +"Oh, I can't allow that at all! What I said yesterday or to-day is of +no importance now. And particularly at night I am likely to be +weak-minded, and my memory is poorer then than at any other time." + +"I am fortunate in having an excellent memory." + +"For example?" + +"For example, you are not always the same; you were different this +afternoon; and I must go back to our meeting by the seat on the bluff, +for the Miss Holbrook of to-night." + +"That's all in your imagination, Mr. Donovan. Now, if you wanted to +prove that I'm really--" + +"Helen Holbrook," I supplied, glad of a chance to speak her name. + +"If you wanted to prove that I am who I am," she continued, with new +animation, as though at last something interested her, "how should you +go about it?" + +"Please ask me something difficult! There is, there could be, only one +woman as fair, as interesting, as wholly charming." + +"I suppose that is the point at which you usually bow humbly and wait +for applause; but I scorn to notice anything so commonplace. If you +were going to prove me to be the same person you met at the Annandale +station, how should you go about it?" + +"Well, to be explicit, you walk like an angel." + +"You are singularly favored in having seen angels walk, Mr. Donovan. +There's a popular superstition that they fly. In my own ignorance I +can't concede that your point is well taken. What next?" + +"Your head is like an intaglio wrought when men had keener vision and +nimbler fingers than now. With your hair low on your neck, as it is +to-night, the picture carries back to a Venetian balcony centuries ago." + +"That's rather below standard. What else, please?" + +"And that widow's peak--I would risk the direst penalties of perjury in +swearing to it alone." + +She shrugged her shoulders. "You are an observant person. That +trifling mark on a woman's forehead is usually considered a +disfigurement." + +"But you know well enough that I did not mention it with such a +thought. You know it perfectly well." + +"No; foolish one," she said mockingly, "the widow's peak can not be +denied. I suppose you don't know that the peak sometimes runs in +families. My mother had it, and her mother before her." + +"You are not your mother or your grandmother; so I am not in danger of +mistaking you." + +"Well, what else, please?" + +"There's the emerald. Miss Pat has the same ring, but you are not Miss +Pat. Besides, I have seen you both together." + +"Still, there are emeralds and emeralds!" + +"And then--there are your eyes!" + +"There are two of them, Mr. Donovan!" + +"There need be no more to assure light in a needful world, Miss +Holbrook." + +"Good! You really have possibilities!" + +She struck her palms together in a mockery of applause and laughed at +me. + +"To a man who is in love everything is possible," I dared. + +"The Celtic temperament is very susceptible. You have undoubtedly +likened many eyes to the glory of the heavens." + +"I swear--" + +"Swear not at all!" + +"Then I won't!"--and we laughed and were silent while the water rippled +in the reeds, the insects wove their woof of sound and ten struck +musically from St. Agatha's. + +"I must leave you." + +"If you go you leave an empty world behind." + +"Oh, that was pretty!" + +"Thank you!" + +"Conceited! I wasn't approving your remark, but that meteor that +flashed across the sky and dropped into the woods away out yonder." + +"Alas! I have fallen farther than the meteor and struck the earth +harder." + +"You deserved it," she said, rising and drawing the veil about her +throat. + +"My lack of conceit has always been my undoing; I am the humblest man +alive. You are adorable," I said, "if that's the answer." + +"It isn't the answer! If mere stars do this to you, what would you be +in moonlight?" + +As we stood facing each other I was aware of some new difference in +her. Perhaps her short outing skirt of dark blue had changed her; and +yet in our tramps through the woods and our excursions in the canoe she +had worn the same or similar costumes. She hesitated a moment, leaning +against the railing and tapping the floor with her boot; then she said +gravely, half questioningly, as though to herself: + +"He has gone away; you are quite sure that he has gone away?" + +"Your father is probably in New York," I answered, surprised at the +question. "I do not expect him back at once." + +"If he should come back--" she began. + +"He will undoubtedly return; there is no debating that." + +"If he comes back there will be trouble, worse than anything that has +happened. You can't understand what his return will mean to us--to me." + +"You must not worry about that; you must trust me to take care of that +when he comes. 'Sufficient unto the day' must be your watchword. I +saw Gillespie to-night." + +"Gillespie?" she repeated with unfeigned surprise. + +"That was capitally acted!" I laughed. "I wish I knew that he meant +nothing more to you than that!" I added seriously. + +She colored, whether with anger or surprise at my swift change of tone, +I did not know. Then she said very soberly: + +"Mr. Gillespie is nothing to me whatever." + +"I thank you for that!" + +"Thank me for nothing, Mr. Donovan. And now good night. You are not +to follow me--" + +"Oh, surely to the gate!" + +"Not even to the gate. My ways are very mysterious. By day I am one +person; by night quite another. And if you should follow me--" + +"To my own gate!" I pleaded. "It's only decent hospitality!" I urged. + +"Not even to the Gate of Dreams!" + +"But in trying to get back to the school you have to pass the guards; +you will fail at that some time!" + +"No! I whisper an incantation, and lo! they fall asleep upon their +spears. And I must ask you--" + +"Keep asking, for to ask you must stay!" + +"--please, when I meet you in daytime do not refer to anything that we +may say when we meet at night. You have proved me at every point--even +to this spot of ink on my forehead," and she put her forefinger upon +the peak. "I am Helen Holbrook; but as--what shall I say?--oh, yes!" +she went on lightly--"as a psychological fact, I am very different at +night from anything I ever am in daylight. And to-morrow morning, when +you meet me with Aunt Pat in the garden, if you should refer to this +meeting I shall never appear to you again, not even through the Gate of +Dreams. Good night!" + +"Good night!" + +I clasped her hand for an instant, and she met my eyes with a laughing +challenge. + +"When shall I see you again--this you that is so different from the you +of daylight?" + +She caught her hand away and turned to go, but paused at the steps. + +"When the new moon hangs, like a little feather, away out yonder, I +shall be looking at it from the stone seat on the bluff; do you think +you can remember?" + +She vanished away into the wood toward St. Agatha's. I started to +follow, but paused, remembering my promise, and sat down and yielded +myself to the thought of her. Practical questions of how she managed +to slip out of St. Agatha's vexed me for a moment; but in my elation of +spirit I dismissed them quickly enough. I would never again entertain +an evil thought of her; the money she had taken from Gillespie I would +in some way return to him and make an end of any claim he might assert +against her by reason of that help. And I resolved to devote myself +diligently to the business of protecting her from her father. I was +even impatient for him to return and resume his blackguardly practice +of intimidating two helpless women, that I might deal with him in the +spirit of his own despicable actions. + +My heart was heavy as I thought of him, but I lighted my pipe and found +at once a gentler glory in the stars. Then as I stared out upon the +lake I saw a shadow gliding softly away from the little promontory +where St. Agatha's pier lights shone brightly. It was a canoe, I +should have known from its swift steady flight if I had not seen the +paddler's arm raised once, twice, until darkness fell upon the tiny +argosy like a cloak. I ran out on the pier and stared after it, but +the silence of the lake was complete. Then I crossed the strip of wood +to St. Agatha's, and found Ijima and the gardener faithfully patrolling +the grounds. + +"Has any one left the buildings to-night?" + +"No one." + +"Sister Margaret hasn't been out--or any one?" + +"No one, sir. Did you hear anything, sir?" + +"Nothing, Ijima. Good night." + +I wrote a telegram to an acquaintance in New York who knows everybody, +and asked him to ascertain whether Henry Holbrook, of Stamford, was in +New York. This I sent to Annandale, and thereafter watched the stars +from the terrace until they slipped into the dawn, fearful lest sleep +might steal away my memories and dreams of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BATTLE ORCHARD + +We crossed the lake from the south and about nightfall came to the +small island called Battle Orchard, which is so named by the American +settlers from the peach, apple and other trees planted there about 1740 +(so many have told me) by François Belot, a French voyageur who had +crossed from the Ouabache on his way from Quebec to Post Vincennes near +the Ohio, and, finding the beaver plentiful, brought there his family. +And here the Indians laid siege to him; and here he valiantly defended +the ford on the west side of the little isle for three days, killing +many savages before they slew him.--_The Relation of Captain Abel +Tucker_. + + +When I called at St. Agatha's the following morning the maid told me +that Miss Pat was ill and that Miss Helen asked to be excused. I +walked restlessly about the grounds until luncheon, thinking Helen +might appear; and later determined to act on an impulse, with which I +had trifled for several days, to seek the cottage on the Tippecanoe and +satisfy myself of Holbrook's absence. A sharp shower had cooled the +air, and I took the canoe for greater convenience in running into the +shallow creek. I know nothing comparable to paddling as a lifter of +the spirit, and with my arms and head bared and a cool breeze at my +back I was soon skimming along as buoyant of heart as the responsive +canoe beneath me. It was about four o'clock when I dipped my way into +the farther lake, and as the water broadened before me at the little +strait I saw the _Stiletto_ lying quietly at anchor off the eastern +shore of Battle Orchard. I drew close to observe her the better, but +there were no signs of life on board, and I paddled to the western side +of the island. + +It had already occurred to me that Holbrook might have another +hiding-place than the cottage at Red Gate, where I had talked with him, +and the island seemed a likely spot for it. I ran my canoe on the +pebbly beach and climbed the bank. The island was covered with a +tangle of oak and maple, with a few lordly sycamores towering above +all. I followed a path that led through the underbrush and was at once +shut in from the lake. The trail bore upward and I soon came upon a +small clearing about an acre in extent that had once been tilled, but +it was now preëmpted by weeds as high as my head. Beyond lay an +ancient orchard, chiefly of apple-trees, and many hoary veterans stood +faithful to the brave hand that had marshaled them there. (Every +orchard is linked to the Hesperides and every apple-waits for +Atalanta--if not for Eve!) I stooped to pick a wild-flower and found +an arrow-head lying beside it. + +Fumbling the arrow-head in my fingers, I passed onto a log cabin hidden +away in the orchard. It was evidently old. The mud chinking had +dropped from the logs in many places, and the stone chimney was held up +by a sapling. I approached warily, remembering that if this were +Holbrook's camp and he had gone away he had probably left the Italian +to look after the yacht, which could be seen from the cabin door. I +made a circuit of the cabin without seeing any signs of habitation, and +was about to enter by the front door, when I heard the swish of +branches in the underbrush to the east and dropped into the grass. + +In a moment the Italian appeared, carrying a pair of oars over his +shoulder. He had evidently just landed, as the blades were dripping. +He threw them down by the cabin door, came round to the western window, +drew out the pin from an iron staple with which it was fastened, and +thrust his head in. He was greeted with a howl and a loud demand of +some sort, to which he replied in monosyllables, and after several +minutes of this parley I caught a fragment of dialogue which seemed to +be final in the subject under discussion. + +"Let me out or it will be the worse for you; let me out, I say!" + +"My boss he sometime come back; then you get out it, maybe." + +With this deliverance, accomplished with some difficulty, the Italian +turned away, going to the rear of the cabin for a pail with which he +trudged off toward the lake. He had not closed the window and would +undoubtedly return in a few minutes; so I waited until he was out of +sight, then rose and crawled through the grass to the opening. + +I looked in upon a bare room whose one door opened inward, and I did +not for a moment account for the voice. Then something stirred in the +farther corner, and I slowly made out the figure of a man tied hand and +foot, lying on his back in a pile of grass and leaves. + +"You ugly dago! you infernal pirate--" he bawled. + +There was no mistaking that voice, and I now saw two legs clothed in +white duck that belonged, I was sure, to Gillespie. My head and +shoulders filled the window and so darkened the room that the prisoner +thought his jailer had come back to torment him. + +"Shut up, Gillespie," I muttered. "This is Donovan. That fellow will +be back in a minute. What can I do for you?" + +"What can you do for me?" he spluttered. "Oh, nothing, thanks! I +wouldn't have you put yourself out for anything in the world. It's +nice in here, and if that fellow kills me I'll miss a great deal of the +poverty and hardship of this sinful world. But take your time, +Irishman. Being tied by the legs like a calf is bully when you get +used to it." + +In turning over, the better to level his ironies at me, he had stirred +up the dust in the straw so that he sneezed and coughed in a ridiculous +fashion. As I did not move he added: + +"You come in here and cut these strings and I'll tell you something +nice some day." + +I ran round to the front door, kicked it open and passed through a +square room that contained a fireplace, a camp bed, a trunk, and a +table littered with old newspapers and a few books. I found Gillespie +in the adjoining room, cut his thongs and helped him to his feet. + +"Where is your boat?" he demanded. + +"On the west side." + +"Then we're in for a scrap. That beggar goes down there for water; and +he'll see that there's another man on the island. I had a gun when I +came," he added mournfully. + +He stamped his feet and threshed himself with his arms to restore +circulation, then we went into the larger room, where he dug his own +revolver from the trunk and pointed to a shot-gun in the corner. + +"You'd better get that. This fellow has only a knife in his clothes. +He'll be back on the run when he sees your canoe." And we heard on the +instant a man running toward the hut. I opened the breech of the +shotgun to see whether it was loaded. + +"Well, how do you want to handle the situation?" I asked. + +He had his eye on the window and threw up his revolver and let go. + +"Your pistol makes a howling noise, Gillespie. Please don't do that +again. The smoke is disagreeable." + +"You are quite right; and shooting through glass is always unfortunate! +there's bound to be a certain deflection before the bullet strikes. +You see if I were not a fool I should be a philosopher." + +"It isn't nice here; we'd better bolt." + +"I'm as hungry as a sea-serpent," he said, watching the window. "And I +am quite desperate when I miss my tea." + +I stood before the open door and he watched the window. We were both +talking to cover our serious deliberations. Our plight was not so much +a matter for jesting as we wished to make it appear to each other. I +had experienced one struggle with the Italian at the houseboat on the +Tippecanoe and was not anxious to get within reach of his knife again. +I did not know how he had captured Gillespie, or what mischief that +amiable person had been engaged in, but inquiries touching this matter +must wait. + +"Are you ready? We don't want to shoot unless we have to. Now when I +say go, jump for the open." + +He limped a little from the cramping of his legs, but crossed over to +me cheerfully enough. His white trousers were much the worse for +contact with the cabin floor, and his shirt hung from his shoulders in +ribbons. + +"My stomach bids me haste; I'm going to eat a beefsteak two miles thick +if I ever get back to New York. Are you waiting?" + +We were about to spring through the outer door, when the door at the +rear flew open with a bang and the sailor landed on me with one leap. +I went down with a thump and a crack of my head on the floor that +sickened me. The gun was under my legs, and I remember that my dazed +wits tried to devise means for getting hold of it. As my senses +gradually came round I was aware of a great conflict about me and over +me. Gillespie was engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with the sailor +and the cabin shook with their strife. The table went down with a +crash, and Gillespie seemed to be having the best of it; then the +Italian was afoot again, and the clenched swaying figures crashed +against the trunk at the farther end of the room. And there they +fought in silence, save for the scraping of their feet on the puncheon +floor. I felt a slight nausea from the smash my head had got, but I +began crawling across the floor toward the struggling men. It was +growing dark, and they were knit together against the cabin wall like a +single monstrous, swaying figure. + +My stomach was giving a better account of itself, and I got to my knees +and then to my feet. I was within a yard of the wavering shadow and +could distinguish Gillespie by his white trousers as he wrenched free +and flung the Italian away from him; and in that instant of freedom I +heard the dull impact of Gillespie's fist in the brute's face. As the +sailor went down I threw myself full length upon him; but for the +moment at least he was out of business, and before I had satisfied +myself that I had firmly grasped him, Gillespie, blowing hard, was +kneeling beside me, with a rope in his hands. + +"I think," he panted, "I should like champignon sauce with that steak, +Donovan. And I should like my potatoes lyonnaise--the pungent onion is +a spurring tonic. That will do, thanks, for the arms. Get off his +legs and I'll see what I can do for them. You oughtn't to have cut +that rope, my boy. You might have known that we were going to need it. +My father taught me in my youth never to cut a string. I want the +pirate's knife for a souvenir. I kicked it out of his hand when you +went bumpety-bumpety. How's your head?" + +"I still have it. Let's get you outside and have a look at you. You +think he didn't land with the knife?" + +"Not a bit of it. He nearly squeezed the life out of me two or three +times, though. What's that?" + +"He gave me a jab with his sticker when he made that flying leap and I +guess I'm scratched." + +Gillespie opened my shirt and disclosed a scratch across my ribs +downward from the left collar bone. The first jab had struck the bone, +but the subsequent slash had left a nasty red line. + +Gillespie swore softly in the strange phrases that he affected while he +tended my injury. My head ached and the nausea came back occasionally. +I sat down in the grass while Gillespie found the sailor's pail and +went to fetch water. He found some towels in the hut and between his +droll chaffing and his deft ministrations I soon felt fit again. + +"Well, what shall we do with the dago?" he asked, rubbing his arms and +legs briskly. + +"We ought to give him to the village constable." + +"That's the law of it, but not the common sense. The lords of justice +would demand to know all the whys and wherefores, and the Italian +consul at Chicago would come down and make a fuss, and the man behind +the dago would lay low and no good would come." + +"When will Holbrook be back?--that's the question." + +"Well, the market has been very feverish and my guess is that he won't +last many days. He had a weakness for Industrials, as I remember, and +they've been very groggy. What he wants is his million from Miss Pat, +and he has his own chivalrous notions of collecting it." + +We decided finally to leave the man free, but to take away his boat. +Gillespie was disposed to make light of the whole affair, now that we +had got off with our lives. We searched the hut for weapons and +ammunition, and having collected several knives and a belt and revolver +from the trunk, we poured water on the Italian, carried him into the +open and loosened the ropes with which Gillespie had tied him. + +The man glared at us fiercely and muttered incoherently for a few +minutes, but after Gillespie had dashed another pail of water on him he +stood up and was tame enough. + +"Tell him," said Gillespie, "that we shall not kill him to-day. Tell +him that this being Tuesday we shall spare his life--that we never kill +any one on Tuesday, but that we shall come back to-morrow and make +shark meat of him. Assure him that we are terrible villains and +man-hunters--" + +"When will your employer return?" I asked the sailor. + +He shook his head and declared that he did not know. + +"How long did he hire you for?" + +"For all summer." He pointed to the sloop, and I got it out of him +that he had been hired in New York to come to the lake and sail it. + +"In the creek up yonder," I said, pointing toward the Tippecanoe, "you +tried to kill me. There was another man with you. Who was he?" + +"That was my boss," he replied reluctantly, though his English was +clear enough. + +"What is your employer's name?" I demanded. + +"Holbrook. I sail his boat, the _Stiletto_, over there," he replied. + +"But it was not he who was with you on the houseboat in the creek. Mr. +Holbrook was not there. Do not lie to me. Who was the other man that +wanted you to kill Holbrook?" + +He appeared mystified, and Gillespie, to whom I had told nothing of my +encounter at the boat-maker's, looked from one to the other of us with +a puzzled expression on his face. + +"All he knows is that he's hired to sail a boat and, incidentally, +stick people with his knife," said Gillespie in disgust. "We can do +nothing till Holbrook comes back; let's be going." + +We finally gathered up the Italian's oars, and, carrying the captured +arms, went to the east shore, where we put off in Gillespie's rowboat, +trailing the Italian's boat astern. The sailor followed us to the +shore and watched our departure in silence. We swung round to the +western shore and got my canoe, and there again, the Italian sullenly +watched us. + +"He's not so badly marooned," said Gillespie. "He can walk out over +here." + +"No, he'll wait for Holbrook. He's stumped now and doesn't understand +us. He has exhausted his orders and is sick and tired of his job. A +salt-water sailor loses his snap when he gets as far inland as this. +He'll demand his money when Holbrook turns up and clear out of this." + +Gillespie took the oars himself, insisting that I must have a care for +the slash across my chest, and so, towing the canoe and rowboat, we +turned toward Glenarm. The Italian still watched us from the shore, +standing beside a tall sycamore on a little promontory as though to +follow us as far as possible. + +We passed close to the _Stiletto_ to get a better look at her. She was +the trimmest sailing craft in those waters, and the largest, being, I +should say, thirty-seven feet on the water-line, sloop-rigged, and with +a cuddy large enough to house the skipper. As we drew alongside I +stood up the better to examine her, and the Italian, still watching us +intently from the island, cried out warningly. + +"He should fly the signal, 'Owner not on board,'" remarked Gillespie as +we pushed off and continued on our way. + +The sun was low in the western wood as we passed out into the larger +lake. Gillespie took soundings with his oar in the connecting channel, +and did not touch bottom. + +"You wouldn't suppose the _Stiletto_ could get through here; it's as +shallow as a sauce-pan; but there's plenty and to spare," he said, as +he resumed rowing. + +"But it takes a cool hand--" I began, then paused abruptly; for there, +several hundred yards away, a little back from the western shore, +against a strip of wood through which the sun burned redly, I saw a man +and a woman slowly walking back and forth. Gillespie, laboring +steadily at the oars, seemed not to see them, and I made no sign. My +heart raced for a moment as I watched them pace back and forth, for +there was something familiar in both figures. I knew that I had seen +them before and talked with them; I would have sworn that the man was +Henry Holbrook and the girl Helen; and I was aware that when they +turned, once, twice, at the ends of their path, the girl made some +delay; and when they went on she was toward the lake, as though +shielding the man from our observation. The last sight I had of them +the girl stood with her back to us, pointing into the west. Then she +put up her hand to her bare head as though catching a loosened strand +of hair; and the wind blew back her skirts like those of the Winged +Victory. The two were etched sharply against the fringe of wood and +bathed in the sun's glow. A second later the trees stood there +alertly, with the golden targe of the sun shining like a giant's shield +beyond; but they had gone, and my heart was numb with foreboding, or +loneliness, and heavy with the weight of things I did not understand. + +Gillespie tugged hard with the burden of the tow at his back. I will +not deny that I was uncomfortable as I thought of his own affair with +Helen Holbrook. He had, by any fair judgment, a prior claim. Her +equivocal attitude toward him and her inexplicable conduct toward her +aunt were, I knew, appearing less and less heinous to me as the days +passed; and I was miserably conscious that my own duty to Miss Patricia +lay less heavily upon me. + +I was glad when we reached Glenarm pier, where we found Ijima hanging +out the lamps. He gave me a telegram. It was from my New York +acquaintance and read: + + +Holbrook left here two days ago; destination unknown. + + +"Come, Gillespie; you are to dine with me," I said, when he had read +the telegram; and so we went up to the house together. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +I UNDERTAKE A COMMISSION + + Sweet is every sound, + Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; + Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, + The moan of doves in immemorial elms, + And murmuring of innumerable bees. + --_Tennyson_. + + +Gillespie availed himself of my wardrobe to replace his rags, and +appeared in the library clothed and in his usual state of mind on the +stroke of seven. + +"You should have had the doctor out, Donovan. Being stuck isn't so +funny, and you will undoubtedly die of blood-poisoning. Every one does +nowadays." + +"I shall disappoint you. Ijima and I between us have stuck me together +like a cracked plate. And it is not well to publish our troubles to +the world. If I called the village doctor he would kill his horse +circulating the mysterious tidings. Are you satisfied?" + +"Quite so. You're a man after my own heart, Donovan." + +We had reached the dining-room and stood by our chairs. + +"I should like," he said, taking up his cocktail glass, "to propose a +truce between us--" + +"In the matter of a certain lady?" + +"Even so! On the honor of a fool," he said, and touched his glass to +his lips. "And may the best man win," he added, putting down the glass +unemptied. + +He was one of those comfortable people with whom it is possible to sit +in silence; but after intervals in which we found nothing to say he +would, with exaggerated gravity, make some utterly inane remark. +To-night his mind was more agile than ever, his thoughts leaping nimbly +from crag to crag, like a mountain goat. He had traveled widely and +knew the ways of many cities; and of American political characters, +whose names were but vaguely known to me, he discoursed with delightful +intimacy; then his mind danced away to a tour he had once made with a +company of acrobats whose baggage he had released from the grasping +hands of a rural sheriff. + +"What," he asked presently, "is as sad as being deceived in a person +you have admired and trusted? I knew a fellow who was professor of +something in a blooming college, and who was so poor that he had to +coach delinquent preps in summer-time instead of getting a vacation. I +had every confidence in that fellow. I thought he was all right, and +so I took him up into Maine with me--just the two of us--and hired an +Indian to run our camp, and everything pointed to plus. Well, I always +get stung when I try to be good." + +He placed his knife and fork carefully across his plate and sighed +deeply. + +"What was the matter? Did he bore you with philosophy?" + +"No such luck. That man was weak-minded on the subject of +domesticating prairie-dogs. You may shoot me if that isn't the fact. +There he was, a prize-winner and a fellow of his university, and a fine +scholar who edited Greek text-books, with that thing on his mind. He +held that the daily example of the happy home life of the prairie-dog +would tend to ennoble all mankind and brighten up our family altars. +Think of being lost in the woods with a man with such an idea, and of +having to sleep under the same blanket with him! It rained most of the +time so we had to sit in the tent, and he never let up. He got so bad +that he would wake me up in the night to talk prairie-dog." + +"It must have been trying," I agreed. "What was your solution, +Buttons?" + +"I moved outdoors and slept with the Indian. Your salad dressing is +excellent, Donovan, though personally I lean to more of the paprika. +But let us go back a bit to the Holbrooks. Omitting the lady, there +are certain points about which we may as well agree. I am not so great +a fool but that I can see that this state of things can not last +forever. Henry is broken down from drink and brooding over his +troubles, and about ready for close confinement in a brick building +with barred windows." + +"Then I'm for capturing him and sticking him away in a safe place." + +"That's the Irish of it, if you will pardon me; but it's not the +Holbrook of it. A father tucked away in a private madhouse would not +sound well to the daughter. I advise you not to suggest that to Helen. +I generously aid your suit to that extent. We are both playing for +Helen's gratitude; that's the flat of the matter." + +"I was brought into this business to help Miss Pat," I declared, though +a trifle lamely. Gillespie grinned sardonically. + +"Be it far from me to interfere with your plans, methods or hopes. We +both have the conceit of our wisdom!" + +"There may be something in that." + +"But it was decent of you to get me out of that Italian's clutches this +afternoon. When I went over there I thought I might find Henry +Holbrook and pound some sense into him; and he's about due, from that +telegram. If Miss Pat won't soften her heart I'd better buy him off," +he added reflectively. + +We walked the long length of the hall into the library, and had just +lighted our cigars when the butler sought me. + +"Beg pardon, the telephone, sir." + +My distrust of the telephone is so deep-seated that I had forgotten the +existence of the instrument in Glenarm house, where, I now learned, it +was tucked away in the butler's pantry for the convenience of the +housekeeper in ordering supplies from the village. After a moment's +parley a woman's voice addressed me distinctly--a voice that at once +arrested and held all my thoughts. My replies were, I fear, somewhat +breathless and wholly stupid. + +"This is Rosalind; do you remember me?" + +"Yes; I remember; I remember nothing else!" I declared. Ijima had +closed the door behind me, and I was alone with the voice--a voice that +spoke to me of the summer night, and of low winds murmuring across +starry waters. + +"I am going away. The Rosalind you remember is going a long way from +the lake, and you will never see her again." + +"But you have an engagement; when the new moon--" + +"But the little feather of the new moon is under a cloud, and you can +not see it; and Rosalind must always be Helen now." + +"But this won't do, Rosalind. Ours was more than an engagement; it was +a solemn compact," I insisted. + +"Oh, not so very solemn!" she laughed. "And then you have the other +girl that isn't just me--the girl of the daylight, that you ride and +sail with and play tennis with." + +"Oh, I haven't her; I don't want her--" + +"Treacherous man! Volatile Irishman!" + +"Marvelous, adorable Rosalind!" + +"That will do, Mr. Donovan"--and then with a quick change of tone she +asked abruptly: + +"You are not afraid of trouble, are you?" + +"I live for nothing else!" + +"You are not so pledged to the Me you play tennis with that you can not +serve Rosalind if she asks it?" + +"No; you have only to ask. But I must see you once more--as Rosalind!" + +"Stop being silly, and listen carefully." And I thought I heard a sob +in the moment's silence before she spoke. + +"I want you to go, at once, to the house of the boat-maker on +Tippecanoe Creek; go as fast as you can!" she implored. + +"To the house of the man who calls himself Hartridge, the canoe-maker, +at Red Gate?" + +"Yes; you must see that no harm comes to him to-night." + +There was no mistaking now the sobs that broke her sentences, and my +mind was so a-whirl with questions that I stammered incoherently. + +"Will you go--will you go?" she demanded in a voice so low and broken +that I scarcely heard. + +"Yes, at once," and the voice vanished, and while I still stood staring +at the instrument the operator at Annandale blandly asked me what +number I wanted. The thread had snapped and the spell was broken. I +stared helplessly at the thing of wood and wire for half a minute; then +the girl's appeal and my promise rose in my mind distinct from all +else. I ordered my horse before returning to the library, where +Gillespie was coolly turning over the magazines on the table. I was +still dazed, and something in my appearance caused him to stare. + +"Been seeing a ghost?" he asked. + +"No; just hearing one," I replied. + +I had yet to offer some pretext for leaving him, and as I walked the +length of the room he stifled a yawn, his eyes falling upon the line of +French windows. I spoke of the heat of the night, but he did not +answer, and I turned to find his gaze fixed upon one of the open +windows. + +"What is it, man?" I demanded. + +He crossed the room in a leap and was out upon the terrace, peering +down upon the shrubbery beneath. + +"What's the row?" I demanded. + +"Didn't you see it?" + +"No." + +"Then it wasn't anything. I thought I saw the dago, if you must know. +He'll probably be around looking for us." + +"Humph, you're a little nervous, that's all. You'll stay here all +night, of course?" I asked, without, I fear, much enthusiasm. + +He grinned. + +"Don't be so cordial! If you'll send me into town I'll be off." + +I had just ordered the dog-cart when the butler appeared. + +"If you please, sir. Sister Margaret wishes to use our telephone, sir. +St. Agatha's is out of order." + +I spoke to the Sister as she left the house, half as a matter of +courtesy, half to make sure of her. The telephone at St. Agatha's had +been out of order for several days, she said; and I walked with her to +St. Agatha's gate, talking of the weather, the garden and the Holbrook +ladies, who were, she said, quite well. + +Thereafter, when I had despatched Gillespie to the village in the +dog-cart, I got into my leggings, reflecting upon the odd circumstance +that Helen Holbrook had been able to speak to me over the telephone a +few minutes before, using an instrument that had, by Sister Margaret's +testimony, been out of commission for several days. The girl had +undoubtedly slipped away from St. Agatha's and spoken to me from some +other house in the neighborhood; but this was a matter of little +importance, now that I had undertaken her commission. + +The chapel clock chimed nine as I gained the road, and I walked my +horse to scan St. Agatha's windows through vistas that offered across +the foliage. And there, by the open window of her aunt's sitting-room, +I saw Helen Holbrook reading. A table-lamp at her side illumined her +slightly bent head; and, as though aroused by my horse's quick step in +the road, she rose and stood framed against the light, with the soft +window draperies fluttering about her. + +I spoke to my horse and galloped toward Red Gate. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN ODD AFFAIR AT RED GATE + + Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, + Which better fits a lion than a man. + --_Troilus and Cressida_. + + +As I rode through Port Annandale the lilting strains of a waltz floated +from the casino, and I caught a glimpse of the lake's cincture of +lights. My head was none too clear from its crack on the cabin floor, +and my chest was growing sore and stiff from the slash of the Italian's +knife; but my spirits were high, and my ears rang with memories of the +Voice. Helen had given me a commission, and every fact of my life +faded into insignificance compared to this. The cool night air rushing +by refreshed me. I was eager for the next turn of the wheel, and my +curiosity ran on to the boat-maker's house. + +I came now to a lonely sweep, where the road ran through a heavy +woodland, and the cool, moist air of the forest rose round me. The +lake, I knew, lay close at hand, and the Hartridge cottage was not, as +I reckoned my distances, very far ahead. I had drawn in my horse to +consider the manner of my approach to the boat-maker's, and was jogging +along at an easy trot when a rifle-shot rang out on my left, from the +direction of the creek, and my horse shied sharply and plunged on at a +wild gallop. He ran several hundred yards before I could check him, +and then I turned and rode slowly back, peering into the forest's black +shadow for the foe. I paused and waited, with the horse dancing +crazily beneath me, but the woodland presented an inscrutable front. I +then rode on to the unfenced strip of wood where I had left my horse +before. + +I began this narrative with every intention of telling the whole truth +touching my adventures at Annandale, and I can not deny that the shot +from the wood had again shaken my faith in Helen Holbrook. She had +sent me to the Tippecanoe on an errand of her own choosing, and I had +been fired on from ambush near the place to which she had sent me. I +fear that my tower of faith that had grown so tall and strong shook on +its foundations; but once more I dismissed my doubts, just as I had +dismissed other doubts and misgivings about her. My fleeting glimpse +of her in the window of St. Agatha's less than an hour before flashed +back upon me, and the tower touched the stars, steadfast and serene +again. + +I strode on toward Red Gate with my revolver in the side pocket of my +Norfolk jacket. A buckboard filled with young folk from the summer +colony passed me, and then the utter silence of the country held the +world. In a moment I had reached the canoe-maker's cottage and entered +the gate. I went at once to the front door and knocked. I repeated my +knock several times, but there was no answer. The front window-blinds +were closed tight. + +It was now half-past ten and I walked round the dark house with the +sweet scents of the garden rising about me and paused again at the top +of the steps leading to the creek. + +The house-boat was effectually screened by shrubbery, and I had +descended half a dozen steps before I saw a light in the windows. It +occurred to me that as I had undoubtedly been sent to Red Gate for some +purpose, I should do well not to defeat it by any clumsiness of my own; +so I proceeded slowly, pausing several times to observe the lights +below. I heard the Tippecanoe slipping by with the subdued murmur of +water at night; and then a lantern flashed on deck and I heard voices. +Some one was landing from a boat in the creek. This seemed amiable +enough, as the lantern-bearer helped a man in the boat to clamber to +the platform, and from the open door of the shop a broad shaft of light +shone brightly upon the two men. The man with the lantern was +Holbrook, _alias_ Hartridge, beyond a doubt; the other was a stranger. +Holbrook caught the painter of the boat and silently made it fast. + +"Now," he said, "come in." + +They crossed the deck and entered the boat-maker's shop, and I crept +down where I could peer in at an open port-hole. Several brass +ship-lamps of an odd pattern lighted the place brilliantly, and I was +surprised to note the unusual furnishings of the room. The end nearest +my port-hole was a shop, with a carpenter's bench with litter all about +that spoke of practical use. Two canoes in process of construction lay +across frames contrived for the purpose, and overhead was a rack of +lumber hung away to dry. The men remained at the farther end of the +house--it was, I should say, about a hundred feet long--which, without +formal division, was fitted as a sitting-room, with a piano in one +corner, and a long settle against the wall. In the center was a table +littered with books and periodicals; and a woman's sewing-basket, +interwoven with bright ribbons, gave a domestic touch to the place. On +the inner wall hung a pair of foils and masks. Pictures from +illustrated journals--striking heads or outdoor scenes--were pinned +here and there. + +The new-comer stared about, twirling a Tweed cap nervously in his +hands, while Holbrook carefully extinguished the lantern and put it +aside. His visitor was about fifty, taller than he, and swarthy, with +a grayish mustache, and hair white at the temples. His eyes were large +and dark, but even with the length of the room between us I marked +their restlessness; and now that he spoke it was in a succession of +quick rushes of words that were difficult to follow. + +Holbrook pushed a chair toward the stranger and they faced each other +for a moment, then with a shrug of his shoulders the older man sat +down. Holbrook was in white flannels, with a blue scarf knotted in his +shirt collar. He dropped into a big wicker chair, crossed his legs and +folded his arms. + +"Well," he said in a wholly agreeable tone, "you wanted to see me, and +here I am." + +"You are well hidden," said the other, still gazing about. + +"I imagine I am, from the fact that it has taken you seven years to +find me." + +"I haven't been looking for you seven years," replied the stranger +hastily; and his eyes again roamed the room. + +The men seemed reluctant to approach the business that lay between +them, and Holbrook wore an air of indifference, as though the impending +interview did not concern him particularly. The eyes of the older man +fell now upon the beribboned work-basket. He nodded toward it, his +eyes lighting unpleasantly. + +"There seems to be a woman," he remarked with a sneer of implication. + +"Yes," replied Holbrook calmly, "there is; that belongs to my daughter." + +"Where is she?" demanded the other, glancing anxiously about. + +"In bed, I fancy. You need have no fear of her." + +Silence fell upon them again. Their affairs were difficult, and +Holbrook, waiting patiently for the other to broach his errand, drew +out his tobacco-pouch and pipe and began to smoke. + +"Patricia is here, and Helen is with her," said the visitor. + +"Yes, we are all here, it seems," remarked Holbrook dryly. "It's a +nice family gathering." + +"I suppose you haven't seen them?" demanded the visitor. + +"Yes and no. I have no wish to meet them; but I've had several narrow +escapes. They have cut me off from my walks; but I shall leave here +shortly." + +"Yes, you are going, you are going--" began the visitor eagerly. + +"I am going, but not until after you have gone," said Holbrook. "By +some strange fate we are all here, and it is best for certain things to +be settled before we separate again. I have tried to keep out of your +way; I have sunk my identity; I have relinquished the things of life +that men hold dear--honor, friends, ambition, and now you and I have +got to have a settlement." + +"You seem rather sure of yourself," sneered the older, turning uneasily +in his chair. + +"I am altogether sure of myself. I have been a fool, but I see the +error of my ways and I propose to settle matters with you now and here. +You have got to drop your game of annoying Patricia; you've got to stop +using your own daughter as a spy--" + +"You lie, you lie!" roared the other, leaping to his feet. "You can +not insinuate that my daughter is not acting honorably toward Patricia." + +My mind had slowly begun to grasp the situation and to identify the men +before me. It was as though I looked upon a miniature stage in a +darkened theater, and, without a bill of the play, was slowly finding +names for the players. Holbrook, _alias_ Hartridge, the boat-maker of +the Tippecanoe, was not Henry Holbrook, but Henry's brother, Arthur! +and I sought at once to recollect what I knew of him. An instant +before I had half turned to go, ashamed of eavesdropping upon matters +that did not concern me; but the Voice that had sent me held me to the +window. It was some such meeting as this that Helen must have feared +when she sent me to the houses-boat, and everything else must await the +issue of this meeting. + +"You had better sit down, Henry," said Arthur Holbrook quietly. "And I +suggest that you make less noise. This is a lonely place, but there +are human beings within a hundred miles." + +Henry Holbrook paced the floor a moment and then flung himself into a +chair again, but he bent forward angrily, nervously beating his hands +together. Arthur went on speaking, his voice shaking with passion. + +"I want to say to you that you have deteriorated until you are a common +damned blackguard, Henry Holbrook! You are a blackguard and a gambler. +And you have made murderous attempts on the life of your sister; you +drove her from Stamford and you tried to smash her boat out here in the +lake. I saw the whole transaction that afternoon, and understood it +all--how you hung off there in the _Stiletto_ and sent that beast to do +your dirty work." + +"I didn't follow her here; I didn't follow her here!" raged the other. + +"No; but you watched and waited until you traced me here. You were not +satisfied with what I had done for you. You wanted to kill me before I +could tell Pat the truth; and if it hadn't been for that man Donovan +your assassin would have stabbed me at my door." Arthur Holbrook rose +and flung down his pipe so that the coals leaped from it. "But it's +all over now--this long exile of mine, this pursuit of Pat, this +hideous use of your daughter to pluck your chestnuts from the fire. By +God, you've got to quit--you've got to go!" + +"But I want my money--I want my money!" roared Henry, as though +insisting upon a right; but Arthur ignored him, and went on. + +"You were the one who was strong; and great things were expected of +you, to add to the traditions of family honor; but our name is only +mentioned with a sneer where men remember it at all. You were spoiled +and pampered; you have never from your early boyhood had a thought that +was not for yourself alone. You were always envious and jealous of +anybody that came near you, and not least of me; and when I saved you, +when I gave you your chance to become a man at last, to regain the +respect you had flung away so shamefully, you did not realize it, you +could not realize it; you took it as a matter of course, as though I +had handed you a cigar. I ask you now, here in this place, where I am +known and respected--I ask you here, where I have toiled with my hands, +whether you forget why I am here?" + +Henry Holbrook tugged at his scarf nervously and his eyes wandered +about uneasily. He did not answer his brother. Arthur stood over him, +with folded arms, his back to me so that I could not see his face; but +his tone had in it the gathered passion and contempt of years. Then he +was at once himself, standing away a little, like a lawyer after a +round with a refractory witness. + +"I must have my money; Patricia must make the division," replied Henry +doggedly. + +"Certainly! Certainly! I devoutly hope she will give it to you; you +need fear no interference from me. The sooner you get it and fling it +away the better. Patricia has been animated by the best motives in +withholding it; she regarded it as a sacred trust to administer for +your own good, but now I want you to have your money." + +"If I can have my share, if you will persuade her to give it, I will +pay you all I owe you--" Henry began eagerly. + +"What you owe me--what you _owe_ me!" and Arthur bent toward his +brother and laughed--a laugh that was not good to hear. "You would +give me money--money--you would pay me _money_ for priceless things!" + +He broke off suddenly, dropping his arms at his sides helplessly. + +"There is no use in trying to talk to you; we use a different +vocabulary, Henry." + +"But that trouble with Gillespie--if Patricia knew--" + +"Yes; if she knew the truth! And you never understood, you are +incapable of understanding, that it meant something to me to lose my +sister out of my life. When Helen died"--and his voice fell and he +paused for a moment, as a priest falters sometimes, gripped by some +phrase in the office that touches hidden depths in his own experience, +"then when Helen died there was still Patricia, the noblest sister men +ever had; but you robbed me of her--you robbed me of her!" + +He was deeply moved and, as he controlled himself, he walked to the +little table and fingered the ribbons of the work-basket. + +"I haven't those notes, if that's what you're after--I never had them," +he said. "Gillespie kept tight hold of them." + +"Yes; the vindictive old devil!" + +"Men who have been swindled are usually vindictive," replied Arthur +grimly. "Gillespie is dead. I suppose the executor of his estate has +those papers; and the executor is his son." + +"The fool. I've never been able to get anything out of him." + +"If he's a fool it ought to be all the easier to get your pretty +playthings away from him. Old Gillespie really acted pretty decently +about the whole business. Your daughter may be able to get them away +from the boy; he's infatuated with her; he wants to marry her, it +seems." + +"My daughter is not in this matter," said Henry coldly, and then anger +mastered him again. "I don't believe he has them; you have them, and +that's why I have followed you here. I'm going to Patricia to throw +myself on her mercy, and that ghost must not rise up against me. I +want them; I have come to get those notes." + +I was aroused by a shadow-like touch on my arm, and I knew without +seeing who it was that stood beside me. A faint hint as of violets +stole upon the air; her breath touched my cheek as she bent close to +the little window, and she sighed deeply as in relief at beholding a +scene of peace. Arthur Holbrook still stood with bowed head by the +table, his back to his brother, and I felt suddenly the girl's hand +clutch my wrist. She with her fresher eyes upon the scene saw, before +I grasped it, what now occurred. Henry Holbrook had drawn a revolver +from his pocket and pointed it full at his brother's back. We two at +the window saw the weapon flash menacingly; but suddenly Arthur +Holbrook flung round as his brother cried: + +"I think you are lying to me, and I want those notes--I want those +notes, I want them now! You must have them, and I can't go to Patricia +until I know they're safe." + +He advanced several steps and his manner grew confident as he saw that +he held the situation in his own grasp. I would have rushed in upon +them but the girl held me back. + +"Wait! Wait!" she whispered. + +Arthur thrust his hands into the side pockets of his flannel jacket and +nodded his head once or twice. + +"Why don't you shoot, Henry?" + +"I want those notes," said Henry Holbrook. "You lied to me about them. +They were to have been destroyed. I want them now, to-night." + +"If you shoot me you will undoubtedly get them much easier," said +Arthur; and he lounged away toward the wall, half turning his back, +while the point of the pistol followed him. "But the fact is, I never +had them; Gillespie kept them." + +Threats cool quickly, and I really had not much fear that Henry +Holbrook meant to kill his brother; and Arthur's indifference to his +danger was having its disconcerting effect on Henry. The pistol-barrel +wavered; but Henry steadied himself and his clutch tightened on the +butt. I again turned toward the door, but the girl's hand held me back. + +"Wait," she whispered again. "That man is a coward. He will not +shoot." + +The canoe-maker had been calmly talking, discussing the disagreeable +consequences of murder in a tone of half-banter, and he now stood +directly under the foils. Then in a flash he snatched one of them, +flung it up with an accustomed hand, and snapped it across his +brother's knuckles. At the window we heard the slim steel hiss through +the air, followed by the rattle of the revolver as it struck the +ground. The canoe-maker's foot was on it instantly; he still held the +foil. + +"Henry," he said in the tone of one rebuking a child, "you are bad +enough, but I do not intend that you shall be a murderer. And now I +want you to go; I will not treat with you; I want nothing more to do +with you! I repeat that I haven't got the notes." + +He pointed to the door with the foil. The blood surged angrily in his +face; but his voice was in complete control as he went on. + +"Your visit has awakened me to a sense of neglected duty, Henry. I +have allowed you to persecute our sister without raising a hand; I have +no other business now but to protect her. Go back to your stupid +sailor and tell him that if I catch him in any mischief on the lake or +here I shall certainly kill him." + +I lost any further words that passed between them, as Henry, crazily +threatening, walked out upon the deck to his boat; then from the creek +came the threshing of oars that died away in a moment. When I gazed +into the room again Arthur Holbrook was blowing out the lights. + +"I am grateful; I am so grateful," faltered the girl's voice; "but you +must not be seen here. Please go now!" I had taken her hands, feeling +that I was about to lose her; but she freed them and stood away from me +in the shadow. + +"We are going away--we must leave here! I can never see you again," +she whispered. + +In the starlight she was Helen, by every test my senses could make; but +by something deeper I knew that she was not the girl I had seen in the +window at St. Agatha's. She was more dependent, less confident and +poised; she stifled a sob and came close. Through the window I saw +Arthur Holbrook climbing up to blow out the last light. + +"I could have watched myself, but I was afraid that sailor might come; +and it was he that fired at you in the road. He had gone to Glenarm to +watch you and keep you away from here. Uncle Henry came back to-day +and sent word that he wanted to see my father, and I asked you to come +to help us." + +"I thank you for that." + +"And there was another man--a stranger, back there near the road; I +could not make him out, but you will be careful,--please! You must +think very ill of me for bringing you into all this danger and trouble." + +"I am grateful to you. Please turn all your troubles over to me." + +"You did what I asked you to do," she said, "when I had no right to +ask, but I was afraid of what might happen here. It is all right now +and we are going away; we must leave this place." + +"But I shall see you again." + +"No! You have--you have--Helen. You don't know me at all! You will +find your mistake to-morrow." + +She was urging me toward the steps that led up to the house. The sob +was still in her throat, but she was laughing, a little hysterically, +in her relief that her father had come off unscathed. + +"Then you must let me find it out to-morrow; I will come to-morrow +before you go." + +"No! No! This is good-by," she said. "You would not be so unkind as +to stay, when I am so troubled, and there is so much to do!" + +We were at the foot of the stairway, and I heard the shop door snap +shut. + +"Good night, Rosalind!" + +"Good-by; and thank you!" she whispered. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HOW THE NIGHT ENDED + + One year ago my path was green, + My footstep light, my brow serene; + Alas! and could it have been so + One year ago? + There is a love that is to last + When the hot days of youth are past: + Such love did a sweet maid bestow + One year ago. + I took a leaflet from her braid + And gave it to another maid. + Love, broken should have been thy how, + One year ago. + --_Landor_. + + +As my horse whinnied and I turned into the wood a man walked boldly +toward me. + +"My dear Donovan, I have been consoling your horse during your absence. +It's a sad habit we have fallen into of wandering about at night. I +liked your dinner, but you were rather too anxious to get rid of me. I +came by boat myself!" + +Gillespie knocked the ashes from his pipe and thrust it into his +pocket. I was in no frame of mind for talk with him, a fact which he +seemed to surmise. + +"It's late, for a fact," he continued; "and we both ought to be in bed; +but our various affairs require diligence." + +"What are you doing over here?" I demanded. I was too weary and too +perplexed for his nonsense, and in no mood for confidences. I needed +time for reflection and I had no intention of seeking or of imparting +information at this juncture. + +"Well, to tell the truth--" + +"You'd better!" + +"To tell the truth, my dear Donovan, since I left your hospitable board +I have been deeply perplexed over some important questions of human +conduct. Are you interested in human types? Have you ever noticed the +man who summons all porters and waiters by the pleasing name of George? +The name in itself is respectable enough; nor is its generic use +pernicious--a matter of taste only. But the same man may be identified +otherwise by his proneness to consume the cabinet pudding, the +chocolate ice-cream and the fruit in season from the chastening +American bill of fare, after partaking impartially of the preliminary +fish, flesh and fowl. He is confidential with hotel clerks, +affectionate with chambermaids and all telephone girls are Nellie to +him. Types, my dear Donovan--" + +"That's enough! I want to know what you are doing!" and in my anger I +shook him by the shoulders. + +"Well, if you must have it, after I started to the village I changed my +mind about going, and I was anxious to see whether Holbrook was really +here; so I got a launch and came over. I stopped at the island but saw +no one there, and I came up the creek until I grounded; then I struck +inland, looking for the road. It might save us both embarrassment, +Irishman, if we give notice of each other's intentions, particularly at +night. I hung about, thinking you might appear, and--" + +"You are a poor liar, Buttons. You didn't come here alone!"--and I +drove my weary wits hard in an effort to account for his unexpected +appearance. + +"All is lost; I am discovered," he mocked. + +He had himself freed my horse; I now took the rein and refastened it to +the tree. + +"Well, inexplicable Donovan!" + +I laughed, pleased to find that my delay annoyed him. I was confident +that he was not abroad at this hour for nothing, and it again occurred +to me that we were on different sides of the matter. My weariness fell +from me like a cloak, as the events of the past hour flashed fresh in +my mind. + +"Now," I said, dropping the rein and patting the horse's nose for a +moment, "you may go with me or you may sit here; but if you would avoid +trouble don't try to interfere with me." + +I did not doubt that he had been sent to watch me; and his immediate +purpose seemed to be to detain me. + +"I had hoped you would sit down and talk over the Monroe Doctrine, or +the partition of Africa, or something equally interesting," he +remarked. "You disappoint me, my dear benefactor." + +"And you make me very tired at the end of a tiresome day, Gillespie. +Please continue to watch my horse; I'm off." + +He kept at my elbow, as I expected he would, babbling away with his +usual volubility in an effort, now frank enough, to hold me back; but I +ignored his talk and plunged on through the wood toward the creek. +Henry Holbrook must, I argued, have had time enough to get out of the +creek and back to the island; but what mischief Gillespie was +furthering in his behalf I could not imagine. + +There was a gradual rise toward the creek and we were obliged to cling +to the bushes in making our ascent. Suddenly, as I paused for breath, +Gillespie grasped my arm. + +"For God's sake, stop! This is no affair of yours. On my honor +there's nothing that affects you here." + +"I will see whether there is or not!" I exclaimed, throwing him off, +but he kept close beside me. + +We gained the trail that ran along the creek, and I paused to listen. + +"Where's your launch?" + +"Find it," he replied succinctly. + +I had my bearings pretty well, and set off toward the lake, Gillespie +trudging behind in the narrow path. When we had gone about twenty +yards a lantern glimmered below and I heard voices raised in excited +colloquy. Gillespie started forward at a run. + +"Keep back! This is my affair!" + +"I'm making it mine," I replied, and flung in ahead of him. + +I ran forward rapidly, the voices growing louder, and soon heard men +stumbling and falling about in conflict. A woman's voice now rose in a +sharp cry: + +"Let go of him! Let go of him!" + +Gillespie flashed by me down the bank to the water's edge, where the +struggle ended abruptly. I was not far behind, and I saw Henry +Holbrook in the grasp of the Italian, who was explaining to the woman, +who held the lantern high above her head, that he was only protecting +himself. Gillespie had caught hold of the sailor, who continued to +protest his innocence of any wish to injure Holbrook; and for a moment +we peered through the dark, taking account of one another. + +"So it's you, is it?" said Henry Holbrook as the Italian freed him and +his eyes fell on me. "I should like to know what you mean by meddling +in my affairs. By God, I've enough to do with my own flesh and blood +without dealing with outsiders." + +Helen Holbrook turned swiftly and held the lantern toward me, and when +she saw me shrugged her shoulders. + +"You really give yourself a great deal of unnecessary concern, Mr. +Donovan." + +"You are a damned impudent meddler!" blurted Henry Holbrook. "I have +had you watched. You--you--" + +He darted toward me, but the Italian again caught and held him, and +another altercation began between them. Holbrook was wrought to a high +pitch of excitement and cursed everybody who had in any way interfered +with him. + +"Come, Helen," said Gillespie, stepping to the girl's side; and at this +Henry Holbrook turned upon him viciously. + +"You are another meddlesome outsider. Your father was a pig--a pig, do +you understand? If it hadn't been for him I shouldn't be here +to-night, camping out like an outlaw. And you've got to stop annoying +my daughter!" + +Helen turned to the Italian and spoke to him rapidly in his own tongue. + +"You must take him away. He is not himself. Tell him I have done the +best I could. Tell him--" + +She lowered her voice so that I heard no more. Holbrook was still +heaping abuse upon Gillespie, who stood submissively by; but Helen ran +up the bank, the lantern light flashing eerily about her. She paused +at the top, waiting for Gillespie, who, it was patent, had brought her +to this rendezvous and who kept protectingly at her heels. + +The Italian drew Holbrook toward the boat that lay at the edge of the +lake. He seemed to forget me in his anger against Gillespie, and he +kept turning toward the path down which the girl's lantern faintly +twinkled. Gillespie kept on after the girl, the lantern flashing more +rarely through the turn in the path, until I caught the threshing of +his launch as it swung out into the lake. + +I drew back, seeing nothing to gain by appealing to Holbrook in his +present overwrought state. The Italian had his hands full, and was +glad, I judged, to let me alone. A moment later he had pushed off his +boat, and I heard the sound of oars receding toward the island. + +I found my horse, led him deeper into the wood and threw off the +saddle. Then I walked down the road until I found a barn, and crawled +into the loft and slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LADY OF THE WHITE BUTTERFLIES + + TITANIA: And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, + To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes: + Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. + + PEASEBLOSSOM: Hail, mortal! + --_Midsummer Night's Dream_. + + +The twitter of swallows in the eaves wakened me to the first light of +day, and after I had taken a dip in the creek I still seemed to be sole +proprietor of the world, so quiet lay field and woodland. I followed +the lake shore to a fishermen's camp, where, in the good comradeship of +outdoors men the world over, I got bread and coffee and no questions +asked. I smoked a pipe with the fishermen to kill time, and it was +still but a trifle after six o'clock when I started for Red Gate. My +mood was not for the open road, and I sought woodland paths, that I +might loiter the more. With squirrels scampering before me, and +attended by bird-song and the morning drum-beat of the woodpecker, I +strode on until I came out upon a series of rough pastures, separated +by stake-and-rider fences that crawled sinuously through tangles of +blackberries and wild roses. As I tramped along a cow-path that +traversed these pastures, the dew sparkled on the short grass, and +wings whirred and dipped in salutation before me. My memories of the +night vanished in the perfection of the day; I went forth to no renewal +of acquaintance with shadows, or with the lurking figures in a dark +drama, but to enchantments that were fresh with life and light. Barred +gates separated these fallow fields, and I passed through one, crossed +the intermediate pasture, and opened the gate of the third. Before me +lay a field of daisies, bobbing amid wild grass, the morning wind +softly stirring the myriad disks, so that the whole had the effect of +quiet motion. The path led on again, but more faintly here. A line of +sycamores two hundred yards to my right marked the bed of the +Tippecanoe; and on my left hand, beyond a walnut grove, a little filmy +dust-cloud hung above the hidden highway. The meadow was a place of +utter peace; the very air spoke of holy things. I thrust my cap into +my jacket pocket and stood watching the wind crisp the flowers. Then +my attention wandered to the mad antics of a squirrel that ran along +the fence. + +When I turned to the field again I saw Rosalind coming toward me along +the path, clad in white, hatless, and her hands lightly brushing the +lush grass that seemed to leap up to touch them. She had not seen me, +and I drew back a little for love of the picture she made. Three white +butterflies fluttered about her head, like an appointed guard of honor, +and she caught at them with her hands, turning her head to watch their +staggering flight. + +[Illustration: Three white butterflies fluttered about her head.] + +She paused abruptly midway of the daisies, and I walked toward her +slowly--it must have been slowly--and I think we were both glad of a +moment's respite in which to study each other. Then she spoke at once, +as though our meeting had been prearranged. + +"I hoped I should see you," she said gravely. + +"I had every intention of seeing you! I was killing time until I felt +I might decently lift the latch of Red Gate." + +She inspected me with her hands clasped behind her. + +"Please don't look at me like that!" I laughed. "I camped in a barn +last night for fear I shouldn't get here in time." + +"I wish to speak to you for a few minutes--to tell you what you may +have guessed about us--my father and me." + +"Yes; if you like; but only to help you if I can. It is not necessary +for you to tell me anything." + +She turned and led the way across the daisy field. She walked swiftly, +holding back her skirts from the crowding flowers, traversed the garden +of Red Gate, and continued down to the house-boat. + +"We can be quiet here," she said, throwing open the door. "My father +is at Tippecanoe village, shipping one of his canoes. We are early +risers, you see!" + +The little sitting-room adjoining the shop was calm and cool, and the +ripple of the creek was only an emphasis of the prevailing rural quiet. +She sat down by the table in a red-cushioned wicker chair and folded +her hands in her lap and smiled a little as she saw me regarding her +fixedly. I suppose I had expected to find her clad in saffron robes or +in doublet and hose, but the very crispness of her white piqué spoke +delightfully of present times and manners. My glance rested on the +emerald ring; then I looked into her eyes again. + +"You see I am really very different," she smiled. "I'm not the same +person at all!" + +"No; it's wonderful--wonderful!" And I still stared. + +She grew grave again. + +"I have important things to say to you, but it's just as well for you +to see me in the broadest of daylight, so that"--she pondered a moment, +as though to be sure of expressing herself clearly--"so that when you +see Helen Holbrook in an hour or so in that pretty garden by the lake +you will understand that it was not really Rosalind after all +that--that--amused you!" + +"But the daylight is not helping that idea. You are marvelously alike, +and yet--" I floundered miserably in my uncertainty. + +"Then,"--and she smiled at my discomfiture, "if you can't tell us +apart, it makes no difference whether you ever see me again or not. +You see, Mr.--but _did_ you ever tell me what your name is? Well, I +know it, anyhow, Mr. Donovan." + +The little work-table was between us, and on it lay the foil which her +father had snatched from the wall the night before. I still stood, +gazing down at Rosalind. Fashion, I saw, had done something for the +amazing resemblance. She wore her hair in the pompadour of the day, +with exactly Helen's sweep; and her white gown was identical with that +worn that year by thousands of young women. She had even the same +gestures, the same little way of resting her cheek against her hand +that Helen had; and before she spoke she moved her head a trifle to one +side, with a pretty suggestion of just having been startled from a +reverie, that was Helen's trick precisely. + +She forgot for a moment our serious affairs, to which I was not in the +least anxious to turn, in her amusement at my perplexity. + +"It must be even more extraordinary than I imagined. I have not seen +Helen for seven years. She is my cousin; and when we were children +together at Stamford our mothers used to dress us alike to further the +resemblance. Our mothers, you may not know, were not only sisters; +they were twin sisters! But Helen is, I think, a trifle taller than I +am. This little mark"--she touched the peak--"is really very curious. +Both our mothers and our grandmother had it. And you see that I speak +a little more rapidly than she does--at least that used to be the case. +I don't know my grown-up cousin at all. We probably have different +tastes, temperaments, and all that." + +"I am positive of it!" I exclaimed; yet I was really sure of nothing, +save that I was talking to an exceedingly pretty girl, who was +amazingly like another very pretty girl whom I knew much better. + +"You are her guardian, so to speak, Mr. Donovan. You are taking care +of my Aunt Pat and my cousin. Just how that came about I don't know." + +"They were sent to St. Agatha's by Father Stoddard, an old friend of +mine. They had suffered many annoyances, to put it mildly, and came +here to get away from their troubles." + +"Yes; I understand. Uncle Henry has acted outrageously. I have not +ranged the country at night for nothing. I have even learned a few +things from you," she laughed. "And you must continue to serve Aunt +Patricia and my cousin. You see,"--and she smiled her grave smile--"my +father and I are an antagonistic element." + +"No; not as between you and Miss Patricia! I'm sure of that. It is +Henry Holbrook that I am to protect her from. You and your father do +not enter into it." + +"If you don't mind telling me, Mr. Donovan, I should like to know +whether Aunt Pat has mentioned us." + +"Only once, when I first saw her and she explained why she had come. +She seemed greatly moved when she spoke of your father. Since then she +has never referred to him. But the day we cruised up to Battle Orchard +and Henry Holbrook's man tried to smash our launch, she was shaken out +of herself, and she declared war when we got home. Then I was on the +lake with her the night of the carnival. Helen did not go with us. +And when you paddled by us, Miss Pat was quite disturbed at the sight +of you; but she thought it was an illusion, and--I thought it was +Helen!" + +"I have been home only a few weeks, but I came just in time to be with +father in his troubles. My uncle's enmity is very bitter, as you have +seen. I do not understand it. Father has told me little of their +difficulties; but I know," she said, lifting her head proudly, "I know +that my father has done nothing dishonorable. He has told me so, and I +am content with that." + +I bowed, not knowing what to say. + +"I have been here only once or twice before, and for short visits only. +Most of the time I have been at a convent in Canada, where I was known +as Rosalind Hartridge. Rosalind, you know, is really my name: I was +named for Helen's mother. The Sisters took pity on my loneliness, and +were very kind to me. But now I am never going to leave my father +again." + +She spoke with no unkindness or bitterness, but with a gravity born of +deep feeling. I marked now the lighter _timbre_ of her voice, that was +quite different from her cousin's; and she spoke more rapidly, as she +had said, her naturally quick speech catching at times the cadence of +cultivated French. And she was a simpler nature--I felt that; she was +really very unlike Helen. + +"You manage a canoe pretty well," I ventured, still studying her face, +her voice, her ways, eagerly. + +"That was very foolish, wasn't it?--my running in behind the procession +that way!" and she laughed softly at the recollection. "But that was +professional pride! That was one of my father's best canoes, and he +helped me to decorate it. He takes a great delight in his work; it's +all he has left! And I wanted to show those people at Port Annandale +what a really fine canoe--a genuine Hartridge--was like. I did not +expect to run into you or Aunt Pat." + +"You should have gone on and claimed the prize. It was yours of right. +When your star vanished I thought the world had come to an end." + +"It hadn't, you see! I put out the lights so that I could get home +unseen." + +"You gave us a shock. Please don't do it again; and please, if you and +your cousin are to meet, kindly let it be on solid ground. I'm a +little afraid, even now, that you are a lady of dreams." + +"Not a bit of it! I enjoy a sound appetite; I can carry a canoe like a +Canadian guide; I am as good a fencer as my father; and I'm not afraid +of the dark. You see, in the long vacations up there in Canada I lived +out of doors and I shouldn't mind staying on here always. I like to +paddle a canoe, and I know how to cast a fly, and I've shot ducks from +a blind. You see how very highly accomplished I am! Now, my cousin +Helen--" + +"Well--?" and I was glad to hear her happy laugh. Sorrow and +loneliness had not stifled the spirit of mischief in her, and she +enjoyed vexing me with references to her cousin. + +I walked the length of the room and looked out upon the creek that ran +singing through the little vale. They were a strange family, these +Holbrooks, and the perplexities of their affairs multiplied. How to +prevent further injury and heartache and disaster; how to restore this +girl and her exiled father to the life from which they had vanished; +and how to save Miss Pat and Helen,--these things possessed my mind and +heart. I sat down and faced Rosalind across the table. She had taken +up a bright bit of ribbon from the work-basket and was slipping it back +and forth through her fingers. + +"The name Gillespie was mentioned here last night. Can you tell me +just how he was concerned in your father's affairs?" I asked. + +"He was the largest creditor of the Holbrook bank. He lived at +Stamford, where we all used to live." + +"This Gillespie had a son. I suppose he inherits his father's claims." + +She laughed outright. + +"I have heard of him. He is a remarkable character, it seems, who does +ridiculous things. He did as a child: I remember him very well as a +droll boy at Stamford, who was always in mischief. I had forgotten all +about him until I saw an amusing account of him in a newspaper a few +months ago. He had been arrested for fast driving in Central Park; and +the next day he went back to the park with a boy's toy wagon and team +of goats, as a joke on the policeman." + +"I can well believe it! The fellow's here, staying at the inn at +Annandale." + +"So I understand. To be frank, I have seen him and talked with him. +We have had, in fact, several interesting interviews,"--and she laughed +merrily. + +"Where did all this happen?" + +"Once, out on the lake, when we were both prowling about in canoes. I +talked to him, but made him keep his distance. I dared him to race me, +and finally paddled off and left him. Then another time, on the shore +near St. Agatha's. I was taking an observation of the school garden +from the bluff, and Mr. Gillespie came walking through the woods and +made love to me. He came so suddenly that I couldn't run, but I saw +that he took me for Helen, in broad daylight, and I--I--" + +"Well, of course you scorned him--you told him to be gone. You did +that much for her." + +"No, I didn't. I liked his love-making; it was unaffected and simple." + +"Oh, yes! It would naturally be simple!" + +"That is brutal. He's clever, and earnest, and amusing. But--" and +her brow contracted, "but if he is seeking my father--" + +"Rest assured he is not. He is in love with your cousin--that's the +reason for his being here." + +"But that does not help my father's case any." + +"We will see about that. You are right about him; he's really a most +amusing person, and not a fool, except for his own amusement. He is +shrewd enough to keep clear of Miss Pat, who dislikes him intensely on +his father's account. She feels that the senior Gillespie was the +cause of all her troubles, but I don't know just why. She's strongly +prejudiced against the young man, and his whimsicalities do not appeal +to her." + +"I suppose Helen cares nothing for him; he acted toward me as though +he'd been crushed, and I--I tried to be nice to him to make up for it." + +"That was nice of you, very nice of you, Rosalind. I hope you will +keep right on the way you've begun. Now I must ask you not to leave +here, and not to allow your father to leave unless I know it." + +"But you have your hands full without us. Your first obligation is to +Aunt Pat and Helen. My father and I have merely stumbled in where we +were not invited. You and I had better say good-by now." + +"I am not anxious to say good-by," I answered lamely, and she laughed +at me. + +Helen, I reflected, did not laugh so readily. Rosalind was beautiful, +she was charming; and yet her likeness to Helen failed in baffling +particulars. Even as she came through the daisy meadow there had been +a difference--at least I seemed to realize it now. The white +butterflies symbolized her Ariel-like quality; for the life of me I +could not associate those pale, fluttering vagrants with Helen Holbrook. + +"We met under the star-r-rs, Mr. Donovan" (this was impudent; my own +_r's_ trill, they say), "at the stone seat and by the boat-house, and +we talked Shakespeare and had a beautiful time,--all because you +thought I was Helen. In your anxiety to be with her you couldn't see +that I haven't quite her noble height,--I'm an inch shorter. I gave +you every chance there at the boat-house, to see your mistake; but you +wouldn't have it so. And you let me leave you there while I went back +alone across the lake to Red Gate, right by Battle Orchard, which is +haunted by Indian ghosts. You are a most gallant gentleman!" + +"When you are quite done, Rosalind!" + +"I don't know when I shall have a chance again, Mr. Donovan," she went +on provokingly. "I learned a good deal from you in those interviews, +but I did have to do a lot of guessing. That was a real inspiration of +mine, to insist on playing that Helen by night and Helen by day were +different personalities, and that you must not speak to the one of the +other. That saved complications, because you did keep to the compact, +didn't you?" + +I assented, a little grudgingly; and my thoughts went back with +reluctant step to those early affairs of mine, which I have already +frankly disclosed in this chronicle, and I wondered, with her +counterpart before me, how much Helen really meant to me. Rosalind +studied me with her frank, merry eyes; then she bent forward and +addressed me with something of that prescient air with which my sisters +used to lecture me. + +"Mr. Donovan, I fear you are a little mixed in your mind this morning, +and I propose to set you straight." + +"About what, if you please?" + +The conceit in man always rises and struts at the approach of a woman's +sympathy. My body ached, the knife slash across my ribs burnt, and I +felt myself a sadly abused person as Rosalind addressed me. + +"I understand all about you, Mr. Donovan." + +My plumage fell; I did not want to be understood, I told myself; but I +said: + +"Please go on." + +"I can tell you exactly why it is that Helen has taken so strong hold +of your imagination,--why, in fact, you are in love with her." + +"Not that--not that." + +She snatched the foil from the table and cut the air with it several +times as I started toward her. Then she stamped her foot and saluted +me. + +"Stand where you are, sir! Your race, Mr. Donovan, has a bad +reputation in matters of the heart. For a moment you thought you were +in love with me; but you are not, and you are not going to be. You +see, I understand you perfectly." + +"That's what my sisters used to tell me." + +"Precisely! And I'm another one of your sisters--you must have scores +of them!--and I expect you to be increasingly proud of me." + +"Of course I admire Helen--" I began, I fear, a little sheepishly. + +"And you admire most what you don't understand about her! Now that you +examine me in the light of day you see what a tremendous difference +there is between us. I am altogether obvious; I am not the least bit +subtle. But Helen puzzles and thwarts you. She finds keen delight in +antagonizing you; and she as much as says to you, 'Mr. Donovan, you are +a frightfully conceited person, and you have had many adventures by sea +and shore, and you think you know all about human nature and women, but +I--_I_--am quite as wise and resourceful as you are, and whether I am +right or wrong I'm going to fight you, fight you, fight you!' There, +Mr. Laurance Donovan, is the whole matter in a nut-shell, and I should +like you to know that I am not at all deceived by you. You did me a +great service last night, and you would serve me again, I am confident +of it; and I hope, when all these troubles are over, that we shall +continue--my father, and you and I--the best friends in the world." + +I can not deny that I was a good deal abashed by this declaration +spoken without coquetry, and with a sincerity of tone and manner that +seemed conclusive. + +I began stammering some reply, but she recurred abruptly to the serious +business that hung over us. + +"I know you will do what you can for Aunt Pat. I wish you would tell +her, if you think it wise, that father is here. They should understand +each other. And Helen, my splendid, courageous, beautiful cousin,--you +see I don't grudge her even her better looks, or that intrepid heart +that makes us so different. I am sure you can manage all these things +in the best possible way. And now I must find my father, and tell him +that you are going to arrange a meeting with Aunt Pat, and talk to him +of our future." + +She led the way up to the garden, and as I struck off into the road she +waved her hand to me, standing under the overhanging sign that +proclaimed Hartridge, the canoe-maker, at Red Gate. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HELEN TAKES ME TO TASK + + My Lady's name, when I hear strangers use, + Not meaning her, to me sounds lax misuse; + I love none but my Lady's name; + Maude, Grace, Rose, Marian, all the same, + Are harsh, or blank and tame. + + * * * * * + + Fresh beauties, howsoe'er she moves, are stirr'd: + As the sunn'd bosom of a humming-bird + At each pant lifts some fiery hue, + Fierce gold, bewildering green or blue; + The same, yet ever new. + --_Thomas Woolner_. + + +I paced the breezy terrace at Glenarm, studying my problems, and +stumbling into new perplexities at every turn. My judgment has usually +served me poorly in my own affairs, which I have generally confided to +Good Luck, that most amiable of goddesses; and I glanced out upon the +lake with some notion, perhaps, of seeing her fairy sail drifting +toward me. But there, to my vexation, hung the _Stiletto_, scarcely +moving in the indolent air of noon. There was, I felt again, something +sinister in the very whiteness of its pocket-handkerchief of canvas as +it stole lazily before the wind. Did Miss Pat, in the school beyond +the wall, see and understand, or was the yacht hanging there as a +menace or stimulus to Helen Holbrook, to keep her alert in her father's +behalf? + +"There are ladies to see you, sir," announced the maid, and I found +Helen and Sister Margaret waiting in the library. + +The Sister, as though by prearrangement, went to the farther end of the +room and took up a book. + +"I wish to see you alone," said Helen, "and I didn't want Aunt Pat to +know I came," and she glanced toward Sister Margaret, whose brown habit +and nun's bonnet had merged into the shadows of a remote alcove. + +The brim of Helen's white-plumed hat made a little dusk about her eyes. +Pink and white became her; she put aside her parasol and folded her +ungloved hands, and then, as she spoke, her head went almost +imperceptibly to one side, and I found myself bending forward as I +studied the differences between her and the girl on the Tippecanoe. +Helen's lips were fuller and ruddier, her eyes darker, her lashes +longer. But there was another difference, too subtle for my powers of +analysis; something less obvious than the length of lash or the color +of eyes; and I was not yet ready to give a name to it. Of one thing I +was sure: my pulses quickened before her; and her glance thrilled +through me as Rosalind's had not. + +"Mr. Donovan, I have come to appeal to you to put an end to this +miserable affair into which we have brought you. My own position has +grown too difficult, too equivocal to be borne any longer. You saw +from my father's conduct last night how hopeless it is to try to reason +with him. He has brooded upon his troubles until he is half mad. And +I learned from him what I had not dreamed of, that my Uncle Arthur is +here--here, of all places. I suppose you know that." + +"Yes; but it is a mere coincidence. It was a good hiding-place for +him, as well as for us." + +"It is very unfortunate for all of us that he should be here. I had +hoped he would bury himself where he would never be heard of again!" +she said, and anger burned for a moment in her face. "If he has any +shame left, I should think he would leave here at once!" + +"It's to be remembered, Miss Holbrook, that he came first; and I am +quite satisfied that your father sought him here before you and your +aunt came to Annandale. It seems to me the equity lies with your +uncle--the creek as a hiding-place belongs to him by right of +discovery." + +She smiled ready agreement to this, and I felt that she had come to win +support for some plan of her own. She had never been more amiable; +certainly she had never been lovelier. + +"You are quite right. We had all of us better go and leave him in +peace. What is it he does there--runs a ferry or manages a boat-house?" + +"He is a canoe-maker," I said dryly, "with more than a local +reputation." + +Her tone changed at once. + +"I'm glad; I'm very glad he has escaped from his old ways; for all our +sakes," she added, with a little sigh. "And poor Rosalind! You may +not know that he has a daughter. She is about a year younger than I. +She must have had a sad time of it. I was named for her mother and she +for mine. If you should meet her, Mr. Donovan, I wish you would tell +her how sorry I am not to be able to see her. But Aunt Pat must not +know that Uncle Arthur is here. I think she has tried to forget him, +and her troubles with my father have effaced everything else. I hope +you will manage that, for me; that Aunt Pat shall not know that Uncle +Arthur and Rosalind are here. It could only distress her. It would be +opening a book that she believes closed forever." + +Her solicitude for her aunt's peace of mind, spoken with eyes averted +and in a low tone, lacked nothing. + +"I have seen your cousin," I said. "I saw her, in fact, this morning." + +"Rosalind? Then you can tell me whether--whether I am really so like +her as they used to think!" + +"You _are_ rather like!" I replied lightly. "But I shall not attempt +to tell you how. It would not do--it would involve particulars that +might prove embarrassing. There are times when even I find discretion +better than frankness." + +"You wish to save my feelings," she laughed. "But I am really taller!" + +"By an inch--she told me that!" + +"Then you have seen her more than once?" + +"Yes; more than twice even." + +"Then you must tell me wherein we are alike; I should really like to +know." + +"I have told you I can't; it's beyond my poor powers. I will tell you +this, though--" + +"Well?" + +"That I think you both delightful." + +"I am disappointed in you. I thought you a man of courage, Mr. +Donovan." + +"Even brave men falter at the cannon's mouth!" + +"You are undoubtedly an Irishman, Mr. Donovan. I am sorry we shan't +have any more tennis." + +"You have said so, Miss Holbrook, not I." + +She laughed, and then glanced toward the brown figure of Sister +Margaret, and was silent for a moment, while the old clock on the stair +boomed out the half-hour and was answered cheerily by the pretty tinkle +of the chapel chime. I counted four poppy-leaves that fluttered free +from a bowl on the book-shelf above her head and lazily fell to the +floor at her feet. + +"I had hoped," she said, "that we were good friends, Mr. Donovan." + +"I have believed that we were, Miss Holbrook." + +"You must see that this situation must terminate, that we are now at a +crisis. You can understand--I need not tell you--how fully my +sympathies lie with my father; it could not be otherwise." + +"That is only natural. I have nothing to say on that point." + +"And you can understand, too, that it has not been easy for me to be +dependent upon Aunt Pat. You don't know--I have no intention of +talking against her--but you can't blame me for thinking her hard--a +little hard on my father." + +I nodded. + +"I am sorry, very sorry, that you should have these troubles, Miss +Holbrook." + +"I know you are," she replied eagerly, and her eyes brightened. "Your +sympathy has meant so much to Aunt Pat and me. And now, before worse +things happen--" + +"Worse things must not happen!" + +"Then we must put an end to it all, Mr. Donovan. There is only one +way. My father will never leave here until Aunt Pat has settled with +him. And it is his right to demand it," she hurried on. "I would have +you know that he is not as black as he has been painted. He has been +his own worst enemy; and Uncle Arthur's ill-doings must not be charged +to him. But he has been wrong, terribly wrong, in his conduct toward +Aunt Pat. I do not deny that, and he does not. But it is only a +matter of money, and Aunt Pat has plenty of it; and there can be no +question of honor between Uncle Arthur and father. It was Uncle +Arthur's act that caused all this trouble; father has told me the whole +story. Quite likely father would make no good use of his money--I will +grant that. But think of the strain of these years on all of us; think +of what it has meant to me, to have this cloud hanging over my life! +It is dreadful--beyond any words it is hideous; and I can't stand it +any longer, not another week--not another day! It must end now and +here." + +Her tear-filled eyes rested upon me pleadingly, and a sob caught her +throat as she tried to go on. + +"But--" I began. + +"Please--please!" she broke in, touching her handkerchief to her eyes +and smiling appealingly. "I am asking very little of you, after all." + +"Yes, it is little enough; but it seems to me a futile interference. +If your father would go to her himself, if you would take him to +her--that strikes me as the better strategy of the matter." + +"Then am I to understand that you will not help; that you will not do +this for us--for me?" + +"I am sorry to have to say no, Miss Holbrook," I replied steadily. + +"Then I regret that I shall have to go further; I must appeal to you as +a personal matter purely. It is not easy; but if we are really very +good friends--" + +She glanced toward Sister Margaret, then rose and walked out upon the +terrace. + +"You will hate me--" she began, smiling wanly, the tears bright in her +eyes; and she knew that it was not easy to hate her. "I have taken +money from Mr. Gillespie, for my father, since I came here. It is a +large sum, and when my father left here he went away to spend it--to +waste it. It is all gone, and worse than gone. I must pay that +back--I must not be under obligations to Mr. Gillespie. It was wrong, +it was very wrong of me, but I was distracted, half crazed by my +father's threats of violence against Aunt Pat--against us all. I am +sure that you can see how I came to do it. And now you are my friend; +will you help me?" and she broke off, smiling, tearful, her back to the +balustrade, her hand at her side lightly touching it. + +She had confidence, I thought, in the power of tears, as she slipped +her handkerchief into her sleeve and waited for me to answer. + +"Of course Mr. Gillespie only loaned you the money to help you over a +difficulty; in some way that must be cared for. I like him; he is a +fellow of good impulses. I repeat that I believe this matter can be +arranged readily enough, by yourself and your father. My intrusion +would only make a worse muddle of your affairs. Send for your father +and let him go to your aunt in the right spirit; and I believe that an +hour's talk will settle everything." + +"You seem to have misunderstood my purpose in coming here, Mr. +Donovan," she answered coldly. "I asked your help, not your advice. I +have even thrown myself on your mercy, and you tell me to do what you +know is impossible." + +"Nothing is so impossible as the present attitude of your father. +Until that is changed your aunt would be doing your father a great +injury by giving him this money." + +"And as for me--" and her eyes blazed--"as for me," she said, choking +with anger, "after I have opened this page of my life to you and you +have given me your fatherly advice--as for me, I will show you, and +Aunt Pat and all of them, that what can not be done one way may be done +in another. If I say the word and let the law take its course with my +uncle--that man who brought all these troubles upon us--you may have +the joy of knowing that it was your fault--your fault, Mr. Donovan!" + +"I beg of you, do nothing! If you will not bring your father to Miss +Pat, please let me arrange the meeting." + +"He will not listen to you. He looks upon you as a meddler; and so do +I, Mr. Donovan!" + +"But your uncle--you must not, you would not!" I cried, terror-struck +to see how fate drew her toward the pitfall from which I hoped to save +her. + +"Don't say 'must not' to me, if you please!" she flung back; but when +she reached the door she turned and said calmly, though her eyes still +blazed: + +"I suppose it is not necessary for me to ask that you consider what I +have said to you confidential." + +"It is quite unnecessary," I said, not knowing whether I loved or +pitied her most; and my wits were busy trying to devise means of saving +her the heartache her ignorance held in store for her. + +She called to Sister Margaret in her brightest tone, and when I had +walked with them to St. Agatha's gate she bade me good-by with quite as +demure and Christian an air as the Sister herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE TOUCH OF DISHONOR + + Give me a staff of honour for mine age. + --_Titus Andronicus_. + + +I was meditating my course over a cheerless luncheon when Gillespie was +announced. He lounged into the dining-room, drew his chair to the +table and covered a biscuit with camembert with his usual inscrutable +air. + +"I think it is better," he said deliberatingly, "to be an ass than a +fool. Have you any views on the subject?" + +"None, my dear Buttons. I have been called both by shrewd men." + +"So have I, if the worst were known, and they offered proof! Ah, more +and more I see that we were born for each other, Donovan. I was once +so impressed with the notion that to be a fool was to be distinguished +that I conceived the idea of forming a Noble Order of Serene and +Incurable Fools. I elected myself The Grand and Most Worthy Master, +feeling safe from competition. News of the matter having gone forth, +many persons of the highest standing wrote to me, recommending their +friends for membership. My correspondence soon engaged three +type-writers, and I was obliged to get the post-office department to +help me break the chain. A few humble souls applied on their own hook +for consideration. These I elected and placed in the first class. You +would be surprised to know how many people who are chronic joiners +wrote in absent-mindedly for application blanks, fearing to be left out +of a good thing. United States senators were rather common on the +list, and there were three governors; a bishop wrote to propose a +brother bishop, of whose merits he spoke in the warmest terms. Many +newspapers declared that the society filled a long-felt want. I +received invitations to speak on the uses and benefits of the order +from many learned bodies. The thing began to bore me, and when my +official stationery was exhausted I issued a farewell address to my +troops and dissolved the society. But it's a great gratification to +me, my dear Donovan, that we quit with a waiting-list." + +"There are times, Buttons, when you cease to divert me. I'm likely to +be very busy for a few days. Just what can I do for you this +afternoon?" + +"Look here, old man, you're not angry?" + +"No; I'm rarely angry; but I'm often bored." + +"Then your brutal insinuation shall not go unrewarded. Let me proceed. +But first, how are your ribs?" + +"Sore and a trifle stiff, but I'm comfortable, thanks." + +"As I understand matters, Irishman, there is no real difference between +you and me except in the matter of a certain lady. Otherwise we might +combine our forces in the interest of these unhappy Holbrooks." + +"You are quite right. You came here to say something; go on and be +done with it." + +He deftly covered another biscuit with the cheese, of whose antiquity +he complained sadly. + +"I say, Donovan, between old soldier friends, what were you doing up +there on the creek last night?" + +"Studying the landscape effects by starlight. It's a habit of mine. +Your own presence there might need accounting for, if you don't mind." + +"I will be square about it. I met Helen quite accidentally as I left +this house, and she wanted to see her father. I took her over there, +and we found Henry. He was up to some mischief--you may know what it +was. Something had gone wrong with him, and he was in all kinds of a +bad humor. Unfortunately, you got the benefit of some of it." + +"I will supply you a link in the night's affairs. Henry had been to +see his brother Arthur." + +Gillespie's face fell, and I saw that he was greatly surprised. + +"Humph! Helen didn't tell me that." + +"The reason Henry came here was to look for his brother. That's how he +reached this place ahead of Miss Pat and Helen. And I have learned +something--it makes no difference how, but it was not from the ladies +at St. Agatha's--I learned last night that the key of this whole +situation is in your own hands, Gillespie. Your father was swindled by +the Holbrooks; which Holbrook?" + +He was at once sane and serious, and replied soberly: + +"I never doubted that it was Arthur. If he wasn't guilty, why did he +run away? It was a queer business, and father never mentioned it. +Henry gave out the impression that my father had taken advantage of +Holbrook Brothers and forced their failure; but father shut up and +never told me anything." + +"But you have the notes--" + +"Yes, but I'm not to open them, yet. I can't tell you about that now." +He grew red and played with his cravat. + +"Where are they?" I asked. + +"I've just had them sent to me; they're in the bank at Annandale. +There's another thing you may not know. Old man Holbrook, who lived to +be older than the hills, left a provision in his will that adds to the +complications. Miss Pat may have mentioned that stuff in her father's +will about the honor of the brothers--?" + +"She just mentioned it. Please tell me what you know of it." + +He took out his pocket-book and read me this paragraph from a newspaper +cutting: + + +"And the said one million dollars hereinbefore specifically provided +for shall, after the lapse of ten years, be divided between my said +sons Henry and Arthur Holbrook, share and share alike; but if either of +my said sons shall have been touched by dishonor through his own act, +as honor is accounted, reckoned and valued among men, my said daughter +Patricia to be the sole judge thereof, then he shall forfeit his share +of said amount thus withheld, and the whole of said sum of one million +dollars shall be adjudged to belong to the other son." + + +Gillespie lighted a cigarette and smoked quietly for several minutes, +and when he spoke it was with deep feeling. + +"I love that girl, Donovan. I believe she cares for me, or would if +she could get out of all these entanglements. I'm almost ready to burn +that packet and tell Miss Pat she's got to settle with Henry and be +done with it. Let him spend his money and die in disgrace and go to +the devil; anything is better than all this secrecy and mystery that +enmeshes Helen. I'm going to end it; I'm going to end it!" + +We had gone to the library, and he threw himself down in the chair from +which she had spoken of him so short a time before that I seemed still +to feel her presence in the room. + +He was of that youthful, blond type which still sunburns after much +tanning. His short hair was brushed smooth on his well-formed head. +The checks and stripes and hideous color combinations in his raiment, +which Miss Pat had mentioned at our first interview, were, I imagined, +peculiar to his strange humor--a denotement of his willingness to +sacrifice himself to mystify or annoy others. He seemed younger to-day +than I had thought him before; he was a kind, generous, amusing boy, +whose physical strength seemed an anomaly in one so gentle. He did not +understand Helen; and as I reflected that I was not sure I understood +her myself, the heads of the dragon multiplied, and my task at +Annandale grew on my hands. But I wanted to help this boy if it was in +me to do it, and I clapped him on the shoulder. + +"Cheer up, lad! If we can't untie the knot we'll lose no time cutting +the string. There may be some fun in this business before we get +through with it." + +I began telling him of some of my own experiences, and won him to a +cheerier mood. When we came round to the Holbrooks again his +depression had passed, and we were on the best of terms. + +"But there's one thing we can't get away from, Donovan. I've got to +protect Helen; don't you see? I've got to take care of her, whatever +comes." + +"But you can't take care of her father. He's hopeless." + +"I could give him this money myself, couldn't I? I can do it, and I've +about concluded that I ought to do it." + +"But that would be a waste. It would be like giving whisky to a +drunkard. Money has been at the bottom of all this trouble." + +Gillespie threw up his hands with a gesture of helplessness. + +"I shall undoubtedly lose such wits as I have if we don't get somewhere +in this business pretty soon. But, Donovan, there's something I want +to ask you. I don't like to speak of it, but when we were coming away +from that infernal island, after our scrap with the dago, there were +two people walking on the bluff--a man and a woman, and the woman was +nearest us. She seemed to be purposely putting herself in the man's +way so we couldn't see him. It didn't seem possible that Helen could +be there--but?" + +He clearly wished to be assured, and I answered at once: + +"I saw them; it couldn't have been Helen. It was merely a similarity +of figure. I couldn't distinguish her face at all. Very likely they +were Port Annandale cottagers." + +"I thought so myself," he replied, evidently relieved. It did not seem +necessary to tell him of Rosalind at Red Gate; that was my secret, and +I was not yet ready to share it. + +"I've got to talk to somebody, and I want to tell you something, +Donovan. I can't deny that there are times when Helen doesn't +seem--well, all that I have thought her at other times. Sometimes she +seems selfish and hard, and all that. And I know she hasn't treated +Miss Pat right; it isn't square for her to take Miss Pat's bounty and +then work against her. But I make allowances, Donovan." + +"Of course," I acquiesced, wishing to cheer him. "So do I. She has +been hard put in this business. And a man's love can't always be at +par--or a woman's either! The only thing a man ought to exact of the +woman he marries is that she put up a cheerful breakfast-table. +Nothing else counts very much. Start the day right, hand him his +gloves and a kind word at the front door as he sallies forth to the +day's battle, and constancy and devotion will be her reward. I have +spoken words of wisdom. Harken, O Chief Button-maker of the World!" + +The chiming of the bells beyond the Glenarm wall caused him to lift his +head defiantly. I knew what was in his mind. He was in love--or +thought he was, which has been said to be the same thing--and he wanted +to see the girl he loved; and I resolved to aid him in the matter. I +have done some mischief in my life, but real evil I have, I hope, never +done. It occurred to me now that I might do a little good. And for +justification I reasoned that I was already so deep in the affairs of +other people that a little further plunge could do no particular harm. + +"You think her rarely beautiful, don't you, Buttons?" + +"She is the most beautiful woman in the world!" he exclaimed. + +"The type is not without charm. Every man has his ideal in the way of +a type. I will admit that her type is rare," I remarked with +condescension. + +"Rare!" he shouted. "Rare! You speak of her, Irishman, as though she +were a mummy or a gargoyle or--or--" + +"No; I should hardly say that. But there are always others." + +"There are no others--not another one to compare with her! You are +positively brutal when you speak of that girl. You should at least be +just to her; a blind man could feel her beauty even if he couldn't see!" + +"I repeat that it's the type! Propinquity, another pair of dark eyes, +the drooping lash, those slim fingers resting meditatively against a +similar oval olive cheek, and the mischief's done." + +"I don't understand you," he declared blankly, and then the color +flooded his face. "I believe you are in love with her yourself!" And +then, ironically: "Or maybe it's just the type you fancy. Any other +girl, with the same dark eyes, the drooping lash--" + +"You'd never be happy with Helen Holbrook if she married you, +Gillespie. What you need is a clinging vine. Helen isn't that." + +"That is your opinion, is it, Mr. Donovan? You want me to seek my +faith in the arboretum, do you? You mustn't think yourself the +permanent manager of all the Holbrooks and of me, too! I have never +understood just how you broke into this. And I can't see that you have +done much to help anybody, if you must know my opinion." + +"I have every intention of helping you, Buttons. I like you. You have +to me all the marks of a good fellow. My heart goes out to you in this +matter. I want to see you happily married to a woman who will +appreciate you. If you're not careful some girl will marry you for +your money." + +Good humor mastered him again, and he grinned his delightful boyish +grin. + +"I can't for the life of me imagine a girl's marrying me for anything +else," he said. "Can you?" + +"I'll tell you what I'll do for you, my lad," I said. "I'll arrange +for you to see Helen to-night! You shall meet and talk and dance with +her at Port Annandale casino, in the most conventional way in the +world, with me for chaperon. By reason of being Mr. Glenarm's guest +here, I'm _ex officio_ a member of the club. I'll manage everything. +Miss Pat shall know nothing--all on one condition only." + +"Well, name your price." + +"That you shall not mention family affairs to her at all." + +"God knows I shall be delighted to escape them!" His eyes brightened +and he clapped his hands together. "I owe her a pair of gloves on an +old wager. I have them in the village and will bring them over +to-night," he said; but deception was not an easy game for him. I +grinned and he colored. + +"It's not money, Donovan," he said, as hurt as a misjudged child. "I +won't lie to you. I was to meet her at St. Agatha's pier to-night to +give her the gloves." + +"You shall have your opportunity, but those meetings on piers won't do. +I will hand her over to you at the casino at nine o'clock. I suppose I +may have a dance or two?" + +"I suppose so," he said, so grudgingly that I laughed aloud. + +"Remember the compact; try to have a good time and don't talk of +trouble," I enjoined, as we parted. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A BLUE CLOAK AND A SCARLET + + When first we met we did not guess + That Love would prove so hard a master; + Of more than common friendliness + When first we met we did not guess-- + Who could foretell this sore distress-- + This irretrievable disaster + When first we met? We did not guess + That Love would prove so hard a master. + --Robert Bridges. + + +Miss Pat asked me to dine at St. Agatha's that night. The message came +unexpectedly--a line on one of those quaint visiting-cards of hers, +brought by the gardener; and when I had penned my acceptance I at once +sent the following message by Ijima to the boat-maker's house at Red +Gate: + + +To Rosalind at Red Gate: + +It is important for you to appear with me at the Port Annandale casino +to-night, and to meet Reginald Gillespie there. He is pledged to refer +in no way to family affairs. It he should attempt to, you need only +remind him of his promise. He will imagine that you are some one else, +so please be careful not to tax his imagination too far. There is much +at stake which I will explain later. You are to refuse nothing that he +may offer you. I shall come into the creek with the launch and call +for you at Red Gate. + +THE IRISHMAN AT GLENARM. + +The casino dances are very informal. A plain white gown and a few +ribbons. But don't omit your emerald. + + +I was not sure where this project would lead me, but I committed myself +to it with a fair conscience. I reached St. Agatha's just as dinner +was announced and we went out at once to the small dining-room used by +the Sister in charge during vacation, where I faced Miss Pat, with +Helen on one hand and Sister Margaret on the other. They were all in +good humor, even Sister Margaret proving less austere than usual, and +it is not too much to say that we were a merry party. Helen led me +with a particular intention to talk of Irish affairs, and avowed her +own unbelief in the capacity of the Irish for self-government. + +"Now, Helen!" admonished Miss Pat, as our debate waxed warm. + +"Oh, do not spare me! I could not be shot to pieces in a better cause!" + +"The trouble with you people," declared Helen with finality, "is that +you have no staying qualities. The smashing of a few heads +occasionally satisfies your islanders, then down go the necks beneath +the yoke. You are incapable of prolonged war. Now even the Cubans did +better; you must admit that, Mr. Donovan!" + +She met my eyes with a challenge. There was no question as to the +animus of the discussion: she wished me to understand that there was +war between us, and that with no great faith in my wit or powers of +endurance she was setting herself confidently to the business of +defeating my purposes. And I must confess that I liked it in her! + +"If we had you for an advocate our flag would undoubtedly rule the +seas, Miss Holbrook!" + +"I dip my colors," she replied, "only to the long-enduring, not to the +valiant alone!" + +"A lady of high renown," I mused aloud, while Miss Pat poured the +coffee, "a lady of your own name, was once more or less responsible for +a little affair that lasted ten years about the walls of a six-gated +city." + +"I wasn't named for _her_! No sugar to-night, please, Aunt Pat!" + +I stood with her presently by an open window of the parlor, looking out +upon the night. Sister Margaret had vanished about her household +duties; Miss Pat had taken up a book with the rather obvious intention +of leaving us to ourselves. I expected to start at eight for my +rendezvous at Red Gate, and my ear was alert to the chiming of the +chapel clock. The gardener had begun his evening rounds, and paused in +the walk beneath us. + +"Don't you think," asked Helen, "that the guard is rather ridiculous?" + +"Yes, but it pleases my medieval instincts to imagine that you need +defenders. In the absence of a moat the gardener combines in himself +all the apparatus of defense. Ijima is his Asiatic ally." + +"And you, I suppose, are the grand strategist and field marshal." + +"At least that!" + +"After this morning I never expected to ask a favor of you; but if, in +my humblest tone--" + +"Certainly. Anything within reason." + +"I want you to take me to the casino to-night to the dance. I'm tired +of being cooped up here. I want to hear music and see new faces." + +"Do pardon me for not having thought of it before! They dance over +there every Wednesday and Saturday night. I'm sorry that to-night I +have an engagement, but won't you allow me on Saturday?" + +She was resting her arms on the high sill, gazing out upon the lake. I +stood near, watching her, and as she sighed deeply my heart ached for +her; but in a moment she turned her head swiftly with mischief laughing +in her eyes. + +"You have really refused! You have positively declined! You plead +another engagement! This is a place where one's engagements are +burdensome." + +"This one happens to be important." + +She turned round with her back to the window. + +"We are eternal foes; we are fighting it out to a finish; and it is +better that way. But, Mr. Donovan, I haven't played all my cards yet." + +"I look upon you as a resourceful person and I shall be prepared for +the worst. Shall we say Saturday night for the dance?" + +"No!" she exclaimed, tossing her head. "And let me have the +satisfaction of telling you that I could not have gone with you +to-night anyhow. Good-by." + +I found Ijima ready with the launch at Glenarm pier, and, after a swift +flight to the Tippecanoe, knocked at the door of Red Gate. Arthur +Holbrook admitted me, and led the way to the room where, as his +captive, I had first talked with him. + +"We have met before," he said, smiling. "I thought you were an enemy +at that time. Now I believe I may count you a friend." + +"Yes; I should like to prove myself your friend, Mr. Holbrook." + +"Thank you," he said simply; and we shook hands. "You have taken an +interest in my affairs, so my daughter tells me. She is very dear to +me--she is all I have left; you can understand that I wish to avoid +involving her in these family difficulties." + +"I would cut off my right hand before I would risk injuring you or her, +Mr. Holbrook," I replied earnestly. "You have a right to know why I +wish her to visit the casino with me to-night. I know what she does +not know, what only two other people know; I know why you are here." + +"I am very sorry; I regret it very much," he said without surprise but +with deep feeling. The jauntiness with which he carried off our first +interview was gone; he seemed older, and there was no mistaking the +trouble and anxiety in his eyes. He would have said more, but I +interrupted him. + +"As far as I am concerned no one else shall ever know. The persons who +know the truth about you are your brother and yourself. Strangely +enough, Reginald Gillespie does not know. Your sister has not the +slightest idea of it. Your daughter, I assume, has no notion of it--" + +"No! no!" he exclaimed eagerly. "She has not known; she has believed +what I have told her; and now she must never know how stupid, how mad, +I have been." + +"To-night," I said, "your daughter and I will gain possession of the +forged notes. Gillespie will give them to her; and I should like to +hold them for a day or two." + +He was pacing the floor and at this wheeled upon me with doubt and +suspicion clearly written on his face. + +"But I don't see how you can manage it!" + +"Mr. Gillespie is infatuated with your niece." + +"With Helen, who is with my sister at St. Agatha's." + +"I have promised Gillespie that he shall see her to-night at the casino +dance. Your sister is very bitter against him and he is mortally +afraid of her." + +"His father really acted very decently, when you know the truth. But I +don't see how this is to be managed. I should like to possess myself +of those papers, but not at too great a cost. More for Rosalind's sake +than my own now, I should have them." + +"You may not know that your daughter and her cousin are as like as two +human beings can be. I am rather put to it myself to tell them apart." + +"Their mothers were much alike, but they were distinguishable. If you +are proposing a substitution of Rosalind for Helen, I should say to +have a care of it. You may deceive a casual acquaintance, but hardly a +lover." + +"I have carried through worse adventures. Those documents must not get +into--into--unfriendly hands! I have pledged myself that Miss Patricia +shall be kept free from further trouble, and much trouble lies in those +forged notes if your brother gets them. But I hope to do a little more +than protect your sister; I want to get you all out of your +difficulties. There is no reason for your remaining in exile. You owe +it to your daughter to go back to civilization. And your sister needs +you. You saved your brother once; you will pardon me for saying that +you owe him no further mercy." + +He thrust his hands into his pockets and paced the floor a moment, +before he said: + +"You are quite right. But I am sure you will be very careful of my +little girl; she is all I have--quite all I have." + +He went to the hall and called her and bowed with a graceful, +old-fashioned courtesy that reminded me of Miss Pat as Rosalind came +into the room. + +"Will I do, gentlemen all?" she asked gaily. "Do I look the fraud I +feel?" + +She threw off a long scarlet cloak that fell to her heels and stood +before us in white--it was as though she had stepped out of flame. She +turned slowly round, with head bent, submitting herself for our +inspection. + +Her gown was perfectly simple, high at the throat and with sleeves that +clasped her wrists. To my masculine eyes it was of the same piece and +pattern as the gown in which I had left Helen at St. Agatha's an hour +before. + +"I think I read doubt in your mind," she laughed. "You must not tell +me now that you have backed out; I shall try it myself, if you are +weakening. I am anxious for the curtain to rise." + +"There is only one thing: I suggest that you omit that locket. I dined +with her to-night, so my memory is fresh." + +She unclasped the tiny locket that hung from a slight band of velvet at +her throat, and threw it aside; and her father, who was not, I saw, +wholly reconciled to my undertaking, held the cloak for her and led the +way with a lantern through the garden and down to the waterside and +along the creek to the launch where Ijima was in readiness. We quickly +embarked, and the launch stole away through the narrow shores, Holbrook +swinging his lantern back and forth in good-by. I had lingered longer +at the boat-maker's than I intended, and as we neared the upper lake +and the creek broadened Ijima sent the launch forward at full speed. +When we approached Battle Orchard I bade him stop, and hiding our +lantern I took an oar and guided the launch quietly by. Then we went +on into the upper lake at a lively clip. Rosalind sat quietly in the +bow, the hood of her cloak gathered about her head. + +I was taking steering directions from Ijima, but as we neared Port +Annandale I glanced over my shoulder to mark the casino pier lights +when Rosalind sang out: + +"Hard aport--hard!" + +I obeyed, and we passed within oar's length of a sailboat, which, +showing no light, but with mainsail set, was loafing leisurely before +the light west wind. As we veered away I saw a man's figure at the +wheel; another figure showed darkly against the cuddy. + +"Hang out your lights!" I shouted angrily. But there was no reply. + +"The _Stiletto_," muttered Ijima, starting the engine again. + +"We must look out for her going back," I said, as we watched the sloop +merge into shadow. + +The lights of the casino blazed cheerily as we drew up to the pier, and +Rosalind stepped out in good spirits, catching up and humming the waltz +that rang down upon us from the club-house. + +"Lady," I said, "let us see what lands we shall discover." + +"I ought to feel terribly wicked, but I really never felt cheerfuller +in my life," she averred. "But I have one embarrassment!" + +"Well?"--and we paused, while she dropped the hood upon her shoulders. + +"What shall I call this gentleman?" + +"What does _she_ call him? I'm blest if I know! I call him Buttons +usually; Knight of the Rueful Countenance might serve; but very likely +she calls him Reggie." + +"I will try them all," she said. "I think we used to call him Reggie +on Strawberry Hill. Very likely he will detect the fraud at once and I +shan't get very far with him." + +"You shall get as far as you please. Leave it to me. He shall see you +first on the veranda overlooking the water where there are shadows in +plenty, and you had better keep your cloak about you until the first +shock of meeting has passed. Then if he wants you to dance, I will +hold the cloak, like a faithful chaperon, and you may muffle yourself +in it the instant you come out; so even if he has his suspicions he +will have no time to indulge them. He is undoubtedly patrolling the +veranda, looking for us even now. He's a faithful knight!" + +As we passed the open door the dance ceased and a throng of young +people came gaily out to take the air. We joined the procession, and +were accepted without remark. Several men whom I had seen in the +village or met in the highway nodded amiably. Gillespie, I knew, was +waiting somewhere; and I gave Rosalind final admonitions. + +"Now be cheerful! Be cordial! In case of doubt grow moody, and look +out upon the water, as though seeking an answer in the stars. Though I +seem to disappear I shall be hanging about with an eye for +danger-signals. Ah! He approaches! He comes!" + +Gillespie advanced eagerly, with happiness alight in his face. + +"Helen!" he cried, taking her hand; and to me: "You are not so great a +liar after all, Irishman." + +"Oh, Mr. Donovan is the kindest person imaginable," she replied and +turned her head daringly so that the light from a window fell full upon +her, and he gazed at her with frank, boyish admiration. Then she drew +her wrap about her shoulders and sat down on a bench with her face in +shadow, and as I walked away her laughter followed me cheerily. + +I was promptly seized by a young man, who feigned to have met me in +some former incarnation, and introduced to a girl from Detroit whose +name I shall never know in this world. I remember that she danced +well, and that she asked me whether I knew people in Duluth, Pond du +Lac, Paducah and a number of other towns which she recited like a +geographical index. She formed, I think, a high opinion of my sense of +humor, for I laughed at everything she said in my general joy of the +situation. After our third dance I got her an ice and found another +cavalier for her. I did not feel at all as contrite as I should have +felt as I strolled round the veranda toward Rosalind and Gillespie. +They were talking in low tones and did not heed me until I spoke to +them. + +"Oh, it's you, is it?"--and Gillespie looked up at me resentfully. + +"I have been gone two years! It seems to me I am doing pretty well, +all things considered! What have you been talking about?" + + + "'--'Bout Giunts, an' Griffuns, an' Elves, + An' the Squidgicum-Squees 'at swallers therselves!'" + +Rosalind quoted. "I hope you have been enjoying yourself." + +"After a dull fashion, yes." + +"I should like to tell her that! We saw you through the window. She +struck us as very pretty, didn't she, Reggie?" + +"I didn't notice her," Gillespie replied with so little interest that +we both laughed. + +"It's too bad," remarked Rosalind, "that Aunt Pat couldn't have come +with us. It would have been a relief for her to get away from that +dreary school-house." + +"I might go and fetch her," I suggested. + +"If you do," said Gillespie, grinning, "you will not find us here when +you get back." + +Rosalind sighed, as though at the remembrance of her aunt's forlorn +exile; then the music broke out in a two-step. + +"Come! We must have this dance!" she exclaimed, and Gillespie rose +obediently. I followed, exchanging chaff with Rosalind until we came +to the door, where she threw off her cloak for the first time. + +"Lord and Protector, will you do me the honor?" + +It all happened in a moment. I tossed the cloak across my arm +carelessly and she turned to Gillespie without looking at me. He +hesitated--some word faltered on his lips. I think it must have been +the quick transition of her appearance effected by the change from the +rich color of the cloak to the white of her dress that startled him. +She realized the danger of the moment, and put her arm on his arm. + +"We mustn't miss a note of it! Good-by,"--and with a nod to me I next +saw her far away amid the throng of dancers. + +As I caught up the cloak under my arm something crackled under my +fingers, and hurrying to a dark corner of the veranda I found the +pocket and drew forth an envelope. My conscience, I confess, was +agreeably quiescent. You may, if you wish, pronounce my conduct at +several points of this narrative wholly indefensible; but I was engaged +in a sincere effort to straighten out the Holbrook tangle, and Helen +had openly challenged me. If I could carry this deception through +successfully I believed that within a few hours I might bring Henry +Holbrook to terms. As for Gillespie he was far safer with Rosalind +than with Helen. I thrust the envelope into my breast pocket and +settled myself by the veranda rail, where I could look out upon the +lake, and at the same time keep an eye on the ball-room. And, to be +frank about it, I felt rather pleased with myself! It would do Helen +no great harm to wait for Gillespie on St. Agatha's pier: the +discipline of disappointment would be good for her. Vigorous +hand-clapping demanded a repetition of the popular two-step of the +hour, and I saw Rosalind and Gillespie swing into the dance as the +music struck up again. + +Somewhere beneath I heard the rumble and bang of a bowling-alley above +the music. Then my eyes, roaming the lake, fell upon the casino pier +below. Some one was coming toward me--a girl wrapped in a long cloak +who had apparently just landed from a boat. She moved swiftly toward +the casino. I saw her and lost her again as she passed in and out of +the light of the pier lamps. A dozen times the shadows caught her +away; a dozen times the pier lights flashed upon her; and at last I was +aware that it was Helen Holbrook, walking swiftly, as though upon an +urgent errand. I ran down the steps and met her luckily on a deserted +stretch of board walk. I was prepared for an angry outburst, but +hardly for the sword-like glitter of her first words. + +"This is infamous! It is outrageous! I did not believe that even you +would be guilty of this!" + +The two-step was swinging on to its conclusion, and I knew that the +casino entrance was not the place for a scene with an angry girl. + +"I am anything you like; but please come to a place where we can talk +quietly." + +"I will not! I will not be tricked by you again." + +"You will come along with me, at once and quietly," I said; and to my +surprise she walked up the steps beside me. As we passed the ball-room +door the music climbed to its climax and ended. + +"Come, let us go to the farther end of the veranda." + +When we had reached a quiet corner she broke out upon me again. + +"If you have done what I think you have done, what I might have known +you would do, I shall punish you terribly--you and her!" + +"You may punish me all you like, but you shall not punish her!" I said +with her own emphasis. + +"Reginald promised me some papers to-night--my father had asked me to +get them for him. She does not know, this cousin of mine, what they +are, what her father is! It is left for you to bring the shame upon +her." + +"It had better be I than you, in your present frame of mind!"--and the +pity welled in my heart. I must save her from the heartache that lay +in the truth. If I failed in this I should fail indeed. + +"Do you want her to know that her father is a forger--a felon? That is +what you are telling her, if you trick Reginald into giving her those +papers he was to give me for my father!" + +"She hasn't those papers. I have them. They are in my pocket, quite +safe from all of you. You are altogether too vindictive, you +Holbrooks! I have no intention of trusting you with such high +explosives." + +"Reginald shall take them away from you. He is not a child to be +played with--duped in this fashion." + +"Reginald is a good fellow. He will always love me for this--" + +"For cheating him? Don't you suppose he will resent it? Don't you +think he knows me from every other girl in the world?" + +"No, I do not. In fact I have proved that he doesn't. You see, Miss +Holbrook, he gave her the documents in the case without a question." + +"And she dutifully passed them on to you!" + +"Nothing of the kind, my dear Miss Holbrook! I took them out of her +cloak pocket." + +"That is quite in keeping!" + +"I'm not done yet! Pardon me, but I want you to exchange cloaks with +me. You shall have Reginald in a moment, and we will make sure that he +is deceived by letting him take you home. You are as like as two +peas--in everything except temper, humor and such trifles; but your +cloaks are quite different. Please!" + +"I will not!" + +"Please!" + +"You are despicable, despicable!" + +"I am really the best friend you have in the world. Again, will you +kindly exchange cloaks with me? Yours is blue, isn't it? I think +Reginald knows blue from red. Ah, thank you! Now, I want you to +promise to say nothing as he takes you home about papers, your father, +your uncle or your aunt. You will talk to him of times when you were +children at Stamford, and things like that, in a dreamy reminiscential +key. If he speaks of things that you don't exactly understand, refers +to what he has said to your cousin here to-night, you need only fend +him off; tell him the incident is closed. When I bring him to you in +ten minutes it will be with the understanding that he is to take you +back to St. Agatha's at once. He has his launch at the casino pier; +you needn't say anything to him when you land, only that you must get +home quietly, so Miss Pat shan't know you have been out. Your exits +and your entrances are your own affair. Now I hope you see the wisdom +of obeying me, absolutely." + +"I didn't know that I could hate you so much!" she said quietly. "But +I shall not forget this. I shall let you see before I am a day older +that you are not quite the master you think you are: suppose I tell him +how you have played with him." + +"Then before you are three hours older I shall precipitate a crisis +that you will not like, Miss Holbrook. I advise you, as your best +friend, to do what I ask." + +She shrugged her shoulders, drew the scarlet cloak more closely about +her, and I left her gazing off into the strip of wood that lay close +upon the inland side of the club-house. I was by no means sure of her, +but there was no time for further parley. I dropped the blue cloak on +a chair in a corner and hurried round to the door of the ball-room, +meeting Rosalind and Gillespie coming out flushed with their dance. + +"The hour of enchantment is almost past. I must have one turn before +the princess goes back to her castle!"--and Rosalind took my arm. + +"Meet me at the landing in two minutes, Gillespie! As a special +favor--as a particular kindness--I shall allow you to take the princess +home!" And I hurried Rosalind away, regained the blue cloak, and flung +it about her. + +"Well," she said, drawing the hood over her head, "who am I, anyhow!" + +"Don't ask me such questions! I'm afraid to say." + +"I like your air of business. You are undoubtedly a man of action!" + +"I thank you for the word. I'm breathing hard. I have seen ghosts and +communed with dragons. She's here! your _alter ego_ is on this very +veranda more angry than it is well for a woman to be." + +"Oh," she faltered, "she found out and followed?" + +"She did; she undoubtedly did!" + +As we paused under one of the veranda lamps she looked down at the +cloak and laughed. + +"So this is hers! I thought it didn't feel quite right. But that pair +of gloves!" + +"It's in my pocket. I have stolen it!" I led the way to the lower +veranda of the casino, which was now de-a sorted. "Stay right here and +appear deeply interested in the heavens above and the waters under the +earth until I get back." + +I ran up the stairs again and found Helen where I had left her. + +"And now," I said, giving her my arm, "you will not forget the rules of +the game! Your fortunes, and your father's are brighter to-night than +they have ever been. You hate me to the point of desperation, but +remember I am your friend after all." + +She stopped abruptly, hesitating. I felt indecision in the lessening +touch upon my arm, and I saw it in her eyes as the light from the +ball-room door flooded us. + +"You have taken everything away from me! You are playing Reginald +against me." + +"Possibly--who knows! I supposed you had more faith in your powers +than that!" + +"I have no faith in anything," she said dejectedly. + +"Oh, yes, you have! You have an immense amount of faith in yourself. +And you know you care nothing at all about Reginald Gillespie; he's a +nice boy, but that's all." + +"You are contemptible and wicked!" she flared. "Let us go." + +Gillespie's launch was ready when we reached the pier, and after he had +handed her into it he plucked my sleeve, and held me for an instant. + +"Don't you see how wrong you are! She is superb! She is not only the +most beautiful girl in the world, but the dearest, the sweetest, the +kindest and best. You have served me better than you know, old man, +and I'm grateful!" + +In a moment they were well under way and I ran back to the club-house +and found Rosalind where I had left her. + +"We must go at once," she said. "Father will be very anxious to know +how it all came out." + +"But what did you think of Buttons?" + +"He's very nice," she said. + +"Is that all? It doesn't seem conclusive, some way!" + +"Oh, he's very kind and gentle, and anxious to please. But I felt like +a criminal all the time." + +"You seemed to be a very cheerful criminal. I suppose it was only the +excitement that kept you going." + +"Of course that was it! I was wondering what to call it. I'm afraid +the Sisters at the convent would have a less pleasant word for it." + +"Well, you are not in school now; and I think we have done a good +night's work for everybody concerned. But tell me, did he make love +acceptably?" + +"I suppose that was what he was doing, sir," she replied demurely, +averting her head. + +"Suppose?" I laughed. + +"Yes; you see, it was my first experience. And he is really very nice, +and so honest and kind and gentle that I felt sorry for him." + +"Ah! You were sorry for him! Then it's all over, I'm clear out of it. +When a woman is sorry for a man--tchk! But tell me, how did his +advances compare with mine on those occasions when we met over there by +St. Agatha's? I did my best to be entertaining." + +"Oh, he is much more earnest than you ever could be. I never had any +illusions about you, Mr. Donovan. You just amuse yourself with the +nearest girl, and, besides, for a long time you thought I was Helen. +Mr. Gillespie is terribly in earnest. When he was talking to me back +there in the corner I didn't remember at all that it was he who drove a +goat-team in Central Park to rebuke the policeman!" + +"No; I suppose with the stage properly set,--with the music and the +stars and the water,--one might forget Mr. Gillespie's mild +idiosyncrasies." + +"But you haven't told me about Helen. Of course she saw through the +trick at once." + +"She did," I answered, in a tone that caused Rosalind to laugh. + +"Well, you wouldn't hurt poor little me if she scolded you!" + +We were on the pier, and I whistled to Ijima to bring up the launch. +In a moment we were skimming over the lake toward the Tippecanoe. + +Arthur Holbrook was waiting for us in the creek. + +"It is all right," I said. "I shall keep the papers for the present, +if you don't mind, but your troubles are nearly over." And I left +Rosalind laughingly explaining to her father how it came about that she +had gone to the casino in a scarlet cloak but had returned in a blue +one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +MR. GILLESPIE'S DIVERSIONS + + Patience or Prudence,--what you will, + Some prefix faintly fragrant still + As those old musky scents that fill + Our grandmas' pillows; + And for her youthful portrait take + Some long-waist child of Hudson's make, + Stiffly at ease beside a lake + With swans and willows. + --_Austin Dobson_. + + +In my own room I drew the blinds for greater security, lighted the +desk-lamp and sat down before the packet Gillespie had given Rosalind. +It was a brown commercial envelope, thrice sealed, and addressed, "R. +Gillespie: Personal." In a corner was written "Holbrook Papers." I +turned the packet over and over in my hands, reflecting upon my +responsibility and duty in regard to it. Henry Holbrook, in his +anxiety to secure the notes, had taken advantage of Gillespie's +infatuation for Helen to make her his agent for procuring them, and now +it was for me to use the forged notes as a means of restoring Arthur +Holbrook to his sister's confidence. The way seemed clear enough, and +I went to bed resolving that in the morning I should go to Henry +Holbrook, tell him that I had the evidence of his guilt in my +possession and threaten him with exposure if he did not cease his mad +efforts to blackmail his sister. + +I rose early and perfected my plans for the day as I breakfasted. A +storm had passed round us in the night and it was bright and cool, with +a sharp wind beating the lake into tiny whitecaps. It was not yet +eight o'clock when I left the house for my journey in search of Henry +Holbrook. The envelope containing the forged notes was safely locked +in the vault in which the Glenarm silver was stored. As I stepped down +into the park I caught sight of Miss Pat walking in the garden beyond +the wall, and as I lifted my cap she came toward the iron gate. She +was rarely abroad so early and I imagined that she had been waiting for +me. + +The chill of the air was unseasonable, and in her long coat her slight +figure seemed smaller than ever. She smiled her grave smile, but there +was, I thought, an unusual twinkle in her gentle eyes. She wore for +the first time a lace cap that gave a new delicacy to her face. + +"You are abroad early, my lord," she said, with the delicious quaint +mockery with which she sometimes flattered me. And she repeated the +lines: + + "Hast thou seen ghosts? Hast thou at midnight heard + In the wind's talking an articulate word? + Or art thou in the secret of the sea, + And have the twilight woods confessed to thee?" + + +"No such pleasant things have happened to me, Miss Holbrook." + +"This is my birthday. I have crowned myself--observe the cap!" + +"We must celebrate! I crave the privilege of dining you to-night." + +"You were starting for somewhere with an air of determination. Don't +let me interfere with your plans." + +"I was going to the boat-house," I answered truthfully. + +"Let me come along. I am turned sixty-five, and I think I am entitled +to do as I please; don't you?" + +"I do, indeed, but that is no reason. You are no more sixty-five than +I am. The cap, if you will pardon me, only proclaims your immunity +from the blasts of Time." + +"I wish I had known you at twenty," she said brightly, as we went on +together. + +"My subjection could not have been more complete." + +"Do you make speeches like that to Helen?" + +"If I do it is with less inspiration!" + +"You must stop chaffing me. I am not sixty-five for nothing and I +don't think you are naturally disrespectful." + +When we reached the boat-house she took a chair on the little veranda +and smiled as though something greatly amused her. + +"Mr. Donovan--I am sixty-five, as I have said before--may I call you--" + +"Larry! and gladden me forever!" + +"Then, Larry, what a lot of frauds we all are!" + +"I suppose we are," I admitted doubtfully, not sure where the joke lay. + +"You have been trying to be very kind to me, haven't you?" + +"I have accomplished nothing." + +"You have tried to make my way easy here; and you have had no end of +trouble. I am not as dull as I look, Larry." + +"If I have deceived you it has been with an honest purpose." + +"I don't question that. But Helen has been giving you a great deal of +trouble, hasn't she? You don't quite make her out; isn't that true?" + +"I understand her perfectly," I averred recklessly. + +"You are a daring young man, Larry, to make that statement of any +woman. Helen has not always dealt honestly with you--or me!" + +"She is the noblest girl in the world; she is splendid beyond any words +of mine. I don't understand what you mean, Miss Holbrook." + +"Larry, you dear boy, I am no more blind or deaf than I am dumb! Helen +has been seeing her father and Reginald Gillespie. She has run off at +night, thinking I wouldn't know it. She is an extremely clever young +woman, but when she has made a feint of retiring early, only to creep +out and drop down from the dining-room balcony and dodge your guards, I +have known it. She was away last night and came creeping in like a +thief. It has amused me, Larry; it has furnished me real diversion. +The only thing that puzzles me is that I don't quite see where you +stand." + +"I haven't always been sure myself, to be frank about it!" + +"Why not tell me just how it is: whether Helen has been amusing herself +with you, or you with Helen." + +"Oh!" I laughed. "When you came here you told me she was the finest +girl in the world, and I accepted your word for it. I have every +confidence in your judgment, and you have known your niece for a long +time." + +"I have indeed." + +"And I'm sure you wouldn't have deceived me!" + +"But I did! I wanted to interest you in her. Something in your eye +told me that you might do great things for her." + +"Thank you!" + +"But instead of that you have played into her hands. Why did you let +her steal out at night to meet her father, when you knew that could +only do her and me a grave injury? And you have aided her in seeing +Gillespie, when I particularly warned you that he was most repugnant to +me." + +I laughed in spite of myself as I remembered the night's adventure; and +Miss Pat stopped short in the path and faced me with the least glint of +anger in her eyes. + +"I really didn't think you capable of it! She will marry him for his +money!" + +"Take my word for it, she will do nothing of the kind." + +"You are under her spell, and you don't know her! I +think--sometimes--I think the girl has no soul!" she said at last. + +The dear voice faltered, and the tears flashed into Miss Pat's eyes as +she confronted, me in the woodland path. + +"Oh, no! It's not so bad as that!" I pleaded. + +"I tell you she has no soul! You will find it out to your cost. She +is made for nothing but mischief in this world!" + +"I am your humble servant, Miss Holbrook." + +"Then," she began doubtfully, and meeting my eyes with careful +scrutiny, "I am going to ask you to do one thing more for me, that we +may settle all this disagreeable affair. I am going to pay Henry his +money; but before I do so I must find my brother Arthur, if he is still +alive. That may have some difficulties." + +She looked at me as though for approval; then went on. + +"I have been thinking of all these matters carefully since I came here. +Henry has forfeited his right to further inheritance by his +contemptible, cowardly treatment of me; but I am willing to forgive all +that he has done. He was greatly provoked; it would not be fair for me +to hold those things against him. As between him and Arthur; as +between him and Arthur--" + +Her gaze lay across the twinkling lake, and her voice was tremulous. +She spoke softly as though to herself, and I caught phrases of the +paragraph of her father's will that Gillespie had read to me: +"_Dishonor as it is known, accounted and reckoned among men_;"--and she +bowed her head on the veranda rail a moment; then she rose suddenly and +smiled bravely through her tears. + +"Why can't you find Arthur for me? Ah, it you could only find him +there might be peace between us all; for I am very old, Larry. Age +without peace is like life without hope. I can not believe that Arthur +is dead. I must see him again. Larry, if he is alive find him and +tell him to come to me." + +"Yes," I said; "I know where he is!" + +She started in amazement and coming close, her hands closed upon my arm +eagerly. + +"It can't be possible! You know where he is and you will bring him to +me?" + +She was pitifully eager and the tears were bright in her eyes. + +"Be assured of it. Miss Holbrook. He is near by and well; but you +must not trouble about him or about anything. And now I am going to +take you home. Come! There is much to do, and I must be off. But you +will keep a good heart; you are near the end of your difficulties." + +She was quite herself again when we reached St. Agatha's, but at the +door she detained me a moment. + +"I like you, Larry!" she said, taking my hand; and my own mother had +not given me sweeter benediction. "I never intended that Helen should +play with you. She may serve me as she likes, but I don't want her to +singe your wings, Larry." + +"I have been shot at in three languages, and half drowned in others, +and rewards have been offered for me. Do you think I'm going down +before a mere matter of _beaux yeux_! Think better of me than that!" + +"But she is treacherous; she will deliver you to the Philistines +without losing a heart-beat." + +"She could, Miss Patricia, but she won't!" + +"She has every intention of marrying Gillespie; he's the richest man +she knows!" + +"I swear to you that she shall not marry Gillespie!" + +"She would do it to annoy me if for nothing else." + +I took both her hands--they were like rose-leaves, those dear slightly +tremulous hands! + +"Now, Miss Pat--I'm going to call you Miss Pat because we're such old +friends, and we're just contemporaries, anyhow--now, Miss Pat, Helen is +not half so wicked as she thinks she is. Gillespie and I are on the +best of terms. He's a thoroughly good fellow and not half the fool he +looks. And he will never marry Helen!" + +"I should like to know what's going to prevent her from marrying him!" +she demanded as I stepped back and turned to go. + +"Oh, I am, if you must know! I have every intention of marrying her +myself!" + +I ran away from the protest that was faltering upon her lips, and +strode through the garden. I had just reached Glenarm gate on my way +back to the boat-house when a woman's voice called softly and Sister +Margaret hurried round a turn of the garden path. + +"Mr. Donovan!" + +There was anxiety in the voice, and more anxious still was Sister +Margaret's face as she came toward me in her brown habit, her hands +clasped tensely before her. She had evidently been watching for me, +and drew back from the gate into a quiet recess of the garden. Her +usual repose was gone and her face, under its white coif, showed +plainly her distress. + +"I have bad news--Miss Helen has gone! I'm afraid something has +happened to her." + +"She can't have gone far, Sister Margaret. When did you miss her?" I +asked quietly; but I confess that I was badly shaken. My confident +talk about the girl with Miss Pat but a moment before echoed ironically +in my memory. + +"She did not come down for breakfast with her aunt or me, but I thought +nothing of it, as I have urged both of them to breakfast up-stairs. +Miss Patricia went out for a walk. An hour ago I tried Helen's door +and found it unlocked and her room empty. When or how she left I don't +know. She seems to have taken nothing with her." + +"Can you tell a lie, Sister Margaret?" + +She stared at me with so shocked an air that I laughed. "A lie in a +good cause, I mean? Miss Pat must not know that her niece has gone--if +she has gone! She has probably taken one of the canoes for a morning +paddle; or, we will assume that she has borrowed one of the Glenarm +horses, as she has every right to do, for a morning gallop, and that +she has lost her way or gone farther than she intended. There are a +thousand explanations!" + +"But they hardly touch the fact that she was gone all night; or that a +strange man brought a note addressed in Helen's handwriting to her aunt +only an hour ago." + +"Kidnapped!"--and I laughed aloud as the meaning of her disappearance +flashed upon me! + +"I don't like your way of treating this matter!" said Sister Margaret +icily. "The girl may die before she can be brought back." + +"No, she won't--my word for it, Sister Margaret. Please give me the +letter!" + +"But it is not for you!" + +"Oh, yes, it is! You wouldn't have Miss Pat subjected to the shock of +a demand for ransom. Worse than that, Miss Pat has little enough faith +in Helen as it is; and such a move as this would be final. This +kidnapping is partly designed as a punishment for me, and I propose to +take care of it without letting Miss Pat know. She shall never know!" + +Sister Margaret, only half convinced, drew an envelope from her girdle +and gave it to me doubtfully. I glanced at the superscription and then +tore it across, repeating the process until it was a mass of tiny +particles, which I poured into Sister Margaret's hands. + +"Burn them! Now Miss Pat will undoubtedly ask for her niece at once. +I suggest that you take care that she is not distressed by Helen's +absence. If it is necessary to reward your house-maid for her +discretion--" I said with hesitation. + +"Oh, I disarranged Helen's bed so that the maid wouldn't know!"--and +Sister Margaret blushed. + +"Splendid! I can teach you nothing, Sister Margaret! Please help me +this much further: get one of Miss Helen's dresses--that blue one she +plays tennis in, perhaps--and put it in a bag of some kind and give it +to my Jap when he calls for it in ten minutes. Now listen to me +carefully, Sister Margaret: I shall meet you here at twelve o'clock +with a girl who shall be, to all intents and purposes, Helen Holbrook. +In fact, she will be some one else. Now I expect you to carry off the +situation through luncheon and until nightfall, when I expect to bring +Helen--the real Helen--back here. Meanwhile, tell Miss Pat anything +you like, quoting me! Good-by!" + +I left her abruptly and was running toward Glenarm House to rouse +Ijima, when I bumped into Gillespie, who had been told at the house +that I was somewhere in the grounds. + +"What's doing, Irishman?" he demanded. + +"Nothing, Buttons; I'm just exercising." + +His white flannels were as fresh as the morning, and he wore a little +blue cap perched saucily on the side of his head. + +"I was pondering," he began, "the futility of man's effort to be +helpful toward his fellows." + +He leaned upon his stick and eyed me with solemn vacuity. + +"I suppose I'll have to hear it; go on." + +"I was always told in my youth that when an opportunity to do good +offered one should seize upon it at once. No hesitation, no trifling! +Only a few years ago I wandered into a little church in a hill town of +Massachusetts where I waited for the Boston Express. It was a +beautiful Sunday evening--I shall never forget it!" he sighed. "I am +uncertain whether I was led thither by good impulse, or only because +the pews were more comfortable than the benches at the railway station. +I arrived early and an usher seated me up front near a window and gave +me an armful of books and a pamphlet on foreign missions. Other people +began to come in pretty soon; and then I heard a lot of giggling and a +couple of church pillars began chasing a stray dog up and down the +aisles. I was placing my money on the taller pillar; he had the best +reach of leg, and, besides, the other chap had side whiskers, which are +not good for sprinting,--they offer just so much more resistance to the +wind. The unseemliness of the thing offended my sense of propriety. +The sound of the chase broke in harshly upon my study of Congo +missions. After much pursuing the dog sought refuge between my legs. +I picked him up tenderly in my arms and dropped him gently, Donovan, +gently, from the window. Now wasn't that seizing an opportunity when +you found it, so to speak, underfoot?" + +"No doubt of it at all. Hurry with the rest of it, Buttons!" + +"Well, that pup fell with a sickening yelp through a skylight into the +basement where the choir was vesting itself, and hit a bishop--actually +struck a young and promising bishop who had never done anything to me. +They got the constable and made a horrible row, and besides paying for +the skylight I had to give the church a new organ to square myself with +the bishop, who was a friend of a friend of mine in Kentucky who once +gave me a tip on the Derby. Since then the very thought of foreign +missions makes me ill, I always hear that dog--it was the usual village +mongrel of evil ancestry--crashing through the skylight. What's doing +this morning, Irishman?" + +I linked my arm in his and led the way toward Glenarm House. There was +much to be done before I could bring together the warring members of +the house of Holbrook, and Gillespie could, I felt, be relied on in +emergencies. He broke forth at once. + +"I want to see her--I've got to see her!" + +"Who--Helen? Then you'll have to wait a while, for she's gone for a +paddle or a gallop, I'm not sure which, and won't be back for a couple +of hours. But you have grown too daring. Miss Pat is still here, and +you can't expect me to arrange meetings for you every day in the year." + +"I've got to see her," he repeated, and his tone was utterly joyless. +"I don't understand her, Donovan." + +"Man is not expected to understand woman, my dear Buttons. At the +casino last night everything was as gay as an octogenarian's birthday +cake." + +He stopped in the shadow of the house and seized my arm. + +"You told her something about me last night. She was all right until +you took her away and talked with her at the casino. On the way home +she was moody and queer--a different girl altogether. You are not on +the square; you are playing on too many sides of this game." + +"You're in love, that's all. These suspicions and apprehensions are +leading symptoms. Up there at the casino, with the water washing +beneath and the stars overhead and the band playing waltzes, a spell +was upon you both. Even a hardened old sinner like me could feel it. +I've had palpitations all day! Cheer up! In your own happy phrase, +everything points to plus." + +"I tell you she turned on me, and that you are responsible for +it!"--and he glared at me angrily. + +"Now, Buttons! You're not going to take that attitude toward me, after +all I have done for you! I really took some trouble to arrange that +little meeting last night; and here you come with sad eye and mournful +voice and rebuke me!" + +"I tell you she was different. She had never been so kind to me as she +was there at the casino; but as we came back she changed, and was ready +to fling me aside. I asked her to leave this place and marry me +to-day, and she only laughed at me!" + +"Now, Buttons, you are letting your imagination get the better of your +common sense. If you're going to take your lady's moods so hard you'd +better give up trying to understand the ways of woman. It's wholly +possible that Helen was tired and didn't want to be made love to. It +seems to me that you are singularly lacking in consideration. But I +can't talk to you all morning; I have other things to do; but if you +will find a cool corner of the house and look at picture-books until +I'm free I'll promise to be best man for you when you're married; and I +predict your marriage before Christmas--a happy union of the ancient +houses of Holbrook and Gillespie. Run along like a good boy and don't +let Miss Pat catch sight of you." + +"Do you keep a goat, a donkey or a mule--any of the more ruminative +animals?" he asked with his saddest intonation. + +"The cook keeps a parrot, and there's a donkey in one of the pastures." + +"Good. Are his powers of vocalization unimpaired?" + +"First rate. I occasionally hear his vesper hymn. He's in good voice." + +"Then I may speak to him, soul to soul, if I find that I bore myself." + +We climbed the steps to the cool shadows of the terrace. As we stood a +moment looking out on the lake we saw, far away toward the northern +shore, the _Stiletto_, that seemed just to have slipped out from the +lower lake. The humor of the situation pleased me; Helen was off there +in the sloop playing at being kidnapped to harass her aunt into coming +to terms with Henry Holbrook, and she was doubtless rejoicing in the +fact that she had effected a combination of events that would make her +father's case irresistible. + +But there was no time to lose. I made Gillespie comfortable indoors +and sent Ijima to get the bag I had asked for; and a few minutes later +the launch was skimming over the water toward the canoe-maker's house +at Red Gate. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE ROCKET SIGNAL + + Blow up the trumpet in the new moon. + --_The Psalter_. + + +Rosalind was cutting sweet peas in the garden where they climbed high +upon a filmy net, humming softly to herself. She was culling out white +ones, which somehow suggested her own white butterflies--a proper +business for any girl on a sunny morning, with the dew still bright +where the shadows lay, with bird-wings flashing about her, and the +kindliest of airs blowing her hair. + +"A penny for your thoughts!" I challenged. + +She snipped an imaginary flower from the air in my direction. + +"Keep your money! I was not thinking of you! You wear, sir, an intent +commercial air; have you thread and needles in your pack?" + +"It is ordained that we continue the game of last night. To-day you +are to invade the very citadel and deceive your aunt. Your cousin has +left without notice and the situation demands prompt action." + +I was already carrying the suit-case toward the house, explaining as we +walked along together. + +"But was I so successful last night? Was he really deceived, or did he +just play that he was?" + +"He's madly in love with you. You stole away all his senses. But he +thought you changed toward him unaccountably on the way home." + +"But why didn't she tell him?--she must have told him." + +"Oh, I took care of that! I rather warned her against betraying us. +And now she's trying to punish me by being kidnapped!" + +Rosalind paused at the threshold, gathering the stems of the sweet peas +in her hands. + +"Do you think," she began, "do you think he really liked me--I mean the +real me?" + +"Like you! That is not the right word for it. He's gloomily dreaming +of you--the real you--at this very moment over at Glenarm. But do +hasten into these things that Sister Margaret picked out for you. I +must see your father before I carry you off. We've no time to waste, I +can tell you!" + +The canoe-maker heard my story in silence and shook his head. + +"It is impossible; we should only get into deeper trouble. I have no +great faith in this resemblance. It may have worked once on young +Gillespie, but women have sharper eyes." + +"But it must be tried!" I pleaded. "We are approaching the end of +these troubles, and nothing must be allowed to interfere. Your sister +wishes to see you; this is her birthday." + +"So it is! So it is!" exclaimed the canoe-maker with feeling. + +"Helen must be saved from her own folly. Her aunt must not know of +this latest exploit; it would ruin everything." + +As we debated Rosalind joined her persuasions to mine. + +"Aunt Pat must not know what Helen has done if we can help it," she +said. + +While she changed her clothes I talked on at the house-boat with her +father. + +"My sister has asked for me?" + +"Yes; your sister is ready to settle with Henry; but she wishes to see +you first. She has begged me to find you; but Helen must go back to +her aunt. This fraudulent kidnapping must never be known to Miss Pat. +And on the other hand, I hope it may not be necessary for Helen to know +the truth about her father." + +"I dare say she would sacrifice my own daughter quickly enough," he +said. + +"No; you are wrong; I do not believe it! She is making no war on you, +or on her aunt! It's against me! She enjoys a contest; she's trying +to beat me." + +"She believes that I forged the Gillespie notes and ruined her father. +Henry has undoubtedly told her so." + +"Yes; and he has used her to get them away from young Gillespie. +There's no question about that. But I have the notes, and I propose +holding them for your protection. But I don't want to use them if I +can help it." + +"I appreciate what you are doing for me," he said quietly, but his eyes +were still troubled and I saw that he had little faith in the outcome. + +"Your sister is disposed to deal generously with Henry. She does not +know where the dishonor lies." + +"'We are all honorable men,'" he replied bitterly, slowly pacing the +floor. His sleeves were rolled away from his sun-browned arms, his +shirt was open at the throat, and though he wore the rough clothes of a +mechanic he looked more the artist at work in a rural studio than the +canoe-maker of the Tippecanoe. He walked to a window and looked down +for a moment upon the singing creek, then came back to me and spoke in +a different tone. + +"I have given these years of my life to protecting my brother, and they +must not be wasted. I have nothing to say against him; I shall keep +silent." + +"He has forfeited every right. Now is your time to punish him," I +said; but Arthur Holbrook only looked at me pityingly. + +"I don't want revenge, Mr. Donovan, but I am almost in a mood for +justice," he said with a rueful smile; and just then Rosalind entered +the shop. + +"Is my fate decided?" she demanded. + +The sight of her seemed to renew the canoe-maker's distress, and I led +the way at once to the door. I think that in spite of my efforts to be +gay and to carry the affair off lightly, we all felt that the day was +momentous. + +"When shall I expect you back?" asked Holbrook, when we had reached the +launch. + +"Early to-night," I answered. + +"But if anything should happen here?" The tears flashed in Rosalind's +eyes, and she clung a moment to his hand. + +"He will hardly be troubled by daylight, and this evening he can send +up a rocket if any one molests him. Go ahead, Ijima!" + +As we cleared Battle Orchard and sped on toward Glenarm there was a +sting in the wind, and Lake Annandale had fretted itself into foam. We +saw the _Stiletto_ running prettily before the wind along the Glenarm +shore, and I stopped the engine before crossing her wake and let the +launch jump the waves. Helen would not, I hoped, believe me capable of +attempting to palm off Rosalind on Miss Pat; and I had no wish to +undeceive her. My passenger had wrapped herself in my mackintosh and +taken my cap, so that at the distance at which we passed she was not +recognizable. + +Sister Margaret was waiting for us at the Glenarm pier. I had been a +little afraid of Sister Margaret. It was presuming a good deal to take +her into the conspiracy, and I stood by in apprehension while she +scrutinized Rosalind. She was clearly bewildered and drew close to the +girl, as Rosalind threw off the wet mackintosh and flung down the +dripping cap. + +"Will she do, Sister Margaret?" + +"I believe she will; I really believe she will!" And the Sister's face +brightened with relief. She had a color in her face that I had not +seen before, as the joy of the situation took hold of her. She was, I +realized, a woman after all, and a young woman at that, with a heart +not hardened against life's daily adventures. + +"It is time for luncheon. Miss Pat expects you, too." + +"Then I must leave you to instruct Miss Holbrook and carry off the +first meeting. Miss Holbrook has been--" + +"--For a long walk"--the Sister supplied--"and will enter St. Agatha's +parlor a little tired from her tramp. She shall go at once to her +room--with me. I have put out a white gown for her; and at luncheon we +will talk only of safe things." + +"And I shall have this bouquet of sweet peas," added Rosalind, "that I +brought from a farmer's garden near by, as an offering for Aunt Pat's +birthday. And you will both be there to keep me from making mistakes." + +"Then after luncheon we shall drive until Miss Pat's birthday dinner; +and the dinner shall be on the terrace at Glenarm, which is even now +being decorated for a fête occasion. And before the night is old Helen +shall be back. Good luck attend us all!" I said; and we parted in the +best of spirits. + +I had forgotten Gillespie, and was surprised to find him at the table +in my room, absorbed in business papers. + +"'Button, button, who's got the button!'" he chanted as he looked me +over. "You appear to have been swimming in your clothes. I had my +mail sent out here. I've got to shut down the factory at Ponsocket. +The thought of it bores me extravagantly. What time's luncheon?" + +"Whenever you ring three times. I'm lunching out." + +"Ladies?" he asked, raising his brows. "You appear to be a little +social favorite; couldn't you get me in on something? How about +dinner?" + +"I am myself entertaining at dinner; and your name isn't on the list, +I'm sorry to say, Buttons. But to-morrow! Everything will be possible +to-morrow. I expect Miss Pat and Helen here to-night. It's Miss Pat's +birthday, and I want to make it a happy day for her. She's going to +settle with Henry as soon as some preliminaries are arranged, so the +war's nearly over." + +"She can't settle with him until something definite is known about +Arthur. If he's really dead--" + +"I've promised to settle that; but I must hurry now. Will you meet me +at the Glenarm boat-house at eight? If I'm not there; wait. I shall +have something for you to do." + +"Meanwhile I'm turned out of your house, am I? But I positively +decline to go until I'm fed." + +As I got into a fresh coat he played a lively tune on the electric +bell, and I left him giving his orders to the butler. + +I was reassured by the sound of voices as I passed under the windows of +St. Agatha's, and Sister Margaret met me in the hall with a smiling +face. + +"Luncheon waits. We will go out at once. Everything has passed off +smoothly, perfectly." + +I did not dare look at Rosalind until we were seated in the +dining-room. Her sweet peas graced the center of the round table, and +Sister Margaret had placed them in a tall vase so that Rosalind was +well screened from her aunt's direct gaze. The Sister had managed +admirably. Rosalind's hair was swept up in exactly Helen's pompadour; +and in one of Helen's white gowns, with Helen's own particular shade of +scarlet ribbon at her throat and waist, the resemblance was even more +complete than I had thought it before. But we were cast at once upon +deep waters. + +"Helen, where did you find that article on Charles Lamb you read the +other evening? I have looked for it everywhere." + +Rosalind took rather more time than was necessary to help herself to +the asparagus, and my heart sank; but Sister Margaret promptly saved +the day. + +"It was in the _Round World_. That article we were reading on The +Authorship of the Collects is in the same number." + +"Yes; of course," said Rosalind, turning to me. + +Art seemed a safe topic; and I steered for the open, and spoke in a +large way, out of my ignorance, of Michelangelo's influence, winding up +presently with a suggestion that Miss Pat should have her portrait +painted. This was a successful stroke, for we all fell into a +discussion of contemporaneous portrait painters about whom Sister +Margaret fortunately knew something; but a cold chill went down my back +a moment later when Miss Pat turned upon Rosalind and asked her a +direct question: + +"Helen, what was the name of the artist who did that miniature of your +mother?" + +Sister Margaret swallowed a glass of water, and I stooped to pick up my +napkin. + +"Van Arsdel, wasn't it?" asked Rosalind instantly. + +"Yes; so it was," replied Miss Pat. Luck was favoring us, and Rosalind +was rising to the emergency splendidly. It appeared afterward that her +own mother had been painted by the same artist, and she had boldly +risked the guess. Sister Margaret and I were frightened into a +discussion of the possibilities of aërial navigation, with a vague +notion, I think, of keeping the talk in the air, and it sufficed until +we had concluded the simple luncheon. I walked beside Miss Pat to the +parlor. The sky had cleared, and I broached a drive at once. I had +read in the newspapers that a considerable body of regular troops was +passing near Annandale on a practice march from Fort Sheridan to a +rendezvous somewhere to the south of us. + +"Let us go and see the soldiers," I suggested. + +"Very well, Larry," she said. "We can make believe they are sent out +to do honor to my birthday. You are a thoughtful boy. I can never +thank you for all your consideration and kindness. And you will not +fail to find Arthur,--I am asking you no questions; I'd rather not know +where he is. I'm afraid of truth!" She turned her head away +quickly--we were seated by ourselves in a corner of the room. "I am +afraid, I am afraid to ask!" + +"He is well; quite well. I shall have news of him, to-night." + +She glanced across the room to where Rosalind and Sister Margaret +talked quietly together. I felt Miss Pat's hand touch mine, and +suddenly there were tears in her eyes. + +"I was wrong! I was most unjust in what I said to you of her. She was +all tenderness, all gentleness when she came in this morning." She +fumbled at her belt and held up a small cluster of the sweet peas that +Rosalind had brought from Red Gate. + +"I told you so!" I said, trying to laugh off her contrition. "What you +said to me is forgotten, Miss Pat." + +"And now when everything is settled, if she wants to marry Gillespie, +let her do it." + +"But she won't! Haven't I told you that Helen shall never marry him?" + +I had ordered a buckboard, and it was now announced. + +"Don't trouble to go up-stairs, Aunt Pat; I will bring your things for +you," said Rosalind; and Miss Pat turned upon me with an air of +satisfaction and pride, as much as to say, "You see how devoted she is +to me!" + +I wish to acknowledge here my obligations to Sister Margaret for giving +me the benefit of her care and resourcefulness on that difficult day. +There was no nice detail that she overlooked, no danger that she did +not anticipate. She sat by Miss Pat on the long drive, while Rosalind +and I chattered nonsense behind them. We were so fortunate as to +strike the first battalion, and saw it go into camp on a bit of open +prairie to await the arrival of the artillery that followed. But at no +time did I lose sight of the odd business that still lay ahead of me, +nor did I remember with any satisfaction how Helen, somewhere across +woodland and lake, chafed at the delayed climax of her plot. The girl +at my side, lovely and gracious as she was, struck me increasingly as +but a tame shadow of that other one, so like and so unlike! I marveled +that Miss Pat had not seen it; and in a period of silence on the drive +home I think Rosalind must have guessed my thought; for I caught her +regarding me with a mischievous smile and she said, as Miss Pat and +Sister Margaret rather too generously sought to ignore us: + +"You can see now how different I am--how very different!" + +When I left them at St. Agatha's with an hour to spare before dinner, +Sister Margaret assured me with her eyes that there was nothing to fear. + +I was nervously pacing the long terrace when I saw my guests +approaching. I told the butler to order dinner at once and went down +to meet them. Miss Pat declared that she never felt better; and under +the excitement of the hour Sister Margaret's eyes glowed brightly. + +"Sister Margaret is wonderful!" whispered Rosalind. "Aren't my clothes +becoming? She found them and got me into them; and she has kept me +away from Aunt Pat and taken me over the hard places wonderfully. I +really don't know who I am," she laughed; "but it's quite clear that +you have seen the difference. I must play up now and try to be +brilliant--like Helen!" she said. "I can tell by the things in Helen's +room, that I'm much less sophisticated. I found his photograph, by the +way!" + +"What!" I cried so abruptly that the others turned and looked at us. +Rosalind laughed in honest glee. + +"Mr. Gillespie's photograph. I think I shall keep it. It was upside +down in a trunk where Sister Margaret told me I should find these +pretty slippers. Do you know, this playing at being somebody else is +positively uncanny. But this gown--isn't it fetching?" + +"It's pink, isn't it? You said that photograph was face down, didn't +you?" + +"It was! And at the very bottom under a pair of overshoes." + +"Well, I hope _you_ will be good to him," I observed. + +"Mr. Donovan," she said, in a mocking tone that was so like Helen's +that I stared stupidly, "Mr. Donovan, you are a person of amazing +penetration!" + +As we sat down in the screened corner of the broad terrace, with the +first grave approach of twilight in the sky, and the curved trumpet of +the young moon hanging in the west, it might have seemed to an onlooker +that the gods of chance had oddly ordered our little company. Miss +Patricia in white was a picture of serenity, with the smile constant +about her lips, happy in her hope for the future. Rosalind, fresh to +these surroundings, showed clearly her pleasure in the pretty setting +of the scene, and read into it, in bright phrases, the delight of a +story-book incident. + +"Let me see," she said reflectively, "just who we are: we are the lady +of the castle perilous dining _al fresco_, with the abbess, who is also +a noble lady, come across the fields to sit at meat with her. And you, +sir, are a knight full orgulous, feared in many lands, and sworn to the +defense of these ladies." + +"And you,"--and Miss Pat's eyes were beautifully kind and gentle, as +she took the cue and turned to Rosalind, "you are the well-loved +daughter of my house, faithful in all service, in all ways +self-forgetful and kind, our hope, our joy and our pride." + +It may have been the spirit of the evening that touched us, or only the +light of her countenance and the deep sincerity of her voice; but I +knew that tears were bright in all our eyes for a moment. And then +Rosalind glanced at the western heavens through the foliage. + +"There are the stars, Aunt Pat--brighter than ever to-night for your +birthday." + +Presently, as the dark gathered about us, the candles were lighted, and +their glow shut out the world. To my relief the three women carried +the talk alone, leaving me to my own thoughts of Helen and my plans for +restoring her to her aunt with no break in the new confidence that +Rosalind had inspired. I had so completely yielded myself to this +undercurrent of reflection that I was startled to find Miss Pat with +the coffee service before her. + +"Larry, you are dreaming. How can I remember whether you take sugar?" + +Sister Margaret's eyes were upon me reproachfully for my inattention, +and my heart-beats quickened as eight strokes of the chapel chime stole +lingeringly through the quiet air. I had half-raised my cup when I was +startled by a question from Miss Pat--a request innocent enough and +spoken, it seemed, utterly without intention. + +"Let me see your ring a moment, Helen." + +Sister Margaret flashed a glance of inquiry at me, but Rosalind met the +situation instantly. + +"Certainly, Aunt Pat,"--and she slipped the ring from her finger, +passed it across the table, and folded her hands quietly upon the white +cloth. She did not look at me, but I saw her breath come and go +quickly. If the rings were not the same them we were undone. This +thought gripped the three of us, and I heard my cup beating a tattoo on +the edge of my saucer in the tense silence, while Miss Pat bent close +to the candle before her and studied the ring, turning it over slowly. +Rosalind half opened her lips to speak, but Sister Margaret's snowy +hand clasped the girl's fingers. The little circlet of gold with its +beautiful green stone had been to me one of the convincing items of the +remarkable resemblance between the cousins; but if there should be some +differentiating mark Miss Pat was not so stupid as to overlook it. + +Miss Pat put down the ring abruptly, and looked at Rosalind and then +smiled quizzically at me. + +"You are a clever boy, Larry." + +Then, turning to Rosalind, Miss Pat remarked, with the most casual air +imaginable: + +"Helen pronounces either with the long _e_. I noticed at luncheon that +you say eyether. Where's your father, Rosalind?" + +[Illustration: "Where's your father, Rosalind?"] + +My eyes were turning from her to Rosalind when, on her last word, as +though by prearranged signal, far across the water, against the dark +shadows of the lake's remoter shore, a rocket's spent ball broke and +flung its stars against the night. + +I spoke no word, but leaped over the stone balustrade and ran to the +boat-house where Gillespie waited. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +"WITH MY HANDS" + + Maybe in spite of their tameless days + Of outcast liberty, + They're sick at heart for the homely ways + Where their gathered brothers be. + + And oft at night, when the plains fall dark + And hills loom large and dim, + For the shepherd's voice they mutely hark, + And their souls go out to him. + + Meanwhile "Black sheep! black sheep!" we cry, + Safe in the inner fold: + And maybe they hear, and wonder why, + And marvel, out in the cold. + --_Richard Burton_. + + +Gillespie was smoking his pipe on the boat-house steps. He had come +over from the village in his own launch, which tossed placidly beside +mine. Ijima stepped forward promptly with a lantern as I ran out upon +the planking of the pier. + +"Jump into my launch, Gillespie, and be in a hurry!" and to my relief +he obeyed without his usual parley. Ijima cast us off, the engine +sputtered a moment, and then the launch got away. I bade Gillespie +steer, and when we were free of the pier told him to head for the +Tippecanoe. + +The handful of stars that had brightened against the sky had been a +real shock, and I accused myself in severe terms for having left Arthur +Holbrook alone. As we swept into the open Glenarm House stood forth +from the encircling wood, marked by the bright lights of the terrace +where Miss Pat had, with so much composure and in so few words, made +comedy of my attempt to shield Helen. I had certainly taken chances, +but I had reckoned only with a man's wits, which, to say the least, are +not a woman's; and I had contrived a new situation and had now incurred +the wrath and indignation of three women where there had been but one +before! In throwing off my coat my hand touched the envelope +containing the forged notes which I had thrust into my pocket before +dinner, and the contact sobered me; there was still a chance for me to +be of use. But at the thought of what might be occurring at the +house-boat on the Tippecanoe I forced the launch's speed to the limit. +Gillespie still maintained silence, grimly clenching his empty pipe. +He now roused himself and bawled at me: + +"Did you ever meet the coroner of this county?" + +"No!" I shouted. + +"Well, you will--coming down! You'll blow up in about three minutes." + +I did not slow down until we reached Battle Orchard, where it was +necessary to feel our way across the shallow channel. Here I shut off +the power and paddled with an oar. + +As we floated by the island a lantern flashed at the water's edge and +disappeared. But my first errand was at the canoe-maker's; the +whereabouts of Helen and the _Stiletto_ were questions that must wait. + +We were soon creeping along the margin of the second lake seeking the +creek, whose intake quickly lay hold of us. + +"We'll land just inside, on the west bank, Gillespie." A moment later +we jumped out and secured the launch. I wrapped our lantern in +Gillespie's coat, and ran up the bank to the path. At the top I turned +and spoke to him. + +"You'll have to trust me. I don't know what may be happening here, but +surely our interests are the same to-night." + +He caught me roughly by the arm. + +"If this means any injury to Helen--" + +"No! It is for her!" And he followed silently at my heels toward Red +Gate. + +The calm of the summer night lay upon the creek that babbled drowsily +in its bed. We seemed to have this corner of the world to ourselves, +and the thump of our feet in the path broke heavily on the night +silence. As we crossed the lower end of the garden I saw the cottage +mistily outlined among the trees near the highway, and, remembering +Gillespie's unfamiliarity with the place, I checked my pace to guide +him. I caught a glimpse of the lights of the house-boat below. + +The voices of two men in loud debate rang out sharply upon us through +the open windows of the house-boat as we crept down upon the deck. +Then followed the sound of blows, and the rattle of furniture knocked +about, and as we reached the door a lamp fell with a crash and the +place was dark. We seemed to strike matches at the same instant, and +as they blazed upon their sticks we looked down upon Arthur Holbrook, +who lay sprawling with his arms outflung on the floor, and over him +stood his brother with hands clenched, his face twitching. + +"I have killed him--I have killed him!" he muttered several times in a +low whisper. "I had to do it. There was no other way." + +My blood went cold at the thought that we were too late. Gillespie was +fumbling about, striking matches, and I was somewhat reassured by the +sound of my own voice as I called him. + +"There are candles at the side--make a light, Gillespie." + +And soon we were taking account of one another in the soft candle-light. + +"I must go," said Henry huskily, looking stupidly down upon his +brother, who lay quite still, his head resting on his arm. + +"You will stay," I said; and I stood beside him while Gillespie filled +a pail at the creek and laved Arthur's wrists and temples with cool +water. We worked a quarter of an hour before he gave any signs of +life; but when he opened his eyes Henry flung himself down in a chair +and mopped his forehead. + +"He is not dead," he said, grinning foolishly. + +"Where is Helen?" I demanded. + +"She's safe," he replied cunningly, nodding his head. "I suppose Pat +has sent you to take her back. She may go, if you have brought my +money." Cunning and greed, and the marks of drink, had made his face +repulsive. Gillespie got Arthur to his feet a moment later, and I gave +him brandy from a flask in the cupboard. His brother's restoration +seemed now to amuse Henry. + +"It was a mere love-tap. You're tougher than you look, Arthur. It's +the simple life down here in the woods. My own nerves are all gone." +He turned to me with the air of dominating the situation. "I'm glad +you've come, you and our friend of button fame. Rivals, gentlemen? A +friendly rivalry for my daughter's hand flatters the house of Holbrook. +Between ourselves I favor you, Mr. Donovan; the button-making business +is profitable, but damned vulgar. Now, Helen--" + +"That will do!"--and I clapped my hand on his shoulder roughly. "I +have business with you. Your sister is ready to settle with you; but +she wishes to see Arthur first." + +"No--no! She must not see him!" He leaped forward and caught hold of +me. "She must not see him!"--and his cowardly fear angered me anew. + +"You will do, Mr. Holbrook, very much as I tell you in this matter. I +intend that your sister shall see her brother Arthur to-night, and time +flies. This last play of yours, this flimsy trick of kidnapping, was +sprung at a very unfortunate moment. It has delayed the settlement and +done a grave injury to your daughter." + +"Helen would have it; it was her idea!" + +"If you speak of your daughter again in such a way I will break your +neck and throw you into the creek!" + +He stared a moment, then laughed aloud. + +"So you are the one--are you? I really thought it was Buttons." + +"I am the one, Mr. Holbrook. And now I am going to take your brother +to your sister. She has asked for him, and she is waiting." + +Arthur Holbrook came gravely toward us, and I have never been so struck +with pity for a man as I was for him. There was a red circle on his +brow where Henry's knuckles had cut, but his eyes showed no anger; they +were even kind with the tenderness that lies in the eyes of women who +have suffered. He advanced a step nearer his brother and spoke slowly +and distinctly. + +"You have nothing to fear, Henry. I shall tell her nothing." + +"But"--Henry glanced uneasily from Gillespie to me--"Gillespie's notes. +They are here among you somewhere. You shall not give them to Pat. If +she knew--" + +"If she knew you would not get a cent," I said, wishing him to know +that I knew. + +He whirled upon me hotly. + +"You tricked Helen to get them, and now, by God! I want them! I want +them!" And he struck at me crazily. I knocked his arm away, but he +flung himself upon me, clasping me with his arms. I caught his wrists +and held him for a moment. I wished to be done with him and off to +Glenarm with Arthur; and he wasted time. + +"I have that packet you sent Helen to get--I have it--still unopened! +Your secret is as safe with me, Mr. Holbrook, as that other secret of +yours with your Italian body-guard." + +His face went white, then gray, and he would have fallen if I had not +kept hold of him. + +"Will you not be decent--reasonable--sane--for an hour, till we can +present you as an honorable man to your sister? If you will not, your +sailor shall deliver you to the law with his own hands. You delay +matters--can't you see that we are your friends, that we are trying to +protect you, that we are ready to lie to your sister that we may be rid +of you?" + +I was beside myself with rage and impatient that time must be wasted on +him. I did not hear steps on the deck, or Gillespie's quick warning, +and I had begun again, still holding Henry Holbrook close to me with +one hand. + +"We expect to deceive your sister--we will lie to her--lie to her--lie +to her--" + +"For God's sake, stop!" cried Arthur Holbrook, clutching my arm. + +I flung round and faced Miss Pat and Rosalind. They stood for a moment +in the doorway; then Miss Pat advanced slowly toward us where we formed +a little semi-circle, and as I dropped Henry's wrists the brothers +stood side by side. Arthur took a step forward, half murmuring his +sister's name; then he drew back and waited, his head bowed, his hands +thrust into the side pockets of his coat. In the dead quiet I heard +the babble of the creek outside, and when Miss Pat spoke her voice +seemed to steal off and mingle with the subdued murmur of the stream. + +"Gentlemen, what is it you wish to lie to me about?" + +A brave little smile played about Miss Pat's lips. She stood there in +the light of the candles, all in white as I had left her on the terrace +of Glenarm, in her lace cap, with only a light shawl about her +shoulders. I felt that the situation might yet be saved, and I was +about to speak when Henry, with some wild notion of justifying himself, +broke out stridently: + +"Yes; they meant to lie to you! They plotted against me and hounded me +when I wished to see you peaceably and to make amends. They have now +charged me with murder; they are ready to swear away my honor, my life. +I am glad you are here that you may see for yourself how they are +against me." + +He broke off a little grandly, as though convinced by his own words. + +"Yes; father speaks the truth, as Mr. Donovan can tell you!" + +I could have sworn that it was Rosalind who spoke; but there by +Rosalind's side in the doorway stood Helen. Her head was lifted, and +she faced us all with her figure tense, her eyes blazing. Rosalind +drew away a little, and I saw Gillespie touch her hand. It was as +though a quicker sense than sight had on the instant undeceived him; +but he did not look at Rosalind; his eyes were upon the angry girl who +was about to speak again. Miss Pat glanced about, and her eyes rested +on me. + +"Larry, what were the lies you were going to tell me?" she asked, and +smiled again. + +"They were about father; he wished to involve him in dishonor. But he +shall not, he shall not!" cried Helen. + +"Is that true, Larry?" asked Miss Pat. + +"I have done the best I could," I replied evasively. + +Miss Pat scrutinized us all slowly as though studying our faces for the +truth. Then she repeated: + +"_But if either of my said sons shall have teen touched by dishonor +through his own act, as honor is accounted, reckoned and valued among +men_--" and ceased abruptly, looking from Arthur to Henry. "What was +the truth about Gillespie?" she asked. + +And Arthur would have spoken. I saw the word that would have saved his +brother formed upon his lips. + +Miss Pat alone seemed unmoved; I saw her hand open and shut at her side +as she controlled herself, but her face was calm and her voice was +steady when she turned appealingly to the canoe-maker. + +"What is the truth, Arthur?" she asked quietly. + +"Why go into this now? Why not let bygones be bygones?"--and for a +moment I thought I had checked the swift current. It was Helen I +wished to save now, from herself, from the avalanche she seemed doomed +to bring down upon her head. + +"I will hear what you have to say, Arthur," said Miss Pat; and I knew +that there was no arresting the tide. I snatched out the sealed +envelope and turned with it to Arthur Holbrook; and he took it into his +hands and turned it over quietly, though his hands trembled. + +"Tell me the truth, gentlemen!"--and Miss Pat's voice thrilled now with +anger. + +"Trickery, more trickery; those were stolen from Helen!" blurted Henry, +his eyes on the envelope; but we were waiting for the canoe-maker to +speak, and Henry's words rang emptily in the shop. + +Arthur looked at his brother; then he faced his sister. + +"Henry is not guilty," he said calmly. + +He turned with a quick gesture and thrust the envelope into the flame +of one of the candles; but Helen sprang forward and caught away the +blazing packet and smothered the flame between her hands. + +"We will keep the proof," she said in a tone of triumph; and I knew +then how completely she had believed in her father. + +"I don't know what is in that packet," said Gillespie slowly, speaking +for the first time. "It has never been opened. My lawyer told me that +father had sworn to a statement about the trouble with Holbrook +Brothers and placed it with the notes. My father was a peculiar man in +some ways," continued Gillespie, embarrassed by the attention that was +now riveted upon him. "His lawyer told me that I was to open that +package--before--before marrying into"--and he grew red and stammered +helplessly, with his eyes on the floor--"before marrying into the +Holbrook family. I gave up that packet"--and he hesitated, coloring, +and turning from Helen to Rosalind--"by mistake. But it's mine, and I +demand it now." + +"I wish Aunt Pat to open the envelope," said Rosalind, very white. + +Henry turned a look of appeal upon his brother; but Miss Pat took the +envelope from Helen and tore it open; and we stood by as though we +waited for death or watched earth fall upon a grave. She bent down to +one of the candles nearest her and took out the notes, which were +wrapped in a sheet of legal cap. A red seal brightened in the light, +and we heard the slight rattle of the paper in her tremulous fingers as +she read. Suddenly a tear flashed upon the white sheet. When she had +quite finished she gathered Gillespie's statement and the notes in her +hand and turned and gave them to Henry; but she did not speak to him or +meet his eyes. She crossed to where Arthur stood beside me, his head +bowed, and as she advanced he turned away; but her arms stole over his +shoulders and she said "Arthur" once, and again very softly. + +"I think," she said, turning toward us all, with her sweet dignity, her +brave air, that touched me as at first and always, beyond any words of +mine to describe, but strong and beautiful and sweet and thrilling +through me now, like bugles blown at dawn; "I think that we do well, +Arthur, to give Henry his money." + +And now it was Arthur's voice that rose in the shop; and it seemed that +he spoke of his brother as of one who was afar off. We listened with +painful intentness to this man who had suffered much and given much, +and who still, in his simple heart, asked no praise for what he had +done. + +"He was so strong, and I was weak; and I did for him what I could. And +what I gave, I gave freely, for it is not often in this world that the +weak may help the strong. He had the gifts, Pat, that I had not, and +troops of friends; and he had ambitions that in my weakness I was not +capable of; so I had not much to give. But what I had, Pat, I gave to +him; I went to Gillespie and confessed; I took the blame; and I came +here and worked with my hands--with my hands--" And he extended them +as though the proof were asked; and kept repeating, between, his sobs, +"With my hands." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DAYBREAK + + Just as of old! The world rolls on and on; + The day dies into night--night into dawn-- + Dawn into dusk--through centuries untold.-- + Just as of old. + + * * * * * + + Lo! where is the beginning, where the end + Of living, loving, longing? _Listen_, friend!-- + God answers with a silence of pure gold-- + Just as of old. + --_James Whitcomb Riley_. + + +At midnight Gillespie and I discussed the day's affairs on the terrace +at Glenarm. There were long pauses in our talk. Such things as we had +seen and heard that night, in the canoe-maker's shop on the little +creek, were beyond our poor range of words. And in the silences my own +reflections were not wholly happy. If Miss Pat and Rosalind had not +followed me to the canoe-maker's I might have spared Helen; but looking +back, I would not change it now if I could. Helen had returned to St. +Agatha's with her aunt, who would have it so; and we had parted at the +school door, Miss Pat and Helen, Gillespie and I, with restraint heavy +upon us all. Miss Pat had, it seemed, summoned her lawyer from New +York several days before, to discuss the final settlement of her +father's estate; and he was expected the next morning. I had asked +them all to Glenarm for breakfast; and Arthur Holbrook and Rosalind, +and Henry, who had broken down at the end, had agreed to come. + +As we talked on, Gillespie and I, there under the stars, he disclosed, +all unconsciously, new and surprising traits, and I felt my heart +warming to him. + +"He's a good deal of a man, that Arthur Holbrook," he remarked after a +long pause. "He's beyond me. The man who runs the enemy's lines to +bring relief to the garrison, or the leader of a forlorn hope, is tame +after this. I suppose the world would call him a fool." + +"Undoubtedly," I answered. "But he didn't do it for the world; he did +it for himself. We can't applaud a thing like that in the usual +phrases." + +"No," Gillespie added; "only get down on our knees and bow our heads in +the dust before it." + +He rose and paced the long terrace. In his boat-shoes and white +flannels he glided noiselessly back and forth, like a ghost in the star +dusk. He paused at the western balustrade and looked off at St. +Agatha's. Then he passed me and paused again, gazing lakeward through +the wood, as though turning from Helen to Rosalind; and I knew that it +was with her, far over the water, in the little cottage at Red Gate, +that his thoughts lingered. But when he came and stood beside me and +rested his hand on my shoulder I knew that he wished to speak of Helen +and I took his hand, and spoke to him to make it easier. + +"Well, old man!" + +"I was thinking of Helen," he said. + +"So was I, Buttons." + +"They are different, the two. They are very different." + +"They are as like as God ever made two people; and yet they are +different." + +"I think you understand Helen. I never did," he declared mournfully. + +"You don't have to," I replied; and laughed, and rose and stood beside +him. "And now there's something I want to speak to you about to-night. +Helen borrowed some money of you a little while ago to meet one of her +father's demands. I expect a draft for that money by the morning mail, +and I want you to accept it with my thanks, and hers. And the incident +shall pass as though it had never been." + +About one o'clock the wind freshened and the trees flung out their arms +like runners rushing before it; and from the west marched a storm with +banners of lightning. It was a splendid spectacle, and we went indoors +only when the rain began, to wash across the terrace. We still watched +it from our windows after we went up-stairs, the lightning now blazing +out blindingly, like sheets of flame from a furnace door, and again +cracking about the house like a fiery whip. + +"We ought to have brought Henry here to-night," remarked Gillespie. +"He's alone over there on the island with that dago and they're very +likely celebrating by getting drunk." + +"The lightning's getting on your nerves; go to bed," I called back. + +The storm left peace behind and I was abroad early, eager to have the +first shock of the morning's meetings over. Gillespie greeted me +cheerily and I told him to follow when he was ready. I went out and +paced the walk between the house and St. Agatha's, and as I peered +through the iron gate I saw Miss Pat come out of the house and turn +into the garden. I came upon her walking slowly with her hands clasped +behind her. She spoke first, as though to avoid any expression of +sympathy, putting out her hand. + +Filmy lace at the wrists gave to her hands a quaint touch akin to that +imparted by the cap on her white head. I was struck afresh by the +background that seemed always to be sketched in for her, and just now, +beyond the bright garden, it was a candle-lighted garret, with trunks +of old letters tied in dim ribbons, and lavender scented chests of +Valenciennes and silks in forgotten patterns. + +"I am well, quite well, Larry!" + +"I am glad! I wished to be sure!" + +"Do not trouble about me. I am glad of everything that has +happened--glad and relieved. And I am grateful to you." + +"I have served you ill enough. I stumbled in the dark much of the +time. I wanted to spare you, Miss Pat." + +"I know that; and you tried to save Helen. She was blind and +misguided. She had believed in her father and the last blow crushed +her. Everything looks dark to her. She refuses to come over this +morning; she thinks she can not face her uncle, her cousin or you +again." + +"But she must come," I said. "It will be easier to-day than at any +later time. There's Gillespie, calling me now. He's going across the +lake to meet Arthur and Rosalind. I shall take the launch over to the +island to bring Henry. We should all be back at Glenarm in an hour. +Please tell Helen that we must have her, that no one should stay away." + +Miss Pat looked at me oddly, and her fingers touched a stalk of +hollyhock beside her as her eyes rested on mine. + +"Larry," she said, "do not be sorry for Helen if pity is all you have +for her." + +I laughed and seized her hands. + +"Miss Pat, I could not feel pity for any one so skilled with the sword +as she! It would be gratuitous! She put up a splendid fight, and it's +to her credit that she stood by her father and resented my +interference, as she had every right to. She was not really against +you, Miss Pat; it merely happened that you were in the way when she +struck at me with the foil, don't you see?" + +"Not just that way, Larry,"--and she continued to gaze at me with a +sweet distress in her eyes; then, "Rosalind is very different," she +added. + +"I have observed it! The ways in which they are utterly unlike are +remarkable; but I mustn't keep Gillespie waiting. Good-by for a little +while!" And some foreboding told me that sorrow had not yet done with +her. + +Gillespie shouted impatiently as I ran toward him at the boat-house. + +"It's the _Stiletto_," he called, pointing to where the sloop lay, +midway of the lake. "She's in a bad way." + +"The storm blew her out," I suggested, but the sight of the boat, +listing badly as though water-logged, struck me ominously. + +"We'd better pick her up," he said; and he was already dropping one of +the canoes into the water. We paddled swiftly toward the sloop. The +lake was still fretful from the storm's lashing, but the sky was +without fleck or flaw. The earliest of the little steamers was +crossing from the village, her whistle echoing and re-echoing round the +lake. + +"The sloop's about done for," said Gillespie over his shoulder; and we +drove our blades deeper. The _Stiletto_ was floating stern-on and +rolling loggily, but retaining still, I thought, something of the +sinister air that she had worn on her strange business through those +summer days. + +"She vent to bed all right; see, her sails are furled snug and +everything's in shape. The storm drove her over here," said Gillespie. +"She's struck something, or somebody's smashed her." + +It seemed impossible that the storm unassisted had blown her from +Battle Orchard across Lake Annandale; but we were now close upon her +and seeking for means of getting aboard. + +"She's a bit sloppy," observed Gillespie as we swung round and caught +hold. The water gurgled drunkenly in the cuddy, and a broken lantern +rattled on the deck. I held fast as he climbed over, sending me off a +little as he jumped aboard, and I was working back again with the +paddle when he cried out in alarm. + +As I came alongside he came back to help me, and when he bent over to +catch the painter, I saw that his face was white. + +"We might have known it," he said. "It's the last and worst that could +happen." + +Face down across the cuddy lay the body of Henry Holbrook. His +water-soaked clothing was torn as though in a fierce struggle. A knife +thrust in the side told the story; he had crawled to the cuddy roof to +get away from the water and had died there. + +"It was the Italian," said Gillespie. "They must have had a row last +night after we left them, and if came to this. He chopped a hole in +the _Stiletto_ and set her adrift to sink." + +I looked about for the steamer, which was backing away from the pier at +Port Annandale, and signaled her with my handkerchief. And when I +faced Gillespie again he pointed silently toward the lower lake, where +a canoe rode the bright water. + +Rosalind and her father were on their way from Red Gate to Glenarm. +Two blades flashed in the sun as the canoe came toward us. Gillespie's +lips quivered and he tried to speak as he pointed to them; and then we +both turned silently toward St. Agatha's, where the chapel tower rose +above the green wood. + +"Stay and do what is to be done," I said. "I will find Helen and tell +her." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rosalind at Red Gate, by Meredith Nicholson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSALIND AT RED GATE *** + +***** This file should be named 34512-8.txt or 34512-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/5/1/34512/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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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: Rosalind at Red Gate + +Author: Meredith Nicholson + +Illustrator: Arthur I. Keller + +Release Date: November 30, 2010 [EBook #34512] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSALIND AT RED GATE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="The carnival of canoes" BORDER="2" WIDTH="382" HEIGHT="659"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 382px"> +The carnival of canoes +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +ROSALIND AT RED GATE +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +<I>By</I> +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MEREDITH NICHOLSON +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +</H5> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ARTHUR I. KELLER +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NEW YORK +<BR> +GROSSET & DUNLAP +<BR> +PUBLISHERS +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT 1907 +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +<BR><BR> +NOVEMBER +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO MY MOTHER +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="dialog"> +<I>Rosalind: I thought thy heart had been wounded with +the claws of a lion.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="dialog"> +<I>Orlando: Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady.</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="dialog"> +As You Like It. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P STYLE="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%"> +"<I>Then dame Liones said unto Sir Gareth, Sir, I will +lend you a ring; but I would pray you as ye love me +heartily let me have it again when the tournament is done, +for that ring increaseth my beauty much more than it is +of itself. And the virtue of my ring is that that is green +it will turn to red, and that is red it will turn in likeness +to green, and that is blue it will turn to likeness of white, +and that is white, it will turn in likeness to blue, and so +it will do of all manner of colours.</I>" +<BR><BR> +Morte D'Arthur. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">A Telegram from Paul Stoddard</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">Confidences</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">I Meet Mr. Reginald Gillespie</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">I Explore Tippecanoe Creek</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">A Fight on a House-Boat</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">A Sunday's Mixed Affairs</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">A Broken Oar</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">A Lady of Shadows and Starlight</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">The Lights on St. Agatha's Pier</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">The Flutter of a Handkerchief</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">The Carnival of Canoes</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">The Melancholy of Mr. Gillespie</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">The Gate of Dreams</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">Battle Orchard</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">I Undertake a Commission</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">An Odd Affair at Red Gate</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">How the Night Ended</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">The Lady of the White Butterflies</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">Helen Takes Me to Task</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">The Touch of Dishonor</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">A Blue Cloak and a Scarlet</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">Mr. Gillespie's Diversions</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">The Rocket Signal</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">"With My Hands"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">Daybreak</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +The carnival of canoes . . . . . . <I>Frontispiece</I> +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-026"> +"We must take no risks whatever, Helen." +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-264"> +Three white butterflies fluttered about her head. +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-364"> +"Where's your father, Rosalind?" +</A> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ROSALIND AT RED GATE +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A TELEGRAM FROM PAUL STODDARD +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Up, up, my heart! Up, up, my heart,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">This day was made for thee!</SPAN><BR> +For soon the hawthorn spray shall part,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And thou a face shalt see</SPAN><BR> +That comes, O heart, O foolish heart,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">This way to gladden thee.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>H. C. Bunner</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Stoddard's telegram was brought to me on the Glenarm pier at four +o'clock Tuesday afternoon, the fifth of June. I am thus explicit, for +all the matters hereinafter described turn upon the receipt of +Stoddard's message, which was, to be sure, harmless enough in itself, +but, like many other scraps of paper that blow about the world, the +forerunner of confusion and trouble. +</P> + +<P> +My friend, Mr. John Glenarm, had gone abroad for the summer with his +family and had turned over to me his house at Annandale that I might +enjoy its seclusion and comfort while writing my book on <I>Russian +Rivers</I>. +</P> + +<P> +If John Glenarm had not taken his family abroad with him when he went +to Turkey to give the sultan's engineers lessons in bridge building; if +I had not accepted his kind offer of the house at Annandale for the +summer; and if Paul Stoddard had not sent me that telegram, I should +never have written this narrative. But such was the predestined way of +it. I rose from the boat I was caulking, and, with the waves from the +receding steamer slapping the pier, read this message: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +STAMFORD, Conn., June 5. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Meet Miss Patricia Holbrook Annandale station, five twenty Chicago +express and conduct her to St. Agatha's school, where she is expected. +She will explain difficulties. I have assured her of your sympathy and +aid. Will join you later if necessary. Imperative engagements call me +elsewhere. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +STODDARD. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +To say that I was angry when I read this message is to belittle the +truth. I read and re-read it with growing heat. I had accepted +Glenarm's offer of the house at Annandale because it promised peace, +and now I was ordered by telegraph to meet a strange person of whom I +had never heard, listen to her story, and tender my sympathy and aid. +I glanced at my watch. It was already after four. "Delayed in +transmission" was stamped across the telegraph form—I learned later +that it had lain half the day in Annandale, New York—so that I was now +face to face with the situation, and without opportunity to fling his +orders back to Stoddard if I wanted to. Nor did I even know Stamford +from Stamboul, and I am not yet clear in my mind—being an Irishman +with rather vague notions of American geography—whether Connecticut is +north or south of Massachusetts. +</P> + +<P> +"Ijima!" +</P> + +<P> +I called my Japanese boy from the boat-house, and he appeared, +paint-brush in hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Order the double trap, and tell them to hurry." +</P> + +<P> +I reflected, as I picked up my coat and walked toward the house, that +if any one but Paul Stoddard had sent me such a message I should most +certainly have ignored it; but I knew him as a man who did not make +demands or impose obligations lightly. As the founder and superior of +the Protestant religious Order of the Brothers of Bethlehem he was, I +knew, an exceedingly busy man. His religious house was in the Virginia +mountains; but he spent much time in quiet, humble service in city +slums, in lumber-camps, in the mines of Pennsylvania; and occasionally +he appeared like a prophet from the wilderness in some great church of +New York, and preached with a marvelous eloquence to wondering throngs. +</P> + +<P> +The trap swung into the arched driveway and I bade the coachman make +haste to the Annandale station. The handsome bays were soon trotting +swiftly toward the village, while I drew on my gloves and considered +the situation. A certain Miss Holbrook, of whose existence I had been +utterly ignorant an hour before, was about to arrive at Annandale. A +clergyman, whom I had not seen for two years, had telegraphed me from a +town in Connecticut to meet this person, conduct her to St. Agatha's +School—just closed for the summer, as I knew—and to volunteer my +services in difficulties that were darkly indicated in a telegram of +forty-five words. The sender of the message I knew to be a serious +character, and a gentleman of distinguished social connections. The +name of the lady signified nothing except that she was unmarried; and +as Stoddard's acquaintance was among all sorts and conditions of men I +could assume nothing more than that the unknown had appealed to him as +a priest and that he had sent her to Lake Annandale to shake off the +burdens of the world in the conventual air of St. Agatha's. High-born +Italian ladies, I knew, often retired to remote convents in the Italian +hills for meditation or penance. Miss Holbrook's age I placed +conservatively at twenty-nine; for no better reason, perhaps, than that +I am thirty-two. +</P> + +<P> +The blue arch of June does not encourage difficulties, doubts or +presentiments; and with the wild rose abloom along the fences and with +robins tossing their song across the highway I ceased to growl and +found curiosity getting the better of my temper. Expectancy, after +all, is the cheerfullest tonic of life, and when the time comes when I +can see the whole of a day's programme from my breakfast-table I shall +be ready for man's last adventure. +</P> + +<P> +I smoothed my gloves and fumbled my tie as the bays trotted briskly +along the lake shore. The Chicago express whistled for Annandale just +as we gained the edge of the village. It paused a grudging moment and +was gone before we reached the station. I jumped out and ran through +the waiting-room to the platform, where the agent was gathering up the +mail-bags, while an assistant loaded a truck with trunks. I glanced +about, and the moment was an important one in my life. Standing quite +alone beside several pieces of hand-baggage was a lady—unmistakably a +lady—leaning lightly upon an umbrella, and holding under her arm a +magazine. She was clad in brown, from bonnet to shoes; the umbrella +and magazine cover were of like tint, and even the suitcase nearest her +struck the same note of color. There was no doubt whatever as to her +identity; I did not hesitate a moment; the lady in brown was Miss +Holbrook, and she was an old lady, a dear, bewitching old lady, and as +I stepped toward her, her eyes brightened—they, too, were brown!—and +she put out her brown-gloved hand with a gesture so frank and cordial +that I was won at once. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Donovan—Mr. Laurance Donovan—I am sure of it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Holbrook—I am equally confident!" I said. "I am sorry to be +late, but Father Stoddard's message was delayed." +</P> + +<P> +"You are kind to respond at all," she said, her wonderful eyes upon me; +"but Father Stoddard said you would not fail me." +</P> + +<P> +"He is a man of great faith! But I have a trap waiting. We can talk +more comfortably at St. Agatha's." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; we are to go to the school. Father Stoddard kindly arranged it. +It is quite secluded, he assured me." +</P> + +<P> +"You will not be disappointed, Miss Holbrook, if seclusion is what you +seek." +</P> + +<P> +I picked up the brown bag and turned away, but she waited and glanced +about. Her "we" had puzzled me; perhaps she had brought a maid, and I +followed her glance toward the window of the telegraph office. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Helen; my niece, Helen Holbrook, is with me. I wished to wire +some instructions to my housekeeper at home. Father Stoddard may not +have explained—that it is partly on Helen's account that I am coming +here." +</P> + +<P> +"No; he explained nothing—merely gave me my instructions," I laughed. +"He gives orders in a most militant fashion." +</P> + +<P> +In a moment I had been presented to the niece, and had noted that she +was considerably above her aunt's height; that she was dark, with eyes +that seemed quite black in certain lights, and that she bowed, as her +aunt presented me, without offering her hand, and murmured my name in a +voice musical, deep and full, and agreeable to hear. +</P> + +<P> +She took their checks from her purse, and I called the porter and +arranged for the transfer of their luggage to St. Agatha's. We were +soon in the trap with the bays carrying us at a lively clip along the +lake road. It was all perfectly new to them and they expressed their +delight in the freshness of the young foliage; the billowing fields of +ripening wheat, the wild rose, blackberry and elderberry filling the +angles of the stake-and-rider fences, and the flashing waters of the +lake that carried the eye to distant wooded shores. I turned in my +seat by the driver to answer their questions. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a summer resort somewhere on the lake; how far is that from +the school?" asked the girl. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Port Annandale. It's two or three miles from St. Agatha's," I +replied. "On this side and all the way to the school there are farms. +The lake looks like an oval pond as we see it here, but there are +several long arms that creep off into the woods, and there's another +lake of considerable size to the north. Port Annandale lies yonder." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course we shall see nothing of it," said the younger Miss Holbrook +with finality. +</P> + +<P> +I sought in vain for any resemblance between the two women; they were +utterly unlike. The little brown lady was interested and responsive +enough; she turned toward her niece with undisguised affection as we +talked, but I caught several times a look of unhappiness in her face, +and the brow that Time had not touched gathered in lines of anxiety and +care. The girl's manner toward her aunt was wholly kind and +sympathetic. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure it will be delightful here, Aunt Pat. Wild roses and blue +water! I'm quite in love with the pretty lake already." +</P> + +<P> +This was my first introduction to the diminutive of Patricia, and it +seemed very fitting, and as delightful as the dear little woman +herself. She must have caught my smile as the niece so addressed her +for the first time and she smiled back at me in her charming fashion. +</P> + +<P> +"You are an Irishman, Mr. Donovan, and Pat must sound natural." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, all who love Aunt Patricia call her Aunt Pat!" exclaimed the girl. +</P> + +<P> +"Then Miss Holbrook undoubtedly hears it often," said I, and was at +once sorry for my bit of blarney, for the tears shone suddenly in the +dear brown eyes, and the niece recurred to the summer landscape as a +topic, and talked of the Glenarm place, whose stone wall we were now +passing, until we drove into the grounds of St. Agatha's and up to the +main entrance of the school, where a Sister in the brown garb of her +order stood waiting. +</P> + +<P> +I first introduced myself to Sister Margaret, who was in charge, and +then presented the two ladies who were to be her guests. It was +disclosed that Sister Theresa, the head of the school, had wired +instructions from York Harbor, where she was spending the summer, +touching Miss Holbrook's reception, and her own rooms were at the +disposal of the guests. St. Agatha's is, as all who are attentive to +such matters know, a famous girls' school founded by Sister Theresa, +and one felt its quality in the appointments of the pretty, cool parlor +where we were received. Sister Margaret said just the right thing to +every one, and I was glad to find her so capable a person, fully able +to care for these exiles without aid from my side of the wall. She was +a tall, fair young woman, with a cheerful countenance, and her merry +eyes seemed always to be laughing at one from the depths of her brown +hood. Pleasantly hospitable, she rang for a maid. +</P> + +<P> +"Helen, if you will see our things disposed of I will detain Mr. +Donovan a few minutes," said Miss Holbrook. +</P> + +<P> +"Or I can come again in an hour—I am your near neighbor," I remarked, +thinking she might wish to rest from her journey. +</P> + +<P> +"I am quite ready," she replied, and I bowed to Helen Holbrook and to +Sister Margaret, who went out, followed by the maid. Miss Pat—you +will pardon me if I begin at once to call her by this name, but it fits +her so capitally, it is so much a part of her, that I can not +resist—Miss Pat put off her bonnet without fuss, placed it on the +table and sat down in a window-seat whence the nearer shore of the lake +was visible across the strip of smooth lawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Father Stoddard thought it best that I should explain the necessity +that brings us here," she began; "but the place is so quiet that it +seems absurd to think that our troubles could follow us." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed. The idea of this little woman's being driven into exile by +any sort of trouble seemed preposterous. She drew off her gloves and +leaned back comfortably against the bright pillows of the window-seat. +"Watch the hands of the guest in the tent," runs the Arabian proverb. +Miss Pat's hands seemed to steal appealingly out of her snowy cuffs; +there was no age in them. The breeding showed there as truly as in her +eyes and face. On the third finger of her left hand she wore a +singularly fine emerald, set in an oddly carved ring of Roman gold. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you please close the door?" she said, and when I came back to the +window she began at once. +</P> + +<P> +"If is not pleasant, as you must understand, to explain to a stranger +an intimate and painful family trouble. But Father Stoddard advised me +to be quite frank with you." +</P> + +<P> +"That is the best way, if there is a possibility that I may be of +service," I said in the gentlest tone I could command. "But tell me no +more than you wish. I am wholly at your service without explanations." +</P> + +<P> +"It is in reference to my brother; he has caused me a great deal of +trouble. When my father died nearly ten years ago—he lived to a great +age—he left a considerable estate, a large fortune. A part of it was +divided at once among my two brothers and myself. The remainder, +amounting to one million dollars, was left to me, with the stipulation +that I was to make a further division between my brothers at the end of +ten years, or at my discretion. I was older than my brothers, much +older, and my father left me with this responsibility, not knowing what +it would lead to. Henry and Arthur succeeded to my father's business, +the banking firm of Holbrook Brothers, in New York. The bank continued +to prosper for a time; then it collapsed suddenly. The debts were all +paid, but Arthur disappeared—there were unpleasant rumors—" +</P> + +<P> +She paused a moment, and looked out of the window toward the lake, and +I saw her clasped hands tighten; but she went on bravely. +</P> + +<P> +"That was seven years ago. Since then Henry has insisted on the final +division of the property. My father had a high sense of honor and he +stipulated that if either of his sons should be guilty of any +dishonorable act he should forfeit his half of the million dollars. +Henry insists that Arthur has forfeited his rights and that the amount +withheld should be paid to him now; but his conduct has been such that +I feel I should serve him ill to pay him so large a sum of money. +Moreover, I owe something to his daughter—to Helen. Owing to her +father's reckless life I have had her make her home with me for several +years. She is a noble girl, and very beautiful—you must have seen, +Mr. Donovan, that she is an unusually beautiful girl." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I assented. +</P> + +<P> +"And better than that," she said with feeling, "she is a very lovely +character." +</P> + +<P> +I nodded, touched to see how completely Helen Holbrook filled and +satisfied her aunt's life. Miss Pat continued her story. +</P> + +<P> +"My brother first sought to frighten me into a settlement by menacing +my own peace; and now he includes Helen in his animosity. My house at +Stamford was set on fire a month ago; then thieves entered it and I was +obliged to leave. We arranged to go abroad, but when we got to the +steamer we found Henry waiting with a threat to follow us if I did not +accede to his demands. It was Father Stoddard who suggested this +place, and we came by a circuitous route, pausing here and there to see +whether we were followed. We were in the Adirondacks for a week, then +we went into Canada, crossed the lake to Cleveland and finally came on +here. You can imagine how distressing—how wretched all this has been." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; it is a sad story, Miss Holbrook. But you are not likely to be +molested here. You have a lake on one side, a high wall shuts off the +road, and I beg you to accept me as your near neighbor and protector. +The servants at Mr. Glenarm's house have been with him for several +years and are undoubtedly trustworthy. It is not likely that your +brother will find you here, but if he should—we will deal with that +situation when the time comes!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are very reassuring; no doubt we shall not need to call on you. +And I hope you understand," she continued anxiously, "that it is not to +keep the money that I wish to avoid my brother; that if it were wise to +make this further division at this time and it were for his good, I +should be glad to give him all—every penny of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, but the other brother—he has not made similar demands—you +do not fear him?" I inquired with some hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +"To—no!" And a tremulous smile played about her lips. "Poor Arthur! +He must be dead. He ran away after the bank failure and I have never +heard from him since. He and Henry were very unlike, and I always felt +more closely attached to Arthur. He was not brilliant, like Henry; he +was gentle and quiet in his ways, and father was often impatient with +him. Henry has been very bitter toward Arthur and has appealed to me +on the score of Arthur's ill-doing. It took all his own fortune, he +says, to save Arthur and the family name from dishonor." +</P> + +<P> +She was remarkably composed throughout this recital, and I marveled at +her more and more. Now, after a moment's silence, she turned to me +with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"We have been annoyed in another way. It is so ridiculous that I +hesitate to tell you of it—" +</P> + +<P> +"Pray do not—you need tell me nothing more, Miss Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"It is best for you to know. My niece has been annoyed the past year +by the attentions of a young man whom she greatly dislikes and whose +persistence distresses her very much indeed." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he can hardly find her here; and if he should—" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Holbrook folded her arms upon her knees and smiled, bending toward +me. The loveliness of her hair, which she wore parted and brushed back +at the temples, struck me for the first time. The brown—I was sure it +had been brown!—had yielded to white—there was no gray about it; it +was the soft white of summer clouds. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she exclaimed; "he isn't a violent person, Mr. Donovan. He's +silly, absurd, idiotic! You need fear no violence from him." +</P> + +<P> +"And of course your niece is not interested—he's not a fellow to +appeal to her imagination." +</P> + +<P> +"That is quite true; and then in our present unhappy circumstances, +with her father hanging over her like a menace, marriage is far from +her thoughts. She feels that even if she were attached to a man and +wished to marry, she could not. I wish she did not feel so; I should +be glad to see her married and settled in her own home. These +difficulties can not last always; but while they continue we are +practically exiles. Helen has taken it all splendidly, and her loyalty +to me is beyond anything I could ask. It's a very dreadful thing, as +you can understand, for brother and sister and father and child to be +arrayed against one another." +</P> + +<P> +I wished to guide the talk into cheerfuller channels before leaving. +Miss Pat seemed amused by the thought of the unwelcome suitor, and I +determined to leave her with some word in reference to him. +</P> + +<P> +"If a strange knight in quest of a lady comes riding through the wood, +how shall I know him? What valorous words are written on his shield, +and does he carry a lance or a suit-case?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance," said Miss Holbrook in +my own key, as she rose. "You would know him anywhere by his clothes +and the remarkable language he uses. He is not to be taken very +seriously—that's the trouble with him! But I have been afraid that he +and my brother might join hands in the pursuit of us." +</P> + +<P> +"But the Sorrowful Knight would not advance his interests by that—he +could only injure his cause!" I exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he has no subtlety; he's a very foolish person; he blunders at +windmills with quixotic ardor. You understand, of course, that our +troubles are not known widely. We used to be a family of some +dignity,"—and Miss Patricia drew herself up a trifle and looked me +straight in the eyes—"and I hope still for happier years." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you please say good night to Miss Holbrook for me?" I said, my +hand on the door. +</P> + +<P> +And then an odd thing happened. I was about to take my departure +through the front hall when I remembered a short cut to the Glenarm +gate from the rear of the school. I walked the length of the parlor to +a door that would, I knew, give ready exit to the open. I bowed to +Miss Pat, who stood erect, serene, adorable, in the room that was now +touched with the first shadows of waning day, and her slight figure was +so eloquent of pathos, her smile so brave, that I bowed again, with a +reverence I already felt for her. +</P> + +<P> +Then as I flung the door open and stepped into the hall I heard the +soft swish of skirts, a light furtive step, and caught a glimpse—or +could have sworn I did—of white. There was only one Sister in the +house, and a few servants; it seemed incredible that they could be +eavesdropping upon this guest of the house. I crossed a narrow hall, +found the rear door, and passed out into the park. Something prompted +me to turn when I had taken a dozen steps toward the Glenarm gate. The +vines on the gray stone buildings were cool to the eye with their green +that hung like a tapestry from eaves to earth. And suddenly, as though +she came out of the ivied wall itself, Helen Holbrook appeared on the +little balcony opening from one of the first-floor rooms, rested the +tips of her fingers on the green vine-clasped rail, and, seeing me, +bowed and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +She was gowned in white, with a scarlet ribbon at her throat, and the +green wall vividly accented and heightened her outline. I stood, +staring like a fool for what seemed a century of heart-beats as she +flashed forth there, out of what seemed a sheer depth of masonry; then +she turned her head slightly, as though in disdain of me, and looked +off toward the lake. I had uncovered at sight of her, and found, when +I gained the broad hall at Glenarm House, that I still carried my hat. +</P> + +<P> +An hour later, as I dined in solitary state, that white figure was +still present before me; and I could not help wondering, though the +thought angered me, whether that graceful head had been bent against +the closed door of the parlor at St. Agatha's, and (if such were the +fact) why Helen Holbrook, who clearly enjoyed the full confidence of +her aunt, should have stooped to such a trick to learn what Miss +Patricia said to me. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +CONFIDENCES +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +When Spring grows old, and sleepy winds<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Set from the South with odors sweet,</SPAN><BR> +I see my love in green, cool groves,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Speed down dusk aisles on shining feet.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +She throws a kiss and bids me run,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">In whispers sweet as roses' breath;</SPAN><BR> +I know I can not win the race,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And at the end I know is death.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +O race of love! we all have run<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Thy happy course through groves of spring,</SPAN><BR> +And cared not, when at last we lost,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">For life, or death, or anything!</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Atalanta: Maurice Thompson</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Miss Patricia received me the following afternoon on the lawn at St. +Agatha's where, in a cool angle of the buildings, a maid was laying the +cloth on a small table. +</P> + +<P> +"It is good of you to come. Helen will be here presently. She went +for a walk on the shore." +</P> + +<P> +"You must both of you make free of the Glenarm preserve. Don't +consider the wall over there a barricade; it's merely to add to the +picturesqueness of the landscape." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Patricia was quite rested from her journey, and expressed her +pleasure in the beauty and peace of the place in frank and cordial +terms. And to-day I suspected, what later I fully believed, that she +affected certain old-fashioned ways in a purely whimsical spirit. Her +heart was young enough, but she liked to play at being old! Sister +Theresa's own apartments had been placed at her disposal, and the +house, Miss Patricia declared, was delightfully cool. +</P> + +<P> +"I could ask nothing better than this. Sister Margaret is most kind in +every way. Helen and I have had a peaceful twenty-four hours—the +first in two years—and I feel that at last we have found safe +harborage." +</P> + +<P> +"Best assured of it, Miss Holbrook! The summer colony is away off +there and you need see nothing of it; it is quite out of sight and +sound. You have seen Annandale—the sleepiest of American villages, +with a curio shop and a candy and soda-fountain place and a picture +post-card booth which the young ladies of St. Agatha's patronize +extensively when they are here. The summer residents are just +beginning to arrive on their shore, but they will not molest you. If +they try to land over here we'll train our guns on them and blow them +out of the water. As your neighbor beyond the iron gate of Glenarm I +beg that you will look upon me as your man-at-arms. My sword, Madam, I +lay at your feet." +</P> + +<P> +"Sheathe it, Sir Laurance; nor draw it save in honorable cause," she +returned on the instant, and then she was grave again. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Margaret is most kind in every way; she seems wholly discreet, +and has assured me of her interest and sympathy," said Miss Patricia, +as though she wished me to confirm her own impression. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no manner of doubt of it. She is Sister Theresa's assistant. +It is inconceivable that she could possibly interfere in your affairs. +I believe you are perfectly safe here in every way, Miss Holbrook. If +at the end of a week your brother has made no sign, we shall be +reasonably certain that he has lost the trail." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe that is true; and I thank you very much." +</P> + +<P> +I had come prepared to be disillusioned, to find her charm gone, but +her small figure had even an added distinction; her ways, her manner an +added grace. I found myself resisting the temptation to call her +quaint, as implying too much; yet I felt that in some olden time, on +some noble estate in England, or, better, in some storied colonial +mansion in Virginia, she must have had her home in years long gone, +living on with no increase of age to this present. She was her own +law, I judged, in the matter of fashion. I observed later a certain +uniformity in the cut of her gowns, as though, at some period, she had +found a type wholly comfortable and to her liking and thereafter had +clung to it. She suggested peace and gentleness and a beautiful +patience; and I strove to say amusing things, that I might enjoy her +rare luminous smile and catch her eyes when she gave me her direct gaze +in the quick, challenging way that marked her as a woman of position +and experience, who had been more given to command than to obey. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you think I was never coming, Aunt Pat? That shore-path calls for +more strenuous effort than I imagined, and I had to change my gown +again." +</P> + +<P> +Helen Holbrook advanced quickly and stood by her aunt's chair, nodding +to me smilingly, and while we exchanged the commonplaces of the day, +she caught up Miss Pat's hand and held it a moment caressingly. The +maid now brought the tea. Miss Pat poured it and the talk went forward +cheerily. +</P> + +<P> +The girl was in white, and at the end of a curved bench, with a variety +of colored cushions about her and the bright sward and tranquil lake +beyond, she made a picture wholly agreeable to my eyes. Her hair was +dead black, and I saw for the first time that its smooth line on her +brow was broken by one of those curious, rare little points called +widow's peak. They are not common, nor, to be sure, are they +important; yet it seemed somehow to add interest to her graceful pretty +head. +</P> + +<P> +It was quite clear in a moment that Helen was bent on treating me +rather more amiably than on the day before, while at the same time +showing her aunt every deference. I was relieved to find them both +able to pitch their talk in a light key. The thought of sitting daily +and drearily discussing their troubles with two exiled women had given +me a dark moment at the station the day before; but we were now having +tea in the cheerfullest fashion in the world; and, as for their +difficulties, I had no idea whatever that they would be molested so +long as they remained quietly at Annandale. Miss Pat and her niece +were not the hysterical sort; both apparently enjoyed sound health, and +they were not the kind of women who see ghosts in every alcove and go +to bed to escape the lightning. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mr. Donovan," said Helen Holbrook, as I put down her cup, "there +are some letters I should like to write and I wish you would tell me +whether it is safe to have letters come for us to Annandale; or would +it be better to send nothing from here at all? It does seem odd to +have to ask such a question—" and she concluded in a tone of distress +and looked at me appealingly. +</P> + +<P> +"We must take no risks whatever, Helen," remarked Miss Pat decisively. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-026"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-026.jpg" ALT=""We must take no risks whatever, Helen."" BORDER="2" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="661"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 390px"> +"We must take no risks whatever, Helen." +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Does no one know where you are?" I inquired of Miss Patricia. +</P> + +<P> +"My lawyer, in New York, has the name of this place, sealed; and he put +it away in a safety box and promised not to open it unless something of +very great importance happened." +</P> + +<P> +"It is best to take no chances," I said; "so I should answer your +question in the negative, Miss Holbrook. In the course of a few weeks +everything may seem much clearer; and in the meantime it will be wiser +not to communicate with the outer world." +</P> + +<P> +"They deliver mail through the country here, don't they?" asked Helen. +"It must be a great luxury for the farmers to have the post-office at +their very doors." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but the school and Mr. Glenarm always send for their own mail to +Annandale." +</P> + +<P> +"Our mail is all going to my lawyer," said Miss Pat, "and it must wait +until we can have it sent to us without danger." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, Aunt Pat," replied Helen readily. "I didn't mean to give +Mr. Donovan the impression that my correspondence was enormous; but it +is odd to be shut up in this way and not to be able to do as one likes +in such little matters." +</P> + +<P> +The wind blew in keenly from the lake as the sun declined and Helen +went unasked and brought an India shawl and put it about Miss Pat's +shoulders. The girl's thoughtfulness for her aunt's comfort pleased +me, and I found myself liking her better. +</P> + +<P> +It was time for me to leave and I picked up my hat and stick. As I +started away I was aware that Helen Holbrook detained me without in the +least appearing to do so, following a few steps to gain, as she said, a +certain view of the lake that was particularly charming. +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing rugged in this landscape, but it is delightful in its +very tranquillity," she said, as we loitered on, the shimmering lake +before us, the wood behind ablaze with the splendor of the sun. She +spoke of the beauty of the beeches, which are of noble girth in this +region, and paused to indicate a group of them whose smooth trunks were +like massive pillars. As we looked back I saw that Miss Pat had gone +into the house, driven no doubt by the persistency of the west wind +that crisped the lake. Helen's manner changed abruptly, and she said: +</P> + +<P> +"If any difficulty should arise here, if my poor father should find out +where we are, I trust that you may be able to save my aunt anxiety and +pain. That is what I wished to say to you, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," I replied, meeting her eyes, and noting a quiver of the +lips that was eloquent of deep feeling and loyalty. She continued +beside me, her head erect as though by a supreme effort of +self-control, and with I knew not what emotions shaking her heart. She +continued silent as we marched on and I felt that there was the least +defiance in her air; then she drew a handkerchief from her sleeve, +touched it lightly to her eyes, and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"I had not thought of quite following you home! Here is Glenarm +gate—and there lie your battlements and towers." +</P> + +<P> +"Rather they belong to my old friend, John Glenarm. In his goodness of +heart he gave me the use of the place for the summer; and as generosity +with another's property is very easy, I hereby tender you our +fleet—canoes, boats, steam launch—and the stable, which contains a +variety of traps and a good riding-horse or two. They are all at your +service. I hope that you and your aunt will not fail to avail +yourselves of each and all. Do you ride? I was specially charged to +give the horses exercise." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you very much," she said. "When we are well settled, and feel +more secure, we shall be glad to call on you. Father Stoddard +certainly served us well in sending us to you, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +In a moment she spoke again, quite slowly, and with, I thought, a very +pretty embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Pat may have spoken of another difficulty—a mere annoyance, +really," and she smiled at me gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes; of the youngster who has been troubling you. Your father and +he have, of course, no connection." +</P> + +<P> +"No; decidedly not. But he is a very offensive person, Mr. Donovan. +It would be a matter of great distress to me if he should pursue us to +this place." +</P> + +<P> +"It is inconceivable that a gentleman—if he is a gentleman—should +follow you merely for the purpose of annoying you. I have heard that +young ladies usually know how to get rid of importunate suitors." +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard that they have that reputation," she laughed back. "But +Mr. Gillespie—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's the name, is it? Your aunt did not mention it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; he lives quite near us at Stamford. Aunt Pat disliked his father +before him, and now that he is dead she visits her displeasure on the +son; but she is quite right about it. He is a singularly unattractive +and uninteresting person, and I trust that he will not find us." +</P> + +<P> +"That is quite unlikely. You will do well to forget all about +him—forget all your troubles and enjoy the beauty of these June days." +</P> + +<P> +We had reached Glenarm gate, and St. Agatha's was now hidden by the +foliage along the winding path. I was annoyed to realize how much I +enjoyed this idling. I felt my pulse quicken when our eyes met. Her +dark oval face was beautiful with the loveliness of noble Italian women +I had seen on great occasions in Rome. I had not known that hair could +be so black, and it was fine and soft; the widow's peak was as sharply +defined on her smooth forehead as though done with crayon. Dark women +should always wear white, I reflected, as she paused and lifted her +head to listen to the chime in the tower of the little Gothic chapel—a +miniature affair that stood by the wall—a chime that flung its melody +on the soft summer air like a handful of rose-leaves. She picked up a +twig and broke it in her fingers; and looking down I saw that she wore +on her left hand an emerald ring identical with the one worn by her +aunt. It was so like that I should have believed it the same, had I +not noted Miss Pat's ring but a few minutes before. Helen threw away +the bits of twig when we came to the wall, and, as I swung the gate +open, paused mockingly with clasped hands and peered inside. +</P> + +<P> +"I must go back," she said. Then, her manner changing, she dropped her +hands at her side and faced me. +</P> + +<P> +"You will warn me, Mr. Donovan, of the first approach of trouble. I +wish to save my aunt in every way possible—she means so much to me; +she has made life easy for me where it would have been hard." +</P> + +<P> +"There will be no trouble, Miss Holbrook. You are as safe as though +you were hidden in a cave in the Apennines; but I shall give you +warning at the first sign of danger." +</P> + +<P> +"My father is—is quite relentless," she murmured, averting her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +I turned to retrace the path with her; but she forbade me and was gone +swiftly—a flash of white through the trees—before I could parley with +her. I stared after her as long as I could hear her light tread in the +path. And when she had vanished a feeling of loneliness possessed me +and the country quiet mocked me with its peace. +</P> + +<P> +I clanged the Glenarm gates together sharply and went in to dinner; but +I pondered long as I smoked on the star-hung terrace. Through the wood +directly before me I saw lights flash from the small craft of the lake, +and the sharp tum-tum of a naphtha launch rang upon the summer night. +Insects made a blur of sound in the dark and the chant of the katydids +rose and fell monotonously. +</P> + +<P> +I flung away a half-smoked cigar and lighted my pipe. There was no +disguising the truth that the coming of the Holbrooks had got on my +nerves—at least that was my phrase for it. Now that I thought of it, +they were impudent intruders and Paul Stoddard had gone too far in +turning them over to me. There was nothing in their story, anyhow; it +was preposterous, and I resolved to let them severely alone. But even +as these thoughts ran through my mind I turned toward St. Agatha's, +whose lights were visible through the trees, and I knew that there was +nothing honest in my impatience. Helen Holbrook's eyes were upon me +and her voice called from the dark; and when the clock chimed nine in +the tower beyond the wall memory brought back the graceful turn of her +dark head, the firm curve of her throat as she had listened to the +mellow fling of the bells. +</P> + +<P> +And here, for the better instruction of those friends who amuse +themselves with the idea that I am unusually susceptible, as they say, +to the charms of woman, I beg my reader's indulgence while I state, +quite honestly, the flimsy basis of this charge. Once, in my twentieth +year, while I was still an undergraduate at Trinity, Dublin, I went to +the Killarney Lakes for a week's end. My host—a fellow student—had +taken me home to see his horses; but it was not his stable, but his +blue-eyed sister, that captivated my fancy. I had not known that +anything could be so beautiful as she was, and I feel and shall always +feel that it was greatly to my credit that I fell madly in love with +her. Our affair was fast and furious, and lamentably detrimental to my +standing at Trinity. I wrote some pretty bad verses in her praise, and +I am not in the least ashamed of that weakness, or that the best +florist in Ireland prospered at the expense of my tailor and laundress. +It lasted a year, and to say that it was like a beautiful dream is +merely to betray my poor command of language. The end, too, was +fitting enough, and not without its compensations: I kissed her one +night—she will not, I am sure, begrudge me the confession; it was a +moonlight night in May; and thereafter within two months she married a +Belfast brewer's son who could not have rhymed eyes with skies to save +his malted soul. +</P> + +<P> +Embittered by this experience I kept out of trouble for two years, and +my next affair was with a widow, two years my senior, whom I met at a +house in Scotland where I was staying for the shooting. She was a bit +mournful, and lavender became her well. I forgot the grouse after my +first day, and gave myself up to consoling her. She had, as no other +woman I have known has had, a genius—it was nothing less—for graceful +attitudes. To surprise her before an open fire, her prettily curved +chin resting on her pink little palm, her eyes bright with lurking +tears, and to see her lips twitch with the effort to restrain a sob +when one came suddenly upon her—but the picture is not for my clumsy +hand! I have never known whether she suffered me to make love to her +merely as a distraction, or whether she was briefly amused by my ardor +and entertained by the new phrases of adoration I contrived for her. I +loved her quite sincerely; I am glad to have experienced the tumult she +stirred in me—glad that the folding of her little hands upon her +knees, as she bent toward the lighted hearth in that old Scotch manor, +and her low, murmuring, mournful voice, made my heart jump. I told +her—and recall it without shame—that her eyes were adorable islands +aswim in brimming seas, and that her hands were fluttering white doves +of peace. I found that I could maintain that sort of thing without +much trouble for an hour at a time. +</P> + +<P> +I did not know it was the last good-by when I packed my bags and +gun-cases and left one frosty morning. I regret nothing, but am glad +it all happened just so. Her marriage to a clergyman in the +Establishment—a duke's second son in holy orders who enjoyed +considerable reputation as a cricketer—followed quickly, and I have +never seen her since. I was in love with that girl for at least a +month. It did me no harm, and I think she liked it herself. +</P> + +<P> +I next went down before the slang of an American girl with teasing eyes +and amazing skill at tennis, whom I met at Oxford when she was a +student in Lady Margaret. Her name was Iris and she was possessed by +the spirit of Mischief. If you know aught of the English, you know +that the average peaches-and-cream English girl is not, to put it +squarely, exciting. Iris understood this perfectly and delighted in +doing things no girl had ever done before in that venerable town. She +lived at home—her family had taken a house out beyond Magdalen; and +she went to and from the classic halls of Lady Margaret in a dog-cart, +sometimes with a groom, sometimes without. When alone she dashed +through the High at a gait which caused sedate matrons to stare and +sober-minded fellows of the university to swear, and admiring +undergraduates to chuckle with delight. I had gone to Oxford to +consult a certain book in the Bodleian—a day's business only; but it +fell about that in the post-office, where I had gone on an errand, I +came upon Iris struggling for a cable-blank, and found one for her. As +she stood at the receiving counter, impatiently waiting to file her +message, she remarked, for the benefit, I believed, of a gaitered +bishop at her elbow: "How perfectly rotten this place is!"—and winked +at me. She was seventeen, and I was old enough to know better, but we +had some talk, and the next day she bowed to me in front of St. Mary's +and, the day after, picked me up out near Keble and drove me all over +town, and past Lady Margaret, and dropped me quite boldly at the door +of the Mitre. Shameful! It was; but at the end of a week I knew all +her family, including her father, who was bored to death, and her +mother, who had thought it a fine thing to move from Zanesville, Ohio, +to live in a noble old academic center like Oxford—that was what too +much home-study and literary club had done for her. +</P> + +<P> +Iris kept the cables hot with orders for clothes, caramels and shoes, +while I lingered and hung upon her lightest slang and encouraged her in +the idea that education in her case was a sinful waste of time; and I +comforted her father for the loss of his native buckwheat cakes and +consoled her mother, who found that seven of the perfect English +servants of the story-books did less than the three she had maintained +at Zanesville. I lingered in Oxford two months, and helped them get +out of town when Iris was dropped from college for telling the +principal that the Zanesville High School had Lady Margaret over the +ropes for general educational efficiency, and that, moreover, she would +not go to the Established Church because the litany bored her. +Whereupon—their dependence on me having steadily increased—I got them +out of Oxford and over to Dresden, and Iris and I became engaged. Then +I went to Ireland on a matter of business, made an incendiary speech in +Galway, smashed a couple of policemen and landed in jail. Before my +father, with, I fear, some reluctance, bailed me out, Iris had eloped +with a lieutenant in the German army and her family had gone sadly back +to Zanesville. +</P> + +<P> +This is the truth, and the whole truth, and I plead guilty to every +count of the indictment. Thereafter my pulses cooled and I sought the +peace of jungles; and the eyes of woman charmed me no more. When I +landed at Annandale and opened my portfolio to write <I>Russian Rivers</I> +my last affair was half a dozen years behind me. +</P> + +<P> +Sobered by these reflections, I left the terrace shortly after eleven +and walked through the strip of wood that lay between the house and the +lake to the Glenarm pier; and at once matters took a turn that put the +love of woman quite out of the reckoning. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I MEET MR. REGINALD GILLESPIE +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +There was a man in our town,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And he was wondrous wise,</SPAN><BR> +He jump'd into a bramble-bush,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And scratch'd out both his eyes;</SPAN><BR> +But when he saw his eyes were out,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">With all his might and main</SPAN><BR> +He jump'd into another bush,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And scratch'd them in again.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Old Ballad</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As I neared the boat-house I saw a dark figure sprawled on the veranda +and my Japanese boy spoke to me softly. The moon was at full and I +drew up in the shadow of the house and waited. Ijima had been with me +for several years and was a boy of unusual intelligence. He spoke both +English and French admirably, was deft of hand and wise of mind, and I +was greatly attached to him. His courage, fidelity and discretion I +had tested more than once. He lay quite still on the pier, gazing out +upon the lake, and I knew that something unusual had attracted his +attention. He spoke to me in a moment, but without turning his head. +</P> + +<P> +"A man has been rowing up and down the shore for an hour. When he came +in close here I asked him what he wanted and he rowed away without +answering. He is now off there by the school." +</P> + +<P> +"Probably a summer boarder from across the lake." +</P> + +<P> +"Hardly, sir. He came from the direction of the village and acts +queerly." +</P> + +<P> +I flung myself down on the pier and crawled out to where Ijima lay. +Every pier on the lake had its distinctive lights; the Glenarm sea-mark +was—and remains—red, white and green. We lay by the post that bore +the three lanterns, and watched the slow movement of a rowboat along +the margin of the school grounds. The boat was about a thousand yards +from us in a straight line, though farther by the shore; but the +moonlight threw the oarsman and his craft into sharp relief against the +overhanging bank. St. Agatha's maintains a boathouse for the use of +students, and the pier lights—red, white and red—lay beyond the +boatman, and he seemed to be drawing slowly toward them. The fussy +little steamers that run the errands of the cottagers had made their +last rounds and sought their berths for the night, and the lake lay +still in the white bath of light. +</P> + +<P> +"Drop one of the canoes into the water," I said; and I watched the +prowling boatman while Ijima crept back to the boat-house. The canoe +was launched silently and the boy drove it out to me with a few light +strokes. I took the paddle, and we crept close along the shore toward +the St. Agatha light, my eyes intent on the boat, which was now drawing +in to the school pier. The prowler was feeling his way carefully, as +though the region were unfamiliar; but he now landed at the pier and +tied his boat. I hung back in the shadows until he had disappeared up +the bank, then paddled to the pier, told Ijima to wait, and set off +through the wood-path toward St. Agatha's. +</P> + +<P> +Where the wood gave way to the broad lawn that stretched up to the +school buildings I caught sight of my quarry. He was strolling along +under the beeches to the right of me, and I paused about a hundred feet +behind him to watch events. He was a young fellow, not above average +height, but compactly built, and stood with his hands thrust boyishly +in his pockets, gazing about with frank interest in his surroundings. +He was bareheaded and coatless, and his shirt-sleeves were rolled to +the elbow. He walked slowly along the edge of the wood, looking off +toward the school buildings, and while his manner was furtive there +was, too, an air of unconcern about him and I heard him whistling +softly to himself. +</P> + +<P> +He now withdrew into the wood and started off with the apparent +intention of gaining a view of St. Agatha's from the front, and I +followed. He seemed harmless enough; he might be a curious pilgrim +from the summer resort; but I was just now the guardian of St. Agatha's +and I intended to learn the stranger's business before I had done with +him. He swung well around toward the driveway, threading the flower +garden, but hanging always close under the trees, and the mournful +whistle would have guided me had not the moon made his every movement +perfectly clear. He reached the driveway leading in from the Annandale +road without having disclosed any purpose other than that of viewing +the vine-clad walls with a tourist's idle interest. The situation had +begun to bore me, when the school gardener came running out of the +shrubbery, and instantly the young man took to his heels. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop! Stop!" yelled the gardener. +</P> + +<P> +The mysterious young man plunged into the wood and was off like the +wind. +</P> + +<P> +"After him, Andy! After him!" I yelled to the Scotchman. +</P> + +<P> +I shouted my own name to reassure him and we both went thumping through +the beeches. The stranger would undoubtedly seek to get back to his +boat, I reasoned, but he was now headed for the outer wall, and as the +wood was free of underbrush he was sprinting away from us at a lively +gait. Whoever the young gentleman was, he had no intention of being +caught; he darted in and out among the trees with astounding lightness, +and I saw in a moment that he was slowly turning away to the right. +</P> + +<P> +"Run for the gate!" I called to the gardener, who was about twenty feet +away from me, blowing hard. I prepared to gain on the turn if the +young fellow dashed for the lake; and he now led me a pretty chase +through the flower garden. He ran with head up and elbows close at his +sides, and his light boat shoes made scarcely any sound. He turned +once and looked back and, finding that I was alone, began amusing +himself with feints and dodges, for no other purpose, I fancied, than +to perplex or wind me. There was a little summer-house mid-way of the +garden, and he led me round this till my head swam. By this time I had +grown pretty angry, for a foot-race in a school garden struck me with +disgust as a childish enterprise, and I bent with new spirit and drove +him away from his giddy circling about the summer-house and beyond the +only gate by which he could regain the wood and meadow that lay between +the garden and his boat. He turned his head from side to side +uneasily, slackening his pace to study the bounds of the garden, and I +felt myself gaining. +</P> + +<P> +Ahead of us lay a white picket fence that set off the vegetable garden +and marked the lawful bounds of the school. There was no gate and I +felt that here the chase must end, and I rejoiced to find myself so +near the runner that I heard the quick, soft patter of his shoes on the +walk. In a moment I was quite sure that I should have him by the +collar, and I had every intention of dealing severely with him for the +hard chase he had given me. +</P> + +<P> +But he kept on, the white line of fence clearly outlined beyond him; +and then when my hand was almost upon him he rose at the fence, as +though sprung from the earth itself, and hung a moment sheer above the +sharp line of the fence pickets, his whole figure held almost +horizontal, in the fashion of trained high-jumpers, for what seemed an +infinite time, as though by some witchery of the moonlight. +</P> + +<P> +I plunged into the fence with a force that knocked the wind out of me +and as I clung panting to the pickets the runner dropped with a crash +into the midst of a glass vegetable frame on the farther side. He +turned his head, grinned at me sheepishly through the pickets, and gave +a kick that set the glass to tinkling. Then he held up his hands in +sign of surrender and I saw that they were cut and bleeding. We were +both badly blown, and while we regained our wind we stared at each +other. He was the first to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Kicked, bit or stung!" he muttered dolefully; "that saddest of all +words, 'stung!' It's as clear as moonlight that I'm badly mussed, not +to say cut." +</P> + +<P> +"May I trouble you not to kick out any more of that glass? The +gardener will be here in a minute and fish you out." +</P> + +<P> +"Lawsy, what is it? An aquarium, that you fish for me?" +</P> + +<P> +He chuckled softly, but sat perfectly quiet, finding, it seemed, a +certain humor in his situation. The gardener came running up and swore +in broad Scots at the destruction of the frame. We got over the fence +and released our captive, who talked to himself in doleful undertones +as we hauled him to his feet amid a renewed clink of glass. +</P> + +<P> +"Gently, gentlemen; behold the night-blooming cereus! Not all the +court-plaster in the universe can glue me together again." He gazed +ruefully at his slashed arms, and rubbed his legs. "The next time I +seek the garden at dewy eve I'll wear my tin suit." +</P> + +<P> +"There won't be any next time for you. What did you run for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Trying to lower my record—it's a mania with me. And as one good +question deserves another, may I ask why you didn't tell me there was a +glass-works beyond that fence? It wasn't sportsmanlike to hide a +murderous hazard like that. But I cleared those pickets with a yard to +spare, and broke my record." +</P> + +<P> +"You broke about seven yards of glass," I replied. "It may sober you +to know that you are under arrest. The watchman here has a constable's +license." +</P> + +<P> +"He also has hair that suggests the common garden or boiled carrot. +The tint is not to my liking; yet it is not for me to be captious where +the Lord has hardened His heart." +</P> + +<P> +"What is your name?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Gillespie. R. Gillespie. The 'R' will indicate to you the depth of +my humility: I make it a life work to hide the fact that I was baptized +Reginald." +</P> + +<P> +"I've been expecting you, Mr. Gillespie, and now I want you to come +over to my house and give an account of yourself. I will take charge +of this man, Andy. I promise that he shan't set foot here again. And, +Andy, you need mention this affair to no one." +</P> + +<P> +"Very good, sir." +</P> + +<P> +He touched his hat respectfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I have business with this person. Say nothing to the ladies at St. +Agatha's about him." +</P> + +<P> +He saluted and departed; and with Gillespie walking beside me I started +for the boat-landing. +</P> + +<P> +He had wrapped a handkerchief about one arm and I gave him my own for +the other. His right arm was bleeding freely below the elbow and I +tied it up for him. +</P> + +<P> +"That jump deserved better luck," I volunteered, as he accepted my aid +in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm proud to have you like it. Will you kindly tell me who the devil +you are?" +</P> + +<P> +"My name is Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't wholly care for it," he observed mournfully. "Think it over +and see if you can't do better. I'm not sure that I'm going to grow +fond of you. What's your business with me, anyhow?" +</P> + +<P> +"My business, Mr. Gillespie, is to see that you leave this lake by the +first and fastest train." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it possible?" he drawled mockingly. +</P> + +<P> +"More than that," I replied in his own key; "it is decidedly probable." +</P> + +<P> +"Meanwhile, it would be diverting to know where you're taking me. I +thought the other chap was the constable." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm taking you to the house of a friend where I'm visiting. I'm going +to row you in your boat. It's only a short distance; and when we get +there I shall have something to say to you." +</P> + +<P> +He made no reply, but got into the boat without ado. He found a light +flannel coat and I flung it over his shoulders and pulled for Glenarm +pier, telling the Japanese boy to follow with the canoe. I turned over +in my mind the few items of information that I had gained from Miss Pat +and her niece touching the young man who was now my prisoner, and found +that I knew little enough about him. He was the unwelcome and annoying +suitor of Miss Helen Holbrook, and I had caught him prowling about St. +Agatha's in a manner that was indefensible. +</P> + +<P> +He sat huddled in the stern, nursing his swathed arms on his knees and +whistling dolefully. The lake was a broad pool of silver. Save for +the soft splash of Ijima's paddle behind me and the slight wash of +water on the near shore, silence possessed the world. Gillespie looked +about with some curiosity, but said nothing, and when I drove the boat +to the Glenarm landing he crawled out and followed me through the wood +without a word. +</P> + +<P> +I flashed on the lights in the library and after a short inspection of +his wounds we went to my room and found sponges, plasters and ointments +in the family medicine chest and cared for his injuries. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no honor in tumbling into a greenhouse, but such is R. +Gillespie's luck. My shins look like scarlet fever, and without sound +legs a man's better dead." +</P> + +<P> +"Your legs seem to have got you into trouble; don't mourn the loss of +them!" And I twisted a bandage under his left knee-cap where the glass +had cut savagely. +</P> + +<P> +"It's my poor wits, if we must fix the blame. It's an awful thing, +sir, to be born with weak intellectuals. As man's legs carry him on +orders from his head, there lies the seat of the difficulty. A weak +mind, obedient legs, and there you go, plump into the bosom of a +blooming asparagus bed, and the enemy lays violent hands on you. If +you put any more of that sting-y pudding on that cut I shall +undoubtedly hit you, Mr. Donovan. Ah, thank you, thank you so much!" +</P> + +<P> +As I finished with the vaseline he lay back on the couch and sighed +deeply and I rose and sent Ijima away with the basin and towels. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you drink? There are twelve kinds of whisky—" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Mr. Donovan, the thought of strong drink saddens me. Such +poor wits as mine are not helped by alcoholic stimulants. I was drunk +once—beautifully, marvelously, nobly drunk, so that antiquity came up +to date with the thud of a motor-car hitting an orphan asylum; and I +saw Julius Caesar driving a chariot up Fifth Avenue and Cromwell poised +on one foot on the shorter spire of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Are you +aware, my dear sir, that one of those spires is shorter than the other?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly am not," I replied bluntly, wondering what species of +madman I had on my hands. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a fact, confided to me by a prominent engineer of New York, who +has studied those spires daily since they were put up. He told me that +when he had surrounded five high-balls the north spire was higher; but +that the sixth tumblerful always raised the south spire about eleven +feet above it. Now, wouldn't that doddle you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It would, Mr. Gillespie; but may I ask you to cut out this rot—" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Mr. Donovan, it's indelicate of you to speak of cutting +anything—and me with my legs. But I'm at your service. You have +tended my grievous wounds like a gentleman and now do you wish me to +unfold my past, present and future?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to get out of this and be quick about it. Your biography +doesn't amuse me; I caught you prowling disgracefully about St. +Agatha's. Two ladies are domiciled there who came here to escape your +annoying attentions. Those ladies were put in my charge by an old +friend, and I don't propose to stand any nonsense from you, Mr. +Gillespie. You seem to be at least half sane—" +</P> + +<P> +Reginald Gillespie raised himself on the couch and grinned joyously. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you—thank you for that word! That's just twice as high as +anybody ever rated me before." +</P> + +<P> +"I was trying to be generous," I said. "There's a point at which I +begin to be bored, and when that's reached I'm likely to grow +quarrelsome. Are there any moments of the day or night when you are +less a fool than others?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Donovan, I've often speculated about that, and my conclusion is +that my mind is at its best when I'm asleep and enjoying a nightmare. +I find the Welsh rabbit most stimulating to my thought voltage. Then I +am, you may say, detached from myself; another mind not my own is +building towers and palaces, and spiders as large as the far-famed +though extinct ichthyosaurus are waltzing on the moon. Then, I have +sometimes thought, my intellectual parts are most intelligently +employed." +</P> + +<P> +"I may well believe you," I declared with asperity. "Now I hope I can +pound it into you in some way that your presence in this neighborhood +is offensive—to me—personally." +</P> + +<P> +He stared at the ceiling, silent, imperturbable. +</P> + +<P> +"And I'm going to give you safe conduct through the lines—or if +necessary I'll buy your ticket and start you for New York. And if +there's an atom of honor in you, you'll go peaceably and not publish +the fact that you know the whereabouts of these ladies." +</P> + +<P> +He reflected gravely for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"I think," he said, "that on the whole that's a fair proposition. But +you seem to have the impression that I wish to annoy these ladies." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't for a moment imagine that you are likely to entertain them, +do you? You haven't got the idea that you are necessary to their +happiness, have you?" +</P> + +<P> +He raised himself on his elbow with some difficulty; flinched as he +tried to make himself comfortable and began: +</P> + +<P> +"The trouble with Miss Pat is—" +</P> + +<P> +"There is no trouble with Miss Pat," I snapped. +</P> + +<P> +"The trouble between Miss Pat and me is the same old trouble of the +buttons," he remarked dolorously. +</P> + +<P> +"Buttons, you idiot?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so. Buttons, just plain every-day buttons; buttons for +buttoning purposes. Now I shall be grateful to you if you will refrain +from saying +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"'Button, button,<BR> +Who's got the button?'"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The fellow was undoubtedly mad. I looked about for a weapon; but he +went on gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"What does the name Gillespie mean? Of what is it the sign and symbol +wherever man hides his nakedness? Button, button, who'll buy my +buttons? It can't be possible that you never heard of the Gillespie +buttons? Where have you lived, my dear sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Will you please stop talking rot and explain what you want here?" I +demanded with growing heat. +</P> + +<P> +"That, my dear sir, is exactly what I'm doing. I'm a suitor for the +hand of Miss Patricia's niece. Miss Patricia scorns me; she says I'm a +mere child of the Philistine rich and declines an alliance without +thanks, if you must know the truth. And it's all on account of the +fact, shameful enough I admit, that my father died and left me a large +and prosperous button factory." +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you give the infernal thing away—sell it out to a trust—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! ah!"—and he raised himself again and pointed a bandaged hand at +me. "I see that you are a man of penetration! You have a keen notion +of business! You anticipate me! I did sell the infernal thing to a +trust, but there was no shaking it! They made me president of the +combination, and I control more buttons than any other living man! My +dear sir, I dictate the button prices of the world. I can tell you to +a nicety how many buttons are swallowed annually by the babies of the +universe. But I hope, sir, that I use my power wisely and without +oppressing the people." +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie lay on his back, wrapped in my dressing-gown, his knees +raised, his bandaged arms folded across his chest. Since bringing him +into the house I had studied him carefully and, I must confess, with +increasing mystification. He was splendidly put up, the best-muscled +man I had ever seen who was not a professional athlete. His forearms +and clean-shaven face were brown from prolonged tanning by the sun, but +otherwise his skin was the pink and white of a healthy baby. His short +light hair was combed smoothly away from a broad forehead; his blue +eyes were perfectly steady—they even invited and held scrutiny; when +he was not speaking he closed his lips tightly. He appeared in nowise +annoyed by his predicament; the house itself seemed to have no interest +for him, and he accepted my ministrations in murmurs of well-bred +gratitude. +</P> + +<P> +I half believed the fellow to be amusing himself at my expense; but he +met my eyes calmly. If I had not caught a lunatic I had certainly +captured an odd specimen of humanity. He was the picture of wholesome +living and sound health; but he talked like a fool. The idea of a +young woman like Helen Holbrook giving two thoughts to a silly +youngster like this was preposterous, and my heart hardened against him. +</P> + +<P> +"You are flippant, Mr. Gillespie, and my errand with you is serious. +There are places in this house where I could lock you up and you would +never see your button factory again. You seem to have had some +education—" +</P> + +<P> +"The word does me great honor, Donovan. They chucked me from Yale in +my junior year. Why, you may ask? Well, it happened this way: You +know Rooney, the Bellefontaine Cyclone? He struck New Haven with a +vaudeville outfit, giving boxing exhibitions, poking the bag and that +sort of fake. At every town they invited the local sports to dig up +their brightest amateur middle-weight and put him against the Cyclone +for five rounds. I brushed my hair the wrong way for a disguise and +went against him." +</P> + +<P> +"And got smashed for your trouble, I hope," I interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"No. The boys in the gallery cheered so that they fussed him, and he +thought I was fruit. We shook hands, and he turned his head to snarl +at the applause, and, seeing an opening, I smashed him a hot clip in +the chin, and he tumbled backward and broke the ring rope. I vaulted +the orchestra and bolted, and when the boys finally found me I was over +near Waterbury under a barn. Eli wouldn't stand for it, and back I +went to the button factory; and here I am, sir, by the grace of God, an +ignorant man." +</P> + +<P> +He lay blinking as though saddened by his recollections, and I turned +away and paced the floor. When I glanced at him again he was still +staring soberly at the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you find your way here, Gillespie?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I ought to explain that," he replied. I waited while he +reflected for a moment. He seemed to be quite serious, and his brows +wrinkled as he pondered. +</P> + +<P> +"I guessed it about half; and for the rest, I followed the +heaven-kissing stack of trunks." +</P> + +<P> +He glanced at me quickly, as though anxious to see how I received his +words. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you seen anything of Henry Holbrook in your travels? Be careful +now; I want the truth." +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly have not. I hope you don't think—" Gillespie hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"It's not a matter for thinking or guessing; I've got to know." +</P> + +<P> +"On my honor I have not seen him, and I have no idea where he is." +</P> + +<P> +I had thrown myself into a chair beside the couch and lighted my pipe. +My captive troubled me. It seemed odd that he had found the +abiding-place of the two women; and if he had succeeded so quickly, why +might not Henry Holbrook have equal luck? +</P> + +<P> +"You probably know this troublesome brother well," I ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; as well as a man of my age can know an older man. My father's +place at Stamford adjoined the Holbrook estate. Henry and Arthur +Holbrook married sisters; both women died long ago, I believe; but the +brothers had a business row and went to smash. Arthur embezzled, +forged, and so on, and took to the altitudinous timber, and Henry has +been busy ever since trying to pluck his sister. He's wild on the +subject of his wrongs—ruined by his own brother, deprived of his +inheritance by his sister and abandoned by his only child. There +wasn't much to Arthur Holbrook; Henry was the genius, but after the +bank went to the bad he sought the consolations of rum. He and Henry +married the Hartridge twins who were the reigning Baltimore belles in +the early eighties—so runneth the chronicle. But I gossip, my dear +sir; I gossip, which is against my principles. Even the humble button +king of Strawberry Hill must draw the line." +</P> + +<P> +When Ijima brought in a plate of sandwiches he took one gingerly in his +swathed hand, regarded it with cool inquiry, and as he munched it, +remarked upon sandwiches in general as though they were botanical +specimens that were usually discussed and analyzed in a scientific +spirit. +</P> + +<P> +"The sandwich," he began, "not unhappily expresses one of the saddest +traits of our American life. I need hardly refer to our deplorable +national habit of hiding our shame under a blithe and misleading +exterior. Now this article, provided by your generous hospitality for +a poor prisoner of war, contains a bit of the breast of some fowl, +presumably chicken—we will concede that it is chicken—taken from +rather too near the bone to be wholly palatable. Chicken sandwiches in +some parts of the world are rather coarsely marked, for purposes of +identification, with pin-feathers. You may covet no nobler fame than +that of creator of the Flying Sandwich of Annandale. Yet the feathered +sandwich, though more picturesque, points rather too directly to the +strutting lords of the barn-yard. A sandwich that is decorated like a +fall bonnet, that suggests, we will say, the milliner's window—or the +plumed knights of sounding war—" +</P> + +<P> +With a little sigh, a slow relaxation of muscles, Mr. Gillespie slept. +I locked the doors, put out the lights, and tumbled into my own bed as +the chapel clock chimed two. +</P> + +<P> +In the disturbed affairs of the night the blinds had not been drawn, +and I woke at six to find the room flooded with light and my prisoner +gone. The doors were locked as I had left them. Mr. Gillespie had +departed by the window, dropping from a little balcony to the terrace +beneath. I rang for Ijima and sent him to the pier; and before I had +finished shaving, the boy was back, and reported Gillespie's boat still +at the pier, but one of the canoes missing. It was clear that in the +sorry plight of his arms Gillespie had preferred paddling to rowing. +Beneath my watch on the writing-table I found a sheet of note-paper on +which was scrawled: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +DEAR OLD MAN—I am having one of those nightmares I mentioned in our +delightful conversation. I feel that I am about to walk in my sleep. +As my flannels are a trifle bluggy, pardon loss of your dressing-gown. +Yours, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +R. G. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +P. S.—I am willing to pay for the glass and medical attendance; but I +want a rebate for that third sandwich. It really tickled too harshly +as it went down. Very likely this accounts for my somnambulism. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +G. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When I had dressed and had my coffee I locked my old portfolio and +tossed it into the bottom of my trunk. Something told me that for a +while, at least, I should have other occupation than contributing to +the literature of Russian geography. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I EXPLORE TIPPECANOE CREEK +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +The woodland silence, one time stirred<BR> +By the soft pathos of some passing bird,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Is not the same it was before.</SPAN><BR> +The spot where once, unseen, a flower<BR> +Has held its fragile chalice to the shower,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Is different for evermore.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">Unheard, unseen</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">A spell has been!</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 9em">—<I>Thomas Bailey Aldrich</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +My first care was to find the gardener of St. Agatha's and renew his +pledge of silence of the night before; and then I sought the ladies, to +make sure that they had not been disturbed by my collision with +Gillespie. Miss Pat and Helen were in Sister Theresa's pretty +sitting-room, through whose windows the morning wind blew fresh and +cool. Miss Pat was sewing—her dear hands, I found, were always +busy—while Helen read to her. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a day for the open! You must certainly venture forth!" I +began cheerily. "You see, Father Stoddard chose well; this is the most +peaceful place on the map. Let us begin with a drive at six, when the +sun is low; or maybe you would prefer a little run in the launch." +</P> + +<P> +They exchanged glances. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it would be all right, Aunt Pat," said Helen. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps we should wait another day. We must take no chances; the +relief of being free is too blessed to throw away. I really slept +through the night—I can't tell you what a boon that is!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Sister Margaret had to call us both at eight!" exclaimed Helen. +"That is almost too wonderful for belief." She sat in a low, deep, +wicker chair, with her arms folded upon her book. She wore a short +blue skirt and white waist, with a red scarf knotted at her throat and +a ribbon of like color in her hair. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the nights here are tranquillity itself! Now, as to the drive—" +</P> + +<P> +"Let us wait another day, Mr. Donovan. I feel that we must make +assurance doubly sure," said Miss Pat; and this, of course, was final. +</P> + +<P> +It was clear that the capture of Gillespie had not disturbed the +slumber of St. Agatha's. My conscience pricked me a trifle at leaving +them so ignorantly contented; but Gillespie's appearance was hardly a +menace, and though I had pledged myself to warn Helen Holbrook at the +first sign of trouble, I determined to deal with him on my own account. +He was only an infatuated fool, and I was capable, I hoped, of +disposing of his case without taking any one into my confidence. But +first it was my urgent business to find him. +</P> + +<P> +I got out the launch and crossed the lake to the summer colony and +began my search by asking for Gillespie at the casino, but found that +his name was unknown. I lounged about until lunch-time, visited the +golf course that lay on a bit of upland beyond the cottages and watched +the players until satisfied that Gillespie was not among them, then I +went home for luncheon. +</P> + +<P> +A man with bandaged arms, and clad in a dressing-gown, can not go far +without attracting attention; and I was not in the least discouraged by +my fruitless search. I have spent a considerable part of my life in +the engaging occupation of looking for men who were hard to find, and +as I smoked my cigar on the shady terrace and waited for Ijima to +replenish the launch's tank, I felt confident that before night I +should have an understanding with Gillespie if he were still in the +neighborhood of Annandale. +</P> + +<P> +The midday was warm, but I cooled my eyes on the deep shadows of the +wood, through which at intervals I saw white sails flash on the lake. +All bird-song was hushed, but a woodpecker on a dead sycamore hammered +away for dear life. The bobbing of his red head must have exercised +some hypnotic spell, for I slept a few minutes, and dreamed that the +woodpecker had bored a hole in my forehead. When I roused it was with +a start that sent my pipe clattering to the stone terrace floor. A man +who has ever camped or hunted or been hunted—and I have known all +three experiences—always scrutinizes the horizons when he wakes, and I +found myself staring into the wood. As my eyes sought remembered +landmarks here and there, I saw a man dressed as a common sailor +skulking toward the boat-house several hundred yards away. He was +evidently following the school wall to escape observation, and I rose +and stepped closer to the balustrade to watch his movements. In a +moment he came out into a little open space wherein stood a stone tower +where water was stored for the house, and he paused here and gazed +about him curiously. I picked up a field-glass from a little table +near by and caught sight of a swarthy foreign face under a soft felt +hat. He passed the tower and walked on toward the lake, and I dropped +over the balustrade and followed him. +</P> + +<P> +The Japanese boy was still at work on the launch, and, hearing a step +on the pier planking, he glanced up, then rose and asked the stranger +his business. +</P> + +<P> +The man shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"If you have business it must be at the house; the road is in the other +direction," and Ijima pointed to the wood, but the stranger remained +stubbornly on the edge of the pier. I now stepped out of the wood and +walked down to the pier. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want here?" I demanded sharply. +</P> + +<P> +The man touched his hat, smiled, and shook his head. The broad hand he +lifted in salute was that of a laborer, and its brown back was +tattooed. He belonged, I judged, to one of the dark Mediterranean +races, and I tried him in Italian. +</P> + +<P> +"These are private grounds; you will do well to leave here very +quickly," I said. +</P> + +<P> +I saw his eyes light as I spoke the words slowly and distinctly, but he +waited until I had finished, then shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +I was sure he had understood, but as I addressed him again, ordering +him from the premises, he continued to shake his head and grin +foolishly. Then I pointed toward the road. +</P> + +<P> +"Go; and it will be best for you not to come here again!" I said, and, +after saluting, he walked slowly away into the wood, with a sort of +dogged insolence in his slightly swaying gait. At a nod from me Ijima +stole after him while I waited, and in a few minutes the boy came back +and reported that the man had passed the house and left the grounds by +the carriage entrance, turning toward Annandale. +</P> + +<P> +With my mind on Gillespie I put off in the launch, determined to study +the lake geography. A mile from the pier I looked back and saw, rising +above the green wood, the gray lines of Glenarm house; and farther west +the miniature tower of the little chapel of St. Agatha's thrust itself +through the trees. To the east lay Annandale village; to the northwest +the summer colony of Port Annandale. I swung the boat toward the +unknown north of this pretty lake, watching meanwhile its social +marine—if I may use such a term—with new interest. Several smart +sail-boats lounged before the wind—more ambitious craft than I +imagined these waters boasted; the lake "tramps" on their ceaseless +errands to and from the village whistled noisily; we passed a boy and +girl in a canoe—a thing so pretty and graceful and so clean-cut in its +workmanship that I turned to look after it. The girl was lazily plying +the paddle; the boy, supported by a wealth of gay cushions, was +thrumming a guitar. They glared at me resentfully as their +cockle-shell wobbled in the wash of the launch. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a better canoe than we own, Ijima. I should like to pick up +one as good." +</P> + +<P> +"There are others like it on the lake. Hartridge is the maker. His +shop is over there somewhere," and Ijima waved his hand toward the +north. "A boy told me at the Annandale dock that those canoes are +famous all over this country." +</P> + +<P> +"Then we must certainly have one. We could have used one of those +things in Russia." +</P> + +<P> +The shores grew narrower and more irregular as we proceeded, and we saw +only at rare intervals any signs of life. A heavy forest lay at either +hand, broken now and then by rough meadows. Just beyond a sharp curve +a new vista opened before us, and I was astonished to see a small +wooded island ahead of us. Beyond it lay the second lake, linked to +the main body of Annandale by a narrow strait. +</P> + +<P> +"I did not know there was anything so good on the lake, Ijima. I +wonder what they call this?" +</P> + +<P> +He reached into a locker and drew out a tin tube. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a map, sir. I think they call this Battle Orchard." +</P> + +<P> +"That's not bad, either. I don't see the orchard or the battle, but no +doubt they have both been here." I was more and more pleased. +</P> + +<P> +I gave him the wheel and took the map, which proved to be a careful +chart of the lake, made, I judged, by my friend Glenarm for his own +amusement. We passed slowly around the island, which was not more than +twenty acres in extent, with an abrupt bank on the east and a low +pebbly shore on the west, and a body of heavy timber rising darkly in +the center. The shore of the mainland sloped upward here in the tender +green of young corn. I have, I hope, a soul for landscape, and the +soft bubble of water, the lush reeds in the shallows, the rapidly +moving panorama of field and forest, the glimpses of wild flowers, and +the arched blue above, were restful to mind and heart. It seemed +shameful that the whole world was not afloat; then, as I reflected that +another boat in these tranquil waters would be an impertinence that I +should resent, I was aware that I had been thinking of Helen Holbrook +all the while; and the thought of this irritated me so that I +criticized Ijima most unjustly for running the launch close to a +boulder that rose like a miniature Gibraltar near the shadowy shore we +were skirting. +</P> + +<P> +We gained the ultimate line of the lower lake, and followed the shore +in search of its outlet, pleasingly set down on the map as Tippecanoe +Creek, which ran off and joined somewhere a river of like name. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll cruise here a bit and see if we can find the creek," I said, +filling my pipe. +</P> + +<P> +Tippecanoe! Its etymology is not in books, but goes back to the first +star that ever saw itself in running water; its cadence is that of a +boat gliding over ripples; its syllables flow as liquidly as a woodland +spring lingering in delight over shining pebbles. The canoe alone, of +all things fashioned to carry man, has a soul—and it is a soul at once +obedient and perverse. And now that I had discovered the name +Tippecanoe, it seemed to murmur itself from the little waves we sent +singing into the reeds. My delight in it was so great, it rang in my +head so insistently, that I should have missed the creek with the +golden name if Ijima had not called my attention to its gathering +current, that now drew us, like a tide. The lake's waters ran away, +like a truant child, through a woody cleft, and in a moment we were as +clean quit of the lake as though it did not exist. After a few rods +the creek began to twist and turn as though with the intention of +making the voyager earn his way. In the narrow channel the beat of our +engine rang from the shores rebukingly, and soon, as a punishment for +disturbing the peace of the little stream, we grounded on a sand-bar. +</P> + +<P> +"This seems to be the head of navigation, Ijima. I believe this creek +was made for canoes, not battleships." +</P> + +<P> +Between us we got the launch off, and I landed on a convenient log and +crawled up the bank to observe the country. I followed a +stake-and-rider fence half hidden in vines of various sorts, and +tramped along the bank, with the creek still singing its tortuous way +below at my right hand. It was late, and long shadows now fell across +the world; but every new turn in the creek tempted me, and the sharp +scratch of brambles did not deter me from going on. Soon the rail +fence gave way to barbed wire; the path broadened and the underbrush +was neatly cut away. Within lay a small vegetable garden, carefully +tilled; and farther on I saw a dark green cottage almost shut in by +beeches. The path dipped sharply down and away from the cottage, and a +moment later I had lost sight of it; but below, at the edge of the +creek, stood a long house-boat with an extended platform or deck on the +waterside. +</P> + +<P> +I can still feel, as I recall the day and hour, the utter peace of the +scene when first I came upon that secluded spot: the melodious flow of +the creek beneath; the flutter of homing wings; even the hum of insects +in the sweet, thymy air. Then a step farther and I came to a gate +which opened on a flight of steps that led to the house beneath; and +through the intervening tangle I saw a man sprawled at ease in a +steamer chair on the deck, his arms under his head. As I watched him +he sighed and turned restlessly, and I caught a glimpse of +close-trimmed beard and short, thin, slightly gray hair. +</P> + +<P> +The place was clearly the summer home of a city man in search of quiet, +and I was turning away, when suddenly a woman's voice rang out clearly +from the bank. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello the house-boat!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I'm here!" answered the man below. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, father; I've been looking for you everywhere," called the +voice again. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's too bad you've been waiting," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I've been waiting!" she flung back, and he jumped up and ran +toward her. Then down the steps flashed Helen Holbrook in white. She +paused at the gate an instant before continuing her descent to the +creek, bending her head as she sought the remaining steps. Her dark +hair and clear profile trembled a moment in the summer dusk; then she +ran past me and disappeared below. +</P> + +<P> +"Daddy, you dear old fraud, I thought you were coming to meet me on the +ridge!" +</P> + +<P> +I turned and groped my way along the darkening path. My heart was +thumping wildly and my forehead was wet with perspiration. +</P> + +<P> +Ijima stood on the bank lighting his lantern, and I flung myself into +the launch and bade him run for home. +</P> + +<P> +We were soon crossing the lake. I lay back on the cushions and gazed +up at the bright roof of stars. Before I reached Glenarm the shock of +finding Helen Holbrook in friendly communication with her father had +passed, and I sat down to dinner at nine o'clock with a sound appetite. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A FIGHT ON A HOUSE-BOAT +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +The best composition and temperature is, to have openness in fame and +opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power +to feign, if there be no remedy.—<I>Francis Bacon</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At ten o'clock I called for a horse and rode out into the night, +turning into the country with the intention of following the lake-road +to the region I had explored in the launch a few hours before. All was +dark at St. Agatha's as I passed. No doubt Helen Holbrook had returned +in due course from her visit to her father and, after accounting +plausibly to her aunt for her absence, was sleeping the sleep of the +just. Now that I thought of the matter in all its bearings, I accused +myself for not having gone directly to St. Agatha's from the lonely +house on Tippecanoe Creek and waited for her there, demanding an +explanation of her perfidy. She was treating Miss Pat infamously: that +was plain; and yet in my heart I was excusing and defending her. A +family row about money was ugly at best; and an unfortunate—even +criminal—father may still have some claim on his child. +</P> + +<P> +Then, as against such reasoning, the vision of Miss Pat rose before +me—and I felt whatever chivalry there is in me arouse with a rattle of +spears. Paul Stoddard, in committing that dear old gentlewoman to my +care, had not asked me to fall in love with her niece; so, impatient to +be thus swayed between two inclinations, I chirruped to the horse and +galloped swiftly over the silent white road. +</P> + +<P> +I had learned from the Glenarm stable-boys that it was several miles +overland to the Tippecanoe. A Sabbath quiet lay upon the world, and I +seemed to be the only person abroad. I rode at a sharp pace through +the cool air, rushing by heavy woodlands and broad fields, with an +occasional farm-house rising somberly in the moonlight. The road +turned gradually, following the line of the lake which now flashed out +and then was lost again behind the forest. There is nothing like a +gallop to shake the nonsense out of a man, and my spirits rose as the +miles sped by. The village of Tippecanoe lay off somewhere in this +direction, as guide-posts several times gave warning; and my study of +the map on the launch had given me a good idea of the whole region. +What I sought was the front entrance of the green cottage above the +house-boat by the creek, and when, far beyond Port Annandale, the road +turned abruptly away from the lake, I took my bearings and dismounted +and tied my horse in a strip of unfenced woodland. +</P> + +<P> +The whole region was very lonely, and now that the beat of hoofs no +longer rang in my ears the quiet was oppressive. I struck through the +wood and found the creek, and the path beside it. The little stream +was still murmuring its own name musically, with perhaps a softer note +in deference to the night; and following the path carefully I came in a +few minutes to the steps that linked the cottage with the house-boat at +the creek's edge. It was just there that I had seen Helen Holbrook, +and I stood quite still recalling this, and making sure that she had +come down those steps in that quiet out-of-the-way corner of the world, +to keep tryst with her father. The story-and-a-half cottage was +covered with vines and close-wrapped in shrubbery. I followed a garden +walk that wound among bits of lawn and flower-beds until I came to a +tall cedar hedge that cut the place off from the road. A semicircle of +taller pines within shut the cottage off completely from the highway. +I crawled through the cedars and walked along slowly to the gate, near +which a post supported a signboard. I struck a match and read: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +RED GATE<BR> +R. Hartridge,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Canoe-Maker,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Tippecanoe, Indiana.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This, then, was the home of the canoe-maker mentioned by Ijima. I +found his name repeated on the rural delivery mail-box affixed to the +sign-post. Henry Holbrook was probably a boarder at the house—it +required no great deductive powers to fathom that. I stole back +through the hedge and down to the house-boat. The moon was coming up +over the eastern wood, and the stars were beautifully clear. I walked +the length of the platform, which was provided with a railing on the +waterside, with growing curiosity. Several canoes, carefully covered +with tarpaulins, lay about the deck, and chairs were drawn up close to +the long, low house in shipshape fashion. If this house-boat was the +canoe-maker's shop he had chosen a secluded and picturesque spot for it. +</P> + +<P> +As I leaned against the rail studying the lines of the house, I heard +suddenly the creak of an oar-lock in the stream behind, and then low +voices talking. The deep night silence was so profound that any sound +was doubly emphasized, and I peered out upon the water, at once alert +and interested. I saw a dark shadow in the creek as the boat drew +nearer, and heard words spoken sharply as though in command. I drew +back against the house and waited. Possibly the canoe-maker had been +abroad, or more likely Henry Holbrook had gone forth upon some +mischief, and my mind flew at once to the two women at St. Agatha's, +one of whom at least was still under my protection. The boat +approached furtively, and I heard now very distinctly words spoken in +Italian: +</P> + +<P> +"Have a care; climb up with the rope and I'll follow." +</P> + +<P> +Then the boat touched the platform lightly and a second later a man +climbed nimbly up the side. His companion followed, and they tied +their boat to the railing. They paused now to reconnoiter—so close to +me that I could have touched them with my hands—and engaged in a +colloquy. The taller man gave directions, the other replying in +monosyllables to show that he understood. +</P> + +<P> +"Go to the side porch of the cottage, and knock. When the man comes to +the door tell him that you are the chauffeur from an automobile that +has broken down in the road, and that you want help for a woman who has +been hurt." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Then—you know the rest." +</P> + +<P> +"The knife—it shall be done." +</P> + +<P> +I have made it the rule of my life, against much painful experience and +the admonitions of many philosophers, to act first and reason +afterwards. And here it was a case of two to one. The men began +stealing across the deck toward the steps that led up to the cottage, +and with rather more zeal than judgment I took a step after them, and +clumsily kicked over a chair that fell clattering wildly. Both men +leaped toward the rail at the sound, and I flattened myself against the +house to await developments. The silence was again complete. +</P> + +<P> +"A chair blew over," remarked one of the voices. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no wind," replied the other, the one I recognized as +belonging to the leader. +</P> + +<P> +"See what you can find—and have a care!" +</P> + +<P> +The speaker went to the rail and began fumbling with the rope. The +other, I realized, was slipping quite noiselessly along the smooth +planking toward me, his bent body faintly silhouetted in the moonlight. +I knew that I could hardly be distinguishable from the long line of the +house, and I had the additional advantage of knowing their strength, +while I was still an unknown quantity to them. The men would assume +that I was either Hartridge, the boat-maker, or Henry Holbrook, one of +whom they had come to kill, and there is, as every one knows, little +honor in being the victim of mistaken identity. I heard the man's hand +scratching along the wall as he advanced cautiously; there was no doubt +but that he would discover me in another moment; so I resolved to take +the initiative and give battle. +</P> + +<P> +My finger-tips touched the back of one of the folded camp-chairs that +rested against the house, and I slowly clasped it. I saw the leader +still standing by the rail, the rope in his hand. His accomplice was +so close that I could hear his quick breathing, and something in his +dimly outlined crouching figure was familiar. Then it flashed over me +that he was the dark sailor I had ordered from Glenarm that afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +He was now within arm's length of me and I jumped out, swung the chair +high and brought it down with a crash on his head. The force of the +blow carried me forward and jerked the chair out of my grasp; and down +we went with a mighty thump. I felt the Italian's body slip and twist +lithely under me as I tried to clasp his arms. He struggled fiercely +to free himself, and I felt the point of a knife prick my left wrist +sharply as I sought to hold his right arm to the deck. His muscles +were like iron, and I had no wish to let him clasp me in his short +thick arms; nor did the idea of being struck with a knife cheer me +greatly in that first moment of the fight. +</P> + +<P> +My main business was to keep free of the knife. He was slowly lifting +me on his knees, while I gripped his arm with both hands. The other +man had dropped into the boat and was watching us across the rail. +</P> + +<P> +"Make haste, Giuseppe!" he called impatiently, and I laughed a little, +either at his confidence in the outcome or at his care for his own +security; and my courage rose to find that I had only one to reckon +with. I bent grimly to the task of holding the Italian's right arm to +the deck, with my left hand on his shoulder and my right fastened to +his wrist, he meanwhile choking me very prettily with his free hand. +His knees were slowly raising me and crowding me higher on his chest +and the big rough hand on my throat tightened. I suddenly slipped my +left hand down to where my right gripped his wrist and wrenched it +sharply. His fingers relaxed, and when I repeated the twist the knife +rattled on the deck. +</P> + +<P> +I broke away and leaped for the rail with some idea of jumping into the +creek and swimming for it; and then the man in the boat let go twice +with a revolver, the echoing explosions roaring over the still creek +with the sound of saluting battleships. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on to that man—hold him!" he shouted from below. I heard the +Italian scraping about on the deck for his knife as I dodged round the +house. I missed the steps in the dark and scrambled for them wildly, +found them and was dashing for the path before the last echo of the +shot had died away down the little valley. I was satisfied to let +things stand as they were, and leave Henry Holbrook and the canoe-maker +to defend their own lives and property. Then, when I was about midway +of the steps, a man plunged down from the garden and had me by the +collar and on my back before I knew what had happened. +</P> + +<P> +There was an instant's silence in which I heard angry voices from the +house-boat. My new assailant listened, too, and I felt his grasp on me +tighten, though I was well winded and tame enough. +</P> + +<P> +I heard the boat strike the platform sharply as the second man jumped +into it; then for an instant silence again held the valley. +</P> + +<P> +My captor seemed to dismiss the retreating boat, and poking a pistol +into my ribs gave me his attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Climb up these steps, and do as I tell you. If you run, I will shoot +you like a dog." +</P> + +<P> +"There's a mistake—" I began chokingly, for the Italian had almost +strangled me and my lungs were as empty as a spent bellows. +</P> + +<P> +"That will do. Climb!" He stuck the revolver into my back and up I +went and through the garden toward the cottage. A door opening on the +veranda was slightly ajar, and I was thrust forward none too gently +into a lighted room. +</P> + +<P> +My captor and I studied each other attentively for half a minute. He +was beyond question the man whom Helen Holbrook had sought at the +house-boat in the summer dusk. Who Hartridge was did not matter; it +was evident that Holbrook was quite at home in the canoe-maker's house, +and that he had no intention of calling any one else into our affairs. +He had undoubtedly heard the revolver shots below and rushed from the +cottage to investigate; and, meeting me in full flight, he had +naturally taken it for granted that I was involved in some designs on +himself. As he leaned against a table by the door his grave blue eyes +scrutinized me with mingled indignation and interest. He wore white +duck trousers turned up over tan shoes, and a gray outing shirt with a +blue scarf knotted under its soft collar. +</P> + +<P> +I seemed to puzzle him, and his gaze swept me from head to foot several +times before he spoke. Then his eyes flashed angrily and he took a +step toward me. +</P> + +<P> +"Who in the devil are you and what do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"My name is Donovan, and I don't want anything except to get home." +</P> + +<P> +"Where do you come from at this hour of the night?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am spending the summer at Mr. Glenarm's place near Annandale." +</P> + +<P> +"That's rather unlikely; Mr. Glenarm is abroad. What were you doing +down there on the creek?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wasn't doing anything until two men came along to kill you and I +mixed up with them and got badly mussed for my trouble." +</P> + +<P> +He eyed me with a new interest. +</P> + +<P> +"They came to kill me, did they? You tell a good story, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so. I was standing on the deck of the houseboat or whatever it +is—" +</P> + +<P> +"Where you had no business to be—" +</P> + +<P> +"Granted. I had no business to be there; but I was there and came near +getting killed for my impertinence, as I have told you. Those fellows +rowed up from the direction of the lake. One of them told the other to +call you to your door on the pretense of summoning aid for a broken +motor-car off there in the road. Then he was to stab you. The +assassin was an Italian. His employer spoke to him in that tongue. I +happen to be acquainted with it." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a very accomplished person," he observed dryly. +</P> + +<P> +He walked up to me and felt my pockets. +</P> + +<P> +"Who fired that pistol?" +</P> + +<P> +"The man in charge of the expedition. The Italian was trying to knife +me on the deck, and I broke away from him and ran. His employer had +gone back to the boat for safety and he took a crack at me as I ran +across the platform. It's not the fault of either that I'm not quite +out of business." +</P> + +<P> +An inner door back of me creaked slightly. My captor swung round at +the sound. +</P> + +<P> +"O Rosalind! It's all right. A gentleman here lost his way and I'm +giving him his bearings." +</P> + +<P> +The door closed gently, and I heard the sound of steps retreating +through, the cottage. I noted the anxious look in Holbrook's face as +he waited for the sounds to cease; then he addressed me again. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Donovan, this is a quiet neighborhood, and I am a peaceable man, +whose worldly goods could tempt no one. There were undoubtedly others +besides yourself down there at the creek, for one man couldn't have +made all that row; but as you are the one I caught I must deal with +you. But you have protested too much; the idea of Italian bandits on +Tippecanoe Creek is creditable to your imagination, but it doesn't +appeal to my common sense. I don't know about your being a guest at +Glenarm House—even that is flimsy. A guest in the absence of the host +is just a little too fanciful. I'm strongly disposed to take you to +the calaboose at Tippecanoe village." +</P> + +<P> +Having been in jail several times in different parts of the world I was +not anxious to add to my experiences in that direction. Moreover, I +had come to this lonely house on the Tippecanoe to gain information +touching the movements of Henry Holbrook, and I did not relish the idea +of being thrown into a country jail by him. I resolved to meet the +situation boldly. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to accept my word reluctantly, even after I have saved you +from being struck down at your own door. Now I will be frank with you. +I had a purpose in coming here—" +</P> + +<P> +He stepped back and folded his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I thought so." He looked about uneasily, before his eyes met +mine. His hands beat nervously on his sleeves as he waited, and I +resolved to bring matters to an issue by speaking his name. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I know who you are, Mr. Holbrooke.</I>" +</P> + +<P> +His hands went into his pockets again, and he stepped back and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a remarkably bad guesser, Mr. Donovan. If you had visited me +by daylight instead of coming like a thief at midnight, you would have +saved yourself much trouble. My name is displayed over the outer gate. +I am Robert Hartridge, a canoe-maker." +</P> + +<P> +He spoke the name carelessly, his manner and tone implying that there +could be no debating the subject. I was prepared for evasion but not +for this cool denial of his identity. +</P> + +<P> +"But this afternoon, Mr. Holbrook, I chanced to follow the creek to +this point and I saw—" +</P> + +<P> +"You probably saw that house-boat down there, that is my shop. As I +tell you, I am a maker of canoes. They have, I hope, some +reputation—honest hand-work; and my output is limited. I shall be +deeply chagrined if you have never heard of the Hartridge canoe." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head in mock grief, walked to a cabarette and took up a +pipe and filled it. He was carrying off the situation well; but his +coolness angered me. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Hartridge, I am sorry that I must believe that heretofore you have +been known as Holbrook. The fact was clenched for me this afternoon, +quite late, as I stood in the path below here. I heard quite +distinctly a young woman call you father." +</P> + +<P> +"So? Then you're an eavesdropper as well as a trespasser!"—and the +man laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"We will admit that I am both," I flared angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"You are considerate, Mr. Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +"The young woman who called you father and whom you answered from the +deck of the house-boat is a person I know." +</P> + +<P> +"The devil!" +</P> + +<P> +He calmly puffed his pipe, holding the bowl in his fingers, his idle +hand thrust into his trousers pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"It was Miss Helen Holbrook that I saw here, Mr. Hartridge." +</P> + +<P> +He started, then recovered himself and peered into the pipe bowl for a +second; then looked at me with an amused smile on his face. +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly have a wonderful imagination. The person you saw, if +you saw any one on your visit to these premises to-day, was my +daughter, Rosalind Hartridge. Where do you think you knew her, Mr. +Donovan?" +</P> + +<P> +"I saw her this morning, at St. Agatha's School. I not only saw her, +but I talked with her, and I am neither deaf nor blind." +</P> + +<P> +He pursed his lips and studied me, with his head slightly tilted to one +side, in a cool fashion that I did not like. +</P> + +<P> +"Rather an odd place to have met this Miss—what name, did you +say?—Miss Helen Holbrook;—a closed school-house, and that sort of +thing." +</P> + +<P> +"You may ease your mind on that point; she was with your sister, her +aunt, Mr. Holbrook; and I want you to understand that your following +Miss Patricia Holbrook here is infamous and that I have no other +business but to protect her from you." +</P> + +<P> +He bent his eyes upon me gravely and nodded several times. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Donovan," he began, "I repeat that I am not Henry Holbrook, and my +daughter—is my daughter, and not your Miss Helen Holbrook. Moreover, +if you will go to Tippecanoe or to Annandale and ask about me you will +learn that I have long been a resident of this community, working at my +trade, that of a canoe-maker. That shop down there by the creek and +this house, I built myself." +</P> + +<P> +"But the girl—" +</P> + +<P> +"Was not Helen Holbrook, but my daughter, Rosalind Hartridge. She has +been away at school, and came home only a week ago. You are clearly +mistaken; and if you will call, as you undoubtedly will, on your Miss +Holbrook at St. Agatha's in the morning, you will undoubtedly find your +young lady there quite safely in charge of—what was the name, Miss +Patricia Holbrook?—in whose behalf you take so praiseworthy an +interest." +</P> + +<P> +He was treating me quite as though I were a stupid school-boy, but I +rallied sufficiently to demand: +</P> + +<P> +"If you are so peaceable and only a boat-maker here, will you tell me +why you have enemies who are so anxious to kill you? I imagine that +murder isn't common on the quiet shores of this little creek, and that +an Italian sailor is not employed to kill men who have not a past of +some sort behind them." +</P> + +<P> +His brows knit and the jaw under his short beard tightened. Then he +smiled and threw his pipe on the cabarette. +</P> + +<P> +"I have only your word for it that there's an Italian in the wood-pile. +I have friends among the country folk here and in the lake villages who +can vouch for me. As I am not in the least interested in your affairs +I shall not trouble you for your credentials; but as the hour is late +and I hope I have satisfied you that we have no acquaintances in +common, I will bid you good night. If you care for a boat to carry you +home—" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, no!" I jerked. +</P> + +<P> +He bowed with slightly exaggerated courtesy, walked to the door and +threw it open. He spoke of the beauty of the night as he walked by my +side through the garden path to the outer gate. He asked where I had +left my horse, wished me a pleasant ride home, and I was striding up +the highway in no agreeable frame of mind before I quite realized that +after narrowly escaping death on his house-boat at the hands of his +enemies, Henry Holbrook had not only sent me away as ignorant as I had +come, but had added considerably to my perplexities. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A SUNDAY'S MIXED AFFAIRS +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Of course, in company with the rest of my fellow-men, I had always tied +the sheet in a sailing-boat; but in so little and crank a concern as a +canoe, and with these charging squalls, I was not prepared to find +myself follow the same principle; and it inspired me with some +contemptuous views of our regard for life. It is certainly easier to +smoke with the sheet fastened; but I had never before weighed a +comfortable pipe of tobacco against an obvious risk, and gravely +elected for the comfortable pipe.—<I>R. L. S., An Inland Voyage</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The faithful Ijima opened the door of Glenarm House, and after I had +swallowed the supper he always had ready for me when I kept late hours, +I established myself in comfort on the terrace and studied the affairs +of the house of Holbrook until the robins rang up the dawn. On their +hint I went to bed and slept until Ijima came in at ten o'clock with my +coffee. An old hymn chimed by the chapel bells reminded me that it was +Sunday. Services were held during the summer, so the house servants +informed me, for the benefit of the cottagers at Port Annandale; and +walking to our pier I soon saw a flotilla of launches and canoes +steering for St. Agatha's. I entered the school grounds by the Glenarm +gate and watched several smart traps approach by the lake road, +depositing other devout folk at the chapel. +</P> + +<P> +The sight of bright parasols and modish gowns, the semi-urban Sunday +that had fallen in this quiet corner of the world, as though out of the +bright blue above, made all the more unreal my experiences of the +night. And just then the door of the main hall of St. Agatha's opened, +and forth came Miss Pat, Helen Holbrook and Sister Margaret and walked, +toward the chapel. +</P> + +<P> +It was Helen who greeted me first. +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Pat can't withstand the temptations of a day like this. We're +chagrined to think we never knew this part of the world before!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure there is no danger," said Miss Pat, smiling at her own +timidity as she gave me her hand. I thought that she wished to speak +to me alone, but Helen lingered at her side, and it was she who asked +the question that was on her aunt's lips. +</P> + +<P> +"We are undiscovered? You have heard nothing, Mr. Donovan?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, Miss Holbrook," I said; and I turned away from Miss +Pat—whose eyes made lying difficult—to Helen, who met my gaze with +charming candor. +</P> + +<P> +And I took account of the girl anew as I walked between her and Miss +Pat, through a trellised lane that alternated crimson ramblers and +purple clematis, to the chapel, Sister Margaret's brown-robed figure +preceding us. The open sky, the fresh airs of morning, the bird-song +and the smell of verdurous earth in themselves gave Sabbath +benediction. I challenged all my senses as I heard Helen's deep voice +running on in light banter with her aunt. It was not possible that I +had seen her through the dusk only the day before, traitorously meeting +her father, the foe of this dear old lady who walked beside me. It was +an impossible thing; the thought was unchivalrous and unworthy of any +man calling himself gentleman. No one so wholly beautiful, no one with +her voice, her steady tranquil eyes, could, I argued, do ill. And yet +I had seen and heard her; I might have touched her as she crossed my +path and ran down to the house-boat! +</P> + +<P> +She wore to-day a white and green gown and trailed a green parasol in a +white-gloved hand. Her small round hat with its sharply upturned brim +imparted a new frankness to her face. Several times she looked at me +quickly—she was almost my own height—and there was no questioning the +perfect honesty of her splendid eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"We hoped you might drop in yesterday afternoon," she said, and my ears +were at once alert. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," laughed Miss Pat, "we were—" +</P> + +<P> +"We were playing chess, and almost came to blows!" said Helen. "We +played from tea to dinner, and Sister Margaret really had to come and +tear us away from our game." +</P> + +<P> +I had now learned, as though by her own intention, that she had been at +St. Agatha's, playing a harmless game with her aunt, at the very moment +that I had seen her at the canoe-maker's. And even more conclusive was +the fact that she had made this statement before her aunt, and that +Miss Pat had acquiesced in it. +</P> + +<P> +We had reached the church door, and I had really intended entering with +them; but now I was in no frame of mind for church; I murmured an +excuse about having letters to write. +</P> + +<P> +"But this afternoon we shall go for a ride or a sail; which shall it +be, Miss Holbrook?" I said, turning to Miss Pat in the church porch. +</P> + +<P> +She exchanged glances with Helen before replying. +</P> + +<P> +"As you please, Mr. Donovan. It might be that we should be safer on +the water—" +</P> + +<P> +I was relieved. On the lake there was much less chance of her being +observed by Henry Holbrook than in the highways about Annandale. It +was, to be sure, a question whether the man I had encountered at the +canoe-maker's was really her brother; that question was still to be +settled. The presence of Gillespie I had forgotten utterly; but he +was, at any rate, the least important figure in the little drama +unfolding before me. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall come to your pier with the launch at five o'clock," I said, +and with their thanks murmuring in my ears I turned away, went home and +called for my horse. +</P> + +<P> +I repeated my journey of the night before, making daylight acquaintance +with the highway. I brought my horse to a walk as I neared the +canoe-maker's cottage, and I read his sign and the lettering on his +mail-box and satisfied myself that the name Hartridge was indisputably +set forth on both. The cedar hedge and the pines before the house shut +the cottage off from the curious completely; but I saw the flutter of +white curtains in the open gable windows, and the red roof agleam in +the bright sunlight. There was no one in sight; perhaps the adventure +and warning of the night had caused Holbrook to leave; but at any rate +I was bent upon asking about him in Tippecanoe village. +</P> + +<P> +This place, lying about two miles beyond the canoe-maker's, I found to +be a sleepy hamlet of perhaps fifty cottages, a country store, a +post-office, and a blacksmith shop. There was a water-trough in front +of the store, and I dismounted to give my horse a drink while I went to +the cottage behind the closed store to seek the shopkeeper. +</P> + +<P> +I found him in a garden under an apple-tree reading a newspaper. He +was an old fellow in spectacles, and, assuming that I was an idler from +the summer colony, he greeted me courteously. +</P> + +<P> +He confirmed my impression that the crops were all in first-rate +condition, and that the day was fine. I questioned him as to the +character of the winters in this region, spoke of the employments of +the village folk, then mentioned the canoe-maker. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; he works the year round down there on the Tippecanoe. He sells +his canoes all over the country—the Hartridge, that's his name. You +must have seen his sign there by the cedar hedge. They say he gets big +prices for his canoes." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose he's a native in these parts?" I ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"No; but he's been here a good while. I guess nobody knows where he +comes from—or cares. He works pretty hard, but I guess he likes it." +</P> + +<P> +"He's an industrious man, is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he's a steady worker; but he's a queer kind, too. Now he never +votes and he never goes to church; and for the sake of the argument, +neither do I,"—and the old fellow winked prodigiously. "He's a mighty +odd man; but I can't say that that's against him. But he's quiet and +peaceable, and now his daughter—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he has a daughter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; and that's all he has, too; and they never have any visitors. +The daughter just come home the other day, and we ain't hardly seen her +yet. She's been away at school." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose Mr. Hartridge is absent sometimes; he doesn't live down +there all the time, does he?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't say that I could prove it; sometimes I don't see him for a +month or more; but his business is his own, stranger," he concluded +pointedly. +</P> + +<P> +"You think that if Mr. Hartridge had a visitor you'd know it?" I +persisted, though the shopkeeper grew less amiable. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now I might; and again I mightn't. Mr. Hartridge is a queer +man. I don't see him every day, and particularly in the winter I don't +keep track of him." +</P> + +<P> +With a little leading the storekeeper described Hartridge for me, and +his description tallied exactly with the man who had caught me on the +canoe-maker's premises the night before. And yet, when I had thanked +the storekeeper and ridden on through the village, I was as much +befuddled as ever. There was something decidedly incongruous in the +idea that a man who was, by all superficial signs, at least, a +gentleman, should be established in the business of making canoes by +the side of a lonely creek in this odd corner of the world. From the +storekeeper's account, Hartridge might be absent from his retreat for +long periods; if he were Henry Holbrook and wished to annoy his sister, +it was not so far from this lonely creek to the Connecticut town where +Miss Pat lived. Again, as to the daughter, just home from school and +not yet familiar to the eyes of the village, she might easily enough be +an invention to hide the visits of Helen Holbrook. I found myself +trying to account for the fact that, by some means short of the +miraculous, Helen Holbrook had played chess with Miss Pat at St. +Agatha's at the very hour I had seen her with her father on the +Tippecanoe. And then I was baffled again as I remembered that Paul +Stoddard had sent the two women to St. Agatha's, and that their +destination could not have been chosen by Helen Holbrook. +</P> + +<P> +My thoughts wandered into many blind alleys as I rode on. I was +thoroughly disgusted with myself at finding the loose ends of the +Holbrooks' affairs multiplying so rapidly. The sun of noon shone hot +overhead, and I turned my horse into a road that led homeward by the +eastern shore of the lake. As I approached a little country church at +the crown of a long hill I saw a crowd gathered in the highway and +reined my horse to see what had happened. The congregation of farmers +and their families had just been dismissed; and they were pressing +about a young man who stood in the center of an excited throng. +Drawing closer, I was amazed to find my friend Gillespie the center of +attention. +</P> + +<P> +"But, my dear sir," cried a tall, bearded man whom I took to be the +minister of this wayside flock, "you must at least give us the +privilege of thanking you! You can not know what this means to us, a +gift so munificent—so far beyond our dreams." +</P> + +<P> +Whereat Gillespie, looking bored, shook his head, and tried to force +his way through the encircling rustics. He was clad in a Norfolk +jacket and knickerbockers of fantastic plaid, with a cap to match. +</P> + +<P> +A young farmer, noting my curiosity and heavy with great news, +whispered to me: +</P> + +<P> +"That boy in short pants put a thousand-dollar bill in the collection +basket. All in one bill! They thought it was a mistake, but he told +our preacher it was a free gift." +</P> + +<P> +Just then I heard the voice of my fool raised so that all might hear: +</P> + +<P> +"Friends, on the dusty highway of life I can take none of the honor or +credit you so kindly offer me. The money I have given you to-day I +came by honestly. I stepped into your cool and restful house of +worship this morning in search of bodily ease. The small voice of +conscience stirred within me. I had not been inside a church for two +years, and I was greatly shaken. But as I listened to your eloquent +pastor I was aware that the green wall-paper interrupted my soul +currents. That vegetable-green tint is notorious as a psychical +interceptor. Spend the money as you like, gentlemen; but if I, a +stranger, may suggest it, try some less violent color scheme in your +mural decorations." +</P> + +<P> +He seemed choking with emotion as with bowed head he pushed his way +through the circle and strode past me. The people stared after him, +mystified and marveling. I heard an old man calling out: +</P> + +<P> +"How wonderful are the ways of the Lord!" +</P> + +<P> +I let Gillespie pass, and followed him slowly until a turn in the road +hid us from the staring church folk. He turned and saw me. +</P> + +<P> +"You have discovered me, Donovan. Be sure your sins will find you out! +A simple people, singularly moved at the sight of a greenback. I have +rarely caused so much excitement." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you are trying to ease your conscience by giving away some +of your button money." +</P> + +<P> +"That is just it, Donovan. You have struck the brass tack on the head. +But now that we have met again, albeit through no fault of my own, let +me mention matters of real human interest." +</P> + +<P> +"You might tell me what you're doing here first." +</P> + +<P> +"Walking; there were no cabs, Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"You choose a queer hour of the day for your exercise." +</P> + +<P> +"One might say the same for your ride. But let us be sensible. I dare +say there's some common platform on which we both may stand." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll assume it," I replied, dismounting by the roadside that I might +talk more easily. Bandages were still visible at his wrists, and a +strip of court-plaster across the knuckles of his right hand otherwise +testified to the edges of the glass in St. Agatha's garden. He held up +his hands ruefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Those were nasty slashes; and I ripped them up badly in climbing out +of your window. But I couldn't linger: I am not without my little +occupations." +</P> + +<P> +"You stand as excellent chance of being shot if you don't clear out of +this. If there's any shame in you you will go without making further +trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"It has occurred to me," he began slowly, "that I know something that +you ought to know. I saw Henry Holbrook yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"On the lake. He's rented a sloop yacht called the <I>Stiletto</I>. I +passed it yesterday on the Annandale steamer and I saw him quite +distinctly." +</P> + +<P> +"It's all your fault that he's here!" I blurted, thoroughly aroused. +"If you had not followed those women they might have spent the +remainder of their lives here and never have been molested. But he +undoubtedly caught the trail from you." +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie nodded gravely and frowned before he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry to spoil your theory, my dear Irish brother, but put this +in your pipe: <I>Henry was here first</I>! He rented the sail-boat ten days +ago—and I made my triumphal entry a week later. Explain that, if you +please, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +I was immensely relieved by this disclosure, for it satisfied me that I +had not been mistaken in the identity of the canoe-maker. I had, +however, no intention of taking the button king into my confidence. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Holbrook staying?" I asked casually. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know—he keeps afloat. The <I>Stiletto</I> belongs to a Cincinnati +man who isn't coming here this summer and Holbrook has got the use of +the yacht. So much I learned from the boat storage man at Annandale; +then I passed the <I>Stiletto</I> and saw Henry on board." +</P> + +<P> +It was clear that I knew more than Gillespie, but he had supplied me +with several interesting bits of information, and, what was more to the +point, he had confirmed my belief that Henry Holbrook and the +canoe-maker were the same person. +</P> + +<P> +"You must see that I face a difficult situation here, without counting +you. You don't strike me as a wholly bad lot, Gillespie, and why won't +you run along like a good boy and let me deal with Holbrook? Then when +I have settled with him I'll see what can be done for you. Your +position as an unwelcome suitor, engaged in annoying the lady you +profess to love, and causing her great anxiety and distress, is +unworthy of the really good fellow I believe you to be." +</P> + +<P> +He was silent for a moment; then he spoke very soberly. +</P> + +<P> +"I promise you, Donovan, that I will do nothing to encourage or help +Holbrook. I know as well as you that he's a blackguard; but my own +affairs I must manage in my own way." +</P> + +<P> +"But as surely as you try to molest those women you will have to answer +to me. I am not in the habit of beginning what I never finish, and I +intend to keep those women out of your way as well as out of Holbrook's +clutches, and if you get a cracked head in the business—well, the +crack's in your own skull, Mr. Gillespie." +</P> + +<P> +He shrugged his shoulders, threw up his head and turned away down the +road. +</P> + +<P> +There was something about the fellow that I liked. I even felt a +certain pity for him as I passed him and rode on. He seemed simple and +guileless, but with a dogged manliness beneath his absurdities. He was +undoubtedly deeply attached to Helen Holbrook and his pursuit of her +partook of a knight-errantish quality that would have appealed to me in +other circumstances; but he was the most negligible figure that had yet +appeared in the Holbrook affair, and as I put my horse to the lope my +thoughts reverted to Red Gate. That chess game and Helen's visit to +her father were still to be explained; if I could cut those cards out +of the pack I should be ready for something really difficult. I +employed myself with such reflections as I completed my sweep round the +lake, reaching Glenarm shortly after two o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +I was hot and hungry, and grateful for the cool breath of the house as +I entered the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Holbrook is waiting in the library," Ijima announced; and in a +moment I faced Miss Pat, who stood in one of the open French windows +looking out upon the wood. +</P> + +<P> +She appeared to be deeply absorbed and did not turn until I spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I have waited for some time; I have something of importance to tell +you, Mr. Donovan," she began, seating herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Miss Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"You remember that this morning, on our way to the chapel, Helen spoke +of our game of chess yesterday?" +</P> + +<P> +"I remember perfectly," I replied; and my heart began to pound +suddenly, for I knew what the next sentence would be. +</P> + +<P> +"Helen was not at St. Agatha's at the time she indicated." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Miss Pat," I laughed, "Miss Holbrook doesn't have to account to +me for her movements. It isn't important—" +</P> + +<P> +"Why isn't it important?" demanded Miss Pat in a sharp tone that was +new to me. She regarded me severely, and as I blinked under her +scrutiny she smiled a little at my discomfiture. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Miss Holbrook, she is not accountable to me for her actions. If +she fibbed about the chess it's a small matter." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps it is; and possibly she is not accountable to me, either." +</P> + +<P> +"We must not probe human motives too deeply, Miss Holbrook," I said +evasively, wishing to allay her suspicions, if possible. "A young +woman is entitled to her whims. But now that you have told me this, I +suppose I may as well know how she accounted to you for this trifling +deception." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she said she wished to explore the country for herself; she wished +to satisfy herself of our safety; and she didn't want you to think she +was running foolishly into danger. She chafes under restraint, and I +fear does not wholly sympathize with my runaway tactics. She likes a +contest! And sometimes Helen takes pleasure in—in—being perverse. +She has an idea, Mr. Donovan, that you are a very severe person." +</P> + +<P> +"I am honored that she should entertain any opinion of me whatever," I +replied, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," said Miss Pat, "I must go back. Helen went to her room to +write some letters against a time when it may be possible to +communicate with our friends, and I took the opportunity to call on +you. It might be as well, Mr. Donovan, not to mention my visit." +</P> + +<P> +I walked beside Miss Pat to the gate, where she dismissed me, remarking +that she would be quite ready for a ride in the launch at five o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +The morning had added a few new-colored threads to the tangled skein I +was accumulating, but I felt that with the chess story explained I +could safely eliminate the supernatural; and I was relieved to find +that no matter what other odd elements I had to reckon with, a girl who +could be in two places at the same time was not among them. +</P> + +<P> +Holbrook had not impressed me disagreeably; he had treated me rather +decently, all things considered. The fact that he had enemies who were +trying to kill him added zest to the whole adventure upon which my +clerical friend Stoddard had launched me. The Italian sailor was a +long way from tide-water, and who his employer was—the person who had +hung aloof so conservatively during my scramble on the deck of the +house-boat—remained to be seen. From every standpoint the Holbrook +incident promised well, and I was glad to find that human beings were +still capable of interesting me so much. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A BROKEN OAR +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +We are in love's land to-day;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Where shall we go?</SPAN><BR> +Love, shall we start or stay,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Or sail or row?</SPAN><BR> +There's many a wind and way,<BR> +And never a May but May;<BR> +We are in love's hand to-day;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Where shall we go?</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Swinburne</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The white clouds of the later afternoon cruised dreamily between green +wood and blue sky. I brought the launch to St. Agatha's landing and +embarked the two exiles without incident. We set forth in good +spirits, Ijima at the engine and I at the wheel. The launch was +comfortably large, and the bright cushions, with Miss Pat's white +parasol and Helen's red one, marked us with the accent of Venice. I +drove the boat toward the open to guard against unfortunate encounters, +and the course once established I had little care but to give a wide +berth to all the other craft afloat. Helen exclaimed repeatedly upon +the beauty of the lake, which the west wind rippled into many +variations of color. I was flattered by her friendliness; and yielded +myself to the joy of the day, agreeably thrilled—I confess as much—by +her dark loveliness as she turned from time to time to speak to me. +</P> + +<P> +Snowy sails stood forth upon the water like listless clouds; paddles +flashed as they rose dripping and caught the sun; and the lake's wooded +margins gave green horizons, cool and soothing to the eye, on every +hand. One of the lake steamers on its incessant journeys created a +little sea for us, but without disturbing my passengers. +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Pat is a famous sailor!" observed Helen as the launch rocked. +"The last time we crossed the captain had personally to take her below +during a hurricane." +</P> + +<P> +"Helen always likes to make a heroine of me," said Miss Pat with her +adorable smile. "But I am not in the least afraid on the water. I +think there must have been sailors among my ancestors." +</P> + +<P> +She was as tranquil as the day. Her attitude toward her niece had not +changed; and I pleased myself with the reflection that mere +ancestry—the vigor and courage of indomitable old sea lords—did not +sufficiently account for her, but that she testified to an ampler +background of race and was a fine flower that had been centuries in +making. +</P> + +<P> +We cruised the shore of Port Annandale at a discreet distance and then +bore off again. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us not go too near shore anywhere," said Helen; and Miss Pat +murmured acquiescence. +</P> + +<P> +"No; we don't care to meet people," she remarked, a trifle anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I don't know any to introduce you to," I replied, and +turned away into the broadest part of the lake. The launch was capable +of a lively clip and the engine worked capitally. I had no fear of +being caught, even if we should be pursued, and this, in the broad +light of the peaceful Sabbath afternoon, seemed the remotest +possibility. +</P> + +<P> +It had been understood that we were to remain out until the sun dropped +into the western wood, and I loitered on toward the upper lake where +the shores were rougher. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a real island over there—they call it Battle Orchard—you must +have a glimpse of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing is so delightful as an island!" exclaimed Helen; and she +quoted William Sharp's lines: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"There is an Isle beyond our ken,<BR> +Haunted by Dreams of weary men.<BR> +Gray Hopes enshadow it with wings<BR> +Weary with burdens of old things:<BR> +There the insatiate water-springs<BR> +Rise with the tears of all who weep:<BR> +And deep within it,—deep, oh, deep!—<BR> +The furtive voice of Sorrow sings.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">There evermore,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Till Time be o'er,</SPAN><BR> +Sad, oh, so sad! the Dreams of men<BR> +Drift through the Isle beyond our ken."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ijima had scanned the lake constantly since we started, as was his +habit. Miss Pat turned to speak to Helen of the shore that now swept +away from us in broader curves as we passed out of the connecting +channel into the farther lake. Ijima remarked to me quietly, as though +speaking of the engine: +</P> + +<P> +"There's a man following in a rowboat.", +</P> + +<P> +And as I replied to some remark by Miss Pat, I saw, half a mile +distant, its sails hanging idly, a sloop that answered Gillespie's +description of the <I>Stiletto</I>. Its snowy canvas shone white against +the green verdure of Battle Orchard. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut off the power a moment. We will turn here, Ijima,"—and I called +Miss Pat's attention to a hoary old sycamore on the western shore. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm disappointed not to cruise nearer the island with the romantic +name," cried Helen. "And there's a yacht over there, too!" +</P> + +<P> +I already had the boat swung round, and in reversing the course I lost +the <I>Stiletto</I>, which clung to the island shore; but I saw now quite +plainly the rowboat Ijima had reported as following us. It hung off +about a quarter of a mile and its single occupant had ceased rowing and +shipped his oars as though waiting. He was between us and the strait +that connected the upper and lower lakes. Though not alarmed I was +irritated by my carelessness in venturing through the strait and +anxious to return to the less wild part of the lake. I did not dare +look over my shoulder, but kept talking to my passengers, while Ijima, +with the rare intuition of his race, understood the situation and +indicated by gestures the course. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a boat sailing through the green, green wood," exclaimed +Helen; and true enough, as we crept in close to the shore, we could +still see, across a wooded point of the island, the sails of the +<I>Stiletto</I>, as of a boat of dreams, drifting through the trees. And as +I looked I saw something more. A tiny signal flag was run quickly to +the topmast head, withdrawn once and flashed back; and as I faced the +bow again, the boatman dropped his oars into the water. +</P> + +<P> +"What a strange-looking man," remarked Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +"He doesn't look like a native," I replied carelessly. The launch +swung slowly around, cutting a half-circle, of which the Italian's boat +was the center. He dallied idly with his oars and seemed to pay no +heed to us, though he glanced several times toward the yacht, which had +now crept into full view, and under a freshening breeze was bearing +southward. +</P> + +<P> +"Full speed, Ijima." +</P> + +<P> +The engine responded instantly, and we cut through the water smartly. +There was a space of about twenty-five yards between the boatman and +the nearer shore. I did not believe that he would do more than try to +annoy us by forcing us on the swampy shore; for it was still broad +daylight, and we were likely at any moment to meet other craft. I was +confident that with any sort of luck I could slip past him and gain the +strait, or dodge and run round him before he could change the course of +his heavy skiff. +</P> + +<P> +I kicked the end of an oar which the launch carried for emergencies and +Ijima, on this hint, drew it toward him. +</P> + +<P> +"You can see some of the roofs of Port Annandale across the neck here," +I remarked, seeing that the women had begun to watch the approaching +boat uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +I kept up a rapid fire of talk, but listened only to the engine's +regular beat. The launch was now close to the Italian's boat, and +having nearly completed the semi-circle I was obliged to turn a little +to watch him. Suddenly he sat up straight and lay to with the oars, +pulling hard toward a point we must pass in order to clear the strait +and reach the upper lake again. The fellow's hostile intentions were +clear to all of us now and we all silently awaited the outcome. His +skiff rose high in air under the impulsion of his strong arms, and if +he struck our lighter craft amidships, as seemed inevitable, he would +undoubtedly swamp us. +</P> + +<P> +Ijima half rose, glanced toward the yacht, which was heading for the +strait, and then at me, but I shook my head. +</P> + +<P> +"Mind the engine, Ijima," I said with as much coolness as I could +muster. +</P> + +<P> +The margin between us and the skiff rapidly diminished, and the Italian +turned to take his bearings with every lift of his oars. He had thrown +off his cap, and as he looked over his shoulder I saw his evil face +sharply outlined. I counted slowly to myself the number of strokes +that would be necessary to bring him in collision if he persisted, +charging against his progress our own swift, arrow-like flight over the +water. The shore was close, and I had counted on a full depth of +water, but Ijima now called out warningly in his shrill pipe and our +bottom scraped as I veered off. This manoeuver cost me the equivalent +of ten of the Italian's deep strokes, and the shallow water added a new +element of danger. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand by with the oar, Ijima," I called in a low tone; and I saw in a +flash Miss Pat's face, quite calm, but with her lips set tight. +</P> + +<P> +Ten yards remained, I judged, between the skiff and the strait, and +there was nothing for us now but to let speed and space work out their +problem. +</P> + +<P> +Ijima stood up and seized the oar. I threw the wheel hard aport in a +last hope of dodging, and the launch listed badly as it swung round. +Then the bow of the skiff rose high, and Helen shrank away with a +little cry; there was a scratching and grinding for an instant, as +Ijima, bending forward, dug the oar into the skiff's bow and checked it +with the full weight of his body. As we fended off the oar snapped and +splintered and he tumbled into the water with a great splash, while we +swerved and rocked for a moment and then sped on through the little +strait. +</P> + +<P> +Looking back, I saw Ijima swimming for the shore. He rose in the water +and called "All right!" and I knew he would take excellent care of +himself. The Italian had shipped his oars and lay where we had left +him, and I heard him, above the beat of our engine, laugh derisively as +we glided out of sight. The water rippled pleasantly beneath us; the +swallows brushed the quiet blue with fleet wings, and in the west the +sun was spreading a thousand glories upon the up-piling clouds. Out in +the upper lake the wind freshened and we heard the low rumble of +thunder. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Holbrook, will you please steer for me?"—and in effecting the +necessary changes of position that I might get to the engine we were +all able to regain our composure. I saw Miss Pat touch her forehead +with her handkerchief; but she said nothing. Even after St. Agatha's +pier hove in sight silence held us all. The wind, continuing to +freshen, was whipping the lake with a sharp lash, and I made much of my +trifling business with the engine, and of the necessity for occasional +directions to the girl at the wheel. +</P> + +<P> +My contrition at the danger to which I had stupidly brought them was +strong in me; but there were other things to think of. Miss Pat could +not be deceived as to the animus of our encounter, for the Italian's +conduct could hardly be accounted for on the score of stupidity; and +the natural peace and quiet of this region only emphasized the gravity +of her plight. My first thought was that I must at once arrange for +her removal to some other place. With Henry Holbrook established +within a few miles of St. Agatha's the school was certainly no longer a +tenable harborage. +</P> + +<P> +As I tended the engine I saw, even when I tried to avoid her, the +figure of Helen Holbrook in the stern, quite intent upon steering and +calling now and then to ask the course when in my preoccupation I +forgot to give it. The storm was drawing a dark hood across the lake, +and the thunder boomed more loudly. Storms in this neighborhood break +quickly and I ran full speed for St. Agatha's to avoid the rain that +already blurred the west. +</P> + +<P> +We landed with some difficulty, owing to the roughened water and the +hard drive of the wind; but in a few minutes we had reached St. +Agatha's where Sister Margaret flung open the door just as the storm +let go with a roar. +</P> + +<P> +When we reached the sitting-room we talked with unmistakable restraint +of the storm and of our race with it across the lake—while Sister +Margaret stood by murmuring her interest and sympathy. She withdrew +immediately and we three sat in silence, no one wishing to speak the +first word. I saw with deep pity that Miss Pat's eyes were bright with +tears, and my heart burned hot with self-accusation. Sister Margaret's +quick step died away in the hall, and still we waited while the rain +drove against the house in sheets and the branches of a tossing maple +scratched spitefully on one of the panes. +</P> + +<P> +"We have been found out; my brother is here," said Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid that is true," I replied. "But you must not distress +yourself. This is not Sicily, where murder is a polite diversion. The +Italian wished merely to frighten us; it's a case of sheerest +blackmail. I am ashamed to have given him the opportunity. It was my +fault—my grievous fault; and I am heartily sorry for my stupidity." +</P> + +<P> +"Do not accuse yourself! It was inevitable from the beginning that +Henry should find us. But this place seemed remote enough. I had +really begun to feel quite secure—but now!" +</P> + +<P> +"But now!" repeated Helen with a little sigh. +</P> + +<P> +I marveled at the girl's composure—at her quiet acceptance of the +situation, when I knew well enough her shameful duplicity. Then by one +of those intuitions of grace that were so charming in her she bent +forward and took Miss Pat's hand. The emerald rings flashed on both as +though in assertion of kinship. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Aunt Pat! You must not take that boat affair too seriously. It +may not have been—father—who did that." +</P> + +<P> +She faltered, dropping her voice as she mentioned her father. I was +aware that Miss Pat put away her niece's hand with a sudden gesture—I +did not know whether of impatience, or whether some new resolution had +taken hold of her. She rose and moved nearer to me. +</P> + +<P> +"What have you to propose, Mr. Donovan?" she asked, and something in +her tone, in the light of her dear eyes, told me that she meant to +fight, that she knew more than she wished to say, and that she relied +on my support; and realizing this my heart went out to her anew. A +maid brought in a lamp and within the arc of its soft light I saw +Helen's lovely head as she rested her arms on the table watching us. +If there was to be a contest of wits or of arms on this peaceful lake +shore under the high arches of summer, she and I were to be foes; and +while we waited for the maid to withdraw I indulged in foolish +speculations as to whether a man could love a girl and be her enemy at +the same time. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we ought to go away—at once," the girl broke out suddenly. +"The place was ill-chosen; Father Stoddard should have known better +than to send us here!" +</P> + +<P> +"Father Stoddard did the best he could for us, Helen. It is unfair to +blame him," said Miss Pat quietly. "And Mr. Donovan has been much more +than kind in undertaking to care for us at all." +</P> + +<P> +"I have blundered badly enough!" I confessed penitently. +</P> + +<P> +"It might be better, Aunt Pat," began Helen slowly, "to yield. What +can it matter! A quarrel over money—it is sordid—" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pat stood up abruptly and said quietly, without lifting her voice, +and turning from one to the other of us: +</P> + +<P> +"We have prided ourselves for a hundred years, we American Holbrooks, +that we had good blood in us, and character and decency and morality; +and now that the men of my house have thrown away their birthright, and +made our name a plaything, I am going to see whether the general +decadence has struck me, too; and with my brother Arthur, a fugitive +because of his crimes, and my brother Henry ready to murder me in his +greed, it is time for me to test whatever blood is left in my own poor +old body, and I am going to begin now! I will not run away another +step; I am not going to be blackguarded and hounded about this free +country or driven across the sea; and I will not give Henry Holbrook +more money to use in disgracing our name. I have got to die—I have +got to die before he gets it,"—and she smiled at me so bravely that +something clutched my throat suddenly—"and I have every intention, Mr. +Donovan, of living a very long time!" +</P> + +<P> +Helen had risen, and she stood staring at her aunt in frank +astonishment. Not often, probably never before in her life, had anger +held sway in the soul of this woman; and there was something splendid +in its manifestation. She had spoken in almost her usual tone, though +with a passionate tremor toward the close; but her very restraint was +in itself ominous. +</P> + +<P> +"It shall be as you say, Miss Pat," I said, as soon as I had got my +breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, Aunt Pat," murmured Helen tamely. "We can't be driven +round the world. We may as well stay where we are." +</P> + +<P> +The storm was abating and I threw open the windows to let in the air. +</P> + +<P> +"If you haven't wholly lost faith in me, Miss Holbrook—" +</P> + +<P> +"I have every faith in you, Mr. Donovan!" smiled Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall hope to take better care of you in the future." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not afraid. I think that if Henry finds out that he can not +frighten me it will have a calming effect upon him." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I suppose you are right, Aunt Pat," said Helen passively. +</P> + +<P> +I went home feeling that my responsibilities had been greatly increased +by Miss Pat's manifesto; on the whole I was relieved that she had not +ordered a retreat, for it would have distressed me sorely to abandon +the game at this juncture to seek a new hiding-place for my charges. +</P> + +<P> +Long afterward Miss Pat's declaration of war rang in my ears. My heart +leaps now as I remember it. And I should like to be a poet long enough +to write A Ballade of All Old Ladies, or a lyric in their honor turned +with the grace of Colonel Lovelace and blithe with the spirit of Friar +Herrick. I should like to inform it with their beautiful tender +sympathy that is quick with tears but readier with strength to help and +to save; and it should reflect, too, the noble patience, undismayed by +time and distance, that makes a virtue of waiting—waiting in the long +twilight with folded hands for the ships that never come! Men old and +battle-scarred are celebrated in song and story; but who are they to be +preferred over this serene sisterhood? Let the worn mothers of the +world be throned by the fireside or placed at comfortable ease in the +shadow of hollyhocks and old-fashioned roses in familiar gardens; it +matters little, for they are supreme in any company. Whoever would be +gracious must serve them; whoever would be wise must sit at their feet +and take counsel. Nor believe too readily that the increasing tide of +years has quenched the fire in their souls; rather, it burns on with +the steady flame of sanctuary lights. Lucky were he who could imprison +in song those qualities that crown a woman's years—voicing what is in +the hearts of all of us as we watch those gracious angels going their +quiet ways, tending their secret altars of memory with flowers and +blessing them with tears. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A LADY OF SHADOWS AND STARLIGHT +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Still do the stars impart their light<BR> +To those that travel in the night;<BR> +Still time runs on, nor doth the hand<BR> +Or shadow on the dial stand;<BR> +The streams still glide and constant are:<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Only thy mind</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Untrue I find</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Which carelessly</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Neglects to be</SPAN><BR> +Like stream or shadow, hand or star.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>William Cartwright</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was nine o'clock before Ijima came in, dripping from his tumble in +the lake and his walk home through the rain. The Italian had made no +effort to molest him, he reported; but he had watched the man row out +to the <I>Stiletto</I> and climb aboard. Ijima has an unbroken record of +never having asked me a question inspired by curiosity. He may inquire +which shoes I want for a particular morning, but <I>why, where</I> and +<I>when</I> are unknown in his vocabulary. He was, I knew, fairly entitled +to an explanation of the incident of the afternoon, though he would ask +none, and when he had changed his clothes and reported to me in the +library I told him in a word that there might be further trouble, and +that I should expect him to stand night watch at St. Agatha's for a +while, dividing a patrol of the grounds with the gardener. His "Yes, +sir," was as calm as though I had told him to lay out my dress clothes, +and I went with him to look up the gardener, that the division of +patrol duty might be thoroughly understood. +</P> + +<P> +I gave the Scotchman a revolver and Ijima bore under his arm a +repeating rifle with which he and I had diverted ourselves at times in +the pleasant practice of breaking glass balls. I assigned him the +water-front and told the gardener to look out for intruders from the +road. These precautions taken, I rang the bell at St. Agatha's and +asked for the ladies, but was relieved to learn that they had retired, +for the situation would not be helped by debate, and if they were to +remain at St. Agatha's it was my affair to plan the necessary defensive +strategy without troubling them. And I must admit here, that at all +times, from the moment I first saw Helen Holbrook with her father at +Red Gate, I had every intention of shielding her to the utmost. The +thought of trapping her, of catching her, <I>flagrante delicto</I>, was +revolting; I had, perhaps, a notion that in some way I should be able +to thwart her without showing my own hand; but this, as will appear, +was not to be so easily accomplished. +</P> + +<P> +I went home and read for an hour, then got into heavy shoes and set +forth to reconnoiter. The chief avenue of danger lay, I imagined, +across the lake, and I passed through St. Agatha's to see that my +guards were about their business; then continued along a wooded bluff +that rose to a considerable height above the lake. There was a winding +path which the pilgrimages of school-girls in spring and autumn had +worn hard, and I followed it to its crest, where there was a stone +bench, established for the ease of those who wished to take their +sunsets in comfort. The place commanded a fair view of the lake, and +thence it was possible to see afar off any boat that approached St. +Agatha's or Glenarm. The wooded bluff was cool and sweet from the +rain, and a clear light was diffused by the moon as I lighted my pipe +and looked out upon the lake for signs of the <I>Stiletto</I>. +</P> + +<P> +The path that rose through the wood from St. Agatha's declined again +from the seat, and came out somewhere below, where there was a spring +sacred to the school-girls, and where, I dare say, they still indulge +in the incantations of their species. I amused myself picking out the +pier lights as far as I had learned them, following one of the lake +steamers on its zigzag course from Port Annandale to the village. +Around me the great elms and maples still dripped. Eleven chimed from +the chapel clock, the strokes stealing up to me dreamily. A moment +later I heard a step in the path behind me, light, quick, and eager, +and I bent down low on the bench, so that its back shielded me from +view, and waited. I heard the sharp swish of bent twigs in the +shrubbery as they snapped back into place in the narrow trail, and then +the voice of some one humming softly. The steps drew closer to the +bench, and some one passed behind me. I was quite sure that it was a +woman—from the lightness of the step, the feminine quality in the +voice that continued to hum a little song, and at the last moment the +soft rustle of skirts. I rose and spoke her name before my eyes were +sure of her. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Holbrook!" I exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +She did not cry out, though she stepped back quickly from the bench. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's you, Mr. Donovan, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It most certainly is!" I laughed. "We seem to have similar tastes, +Miss Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"An interest in geography, shall we call it?" she chaffed gaily. +</P> + +<P> +"Or astronomy! We will assume that we are both looking for the Little +Dipper." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" she returned on my own note. "Between the affairs of the +Holbrooks and your evening Dipper hunt you are a busy man, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not half so busy as you are, Miss Holbrook! It must tax you +severely to maintain both sides of the barricade at the same time," I +ventured boldly. +</P> + +<P> +"That does require some ingenuity," she replied musingly, "but I am a +very flexible character." +</P> + +<P> +"But what will bend will break—you may carry the game too far." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, are you tired of it already?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it; but I should like to make this stipulation with you: +that as you and I seem to be pitted against each other in this little +contest, we shall fight it all out behind Miss Pat's back. I prefer +that she shouldn't know what a—" and I hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, give me a name, won't you?" she pleaded mockingly. +</P> + +<P> +"What a beautiful deceiver you are!" +</P> + +<P> +"Splendid! We will agree that I am a deceiver!" +</P> + +<P> +"If it gives you pleasure! You are welcome to all the joy you can get +out of it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't be bitter! Let us play fair, and not stoop to abuse." +</P> + +<P> +"I should think you would feel contrite enough after that ugly business +of this afternoon. You didn't appear to be even annoyed by that +Italian's effort to smash the launch." +</P> + +<P> +She was silent for an instant; I heard her breath come and go quickly; +then she responded with what seemed a forced lightness: +</P> + +<P> +"You really think that was inspired by—" she suddenly appeared at a +loss. +</P> + +<P> +"By Henry Holbrook, as you know well enough. And if Miss Pat should be +murdered through his enmity, don't you see that your position in the +matter would be difficult to explain? Murder, my dear young woman, is +not looked upon complacently, even in this remote corner of the world!" +</P> + +<P> +"You seem given to the use of strong language, Mr. Donovan. Let us +drop the calling of names and consider just where you put me." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't put you at all; you have taken your own stand. But I will say +that I was surprised, not to say pained, to find that you played the +eavesdropper the very hour you came to Annandale." +</P> + +<P> +A moment's silence; the water murmured in the reeds below; an owl +hooted in the Glenarm wood; a restless bird chirped from its perch in a +maple overhead. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, to be sure!" she said at last. "You thought I was listening while +Aunt Pat unfolded the dark history of the Holbrooks." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew it, though I tried to believe I was mistaken. But when I saw +you there on Tippecanoe Creek, meeting your father at the canoe-maker's +house, I was astounded; I did not know that depravity could go so far." +</P> + +<P> +"My poor, unhappy, unfortunate father!" she said in a low voice; there +was almost a moan in it. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you defend your conduct on the ground of filial duty," I +suggested, finding it difficult to be severe. +</P> + +<P> +"Why shouldn't I? Who are you to judge our affairs? We are the +unhappiest family that ever lived; but I should like you to know that +it was not by my wish that you were brought into our councils. There +is more in all this than appears!" +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing in it but Miss Pat—her security, her peace, her +happiness. I am pledged to her, and the rest of you are nothing to me. +But you may tell your father that I have been in rows before and that I +propose to stand by the guns." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall deliver your message, Mr. Donovan; and I give you my father's +thanks for it," she mocked. +</P> + +<P> +"Your father calls you Rosalind—before strangers!" I remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. It's a fancy of his," she murmured lingeringly. "Sometimes it's +Viola, or Perdita, but, as I think of it, it's oftener Rosalind. I +hope you don't object, Mr. Donovan?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I rather like it; it's in keeping with your variable character. +You seem prone, like Rosalind, to woodland wandering. I dare say the +other people of the cast will appear in due season. So far I have seen +only the Fool." +</P> + +<P> +"The Fool? Oh, yes; there was Touchstone, wasn't there?" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe it is admitted that there was." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed; I felt that we were bound to get on better, now that we +understood each other. +</P> + +<P> +"You are rather proud of your attainments, aren't you? I have really +read the play, Mr. Donovan: I have even seen it acted." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not mean to reflect on your intelligence, which is acute enough; +or on your attainments, which are sufficient; or on your experience of +life, which is ample!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well spoken! I really believe that I am liking you better all the +time, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"My heart is swollen with gratitude. You heard my talk with your +father at his cottage last night. And then you flew back to Miss Pat +and played the hypocrite with the artlessness of Rosalind—the real +Rosalind." +</P> + +<P> +"Did I? Then I'm as clever as I am wicked. You, no doubt, are as wise +as you are good." +</P> + +<P> +She folded her arms with a quick movement, the better, I thought, to +express satisfaction with her own share of the talk; then her manner +changed abruptly. She rested her hands on the back of the bench and +bent toward me. +</P> + +<P> +"My father dealt very generously with you. You were an intruder. He +was well within his rights in capturing you. And, more than that, you +drew to our place some enemies of your own who may yet do us grave +injury." +</P> + +<P> +"They were no enemies of mine! Didn't you hear me debating that matter +with your father? They were his enemies and they pounced on me by +mistake. It's not their fault that they didn't kill me!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's a likely story. That little creek is the quietest place in the +world." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know?" I demanded, bending closer toward her. +</P> + +<P> +"Because my father tells me so! That was the reason he chose it." +</P> + +<P> +"He wanted a place to hide when the cities became too hot for him. I +advise you, Miss Holbrook, in view of all that has happened, and if you +have any sense of decency left, to keep away from there." +</P> + +<P> +"And I suggest to you, Mr. Donovan, that your devotion to my aunt does +not require you to pursue my father. You do well to remember that a +stranger thrusting himself into the affairs of a family he does not +know puts himself in a very bad light." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not asking your admiration, Miss Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"You may save yourself the trouble!" she flashed; and then laughed out +merrily. "Let us not be so absurd! We are quarreling like two +school-children over an apple. It's really a pleasure to meet you in +this unconventional fashion, but we must be amiable. Our affairs will +not be settled by words—I am sure of that. I must beg of you, the +next time you come forth at night, to wear your cloak and dagger. The +stage-setting is fair enough; and the players should dress their parts +becomingly. I am already named Rosalind—at night; Aunt Pat we will +call the Duchess in exile; and we were speaking a moment ago of the +Fool. Well, yes; there was a Fool." +</P> + +<P> +"I might take the part myself, if Gillespie were not already cast for +it." +</P> + +<P> +"Gillespie?" she said wonderingly; then added at once, as though memory +had prompted her: "To be sure there is Gillespie." +</P> + +<P> +"There is certainly Gillespie. Perhaps you would liefer call him +Orlando?" I ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see," she pondered, bending her head; then: "'O, that's a brave +man! he writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths and +breaks them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover; as +a puisny tilter, that spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff +like a noble goose; but all's brave that youth mounts and folly +guides.'" +</P> + +<P> +"That is Celia's speech, but well rendered. Let us consider that you +are Rosalind, Celia, Viola and Ariel all in one. And I shall be those +immortal villains of old tragedy—first, second and third murtherer; +or, if it suit you better, let me be Iago for honesty; Othello for +great adventures; Hamlet for gloom; Shylock for relentlessness, and +Romeo for love-sickness." +</P> + +<P> +Again she bent her head; then drawing a little away and clasping her +hands, she quoted: "'Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday +humour and like enough to consent. What would you say to me now, an I +were your very, very Rosalind?'" +</P> + +<P> +I stammered a moment, dimly recalling Orlando's reply in the play. I +did not know whether she were daring me; and this was certainly not the +girl's mood as we had met at St. Agatha's. My heart leaped and the +blood tingled in my finger-tips as memory searched out the +long-forgotten scene; and suddenly I threw at her the line: +</P> + +<P> +"'How if the kiss be denied?'" +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"The rehearsal has gone far enough. Let us come back to earth again." +</P> + +<P> +But this, somehow, was not so easy. +</P> + +<P> +Far across the lake a heavy train rumbled, and its engine blew a long +blast for Annandale. I felt at that instant the unreality of the day's +events, with their culmination in this strange interview on the height +above the lake. Never, I thought, had man parleyed with woman on so +extraordinary a business. In the brief silence, while the whistle's +echoes rang round the shore, I drew away from the bench that had stood +like a barricade between us and walked toward her. I did not believe +in her; she had flaunted her shameful trickery in my face; and yet I +felt her spell upon me as through the dusk I realized anew her splendid +height, the faint disclosure of her noble head and felt the glory of +her dark eyes. Verily, a lady of shadows, moonlight and dreams, whom +it befitted well to walk forth at night, bent upon plots and mischief, +and compelling love in such foolish hearts as mine. She did not draw +away, but stood quietly, with her head uplifted, a light scarf caught +about her shoulders, and on her head a round sailors cap, tipped away +from her face. +</P> + +<P> +"You must go back; I must see you safely to St. Agatha's," I said. +</P> + +<P> +She turned, drawing the scarf close under her throat with a quick +gesture, as though about to go. She laughed with more honest glee than +I had known in her before, and I forgot her duplicity, forgot the bold +game she was playing, and the consequences to which it must lead; my +pulses bounded when a bit of her scarf touched my hand as she flung a +loose end over her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Mr. Donovan, you propose the impossible! We are foes, you +must remember, and I can not accept your escort." +</P> + +<P> +"But I have a guard about the house; you are likely to get into trouble +if you try to pass through. I must ask you to remember our pledge, +that you are not to vex Miss Pat unnecessarily in this affair. To +rouse her in the night would only add to her alarm. She has had enough +to worry her already. And I rather imagine," I added bitterly, "that +you don't propose killing her with your own hands." +</P> + +<P> +"No; do give me credit for that!" she mocked. "But I shall not disturb +your guards, and I shall not distress Aunt Pat by making a row in the +garden trying to run your pickets. I want you to stay here five +minutes—count them honestly—until I have had time to get back in my +own fashion. Is it a bargain?" She put out her hand as she turned +away—her left hand. As my fingers closed upon it an instant the +emerald ring touched my palm. +</P> + +<P> +"I should think you would not wear that ring," I said, detaining her +hand, "it is too like hers; it is as though you were plighted to her by +it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; it is like her own; she gave it—" +</P> + +<P> +She choked and caught her breath sharply and her hand flew to her face. +</P> + +<P> +"She gave it to my mother, long ago," she said, and ran away down the +path toward the school. A bit of gravel loosened by her step slipped +after her to a new resting-place; then silence and the night closed +upon her. +</P> + +<P> +I threw myself upon the bench and waited, marveling at her. If I had +not touched her hand; if I had not heard her voice; if, more than all, +I had not talked with her of her father, of Miss Pat, of intimate +things which no one else could have known, I should not have believed +that I had seen Helen Holbrook face to face. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE LIGHTS ON ST. AGATHA'S PIER +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +The night is still, the moon looks kind,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The dew hangs jewels in the heath,</SPAN><BR> +An ivy climbs across thy blind,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And throws a light and misty wreath.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +The dew hangs jewels in the heath,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Buds bloom for which the bee has pined;</SPAN><BR> +I haste along, I quicker breathe,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The night is still, the moon looks kind.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Buds bloom for which the bee has pined,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The primrose slips its jealous sheath,</SPAN><BR> +As up the flower-watched path I wind<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And come thy window-ledge beneath.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +The primrose slips its jealous sheath,—<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Then open wide that churlish blind,</SPAN><BR> +And kiss me through the ivy wreath!<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The night is still, the moon looks kind.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—Edith M. Thomas.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +On my way home through St. Agatha's I stopped to question the two +guards. They had heard nothing, had seen nothing. How that girl had +passed them I did not know. I scanned the main building, where she and +Miss Pat had two rooms, with an intervening sitting-room, but all was +dark. Miss Helen Holbrook was undeniably a resourceful young woman of +charm and wit, and I went on to Glenarm House with a new respect for +her cleverness. +</P> + +<P> +I was abroad early the next morning, retracing my steps through St. +Agatha's to the stone bench on the bluff with a vague notion of +confirming my memory of the night by actual contact with visible, +tangible things. The lake twinkled in the sunlight, the sky overhead +was a flawless sweep of blue, and the foliage shone from the deluge of +the early night. But in the soft mold of the path the print of a +woman's shoe was unmistakable. Now, in Ireland, when I was younger, I +believed in fairies with all my heart, and to this day I gladly break a +lance for them with scoffers. I know folk who have challenged them and +been answered, and I have, with my own eyes, caught glimpses of their +lights along Irish hillsides. Once, I verily believe, I was near to +speech with them—it was in a highway by a starlit moor—but they +laughed and ran away. The footprints in the school-path were, however, +no elfin trifles. I bent down and examined them; I measured +them—ungraciously, indefensibly, guiltily—with my hand, and rose +convinced that the neat outlines spoke of a modish bootmaker, and were +not to be explained away as marking the lightly-limned step of a fairy +or the gold-sandaled flight of Diana. Then I descended to St. Agatha's +and found Miss Pat and Helen loitering tranquilly in the garden. +</P> + +<P> +America holds no lovelier spot than the garden of St. Agatha's, with +its soft slopes of lawn, its hedges of box, its columned roses, its +interludes of such fragrant trifles as mignonette and sweet alyssum; +its trellised clematis and honeysuckle and its cool background of +vine-hung wall, where the eye that wearies of the riot of color may +find rest. +</P> + +<P> +They gave me good morning—Miss Pat calm and gracious, and Helen in the +spirit of the morning itself, smiling, cool, and arguing for peace. +Deception, as a social accomplishment, she had undoubtedly carried far; +and I was hard put to hold up my end of the game. I have practised +lying with past-masters in the art—the bazaar keepers of Cairo, horse +dealers in Moscow and rug brokers in Teheran; but I dipped my colors to +this amazing girl. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid that we are making ourselves a nuisance to you," said Miss +Pat. "I heard the watchmen patrolling the walks last night." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; it was quite feudal!" Helen broke in. "I felt that we were back +at least as far as the eleventh century. The splash of water—which +you can hear when the lake is rough—must be quite like the lap of +water in a moat. But I did not hear the clank of arms." +</P> + +<P> +"No," I observed dryly. "Ijima wears blue serge and carries a gun that +would shoot clear through a crusader. The gardener is a Scotchman, and +his dialect would kill a horse." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pat paused behind us to deliberate upon a new species of hollyhock +whose minarets rose level with her kind, gentle eyes. Something had +been in my mind, and I took this opportunity to speak to Helen. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you avert danger and avoid an ugly catastrophe by confessing +to Miss Pat that your duty and sympathy lie with your father? It would +save a lot of trouble in the end." +</P> + +<P> +The flame leaped into Helen's face as she turned to me. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you mean! I have never been spoken to by any one so +outrageously!" She glanced hurriedly over her shoulder. "My position +is hard enough; it is difficult enough, without this. I thought you +wished to help us." +</P> + +<P> +I stared at her; she was drifting out of my reckoning, and leading me +into uncharted seas. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to tell me that you have not talked with your father—that +you have not seen him here?" I besought. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I have seen him—once, and it was by accident. It was quite by +accident." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I know of that—" +</P> + +<P> +"Then you have been spying upon me, Mr. Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you tell me that outrageously foolish tale about your chess +game, when I knew exactly where you were at the very hour you would +have had me think you were dutifully engaged with your aunt? It seems +to me, my dear Miss Holbrook, that that is not so easy of explanation, +even to my poor wits." +</P> + +<P> +"That was without purpose; really it was! I was restless and weary +from so much confinement; you can't know how dreary these late years +have been for us—for me—and I wished just once to be free. I went +for a long walk into the country. And if you saw me, if you watched +me—" +</P> + +<P> +I gazed at her blankly. The thing could not have been better done on +the stage; but Miss Pat was walking toward us, and I put an end to the +talk. +</P> + +<P> +"I came upon him by accident—I had no idea he was here," she persisted. +</P> + +<P> +"You are not growing tired of us," began Miss Pat, with her brave, +beautiful smile; "you are not anxious to be rid of us?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly am not," I replied. "I can't tell you how glad I am that +you have decided to remain here. I am quite sure that with a little +patience we shall wear out the besiegers. Our position here has, you +may say, the strength of its weaknesses. I think the policy of the +enemy is to harass you by guerilla methods—to annoy you and frighten +you into submission." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I believe you are right," she said slowly. Helen had walked on, +and I loitered beside Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you have had no misgivings, Miss Pat, since our talk yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"None whatever," she replied quickly. "I am quite persuaded in my own +mind that I should have been better off if I had made a stand long ago. +I don't believe cowardice ever pays, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +She smiled up at me in her quick, bright way, and I was more than ever +her slave. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Holbrook, you are the bravest woman in the world! I believe you +are right. I think I should be equal to ten thousand men with your +spirit to put heart into me." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be foolish," she said, laughing. "But to show you that I am not +really afraid, suppose you offer to take us for a drive this evening. +I think it would be well for me to appear to-day, just to show the +enemy that we are not driven to cover by our little adventure in the +launch yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! Shall we carry outriders and a rear guard?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it. I think we may be able to shame my brother out of +his evil intentions by our defenselessness." +</P> + +<P> +We waited for Helen to rejoin us, and the drive was planned for five. +Promptly on the hour, after a day of activity on my part in cruising +the lake, looking for signs of the enemy, we set forth in an open trap, +and plunged into country roads that traversed territory new to all of +us. I carried Ijima along, and when, after a few miles, Helen asked to +take the reins, I changed seats with her, and gave myself up to talk +with Miss Pat. The girl's mood was grave, and she wished to drive, I +fancied, as an excuse for silence. The land rolled gradually away into +the south and west, and we halted, in an hour or so, far from the lake, +on a wooded eminence that commanded a long sweep in every direction, +and drew into the roadside. Ijima opened a gate that admitted us to a +superb maple grove, and in a few minutes we were having tea from the +hamper in the cheeriest mood in the world. The sun was contriving new +marvels in the west, and the wood that dipped lakeward beneath us gave +an illusion of thick tapestry to the eye. +</P> + +<P> +"We could almost walk to the lake over the trees," said Miss Pat. +"It's a charming picture." +</P> + +<P> +Then, as we all turned to the lake, seeing it afar across the tree-tops +through the fragrant twilight, I saw the <I>Stiletto</I> standing out boldly +upon the waters of Annandale, with a languid impudence that I began to +associate with its slim outlines and snowy canvas. Other craft were +abroad, and Miss Pat, I judged, spoke only of the prettiness of the +general landscape, and there was, to be sure, no reason why the sails +of the <I>Stiletto</I> should have had any particular significance for her. +Helen was still looking down upon the lake when Miss Pat suggested that +we should go home; and even after her aunt called to her, the girl +still stood, one hand resting upon the trunk of a great beech, her gaze +bent wistfully, mournfully toward the lake. But on the homeward +drive—she had asked for the reins again—her mood changed abruptly, +and she talked cheerily, often turning her head—a scarlet-banded +sailor hat was, I thought, remarkably becoming—to chaff about her +skill with the reins. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't a care or trouble in the world," declared Miss Pat when I +left them at St. Agatha's. "I am sure that we have known the worst +that can happen to us in Annandale. I refuse to be a bit frightened +after that drive." +</P> + +<P> +"It was charming," said Helen. "This is better than the English lake +country, because it isn't so smoothed out." +</P> + +<P> +"I will grant you all of that," I said. "I will go further and +admit—what is much for me—that it is almost equal to Killarney." +</P> + +<P> +There seemed to be sincerity in their good spirits, and I was myself +refreshed and relieved as I drove into Glenarm; but I arranged for the +same guard as on the night before. Helen Holbrook's double-dealing +created a condition of affairs that demanded cautious handling, and I +had no intention of being caught napping. +</P> + +<P> +I am not, let me say, a person who boasts of his knowledge of human +nature. Good luck has served to minimize my own lack of subtlety in +dealing with my fellow-creatures; and I take no credit for such fortune +as I have enjoyed in contests of any sort with men or women. As for +the latter, I admire, I reverence, I love them; but I can not engage to +follow them when they leave the main road for short cuts and by-paths. +The day had gone so well that I viewed the night with complacency. I +read my foreign newspapers with a recurrence of the joy that the +thought of remote places always kindles in me. An article in <I>The +Times</I> on the unrest in Bulgaria—the same old article on the same old +unrest—gave me the usual heartache: I have been waiting ten years for +something to happen in that neighborhood—something really significant +and offering a chance for fun, and it seems as far away as ever. +</P> + +<P> +From the window of my room I saw the Japanese boy patrolling the walks +of St. Agatha's, and the Holbrooks' affairs seemed paltry and tame in +contrast with the real business of war. A buckboard of youngsters from +Port Annandale passed in the road, leaving a trail of song behind them. +Then the frog choruses from the little brook that lay hidden in the +Glenarm wood sounded in my ears with maddening iteration, and I sought +the open. +</P> + +<P> +The previous night I had met Helen Holbrook by the stone seat on the +ridge, and I can not deny that it was with the hope of seeing her again +that I set forth. That touch of her hand in the moonlight lingered +with me: I thrilled with eagerness as I remembered how my pulses +bounded when I found myself so close to her there in the fringe of +wood. She was beautiful with a rare loveliness at all times, yet I +found myself wondering whether, on the strange frontiers of love, it +was her daring duplicity that appealed to me. I set myself stubbornly +into a pillory reared of my own shame at the thought, and went out and +climbed upon the Glenarm wall and stared at the dark bulk of St. +Agatha's as I punished myself for having entertained any other thought +of Helen Holbrook than of a weak, vain, ungrateful girl, capable of +making sad mischief for her benefactor. +</P> + +<P> +Ijima passed and repassed in the paved walk that curved among the +school buildings; I heard his step, and marked his pauses as he met the +gardener at the front door by an arrangement that I had suggested. As +I considered the matter I concluded that Helen Holbrook could readily +slip out at the back of the house, when the guards thus met, and that +she had thus found egress on the night before. +</P> + +<P> +At this moment the two guards met precisely at the front door, and to +my surprise Sister Margaret, in the brown garb of her Sisterhood, +stepped out, nodded to the watchmen in the light of the overhanging +lamp, and walked slowly round the buildings and toward the lake. The +men promptly resumed their patrol. The Sister slipped away like a +shadow through the garden; and I dropped down from the wall inside the +school park and stole after her. The guards were guilty of no +impropriety in passing her; there was, to be sure, no reason why Sister +Margaret should not do precisely as she liked at St. Agatha's. +However, my curiosity was piqued, and I crept quietly along through the +young maples that fringed the wall. She followed a path that led down +to the pier, and I hung back to watch, still believing that Sister +Margaret had gone forth merely to enjoy the peace and beauty of the +night. I paused in a little thicket, and heard her light step on the +pier flooring; and I drew as near as I dared, in the shadow of the +boat-house. +</P> + +<P> +She stood beside the upright staff from which the pier lights +swung—the white lantern between the two red ones—looking out across +the lake. The lights outlined her tall figure distinctly. She peered +about anxiously several times, and I heard the impatient tap of her +foot on the planks. In the lake sounded the faint gurgle of water +round a paddle, and in a moment a canoe glided to the pier and a man +stepped out. He bent down to seize the painter, and I half turned +away, ashamed of the sheer curiosity that had drawn me after the +Sister. Nuns who chafe at their prison-bars are not new, either to +romance or history; and this surely was no affair of mine. Then the +man stood up, and I saw that it was Gillespie. He was hatless, and his +arms were bared. He began to speak, but she quieted him with a word; +and as with a gesture she flung back her brown hood, I saw that it was +Helen Holbrook. +</P> + +<P> +"I had given you up," she said. +</P> + +<P> +He took both her hands and held them, bending toward her eagerly. She +seemed taller than he in the lantern light. +</P> + +<P> +"I should have come across the world," he said. "You must believe that +I should not have asked this of you if I had not believed you could do +it without injury to yourself—that it would impose no great burden on +you, and that you would not think too ill of me—" +</P> + +<P> +"I love you; I am here because I love you!" he said; and I thought +better of him than I had. He was a fool, and weak; but he was, I +believed, an honest fool, and my heart grew hot with jealous rage as I +saw them there together. +</P> + +<P> +"If there is more I can do!" +</P> + +<P> +"No; and I should not ask you if there were. I have gone too far, as +it is," she sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"You must take no risks; you must take care that Miss Pat knows +nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"No; I must see father. He must go away. I believe he has lost his +senses from brooding on his troubles." +</P> + +<P> +"But how did he ever get here? There is something very strange about +it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I knew he would follow us! But I did not tell him I was coming +here—I hope you did not believe that of me. I did not tell him any +more than I told you." +</P> + +<P> +He laughed softly. +</P> + +<P> +"You did not need to tell me; I could have found you anywhere in the +world, Helen. That man Donovan is watching you like a hawk; but he's a +pretty good fellow, with a Milesian joy in a row. He's going to +protect Miss Pat and you if he dies at the business." +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged her shoulders, and I saw her disdain of me in her face. A +pretty conspiracy this was, and I seemed to be only the crumpled +wrapping of a pack of cards, with no part in the game. +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie drew an envelope from his pocket, held it to the white +lantern for an instant, then gave it to her. +</P> + +<P> +"I telegraphed to Chicago for a draft. He will have to leave here to +get it—the bank at Annandale carries no such sum; and it will be a +means of getting rid of him." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I only hope he will leave—he must—he must!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"You must go back," he said. "These matters will all come right in the +end, Helen," he added kindly. "There is one thing I do not understand." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there are many things I do not understand!" +</P> + +<P> +"The thing that troubles me is that your father was here before you." +</P> + +<P> +"No—that isn't possible; I can't believe it." +</P> + +<P> +"He had engaged the <I>Stiletto</I> before you came to Annandale; and while +I was tracing you across the country he was already here somewhere. He +amuses himself with the yacht." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know; he is more of a menace that way—always in our +sight—always where I must see him!" +</P> + +<P> +Her face, clearly lighted by the lanterns, was touched with anxiety and +sorrow, and I saw her, with that prettiest gesture of woman's thousand +graces—the nimble touch that makes sure no errant bit of hair has gone +wandering—lift her hand to her head for a moment. The emerald ring +flashed in the lantern light. I recall a thought that occurred to me +there—that the widow's peak, so sharply marked in her forehead, was +like the finger-print of some playful god. She turned to go, but he +caught her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Helen!" he cried softly. +</P> + +<P> +"No! Please don't!" +</P> + +<P> +She threw the nun's hood over her head and walked rapidly up the pier +and stole away through the garden toward St. Agatha's. Gillespie +listened for her step to die away, then he sighed heavily and bent down +to draw up his canoe. When I touched him on the shoulder he rose and +lifted the paddle menacingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, so it's our young and gifted Irish friend!" he said, grinning. +"No more sprinting stunts for me! I decline to run. The thought of +asparagus and powdered glass saddens me. Look at these hands—these +little hands still wrapped in mystical white rags. I have bled at +every pore to give you entertainment, and now it's got to be twenty +paces with bird-guns." +</P> + +<P> +"What mischief are you in now?" I demanded angrily. "I thought I +warned you, Gillespie; I thought I even appealed to your chivalry." +</P> + +<P> +"My dear fellow, everything has changed. If a nun in distress appeals +to me for help, I am Johnny-on-the-spot for Mother Church." +</P> + +<P> +"That was not the Sister, it was Miss Holbrook. I saw her distinctly; +I heard—" +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove, this is gallant of you, Donovan! You are a marvelous fellow!" +</P> + +<P> +"I have a right to ask—I demand to know what it was you gave the girl." +</P> + +<P> +"Matinée tickets—the American girl without matinée tickets is a lonely +pleiad bumping through the void." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a contemptible ass. Your conduct is scoundrelly. If you want +to see Miss Holbrook, why don't you go to the house and call on her +like a gentleman? And as for her—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; and as for her—?" +</P> + +<P> +He stepped close to me threateningly. +</P> + +<P> +"And as for her—?" he repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"As for her, she may go too far!" +</P> + +<P> +"She is not answerable to you. She's the finest girl in the world, and +if you intimate—" +</P> + +<P> +"I intimate nothing. But what I saw and heard interested me a good +deal, Gillespie." +</P> + +<P> +"What you heard by stealth, creeping about here at night, prying into +other people's affairs!" +</P> + +<P> +"I have pledged myself to care for Miss Pat." +</P> + +<P> +"It's noble of you, Donovan!" and he stepped away from me, grinning. +"Miss Pat suggests nothing to me but 'button, button, who's got the +button?' She's a bloomin' aristocrat, while I'm the wealth-cursed +child of democracy." +</P> + +<P> +"You're a charming specimen!" I growled. +</P> + +<P> +It was plain that he saw nothing out of the way in thus conniving with +Helen Holbrook against her aunt, and that he had not been struck by the +enormity of the girl's conduct in taking money from him. He drew in +his canoe as I debated with myself what to do with him. +</P> + +<P> +"You've got to leave the lake," I said. "You've got to go." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'm going, thank you!" +</P> + +<P> +He sprang into the canoe, driving it far out of my reach; his paddle +splashed, and he was gone. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that you, sir?" called Ijima behind me. "I thought I heard some +one talking." +</P> + +<P> +"It is nothing, Ijima." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE FLUTTER OF A HANDKERCHIEF +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">As a bell in a chime</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 5em">Sets its twin-note a-ringing,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">As one poet's rhyme</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 5em">Wakes another to singing,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">So once she has smiled</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">All your thoughts are beguiled,</SPAN><BR> +And flowers and song from your childhood are bringing.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">Each grace is a jewel</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 5em">Would ransom the town;</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">Her speech has no cruel,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 5em">Her praise is renown;</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">'Tis in her as though Beauty,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4em">Resigning to Duty</SPAN><BR> +The scepter, had still kept the purple and crown.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Robert Underwood Johnson</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The next morning at eight o'clock I sent a note to Miss Pat, asking if +she and the other ladies of her house would not take breakfast with me +at nine; and she replied, on her quaint visiting-card, in an +old-fashioned hand, that she and Helen would be glad to come, but that +Sister Margaret begged to be excused. It had been in my mind from the +first to ask them to dine at Glenarm, and now I wished to see this +girl, to test, weigh, study her, as soon as possible after her meeting +with Gillespie. I wished to see how she would bear herself before her +aunt and me with that dark transaction on her conscience. The idea +pleased me, and when I saw the two women coming through the school +garden I met them at the gate. +</P> + +<P> +Breakfast seems to be, in common experience, the most difficult meal of +the day, and yet that hour hangs in memory still as one of the +brightest I ever spent. The table was set on the terrace, and its +white napery, the best Glenarm silver and crystal, and a bowl of red +roses still dewy from the night, all blended coolly with the morning. +As the strawberries were passed I felt that the little table had +brought us together in a new intimacy. It was delightful to sit face +to face with Miss Pat, and not less agreeable to have at my right hand +this bewildering girl, whose eyes laughed at me when I sought shame in +their depths. Miss Pat poured the coffee, and when I took my cup I +felt that it carried benediction with it. I was glad to see her so at +peace with the world, and her heart was not older, I could have sworn, +than the roses before her. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall refuse to leave when my time is up!" she declared. "Do you +think you could spend a winter here, Helen?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should love it!" the girl replied. "It would be perfectly splendid +to watch the seasons march across the lake. We can both enroll +ourselves at St. Agatha's as post-graduate students, and take a special +course in weather here." +</P> + +<P> +"If I didn't sometimes hear trains passing Annandale in the night, I +should forget that there's a great busy world off there somewhere," +said Miss Pat. "I am ashamed of myself for having been so long +discovering this spot. Except one journey to California, I was never +west of Philadelphia until I came here." +</P> + +<P> +The world was satisfactory as it stood; and I was aware of no reason +why it should move on. The chime of the chapel tower drifted to us +drowsily, as though anxious to accommodate itself to the mood of a day +that began business by shattering the hour-glass. The mist that hung +over the water rose lazily, and disclosed the lake agleam in the full +sunlight. Though Miss Pat was content to linger, Helen, I thought, +appeared restless; she rose and walked to the edge of the terrace, the +better to scan the lake, while Miss Pat and I talked on. Miss Pat's +gift of detachment was remarkable; if we had been looking down from a +balcony upon the Grand Canal, or breakfasting in an Italian garden, she +could not have been more at ease; nor did she refer even remotely to +the odd business that had brought her to the lake. She was, to be +explicit, describing in her delightful low voice, and in sentences +vivid with spirit and color, a visit she had once paid to a noble +Italian family at their country seat. As Helen wandered out of hearing +I thought Miss Pat would surely seize the opportunity to speak of the +girl's father, at least to ask whether I had heard of him further; but +she avoided all mention of her troubles. +</P> + +<P> +Helen stood by the line of scarlet geraniums that marked the +balustrade, at a point whence the best view of the lake was +obtainable—her hands clasped behind her, her head turned slightly. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no one quite like her!" exclaimed Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +"She is beautiful!" I acquiesced. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pat talked on quickly, as though our silence might cause Helen to +turn and thus deprive us of the picture. +</P> + +<P> +"Should you like to look over the house?" I asked a little later, when +Helen had come back to the table. "It is said to be one of the finest +houses in interior America, and there are some good pictures." +</P> + +<P> +"We should be very glad," said Miss Pat; and Helen murmured assent. +</P> + +<P> +"But we must not stay too long, Aunt Pat. Mr. Donovan has his own +affairs. We must not tax his generosity too far." +</P> + +<P> +"And we are going to send some letters off to-day. If it isn't asking +too much, I should like to drive to the village later," said Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; and I should like a paper of pins and a new magazine," said +Helen, a little, a very little eagerness in her tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. The stable is at your disposal, and our entire marine." +</P> + +<P> +"But we must see the Glenarm pictures first," said Miss Pat, and we +went at once into the great cool house, coming at last to the gallery +on the third floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Whistler!" Miss Pat exclaimed in delight before the famous <I>Lady in +the Gray Cloak</I>. "I thought that picture was owned in England." +</P> + +<P> +"It was; but old Mr. Glenarm had to have it. That Meissonier is +supposed to be in Paris, but you see it's here." +</P> + +<P> +"It's wonderful!" said Miss Pat. She returned to the Whistler and +studied it with rapt attention, and I stood by, enjoying her pleasure. +One of the housemaids had followed us to the gallery and opened the +French windows giving upon a balcony, from which the lake lay like a +fold of blue silk beyond the wood. Helen had passed on while Miss Pat +hung upon the Whistler. +</P> + +<P> +"How beautifully those draperies are suggested, Helen. That is one of +the best of all his things." +</P> + +<P> +But Helen was not beside her, as she had thought. There were several +recesses in the room, and I thought the girl had stepped into one of +these, but just then I saw her shadow outside. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Holbrook is on the balcony," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, very well. We must go," she replied quietly, but lingered before +the picture. +</P> + +<P> +I left Miss Pat and crossed the room to the balcony. As I approached +one of the doors I saw Helen, standing tiptoe for greater height, +slowly raise and lower her handkerchief thrice, as though signaling to +some one on the water. +</P> + +<P> +I laughed outright as I stepped beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"It's better to be a picture than to look at one, Miss Holbrook! Allow +me!" +</P> + +<P> +In her confusion she had dropped her handkerchief, and when I returned +it she slipped it into her cuff with a murmur of thanks. A flash of +anger lighted her eyes and she colored slightly; but she was composed +in an instant. And, looking off beyond the water-tower, I was not +surprised to see the <I>Stiletto</I> quite near our shore, her white sails +filling lazily in the scant wind. A tiny flag flashed recognition and +answer of the girl's signal, and was hauled down at once. +</P> + +<P> +We were both silent as we watched it; then I turned to the girl, who +bent her head a moment, tucking the handkerchief a trifle more securely +into her sleeve. She smiled quizzically, with a compression of the +lips. +</P> + +<P> +"The view here is fine, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +We regarded each other with entire good humor. I heard Miss Pat +within, slowly crossing the bare floor of the gallery. +</P> + +<P> +"You are incomparable!" I exclaimed. "Verily, a daughter of Janus has +come among us!" +</P> + +<P> +"The best pictures are outdoors, after all," commented Miss Pat; and +after a further ramble about the house they returned to St. Agatha's, +whence we were to drive together to Annandale in half an hour. +</P> + +<P> +I went to the stone water-tower and scanned the movements of the +<I>Stiletto</I> with a glass while I waited. The sloop was tacking slowly +away toward Annandale, her skipper managing his sheet with an expert +hand. It may have been the ugly business in which the pretty toy was +engaged, or it may have been the lazy deliberation of her oblique +progress over the water, but I felt then and afterward that there was +something sinister in every line of the <I>Stiletto</I>. The more I +deliberated the less certain I became of anything that pertained to the +Holbrooks; and I tested my memory by repeating the alphabet and +counting ten, to make sure that my wits were still equal to such +exercises. +</P> + +<P> +We drove into Annandale without incident and with no apparent timidity +on Miss Pat's part. Helen was all amiability and cheer. I turned +perforce to address her now and then, and was ashamed to find that the +lurking smile about her lips, and a challenging light in her eyes, woke +no resentment in me. The directness of her gaze was in itself +disconcerting; there was no heavy-lidded insolence about her: her +manner suggested a mischievous child who hides your stick and with +feigned interest aids your search for it in impossible places. +</P> + +<P> +I left Miss Pat and Helen at the general store while I sought the +hardware merchant with a list of trifles required for Glenarm. I was +detained some time longer than I had expected, and in leaving I stood +for a moment on the platform before the shop, gossiping with the +merchant of village affairs. I glanced down the street to see if the +ladies had appeared, and observed at the same time my team and wagon +standing at the curb in charge of the driver, just as I had left them. +</P> + +<P> +While I still talked to the merchant, Helen came out of the general +store, glanced hurriedly up and down the street, and crossed quickly to +the post-office, which lay opposite. I watched her as I made my adieux +to the shopkeeper, and just then I witnessed something that interested +me at once. Within the open door of the post-office the Italian sailor +lounged idly. Helen carried a number of letters in her hand, and as +she entered the post-office—I was sure my eyes played me no +trick—deftly, almost imperceptibly, an envelope passed from her hand +to the Italian's. He stood immovable, as he had been, while the girl +passed on into the office. She reappeared at once, recrossed the +street and met her aunt at the door of the general store. I rejoined +them, and as we all met by the waiting trap the Italian left the +post-office and strolled slowly away toward the lake. +</P> + +<P> +I was not sure whether Miss Pat saw him. If she did she made no sign, +but began describing with much amusement an odd countryman she had seen +in the shop. +</P> + +<P> +"You mailed our letters, did you, Helen? Then I believe we have quite +finished, Mr. Donovan. I like your little village; I'm disposed to +love everything about this beautiful lake." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; even the town hall, where the Old Georgia Minstrels seem to have +appeared for one night only, some time last December, is a shrine +worthy of pilgrimages," remarked Helen. "And postage stamps cost no +more here than in Stamford. I had really expected that they would be a +trifle dearer." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed rather more than was required, for those wonderful eyes of +hers were filled with something akin to honest fun. She was proud of +herself, and was even flushed the least bit with her success. +</P> + +<P> +As we passed the village pier I saw the <I>Stiletto</I> lying at the edge of +the inlet that made a miniature harbor for the village, and, rowing +swiftly toward it, his oars flashing brightly, was the Italian, still +plainly in sight. Whether Miss Pat saw the boat and ignored it, or +failed to see, I did not know, for when I turned she was studying the +cover of a magazine that lay in her lap. Helen fell to talking +vivaciously of the contrasts between American and English landscape; +and so we drove back to St. Agatha's. +</P> + +<P> +Thereafter, for the matter of ten days, nothing happened. I brought +the ladies of St. Agatha's often to Glenarm, and we went forth together +constantly by land and water without interruption. They received and +despatched letters, and nothing marred the quiet order of their lives. +The <I>Stiletto</I> vanished from my horizon, and lay, so Ijima learned for +me, within the farther lake. Henry Holbrook had, I made no doubt, gone +away with the draft Helen had secured from Gillespie, and of Gillespie +himself I heard nothing. +</P> + +<P> +As for Helen, I found it easy to forgive, and I grew eloquently +defensive whenever my heart accused her. Her moods were as changing as +those of the lake, and, like it, knew swift-gathering, passionate +storms. Helen of the stars was not Helen of the vivid sunlight. The +mystery of night vanished in her zest for the day, and I felt that her +spirit strove against mine in all our contests with paddle and racquet, +or in our long gallops into the heart of the sunset. She had fashioned +for the night a dream-world in which she moved like a whimsical shadow, +but by day the fire of the sun flashed in her blood. +</P> + +<P> +We established between ourselves a comradeship that was for me +delightfully perilous, but which—so she intimated one day, as though +in warning—was only an armed neutrality. We were playing tennis in +the Glenarm court at the time, and she smashed the ball back to me +viciously. +</P> + +<P> +"Your serve," she said. +</P> + +<P> +And thus, with the joy of June filling the world, the enchanted days +sped by. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE CARNIVAL OF CANOES +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Thou canst not wave thy staff in air,<BR> +Or dip thy paddle in the lake,<BR> +But it carves the bow of beauty there,<BR> +And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Emerson</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I had dined alone and was lounging about the grounds when I heard +voices near the Glenarm wall. There was no formal walk there, and my +steps were silenced by the turf. The heavy scent of flowers from +within gave me a hint of my whereabouts; there was, I remembered, at +this point on the school lawn a rustic bench embowered in honeysuckle, +and Miss Pat and Helen were, I surmised, taking their coffee there. I +started away, thinking to enter by the gate and join them, when Helen's +voice rose angrily—there was no mistaking it, and she said in a tone +that rang oddly on my ears: +</P> + +<P> +"But you are unkind to him! You are unjust! It is not fair to blame +father for his ill-fortune." +</P> + +<P> +"That is true, Helen; but it is not your father's ill-fortune that I +hold against him. All I ask of him is to be sane, reasonable, to +change his manner of life, and to come to me in a spirit of fairness." +</P> + +<P> +"But he is proud, just as you are; and Uncle Arthur ruined him! It was +not father, but Uncle Arthur, who brought all these hideous things upon +us." +</P> + +<P> +I passed rapidly on, and resumed my walk elsewhere. It was a sad +business, the shadowy father; the criminal uncle, who had, as Helen +said, brought ruin upon them all; the sweet, motherly, older sister, +driven in desperation to hide; and, not less melancholy, this beautiful +girl, the pathos of whose position had struck me increasingly. Perhaps +Miss Pat was too severe, and I half accused her of I know not what +crimes of rapacity and greed for withholding her brother's money; then +I set my teeth hard into my pipe as my slumbering loyalty to Miss Pat +warmed in my heart again. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the night of the carnival, sir," Ijima reminded me, seeking me at +the water-tower. +</P> + +<P> +"Very good, Ijima. You needn't lock the boat-house. I may go out +later." +</P> + +<P> +The cottagers at Port Annandale hold once every summer a canoe fête, +and this was the appointed night. I was in no mood for gaiety of any +sort, but it occurred to me that I might relieve the strained relations +between Helen and her aunt by taking them out to watch the procession +of boats. I passed through the gate and took a turn or two, not to +appear to know of the whereabouts of the women, and to my surprise met +Miss Pat walking alone. +</P> + +<P> +She greeted me with her usual kindness, but I knew that I had broken +upon sad reflections. Her handkerchief vanished into the silk bag she +wore at her wrist. Helen was not in sight, but I strolled back and +forth with Miss Pat, thinking the girl might appear. +</P> + +<P> +"I had a note from Father Stoddard to-day," said Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +"I congratulate you," I laughed. "He doesn't honor me." +</P> + +<P> +"He's much occupied," she remarked defensively; "and I suppose he +doesn't indulge in many letters. Mine was only ten lines long, not +more!" +</P> + +<P> +"Father Stoddard feels that he has a mission in the world, and he has +little time for people like us, who have food, clothes and drink in +plenty. He gives his life to the hungry, unclothed and thirsty." +</P> + +<P> +And now, quite abruptly, Miss Pat spoke of her brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Has Henry gone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; he left ten days ago." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded several times, then looked at me and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"You have frightened him off! I am grateful to you!"—and I was glad +in my heart that she did not know that Gillespie's money had sent him +away. +</P> + +<P> +Helen had not appeared, and I now made bold to ask for her. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me send the maid to tell her you are here," said Miss Pat, and we +walked to the door and rang. +</P> + +<P> +The maid quickly reported that Miss Holbrook begged to be excused. +</P> + +<P> +"She is a little afraid of the damp night air of the garden," said Miss +Pat, with so kind an intention that I smiled to myself. It was at the +point of my tongue to remark, in my disappointment at not seeing her, +that she must have taken sudden alarm at the lake atmosphere; but Miss +Pat talked on unconcernedly. I felt from her manner that she wished to +detain me. No one might know how her heart ached, but it was less the +appeal of her gentleness that won me now, I think, than the remembrance +that flashed upon me of her passionate outburst after our meeting with +the Italian; and that seemed very long ago. She had been magnificent +that day, like a queen driven to desperation, and throwing down the +gauntlet as though she had countless battalions at her back. +Indecision took flight before shame; it was a privilege to know and to +serve her! +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Holbrook, won't you come out to see the water fête? We can look +upon it in security and comfort from the launch. The line of march is +from Port Annandale past here and toward the village, then back again. +You can come home whenever you like. I had hoped Miss Helen might +come, too, but I beg that you will take compassion upon my loneliness." +</P> + +<P> +I had flung off my cap with the exaggerated manner I sometimes used +with her; and she dropped me a courtesy with the prettiest grace in the +world. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be with you in a moment, my lord!" +</P> + +<P> +She reappeared quickly and remarked, as I took her wraps, that Helen +was very sorry not to come. +</P> + +<P> +The gardener was on duty, and I called Ijima to help with the launch. +Brightly decorated boats were already visible in the direction of Port +Annandale; even the tireless lake "tramps" whistled with a special +flourish and were radiant in vari-colored lanterns. +</P> + +<P> +"This is an ampler Venice, but there should be music to make it +complete," observed Miss Pat, as we stole in and out among the +gathering fleet. And then, as though in answer, a launch passed near, +leaving a trail of murmurous chords behind—the mournful throb of the +guitar, the resonant beat of banjo strings. Nothing can be so soothing +to the troubled spirit as music over water, and I watched with delight +Miss Pat's deep absorption in all the sights and sounds of the lake. +We drifted past a sail-boat idling with windless sails, its mast +trimmed with lanterns, and every light multiplying itself in the quiet +water. Many and strange craft appeared—farm folk and fishermen in +clumsy rowboats and summer colonists in launches, skiffs and canoes, +appeared from all directions to watch the parade. +</P> + +<P> +The assembling canoes flashed out of the dark like fireflies. Not even +the spirits that tread the air come and go more magically than the +canoe that is wielded by a trained hand. The touch of the skilled +paddler becomes but a caress of the water. To have stolen across +Saranac by moonlight; to have paddled the devious course of the York or +Kennebunk when the sea steals inland for rest, or to dip up stars in +lovely Annandale—of such experiences is knowledge born! +</P> + +<P> +I took care that we kept well to ourselves, for Miss Pat turned +nervously whenever a boat crept too near. Ijima, understanding without +being told, held the power well in hand. I had scanned the lake at +sundown for signs of the <I>Stiletto</I>, but it had not ventured from the +lower lake all day, and there was scarce enough air stirring to ruffle +the water. +</P> + +<P> +"We can award the prize for ourselves here at the turn of the loop," I +remarked, as we swung into place and paused at a point about a mile off +Glenarm. "Here comes the flotilla!" +</P> + +<P> +"The music is almost an impertinence, lovely as it is. The real song +of the canoe is 'dip and glide, dip and glide,'" said Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +The loop once made, we now looked upon a double line whose bright +confusion added to the picture. The canoe offers, when you think of +it, little chance for the decorator, its lines are so trim and so +founded upon rigid simplicity; but many zealous hands had labored for +the magic of this hour. Slim masts supported lanterns in many and +charming combinations, and suddenly, as though the toy lamps had taken +wing, rockets flung up their stars and roman candles their golden +showers at a dozen points of the line and broadened the scope of the +picture. A scow placed midway of the loop now lighted the lake with +red and green fire. The bright, graceful argosies slipped by, like +beads upon a rosary. When the last canoe had passed, Miss Pat turned +to me, sighing softly: +</P> + +<P> +"It was too pretty to last; it was a page out of the book of lost +youth." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed back at her and signaled Ijima to go ahead and then, as the +water churned and foamed and I took the wheel, we were startled by an +exclamation from some one in a rowboat near at hand. The last of the +peaceful armada had passed, but now from the center of the lake, +unobserved and unheralded, stole a canoe fitted with slim masts carried +high from bow to stern with delightful daring. The lights were set in +globes of green and gold, and high over all, its support quite +invisible, shone a golden star that seemed to hover and follow the +shadowy canoe. +</P> + +<P> +We all watched the canoe intently; and my eyes now fell upon the figure +of the skipper of this fairy craft, who was set forth in clear relief +against the red fire beyond. The sole occupant of the canoe was a +girl—there was no debating it; she flashed by within a paddle's length +of us, and I heard the low bubble of water under her blade. She +paddled kneeling, Indian fashion, and was lessening the breach between +herself and the last canoe of the orderly line, which now swept on +toward the casino. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the prettiest one of all—" began Miss Pat, then ceased +abruptly. She bent forward, half rising and gazing intently at the +canoe. What she saw and what I saw was Helen Holbrook plying the +paddle with practised stroke; and as she passed she glanced aloft to +make sure that her slender mast of lights was unshaken; and then she +was gone, her star twinkling upon us bewilderingly. I waited for Miss +Pat to speak, but she did not turn her head until the canoe itself had +vanished and only its gliding star marked it from the starry sisterhood +above. +</P> + +<P> +An exclamation faltered on my lips. +</P> + +<P> +"It was—it was like—it <I>was</I>—" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe we had better go now," said Miss Pat softly, and, I thought, +a little brokenly. +</P> + +<P> +But we still followed the star with our eyes, and we saw it gain the +end of the procession, sweep on at its own pace, past the casino, and +then turn abruptly and drive straight for Glenarm pier. It was now +between us and our own shore. It shone a moment against our pier +lights; then the star and the fairy lanterns beneath it vanished one +after another and the canoe disappeared as utterly as though it had +never been. +</P> + +<P> +I purposely steered a zigzag course back to St. Agatha's. Since Helen +had seen fit to play this trick upon her aunt I wished to give her +ample time to dispose of her canoe and return to the school. If we had +been struck by a mere resemblance, why did the canoeist not go on to +the casino and enjoy the fruits of her victory? I tried to imagine +Gillespie a party to the escapade, but I could not fit him into it. +Meanwhile I babbled on with Miss Pat. An occasional rocket still broke +with a golden shower over the lake, and she now discussed the carnival +and declared the gondola inferior for grace to the American canoe. Her +phrases were, however, a trifle stiff and not in her usual light manner. +</P> + +<P> +I walked with her from the pier to St. Agatha's. +</P> + +<P> +Sister Margaret, who had observed the procession from an upper window, +threw open the door for us. +</P> + +<P> +"How is Helen?" asked Miss Pat at once. +</P> + +<P> +"She is very comfortable," replied the Sister. "I went up only a +moment ago to see if she wanted anything." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pat turned and gave me her hand in her pretty fashion. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, it could not have been—it was not—Helen; our eyes deceived +us! Thank you very much, Mr. Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +There was no mistaking her relief; she smiled upon me beamingly as I +stood before her at the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course! On a fête night one can never trust one's eyes!" +</P> + +<P> +"But it was all bewilderingly beautiful. You are most compassionate +toward a poor old woman in exile, Mr. Donovan. I must go up to Helen +and make her sorry for all she has missed." +</P> + +<P> +I went back to the launch and sought far and near upon the lake for the +canoe with the single star. I wanted to see again the face that was +uplifted in the flood of colored light—the head, the erect shoulders, +the arms that drove the blade so easily and certainly; for if it was +not Helen Holbrook it was her shadow that the gods had sent to mock me +upon the face of the waters. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE MELANCHOLY OF MR. GILLESPIE +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; nor the +musician's, which is fantastical; nor the courtier's, which is proud; +nor the soldier's, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is +politic; nor the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all +these: but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, +extracted from many objects; and indeed the sundry contemplation of my +travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous +sadness.—<I>As You Like It</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I laughed a moment ago when, in looking over my notes of these affairs, +I marked the swift transition from those peaceful days to others of +renewed suspicions and strange events. I had begun to yield myself to +blandishments and to feel that there could be no further interruption +of the idyllic hours I was spending in Helen Holbrook's company. I +still maintained, to be sure, the guard as it had been established; and +many pipes I smoked on St. Agatha's pier, in the fond belief that I was +merely fulfilling my office as protector of Miss Pat, whereas I had +reached a point where the very walls that held Helen Holbrook were of +such stuff as dreams are made of. My days were keyed to a mood that +was impatient of questions and intolerant of doubts. I was glad to +take the hours as they came, so long as they brought her. I did not +refer to her appearance in the parade of canoes, nor did Miss Pat +mention it to me again. It was a part of the summer's enchantment, and +it was not for me to knock at doors to which Helen Holbrook held the +golden keys. +</P> + +<P> +The only lingering blot in the bright calendar of those days was her +meeting with Gillespie on the pier, and the fact that she had accepted +money from him for her rascally father. But even this I excused. It +was no easy thing for a girl of her high spirits to be placed in a +position of antagonism to her own father; and as for Gillespie, he was +at least a friend, abundantly able to help her in her difficult +position; and if, through his aid, she had been able to get rid of her +father, the end had certainly justified the means. I reasoned that an +educated man of good antecedents who was desperate enough to attempt +murder for profit in this enlightened twentieth century was cheaply got +rid of at any price, and it was extremely decent of Gillespie—so I +argued—to have taken himself away after providing the means of the +girl's release. I persuaded myself eloquently on these lines while I +exhausted the resources of Glenarm in providing entertainment for both +ladies. There had been other breakfasts on the terrace at Glenarm, and +tea almost every day in the shadow of St. Agatha's, and one dinner of +state in the great Glenarm dining-room; but more blessed were those +hours in which we rode, Helen and I, through the sunset into dusk, or +drove a canoe over the quiet lake by night. Miss Pat, I felt sure, in +so often leaving me alone with Helen, was favoring my attentions; and +thus the days passed, like bubbles on flowing water. +</P> + +<P> +She was in my thoughts as I rode into Annandale to post some letters, +and I was about to remount at the postoffice door when I saw a crowd +gathered in front of the village inn and walked along the street to +learn the cause of it. And there, calmly seated on a soap-box, was +Gillespie, clad in amazing checks, engaged in the delectable occupation +of teaching a stray village mongrel to jump a stick. The loungers +seemed highly entertained, and testified their appreciation in loud +guffaws. I watched the performance for several minutes, Gillespie +meanwhile laboring patiently with the dull dog, until finally it leaped +the stick amid the applause of the crowd. Gillespie patted the dog and +rose, bowing with exaggerated gravity. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen," he said, "I thank you for your kind attention. Let my +slight success with that poor cur teach you the lesson that we may turn +the idlest moment to some noble use. The education of the lower +animals is something to which too little attention is paid by those +who, through the processes of evolution, have risen to a higher +species. I am grateful, gentlemen, for your forbearance, and trust we +may meet again under circumstances more creditable to us all—including +the dog." +</P> + +<P> +The crowd turned away mystified, while Gillespie, feeling in his pocket +for his pipe, caught my eye and winked. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Donovan," he said coolly, "and so you were among the admiring +spectators. I hope you have formed a high opinion of my skill as a dog +trainer. Once, I would have you know, I taught a Plymouth Rock rooster +to turn a summersault. Are you quite alone?" +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to be as big a fool as ever!" I grumbled in disgust, vexed at +finding him in the neighborhood. +</P> + +<P> +"Gallantly spoken, my dear fellow! You are an honor to the Irish race +and mankind. Our meeting, however, is not inopportune, as they say in +books; and I would have speech with you, gentle knight. The inn, +though humble, is still not without decent comforts. Will you honor +me?" +</P> + +<P> +He turned abruptly and led the way through the office and up the +stairway, babbling nonsense less for my entertainment, I imagined, than +for the befuddlement of the landlord, who leaned heavily upon his scant +desk and watched our ascent. +</P> + +<P> +He opened a door, and lighted several oil lamps, which disclosed three +connecting rooms. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, I got tired of living in the woods, and the farmer I boarded +with did not understand my complex character. The absurd fellow +thought me insane—can you imagine it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a pity he didn't turn you over to the sheriff," I growled. +</P> + +<P> +"Generously spoken! But I came here and hired most of this inn to be +near the telegraph office. Though as big a fool as you care to call me +I nevertheless look to my buttons. The hook-and-eye people are +formidable competitors, and the button may in time become +obsolete—stranger things have happened. I keep in touch with our main +office, and when I don't feel very good I fire somebody. Only this +morning I bounced our general manager by wire for sending me a letter +in purple type-writing; I had warned him, you understand, that he was +to write to me in black. But it was only a matter of time with that +fellow. He entered a bull pup against mine in the Westchester Bench +Show last spring and took the ribbon away from me. I really couldn't +stand for that. In spite of my glassy splash in the asparagus bed, I'm +a man who looks to his dignity, Donovan. Will you smoke?" +</P> + +<P> +I lighted my pipe and encouraged him to go on. +</P> + +<P> +"How long have you been in this bake-oven?" +</P> + +<P> +"I moved in this morning—you are my first pilgrim. I have spent the +long hot day in getting settled. I had to throw out the furniture and +buy new stuff of the local emporium, where, it depressed me to learn, +furniture for the dead is supplied even as for the living. That chair, +which I beg you to accept, stood next in the shop to a coffin suitable +for a carcass of about your build, old man. But don't let the +suggestion annoy you! I read your book on tiger hunting a few years +ago with pleasure, and I'm sure you enjoy a charmed life. +</P> + +<P> +"I myself," he continued, taking a chair near me and placing his feet +in an open window, "am cursed with rugged health. I have quite +recovered from those unkind cuts at the nunnery—thanks to your +ministrations—and am willing to put on the gloves with you at any +time." +</P> + +<P> +"You do me great honor; but the affair must wait for a lower +temperature." +</P> + +<P> +"As you will! It is not like my great and gracious ways to force a +fight. Pardon me, but may I inquire for the health of the ladies at +Saint What's-her-name's?" +</P> + +<P> +"They are quite well, thank you." +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to know it;"—and his tone lost for the moment its +jauntiness. "Henry Holbrook has gone to New York." +</P> + +<P> +"Good riddance!" I exclaimed heartily. "And now—" +</P> + +<P> +"—And now if I would only follow suit, everything would be joy plus +for you!" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed and slapped his knees at my discomfiture, for he had read my +thoughts exactly. +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly are the only blot on the landscape!" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so. And if I would only go hence the pretty little idyl that is +being enacted in the delightful garden, under the eye of a friendly +chaperon, would go forward without interruption." +</P> + +<P> +He spoke soberly, and I had observed that when he dropped his chaff a +note of melancholy crept into his talk. He folded his arms and went +on: "She's a wonderful girl, Donovan. There's no other girl like her +in all the wide world. I tell you it's hard for a girl like that to be +in her position—the whole family broken up, and that contemptible +father of hers hanging about with his schemes of plunder. It's +pitiful, Donovan; it's pitiful!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a cheerless mess. It all came after the bank failure, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"Practically, though the brothers never got on. You see my governor +was bit by their bank failure; and Miss Pat resented the fact that he +backed off when stung. But the Gillespies take their medicine; father +never squealed, which makes me sore that your Aunt Pat gives me the icy +eye." +</P> + +<P> +"Their affairs are certainly mixed," I remarked non-committally. +</P> + +<P> +"They are indeed; and I have studied the whole business until my near +mind is mussed up, like scrambled eggs. Your own pretty idyl of the +nunnery garden adds the note <I>piquante</I>. Cross my palm with gold and +I'll tell you of strange things that lie in the future. I have an +idea, Donovan; singular though it seem, I've a notion in my head." +</P> + +<P> +"Keep it," I retorted, "to prevent a cranial vacuum." +</P> + +<P> +"Crushed! Absolutely crushed!" he replied gloomily. "Kick me. I'm +only the host." +</P> + +<P> +We were silent while the few sounds of the village street droned in. +He rose and paced the floor to shake off his mood, and when he sat down +he seemed in better spirits. +</P> + +<P> +"Holbrook will undoubtedly return," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; there's no manner of doubt about that!" +</P> + +<P> +"And then there will be more trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course." +</P> + +<P> +"But I suppose there's no guessing when he will come back." +</P> + +<P> +"He will come back as soon as he's spent his money." +</P> + +<P> +I felt a delicacy about referring to that transaction on the pier. It +was a wretched business, and I now realized that the shame of it was +not lost on Gillespie. +</P> + +<P> +"How does Henry come to have that Italian scoundrel with him?" I asked +after a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"He's the skipper of the <I>Stiletto</I>," Gillespie replied readily. +</P> + +<P> +"He's a long way from tide-water," I remarked. "A blackguard of just +his sort once sailed me around the Italian peninsula in a felucca, and +saved me from drowning on the way. His heroism was not, however, +wholly disinterested. When we got back to Naples he robbed me of my +watch and money-belt and I profited by the transaction, having intended +to give him double their value. But there are plenty of farm-boys +around the lake who could handle the <I>Stiletto</I>. Henry didn't need a +dago expert." +</P> + +<P> +The mention of the Italian clearly troubled Gillespie. After a moment +he said: +</P> + +<P> +"He may be holding on to Henry instead of Henry's holding on to him. +Do you see?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; I don't." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I have an idea that the dago knows something that's valuable. +Last summer Henry went cruising in the Sound with a pretty rotten +crowd, poker being the chief diversion. A man died on the boat before +they got back to New York. The report was that he fell down a hatchway +when he was drunk, but there were some ugly stories in the papers about +it. That Italian sailor was one of the crew." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is he now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Over at Battle Orchard. He knows his man and knows he'll be back. +I'm waiting for Henry, too. Helen gave him twenty thousand dollars. +The way the market is running he's likely to go broke any day. He +plays stocks like a crazy man, and after he's busted he'll be back on +our hands." +</P> + +<P> +"It's hard on Miss Pat." +</P> + +<P> +"And it's harder on Helen. She's in terror all the time for fear her +father will go up against the law and bring further disgrace on the +family. There's her Uncle Arthur, a wanderer on the face of the earth +for his sins. That was bad enough without the rest of it." +</P> + +<P> +"That was greed, too, wasn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, just general cussedness. He blew in the Holbrook bank and +skipped." +</P> + +<P> +These facts I had gathered before, but they seemed of darker +significance now, as we spoke of them in the dimly lighted room of the +squalid inn. I recalled a circumstance that had bothered me earlier, +but which I had never satisfactorily explained, and I determined to +sound Gillespie in regard to it. +</P> + +<P> +"You told me that Henry Holbrook found his way here ahead of you. How +do you account for that?" +</P> + +<P> +He looked at me quickly, and rose, again pacing the narrow room. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't! I wish I could!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's about the last place in the world to attract him. Port Annandale +is a quiet resort frequented by western people only. There's neither +hunting nor fishing worth mentioning; and a man doesn't come from New +York to Indiana to sail a boat on a thimbleful of water like this lake." +</P> + +<P> +"You are quite right." +</P> + +<P> +"If Helen Holbrook gave him warning that they were coming here—" +</P> + +<P> +He wheeled on me fiercely, and laid his hand roughly on my shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you dare say it! She couldn't have done it! She wouldn't have +done it! I tell you I know, independently of her, that he was here +before Father Stoddard ever suggested this place to Miss Pat." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you needn't get so hot about it." +</P> + +<P> +"And you needn't insinuate that she is not acting honorably in this +affair! I should think that after making love to her, as you have been +doing, and playing the role of comforter to Miss Pat, you would have +the decency not to accuse her of connivance with Henry Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"You let your jealousy get the better of your good sense. I have not +been making love to Miss Holbrook!" I declared angrily and knew in my +heart that I lied. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Irishman," he exclaimed with entire good humor; "let us not +bring up mine host to find us locked in mortal combat." +</P> + +<P> +"What the devil <I>did</I> you bring me up here for?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, just to enjoy your society. I get lonesome sometimes. I tell you +a man does get lonesome in this world, when he has nothing to lean on +but a blooming button factory and a stepmother who flits among the +world's expensive sanatoria. I know you have never had 'Button, +button, who's got the button?' chanted in your ears, but may I ask +whether you have ever known the joy of a stepmother? I can see that +your answer will be an unregretful negative." +</P> + +<P> +He was quite the fool again, and stared at me vacuously. +</P> + +<P> +"My stepmother is not the common type of juvenile fiction. She has +never attempted during her widowhood to rob the orphan or to poison +him. Bless your Irish heart, no! She's a good woman, and rich in her +own right, but I couldn't stand her dietary. She's afraid I'm going to +die, Donovan! She thinks everybody's going to die. Father died of +pneumonia and she said ice-water in the finger-bowl did it, and she +wanted to have the butler arrested for murder. She had a new disease +for me every morning. It was worse than being left with a button-works +to draw a stepmother like that. She ate nothing but hot water and +zweibach herself, and shuddered when I demanded sausage and buckwheat +cakes every day. She wept and talked of the duty she owed to my poor +dead father; she had promised him, she said, to safeguard my health; +and there I was, as strong as an infant industry, weighed a hundred and +seventy-six pounds when I was eighteen, and had broken all the prep +school records. She made me so nervous talking about her symptoms, and +mine—that I didn't have!—that I began taking my real meals in the +gardener's house. But to save her feelings I munched a little toast +with her. She caught me one day clearing up a couple of chickens and a +mug of bass with the gardener, and it was all over. She had noticed, +she said, that I had been coughing of late—I was doing a few +cigarettes too many, that was all—and wired to New York for doctors. +She had all sorts, Donovan—alienists and pneumogastric specialists and +lung experts. +</P> + +<P> +"The people on Strawberry Hill thought there was a medical convention +in town. I was kidnapped on the golf course, where I was about to win +the eastern Connecticut long-drive cup, and locked up in a dark room at +home for two days while they tested me. They made all the known tests, +Donovan. They tested me for diseases that haven't been discovered yet, +and for some that have been extinct since the days of Noah. You can +see where that put me. I was afraid to fight or sulk for fear the +alienists would send me to the madhouse. I was afraid to eat for fear +they would think <I>that</I> was a symptom, and every time I asked for food +the tape-worm man looked intelligent and began prescribing, while the +rest of them were terribly chagrined because they hadn't scored first. +The only joy I got out of the rumpus was in hitting one of those +alienists a damned hard clip in the ribs, and I'm glad I did it. He +was feeling my medulla oblongata at the moment, and as I resent being +man-handled I pasted him one—he was a young chap, and fair game—I +pasted him one, and then grabbed a suit-case and slid. I stole away in +a clam-boat for New Haven, and kept right on up into northern Maine, +where I stayed with the Indians until my father's relict went off +broken-hearted to Bad Neuheim to drink the waters. And here I am, by +the grace of God, in perfect health and in full control of the button +market of the world." +</P> + +<P> +"You have undoubtedly been sorely tried," I said as he broke off +mournfully. In spite of myself I had been entertained. He was +undeniably a fellow of curious humor and with unusual experience of +life. He followed me to the street, and as I rode away he called me +back as though to impart something of moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever meet Charles Darwin?" +</P> + +<P> +"He didn't need me for proof, Buttons." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I might have had one word with him. It's on my mind that he +put the monkeys back too far. I should be happier if he had brought +them a little nearer up to date. I should feel less lonesome, +Irishman." +</P> + +<P> +He stopped me again. +</P> + +<P> +"Once I had an ambition to find an honest man, Donovan, but I gave it +up—it's easier to be an honest man than to find one. I give you +peace!" +</P> + +<P> +I had learned some things from the young button king, but much was +still opaque in the affairs of the Holbrooks. The Italian's presence +assumed a new significance from Gillespie's story. He had been party +to a conspiracy to kill Holbrook, <I>alias</I> Hartridge, on the night of my +adventure at the house-boat, and I fell to wondering who had been the +shadowy director of that enterprise—the coward who had hung off in the +creek, and waited for the evil deed to be done. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE GATE OF DREAMS +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +And as I muse on Helen's face,<BR> +Within the firelight's ruddy shine,<BR> +Its beauty takes an olden grace<BR> +Like hers whose fairness was divine;<BR> +The dying embers leap, and lo!<BR> +Troy wavers vaguely all aglow,<BR> +And in the north wind leashed without,<BR> +I hear the conquering Argives' shout;<BR> +And Helen feeds the flames as long ago!<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 15em">—<I>Edward A. U. Valentine</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In my heart I was anxious to do justice to Gillespie. Sad it is that +we are all so given to passing solemn judgment on trifling testimony! +I myself am not impeccable. I should at any time give to the lions a +man who uses his thumb as a paper-cutter; for such a one is clearly +marked for brutality. Spats I always associate with vanity and a +delicate constitution. A man who does not know the art of nursing a +pipe's fire, but who has constant recourse to the match-box, should be +denied benefit of clergy and the consolations of religion and tobacco. +A woman who is so far above the vanities of this world that she can put +on her hat without the aid of the mirror is either reckless or +slouchy—both unbecoming enough—or else of an humility that is neither +admirable nor desirable. My prejudices rally as to a trumpet-call at +the sight of a girl wearing overshoes or nibbling bonbons—the one +suggestive of predatory habits and weak lungs, the other of nervous +dyspepsia. +</P> + +<P> +The night was fine, and after returning my horse to the stable I +continued on to the Glenarm boat-house. I was strolling along, pipe in +mouth, and was half-way up the boat-house steps, when a woman shrank +away from the veranda rail, where she had been standing, gazing out +upon the lake. There was no mistaking her. She was not even disguised +to-night, and as I advanced across the little veranda she turned toward +me. The lantern over the boat-house door suffused us both as I greeted +her. +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon, me, Miss Holbrook; I'm afraid I have disturbed your +meditations," I said. "But if you don't mind—" +</P> + +<P> +"You have the advantage of being on your own ground," she replied. +</P> + +<P> +"I waive all my rights as tenant if you will remain." +</P> + +<P> +"It is much nicer here than on St. Agatha's pier; you can see the lake +and the stars better. On the whole," she laughed, "I think I shall +stay a moment longer, if you will tolerate me." +</P> + +<P> +I brought out some chairs and we sat down by the rail, where we could +look out upon the star-sown heavens and the dark floor of stars +beneath. The pier lights shone far and near like twinkling jewels, and +in the tense silence sounds floated from far across the water. A +canoeing party drifted idly by, with a faint, listless splash of +paddles, while a deep-voiced boy sang, <I>I rise from dreams of thee</I>. A +moment later the last bars stole softly across to us, vague and +shadowy, as though from the heart of night itself. +</P> + +<P> +Helen bent forward with her elbows resting on the rail, her hands +clasped under her chin. The lamplight fell full upon her slightly +lifted head, and upon her shoulders, over which lay a filmy veil. She +hummed the boy's song dreamily for a moment while I watched her. Had +she one mood for the day and another for the night? I had last seen +her that afternoon after an hour of tennis, at which she was expert, +and she had run away through Glenarm gate with a taunt for my defeat; +but now the spirit of stars and of all earth's silent things was upon +her. I looked twice and thrice at her clearly outlined profile, at the +brow with its point of dark hair, at the hand whereon the emerald was +clearly distinguishable, and satisfied myself that there could be no +mistake about her. +</P> + +<P> +"You grow bold," I said, anxious to hear her voice. "You don't mind +the pickets a bit." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I'm quite superior to walls and fences. You have heard of those +East Indians who appear and disappear through closed doors; well, we'll +assume that I had one of those fellows for an ancestor! It will save +the trouble of trying to account for my exits and entrances. I will +tell you in confidence, Mr. Donovan, that I don't like to be obliged to +account for myself!" +</P> + +<P> +She sat back in the chair and folded her arms. I had not referred in +any way to her transaction with Gillespie; I had never intimated even +remotely that I knew of her meeting with the infatuated young fellow on +St. Agatha's pier; and I felt that those incidents were ancient history. +</P> + +<P> +"It was corking hot this afternoon. I hope you didn't have too much +tennis." +</P> + +<P> +"No; it was pretty enough fun," she remarked, with so little enthusiasm +that I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't seem to recall your victory with particular pleasure. It +seems to me that I am the one to be shy of the subject. How did that +score stand?" +</P> + +<P> +"I really forget—I honestly do," she laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"That's certainly generous; but don't you remember, as we walked along +toward the gate after the game, that you said—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I can't allow that at all! What I said yesterday or to-day is of +no importance now. And particularly at night I am likely to be +weak-minded, and my memory is poorer then than at any other time." +</P> + +<P> +"I am fortunate in having an excellent memory." +</P> + +<P> +"For example?" +</P> + +<P> +"For example, you are not always the same; you were different this +afternoon; and I must go back to our meeting by the seat on the bluff, +for the Miss Holbrook of to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all in your imagination, Mr. Donovan. Now, if you wanted to +prove that I'm really—" +</P> + +<P> +"Helen Holbrook," I supplied, glad of a chance to speak her name. +</P> + +<P> +"If you wanted to prove that I am who I am," she continued, with new +animation, as though at last something interested her, "how should you +go about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Please ask me something difficult! There is, there could be, only one +woman as fair, as interesting, as wholly charming." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that is the point at which you usually bow humbly and wait +for applause; but I scorn to notice anything so commonplace. If you +were going to prove me to be the same person you met at the Annandale +station, how should you go about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, to be explicit, you walk like an angel." +</P> + +<P> +"You are singularly favored in having seen angels walk, Mr. Donovan. +There's a popular superstition that they fly. In my own ignorance I +can't concede that your point is well taken. What next?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your head is like an intaglio wrought when men had keener vision and +nimbler fingers than now. With your hair low on your neck, as it is +to-night, the picture carries back to a Venetian balcony centuries ago." +</P> + +<P> +"That's rather below standard. What else, please?" +</P> + +<P> +"And that widow's peak—I would risk the direst penalties of perjury in +swearing to it alone." +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged her shoulders. "You are an observant person. That +trifling mark on a woman's forehead is usually considered a +disfigurement." +</P> + +<P> +"But you know well enough that I did not mention it with such a +thought. You know it perfectly well." +</P> + +<P> +"No; foolish one," she said mockingly, "the widow's peak can not be +denied. I suppose you don't know that the peak sometimes runs in +families. My mother had it, and her mother before her." +</P> + +<P> +"You are not your mother or your grandmother; so I am not in danger of +mistaking you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what else, please?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's the emerald. Miss Pat has the same ring, but you are not Miss +Pat. Besides, I have seen you both together." +</P> + +<P> +"Still, there are emeralds and emeralds!" +</P> + +<P> +"And then—there are your eyes!" +</P> + +<P> +"There are two of them, Mr. Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +"There need be no more to assure light in a needful world, Miss +Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"Good! You really have possibilities!" +</P> + +<P> +She struck her palms together in a mockery of applause and laughed at +me. +</P> + +<P> +"To a man who is in love everything is possible," I dared. +</P> + +<P> +"The Celtic temperament is very susceptible. You have undoubtedly +likened many eyes to the glory of the heavens." +</P> + +<P> +"I swear—" +</P> + +<P> +"Swear not at all!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then I won't!"—and we laughed and were silent while the water rippled +in the reeds, the insects wove their woof of sound and ten struck +musically from St. Agatha's. +</P> + +<P> +"I must leave you." +</P> + +<P> +"If you go you leave an empty world behind." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that was pretty!" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Conceited! I wasn't approving your remark, but that meteor that +flashed across the sky and dropped into the woods away out yonder." +</P> + +<P> +"Alas! I have fallen farther than the meteor and struck the earth +harder." +</P> + +<P> +"You deserved it," she said, rising and drawing the veil about her +throat. +</P> + +<P> +"My lack of conceit has always been my undoing; I am the humblest man +alive. You are adorable," I said, "if that's the answer." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't the answer! If mere stars do this to you, what would you be +in moonlight?" +</P> + +<P> +As we stood facing each other I was aware of some new difference in +her. Perhaps her short outing skirt of dark blue had changed her; and +yet in our tramps through the woods and our excursions in the canoe she +had worn the same or similar costumes. She hesitated a moment, leaning +against the railing and tapping the floor with her boot; then she said +gravely, half questioningly, as though to herself: +</P> + +<P> +"He has gone away; you are quite sure that he has gone away?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your father is probably in New York," I answered, surprised at the +question. "I do not expect him back at once." +</P> + +<P> +"If he should come back—" she began. +</P> + +<P> +"He will undoubtedly return; there is no debating that." +</P> + +<P> +"If he comes back there will be trouble, worse than anything that has +happened. You can't understand what his return will mean to us—to me." +</P> + +<P> +"You must not worry about that; you must trust me to take care of that +when he comes. 'Sufficient unto the day' must be your watchword. I +saw Gillespie to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"Gillespie?" she repeated with unfeigned surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"That was capitally acted!" I laughed. "I wish I knew that he meant +nothing more to you than that!" I added seriously. +</P> + +<P> +She colored, whether with anger or surprise at my swift change of tone, +I did not know. Then she said very soberly: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Gillespie is nothing to me whatever." +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you for that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank me for nothing, Mr. Donovan. And now good night. You are not +to follow me—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, surely to the gate!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not even to the gate. My ways are very mysterious. By day I am one +person; by night quite another. And if you should follow me—" +</P> + +<P> +"To my own gate!" I pleaded. "It's only decent hospitality!" I urged. +</P> + +<P> +"Not even to the Gate of Dreams!" +</P> + +<P> +"But in trying to get back to the school you have to pass the guards; +you will fail at that some time!" +</P> + +<P> +"No! I whisper an incantation, and lo! they fall asleep upon their +spears. And I must ask you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Keep asking, for to ask you must stay!" +</P> + +<P> +"—please, when I meet you in daytime do not refer to anything that we +may say when we meet at night. You have proved me at every point—even +to this spot of ink on my forehead," and she put her forefinger upon +the peak. "I am Helen Holbrook; but as—what shall I say?—oh, yes!" +she went on lightly—"as a psychological fact, I am very different at +night from anything I ever am in daylight. And to-morrow morning, when +you meet me with Aunt Pat in the garden, if you should refer to this +meeting I shall never appear to you again, not even through the Gate of +Dreams. Good night!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good night!" +</P> + +<P> +I clasped her hand for an instant, and she met my eyes with a laughing +challenge. +</P> + +<P> +"When shall I see you again—this you that is so different from the you +of daylight?" +</P> + +<P> +She caught her hand away and turned to go, but paused at the steps. +</P> + +<P> +"When the new moon hangs, like a little feather, away out yonder, I +shall be looking at it from the stone seat on the bluff; do you think +you can remember?" +</P> + +<P> +She vanished away into the wood toward St. Agatha's. I started to +follow, but paused, remembering my promise, and sat down and yielded +myself to the thought of her. Practical questions of how she managed +to slip out of St. Agatha's vexed me for a moment; but in my elation of +spirit I dismissed them quickly enough. I would never again entertain +an evil thought of her; the money she had taken from Gillespie I would +in some way return to him and make an end of any claim he might assert +against her by reason of that help. And I resolved to devote myself +diligently to the business of protecting her from her father. I was +even impatient for him to return and resume his blackguardly practice +of intimidating two helpless women, that I might deal with him in the +spirit of his own despicable actions. +</P> + +<P> +My heart was heavy as I thought of him, but I lighted my pipe and found +at once a gentler glory in the stars. Then as I stared out upon the +lake I saw a shadow gliding softly away from the little promontory +where St. Agatha's pier lights shone brightly. It was a canoe, I +should have known from its swift steady flight if I had not seen the +paddler's arm raised once, twice, until darkness fell upon the tiny +argosy like a cloak. I ran out on the pier and stared after it, but +the silence of the lake was complete. Then I crossed the strip of wood +to St. Agatha's, and found Ijima and the gardener faithfully patrolling +the grounds. +</P> + +<P> +"Has any one left the buildings to-night?" +</P> + +<P> +"No one." +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Margaret hasn't been out—or any one?" +</P> + +<P> +"No one, sir. Did you hear anything, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, Ijima. Good night." +</P> + +<P> +I wrote a telegram to an acquaintance in New York who knows everybody, +and asked him to ascertain whether Henry Holbrook, of Stamford, was in +New York. This I sent to Annandale, and thereafter watched the stars +from the terrace until they slipped into the dawn, fearful lest sleep +might steal away my memories and dreams of the night. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BATTLE ORCHARD +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +We crossed the lake from the south and about nightfall came to the +small island called Battle Orchard, which is so named by the American +settlers from the peach, apple and other trees planted there about 1740 +(so many have told me) by François Belot, a French voyageur who had +crossed from the Ouabache on his way from Quebec to Post Vincennes near +the Ohio, and, finding the beaver plentiful, brought there his family. +And here the Indians laid siege to him; and here he valiantly defended +the ford on the west side of the little isle for three days, killing +many savages before they slew him.—<I>The Relation of Captain Abel +Tucker</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When I called at St. Agatha's the following morning the maid told me +that Miss Pat was ill and that Miss Helen asked to be excused. I +walked restlessly about the grounds until luncheon, thinking Helen +might appear; and later determined to act on an impulse, with which I +had trifled for several days, to seek the cottage on the Tippecanoe and +satisfy myself of Holbrook's absence. A sharp shower had cooled the +air, and I took the canoe for greater convenience in running into the +shallow creek. I know nothing comparable to paddling as a lifter of +the spirit, and with my arms and head bared and a cool breeze at my +back I was soon skimming along as buoyant of heart as the responsive +canoe beneath me. It was about four o'clock when I dipped my way into +the farther lake, and as the water broadened before me at the little +strait I saw the <I>Stiletto</I> lying quietly at anchor off the eastern +shore of Battle Orchard. I drew close to observe her the better, but +there were no signs of life on board, and I paddled to the western side +of the island. +</P> + +<P> +It had already occurred to me that Holbrook might have another +hiding-place than the cottage at Red Gate, where I had talked with him, +and the island seemed a likely spot for it. I ran my canoe on the +pebbly beach and climbed the bank. The island was covered with a +tangle of oak and maple, with a few lordly sycamores towering above +all. I followed a path that led through the underbrush and was at once +shut in from the lake. The trail bore upward and I soon came upon a +small clearing about an acre in extent that had once been tilled, but +it was now preëmpted by weeds as high as my head. Beyond lay an +ancient orchard, chiefly of apple-trees, and many hoary veterans stood +faithful to the brave hand that had marshaled them there. (Every +orchard is linked to the Hesperides and every apple-waits for +Atalanta—if not for Eve!) I stooped to pick a wild-flower and found +an arrow-head lying beside it. +</P> + +<P> +Fumbling the arrow-head in my fingers, I passed onto a log cabin hidden +away in the orchard. It was evidently old. The mud chinking had +dropped from the logs in many places, and the stone chimney was held up +by a sapling. I approached warily, remembering that if this were +Holbrook's camp and he had gone away he had probably left the Italian +to look after the yacht, which could be seen from the cabin door. I +made a circuit of the cabin without seeing any signs of habitation, and +was about to enter by the front door, when I heard the swish of +branches in the underbrush to the east and dropped into the grass. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment the Italian appeared, carrying a pair of oars over his +shoulder. He had evidently just landed, as the blades were dripping. +He threw them down by the cabin door, came round to the western window, +drew out the pin from an iron staple with which it was fastened, and +thrust his head in. He was greeted with a howl and a loud demand of +some sort, to which he replied in monosyllables, and after several +minutes of this parley I caught a fragment of dialogue which seemed to +be final in the subject under discussion. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me out or it will be the worse for you; let me out, I say!" +</P> + +<P> +"My boss he sometime come back; then you get out it, maybe." +</P> + +<P> +With this deliverance, accomplished with some difficulty, the Italian +turned away, going to the rear of the cabin for a pail with which he +trudged off toward the lake. He had not closed the window and would +undoubtedly return in a few minutes; so I waited until he was out of +sight, then rose and crawled through the grass to the opening. +</P> + +<P> +I looked in upon a bare room whose one door opened inward, and I did +not for a moment account for the voice. Then something stirred in the +farther corner, and I slowly made out the figure of a man tied hand and +foot, lying on his back in a pile of grass and leaves. +</P> + +<P> +"You ugly dago! you infernal pirate—" he bawled. +</P> + +<P> +There was no mistaking that voice, and I now saw two legs clothed in +white duck that belonged, I was sure, to Gillespie. My head and +shoulders filled the window and so darkened the room that the prisoner +thought his jailer had come back to torment him. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up, Gillespie," I muttered. "This is Donovan. That fellow will +be back in a minute. What can I do for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"What can you do for me?" he spluttered. "Oh, nothing, thanks! I +wouldn't have you put yourself out for anything in the world. It's +nice in here, and if that fellow kills me I'll miss a great deal of the +poverty and hardship of this sinful world. But take your time, +Irishman. Being tied by the legs like a calf is bully when you get +used to it." +</P> + +<P> +In turning over, the better to level his ironies at me, he had stirred +up the dust in the straw so that he sneezed and coughed in a ridiculous +fashion. As I did not move he added: +</P> + +<P> +"You come in here and cut these strings and I'll tell you something +nice some day." +</P> + +<P> +I ran round to the front door, kicked it open and passed through a +square room that contained a fireplace, a camp bed, a trunk, and a +table littered with old newspapers and a few books. I found Gillespie +in the adjoining room, cut his thongs and helped him to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is your boat?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"On the west side." +</P> + +<P> +"Then we're in for a scrap. That beggar goes down there for water; and +he'll see that there's another man on the island. I had a gun when I +came," he added mournfully. +</P> + +<P> +He stamped his feet and threshed himself with his arms to restore +circulation, then we went into the larger room, where he dug his own +revolver from the trunk and pointed to a shot-gun in the corner. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better get that. This fellow has only a knife in his clothes. +He'll be back on the run when he sees your canoe." And we heard on the +instant a man running toward the hut. I opened the breech of the +shotgun to see whether it was loaded. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, how do you want to handle the situation?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +He had his eye on the window and threw up his revolver and let go. +</P> + +<P> +"Your pistol makes a howling noise, Gillespie. Please don't do that +again. The smoke is disagreeable." +</P> + +<P> +"You are quite right; and shooting through glass is always unfortunate! +there's bound to be a certain deflection before the bullet strikes. +You see if I were not a fool I should be a philosopher." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't nice here; we'd better bolt." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm as hungry as a sea-serpent," he said, watching the window. "And I +am quite desperate when I miss my tea." +</P> + +<P> +I stood before the open door and he watched the window. We were both +talking to cover our serious deliberations. Our plight was not so much +a matter for jesting as we wished to make it appear to each other. I +had experienced one struggle with the Italian at the houseboat on the +Tippecanoe and was not anxious to get within reach of his knife again. +I did not know how he had captured Gillespie, or what mischief that +amiable person had been engaged in, but inquiries touching this matter +must wait. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you ready? We don't want to shoot unless we have to. Now when I +say go, jump for the open." +</P> + +<P> +He limped a little from the cramping of his legs, but crossed over to +me cheerfully enough. His white trousers were much the worse for +contact with the cabin floor, and his shirt hung from his shoulders in +ribbons. +</P> + +<P> +"My stomach bids me haste; I'm going to eat a beefsteak two miles thick +if I ever get back to New York. Are you waiting?" +</P> + +<P> +We were about to spring through the outer door, when the door at the +rear flew open with a bang and the sailor landed on me with one leap. +I went down with a thump and a crack of my head on the floor that +sickened me. The gun was under my legs, and I remember that my dazed +wits tried to devise means for getting hold of it. As my senses +gradually came round I was aware of a great conflict about me and over +me. Gillespie was engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with the sailor +and the cabin shook with their strife. The table went down with a +crash, and Gillespie seemed to be having the best of it; then the +Italian was afoot again, and the clenched swaying figures crashed +against the trunk at the farther end of the room. And there they +fought in silence, save for the scraping of their feet on the puncheon +floor. I felt a slight nausea from the smash my head had got, but I +began crawling across the floor toward the struggling men. It was +growing dark, and they were knit together against the cabin wall like a +single monstrous, swaying figure. +</P> + +<P> +My stomach was giving a better account of itself, and I got to my knees +and then to my feet. I was within a yard of the wavering shadow and +could distinguish Gillespie by his white trousers as he wrenched free +and flung the Italian away from him; and in that instant of freedom I +heard the dull impact of Gillespie's fist in the brute's face. As the +sailor went down I threw myself full length upon him; but for the +moment at least he was out of business, and before I had satisfied +myself that I had firmly grasped him, Gillespie, blowing hard, was +kneeling beside me, with a rope in his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"I think," he panted, "I should like champignon sauce with that steak, +Donovan. And I should like my potatoes lyonnaise—the pungent onion is +a spurring tonic. That will do, thanks, for the arms. Get off his +legs and I'll see what I can do for them. You oughtn't to have cut +that rope, my boy. You might have known that we were going to need it. +My father taught me in my youth never to cut a string. I want the +pirate's knife for a souvenir. I kicked it out of his hand when you +went bumpety-bumpety. How's your head?" +</P> + +<P> +"I still have it. Let's get you outside and have a look at you. You +think he didn't land with the knife?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it. He nearly squeezed the life out of me two or three +times, though. What's that?" +</P> + +<P> +"He gave me a jab with his sticker when he made that flying leap and I +guess I'm scratched." +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie opened my shirt and disclosed a scratch across my ribs +downward from the left collar bone. The first jab had struck the bone, +but the subsequent slash had left a nasty red line. +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie swore softly in the strange phrases that he affected while he +tended my injury. My head ached and the nausea came back occasionally. +I sat down in the grass while Gillespie found the sailor's pail and +went to fetch water. He found some towels in the hut and between his +droll chaffing and his deft ministrations I soon felt fit again. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what shall we do with the dago?" he asked, rubbing his arms and +legs briskly. +</P> + +<P> +"We ought to give him to the village constable." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the law of it, but not the common sense. The lords of justice +would demand to know all the whys and wherefores, and the Italian +consul at Chicago would come down and make a fuss, and the man behind +the dago would lay low and no good would come." +</P> + +<P> +"When will Holbrook be back?—that's the question." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the market has been very feverish and my guess is that he won't +last many days. He had a weakness for Industrials, as I remember, and +they've been very groggy. What he wants is his million from Miss Pat, +and he has his own chivalrous notions of collecting it." +</P> + +<P> +We decided finally to leave the man free, but to take away his boat. +Gillespie was disposed to make light of the whole affair, now that we +had got off with our lives. We searched the hut for weapons and +ammunition, and having collected several knives and a belt and revolver +from the trunk, we poured water on the Italian, carried him into the +open and loosened the ropes with which Gillespie had tied him. +</P> + +<P> +The man glared at us fiercely and muttered incoherently for a few +minutes, but after Gillespie had dashed another pail of water on him he +stood up and was tame enough. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell him," said Gillespie, "that we shall not kill him to-day. Tell +him that this being Tuesday we shall spare his life—that we never kill +any one on Tuesday, but that we shall come back to-morrow and make +shark meat of him. Assure him that we are terrible villains and +man-hunters—" +</P> + +<P> +"When will your employer return?" I asked the sailor. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head and declared that he did not know. +</P> + +<P> +"How long did he hire you for?" +</P> + +<P> +"For all summer." He pointed to the sloop, and I got it out of him +that he had been hired in New York to come to the lake and sail it. +</P> + +<P> +"In the creek up yonder," I said, pointing toward the Tippecanoe, "you +tried to kill me. There was another man with you. Who was he?" +</P> + +<P> +"That was my boss," he replied reluctantly, though his English was +clear enough. +</P> + +<P> +"What is your employer's name?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Holbrook. I sail his boat, the <I>Stiletto</I>, over there," he replied. +</P> + +<P> +"But it was not he who was with you on the houseboat in the creek. Mr. +Holbrook was not there. Do not lie to me. Who was the other man that +wanted you to kill Holbrook?" +</P> + +<P> +He appeared mystified, and Gillespie, to whom I had told nothing of my +encounter at the boat-maker's, looked from one to the other of us with +a puzzled expression on his face. +</P> + +<P> +"All he knows is that he's hired to sail a boat and, incidentally, +stick people with his knife," said Gillespie in disgust. "We can do +nothing till Holbrook comes back; let's be going." +</P> + +<P> +We finally gathered up the Italian's oars, and, carrying the captured +arms, went to the east shore, where we put off in Gillespie's rowboat, +trailing the Italian's boat astern. The sailor followed us to the +shore and watched our departure in silence. We swung round to the +western shore and got my canoe, and there again, the Italian sullenly +watched us. +</P> + +<P> +"He's not so badly marooned," said Gillespie. "He can walk out over +here." +</P> + +<P> +"No, he'll wait for Holbrook. He's stumped now and doesn't understand +us. He has exhausted his orders and is sick and tired of his job. A +salt-water sailor loses his snap when he gets as far inland as this. +He'll demand his money when Holbrook turns up and clear out of this." +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie took the oars himself, insisting that I must have a care for +the slash across my chest, and so, towing the canoe and rowboat, we +turned toward Glenarm. The Italian still watched us from the shore, +standing beside a tall sycamore on a little promontory as though to +follow us as far as possible. +</P> + +<P> +We passed close to the <I>Stiletto</I> to get a better look at her. She was +the trimmest sailing craft in those waters, and the largest, being, I +should say, thirty-seven feet on the water-line, sloop-rigged, and with +a cuddy large enough to house the skipper. As we drew alongside I +stood up the better to examine her, and the Italian, still watching us +intently from the island, cried out warningly. +</P> + +<P> +"He should fly the signal, 'Owner not on board,'" remarked Gillespie as +we pushed off and continued on our way. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was low in the western wood as we passed out into the larger +lake. Gillespie took soundings with his oar in the connecting channel, +and did not touch bottom. +</P> + +<P> +"You wouldn't suppose the <I>Stiletto</I> could get through here; it's as +shallow as a sauce-pan; but there's plenty and to spare," he said, as +he resumed rowing. +</P> + +<P> +"But it takes a cool hand—" I began, then paused abruptly; for there, +several hundred yards away, a little back from the western shore, +against a strip of wood through which the sun burned redly, I saw a man +and a woman slowly walking back and forth. Gillespie, laboring +steadily at the oars, seemed not to see them, and I made no sign. My +heart raced for a moment as I watched them pace back and forth, for +there was something familiar in both figures. I knew that I had seen +them before and talked with them; I would have sworn that the man was +Henry Holbrook and the girl Helen; and I was aware that when they +turned, once, twice, at the ends of their path, the girl made some +delay; and when they went on she was toward the lake, as though +shielding the man from our observation. The last sight I had of them +the girl stood with her back to us, pointing into the west. Then she +put up her hand to her bare head as though catching a loosened strand +of hair; and the wind blew back her skirts like those of the Winged +Victory. The two were etched sharply against the fringe of wood and +bathed in the sun's glow. A second later the trees stood there +alertly, with the golden targe of the sun shining like a giant's shield +beyond; but they had gone, and my heart was numb with foreboding, or +loneliness, and heavy with the weight of things I did not understand. +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie tugged hard with the burden of the tow at his back. I will +not deny that I was uncomfortable as I thought of his own affair with +Helen Holbrook. He had, by any fair judgment, a prior claim. Her +equivocal attitude toward him and her inexplicable conduct toward her +aunt were, I knew, appearing less and less heinous to me as the days +passed; and I was miserably conscious that my own duty to Miss Patricia +lay less heavily upon me. +</P> + +<P> +I was glad when we reached Glenarm pier, where we found Ijima hanging +out the lamps. He gave me a telegram. It was from my New York +acquaintance and read: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Holbrook left here two days ago; destination unknown. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Come, Gillespie; you are to dine with me," I said, when he had read +the telegram; and so we went up to the house together. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I UNDERTAKE A COMMISSION +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 5em">Sweet is every sound,</SPAN><BR> +Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;<BR> +Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn,<BR> +The moan of doves in immemorial elms,<BR> +And murmuring of innumerable bees.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Tennyson</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Gillespie availed himself of my wardrobe to replace his rags, and +appeared in the library clothed and in his usual state of mind on the +stroke of seven. +</P> + +<P> +"You should have had the doctor out, Donovan. Being stuck isn't so +funny, and you will undoubtedly die of blood-poisoning. Every one does +nowadays." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall disappoint you. Ijima and I between us have stuck me together +like a cracked plate. And it is not well to publish our troubles to +the world. If I called the village doctor he would kill his horse +circulating the mysterious tidings. Are you satisfied?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so. You're a man after my own heart, Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +We had reached the dining-room and stood by our chairs. +</P> + +<P> +"I should like," he said, taking up his cocktail glass, "to propose a +truce between us—" +</P> + +<P> +"In the matter of a certain lady?" +</P> + +<P> +"Even so! On the honor of a fool," he said, and touched his glass to +his lips. "And may the best man win," he added, putting down the glass +unemptied. +</P> + +<P> +He was one of those comfortable people with whom it is possible to sit +in silence; but after intervals in which we found nothing to say he +would, with exaggerated gravity, make some utterly inane remark. +To-night his mind was more agile than ever, his thoughts leaping nimbly +from crag to crag, like a mountain goat. He had traveled widely and +knew the ways of many cities; and of American political characters, +whose names were but vaguely known to me, he discoursed with delightful +intimacy; then his mind danced away to a tour he had once made with a +company of acrobats whose baggage he had released from the grasping +hands of a rural sheriff. +</P> + +<P> +"What," he asked presently, "is as sad as being deceived in a person +you have admired and trusted? I knew a fellow who was professor of +something in a blooming college, and who was so poor that he had to +coach delinquent preps in summer-time instead of getting a vacation. I +had every confidence in that fellow. I thought he was all right, and +so I took him up into Maine with me—just the two of us—and hired an +Indian to run our camp, and everything pointed to plus. Well, I always +get stung when I try to be good." +</P> + +<P> +He placed his knife and fork carefully across his plate and sighed +deeply. +</P> + +<P> +"What was the matter? Did he bore you with philosophy?" +</P> + +<P> +"No such luck. That man was weak-minded on the subject of +domesticating prairie-dogs. You may shoot me if that isn't the fact. +There he was, a prize-winner and a fellow of his university, and a fine +scholar who edited Greek text-books, with that thing on his mind. He +held that the daily example of the happy home life of the prairie-dog +would tend to ennoble all mankind and brighten up our family altars. +Think of being lost in the woods with a man with such an idea, and of +having to sleep under the same blanket with him! It rained most of the +time so we had to sit in the tent, and he never let up. He got so bad +that he would wake me up in the night to talk prairie-dog." +</P> + +<P> +"It must have been trying," I agreed. "What was your solution, +Buttons?" +</P> + +<P> +"I moved outdoors and slept with the Indian. Your salad dressing is +excellent, Donovan, though personally I lean to more of the paprika. +But let us go back a bit to the Holbrooks. Omitting the lady, there +are certain points about which we may as well agree. I am not so great +a fool but that I can see that this state of things can not last +forever. Henry is broken down from drink and brooding over his +troubles, and about ready for close confinement in a brick building +with barred windows." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'm for capturing him and sticking him away in a safe place." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the Irish of it, if you will pardon me; but it's not the +Holbrook of it. A father tucked away in a private madhouse would not +sound well to the daughter. I advise you not to suggest that to Helen. +I generously aid your suit to that extent. We are both playing for +Helen's gratitude; that's the flat of the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"I was brought into this business to help Miss Pat," I declared, though +a trifle lamely. Gillespie grinned sardonically. +</P> + +<P> +"Be it far from me to interfere with your plans, methods or hopes. We +both have the conceit of our wisdom!" +</P> + +<P> +"There may be something in that." +</P> + +<P> +"But it was decent of you to get me out of that Italian's clutches this +afternoon. When I went over there I thought I might find Henry +Holbrook and pound some sense into him; and he's about due, from that +telegram. If Miss Pat won't soften her heart I'd better buy him off," +he added reflectively. +</P> + +<P> +We walked the long length of the hall into the library, and had just +lighted our cigars when the butler sought me. +</P> + +<P> +"Beg pardon, the telephone, sir." +</P> + +<P> +My distrust of the telephone is so deep-seated that I had forgotten the +existence of the instrument in Glenarm house, where, I now learned, it +was tucked away in the butler's pantry for the convenience of the +housekeeper in ordering supplies from the village. After a moment's +parley a woman's voice addressed me distinctly—a voice that at once +arrested and held all my thoughts. My replies were, I fear, somewhat +breathless and wholly stupid. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Rosalind; do you remember me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I remember; I remember nothing else!" I declared. Ijima had +closed the door behind me, and I was alone with the voice—a voice that +spoke to me of the summer night, and of low winds murmuring across +starry waters. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going away. The Rosalind you remember is going a long way from +the lake, and you will never see her again." +</P> + +<P> +"But you have an engagement; when the new moon—" +</P> + +<P> +"But the little feather of the new moon is under a cloud, and you can +not see it; and Rosalind must always be Helen now." +</P> + +<P> +"But this won't do, Rosalind. Ours was more than an engagement; it was +a solemn compact," I insisted. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, not so very solemn!" she laughed. "And then you have the other +girl that isn't just me—the girl of the daylight, that you ride and +sail with and play tennis with." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I haven't her; I don't want her—" +</P> + +<P> +"Treacherous man! Volatile Irishman!" +</P> + +<P> +"Marvelous, adorable Rosalind!" +</P> + +<P> +"That will do, Mr. Donovan"—and then with a quick change of tone she +asked abruptly: +</P> + +<P> +"You are not afraid of trouble, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I live for nothing else!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are not so pledged to the Me you play tennis with that you can not +serve Rosalind if she asks it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; you have only to ask. But I must see you once more—as Rosalind!" +</P> + +<P> +"Stop being silly, and listen carefully." And I thought I heard a sob +in the moment's silence before she spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to go, at once, to the house of the boat-maker on +Tippecanoe Creek; go as fast as you can!" she implored. +</P> + +<P> +"To the house of the man who calls himself Hartridge, the canoe-maker, +at Red Gate?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; you must see that no harm comes to him to-night." +</P> + +<P> +There was no mistaking now the sobs that broke her sentences, and my +mind was so a-whirl with questions that I stammered incoherently. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you go—will you go?" she demanded in a voice so low and broken +that I scarcely heard. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, at once," and the voice vanished, and while I still stood staring +at the instrument the operator at Annandale blandly asked me what +number I wanted. The thread had snapped and the spell was broken. I +stared helplessly at the thing of wood and wire for half a minute; then +the girl's appeal and my promise rose in my mind distinct from all +else. I ordered my horse before returning to the library, where +Gillespie was coolly turning over the magazines on the table. I was +still dazed, and something in my appearance caused him to stare. +</P> + +<P> +"Been seeing a ghost?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No; just hearing one," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +I had yet to offer some pretext for leaving him, and as I walked the +length of the room he stifled a yawn, his eyes falling upon the line of +French windows. I spoke of the heat of the night, but he did not +answer, and I turned to find his gaze fixed upon one of the open +windows. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, man?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +He crossed the room in a leap and was out upon the terrace, peering +down upon the shrubbery beneath. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the row?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't you see it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Then it wasn't anything. I thought I saw the dago, if you must know. +He'll probably be around looking for us." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph, you're a little nervous, that's all. You'll stay here all +night, of course?" I asked, without, I fear, much enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +He grinned. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be so cordial! If you'll send me into town I'll be off." +</P> + +<P> +I had just ordered the dog-cart when the butler appeared. +</P> + +<P> +"If you please, sir. Sister Margaret wishes to use our telephone, sir. +St. Agatha's is out of order." +</P> + +<P> +I spoke to the Sister as she left the house, half as a matter of +courtesy, half to make sure of her. The telephone at St. Agatha's had +been out of order for several days, she said; and I walked with her to +St. Agatha's gate, talking of the weather, the garden and the Holbrook +ladies, who were, she said, quite well. +</P> + +<P> +Thereafter, when I had despatched Gillespie to the village in the +dog-cart, I got into my leggings, reflecting upon the odd circumstance +that Helen Holbrook had been able to speak to me over the telephone a +few minutes before, using an instrument that had, by Sister Margaret's +testimony, been out of commission for several days. The girl had +undoubtedly slipped away from St. Agatha's and spoken to me from some +other house in the neighborhood; but this was a matter of little +importance, now that I had undertaken her commission. +</P> + +<P> +The chapel clock chimed nine as I gained the road, and I walked my +horse to scan St. Agatha's windows through vistas that offered across +the foliage. And there, by the open window of her aunt's sitting-room, +I saw Helen Holbrook reading. A table-lamp at her side illumined her +slightly bent head; and, as though aroused by my horse's quick step in +the road, she rose and stood framed against the light, with the soft +window draperies fluttering about her. +</P> + +<P> +I spoke to my horse and galloped toward Red Gate. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AN ODD AFFAIR AT RED GATE +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,<BR> +Which better fits a lion than a man.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Troilus and Cressida</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As I rode through Port Annandale the lilting strains of a waltz floated +from the casino, and I caught a glimpse of the lake's cincture of +lights. My head was none too clear from its crack on the cabin floor, +and my chest was growing sore and stiff from the slash of the Italian's +knife; but my spirits were high, and my ears rang with memories of the +Voice. Helen had given me a commission, and every fact of my life +faded into insignificance compared to this. The cool night air rushing +by refreshed me. I was eager for the next turn of the wheel, and my +curiosity ran on to the boat-maker's house. +</P> + +<P> +I came now to a lonely sweep, where the road ran through a heavy +woodland, and the cool, moist air of the forest rose round me. The +lake, I knew, lay close at hand, and the Hartridge cottage was not, as +I reckoned my distances, very far ahead. I had drawn in my horse to +consider the manner of my approach to the boat-maker's, and was jogging +along at an easy trot when a rifle-shot rang out on my left, from the +direction of the creek, and my horse shied sharply and plunged on at a +wild gallop. He ran several hundred yards before I could check him, +and then I turned and rode slowly back, peering into the forest's black +shadow for the foe. I paused and waited, with the horse dancing +crazily beneath me, but the woodland presented an inscrutable front. I +then rode on to the unfenced strip of wood where I had left my horse +before. +</P> + +<P> +I began this narrative with every intention of telling the whole truth +touching my adventures at Annandale, and I can not deny that the shot +from the wood had again shaken my faith in Helen Holbrook. She had +sent me to the Tippecanoe on an errand of her own choosing, and I had +been fired on from ambush near the place to which she had sent me. I +fear that my tower of faith that had grown so tall and strong shook on +its foundations; but once more I dismissed my doubts, just as I had +dismissed other doubts and misgivings about her. My fleeting glimpse +of her in the window of St. Agatha's less than an hour before flashed +back upon me, and the tower touched the stars, steadfast and serene +again. +</P> + +<P> +I strode on toward Red Gate with my revolver in the side pocket of my +Norfolk jacket. A buckboard filled with young folk from the summer +colony passed me, and then the utter silence of the country held the +world. In a moment I had reached the canoe-maker's cottage and entered +the gate. I went at once to the front door and knocked. I repeated my +knock several times, but there was no answer. The front window-blinds +were closed tight. +</P> + +<P> +It was now half-past ten and I walked round the dark house with the +sweet scents of the garden rising about me and paused again at the top +of the steps leading to the creek. +</P> + +<P> +The house-boat was effectually screened by shrubbery, and I had +descended half a dozen steps before I saw a light in the windows. It +occurred to me that as I had undoubtedly been sent to Red Gate for some +purpose, I should do well not to defeat it by any clumsiness of my own; +so I proceeded slowly, pausing several times to observe the lights +below. I heard the Tippecanoe slipping by with the subdued murmur of +water at night; and then a lantern flashed on deck and I heard voices. +Some one was landing from a boat in the creek. This seemed amiable +enough, as the lantern-bearer helped a man in the boat to clamber to +the platform, and from the open door of the shop a broad shaft of light +shone brightly upon the two men. The man with the lantern was +Holbrook, <I>alias</I> Hartridge, beyond a doubt; the other was a stranger. +Holbrook caught the painter of the boat and silently made it fast. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," he said, "come in." +</P> + +<P> +They crossed the deck and entered the boat-maker's shop, and I crept +down where I could peer in at an open port-hole. Several brass +ship-lamps of an odd pattern lighted the place brilliantly, and I was +surprised to note the unusual furnishings of the room. The end nearest +my port-hole was a shop, with a carpenter's bench with litter all about +that spoke of practical use. Two canoes in process of construction lay +across frames contrived for the purpose, and overhead was a rack of +lumber hung away to dry. The men remained at the farther end of the +house—it was, I should say, about a hundred feet long—which, without +formal division, was fitted as a sitting-room, with a piano in one +corner, and a long settle against the wall. In the center was a table +littered with books and periodicals; and a woman's sewing-basket, +interwoven with bright ribbons, gave a domestic touch to the place. On +the inner wall hung a pair of foils and masks. Pictures from +illustrated journals—striking heads or outdoor scenes—were pinned +here and there. +</P> + +<P> +The new-comer stared about, twirling a Tweed cap nervously in his +hands, while Holbrook carefully extinguished the lantern and put it +aside. His visitor was about fifty, taller than he, and swarthy, with +a grayish mustache, and hair white at the temples. His eyes were large +and dark, but even with the length of the room between us I marked +their restlessness; and now that he spoke it was in a succession of +quick rushes of words that were difficult to follow. +</P> + +<P> +Holbrook pushed a chair toward the stranger and they faced each other +for a moment, then with a shrug of his shoulders the older man sat +down. Holbrook was in white flannels, with a blue scarf knotted in his +shirt collar. He dropped into a big wicker chair, crossed his legs and +folded his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he said in a wholly agreeable tone, "you wanted to see me, and +here I am." +</P> + +<P> +"You are well hidden," said the other, still gazing about. +</P> + +<P> +"I imagine I am, from the fact that it has taken you seven years to +find me." +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't been looking for you seven years," replied the stranger +hastily; and his eyes again roamed the room. +</P> + +<P> +The men seemed reluctant to approach the business that lay between +them, and Holbrook wore an air of indifference, as though the impending +interview did not concern him particularly. The eyes of the older man +fell now upon the beribboned work-basket. He nodded toward it, his +eyes lighting unpleasantly. +</P> + +<P> +"There seems to be a woman," he remarked with a sneer of implication. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Holbrook calmly, "there is; that belongs to my daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is she?" demanded the other, glancing anxiously about. +</P> + +<P> +"In bed, I fancy. You need have no fear of her." +</P> + +<P> +Silence fell upon them again. Their affairs were difficult, and +Holbrook, waiting patiently for the other to broach his errand, drew +out his tobacco-pouch and pipe and began to smoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Patricia is here, and Helen is with her," said the visitor. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we are all here, it seems," remarked Holbrook dryly. "It's a +nice family gathering." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you haven't seen them?" demanded the visitor. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes and no. I have no wish to meet them; but I've had several narrow +escapes. They have cut me off from my walks; but I shall leave here +shortly." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you are going, you are going—" began the visitor eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going, but not until after you have gone," said Holbrook. "By +some strange fate we are all here, and it is best for certain things to +be settled before we separate again. I have tried to keep out of your +way; I have sunk my identity; I have relinquished the things of life +that men hold dear—honor, friends, ambition, and now you and I have +got to have a settlement." +</P> + +<P> +"You seem rather sure of yourself," sneered the older, turning uneasily +in his chair. +</P> + +<P> +"I am altogether sure of myself. I have been a fool, but I see the +error of my ways and I propose to settle matters with you now and here. +You have got to drop your game of annoying Patricia; you've got to stop +using your own daughter as a spy—" +</P> + +<P> +"You lie, you lie!" roared the other, leaping to his feet. "You can +not insinuate that my daughter is not acting honorably toward Patricia." +</P> + +<P> +My mind had slowly begun to grasp the situation and to identify the men +before me. It was as though I looked upon a miniature stage in a +darkened theater, and, without a bill of the play, was slowly finding +names for the players. Holbrook, <I>alias</I> Hartridge, the boat-maker of +the Tippecanoe, was not Henry Holbrook, but Henry's brother, Arthur! +and I sought at once to recollect what I knew of him. An instant +before I had half turned to go, ashamed of eavesdropping upon matters +that did not concern me; but the Voice that had sent me held me to the +window. It was some such meeting as this that Helen must have feared +when she sent me to the houses-boat, and everything else must await the +issue of this meeting. +</P> + +<P> +"You had better sit down, Henry," said Arthur Holbrook quietly. "And I +suggest that you make less noise. This is a lonely place, but there +are human beings within a hundred miles." +</P> + +<P> +Henry Holbrook paced the floor a moment and then flung himself into a +chair again, but he bent forward angrily, nervously beating his hands +together. Arthur went on speaking, his voice shaking with passion. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to say to you that you have deteriorated until you are a common +damned blackguard, Henry Holbrook! You are a blackguard and a gambler. +And you have made murderous attempts on the life of your sister; you +drove her from Stamford and you tried to smash her boat out here in the +lake. I saw the whole transaction that afternoon, and understood it +all—how you hung off there in the <I>Stiletto</I> and sent that beast to do +your dirty work." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't follow her here; I didn't follow her here!" raged the other. +</P> + +<P> +"No; but you watched and waited until you traced me here. You were not +satisfied with what I had done for you. You wanted to kill me before I +could tell Pat the truth; and if it hadn't been for that man Donovan +your assassin would have stabbed me at my door." Arthur Holbrook rose +and flung down his pipe so that the coals leaped from it. "But it's +all over now—this long exile of mine, this pursuit of Pat, this +hideous use of your daughter to pluck your chestnuts from the fire. By +God, you've got to quit—you've got to go!" +</P> + +<P> +"But I want my money—I want my money!" roared Henry, as though +insisting upon a right; but Arthur ignored him, and went on. +</P> + +<P> +"You were the one who was strong; and great things were expected of +you, to add to the traditions of family honor; but our name is only +mentioned with a sneer where men remember it at all. You were spoiled +and pampered; you have never from your early boyhood had a thought that +was not for yourself alone. You were always envious and jealous of +anybody that came near you, and not least of me; and when I saved you, +when I gave you your chance to become a man at last, to regain the +respect you had flung away so shamefully, you did not realize it, you +could not realize it; you took it as a matter of course, as though I +had handed you a cigar. I ask you now, here in this place, where I am +known and respected—I ask you here, where I have toiled with my hands, +whether you forget why I am here?" +</P> + +<P> +Henry Holbrook tugged at his scarf nervously and his eyes wandered +about uneasily. He did not answer his brother. Arthur stood over him, +with folded arms, his back to me so that I could not see his face; but +his tone had in it the gathered passion and contempt of years. Then he +was at once himself, standing away a little, like a lawyer after a +round with a refractory witness. +</P> + +<P> +"I must have my money; Patricia must make the division," replied Henry +doggedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! Certainly! I devoutly hope she will give it to you; you +need fear no interference from me. The sooner you get it and fling it +away the better. Patricia has been animated by the best motives in +withholding it; she regarded it as a sacred trust to administer for +your own good, but now I want you to have your money." +</P> + +<P> +"If I can have my share, if you will persuade her to give it, I will +pay you all I owe you—" Henry began eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"What you owe me—what you <I>owe</I> me!" and Arthur bent toward his +brother and laughed—a laugh that was not good to hear. "You would +give me money—money—you would pay me <I>money</I> for priceless things!" +</P> + +<P> +He broke off suddenly, dropping his arms at his sides helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no use in trying to talk to you; we use a different +vocabulary, Henry." +</P> + +<P> +"But that trouble with Gillespie—if Patricia knew—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; if she knew the truth! And you never understood, you are +incapable of understanding, that it meant something to me to lose my +sister out of my life. When Helen died"—and his voice fell and he +paused for a moment, as a priest falters sometimes, gripped by some +phrase in the office that touches hidden depths in his own experience, +"then when Helen died there was still Patricia, the noblest sister men +ever had; but you robbed me of her—you robbed me of her!" +</P> + +<P> +He was deeply moved and, as he controlled himself, he walked to the +little table and fingered the ribbons of the work-basket. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't those notes, if that's what you're after—I never had them," +he said. "Gillespie kept tight hold of them." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; the vindictive old devil!" +</P> + +<P> +"Men who have been swindled are usually vindictive," replied Arthur +grimly. "Gillespie is dead. I suppose the executor of his estate has +those papers; and the executor is his son." +</P> + +<P> +"The fool. I've never been able to get anything out of him." +</P> + +<P> +"If he's a fool it ought to be all the easier to get your pretty +playthings away from him. Old Gillespie really acted pretty decently +about the whole business. Your daughter may be able to get them away +from the boy; he's infatuated with her; he wants to marry her, it +seems." +</P> + +<P> +"My daughter is not in this matter," said Henry coldly, and then anger +mastered him again. "I don't believe he has them; you have them, and +that's why I have followed you here. I'm going to Patricia to throw +myself on her mercy, and that ghost must not rise up against me. I +want them; I have come to get those notes." +</P> + +<P> +I was aroused by a shadow-like touch on my arm, and I knew without +seeing who it was that stood beside me. A faint hint as of violets +stole upon the air; her breath touched my cheek as she bent close to +the little window, and she sighed deeply as in relief at beholding a +scene of peace. Arthur Holbrook still stood with bowed head by the +table, his back to his brother, and I felt suddenly the girl's hand +clutch my wrist. She with her fresher eyes upon the scene saw, before +I grasped it, what now occurred. Henry Holbrook had drawn a revolver +from his pocket and pointed it full at his brother's back. We two at +the window saw the weapon flash menacingly; but suddenly Arthur +Holbrook flung round as his brother cried: +</P> + +<P> +"I think you are lying to me, and I want those notes—I want those +notes, I want them now! You must have them, and I can't go to Patricia +until I know they're safe." +</P> + +<P> +He advanced several steps and his manner grew confident as he saw that +he held the situation in his own grasp. I would have rushed in upon +them but the girl held me back. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait! Wait!" she whispered. +</P> + +<P> +Arthur thrust his hands into the side pockets of his flannel jacket and +nodded his head once or twice. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you shoot, Henry?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want those notes," said Henry Holbrook. "You lied to me about them. +They were to have been destroyed. I want them now, to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"If you shoot me you will undoubtedly get them much easier," said +Arthur; and he lounged away toward the wall, half turning his back, +while the point of the pistol followed him. "But the fact is, I never +had them; Gillespie kept them." +</P> + +<P> +Threats cool quickly, and I really had not much fear that Henry +Holbrook meant to kill his brother; and Arthur's indifference to his +danger was having its disconcerting effect on Henry. The pistol-barrel +wavered; but Henry steadied himself and his clutch tightened on the +butt. I again turned toward the door, but the girl's hand held me back. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait," she whispered again. "That man is a coward. He will not +shoot." +</P> + +<P> +The canoe-maker had been calmly talking, discussing the disagreeable +consequences of murder in a tone of half-banter, and he now stood +directly under the foils. Then in a flash he snatched one of them, +flung it up with an accustomed hand, and snapped it across his +brother's knuckles. At the window we heard the slim steel hiss through +the air, followed by the rattle of the revolver as it struck the +ground. The canoe-maker's foot was on it instantly; he still held the +foil. +</P> + +<P> +"Henry," he said in the tone of one rebuking a child, "you are bad +enough, but I do not intend that you shall be a murderer. And now I +want you to go; I will not treat with you; I want nothing more to do +with you! I repeat that I haven't got the notes." +</P> + +<P> +He pointed to the door with the foil. The blood surged angrily in his +face; but his voice was in complete control as he went on. +</P> + +<P> +"Your visit has awakened me to a sense of neglected duty, Henry. I +have allowed you to persecute our sister without raising a hand; I have +no other business now but to protect her. Go back to your stupid +sailor and tell him that if I catch him in any mischief on the lake or +here I shall certainly kill him." +</P> + +<P> +I lost any further words that passed between them, as Henry, crazily +threatening, walked out upon the deck to his boat; then from the creek +came the threshing of oars that died away in a moment. When I gazed +into the room again Arthur Holbrook was blowing out the lights. +</P> + +<P> +"I am grateful; I am so grateful," faltered the girl's voice; "but you +must not be seen here. Please go now!" I had taken her hands, feeling +that I was about to lose her; but she freed them and stood away from me +in the shadow. +</P> + +<P> +"We are going away—we must leave here! I can never see you again," +she whispered. +</P> + +<P> +In the starlight she was Helen, by every test my senses could make; but +by something deeper I knew that she was not the girl I had seen in the +window at St. Agatha's. She was more dependent, less confident and +poised; she stifled a sob and came close. Through the window I saw +Arthur Holbrook climbing up to blow out the last light. +</P> + +<P> +"I could have watched myself, but I was afraid that sailor might come; +and it was he that fired at you in the road. He had gone to Glenarm to +watch you and keep you away from here. Uncle Henry came back to-day +and sent word that he wanted to see my father, and I asked you to come +to help us." +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you for that." +</P> + +<P> +"And there was another man—a stranger, back there near the road; I +could not make him out, but you will be careful,—please! You must +think very ill of me for bringing you into all this danger and trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"I am grateful to you. Please turn all your troubles over to me." +</P> + +<P> +"You did what I asked you to do," she said, "when I had no right to +ask, but I was afraid of what might happen here. It is all right now +and we are going away; we must leave this place." +</P> + +<P> +"But I shall see you again." +</P> + +<P> +"No! You have—you have—Helen. You don't know me at all! You will +find your mistake to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +She was urging me toward the steps that led up to the house. The sob +was still in her throat, but she was laughing, a little hysterically, +in her relief that her father had come off unscathed. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you must let me find it out to-morrow; I will come to-morrow +before you go." +</P> + +<P> +"No! No! This is good-by," she said. "You would not be so unkind as +to stay, when I am so troubled, and there is so much to do!" +</P> + +<P> +We were at the foot of the stairway, and I heard the shop door snap +shut. +</P> + +<P> +"Good night, Rosalind!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good-by; and thank you!" she whispered. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HOW THE NIGHT ENDED +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +One year ago my path was green,<BR> +My footstep light, my brow serene;<BR> +Alas! and could it have been so<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">One year ago?</SPAN><BR> +There is a love that is to last<BR> +When the hot days of youth are past:<BR> +Such love did a sweet maid bestow<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">One year ago.</SPAN><BR> +I took a leaflet from her braid<BR> +And gave it to another maid.<BR> +Love, broken should have been thy how,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">One year ago.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Landor</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As my horse whinnied and I turned into the wood a man walked boldly +toward me. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Donovan, I have been consoling your horse during your absence. +It's a sad habit we have fallen into of wandering about at night. I +liked your dinner, but you were rather too anxious to get rid of me. I +came by boat myself!" +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie knocked the ashes from his pipe and thrust it into his +pocket. I was in no frame of mind for talk with him, a fact which he +seemed to surmise. +</P> + +<P> +"It's late, for a fact," he continued; "and we both ought to be in bed; +but our various affairs require diligence." +</P> + +<P> +"What are you doing over here?" I demanded. I was too weary and too +perplexed for his nonsense, and in no mood for confidences. I needed +time for reflection and I had no intention of seeking or of imparting +information at this juncture. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, to tell the truth—" +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better!" +</P> + +<P> +"To tell the truth, my dear Donovan, since I left your hospitable board +I have been deeply perplexed over some important questions of human +conduct. Are you interested in human types? Have you ever noticed the +man who summons all porters and waiters by the pleasing name of George? +The name in itself is respectable enough; nor is its generic use +pernicious—a matter of taste only. But the same man may be identified +otherwise by his proneness to consume the cabinet pudding, the +chocolate ice-cream and the fruit in season from the chastening +American bill of fare, after partaking impartially of the preliminary +fish, flesh and fowl. He is confidential with hotel clerks, +affectionate with chambermaids and all telephone girls are Nellie to +him. Types, my dear Donovan—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough! I want to know what you are doing!" and in my anger I +shook him by the shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if you must have it, after I started to the village I changed my +mind about going, and I was anxious to see whether Holbrook was really +here; so I got a launch and came over. I stopped at the island but saw +no one there, and I came up the creek until I grounded; then I struck +inland, looking for the road. It might save us both embarrassment, +Irishman, if we give notice of each other's intentions, particularly at +night. I hung about, thinking you might appear, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"You are a poor liar, Buttons. You didn't come here alone!"—and I +drove my weary wits hard in an effort to account for his unexpected +appearance. +</P> + +<P> +"All is lost; I am discovered," he mocked. +</P> + +<P> +He had himself freed my horse; I now took the rein and refastened it to +the tree. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, inexplicable Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +I laughed, pleased to find that my delay annoyed him. I was confident +that he was not abroad at this hour for nothing, and it again occurred +to me that we were on different sides of the matter. My weariness fell +from me like a cloak, as the events of the past hour flashed fresh in +my mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," I said, dropping the rein and patting the horse's nose for a +moment, "you may go with me or you may sit here; but if you would avoid +trouble don't try to interfere with me." +</P> + +<P> +I did not doubt that he had been sent to watch me; and his immediate +purpose seemed to be to detain me. +</P> + +<P> +"I had hoped you would sit down and talk over the Monroe Doctrine, or +the partition of Africa, or something equally interesting," he +remarked. "You disappoint me, my dear benefactor." +</P> + +<P> +"And you make me very tired at the end of a tiresome day, Gillespie. +Please continue to watch my horse; I'm off." +</P> + +<P> +He kept at my elbow, as I expected he would, babbling away with his +usual volubility in an effort, now frank enough, to hold me back; but I +ignored his talk and plunged on through the wood toward the creek. +Henry Holbrook must, I argued, have had time enough to get out of the +creek and back to the island; but what mischief Gillespie was +furthering in his behalf I could not imagine. +</P> + +<P> +There was a gradual rise toward the creek and we were obliged to cling +to the bushes in making our ascent. Suddenly, as I paused for breath, +Gillespie grasped my arm. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, stop! This is no affair of yours. On my honor +there's nothing that affects you here." +</P> + +<P> +"I will see whether there is or not!" I exclaimed, throwing him off, +but he kept close beside me. +</P> + +<P> +We gained the trail that ran along the creek, and I paused to listen. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's your launch?" +</P> + +<P> +"Find it," he replied succinctly. +</P> + +<P> +I had my bearings pretty well, and set off toward the lake, Gillespie +trudging behind in the narrow path. When we had gone about twenty +yards a lantern glimmered below and I heard voices raised in excited +colloquy. Gillespie started forward at a run. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep back! This is my affair!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm making it mine," I replied, and flung in ahead of him. +</P> + +<P> +I ran forward rapidly, the voices growing louder, and soon heard men +stumbling and falling about in conflict. A woman's voice now rose in a +sharp cry: +</P> + +<P> +"Let go of him! Let go of him!" +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie flashed by me down the bank to the water's edge, where the +struggle ended abruptly. I was not far behind, and I saw Henry +Holbrook in the grasp of the Italian, who was explaining to the woman, +who held the lantern high above her head, that he was only protecting +himself. Gillespie had caught hold of the sailor, who continued to +protest his innocence of any wish to injure Holbrook; and for a moment +we peered through the dark, taking account of one another. +</P> + +<P> +"So it's you, is it?" said Henry Holbrook as the Italian freed him and +his eyes fell on me. "I should like to know what you mean by meddling +in my affairs. By God, I've enough to do with my own flesh and blood +without dealing with outsiders." +</P> + +<P> +Helen Holbrook turned swiftly and held the lantern toward me, and when +she saw me shrugged her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"You really give yourself a great deal of unnecessary concern, Mr. +Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a damned impudent meddler!" blurted Henry Holbrook. "I have +had you watched. You—you—" +</P> + +<P> +He darted toward me, but the Italian again caught and held him, and +another altercation began between them. Holbrook was wrought to a high +pitch of excitement and cursed everybody who had in any way interfered +with him. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Helen," said Gillespie, stepping to the girl's side; and at this +Henry Holbrook turned upon him viciously. +</P> + +<P> +"You are another meddlesome outsider. Your father was a pig—a pig, do +you understand? If it hadn't been for him I shouldn't be here +to-night, camping out like an outlaw. And you've got to stop annoying +my daughter!" +</P> + +<P> +Helen turned to the Italian and spoke to him rapidly in his own tongue. +</P> + +<P> +"You must take him away. He is not himself. Tell him I have done the +best I could. Tell him—" +</P> + +<P> +She lowered her voice so that I heard no more. Holbrook was still +heaping abuse upon Gillespie, who stood submissively by; but Helen ran +up the bank, the lantern light flashing eerily about her. She paused +at the top, waiting for Gillespie, who, it was patent, had brought her +to this rendezvous and who kept protectingly at her heels. +</P> + +<P> +The Italian drew Holbrook toward the boat that lay at the edge of the +lake. He seemed to forget me in his anger against Gillespie, and he +kept turning toward the path down which the girl's lantern faintly +twinkled. Gillespie kept on after the girl, the lantern flashing more +rarely through the turn in the path, until I caught the threshing of +his launch as it swung out into the lake. +</P> + +<P> +I drew back, seeing nothing to gain by appealing to Holbrook in his +present overwrought state. The Italian had his hands full, and was +glad, I judged, to let me alone. A moment later he had pushed off his +boat, and I heard the sound of oars receding toward the island. +</P> + +<P> +I found my horse, led him deeper into the wood and threw off the +saddle. Then I walked down the road until I found a barn, and crawled +into the loft and slept. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE LADY OF THE WHITE BUTTERFLIES +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +TITANIA: And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4.5em">To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 4.5em">Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +PEASEBLOSSOM: Hail, mortal!<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Midsummer Night's Dream</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The twitter of swallows in the eaves wakened me to the first light of +day, and after I had taken a dip in the creek I still seemed to be sole +proprietor of the world, so quiet lay field and woodland. I followed +the lake shore to a fishermen's camp, where, in the good comradeship of +outdoors men the world over, I got bread and coffee and no questions +asked. I smoked a pipe with the fishermen to kill time, and it was +still but a trifle after six o'clock when I started for Red Gate. My +mood was not for the open road, and I sought woodland paths, that I +might loiter the more. With squirrels scampering before me, and +attended by bird-song and the morning drum-beat of the woodpecker, I +strode on until I came out upon a series of rough pastures, separated +by stake-and-rider fences that crawled sinuously through tangles of +blackberries and wild roses. As I tramped along a cow-path that +traversed these pastures, the dew sparkled on the short grass, and +wings whirred and dipped in salutation before me. My memories of the +night vanished in the perfection of the day; I went forth to no renewal +of acquaintance with shadows, or with the lurking figures in a dark +drama, but to enchantments that were fresh with life and light. Barred +gates separated these fallow fields, and I passed through one, crossed +the intermediate pasture, and opened the gate of the third. Before me +lay a field of daisies, bobbing amid wild grass, the morning wind +softly stirring the myriad disks, so that the whole had the effect of +quiet motion. The path led on again, but more faintly here. A line of +sycamores two hundred yards to my right marked the bed of the +Tippecanoe; and on my left hand, beyond a walnut grove, a little filmy +dust-cloud hung above the hidden highway. The meadow was a place of +utter peace; the very air spoke of holy things. I thrust my cap into +my jacket pocket and stood watching the wind crisp the flowers. Then +my attention wandered to the mad antics of a squirrel that ran along +the fence. +</P> + +<P> +When I turned to the field again I saw Rosalind coming toward me along +the path, clad in white, hatless, and her hands lightly brushing the +lush grass that seemed to leap up to touch them. She had not seen me, +and I drew back a little for love of the picture she made. Three white +butterflies fluttered about her head, like an appointed guard of honor, +and she caught at them with her hands, turning her head to watch their +staggering flight. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-264"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-264.jpg" ALT="Three white butterflies fluttered about her head." BORDER="2" WIDTH="390" HEIGHT="643"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 643px"> +Three white butterflies fluttered about her head. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +She paused abruptly midway of the daisies, and I walked toward her +slowly—it must have been slowly—and I think we were both glad of a +moment's respite in which to study each other. Then she spoke at once, +as though our meeting had been prearranged. +</P> + +<P> +"I hoped I should see you," she said gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"I had every intention of seeing you! I was killing time until I felt +I might decently lift the latch of Red Gate." +</P> + +<P> +She inspected me with her hands clasped behind her. +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't look at me like that!" I laughed. "I camped in a barn +last night for fear I shouldn't get here in time." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish to speak to you for a few minutes—to tell you what you may +have guessed about us—my father and me." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; if you like; but only to help you if I can. It is not necessary +for you to tell me anything." +</P> + +<P> +She turned and led the way across the daisy field. She walked swiftly, +holding back her skirts from the crowding flowers, traversed the garden +of Red Gate, and continued down to the house-boat. +</P> + +<P> +"We can be quiet here," she said, throwing open the door. "My father +is at Tippecanoe village, shipping one of his canoes. We are early +risers, you see!" +</P> + +<P> +The little sitting-room adjoining the shop was calm and cool, and the +ripple of the creek was only an emphasis of the prevailing rural quiet. +She sat down by the table in a red-cushioned wicker chair and folded +her hands in her lap and smiled a little as she saw me regarding her +fixedly. I suppose I had expected to find her clad in saffron robes or +in doublet and hose, but the very crispness of her white piqué spoke +delightfully of present times and manners. My glance rested on the +emerald ring; then I looked into her eyes again. +</P> + +<P> +"You see I am really very different," she smiled. "I'm not the same +person at all!" +</P> + +<P> +"No; it's wonderful—wonderful!" And I still stared. +</P> + +<P> +She grew grave again. +</P> + +<P> +"I have important things to say to you, but it's just as well for you +to see me in the broadest of daylight, so that"—she pondered a moment, +as though to be sure of expressing herself clearly—"so that when you +see Helen Holbrook in an hour or so in that pretty garden by the lake +you will understand that it was not really Rosalind after all +that—that—amused you!" +</P> + +<P> +"But the daylight is not helping that idea. You are marvelously alike, +and yet—" I floundered miserably in my uncertainty. +</P> + +<P> +"Then,"—and she smiled at my discomfiture, "if you can't tell us +apart, it makes no difference whether you ever see me again or not. +You see, Mr.—but <I>did</I> you ever tell me what your name is? Well, I +know it, anyhow, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +The little work-table was between us, and on it lay the foil which her +father had snatched from the wall the night before. I still stood, +gazing down at Rosalind. Fashion, I saw, had done something for the +amazing resemblance. She wore her hair in the pompadour of the day, +with exactly Helen's sweep; and her white gown was identical with that +worn that year by thousands of young women. She had even the same +gestures, the same little way of resting her cheek against her hand +that Helen had; and before she spoke she moved her head a trifle to one +side, with a pretty suggestion of just having been startled from a +reverie, that was Helen's trick precisely. +</P> + +<P> +She forgot for a moment our serious affairs, to which I was not in the +least anxious to turn, in her amusement at my perplexity. +</P> + +<P> +"It must be even more extraordinary than I imagined. I have not seen +Helen for seven years. She is my cousin; and when we were children +together at Stamford our mothers used to dress us alike to further the +resemblance. Our mothers, you may not know, were not only sisters; +they were twin sisters! But Helen is, I think, a trifle taller than I +am. This little mark"—she touched the peak—"is really very curious. +Both our mothers and our grandmother had it. And you see that I speak +a little more rapidly than she does—at least that used to be the case. +I don't know my grown-up cousin at all. We probably have different +tastes, temperaments, and all that." +</P> + +<P> +"I am positive of it!" I exclaimed; yet I was really sure of nothing, +save that I was talking to an exceedingly pretty girl, who was +amazingly like another very pretty girl whom I knew much better. +</P> + +<P> +"You are her guardian, so to speak, Mr. Donovan. You are taking care +of my Aunt Pat and my cousin. Just how that came about I don't know." +</P> + +<P> +"They were sent to St. Agatha's by Father Stoddard, an old friend of +mine. They had suffered many annoyances, to put it mildly, and came +here to get away from their troubles." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I understand. Uncle Henry has acted outrageously. I have not +ranged the country at night for nothing. I have even learned a few +things from you," she laughed. "And you must continue to serve Aunt +Patricia and my cousin. You see,"—and she smiled her grave smile—"my +father and I are an antagonistic element." +</P> + +<P> +"No; not as between you and Miss Patricia! I'm sure of that. It is +Henry Holbrook that I am to protect her from. You and your father do +not enter into it." +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't mind telling me, Mr. Donovan, I should like to know +whether Aunt Pat has mentioned us." +</P> + +<P> +"Only once, when I first saw her and she explained why she had come. +She seemed greatly moved when she spoke of your father. Since then she +has never referred to him. But the day we cruised up to Battle Orchard +and Henry Holbrook's man tried to smash our launch, she was shaken out +of herself, and she declared war when we got home. Then I was on the +lake with her the night of the carnival. Helen did not go with us. +And when you paddled by us, Miss Pat was quite disturbed at the sight +of you; but she thought it was an illusion, and—I thought it was +Helen!" +</P> + +<P> +"I have been home only a few weeks, but I came just in time to be with +father in his troubles. My uncle's enmity is very bitter, as you have +seen. I do not understand it. Father has told me little of their +difficulties; but I know," she said, lifting her head proudly, "I know +that my father has done nothing dishonorable. He has told me so, and I +am content with that." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed, not knowing what to say. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been here only once or twice before, and for short visits only. +Most of the time I have been at a convent in Canada, where I was known +as Rosalind Hartridge. Rosalind, you know, is really my name: I was +named for Helen's mother. The Sisters took pity on my loneliness, and +were very kind to me. But now I am never going to leave my father +again." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke with no unkindness or bitterness, but with a gravity born of +deep feeling. I marked now the lighter <I>timbre</I> of her voice, that was +quite different from her cousin's; and she spoke more rapidly, as she +had said, her naturally quick speech catching at times the cadence of +cultivated French. And she was a simpler nature—I felt that; she was +really very unlike Helen. +</P> + +<P> +"You manage a canoe pretty well," I ventured, still studying her face, +her voice, her ways, eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"That was very foolish, wasn't it?—my running in behind the procession +that way!" and she laughed softly at the recollection. "But that was +professional pride! That was one of my father's best canoes, and he +helped me to decorate it. He takes a great delight in his work; it's +all he has left! And I wanted to show those people at Port Annandale +what a really fine canoe—a genuine Hartridge—was like. I did not +expect to run into you or Aunt Pat." +</P> + +<P> +"You should have gone on and claimed the prize. It was yours of right. +When your star vanished I thought the world had come to an end." +</P> + +<P> +"It hadn't, you see! I put out the lights so that I could get home +unseen." +</P> + +<P> +"You gave us a shock. Please don't do it again; and please, if you and +your cousin are to meet, kindly let it be on solid ground. I'm a +little afraid, even now, that you are a lady of dreams." +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it! I enjoy a sound appetite; I can carry a canoe like a +Canadian guide; I am as good a fencer as my father; and I'm not afraid +of the dark. You see, in the long vacations up there in Canada I lived +out of doors and I shouldn't mind staying on here always. I like to +paddle a canoe, and I know how to cast a fly, and I've shot ducks from +a blind. You see how very highly accomplished I am! Now, my cousin +Helen—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—?" and I was glad to hear her happy laugh. Sorrow and +loneliness had not stifled the spirit of mischief in her, and she +enjoyed vexing me with references to her cousin. +</P> + +<P> +I walked the length of the room and looked out upon the creek that ran +singing through the little vale. They were a strange family, these +Holbrooks, and the perplexities of their affairs multiplied. How to +prevent further injury and heartache and disaster; how to restore this +girl and her exiled father to the life from which they had vanished; +and how to save Miss Pat and Helen,—these things possessed my mind and +heart. I sat down and faced Rosalind across the table. She had taken +up a bright bit of ribbon from the work-basket and was slipping it back +and forth through her fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"The name Gillespie was mentioned here last night. Can you tell me +just how he was concerned in your father's affairs?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"He was the largest creditor of the Holbrook bank. He lived at +Stamford, where we all used to live." +</P> + +<P> +"This Gillespie had a son. I suppose he inherits his father's claims." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed outright. +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard of him. He is a remarkable character, it seems, who does +ridiculous things. He did as a child: I remember him very well as a +droll boy at Stamford, who was always in mischief. I had forgotten all +about him until I saw an amusing account of him in a newspaper a few +months ago. He had been arrested for fast driving in Central Park; and +the next day he went back to the park with a boy's toy wagon and team +of goats, as a joke on the policeman." +</P> + +<P> +"I can well believe it! The fellow's here, staying at the inn at +Annandale." +</P> + +<P> +"So I understand. To be frank, I have seen him and talked with him. +We have had, in fact, several interesting interviews,"—and she laughed +merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did all this happen?" +</P> + +<P> +"Once, out on the lake, when we were both prowling about in canoes. I +talked to him, but made him keep his distance. I dared him to race me, +and finally paddled off and left him. Then another time, on the shore +near St. Agatha's. I was taking an observation of the school garden +from the bluff, and Mr. Gillespie came walking through the woods and +made love to me. He came so suddenly that I couldn't run, but I saw +that he took me for Helen, in broad daylight, and I—I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, of course you scorned him—you told him to be gone. You did +that much for her." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I didn't. I liked his love-making; it was unaffected and simple." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! It would naturally be simple!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is brutal. He's clever, and earnest, and amusing. But—" and +her brow contracted, "but if he is seeking my father—" +</P> + +<P> +"Rest assured he is not. He is in love with your cousin—that's the +reason for his being here." +</P> + +<P> +"But that does not help my father's case any." +</P> + +<P> +"We will see about that. You are right about him; he's really a most +amusing person, and not a fool, except for his own amusement. He is +shrewd enough to keep clear of Miss Pat, who dislikes him intensely on +his father's account. She feels that the senior Gillespie was the +cause of all her troubles, but I don't know just why. She's strongly +prejudiced against the young man, and his whimsicalities do not appeal +to her." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose Helen cares nothing for him; he acted toward me as though +he'd been crushed, and I—I tried to be nice to him to make up for it." +</P> + +<P> +"That was nice of you, very nice of you, Rosalind. I hope you will +keep right on the way you've begun. Now I must ask you not to leave +here, and not to allow your father to leave unless I know it." +</P> + +<P> +"But you have your hands full without us. Your first obligation is to +Aunt Pat and Helen. My father and I have merely stumbled in where we +were not invited. You and I had better say good-by now." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not anxious to say good-by," I answered lamely, and she laughed +at me. +</P> + +<P> +Helen, I reflected, did not laugh so readily. Rosalind was beautiful, +she was charming; and yet her likeness to Helen failed in baffling +particulars. Even as she came through the daisy meadow there had been +a difference—at least I seemed to realize it now. The white +butterflies symbolized her Ariel-like quality; for the life of me I +could not associate those pale, fluttering vagrants with Helen Holbrook. +</P> + +<P> +"We met under the star-r-rs, Mr. Donovan" (this was impudent; my own +<I>r's</I> trill, they say), "at the stone seat and by the boat-house, and +we talked Shakespeare and had a beautiful time,—all because you +thought I was Helen. In your anxiety to be with her you couldn't see +that I haven't quite her noble height,—I'm an inch shorter. I gave +you every chance there at the boat-house, to see your mistake; but you +wouldn't have it so. And you let me leave you there while I went back +alone across the lake to Red Gate, right by Battle Orchard, which is +haunted by Indian ghosts. You are a most gallant gentleman!" +</P> + +<P> +"When you are quite done, Rosalind!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know when I shall have a chance again, Mr. Donovan," she went +on provokingly. "I learned a good deal from you in those interviews, +but I did have to do a lot of guessing. That was a real inspiration of +mine, to insist on playing that Helen by night and Helen by day were +different personalities, and that you must not speak to the one of the +other. That saved complications, because you did keep to the compact, +didn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +I assented, a little grudgingly; and my thoughts went back with +reluctant step to those early affairs of mine, which I have already +frankly disclosed in this chronicle, and I wondered, with her +counterpart before me, how much Helen really meant to me. Rosalind +studied me with her frank, merry eyes; then she bent forward and +addressed me with something of that prescient air with which my sisters +used to lecture me. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Donovan, I fear you are a little mixed in your mind this morning, +and I propose to set you straight." +</P> + +<P> +"About what, if you please?" +</P> + +<P> +The conceit in man always rises and struts at the approach of a woman's +sympathy. My body ached, the knife slash across my ribs burnt, and I +felt myself a sadly abused person as Rosalind addressed me. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand all about you, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +My plumage fell; I did not want to be understood, I told myself; but I +said: +</P> + +<P> +"Please go on." +</P> + +<P> +"I can tell you exactly why it is that Helen has taken so strong hold +of your imagination,—why, in fact, you are in love with her." +</P> + +<P> +"Not that—not that." +</P> + +<P> +She snatched the foil from the table and cut the air with it several +times as I started toward her. Then she stamped her foot and saluted +me. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand where you are, sir! Your race, Mr. Donovan, has a bad +reputation in matters of the heart. For a moment you thought you were +in love with me; but you are not, and you are not going to be. You +see, I understand you perfectly." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what my sisters used to tell me." +</P> + +<P> +"Precisely! And I'm another one of your sisters—you must have scores +of them!—and I expect you to be increasingly proud of me." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I admire Helen—" I began, I fear, a little sheepishly. +</P> + +<P> +"And you admire most what you don't understand about her! Now that you +examine me in the light of day you see what a tremendous difference +there is between us. I am altogether obvious; I am not the least bit +subtle. But Helen puzzles and thwarts you. She finds keen delight in +antagonizing you; and she as much as says to you, 'Mr. Donovan, you are +a frightfully conceited person, and you have had many adventures by sea +and shore, and you think you know all about human nature and women, but +I—<I>I</I>—am quite as wise and resourceful as you are, and whether I am +right or wrong I'm going to fight you, fight you, fight you!' There, +Mr. Laurance Donovan, is the whole matter in a nut-shell, and I should +like you to know that I am not at all deceived by you. You did me a +great service last night, and you would serve me again, I am confident +of it; and I hope, when all these troubles are over, that we shall +continue—my father, and you and I—the best friends in the world." +</P> + +<P> +I can not deny that I was a good deal abashed by this declaration +spoken without coquetry, and with a sincerity of tone and manner that +seemed conclusive. +</P> + +<P> +I began stammering some reply, but she recurred abruptly to the serious +business that hung over us. +</P> + +<P> +"I know you will do what you can for Aunt Pat. I wish you would tell +her, if you think it wise, that father is here. They should understand +each other. And Helen, my splendid, courageous, beautiful cousin,—you +see I don't grudge her even her better looks, or that intrepid heart +that makes us so different. I am sure you can manage all these things +in the best possible way. And now I must find my father, and tell him +that you are going to arrange a meeting with Aunt Pat, and talk to him +of our future." +</P> + +<P> +She led the way up to the garden, and as I struck off into the road she +waved her hand to me, standing under the overhanging sign that +proclaimed Hartridge, the canoe-maker, at Red Gate. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HELEN TAKES ME TO TASK +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +My Lady's name, when I hear strangers use,<BR> +Not meaning her, to me sounds lax misuse;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">I love none but my Lady's name;</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Maude, Grace, Rose, Marian, all the same,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Are harsh, or blank and tame.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Fresh beauties, howsoe'er she moves, are stirr'd:<BR> +As the sunn'd bosom of a humming-bird<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">At each pant lifts some fiery hue,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Fierce gold, bewildering green or blue;</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">The same, yet ever new.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Thomas Woolner</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I paced the breezy terrace at Glenarm, studying my problems, and +stumbling into new perplexities at every turn. My judgment has usually +served me poorly in my own affairs, which I have generally confided to +Good Luck, that most amiable of goddesses; and I glanced out upon the +lake with some notion, perhaps, of seeing her fairy sail drifting +toward me. But there, to my vexation, hung the <I>Stiletto</I>, scarcely +moving in the indolent air of noon. There was, I felt again, something +sinister in the very whiteness of its pocket-handkerchief of canvas as +it stole lazily before the wind. Did Miss Pat, in the school beyond +the wall, see and understand, or was the yacht hanging there as a +menace or stimulus to Helen Holbrook, to keep her alert in her father's +behalf? +</P> + +<P> +"There are ladies to see you, sir," announced the maid, and I found +Helen and Sister Margaret waiting in the library. +</P> + +<P> +The Sister, as though by prearrangement, went to the farther end of the +room and took up a book. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish to see you alone," said Helen, "and I didn't want Aunt Pat to +know I came," and she glanced toward Sister Margaret, whose brown habit +and nun's bonnet had merged into the shadows of a remote alcove. +</P> + +<P> +The brim of Helen's white-plumed hat made a little dusk about her eyes. +Pink and white became her; she put aside her parasol and folded her +ungloved hands, and then, as she spoke, her head went almost +imperceptibly to one side, and I found myself bending forward as I +studied the differences between her and the girl on the Tippecanoe. +Helen's lips were fuller and ruddier, her eyes darker, her lashes +longer. But there was another difference, too subtle for my powers of +analysis; something less obvious than the length of lash or the color +of eyes; and I was not yet ready to give a name to it. Of one thing I +was sure: my pulses quickened before her; and her glance thrilled +through me as Rosalind's had not. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Donovan, I have come to appeal to you to put an end to this +miserable affair into which we have brought you. My own position has +grown too difficult, too equivocal to be borne any longer. You saw +from my father's conduct last night how hopeless it is to try to reason +with him. He has brooded upon his troubles until he is half mad. And +I learned from him what I had not dreamed of, that my Uncle Arthur is +here—here, of all places. I suppose you know that." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but it is a mere coincidence. It was a good hiding-place for +him, as well as for us." +</P> + +<P> +"It is very unfortunate for all of us that he should be here. I had +hoped he would bury himself where he would never be heard of again!" +she said, and anger burned for a moment in her face. "If he has any +shame left, I should think he would leave here at once!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's to be remembered, Miss Holbrook, that he came first; and I am +quite satisfied that your father sought him here before you and your +aunt came to Annandale. It seems to me the equity lies with your +uncle—the creek as a hiding-place belongs to him by right of +discovery." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled ready agreement to this, and I felt that she had come to win +support for some plan of her own. She had never been more amiable; +certainly she had never been lovelier. +</P> + +<P> +"You are quite right. We had all of us better go and leave him in +peace. What is it he does there—runs a ferry or manages a boat-house?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is a canoe-maker," I said dryly, "with more than a local +reputation." +</P> + +<P> +Her tone changed at once. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad; I'm very glad he has escaped from his old ways; for all our +sakes," she added, with a little sigh. "And poor Rosalind! You may +not know that he has a daughter. She is about a year younger than I. +She must have had a sad time of it. I was named for her mother and she +for mine. If you should meet her, Mr. Donovan, I wish you would tell +her how sorry I am not to be able to see her. But Aunt Pat must not +know that Uncle Arthur is here. I think she has tried to forget him, +and her troubles with my father have effaced everything else. I hope +you will manage that, for me; that Aunt Pat shall not know that Uncle +Arthur and Rosalind are here. It could only distress her. It would be +opening a book that she believes closed forever." +</P> + +<P> +Her solicitude for her aunt's peace of mind, spoken with eyes averted +and in a low tone, lacked nothing. +</P> + +<P> +"I have seen your cousin," I said. "I saw her, in fact, this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Rosalind? Then you can tell me whether—whether I am really so like +her as they used to think!" +</P> + +<P> +"You <I>are</I> rather like!" I replied lightly. "But I shall not attempt +to tell you how. It would not do—it would involve particulars that +might prove embarrassing. There are times when even I find discretion +better than frankness." +</P> + +<P> +"You wish to save my feelings," she laughed. "But I am really taller!" +</P> + +<P> +"By an inch—she told me that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then you have seen her more than once?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; more than twice even." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you must tell me wherein we are alike; I should really like to +know." +</P> + +<P> +"I have told you I can't; it's beyond my poor powers. I will tell you +this, though—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"That I think you both delightful." +</P> + +<P> +"I am disappointed in you. I thought you a man of courage, Mr. +Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"Even brave men falter at the cannon's mouth!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are undoubtedly an Irishman, Mr. Donovan. I am sorry we shan't +have any more tennis." +</P> + +<P> +"You have said so, Miss Holbrook, not I." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed, and then glanced toward the brown figure of Sister +Margaret, and was silent for a moment, while the old clock on the stair +boomed out the half-hour and was answered cheerily by the pretty tinkle +of the chapel chime. I counted four poppy-leaves that fluttered free +from a bowl on the book-shelf above her head and lazily fell to the +floor at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"I had hoped," she said, "that we were good friends, Mr. Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"I have believed that we were, Miss Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"You must see that this situation must terminate, that we are now at a +crisis. You can understand—I need not tell you—how fully my +sympathies lie with my father; it could not be otherwise." +</P> + +<P> +"That is only natural. I have nothing to say on that point." +</P> + +<P> +"And you can understand, too, that it has not been easy for me to be +dependent upon Aunt Pat. You don't know—I have no intention of +talking against her—but you can't blame me for thinking her hard—a +little hard on my father." +</P> + +<P> +I nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry, very sorry, that you should have these troubles, Miss +Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"I know you are," she replied eagerly, and her eyes brightened. "Your +sympathy has meant so much to Aunt Pat and me. And now, before worse +things happen—" +</P> + +<P> +"Worse things must not happen!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then we must put an end to it all, Mr. Donovan. There is only one +way. My father will never leave here until Aunt Pat has settled with +him. And it is his right to demand it," she hurried on. "I would have +you know that he is not as black as he has been painted. He has been +his own worst enemy; and Uncle Arthur's ill-doings must not be charged +to him. But he has been wrong, terribly wrong, in his conduct toward +Aunt Pat. I do not deny that, and he does not. But it is only a +matter of money, and Aunt Pat has plenty of it; and there can be no +question of honor between Uncle Arthur and father. It was Uncle +Arthur's act that caused all this trouble; father has told me the whole +story. Quite likely father would make no good use of his money—I will +grant that. But think of the strain of these years on all of us; think +of what it has meant to me, to have this cloud hanging over my life! +It is dreadful—beyond any words it is hideous; and I can't stand it +any longer, not another week—not another day! It must end now and +here." +</P> + +<P> +Her tear-filled eyes rested upon me pleadingly, and a sob caught her +throat as she tried to go on. +</P> + +<P> +"But—" I began. +</P> + +<P> +"Please—please!" she broke in, touching her handkerchief to her eyes +and smiling appealingly. "I am asking very little of you, after all." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is little enough; but it seems to me a futile interference. +If your father would go to her himself, if you would take him to +her—that strikes me as the better strategy of the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"Then am I to understand that you will not help; that you will not do +this for us—for me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry to have to say no, Miss Holbrook," I replied steadily. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I regret that I shall have to go further; I must appeal to you as +a personal matter purely. It is not easy; but if we are really very +good friends—" +</P> + +<P> +She glanced toward Sister Margaret, then rose and walked out upon the +terrace. +</P> + +<P> +"You will hate me—" she began, smiling wanly, the tears bright in her +eyes; and she knew that it was not easy to hate her. "I have taken +money from Mr. Gillespie, for my father, since I came here. It is a +large sum, and when my father left here he went away to spend it—to +waste it. It is all gone, and worse than gone. I must pay that +back—I must not be under obligations to Mr. Gillespie. It was wrong, +it was very wrong of me, but I was distracted, half crazed by my +father's threats of violence against Aunt Pat—against us all. I am +sure that you can see how I came to do it. And now you are my friend; +will you help me?" and she broke off, smiling, tearful, her back to the +balustrade, her hand at her side lightly touching it. +</P> + +<P> +She had confidence, I thought, in the power of tears, as she slipped +her handkerchief into her sleeve and waited for me to answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course Mr. Gillespie only loaned you the money to help you over a +difficulty; in some way that must be cared for. I like him; he is a +fellow of good impulses. I repeat that I believe this matter can be +arranged readily enough, by yourself and your father. My intrusion +would only make a worse muddle of your affairs. Send for your father +and let him go to your aunt in the right spirit; and I believe that an +hour's talk will settle everything." +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to have misunderstood my purpose in coming here, Mr. +Donovan," she answered coldly. "I asked your help, not your advice. I +have even thrown myself on your mercy, and you tell me to do what you +know is impossible." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing is so impossible as the present attitude of your father. +Until that is changed your aunt would be doing your father a great +injury by giving him this money." +</P> + +<P> +"And as for me—" and her eyes blazed—"as for me," she said, choking +with anger, "after I have opened this page of my life to you and you +have given me your fatherly advice—as for me, I will show you, and +Aunt Pat and all of them, that what can not be done one way may be done +in another. If I say the word and let the law take its course with my +uncle—that man who brought all these troubles upon us—you may have +the joy of knowing that it was your fault—your fault, Mr. Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +"I beg of you, do nothing! If you will not bring your father to Miss +Pat, please let me arrange the meeting." +</P> + +<P> +"He will not listen to you. He looks upon you as a meddler; and so do +I, Mr. Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +"But your uncle—you must not, you would not!" I cried, terror-struck +to see how fate drew her toward the pitfall from which I hoped to save +her. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't say 'must not' to me, if you please!" she flung back; but when +she reached the door she turned and said calmly, though her eyes still +blazed: +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it is not necessary for me to ask that you consider what I +have said to you confidential." +</P> + +<P> +"It is quite unnecessary," I said, not knowing whether I loved or +pitied her most; and my wits were busy trying to devise means of saving +her the heartache her ignorance held in store for her. +</P> + +<P> +She called to Sister Margaret in her brightest tone, and when I had +walked with them to St. Agatha's gate she bade me good-by with quite as +demure and Christian an air as the Sister herself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE TOUCH OF DISHONOR +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Give me a staff of honour for mine age.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Titus Andronicus</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I was meditating my course over a cheerless luncheon when Gillespie was +announced. He lounged into the dining-room, drew his chair to the +table and covered a biscuit with camembert with his usual inscrutable +air. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it is better," he said deliberatingly, "to be an ass than a +fool. Have you any views on the subject?" +</P> + +<P> +"None, my dear Buttons. I have been called both by shrewd men." +</P> + +<P> +"So have I, if the worst were known, and they offered proof! Ah, more +and more I see that we were born for each other, Donovan. I was once +so impressed with the notion that to be a fool was to be distinguished +that I conceived the idea of forming a Noble Order of Serene and +Incurable Fools. I elected myself The Grand and Most Worthy Master, +feeling safe from competition. News of the matter having gone forth, +many persons of the highest standing wrote to me, recommending their +friends for membership. My correspondence soon engaged three +type-writers, and I was obliged to get the post-office department to +help me break the chain. A few humble souls applied on their own hook +for consideration. These I elected and placed in the first class. You +would be surprised to know how many people who are chronic joiners +wrote in absent-mindedly for application blanks, fearing to be left out +of a good thing. United States senators were rather common on the +list, and there were three governors; a bishop wrote to propose a +brother bishop, of whose merits he spoke in the warmest terms. Many +newspapers declared that the society filled a long-felt want. I +received invitations to speak on the uses and benefits of the order +from many learned bodies. The thing began to bore me, and when my +official stationery was exhausted I issued a farewell address to my +troops and dissolved the society. But it's a great gratification to +me, my dear Donovan, that we quit with a waiting-list." +</P> + +<P> +"There are times, Buttons, when you cease to divert me. I'm likely to +be very busy for a few days. Just what can I do for you this +afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, old man, you're not angry?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; I'm rarely angry; but I'm often bored." +</P> + +<P> +"Then your brutal insinuation shall not go unrewarded. Let me proceed. +But first, how are your ribs?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sore and a trifle stiff, but I'm comfortable, thanks." +</P> + +<P> +"As I understand matters, Irishman, there is no real difference between +you and me except in the matter of a certain lady. Otherwise we might +combine our forces in the interest of these unhappy Holbrooks." +</P> + +<P> +"You are quite right. You came here to say something; go on and be +done with it." +</P> + +<P> +He deftly covered another biscuit with the cheese, of whose antiquity +he complained sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"I say, Donovan, between old soldier friends, what were you doing up +there on the creek last night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Studying the landscape effects by starlight. It's a habit of mine. +Your own presence there might need accounting for, if you don't mind." +</P> + +<P> +"I will be square about it. I met Helen quite accidentally as I left +this house, and she wanted to see her father. I took her over there, +and we found Henry. He was up to some mischief—you may know what it +was. Something had gone wrong with him, and he was in all kinds of a +bad humor. Unfortunately, you got the benefit of some of it." +</P> + +<P> +"I will supply you a link in the night's affairs. Henry had been to +see his brother Arthur." +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie's face fell, and I saw that he was greatly surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Helen didn't tell me that." +</P> + +<P> +"The reason Henry came here was to look for his brother. That's how he +reached this place ahead of Miss Pat and Helen. And I have learned +something—it makes no difference how, but it was not from the ladies +at St. Agatha's—I learned last night that the key of this whole +situation is in your own hands, Gillespie. Your father was swindled by +the Holbrooks; which Holbrook?" +</P> + +<P> +He was at once sane and serious, and replied soberly: +</P> + +<P> +"I never doubted that it was Arthur. If he wasn't guilty, why did he +run away? It was a queer business, and father never mentioned it. +Henry gave out the impression that my father had taken advantage of +Holbrook Brothers and forced their failure; but father shut up and +never told me anything." +</P> + +<P> +"But you have the notes—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but I'm not to open them, yet. I can't tell you about that now." +He grew red and played with his cravat. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are they?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I've just had them sent to me; they're in the bank at Annandale. +There's another thing you may not know. Old man Holbrook, who lived to +be older than the hills, left a provision in his will that adds to the +complications. Miss Pat may have mentioned that stuff in her father's +will about the honor of the brothers—?" +</P> + +<P> +"She just mentioned it. Please tell me what you know of it." +</P> + +<P> +He took out his pocket-book and read me this paragraph from a newspaper +cutting: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"And the said one million dollars hereinbefore specifically provided +for shall, after the lapse of ten years, be divided between my said +sons Henry and Arthur Holbrook, share and share alike; but if either of +my said sons shall have been touched by dishonor through his own act, +as honor is accounted, reckoned and valued among men, my said daughter +Patricia to be the sole judge thereof, then he shall forfeit his share +of said amount thus withheld, and the whole of said sum of one million +dollars shall be adjudged to belong to the other son." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Gillespie lighted a cigarette and smoked quietly for several minutes, +and when he spoke it was with deep feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"I love that girl, Donovan. I believe she cares for me, or would if +she could get out of all these entanglements. I'm almost ready to burn +that packet and tell Miss Pat she's got to settle with Henry and be +done with it. Let him spend his money and die in disgrace and go to +the devil; anything is better than all this secrecy and mystery that +enmeshes Helen. I'm going to end it; I'm going to end it!" +</P> + +<P> +We had gone to the library, and he threw himself down in the chair from +which she had spoken of him so short a time before that I seemed still +to feel her presence in the room. +</P> + +<P> +He was of that youthful, blond type which still sunburns after much +tanning. His short hair was brushed smooth on his well-formed head. +The checks and stripes and hideous color combinations in his raiment, +which Miss Pat had mentioned at our first interview, were, I imagined, +peculiar to his strange humor—a denotement of his willingness to +sacrifice himself to mystify or annoy others. He seemed younger to-day +than I had thought him before; he was a kind, generous, amusing boy, +whose physical strength seemed an anomaly in one so gentle. He did not +understand Helen; and as I reflected that I was not sure I understood +her myself, the heads of the dragon multiplied, and my task at +Annandale grew on my hands. But I wanted to help this boy if it was in +me to do it, and I clapped him on the shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Cheer up, lad! If we can't untie the knot we'll lose no time cutting +the string. There may be some fun in this business before we get +through with it." +</P> + +<P> +I began telling him of some of my own experiences, and won him to a +cheerier mood. When we came round to the Holbrooks again his +depression had passed, and we were on the best of terms. +</P> + +<P> +"But there's one thing we can't get away from, Donovan. I've got to +protect Helen; don't you see? I've got to take care of her, whatever +comes." +</P> + +<P> +"But you can't take care of her father. He's hopeless." +</P> + +<P> +"I could give him this money myself, couldn't I? I can do it, and I've +about concluded that I ought to do it." +</P> + +<P> +"But that would be a waste. It would be like giving whisky to a +drunkard. Money has been at the bottom of all this trouble." +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie threw up his hands with a gesture of helplessness. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall undoubtedly lose such wits as I have if we don't get somewhere +in this business pretty soon. But, Donovan, there's something I want +to ask you. I don't like to speak of it, but when we were coming away +from that infernal island, after our scrap with the dago, there were +two people walking on the bluff—a man and a woman, and the woman was +nearest us. She seemed to be purposely putting herself in the man's +way so we couldn't see him. It didn't seem possible that Helen could +be there—but?" +</P> + +<P> +He clearly wished to be assured, and I answered at once: +</P> + +<P> +"I saw them; it couldn't have been Helen. It was merely a similarity +of figure. I couldn't distinguish her face at all. Very likely they +were Port Annandale cottagers." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so myself," he replied, evidently relieved. It did not seem +necessary to tell him of Rosalind at Red Gate; that was my secret, and +I was not yet ready to share it. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to talk to somebody, and I want to tell you something, +Donovan. I can't deny that there are times when Helen doesn't +seem—well, all that I have thought her at other times. Sometimes she +seems selfish and hard, and all that. And I know she hasn't treated +Miss Pat right; it isn't square for her to take Miss Pat's bounty and +then work against her. But I make allowances, Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," I acquiesced, wishing to cheer him. "So do I. She has +been hard put in this business. And a man's love can't always be at +par—or a woman's either! The only thing a man ought to exact of the +woman he marries is that she put up a cheerful breakfast-table. +Nothing else counts very much. Start the day right, hand him his +gloves and a kind word at the front door as he sallies forth to the +day's battle, and constancy and devotion will be her reward. I have +spoken words of wisdom. Harken, O Chief Button-maker of the World!" +</P> + +<P> +The chiming of the bells beyond the Glenarm wall caused him to lift his +head defiantly. I knew what was in his mind. He was in love—or +thought he was, which has been said to be the same thing—and he wanted +to see the girl he loved; and I resolved to aid him in the matter. I +have done some mischief in my life, but real evil I have, I hope, never +done. It occurred to me now that I might do a little good. And for +justification I reasoned that I was already so deep in the affairs of +other people that a little further plunge could do no particular harm. +</P> + +<P> +"You think her rarely beautiful, don't you, Buttons?" +</P> + +<P> +"She is the most beautiful woman in the world!" he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"The type is not without charm. Every man has his ideal in the way of +a type. I will admit that her type is rare," I remarked with +condescension. +</P> + +<P> +"Rare!" he shouted. "Rare! You speak of her, Irishman, as though she +were a mummy or a gargoyle or—or—" +</P> + +<P> +"No; I should hardly say that. But there are always others." +</P> + +<P> +"There are no others—not another one to compare with her! You are +positively brutal when you speak of that girl. You should at least be +just to her; a blind man could feel her beauty even if he couldn't see!" +</P> + +<P> +"I repeat that it's the type! Propinquity, another pair of dark eyes, +the drooping lash, those slim fingers resting meditatively against a +similar oval olive cheek, and the mischief's done." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't understand you," he declared blankly, and then the color +flooded his face. "I believe you are in love with her yourself!" And +then, ironically: "Or maybe it's just the type you fancy. Any other +girl, with the same dark eyes, the drooping lash—" +</P> + +<P> +"You'd never be happy with Helen Holbrook if she married you, +Gillespie. What you need is a clinging vine. Helen isn't that." +</P> + +<P> +"That is your opinion, is it, Mr. Donovan? You want me to seek my +faith in the arboretum, do you? You mustn't think yourself the +permanent manager of all the Holbrooks and of me, too! I have never +understood just how you broke into this. And I can't see that you have +done much to help anybody, if you must know my opinion." +</P> + +<P> +"I have every intention of helping you, Buttons. I like you. You have +to me all the marks of a good fellow. My heart goes out to you in this +matter. I want to see you happily married to a woman who will +appreciate you. If you're not careful some girl will marry you for +your money." +</P> + +<P> +Good humor mastered him again, and he grinned his delightful boyish +grin. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't for the life of me imagine a girl's marrying me for anything +else," he said. "Can you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you what I'll do for you, my lad," I said. "I'll arrange +for you to see Helen to-night! You shall meet and talk and dance with +her at Port Annandale casino, in the most conventional way in the +world, with me for chaperon. By reason of being Mr. Glenarm's guest +here, I'm <I>ex officio</I> a member of the club. I'll manage everything. +Miss Pat shall know nothing—all on one condition only." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, name your price." +</P> + +<P> +"That you shall not mention family affairs to her at all." +</P> + +<P> +"God knows I shall be delighted to escape them!" His eyes brightened +and he clapped his hands together. "I owe her a pair of gloves on an +old wager. I have them in the village and will bring them over +to-night," he said; but deception was not an easy game for him. I +grinned and he colored. +</P> + +<P> +"It's not money, Donovan," he said, as hurt as a misjudged child. "I +won't lie to you. I was to meet her at St. Agatha's pier to-night to +give her the gloves." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall have your opportunity, but those meetings on piers won't do. +I will hand her over to you at the casino at nine o'clock. I suppose I +may have a dance or two?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose so," he said, so grudgingly that I laughed aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"Remember the compact; try to have a good time and don't talk of +trouble," I enjoined, as we parted. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A BLUE CLOAK AND A SCARLET +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +When first we met we did not guess<BR> +That Love would prove so hard a master;<BR> +Of more than common friendliness<BR> +When first we met we did not guess—<BR> +Who could foretell this sore distress—<BR> +This irretrievable disaster<BR> +When first we met? We did not guess<BR> +That Love would prove so hard a master.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—Robert Bridges.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Miss Pat asked me to dine at St. Agatha's that night. The message came +unexpectedly—a line on one of those quaint visiting-cards of hers, +brought by the gardener; and when I had penned my acceptance I at once +sent the following message by Ijima to the boat-maker's house at Red +Gate: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +To Rosalind at Red Gate: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +It is important for you to appear with me at the Port Annandale casino +to-night, and to meet Reginald Gillespie there. He is pledged to refer +in no way to family affairs. It he should attempt to, you need only +remind him of his promise. He will imagine that you are some one else, +so please be careful not to tax his imagination too far. There is much +at stake which I will explain later. You are to refuse nothing that he +may offer you. I shall come into the creek with the launch and call +for you at Red Gate. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +THE IRISHMAN AT GLENARM. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +The casino dances are very informal. A plain white gown and a few +ribbons. But don't omit your emerald. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I was not sure where this project would lead me, but I committed myself +to it with a fair conscience. I reached St. Agatha's just as dinner +was announced and we went out at once to the small dining-room used by +the Sister in charge during vacation, where I faced Miss Pat, with +Helen on one hand and Sister Margaret on the other. They were all in +good humor, even Sister Margaret proving less austere than usual, and +it is not too much to say that we were a merry party. Helen led me +with a particular intention to talk of Irish affairs, and avowed her +own unbelief in the capacity of the Irish for self-government. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Helen!" admonished Miss Pat, as our debate waxed warm. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, do not spare me! I could not be shot to pieces in a better cause!" +</P> + +<P> +"The trouble with you people," declared Helen with finality, "is that +you have no staying qualities. The smashing of a few heads +occasionally satisfies your islanders, then down go the necks beneath +the yoke. You are incapable of prolonged war. Now even the Cubans did +better; you must admit that, Mr. Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +She met my eyes with a challenge. There was no question as to the +animus of the discussion: she wished me to understand that there was +war between us, and that with no great faith in my wit or powers of +endurance she was setting herself confidently to the business of +defeating my purposes. And I must confess that I liked it in her! +</P> + +<P> +"If we had you for an advocate our flag would undoubtedly rule the +seas, Miss Holbrook!" +</P> + +<P> +"I dip my colors," she replied, "only to the long-enduring, not to the +valiant alone!" +</P> + +<P> +"A lady of high renown," I mused aloud, while Miss Pat poured the +coffee, "a lady of your own name, was once more or less responsible for +a little affair that lasted ten years about the walls of a six-gated +city." +</P> + +<P> +"I wasn't named for <I>her</I>! No sugar to-night, please, Aunt Pat!" +</P> + +<P> +I stood with her presently by an open window of the parlor, looking out +upon the night. Sister Margaret had vanished about her household +duties; Miss Pat had taken up a book with the rather obvious intention +of leaving us to ourselves. I expected to start at eight for my +rendezvous at Red Gate, and my ear was alert to the chiming of the +chapel clock. The gardener had begun his evening rounds, and paused in +the walk beneath us. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think," asked Helen, "that the guard is rather ridiculous?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but it pleases my medieval instincts to imagine that you need +defenders. In the absence of a moat the gardener combines in himself +all the apparatus of defense. Ijima is his Asiatic ally." +</P> + +<P> +"And you, I suppose, are the grand strategist and field marshal." +</P> + +<P> +"At least that!" +</P> + +<P> +"After this morning I never expected to ask a favor of you; but if, in +my humblest tone—" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. Anything within reason." +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to take me to the casino to-night to the dance. I'm tired +of being cooped up here. I want to hear music and see new faces." +</P> + +<P> +"Do pardon me for not having thought of it before! They dance over +there every Wednesday and Saturday night. I'm sorry that to-night I +have an engagement, but won't you allow me on Saturday?" +</P> + +<P> +She was resting her arms on the high sill, gazing out upon the lake. I +stood near, watching her, and as she sighed deeply my heart ached for +her; but in a moment she turned her head swiftly with mischief laughing +in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You have really refused! You have positively declined! You plead +another engagement! This is a place where one's engagements are +burdensome." +</P> + +<P> +"This one happens to be important." +</P> + +<P> +She turned round with her back to the window. +</P> + +<P> +"We are eternal foes; we are fighting it out to a finish; and it is +better that way. But, Mr. Donovan, I haven't played all my cards yet." +</P> + +<P> +"I look upon you as a resourceful person and I shall be prepared for +the worst. Shall we say Saturday night for the dance?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" she exclaimed, tossing her head. "And let me have the +satisfaction of telling you that I could not have gone with you +to-night anyhow. Good-by." +</P> + +<P> +I found Ijima ready with the launch at Glenarm pier, and, after a swift +flight to the Tippecanoe, knocked at the door of Red Gate. Arthur +Holbrook admitted me, and led the way to the room where, as his +captive, I had first talked with him. +</P> + +<P> +"We have met before," he said, smiling. "I thought you were an enemy +at that time. Now I believe I may count you a friend." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I should like to prove myself your friend, Mr. Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," he said simply; and we shook hands. "You have taken an +interest in my affairs, so my daughter tells me. She is very dear to +me—she is all I have left; you can understand that I wish to avoid +involving her in these family difficulties." +</P> + +<P> +"I would cut off my right hand before I would risk injuring you or her, +Mr. Holbrook," I replied earnestly. "You have a right to know why I +wish her to visit the casino with me to-night. I know what she does +not know, what only two other people know; I know why you are here." +</P> + +<P> +"I am very sorry; I regret it very much," he said without surprise but +with deep feeling. The jauntiness with which he carried off our first +interview was gone; he seemed older, and there was no mistaking the +trouble and anxiety in his eyes. He would have said more, but I +interrupted him. +</P> + +<P> +"As far as I am concerned no one else shall ever know. The persons who +know the truth about you are your brother and yourself. Strangely +enough, Reginald Gillespie does not know. Your sister has not the +slightest idea of it. Your daughter, I assume, has no notion of it—" +</P> + +<P> +"No! no!" he exclaimed eagerly. "She has not known; she has believed +what I have told her; and now she must never know how stupid, how mad, +I have been." +</P> + +<P> +"To-night," I said, "your daughter and I will gain possession of the +forged notes. Gillespie will give them to her; and I should like to +hold them for a day or two." +</P> + +<P> +He was pacing the floor and at this wheeled upon me with doubt and +suspicion clearly written on his face. +</P> + +<P> +"But I don't see how you can manage it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Gillespie is infatuated with your niece." +</P> + +<P> +"With Helen, who is with my sister at St. Agatha's." +</P> + +<P> +"I have promised Gillespie that he shall see her to-night at the casino +dance. Your sister is very bitter against him and he is mortally +afraid of her." +</P> + +<P> +"His father really acted very decently, when you know the truth. But I +don't see how this is to be managed. I should like to possess myself +of those papers, but not at too great a cost. More for Rosalind's sake +than my own now, I should have them." +</P> + +<P> +"You may not know that your daughter and her cousin are as like as two +human beings can be. I am rather put to it myself to tell them apart." +</P> + +<P> +"Their mothers were much alike, but they were distinguishable. If you +are proposing a substitution of Rosalind for Helen, I should say to +have a care of it. You may deceive a casual acquaintance, but hardly a +lover." +</P> + +<P> +"I have carried through worse adventures. Those documents must not get +into—into—unfriendly hands! I have pledged myself that Miss Patricia +shall be kept free from further trouble, and much trouble lies in those +forged notes if your brother gets them. But I hope to do a little more +than protect your sister; I want to get you all out of your +difficulties. There is no reason for your remaining in exile. You owe +it to your daughter to go back to civilization. And your sister needs +you. You saved your brother once; you will pardon me for saying that +you owe him no further mercy." +</P> + +<P> +He thrust his hands into his pockets and paced the floor a moment, +before he said: +</P> + +<P> +"You are quite right. But I am sure you will be very careful of my +little girl; she is all I have—quite all I have." +</P> + +<P> +He went to the hall and called her and bowed with a graceful, +old-fashioned courtesy that reminded me of Miss Pat as Rosalind came +into the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Will I do, gentlemen all?" she asked gaily. "Do I look the fraud I +feel?" +</P> + +<P> +She threw off a long scarlet cloak that fell to her heels and stood +before us in white—it was as though she had stepped out of flame. She +turned slowly round, with head bent, submitting herself for our +inspection. +</P> + +<P> +Her gown was perfectly simple, high at the throat and with sleeves that +clasped her wrists. To my masculine eyes it was of the same piece and +pattern as the gown in which I had left Helen at St. Agatha's an hour +before. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I read doubt in your mind," she laughed. "You must not tell +me now that you have backed out; I shall try it myself, if you are +weakening. I am anxious for the curtain to rise." +</P> + +<P> +"There is only one thing: I suggest that you omit that locket. I dined +with her to-night, so my memory is fresh." +</P> + +<P> +She unclasped the tiny locket that hung from a slight band of velvet at +her throat, and threw it aside; and her father, who was not, I saw, +wholly reconciled to my undertaking, held the cloak for her and led the +way with a lantern through the garden and down to the waterside and +along the creek to the launch where Ijima was in readiness. We quickly +embarked, and the launch stole away through the narrow shores, Holbrook +swinging his lantern back and forth in good-by. I had lingered longer +at the boat-maker's than I intended, and as we neared the upper lake +and the creek broadened Ijima sent the launch forward at full speed. +When we approached Battle Orchard I bade him stop, and hiding our +lantern I took an oar and guided the launch quietly by. Then we went +on into the upper lake at a lively clip. Rosalind sat quietly in the +bow, the hood of her cloak gathered about her head. +</P> + +<P> +I was taking steering directions from Ijima, but as we neared Port +Annandale I glanced over my shoulder to mark the casino pier lights +when Rosalind sang out: +</P> + +<P> +"Hard aport—hard!" +</P> + +<P> +I obeyed, and we passed within oar's length of a sailboat, which, +showing no light, but with mainsail set, was loafing leisurely before +the light west wind. As we veered away I saw a man's figure at the +wheel; another figure showed darkly against the cuddy. +</P> + +<P> +"Hang out your lights!" I shouted angrily. But there was no reply. +</P> + +<P> +"The <I>Stiletto</I>," muttered Ijima, starting the engine again. +</P> + +<P> +"We must look out for her going back," I said, as we watched the sloop +merge into shadow. +</P> + +<P> +The lights of the casino blazed cheerily as we drew up to the pier, and +Rosalind stepped out in good spirits, catching up and humming the waltz +that rang down upon us from the club-house. +</P> + +<P> +"Lady," I said, "let us see what lands we shall discover." +</P> + +<P> +"I ought to feel terribly wicked, but I really never felt cheerfuller +in my life," she averred. "But I have one embarrassment!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?"—and we paused, while she dropped the hood upon her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"What shall I call this gentleman?" +</P> + +<P> +"What does <I>she</I> call him? I'm blest if I know! I call him Buttons +usually; Knight of the Rueful Countenance might serve; but very likely +she calls him Reggie." +</P> + +<P> +"I will try them all," she said. "I think we used to call him Reggie +on Strawberry Hill. Very likely he will detect the fraud at once and I +shan't get very far with him." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall get as far as you please. Leave it to me. He shall see you +first on the veranda overlooking the water where there are shadows in +plenty, and you had better keep your cloak about you until the first +shock of meeting has passed. Then if he wants you to dance, I will +hold the cloak, like a faithful chaperon, and you may muffle yourself +in it the instant you come out; so even if he has his suspicions he +will have no time to indulge them. He is undoubtedly patrolling the +veranda, looking for us even now. He's a faithful knight!" +</P> + +<P> +As we passed the open door the dance ceased and a throng of young +people came gaily out to take the air. We joined the procession, and +were accepted without remark. Several men whom I had seen in the +village or met in the highway nodded amiably. Gillespie, I knew, was +waiting somewhere; and I gave Rosalind final admonitions. +</P> + +<P> +"Now be cheerful! Be cordial! In case of doubt grow moody, and look +out upon the water, as though seeking an answer in the stars. Though I +seem to disappear I shall be hanging about with an eye for +danger-signals. Ah! He approaches! He comes!" +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie advanced eagerly, with happiness alight in his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Helen!" he cried, taking her hand; and to me: "You are not so great a +liar after all, Irishman." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mr. Donovan is the kindest person imaginable," she replied and +turned her head daringly so that the light from a window fell full upon +her, and he gazed at her with frank, boyish admiration. Then she drew +her wrap about her shoulders and sat down on a bench with her face in +shadow, and as I walked away her laughter followed me cheerily. +</P> + +<P> +I was promptly seized by a young man, who feigned to have met me in +some former incarnation, and introduced to a girl from Detroit whose +name I shall never know in this world. I remember that she danced +well, and that she asked me whether I knew people in Duluth, Pond du +Lac, Paducah and a number of other towns which she recited like a +geographical index. She formed, I think, a high opinion of my sense of +humor, for I laughed at everything she said in my general joy of the +situation. After our third dance I got her an ice and found another +cavalier for her. I did not feel at all as contrite as I should have +felt as I strolled round the veranda toward Rosalind and Gillespie. +They were talking in low tones and did not heed me until I spoke to +them. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's you, is it?"—and Gillespie looked up at me resentfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been gone two years! It seems to me I am doing pretty well, +all things considered! What have you been talking about?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"'—'Bout Giunts, an' Griffuns, an' Elves,<BR> +An' the Squidgicum-Squees 'at swallers therselves!'"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Rosalind quoted. "I hope you have been enjoying yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"After a dull fashion, yes." +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to tell her that! We saw you through the window. She +struck us as very pretty, didn't she, Reggie?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't notice her," Gillespie replied with so little interest that +we both laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"It's too bad," remarked Rosalind, "that Aunt Pat couldn't have come +with us. It would have been a relief for her to get away from that +dreary school-house." +</P> + +<P> +"I might go and fetch her," I suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"If you do," said Gillespie, grinning, "you will not find us here when +you get back." +</P> + +<P> +Rosalind sighed, as though at the remembrance of her aunt's forlorn +exile; then the music broke out in a two-step. +</P> + +<P> +"Come! We must have this dance!" she exclaimed, and Gillespie rose +obediently. I followed, exchanging chaff with Rosalind until we came +to the door, where she threw off her cloak for the first time. +</P> + +<P> +"Lord and Protector, will you do me the honor?" +</P> + +<P> +It all happened in a moment. I tossed the cloak across my arm +carelessly and she turned to Gillespie without looking at me. He +hesitated—some word faltered on his lips. I think it must have been +the quick transition of her appearance effected by the change from the +rich color of the cloak to the white of her dress that startled him. +She realized the danger of the moment, and put her arm on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"We mustn't miss a note of it! Good-by,"—and with a nod to me I next +saw her far away amid the throng of dancers. +</P> + +<P> +As I caught up the cloak under my arm something crackled under my +fingers, and hurrying to a dark corner of the veranda I found the +pocket and drew forth an envelope. My conscience, I confess, was +agreeably quiescent. You may, if you wish, pronounce my conduct at +several points of this narrative wholly indefensible; but I was engaged +in a sincere effort to straighten out the Holbrook tangle, and Helen +had openly challenged me. If I could carry this deception through +successfully I believed that within a few hours I might bring Henry +Holbrook to terms. As for Gillespie he was far safer with Rosalind +than with Helen. I thrust the envelope into my breast pocket and +settled myself by the veranda rail, where I could look out upon the +lake, and at the same time keep an eye on the ball-room. And, to be +frank about it, I felt rather pleased with myself! It would do Helen +no great harm to wait for Gillespie on St. Agatha's pier: the +discipline of disappointment would be good for her. Vigorous +hand-clapping demanded a repetition of the popular two-step of the +hour, and I saw Rosalind and Gillespie swing into the dance as the +music struck up again. +</P> + +<P> +Somewhere beneath I heard the rumble and bang of a bowling-alley above +the music. Then my eyes, roaming the lake, fell upon the casino pier +below. Some one was coming toward me—a girl wrapped in a long cloak +who had apparently just landed from a boat. She moved swiftly toward +the casino. I saw her and lost her again as she passed in and out of +the light of the pier lamps. A dozen times the shadows caught her +away; a dozen times the pier lights flashed upon her; and at last I was +aware that it was Helen Holbrook, walking swiftly, as though upon an +urgent errand. I ran down the steps and met her luckily on a deserted +stretch of board walk. I was prepared for an angry outburst, but +hardly for the sword-like glitter of her first words. +</P> + +<P> +"This is infamous! It is outrageous! I did not believe that even you +would be guilty of this!" +</P> + +<P> +The two-step was swinging on to its conclusion, and I knew that the +casino entrance was not the place for a scene with an angry girl. +</P> + +<P> +"I am anything you like; but please come to a place where we can talk +quietly." +</P> + +<P> +"I will not! I will not be tricked by you again." +</P> + +<P> +"You will come along with me, at once and quietly," I said; and to my +surprise she walked up the steps beside me. As we passed the ball-room +door the music climbed to its climax and ended. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, let us go to the farther end of the veranda." +</P> + +<P> +When we had reached a quiet corner she broke out upon me again. +</P> + +<P> +"If you have done what I think you have done, what I might have known +you would do, I shall punish you terribly—you and her!" +</P> + +<P> +"You may punish me all you like, but you shall not punish her!" I said +with her own emphasis. +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald promised me some papers to-night—my father had asked me to +get them for him. She does not know, this cousin of mine, what they +are, what her father is! It is left for you to bring the shame upon +her." +</P> + +<P> +"It had better be I than you, in your present frame of mind!"—and the +pity welled in my heart. I must save her from the heartache that lay +in the truth. If I failed in this I should fail indeed. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you want her to know that her father is a forger—a felon? That is +what you are telling her, if you trick Reginald into giving her those +papers he was to give me for my father!" +</P> + +<P> +"She hasn't those papers. I have them. They are in my pocket, quite +safe from all of you. You are altogether too vindictive, you +Holbrooks! I have no intention of trusting you with such high +explosives." +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald shall take them away from you. He is not a child to be +played with—duped in this fashion." +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald is a good fellow. He will always love me for this—" +</P> + +<P> +"For cheating him? Don't you suppose he will resent it? Don't you +think he knows me from every other girl in the world?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I do not. In fact I have proved that he doesn't. You see, Miss +Holbrook, he gave her the documents in the case without a question." +</P> + +<P> +"And she dutifully passed them on to you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing of the kind, my dear Miss Holbrook! I took them out of her +cloak pocket." +</P> + +<P> +"That is quite in keeping!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not done yet! Pardon me, but I want you to exchange cloaks with +me. You shall have Reginald in a moment, and we will make sure that he +is deceived by letting him take you home. You are as like as two +peas—in everything except temper, humor and such trifles; but your +cloaks are quite different. Please!" +</P> + +<P> +"I will not!" +</P> + +<P> +"Please!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are despicable, despicable!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am really the best friend you have in the world. Again, will you +kindly exchange cloaks with me? Yours is blue, isn't it? I think +Reginald knows blue from red. Ah, thank you! Now, I want you to +promise to say nothing as he takes you home about papers, your father, +your uncle or your aunt. You will talk to him of times when you were +children at Stamford, and things like that, in a dreamy reminiscential +key. If he speaks of things that you don't exactly understand, refers +to what he has said to your cousin here to-night, you need only fend +him off; tell him the incident is closed. When I bring him to you in +ten minutes it will be with the understanding that he is to take you +back to St. Agatha's at once. He has his launch at the casino pier; +you needn't say anything to him when you land, only that you must get +home quietly, so Miss Pat shan't know you have been out. Your exits +and your entrances are your own affair. Now I hope you see the wisdom +of obeying me, absolutely." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know that I could hate you so much!" she said quietly. "But +I shall not forget this. I shall let you see before I am a day older +that you are not quite the master you think you are: suppose I tell him +how you have played with him." +</P> + +<P> +"Then before you are three hours older I shall precipitate a crisis +that you will not like, Miss Holbrook. I advise you, as your best +friend, to do what I ask." +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged her shoulders, drew the scarlet cloak more closely about +her, and I left her gazing off into the strip of wood that lay close +upon the inland side of the club-house. I was by no means sure of her, +but there was no time for further parley. I dropped the blue cloak on +a chair in a corner and hurried round to the door of the ball-room, +meeting Rosalind and Gillespie coming out flushed with their dance. +</P> + +<P> +"The hour of enchantment is almost past. I must have one turn before +the princess goes back to her castle!"—and Rosalind took my arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Meet me at the landing in two minutes, Gillespie! As a special +favor—as a particular kindness—I shall allow you to take the princess +home!" And I hurried Rosalind away, regained the blue cloak, and flung +it about her. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she said, drawing the hood over her head, "who am I, anyhow!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't ask me such questions! I'm afraid to say." +</P> + +<P> +"I like your air of business. You are undoubtedly a man of action!" +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you for the word. I'm breathing hard. I have seen ghosts and +communed with dragons. She's here! your <I>alter ego</I> is on this very +veranda more angry than it is well for a woman to be." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she faltered, "she found out and followed?" +</P> + +<P> +"She did; she undoubtedly did!" +</P> + +<P> +As we paused under one of the veranda lamps she looked down at the +cloak and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"So this is hers! I thought it didn't feel quite right. But that pair +of gloves!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's in my pocket. I have stolen it!" I led the way to the lower +veranda of the casino, which was now de-a sorted. "Stay right here and +appear deeply interested in the heavens above and the waters under the +earth until I get back." +</P> + +<P> +I ran up the stairs again and found Helen where I had left her. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," I said, giving her my arm, "you will not forget the rules of +the game! Your fortunes, and your father's are brighter to-night than +they have ever been. You hate me to the point of desperation, but +remember I am your friend after all." +</P> + +<P> +She stopped abruptly, hesitating. I felt indecision in the lessening +touch upon my arm, and I saw it in her eyes as the light from the +ball-room door flooded us. +</P> + +<P> +"You have taken everything away from me! You are playing Reginald +against me." +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly—who knows! I supposed you had more faith in your powers +than that!" +</P> + +<P> +"I have no faith in anything," she said dejectedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, you have! You have an immense amount of faith in yourself. +And you know you care nothing at all about Reginald Gillespie; he's a +nice boy, but that's all." +</P> + +<P> +"You are contemptible and wicked!" she flared. "Let us go." +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie's launch was ready when we reached the pier, and after he had +handed her into it he plucked my sleeve, and held me for an instant. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you see how wrong you are! She is superb! She is not only the +most beautiful girl in the world, but the dearest, the sweetest, the +kindest and best. You have served me better than you know, old man, +and I'm grateful!" +</P> + +<P> +In a moment they were well under way and I ran back to the club-house +and found Rosalind where I had left her. +</P> + +<P> +"We must go at once," she said. "Father will be very anxious to know +how it all came out." +</P> + +<P> +"But what did you think of Buttons?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's very nice," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that all? It doesn't seem conclusive, some way!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he's very kind and gentle, and anxious to please. But I felt like +a criminal all the time." +</P> + +<P> +"You seemed to be a very cheerful criminal. I suppose it was only the +excitement that kept you going." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course that was it! I was wondering what to call it. I'm afraid +the Sisters at the convent would have a less pleasant word for it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you are not in school now; and I think we have done a good +night's work for everybody concerned. But tell me, did he make love +acceptably?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that was what he was doing, sir," she replied demurely, +averting her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose?" I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; you see, it was my first experience. And he is really very nice, +and so honest and kind and gentle that I felt sorry for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! You were sorry for him! Then it's all over, I'm clear out of it. +When a woman is sorry for a man—tchk! But tell me, how did his +advances compare with mine on those occasions when we met over there by +St. Agatha's? I did my best to be entertaining." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he is much more earnest than you ever could be. I never had any +illusions about you, Mr. Donovan. You just amuse yourself with the +nearest girl, and, besides, for a long time you thought I was Helen. +Mr. Gillespie is terribly in earnest. When he was talking to me back +there in the corner I didn't remember at all that it was he who drove a +goat-team in Central Park to rebuke the policeman!" +</P> + +<P> +"No; I suppose with the stage properly set,—with the music and the +stars and the water,—one might forget Mr. Gillespie's mild +idiosyncrasies." +</P> + +<P> +"But you haven't told me about Helen. Of course she saw through the +trick at once." +</P> + +<P> +"She did," I answered, in a tone that caused Rosalind to laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you wouldn't hurt poor little me if she scolded you!" +</P> + +<P> +We were on the pier, and I whistled to Ijima to bring up the launch. +In a moment we were skimming over the lake toward the Tippecanoe. +</P> + +<P> +Arthur Holbrook was waiting for us in the creek. +</P> + +<P> +"It is all right," I said. "I shall keep the papers for the present, +if you don't mind, but your troubles are nearly over." And I left +Rosalind laughingly explaining to her father how it came about that she +had gone to the casino in a scarlet cloak but had returned in a blue +one. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MR. GILLESPIE'S DIVERSIONS +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Patience or Prudence,—what you will,<BR> +Some prefix faintly fragrant still<BR> +As those old musky scents that fill<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Our grandmas' pillows;</SPAN><BR> +And for her youthful portrait take<BR> +Some long-waist child of Hudson's make,<BR> +Stiffly at ease beside a lake<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">With swans and willows.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Austin Dobson</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In my own room I drew the blinds for greater security, lighted the +desk-lamp and sat down before the packet Gillespie had given Rosalind. +It was a brown commercial envelope, thrice sealed, and addressed, "R. +Gillespie: Personal." In a corner was written "Holbrook Papers." I +turned the packet over and over in my hands, reflecting upon my +responsibility and duty in regard to it. Henry Holbrook, in his +anxiety to secure the notes, had taken advantage of Gillespie's +infatuation for Helen to make her his agent for procuring them, and now +it was for me to use the forged notes as a means of restoring Arthur +Holbrook to his sister's confidence. The way seemed clear enough, and +I went to bed resolving that in the morning I should go to Henry +Holbrook, tell him that I had the evidence of his guilt in my +possession and threaten him with exposure if he did not cease his mad +efforts to blackmail his sister. +</P> + +<P> +I rose early and perfected my plans for the day as I breakfasted. A +storm had passed round us in the night and it was bright and cool, with +a sharp wind beating the lake into tiny whitecaps. It was not yet +eight o'clock when I left the house for my journey in search of Henry +Holbrook. The envelope containing the forged notes was safely locked +in the vault in which the Glenarm silver was stored. As I stepped down +into the park I caught sight of Miss Pat walking in the garden beyond +the wall, and as I lifted my cap she came toward the iron gate. She +was rarely abroad so early and I imagined that she had been waiting for +me. +</P> + +<P> +The chill of the air was unseasonable, and in her long coat her slight +figure seemed smaller than ever. She smiled her grave smile, but there +was, I thought, an unusual twinkle in her gentle eyes. She wore for +the first time a lace cap that gave a new delicacy to her face. +</P> + +<P> +"You are abroad early, my lord," she said, with the delicious quaint +mockery with which she sometimes flattered me. And she repeated the +lines: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Hast thou seen ghosts? Hast thou at midnight heard<BR> +In the wind's talking an articulate word?<BR> +Or art thou in the secret of the sea,<BR> +And have the twilight woods confessed to thee?"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"No such pleasant things have happened to me, Miss Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"This is my birthday. I have crowned myself—observe the cap!" +</P> + +<P> +"We must celebrate! I crave the privilege of dining you to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"You were starting for somewhere with an air of determination. Don't +let me interfere with your plans." +</P> + +<P> +"I was going to the boat-house," I answered truthfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me come along. I am turned sixty-five, and I think I am entitled +to do as I please; don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do, indeed, but that is no reason. You are no more sixty-five than +I am. The cap, if you will pardon me, only proclaims your immunity +from the blasts of Time." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I had known you at twenty," she said brightly, as we went on +together. +</P> + +<P> +"My subjection could not have been more complete." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you make speeches like that to Helen?" +</P> + +<P> +"If I do it is with less inspiration!" +</P> + +<P> +"You must stop chaffing me. I am not sixty-five for nothing and I +don't think you are naturally disrespectful." +</P> + +<P> +When we reached the boat-house she took a chair on the little veranda +and smiled as though something greatly amused her. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Donovan—I am sixty-five, as I have said before—may I call you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Larry! and gladden me forever!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then, Larry, what a lot of frauds we all are!" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose we are," I admitted doubtfully, not sure where the joke lay. +</P> + +<P> +"You have been trying to be very kind to me, haven't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have accomplished nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"You have tried to make my way easy here; and you have had no end of +trouble. I am not as dull as I look, Larry." +</P> + +<P> +"If I have deceived you it has been with an honest purpose." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't question that. But Helen has been giving you a great deal of +trouble, hasn't she? You don't quite make her out; isn't that true?" +</P> + +<P> +"I understand her perfectly," I averred recklessly. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a daring young man, Larry, to make that statement of any +woman. Helen has not always dealt honestly with you—or me!" +</P> + +<P> +"She is the noblest girl in the world; she is splendid beyond any words +of mine. I don't understand what you mean, Miss Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"Larry, you dear boy, I am no more blind or deaf than I am dumb! Helen +has been seeing her father and Reginald Gillespie. She has run off at +night, thinking I wouldn't know it. She is an extremely clever young +woman, but when she has made a feint of retiring early, only to creep +out and drop down from the dining-room balcony and dodge your guards, I +have known it. She was away last night and came creeping in like a +thief. It has amused me, Larry; it has furnished me real diversion. +The only thing that puzzles me is that I don't quite see where you +stand." +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't always been sure myself, to be frank about it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not tell me just how it is: whether Helen has been amusing herself +with you, or you with Helen." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" I laughed. "When you came here you told me she was the finest +girl in the world, and I accepted your word for it. I have every +confidence in your judgment, and you have known your niece for a long +time." +</P> + +<P> +"I have indeed." +</P> + +<P> +"And I'm sure you wouldn't have deceived me!" +</P> + +<P> +"But I did! I wanted to interest you in her. Something in your eye +told me that you might do great things for her." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you!" +</P> + +<P> +"But instead of that you have played into her hands. Why did you let +her steal out at night to meet her father, when you knew that could +only do her and me a grave injury? And you have aided her in seeing +Gillespie, when I particularly warned you that he was most repugnant to +me." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed in spite of myself as I remembered the night's adventure; and +Miss Pat stopped short in the path and faced me with the least glint of +anger in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I really didn't think you capable of it! She will marry him for his +money!" +</P> + +<P> +"Take my word for it, she will do nothing of the kind." +</P> + +<P> +"You are under her spell, and you don't know her! I +think—sometimes—I think the girl has no soul!" she said at last. +</P> + +<P> +The dear voice faltered, and the tears flashed into Miss Pat's eyes as +she confronted, me in the woodland path. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! It's not so bad as that!" I pleaded. +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you she has no soul! You will find it out to your cost. She +is made for nothing but mischief in this world!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am your humble servant, Miss Holbrook." +</P> + +<P> +"Then," she began doubtfully, and meeting my eyes with careful +scrutiny, "I am going to ask you to do one thing more for me, that we +may settle all this disagreeable affair. I am going to pay Henry his +money; but before I do so I must find my brother Arthur, if he is still +alive. That may have some difficulties." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at me as though for approval; then went on. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been thinking of all these matters carefully since I came here. +Henry has forfeited his right to further inheritance by his +contemptible, cowardly treatment of me; but I am willing to forgive all +that he has done. He was greatly provoked; it would not be fair for me +to hold those things against him. As between him and Arthur; as +between him and Arthur—" +</P> + +<P> +Her gaze lay across the twinkling lake, and her voice was tremulous. +She spoke softly as though to herself, and I caught phrases of the +paragraph of her father's will that Gillespie had read to me: +"<I>Dishonor as it is known, accounted and reckoned among men</I>;"—and she +bowed her head on the veranda rail a moment; then she rose suddenly and +smiled bravely through her tears. +</P> + +<P> +"Why can't you find Arthur for me? Ah, it you could only find him +there might be peace between us all; for I am very old, Larry. Age +without peace is like life without hope. I can not believe that Arthur +is dead. I must see him again. Larry, if he is alive find him and +tell him to come to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I said; "I know where he is!" +</P> + +<P> +She started in amazement and coming close, her hands closed upon my arm +eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"It can't be possible! You know where he is and you will bring him to +me?" +</P> + +<P> +She was pitifully eager and the tears were bright in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Be assured of it. Miss Holbrook. He is near by and well; but you +must not trouble about him or about anything. And now I am going to +take you home. Come! There is much to do, and I must be off. But you +will keep a good heart; you are near the end of your difficulties." +</P> + +<P> +She was quite herself again when we reached St. Agatha's, but at the +door she detained me a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"I like you, Larry!" she said, taking my hand; and my own mother had +not given me sweeter benediction. "I never intended that Helen should +play with you. She may serve me as she likes, but I don't want her to +singe your wings, Larry." +</P> + +<P> +"I have been shot at in three languages, and half drowned in others, +and rewards have been offered for me. Do you think I'm going down +before a mere matter of <I>beaux yeux</I>! Think better of me than that!" +</P> + +<P> +"But she is treacherous; she will deliver you to the Philistines +without losing a heart-beat." +</P> + +<P> +"She could, Miss Patricia, but she won't!" +</P> + +<P> +"She has every intention of marrying Gillespie; he's the richest man +she knows!" +</P> + +<P> +"I swear to you that she shall not marry Gillespie!" +</P> + +<P> +"She would do it to annoy me if for nothing else." +</P> + +<P> +I took both her hands—they were like rose-leaves, those dear slightly +tremulous hands! +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Miss Pat—I'm going to call you Miss Pat because we're such old +friends, and we're just contemporaries, anyhow—now, Miss Pat, Helen is +not half so wicked as she thinks she is. Gillespie and I are on the +best of terms. He's a thoroughly good fellow and not half the fool he +looks. And he will never marry Helen!" +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to know what's going to prevent her from marrying him!" +she demanded as I stepped back and turned to go. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I am, if you must know! I have every intention of marrying her +myself!" +</P> + +<P> +I ran away from the protest that was faltering upon her lips, and +strode through the garden. I had just reached Glenarm gate on my way +back to the boat-house when a woman's voice called softly and Sister +Margaret hurried round a turn of the garden path. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Donovan!" +</P> + +<P> +There was anxiety in the voice, and more anxious still was Sister +Margaret's face as she came toward me in her brown habit, her hands +clasped tensely before her. She had evidently been watching for me, +and drew back from the gate into a quiet recess of the garden. Her +usual repose was gone and her face, under its white coif, showed +plainly her distress. +</P> + +<P> +"I have bad news—Miss Helen has gone! I'm afraid something has +happened to her." +</P> + +<P> +"She can't have gone far, Sister Margaret. When did you miss her?" I +asked quietly; but I confess that I was badly shaken. My confident +talk about the girl with Miss Pat but a moment before echoed ironically +in my memory. +</P> + +<P> +"She did not come down for breakfast with her aunt or me, but I thought +nothing of it, as I have urged both of them to breakfast up-stairs. +Miss Patricia went out for a walk. An hour ago I tried Helen's door +and found it unlocked and her room empty. When or how she left I don't +know. She seems to have taken nothing with her." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you tell a lie, Sister Margaret?" +</P> + +<P> +She stared at me with so shocked an air that I laughed. "A lie in a +good cause, I mean? Miss Pat must not know that her niece has gone—if +she has gone! She has probably taken one of the canoes for a morning +paddle; or, we will assume that she has borrowed one of the Glenarm +horses, as she has every right to do, for a morning gallop, and that +she has lost her way or gone farther than she intended. There are a +thousand explanations!" +</P> + +<P> +"But they hardly touch the fact that she was gone all night; or that a +strange man brought a note addressed in Helen's handwriting to her aunt +only an hour ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Kidnapped!"—and I laughed aloud as the meaning of her disappearance +flashed upon me! +</P> + +<P> +"I don't like your way of treating this matter!" said Sister Margaret +icily. "The girl may die before she can be brought back." +</P> + +<P> +"No, she won't—my word for it, Sister Margaret. Please give me the +letter!" +</P> + +<P> +"But it is not for you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, it is! You wouldn't have Miss Pat subjected to the shock of +a demand for ransom. Worse than that, Miss Pat has little enough faith +in Helen as it is; and such a move as this would be final. This +kidnapping is partly designed as a punishment for me, and I propose to +take care of it without letting Miss Pat know. She shall never know!" +</P> + +<P> +Sister Margaret, only half convinced, drew an envelope from her girdle +and gave it to me doubtfully. I glanced at the superscription and then +tore it across, repeating the process until it was a mass of tiny +particles, which I poured into Sister Margaret's hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Burn them! Now Miss Pat will undoubtedly ask for her niece at once. +I suggest that you take care that she is not distressed by Helen's +absence. If it is necessary to reward your house-maid for her +discretion—" I said with hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I disarranged Helen's bed so that the maid wouldn't know!"—and +Sister Margaret blushed. +</P> + +<P> +"Splendid! I can teach you nothing, Sister Margaret! Please help me +this much further: get one of Miss Helen's dresses—that blue one she +plays tennis in, perhaps—and put it in a bag of some kind and give it +to my Jap when he calls for it in ten minutes. Now listen to me +carefully, Sister Margaret: I shall meet you here at twelve o'clock +with a girl who shall be, to all intents and purposes, Helen Holbrook. +In fact, she will be some one else. Now I expect you to carry off the +situation through luncheon and until nightfall, when I expect to bring +Helen—the real Helen—back here. Meanwhile, tell Miss Pat anything +you like, quoting me! Good-by!" +</P> + +<P> +I left her abruptly and was running toward Glenarm House to rouse +Ijima, when I bumped into Gillespie, who had been told at the house +that I was somewhere in the grounds. +</P> + +<P> +"What's doing, Irishman?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, Buttons; I'm just exercising." +</P> + +<P> +His white flannels were as fresh as the morning, and he wore a little +blue cap perched saucily on the side of his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I was pondering," he began, "the futility of man's effort to be +helpful toward his fellows." +</P> + +<P> +He leaned upon his stick and eyed me with solemn vacuity. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I'll have to hear it; go on." +</P> + +<P> +"I was always told in my youth that when an opportunity to do good +offered one should seize upon it at once. No hesitation, no trifling! +Only a few years ago I wandered into a little church in a hill town of +Massachusetts where I waited for the Boston Express. It was a +beautiful Sunday evening—I shall never forget it!" he sighed. "I am +uncertain whether I was led thither by good impulse, or only because +the pews were more comfortable than the benches at the railway station. +I arrived early and an usher seated me up front near a window and gave +me an armful of books and a pamphlet on foreign missions. Other people +began to come in pretty soon; and then I heard a lot of giggling and a +couple of church pillars began chasing a stray dog up and down the +aisles. I was placing my money on the taller pillar; he had the best +reach of leg, and, besides, the other chap had side whiskers, which are +not good for sprinting,—they offer just so much more resistance to the +wind. The unseemliness of the thing offended my sense of propriety. +The sound of the chase broke in harshly upon my study of Congo +missions. After much pursuing the dog sought refuge between my legs. +I picked him up tenderly in my arms and dropped him gently, Donovan, +gently, from the window. Now wasn't that seizing an opportunity when +you found it, so to speak, underfoot?" +</P> + +<P> +"No doubt of it at all. Hurry with the rest of it, Buttons!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that pup fell with a sickening yelp through a skylight into the +basement where the choir was vesting itself, and hit a bishop—actually +struck a young and promising bishop who had never done anything to me. +They got the constable and made a horrible row, and besides paying for +the skylight I had to give the church a new organ to square myself with +the bishop, who was a friend of a friend of mine in Kentucky who once +gave me a tip on the Derby. Since then the very thought of foreign +missions makes me ill, I always hear that dog—it was the usual village +mongrel of evil ancestry—crashing through the skylight. What's doing +this morning, Irishman?" +</P> + +<P> +I linked my arm in his and led the way toward Glenarm House. There was +much to be done before I could bring together the warring members of +the house of Holbrook, and Gillespie could, I felt, be relied on in +emergencies. He broke forth at once. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see her—I've got to see her!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who—Helen? Then you'll have to wait a while, for she's gone for a +paddle or a gallop, I'm not sure which, and won't be back for a couple +of hours. But you have grown too daring. Miss Pat is still here, and +you can't expect me to arrange meetings for you every day in the year." +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to see her," he repeated, and his tone was utterly joyless. +"I don't understand her, Donovan." +</P> + +<P> +"Man is not expected to understand woman, my dear Buttons. At the +casino last night everything was as gay as an octogenarian's birthday +cake." +</P> + +<P> +He stopped in the shadow of the house and seized my arm. +</P> + +<P> +"You told her something about me last night. She was all right until +you took her away and talked with her at the casino. On the way home +she was moody and queer—a different girl altogether. You are not on +the square; you are playing on too many sides of this game." +</P> + +<P> +"You're in love, that's all. These suspicions and apprehensions are +leading symptoms. Up there at the casino, with the water washing +beneath and the stars overhead and the band playing waltzes, a spell +was upon you both. Even a hardened old sinner like me could feel it. +I've had palpitations all day! Cheer up! In your own happy phrase, +everything points to plus." +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you she turned on me, and that you are responsible for +it!"—and he glared at me angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Buttons! You're not going to take that attitude toward me, after +all I have done for you! I really took some trouble to arrange that +little meeting last night; and here you come with sad eye and mournful +voice and rebuke me!" +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you she was different. She had never been so kind to me as she +was there at the casino; but as we came back she changed, and was ready +to fling me aside. I asked her to leave this place and marry me +to-day, and she only laughed at me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Buttons, you are letting your imagination get the better of your +common sense. If you're going to take your lady's moods so hard you'd +better give up trying to understand the ways of woman. It's wholly +possible that Helen was tired and didn't want to be made love to. It +seems to me that you are singularly lacking in consideration. But I +can't talk to you all morning; I have other things to do; but if you +will find a cool corner of the house and look at picture-books until +I'm free I'll promise to be best man for you when you're married; and I +predict your marriage before Christmas—a happy union of the ancient +houses of Holbrook and Gillespie. Run along like a good boy and don't +let Miss Pat catch sight of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you keep a goat, a donkey or a mule—any of the more ruminative +animals?" he asked with his saddest intonation. +</P> + +<P> +"The cook keeps a parrot, and there's a donkey in one of the pastures." +</P> + +<P> +"Good. Are his powers of vocalization unimpaired?" +</P> + +<P> +"First rate. I occasionally hear his vesper hymn. He's in good voice." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I may speak to him, soul to soul, if I find that I bore myself." +</P> + +<P> +We climbed the steps to the cool shadows of the terrace. As we stood a +moment looking out on the lake we saw, far away toward the northern +shore, the <I>Stiletto</I>, that seemed just to have slipped out from the +lower lake. The humor of the situation pleased me; Helen was off there +in the sloop playing at being kidnapped to harass her aunt into coming +to terms with Henry Holbrook, and she was doubtless rejoicing in the +fact that she had effected a combination of events that would make her +father's case irresistible. +</P> + +<P> +But there was no time to lose. I made Gillespie comfortable indoors +and sent Ijima to get the bag I had asked for; and a few minutes later +the launch was skimming over the water toward the canoe-maker's house +at Red Gate. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE ROCKET SIGNAL +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Blow up the trumpet in the new moon.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>The Psalter</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Rosalind was cutting sweet peas in the garden where they climbed high +upon a filmy net, humming softly to herself. She was culling out white +ones, which somehow suggested her own white butterflies—a proper +business for any girl on a sunny morning, with the dew still bright +where the shadows lay, with bird-wings flashing about her, and the +kindliest of airs blowing her hair. +</P> + +<P> +"A penny for your thoughts!" I challenged. +</P> + +<P> +She snipped an imaginary flower from the air in my direction. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep your money! I was not thinking of you! You wear, sir, an intent +commercial air; have you thread and needles in your pack?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is ordained that we continue the game of last night. To-day you +are to invade the very citadel and deceive your aunt. Your cousin has +left without notice and the situation demands prompt action." +</P> + +<P> +I was already carrying the suit-case toward the house, explaining as we +walked along together. +</P> + +<P> +"But was I so successful last night? Was he really deceived, or did he +just play that he was?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's madly in love with you. You stole away all his senses. But he +thought you changed toward him unaccountably on the way home." +</P> + +<P> +"But why didn't she tell him?—she must have told him." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I took care of that! I rather warned her against betraying us. +And now she's trying to punish me by being kidnapped!" +</P> + +<P> +Rosalind paused at the threshold, gathering the stems of the sweet peas +in her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think," she began, "do you think he really liked me—I mean the +real me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Like you! That is not the right word for it. He's gloomily dreaming +of you—the real you—at this very moment over at Glenarm. But do +hasten into these things that Sister Margaret picked out for you. I +must see your father before I carry you off. We've no time to waste, I +can tell you!" +</P> + +<P> +The canoe-maker heard my story in silence and shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"It is impossible; we should only get into deeper trouble. I have no +great faith in this resemblance. It may have worked once on young +Gillespie, but women have sharper eyes." +</P> + +<P> +"But it must be tried!" I pleaded. "We are approaching the end of +these troubles, and nothing must be allowed to interfere. Your sister +wishes to see you; this is her birthday." +</P> + +<P> +"So it is! So it is!" exclaimed the canoe-maker with feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"Helen must be saved from her own folly. Her aunt must not know of +this latest exploit; it would ruin everything." +</P> + +<P> +As we debated Rosalind joined her persuasions to mine. +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Pat must not know what Helen has done if we can help it," she +said. +</P> + +<P> +While she changed her clothes I talked on at the house-boat with her +father. +</P> + +<P> +"My sister has asked for me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; your sister is ready to settle with Henry; but she wishes to see +you first. She has begged me to find you; but Helen must go back to +her aunt. This fraudulent kidnapping must never be known to Miss Pat. +And on the other hand, I hope it may not be necessary for Helen to know +the truth about her father." +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say she would sacrifice my own daughter quickly enough," he +said. +</P> + +<P> +"No; you are wrong; I do not believe it! She is making no war on you, +or on her aunt! It's against me! She enjoys a contest; she's trying +to beat me." +</P> + +<P> +"She believes that I forged the Gillespie notes and ruined her father. +Henry has undoubtedly told her so." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; and he has used her to get them away from young Gillespie. +There's no question about that. But I have the notes, and I propose +holding them for your protection. But I don't want to use them if I +can help it." +</P> + +<P> +"I appreciate what you are doing for me," he said quietly, but his eyes +were still troubled and I saw that he had little faith in the outcome. +</P> + +<P> +"Your sister is disposed to deal generously with Henry. She does not +know where the dishonor lies." +</P> + +<P> +"'We are all honorable men,'" he replied bitterly, slowly pacing the +floor. His sleeves were rolled away from his sun-browned arms, his +shirt was open at the throat, and though he wore the rough clothes of a +mechanic he looked more the artist at work in a rural studio than the +canoe-maker of the Tippecanoe. He walked to a window and looked down +for a moment upon the singing creek, then came back to me and spoke in +a different tone. +</P> + +<P> +"I have given these years of my life to protecting my brother, and they +must not be wasted. I have nothing to say against him; I shall keep +silent." +</P> + +<P> +"He has forfeited every right. Now is your time to punish him," I +said; but Arthur Holbrook only looked at me pityingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want revenge, Mr. Donovan, but I am almost in a mood for +justice," he said with a rueful smile; and just then Rosalind entered +the shop. +</P> + +<P> +"Is my fate decided?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +The sight of her seemed to renew the canoe-maker's distress, and I led +the way at once to the door. I think that in spite of my efforts to be +gay and to carry the affair off lightly, we all felt that the day was +momentous. +</P> + +<P> +"When shall I expect you back?" asked Holbrook, when we had reached the +launch. +</P> + +<P> +"Early to-night," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"But if anything should happen here?" The tears flashed in Rosalind's +eyes, and she clung a moment to his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"He will hardly be troubled by daylight, and this evening he can send +up a rocket if any one molests him. Go ahead, Ijima!" +</P> + +<P> +As we cleared Battle Orchard and sped on toward Glenarm there was a +sting in the wind, and Lake Annandale had fretted itself into foam. We +saw the <I>Stiletto</I> running prettily before the wind along the Glenarm +shore, and I stopped the engine before crossing her wake and let the +launch jump the waves. Helen would not, I hoped, believe me capable of +attempting to palm off Rosalind on Miss Pat; and I had no wish to +undeceive her. My passenger had wrapped herself in my mackintosh and +taken my cap, so that at the distance at which we passed she was not +recognizable. +</P> + +<P> +Sister Margaret was waiting for us at the Glenarm pier. I had been a +little afraid of Sister Margaret. It was presuming a good deal to take +her into the conspiracy, and I stood by in apprehension while she +scrutinized Rosalind. She was clearly bewildered and drew close to the +girl, as Rosalind threw off the wet mackintosh and flung down the +dripping cap. +</P> + +<P> +"Will she do, Sister Margaret?" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe she will; I really believe she will!" And the Sister's face +brightened with relief. She had a color in her face that I had not +seen before, as the joy of the situation took hold of her. She was, I +realized, a woman after all, and a young woman at that, with a heart +not hardened against life's daily adventures. +</P> + +<P> +"It is time for luncheon. Miss Pat expects you, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I must leave you to instruct Miss Holbrook and carry off the +first meeting. Miss Holbrook has been—" +</P> + +<P> +"—For a long walk"—the Sister supplied—"and will enter St. Agatha's +parlor a little tired from her tramp. She shall go at once to her +room—with me. I have put out a white gown for her; and at luncheon we +will talk only of safe things." +</P> + +<P> +"And I shall have this bouquet of sweet peas," added Rosalind, "that I +brought from a farmer's garden near by, as an offering for Aunt Pat's +birthday. And you will both be there to keep me from making mistakes." +</P> + +<P> +"Then after luncheon we shall drive until Miss Pat's birthday dinner; +and the dinner shall be on the terrace at Glenarm, which is even now +being decorated for a fête occasion. And before the night is old Helen +shall be back. Good luck attend us all!" I said; and we parted in the +best of spirits. +</P> + +<P> +I had forgotten Gillespie, and was surprised to find him at the table +in my room, absorbed in business papers. +</P> + +<P> +"'Button, button, who's got the button!'" he chanted as he looked me +over. "You appear to have been swimming in your clothes. I had my +mail sent out here. I've got to shut down the factory at Ponsocket. +The thought of it bores me extravagantly. What time's luncheon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Whenever you ring three times. I'm lunching out." +</P> + +<P> +"Ladies?" he asked, raising his brows. "You appear to be a little +social favorite; couldn't you get me in on something? How about +dinner?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am myself entertaining at dinner; and your name isn't on the list, +I'm sorry to say, Buttons. But to-morrow! Everything will be possible +to-morrow. I expect Miss Pat and Helen here to-night. It's Miss Pat's +birthday, and I want to make it a happy day for her. She's going to +settle with Henry as soon as some preliminaries are arranged, so the +war's nearly over." +</P> + +<P> +"She can't settle with him until something definite is known about +Arthur. If he's really dead—" +</P> + +<P> +"I've promised to settle that; but I must hurry now. Will you meet me +at the Glenarm boat-house at eight? If I'm not there; wait. I shall +have something for you to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Meanwhile I'm turned out of your house, am I? But I positively +decline to go until I'm fed." +</P> + +<P> +As I got into a fresh coat he played a lively tune on the electric +bell, and I left him giving his orders to the butler. +</P> + +<P> +I was reassured by the sound of voices as I passed under the windows of +St. Agatha's, and Sister Margaret met me in the hall with a smiling +face. +</P> + +<P> +"Luncheon waits. We will go out at once. Everything has passed off +smoothly, perfectly." +</P> + +<P> +I did not dare look at Rosalind until we were seated in the +dining-room. Her sweet peas graced the center of the round table, and +Sister Margaret had placed them in a tall vase so that Rosalind was +well screened from her aunt's direct gaze. The Sister had managed +admirably. Rosalind's hair was swept up in exactly Helen's pompadour; +and in one of Helen's white gowns, with Helen's own particular shade of +scarlet ribbon at her throat and waist, the resemblance was even more +complete than I had thought it before. But we were cast at once upon +deep waters. +</P> + +<P> +"Helen, where did you find that article on Charles Lamb you read the +other evening? I have looked for it everywhere." +</P> + +<P> +Rosalind took rather more time than was necessary to help herself to +the asparagus, and my heart sank; but Sister Margaret promptly saved +the day. +</P> + +<P> +"It was in the <I>Round World</I>. That article we were reading on The +Authorship of the Collects is in the same number." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; of course," said Rosalind, turning to me. +</P> + +<P> +Art seemed a safe topic; and I steered for the open, and spoke in a +large way, out of my ignorance, of Michelangelo's influence, winding up +presently with a suggestion that Miss Pat should have her portrait +painted. This was a successful stroke, for we all fell into a +discussion of contemporaneous portrait painters about whom Sister +Margaret fortunately knew something; but a cold chill went down my back +a moment later when Miss Pat turned upon Rosalind and asked her a +direct question: +</P> + +<P> +"Helen, what was the name of the artist who did that miniature of your +mother?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister Margaret swallowed a glass of water, and I stooped to pick up my +napkin. +</P> + +<P> +"Van Arsdel, wasn't it?" asked Rosalind instantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; so it was," replied Miss Pat. Luck was favoring us, and Rosalind +was rising to the emergency splendidly. It appeared afterward that her +own mother had been painted by the same artist, and she had boldly +risked the guess. Sister Margaret and I were frightened into a +discussion of the possibilities of aërial navigation, with a vague +notion, I think, of keeping the talk in the air, and it sufficed until +we had concluded the simple luncheon. I walked beside Miss Pat to the +parlor. The sky had cleared, and I broached a drive at once. I had +read in the newspapers that a considerable body of regular troops was +passing near Annandale on a practice march from Fort Sheridan to a +rendezvous somewhere to the south of us. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us go and see the soldiers," I suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, Larry," she said. "We can make believe they are sent out +to do honor to my birthday. You are a thoughtful boy. I can never +thank you for all your consideration and kindness. And you will not +fail to find Arthur,—I am asking you no questions; I'd rather not know +where he is. I'm afraid of truth!" She turned her head away +quickly—we were seated by ourselves in a corner of the room. "I am +afraid, I am afraid to ask!" +</P> + +<P> +"He is well; quite well. I shall have news of him, to-night." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced across the room to where Rosalind and Sister Margaret +talked quietly together. I felt Miss Pat's hand touch mine, and +suddenly there were tears in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I was wrong! I was most unjust in what I said to you of her. She was +all tenderness, all gentleness when she came in this morning." She +fumbled at her belt and held up a small cluster of the sweet peas that +Rosalind had brought from Red Gate. +</P> + +<P> +"I told you so!" I said, trying to laugh off her contrition. "What you +said to me is forgotten, Miss Pat." +</P> + +<P> +"And now when everything is settled, if she wants to marry Gillespie, +let her do it." +</P> + +<P> +"But she won't! Haven't I told you that Helen shall never marry him?" +</P> + +<P> +I had ordered a buckboard, and it was now announced. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't trouble to go up-stairs, Aunt Pat; I will bring your things for +you," said Rosalind; and Miss Pat turned upon me with an air of +satisfaction and pride, as much as to say, "You see how devoted she is +to me!" +</P> + +<P> +I wish to acknowledge here my obligations to Sister Margaret for giving +me the benefit of her care and resourcefulness on that difficult day. +There was no nice detail that she overlooked, no danger that she did +not anticipate. She sat by Miss Pat on the long drive, while Rosalind +and I chattered nonsense behind them. We were so fortunate as to +strike the first battalion, and saw it go into camp on a bit of open +prairie to await the arrival of the artillery that followed. But at no +time did I lose sight of the odd business that still lay ahead of me, +nor did I remember with any satisfaction how Helen, somewhere across +woodland and lake, chafed at the delayed climax of her plot. The girl +at my side, lovely and gracious as she was, struck me increasingly as +but a tame shadow of that other one, so like and so unlike! I marveled +that Miss Pat had not seen it; and in a period of silence on the drive +home I think Rosalind must have guessed my thought; for I caught her +regarding me with a mischievous smile and she said, as Miss Pat and +Sister Margaret rather too generously sought to ignore us: +</P> + +<P> +"You can see now how different I am—how very different!" +</P> + +<P> +When I left them at St. Agatha's with an hour to spare before dinner, +Sister Margaret assured me with her eyes that there was nothing to fear. +</P> + +<P> +I was nervously pacing the long terrace when I saw my guests +approaching. I told the butler to order dinner at once and went down +to meet them. Miss Pat declared that she never felt better; and under +the excitement of the hour Sister Margaret's eyes glowed brightly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister Margaret is wonderful!" whispered Rosalind. "Aren't my clothes +becoming? She found them and got me into them; and she has kept me +away from Aunt Pat and taken me over the hard places wonderfully. I +really don't know who I am," she laughed; "but it's quite clear that +you have seen the difference. I must play up now and try to be +brilliant—like Helen!" she said. "I can tell by the things in Helen's +room, that I'm much less sophisticated. I found his photograph, by the +way!" +</P> + +<P> +"What!" I cried so abruptly that the others turned and looked at us. +Rosalind laughed in honest glee. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Gillespie's photograph. I think I shall keep it. It was upside +down in a trunk where Sister Margaret told me I should find these +pretty slippers. Do you know, this playing at being somebody else is +positively uncanny. But this gown—isn't it fetching?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's pink, isn't it? You said that photograph was face down, didn't +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was! And at the very bottom under a pair of overshoes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I hope <I>you</I> will be good to him," I observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Donovan," she said, in a mocking tone that was so like Helen's +that I stared stupidly, "Mr. Donovan, you are a person of amazing +penetration!" +</P> + +<P> +As we sat down in the screened corner of the broad terrace, with the +first grave approach of twilight in the sky, and the curved trumpet of +the young moon hanging in the west, it might have seemed to an onlooker +that the gods of chance had oddly ordered our little company. Miss +Patricia in white was a picture of serenity, with the smile constant +about her lips, happy in her hope for the future. Rosalind, fresh to +these surroundings, showed clearly her pleasure in the pretty setting +of the scene, and read into it, in bright phrases, the delight of a +story-book incident. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see," she said reflectively, "just who we are: we are the lady +of the castle perilous dining <I>al fresco</I>, with the abbess, who is also +a noble lady, come across the fields to sit at meat with her. And you, +sir, are a knight full orgulous, feared in many lands, and sworn to the +defense of these ladies." +</P> + +<P> +"And you,"—and Miss Pat's eyes were beautifully kind and gentle, as +she took the cue and turned to Rosalind, "you are the well-loved +daughter of my house, faithful in all service, in all ways +self-forgetful and kind, our hope, our joy and our pride." +</P> + +<P> +It may have been the spirit of the evening that touched us, or only the +light of her countenance and the deep sincerity of her voice; but I +knew that tears were bright in all our eyes for a moment. And then +Rosalind glanced at the western heavens through the foliage. +</P> + +<P> +"There are the stars, Aunt Pat—brighter than ever to-night for your +birthday." +</P> + +<P> +Presently, as the dark gathered about us, the candles were lighted, and +their glow shut out the world. To my relief the three women carried +the talk alone, leaving me to my own thoughts of Helen and my plans for +restoring her to her aunt with no break in the new confidence that +Rosalind had inspired. I had so completely yielded myself to this +undercurrent of reflection that I was startled to find Miss Pat with +the coffee service before her. +</P> + +<P> +"Larry, you are dreaming. How can I remember whether you take sugar?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister Margaret's eyes were upon me reproachfully for my inattention, +and my heart-beats quickened as eight strokes of the chapel chime stole +lingeringly through the quiet air. I had half-raised my cup when I was +startled by a question from Miss Pat—a request innocent enough and +spoken, it seemed, utterly without intention. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see your ring a moment, Helen." +</P> + +<P> +Sister Margaret flashed a glance of inquiry at me, but Rosalind met the +situation instantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, Aunt Pat,"—and she slipped the ring from her finger, +passed it across the table, and folded her hands quietly upon the white +cloth. She did not look at me, but I saw her breath come and go +quickly. If the rings were not the same them we were undone. This +thought gripped the three of us, and I heard my cup beating a tattoo on +the edge of my saucer in the tense silence, while Miss Pat bent close +to the candle before her and studied the ring, turning it over slowly. +Rosalind half opened her lips to speak, but Sister Margaret's snowy +hand clasped the girl's fingers. The little circlet of gold with its +beautiful green stone had been to me one of the convincing items of the +remarkable resemblance between the cousins; but if there should be some +differentiating mark Miss Pat was not so stupid as to overlook it. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pat put down the ring abruptly, and looked at Rosalind and then +smiled quizzically at me. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a clever boy, Larry." +</P> + +<P> +Then, turning to Rosalind, Miss Pat remarked, with the most casual air +imaginable: +</P> + +<P> +"Helen pronounces either with the long <I>e</I>. I noticed at luncheon that +you say eyether. Where's your father, Rosalind?" +</P> + +<A NAME="img-364"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-364.jpg" ALT=""Where's your father, Rosalind?"" BORDER="2" WIDTH="609" HEIGHT="439"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 439px"> +"Where's your father, Rosalind?" +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +My eyes were turning from her to Rosalind when, on her last word, as +though by prearranged signal, far across the water, against the dark +shadows of the lake's remoter shore, a rocket's spent ball broke and +flung its stars against the night. +</P> + +<P> +I spoke no word, but leaped over the stone balustrade and ran to the +boat-house where Gillespie waited. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"WITH MY HANDS" +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Maybe in spite of their tameless days<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Of outcast liberty,</SPAN><BR> +They're sick at heart for the homely ways<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Where their gathered brothers be.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +And oft at night, when the plains fall dark<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And hills loom large and dim,</SPAN><BR> +For the shepherd's voice they mutely hark,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And their souls go out to him.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Meanwhile "Black sheep! black sheep!" we cry,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Safe in the inner fold:</SPAN><BR> +And maybe they hear, and wonder why,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And marvel, out in the cold.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>Richard Burton</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Gillespie was smoking his pipe on the boat-house steps. He had come +over from the village in his own launch, which tossed placidly beside +mine. Ijima stepped forward promptly with a lantern as I ran out upon +the planking of the pier. +</P> + +<P> +"Jump into my launch, Gillespie, and be in a hurry!" and to my relief +he obeyed without his usual parley. Ijima cast us off, the engine +sputtered a moment, and then the launch got away. I bade Gillespie +steer, and when we were free of the pier told him to head for the +Tippecanoe. +</P> + +<P> +The handful of stars that had brightened against the sky had been a +real shock, and I accused myself in severe terms for having left Arthur +Holbrook alone. As we swept into the open Glenarm House stood forth +from the encircling wood, marked by the bright lights of the terrace +where Miss Pat had, with so much composure and in so few words, made +comedy of my attempt to shield Helen. I had certainly taken chances, +but I had reckoned only with a man's wits, which, to say the least, are +not a woman's; and I had contrived a new situation and had now incurred +the wrath and indignation of three women where there had been but one +before! In throwing off my coat my hand touched the envelope +containing the forged notes which I had thrust into my pocket before +dinner, and the contact sobered me; there was still a chance for me to +be of use. But at the thought of what might be occurring at the +house-boat on the Tippecanoe I forced the launch's speed to the limit. +Gillespie still maintained silence, grimly clenching his empty pipe. +He now roused himself and bawled at me: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever meet the coroner of this county?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" I shouted. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you will—coming down! You'll blow up in about three minutes." +</P> + +<P> +I did not slow down until we reached Battle Orchard, where it was +necessary to feel our way across the shallow channel. Here I shut off +the power and paddled with an oar. +</P> + +<P> +As we floated by the island a lantern flashed at the water's edge and +disappeared. But my first errand was at the canoe-maker's; the +whereabouts of Helen and the <I>Stiletto</I> were questions that must wait. +</P> + +<P> +We were soon creeping along the margin of the second lake seeking the +creek, whose intake quickly lay hold of us. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll land just inside, on the west bank, Gillespie." A moment later +we jumped out and secured the launch. I wrapped our lantern in +Gillespie's coat, and ran up the bank to the path. At the top I turned +and spoke to him. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll have to trust me. I don't know what may be happening here, but +surely our interests are the same to-night." +</P> + +<P> +He caught me roughly by the arm. +</P> + +<P> +"If this means any injury to Helen—" +</P> + +<P> +"No! It is for her!" And he followed silently at my heels toward Red +Gate. +</P> + +<P> +The calm of the summer night lay upon the creek that babbled drowsily +in its bed. We seemed to have this corner of the world to ourselves, +and the thump of our feet in the path broke heavily on the night +silence. As we crossed the lower end of the garden I saw the cottage +mistily outlined among the trees near the highway, and, remembering +Gillespie's unfamiliarity with the place, I checked my pace to guide +him. I caught a glimpse of the lights of the house-boat below. +</P> + +<P> +The voices of two men in loud debate rang out sharply upon us through +the open windows of the house-boat as we crept down upon the deck. +Then followed the sound of blows, and the rattle of furniture knocked +about, and as we reached the door a lamp fell with a crash and the +place was dark. We seemed to strike matches at the same instant, and +as they blazed upon their sticks we looked down upon Arthur Holbrook, +who lay sprawling with his arms outflung on the floor, and over him +stood his brother with hands clenched, his face twitching. +</P> + +<P> +"I have killed him—I have killed him!" he muttered several times in a +low whisper. "I had to do it. There was no other way." +</P> + +<P> +My blood went cold at the thought that we were too late. Gillespie was +fumbling about, striking matches, and I was somewhat reassured by the +sound of my own voice as I called him. +</P> + +<P> +"There are candles at the side—make a light, Gillespie." +</P> + +<P> +And soon we were taking account of one another in the soft candle-light. +</P> + +<P> +"I must go," said Henry huskily, looking stupidly down upon his +brother, who lay quite still, his head resting on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"You will stay," I said; and I stood beside him while Gillespie filled +a pail at the creek and laved Arthur's wrists and temples with cool +water. We worked a quarter of an hour before he gave any signs of +life; but when he opened his eyes Henry flung himself down in a chair +and mopped his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"He is not dead," he said, grinning foolishly. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Helen?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"She's safe," he replied cunningly, nodding his head. "I suppose Pat +has sent you to take her back. She may go, if you have brought my +money." Cunning and greed, and the marks of drink, had made his face +repulsive. Gillespie got Arthur to his feet a moment later, and I gave +him brandy from a flask in the cupboard. His brother's restoration +seemed now to amuse Henry. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a mere love-tap. You're tougher than you look, Arthur. It's +the simple life down here in the woods. My own nerves are all gone." +He turned to me with the air of dominating the situation. "I'm glad +you've come, you and our friend of button fame. Rivals, gentlemen? A +friendly rivalry for my daughter's hand flatters the house of Holbrook. +Between ourselves I favor you, Mr. Donovan; the button-making business +is profitable, but damned vulgar. Now, Helen—" +</P> + +<P> +"That will do!"—and I clapped my hand on his shoulder roughly. "I +have business with you. Your sister is ready to settle with you; but +she wishes to see Arthur first." +</P> + +<P> +"No—no! She must not see him!" He leaped forward and caught hold of +me. "She must not see him!"—and his cowardly fear angered me anew. +</P> + +<P> +"You will do, Mr. Holbrook, very much as I tell you in this matter. I +intend that your sister shall see her brother Arthur to-night, and time +flies. This last play of yours, this flimsy trick of kidnapping, was +sprung at a very unfortunate moment. It has delayed the settlement and +done a grave injury to your daughter." +</P> + +<P> +"Helen would have it; it was her idea!" +</P> + +<P> +"If you speak of your daughter again in such a way I will break your +neck and throw you into the creek!" +</P> + +<P> +He stared a moment, then laughed aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"So you are the one—are you? I really thought it was Buttons." +</P> + +<P> +"I am the one, Mr. Holbrook. And now I am going to take your brother +to your sister. She has asked for him, and she is waiting." +</P> + +<P> +Arthur Holbrook came gravely toward us, and I have never been so struck +with pity for a man as I was for him. There was a red circle on his +brow where Henry's knuckles had cut, but his eyes showed no anger; they +were even kind with the tenderness that lies in the eyes of women who +have suffered. He advanced a step nearer his brother and spoke slowly +and distinctly. +</P> + +<P> +"You have nothing to fear, Henry. I shall tell her nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"But"—Henry glanced uneasily from Gillespie to me—"Gillespie's notes. +They are here among you somewhere. You shall not give them to Pat. If +she knew—" +</P> + +<P> +"If she knew you would not get a cent," I said, wishing him to know +that I knew. +</P> + +<P> +He whirled upon me hotly. +</P> + +<P> +"You tricked Helen to get them, and now, by God! I want them! I want +them!" And he struck at me crazily. I knocked his arm away, but he +flung himself upon me, clasping me with his arms. I caught his wrists +and held him for a moment. I wished to be done with him and off to +Glenarm with Arthur; and he wasted time. +</P> + +<P> +"I have that packet you sent Helen to get—I have it—still unopened! +Your secret is as safe with me, Mr. Holbrook, as that other secret of +yours with your Italian body-guard." +</P> + +<P> +His face went white, then gray, and he would have fallen if I had not +kept hold of him. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you not be decent—reasonable—sane—for an hour, till we can +present you as an honorable man to your sister? If you will not, your +sailor shall deliver you to the law with his own hands. You delay +matters—can't you see that we are your friends, that we are trying to +protect you, that we are ready to lie to your sister that we may be rid +of you?" +</P> + +<P> +I was beside myself with rage and impatient that time must be wasted on +him. I did not hear steps on the deck, or Gillespie's quick warning, +and I had begun again, still holding Henry Holbrook close to me with +one hand. +</P> + +<P> +"We expect to deceive your sister—we will lie to her—lie to her—lie +to her—" +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, stop!" cried Arthur Holbrook, clutching my arm. +</P> + +<P> +I flung round and faced Miss Pat and Rosalind. They stood for a moment +in the doorway; then Miss Pat advanced slowly toward us where we formed +a little semi-circle, and as I dropped Henry's wrists the brothers +stood side by side. Arthur took a step forward, half murmuring his +sister's name; then he drew back and waited, his head bowed, his hands +thrust into the side pockets of his coat. In the dead quiet I heard +the babble of the creek outside, and when Miss Pat spoke her voice +seemed to steal off and mingle with the subdued murmur of the stream. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, what is it you wish to lie to me about?" +</P> + +<P> +A brave little smile played about Miss Pat's lips. She stood there in +the light of the candles, all in white as I had left her on the terrace +of Glenarm, in her lace cap, with only a light shawl about her +shoulders. I felt that the situation might yet be saved, and I was +about to speak when Henry, with some wild notion of justifying himself, +broke out stridently: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; they meant to lie to you! They plotted against me and hounded me +when I wished to see you peaceably and to make amends. They have now +charged me with murder; they are ready to swear away my honor, my life. +I am glad you are here that you may see for yourself how they are +against me." +</P> + +<P> +He broke off a little grandly, as though convinced by his own words. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; father speaks the truth, as Mr. Donovan can tell you!" +</P> + +<P> +I could have sworn that it was Rosalind who spoke; but there by +Rosalind's side in the doorway stood Helen. Her head was lifted, and +she faced us all with her figure tense, her eyes blazing. Rosalind +drew away a little, and I saw Gillespie touch her hand. It was as +though a quicker sense than sight had on the instant undeceived him; +but he did not look at Rosalind; his eyes were upon the angry girl who +was about to speak again. Miss Pat glanced about, and her eyes rested +on me. +</P> + +<P> +"Larry, what were the lies you were going to tell me?" she asked, and +smiled again. +</P> + +<P> +"They were about father; he wished to involve him in dishonor. But he +shall not, he shall not!" cried Helen. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that true, Larry?" asked Miss Pat. +</P> + +<P> +"I have done the best I could," I replied evasively. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pat scrutinized us all slowly as though studying our faces for the +truth. Then she repeated: +</P> + +<P> +"<I>But if either of my said sons shall have teen touched by dishonor +through his own act, as honor is accounted, reckoned and valued among +men</I>—" and ceased abruptly, looking from Arthur to Henry. "What was +the truth about Gillespie?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +And Arthur would have spoken. I saw the word that would have saved his +brother formed upon his lips. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pat alone seemed unmoved; I saw her hand open and shut at her side +as she controlled herself, but her face was calm and her voice was +steady when she turned appealingly to the canoe-maker. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the truth, Arthur?" she asked quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why go into this now? Why not let bygones be bygones?"—and for a +moment I thought I had checked the swift current. It was Helen I +wished to save now, from herself, from the avalanche she seemed doomed +to bring down upon her head. +</P> + +<P> +"I will hear what you have to say, Arthur," said Miss Pat; and I knew +that there was no arresting the tide. I snatched out the sealed +envelope and turned with it to Arthur Holbrook; and he took it into his +hands and turned it over quietly, though his hands trembled. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me the truth, gentlemen!"—and Miss Pat's voice thrilled now with +anger. +</P> + +<P> +"Trickery, more trickery; those were stolen from Helen!" blurted Henry, +his eyes on the envelope; but we were waiting for the canoe-maker to +speak, and Henry's words rang emptily in the shop. +</P> + +<P> +Arthur looked at his brother; then he faced his sister. +</P> + +<P> +"Henry is not guilty," he said calmly. +</P> + +<P> +He turned with a quick gesture and thrust the envelope into the flame +of one of the candles; but Helen sprang forward and caught away the +blazing packet and smothered the flame between her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"We will keep the proof," she said in a tone of triumph; and I knew +then how completely she had believed in her father. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what is in that packet," said Gillespie slowly, speaking +for the first time. "It has never been opened. My lawyer told me that +father had sworn to a statement about the trouble with Holbrook +Brothers and placed it with the notes. My father was a peculiar man in +some ways," continued Gillespie, embarrassed by the attention that was +now riveted upon him. "His lawyer told me that I was to open that +package—before—before marrying into"—and he grew red and stammered +helplessly, with his eyes on the floor—"before marrying into the +Holbrook family. I gave up that packet"—and he hesitated, coloring, +and turning from Helen to Rosalind—"by mistake. But it's mine, and I +demand it now." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish Aunt Pat to open the envelope," said Rosalind, very white. +</P> + +<P> +Henry turned a look of appeal upon his brother; but Miss Pat took the +envelope from Helen and tore it open; and we stood by as though we +waited for death or watched earth fall upon a grave. She bent down to +one of the candles nearest her and took out the notes, which were +wrapped in a sheet of legal cap. A red seal brightened in the light, +and we heard the slight rattle of the paper in her tremulous fingers as +she read. Suddenly a tear flashed upon the white sheet. When she had +quite finished she gathered Gillespie's statement and the notes in her +hand and turned and gave them to Henry; but she did not speak to him or +meet his eyes. She crossed to where Arthur stood beside me, his head +bowed, and as she advanced he turned away; but her arms stole over his +shoulders and she said "Arthur" once, and again very softly. +</P> + +<P> +"I think," she said, turning toward us all, with her sweet dignity, her +brave air, that touched me as at first and always, beyond any words of +mine to describe, but strong and beautiful and sweet and thrilling +through me now, like bugles blown at dawn; "I think that we do well, +Arthur, to give Henry his money." +</P> + +<P> +And now it was Arthur's voice that rose in the shop; and it seemed that +he spoke of his brother as of one who was afar off. We listened with +painful intentness to this man who had suffered much and given much, +and who still, in his simple heart, asked no praise for what he had +done. +</P> + +<P> +"He was so strong, and I was weak; and I did for him what I could. And +what I gave, I gave freely, for it is not often in this world that the +weak may help the strong. He had the gifts, Pat, that I had not, and +troops of friends; and he had ambitions that in my weakness I was not +capable of; so I had not much to give. But what I had, Pat, I gave to +him; I went to Gillespie and confessed; I took the blame; and I came +here and worked with my hands—with my hands—" And he extended them +as though the proof were asked; and kept repeating, between, his sobs, +"With my hands." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +DAYBREAK +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Just as of old! The world rolls on and on;<BR> +The day dies into night—night into dawn—<BR> +Dawn into dusk—through centuries untold.—<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">Just as of old.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN> +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Lo! where is the beginning, where the end<BR> +Of living, loving, longing? <I>Listen</I>, friend!—<BR> +God answers with a silence of pure gold—<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">Just as of old.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 11em">—<I>James Whitcomb Riley</I>.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At midnight Gillespie and I discussed the day's affairs on the terrace +at Glenarm. There were long pauses in our talk. Such things as we had +seen and heard that night, in the canoe-maker's shop on the little +creek, were beyond our poor range of words. And in the silences my own +reflections were not wholly happy. If Miss Pat and Rosalind had not +followed me to the canoe-maker's I might have spared Helen; but looking +back, I would not change it now if I could. Helen had returned to St. +Agatha's with her aunt, who would have it so; and we had parted at the +school door, Miss Pat and Helen, Gillespie and I, with restraint heavy +upon us all. Miss Pat had, it seemed, summoned her lawyer from New +York several days before, to discuss the final settlement of her +father's estate; and he was expected the next morning. I had asked +them all to Glenarm for breakfast; and Arthur Holbrook and Rosalind, +and Henry, who had broken down at the end, had agreed to come. +</P> + +<P> +As we talked on, Gillespie and I, there under the stars, he disclosed, +all unconsciously, new and surprising traits, and I felt my heart +warming to him. +</P> + +<P> +"He's a good deal of a man, that Arthur Holbrook," he remarked after a +long pause. "He's beyond me. The man who runs the enemy's lines to +bring relief to the garrison, or the leader of a forlorn hope, is tame +after this. I suppose the world would call him a fool." +</P> + +<P> +"Undoubtedly," I answered. "But he didn't do it for the world; he did +it for himself. We can't applaud a thing like that in the usual +phrases." +</P> + +<P> +"No," Gillespie added; "only get down on our knees and bow our heads in +the dust before it." +</P> + +<P> +He rose and paced the long terrace. In his boat-shoes and white +flannels he glided noiselessly back and forth, like a ghost in the star +dusk. He paused at the western balustrade and looked off at St. +Agatha's. Then he passed me and paused again, gazing lakeward through +the wood, as though turning from Helen to Rosalind; and I knew that it +was with her, far over the water, in the little cottage at Red Gate, +that his thoughts lingered. But when he came and stood beside me and +rested his hand on my shoulder I knew that he wished to speak of Helen +and I took his hand, and spoke to him to make it easier. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, old man!" +</P> + +<P> +"I was thinking of Helen," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"So was I, Buttons." +</P> + +<P> +"They are different, the two. They are very different." +</P> + +<P> +"They are as like as God ever made two people; and yet they are +different." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you understand Helen. I never did," he declared mournfully. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't have to," I replied; and laughed, and rose and stood beside +him. "And now there's something I want to speak to you about to-night. +Helen borrowed some money of you a little while ago to meet one of her +father's demands. I expect a draft for that money by the morning mail, +and I want you to accept it with my thanks, and hers. And the incident +shall pass as though it had never been." +</P> + +<P> +About one o'clock the wind freshened and the trees flung out their arms +like runners rushing before it; and from the west marched a storm with +banners of lightning. It was a splendid spectacle, and we went indoors +only when the rain began, to wash across the terrace. We still watched +it from our windows after we went up-stairs, the lightning now blazing +out blindingly, like sheets of flame from a furnace door, and again +cracking about the house like a fiery whip. +</P> + +<P> +"We ought to have brought Henry here to-night," remarked Gillespie. +"He's alone over there on the island with that dago and they're very +likely celebrating by getting drunk." +</P> + +<P> +"The lightning's getting on your nerves; go to bed," I called back. +</P> + +<P> +The storm left peace behind and I was abroad early, eager to have the +first shock of the morning's meetings over. Gillespie greeted me +cheerily and I told him to follow when he was ready. I went out and +paced the walk between the house and St. Agatha's, and as I peered +through the iron gate I saw Miss Pat come out of the house and turn +into the garden. I came upon her walking slowly with her hands clasped +behind her. She spoke first, as though to avoid any expression of +sympathy, putting out her hand. +</P> + +<P> +Filmy lace at the wrists gave to her hands a quaint touch akin to that +imparted by the cap on her white head. I was struck afresh by the +background that seemed always to be sketched in for her, and just now, +beyond the bright garden, it was a candle-lighted garret, with trunks +of old letters tied in dim ribbons, and lavender scented chests of +Valenciennes and silks in forgotten patterns. +</P> + +<P> +"I am well, quite well, Larry!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad! I wished to be sure!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do not trouble about me. I am glad of everything that has +happened—glad and relieved. And I am grateful to you." +</P> + +<P> +"I have served you ill enough. I stumbled in the dark much of the +time. I wanted to spare you, Miss Pat." +</P> + +<P> +"I know that; and you tried to save Helen. She was blind and +misguided. She had believed in her father and the last blow crushed +her. Everything looks dark to her. She refuses to come over this +morning; she thinks she can not face her uncle, her cousin or you +again." +</P> + +<P> +"But she must come," I said. "It will be easier to-day than at any +later time. There's Gillespie, calling me now. He's going across the +lake to meet Arthur and Rosalind. I shall take the launch over to the +island to bring Henry. We should all be back at Glenarm in an hour. +Please tell Helen that we must have her, that no one should stay away." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pat looked at me oddly, and her fingers touched a stalk of +hollyhock beside her as her eyes rested on mine. +</P> + +<P> +"Larry," she said, "do not be sorry for Helen if pity is all you have +for her." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed and seized her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Pat, I could not feel pity for any one so skilled with the sword +as she! It would be gratuitous! She put up a splendid fight, and it's +to her credit that she stood by her father and resented my +interference, as she had every right to. She was not really against +you, Miss Pat; it merely happened that you were in the way when she +struck at me with the foil, don't you see?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not just that way, Larry,"—and she continued to gaze at me with a +sweet distress in her eyes; then, "Rosalind is very different," she +added. +</P> + +<P> +"I have observed it! The ways in which they are utterly unlike are +remarkable; but I mustn't keep Gillespie waiting. Good-by for a little +while!" And some foreboding told me that sorrow had not yet done with +her. +</P> + +<P> +Gillespie shouted impatiently as I ran toward him at the boat-house. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the <I>Stiletto</I>," he called, pointing to where the sloop lay, +midway of the lake. "She's in a bad way." +</P> + +<P> +"The storm blew her out," I suggested, but the sight of the boat, +listing badly as though water-logged, struck me ominously. +</P> + +<P> +"We'd better pick her up," he said; and he was already dropping one of +the canoes into the water. We paddled swiftly toward the sloop. The +lake was still fretful from the storm's lashing, but the sky was +without fleck or flaw. The earliest of the little steamers was +crossing from the village, her whistle echoing and re-echoing round the +lake. +</P> + +<P> +"The sloop's about done for," said Gillespie over his shoulder; and we +drove our blades deeper. The <I>Stiletto</I> was floating stern-on and +rolling loggily, but retaining still, I thought, something of the +sinister air that she had worn on her strange business through those +summer days. +</P> + +<P> +"She vent to bed all right; see, her sails are furled snug and +everything's in shape. The storm drove her over here," said Gillespie. +"She's struck something, or somebody's smashed her." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed impossible that the storm unassisted had blown her from +Battle Orchard across Lake Annandale; but we were now close upon her +and seeking for means of getting aboard. +</P> + +<P> +"She's a bit sloppy," observed Gillespie as we swung round and caught +hold. The water gurgled drunkenly in the cuddy, and a broken lantern +rattled on the deck. I held fast as he climbed over, sending me off a +little as he jumped aboard, and I was working back again with the +paddle when he cried out in alarm. +</P> + +<P> +As I came alongside he came back to help me, and when he bent over to +catch the painter, I saw that his face was white. +</P> + +<P> +"We might have known it," he said. "It's the last and worst that could +happen." +</P> + +<P> +Face down across the cuddy lay the body of Henry Holbrook. His +water-soaked clothing was torn as though in a fierce struggle. A knife +thrust in the side told the story; he had crawled to the cuddy roof to +get away from the water and had died there. +</P> + +<P> +"It was the Italian," said Gillespie. "They must have had a row last +night after we left them, and if came to this. He chopped a hole in +the <I>Stiletto</I> and set her adrift to sink." +</P> + +<P> +I looked about for the steamer, which was backing away from the pier at +Port Annandale, and signaled her with my handkerchief. And when I +faced Gillespie again he pointed silently toward the lower lake, where +a canoe rode the bright water. +</P> + +<P> +Rosalind and her father were on their way from Red Gate to Glenarm. +Two blades flashed in the sun as the canoe came toward us. Gillespie's +lips quivered and he tried to speak as he pointed to them; and then we +both turned silently toward St. Agatha's, where the chapel tower rose +above the green wood. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay and do what is to be done," I said. "I will find Helen and tell +her." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rosalind at Red Gate, by Meredith Nicholson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSALIND AT RED GATE *** + +***** This file should be named 34512-h.htm or 34512-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/5/1/34512/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Rosalind at Red Gate + +Author: Meredith Nicholson + +Illustrator: Arthur I. Keller + +Release Date: November 30, 2010 [EBook #34512] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSALIND AT RED GATE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: The carnival of canoes] + + + + + + +ROSALIND AT RED GATE + + +_By_ + +MEREDITH NICHOLSON + + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +ARTHUR I. KELLER + + + + +NEW YORK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1907 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + +NOVEMBER + + + + +TO MY MOTHER + + + + +_Rosalind: I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a +lion._ + +_Orlando: Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady._ + +As You Like It. + + + +"_Then dame Liones said unto Sir Gareth, Sir, I will lend you a ring; +but I would pray you as ye love me heartily let me have it again when +the tournament is done, for that ring increaseth my beauty much more +than it is of itself. And the virtue of my ring is that that is green +it will turn to red, and that is red it will turn in likeness to green, +and that is blue it will turn to likeness of white, and that is white, +it will turn in likeness to blue, and so it will do of all manner of +colours._" + +Morte D'Arthur. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I A Telegram from Paul Stoddard + II Confidences + III I Meet Mr. Reginald Gillespie + IV I Explore Tippecanoe Creek + V A Fight on a House-Boat + VI A Sunday's Mixed Affairs + VII A Broken Oar + VIII A Lady of Shadows and Starlight + IX The Lights on St. Agatha's Pier + X The Flutter of a Handkerchief + XI The Carnival of Canoes + XII The Melancholy of Mr. Gillespie + XIII The Gate of Dreams + XIV Battle Orchard + XV I Undertake a Commission + XVI An Odd Affair at Red Gate + XVII How the Night Ended + XVIII The Lady of the White Butterflies + XIX Helen Takes Me to Task + XX The Touch of Dishonor + XXI A Blue Cloak and a Scarlet + XXII Mr. Gillespie's Diversions + XXIII The Rocket Signal + XXIV "With My Hands" + XXV Daybreak + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The carnival of canoes . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +"We must take no risks whatever, Helen." + +Three white butterflies fluttered about her head. + +"Where's your father, Rosalind?" + + + + +ROSALIND AT RED GATE + + +CHAPTER I + +A TELEGRAM FROM PAUL STODDARD + + Up, up, my heart! Up, up, my heart, + This day was made for thee! + For soon the hawthorn spray shall part, + And thou a face shalt see + That comes, O heart, O foolish heart, + This way to gladden thee. + --_H. C. Bunner_. + + +Stoddard's telegram was brought to me on the Glenarm pier at four +o'clock Tuesday afternoon, the fifth of June. I am thus explicit, for +all the matters hereinafter described turn upon the receipt of +Stoddard's message, which was, to be sure, harmless enough in itself, +but, like many other scraps of paper that blow about the world, the +forerunner of confusion and trouble. + +My friend, Mr. John Glenarm, had gone abroad for the summer with his +family and had turned over to me his house at Annandale that I might +enjoy its seclusion and comfort while writing my book on _Russian +Rivers_. + +If John Glenarm had not taken his family abroad with him when he went +to Turkey to give the sultan's engineers lessons in bridge building; if +I had not accepted his kind offer of the house at Annandale for the +summer; and if Paul Stoddard had not sent me that telegram, I should +never have written this narrative. But such was the predestined way of +it. I rose from the boat I was caulking, and, with the waves from the +receding steamer slapping the pier, read this message: + + +STAMFORD, Conn., June 5. + +Meet Miss Patricia Holbrook Annandale station, five twenty Chicago +express and conduct her to St. Agatha's school, where she is expected. +She will explain difficulties. I have assured her of your sympathy and +aid. Will join you later if necessary. Imperative engagements call me +elsewhere. + +STODDARD. + + +To say that I was angry when I read this message is to belittle the +truth. I read and re-read it with growing heat. I had accepted +Glenarm's offer of the house at Annandale because it promised peace, +and now I was ordered by telegraph to meet a strange person of whom I +had never heard, listen to her story, and tender my sympathy and aid. +I glanced at my watch. It was already after four. "Delayed in +transmission" was stamped across the telegraph form--I learned later +that it had lain half the day in Annandale, New York--so that I was now +face to face with the situation, and without opportunity to fling his +orders back to Stoddard if I wanted to. Nor did I even know Stamford +from Stamboul, and I am not yet clear in my mind--being an Irishman +with rather vague notions of American geography--whether Connecticut is +north or south of Massachusetts. + +"Ijima!" + +I called my Japanese boy from the boat-house, and he appeared, +paint-brush in hand. + +"Order the double trap, and tell them to hurry." + +I reflected, as I picked up my coat and walked toward the house, that +if any one but Paul Stoddard had sent me such a message I should most +certainly have ignored it; but I knew him as a man who did not make +demands or impose obligations lightly. As the founder and superior of +the Protestant religious Order of the Brothers of Bethlehem he was, I +knew, an exceedingly busy man. His religious house was in the Virginia +mountains; but he spent much time in quiet, humble service in city +slums, in lumber-camps, in the mines of Pennsylvania; and occasionally +he appeared like a prophet from the wilderness in some great church of +New York, and preached with a marvelous eloquence to wondering throngs. + +The trap swung into the arched driveway and I bade the coachman make +haste to the Annandale station. The handsome bays were soon trotting +swiftly toward the village, while I drew on my gloves and considered +the situation. A certain Miss Holbrook, of whose existence I had been +utterly ignorant an hour before, was about to arrive at Annandale. A +clergyman, whom I had not seen for two years, had telegraphed me from a +town in Connecticut to meet this person, conduct her to St. Agatha's +School--just closed for the summer, as I knew--and to volunteer my +services in difficulties that were darkly indicated in a telegram of +forty-five words. The sender of the message I knew to be a serious +character, and a gentleman of distinguished social connections. The +name of the lady signified nothing except that she was unmarried; and +as Stoddard's acquaintance was among all sorts and conditions of men I +could assume nothing more than that the unknown had appealed to him as +a priest and that he had sent her to Lake Annandale to shake off the +burdens of the world in the conventual air of St. Agatha's. High-born +Italian ladies, I knew, often retired to remote convents in the Italian +hills for meditation or penance. Miss Holbrook's age I placed +conservatively at twenty-nine; for no better reason, perhaps, than that +I am thirty-two. + +The blue arch of June does not encourage difficulties, doubts or +presentiments; and with the wild rose abloom along the fences and with +robins tossing their song across the highway I ceased to growl and +found curiosity getting the better of my temper. Expectancy, after +all, is the cheerfullest tonic of life, and when the time comes when I +can see the whole of a day's programme from my breakfast-table I shall +be ready for man's last adventure. + +I smoothed my gloves and fumbled my tie as the bays trotted briskly +along the lake shore. The Chicago express whistled for Annandale just +as we gained the edge of the village. It paused a grudging moment and +was gone before we reached the station. I jumped out and ran through +the waiting-room to the platform, where the agent was gathering up the +mail-bags, while an assistant loaded a truck with trunks. I glanced +about, and the moment was an important one in my life. Standing quite +alone beside several pieces of hand-baggage was a lady--unmistakably a +lady--leaning lightly upon an umbrella, and holding under her arm a +magazine. She was clad in brown, from bonnet to shoes; the umbrella +and magazine cover were of like tint, and even the suitcase nearest her +struck the same note of color. There was no doubt whatever as to her +identity; I did not hesitate a moment; the lady in brown was Miss +Holbrook, and she was an old lady, a dear, bewitching old lady, and as +I stepped toward her, her eyes brightened--they, too, were brown!--and +she put out her brown-gloved hand with a gesture so frank and cordial +that I was won at once. + +"Mr. Donovan--Mr. Laurance Donovan--I am sure of it!" + +"Miss Holbrook--I am equally confident!" I said. "I am sorry to be +late, but Father Stoddard's message was delayed." + +"You are kind to respond at all," she said, her wonderful eyes upon me; +"but Father Stoddard said you would not fail me." + +"He is a man of great faith! But I have a trap waiting. We can talk +more comfortably at St. Agatha's." + +"Yes; we are to go to the school. Father Stoddard kindly arranged it. +It is quite secluded, he assured me." + +"You will not be disappointed, Miss Holbrook, if seclusion is what you +seek." + +I picked up the brown bag and turned away, but she waited and glanced +about. Her "we" had puzzled me; perhaps she had brought a maid, and I +followed her glance toward the window of the telegraph office. + +"Oh, Helen; my niece, Helen Holbrook, is with me. I wished to wire +some instructions to my housekeeper at home. Father Stoddard may not +have explained--that it is partly on Helen's account that I am coming +here." + +"No; he explained nothing--merely gave me my instructions," I laughed. +"He gives orders in a most militant fashion." + +In a moment I had been presented to the niece, and had noted that she +was considerably above her aunt's height; that she was dark, with eyes +that seemed quite black in certain lights, and that she bowed, as her +aunt presented me, without offering her hand, and murmured my name in a +voice musical, deep and full, and agreeable to hear. + +She took their checks from her purse, and I called the porter and +arranged for the transfer of their luggage to St. Agatha's. We were +soon in the trap with the bays carrying us at a lively clip along the +lake road. It was all perfectly new to them and they expressed their +delight in the freshness of the young foliage; the billowing fields of +ripening wheat, the wild rose, blackberry and elderberry filling the +angles of the stake-and-rider fences, and the flashing waters of the +lake that carried the eye to distant wooded shores. I turned in my +seat by the driver to answer their questions. + +"There's a summer resort somewhere on the lake; how far is that from +the school?" asked the girl. + +"That's Port Annandale. It's two or three miles from St. Agatha's," I +replied. "On this side and all the way to the school there are farms. +The lake looks like an oval pond as we see it here, but there are +several long arms that creep off into the woods, and there's another +lake of considerable size to the north. Port Annandale lies yonder." + +"Of course we shall see nothing of it," said the younger Miss Holbrook +with finality. + +I sought in vain for any resemblance between the two women; they were +utterly unlike. The little brown lady was interested and responsive +enough; she turned toward her niece with undisguised affection as we +talked, but I caught several times a look of unhappiness in her face, +and the brow that Time had not touched gathered in lines of anxiety and +care. The girl's manner toward her aunt was wholly kind and +sympathetic. + +"I'm sure it will be delightful here, Aunt Pat. Wild roses and blue +water! I'm quite in love with the pretty lake already." + +This was my first introduction to the diminutive of Patricia, and it +seemed very fitting, and as delightful as the dear little woman +herself. She must have caught my smile as the niece so addressed her +for the first time and she smiled back at me in her charming fashion. + +"You are an Irishman, Mr. Donovan, and Pat must sound natural." + +"Oh, all who love Aunt Patricia call her Aunt Pat!" exclaimed the girl. + +"Then Miss Holbrook undoubtedly hears it often," said I, and was at +once sorry for my bit of blarney, for the tears shone suddenly in the +dear brown eyes, and the niece recurred to the summer landscape as a +topic, and talked of the Glenarm place, whose stone wall we were now +passing, until we drove into the grounds of St. Agatha's and up to the +main entrance of the school, where a Sister in the brown garb of her +order stood waiting. + +I first introduced myself to Sister Margaret, who was in charge, and +then presented the two ladies who were to be her guests. It was +disclosed that Sister Theresa, the head of the school, had wired +instructions from York Harbor, where she was spending the summer, +touching Miss Holbrook's reception, and her own rooms were at the +disposal of the guests. St. Agatha's is, as all who are attentive to +such matters know, a famous girls' school founded by Sister Theresa, +and one felt its quality in the appointments of the pretty, cool parlor +where we were received. Sister Margaret said just the right thing to +every one, and I was glad to find her so capable a person, fully able +to care for these exiles without aid from my side of the wall. She was +a tall, fair young woman, with a cheerful countenance, and her merry +eyes seemed always to be laughing at one from the depths of her brown +hood. Pleasantly hospitable, she rang for a maid. + +"Helen, if you will see our things disposed of I will detain Mr. +Donovan a few minutes," said Miss Holbrook. + +"Or I can come again in an hour--I am your near neighbor," I remarked, +thinking she might wish to rest from her journey. + +"I am quite ready," she replied, and I bowed to Helen Holbrook and to +Sister Margaret, who went out, followed by the maid. Miss Pat--you +will pardon me if I begin at once to call her by this name, but it fits +her so capitally, it is so much a part of her, that I can not +resist--Miss Pat put off her bonnet without fuss, placed it on the +table and sat down in a window-seat whence the nearer shore of the lake +was visible across the strip of smooth lawn. + +"Father Stoddard thought it best that I should explain the necessity +that brings us here," she began; "but the place is so quiet that it +seems absurd to think that our troubles could follow us." + +I bowed. The idea of this little woman's being driven into exile by +any sort of trouble seemed preposterous. She drew off her gloves and +leaned back comfortably against the bright pillows of the window-seat. +"Watch the hands of the guest in the tent," runs the Arabian proverb. +Miss Pat's hands seemed to steal appealingly out of her snowy cuffs; +there was no age in them. The breeding showed there as truly as in her +eyes and face. On the third finger of her left hand she wore a +singularly fine emerald, set in an oddly carved ring of Roman gold. + +"Will you please close the door?" she said, and when I came back to the +window she began at once. + +"If is not pleasant, as you must understand, to explain to a stranger +an intimate and painful family trouble. But Father Stoddard advised me +to be quite frank with you." + +"That is the best way, if there is a possibility that I may be of +service," I said in the gentlest tone I could command. "But tell me no +more than you wish. I am wholly at your service without explanations." + +"It is in reference to my brother; he has caused me a great deal of +trouble. When my father died nearly ten years ago--he lived to a great +age--he left a considerable estate, a large fortune. A part of it was +divided at once among my two brothers and myself. The remainder, +amounting to one million dollars, was left to me, with the stipulation +that I was to make a further division between my brothers at the end of +ten years, or at my discretion. I was older than my brothers, much +older, and my father left me with this responsibility, not knowing what +it would lead to. Henry and Arthur succeeded to my father's business, +the banking firm of Holbrook Brothers, in New York. The bank continued +to prosper for a time; then it collapsed suddenly. The debts were all +paid, but Arthur disappeared--there were unpleasant rumors--" + +She paused a moment, and looked out of the window toward the lake, and +I saw her clasped hands tighten; but she went on bravely. + +"That was seven years ago. Since then Henry has insisted on the final +division of the property. My father had a high sense of honor and he +stipulated that if either of his sons should be guilty of any +dishonorable act he should forfeit his half of the million dollars. +Henry insists that Arthur has forfeited his rights and that the amount +withheld should be paid to him now; but his conduct has been such that +I feel I should serve him ill to pay him so large a sum of money. +Moreover, I owe something to his daughter--to Helen. Owing to her +father's reckless life I have had her make her home with me for several +years. She is a noble girl, and very beautiful--you must have seen, +Mr. Donovan, that she is an unusually beautiful girl." + +"Yes," I assented. + +"And better than that," she said with feeling, "she is a very lovely +character." + +I nodded, touched to see how completely Helen Holbrook filled and +satisfied her aunt's life. Miss Pat continued her story. + +"My brother first sought to frighten me into a settlement by menacing +my own peace; and now he includes Helen in his animosity. My house at +Stamford was set on fire a month ago; then thieves entered it and I was +obliged to leave. We arranged to go abroad, but when we got to the +steamer we found Henry waiting with a threat to follow us if I did not +accede to his demands. It was Father Stoddard who suggested this +place, and we came by a circuitous route, pausing here and there to see +whether we were followed. We were in the Adirondacks for a week, then +we went into Canada, crossed the lake to Cleveland and finally came on +here. You can imagine how distressing--how wretched all this has been." + +"Yes; it is a sad story, Miss Holbrook. But you are not likely to be +molested here. You have a lake on one side, a high wall shuts off the +road, and I beg you to accept me as your near neighbor and protector. +The servants at Mr. Glenarm's house have been with him for several +years and are undoubtedly trustworthy. It is not likely that your +brother will find you here, but if he should--we will deal with that +situation when the time comes!" + +"You are very reassuring; no doubt we shall not need to call on you. +And I hope you understand," she continued anxiously, "that it is not to +keep the money that I wish to avoid my brother; that if it were wise to +make this further division at this time and it were for his good, I +should be glad to give him all--every penny of it." + +"Pardon me, but the other brother--he has not made similar demands--you +do not fear him?" I inquired with some hesitation. + +"To--no!" And a tremulous smile played about her lips. "Poor Arthur! +He must be dead. He ran away after the bank failure and I have never +heard from him since. He and Henry were very unlike, and I always felt +more closely attached to Arthur. He was not brilliant, like Henry; he +was gentle and quiet in his ways, and father was often impatient with +him. Henry has been very bitter toward Arthur and has appealed to me +on the score of Arthur's ill-doing. It took all his own fortune, he +says, to save Arthur and the family name from dishonor." + +She was remarkably composed throughout this recital, and I marveled at +her more and more. Now, after a moment's silence, she turned to me +with a smile. + +"We have been annoyed in another way. It is so ridiculous that I +hesitate to tell you of it--" + +"Pray do not--you need tell me nothing more, Miss Holbrook." + +"It is best for you to know. My niece has been annoyed the past year +by the attentions of a young man whom she greatly dislikes and whose +persistence distresses her very much indeed." + +"Well, he can hardly find her here; and if he should--" + +Miss Holbrook folded her arms upon her knees and smiled, bending toward +me. The loveliness of her hair, which she wore parted and brushed back +at the temples, struck me for the first time. The brown--I was sure it +had been brown!--had yielded to white--there was no gray about it; it +was the soft white of summer clouds. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed; "he isn't a violent person, Mr. Donovan. He's +silly, absurd, idiotic! You need fear no violence from him." + +"And of course your niece is not interested--he's not a fellow to +appeal to her imagination." + +"That is quite true; and then in our present unhappy circumstances, +with her father hanging over her like a menace, marriage is far from +her thoughts. She feels that even if she were attached to a man and +wished to marry, she could not. I wish she did not feel so; I should +be glad to see her married and settled in her own home. These +difficulties can not last always; but while they continue we are +practically exiles. Helen has taken it all splendidly, and her loyalty +to me is beyond anything I could ask. It's a very dreadful thing, as +you can understand, for brother and sister and father and child to be +arrayed against one another." + +I wished to guide the talk into cheerfuller channels before leaving. +Miss Pat seemed amused by the thought of the unwelcome suitor, and I +determined to leave her with some word in reference to him. + +"If a strange knight in quest of a lady comes riding through the wood, +how shall I know him? What valorous words are written on his shield, +and does he carry a lance or a suit-case?" + +"He is the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance," said Miss Holbrook in +my own key, as she rose. "You would know him anywhere by his clothes +and the remarkable language he uses. He is not to be taken very +seriously--that's the trouble with him! But I have been afraid that he +and my brother might join hands in the pursuit of us." + +"But the Sorrowful Knight would not advance his interests by that--he +could only injure his cause!" I exclaimed. + +"Oh, he has no subtlety; he's a very foolish person; he blunders at +windmills with quixotic ardor. You understand, of course, that our +troubles are not known widely. We used to be a family of some +dignity,"--and Miss Patricia drew herself up a trifle and looked me +straight in the eyes--"and I hope still for happier years." + +"Won't you please say good night to Miss Holbrook for me?" I said, my +hand on the door. + +And then an odd thing happened. I was about to take my departure +through the front hall when I remembered a short cut to the Glenarm +gate from the rear of the school. I walked the length of the parlor to +a door that would, I knew, give ready exit to the open. I bowed to +Miss Pat, who stood erect, serene, adorable, in the room that was now +touched with the first shadows of waning day, and her slight figure was +so eloquent of pathos, her smile so brave, that I bowed again, with a +reverence I already felt for her. + +Then as I flung the door open and stepped into the hall I heard the +soft swish of skirts, a light furtive step, and caught a glimpse--or +could have sworn I did--of white. There was only one Sister in the +house, and a few servants; it seemed incredible that they could be +eavesdropping upon this guest of the house. I crossed a narrow hall, +found the rear door, and passed out into the park. Something prompted +me to turn when I had taken a dozen steps toward the Glenarm gate. The +vines on the gray stone buildings were cool to the eye with their green +that hung like a tapestry from eaves to earth. And suddenly, as though +she came out of the ivied wall itself, Helen Holbrook appeared on the +little balcony opening from one of the first-floor rooms, rested the +tips of her fingers on the green vine-clasped rail, and, seeing me, +bowed and smiled. + +She was gowned in white, with a scarlet ribbon at her throat, and the +green wall vividly accented and heightened her outline. I stood, +staring like a fool for what seemed a century of heart-beats as she +flashed forth there, out of what seemed a sheer depth of masonry; then +she turned her head slightly, as though in disdain of me, and looked +off toward the lake. I had uncovered at sight of her, and found, when +I gained the broad hall at Glenarm House, that I still carried my hat. + +An hour later, as I dined in solitary state, that white figure was +still present before me; and I could not help wondering, though the +thought angered me, whether that graceful head had been bent against +the closed door of the parlor at St. Agatha's, and (if such were the +fact) why Helen Holbrook, who clearly enjoyed the full confidence of +her aunt, should have stooped to such a trick to learn what Miss +Patricia said to me. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CONFIDENCES + + When Spring grows old, and sleepy winds + Set from the South with odors sweet, + I see my love in green, cool groves, + Speed down dusk aisles on shining feet. + + She throws a kiss and bids me run, + In whispers sweet as roses' breath; + I know I can not win the race, + And at the end I know is death. + + O race of love! we all have run + Thy happy course through groves of spring, + And cared not, when at last we lost, + For life, or death, or anything! + --_Atalanta: Maurice Thompson_. + + +Miss Patricia received me the following afternoon on the lawn at St. +Agatha's where, in a cool angle of the buildings, a maid was laying the +cloth on a small table. + +"It is good of you to come. Helen will be here presently. She went +for a walk on the shore." + +"You must both of you make free of the Glenarm preserve. Don't +consider the wall over there a barricade; it's merely to add to the +picturesqueness of the landscape." + +Miss Patricia was quite rested from her journey, and expressed her +pleasure in the beauty and peace of the place in frank and cordial +terms. And to-day I suspected, what later I fully believed, that she +affected certain old-fashioned ways in a purely whimsical spirit. Her +heart was young enough, but she liked to play at being old! Sister +Theresa's own apartments had been placed at her disposal, and the +house, Miss Patricia declared, was delightfully cool. + +"I could ask nothing better than this. Sister Margaret is most kind in +every way. Helen and I have had a peaceful twenty-four hours--the +first in two years--and I feel that at last we have found safe +harborage." + +"Best assured of it, Miss Holbrook! The summer colony is away off +there and you need see nothing of it; it is quite out of sight and +sound. You have seen Annandale--the sleepiest of American villages, +with a curio shop and a candy and soda-fountain place and a picture +post-card booth which the young ladies of St. Agatha's patronize +extensively when they are here. The summer residents are just +beginning to arrive on their shore, but they will not molest you. If +they try to land over here we'll train our guns on them and blow them +out of the water. As your neighbor beyond the iron gate of Glenarm I +beg that you will look upon me as your man-at-arms. My sword, Madam, I +lay at your feet." + +"Sheathe it, Sir Laurance; nor draw it save in honorable cause," she +returned on the instant, and then she was grave again. + +"Sister Margaret is most kind in every way; she seems wholly discreet, +and has assured me of her interest and sympathy," said Miss Patricia, +as though she wished me to confirm her own impression. + +"There's no manner of doubt of it. She is Sister Theresa's assistant. +It is inconceivable that she could possibly interfere in your affairs. +I believe you are perfectly safe here in every way, Miss Holbrook. If +at the end of a week your brother has made no sign, we shall be +reasonably certain that he has lost the trail." + +"I believe that is true; and I thank you very much." + +I had come prepared to be disillusioned, to find her charm gone, but +her small figure had even an added distinction; her ways, her manner an +added grace. I found myself resisting the temptation to call her +quaint, as implying too much; yet I felt that in some olden time, on +some noble estate in England, or, better, in some storied colonial +mansion in Virginia, she must have had her home in years long gone, +living on with no increase of age to this present. She was her own +law, I judged, in the matter of fashion. I observed later a certain +uniformity in the cut of her gowns, as though, at some period, she had +found a type wholly comfortable and to her liking and thereafter had +clung to it. She suggested peace and gentleness and a beautiful +patience; and I strove to say amusing things, that I might enjoy her +rare luminous smile and catch her eyes when she gave me her direct gaze +in the quick, challenging way that marked her as a woman of position +and experience, who had been more given to command than to obey. + +"Did you think I was never coming, Aunt Pat? That shore-path calls for +more strenuous effort than I imagined, and I had to change my gown +again." + +Helen Holbrook advanced quickly and stood by her aunt's chair, nodding +to me smilingly, and while we exchanged the commonplaces of the day, +she caught up Miss Pat's hand and held it a moment caressingly. The +maid now brought the tea. Miss Pat poured it and the talk went forward +cheerily. + +The girl was in white, and at the end of a curved bench, with a variety +of colored cushions about her and the bright sward and tranquil lake +beyond, she made a picture wholly agreeable to my eyes. Her hair was +dead black, and I saw for the first time that its smooth line on her +brow was broken by one of those curious, rare little points called +widow's peak. They are not common, nor, to be sure, are they +important; yet it seemed somehow to add interest to her graceful pretty +head. + +It was quite clear in a moment that Helen was bent on treating me +rather more amiably than on the day before, while at the same time +showing her aunt every deference. I was relieved to find them both +able to pitch their talk in a light key. The thought of sitting daily +and drearily discussing their troubles with two exiled women had given +me a dark moment at the station the day before; but we were now having +tea in the cheerfullest fashion in the world; and, as for their +difficulties, I had no idea whatever that they would be molested so +long as they remained quietly at Annandale. Miss Pat and her niece +were not the hysterical sort; both apparently enjoyed sound health, and +they were not the kind of women who see ghosts in every alcove and go +to bed to escape the lightning. + +"Oh, Mr. Donovan," said Helen Holbrook, as I put down her cup, "there +are some letters I should like to write and I wish you would tell me +whether it is safe to have letters come for us to Annandale; or would +it be better to send nothing from here at all? It does seem odd to +have to ask such a question--" and she concluded in a tone of distress +and looked at me appealingly. + +"We must take no risks whatever, Helen," remarked Miss Pat decisively. + +[Illustration: "We must take no risks whatever, Helen."] + +"Does no one know where you are?" I inquired of Miss Patricia. + +"My lawyer, in New York, has the name of this place, sealed; and he put +it away in a safety box and promised not to open it unless something of +very great importance happened." + +"It is best to take no chances," I said; "so I should answer your +question in the negative, Miss Holbrook. In the course of a few weeks +everything may seem much clearer; and in the meantime it will be wiser +not to communicate with the outer world." + +"They deliver mail through the country here, don't they?" asked Helen. +"It must be a great luxury for the farmers to have the post-office at +their very doors." + +"Yes, but the school and Mr. Glenarm always send for their own mail to +Annandale." + +"Our mail is all going to my lawyer," said Miss Pat, "and it must wait +until we can have it sent to us without danger." + +"Certainly, Aunt Pat," replied Helen readily. "I didn't mean to give +Mr. Donovan the impression that my correspondence was enormous; but it +is odd to be shut up in this way and not to be able to do as one likes +in such little matters." + +The wind blew in keenly from the lake as the sun declined and Helen +went unasked and brought an India shawl and put it about Miss Pat's +shoulders. The girl's thoughtfulness for her aunt's comfort pleased +me, and I found myself liking her better. + +It was time for me to leave and I picked up my hat and stick. As I +started away I was aware that Helen Holbrook detained me without in the +least appearing to do so, following a few steps to gain, as she said, a +certain view of the lake that was particularly charming. + +"There is nothing rugged in this landscape, but it is delightful in its +very tranquillity," she said, as we loitered on, the shimmering lake +before us, the wood behind ablaze with the splendor of the sun. She +spoke of the beauty of the beeches, which are of noble girth in this +region, and paused to indicate a group of them whose smooth trunks were +like massive pillars. As we looked back I saw that Miss Pat had gone +into the house, driven no doubt by the persistency of the west wind +that crisped the lake. Helen's manner changed abruptly, and she said: + +"If any difficulty should arise here, if my poor father should find out +where we are, I trust that you may be able to save my aunt anxiety and +pain. That is what I wished to say to you, Mr. Donovan." + +"Certainly," I replied, meeting her eyes, and noting a quiver of the +lips that was eloquent of deep feeling and loyalty. She continued +beside me, her head erect as though by a supreme effort of +self-control, and with I knew not what emotions shaking her heart. She +continued silent as we marched on and I felt that there was the least +defiance in her air; then she drew a handkerchief from her sleeve, +touched it lightly to her eyes, and smiled. + +"I had not thought of quite following you home! Here is Glenarm +gate--and there lie your battlements and towers." + +"Rather they belong to my old friend, John Glenarm. In his goodness of +heart he gave me the use of the place for the summer; and as generosity +with another's property is very easy, I hereby tender you our +fleet--canoes, boats, steam launch--and the stable, which contains a +variety of traps and a good riding-horse or two. They are all at your +service. I hope that you and your aunt will not fail to avail +yourselves of each and all. Do you ride? I was specially charged to +give the horses exercise." + +"Thank you very much," she said. "When we are well settled, and feel +more secure, we shall be glad to call on you. Father Stoddard +certainly served us well in sending us to you, Mr. Donovan." + +In a moment she spoke again, quite slowly, and with, I thought, a very +pretty embarrassment. + +"Aunt Pat may have spoken of another difficulty--a mere annoyance, +really," and she smiled at me gravely. + +"Oh, yes; of the youngster who has been troubling you. Your father and +he have, of course, no connection." + +"No; decidedly not. But he is a very offensive person, Mr. Donovan. +It would be a matter of great distress to me if he should pursue us to +this place." + +"It is inconceivable that a gentleman--if he is a gentleman--should +follow you merely for the purpose of annoying you. I have heard that +young ladies usually know how to get rid of importunate suitors." + +"I have heard that they have that reputation," she laughed back. "But +Mr. Gillespie--" + +"That's the name, is it? Your aunt did not mention it." + +"Yes; he lives quite near us at Stamford. Aunt Pat disliked his father +before him, and now that he is dead she visits her displeasure on the +son; but she is quite right about it. He is a singularly unattractive +and uninteresting person, and I trust that he will not find us." + +"That is quite unlikely. You will do well to forget all about +him--forget all your troubles and enjoy the beauty of these June days." + +We had reached Glenarm gate, and St. Agatha's was now hidden by the +foliage along the winding path. I was annoyed to realize how much I +enjoyed this idling. I felt my pulse quicken when our eyes met. Her +dark oval face was beautiful with the loveliness of noble Italian women +I had seen on great occasions in Rome. I had not known that hair could +be so black, and it was fine and soft; the widow's peak was as sharply +defined on her smooth forehead as though done with crayon. Dark women +should always wear white, I reflected, as she paused and lifted her +head to listen to the chime in the tower of the little Gothic chapel--a +miniature affair that stood by the wall--a chime that flung its melody +on the soft summer air like a handful of rose-leaves. She picked up a +twig and broke it in her fingers; and looking down I saw that she wore +on her left hand an emerald ring identical with the one worn by her +aunt. It was so like that I should have believed it the same, had I +not noted Miss Pat's ring but a few minutes before. Helen threw away +the bits of twig when we came to the wall, and, as I swung the gate +open, paused mockingly with clasped hands and peered inside. + +"I must go back," she said. Then, her manner changing, she dropped her +hands at her side and faced me. + +"You will warn me, Mr. Donovan, of the first approach of trouble. I +wish to save my aunt in every way possible--she means so much to me; +she has made life easy for me where it would have been hard." + +"There will be no trouble, Miss Holbrook. You are as safe as though +you were hidden in a cave in the Apennines; but I shall give you +warning at the first sign of danger." + +"My father is--is quite relentless," she murmured, averting her eyes. + +I turned to retrace the path with her; but she forbade me and was gone +swiftly--a flash of white through the trees--before I could parley with +her. I stared after her as long as I could hear her light tread in the +path. And when she had vanished a feeling of loneliness possessed me +and the country quiet mocked me with its peace. + +I clanged the Glenarm gates together sharply and went in to dinner; but +I pondered long as I smoked on the star-hung terrace. Through the wood +directly before me I saw lights flash from the small craft of the lake, +and the sharp tum-tum of a naphtha launch rang upon the summer night. +Insects made a blur of sound in the dark and the chant of the katydids +rose and fell monotonously. + +I flung away a half-smoked cigar and lighted my pipe. There was no +disguising the truth that the coming of the Holbrooks had got on my +nerves--at least that was my phrase for it. Now that I thought of it, +they were impudent intruders and Paul Stoddard had gone too far in +turning them over to me. There was nothing in their story, anyhow; it +was preposterous, and I resolved to let them severely alone. But even +as these thoughts ran through my mind I turned toward St. Agatha's, +whose lights were visible through the trees, and I knew that there was +nothing honest in my impatience. Helen Holbrook's eyes were upon me +and her voice called from the dark; and when the clock chimed nine in +the tower beyond the wall memory brought back the graceful turn of her +dark head, the firm curve of her throat as she had listened to the +mellow fling of the bells. + +And here, for the better instruction of those friends who amuse +themselves with the idea that I am unusually susceptible, as they say, +to the charms of woman, I beg my reader's indulgence while I state, +quite honestly, the flimsy basis of this charge. Once, in my twentieth +year, while I was still an undergraduate at Trinity, Dublin, I went to +the Killarney Lakes for a week's end. My host--a fellow student--had +taken me home to see his horses; but it was not his stable, but his +blue-eyed sister, that captivated my fancy. I had not known that +anything could be so beautiful as she was, and I feel and shall always +feel that it was greatly to my credit that I fell madly in love with +her. Our affair was fast and furious, and lamentably detrimental to my +standing at Trinity. I wrote some pretty bad verses in her praise, and +I am not in the least ashamed of that weakness, or that the best +florist in Ireland prospered at the expense of my tailor and laundress. +It lasted a year, and to say that it was like a beautiful dream is +merely to betray my poor command of language. The end, too, was +fitting enough, and not without its compensations: I kissed her one +night--she will not, I am sure, begrudge me the confession; it was a +moonlight night in May; and thereafter within two months she married a +Belfast brewer's son who could not have rhymed eyes with skies to save +his malted soul. + +Embittered by this experience I kept out of trouble for two years, and +my next affair was with a widow, two years my senior, whom I met at a +house in Scotland where I was staying for the shooting. She was a bit +mournful, and lavender became her well. I forgot the grouse after my +first day, and gave myself up to consoling her. She had, as no other +woman I have known has had, a genius--it was nothing less--for graceful +attitudes. To surprise her before an open fire, her prettily curved +chin resting on her pink little palm, her eyes bright with lurking +tears, and to see her lips twitch with the effort to restrain a sob +when one came suddenly upon her--but the picture is not for my clumsy +hand! I have never known whether she suffered me to make love to her +merely as a distraction, or whether she was briefly amused by my ardor +and entertained by the new phrases of adoration I contrived for her. I +loved her quite sincerely; I am glad to have experienced the tumult she +stirred in me--glad that the folding of her little hands upon her +knees, as she bent toward the lighted hearth in that old Scotch manor, +and her low, murmuring, mournful voice, made my heart jump. I told +her--and recall it without shame--that her eyes were adorable islands +aswim in brimming seas, and that her hands were fluttering white doves +of peace. I found that I could maintain that sort of thing without +much trouble for an hour at a time. + +I did not know it was the last good-by when I packed my bags and +gun-cases and left one frosty morning. I regret nothing, but am glad +it all happened just so. Her marriage to a clergyman in the +Establishment--a duke's second son in holy orders who enjoyed +considerable reputation as a cricketer--followed quickly, and I have +never seen her since. I was in love with that girl for at least a +month. It did me no harm, and I think she liked it herself. + +I next went down before the slang of an American girl with teasing eyes +and amazing skill at tennis, whom I met at Oxford when she was a +student in Lady Margaret. Her name was Iris and she was possessed by +the spirit of Mischief. If you know aught of the English, you know +that the average peaches-and-cream English girl is not, to put it +squarely, exciting. Iris understood this perfectly and delighted in +doing things no girl had ever done before in that venerable town. She +lived at home--her family had taken a house out beyond Magdalen; and +she went to and from the classic halls of Lady Margaret in a dog-cart, +sometimes with a groom, sometimes without. When alone she dashed +through the High at a gait which caused sedate matrons to stare and +sober-minded fellows of the university to swear, and admiring +undergraduates to chuckle with delight. I had gone to Oxford to +consult a certain book in the Bodleian--a day's business only; but it +fell about that in the post-office, where I had gone on an errand, I +came upon Iris struggling for a cable-blank, and found one for her. As +she stood at the receiving counter, impatiently waiting to file her +message, she remarked, for the benefit, I believed, of a gaitered +bishop at her elbow: "How perfectly rotten this place is!"--and winked +at me. She was seventeen, and I was old enough to know better, but we +had some talk, and the next day she bowed to me in front of St. Mary's +and, the day after, picked me up out near Keble and drove me all over +town, and past Lady Margaret, and dropped me quite boldly at the door +of the Mitre. Shameful! It was; but at the end of a week I knew all +her family, including her father, who was bored to death, and her +mother, who had thought it a fine thing to move from Zanesville, Ohio, +to live in a noble old academic center like Oxford--that was what too +much home-study and literary club had done for her. + +Iris kept the cables hot with orders for clothes, caramels and shoes, +while I lingered and hung upon her lightest slang and encouraged her in +the idea that education in her case was a sinful waste of time; and I +comforted her father for the loss of his native buckwheat cakes and +consoled her mother, who found that seven of the perfect English +servants of the story-books did less than the three she had maintained +at Zanesville. I lingered in Oxford two months, and helped them get +out of town when Iris was dropped from college for telling the +principal that the Zanesville High School had Lady Margaret over the +ropes for general educational efficiency, and that, moreover, she would +not go to the Established Church because the litany bored her. +Whereupon--their dependence on me having steadily increased--I got them +out of Oxford and over to Dresden, and Iris and I became engaged. Then +I went to Ireland on a matter of business, made an incendiary speech in +Galway, smashed a couple of policemen and landed in jail. Before my +father, with, I fear, some reluctance, bailed me out, Iris had eloped +with a lieutenant in the German army and her family had gone sadly back +to Zanesville. + +This is the truth, and the whole truth, and I plead guilty to every +count of the indictment. Thereafter my pulses cooled and I sought the +peace of jungles; and the eyes of woman charmed me no more. When I +landed at Annandale and opened my portfolio to write _Russian Rivers_ +my last affair was half a dozen years behind me. + +Sobered by these reflections, I left the terrace shortly after eleven +and walked through the strip of wood that lay between the house and the +lake to the Glenarm pier; and at once matters took a turn that put the +love of woman quite out of the reckoning. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +I MEET MR. REGINALD GILLESPIE + + There was a man in our town, + And he was wondrous wise, + He jump'd into a bramble-bush, + And scratch'd out both his eyes; + But when he saw his eyes were out, + With all his might and main + He jump'd into another bush, + And scratch'd them in again. + --_Old Ballad_. + + +As I neared the boat-house I saw a dark figure sprawled on the veranda +and my Japanese boy spoke to me softly. The moon was at full and I +drew up in the shadow of the house and waited. Ijima had been with me +for several years and was a boy of unusual intelligence. He spoke both +English and French admirably, was deft of hand and wise of mind, and I +was greatly attached to him. His courage, fidelity and discretion I +had tested more than once. He lay quite still on the pier, gazing out +upon the lake, and I knew that something unusual had attracted his +attention. He spoke to me in a moment, but without turning his head. + +"A man has been rowing up and down the shore for an hour. When he came +in close here I asked him what he wanted and he rowed away without +answering. He is now off there by the school." + +"Probably a summer boarder from across the lake." + +"Hardly, sir. He came from the direction of the village and acts +queerly." + +I flung myself down on the pier and crawled out to where Ijima lay. +Every pier on the lake had its distinctive lights; the Glenarm sea-mark +was--and remains--red, white and green. We lay by the post that bore +the three lanterns, and watched the slow movement of a rowboat along +the margin of the school grounds. The boat was about a thousand yards +from us in a straight line, though farther by the shore; but the +moonlight threw the oarsman and his craft into sharp relief against the +overhanging bank. St. Agatha's maintains a boathouse for the use of +students, and the pier lights--red, white and red--lay beyond the +boatman, and he seemed to be drawing slowly toward them. The fussy +little steamers that run the errands of the cottagers had made their +last rounds and sought their berths for the night, and the lake lay +still in the white bath of light. + +"Drop one of the canoes into the water," I said; and I watched the +prowling boatman while Ijima crept back to the boat-house. The canoe +was launched silently and the boy drove it out to me with a few light +strokes. I took the paddle, and we crept close along the shore toward +the St. Agatha light, my eyes intent on the boat, which was now drawing +in to the school pier. The prowler was feeling his way carefully, as +though the region were unfamiliar; but he now landed at the pier and +tied his boat. I hung back in the shadows until he had disappeared up +the bank, then paddled to the pier, told Ijima to wait, and set off +through the wood-path toward St. Agatha's. + +Where the wood gave way to the broad lawn that stretched up to the +school buildings I caught sight of my quarry. He was strolling along +under the beeches to the right of me, and I paused about a hundred feet +behind him to watch events. He was a young fellow, not above average +height, but compactly built, and stood with his hands thrust boyishly +in his pockets, gazing about with frank interest in his surroundings. +He was bareheaded and coatless, and his shirt-sleeves were rolled to +the elbow. He walked slowly along the edge of the wood, looking off +toward the school buildings, and while his manner was furtive there +was, too, an air of unconcern about him and I heard him whistling +softly to himself. + +He now withdrew into the wood and started off with the apparent +intention of gaining a view of St. Agatha's from the front, and I +followed. He seemed harmless enough; he might be a curious pilgrim +from the summer resort; but I was just now the guardian of St. Agatha's +and I intended to learn the stranger's business before I had done with +him. He swung well around toward the driveway, threading the flower +garden, but hanging always close under the trees, and the mournful +whistle would have guided me had not the moon made his every movement +perfectly clear. He reached the driveway leading in from the Annandale +road without having disclosed any purpose other than that of viewing +the vine-clad walls with a tourist's idle interest. The situation had +begun to bore me, when the school gardener came running out of the +shrubbery, and instantly the young man took to his heels. + +"Stop! Stop!" yelled the gardener. + +The mysterious young man plunged into the wood and was off like the +wind. + +"After him, Andy! After him!" I yelled to the Scotchman. + +I shouted my own name to reassure him and we both went thumping through +the beeches. The stranger would undoubtedly seek to get back to his +boat, I reasoned, but he was now headed for the outer wall, and as the +wood was free of underbrush he was sprinting away from us at a lively +gait. Whoever the young gentleman was, he had no intention of being +caught; he darted in and out among the trees with astounding lightness, +and I saw in a moment that he was slowly turning away to the right. + +"Run for the gate!" I called to the gardener, who was about twenty feet +away from me, blowing hard. I prepared to gain on the turn if the +young fellow dashed for the lake; and he now led me a pretty chase +through the flower garden. He ran with head up and elbows close at his +sides, and his light boat shoes made scarcely any sound. He turned +once and looked back and, finding that I was alone, began amusing +himself with feints and dodges, for no other purpose, I fancied, than +to perplex or wind me. There was a little summer-house mid-way of the +garden, and he led me round this till my head swam. By this time I had +grown pretty angry, for a foot-race in a school garden struck me with +disgust as a childish enterprise, and I bent with new spirit and drove +him away from his giddy circling about the summer-house and beyond the +only gate by which he could regain the wood and meadow that lay between +the garden and his boat. He turned his head from side to side +uneasily, slackening his pace to study the bounds of the garden, and I +felt myself gaining. + +Ahead of us lay a white picket fence that set off the vegetable garden +and marked the lawful bounds of the school. There was no gate and I +felt that here the chase must end, and I rejoiced to find myself so +near the runner that I heard the quick, soft patter of his shoes on the +walk. In a moment I was quite sure that I should have him by the +collar, and I had every intention of dealing severely with him for the +hard chase he had given me. + +But he kept on, the white line of fence clearly outlined beyond him; +and then when my hand was almost upon him he rose at the fence, as +though sprung from the earth itself, and hung a moment sheer above the +sharp line of the fence pickets, his whole figure held almost +horizontal, in the fashion of trained high-jumpers, for what seemed an +infinite time, as though by some witchery of the moonlight. + +I plunged into the fence with a force that knocked the wind out of me +and as I clung panting to the pickets the runner dropped with a crash +into the midst of a glass vegetable frame on the farther side. He +turned his head, grinned at me sheepishly through the pickets, and gave +a kick that set the glass to tinkling. Then he held up his hands in +sign of surrender and I saw that they were cut and bleeding. We were +both badly blown, and while we regained our wind we stared at each +other. He was the first to speak. + +"Kicked, bit or stung!" he muttered dolefully; "that saddest of all +words, 'stung!' It's as clear as moonlight that I'm badly mussed, not +to say cut." + +"May I trouble you not to kick out any more of that glass? The +gardener will be here in a minute and fish you out." + +"Lawsy, what is it? An aquarium, that you fish for me?" + +He chuckled softly, but sat perfectly quiet, finding, it seemed, a +certain humor in his situation. The gardener came running up and swore +in broad Scots at the destruction of the frame. We got over the fence +and released our captive, who talked to himself in doleful undertones +as we hauled him to his feet amid a renewed clink of glass. + +"Gently, gentlemen; behold the night-blooming cereus! Not all the +court-plaster in the universe can glue me together again." He gazed +ruefully at his slashed arms, and rubbed his legs. "The next time I +seek the garden at dewy eve I'll wear my tin suit." + +"There won't be any next time for you. What did you run for?" + +"Trying to lower my record--it's a mania with me. And as one good +question deserves another, may I ask why you didn't tell me there was a +glass-works beyond that fence? It wasn't sportsmanlike to hide a +murderous hazard like that. But I cleared those pickets with a yard to +spare, and broke my record." + +"You broke about seven yards of glass," I replied. "It may sober you +to know that you are under arrest. The watchman here has a constable's +license." + +"He also has hair that suggests the common garden or boiled carrot. +The tint is not to my liking; yet it is not for me to be captious where +the Lord has hardened His heart." + +"What is your name?" I demanded. + +"Gillespie. R. Gillespie. The 'R' will indicate to you the depth of +my humility: I make it a life work to hide the fact that I was baptized +Reginald." + +"I've been expecting you, Mr. Gillespie, and now I want you to come +over to my house and give an account of yourself. I will take charge +of this man, Andy. I promise that he shan't set foot here again. And, +Andy, you need mention this affair to no one." + +"Very good, sir." + +He touched his hat respectfully. + +"I have business with this person. Say nothing to the ladies at St. +Agatha's about him." + +He saluted and departed; and with Gillespie walking beside me I started +for the boat-landing. + +He had wrapped a handkerchief about one arm and I gave him my own for +the other. His right arm was bleeding freely below the elbow and I +tied it up for him. + +"That jump deserved better luck," I volunteered, as he accepted my aid +in silence. + +"I'm proud to have you like it. Will you kindly tell me who the devil +you are?" + +"My name is Donovan." + +"I don't wholly care for it," he observed mournfully. "Think it over +and see if you can't do better. I'm not sure that I'm going to grow +fond of you. What's your business with me, anyhow?" + +"My business, Mr. Gillespie, is to see that you leave this lake by the +first and fastest train." + +"Is it possible?" he drawled mockingly. + +"More than that," I replied in his own key; "it is decidedly probable." + +"Meanwhile, it would be diverting to know where you're taking me. I +thought the other chap was the constable." + +"I'm taking you to the house of a friend where I'm visiting. I'm going +to row you in your boat. It's only a short distance; and when we get +there I shall have something to say to you." + +He made no reply, but got into the boat without ado. He found a light +flannel coat and I flung it over his shoulders and pulled for Glenarm +pier, telling the Japanese boy to follow with the canoe. I turned over +in my mind the few items of information that I had gained from Miss Pat +and her niece touching the young man who was now my prisoner, and found +that I knew little enough about him. He was the unwelcome and annoying +suitor of Miss Helen Holbrook, and I had caught him prowling about St. +Agatha's in a manner that was indefensible. + +He sat huddled in the stern, nursing his swathed arms on his knees and +whistling dolefully. The lake was a broad pool of silver. Save for +the soft splash of Ijima's paddle behind me and the slight wash of +water on the near shore, silence possessed the world. Gillespie looked +about with some curiosity, but said nothing, and when I drove the boat +to the Glenarm landing he crawled out and followed me through the wood +without a word. + +I flashed on the lights in the library and after a short inspection of +his wounds we went to my room and found sponges, plasters and ointments +in the family medicine chest and cared for his injuries. + +"There's no honor in tumbling into a greenhouse, but such is R. +Gillespie's luck. My shins look like scarlet fever, and without sound +legs a man's better dead." + +"Your legs seem to have got you into trouble; don't mourn the loss of +them!" And I twisted a bandage under his left knee-cap where the glass +had cut savagely. + +"It's my poor wits, if we must fix the blame. It's an awful thing, +sir, to be born with weak intellectuals. As man's legs carry him on +orders from his head, there lies the seat of the difficulty. A weak +mind, obedient legs, and there you go, plump into the bosom of a +blooming asparagus bed, and the enemy lays violent hands on you. If +you put any more of that sting-y pudding on that cut I shall +undoubtedly hit you, Mr. Donovan. Ah, thank you, thank you so much!" + +As I finished with the vaseline he lay back on the couch and sighed +deeply and I rose and sent Ijima away with the basin and towels. + +"Will you drink? There are twelve kinds of whisky--" + +"My dear Mr. Donovan, the thought of strong drink saddens me. Such +poor wits as mine are not helped by alcoholic stimulants. I was drunk +once--beautifully, marvelously, nobly drunk, so that antiquity came up +to date with the thud of a motor-car hitting an orphan asylum; and I +saw Julius Caesar driving a chariot up Fifth Avenue and Cromwell poised +on one foot on the shorter spire of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Are you +aware, my dear sir, that one of those spires is shorter than the other?" + +"I certainly am not," I replied bluntly, wondering what species of +madman I had on my hands. + +"It's a fact, confided to me by a prominent engineer of New York, who +has studied those spires daily since they were put up. He told me that +when he had surrounded five high-balls the north spire was higher; but +that the sixth tumblerful always raised the south spire about eleven +feet above it. Now, wouldn't that doddle you?" + +"It would, Mr. Gillespie; but may I ask you to cut out this rot--" + +"My dear Mr. Donovan, it's indelicate of you to speak of cutting +anything--and me with my legs. But I'm at your service. You have +tended my grievous wounds like a gentleman and now do you wish me to +unfold my past, present and future?" + +"I want you to get out of this and be quick about it. Your biography +doesn't amuse me; I caught you prowling disgracefully about St. +Agatha's. Two ladies are domiciled there who came here to escape your +annoying attentions. Those ladies were put in my charge by an old +friend, and I don't propose to stand any nonsense from you, Mr. +Gillespie. You seem to be at least half sane--" + +Reginald Gillespie raised himself on the couch and grinned joyously. + +"Thank you--thank you for that word! That's just twice as high as +anybody ever rated me before." + +"I was trying to be generous," I said. "There's a point at which I +begin to be bored, and when that's reached I'm likely to grow +quarrelsome. Are there any moments of the day or night when you are +less a fool than others?" + +"Well, Donovan, I've often speculated about that, and my conclusion is +that my mind is at its best when I'm asleep and enjoying a nightmare. +I find the Welsh rabbit most stimulating to my thought voltage. Then I +am, you may say, detached from myself; another mind not my own is +building towers and palaces, and spiders as large as the far-famed +though extinct ichthyosaurus are waltzing on the moon. Then, I have +sometimes thought, my intellectual parts are most intelligently +employed." + +"I may well believe you," I declared with asperity. "Now I hope I can +pound it into you in some way that your presence in this neighborhood +is offensive--to me--personally." + +He stared at the ceiling, silent, imperturbable. + +"And I'm going to give you safe conduct through the lines--or if +necessary I'll buy your ticket and start you for New York. And if +there's an atom of honor in you, you'll go peaceably and not publish +the fact that you know the whereabouts of these ladies." + +He reflected gravely for a moment. + +"I think," he said, "that on the whole that's a fair proposition. But +you seem to have the impression that I wish to annoy these ladies." + +"You don't for a moment imagine that you are likely to entertain them, +do you? You haven't got the idea that you are necessary to their +happiness, have you?" + +He raised himself on his elbow with some difficulty; flinched as he +tried to make himself comfortable and began: + +"The trouble with Miss Pat is--" + +"There is no trouble with Miss Pat," I snapped. + +"The trouble between Miss Pat and me is the same old trouble of the +buttons," he remarked dolorously. + +"Buttons, you idiot?" + +"Quite so. Buttons, just plain every-day buttons; buttons for +buttoning purposes. Now I shall be grateful to you if you will refrain +from saying + + "'Button, button, + Who's got the button?'" + + +The fellow was undoubtedly mad. I looked about for a weapon; but he +went on gravely. + +"What does the name Gillespie mean? Of what is it the sign and symbol +wherever man hides his nakedness? Button, button, who'll buy my +buttons? It can't be possible that you never heard of the Gillespie +buttons? Where have you lived, my dear sir?" + +"Will you please stop talking rot and explain what you want here?" I +demanded with growing heat. + +"That, my dear sir, is exactly what I'm doing. I'm a suitor for the +hand of Miss Patricia's niece. Miss Patricia scorns me; she says I'm a +mere child of the Philistine rich and declines an alliance without +thanks, if you must know the truth. And it's all on account of the +fact, shameful enough I admit, that my father died and left me a large +and prosperous button factory." + +"Why don't you give the infernal thing away--sell it out to a trust--" + +"Ah! ah!"--and he raised himself again and pointed a bandaged hand at +me. "I see that you are a man of penetration! You have a keen notion +of business! You anticipate me! I did sell the infernal thing to a +trust, but there was no shaking it! They made me president of the +combination, and I control more buttons than any other living man! My +dear sir, I dictate the button prices of the world. I can tell you to +a nicety how many buttons are swallowed annually by the babies of the +universe. But I hope, sir, that I use my power wisely and without +oppressing the people." + +Gillespie lay on his back, wrapped in my dressing-gown, his knees +raised, his bandaged arms folded across his chest. Since bringing him +into the house I had studied him carefully and, I must confess, with +increasing mystification. He was splendidly put up, the best-muscled +man I had ever seen who was not a professional athlete. His forearms +and clean-shaven face were brown from prolonged tanning by the sun, but +otherwise his skin was the pink and white of a healthy baby. His short +light hair was combed smoothly away from a broad forehead; his blue +eyes were perfectly steady--they even invited and held scrutiny; when +he was not speaking he closed his lips tightly. He appeared in nowise +annoyed by his predicament; the house itself seemed to have no interest +for him, and he accepted my ministrations in murmurs of well-bred +gratitude. + +I half believed the fellow to be amusing himself at my expense; but he +met my eyes calmly. If I had not caught a lunatic I had certainly +captured an odd specimen of humanity. He was the picture of wholesome +living and sound health; but he talked like a fool. The idea of a +young woman like Helen Holbrook giving two thoughts to a silly +youngster like this was preposterous, and my heart hardened against him. + +"You are flippant, Mr. Gillespie, and my errand with you is serious. +There are places in this house where I could lock you up and you would +never see your button factory again. You seem to have had some +education--" + +"The word does me great honor, Donovan. They chucked me from Yale in +my junior year. Why, you may ask? Well, it happened this way: You +know Rooney, the Bellefontaine Cyclone? He struck New Haven with a +vaudeville outfit, giving boxing exhibitions, poking the bag and that +sort of fake. At every town they invited the local sports to dig up +their brightest amateur middle-weight and put him against the Cyclone +for five rounds. I brushed my hair the wrong way for a disguise and +went against him." + +"And got smashed for your trouble, I hope," I interrupted. + +"No. The boys in the gallery cheered so that they fussed him, and he +thought I was fruit. We shook hands, and he turned his head to snarl +at the applause, and, seeing an opening, I smashed him a hot clip in +the chin, and he tumbled backward and broke the ring rope. I vaulted +the orchestra and bolted, and when the boys finally found me I was over +near Waterbury under a barn. Eli wouldn't stand for it, and back I +went to the button factory; and here I am, sir, by the grace of God, an +ignorant man." + +He lay blinking as though saddened by his recollections, and I turned +away and paced the floor. When I glanced at him again he was still +staring soberly at the wall. + +"How did you find your way here, Gillespie?" I demanded. + +"I suppose I ought to explain that," he replied. I waited while he +reflected for a moment. He seemed to be quite serious, and his brows +wrinkled as he pondered. + +"I guessed it about half; and for the rest, I followed the +heaven-kissing stack of trunks." + +He glanced at me quickly, as though anxious to see how I received his +words. + +"Have you seen anything of Henry Holbrook in your travels? Be careful +now; I want the truth." + +"I certainly have not. I hope you don't think--" Gillespie hesitated. + +"It's not a matter for thinking or guessing; I've got to know." + +"On my honor I have not seen him, and I have no idea where he is." + +I had thrown myself into a chair beside the couch and lighted my pipe. +My captive troubled me. It seemed odd that he had found the +abiding-place of the two women; and if he had succeeded so quickly, why +might not Henry Holbrook have equal luck? + +"You probably know this troublesome brother well," I ventured. + +"Yes; as well as a man of my age can know an older man. My father's +place at Stamford adjoined the Holbrook estate. Henry and Arthur +Holbrook married sisters; both women died long ago, I believe; but the +brothers had a business row and went to smash. Arthur embezzled, +forged, and so on, and took to the altitudinous timber, and Henry has +been busy ever since trying to pluck his sister. He's wild on the +subject of his wrongs--ruined by his own brother, deprived of his +inheritance by his sister and abandoned by his only child. There +wasn't much to Arthur Holbrook; Henry was the genius, but after the +bank went to the bad he sought the consolations of rum. He and Henry +married the Hartridge twins who were the reigning Baltimore belles in +the early eighties--so runneth the chronicle. But I gossip, my dear +sir; I gossip, which is against my principles. Even the humble button +king of Strawberry Hill must draw the line." + +When Ijima brought in a plate of sandwiches he took one gingerly in his +swathed hand, regarded it with cool inquiry, and as he munched it, +remarked upon sandwiches in general as though they were botanical +specimens that were usually discussed and analyzed in a scientific +spirit. + +"The sandwich," he began, "not unhappily expresses one of the saddest +traits of our American life. I need hardly refer to our deplorable +national habit of hiding our shame under a blithe and misleading +exterior. Now this article, provided by your generous hospitality for +a poor prisoner of war, contains a bit of the breast of some fowl, +presumably chicken--we will concede that it is chicken--taken from +rather too near the bone to be wholly palatable. Chicken sandwiches in +some parts of the world are rather coarsely marked, for purposes of +identification, with pin-feathers. You may covet no nobler fame than +that of creator of the Flying Sandwich of Annandale. Yet the feathered +sandwich, though more picturesque, points rather too directly to the +strutting lords of the barn-yard. A sandwich that is decorated like a +fall bonnet, that suggests, we will say, the milliner's window--or the +plumed knights of sounding war--" + +With a little sigh, a slow relaxation of muscles, Mr. Gillespie slept. +I locked the doors, put out the lights, and tumbled into my own bed as +the chapel clock chimed two. + +In the disturbed affairs of the night the blinds had not been drawn, +and I woke at six to find the room flooded with light and my prisoner +gone. The doors were locked as I had left them. Mr. Gillespie had +departed by the window, dropping from a little balcony to the terrace +beneath. I rang for Ijima and sent him to the pier; and before I had +finished shaving, the boy was back, and reported Gillespie's boat still +at the pier, but one of the canoes missing. It was clear that in the +sorry plight of his arms Gillespie had preferred paddling to rowing. +Beneath my watch on the writing-table I found a sheet of note-paper on +which was scrawled: + + +DEAR OLD MAN--I am having one of those nightmares I mentioned in our +delightful conversation. I feel that I am about to walk in my sleep. +As my flannels are a trifle bluggy, pardon loss of your dressing-gown. +Yours, + +R. G. + +P. S.--I am willing to pay for the glass and medical attendance; but I +want a rebate for that third sandwich. It really tickled too harshly +as it went down. Very likely this accounts for my somnambulism. + +G. + + +When I had dressed and had my coffee I locked my old portfolio and +tossed it into the bottom of my trunk. Something told me that for a +while, at least, I should have other occupation than contributing to +the literature of Russian geography. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +I EXPLORE TIPPECANOE CREEK + + The woodland silence, one time stirred + By the soft pathos of some passing bird, + Is not the same it was before. + The spot where once, unseen, a flower + Has held its fragile chalice to the shower, + Is different for evermore. + Unheard, unseen + A spell has been! + --_Thomas Bailey Aldrich_. + + +My first care was to find the gardener of St. Agatha's and renew his +pledge of silence of the night before; and then I sought the ladies, to +make sure that they had not been disturbed by my collision with +Gillespie. Miss Pat and Helen were in Sister Theresa's pretty +sitting-room, through whose windows the morning wind blew fresh and +cool. Miss Pat was sewing--her dear hands, I found, were always +busy--while Helen read to her. + +"This is a day for the open! You must certainly venture forth!" I +began cheerily. "You see, Father Stoddard chose well; this is the most +peaceful place on the map. Let us begin with a drive at six, when the +sun is low; or maybe you would prefer a little run in the launch." + +They exchanged glances. + +"I think it would be all right, Aunt Pat," said Helen. + +"Perhaps we should wait another day. We must take no chances; the +relief of being free is too blessed to throw away. I really slept +through the night--I can't tell you what a boon that is!" + +"Why, Sister Margaret had to call us both at eight!" exclaimed Helen. +"That is almost too wonderful for belief." She sat in a low, deep, +wicker chair, with her arms folded upon her book. She wore a short +blue skirt and white waist, with a red scarf knotted at her throat and +a ribbon of like color in her hair. + +"Oh, the nights here are tranquillity itself! Now, as to the drive--" + +"Let us wait another day, Mr. Donovan. I feel that we must make +assurance doubly sure," said Miss Pat; and this, of course, was final. + +It was clear that the capture of Gillespie had not disturbed the +slumber of St. Agatha's. My conscience pricked me a trifle at leaving +them so ignorantly contented; but Gillespie's appearance was hardly a +menace, and though I had pledged myself to warn Helen Holbrook at the +first sign of trouble, I determined to deal with him on my own account. +He was only an infatuated fool, and I was capable, I hoped, of +disposing of his case without taking any one into my confidence. But +first it was my urgent business to find him. + +I got out the launch and crossed the lake to the summer colony and +began my search by asking for Gillespie at the casino, but found that +his name was unknown. I lounged about until lunch-time, visited the +golf course that lay on a bit of upland beyond the cottages and watched +the players until satisfied that Gillespie was not among them, then I +went home for luncheon. + +A man with bandaged arms, and clad in a dressing-gown, can not go far +without attracting attention; and I was not in the least discouraged by +my fruitless search. I have spent a considerable part of my life in +the engaging occupation of looking for men who were hard to find, and +as I smoked my cigar on the shady terrace and waited for Ijima to +replenish the launch's tank, I felt confident that before night I +should have an understanding with Gillespie if he were still in the +neighborhood of Annandale. + +The midday was warm, but I cooled my eyes on the deep shadows of the +wood, through which at intervals I saw white sails flash on the lake. +All bird-song was hushed, but a woodpecker on a dead sycamore hammered +away for dear life. The bobbing of his red head must have exercised +some hypnotic spell, for I slept a few minutes, and dreamed that the +woodpecker had bored a hole in my forehead. When I roused it was with +a start that sent my pipe clattering to the stone terrace floor. A man +who has ever camped or hunted or been hunted--and I have known all +three experiences--always scrutinizes the horizons when he wakes, and I +found myself staring into the wood. As my eyes sought remembered +landmarks here and there, I saw a man dressed as a common sailor +skulking toward the boat-house several hundred yards away. He was +evidently following the school wall to escape observation, and I rose +and stepped closer to the balustrade to watch his movements. In a +moment he came out into a little open space wherein stood a stone tower +where water was stored for the house, and he paused here and gazed +about him curiously. I picked up a field-glass from a little table +near by and caught sight of a swarthy foreign face under a soft felt +hat. He passed the tower and walked on toward the lake, and I dropped +over the balustrade and followed him. + +The Japanese boy was still at work on the launch, and, hearing a step +on the pier planking, he glanced up, then rose and asked the stranger +his business. + +The man shook his head. + +"If you have business it must be at the house; the road is in the other +direction," and Ijima pointed to the wood, but the stranger remained +stubbornly on the edge of the pier. I now stepped out of the wood and +walked down to the pier. + +"What do you want here?" I demanded sharply. + +The man touched his hat, smiled, and shook his head. The broad hand he +lifted in salute was that of a laborer, and its brown back was +tattooed. He belonged, I judged, to one of the dark Mediterranean +races, and I tried him in Italian. + +"These are private grounds; you will do well to leave here very +quickly," I said. + +I saw his eyes light as I spoke the words slowly and distinctly, but he +waited until I had finished, then shook his head. + +I was sure he had understood, but as I addressed him again, ordering +him from the premises, he continued to shake his head and grin +foolishly. Then I pointed toward the road. + +"Go; and it will be best for you not to come here again!" I said, and, +after saluting, he walked slowly away into the wood, with a sort of +dogged insolence in his slightly swaying gait. At a nod from me Ijima +stole after him while I waited, and in a few minutes the boy came back +and reported that the man had passed the house and left the grounds by +the carriage entrance, turning toward Annandale. + +With my mind on Gillespie I put off in the launch, determined to study +the lake geography. A mile from the pier I looked back and saw, rising +above the green wood, the gray lines of Glenarm house; and farther west +the miniature tower of the little chapel of St. Agatha's thrust itself +through the trees. To the east lay Annandale village; to the northwest +the summer colony of Port Annandale. I swung the boat toward the +unknown north of this pretty lake, watching meanwhile its social +marine--if I may use such a term--with new interest. Several smart +sail-boats lounged before the wind--more ambitious craft than I +imagined these waters boasted; the lake "tramps" on their ceaseless +errands to and from the village whistled noisily; we passed a boy and +girl in a canoe--a thing so pretty and graceful and so clean-cut in its +workmanship that I turned to look after it. The girl was lazily plying +the paddle; the boy, supported by a wealth of gay cushions, was +thrumming a guitar. They glared at me resentfully as their +cockle-shell wobbled in the wash of the launch. + +"That's a better canoe than we own, Ijima. I should like to pick up +one as good." + +"There are others like it on the lake. Hartridge is the maker. His +shop is over there somewhere," and Ijima waved his hand toward the +north. "A boy told me at the Annandale dock that those canoes are +famous all over this country." + +"Then we must certainly have one. We could have used one of those +things in Russia." + +The shores grew narrower and more irregular as we proceeded, and we saw +only at rare intervals any signs of life. A heavy forest lay at either +hand, broken now and then by rough meadows. Just beyond a sharp curve +a new vista opened before us, and I was astonished to see a small +wooded island ahead of us. Beyond it lay the second lake, linked to +the main body of Annandale by a narrow strait. + +"I did not know there was anything so good on the lake, Ijima. I +wonder what they call this?" + +He reached into a locker and drew out a tin tube. + +"This is a map, sir. I think they call this Battle Orchard." + +"That's not bad, either. I don't see the orchard or the battle, but no +doubt they have both been here." I was more and more pleased. + +I gave him the wheel and took the map, which proved to be a careful +chart of the lake, made, I judged, by my friend Glenarm for his own +amusement. We passed slowly around the island, which was not more than +twenty acres in extent, with an abrupt bank on the east and a low +pebbly shore on the west, and a body of heavy timber rising darkly in +the center. The shore of the mainland sloped upward here in the tender +green of young corn. I have, I hope, a soul for landscape, and the +soft bubble of water, the lush reeds in the shallows, the rapidly +moving panorama of field and forest, the glimpses of wild flowers, and +the arched blue above, were restful to mind and heart. It seemed +shameful that the whole world was not afloat; then, as I reflected that +another boat in these tranquil waters would be an impertinence that I +should resent, I was aware that I had been thinking of Helen Holbrook +all the while; and the thought of this irritated me so that I +criticized Ijima most unjustly for running the launch close to a +boulder that rose like a miniature Gibraltar near the shadowy shore we +were skirting. + +We gained the ultimate line of the lower lake, and followed the shore +in search of its outlet, pleasingly set down on the map as Tippecanoe +Creek, which ran off and joined somewhere a river of like name. + +"We'll cruise here a bit and see if we can find the creek," I said, +filling my pipe. + +Tippecanoe! Its etymology is not in books, but goes back to the first +star that ever saw itself in running water; its cadence is that of a +boat gliding over ripples; its syllables flow as liquidly as a woodland +spring lingering in delight over shining pebbles. The canoe alone, of +all things fashioned to carry man, has a soul--and it is a soul at once +obedient and perverse. And now that I had discovered the name +Tippecanoe, it seemed to murmur itself from the little waves we sent +singing into the reeds. My delight in it was so great, it rang in my +head so insistently, that I should have missed the creek with the +golden name if Ijima had not called my attention to its gathering +current, that now drew us, like a tide. The lake's waters ran away, +like a truant child, through a woody cleft, and in a moment we were as +clean quit of the lake as though it did not exist. After a few rods +the creek began to twist and turn as though with the intention of +making the voyager earn his way. In the narrow channel the beat of our +engine rang from the shores rebukingly, and soon, as a punishment for +disturbing the peace of the little stream, we grounded on a sand-bar. + +"This seems to be the head of navigation, Ijima. I believe this creek +was made for canoes, not battleships." + +Between us we got the launch off, and I landed on a convenient log and +crawled up the bank to observe the country. I followed a +stake-and-rider fence half hidden in vines of various sorts, and +tramped along the bank, with the creek still singing its tortuous way +below at my right hand. It was late, and long shadows now fell across +the world; but every new turn in the creek tempted me, and the sharp +scratch of brambles did not deter me from going on. Soon the rail +fence gave way to barbed wire; the path broadened and the underbrush +was neatly cut away. Within lay a small vegetable garden, carefully +tilled; and farther on I saw a dark green cottage almost shut in by +beeches. The path dipped sharply down and away from the cottage, and a +moment later I had lost sight of it; but below, at the edge of the +creek, stood a long house-boat with an extended platform or deck on the +waterside. + +I can still feel, as I recall the day and hour, the utter peace of the +scene when first I came upon that secluded spot: the melodious flow of +the creek beneath; the flutter of homing wings; even the hum of insects +in the sweet, thymy air. Then a step farther and I came to a gate +which opened on a flight of steps that led to the house beneath; and +through the intervening tangle I saw a man sprawled at ease in a +steamer chair on the deck, his arms under his head. As I watched him +he sighed and turned restlessly, and I caught a glimpse of +close-trimmed beard and short, thin, slightly gray hair. + +The place was clearly the summer home of a city man in search of quiet, +and I was turning away, when suddenly a woman's voice rang out clearly +from the bank. + +"Hello the house-boat!" + +"Yes; I'm here!" answered the man below. + +"Come on, father; I've been looking for you everywhere," called the +voice again. + +"Oh, it's too bad you've been waiting," he answered. + +"Of course I've been waiting!" she flung back, and he jumped up and ran +toward her. Then down the steps flashed Helen Holbrook in white. She +paused at the gate an instant before continuing her descent to the +creek, bending her head as she sought the remaining steps. Her dark +hair and clear profile trembled a moment in the summer dusk; then she +ran past me and disappeared below. + +"Daddy, you dear old fraud, I thought you were coming to meet me on the +ridge!" + +I turned and groped my way along the darkening path. My heart was +thumping wildly and my forehead was wet with perspiration. + +Ijima stood on the bank lighting his lantern, and I flung myself into +the launch and bade him run for home. + +We were soon crossing the lake. I lay back on the cushions and gazed +up at the bright roof of stars. Before I reached Glenarm the shock of +finding Helen Holbrook in friendly communication with her father had +passed, and I sat down to dinner at nine o'clock with a sound appetite. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A FIGHT ON A HOUSE-BOAT + +The best composition and temperature is, to have openness in fame and +opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power +to feign, if there be no remedy.--_Francis Bacon_. + + +At ten o'clock I called for a horse and rode out into the night, +turning into the country with the intention of following the lake-road +to the region I had explored in the launch a few hours before. All was +dark at St. Agatha's as I passed. No doubt Helen Holbrook had returned +in due course from her visit to her father and, after accounting +plausibly to her aunt for her absence, was sleeping the sleep of the +just. Now that I thought of the matter in all its bearings, I accused +myself for not having gone directly to St. Agatha's from the lonely +house on Tippecanoe Creek and waited for her there, demanding an +explanation of her perfidy. She was treating Miss Pat infamously: that +was plain; and yet in my heart I was excusing and defending her. A +family row about money was ugly at best; and an unfortunate--even +criminal--father may still have some claim on his child. + +Then, as against such reasoning, the vision of Miss Pat rose before +me--and I felt whatever chivalry there is in me arouse with a rattle of +spears. Paul Stoddard, in committing that dear old gentlewoman to my +care, had not asked me to fall in love with her niece; so, impatient to +be thus swayed between two inclinations, I chirruped to the horse and +galloped swiftly over the silent white road. + +I had learned from the Glenarm stable-boys that it was several miles +overland to the Tippecanoe. A Sabbath quiet lay upon the world, and I +seemed to be the only person abroad. I rode at a sharp pace through +the cool air, rushing by heavy woodlands and broad fields, with an +occasional farm-house rising somberly in the moonlight. The road +turned gradually, following the line of the lake which now flashed out +and then was lost again behind the forest. There is nothing like a +gallop to shake the nonsense out of a man, and my spirits rose as the +miles sped by. The village of Tippecanoe lay off somewhere in this +direction, as guide-posts several times gave warning; and my study of +the map on the launch had given me a good idea of the whole region. +What I sought was the front entrance of the green cottage above the +house-boat by the creek, and when, far beyond Port Annandale, the road +turned abruptly away from the lake, I took my bearings and dismounted +and tied my horse in a strip of unfenced woodland. + +The whole region was very lonely, and now that the beat of hoofs no +longer rang in my ears the quiet was oppressive. I struck through the +wood and found the creek, and the path beside it. The little stream +was still murmuring its own name musically, with perhaps a softer note +in deference to the night; and following the path carefully I came in a +few minutes to the steps that linked the cottage with the house-boat at +the creek's edge. It was just there that I had seen Helen Holbrook, +and I stood quite still recalling this, and making sure that she had +come down those steps in that quiet out-of-the-way corner of the world, +to keep tryst with her father. The story-and-a-half cottage was +covered with vines and close-wrapped in shrubbery. I followed a garden +walk that wound among bits of lawn and flower-beds until I came to a +tall cedar hedge that cut the place off from the road. A semicircle of +taller pines within shut the cottage off completely from the highway. +I crawled through the cedars and walked along slowly to the gate, near +which a post supported a signboard. I struck a match and read: + + RED GATE + R. Hartridge, + Canoe-Maker, + Tippecanoe, Indiana. + + +This, then, was the home of the canoe-maker mentioned by Ijima. I +found his name repeated on the rural delivery mail-box affixed to the +sign-post. Henry Holbrook was probably a boarder at the house--it +required no great deductive powers to fathom that. I stole back +through the hedge and down to the house-boat. The moon was coming up +over the eastern wood, and the stars were beautifully clear. I walked +the length of the platform, which was provided with a railing on the +waterside, with growing curiosity. Several canoes, carefully covered +with tarpaulins, lay about the deck, and chairs were drawn up close to +the long, low house in shipshape fashion. If this house-boat was the +canoe-maker's shop he had chosen a secluded and picturesque spot for it. + +As I leaned against the rail studying the lines of the house, I heard +suddenly the creak of an oar-lock in the stream behind, and then low +voices talking. The deep night silence was so profound that any sound +was doubly emphasized, and I peered out upon the water, at once alert +and interested. I saw a dark shadow in the creek as the boat drew +nearer, and heard words spoken sharply as though in command. I drew +back against the house and waited. Possibly the canoe-maker had been +abroad, or more likely Henry Holbrook had gone forth upon some +mischief, and my mind flew at once to the two women at St. Agatha's, +one of whom at least was still under my protection. The boat +approached furtively, and I heard now very distinctly words spoken in +Italian: + +"Have a care; climb up with the rope and I'll follow." + +Then the boat touched the platform lightly and a second later a man +climbed nimbly up the side. His companion followed, and they tied +their boat to the railing. They paused now to reconnoiter--so close to +me that I could have touched them with my hands--and engaged in a +colloquy. The taller man gave directions, the other replying in +monosyllables to show that he understood. + +"Go to the side porch of the cottage, and knock. When the man comes to +the door tell him that you are the chauffeur from an automobile that +has broken down in the road, and that you want help for a woman who has +been hurt." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then--you know the rest." + +"The knife--it shall be done." + +I have made it the rule of my life, against much painful experience and +the admonitions of many philosophers, to act first and reason +afterwards. And here it was a case of two to one. The men began +stealing across the deck toward the steps that led up to the cottage, +and with rather more zeal than judgment I took a step after them, and +clumsily kicked over a chair that fell clattering wildly. Both men +leaped toward the rail at the sound, and I flattened myself against the +house to await developments. The silence was again complete. + +"A chair blew over," remarked one of the voices. + +"There is no wind," replied the other, the one I recognized as +belonging to the leader. + +"See what you can find--and have a care!" + +The speaker went to the rail and began fumbling with the rope. The +other, I realized, was slipping quite noiselessly along the smooth +planking toward me, his bent body faintly silhouetted in the moonlight. +I knew that I could hardly be distinguishable from the long line of the +house, and I had the additional advantage of knowing their strength, +while I was still an unknown quantity to them. The men would assume +that I was either Hartridge, the boat-maker, or Henry Holbrook, one of +whom they had come to kill, and there is, as every one knows, little +honor in being the victim of mistaken identity. I heard the man's hand +scratching along the wall as he advanced cautiously; there was no doubt +but that he would discover me in another moment; so I resolved to take +the initiative and give battle. + +My finger-tips touched the back of one of the folded camp-chairs that +rested against the house, and I slowly clasped it. I saw the leader +still standing by the rail, the rope in his hand. His accomplice was +so close that I could hear his quick breathing, and something in his +dimly outlined crouching figure was familiar. Then it flashed over me +that he was the dark sailor I had ordered from Glenarm that afternoon. + +He was now within arm's length of me and I jumped out, swung the chair +high and brought it down with a crash on his head. The force of the +blow carried me forward and jerked the chair out of my grasp; and down +we went with a mighty thump. I felt the Italian's body slip and twist +lithely under me as I tried to clasp his arms. He struggled fiercely +to free himself, and I felt the point of a knife prick my left wrist +sharply as I sought to hold his right arm to the deck. His muscles +were like iron, and I had no wish to let him clasp me in his short +thick arms; nor did the idea of being struck with a knife cheer me +greatly in that first moment of the fight. + +My main business was to keep free of the knife. He was slowly lifting +me on his knees, while I gripped his arm with both hands. The other +man had dropped into the boat and was watching us across the rail. + +"Make haste, Giuseppe!" he called impatiently, and I laughed a little, +either at his confidence in the outcome or at his care for his own +security; and my courage rose to find that I had only one to reckon +with. I bent grimly to the task of holding the Italian's right arm to +the deck, with my left hand on his shoulder and my right fastened to +his wrist, he meanwhile choking me very prettily with his free hand. +His knees were slowly raising me and crowding me higher on his chest +and the big rough hand on my throat tightened. I suddenly slipped my +left hand down to where my right gripped his wrist and wrenched it +sharply. His fingers relaxed, and when I repeated the twist the knife +rattled on the deck. + +I broke away and leaped for the rail with some idea of jumping into the +creek and swimming for it; and then the man in the boat let go twice +with a revolver, the echoing explosions roaring over the still creek +with the sound of saluting battleships. + +"Hold on to that man--hold him!" he shouted from below. I heard the +Italian scraping about on the deck for his knife as I dodged round the +house. I missed the steps in the dark and scrambled for them wildly, +found them and was dashing for the path before the last echo of the +shot had died away down the little valley. I was satisfied to let +things stand as they were, and leave Henry Holbrook and the canoe-maker +to defend their own lives and property. Then, when I was about midway +of the steps, a man plunged down from the garden and had me by the +collar and on my back before I knew what had happened. + +There was an instant's silence in which I heard angry voices from the +house-boat. My new assailant listened, too, and I felt his grasp on me +tighten, though I was well winded and tame enough. + +I heard the boat strike the platform sharply as the second man jumped +into it; then for an instant silence again held the valley. + +My captor seemed to dismiss the retreating boat, and poking a pistol +into my ribs gave me his attention. + +"Climb up these steps, and do as I tell you. If you run, I will shoot +you like a dog." + +"There's a mistake--" I began chokingly, for the Italian had almost +strangled me and my lungs were as empty as a spent bellows. + +"That will do. Climb!" He stuck the revolver into my back and up I +went and through the garden toward the cottage. A door opening on the +veranda was slightly ajar, and I was thrust forward none too gently +into a lighted room. + +My captor and I studied each other attentively for half a minute. He +was beyond question the man whom Helen Holbrook had sought at the +house-boat in the summer dusk. Who Hartridge was did not matter; it +was evident that Holbrook was quite at home in the canoe-maker's house, +and that he had no intention of calling any one else into our affairs. +He had undoubtedly heard the revolver shots below and rushed from the +cottage to investigate; and, meeting me in full flight, he had +naturally taken it for granted that I was involved in some designs on +himself. As he leaned against a table by the door his grave blue eyes +scrutinized me with mingled indignation and interest. He wore white +duck trousers turned up over tan shoes, and a gray outing shirt with a +blue scarf knotted under its soft collar. + +I seemed to puzzle him, and his gaze swept me from head to foot several +times before he spoke. Then his eyes flashed angrily and he took a +step toward me. + +"Who in the devil are you and what do you want?" + +"My name is Donovan, and I don't want anything except to get home." + +"Where do you come from at this hour of the night?" + +"I am spending the summer at Mr. Glenarm's place near Annandale." + +"That's rather unlikely; Mr. Glenarm is abroad. What were you doing +down there on the creek?" + +"I wasn't doing anything until two men came along to kill you and I +mixed up with them and got badly mussed for my trouble." + +He eyed me with a new interest. + +"They came to kill me, did they? You tell a good story, Mr. Donovan." + +"Quite so. I was standing on the deck of the houseboat or whatever it +is--" + +"Where you had no business to be--" + +"Granted. I had no business to be there; but I was there and came near +getting killed for my impertinence, as I have told you. Those fellows +rowed up from the direction of the lake. One of them told the other to +call you to your door on the pretense of summoning aid for a broken +motor-car off there in the road. Then he was to stab you. The +assassin was an Italian. His employer spoke to him in that tongue. I +happen to be acquainted with it." + +"You are a very accomplished person," he observed dryly. + +He walked up to me and felt my pockets. + +"Who fired that pistol?" + +"The man in charge of the expedition. The Italian was trying to knife +me on the deck, and I broke away from him and ran. His employer had +gone back to the boat for safety and he took a crack at me as I ran +across the platform. It's not the fault of either that I'm not quite +out of business." + +An inner door back of me creaked slightly. My captor swung round at +the sound. + +"O Rosalind! It's all right. A gentleman here lost his way and I'm +giving him his bearings." + +The door closed gently, and I heard the sound of steps retreating +through, the cottage. I noted the anxious look in Holbrook's face as +he waited for the sounds to cease; then he addressed me again. + +"Mr. Donovan, this is a quiet neighborhood, and I am a peaceable man, +whose worldly goods could tempt no one. There were undoubtedly others +besides yourself down there at the creek, for one man couldn't have +made all that row; but as you are the one I caught I must deal with +you. But you have protested too much; the idea of Italian bandits on +Tippecanoe Creek is creditable to your imagination, but it doesn't +appeal to my common sense. I don't know about your being a guest at +Glenarm House--even that is flimsy. A guest in the absence of the host +is just a little too fanciful. I'm strongly disposed to take you to +the calaboose at Tippecanoe village." + +Having been in jail several times in different parts of the world I was +not anxious to add to my experiences in that direction. Moreover, I +had come to this lonely house on the Tippecanoe to gain information +touching the movements of Henry Holbrook, and I did not relish the idea +of being thrown into a country jail by him. I resolved to meet the +situation boldly. + +"You seem to accept my word reluctantly, even after I have saved you +from being struck down at your own door. Now I will be frank with you. +I had a purpose in coming here--" + +He stepped back and folded his arms. + +"Yes, I thought so." He looked about uneasily, before his eyes met +mine. His hands beat nervously on his sleeves as he waited, and I +resolved to bring matters to an issue by speaking his name. + +"_I know who you are, Mr. Holbrooke._" + +His hands went into his pockets again, and he stepped back and laughed. + +"You are a remarkably bad guesser, Mr. Donovan. If you had visited me +by daylight instead of coming like a thief at midnight, you would have +saved yourself much trouble. My name is displayed over the outer gate. +I am Robert Hartridge, a canoe-maker." + +He spoke the name carelessly, his manner and tone implying that there +could be no debating the subject. I was prepared for evasion but not +for this cool denial of his identity. + +"But this afternoon, Mr. Holbrook, I chanced to follow the creek to +this point and I saw--" + +"You probably saw that house-boat down there, that is my shop. As I +tell you, I am a maker of canoes. They have, I hope, some +reputation--honest hand-work; and my output is limited. I shall be +deeply chagrined if you have never heard of the Hartridge canoe." + +He shook his head in mock grief, walked to a cabarette and took up a +pipe and filled it. He was carrying off the situation well; but his +coolness angered me. + +"Mr. Hartridge, I am sorry that I must believe that heretofore you have +been known as Holbrook. The fact was clenched for me this afternoon, +quite late, as I stood in the path below here. I heard quite +distinctly a young woman call you father." + +"So? Then you're an eavesdropper as well as a trespasser!"--and the +man laughed. + +"We will admit that I am both," I flared angrily. + +"You are considerate, Mr. Donovan!" + +"The young woman who called you father and whom you answered from the +deck of the house-boat is a person I know." + +"The devil!" + +He calmly puffed his pipe, holding the bowl in his fingers, his idle +hand thrust into his trousers pocket. + +"It was Miss Helen Holbrook that I saw here, Mr. Hartridge." + +He started, then recovered himself and peered into the pipe bowl for a +second; then looked at me with an amused smile on his face. + +"You certainly have a wonderful imagination. The person you saw, if +you saw any one on your visit to these premises to-day, was my +daughter, Rosalind Hartridge. Where do you think you knew her, Mr. +Donovan?" + +"I saw her this morning, at St. Agatha's School. I not only saw her, +but I talked with her, and I am neither deaf nor blind." + +He pursed his lips and studied me, with his head slightly tilted to one +side, in a cool fashion that I did not like. + +"Rather an odd place to have met this Miss--what name, did you +say?--Miss Helen Holbrook;--a closed school-house, and that sort of +thing." + +"You may ease your mind on that point; she was with your sister, her +aunt, Mr. Holbrook; and I want you to understand that your following +Miss Patricia Holbrook here is infamous and that I have no other +business but to protect her from you." + +He bent his eyes upon me gravely and nodded several times. + +"Mr. Donovan," he began, "I repeat that I am not Henry Holbrook, and my +daughter--is my daughter, and not your Miss Helen Holbrook. Moreover, +if you will go to Tippecanoe or to Annandale and ask about me you will +learn that I have long been a resident of this community, working at my +trade, that of a canoe-maker. That shop down there by the creek and +this house, I built myself." + +"But the girl--" + +"Was not Helen Holbrook, but my daughter, Rosalind Hartridge. She has +been away at school, and came home only a week ago. You are clearly +mistaken; and if you will call, as you undoubtedly will, on your Miss +Holbrook at St. Agatha's in the morning, you will undoubtedly find your +young lady there quite safely in charge of--what was the name, Miss +Patricia Holbrook?--in whose behalf you take so praiseworthy an +interest." + +He was treating me quite as though I were a stupid school-boy, but I +rallied sufficiently to demand: + +"If you are so peaceable and only a boat-maker here, will you tell me +why you have enemies who are so anxious to kill you? I imagine that +murder isn't common on the quiet shores of this little creek, and that +an Italian sailor is not employed to kill men who have not a past of +some sort behind them." + +His brows knit and the jaw under his short beard tightened. Then he +smiled and threw his pipe on the cabarette. + +"I have only your word for it that there's an Italian in the wood-pile. +I have friends among the country folk here and in the lake villages who +can vouch for me. As I am not in the least interested in your affairs +I shall not trouble you for your credentials; but as the hour is late +and I hope I have satisfied you that we have no acquaintances in +common, I will bid you good night. If you care for a boat to carry you +home--" + +"Thank you, no!" I jerked. + +He bowed with slightly exaggerated courtesy, walked to the door and +threw it open. He spoke of the beauty of the night as he walked by my +side through the garden path to the outer gate. He asked where I had +left my horse, wished me a pleasant ride home, and I was striding up +the highway in no agreeable frame of mind before I quite realized that +after narrowly escaping death on his house-boat at the hands of his +enemies, Henry Holbrook had not only sent me away as ignorant as I had +come, but had added considerably to my perplexities. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A SUNDAY'S MIXED AFFAIRS + +Of course, in company with the rest of my fellow-men, I had always tied +the sheet in a sailing-boat; but in so little and crank a concern as a +canoe, and with these charging squalls, I was not prepared to find +myself follow the same principle; and it inspired me with some +contemptuous views of our regard for life. It is certainly easier to +smoke with the sheet fastened; but I had never before weighed a +comfortable pipe of tobacco against an obvious risk, and gravely +elected for the comfortable pipe.--_R. L. S., An Inland Voyage_. + + +The faithful Ijima opened the door of Glenarm House, and after I had +swallowed the supper he always had ready for me when I kept late hours, +I established myself in comfort on the terrace and studied the affairs +of the house of Holbrook until the robins rang up the dawn. On their +hint I went to bed and slept until Ijima came in at ten o'clock with my +coffee. An old hymn chimed by the chapel bells reminded me that it was +Sunday. Services were held during the summer, so the house servants +informed me, for the benefit of the cottagers at Port Annandale; and +walking to our pier I soon saw a flotilla of launches and canoes +steering for St. Agatha's. I entered the school grounds by the Glenarm +gate and watched several smart traps approach by the lake road, +depositing other devout folk at the chapel. + +The sight of bright parasols and modish gowns, the semi-urban Sunday +that had fallen in this quiet corner of the world, as though out of the +bright blue above, made all the more unreal my experiences of the +night. And just then the door of the main hall of St. Agatha's opened, +and forth came Miss Pat, Helen Holbrook and Sister Margaret and walked, +toward the chapel. + +It was Helen who greeted me first. + +"Aunt Pat can't withstand the temptations of a day like this. We're +chagrined to think we never knew this part of the world before!" + +"I'm sure there is no danger," said Miss Pat, smiling at her own +timidity as she gave me her hand. I thought that she wished to speak +to me alone, but Helen lingered at her side, and it was she who asked +the question that was on her aunt's lips. + +"We are undiscovered? You have heard nothing, Mr. Donovan?" + +"Nothing, Miss Holbrook," I said; and I turned away from Miss +Pat--whose eyes made lying difficult--to Helen, who met my gaze with +charming candor. + +And I took account of the girl anew as I walked between her and Miss +Pat, through a trellised lane that alternated crimson ramblers and +purple clematis, to the chapel, Sister Margaret's brown-robed figure +preceding us. The open sky, the fresh airs of morning, the bird-song +and the smell of verdurous earth in themselves gave Sabbath +benediction. I challenged all my senses as I heard Helen's deep voice +running on in light banter with her aunt. It was not possible that I +had seen her through the dusk only the day before, traitorously meeting +her father, the foe of this dear old lady who walked beside me. It was +an impossible thing; the thought was unchivalrous and unworthy of any +man calling himself gentleman. No one so wholly beautiful, no one with +her voice, her steady tranquil eyes, could, I argued, do ill. And yet +I had seen and heard her; I might have touched her as she crossed my +path and ran down to the house-boat! + +She wore to-day a white and green gown and trailed a green parasol in a +white-gloved hand. Her small round hat with its sharply upturned brim +imparted a new frankness to her face. Several times she looked at me +quickly--she was almost my own height--and there was no questioning the +perfect honesty of her splendid eyes. + +"We hoped you might drop in yesterday afternoon," she said, and my ears +were at once alert. + +"Yes," laughed Miss Pat, "we were--" + +"We were playing chess, and almost came to blows!" said Helen. "We +played from tea to dinner, and Sister Margaret really had to come and +tear us away from our game." + +I had now learned, as though by her own intention, that she had been at +St. Agatha's, playing a harmless game with her aunt, at the very moment +that I had seen her at the canoe-maker's. And even more conclusive was +the fact that she had made this statement before her aunt, and that +Miss Pat had acquiesced in it. + +We had reached the church door, and I had really intended entering with +them; but now I was in no frame of mind for church; I murmured an +excuse about having letters to write. + +"But this afternoon we shall go for a ride or a sail; which shall it +be, Miss Holbrook?" I said, turning to Miss Pat in the church porch. + +She exchanged glances with Helen before replying. + +"As you please, Mr. Donovan. It might be that we should be safer on +the water--" + +I was relieved. On the lake there was much less chance of her being +observed by Henry Holbrook than in the highways about Annandale. It +was, to be sure, a question whether the man I had encountered at the +canoe-maker's was really her brother; that question was still to be +settled. The presence of Gillespie I had forgotten utterly; but he +was, at any rate, the least important figure in the little drama +unfolding before me. + +"I shall come to your pier with the launch at five o'clock," I said, +and with their thanks murmuring in my ears I turned away, went home and +called for my horse. + +I repeated my journey of the night before, making daylight acquaintance +with the highway. I brought my horse to a walk as I neared the +canoe-maker's cottage, and I read his sign and the lettering on his +mail-box and satisfied myself that the name Hartridge was indisputably +set forth on both. The cedar hedge and the pines before the house shut +the cottage off from the curious completely; but I saw the flutter of +white curtains in the open gable windows, and the red roof agleam in +the bright sunlight. There was no one in sight; perhaps the adventure +and warning of the night had caused Holbrook to leave; but at any rate +I was bent upon asking about him in Tippecanoe village. + +This place, lying about two miles beyond the canoe-maker's, I found to +be a sleepy hamlet of perhaps fifty cottages, a country store, a +post-office, and a blacksmith shop. There was a water-trough in front +of the store, and I dismounted to give my horse a drink while I went to +the cottage behind the closed store to seek the shopkeeper. + +I found him in a garden under an apple-tree reading a newspaper. He +was an old fellow in spectacles, and, assuming that I was an idler from +the summer colony, he greeted me courteously. + +He confirmed my impression that the crops were all in first-rate +condition, and that the day was fine. I questioned him as to the +character of the winters in this region, spoke of the employments of +the village folk, then mentioned the canoe-maker. + +"Yes; he works the year round down there on the Tippecanoe. He sells +his canoes all over the country--the Hartridge, that's his name. You +must have seen his sign there by the cedar hedge. They say he gets big +prices for his canoes." + +"I suppose he's a native in these parts?" I ventured. + +"No; but he's been here a good while. I guess nobody knows where he +comes from--or cares. He works pretty hard, but I guess he likes it." + +"He's an industrious man, is he?" + +"Oh, he's a steady worker; but he's a queer kind, too. Now he never +votes and he never goes to church; and for the sake of the argument, +neither do I,"--and the old fellow winked prodigiously. "He's a mighty +odd man; but I can't say that that's against him. But he's quiet and +peaceable, and now his daughter--" + +"Oh, he has a daughter?" + +"Yes; and that's all he has, too; and they never have any visitors. +The daughter just come home the other day, and we ain't hardly seen her +yet. She's been away at school." + +"I suppose Mr. Hartridge is absent sometimes; he doesn't live down +there all the time, does he?" + +"I can't say that I could prove it; sometimes I don't see him for a +month or more; but his business is his own, stranger," he concluded +pointedly. + +"You think that if Mr. Hartridge had a visitor you'd know it?" I +persisted, though the shopkeeper grew less amiable. + +"Well, now I might; and again I mightn't. Mr. Hartridge is a queer +man. I don't see him every day, and particularly in the winter I don't +keep track of him." + +With a little leading the storekeeper described Hartridge for me, and +his description tallied exactly with the man who had caught me on the +canoe-maker's premises the night before. And yet, when I had thanked +the storekeeper and ridden on through the village, I was as much +befuddled as ever. There was something decidedly incongruous in the +idea that a man who was, by all superficial signs, at least, a +gentleman, should be established in the business of making canoes by +the side of a lonely creek in this odd corner of the world. From the +storekeeper's account, Hartridge might be absent from his retreat for +long periods; if he were Henry Holbrook and wished to annoy his sister, +it was not so far from this lonely creek to the Connecticut town where +Miss Pat lived. Again, as to the daughter, just home from school and +not yet familiar to the eyes of the village, she might easily enough be +an invention to hide the visits of Helen Holbrook. I found myself +trying to account for the fact that, by some means short of the +miraculous, Helen Holbrook had played chess with Miss Pat at St. +Agatha's at the very hour I had seen her with her father on the +Tippecanoe. And then I was baffled again as I remembered that Paul +Stoddard had sent the two women to St. Agatha's, and that their +destination could not have been chosen by Helen Holbrook. + +My thoughts wandered into many blind alleys as I rode on. I was +thoroughly disgusted with myself at finding the loose ends of the +Holbrooks' affairs multiplying so rapidly. The sun of noon shone hot +overhead, and I turned my horse into a road that led homeward by the +eastern shore of the lake. As I approached a little country church at +the crown of a long hill I saw a crowd gathered in the highway and +reined my horse to see what had happened. The congregation of farmers +and their families had just been dismissed; and they were pressing +about a young man who stood in the center of an excited throng. +Drawing closer, I was amazed to find my friend Gillespie the center of +attention. + +"But, my dear sir," cried a tall, bearded man whom I took to be the +minister of this wayside flock, "you must at least give us the +privilege of thanking you! You can not know what this means to us, a +gift so munificent--so far beyond our dreams." + +Whereat Gillespie, looking bored, shook his head, and tried to force +his way through the encircling rustics. He was clad in a Norfolk +jacket and knickerbockers of fantastic plaid, with a cap to match. + +A young farmer, noting my curiosity and heavy with great news, +whispered to me: + +"That boy in short pants put a thousand-dollar bill in the collection +basket. All in one bill! They thought it was a mistake, but he told +our preacher it was a free gift." + +Just then I heard the voice of my fool raised so that all might hear: + +"Friends, on the dusty highway of life I can take none of the honor or +credit you so kindly offer me. The money I have given you to-day I +came by honestly. I stepped into your cool and restful house of +worship this morning in search of bodily ease. The small voice of +conscience stirred within me. I had not been inside a church for two +years, and I was greatly shaken. But as I listened to your eloquent +pastor I was aware that the green wall-paper interrupted my soul +currents. That vegetable-green tint is notorious as a psychical +interceptor. Spend the money as you like, gentlemen; but if I, a +stranger, may suggest it, try some less violent color scheme in your +mural decorations." + +He seemed choking with emotion as with bowed head he pushed his way +through the circle and strode past me. The people stared after him, +mystified and marveling. I heard an old man calling out: + +"How wonderful are the ways of the Lord!" + +I let Gillespie pass, and followed him slowly until a turn in the road +hid us from the staring church folk. He turned and saw me. + +"You have discovered me, Donovan. Be sure your sins will find you out! +A simple people, singularly moved at the sight of a greenback. I have +rarely caused so much excitement." + +"I suppose you are trying to ease your conscience by giving away some +of your button money." + +"That is just it, Donovan. You have struck the brass tack on the head. +But now that we have met again, albeit through no fault of my own, let +me mention matters of real human interest." + +"You might tell me what you're doing here first." + +"Walking; there were no cabs, Donovan." + +"You choose a queer hour of the day for your exercise." + +"One might say the same for your ride. But let us be sensible. I dare +say there's some common platform on which we both may stand." + +"We'll assume it," I replied, dismounting by the roadside that I might +talk more easily. Bandages were still visible at his wrists, and a +strip of court-plaster across the knuckles of his right hand otherwise +testified to the edges of the glass in St. Agatha's garden. He held up +his hands ruefully. + +"Those were nasty slashes; and I ripped them up badly in climbing out +of your window. But I couldn't linger: I am not without my little +occupations." + +"You stand as excellent chance of being shot if you don't clear out of +this. If there's any shame in you you will go without making further +trouble." + +"It has occurred to me," he began slowly, "that I know something that +you ought to know. I saw Henry Holbrook yesterday." + +"Where?" I demanded. + +"On the lake. He's rented a sloop yacht called the _Stiletto_. I +passed it yesterday on the Annandale steamer and I saw him quite +distinctly." + +"It's all your fault that he's here!" I blurted, thoroughly aroused. +"If you had not followed those women they might have spent the +remainder of their lives here and never have been molested. But he +undoubtedly caught the trail from you." + +Gillespie nodded gravely and frowned before he answered. + +"I am sorry to spoil your theory, my dear Irish brother, but put this +in your pipe: _Henry was here first_! He rented the sail-boat ten days +ago--and I made my triumphal entry a week later. Explain that, if you +please, Mr. Donovan." + +I was immensely relieved by this disclosure, for it satisfied me that I +had not been mistaken in the identity of the canoe-maker. I had, +however, no intention of taking the button king into my confidence. + +"Where is Holbrook staying?" I asked casually. + +"I don't know--he keeps afloat. The _Stiletto_ belongs to a Cincinnati +man who isn't coming here this summer and Holbrook has got the use of +the yacht. So much I learned from the boat storage man at Annandale; +then I passed the _Stiletto_ and saw Henry on board." + +It was clear that I knew more than Gillespie, but he had supplied me +with several interesting bits of information, and, what was more to the +point, he had confirmed my belief that Henry Holbrook and the +canoe-maker were the same person. + +"You must see that I face a difficult situation here, without counting +you. You don't strike me as a wholly bad lot, Gillespie, and why won't +you run along like a good boy and let me deal with Holbrook? Then when +I have settled with him I'll see what can be done for you. Your +position as an unwelcome suitor, engaged in annoying the lady you +profess to love, and causing her great anxiety and distress, is +unworthy of the really good fellow I believe you to be." + +He was silent for a moment; then he spoke very soberly. + +"I promise you, Donovan, that I will do nothing to encourage or help +Holbrook. I know as well as you that he's a blackguard; but my own +affairs I must manage in my own way." + +"But as surely as you try to molest those women you will have to answer +to me. I am not in the habit of beginning what I never finish, and I +intend to keep those women out of your way as well as out of Holbrook's +clutches, and if you get a cracked head in the business--well, the +crack's in your own skull, Mr. Gillespie." + +He shrugged his shoulders, threw up his head and turned away down the +road. + +There was something about the fellow that I liked. I even felt a +certain pity for him as I passed him and rode on. He seemed simple and +guileless, but with a dogged manliness beneath his absurdities. He was +undoubtedly deeply attached to Helen Holbrook and his pursuit of her +partook of a knight-errantish quality that would have appealed to me in +other circumstances; but he was the most negligible figure that had yet +appeared in the Holbrook affair, and as I put my horse to the lope my +thoughts reverted to Red Gate. That chess game and Helen's visit to +her father were still to be explained; if I could cut those cards out +of the pack I should be ready for something really difficult. I +employed myself with such reflections as I completed my sweep round the +lake, reaching Glenarm shortly after two o'clock. + +I was hot and hungry, and grateful for the cool breath of the house as +I entered the hall. + +"Miss Holbrook is waiting in the library," Ijima announced; and in a +moment I faced Miss Pat, who stood in one of the open French windows +looking out upon the wood. + +She appeared to be deeply absorbed and did not turn until I spoke. + +"I have waited for some time; I have something of importance to tell +you, Mr. Donovan," she began, seating herself. + +"Yes, Miss Holbrook." + +"You remember that this morning, on our way to the chapel, Helen spoke +of our game of chess yesterday?" + +"I remember perfectly," I replied; and my heart began to pound +suddenly, for I knew what the next sentence would be. + +"Helen was not at St. Agatha's at the time she indicated." + +"Well, Miss Pat," I laughed, "Miss Holbrook doesn't have to account to +me for her movements. It isn't important--" + +"Why isn't it important?" demanded Miss Pat in a sharp tone that was +new to me. She regarded me severely, and as I blinked under her +scrutiny she smiled a little at my discomfiture. + +"Why, Miss Holbrook, she is not accountable to me for her actions. If +she fibbed about the chess it's a small matter." + +"Perhaps it is; and possibly she is not accountable to me, either." + +"We must not probe human motives too deeply, Miss Holbrook," I said +evasively, wishing to allay her suspicions, if possible. "A young +woman is entitled to her whims. But now that you have told me this, I +suppose I may as well know how she accounted to you for this trifling +deception." + +"Oh, she said she wished to explore the country for herself; she wished +to satisfy herself of our safety; and she didn't want you to think she +was running foolishly into danger. She chafes under restraint, and I +fear does not wholly sympathize with my runaway tactics. She likes a +contest! And sometimes Helen takes pleasure in--in--being perverse. +She has an idea, Mr. Donovan, that you are a very severe person." + +"I am honored that she should entertain any opinion of me whatever," I +replied, laughing. + +"And now," said Miss Pat, "I must go back. Helen went to her room to +write some letters against a time when it may be possible to +communicate with our friends, and I took the opportunity to call on +you. It might be as well, Mr. Donovan, not to mention my visit." + +I walked beside Miss Pat to the gate, where she dismissed me, remarking +that she would be quite ready for a ride in the launch at five o'clock. + +The morning had added a few new-colored threads to the tangled skein I +was accumulating, but I felt that with the chess story explained I +could safely eliminate the supernatural; and I was relieved to find +that no matter what other odd elements I had to reckon with, a girl who +could be in two places at the same time was not among them. + +Holbrook had not impressed me disagreeably; he had treated me rather +decently, all things considered. The fact that he had enemies who were +trying to kill him added zest to the whole adventure upon which my +clerical friend Stoddard had launched me. The Italian sailor was a +long way from tide-water, and who his employer was--the person who had +hung aloof so conservatively during my scramble on the deck of the +house-boat--remained to be seen. From every standpoint the Holbrook +incident promised well, and I was glad to find that human beings were +still capable of interesting me so much. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A BROKEN OAR + + We are in love's land to-day; + Where shall we go? + Love, shall we start or stay, + Or sail or row? + There's many a wind and way, + And never a May but May; + We are in love's hand to-day; + Where shall we go? + --_Swinburne_. + + +The white clouds of the later afternoon cruised dreamily between green +wood and blue sky. I brought the launch to St. Agatha's landing and +embarked the two exiles without incident. We set forth in good +spirits, Ijima at the engine and I at the wheel. The launch was +comfortably large, and the bright cushions, with Miss Pat's white +parasol and Helen's red one, marked us with the accent of Venice. I +drove the boat toward the open to guard against unfortunate encounters, +and the course once established I had little care but to give a wide +berth to all the other craft afloat. Helen exclaimed repeatedly upon +the beauty of the lake, which the west wind rippled into many +variations of color. I was flattered by her friendliness; and yielded +myself to the joy of the day, agreeably thrilled--I confess as much--by +her dark loveliness as she turned from time to time to speak to me. + +Snowy sails stood forth upon the water like listless clouds; paddles +flashed as they rose dripping and caught the sun; and the lake's wooded +margins gave green horizons, cool and soothing to the eye, on every +hand. One of the lake steamers on its incessant journeys created a +little sea for us, but without disturbing my passengers. + +"Aunt Pat is a famous sailor!" observed Helen as the launch rocked. +"The last time we crossed the captain had personally to take her below +during a hurricane." + +"Helen always likes to make a heroine of me," said Miss Pat with her +adorable smile. "But I am not in the least afraid on the water. I +think there must have been sailors among my ancestors." + +She was as tranquil as the day. Her attitude toward her niece had not +changed; and I pleased myself with the reflection that mere +ancestry--the vigor and courage of indomitable old sea lords--did not +sufficiently account for her, but that she testified to an ampler +background of race and was a fine flower that had been centuries in +making. + +We cruised the shore of Port Annandale at a discreet distance and then +bore off again. + +"Let us not go too near shore anywhere," said Helen; and Miss Pat +murmured acquiescence. + +"No; we don't care to meet people," she remarked, a trifle anxiously. + +"I'm afraid I don't know any to introduce you to," I replied, and +turned away into the broadest part of the lake. The launch was capable +of a lively clip and the engine worked capitally. I had no fear of +being caught, even if we should be pursued, and this, in the broad +light of the peaceful Sabbath afternoon, seemed the remotest +possibility. + +It had been understood that we were to remain out until the sun dropped +into the western wood, and I loitered on toward the upper lake where +the shores were rougher. + +"That's a real island over there--they call it Battle Orchard--you must +have a glimpse of it." + +"Oh, nothing is so delightful as an island!" exclaimed Helen; and she +quoted William Sharp's lines: + + "There is an Isle beyond our ken, + Haunted by Dreams of weary men. + Gray Hopes enshadow it with wings + Weary with burdens of old things: + There the insatiate water-springs + Rise with the tears of all who weep: + And deep within it,--deep, oh, deep!-- + The furtive voice of Sorrow sings. + There evermore, + Till Time be o'er, + Sad, oh, so sad! the Dreams of men + Drift through the Isle beyond our ken." + + +Ijima had scanned the lake constantly since we started, as was his +habit. Miss Pat turned to speak to Helen of the shore that now swept +away from us in broader curves as we passed out of the connecting +channel into the farther lake. Ijima remarked to me quietly, as though +speaking of the engine: + +"There's a man following in a rowboat.", + +And as I replied to some remark by Miss Pat, I saw, half a mile +distant, its sails hanging idly, a sloop that answered Gillespie's +description of the _Stiletto_. Its snowy canvas shone white against +the green verdure of Battle Orchard. + +"Shut off the power a moment. We will turn here, Ijima,"--and I called +Miss Pat's attention to a hoary old sycamore on the western shore. + +"Oh, I'm disappointed not to cruise nearer the island with the romantic +name," cried Helen. "And there's a yacht over there, too!" + +I already had the boat swung round, and in reversing the course I lost +the _Stiletto_, which clung to the island shore; but I saw now quite +plainly the rowboat Ijima had reported as following us. It hung off +about a quarter of a mile and its single occupant had ceased rowing and +shipped his oars as though waiting. He was between us and the strait +that connected the upper and lower lakes. Though not alarmed I was +irritated by my carelessness in venturing through the strait and +anxious to return to the less wild part of the lake. I did not dare +look over my shoulder, but kept talking to my passengers, while Ijima, +with the rare intuition of his race, understood the situation and +indicated by gestures the course. + +"There's a boat sailing through the green, green wood," exclaimed +Helen; and true enough, as we crept in close to the shore, we could +still see, across a wooded point of the island, the sails of the +_Stiletto_, as of a boat of dreams, drifting through the trees. And as +I looked I saw something more. A tiny signal flag was run quickly to +the topmast head, withdrawn once and flashed back; and as I faced the +bow again, the boatman dropped his oars into the water. + +"What a strange-looking man," remarked Miss Pat. + +"He doesn't look like a native," I replied carelessly. The launch +swung slowly around, cutting a half-circle, of which the Italian's boat +was the center. He dallied idly with his oars and seemed to pay no +heed to us, though he glanced several times toward the yacht, which had +now crept into full view, and under a freshening breeze was bearing +southward. + +"Full speed, Ijima." + +The engine responded instantly, and we cut through the water smartly. +There was a space of about twenty-five yards between the boatman and +the nearer shore. I did not believe that he would do more than try to +annoy us by forcing us on the swampy shore; for it was still broad +daylight, and we were likely at any moment to meet other craft. I was +confident that with any sort of luck I could slip past him and gain the +strait, or dodge and run round him before he could change the course of +his heavy skiff. + +I kicked the end of an oar which the launch carried for emergencies and +Ijima, on this hint, drew it toward him. + +"You can see some of the roofs of Port Annandale across the neck here," +I remarked, seeing that the women had begun to watch the approaching +boat uneasily. + +I kept up a rapid fire of talk, but listened only to the engine's +regular beat. The launch was now close to the Italian's boat, and +having nearly completed the semi-circle I was obliged to turn a little +to watch him. Suddenly he sat up straight and lay to with the oars, +pulling hard toward a point we must pass in order to clear the strait +and reach the upper lake again. The fellow's hostile intentions were +clear to all of us now and we all silently awaited the outcome. His +skiff rose high in air under the impulsion of his strong arms, and if +he struck our lighter craft amidships, as seemed inevitable, he would +undoubtedly swamp us. + +Ijima half rose, glanced toward the yacht, which was heading for the +strait, and then at me, but I shook my head. + +"Mind the engine, Ijima," I said with as much coolness as I could +muster. + +The margin between us and the skiff rapidly diminished, and the Italian +turned to take his bearings with every lift of his oars. He had thrown +off his cap, and as he looked over his shoulder I saw his evil face +sharply outlined. I counted slowly to myself the number of strokes +that would be necessary to bring him in collision if he persisted, +charging against his progress our own swift, arrow-like flight over the +water. The shore was close, and I had counted on a full depth of +water, but Ijima now called out warningly in his shrill pipe and our +bottom scraped as I veered off. This manoeuver cost me the equivalent +of ten of the Italian's deep strokes, and the shallow water added a new +element of danger. + +"Stand by with the oar, Ijima," I called in a low tone; and I saw in a +flash Miss Pat's face, quite calm, but with her lips set tight. + +Ten yards remained, I judged, between the skiff and the strait, and +there was nothing for us now but to let speed and space work out their +problem. + +Ijima stood up and seized the oar. I threw the wheel hard aport in a +last hope of dodging, and the launch listed badly as it swung round. +Then the bow of the skiff rose high, and Helen shrank away with a +little cry; there was a scratching and grinding for an instant, as +Ijima, bending forward, dug the oar into the skiff's bow and checked it +with the full weight of his body. As we fended off the oar snapped and +splintered and he tumbled into the water with a great splash, while we +swerved and rocked for a moment and then sped on through the little +strait. + +Looking back, I saw Ijima swimming for the shore. He rose in the water +and called "All right!" and I knew he would take excellent care of +himself. The Italian had shipped his oars and lay where we had left +him, and I heard him, above the beat of our engine, laugh derisively as +we glided out of sight. The water rippled pleasantly beneath us; the +swallows brushed the quiet blue with fleet wings, and in the west the +sun was spreading a thousand glories upon the up-piling clouds. Out in +the upper lake the wind freshened and we heard the low rumble of +thunder. + +"Miss Holbrook, will you please steer for me?"--and in effecting the +necessary changes of position that I might get to the engine we were +all able to regain our composure. I saw Miss Pat touch her forehead +with her handkerchief; but she said nothing. Even after St. Agatha's +pier hove in sight silence held us all. The wind, continuing to +freshen, was whipping the lake with a sharp lash, and I made much of my +trifling business with the engine, and of the necessity for occasional +directions to the girl at the wheel. + +My contrition at the danger to which I had stupidly brought them was +strong in me; but there were other things to think of. Miss Pat could +not be deceived as to the animus of our encounter, for the Italian's +conduct could hardly be accounted for on the score of stupidity; and +the natural peace and quiet of this region only emphasized the gravity +of her plight. My first thought was that I must at once arrange for +her removal to some other place. With Henry Holbrook established +within a few miles of St. Agatha's the school was certainly no longer a +tenable harborage. + +As I tended the engine I saw, even when I tried to avoid her, the +figure of Helen Holbrook in the stern, quite intent upon steering and +calling now and then to ask the course when in my preoccupation I +forgot to give it. The storm was drawing a dark hood across the lake, +and the thunder boomed more loudly. Storms in this neighborhood break +quickly and I ran full speed for St. Agatha's to avoid the rain that +already blurred the west. + +We landed with some difficulty, owing to the roughened water and the +hard drive of the wind; but in a few minutes we had reached St. +Agatha's where Sister Margaret flung open the door just as the storm +let go with a roar. + +When we reached the sitting-room we talked with unmistakable restraint +of the storm and of our race with it across the lake--while Sister +Margaret stood by murmuring her interest and sympathy. She withdrew +immediately and we three sat in silence, no one wishing to speak the +first word. I saw with deep pity that Miss Pat's eyes were bright with +tears, and my heart burned hot with self-accusation. Sister Margaret's +quick step died away in the hall, and still we waited while the rain +drove against the house in sheets and the branches of a tossing maple +scratched spitefully on one of the panes. + +"We have been found out; my brother is here," said Miss Pat. + +"I am afraid that is true," I replied. "But you must not distress +yourself. This is not Sicily, where murder is a polite diversion. The +Italian wished merely to frighten us; it's a case of sheerest +blackmail. I am ashamed to have given him the opportunity. It was my +fault--my grievous fault; and I am heartily sorry for my stupidity." + +"Do not accuse yourself! It was inevitable from the beginning that +Henry should find us. But this place seemed remote enough. I had +really begun to feel quite secure--but now!" + +"But now!" repeated Helen with a little sigh. + +I marveled at the girl's composure--at her quiet acceptance of the +situation, when I knew well enough her shameful duplicity. Then by one +of those intuitions of grace that were so charming in her she bent +forward and took Miss Pat's hand. The emerald rings flashed on both as +though in assertion of kinship. + +"Dear Aunt Pat! You must not take that boat affair too seriously. It +may not have been--father--who did that." + +She faltered, dropping her voice as she mentioned her father. I was +aware that Miss Pat put away her niece's hand with a sudden gesture--I +did not know whether of impatience, or whether some new resolution had +taken hold of her. She rose and moved nearer to me. + +"What have you to propose, Mr. Donovan?" she asked, and something in +her tone, in the light of her dear eyes, told me that she meant to +fight, that she knew more than she wished to say, and that she relied +on my support; and realizing this my heart went out to her anew. A +maid brought in a lamp and within the arc of its soft light I saw +Helen's lovely head as she rested her arms on the table watching us. +If there was to be a contest of wits or of arms on this peaceful lake +shore under the high arches of summer, she and I were to be foes; and +while we waited for the maid to withdraw I indulged in foolish +speculations as to whether a man could love a girl and be her enemy at +the same time. + +"I think we ought to go away--at once," the girl broke out suddenly. +"The place was ill-chosen; Father Stoddard should have known better +than to send us here!" + +"Father Stoddard did the best he could for us, Helen. It is unfair to +blame him," said Miss Pat quietly. "And Mr. Donovan has been much more +than kind in undertaking to care for us at all." + +"I have blundered badly enough!" I confessed penitently. + +"It might be better, Aunt Pat," began Helen slowly, "to yield. What +can it matter! A quarrel over money--it is sordid--" + +Miss Pat stood up abruptly and said quietly, without lifting her voice, +and turning from one to the other of us: + +"We have prided ourselves for a hundred years, we American Holbrooks, +that we had good blood in us, and character and decency and morality; +and now that the men of my house have thrown away their birthright, and +made our name a plaything, I am going to see whether the general +decadence has struck me, too; and with my brother Arthur, a fugitive +because of his crimes, and my brother Henry ready to murder me in his +greed, it is time for me to test whatever blood is left in my own poor +old body, and I am going to begin now! I will not run away another +step; I am not going to be blackguarded and hounded about this free +country or driven across the sea; and I will not give Henry Holbrook +more money to use in disgracing our name. I have got to die--I have +got to die before he gets it,"--and she smiled at me so bravely that +something clutched my throat suddenly--"and I have every intention, Mr. +Donovan, of living a very long time!" + +Helen had risen, and she stood staring at her aunt in frank +astonishment. Not often, probably never before in her life, had anger +held sway in the soul of this woman; and there was something splendid +in its manifestation. She had spoken in almost her usual tone, though +with a passionate tremor toward the close; but her very restraint was +in itself ominous. + +"It shall be as you say, Miss Pat," I said, as soon as I had got my +breath. + +"Certainly, Aunt Pat," murmured Helen tamely. "We can't be driven +round the world. We may as well stay where we are." + +The storm was abating and I threw open the windows to let in the air. + +"If you haven't wholly lost faith in me, Miss Holbrook--" + +"I have every faith in you, Mr. Donovan!" smiled Miss Pat. + +"I shall hope to take better care of you in the future." + +"I am not afraid. I think that if Henry finds out that he can not +frighten me it will have a calming effect upon him." + +"Yes; I suppose you are right, Aunt Pat," said Helen passively. + +I went home feeling that my responsibilities had been greatly increased +by Miss Pat's manifesto; on the whole I was relieved that she had not +ordered a retreat, for it would have distressed me sorely to abandon +the game at this juncture to seek a new hiding-place for my charges. + +Long afterward Miss Pat's declaration of war rang in my ears. My heart +leaps now as I remember it. And I should like to be a poet long enough +to write A Ballade of All Old Ladies, or a lyric in their honor turned +with the grace of Colonel Lovelace and blithe with the spirit of Friar +Herrick. I should like to inform it with their beautiful tender +sympathy that is quick with tears but readier with strength to help and +to save; and it should reflect, too, the noble patience, undismayed by +time and distance, that makes a virtue of waiting--waiting in the long +twilight with folded hands for the ships that never come! Men old and +battle-scarred are celebrated in song and story; but who are they to be +preferred over this serene sisterhood? Let the worn mothers of the +world be throned by the fireside or placed at comfortable ease in the +shadow of hollyhocks and old-fashioned roses in familiar gardens; it +matters little, for they are supreme in any company. Whoever would be +gracious must serve them; whoever would be wise must sit at their feet +and take counsel. Nor believe too readily that the increasing tide of +years has quenched the fire in their souls; rather, it burns on with +the steady flame of sanctuary lights. Lucky were he who could imprison +in song those qualities that crown a woman's years--voicing what is in +the hearts of all of us as we watch those gracious angels going their +quiet ways, tending their secret altars of memory with flowers and +blessing them with tears. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A LADY OF SHADOWS AND STARLIGHT + + Still do the stars impart their light + To those that travel in the night; + Still time runs on, nor doth the hand + Or shadow on the dial stand; + The streams still glide and constant are: + Only thy mind + Untrue I find + Which carelessly + Neglects to be + Like stream or shadow, hand or star. + --_William Cartwright_. + + +It was nine o'clock before Ijima came in, dripping from his tumble in +the lake and his walk home through the rain. The Italian had made no +effort to molest him, he reported; but he had watched the man row out +to the _Stiletto_ and climb aboard. Ijima has an unbroken record of +never having asked me a question inspired by curiosity. He may inquire +which shoes I want for a particular morning, but _why, where_ and +_when_ are unknown in his vocabulary. He was, I knew, fairly entitled +to an explanation of the incident of the afternoon, though he would ask +none, and when he had changed his clothes and reported to me in the +library I told him in a word that there might be further trouble, and +that I should expect him to stand night watch at St. Agatha's for a +while, dividing a patrol of the grounds with the gardener. His "Yes, +sir," was as calm as though I had told him to lay out my dress clothes, +and I went with him to look up the gardener, that the division of +patrol duty might be thoroughly understood. + +I gave the Scotchman a revolver and Ijima bore under his arm a +repeating rifle with which he and I had diverted ourselves at times in +the pleasant practice of breaking glass balls. I assigned him the +water-front and told the gardener to look out for intruders from the +road. These precautions taken, I rang the bell at St. Agatha's and +asked for the ladies, but was relieved to learn that they had retired, +for the situation would not be helped by debate, and if they were to +remain at St. Agatha's it was my affair to plan the necessary defensive +strategy without troubling them. And I must admit here, that at all +times, from the moment I first saw Helen Holbrook with her father at +Red Gate, I had every intention of shielding her to the utmost. The +thought of trapping her, of catching her, _flagrante delicto_, was +revolting; I had, perhaps, a notion that in some way I should be able +to thwart her without showing my own hand; but this, as will appear, +was not to be so easily accomplished. + +I went home and read for an hour, then got into heavy shoes and set +forth to reconnoiter. The chief avenue of danger lay, I imagined, +across the lake, and I passed through St. Agatha's to see that my +guards were about their business; then continued along a wooded bluff +that rose to a considerable height above the lake. There was a winding +path which the pilgrimages of school-girls in spring and autumn had +worn hard, and I followed it to its crest, where there was a stone +bench, established for the ease of those who wished to take their +sunsets in comfort. The place commanded a fair view of the lake, and +thence it was possible to see afar off any boat that approached St. +Agatha's or Glenarm. The wooded bluff was cool and sweet from the +rain, and a clear light was diffused by the moon as I lighted my pipe +and looked out upon the lake for signs of the _Stiletto_. + +The path that rose through the wood from St. Agatha's declined again +from the seat, and came out somewhere below, where there was a spring +sacred to the school-girls, and where, I dare say, they still indulge +in the incantations of their species. I amused myself picking out the +pier lights as far as I had learned them, following one of the lake +steamers on its zigzag course from Port Annandale to the village. +Around me the great elms and maples still dripped. Eleven chimed from +the chapel clock, the strokes stealing up to me dreamily. A moment +later I heard a step in the path behind me, light, quick, and eager, +and I bent down low on the bench, so that its back shielded me from +view, and waited. I heard the sharp swish of bent twigs in the +shrubbery as they snapped back into place in the narrow trail, and then +the voice of some one humming softly. The steps drew closer to the +bench, and some one passed behind me. I was quite sure that it was a +woman--from the lightness of the step, the feminine quality in the +voice that continued to hum a little song, and at the last moment the +soft rustle of skirts. I rose and spoke her name before my eyes were +sure of her. + +"Miss Holbrook!" I exclaimed. + +She did not cry out, though she stepped back quickly from the bench. + +"Oh, it's you, Mr. Donovan, is it?" + +"It most certainly is!" I laughed. "We seem to have similar tastes, +Miss Holbrook." + +"An interest in geography, shall we call it?" she chaffed gaily. + +"Or astronomy! We will assume that we are both looking for the Little +Dipper." + +"Good!" she returned on my own note. "Between the affairs of the +Holbrooks and your evening Dipper hunt you are a busy man, Mr. Donovan." + +"I am not half so busy as you are, Miss Holbrook! It must tax you +severely to maintain both sides of the barricade at the same time," I +ventured boldly. + +"That does require some ingenuity," she replied musingly, "but I am a +very flexible character." + +"But what will bend will break--you may carry the game too far." + +"Oh, are you tired of it already?" + +"Not a bit of it; but I should like to make this stipulation with you: +that as you and I seem to be pitted against each other in this little +contest, we shall fight it all out behind Miss Pat's back. I prefer +that she shouldn't know what a--" and I hesitated. + +"Oh, give me a name, won't you?" she pleaded mockingly. + +"What a beautiful deceiver you are!" + +"Splendid! We will agree that I am a deceiver!" + +"If it gives you pleasure! You are welcome to all the joy you can get +out of it!" + +"Please don't be bitter! Let us play fair, and not stoop to abuse." + +"I should think you would feel contrite enough after that ugly business +of this afternoon. You didn't appear to be even annoyed by that +Italian's effort to smash the launch." + +She was silent for an instant; I heard her breath come and go quickly; +then she responded with what seemed a forced lightness: + +"You really think that was inspired by--" she suddenly appeared at a +loss. + +"By Henry Holbrook, as you know well enough. And if Miss Pat should be +murdered through his enmity, don't you see that your position in the +matter would be difficult to explain? Murder, my dear young woman, is +not looked upon complacently, even in this remote corner of the world!" + +"You seem given to the use of strong language, Mr. Donovan. Let us +drop the calling of names and consider just where you put me." + +"I don't put you at all; you have taken your own stand. But I will say +that I was surprised, not to say pained, to find that you played the +eavesdropper the very hour you came to Annandale." + +A moment's silence; the water murmured in the reeds below; an owl +hooted in the Glenarm wood; a restless bird chirped from its perch in a +maple overhead. + +"Oh, to be sure!" she said at last. "You thought I was listening while +Aunt Pat unfolded the dark history of the Holbrooks." + +"I knew it, though I tried to believe I was mistaken. But when I saw +you there on Tippecanoe Creek, meeting your father at the canoe-maker's +house, I was astounded; I did not know that depravity could go so far." + +"My poor, unhappy, unfortunate father!" she said in a low voice; there +was almost a moan in it. + +"I suppose you defend your conduct on the ground of filial duty," I +suggested, finding it difficult to be severe. + +"Why shouldn't I? Who are you to judge our affairs? We are the +unhappiest family that ever lived; but I should like you to know that +it was not by my wish that you were brought into our councils. There +is more in all this than appears!" + +"There is nothing in it but Miss Pat--her security, her peace, her +happiness. I am pledged to her, and the rest of you are nothing to me. +But you may tell your father that I have been in rows before and that I +propose to stand by the guns." + +"I shall deliver your message, Mr. Donovan; and I give you my father's +thanks for it," she mocked. + +"Your father calls you Rosalind--before strangers!" I remarked. + +"Yes. It's a fancy of his," she murmured lingeringly. "Sometimes it's +Viola, or Perdita, but, as I think of it, it's oftener Rosalind. I +hope you don't object, Mr. Donovan?" + +"No, I rather like it; it's in keeping with your variable character. +You seem prone, like Rosalind, to woodland wandering. I dare say the +other people of the cast will appear in due season. So far I have seen +only the Fool." + +"The Fool? Oh, yes; there was Touchstone, wasn't there?" + +"I believe it is admitted that there was." + +She laughed; I felt that we were bound to get on better, now that we +understood each other. + +"You are rather proud of your attainments, aren't you? I have really +read the play, Mr. Donovan: I have even seen it acted." + +"I did not mean to reflect on your intelligence, which is acute enough; +or on your attainments, which are sufficient; or on your experience of +life, which is ample!" + +"Well spoken! I really believe that I am liking you better all the +time, Mr. Donovan." + +"My heart is swollen with gratitude. You heard my talk with your +father at his cottage last night. And then you flew back to Miss Pat +and played the hypocrite with the artlessness of Rosalind--the real +Rosalind." + +"Did I? Then I'm as clever as I am wicked. You, no doubt, are as wise +as you are good." + +She folded her arms with a quick movement, the better, I thought, to +express satisfaction with her own share of the talk; then her manner +changed abruptly. She rested her hands on the back of the bench and +bent toward me. + +"My father dealt very generously with you. You were an intruder. He +was well within his rights in capturing you. And, more than that, you +drew to our place some enemies of your own who may yet do us grave +injury." + +"They were no enemies of mine! Didn't you hear me debating that matter +with your father? They were his enemies and they pounced on me by +mistake. It's not their fault that they didn't kill me!" + +"That's a likely story. That little creek is the quietest place in the +world." + +"How do you know?" I demanded, bending closer toward her. + +"Because my father tells me so! That was the reason he chose it." + +"He wanted a place to hide when the cities became too hot for him. I +advise you, Miss Holbrook, in view of all that has happened, and if you +have any sense of decency left, to keep away from there." + +"And I suggest to you, Mr. Donovan, that your devotion to my aunt does +not require you to pursue my father. You do well to remember that a +stranger thrusting himself into the affairs of a family he does not +know puts himself in a very bad light." + +"I am not asking your admiration, Miss Holbrook." + +"You may save yourself the trouble!" she flashed; and then laughed out +merrily. "Let us not be so absurd! We are quarreling like two +school-children over an apple. It's really a pleasure to meet you in +this unconventional fashion, but we must be amiable. Our affairs will +not be settled by words--I am sure of that. I must beg of you, the +next time you come forth at night, to wear your cloak and dagger. The +stage-setting is fair enough; and the players should dress their parts +becomingly. I am already named Rosalind--at night; Aunt Pat we will +call the Duchess in exile; and we were speaking a moment ago of the +Fool. Well, yes; there was a Fool." + +"I might take the part myself, if Gillespie were not already cast for +it." + +"Gillespie?" she said wonderingly; then added at once, as though memory +had prompted her: "To be sure there is Gillespie." + +"There is certainly Gillespie. Perhaps you would liefer call him +Orlando?" I ventured. + +"Let me see," she pondered, bending her head; then: "'O, that's a brave +man! he writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths and +breaks them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover; as +a puisny tilter, that spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff +like a noble goose; but all's brave that youth mounts and folly +guides.'" + +"That is Celia's speech, but well rendered. Let us consider that you +are Rosalind, Celia, Viola and Ariel all in one. And I shall be those +immortal villains of old tragedy--first, second and third murtherer; +or, if it suit you better, let me be Iago for honesty; Othello for +great adventures; Hamlet for gloom; Shylock for relentlessness, and +Romeo for love-sickness." + +Again she bent her head; then drawing a little away and clasping her +hands, she quoted: "'Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday +humour and like enough to consent. What would you say to me now, an I +were your very, very Rosalind?'" + +I stammered a moment, dimly recalling Orlando's reply in the play. I +did not know whether she were daring me; and this was certainly not the +girl's mood as we had met at St. Agatha's. My heart leaped and the +blood tingled in my finger-tips as memory searched out the +long-forgotten scene; and suddenly I threw at her the line: + +"'How if the kiss be denied?'" + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"The rehearsal has gone far enough. Let us come back to earth again." + +But this, somehow, was not so easy. + +Far across the lake a heavy train rumbled, and its engine blew a long +blast for Annandale. I felt at that instant the unreality of the day's +events, with their culmination in this strange interview on the height +above the lake. Never, I thought, had man parleyed with woman on so +extraordinary a business. In the brief silence, while the whistle's +echoes rang round the shore, I drew away from the bench that had stood +like a barricade between us and walked toward her. I did not believe +in her; she had flaunted her shameful trickery in my face; and yet I +felt her spell upon me as through the dusk I realized anew her splendid +height, the faint disclosure of her noble head and felt the glory of +her dark eyes. Verily, a lady of shadows, moonlight and dreams, whom +it befitted well to walk forth at night, bent upon plots and mischief, +and compelling love in such foolish hearts as mine. She did not draw +away, but stood quietly, with her head uplifted, a light scarf caught +about her shoulders, and on her head a round sailors cap, tipped away +from her face. + +"You must go back; I must see you safely to St. Agatha's," I said. + +She turned, drawing the scarf close under her throat with a quick +gesture, as though about to go. She laughed with more honest glee than +I had known in her before, and I forgot her duplicity, forgot the bold +game she was playing, and the consequences to which it must lead; my +pulses bounded when a bit of her scarf touched my hand as she flung a +loose end over her shoulder. + +"My dear Mr. Donovan, you propose the impossible! We are foes, you +must remember, and I can not accept your escort." + +"But I have a guard about the house; you are likely to get into trouble +if you try to pass through. I must ask you to remember our pledge, +that you are not to vex Miss Pat unnecessarily in this affair. To +rouse her in the night would only add to her alarm. She has had enough +to worry her already. And I rather imagine," I added bitterly, "that +you don't propose killing her with your own hands." + +"No; do give me credit for that!" she mocked. "But I shall not disturb +your guards, and I shall not distress Aunt Pat by making a row in the +garden trying to run your pickets. I want you to stay here five +minutes--count them honestly--until I have had time to get back in my +own fashion. Is it a bargain?" She put out her hand as she turned +away--her left hand. As my fingers closed upon it an instant the +emerald ring touched my palm. + +"I should think you would not wear that ring," I said, detaining her +hand, "it is too like hers; it is as though you were plighted to her by +it." + +"Yes; it is like her own; she gave it--" + +She choked and caught her breath sharply and her hand flew to her face. + +"She gave it to my mother, long ago," she said, and ran away down the +path toward the school. A bit of gravel loosened by her step slipped +after her to a new resting-place; then silence and the night closed +upon her. + +I threw myself upon the bench and waited, marveling at her. If I had +not touched her hand; if I had not heard her voice; if, more than all, +I had not talked with her of her father, of Miss Pat, of intimate +things which no one else could have known, I should not have believed +that I had seen Helen Holbrook face to face. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LIGHTS ON ST. AGATHA'S PIER + + The night is still, the moon looks kind, + The dew hangs jewels in the heath, + An ivy climbs across thy blind, + And throws a light and misty wreath. + + The dew hangs jewels in the heath, + Buds bloom for which the bee has pined; + I haste along, I quicker breathe, + The night is still, the moon looks kind. + + Buds bloom for which the bee has pined, + The primrose slips its jealous sheath, + As up the flower-watched path I wind + And come thy window-ledge beneath. + + The primrose slips its jealous sheath,-- + Then open wide that churlish blind, + And kiss me through the ivy wreath! + The night is still, the moon looks kind. + --Edith M. Thomas. + + +On my way home through St. Agatha's I stopped to question the two +guards. They had heard nothing, had seen nothing. How that girl had +passed them I did not know. I scanned the main building, where she and +Miss Pat had two rooms, with an intervening sitting-room, but all was +dark. Miss Helen Holbrook was undeniably a resourceful young woman of +charm and wit, and I went on to Glenarm House with a new respect for +her cleverness. + +I was abroad early the next morning, retracing my steps through St. +Agatha's to the stone bench on the bluff with a vague notion of +confirming my memory of the night by actual contact with visible, +tangible things. The lake twinkled in the sunlight, the sky overhead +was a flawless sweep of blue, and the foliage shone from the deluge of +the early night. But in the soft mold of the path the print of a +woman's shoe was unmistakable. Now, in Ireland, when I was younger, I +believed in fairies with all my heart, and to this day I gladly break a +lance for them with scoffers. I know folk who have challenged them and +been answered, and I have, with my own eyes, caught glimpses of their +lights along Irish hillsides. Once, I verily believe, I was near to +speech with them--it was in a highway by a starlit moor--but they +laughed and ran away. The footprints in the school-path were, however, +no elfin trifles. I bent down and examined them; I measured +them--ungraciously, indefensibly, guiltily--with my hand, and rose +convinced that the neat outlines spoke of a modish bootmaker, and were +not to be explained away as marking the lightly-limned step of a fairy +or the gold-sandaled flight of Diana. Then I descended to St. Agatha's +and found Miss Pat and Helen loitering tranquilly in the garden. + +America holds no lovelier spot than the garden of St. Agatha's, with +its soft slopes of lawn, its hedges of box, its columned roses, its +interludes of such fragrant trifles as mignonette and sweet alyssum; +its trellised clematis and honeysuckle and its cool background of +vine-hung wall, where the eye that wearies of the riot of color may +find rest. + +They gave me good morning--Miss Pat calm and gracious, and Helen in the +spirit of the morning itself, smiling, cool, and arguing for peace. +Deception, as a social accomplishment, she had undoubtedly carried far; +and I was hard put to hold up my end of the game. I have practised +lying with past-masters in the art--the bazaar keepers of Cairo, horse +dealers in Moscow and rug brokers in Teheran; but I dipped my colors to +this amazing girl. + +"I'm afraid that we are making ourselves a nuisance to you," said Miss +Pat. "I heard the watchmen patrolling the walks last night." + +"Yes; it was quite feudal!" Helen broke in. "I felt that we were back +at least as far as the eleventh century. The splash of water--which +you can hear when the lake is rough--must be quite like the lap of +water in a moat. But I did not hear the clank of arms." + +"No," I observed dryly. "Ijima wears blue serge and carries a gun that +would shoot clear through a crusader. The gardener is a Scotchman, and +his dialect would kill a horse." + +Miss Pat paused behind us to deliberate upon a new species of hollyhock +whose minarets rose level with her kind, gentle eyes. Something had +been in my mind, and I took this opportunity to speak to Helen. + +"Why don't you avert danger and avoid an ugly catastrophe by confessing +to Miss Pat that your duty and sympathy lie with your father? It would +save a lot of trouble in the end." + +The flame leaped into Helen's face as she turned to me. + +"I don't know what you mean! I have never been spoken to by any one so +outrageously!" She glanced hurriedly over her shoulder. "My position +is hard enough; it is difficult enough, without this. I thought you +wished to help us." + +I stared at her; she was drifting out of my reckoning, and leading me +into uncharted seas. + +"Do you mean to tell me that you have not talked with your father--that +you have not seen him here?" I besought. + +"Yes; I have seen him--once, and it was by accident. It was quite by +accident." + +"Yes; I know of that--" + +"Then you have been spying upon me, Mr. Donovan!" + +"Why did you tell me that outrageously foolish tale about your chess +game, when I knew exactly where you were at the very hour you would +have had me think you were dutifully engaged with your aunt? It seems +to me, my dear Miss Holbrook, that that is not so easy of explanation, +even to my poor wits." + +"That was without purpose; really it was! I was restless and weary +from so much confinement; you can't know how dreary these late years +have been for us--for me--and I wished just once to be free. I went +for a long walk into the country. And if you saw me, if you watched +me--" + +I gazed at her blankly. The thing could not have been better done on +the stage; but Miss Pat was walking toward us, and I put an end to the +talk. + +"I came upon him by accident--I had no idea he was here," she persisted. + +"You are not growing tired of us," began Miss Pat, with her brave, +beautiful smile; "you are not anxious to be rid of us?" + +"I certainly am not," I replied. "I can't tell you how glad I am that +you have decided to remain here. I am quite sure that with a little +patience we shall wear out the besiegers. Our position here has, you +may say, the strength of its weaknesses. I think the policy of the +enemy is to harass you by guerilla methods--to annoy you and frighten +you into submission." + +"Yes; I believe you are right," she said slowly. Helen had walked on, +and I loitered beside Miss Pat. + +"I hope you have had no misgivings, Miss Pat, since our talk yesterday." + +"None whatever," she replied quickly. "I am quite persuaded in my own +mind that I should have been better off if I had made a stand long ago. +I don't believe cowardice ever pays, do you?" + +She smiled up at me in her quick, bright way, and I was more than ever +her slave. + +"Miss Holbrook, you are the bravest woman in the world! I believe you +are right. I think I should be equal to ten thousand men with your +spirit to put heart into me." + +"Don't be foolish," she said, laughing. "But to show you that I am not +really afraid, suppose you offer to take us for a drive this evening. +I think it would be well for me to appear to-day, just to show the +enemy that we are not driven to cover by our little adventure in the +launch yesterday." + +"Certainly! Shall we carry outriders and a rear guard?" + +"Not a bit of it. I think we may be able to shame my brother out of +his evil intentions by our defenselessness." + +We waited for Helen to rejoin us, and the drive was planned for five. +Promptly on the hour, after a day of activity on my part in cruising +the lake, looking for signs of the enemy, we set forth in an open trap, +and plunged into country roads that traversed territory new to all of +us. I carried Ijima along, and when, after a few miles, Helen asked to +take the reins, I changed seats with her, and gave myself up to talk +with Miss Pat. The girl's mood was grave, and she wished to drive, I +fancied, as an excuse for silence. The land rolled gradually away into +the south and west, and we halted, in an hour or so, far from the lake, +on a wooded eminence that commanded a long sweep in every direction, +and drew into the roadside. Ijima opened a gate that admitted us to a +superb maple grove, and in a few minutes we were having tea from the +hamper in the cheeriest mood in the world. The sun was contriving new +marvels in the west, and the wood that dipped lakeward beneath us gave +an illusion of thick tapestry to the eye. + +"We could almost walk to the lake over the trees," said Miss Pat. +"It's a charming picture." + +Then, as we all turned to the lake, seeing it afar across the tree-tops +through the fragrant twilight, I saw the _Stiletto_ standing out boldly +upon the waters of Annandale, with a languid impudence that I began to +associate with its slim outlines and snowy canvas. Other craft were +abroad, and Miss Pat, I judged, spoke only of the prettiness of the +general landscape, and there was, to be sure, no reason why the sails +of the _Stiletto_ should have had any particular significance for her. +Helen was still looking down upon the lake when Miss Pat suggested that +we should go home; and even after her aunt called to her, the girl +still stood, one hand resting upon the trunk of a great beech, her gaze +bent wistfully, mournfully toward the lake. But on the homeward +drive--she had asked for the reins again--her mood changed abruptly, +and she talked cheerily, often turning her head--a scarlet-banded +sailor hat was, I thought, remarkably becoming--to chaff about her +skill with the reins. + +"I haven't a care or trouble in the world," declared Miss Pat when I +left them at St. Agatha's. "I am sure that we have known the worst +that can happen to us in Annandale. I refuse to be a bit frightened +after that drive." + +"It was charming," said Helen. "This is better than the English lake +country, because it isn't so smoothed out." + +"I will grant you all of that," I said. "I will go further and +admit--what is much for me--that it is almost equal to Killarney." + +There seemed to be sincerity in their good spirits, and I was myself +refreshed and relieved as I drove into Glenarm; but I arranged for the +same guard as on the night before. Helen Holbrook's double-dealing +created a condition of affairs that demanded cautious handling, and I +had no intention of being caught napping. + +I am not, let me say, a person who boasts of his knowledge of human +nature. Good luck has served to minimize my own lack of subtlety in +dealing with my fellow-creatures; and I take no credit for such fortune +as I have enjoyed in contests of any sort with men or women. As for +the latter, I admire, I reverence, I love them; but I can not engage to +follow them when they leave the main road for short cuts and by-paths. +The day had gone so well that I viewed the night with complacency. I +read my foreign newspapers with a recurrence of the joy that the +thought of remote places always kindles in me. An article in _The +Times_ on the unrest in Bulgaria--the same old article on the same old +unrest--gave me the usual heartache: I have been waiting ten years for +something to happen in that neighborhood--something really significant +and offering a chance for fun, and it seems as far away as ever. + +From the window of my room I saw the Japanese boy patrolling the walks +of St. Agatha's, and the Holbrooks' affairs seemed paltry and tame in +contrast with the real business of war. A buckboard of youngsters from +Port Annandale passed in the road, leaving a trail of song behind them. +Then the frog choruses from the little brook that lay hidden in the +Glenarm wood sounded in my ears with maddening iteration, and I sought +the open. + +The previous night I had met Helen Holbrook by the stone seat on the +ridge, and I can not deny that it was with the hope of seeing her again +that I set forth. That touch of her hand in the moonlight lingered +with me: I thrilled with eagerness as I remembered how my pulses +bounded when I found myself so close to her there in the fringe of +wood. She was beautiful with a rare loveliness at all times, yet I +found myself wondering whether, on the strange frontiers of love, it +was her daring duplicity that appealed to me. I set myself stubbornly +into a pillory reared of my own shame at the thought, and went out and +climbed upon the Glenarm wall and stared at the dark bulk of St. +Agatha's as I punished myself for having entertained any other thought +of Helen Holbrook than of a weak, vain, ungrateful girl, capable of +making sad mischief for her benefactor. + +Ijima passed and repassed in the paved walk that curved among the +school buildings; I heard his step, and marked his pauses as he met the +gardener at the front door by an arrangement that I had suggested. As +I considered the matter I concluded that Helen Holbrook could readily +slip out at the back of the house, when the guards thus met, and that +she had thus found egress on the night before. + +At this moment the two guards met precisely at the front door, and to +my surprise Sister Margaret, in the brown garb of her Sisterhood, +stepped out, nodded to the watchmen in the light of the overhanging +lamp, and walked slowly round the buildings and toward the lake. The +men promptly resumed their patrol. The Sister slipped away like a +shadow through the garden; and I dropped down from the wall inside the +school park and stole after her. The guards were guilty of no +impropriety in passing her; there was, to be sure, no reason why Sister +Margaret should not do precisely as she liked at St. Agatha's. +However, my curiosity was piqued, and I crept quietly along through the +young maples that fringed the wall. She followed a path that led down +to the pier, and I hung back to watch, still believing that Sister +Margaret had gone forth merely to enjoy the peace and beauty of the +night. I paused in a little thicket, and heard her light step on the +pier flooring; and I drew as near as I dared, in the shadow of the +boat-house. + +She stood beside the upright staff from which the pier lights +swung--the white lantern between the two red ones--looking out across +the lake. The lights outlined her tall figure distinctly. She peered +about anxiously several times, and I heard the impatient tap of her +foot on the planks. In the lake sounded the faint gurgle of water +round a paddle, and in a moment a canoe glided to the pier and a man +stepped out. He bent down to seize the painter, and I half turned +away, ashamed of the sheer curiosity that had drawn me after the +Sister. Nuns who chafe at their prison-bars are not new, either to +romance or history; and this surely was no affair of mine. Then the +man stood up, and I saw that it was Gillespie. He was hatless, and his +arms were bared. He began to speak, but she quieted him with a word; +and as with a gesture she flung back her brown hood, I saw that it was +Helen Holbrook. + +"I had given you up," she said. + +He took both her hands and held them, bending toward her eagerly. She +seemed taller than he in the lantern light. + +"I should have come across the world," he said. "You must believe that +I should not have asked this of you if I had not believed you could do +it without injury to yourself--that it would impose no great burden on +you, and that you would not think too ill of me--" + +"I love you; I am here because I love you!" he said; and I thought +better of him than I had. He was a fool, and weak; but he was, I +believed, an honest fool, and my heart grew hot with jealous rage as I +saw them there together. + +"If there is more I can do!" + +"No; and I should not ask you if there were. I have gone too far, as +it is," she sighed. + +"You must take no risks; you must take care that Miss Pat knows +nothing." + +"No; I must see father. He must go away. I believe he has lost his +senses from brooding on his troubles." + +"But how did he ever get here? There is something very strange about +it." + +"Oh, I knew he would follow us! But I did not tell him I was coming +here--I hope you did not believe that of me. I did not tell him any +more than I told you." + +He laughed softly. + +"You did not need to tell me; I could have found you anywhere in the +world, Helen. That man Donovan is watching you like a hawk; but he's a +pretty good fellow, with a Milesian joy in a row. He's going to +protect Miss Pat and you if he dies at the business." + +She shrugged her shoulders, and I saw her disdain of me in her face. A +pretty conspiracy this was, and I seemed to be only the crumpled +wrapping of a pack of cards, with no part in the game. + +Gillespie drew an envelope from his pocket, held it to the white +lantern for an instant, then gave it to her. + +"I telegraphed to Chicago for a draft. He will have to leave here to +get it--the bank at Annandale carries no such sum; and it will be a +means of getting rid of him." + +"Oh, I only hope he will leave--he must--he must!" she cried. + +"You must go back," he said. "These matters will all come right in the +end, Helen," he added kindly. "There is one thing I do not understand." + +"Oh, there are many things I do not understand!" + +"The thing that troubles me is that your father was here before you." + +"No--that isn't possible; I can't believe it." + +"He had engaged the _Stiletto_ before you came to Annandale; and while +I was tracing you across the country he was already here somewhere. He +amuses himself with the yacht." + +"Yes, I know; he is more of a menace that way--always in our +sight--always where I must see him!" + +Her face, clearly lighted by the lanterns, was touched with anxiety and +sorrow, and I saw her, with that prettiest gesture of woman's thousand +graces--the nimble touch that makes sure no errant bit of hair has gone +wandering--lift her hand to her head for a moment. The emerald ring +flashed in the lantern light. I recall a thought that occurred to me +there--that the widow's peak, so sharply marked in her forehead, was +like the finger-print of some playful god. She turned to go, but he +caught her hands. + +"Helen!" he cried softly. + +"No! Please don't!" + +She threw the nun's hood over her head and walked rapidly up the pier +and stole away through the garden toward St. Agatha's. Gillespie +listened for her step to die away, then he sighed heavily and bent down +to draw up his canoe. When I touched him on the shoulder he rose and +lifted the paddle menacingly. + +"Ah, so it's our young and gifted Irish friend!" he said, grinning. +"No more sprinting stunts for me! I decline to run. The thought of +asparagus and powdered glass saddens me. Look at these hands--these +little hands still wrapped in mystical white rags. I have bled at +every pore to give you entertainment, and now it's got to be twenty +paces with bird-guns." + +"What mischief are you in now?" I demanded angrily. "I thought I +warned you, Gillespie; I thought I even appealed to your chivalry." + +"My dear fellow, everything has changed. If a nun in distress appeals +to me for help, I am Johnny-on-the-spot for Mother Church." + +"That was not the Sister, it was Miss Holbrook. I saw her distinctly; +I heard--" + +"By Jove, this is gallant of you, Donovan! You are a marvelous fellow!" + +"I have a right to ask--I demand to know what it was you gave the girl." + +"Matinee tickets--the American girl without matinee tickets is a lonely +pleiad bumping through the void." + +"You are a contemptible ass. Your conduct is scoundrelly. If you want +to see Miss Holbrook, why don't you go to the house and call on her +like a gentleman? And as for her--" + +"Yes; and as for her--?" + +He stepped close to me threateningly. + +"And as for her--?" he repeated. + +"As for her, she may go too far!" + +"She is not answerable to you. She's the finest girl in the world, and +if you intimate--" + +"I intimate nothing. But what I saw and heard interested me a good +deal, Gillespie." + +"What you heard by stealth, creeping about here at night, prying into +other people's affairs!" + +"I have pledged myself to care for Miss Pat." + +"It's noble of you, Donovan!" and he stepped away from me, grinning. +"Miss Pat suggests nothing to me but 'button, button, who's got the +button?' She's a bloomin' aristocrat, while I'm the wealth-cursed +child of democracy." + +"You're a charming specimen!" I growled. + +It was plain that he saw nothing out of the way in thus conniving with +Helen Holbrook against her aunt, and that he had not been struck by the +enormity of the girl's conduct in taking money from him. He drew in +his canoe as I debated with myself what to do with him. + +"You've got to leave the lake," I said. "You've got to go." + +"Then I'm going, thank you!" + +He sprang into the canoe, driving it far out of my reach; his paddle +splashed, and he was gone. + +"Is that you, sir?" called Ijima behind me. "I thought I heard some +one talking." + +"It is nothing, Ijima." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE FLUTTER OF A HANDKERCHIEF + + As a bell in a chime + Sets its twin-note a-ringing, + As one poet's rhyme + Wakes another to singing, + So once she has smiled + All your thoughts are beguiled, + And flowers and song from your childhood are bringing. + + Each grace is a jewel + Would ransom the town; + Her speech has no cruel, + Her praise is renown; + 'Tis in her as though Beauty, + Resigning to Duty + The scepter, had still kept the purple and crown. + --_Robert Underwood Johnson_. + + +The next morning at eight o'clock I sent a note to Miss Pat, asking if +she and the other ladies of her house would not take breakfast with me +at nine; and she replied, on her quaint visiting-card, in an +old-fashioned hand, that she and Helen would be glad to come, but that +Sister Margaret begged to be excused. It had been in my mind from the +first to ask them to dine at Glenarm, and now I wished to see this +girl, to test, weigh, study her, as soon as possible after her meeting +with Gillespie. I wished to see how she would bear herself before her +aunt and me with that dark transaction on her conscience. The idea +pleased me, and when I saw the two women coming through the school +garden I met them at the gate. + +Breakfast seems to be, in common experience, the most difficult meal of +the day, and yet that hour hangs in memory still as one of the +brightest I ever spent. The table was set on the terrace, and its +white napery, the best Glenarm silver and crystal, and a bowl of red +roses still dewy from the night, all blended coolly with the morning. +As the strawberries were passed I felt that the little table had +brought us together in a new intimacy. It was delightful to sit face +to face with Miss Pat, and not less agreeable to have at my right hand +this bewildering girl, whose eyes laughed at me when I sought shame in +their depths. Miss Pat poured the coffee, and when I took my cup I +felt that it carried benediction with it. I was glad to see her so at +peace with the world, and her heart was not older, I could have sworn, +than the roses before her. + +"I shall refuse to leave when my time is up!" she declared. "Do you +think you could spend a winter here, Helen?" + +"I should love it!" the girl replied. "It would be perfectly splendid +to watch the seasons march across the lake. We can both enroll +ourselves at St. Agatha's as post-graduate students, and take a special +course in weather here." + +"If I didn't sometimes hear trains passing Annandale in the night, I +should forget that there's a great busy world off there somewhere," +said Miss Pat. "I am ashamed of myself for having been so long +discovering this spot. Except one journey to California, I was never +west of Philadelphia until I came here." + +The world was satisfactory as it stood; and I was aware of no reason +why it should move on. The chime of the chapel tower drifted to us +drowsily, as though anxious to accommodate itself to the mood of a day +that began business by shattering the hour-glass. The mist that hung +over the water rose lazily, and disclosed the lake agleam in the full +sunlight. Though Miss Pat was content to linger, Helen, I thought, +appeared restless; she rose and walked to the edge of the terrace, the +better to scan the lake, while Miss Pat and I talked on. Miss Pat's +gift of detachment was remarkable; if we had been looking down from a +balcony upon the Grand Canal, or breakfasting in an Italian garden, she +could not have been more at ease; nor did she refer even remotely to +the odd business that had brought her to the lake. She was, to be +explicit, describing in her delightful low voice, and in sentences +vivid with spirit and color, a visit she had once paid to a noble +Italian family at their country seat. As Helen wandered out of hearing +I thought Miss Pat would surely seize the opportunity to speak of the +girl's father, at least to ask whether I had heard of him further; but +she avoided all mention of her troubles. + +Helen stood by the line of scarlet geraniums that marked the +balustrade, at a point whence the best view of the lake was +obtainable--her hands clasped behind her, her head turned slightly. + +"There is no one quite like her!" exclaimed Miss Pat. + +"She is beautiful!" I acquiesced. + +Miss Pat talked on quickly, as though our silence might cause Helen to +turn and thus deprive us of the picture. + +"Should you like to look over the house?" I asked a little later, when +Helen had come back to the table. "It is said to be one of the finest +houses in interior America, and there are some good pictures." + +"We should be very glad," said Miss Pat; and Helen murmured assent. + +"But we must not stay too long, Aunt Pat. Mr. Donovan has his own +affairs. We must not tax his generosity too far." + +"And we are going to send some letters off to-day. If it isn't asking +too much, I should like to drive to the village later," said Miss Pat. + +"Yes; and I should like a paper of pins and a new magazine," said +Helen, a little, a very little eagerness in her tone. + +"Certainly. The stable is at your disposal, and our entire marine." + +"But we must see the Glenarm pictures first," said Miss Pat, and we +went at once into the great cool house, coming at last to the gallery +on the third floor. + +"Whistler!" Miss Pat exclaimed in delight before the famous _Lady in +the Gray Cloak_. "I thought that picture was owned in England." + +"It was; but old Mr. Glenarm had to have it. That Meissonier is +supposed to be in Paris, but you see it's here." + +"It's wonderful!" said Miss Pat. She returned to the Whistler and +studied it with rapt attention, and I stood by, enjoying her pleasure. +One of the housemaids had followed us to the gallery and opened the +French windows giving upon a balcony, from which the lake lay like a +fold of blue silk beyond the wood. Helen had passed on while Miss Pat +hung upon the Whistler. + +"How beautifully those draperies are suggested, Helen. That is one of +the best of all his things." + +But Helen was not beside her, as she had thought. There were several +recesses in the room, and I thought the girl had stepped into one of +these, but just then I saw her shadow outside. + +"Miss Holbrook is on the balcony," I said. + +"Oh, very well. We must go," she replied quietly, but lingered before +the picture. + +I left Miss Pat and crossed the room to the balcony. As I approached +one of the doors I saw Helen, standing tiptoe for greater height, +slowly raise and lower her handkerchief thrice, as though signaling to +some one on the water. + +I laughed outright as I stepped beside her. + +"It's better to be a picture than to look at one, Miss Holbrook! Allow +me!" + +In her confusion she had dropped her handkerchief, and when I returned +it she slipped it into her cuff with a murmur of thanks. A flash of +anger lighted her eyes and she colored slightly; but she was composed +in an instant. And, looking off beyond the water-tower, I was not +surprised to see the _Stiletto_ quite near our shore, her white sails +filling lazily in the scant wind. A tiny flag flashed recognition and +answer of the girl's signal, and was hauled down at once. + +We were both silent as we watched it; then I turned to the girl, who +bent her head a moment, tucking the handkerchief a trifle more securely +into her sleeve. She smiled quizzically, with a compression of the +lips. + +"The view here is fine, isn't it?" + +We regarded each other with entire good humor. I heard Miss Pat +within, slowly crossing the bare floor of the gallery. + +"You are incomparable!" I exclaimed. "Verily, a daughter of Janus has +come among us!" + +"The best pictures are outdoors, after all," commented Miss Pat; and +after a further ramble about the house they returned to St. Agatha's, +whence we were to drive together to Annandale in half an hour. + +I went to the stone water-tower and scanned the movements of the +_Stiletto_ with a glass while I waited. The sloop was tacking slowly +away toward Annandale, her skipper managing his sheet with an expert +hand. It may have been the ugly business in which the pretty toy was +engaged, or it may have been the lazy deliberation of her oblique +progress over the water, but I felt then and afterward that there was +something sinister in every line of the _Stiletto_. The more I +deliberated the less certain I became of anything that pertained to the +Holbrooks; and I tested my memory by repeating the alphabet and +counting ten, to make sure that my wits were still equal to such +exercises. + +We drove into Annandale without incident and with no apparent timidity +on Miss Pat's part. Helen was all amiability and cheer. I turned +perforce to address her now and then, and was ashamed to find that the +lurking smile about her lips, and a challenging light in her eyes, woke +no resentment in me. The directness of her gaze was in itself +disconcerting; there was no heavy-lidded insolence about her: her +manner suggested a mischievous child who hides your stick and with +feigned interest aids your search for it in impossible places. + +I left Miss Pat and Helen at the general store while I sought the +hardware merchant with a list of trifles required for Glenarm. I was +detained some time longer than I had expected, and in leaving I stood +for a moment on the platform before the shop, gossiping with the +merchant of village affairs. I glanced down the street to see if the +ladies had appeared, and observed at the same time my team and wagon +standing at the curb in charge of the driver, just as I had left them. + +While I still talked to the merchant, Helen came out of the general +store, glanced hurriedly up and down the street, and crossed quickly to +the post-office, which lay opposite. I watched her as I made my adieux +to the shopkeeper, and just then I witnessed something that interested +me at once. Within the open door of the post-office the Italian sailor +lounged idly. Helen carried a number of letters in her hand, and as +she entered the post-office--I was sure my eyes played me no +trick--deftly, almost imperceptibly, an envelope passed from her hand +to the Italian's. He stood immovable, as he had been, while the girl +passed on into the office. She reappeared at once, recrossed the +street and met her aunt at the door of the general store. I rejoined +them, and as we all met by the waiting trap the Italian left the +post-office and strolled slowly away toward the lake. + +I was not sure whether Miss Pat saw him. If she did she made no sign, +but began describing with much amusement an odd countryman she had seen +in the shop. + +"You mailed our letters, did you, Helen? Then I believe we have quite +finished, Mr. Donovan. I like your little village; I'm disposed to +love everything about this beautiful lake." + +"Yes; even the town hall, where the Old Georgia Minstrels seem to have +appeared for one night only, some time last December, is a shrine +worthy of pilgrimages," remarked Helen. "And postage stamps cost no +more here than in Stamford. I had really expected that they would be a +trifle dearer." + +I laughed rather more than was required, for those wonderful eyes of +hers were filled with something akin to honest fun. She was proud of +herself, and was even flushed the least bit with her success. + +As we passed the village pier I saw the _Stiletto_ lying at the edge of +the inlet that made a miniature harbor for the village, and, rowing +swiftly toward it, his oars flashing brightly, was the Italian, still +plainly in sight. Whether Miss Pat saw the boat and ignored it, or +failed to see, I did not know, for when I turned she was studying the +cover of a magazine that lay in her lap. Helen fell to talking +vivaciously of the contrasts between American and English landscape; +and so we drove back to St. Agatha's. + +Thereafter, for the matter of ten days, nothing happened. I brought +the ladies of St. Agatha's often to Glenarm, and we went forth together +constantly by land and water without interruption. They received and +despatched letters, and nothing marred the quiet order of their lives. +The _Stiletto_ vanished from my horizon, and lay, so Ijima learned for +me, within the farther lake. Henry Holbrook had, I made no doubt, gone +away with the draft Helen had secured from Gillespie, and of Gillespie +himself I heard nothing. + +As for Helen, I found it easy to forgive, and I grew eloquently +defensive whenever my heart accused her. Her moods were as changing as +those of the lake, and, like it, knew swift-gathering, passionate +storms. Helen of the stars was not Helen of the vivid sunlight. The +mystery of night vanished in her zest for the day, and I felt that her +spirit strove against mine in all our contests with paddle and racquet, +or in our long gallops into the heart of the sunset. She had fashioned +for the night a dream-world in which she moved like a whimsical shadow, +but by day the fire of the sun flashed in her blood. + +We established between ourselves a comradeship that was for me +delightfully perilous, but which--so she intimated one day, as though +in warning--was only an armed neutrality. We were playing tennis in +the Glenarm court at the time, and she smashed the ball back to me +viciously. + +"Your serve," she said. + +And thus, with the joy of June filling the world, the enchanted days +sped by. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE CARNIVAL OF CANOES + + Thou canst not wave thy staff in air, + Or dip thy paddle in the lake, + But it carves the bow of beauty there, + And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake. + --_Emerson_. + + +I had dined alone and was lounging about the grounds when I heard +voices near the Glenarm wall. There was no formal walk there, and my +steps were silenced by the turf. The heavy scent of flowers from +within gave me a hint of my whereabouts; there was, I remembered, at +this point on the school lawn a rustic bench embowered in honeysuckle, +and Miss Pat and Helen were, I surmised, taking their coffee there. I +started away, thinking to enter by the gate and join them, when Helen's +voice rose angrily--there was no mistaking it, and she said in a tone +that rang oddly on my ears: + +"But you are unkind to him! You are unjust! It is not fair to blame +father for his ill-fortune." + +"That is true, Helen; but it is not your father's ill-fortune that I +hold against him. All I ask of him is to be sane, reasonable, to +change his manner of life, and to come to me in a spirit of fairness." + +"But he is proud, just as you are; and Uncle Arthur ruined him! It was +not father, but Uncle Arthur, who brought all these hideous things upon +us." + +I passed rapidly on, and resumed my walk elsewhere. It was a sad +business, the shadowy father; the criminal uncle, who had, as Helen +said, brought ruin upon them all; the sweet, motherly, older sister, +driven in desperation to hide; and, not less melancholy, this beautiful +girl, the pathos of whose position had struck me increasingly. Perhaps +Miss Pat was too severe, and I half accused her of I know not what +crimes of rapacity and greed for withholding her brother's money; then +I set my teeth hard into my pipe as my slumbering loyalty to Miss Pat +warmed in my heart again. + +"It's the night of the carnival, sir," Ijima reminded me, seeking me at +the water-tower. + +"Very good, Ijima. You needn't lock the boat-house. I may go out +later." + +The cottagers at Port Annandale hold once every summer a canoe fete, +and this was the appointed night. I was in no mood for gaiety of any +sort, but it occurred to me that I might relieve the strained relations +between Helen and her aunt by taking them out to watch the procession +of boats. I passed through the gate and took a turn or two, not to +appear to know of the whereabouts of the women, and to my surprise met +Miss Pat walking alone. + +She greeted me with her usual kindness, but I knew that I had broken +upon sad reflections. Her handkerchief vanished into the silk bag she +wore at her wrist. Helen was not in sight, but I strolled back and +forth with Miss Pat, thinking the girl might appear. + +"I had a note from Father Stoddard to-day," said Miss Pat. + +"I congratulate you," I laughed. "He doesn't honor me." + +"He's much occupied," she remarked defensively; "and I suppose he +doesn't indulge in many letters. Mine was only ten lines long, not +more!" + +"Father Stoddard feels that he has a mission in the world, and he has +little time for people like us, who have food, clothes and drink in +plenty. He gives his life to the hungry, unclothed and thirsty." + +And now, quite abruptly, Miss Pat spoke of her brother. + +"Has Henry gone?" + +"Yes; he left ten days ago." + +She nodded several times, then looked at me and smiled. + +"You have frightened him off! I am grateful to you!"--and I was glad +in my heart that she did not know that Gillespie's money had sent him +away. + +Helen had not appeared, and I now made bold to ask for her. + +"Let me send the maid to tell her you are here," said Miss Pat, and we +walked to the door and rang. + +The maid quickly reported that Miss Holbrook begged to be excused. + +"She is a little afraid of the damp night air of the garden," said Miss +Pat, with so kind an intention that I smiled to myself. It was at the +point of my tongue to remark, in my disappointment at not seeing her, +that she must have taken sudden alarm at the lake atmosphere; but Miss +Pat talked on unconcernedly. I felt from her manner that she wished to +detain me. No one might know how her heart ached, but it was less the +appeal of her gentleness that won me now, I think, than the remembrance +that flashed upon me of her passionate outburst after our meeting with +the Italian; and that seemed very long ago. She had been magnificent +that day, like a queen driven to desperation, and throwing down the +gauntlet as though she had countless battalions at her back. +Indecision took flight before shame; it was a privilege to know and to +serve her! + +"Miss Holbrook, won't you come out to see the water fete? We can look +upon it in security and comfort from the launch. The line of march is +from Port Annandale past here and toward the village, then back again. +You can come home whenever you like. I had hoped Miss Helen might +come, too, but I beg that you will take compassion upon my loneliness." + +I had flung off my cap with the exaggerated manner I sometimes used +with her; and she dropped me a courtesy with the prettiest grace in the +world. + +"I shall be with you in a moment, my lord!" + +She reappeared quickly and remarked, as I took her wraps, that Helen +was very sorry not to come. + +The gardener was on duty, and I called Ijima to help with the launch. +Brightly decorated boats were already visible in the direction of Port +Annandale; even the tireless lake "tramps" whistled with a special +flourish and were radiant in vari-colored lanterns. + +"This is an ampler Venice, but there should be music to make it +complete," observed Miss Pat, as we stole in and out among the +gathering fleet. And then, as though in answer, a launch passed near, +leaving a trail of murmurous chords behind--the mournful throb of the +guitar, the resonant beat of banjo strings. Nothing can be so soothing +to the troubled spirit as music over water, and I watched with delight +Miss Pat's deep absorption in all the sights and sounds of the lake. +We drifted past a sail-boat idling with windless sails, its mast +trimmed with lanterns, and every light multiplying itself in the quiet +water. Many and strange craft appeared--farm folk and fishermen in +clumsy rowboats and summer colonists in launches, skiffs and canoes, +appeared from all directions to watch the parade. + +The assembling canoes flashed out of the dark like fireflies. Not even +the spirits that tread the air come and go more magically than the +canoe that is wielded by a trained hand. The touch of the skilled +paddler becomes but a caress of the water. To have stolen across +Saranac by moonlight; to have paddled the devious course of the York or +Kennebunk when the sea steals inland for rest, or to dip up stars in +lovely Annandale--of such experiences is knowledge born! + +I took care that we kept well to ourselves, for Miss Pat turned +nervously whenever a boat crept too near. Ijima, understanding without +being told, held the power well in hand. I had scanned the lake at +sundown for signs of the _Stiletto_, but it had not ventured from the +lower lake all day, and there was scarce enough air stirring to ruffle +the water. + +"We can award the prize for ourselves here at the turn of the loop," I +remarked, as we swung into place and paused at a point about a mile off +Glenarm. "Here comes the flotilla!" + +"The music is almost an impertinence, lovely as it is. The real song +of the canoe is 'dip and glide, dip and glide,'" said Miss Pat. + +The loop once made, we now looked upon a double line whose bright +confusion added to the picture. The canoe offers, when you think of +it, little chance for the decorator, its lines are so trim and so +founded upon rigid simplicity; but many zealous hands had labored for +the magic of this hour. Slim masts supported lanterns in many and +charming combinations, and suddenly, as though the toy lamps had taken +wing, rockets flung up their stars and roman candles their golden +showers at a dozen points of the line and broadened the scope of the +picture. A scow placed midway of the loop now lighted the lake with +red and green fire. The bright, graceful argosies slipped by, like +beads upon a rosary. When the last canoe had passed, Miss Pat turned +to me, sighing softly: + +"It was too pretty to last; it was a page out of the book of lost +youth." + +I laughed back at her and signaled Ijima to go ahead and then, as the +water churned and foamed and I took the wheel, we were startled by an +exclamation from some one in a rowboat near at hand. The last of the +peaceful armada had passed, but now from the center of the lake, +unobserved and unheralded, stole a canoe fitted with slim masts carried +high from bow to stern with delightful daring. The lights were set in +globes of green and gold, and high over all, its support quite +invisible, shone a golden star that seemed to hover and follow the +shadowy canoe. + +We all watched the canoe intently; and my eyes now fell upon the figure +of the skipper of this fairy craft, who was set forth in clear relief +against the red fire beyond. The sole occupant of the canoe was a +girl--there was no debating it; she flashed by within a paddle's length +of us, and I heard the low bubble of water under her blade. She +paddled kneeling, Indian fashion, and was lessening the breach between +herself and the last canoe of the orderly line, which now swept on +toward the casino. + +"That's the prettiest one of all--" began Miss Pat, then ceased +abruptly. She bent forward, half rising and gazing intently at the +canoe. What she saw and what I saw was Helen Holbrook plying the +paddle with practised stroke; and as she passed she glanced aloft to +make sure that her slender mast of lights was unshaken; and then she +was gone, her star twinkling upon us bewilderingly. I waited for Miss +Pat to speak, but she did not turn her head until the canoe itself had +vanished and only its gliding star marked it from the starry sisterhood +above. + +An exclamation faltered on my lips. + +"It was--it was like--it _was_--" + +"I believe we had better go now," said Miss Pat softly, and, I thought, +a little brokenly. + +But we still followed the star with our eyes, and we saw it gain the +end of the procession, sweep on at its own pace, past the casino, and +then turn abruptly and drive straight for Glenarm pier. It was now +between us and our own shore. It shone a moment against our pier +lights; then the star and the fairy lanterns beneath it vanished one +after another and the canoe disappeared as utterly as though it had +never been. + +I purposely steered a zigzag course back to St. Agatha's. Since Helen +had seen fit to play this trick upon her aunt I wished to give her +ample time to dispose of her canoe and return to the school. If we had +been struck by a mere resemblance, why did the canoeist not go on to +the casino and enjoy the fruits of her victory? I tried to imagine +Gillespie a party to the escapade, but I could not fit him into it. +Meanwhile I babbled on with Miss Pat. An occasional rocket still broke +with a golden shower over the lake, and she now discussed the carnival +and declared the gondola inferior for grace to the American canoe. Her +phrases were, however, a trifle stiff and not in her usual light manner. + +I walked with her from the pier to St. Agatha's. + +Sister Margaret, who had observed the procession from an upper window, +threw open the door for us. + +"How is Helen?" asked Miss Pat at once. + +"She is very comfortable," replied the Sister. "I went up only a +moment ago to see if she wanted anything." + +Miss Pat turned and gave me her hand in her pretty fashion. + +"You see, it could not have been--it was not--Helen; our eyes deceived +us! Thank you very much, Mr. Donovan!" + +There was no mistaking her relief; she smiled upon me beamingly as I +stood before her at the door. + +"Of course! On a fete night one can never trust one's eyes!" + +"But it was all bewilderingly beautiful. You are most compassionate +toward a poor old woman in exile, Mr. Donovan. I must go up to Helen +and make her sorry for all she has missed." + +I went back to the launch and sought far and near upon the lake for the +canoe with the single star. I wanted to see again the face that was +uplifted in the flood of colored light--the head, the erect shoulders, +the arms that drove the blade so easily and certainly; for if it was +not Helen Holbrook it was her shadow that the gods had sent to mock me +upon the face of the waters. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MELANCHOLY OF MR. GILLESPIE + +I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; nor the +musician's, which is fantastical; nor the courtier's, which is proud; +nor the soldier's, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is +politic; nor the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all +these: but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, +extracted from many objects; and indeed the sundry contemplation of my +travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous +sadness.--_As You Like It_. + + +I laughed a moment ago when, in looking over my notes of these affairs, +I marked the swift transition from those peaceful days to others of +renewed suspicions and strange events. I had begun to yield myself to +blandishments and to feel that there could be no further interruption +of the idyllic hours I was spending in Helen Holbrook's company. I +still maintained, to be sure, the guard as it had been established; and +many pipes I smoked on St. Agatha's pier, in the fond belief that I was +merely fulfilling my office as protector of Miss Pat, whereas I had +reached a point where the very walls that held Helen Holbrook were of +such stuff as dreams are made of. My days were keyed to a mood that +was impatient of questions and intolerant of doubts. I was glad to +take the hours as they came, so long as they brought her. I did not +refer to her appearance in the parade of canoes, nor did Miss Pat +mention it to me again. It was a part of the summer's enchantment, and +it was not for me to knock at doors to which Helen Holbrook held the +golden keys. + +The only lingering blot in the bright calendar of those days was her +meeting with Gillespie on the pier, and the fact that she had accepted +money from him for her rascally father. But even this I excused. It +was no easy thing for a girl of her high spirits to be placed in a +position of antagonism to her own father; and as for Gillespie, he was +at least a friend, abundantly able to help her in her difficult +position; and if, through his aid, she had been able to get rid of her +father, the end had certainly justified the means. I reasoned that an +educated man of good antecedents who was desperate enough to attempt +murder for profit in this enlightened twentieth century was cheaply got +rid of at any price, and it was extremely decent of Gillespie--so I +argued--to have taken himself away after providing the means of the +girl's release. I persuaded myself eloquently on these lines while I +exhausted the resources of Glenarm in providing entertainment for both +ladies. There had been other breakfasts on the terrace at Glenarm, and +tea almost every day in the shadow of St. Agatha's, and one dinner of +state in the great Glenarm dining-room; but more blessed were those +hours in which we rode, Helen and I, through the sunset into dusk, or +drove a canoe over the quiet lake by night. Miss Pat, I felt sure, in +so often leaving me alone with Helen, was favoring my attentions; and +thus the days passed, like bubbles on flowing water. + +She was in my thoughts as I rode into Annandale to post some letters, +and I was about to remount at the postoffice door when I saw a crowd +gathered in front of the village inn and walked along the street to +learn the cause of it. And there, calmly seated on a soap-box, was +Gillespie, clad in amazing checks, engaged in the delectable occupation +of teaching a stray village mongrel to jump a stick. The loungers +seemed highly entertained, and testified their appreciation in loud +guffaws. I watched the performance for several minutes, Gillespie +meanwhile laboring patiently with the dull dog, until finally it leaped +the stick amid the applause of the crowd. Gillespie patted the dog and +rose, bowing with exaggerated gravity. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I thank you for your kind attention. Let my +slight success with that poor cur teach you the lesson that we may turn +the idlest moment to some noble use. The education of the lower +animals is something to which too little attention is paid by those +who, through the processes of evolution, have risen to a higher +species. I am grateful, gentlemen, for your forbearance, and trust we +may meet again under circumstances more creditable to us all--including +the dog." + +The crowd turned away mystified, while Gillespie, feeling in his pocket +for his pipe, caught my eye and winked. + +"Ah, Donovan," he said coolly, "and so you were among the admiring +spectators. I hope you have formed a high opinion of my skill as a dog +trainer. Once, I would have you know, I taught a Plymouth Rock rooster +to turn a summersault. Are you quite alone?" + +"You seem to be as big a fool as ever!" I grumbled in disgust, vexed at +finding him in the neighborhood. + +"Gallantly spoken, my dear fellow! You are an honor to the Irish race +and mankind. Our meeting, however, is not inopportune, as they say in +books; and I would have speech with you, gentle knight. The inn, +though humble, is still not without decent comforts. Will you honor +me?" + +He turned abruptly and led the way through the office and up the +stairway, babbling nonsense less for my entertainment, I imagined, than +for the befuddlement of the landlord, who leaned heavily upon his scant +desk and watched our ascent. + +He opened a door, and lighted several oil lamps, which disclosed three +connecting rooms. + +"You see, I got tired of living in the woods, and the farmer I boarded +with did not understand my complex character. The absurd fellow +thought me insane--can you imagine it?" + +"It's a pity he didn't turn you over to the sheriff," I growled. + +"Generously spoken! But I came here and hired most of this inn to be +near the telegraph office. Though as big a fool as you care to call me +I nevertheless look to my buttons. The hook-and-eye people are +formidable competitors, and the button may in time become +obsolete--stranger things have happened. I keep in touch with our main +office, and when I don't feel very good I fire somebody. Only this +morning I bounced our general manager by wire for sending me a letter +in purple type-writing; I had warned him, you understand, that he was +to write to me in black. But it was only a matter of time with that +fellow. He entered a bull pup against mine in the Westchester Bench +Show last spring and took the ribbon away from me. I really couldn't +stand for that. In spite of my glassy splash in the asparagus bed, I'm +a man who looks to his dignity, Donovan. Will you smoke?" + +I lighted my pipe and encouraged him to go on. + +"How long have you been in this bake-oven?" + +"I moved in this morning--you are my first pilgrim. I have spent the +long hot day in getting settled. I had to throw out the furniture and +buy new stuff of the local emporium, where, it depressed me to learn, +furniture for the dead is supplied even as for the living. That chair, +which I beg you to accept, stood next in the shop to a coffin suitable +for a carcass of about your build, old man. But don't let the +suggestion annoy you! I read your book on tiger hunting a few years +ago with pleasure, and I'm sure you enjoy a charmed life. + +"I myself," he continued, taking a chair near me and placing his feet +in an open window, "am cursed with rugged health. I have quite +recovered from those unkind cuts at the nunnery--thanks to your +ministrations--and am willing to put on the gloves with you at any +time." + +"You do me great honor; but the affair must wait for a lower +temperature." + +"As you will! It is not like my great and gracious ways to force a +fight. Pardon me, but may I inquire for the health of the ladies at +Saint What's-her-name's?" + +"They are quite well, thank you." + +"I am glad to know it;"--and his tone lost for the moment its +jauntiness. "Henry Holbrook has gone to New York." + +"Good riddance!" I exclaimed heartily. "And now--" + +"--And now if I would only follow suit, everything would be joy plus +for you!" + +He laughed and slapped his knees at my discomfiture, for he had read my +thoughts exactly. + +"You certainly are the only blot on the landscape!" + +"Quite so. And if I would only go hence the pretty little idyl that is +being enacted in the delightful garden, under the eye of a friendly +chaperon, would go forward without interruption." + +He spoke soberly, and I had observed that when he dropped his chaff a +note of melancholy crept into his talk. He folded his arms and went +on: "She's a wonderful girl, Donovan. There's no other girl like her +in all the wide world. I tell you it's hard for a girl like that to be +in her position--the whole family broken up, and that contemptible +father of hers hanging about with his schemes of plunder. It's +pitiful, Donovan; it's pitiful!" + +"It's a cheerless mess. It all came after the bank failure, I suppose." + +"Practically, though the brothers never got on. You see my governor +was bit by their bank failure; and Miss Pat resented the fact that he +backed off when stung. But the Gillespies take their medicine; father +never squealed, which makes me sore that your Aunt Pat gives me the icy +eye." + +"Their affairs are certainly mixed," I remarked non-committally. + +"They are indeed; and I have studied the whole business until my near +mind is mussed up, like scrambled eggs. Your own pretty idyl of the +nunnery garden adds the note _piquante_. Cross my palm with gold and +I'll tell you of strange things that lie in the future. I have an +idea, Donovan; singular though it seem, I've a notion in my head." + +"Keep it," I retorted, "to prevent a cranial vacuum." + +"Crushed! Absolutely crushed!" he replied gloomily. "Kick me. I'm +only the host." + +We were silent while the few sounds of the village street droned in. +He rose and paced the floor to shake off his mood, and when he sat down +he seemed in better spirits. + +"Holbrook will undoubtedly return," I said. + +"Yes; there's no manner of doubt about that!" + +"And then there will be more trouble." + +"Of course." + +"But I suppose there's no guessing when he will come back." + +"He will come back as soon as he's spent his money." + +I felt a delicacy about referring to that transaction on the pier. It +was a wretched business, and I now realized that the shame of it was +not lost on Gillespie. + +"How does Henry come to have that Italian scoundrel with him?" I asked +after a pause. + +"He's the skipper of the _Stiletto_," Gillespie replied readily. + +"He's a long way from tide-water," I remarked. "A blackguard of just +his sort once sailed me around the Italian peninsula in a felucca, and +saved me from drowning on the way. His heroism was not, however, +wholly disinterested. When we got back to Naples he robbed me of my +watch and money-belt and I profited by the transaction, having intended +to give him double their value. But there are plenty of farm-boys +around the lake who could handle the _Stiletto_. Henry didn't need a +dago expert." + +The mention of the Italian clearly troubled Gillespie. After a moment +he said: + +"He may be holding on to Henry instead of Henry's holding on to him. +Do you see?" + +"No; I don't." + +"Well, I have an idea that the dago knows something that's valuable. +Last summer Henry went cruising in the Sound with a pretty rotten +crowd, poker being the chief diversion. A man died on the boat before +they got back to New York. The report was that he fell down a hatchway +when he was drunk, but there were some ugly stories in the papers about +it. That Italian sailor was one of the crew." + +"Where is he now?" + +"Over at Battle Orchard. He knows his man and knows he'll be back. +I'm waiting for Henry, too. Helen gave him twenty thousand dollars. +The way the market is running he's likely to go broke any day. He +plays stocks like a crazy man, and after he's busted he'll be back on +our hands." + +"It's hard on Miss Pat." + +"And it's harder on Helen. She's in terror all the time for fear her +father will go up against the law and bring further disgrace on the +family. There's her Uncle Arthur, a wanderer on the face of the earth +for his sins. That was bad enough without the rest of it." + +"That was greed, too, wasn't it?" + +"No, just general cussedness. He blew in the Holbrook bank and +skipped." + +These facts I had gathered before, but they seemed of darker +significance now, as we spoke of them in the dimly lighted room of the +squalid inn. I recalled a circumstance that had bothered me earlier, +but which I had never satisfactorily explained, and I determined to +sound Gillespie in regard to it. + +"You told me that Henry Holbrook found his way here ahead of you. How +do you account for that?" + +He looked at me quickly, and rose, again pacing the narrow room. + +"I don't! I wish I could!" + +"It's about the last place in the world to attract him. Port Annandale +is a quiet resort frequented by western people only. There's neither +hunting nor fishing worth mentioning; and a man doesn't come from New +York to Indiana to sail a boat on a thimbleful of water like this lake." + +"You are quite right." + +"If Helen Holbrook gave him warning that they were coming here--" + +He wheeled on me fiercely, and laid his hand roughly on my shoulder. + +"Don't you dare say it! She couldn't have done it! She wouldn't have +done it! I tell you I know, independently of her, that he was here +before Father Stoddard ever suggested this place to Miss Pat." + +"Well, you needn't get so hot about it." + +"And you needn't insinuate that she is not acting honorably in this +affair! I should think that after making love to her, as you have been +doing, and playing the role of comforter to Miss Pat, you would have +the decency not to accuse her of connivance with Henry Holbrook." + +"You let your jealousy get the better of your good sense. I have not +been making love to Miss Holbrook!" I declared angrily and knew in my +heart that I lied. + +"Well, Irishman," he exclaimed with entire good humor; "let us not +bring up mine host to find us locked in mortal combat." + +"What the devil _did_ you bring me up here for?" I demanded. + +"Oh, just to enjoy your society. I get lonesome sometimes. I tell you +a man does get lonesome in this world, when he has nothing to lean on +but a blooming button factory and a stepmother who flits among the +world's expensive sanatoria. I know you have never had 'Button, +button, who's got the button?' chanted in your ears, but may I ask +whether you have ever known the joy of a stepmother? I can see that +your answer will be an unregretful negative." + +He was quite the fool again, and stared at me vacuously. + +"My stepmother is not the common type of juvenile fiction. She has +never attempted during her widowhood to rob the orphan or to poison +him. Bless your Irish heart, no! She's a good woman, and rich in her +own right, but I couldn't stand her dietary. She's afraid I'm going to +die, Donovan! She thinks everybody's going to die. Father died of +pneumonia and she said ice-water in the finger-bowl did it, and she +wanted to have the butler arrested for murder. She had a new disease +for me every morning. It was worse than being left with a button-works +to draw a stepmother like that. She ate nothing but hot water and +zweibach herself, and shuddered when I demanded sausage and buckwheat +cakes every day. She wept and talked of the duty she owed to my poor +dead father; she had promised him, she said, to safeguard my health; +and there I was, as strong as an infant industry, weighed a hundred and +seventy-six pounds when I was eighteen, and had broken all the prep +school records. She made me so nervous talking about her symptoms, and +mine--that I didn't have!--that I began taking my real meals in the +gardener's house. But to save her feelings I munched a little toast +with her. She caught me one day clearing up a couple of chickens and a +mug of bass with the gardener, and it was all over. She had noticed, +she said, that I had been coughing of late--I was doing a few +cigarettes too many, that was all--and wired to New York for doctors. +She had all sorts, Donovan--alienists and pneumogastric specialists and +lung experts. + +"The people on Strawberry Hill thought there was a medical convention +in town. I was kidnapped on the golf course, where I was about to win +the eastern Connecticut long-drive cup, and locked up in a dark room at +home for two days while they tested me. They made all the known tests, +Donovan. They tested me for diseases that haven't been discovered yet, +and for some that have been extinct since the days of Noah. You can +see where that put me. I was afraid to fight or sulk for fear the +alienists would send me to the madhouse. I was afraid to eat for fear +they would think _that_ was a symptom, and every time I asked for food +the tape-worm man looked intelligent and began prescribing, while the +rest of them were terribly chagrined because they hadn't scored first. +The only joy I got out of the rumpus was in hitting one of those +alienists a damned hard clip in the ribs, and I'm glad I did it. He +was feeling my medulla oblongata at the moment, and as I resent being +man-handled I pasted him one--he was a young chap, and fair game--I +pasted him one, and then grabbed a suit-case and slid. I stole away in +a clam-boat for New Haven, and kept right on up into northern Maine, +where I stayed with the Indians until my father's relict went off +broken-hearted to Bad Neuheim to drink the waters. And here I am, by +the grace of God, in perfect health and in full control of the button +market of the world." + +"You have undoubtedly been sorely tried," I said as he broke off +mournfully. In spite of myself I had been entertained. He was +undeniably a fellow of curious humor and with unusual experience of +life. He followed me to the street, and as I rode away he called me +back as though to impart something of moment. + +"Did you ever meet Charles Darwin?" + +"He didn't need me for proof, Buttons." + +"I wish I might have had one word with him. It's on my mind that he +put the monkeys back too far. I should be happier if he had brought +them a little nearer up to date. I should feel less lonesome, +Irishman." + +He stopped me again. + +"Once I had an ambition to find an honest man, Donovan, but I gave it +up--it's easier to be an honest man than to find one. I give you +peace!" + +I had learned some things from the young button king, but much was +still opaque in the affairs of the Holbrooks. The Italian's presence +assumed a new significance from Gillespie's story. He had been party +to a conspiracy to kill Holbrook, _alias_ Hartridge, on the night of my +adventure at the house-boat, and I fell to wondering who had been the +shadowy director of that enterprise--the coward who had hung off in the +creek, and waited for the evil deed to be done. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE GATE OF DREAMS + + And as I muse on Helen's face, + Within the firelight's ruddy shine, + Its beauty takes an olden grace + Like hers whose fairness was divine; + The dying embers leap, and lo! + Troy wavers vaguely all aglow, + And in the north wind leashed without, + I hear the conquering Argives' shout; + And Helen feeds the flames as long ago! + --_Edward A. U. Valentine_. + + +In my heart I was anxious to do justice to Gillespie. Sad it is that +we are all so given to passing solemn judgment on trifling testimony! +I myself am not impeccable. I should at any time give to the lions a +man who uses his thumb as a paper-cutter; for such a one is clearly +marked for brutality. Spats I always associate with vanity and a +delicate constitution. A man who does not know the art of nursing a +pipe's fire, but who has constant recourse to the match-box, should be +denied benefit of clergy and the consolations of religion and tobacco. +A woman who is so far above the vanities of this world that she can put +on her hat without the aid of the mirror is either reckless or +slouchy--both unbecoming enough--or else of an humility that is neither +admirable nor desirable. My prejudices rally as to a trumpet-call at +the sight of a girl wearing overshoes or nibbling bonbons--the one +suggestive of predatory habits and weak lungs, the other of nervous +dyspepsia. + +The night was fine, and after returning my horse to the stable I +continued on to the Glenarm boat-house. I was strolling along, pipe in +mouth, and was half-way up the boat-house steps, when a woman shrank +away from the veranda rail, where she had been standing, gazing out +upon the lake. There was no mistaking her. She was not even disguised +to-night, and as I advanced across the little veranda she turned toward +me. The lantern over the boat-house door suffused us both as I greeted +her. + +"Pardon, me, Miss Holbrook; I'm afraid I have disturbed your +meditations," I said. "But if you don't mind--" + +"You have the advantage of being on your own ground," she replied. + +"I waive all my rights as tenant if you will remain." + +"It is much nicer here than on St. Agatha's pier; you can see the lake +and the stars better. On the whole," she laughed, "I think I shall +stay a moment longer, if you will tolerate me." + +I brought out some chairs and we sat down by the rail, where we could +look out upon the star-sown heavens and the dark floor of stars +beneath. The pier lights shone far and near like twinkling jewels, and +in the tense silence sounds floated from far across the water. A +canoeing party drifted idly by, with a faint, listless splash of +paddles, while a deep-voiced boy sang, _I rise from dreams of thee_. A +moment later the last bars stole softly across to us, vague and +shadowy, as though from the heart of night itself. + +Helen bent forward with her elbows resting on the rail, her hands +clasped under her chin. The lamplight fell full upon her slightly +lifted head, and upon her shoulders, over which lay a filmy veil. She +hummed the boy's song dreamily for a moment while I watched her. Had +she one mood for the day and another for the night? I had last seen +her that afternoon after an hour of tennis, at which she was expert, +and she had run away through Glenarm gate with a taunt for my defeat; +but now the spirit of stars and of all earth's silent things was upon +her. I looked twice and thrice at her clearly outlined profile, at the +brow with its point of dark hair, at the hand whereon the emerald was +clearly distinguishable, and satisfied myself that there could be no +mistake about her. + +"You grow bold," I said, anxious to hear her voice. "You don't mind +the pickets a bit." + +"No. I'm quite superior to walls and fences. You have heard of those +East Indians who appear and disappear through closed doors; well, we'll +assume that I had one of those fellows for an ancestor! It will save +the trouble of trying to account for my exits and entrances. I will +tell you in confidence, Mr. Donovan, that I don't like to be obliged to +account for myself!" + +She sat back in the chair and folded her arms. I had not referred in +any way to her transaction with Gillespie; I had never intimated even +remotely that I knew of her meeting with the infatuated young fellow on +St. Agatha's pier; and I felt that those incidents were ancient history. + +"It was corking hot this afternoon. I hope you didn't have too much +tennis." + +"No; it was pretty enough fun," she remarked, with so little enthusiasm +that I laughed. + +"You don't seem to recall your victory with particular pleasure. It +seems to me that I am the one to be shy of the subject. How did that +score stand?" + +"I really forget--I honestly do," she laughed. + +"That's certainly generous; but don't you remember, as we walked along +toward the gate after the game, that you said--" + +"Oh, I can't allow that at all! What I said yesterday or to-day is of +no importance now. And particularly at night I am likely to be +weak-minded, and my memory is poorer then than at any other time." + +"I am fortunate in having an excellent memory." + +"For example?" + +"For example, you are not always the same; you were different this +afternoon; and I must go back to our meeting by the seat on the bluff, +for the Miss Holbrook of to-night." + +"That's all in your imagination, Mr. Donovan. Now, if you wanted to +prove that I'm really--" + +"Helen Holbrook," I supplied, glad of a chance to speak her name. + +"If you wanted to prove that I am who I am," she continued, with new +animation, as though at last something interested her, "how should you +go about it?" + +"Please ask me something difficult! There is, there could be, only one +woman as fair, as interesting, as wholly charming." + +"I suppose that is the point at which you usually bow humbly and wait +for applause; but I scorn to notice anything so commonplace. If you +were going to prove me to be the same person you met at the Annandale +station, how should you go about it?" + +"Well, to be explicit, you walk like an angel." + +"You are singularly favored in having seen angels walk, Mr. Donovan. +There's a popular superstition that they fly. In my own ignorance I +can't concede that your point is well taken. What next?" + +"Your head is like an intaglio wrought when men had keener vision and +nimbler fingers than now. With your hair low on your neck, as it is +to-night, the picture carries back to a Venetian balcony centuries ago." + +"That's rather below standard. What else, please?" + +"And that widow's peak--I would risk the direst penalties of perjury in +swearing to it alone." + +She shrugged her shoulders. "You are an observant person. That +trifling mark on a woman's forehead is usually considered a +disfigurement." + +"But you know well enough that I did not mention it with such a +thought. You know it perfectly well." + +"No; foolish one," she said mockingly, "the widow's peak can not be +denied. I suppose you don't know that the peak sometimes runs in +families. My mother had it, and her mother before her." + +"You are not your mother or your grandmother; so I am not in danger of +mistaking you." + +"Well, what else, please?" + +"There's the emerald. Miss Pat has the same ring, but you are not Miss +Pat. Besides, I have seen you both together." + +"Still, there are emeralds and emeralds!" + +"And then--there are your eyes!" + +"There are two of them, Mr. Donovan!" + +"There need be no more to assure light in a needful world, Miss +Holbrook." + +"Good! You really have possibilities!" + +She struck her palms together in a mockery of applause and laughed at +me. + +"To a man who is in love everything is possible," I dared. + +"The Celtic temperament is very susceptible. You have undoubtedly +likened many eyes to the glory of the heavens." + +"I swear--" + +"Swear not at all!" + +"Then I won't!"--and we laughed and were silent while the water rippled +in the reeds, the insects wove their woof of sound and ten struck +musically from St. Agatha's. + +"I must leave you." + +"If you go you leave an empty world behind." + +"Oh, that was pretty!" + +"Thank you!" + +"Conceited! I wasn't approving your remark, but that meteor that +flashed across the sky and dropped into the woods away out yonder." + +"Alas! I have fallen farther than the meteor and struck the earth +harder." + +"You deserved it," she said, rising and drawing the veil about her +throat. + +"My lack of conceit has always been my undoing; I am the humblest man +alive. You are adorable," I said, "if that's the answer." + +"It isn't the answer! If mere stars do this to you, what would you be +in moonlight?" + +As we stood facing each other I was aware of some new difference in +her. Perhaps her short outing skirt of dark blue had changed her; and +yet in our tramps through the woods and our excursions in the canoe she +had worn the same or similar costumes. She hesitated a moment, leaning +against the railing and tapping the floor with her boot; then she said +gravely, half questioningly, as though to herself: + +"He has gone away; you are quite sure that he has gone away?" + +"Your father is probably in New York," I answered, surprised at the +question. "I do not expect him back at once." + +"If he should come back--" she began. + +"He will undoubtedly return; there is no debating that." + +"If he comes back there will be trouble, worse than anything that has +happened. You can't understand what his return will mean to us--to me." + +"You must not worry about that; you must trust me to take care of that +when he comes. 'Sufficient unto the day' must be your watchword. I +saw Gillespie to-night." + +"Gillespie?" she repeated with unfeigned surprise. + +"That was capitally acted!" I laughed. "I wish I knew that he meant +nothing more to you than that!" I added seriously. + +She colored, whether with anger or surprise at my swift change of tone, +I did not know. Then she said very soberly: + +"Mr. Gillespie is nothing to me whatever." + +"I thank you for that!" + +"Thank me for nothing, Mr. Donovan. And now good night. You are not +to follow me--" + +"Oh, surely to the gate!" + +"Not even to the gate. My ways are very mysterious. By day I am one +person; by night quite another. And if you should follow me--" + +"To my own gate!" I pleaded. "It's only decent hospitality!" I urged. + +"Not even to the Gate of Dreams!" + +"But in trying to get back to the school you have to pass the guards; +you will fail at that some time!" + +"No! I whisper an incantation, and lo! they fall asleep upon their +spears. And I must ask you--" + +"Keep asking, for to ask you must stay!" + +"--please, when I meet you in daytime do not refer to anything that we +may say when we meet at night. You have proved me at every point--even +to this spot of ink on my forehead," and she put her forefinger upon +the peak. "I am Helen Holbrook; but as--what shall I say?--oh, yes!" +she went on lightly--"as a psychological fact, I am very different at +night from anything I ever am in daylight. And to-morrow morning, when +you meet me with Aunt Pat in the garden, if you should refer to this +meeting I shall never appear to you again, not even through the Gate of +Dreams. Good night!" + +"Good night!" + +I clasped her hand for an instant, and she met my eyes with a laughing +challenge. + +"When shall I see you again--this you that is so different from the you +of daylight?" + +She caught her hand away and turned to go, but paused at the steps. + +"When the new moon hangs, like a little feather, away out yonder, I +shall be looking at it from the stone seat on the bluff; do you think +you can remember?" + +She vanished away into the wood toward St. Agatha's. I started to +follow, but paused, remembering my promise, and sat down and yielded +myself to the thought of her. Practical questions of how she managed +to slip out of St. Agatha's vexed me for a moment; but in my elation of +spirit I dismissed them quickly enough. I would never again entertain +an evil thought of her; the money she had taken from Gillespie I would +in some way return to him and make an end of any claim he might assert +against her by reason of that help. And I resolved to devote myself +diligently to the business of protecting her from her father. I was +even impatient for him to return and resume his blackguardly practice +of intimidating two helpless women, that I might deal with him in the +spirit of his own despicable actions. + +My heart was heavy as I thought of him, but I lighted my pipe and found +at once a gentler glory in the stars. Then as I stared out upon the +lake I saw a shadow gliding softly away from the little promontory +where St. Agatha's pier lights shone brightly. It was a canoe, I +should have known from its swift steady flight if I had not seen the +paddler's arm raised once, twice, until darkness fell upon the tiny +argosy like a cloak. I ran out on the pier and stared after it, but +the silence of the lake was complete. Then I crossed the strip of wood +to St. Agatha's, and found Ijima and the gardener faithfully patrolling +the grounds. + +"Has any one left the buildings to-night?" + +"No one." + +"Sister Margaret hasn't been out--or any one?" + +"No one, sir. Did you hear anything, sir?" + +"Nothing, Ijima. Good night." + +I wrote a telegram to an acquaintance in New York who knows everybody, +and asked him to ascertain whether Henry Holbrook, of Stamford, was in +New York. This I sent to Annandale, and thereafter watched the stars +from the terrace until they slipped into the dawn, fearful lest sleep +might steal away my memories and dreams of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BATTLE ORCHARD + +We crossed the lake from the south and about nightfall came to the +small island called Battle Orchard, which is so named by the American +settlers from the peach, apple and other trees planted there about 1740 +(so many have told me) by Francois Belot, a French voyageur who had +crossed from the Ouabache on his way from Quebec to Post Vincennes near +the Ohio, and, finding the beaver plentiful, brought there his family. +And here the Indians laid siege to him; and here he valiantly defended +the ford on the west side of the little isle for three days, killing +many savages before they slew him.--_The Relation of Captain Abel +Tucker_. + + +When I called at St. Agatha's the following morning the maid told me +that Miss Pat was ill and that Miss Helen asked to be excused. I +walked restlessly about the grounds until luncheon, thinking Helen +might appear; and later determined to act on an impulse, with which I +had trifled for several days, to seek the cottage on the Tippecanoe and +satisfy myself of Holbrook's absence. A sharp shower had cooled the +air, and I took the canoe for greater convenience in running into the +shallow creek. I know nothing comparable to paddling as a lifter of +the spirit, and with my arms and head bared and a cool breeze at my +back I was soon skimming along as buoyant of heart as the responsive +canoe beneath me. It was about four o'clock when I dipped my way into +the farther lake, and as the water broadened before me at the little +strait I saw the _Stiletto_ lying quietly at anchor off the eastern +shore of Battle Orchard. I drew close to observe her the better, but +there were no signs of life on board, and I paddled to the western side +of the island. + +It had already occurred to me that Holbrook might have another +hiding-place than the cottage at Red Gate, where I had talked with him, +and the island seemed a likely spot for it. I ran my canoe on the +pebbly beach and climbed the bank. The island was covered with a +tangle of oak and maple, with a few lordly sycamores towering above +all. I followed a path that led through the underbrush and was at once +shut in from the lake. The trail bore upward and I soon came upon a +small clearing about an acre in extent that had once been tilled, but +it was now preempted by weeds as high as my head. Beyond lay an +ancient orchard, chiefly of apple-trees, and many hoary veterans stood +faithful to the brave hand that had marshaled them there. (Every +orchard is linked to the Hesperides and every apple-waits for +Atalanta--if not for Eve!) I stooped to pick a wild-flower and found +an arrow-head lying beside it. + +Fumbling the arrow-head in my fingers, I passed onto a log cabin hidden +away in the orchard. It was evidently old. The mud chinking had +dropped from the logs in many places, and the stone chimney was held up +by a sapling. I approached warily, remembering that if this were +Holbrook's camp and he had gone away he had probably left the Italian +to look after the yacht, which could be seen from the cabin door. I +made a circuit of the cabin without seeing any signs of habitation, and +was about to enter by the front door, when I heard the swish of +branches in the underbrush to the east and dropped into the grass. + +In a moment the Italian appeared, carrying a pair of oars over his +shoulder. He had evidently just landed, as the blades were dripping. +He threw them down by the cabin door, came round to the western window, +drew out the pin from an iron staple with which it was fastened, and +thrust his head in. He was greeted with a howl and a loud demand of +some sort, to which he replied in monosyllables, and after several +minutes of this parley I caught a fragment of dialogue which seemed to +be final in the subject under discussion. + +"Let me out or it will be the worse for you; let me out, I say!" + +"My boss he sometime come back; then you get out it, maybe." + +With this deliverance, accomplished with some difficulty, the Italian +turned away, going to the rear of the cabin for a pail with which he +trudged off toward the lake. He had not closed the window and would +undoubtedly return in a few minutes; so I waited until he was out of +sight, then rose and crawled through the grass to the opening. + +I looked in upon a bare room whose one door opened inward, and I did +not for a moment account for the voice. Then something stirred in the +farther corner, and I slowly made out the figure of a man tied hand and +foot, lying on his back in a pile of grass and leaves. + +"You ugly dago! you infernal pirate--" he bawled. + +There was no mistaking that voice, and I now saw two legs clothed in +white duck that belonged, I was sure, to Gillespie. My head and +shoulders filled the window and so darkened the room that the prisoner +thought his jailer had come back to torment him. + +"Shut up, Gillespie," I muttered. "This is Donovan. That fellow will +be back in a minute. What can I do for you?" + +"What can you do for me?" he spluttered. "Oh, nothing, thanks! I +wouldn't have you put yourself out for anything in the world. It's +nice in here, and if that fellow kills me I'll miss a great deal of the +poverty and hardship of this sinful world. But take your time, +Irishman. Being tied by the legs like a calf is bully when you get +used to it." + +In turning over, the better to level his ironies at me, he had stirred +up the dust in the straw so that he sneezed and coughed in a ridiculous +fashion. As I did not move he added: + +"You come in here and cut these strings and I'll tell you something +nice some day." + +I ran round to the front door, kicked it open and passed through a +square room that contained a fireplace, a camp bed, a trunk, and a +table littered with old newspapers and a few books. I found Gillespie +in the adjoining room, cut his thongs and helped him to his feet. + +"Where is your boat?" he demanded. + +"On the west side." + +"Then we're in for a scrap. That beggar goes down there for water; and +he'll see that there's another man on the island. I had a gun when I +came," he added mournfully. + +He stamped his feet and threshed himself with his arms to restore +circulation, then we went into the larger room, where he dug his own +revolver from the trunk and pointed to a shot-gun in the corner. + +"You'd better get that. This fellow has only a knife in his clothes. +He'll be back on the run when he sees your canoe." And we heard on the +instant a man running toward the hut. I opened the breech of the +shotgun to see whether it was loaded. + +"Well, how do you want to handle the situation?" I asked. + +He had his eye on the window and threw up his revolver and let go. + +"Your pistol makes a howling noise, Gillespie. Please don't do that +again. The smoke is disagreeable." + +"You are quite right; and shooting through glass is always unfortunate! +there's bound to be a certain deflection before the bullet strikes. +You see if I were not a fool I should be a philosopher." + +"It isn't nice here; we'd better bolt." + +"I'm as hungry as a sea-serpent," he said, watching the window. "And I +am quite desperate when I miss my tea." + +I stood before the open door and he watched the window. We were both +talking to cover our serious deliberations. Our plight was not so much +a matter for jesting as we wished to make it appear to each other. I +had experienced one struggle with the Italian at the houseboat on the +Tippecanoe and was not anxious to get within reach of his knife again. +I did not know how he had captured Gillespie, or what mischief that +amiable person had been engaged in, but inquiries touching this matter +must wait. + +"Are you ready? We don't want to shoot unless we have to. Now when I +say go, jump for the open." + +He limped a little from the cramping of his legs, but crossed over to +me cheerfully enough. His white trousers were much the worse for +contact with the cabin floor, and his shirt hung from his shoulders in +ribbons. + +"My stomach bids me haste; I'm going to eat a beefsteak two miles thick +if I ever get back to New York. Are you waiting?" + +We were about to spring through the outer door, when the door at the +rear flew open with a bang and the sailor landed on me with one leap. +I went down with a thump and a crack of my head on the floor that +sickened me. The gun was under my legs, and I remember that my dazed +wits tried to devise means for getting hold of it. As my senses +gradually came round I was aware of a great conflict about me and over +me. Gillespie was engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with the sailor +and the cabin shook with their strife. The table went down with a +crash, and Gillespie seemed to be having the best of it; then the +Italian was afoot again, and the clenched swaying figures crashed +against the trunk at the farther end of the room. And there they +fought in silence, save for the scraping of their feet on the puncheon +floor. I felt a slight nausea from the smash my head had got, but I +began crawling across the floor toward the struggling men. It was +growing dark, and they were knit together against the cabin wall like a +single monstrous, swaying figure. + +My stomach was giving a better account of itself, and I got to my knees +and then to my feet. I was within a yard of the wavering shadow and +could distinguish Gillespie by his white trousers as he wrenched free +and flung the Italian away from him; and in that instant of freedom I +heard the dull impact of Gillespie's fist in the brute's face. As the +sailor went down I threw myself full length upon him; but for the +moment at least he was out of business, and before I had satisfied +myself that I had firmly grasped him, Gillespie, blowing hard, was +kneeling beside me, with a rope in his hands. + +"I think," he panted, "I should like champignon sauce with that steak, +Donovan. And I should like my potatoes lyonnaise--the pungent onion is +a spurring tonic. That will do, thanks, for the arms. Get off his +legs and I'll see what I can do for them. You oughtn't to have cut +that rope, my boy. You might have known that we were going to need it. +My father taught me in my youth never to cut a string. I want the +pirate's knife for a souvenir. I kicked it out of his hand when you +went bumpety-bumpety. How's your head?" + +"I still have it. Let's get you outside and have a look at you. You +think he didn't land with the knife?" + +"Not a bit of it. He nearly squeezed the life out of me two or three +times, though. What's that?" + +"He gave me a jab with his sticker when he made that flying leap and I +guess I'm scratched." + +Gillespie opened my shirt and disclosed a scratch across my ribs +downward from the left collar bone. The first jab had struck the bone, +but the subsequent slash had left a nasty red line. + +Gillespie swore softly in the strange phrases that he affected while he +tended my injury. My head ached and the nausea came back occasionally. +I sat down in the grass while Gillespie found the sailor's pail and +went to fetch water. He found some towels in the hut and between his +droll chaffing and his deft ministrations I soon felt fit again. + +"Well, what shall we do with the dago?" he asked, rubbing his arms and +legs briskly. + +"We ought to give him to the village constable." + +"That's the law of it, but not the common sense. The lords of justice +would demand to know all the whys and wherefores, and the Italian +consul at Chicago would come down and make a fuss, and the man behind +the dago would lay low and no good would come." + +"When will Holbrook be back?--that's the question." + +"Well, the market has been very feverish and my guess is that he won't +last many days. He had a weakness for Industrials, as I remember, and +they've been very groggy. What he wants is his million from Miss Pat, +and he has his own chivalrous notions of collecting it." + +We decided finally to leave the man free, but to take away his boat. +Gillespie was disposed to make light of the whole affair, now that we +had got off with our lives. We searched the hut for weapons and +ammunition, and having collected several knives and a belt and revolver +from the trunk, we poured water on the Italian, carried him into the +open and loosened the ropes with which Gillespie had tied him. + +The man glared at us fiercely and muttered incoherently for a few +minutes, but after Gillespie had dashed another pail of water on him he +stood up and was tame enough. + +"Tell him," said Gillespie, "that we shall not kill him to-day. Tell +him that this being Tuesday we shall spare his life--that we never kill +any one on Tuesday, but that we shall come back to-morrow and make +shark meat of him. Assure him that we are terrible villains and +man-hunters--" + +"When will your employer return?" I asked the sailor. + +He shook his head and declared that he did not know. + +"How long did he hire you for?" + +"For all summer." He pointed to the sloop, and I got it out of him +that he had been hired in New York to come to the lake and sail it. + +"In the creek up yonder," I said, pointing toward the Tippecanoe, "you +tried to kill me. There was another man with you. Who was he?" + +"That was my boss," he replied reluctantly, though his English was +clear enough. + +"What is your employer's name?" I demanded. + +"Holbrook. I sail his boat, the _Stiletto_, over there," he replied. + +"But it was not he who was with you on the houseboat in the creek. Mr. +Holbrook was not there. Do not lie to me. Who was the other man that +wanted you to kill Holbrook?" + +He appeared mystified, and Gillespie, to whom I had told nothing of my +encounter at the boat-maker's, looked from one to the other of us with +a puzzled expression on his face. + +"All he knows is that he's hired to sail a boat and, incidentally, +stick people with his knife," said Gillespie in disgust. "We can do +nothing till Holbrook comes back; let's be going." + +We finally gathered up the Italian's oars, and, carrying the captured +arms, went to the east shore, where we put off in Gillespie's rowboat, +trailing the Italian's boat astern. The sailor followed us to the +shore and watched our departure in silence. We swung round to the +western shore and got my canoe, and there again, the Italian sullenly +watched us. + +"He's not so badly marooned," said Gillespie. "He can walk out over +here." + +"No, he'll wait for Holbrook. He's stumped now and doesn't understand +us. He has exhausted his orders and is sick and tired of his job. A +salt-water sailor loses his snap when he gets as far inland as this. +He'll demand his money when Holbrook turns up and clear out of this." + +Gillespie took the oars himself, insisting that I must have a care for +the slash across my chest, and so, towing the canoe and rowboat, we +turned toward Glenarm. The Italian still watched us from the shore, +standing beside a tall sycamore on a little promontory as though to +follow us as far as possible. + +We passed close to the _Stiletto_ to get a better look at her. She was +the trimmest sailing craft in those waters, and the largest, being, I +should say, thirty-seven feet on the water-line, sloop-rigged, and with +a cuddy large enough to house the skipper. As we drew alongside I +stood up the better to examine her, and the Italian, still watching us +intently from the island, cried out warningly. + +"He should fly the signal, 'Owner not on board,'" remarked Gillespie as +we pushed off and continued on our way. + +The sun was low in the western wood as we passed out into the larger +lake. Gillespie took soundings with his oar in the connecting channel, +and did not touch bottom. + +"You wouldn't suppose the _Stiletto_ could get through here; it's as +shallow as a sauce-pan; but there's plenty and to spare," he said, as +he resumed rowing. + +"But it takes a cool hand--" I began, then paused abruptly; for there, +several hundred yards away, a little back from the western shore, +against a strip of wood through which the sun burned redly, I saw a man +and a woman slowly walking back and forth. Gillespie, laboring +steadily at the oars, seemed not to see them, and I made no sign. My +heart raced for a moment as I watched them pace back and forth, for +there was something familiar in both figures. I knew that I had seen +them before and talked with them; I would have sworn that the man was +Henry Holbrook and the girl Helen; and I was aware that when they +turned, once, twice, at the ends of their path, the girl made some +delay; and when they went on she was toward the lake, as though +shielding the man from our observation. The last sight I had of them +the girl stood with her back to us, pointing into the west. Then she +put up her hand to her bare head as though catching a loosened strand +of hair; and the wind blew back her skirts like those of the Winged +Victory. The two were etched sharply against the fringe of wood and +bathed in the sun's glow. A second later the trees stood there +alertly, with the golden targe of the sun shining like a giant's shield +beyond; but they had gone, and my heart was numb with foreboding, or +loneliness, and heavy with the weight of things I did not understand. + +Gillespie tugged hard with the burden of the tow at his back. I will +not deny that I was uncomfortable as I thought of his own affair with +Helen Holbrook. He had, by any fair judgment, a prior claim. Her +equivocal attitude toward him and her inexplicable conduct toward her +aunt were, I knew, appearing less and less heinous to me as the days +passed; and I was miserably conscious that my own duty to Miss Patricia +lay less heavily upon me. + +I was glad when we reached Glenarm pier, where we found Ijima hanging +out the lamps. He gave me a telegram. It was from my New York +acquaintance and read: + + +Holbrook left here two days ago; destination unknown. + + +"Come, Gillespie; you are to dine with me," I said, when he had read +the telegram; and so we went up to the house together. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +I UNDERTAKE A COMMISSION + + Sweet is every sound, + Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; + Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, + The moan of doves in immemorial elms, + And murmuring of innumerable bees. + --_Tennyson_. + + +Gillespie availed himself of my wardrobe to replace his rags, and +appeared in the library clothed and in his usual state of mind on the +stroke of seven. + +"You should have had the doctor out, Donovan. Being stuck isn't so +funny, and you will undoubtedly die of blood-poisoning. Every one does +nowadays." + +"I shall disappoint you. Ijima and I between us have stuck me together +like a cracked plate. And it is not well to publish our troubles to +the world. If I called the village doctor he would kill his horse +circulating the mysterious tidings. Are you satisfied?" + +"Quite so. You're a man after my own heart, Donovan." + +We had reached the dining-room and stood by our chairs. + +"I should like," he said, taking up his cocktail glass, "to propose a +truce between us--" + +"In the matter of a certain lady?" + +"Even so! On the honor of a fool," he said, and touched his glass to +his lips. "And may the best man win," he added, putting down the glass +unemptied. + +He was one of those comfortable people with whom it is possible to sit +in silence; but after intervals in which we found nothing to say he +would, with exaggerated gravity, make some utterly inane remark. +To-night his mind was more agile than ever, his thoughts leaping nimbly +from crag to crag, like a mountain goat. He had traveled widely and +knew the ways of many cities; and of American political characters, +whose names were but vaguely known to me, he discoursed with delightful +intimacy; then his mind danced away to a tour he had once made with a +company of acrobats whose baggage he had released from the grasping +hands of a rural sheriff. + +"What," he asked presently, "is as sad as being deceived in a person +you have admired and trusted? I knew a fellow who was professor of +something in a blooming college, and who was so poor that he had to +coach delinquent preps in summer-time instead of getting a vacation. I +had every confidence in that fellow. I thought he was all right, and +so I took him up into Maine with me--just the two of us--and hired an +Indian to run our camp, and everything pointed to plus. Well, I always +get stung when I try to be good." + +He placed his knife and fork carefully across his plate and sighed +deeply. + +"What was the matter? Did he bore you with philosophy?" + +"No such luck. That man was weak-minded on the subject of +domesticating prairie-dogs. You may shoot me if that isn't the fact. +There he was, a prize-winner and a fellow of his university, and a fine +scholar who edited Greek text-books, with that thing on his mind. He +held that the daily example of the happy home life of the prairie-dog +would tend to ennoble all mankind and brighten up our family altars. +Think of being lost in the woods with a man with such an idea, and of +having to sleep under the same blanket with him! It rained most of the +time so we had to sit in the tent, and he never let up. He got so bad +that he would wake me up in the night to talk prairie-dog." + +"It must have been trying," I agreed. "What was your solution, +Buttons?" + +"I moved outdoors and slept with the Indian. Your salad dressing is +excellent, Donovan, though personally I lean to more of the paprika. +But let us go back a bit to the Holbrooks. Omitting the lady, there +are certain points about which we may as well agree. I am not so great +a fool but that I can see that this state of things can not last +forever. Henry is broken down from drink and brooding over his +troubles, and about ready for close confinement in a brick building +with barred windows." + +"Then I'm for capturing him and sticking him away in a safe place." + +"That's the Irish of it, if you will pardon me; but it's not the +Holbrook of it. A father tucked away in a private madhouse would not +sound well to the daughter. I advise you not to suggest that to Helen. +I generously aid your suit to that extent. We are both playing for +Helen's gratitude; that's the flat of the matter." + +"I was brought into this business to help Miss Pat," I declared, though +a trifle lamely. Gillespie grinned sardonically. + +"Be it far from me to interfere with your plans, methods or hopes. We +both have the conceit of our wisdom!" + +"There may be something in that." + +"But it was decent of you to get me out of that Italian's clutches this +afternoon. When I went over there I thought I might find Henry +Holbrook and pound some sense into him; and he's about due, from that +telegram. If Miss Pat won't soften her heart I'd better buy him off," +he added reflectively. + +We walked the long length of the hall into the library, and had just +lighted our cigars when the butler sought me. + +"Beg pardon, the telephone, sir." + +My distrust of the telephone is so deep-seated that I had forgotten the +existence of the instrument in Glenarm house, where, I now learned, it +was tucked away in the butler's pantry for the convenience of the +housekeeper in ordering supplies from the village. After a moment's +parley a woman's voice addressed me distinctly--a voice that at once +arrested and held all my thoughts. My replies were, I fear, somewhat +breathless and wholly stupid. + +"This is Rosalind; do you remember me?" + +"Yes; I remember; I remember nothing else!" I declared. Ijima had +closed the door behind me, and I was alone with the voice--a voice that +spoke to me of the summer night, and of low winds murmuring across +starry waters. + +"I am going away. The Rosalind you remember is going a long way from +the lake, and you will never see her again." + +"But you have an engagement; when the new moon--" + +"But the little feather of the new moon is under a cloud, and you can +not see it; and Rosalind must always be Helen now." + +"But this won't do, Rosalind. Ours was more than an engagement; it was +a solemn compact," I insisted. + +"Oh, not so very solemn!" she laughed. "And then you have the other +girl that isn't just me--the girl of the daylight, that you ride and +sail with and play tennis with." + +"Oh, I haven't her; I don't want her--" + +"Treacherous man! Volatile Irishman!" + +"Marvelous, adorable Rosalind!" + +"That will do, Mr. Donovan"--and then with a quick change of tone she +asked abruptly: + +"You are not afraid of trouble, are you?" + +"I live for nothing else!" + +"You are not so pledged to the Me you play tennis with that you can not +serve Rosalind if she asks it?" + +"No; you have only to ask. But I must see you once more--as Rosalind!" + +"Stop being silly, and listen carefully." And I thought I heard a sob +in the moment's silence before she spoke. + +"I want you to go, at once, to the house of the boat-maker on +Tippecanoe Creek; go as fast as you can!" she implored. + +"To the house of the man who calls himself Hartridge, the canoe-maker, +at Red Gate?" + +"Yes; you must see that no harm comes to him to-night." + +There was no mistaking now the sobs that broke her sentences, and my +mind was so a-whirl with questions that I stammered incoherently. + +"Will you go--will you go?" she demanded in a voice so low and broken +that I scarcely heard. + +"Yes, at once," and the voice vanished, and while I still stood staring +at the instrument the operator at Annandale blandly asked me what +number I wanted. The thread had snapped and the spell was broken. I +stared helplessly at the thing of wood and wire for half a minute; then +the girl's appeal and my promise rose in my mind distinct from all +else. I ordered my horse before returning to the library, where +Gillespie was coolly turning over the magazines on the table. I was +still dazed, and something in my appearance caused him to stare. + +"Been seeing a ghost?" he asked. + +"No; just hearing one," I replied. + +I had yet to offer some pretext for leaving him, and as I walked the +length of the room he stifled a yawn, his eyes falling upon the line of +French windows. I spoke of the heat of the night, but he did not +answer, and I turned to find his gaze fixed upon one of the open +windows. + +"What is it, man?" I demanded. + +He crossed the room in a leap and was out upon the terrace, peering +down upon the shrubbery beneath. + +"What's the row?" I demanded. + +"Didn't you see it?" + +"No." + +"Then it wasn't anything. I thought I saw the dago, if you must know. +He'll probably be around looking for us." + +"Humph, you're a little nervous, that's all. You'll stay here all +night, of course?" I asked, without, I fear, much enthusiasm. + +He grinned. + +"Don't be so cordial! If you'll send me into town I'll be off." + +I had just ordered the dog-cart when the butler appeared. + +"If you please, sir. Sister Margaret wishes to use our telephone, sir. +St. Agatha's is out of order." + +I spoke to the Sister as she left the house, half as a matter of +courtesy, half to make sure of her. The telephone at St. Agatha's had +been out of order for several days, she said; and I walked with her to +St. Agatha's gate, talking of the weather, the garden and the Holbrook +ladies, who were, she said, quite well. + +Thereafter, when I had despatched Gillespie to the village in the +dog-cart, I got into my leggings, reflecting upon the odd circumstance +that Helen Holbrook had been able to speak to me over the telephone a +few minutes before, using an instrument that had, by Sister Margaret's +testimony, been out of commission for several days. The girl had +undoubtedly slipped away from St. Agatha's and spoken to me from some +other house in the neighborhood; but this was a matter of little +importance, now that I had undertaken her commission. + +The chapel clock chimed nine as I gained the road, and I walked my +horse to scan St. Agatha's windows through vistas that offered across +the foliage. And there, by the open window of her aunt's sitting-room, +I saw Helen Holbrook reading. A table-lamp at her side illumined her +slightly bent head; and, as though aroused by my horse's quick step in +the road, she rose and stood framed against the light, with the soft +window draperies fluttering about her. + +I spoke to my horse and galloped toward Red Gate. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN ODD AFFAIR AT RED GATE + + Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, + Which better fits a lion than a man. + --_Troilus and Cressida_. + + +As I rode through Port Annandale the lilting strains of a waltz floated +from the casino, and I caught a glimpse of the lake's cincture of +lights. My head was none too clear from its crack on the cabin floor, +and my chest was growing sore and stiff from the slash of the Italian's +knife; but my spirits were high, and my ears rang with memories of the +Voice. Helen had given me a commission, and every fact of my life +faded into insignificance compared to this. The cool night air rushing +by refreshed me. I was eager for the next turn of the wheel, and my +curiosity ran on to the boat-maker's house. + +I came now to a lonely sweep, where the road ran through a heavy +woodland, and the cool, moist air of the forest rose round me. The +lake, I knew, lay close at hand, and the Hartridge cottage was not, as +I reckoned my distances, very far ahead. I had drawn in my horse to +consider the manner of my approach to the boat-maker's, and was jogging +along at an easy trot when a rifle-shot rang out on my left, from the +direction of the creek, and my horse shied sharply and plunged on at a +wild gallop. He ran several hundred yards before I could check him, +and then I turned and rode slowly back, peering into the forest's black +shadow for the foe. I paused and waited, with the horse dancing +crazily beneath me, but the woodland presented an inscrutable front. I +then rode on to the unfenced strip of wood where I had left my horse +before. + +I began this narrative with every intention of telling the whole truth +touching my adventures at Annandale, and I can not deny that the shot +from the wood had again shaken my faith in Helen Holbrook. She had +sent me to the Tippecanoe on an errand of her own choosing, and I had +been fired on from ambush near the place to which she had sent me. I +fear that my tower of faith that had grown so tall and strong shook on +its foundations; but once more I dismissed my doubts, just as I had +dismissed other doubts and misgivings about her. My fleeting glimpse +of her in the window of St. Agatha's less than an hour before flashed +back upon me, and the tower touched the stars, steadfast and serene +again. + +I strode on toward Red Gate with my revolver in the side pocket of my +Norfolk jacket. A buckboard filled with young folk from the summer +colony passed me, and then the utter silence of the country held the +world. In a moment I had reached the canoe-maker's cottage and entered +the gate. I went at once to the front door and knocked. I repeated my +knock several times, but there was no answer. The front window-blinds +were closed tight. + +It was now half-past ten and I walked round the dark house with the +sweet scents of the garden rising about me and paused again at the top +of the steps leading to the creek. + +The house-boat was effectually screened by shrubbery, and I had +descended half a dozen steps before I saw a light in the windows. It +occurred to me that as I had undoubtedly been sent to Red Gate for some +purpose, I should do well not to defeat it by any clumsiness of my own; +so I proceeded slowly, pausing several times to observe the lights +below. I heard the Tippecanoe slipping by with the subdued murmur of +water at night; and then a lantern flashed on deck and I heard voices. +Some one was landing from a boat in the creek. This seemed amiable +enough, as the lantern-bearer helped a man in the boat to clamber to +the platform, and from the open door of the shop a broad shaft of light +shone brightly upon the two men. The man with the lantern was +Holbrook, _alias_ Hartridge, beyond a doubt; the other was a stranger. +Holbrook caught the painter of the boat and silently made it fast. + +"Now," he said, "come in." + +They crossed the deck and entered the boat-maker's shop, and I crept +down where I could peer in at an open port-hole. Several brass +ship-lamps of an odd pattern lighted the place brilliantly, and I was +surprised to note the unusual furnishings of the room. The end nearest +my port-hole was a shop, with a carpenter's bench with litter all about +that spoke of practical use. Two canoes in process of construction lay +across frames contrived for the purpose, and overhead was a rack of +lumber hung away to dry. The men remained at the farther end of the +house--it was, I should say, about a hundred feet long--which, without +formal division, was fitted as a sitting-room, with a piano in one +corner, and a long settle against the wall. In the center was a table +littered with books and periodicals; and a woman's sewing-basket, +interwoven with bright ribbons, gave a domestic touch to the place. On +the inner wall hung a pair of foils and masks. Pictures from +illustrated journals--striking heads or outdoor scenes--were pinned +here and there. + +The new-comer stared about, twirling a Tweed cap nervously in his +hands, while Holbrook carefully extinguished the lantern and put it +aside. His visitor was about fifty, taller than he, and swarthy, with +a grayish mustache, and hair white at the temples. His eyes were large +and dark, but even with the length of the room between us I marked +their restlessness; and now that he spoke it was in a succession of +quick rushes of words that were difficult to follow. + +Holbrook pushed a chair toward the stranger and they faced each other +for a moment, then with a shrug of his shoulders the older man sat +down. Holbrook was in white flannels, with a blue scarf knotted in his +shirt collar. He dropped into a big wicker chair, crossed his legs and +folded his arms. + +"Well," he said in a wholly agreeable tone, "you wanted to see me, and +here I am." + +"You are well hidden," said the other, still gazing about. + +"I imagine I am, from the fact that it has taken you seven years to +find me." + +"I haven't been looking for you seven years," replied the stranger +hastily; and his eyes again roamed the room. + +The men seemed reluctant to approach the business that lay between +them, and Holbrook wore an air of indifference, as though the impending +interview did not concern him particularly. The eyes of the older man +fell now upon the beribboned work-basket. He nodded toward it, his +eyes lighting unpleasantly. + +"There seems to be a woman," he remarked with a sneer of implication. + +"Yes," replied Holbrook calmly, "there is; that belongs to my daughter." + +"Where is she?" demanded the other, glancing anxiously about. + +"In bed, I fancy. You need have no fear of her." + +Silence fell upon them again. Their affairs were difficult, and +Holbrook, waiting patiently for the other to broach his errand, drew +out his tobacco-pouch and pipe and began to smoke. + +"Patricia is here, and Helen is with her," said the visitor. + +"Yes, we are all here, it seems," remarked Holbrook dryly. "It's a +nice family gathering." + +"I suppose you haven't seen them?" demanded the visitor. + +"Yes and no. I have no wish to meet them; but I've had several narrow +escapes. They have cut me off from my walks; but I shall leave here +shortly." + +"Yes, you are going, you are going--" began the visitor eagerly. + +"I am going, but not until after you have gone," said Holbrook. "By +some strange fate we are all here, and it is best for certain things to +be settled before we separate again. I have tried to keep out of your +way; I have sunk my identity; I have relinquished the things of life +that men hold dear--honor, friends, ambition, and now you and I have +got to have a settlement." + +"You seem rather sure of yourself," sneered the older, turning uneasily +in his chair. + +"I am altogether sure of myself. I have been a fool, but I see the +error of my ways and I propose to settle matters with you now and here. +You have got to drop your game of annoying Patricia; you've got to stop +using your own daughter as a spy--" + +"You lie, you lie!" roared the other, leaping to his feet. "You can +not insinuate that my daughter is not acting honorably toward Patricia." + +My mind had slowly begun to grasp the situation and to identify the men +before me. It was as though I looked upon a miniature stage in a +darkened theater, and, without a bill of the play, was slowly finding +names for the players. Holbrook, _alias_ Hartridge, the boat-maker of +the Tippecanoe, was not Henry Holbrook, but Henry's brother, Arthur! +and I sought at once to recollect what I knew of him. An instant +before I had half turned to go, ashamed of eavesdropping upon matters +that did not concern me; but the Voice that had sent me held me to the +window. It was some such meeting as this that Helen must have feared +when she sent me to the houses-boat, and everything else must await the +issue of this meeting. + +"You had better sit down, Henry," said Arthur Holbrook quietly. "And I +suggest that you make less noise. This is a lonely place, but there +are human beings within a hundred miles." + +Henry Holbrook paced the floor a moment and then flung himself into a +chair again, but he bent forward angrily, nervously beating his hands +together. Arthur went on speaking, his voice shaking with passion. + +"I want to say to you that you have deteriorated until you are a common +damned blackguard, Henry Holbrook! You are a blackguard and a gambler. +And you have made murderous attempts on the life of your sister; you +drove her from Stamford and you tried to smash her boat out here in the +lake. I saw the whole transaction that afternoon, and understood it +all--how you hung off there in the _Stiletto_ and sent that beast to do +your dirty work." + +"I didn't follow her here; I didn't follow her here!" raged the other. + +"No; but you watched and waited until you traced me here. You were not +satisfied with what I had done for you. You wanted to kill me before I +could tell Pat the truth; and if it hadn't been for that man Donovan +your assassin would have stabbed me at my door." Arthur Holbrook rose +and flung down his pipe so that the coals leaped from it. "But it's +all over now--this long exile of mine, this pursuit of Pat, this +hideous use of your daughter to pluck your chestnuts from the fire. By +God, you've got to quit--you've got to go!" + +"But I want my money--I want my money!" roared Henry, as though +insisting upon a right; but Arthur ignored him, and went on. + +"You were the one who was strong; and great things were expected of +you, to add to the traditions of family honor; but our name is only +mentioned with a sneer where men remember it at all. You were spoiled +and pampered; you have never from your early boyhood had a thought that +was not for yourself alone. You were always envious and jealous of +anybody that came near you, and not least of me; and when I saved you, +when I gave you your chance to become a man at last, to regain the +respect you had flung away so shamefully, you did not realize it, you +could not realize it; you took it as a matter of course, as though I +had handed you a cigar. I ask you now, here in this place, where I am +known and respected--I ask you here, where I have toiled with my hands, +whether you forget why I am here?" + +Henry Holbrook tugged at his scarf nervously and his eyes wandered +about uneasily. He did not answer his brother. Arthur stood over him, +with folded arms, his back to me so that I could not see his face; but +his tone had in it the gathered passion and contempt of years. Then he +was at once himself, standing away a little, like a lawyer after a +round with a refractory witness. + +"I must have my money; Patricia must make the division," replied Henry +doggedly. + +"Certainly! Certainly! I devoutly hope she will give it to you; you +need fear no interference from me. The sooner you get it and fling it +away the better. Patricia has been animated by the best motives in +withholding it; she regarded it as a sacred trust to administer for +your own good, but now I want you to have your money." + +"If I can have my share, if you will persuade her to give it, I will +pay you all I owe you--" Henry began eagerly. + +"What you owe me--what you _owe_ me!" and Arthur bent toward his +brother and laughed--a laugh that was not good to hear. "You would +give me money--money--you would pay me _money_ for priceless things!" + +He broke off suddenly, dropping his arms at his sides helplessly. + +"There is no use in trying to talk to you; we use a different +vocabulary, Henry." + +"But that trouble with Gillespie--if Patricia knew--" + +"Yes; if she knew the truth! And you never understood, you are +incapable of understanding, that it meant something to me to lose my +sister out of my life. When Helen died"--and his voice fell and he +paused for a moment, as a priest falters sometimes, gripped by some +phrase in the office that touches hidden depths in his own experience, +"then when Helen died there was still Patricia, the noblest sister men +ever had; but you robbed me of her--you robbed me of her!" + +He was deeply moved and, as he controlled himself, he walked to the +little table and fingered the ribbons of the work-basket. + +"I haven't those notes, if that's what you're after--I never had them," +he said. "Gillespie kept tight hold of them." + +"Yes; the vindictive old devil!" + +"Men who have been swindled are usually vindictive," replied Arthur +grimly. "Gillespie is dead. I suppose the executor of his estate has +those papers; and the executor is his son." + +"The fool. I've never been able to get anything out of him." + +"If he's a fool it ought to be all the easier to get your pretty +playthings away from him. Old Gillespie really acted pretty decently +about the whole business. Your daughter may be able to get them away +from the boy; he's infatuated with her; he wants to marry her, it +seems." + +"My daughter is not in this matter," said Henry coldly, and then anger +mastered him again. "I don't believe he has them; you have them, and +that's why I have followed you here. I'm going to Patricia to throw +myself on her mercy, and that ghost must not rise up against me. I +want them; I have come to get those notes." + +I was aroused by a shadow-like touch on my arm, and I knew without +seeing who it was that stood beside me. A faint hint as of violets +stole upon the air; her breath touched my cheek as she bent close to +the little window, and she sighed deeply as in relief at beholding a +scene of peace. Arthur Holbrook still stood with bowed head by the +table, his back to his brother, and I felt suddenly the girl's hand +clutch my wrist. She with her fresher eyes upon the scene saw, before +I grasped it, what now occurred. Henry Holbrook had drawn a revolver +from his pocket and pointed it full at his brother's back. We two at +the window saw the weapon flash menacingly; but suddenly Arthur +Holbrook flung round as his brother cried: + +"I think you are lying to me, and I want those notes--I want those +notes, I want them now! You must have them, and I can't go to Patricia +until I know they're safe." + +He advanced several steps and his manner grew confident as he saw that +he held the situation in his own grasp. I would have rushed in upon +them but the girl held me back. + +"Wait! Wait!" she whispered. + +Arthur thrust his hands into the side pockets of his flannel jacket and +nodded his head once or twice. + +"Why don't you shoot, Henry?" + +"I want those notes," said Henry Holbrook. "You lied to me about them. +They were to have been destroyed. I want them now, to-night." + +"If you shoot me you will undoubtedly get them much easier," said +Arthur; and he lounged away toward the wall, half turning his back, +while the point of the pistol followed him. "But the fact is, I never +had them; Gillespie kept them." + +Threats cool quickly, and I really had not much fear that Henry +Holbrook meant to kill his brother; and Arthur's indifference to his +danger was having its disconcerting effect on Henry. The pistol-barrel +wavered; but Henry steadied himself and his clutch tightened on the +butt. I again turned toward the door, but the girl's hand held me back. + +"Wait," she whispered again. "That man is a coward. He will not +shoot." + +The canoe-maker had been calmly talking, discussing the disagreeable +consequences of murder in a tone of half-banter, and he now stood +directly under the foils. Then in a flash he snatched one of them, +flung it up with an accustomed hand, and snapped it across his +brother's knuckles. At the window we heard the slim steel hiss through +the air, followed by the rattle of the revolver as it struck the +ground. The canoe-maker's foot was on it instantly; he still held the +foil. + +"Henry," he said in the tone of one rebuking a child, "you are bad +enough, but I do not intend that you shall be a murderer. And now I +want you to go; I will not treat with you; I want nothing more to do +with you! I repeat that I haven't got the notes." + +He pointed to the door with the foil. The blood surged angrily in his +face; but his voice was in complete control as he went on. + +"Your visit has awakened me to a sense of neglected duty, Henry. I +have allowed you to persecute our sister without raising a hand; I have +no other business now but to protect her. Go back to your stupid +sailor and tell him that if I catch him in any mischief on the lake or +here I shall certainly kill him." + +I lost any further words that passed between them, as Henry, crazily +threatening, walked out upon the deck to his boat; then from the creek +came the threshing of oars that died away in a moment. When I gazed +into the room again Arthur Holbrook was blowing out the lights. + +"I am grateful; I am so grateful," faltered the girl's voice; "but you +must not be seen here. Please go now!" I had taken her hands, feeling +that I was about to lose her; but she freed them and stood away from me +in the shadow. + +"We are going away--we must leave here! I can never see you again," +she whispered. + +In the starlight she was Helen, by every test my senses could make; but +by something deeper I knew that she was not the girl I had seen in the +window at St. Agatha's. She was more dependent, less confident and +poised; she stifled a sob and came close. Through the window I saw +Arthur Holbrook climbing up to blow out the last light. + +"I could have watched myself, but I was afraid that sailor might come; +and it was he that fired at you in the road. He had gone to Glenarm to +watch you and keep you away from here. Uncle Henry came back to-day +and sent word that he wanted to see my father, and I asked you to come +to help us." + +"I thank you for that." + +"And there was another man--a stranger, back there near the road; I +could not make him out, but you will be careful,--please! You must +think very ill of me for bringing you into all this danger and trouble." + +"I am grateful to you. Please turn all your troubles over to me." + +"You did what I asked you to do," she said, "when I had no right to +ask, but I was afraid of what might happen here. It is all right now +and we are going away; we must leave this place." + +"But I shall see you again." + +"No! You have--you have--Helen. You don't know me at all! You will +find your mistake to-morrow." + +She was urging me toward the steps that led up to the house. The sob +was still in her throat, but she was laughing, a little hysterically, +in her relief that her father had come off unscathed. + +"Then you must let me find it out to-morrow; I will come to-morrow +before you go." + +"No! No! This is good-by," she said. "You would not be so unkind as +to stay, when I am so troubled, and there is so much to do!" + +We were at the foot of the stairway, and I heard the shop door snap +shut. + +"Good night, Rosalind!" + +"Good-by; and thank you!" she whispered. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HOW THE NIGHT ENDED + + One year ago my path was green, + My footstep light, my brow serene; + Alas! and could it have been so + One year ago? + There is a love that is to last + When the hot days of youth are past: + Such love did a sweet maid bestow + One year ago. + I took a leaflet from her braid + And gave it to another maid. + Love, broken should have been thy how, + One year ago. + --_Landor_. + + +As my horse whinnied and I turned into the wood a man walked boldly +toward me. + +"My dear Donovan, I have been consoling your horse during your absence. +It's a sad habit we have fallen into of wandering about at night. I +liked your dinner, but you were rather too anxious to get rid of me. I +came by boat myself!" + +Gillespie knocked the ashes from his pipe and thrust it into his +pocket. I was in no frame of mind for talk with him, a fact which he +seemed to surmise. + +"It's late, for a fact," he continued; "and we both ought to be in bed; +but our various affairs require diligence." + +"What are you doing over here?" I demanded. I was too weary and too +perplexed for his nonsense, and in no mood for confidences. I needed +time for reflection and I had no intention of seeking or of imparting +information at this juncture. + +"Well, to tell the truth--" + +"You'd better!" + +"To tell the truth, my dear Donovan, since I left your hospitable board +I have been deeply perplexed over some important questions of human +conduct. Are you interested in human types? Have you ever noticed the +man who summons all porters and waiters by the pleasing name of George? +The name in itself is respectable enough; nor is its generic use +pernicious--a matter of taste only. But the same man may be identified +otherwise by his proneness to consume the cabinet pudding, the +chocolate ice-cream and the fruit in season from the chastening +American bill of fare, after partaking impartially of the preliminary +fish, flesh and fowl. He is confidential with hotel clerks, +affectionate with chambermaids and all telephone girls are Nellie to +him. Types, my dear Donovan--" + +"That's enough! I want to know what you are doing!" and in my anger I +shook him by the shoulders. + +"Well, if you must have it, after I started to the village I changed my +mind about going, and I was anxious to see whether Holbrook was really +here; so I got a launch and came over. I stopped at the island but saw +no one there, and I came up the creek until I grounded; then I struck +inland, looking for the road. It might save us both embarrassment, +Irishman, if we give notice of each other's intentions, particularly at +night. I hung about, thinking you might appear, and--" + +"You are a poor liar, Buttons. You didn't come here alone!"--and I +drove my weary wits hard in an effort to account for his unexpected +appearance. + +"All is lost; I am discovered," he mocked. + +He had himself freed my horse; I now took the rein and refastened it to +the tree. + +"Well, inexplicable Donovan!" + +I laughed, pleased to find that my delay annoyed him. I was confident +that he was not abroad at this hour for nothing, and it again occurred +to me that we were on different sides of the matter. My weariness fell +from me like a cloak, as the events of the past hour flashed fresh in +my mind. + +"Now," I said, dropping the rein and patting the horse's nose for a +moment, "you may go with me or you may sit here; but if you would avoid +trouble don't try to interfere with me." + +I did not doubt that he had been sent to watch me; and his immediate +purpose seemed to be to detain me. + +"I had hoped you would sit down and talk over the Monroe Doctrine, or +the partition of Africa, or something equally interesting," he +remarked. "You disappoint me, my dear benefactor." + +"And you make me very tired at the end of a tiresome day, Gillespie. +Please continue to watch my horse; I'm off." + +He kept at my elbow, as I expected he would, babbling away with his +usual volubility in an effort, now frank enough, to hold me back; but I +ignored his talk and plunged on through the wood toward the creek. +Henry Holbrook must, I argued, have had time enough to get out of the +creek and back to the island; but what mischief Gillespie was +furthering in his behalf I could not imagine. + +There was a gradual rise toward the creek and we were obliged to cling +to the bushes in making our ascent. Suddenly, as I paused for breath, +Gillespie grasped my arm. + +"For God's sake, stop! This is no affair of yours. On my honor +there's nothing that affects you here." + +"I will see whether there is or not!" I exclaimed, throwing him off, +but he kept close beside me. + +We gained the trail that ran along the creek, and I paused to listen. + +"Where's your launch?" + +"Find it," he replied succinctly. + +I had my bearings pretty well, and set off toward the lake, Gillespie +trudging behind in the narrow path. When we had gone about twenty +yards a lantern glimmered below and I heard voices raised in excited +colloquy. Gillespie started forward at a run. + +"Keep back! This is my affair!" + +"I'm making it mine," I replied, and flung in ahead of him. + +I ran forward rapidly, the voices growing louder, and soon heard men +stumbling and falling about in conflict. A woman's voice now rose in a +sharp cry: + +"Let go of him! Let go of him!" + +Gillespie flashed by me down the bank to the water's edge, where the +struggle ended abruptly. I was not far behind, and I saw Henry +Holbrook in the grasp of the Italian, who was explaining to the woman, +who held the lantern high above her head, that he was only protecting +himself. Gillespie had caught hold of the sailor, who continued to +protest his innocence of any wish to injure Holbrook; and for a moment +we peered through the dark, taking account of one another. + +"So it's you, is it?" said Henry Holbrook as the Italian freed him and +his eyes fell on me. "I should like to know what you mean by meddling +in my affairs. By God, I've enough to do with my own flesh and blood +without dealing with outsiders." + +Helen Holbrook turned swiftly and held the lantern toward me, and when +she saw me shrugged her shoulders. + +"You really give yourself a great deal of unnecessary concern, Mr. +Donovan." + +"You are a damned impudent meddler!" blurted Henry Holbrook. "I have +had you watched. You--you--" + +He darted toward me, but the Italian again caught and held him, and +another altercation began between them. Holbrook was wrought to a high +pitch of excitement and cursed everybody who had in any way interfered +with him. + +"Come, Helen," said Gillespie, stepping to the girl's side; and at this +Henry Holbrook turned upon him viciously. + +"You are another meddlesome outsider. Your father was a pig--a pig, do +you understand? If it hadn't been for him I shouldn't be here +to-night, camping out like an outlaw. And you've got to stop annoying +my daughter!" + +Helen turned to the Italian and spoke to him rapidly in his own tongue. + +"You must take him away. He is not himself. Tell him I have done the +best I could. Tell him--" + +She lowered her voice so that I heard no more. Holbrook was still +heaping abuse upon Gillespie, who stood submissively by; but Helen ran +up the bank, the lantern light flashing eerily about her. She paused +at the top, waiting for Gillespie, who, it was patent, had brought her +to this rendezvous and who kept protectingly at her heels. + +The Italian drew Holbrook toward the boat that lay at the edge of the +lake. He seemed to forget me in his anger against Gillespie, and he +kept turning toward the path down which the girl's lantern faintly +twinkled. Gillespie kept on after the girl, the lantern flashing more +rarely through the turn in the path, until I caught the threshing of +his launch as it swung out into the lake. + +I drew back, seeing nothing to gain by appealing to Holbrook in his +present overwrought state. The Italian had his hands full, and was +glad, I judged, to let me alone. A moment later he had pushed off his +boat, and I heard the sound of oars receding toward the island. + +I found my horse, led him deeper into the wood and threw off the +saddle. Then I walked down the road until I found a barn, and crawled +into the loft and slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LADY OF THE WHITE BUTTERFLIES + + TITANIA: And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, + To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes: + Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. + + PEASEBLOSSOM: Hail, mortal! + --_Midsummer Night's Dream_. + + +The twitter of swallows in the eaves wakened me to the first light of +day, and after I had taken a dip in the creek I still seemed to be sole +proprietor of the world, so quiet lay field and woodland. I followed +the lake shore to a fishermen's camp, where, in the good comradeship of +outdoors men the world over, I got bread and coffee and no questions +asked. I smoked a pipe with the fishermen to kill time, and it was +still but a trifle after six o'clock when I started for Red Gate. My +mood was not for the open road, and I sought woodland paths, that I +might loiter the more. With squirrels scampering before me, and +attended by bird-song and the morning drum-beat of the woodpecker, I +strode on until I came out upon a series of rough pastures, separated +by stake-and-rider fences that crawled sinuously through tangles of +blackberries and wild roses. As I tramped along a cow-path that +traversed these pastures, the dew sparkled on the short grass, and +wings whirred and dipped in salutation before me. My memories of the +night vanished in the perfection of the day; I went forth to no renewal +of acquaintance with shadows, or with the lurking figures in a dark +drama, but to enchantments that were fresh with life and light. Barred +gates separated these fallow fields, and I passed through one, crossed +the intermediate pasture, and opened the gate of the third. Before me +lay a field of daisies, bobbing amid wild grass, the morning wind +softly stirring the myriad disks, so that the whole had the effect of +quiet motion. The path led on again, but more faintly here. A line of +sycamores two hundred yards to my right marked the bed of the +Tippecanoe; and on my left hand, beyond a walnut grove, a little filmy +dust-cloud hung above the hidden highway. The meadow was a place of +utter peace; the very air spoke of holy things. I thrust my cap into +my jacket pocket and stood watching the wind crisp the flowers. Then +my attention wandered to the mad antics of a squirrel that ran along +the fence. + +When I turned to the field again I saw Rosalind coming toward me along +the path, clad in white, hatless, and her hands lightly brushing the +lush grass that seemed to leap up to touch them. She had not seen me, +and I drew back a little for love of the picture she made. Three white +butterflies fluttered about her head, like an appointed guard of honor, +and she caught at them with her hands, turning her head to watch their +staggering flight. + +[Illustration: Three white butterflies fluttered about her head.] + +She paused abruptly midway of the daisies, and I walked toward her +slowly--it must have been slowly--and I think we were both glad of a +moment's respite in which to study each other. Then she spoke at once, +as though our meeting had been prearranged. + +"I hoped I should see you," she said gravely. + +"I had every intention of seeing you! I was killing time until I felt +I might decently lift the latch of Red Gate." + +She inspected me with her hands clasped behind her. + +"Please don't look at me like that!" I laughed. "I camped in a barn +last night for fear I shouldn't get here in time." + +"I wish to speak to you for a few minutes--to tell you what you may +have guessed about us--my father and me." + +"Yes; if you like; but only to help you if I can. It is not necessary +for you to tell me anything." + +She turned and led the way across the daisy field. She walked swiftly, +holding back her skirts from the crowding flowers, traversed the garden +of Red Gate, and continued down to the house-boat. + +"We can be quiet here," she said, throwing open the door. "My father +is at Tippecanoe village, shipping one of his canoes. We are early +risers, you see!" + +The little sitting-room adjoining the shop was calm and cool, and the +ripple of the creek was only an emphasis of the prevailing rural quiet. +She sat down by the table in a red-cushioned wicker chair and folded +her hands in her lap and smiled a little as she saw me regarding her +fixedly. I suppose I had expected to find her clad in saffron robes or +in doublet and hose, but the very crispness of her white pique spoke +delightfully of present times and manners. My glance rested on the +emerald ring; then I looked into her eyes again. + +"You see I am really very different," she smiled. "I'm not the same +person at all!" + +"No; it's wonderful--wonderful!" And I still stared. + +She grew grave again. + +"I have important things to say to you, but it's just as well for you +to see me in the broadest of daylight, so that"--she pondered a moment, +as though to be sure of expressing herself clearly--"so that when you +see Helen Holbrook in an hour or so in that pretty garden by the lake +you will understand that it was not really Rosalind after all +that--that--amused you!" + +"But the daylight is not helping that idea. You are marvelously alike, +and yet--" I floundered miserably in my uncertainty. + +"Then,"--and she smiled at my discomfiture, "if you can't tell us +apart, it makes no difference whether you ever see me again or not. +You see, Mr.--but _did_ you ever tell me what your name is? Well, I +know it, anyhow, Mr. Donovan." + +The little work-table was between us, and on it lay the foil which her +father had snatched from the wall the night before. I still stood, +gazing down at Rosalind. Fashion, I saw, had done something for the +amazing resemblance. She wore her hair in the pompadour of the day, +with exactly Helen's sweep; and her white gown was identical with that +worn that year by thousands of young women. She had even the same +gestures, the same little way of resting her cheek against her hand +that Helen had; and before she spoke she moved her head a trifle to one +side, with a pretty suggestion of just having been startled from a +reverie, that was Helen's trick precisely. + +She forgot for a moment our serious affairs, to which I was not in the +least anxious to turn, in her amusement at my perplexity. + +"It must be even more extraordinary than I imagined. I have not seen +Helen for seven years. She is my cousin; and when we were children +together at Stamford our mothers used to dress us alike to further the +resemblance. Our mothers, you may not know, were not only sisters; +they were twin sisters! But Helen is, I think, a trifle taller than I +am. This little mark"--she touched the peak--"is really very curious. +Both our mothers and our grandmother had it. And you see that I speak +a little more rapidly than she does--at least that used to be the case. +I don't know my grown-up cousin at all. We probably have different +tastes, temperaments, and all that." + +"I am positive of it!" I exclaimed; yet I was really sure of nothing, +save that I was talking to an exceedingly pretty girl, who was +amazingly like another very pretty girl whom I knew much better. + +"You are her guardian, so to speak, Mr. Donovan. You are taking care +of my Aunt Pat and my cousin. Just how that came about I don't know." + +"They were sent to St. Agatha's by Father Stoddard, an old friend of +mine. They had suffered many annoyances, to put it mildly, and came +here to get away from their troubles." + +"Yes; I understand. Uncle Henry has acted outrageously. I have not +ranged the country at night for nothing. I have even learned a few +things from you," she laughed. "And you must continue to serve Aunt +Patricia and my cousin. You see,"--and she smiled her grave smile--"my +father and I are an antagonistic element." + +"No; not as between you and Miss Patricia! I'm sure of that. It is +Henry Holbrook that I am to protect her from. You and your father do +not enter into it." + +"If you don't mind telling me, Mr. Donovan, I should like to know +whether Aunt Pat has mentioned us." + +"Only once, when I first saw her and she explained why she had come. +She seemed greatly moved when she spoke of your father. Since then she +has never referred to him. But the day we cruised up to Battle Orchard +and Henry Holbrook's man tried to smash our launch, she was shaken out +of herself, and she declared war when we got home. Then I was on the +lake with her the night of the carnival. Helen did not go with us. +And when you paddled by us, Miss Pat was quite disturbed at the sight +of you; but she thought it was an illusion, and--I thought it was +Helen!" + +"I have been home only a few weeks, but I came just in time to be with +father in his troubles. My uncle's enmity is very bitter, as you have +seen. I do not understand it. Father has told me little of their +difficulties; but I know," she said, lifting her head proudly, "I know +that my father has done nothing dishonorable. He has told me so, and I +am content with that." + +I bowed, not knowing what to say. + +"I have been here only once or twice before, and for short visits only. +Most of the time I have been at a convent in Canada, where I was known +as Rosalind Hartridge. Rosalind, you know, is really my name: I was +named for Helen's mother. The Sisters took pity on my loneliness, and +were very kind to me. But now I am never going to leave my father +again." + +She spoke with no unkindness or bitterness, but with a gravity born of +deep feeling. I marked now the lighter _timbre_ of her voice, that was +quite different from her cousin's; and she spoke more rapidly, as she +had said, her naturally quick speech catching at times the cadence of +cultivated French. And she was a simpler nature--I felt that; she was +really very unlike Helen. + +"You manage a canoe pretty well," I ventured, still studying her face, +her voice, her ways, eagerly. + +"That was very foolish, wasn't it?--my running in behind the procession +that way!" and she laughed softly at the recollection. "But that was +professional pride! That was one of my father's best canoes, and he +helped me to decorate it. He takes a great delight in his work; it's +all he has left! And I wanted to show those people at Port Annandale +what a really fine canoe--a genuine Hartridge--was like. I did not +expect to run into you or Aunt Pat." + +"You should have gone on and claimed the prize. It was yours of right. +When your star vanished I thought the world had come to an end." + +"It hadn't, you see! I put out the lights so that I could get home +unseen." + +"You gave us a shock. Please don't do it again; and please, if you and +your cousin are to meet, kindly let it be on solid ground. I'm a +little afraid, even now, that you are a lady of dreams." + +"Not a bit of it! I enjoy a sound appetite; I can carry a canoe like a +Canadian guide; I am as good a fencer as my father; and I'm not afraid +of the dark. You see, in the long vacations up there in Canada I lived +out of doors and I shouldn't mind staying on here always. I like to +paddle a canoe, and I know how to cast a fly, and I've shot ducks from +a blind. You see how very highly accomplished I am! Now, my cousin +Helen--" + +"Well--?" and I was glad to hear her happy laugh. Sorrow and +loneliness had not stifled the spirit of mischief in her, and she +enjoyed vexing me with references to her cousin. + +I walked the length of the room and looked out upon the creek that ran +singing through the little vale. They were a strange family, these +Holbrooks, and the perplexities of their affairs multiplied. How to +prevent further injury and heartache and disaster; how to restore this +girl and her exiled father to the life from which they had vanished; +and how to save Miss Pat and Helen,--these things possessed my mind and +heart. I sat down and faced Rosalind across the table. She had taken +up a bright bit of ribbon from the work-basket and was slipping it back +and forth through her fingers. + +"The name Gillespie was mentioned here last night. Can you tell me +just how he was concerned in your father's affairs?" I asked. + +"He was the largest creditor of the Holbrook bank. He lived at +Stamford, where we all used to live." + +"This Gillespie had a son. I suppose he inherits his father's claims." + +She laughed outright. + +"I have heard of him. He is a remarkable character, it seems, who does +ridiculous things. He did as a child: I remember him very well as a +droll boy at Stamford, who was always in mischief. I had forgotten all +about him until I saw an amusing account of him in a newspaper a few +months ago. He had been arrested for fast driving in Central Park; and +the next day he went back to the park with a boy's toy wagon and team +of goats, as a joke on the policeman." + +"I can well believe it! The fellow's here, staying at the inn at +Annandale." + +"So I understand. To be frank, I have seen him and talked with him. +We have had, in fact, several interesting interviews,"--and she laughed +merrily. + +"Where did all this happen?" + +"Once, out on the lake, when we were both prowling about in canoes. I +talked to him, but made him keep his distance. I dared him to race me, +and finally paddled off and left him. Then another time, on the shore +near St. Agatha's. I was taking an observation of the school garden +from the bluff, and Mr. Gillespie came walking through the woods and +made love to me. He came so suddenly that I couldn't run, but I saw +that he took me for Helen, in broad daylight, and I--I--" + +"Well, of course you scorned him--you told him to be gone. You did +that much for her." + +"No, I didn't. I liked his love-making; it was unaffected and simple." + +"Oh, yes! It would naturally be simple!" + +"That is brutal. He's clever, and earnest, and amusing. But--" and +her brow contracted, "but if he is seeking my father--" + +"Rest assured he is not. He is in love with your cousin--that's the +reason for his being here." + +"But that does not help my father's case any." + +"We will see about that. You are right about him; he's really a most +amusing person, and not a fool, except for his own amusement. He is +shrewd enough to keep clear of Miss Pat, who dislikes him intensely on +his father's account. She feels that the senior Gillespie was the +cause of all her troubles, but I don't know just why. She's strongly +prejudiced against the young man, and his whimsicalities do not appeal +to her." + +"I suppose Helen cares nothing for him; he acted toward me as though +he'd been crushed, and I--I tried to be nice to him to make up for it." + +"That was nice of you, very nice of you, Rosalind. I hope you will +keep right on the way you've begun. Now I must ask you not to leave +here, and not to allow your father to leave unless I know it." + +"But you have your hands full without us. Your first obligation is to +Aunt Pat and Helen. My father and I have merely stumbled in where we +were not invited. You and I had better say good-by now." + +"I am not anxious to say good-by," I answered lamely, and she laughed +at me. + +Helen, I reflected, did not laugh so readily. Rosalind was beautiful, +she was charming; and yet her likeness to Helen failed in baffling +particulars. Even as she came through the daisy meadow there had been +a difference--at least I seemed to realize it now. The white +butterflies symbolized her Ariel-like quality; for the life of me I +could not associate those pale, fluttering vagrants with Helen Holbrook. + +"We met under the star-r-rs, Mr. Donovan" (this was impudent; my own +_r's_ trill, they say), "at the stone seat and by the boat-house, and +we talked Shakespeare and had a beautiful time,--all because you +thought I was Helen. In your anxiety to be with her you couldn't see +that I haven't quite her noble height,--I'm an inch shorter. I gave +you every chance there at the boat-house, to see your mistake; but you +wouldn't have it so. And you let me leave you there while I went back +alone across the lake to Red Gate, right by Battle Orchard, which is +haunted by Indian ghosts. You are a most gallant gentleman!" + +"When you are quite done, Rosalind!" + +"I don't know when I shall have a chance again, Mr. Donovan," she went +on provokingly. "I learned a good deal from you in those interviews, +but I did have to do a lot of guessing. That was a real inspiration of +mine, to insist on playing that Helen by night and Helen by day were +different personalities, and that you must not speak to the one of the +other. That saved complications, because you did keep to the compact, +didn't you?" + +I assented, a little grudgingly; and my thoughts went back with +reluctant step to those early affairs of mine, which I have already +frankly disclosed in this chronicle, and I wondered, with her +counterpart before me, how much Helen really meant to me. Rosalind +studied me with her frank, merry eyes; then she bent forward and +addressed me with something of that prescient air with which my sisters +used to lecture me. + +"Mr. Donovan, I fear you are a little mixed in your mind this morning, +and I propose to set you straight." + +"About what, if you please?" + +The conceit in man always rises and struts at the approach of a woman's +sympathy. My body ached, the knife slash across my ribs burnt, and I +felt myself a sadly abused person as Rosalind addressed me. + +"I understand all about you, Mr. Donovan." + +My plumage fell; I did not want to be understood, I told myself; but I +said: + +"Please go on." + +"I can tell you exactly why it is that Helen has taken so strong hold +of your imagination,--why, in fact, you are in love with her." + +"Not that--not that." + +She snatched the foil from the table and cut the air with it several +times as I started toward her. Then she stamped her foot and saluted +me. + +"Stand where you are, sir! Your race, Mr. Donovan, has a bad +reputation in matters of the heart. For a moment you thought you were +in love with me; but you are not, and you are not going to be. You +see, I understand you perfectly." + +"That's what my sisters used to tell me." + +"Precisely! And I'm another one of your sisters--you must have scores +of them!--and I expect you to be increasingly proud of me." + +"Of course I admire Helen--" I began, I fear, a little sheepishly. + +"And you admire most what you don't understand about her! Now that you +examine me in the light of day you see what a tremendous difference +there is between us. I am altogether obvious; I am not the least bit +subtle. But Helen puzzles and thwarts you. She finds keen delight in +antagonizing you; and she as much as says to you, 'Mr. Donovan, you are +a frightfully conceited person, and you have had many adventures by sea +and shore, and you think you know all about human nature and women, but +I--_I_--am quite as wise and resourceful as you are, and whether I am +right or wrong I'm going to fight you, fight you, fight you!' There, +Mr. Laurance Donovan, is the whole matter in a nut-shell, and I should +like you to know that I am not at all deceived by you. You did me a +great service last night, and you would serve me again, I am confident +of it; and I hope, when all these troubles are over, that we shall +continue--my father, and you and I--the best friends in the world." + +I can not deny that I was a good deal abashed by this declaration +spoken without coquetry, and with a sincerity of tone and manner that +seemed conclusive. + +I began stammering some reply, but she recurred abruptly to the serious +business that hung over us. + +"I know you will do what you can for Aunt Pat. I wish you would tell +her, if you think it wise, that father is here. They should understand +each other. And Helen, my splendid, courageous, beautiful cousin,--you +see I don't grudge her even her better looks, or that intrepid heart +that makes us so different. I am sure you can manage all these things +in the best possible way. And now I must find my father, and tell him +that you are going to arrange a meeting with Aunt Pat, and talk to him +of our future." + +She led the way up to the garden, and as I struck off into the road she +waved her hand to me, standing under the overhanging sign that +proclaimed Hartridge, the canoe-maker, at Red Gate. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HELEN TAKES ME TO TASK + + My Lady's name, when I hear strangers use, + Not meaning her, to me sounds lax misuse; + I love none but my Lady's name; + Maude, Grace, Rose, Marian, all the same, + Are harsh, or blank and tame. + + * * * * * + + Fresh beauties, howsoe'er she moves, are stirr'd: + As the sunn'd bosom of a humming-bird + At each pant lifts some fiery hue, + Fierce gold, bewildering green or blue; + The same, yet ever new. + --_Thomas Woolner_. + + +I paced the breezy terrace at Glenarm, studying my problems, and +stumbling into new perplexities at every turn. My judgment has usually +served me poorly in my own affairs, which I have generally confided to +Good Luck, that most amiable of goddesses; and I glanced out upon the +lake with some notion, perhaps, of seeing her fairy sail drifting +toward me. But there, to my vexation, hung the _Stiletto_, scarcely +moving in the indolent air of noon. There was, I felt again, something +sinister in the very whiteness of its pocket-handkerchief of canvas as +it stole lazily before the wind. Did Miss Pat, in the school beyond +the wall, see and understand, or was the yacht hanging there as a +menace or stimulus to Helen Holbrook, to keep her alert in her father's +behalf? + +"There are ladies to see you, sir," announced the maid, and I found +Helen and Sister Margaret waiting in the library. + +The Sister, as though by prearrangement, went to the farther end of the +room and took up a book. + +"I wish to see you alone," said Helen, "and I didn't want Aunt Pat to +know I came," and she glanced toward Sister Margaret, whose brown habit +and nun's bonnet had merged into the shadows of a remote alcove. + +The brim of Helen's white-plumed hat made a little dusk about her eyes. +Pink and white became her; she put aside her parasol and folded her +ungloved hands, and then, as she spoke, her head went almost +imperceptibly to one side, and I found myself bending forward as I +studied the differences between her and the girl on the Tippecanoe. +Helen's lips were fuller and ruddier, her eyes darker, her lashes +longer. But there was another difference, too subtle for my powers of +analysis; something less obvious than the length of lash or the color +of eyes; and I was not yet ready to give a name to it. Of one thing I +was sure: my pulses quickened before her; and her glance thrilled +through me as Rosalind's had not. + +"Mr. Donovan, I have come to appeal to you to put an end to this +miserable affair into which we have brought you. My own position has +grown too difficult, too equivocal to be borne any longer. You saw +from my father's conduct last night how hopeless it is to try to reason +with him. He has brooded upon his troubles until he is half mad. And +I learned from him what I had not dreamed of, that my Uncle Arthur is +here--here, of all places. I suppose you know that." + +"Yes; but it is a mere coincidence. It was a good hiding-place for +him, as well as for us." + +"It is very unfortunate for all of us that he should be here. I had +hoped he would bury himself where he would never be heard of again!" +she said, and anger burned for a moment in her face. "If he has any +shame left, I should think he would leave here at once!" + +"It's to be remembered, Miss Holbrook, that he came first; and I am +quite satisfied that your father sought him here before you and your +aunt came to Annandale. It seems to me the equity lies with your +uncle--the creek as a hiding-place belongs to him by right of +discovery." + +She smiled ready agreement to this, and I felt that she had come to win +support for some plan of her own. She had never been more amiable; +certainly she had never been lovelier. + +"You are quite right. We had all of us better go and leave him in +peace. What is it he does there--runs a ferry or manages a boat-house?" + +"He is a canoe-maker," I said dryly, "with more than a local +reputation." + +Her tone changed at once. + +"I'm glad; I'm very glad he has escaped from his old ways; for all our +sakes," she added, with a little sigh. "And poor Rosalind! You may +not know that he has a daughter. She is about a year younger than I. +She must have had a sad time of it. I was named for her mother and she +for mine. If you should meet her, Mr. Donovan, I wish you would tell +her how sorry I am not to be able to see her. But Aunt Pat must not +know that Uncle Arthur is here. I think she has tried to forget him, +and her troubles with my father have effaced everything else. I hope +you will manage that, for me; that Aunt Pat shall not know that Uncle +Arthur and Rosalind are here. It could only distress her. It would be +opening a book that she believes closed forever." + +Her solicitude for her aunt's peace of mind, spoken with eyes averted +and in a low tone, lacked nothing. + +"I have seen your cousin," I said. "I saw her, in fact, this morning." + +"Rosalind? Then you can tell me whether--whether I am really so like +her as they used to think!" + +"You _are_ rather like!" I replied lightly. "But I shall not attempt +to tell you how. It would not do--it would involve particulars that +might prove embarrassing. There are times when even I find discretion +better than frankness." + +"You wish to save my feelings," she laughed. "But I am really taller!" + +"By an inch--she told me that!" + +"Then you have seen her more than once?" + +"Yes; more than twice even." + +"Then you must tell me wherein we are alike; I should really like to +know." + +"I have told you I can't; it's beyond my poor powers. I will tell you +this, though--" + +"Well?" + +"That I think you both delightful." + +"I am disappointed in you. I thought you a man of courage, Mr. +Donovan." + +"Even brave men falter at the cannon's mouth!" + +"You are undoubtedly an Irishman, Mr. Donovan. I am sorry we shan't +have any more tennis." + +"You have said so, Miss Holbrook, not I." + +She laughed, and then glanced toward the brown figure of Sister +Margaret, and was silent for a moment, while the old clock on the stair +boomed out the half-hour and was answered cheerily by the pretty tinkle +of the chapel chime. I counted four poppy-leaves that fluttered free +from a bowl on the book-shelf above her head and lazily fell to the +floor at her feet. + +"I had hoped," she said, "that we were good friends, Mr. Donovan." + +"I have believed that we were, Miss Holbrook." + +"You must see that this situation must terminate, that we are now at a +crisis. You can understand--I need not tell you--how fully my +sympathies lie with my father; it could not be otherwise." + +"That is only natural. I have nothing to say on that point." + +"And you can understand, too, that it has not been easy for me to be +dependent upon Aunt Pat. You don't know--I have no intention of +talking against her--but you can't blame me for thinking her hard--a +little hard on my father." + +I nodded. + +"I am sorry, very sorry, that you should have these troubles, Miss +Holbrook." + +"I know you are," she replied eagerly, and her eyes brightened. "Your +sympathy has meant so much to Aunt Pat and me. And now, before worse +things happen--" + +"Worse things must not happen!" + +"Then we must put an end to it all, Mr. Donovan. There is only one +way. My father will never leave here until Aunt Pat has settled with +him. And it is his right to demand it," she hurried on. "I would have +you know that he is not as black as he has been painted. He has been +his own worst enemy; and Uncle Arthur's ill-doings must not be charged +to him. But he has been wrong, terribly wrong, in his conduct toward +Aunt Pat. I do not deny that, and he does not. But it is only a +matter of money, and Aunt Pat has plenty of it; and there can be no +question of honor between Uncle Arthur and father. It was Uncle +Arthur's act that caused all this trouble; father has told me the whole +story. Quite likely father would make no good use of his money--I will +grant that. But think of the strain of these years on all of us; think +of what it has meant to me, to have this cloud hanging over my life! +It is dreadful--beyond any words it is hideous; and I can't stand it +any longer, not another week--not another day! It must end now and +here." + +Her tear-filled eyes rested upon me pleadingly, and a sob caught her +throat as she tried to go on. + +"But--" I began. + +"Please--please!" she broke in, touching her handkerchief to her eyes +and smiling appealingly. "I am asking very little of you, after all." + +"Yes, it is little enough; but it seems to me a futile interference. +If your father would go to her himself, if you would take him to +her--that strikes me as the better strategy of the matter." + +"Then am I to understand that you will not help; that you will not do +this for us--for me?" + +"I am sorry to have to say no, Miss Holbrook," I replied steadily. + +"Then I regret that I shall have to go further; I must appeal to you as +a personal matter purely. It is not easy; but if we are really very +good friends--" + +She glanced toward Sister Margaret, then rose and walked out upon the +terrace. + +"You will hate me--" she began, smiling wanly, the tears bright in her +eyes; and she knew that it was not easy to hate her. "I have taken +money from Mr. Gillespie, for my father, since I came here. It is a +large sum, and when my father left here he went away to spend it--to +waste it. It is all gone, and worse than gone. I must pay that +back--I must not be under obligations to Mr. Gillespie. It was wrong, +it was very wrong of me, but I was distracted, half crazed by my +father's threats of violence against Aunt Pat--against us all. I am +sure that you can see how I came to do it. And now you are my friend; +will you help me?" and she broke off, smiling, tearful, her back to the +balustrade, her hand at her side lightly touching it. + +She had confidence, I thought, in the power of tears, as she slipped +her handkerchief into her sleeve and waited for me to answer. + +"Of course Mr. Gillespie only loaned you the money to help you over a +difficulty; in some way that must be cared for. I like him; he is a +fellow of good impulses. I repeat that I believe this matter can be +arranged readily enough, by yourself and your father. My intrusion +would only make a worse muddle of your affairs. Send for your father +and let him go to your aunt in the right spirit; and I believe that an +hour's talk will settle everything." + +"You seem to have misunderstood my purpose in coming here, Mr. +Donovan," she answered coldly. "I asked your help, not your advice. I +have even thrown myself on your mercy, and you tell me to do what you +know is impossible." + +"Nothing is so impossible as the present attitude of your father. +Until that is changed your aunt would be doing your father a great +injury by giving him this money." + +"And as for me--" and her eyes blazed--"as for me," she said, choking +with anger, "after I have opened this page of my life to you and you +have given me your fatherly advice--as for me, I will show you, and +Aunt Pat and all of them, that what can not be done one way may be done +in another. If I say the word and let the law take its course with my +uncle--that man who brought all these troubles upon us--you may have +the joy of knowing that it was your fault--your fault, Mr. Donovan!" + +"I beg of you, do nothing! If you will not bring your father to Miss +Pat, please let me arrange the meeting." + +"He will not listen to you. He looks upon you as a meddler; and so do +I, Mr. Donovan!" + +"But your uncle--you must not, you would not!" I cried, terror-struck +to see how fate drew her toward the pitfall from which I hoped to save +her. + +"Don't say 'must not' to me, if you please!" she flung back; but when +she reached the door she turned and said calmly, though her eyes still +blazed: + +"I suppose it is not necessary for me to ask that you consider what I +have said to you confidential." + +"It is quite unnecessary," I said, not knowing whether I loved or +pitied her most; and my wits were busy trying to devise means of saving +her the heartache her ignorance held in store for her. + +She called to Sister Margaret in her brightest tone, and when I had +walked with them to St. Agatha's gate she bade me good-by with quite as +demure and Christian an air as the Sister herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE TOUCH OF DISHONOR + + Give me a staff of honour for mine age. + --_Titus Andronicus_. + + +I was meditating my course over a cheerless luncheon when Gillespie was +announced. He lounged into the dining-room, drew his chair to the +table and covered a biscuit with camembert with his usual inscrutable +air. + +"I think it is better," he said deliberatingly, "to be an ass than a +fool. Have you any views on the subject?" + +"None, my dear Buttons. I have been called both by shrewd men." + +"So have I, if the worst were known, and they offered proof! Ah, more +and more I see that we were born for each other, Donovan. I was once +so impressed with the notion that to be a fool was to be distinguished +that I conceived the idea of forming a Noble Order of Serene and +Incurable Fools. I elected myself The Grand and Most Worthy Master, +feeling safe from competition. News of the matter having gone forth, +many persons of the highest standing wrote to me, recommending their +friends for membership. My correspondence soon engaged three +type-writers, and I was obliged to get the post-office department to +help me break the chain. A few humble souls applied on their own hook +for consideration. These I elected and placed in the first class. You +would be surprised to know how many people who are chronic joiners +wrote in absent-mindedly for application blanks, fearing to be left out +of a good thing. United States senators were rather common on the +list, and there were three governors; a bishop wrote to propose a +brother bishop, of whose merits he spoke in the warmest terms. Many +newspapers declared that the society filled a long-felt want. I +received invitations to speak on the uses and benefits of the order +from many learned bodies. The thing began to bore me, and when my +official stationery was exhausted I issued a farewell address to my +troops and dissolved the society. But it's a great gratification to +me, my dear Donovan, that we quit with a waiting-list." + +"There are times, Buttons, when you cease to divert me. I'm likely to +be very busy for a few days. Just what can I do for you this +afternoon?" + +"Look here, old man, you're not angry?" + +"No; I'm rarely angry; but I'm often bored." + +"Then your brutal insinuation shall not go unrewarded. Let me proceed. +But first, how are your ribs?" + +"Sore and a trifle stiff, but I'm comfortable, thanks." + +"As I understand matters, Irishman, there is no real difference between +you and me except in the matter of a certain lady. Otherwise we might +combine our forces in the interest of these unhappy Holbrooks." + +"You are quite right. You came here to say something; go on and be +done with it." + +He deftly covered another biscuit with the cheese, of whose antiquity +he complained sadly. + +"I say, Donovan, between old soldier friends, what were you doing up +there on the creek last night?" + +"Studying the landscape effects by starlight. It's a habit of mine. +Your own presence there might need accounting for, if you don't mind." + +"I will be square about it. I met Helen quite accidentally as I left +this house, and she wanted to see her father. I took her over there, +and we found Henry. He was up to some mischief--you may know what it +was. Something had gone wrong with him, and he was in all kinds of a +bad humor. Unfortunately, you got the benefit of some of it." + +"I will supply you a link in the night's affairs. Henry had been to +see his brother Arthur." + +Gillespie's face fell, and I saw that he was greatly surprised. + +"Humph! Helen didn't tell me that." + +"The reason Henry came here was to look for his brother. That's how he +reached this place ahead of Miss Pat and Helen. And I have learned +something--it makes no difference how, but it was not from the ladies +at St. Agatha's--I learned last night that the key of this whole +situation is in your own hands, Gillespie. Your father was swindled by +the Holbrooks; which Holbrook?" + +He was at once sane and serious, and replied soberly: + +"I never doubted that it was Arthur. If he wasn't guilty, why did he +run away? It was a queer business, and father never mentioned it. +Henry gave out the impression that my father had taken advantage of +Holbrook Brothers and forced their failure; but father shut up and +never told me anything." + +"But you have the notes--" + +"Yes, but I'm not to open them, yet. I can't tell you about that now." +He grew red and played with his cravat. + +"Where are they?" I asked. + +"I've just had them sent to me; they're in the bank at Annandale. +There's another thing you may not know. Old man Holbrook, who lived to +be older than the hills, left a provision in his will that adds to the +complications. Miss Pat may have mentioned that stuff in her father's +will about the honor of the brothers--?" + +"She just mentioned it. Please tell me what you know of it." + +He took out his pocket-book and read me this paragraph from a newspaper +cutting: + + +"And the said one million dollars hereinbefore specifically provided +for shall, after the lapse of ten years, be divided between my said +sons Henry and Arthur Holbrook, share and share alike; but if either of +my said sons shall have been touched by dishonor through his own act, +as honor is accounted, reckoned and valued among men, my said daughter +Patricia to be the sole judge thereof, then he shall forfeit his share +of said amount thus withheld, and the whole of said sum of one million +dollars shall be adjudged to belong to the other son." + + +Gillespie lighted a cigarette and smoked quietly for several minutes, +and when he spoke it was with deep feeling. + +"I love that girl, Donovan. I believe she cares for me, or would if +she could get out of all these entanglements. I'm almost ready to burn +that packet and tell Miss Pat she's got to settle with Henry and be +done with it. Let him spend his money and die in disgrace and go to +the devil; anything is better than all this secrecy and mystery that +enmeshes Helen. I'm going to end it; I'm going to end it!" + +We had gone to the library, and he threw himself down in the chair from +which she had spoken of him so short a time before that I seemed still +to feel her presence in the room. + +He was of that youthful, blond type which still sunburns after much +tanning. His short hair was brushed smooth on his well-formed head. +The checks and stripes and hideous color combinations in his raiment, +which Miss Pat had mentioned at our first interview, were, I imagined, +peculiar to his strange humor--a denotement of his willingness to +sacrifice himself to mystify or annoy others. He seemed younger to-day +than I had thought him before; he was a kind, generous, amusing boy, +whose physical strength seemed an anomaly in one so gentle. He did not +understand Helen; and as I reflected that I was not sure I understood +her myself, the heads of the dragon multiplied, and my task at +Annandale grew on my hands. But I wanted to help this boy if it was in +me to do it, and I clapped him on the shoulder. + +"Cheer up, lad! If we can't untie the knot we'll lose no time cutting +the string. There may be some fun in this business before we get +through with it." + +I began telling him of some of my own experiences, and won him to a +cheerier mood. When we came round to the Holbrooks again his +depression had passed, and we were on the best of terms. + +"But there's one thing we can't get away from, Donovan. I've got to +protect Helen; don't you see? I've got to take care of her, whatever +comes." + +"But you can't take care of her father. He's hopeless." + +"I could give him this money myself, couldn't I? I can do it, and I've +about concluded that I ought to do it." + +"But that would be a waste. It would be like giving whisky to a +drunkard. Money has been at the bottom of all this trouble." + +Gillespie threw up his hands with a gesture of helplessness. + +"I shall undoubtedly lose such wits as I have if we don't get somewhere +in this business pretty soon. But, Donovan, there's something I want +to ask you. I don't like to speak of it, but when we were coming away +from that infernal island, after our scrap with the dago, there were +two people walking on the bluff--a man and a woman, and the woman was +nearest us. She seemed to be purposely putting herself in the man's +way so we couldn't see him. It didn't seem possible that Helen could +be there--but?" + +He clearly wished to be assured, and I answered at once: + +"I saw them; it couldn't have been Helen. It was merely a similarity +of figure. I couldn't distinguish her face at all. Very likely they +were Port Annandale cottagers." + +"I thought so myself," he replied, evidently relieved. It did not seem +necessary to tell him of Rosalind at Red Gate; that was my secret, and +I was not yet ready to share it. + +"I've got to talk to somebody, and I want to tell you something, +Donovan. I can't deny that there are times when Helen doesn't +seem--well, all that I have thought her at other times. Sometimes she +seems selfish and hard, and all that. And I know she hasn't treated +Miss Pat right; it isn't square for her to take Miss Pat's bounty and +then work against her. But I make allowances, Donovan." + +"Of course," I acquiesced, wishing to cheer him. "So do I. She has +been hard put in this business. And a man's love can't always be at +par--or a woman's either! The only thing a man ought to exact of the +woman he marries is that she put up a cheerful breakfast-table. +Nothing else counts very much. Start the day right, hand him his +gloves and a kind word at the front door as he sallies forth to the +day's battle, and constancy and devotion will be her reward. I have +spoken words of wisdom. Harken, O Chief Button-maker of the World!" + +The chiming of the bells beyond the Glenarm wall caused him to lift his +head defiantly. I knew what was in his mind. He was in love--or +thought he was, which has been said to be the same thing--and he wanted +to see the girl he loved; and I resolved to aid him in the matter. I +have done some mischief in my life, but real evil I have, I hope, never +done. It occurred to me now that I might do a little good. And for +justification I reasoned that I was already so deep in the affairs of +other people that a little further plunge could do no particular harm. + +"You think her rarely beautiful, don't you, Buttons?" + +"She is the most beautiful woman in the world!" he exclaimed. + +"The type is not without charm. Every man has his ideal in the way of +a type. I will admit that her type is rare," I remarked with +condescension. + +"Rare!" he shouted. "Rare! You speak of her, Irishman, as though she +were a mummy or a gargoyle or--or--" + +"No; I should hardly say that. But there are always others." + +"There are no others--not another one to compare with her! You are +positively brutal when you speak of that girl. You should at least be +just to her; a blind man could feel her beauty even if he couldn't see!" + +"I repeat that it's the type! Propinquity, another pair of dark eyes, +the drooping lash, those slim fingers resting meditatively against a +similar oval olive cheek, and the mischief's done." + +"I don't understand you," he declared blankly, and then the color +flooded his face. "I believe you are in love with her yourself!" And +then, ironically: "Or maybe it's just the type you fancy. Any other +girl, with the same dark eyes, the drooping lash--" + +"You'd never be happy with Helen Holbrook if she married you, +Gillespie. What you need is a clinging vine. Helen isn't that." + +"That is your opinion, is it, Mr. Donovan? You want me to seek my +faith in the arboretum, do you? You mustn't think yourself the +permanent manager of all the Holbrooks and of me, too! I have never +understood just how you broke into this. And I can't see that you have +done much to help anybody, if you must know my opinion." + +"I have every intention of helping you, Buttons. I like you. You have +to me all the marks of a good fellow. My heart goes out to you in this +matter. I want to see you happily married to a woman who will +appreciate you. If you're not careful some girl will marry you for +your money." + +Good humor mastered him again, and he grinned his delightful boyish +grin. + +"I can't for the life of me imagine a girl's marrying me for anything +else," he said. "Can you?" + +"I'll tell you what I'll do for you, my lad," I said. "I'll arrange +for you to see Helen to-night! You shall meet and talk and dance with +her at Port Annandale casino, in the most conventional way in the +world, with me for chaperon. By reason of being Mr. Glenarm's guest +here, I'm _ex officio_ a member of the club. I'll manage everything. +Miss Pat shall know nothing--all on one condition only." + +"Well, name your price." + +"That you shall not mention family affairs to her at all." + +"God knows I shall be delighted to escape them!" His eyes brightened +and he clapped his hands together. "I owe her a pair of gloves on an +old wager. I have them in the village and will bring them over +to-night," he said; but deception was not an easy game for him. I +grinned and he colored. + +"It's not money, Donovan," he said, as hurt as a misjudged child. "I +won't lie to you. I was to meet her at St. Agatha's pier to-night to +give her the gloves." + +"You shall have your opportunity, but those meetings on piers won't do. +I will hand her over to you at the casino at nine o'clock. I suppose I +may have a dance or two?" + +"I suppose so," he said, so grudgingly that I laughed aloud. + +"Remember the compact; try to have a good time and don't talk of +trouble," I enjoined, as we parted. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A BLUE CLOAK AND A SCARLET + + When first we met we did not guess + That Love would prove so hard a master; + Of more than common friendliness + When first we met we did not guess-- + Who could foretell this sore distress-- + This irretrievable disaster + When first we met? We did not guess + That Love would prove so hard a master. + --Robert Bridges. + + +Miss Pat asked me to dine at St. Agatha's that night. The message came +unexpectedly--a line on one of those quaint visiting-cards of hers, +brought by the gardener; and when I had penned my acceptance I at once +sent the following message by Ijima to the boat-maker's house at Red +Gate: + + +To Rosalind at Red Gate: + +It is important for you to appear with me at the Port Annandale casino +to-night, and to meet Reginald Gillespie there. He is pledged to refer +in no way to family affairs. It he should attempt to, you need only +remind him of his promise. He will imagine that you are some one else, +so please be careful not to tax his imagination too far. There is much +at stake which I will explain later. You are to refuse nothing that he +may offer you. I shall come into the creek with the launch and call +for you at Red Gate. + +THE IRISHMAN AT GLENARM. + +The casino dances are very informal. A plain white gown and a few +ribbons. But don't omit your emerald. + + +I was not sure where this project would lead me, but I committed myself +to it with a fair conscience. I reached St. Agatha's just as dinner +was announced and we went out at once to the small dining-room used by +the Sister in charge during vacation, where I faced Miss Pat, with +Helen on one hand and Sister Margaret on the other. They were all in +good humor, even Sister Margaret proving less austere than usual, and +it is not too much to say that we were a merry party. Helen led me +with a particular intention to talk of Irish affairs, and avowed her +own unbelief in the capacity of the Irish for self-government. + +"Now, Helen!" admonished Miss Pat, as our debate waxed warm. + +"Oh, do not spare me! I could not be shot to pieces in a better cause!" + +"The trouble with you people," declared Helen with finality, "is that +you have no staying qualities. The smashing of a few heads +occasionally satisfies your islanders, then down go the necks beneath +the yoke. You are incapable of prolonged war. Now even the Cubans did +better; you must admit that, Mr. Donovan!" + +She met my eyes with a challenge. There was no question as to the +animus of the discussion: she wished me to understand that there was +war between us, and that with no great faith in my wit or powers of +endurance she was setting herself confidently to the business of +defeating my purposes. And I must confess that I liked it in her! + +"If we had you for an advocate our flag would undoubtedly rule the +seas, Miss Holbrook!" + +"I dip my colors," she replied, "only to the long-enduring, not to the +valiant alone!" + +"A lady of high renown," I mused aloud, while Miss Pat poured the +coffee, "a lady of your own name, was once more or less responsible for +a little affair that lasted ten years about the walls of a six-gated +city." + +"I wasn't named for _her_! No sugar to-night, please, Aunt Pat!" + +I stood with her presently by an open window of the parlor, looking out +upon the night. Sister Margaret had vanished about her household +duties; Miss Pat had taken up a book with the rather obvious intention +of leaving us to ourselves. I expected to start at eight for my +rendezvous at Red Gate, and my ear was alert to the chiming of the +chapel clock. The gardener had begun his evening rounds, and paused in +the walk beneath us. + +"Don't you think," asked Helen, "that the guard is rather ridiculous?" + +"Yes, but it pleases my medieval instincts to imagine that you need +defenders. In the absence of a moat the gardener combines in himself +all the apparatus of defense. Ijima is his Asiatic ally." + +"And you, I suppose, are the grand strategist and field marshal." + +"At least that!" + +"After this morning I never expected to ask a favor of you; but if, in +my humblest tone--" + +"Certainly. Anything within reason." + +"I want you to take me to the casino to-night to the dance. I'm tired +of being cooped up here. I want to hear music and see new faces." + +"Do pardon me for not having thought of it before! They dance over +there every Wednesday and Saturday night. I'm sorry that to-night I +have an engagement, but won't you allow me on Saturday?" + +She was resting her arms on the high sill, gazing out upon the lake. I +stood near, watching her, and as she sighed deeply my heart ached for +her; but in a moment she turned her head swiftly with mischief laughing +in her eyes. + +"You have really refused! You have positively declined! You plead +another engagement! This is a place where one's engagements are +burdensome." + +"This one happens to be important." + +She turned round with her back to the window. + +"We are eternal foes; we are fighting it out to a finish; and it is +better that way. But, Mr. Donovan, I haven't played all my cards yet." + +"I look upon you as a resourceful person and I shall be prepared for +the worst. Shall we say Saturday night for the dance?" + +"No!" she exclaimed, tossing her head. "And let me have the +satisfaction of telling you that I could not have gone with you +to-night anyhow. Good-by." + +I found Ijima ready with the launch at Glenarm pier, and, after a swift +flight to the Tippecanoe, knocked at the door of Red Gate. Arthur +Holbrook admitted me, and led the way to the room where, as his +captive, I had first talked with him. + +"We have met before," he said, smiling. "I thought you were an enemy +at that time. Now I believe I may count you a friend." + +"Yes; I should like to prove myself your friend, Mr. Holbrook." + +"Thank you," he said simply; and we shook hands. "You have taken an +interest in my affairs, so my daughter tells me. She is very dear to +me--she is all I have left; you can understand that I wish to avoid +involving her in these family difficulties." + +"I would cut off my right hand before I would risk injuring you or her, +Mr. Holbrook," I replied earnestly. "You have a right to know why I +wish her to visit the casino with me to-night. I know what she does +not know, what only two other people know; I know why you are here." + +"I am very sorry; I regret it very much," he said without surprise but +with deep feeling. The jauntiness with which he carried off our first +interview was gone; he seemed older, and there was no mistaking the +trouble and anxiety in his eyes. He would have said more, but I +interrupted him. + +"As far as I am concerned no one else shall ever know. The persons who +know the truth about you are your brother and yourself. Strangely +enough, Reginald Gillespie does not know. Your sister has not the +slightest idea of it. Your daughter, I assume, has no notion of it--" + +"No! no!" he exclaimed eagerly. "She has not known; she has believed +what I have told her; and now she must never know how stupid, how mad, +I have been." + +"To-night," I said, "your daughter and I will gain possession of the +forged notes. Gillespie will give them to her; and I should like to +hold them for a day or two." + +He was pacing the floor and at this wheeled upon me with doubt and +suspicion clearly written on his face. + +"But I don't see how you can manage it!" + +"Mr. Gillespie is infatuated with your niece." + +"With Helen, who is with my sister at St. Agatha's." + +"I have promised Gillespie that he shall see her to-night at the casino +dance. Your sister is very bitter against him and he is mortally +afraid of her." + +"His father really acted very decently, when you know the truth. But I +don't see how this is to be managed. I should like to possess myself +of those papers, but not at too great a cost. More for Rosalind's sake +than my own now, I should have them." + +"You may not know that your daughter and her cousin are as like as two +human beings can be. I am rather put to it myself to tell them apart." + +"Their mothers were much alike, but they were distinguishable. If you +are proposing a substitution of Rosalind for Helen, I should say to +have a care of it. You may deceive a casual acquaintance, but hardly a +lover." + +"I have carried through worse adventures. Those documents must not get +into--into--unfriendly hands! I have pledged myself that Miss Patricia +shall be kept free from further trouble, and much trouble lies in those +forged notes if your brother gets them. But I hope to do a little more +than protect your sister; I want to get you all out of your +difficulties. There is no reason for your remaining in exile. You owe +it to your daughter to go back to civilization. And your sister needs +you. You saved your brother once; you will pardon me for saying that +you owe him no further mercy." + +He thrust his hands into his pockets and paced the floor a moment, +before he said: + +"You are quite right. But I am sure you will be very careful of my +little girl; she is all I have--quite all I have." + +He went to the hall and called her and bowed with a graceful, +old-fashioned courtesy that reminded me of Miss Pat as Rosalind came +into the room. + +"Will I do, gentlemen all?" she asked gaily. "Do I look the fraud I +feel?" + +She threw off a long scarlet cloak that fell to her heels and stood +before us in white--it was as though she had stepped out of flame. She +turned slowly round, with head bent, submitting herself for our +inspection. + +Her gown was perfectly simple, high at the throat and with sleeves that +clasped her wrists. To my masculine eyes it was of the same piece and +pattern as the gown in which I had left Helen at St. Agatha's an hour +before. + +"I think I read doubt in your mind," she laughed. "You must not tell +me now that you have backed out; I shall try it myself, if you are +weakening. I am anxious for the curtain to rise." + +"There is only one thing: I suggest that you omit that locket. I dined +with her to-night, so my memory is fresh." + +She unclasped the tiny locket that hung from a slight band of velvet at +her throat, and threw it aside; and her father, who was not, I saw, +wholly reconciled to my undertaking, held the cloak for her and led the +way with a lantern through the garden and down to the waterside and +along the creek to the launch where Ijima was in readiness. We quickly +embarked, and the launch stole away through the narrow shores, Holbrook +swinging his lantern back and forth in good-by. I had lingered longer +at the boat-maker's than I intended, and as we neared the upper lake +and the creek broadened Ijima sent the launch forward at full speed. +When we approached Battle Orchard I bade him stop, and hiding our +lantern I took an oar and guided the launch quietly by. Then we went +on into the upper lake at a lively clip. Rosalind sat quietly in the +bow, the hood of her cloak gathered about her head. + +I was taking steering directions from Ijima, but as we neared Port +Annandale I glanced over my shoulder to mark the casino pier lights +when Rosalind sang out: + +"Hard aport--hard!" + +I obeyed, and we passed within oar's length of a sailboat, which, +showing no light, but with mainsail set, was loafing leisurely before +the light west wind. As we veered away I saw a man's figure at the +wheel; another figure showed darkly against the cuddy. + +"Hang out your lights!" I shouted angrily. But there was no reply. + +"The _Stiletto_," muttered Ijima, starting the engine again. + +"We must look out for her going back," I said, as we watched the sloop +merge into shadow. + +The lights of the casino blazed cheerily as we drew up to the pier, and +Rosalind stepped out in good spirits, catching up and humming the waltz +that rang down upon us from the club-house. + +"Lady," I said, "let us see what lands we shall discover." + +"I ought to feel terribly wicked, but I really never felt cheerfuller +in my life," she averred. "But I have one embarrassment!" + +"Well?"--and we paused, while she dropped the hood upon her shoulders. + +"What shall I call this gentleman?" + +"What does _she_ call him? I'm blest if I know! I call him Buttons +usually; Knight of the Rueful Countenance might serve; but very likely +she calls him Reggie." + +"I will try them all," she said. "I think we used to call him Reggie +on Strawberry Hill. Very likely he will detect the fraud at once and I +shan't get very far with him." + +"You shall get as far as you please. Leave it to me. He shall see you +first on the veranda overlooking the water where there are shadows in +plenty, and you had better keep your cloak about you until the first +shock of meeting has passed. Then if he wants you to dance, I will +hold the cloak, like a faithful chaperon, and you may muffle yourself +in it the instant you come out; so even if he has his suspicions he +will have no time to indulge them. He is undoubtedly patrolling the +veranda, looking for us even now. He's a faithful knight!" + +As we passed the open door the dance ceased and a throng of young +people came gaily out to take the air. We joined the procession, and +were accepted without remark. Several men whom I had seen in the +village or met in the highway nodded amiably. Gillespie, I knew, was +waiting somewhere; and I gave Rosalind final admonitions. + +"Now be cheerful! Be cordial! In case of doubt grow moody, and look +out upon the water, as though seeking an answer in the stars. Though I +seem to disappear I shall be hanging about with an eye for +danger-signals. Ah! He approaches! He comes!" + +Gillespie advanced eagerly, with happiness alight in his face. + +"Helen!" he cried, taking her hand; and to me: "You are not so great a +liar after all, Irishman." + +"Oh, Mr. Donovan is the kindest person imaginable," she replied and +turned her head daringly so that the light from a window fell full upon +her, and he gazed at her with frank, boyish admiration. Then she drew +her wrap about her shoulders and sat down on a bench with her face in +shadow, and as I walked away her laughter followed me cheerily. + +I was promptly seized by a young man, who feigned to have met me in +some former incarnation, and introduced to a girl from Detroit whose +name I shall never know in this world. I remember that she danced +well, and that she asked me whether I knew people in Duluth, Pond du +Lac, Paducah and a number of other towns which she recited like a +geographical index. She formed, I think, a high opinion of my sense of +humor, for I laughed at everything she said in my general joy of the +situation. After our third dance I got her an ice and found another +cavalier for her. I did not feel at all as contrite as I should have +felt as I strolled round the veranda toward Rosalind and Gillespie. +They were talking in low tones and did not heed me until I spoke to +them. + +"Oh, it's you, is it?"--and Gillespie looked up at me resentfully. + +"I have been gone two years! It seems to me I am doing pretty well, +all things considered! What have you been talking about?" + + + "'--'Bout Giunts, an' Griffuns, an' Elves, + An' the Squidgicum-Squees 'at swallers therselves!'" + +Rosalind quoted. "I hope you have been enjoying yourself." + +"After a dull fashion, yes." + +"I should like to tell her that! We saw you through the window. She +struck us as very pretty, didn't she, Reggie?" + +"I didn't notice her," Gillespie replied with so little interest that +we both laughed. + +"It's too bad," remarked Rosalind, "that Aunt Pat couldn't have come +with us. It would have been a relief for her to get away from that +dreary school-house." + +"I might go and fetch her," I suggested. + +"If you do," said Gillespie, grinning, "you will not find us here when +you get back." + +Rosalind sighed, as though at the remembrance of her aunt's forlorn +exile; then the music broke out in a two-step. + +"Come! We must have this dance!" she exclaimed, and Gillespie rose +obediently. I followed, exchanging chaff with Rosalind until we came +to the door, where she threw off her cloak for the first time. + +"Lord and Protector, will you do me the honor?" + +It all happened in a moment. I tossed the cloak across my arm +carelessly and she turned to Gillespie without looking at me. He +hesitated--some word faltered on his lips. I think it must have been +the quick transition of her appearance effected by the change from the +rich color of the cloak to the white of her dress that startled him. +She realized the danger of the moment, and put her arm on his arm. + +"We mustn't miss a note of it! Good-by,"--and with a nod to me I next +saw her far away amid the throng of dancers. + +As I caught up the cloak under my arm something crackled under my +fingers, and hurrying to a dark corner of the veranda I found the +pocket and drew forth an envelope. My conscience, I confess, was +agreeably quiescent. You may, if you wish, pronounce my conduct at +several points of this narrative wholly indefensible; but I was engaged +in a sincere effort to straighten out the Holbrook tangle, and Helen +had openly challenged me. If I could carry this deception through +successfully I believed that within a few hours I might bring Henry +Holbrook to terms. As for Gillespie he was far safer with Rosalind +than with Helen. I thrust the envelope into my breast pocket and +settled myself by the veranda rail, where I could look out upon the +lake, and at the same time keep an eye on the ball-room. And, to be +frank about it, I felt rather pleased with myself! It would do Helen +no great harm to wait for Gillespie on St. Agatha's pier: the +discipline of disappointment would be good for her. Vigorous +hand-clapping demanded a repetition of the popular two-step of the +hour, and I saw Rosalind and Gillespie swing into the dance as the +music struck up again. + +Somewhere beneath I heard the rumble and bang of a bowling-alley above +the music. Then my eyes, roaming the lake, fell upon the casino pier +below. Some one was coming toward me--a girl wrapped in a long cloak +who had apparently just landed from a boat. She moved swiftly toward +the casino. I saw her and lost her again as she passed in and out of +the light of the pier lamps. A dozen times the shadows caught her +away; a dozen times the pier lights flashed upon her; and at last I was +aware that it was Helen Holbrook, walking swiftly, as though upon an +urgent errand. I ran down the steps and met her luckily on a deserted +stretch of board walk. I was prepared for an angry outburst, but +hardly for the sword-like glitter of her first words. + +"This is infamous! It is outrageous! I did not believe that even you +would be guilty of this!" + +The two-step was swinging on to its conclusion, and I knew that the +casino entrance was not the place for a scene with an angry girl. + +"I am anything you like; but please come to a place where we can talk +quietly." + +"I will not! I will not be tricked by you again." + +"You will come along with me, at once and quietly," I said; and to my +surprise she walked up the steps beside me. As we passed the ball-room +door the music climbed to its climax and ended. + +"Come, let us go to the farther end of the veranda." + +When we had reached a quiet corner she broke out upon me again. + +"If you have done what I think you have done, what I might have known +you would do, I shall punish you terribly--you and her!" + +"You may punish me all you like, but you shall not punish her!" I said +with her own emphasis. + +"Reginald promised me some papers to-night--my father had asked me to +get them for him. She does not know, this cousin of mine, what they +are, what her father is! It is left for you to bring the shame upon +her." + +"It had better be I than you, in your present frame of mind!"--and the +pity welled in my heart. I must save her from the heartache that lay +in the truth. If I failed in this I should fail indeed. + +"Do you want her to know that her father is a forger--a felon? That is +what you are telling her, if you trick Reginald into giving her those +papers he was to give me for my father!" + +"She hasn't those papers. I have them. They are in my pocket, quite +safe from all of you. You are altogether too vindictive, you +Holbrooks! I have no intention of trusting you with such high +explosives." + +"Reginald shall take them away from you. He is not a child to be +played with--duped in this fashion." + +"Reginald is a good fellow. He will always love me for this--" + +"For cheating him? Don't you suppose he will resent it? Don't you +think he knows me from every other girl in the world?" + +"No, I do not. In fact I have proved that he doesn't. You see, Miss +Holbrook, he gave her the documents in the case without a question." + +"And she dutifully passed them on to you!" + +"Nothing of the kind, my dear Miss Holbrook! I took them out of her +cloak pocket." + +"That is quite in keeping!" + +"I'm not done yet! Pardon me, but I want you to exchange cloaks with +me. You shall have Reginald in a moment, and we will make sure that he +is deceived by letting him take you home. You are as like as two +peas--in everything except temper, humor and such trifles; but your +cloaks are quite different. Please!" + +"I will not!" + +"Please!" + +"You are despicable, despicable!" + +"I am really the best friend you have in the world. Again, will you +kindly exchange cloaks with me? Yours is blue, isn't it? I think +Reginald knows blue from red. Ah, thank you! Now, I want you to +promise to say nothing as he takes you home about papers, your father, +your uncle or your aunt. You will talk to him of times when you were +children at Stamford, and things like that, in a dreamy reminiscential +key. If he speaks of things that you don't exactly understand, refers +to what he has said to your cousin here to-night, you need only fend +him off; tell him the incident is closed. When I bring him to you in +ten minutes it will be with the understanding that he is to take you +back to St. Agatha's at once. He has his launch at the casino pier; +you needn't say anything to him when you land, only that you must get +home quietly, so Miss Pat shan't know you have been out. Your exits +and your entrances are your own affair. Now I hope you see the wisdom +of obeying me, absolutely." + +"I didn't know that I could hate you so much!" she said quietly. "But +I shall not forget this. I shall let you see before I am a day older +that you are not quite the master you think you are: suppose I tell him +how you have played with him." + +"Then before you are three hours older I shall precipitate a crisis +that you will not like, Miss Holbrook. I advise you, as your best +friend, to do what I ask." + +She shrugged her shoulders, drew the scarlet cloak more closely about +her, and I left her gazing off into the strip of wood that lay close +upon the inland side of the club-house. I was by no means sure of her, +but there was no time for further parley. I dropped the blue cloak on +a chair in a corner and hurried round to the door of the ball-room, +meeting Rosalind and Gillespie coming out flushed with their dance. + +"The hour of enchantment is almost past. I must have one turn before +the princess goes back to her castle!"--and Rosalind took my arm. + +"Meet me at the landing in two minutes, Gillespie! As a special +favor--as a particular kindness--I shall allow you to take the princess +home!" And I hurried Rosalind away, regained the blue cloak, and flung +it about her. + +"Well," she said, drawing the hood over her head, "who am I, anyhow!" + +"Don't ask me such questions! I'm afraid to say." + +"I like your air of business. You are undoubtedly a man of action!" + +"I thank you for the word. I'm breathing hard. I have seen ghosts and +communed with dragons. She's here! your _alter ego_ is on this very +veranda more angry than it is well for a woman to be." + +"Oh," she faltered, "she found out and followed?" + +"She did; she undoubtedly did!" + +As we paused under one of the veranda lamps she looked down at the +cloak and laughed. + +"So this is hers! I thought it didn't feel quite right. But that pair +of gloves!" + +"It's in my pocket. I have stolen it!" I led the way to the lower +veranda of the casino, which was now de-a sorted. "Stay right here and +appear deeply interested in the heavens above and the waters under the +earth until I get back." + +I ran up the stairs again and found Helen where I had left her. + +"And now," I said, giving her my arm, "you will not forget the rules of +the game! Your fortunes, and your father's are brighter to-night than +they have ever been. You hate me to the point of desperation, but +remember I am your friend after all." + +She stopped abruptly, hesitating. I felt indecision in the lessening +touch upon my arm, and I saw it in her eyes as the light from the +ball-room door flooded us. + +"You have taken everything away from me! You are playing Reginald +against me." + +"Possibly--who knows! I supposed you had more faith in your powers +than that!" + +"I have no faith in anything," she said dejectedly. + +"Oh, yes, you have! You have an immense amount of faith in yourself. +And you know you care nothing at all about Reginald Gillespie; he's a +nice boy, but that's all." + +"You are contemptible and wicked!" she flared. "Let us go." + +Gillespie's launch was ready when we reached the pier, and after he had +handed her into it he plucked my sleeve, and held me for an instant. + +"Don't you see how wrong you are! She is superb! She is not only the +most beautiful girl in the world, but the dearest, the sweetest, the +kindest and best. You have served me better than you know, old man, +and I'm grateful!" + +In a moment they were well under way and I ran back to the club-house +and found Rosalind where I had left her. + +"We must go at once," she said. "Father will be very anxious to know +how it all came out." + +"But what did you think of Buttons?" + +"He's very nice," she said. + +"Is that all? It doesn't seem conclusive, some way!" + +"Oh, he's very kind and gentle, and anxious to please. But I felt like +a criminal all the time." + +"You seemed to be a very cheerful criminal. I suppose it was only the +excitement that kept you going." + +"Of course that was it! I was wondering what to call it. I'm afraid +the Sisters at the convent would have a less pleasant word for it." + +"Well, you are not in school now; and I think we have done a good +night's work for everybody concerned. But tell me, did he make love +acceptably?" + +"I suppose that was what he was doing, sir," she replied demurely, +averting her head. + +"Suppose?" I laughed. + +"Yes; you see, it was my first experience. And he is really very nice, +and so honest and kind and gentle that I felt sorry for him." + +"Ah! You were sorry for him! Then it's all over, I'm clear out of it. +When a woman is sorry for a man--tchk! But tell me, how did his +advances compare with mine on those occasions when we met over there by +St. Agatha's? I did my best to be entertaining." + +"Oh, he is much more earnest than you ever could be. I never had any +illusions about you, Mr. Donovan. You just amuse yourself with the +nearest girl, and, besides, for a long time you thought I was Helen. +Mr. Gillespie is terribly in earnest. When he was talking to me back +there in the corner I didn't remember at all that it was he who drove a +goat-team in Central Park to rebuke the policeman!" + +"No; I suppose with the stage properly set,--with the music and the +stars and the water,--one might forget Mr. Gillespie's mild +idiosyncrasies." + +"But you haven't told me about Helen. Of course she saw through the +trick at once." + +"She did," I answered, in a tone that caused Rosalind to laugh. + +"Well, you wouldn't hurt poor little me if she scolded you!" + +We were on the pier, and I whistled to Ijima to bring up the launch. +In a moment we were skimming over the lake toward the Tippecanoe. + +Arthur Holbrook was waiting for us in the creek. + +"It is all right," I said. "I shall keep the papers for the present, +if you don't mind, but your troubles are nearly over." And I left +Rosalind laughingly explaining to her father how it came about that she +had gone to the casino in a scarlet cloak but had returned in a blue +one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +MR. GILLESPIE'S DIVERSIONS + + Patience or Prudence,--what you will, + Some prefix faintly fragrant still + As those old musky scents that fill + Our grandmas' pillows; + And for her youthful portrait take + Some long-waist child of Hudson's make, + Stiffly at ease beside a lake + With swans and willows. + --_Austin Dobson_. + + +In my own room I drew the blinds for greater security, lighted the +desk-lamp and sat down before the packet Gillespie had given Rosalind. +It was a brown commercial envelope, thrice sealed, and addressed, "R. +Gillespie: Personal." In a corner was written "Holbrook Papers." I +turned the packet over and over in my hands, reflecting upon my +responsibility and duty in regard to it. Henry Holbrook, in his +anxiety to secure the notes, had taken advantage of Gillespie's +infatuation for Helen to make her his agent for procuring them, and now +it was for me to use the forged notes as a means of restoring Arthur +Holbrook to his sister's confidence. The way seemed clear enough, and +I went to bed resolving that in the morning I should go to Henry +Holbrook, tell him that I had the evidence of his guilt in my +possession and threaten him with exposure if he did not cease his mad +efforts to blackmail his sister. + +I rose early and perfected my plans for the day as I breakfasted. A +storm had passed round us in the night and it was bright and cool, with +a sharp wind beating the lake into tiny whitecaps. It was not yet +eight o'clock when I left the house for my journey in search of Henry +Holbrook. The envelope containing the forged notes was safely locked +in the vault in which the Glenarm silver was stored. As I stepped down +into the park I caught sight of Miss Pat walking in the garden beyond +the wall, and as I lifted my cap she came toward the iron gate. She +was rarely abroad so early and I imagined that she had been waiting for +me. + +The chill of the air was unseasonable, and in her long coat her slight +figure seemed smaller than ever. She smiled her grave smile, but there +was, I thought, an unusual twinkle in her gentle eyes. She wore for +the first time a lace cap that gave a new delicacy to her face. + +"You are abroad early, my lord," she said, with the delicious quaint +mockery with which she sometimes flattered me. And she repeated the +lines: + + "Hast thou seen ghosts? Hast thou at midnight heard + In the wind's talking an articulate word? + Or art thou in the secret of the sea, + And have the twilight woods confessed to thee?" + + +"No such pleasant things have happened to me, Miss Holbrook." + +"This is my birthday. I have crowned myself--observe the cap!" + +"We must celebrate! I crave the privilege of dining you to-night." + +"You were starting for somewhere with an air of determination. Don't +let me interfere with your plans." + +"I was going to the boat-house," I answered truthfully. + +"Let me come along. I am turned sixty-five, and I think I am entitled +to do as I please; don't you?" + +"I do, indeed, but that is no reason. You are no more sixty-five than +I am. The cap, if you will pardon me, only proclaims your immunity +from the blasts of Time." + +"I wish I had known you at twenty," she said brightly, as we went on +together. + +"My subjection could not have been more complete." + +"Do you make speeches like that to Helen?" + +"If I do it is with less inspiration!" + +"You must stop chaffing me. I am not sixty-five for nothing and I +don't think you are naturally disrespectful." + +When we reached the boat-house she took a chair on the little veranda +and smiled as though something greatly amused her. + +"Mr. Donovan--I am sixty-five, as I have said before--may I call you--" + +"Larry! and gladden me forever!" + +"Then, Larry, what a lot of frauds we all are!" + +"I suppose we are," I admitted doubtfully, not sure where the joke lay. + +"You have been trying to be very kind to me, haven't you?" + +"I have accomplished nothing." + +"You have tried to make my way easy here; and you have had no end of +trouble. I am not as dull as I look, Larry." + +"If I have deceived you it has been with an honest purpose." + +"I don't question that. But Helen has been giving you a great deal of +trouble, hasn't she? You don't quite make her out; isn't that true?" + +"I understand her perfectly," I averred recklessly. + +"You are a daring young man, Larry, to make that statement of any +woman. Helen has not always dealt honestly with you--or me!" + +"She is the noblest girl in the world; she is splendid beyond any words +of mine. I don't understand what you mean, Miss Holbrook." + +"Larry, you dear boy, I am no more blind or deaf than I am dumb! Helen +has been seeing her father and Reginald Gillespie. She has run off at +night, thinking I wouldn't know it. She is an extremely clever young +woman, but when she has made a feint of retiring early, only to creep +out and drop down from the dining-room balcony and dodge your guards, I +have known it. She was away last night and came creeping in like a +thief. It has amused me, Larry; it has furnished me real diversion. +The only thing that puzzles me is that I don't quite see where you +stand." + +"I haven't always been sure myself, to be frank about it!" + +"Why not tell me just how it is: whether Helen has been amusing herself +with you, or you with Helen." + +"Oh!" I laughed. "When you came here you told me she was the finest +girl in the world, and I accepted your word for it. I have every +confidence in your judgment, and you have known your niece for a long +time." + +"I have indeed." + +"And I'm sure you wouldn't have deceived me!" + +"But I did! I wanted to interest you in her. Something in your eye +told me that you might do great things for her." + +"Thank you!" + +"But instead of that you have played into her hands. Why did you let +her steal out at night to meet her father, when you knew that could +only do her and me a grave injury? And you have aided her in seeing +Gillespie, when I particularly warned you that he was most repugnant to +me." + +I laughed in spite of myself as I remembered the night's adventure; and +Miss Pat stopped short in the path and faced me with the least glint of +anger in her eyes. + +"I really didn't think you capable of it! She will marry him for his +money!" + +"Take my word for it, she will do nothing of the kind." + +"You are under her spell, and you don't know her! I +think--sometimes--I think the girl has no soul!" she said at last. + +The dear voice faltered, and the tears flashed into Miss Pat's eyes as +she confronted, me in the woodland path. + +"Oh, no! It's not so bad as that!" I pleaded. + +"I tell you she has no soul! You will find it out to your cost. She +is made for nothing but mischief in this world!" + +"I am your humble servant, Miss Holbrook." + +"Then," she began doubtfully, and meeting my eyes with careful +scrutiny, "I am going to ask you to do one thing more for me, that we +may settle all this disagreeable affair. I am going to pay Henry his +money; but before I do so I must find my brother Arthur, if he is still +alive. That may have some difficulties." + +She looked at me as though for approval; then went on. + +"I have been thinking of all these matters carefully since I came here. +Henry has forfeited his right to further inheritance by his +contemptible, cowardly treatment of me; but I am willing to forgive all +that he has done. He was greatly provoked; it would not be fair for me +to hold those things against him. As between him and Arthur; as +between him and Arthur--" + +Her gaze lay across the twinkling lake, and her voice was tremulous. +She spoke softly as though to herself, and I caught phrases of the +paragraph of her father's will that Gillespie had read to me: +"_Dishonor as it is known, accounted and reckoned among men_;"--and she +bowed her head on the veranda rail a moment; then she rose suddenly and +smiled bravely through her tears. + +"Why can't you find Arthur for me? Ah, it you could only find him +there might be peace between us all; for I am very old, Larry. Age +without peace is like life without hope. I can not believe that Arthur +is dead. I must see him again. Larry, if he is alive find him and +tell him to come to me." + +"Yes," I said; "I know where he is!" + +She started in amazement and coming close, her hands closed upon my arm +eagerly. + +"It can't be possible! You know where he is and you will bring him to +me?" + +She was pitifully eager and the tears were bright in her eyes. + +"Be assured of it. Miss Holbrook. He is near by and well; but you +must not trouble about him or about anything. And now I am going to +take you home. Come! There is much to do, and I must be off. But you +will keep a good heart; you are near the end of your difficulties." + +She was quite herself again when we reached St. Agatha's, but at the +door she detained me a moment. + +"I like you, Larry!" she said, taking my hand; and my own mother had +not given me sweeter benediction. "I never intended that Helen should +play with you. She may serve me as she likes, but I don't want her to +singe your wings, Larry." + +"I have been shot at in three languages, and half drowned in others, +and rewards have been offered for me. Do you think I'm going down +before a mere matter of _beaux yeux_! Think better of me than that!" + +"But she is treacherous; she will deliver you to the Philistines +without losing a heart-beat." + +"She could, Miss Patricia, but she won't!" + +"She has every intention of marrying Gillespie; he's the richest man +she knows!" + +"I swear to you that she shall not marry Gillespie!" + +"She would do it to annoy me if for nothing else." + +I took both her hands--they were like rose-leaves, those dear slightly +tremulous hands! + +"Now, Miss Pat--I'm going to call you Miss Pat because we're such old +friends, and we're just contemporaries, anyhow--now, Miss Pat, Helen is +not half so wicked as she thinks she is. Gillespie and I are on the +best of terms. He's a thoroughly good fellow and not half the fool he +looks. And he will never marry Helen!" + +"I should like to know what's going to prevent her from marrying him!" +she demanded as I stepped back and turned to go. + +"Oh, I am, if you must know! I have every intention of marrying her +myself!" + +I ran away from the protest that was faltering upon her lips, and +strode through the garden. I had just reached Glenarm gate on my way +back to the boat-house when a woman's voice called softly and Sister +Margaret hurried round a turn of the garden path. + +"Mr. Donovan!" + +There was anxiety in the voice, and more anxious still was Sister +Margaret's face as she came toward me in her brown habit, her hands +clasped tensely before her. She had evidently been watching for me, +and drew back from the gate into a quiet recess of the garden. Her +usual repose was gone and her face, under its white coif, showed +plainly her distress. + +"I have bad news--Miss Helen has gone! I'm afraid something has +happened to her." + +"She can't have gone far, Sister Margaret. When did you miss her?" I +asked quietly; but I confess that I was badly shaken. My confident +talk about the girl with Miss Pat but a moment before echoed ironically +in my memory. + +"She did not come down for breakfast with her aunt or me, but I thought +nothing of it, as I have urged both of them to breakfast up-stairs. +Miss Patricia went out for a walk. An hour ago I tried Helen's door +and found it unlocked and her room empty. When or how she left I don't +know. She seems to have taken nothing with her." + +"Can you tell a lie, Sister Margaret?" + +She stared at me with so shocked an air that I laughed. "A lie in a +good cause, I mean? Miss Pat must not know that her niece has gone--if +she has gone! She has probably taken one of the canoes for a morning +paddle; or, we will assume that she has borrowed one of the Glenarm +horses, as she has every right to do, for a morning gallop, and that +she has lost her way or gone farther than she intended. There are a +thousand explanations!" + +"But they hardly touch the fact that she was gone all night; or that a +strange man brought a note addressed in Helen's handwriting to her aunt +only an hour ago." + +"Kidnapped!"--and I laughed aloud as the meaning of her disappearance +flashed upon me! + +"I don't like your way of treating this matter!" said Sister Margaret +icily. "The girl may die before she can be brought back." + +"No, she won't--my word for it, Sister Margaret. Please give me the +letter!" + +"But it is not for you!" + +"Oh, yes, it is! You wouldn't have Miss Pat subjected to the shock of +a demand for ransom. Worse than that, Miss Pat has little enough faith +in Helen as it is; and such a move as this would be final. This +kidnapping is partly designed as a punishment for me, and I propose to +take care of it without letting Miss Pat know. She shall never know!" + +Sister Margaret, only half convinced, drew an envelope from her girdle +and gave it to me doubtfully. I glanced at the superscription and then +tore it across, repeating the process until it was a mass of tiny +particles, which I poured into Sister Margaret's hands. + +"Burn them! Now Miss Pat will undoubtedly ask for her niece at once. +I suggest that you take care that she is not distressed by Helen's +absence. If it is necessary to reward your house-maid for her +discretion--" I said with hesitation. + +"Oh, I disarranged Helen's bed so that the maid wouldn't know!"--and +Sister Margaret blushed. + +"Splendid! I can teach you nothing, Sister Margaret! Please help me +this much further: get one of Miss Helen's dresses--that blue one she +plays tennis in, perhaps--and put it in a bag of some kind and give it +to my Jap when he calls for it in ten minutes. Now listen to me +carefully, Sister Margaret: I shall meet you here at twelve o'clock +with a girl who shall be, to all intents and purposes, Helen Holbrook. +In fact, she will be some one else. Now I expect you to carry off the +situation through luncheon and until nightfall, when I expect to bring +Helen--the real Helen--back here. Meanwhile, tell Miss Pat anything +you like, quoting me! Good-by!" + +I left her abruptly and was running toward Glenarm House to rouse +Ijima, when I bumped into Gillespie, who had been told at the house +that I was somewhere in the grounds. + +"What's doing, Irishman?" he demanded. + +"Nothing, Buttons; I'm just exercising." + +His white flannels were as fresh as the morning, and he wore a little +blue cap perched saucily on the side of his head. + +"I was pondering," he began, "the futility of man's effort to be +helpful toward his fellows." + +He leaned upon his stick and eyed me with solemn vacuity. + +"I suppose I'll have to hear it; go on." + +"I was always told in my youth that when an opportunity to do good +offered one should seize upon it at once. No hesitation, no trifling! +Only a few years ago I wandered into a little church in a hill town of +Massachusetts where I waited for the Boston Express. It was a +beautiful Sunday evening--I shall never forget it!" he sighed. "I am +uncertain whether I was led thither by good impulse, or only because +the pews were more comfortable than the benches at the railway station. +I arrived early and an usher seated me up front near a window and gave +me an armful of books and a pamphlet on foreign missions. Other people +began to come in pretty soon; and then I heard a lot of giggling and a +couple of church pillars began chasing a stray dog up and down the +aisles. I was placing my money on the taller pillar; he had the best +reach of leg, and, besides, the other chap had side whiskers, which are +not good for sprinting,--they offer just so much more resistance to the +wind. The unseemliness of the thing offended my sense of propriety. +The sound of the chase broke in harshly upon my study of Congo +missions. After much pursuing the dog sought refuge between my legs. +I picked him up tenderly in my arms and dropped him gently, Donovan, +gently, from the window. Now wasn't that seizing an opportunity when +you found it, so to speak, underfoot?" + +"No doubt of it at all. Hurry with the rest of it, Buttons!" + +"Well, that pup fell with a sickening yelp through a skylight into the +basement where the choir was vesting itself, and hit a bishop--actually +struck a young and promising bishop who had never done anything to me. +They got the constable and made a horrible row, and besides paying for +the skylight I had to give the church a new organ to square myself with +the bishop, who was a friend of a friend of mine in Kentucky who once +gave me a tip on the Derby. Since then the very thought of foreign +missions makes me ill, I always hear that dog--it was the usual village +mongrel of evil ancestry--crashing through the skylight. What's doing +this morning, Irishman?" + +I linked my arm in his and led the way toward Glenarm House. There was +much to be done before I could bring together the warring members of +the house of Holbrook, and Gillespie could, I felt, be relied on in +emergencies. He broke forth at once. + +"I want to see her--I've got to see her!" + +"Who--Helen? Then you'll have to wait a while, for she's gone for a +paddle or a gallop, I'm not sure which, and won't be back for a couple +of hours. But you have grown too daring. Miss Pat is still here, and +you can't expect me to arrange meetings for you every day in the year." + +"I've got to see her," he repeated, and his tone was utterly joyless. +"I don't understand her, Donovan." + +"Man is not expected to understand woman, my dear Buttons. At the +casino last night everything was as gay as an octogenarian's birthday +cake." + +He stopped in the shadow of the house and seized my arm. + +"You told her something about me last night. She was all right until +you took her away and talked with her at the casino. On the way home +she was moody and queer--a different girl altogether. You are not on +the square; you are playing on too many sides of this game." + +"You're in love, that's all. These suspicions and apprehensions are +leading symptoms. Up there at the casino, with the water washing +beneath and the stars overhead and the band playing waltzes, a spell +was upon you both. Even a hardened old sinner like me could feel it. +I've had palpitations all day! Cheer up! In your own happy phrase, +everything points to plus." + +"I tell you she turned on me, and that you are responsible for +it!"--and he glared at me angrily. + +"Now, Buttons! You're not going to take that attitude toward me, after +all I have done for you! I really took some trouble to arrange that +little meeting last night; and here you come with sad eye and mournful +voice and rebuke me!" + +"I tell you she was different. She had never been so kind to me as she +was there at the casino; but as we came back she changed, and was ready +to fling me aside. I asked her to leave this place and marry me +to-day, and she only laughed at me!" + +"Now, Buttons, you are letting your imagination get the better of your +common sense. If you're going to take your lady's moods so hard you'd +better give up trying to understand the ways of woman. It's wholly +possible that Helen was tired and didn't want to be made love to. It +seems to me that you are singularly lacking in consideration. But I +can't talk to you all morning; I have other things to do; but if you +will find a cool corner of the house and look at picture-books until +I'm free I'll promise to be best man for you when you're married; and I +predict your marriage before Christmas--a happy union of the ancient +houses of Holbrook and Gillespie. Run along like a good boy and don't +let Miss Pat catch sight of you." + +"Do you keep a goat, a donkey or a mule--any of the more ruminative +animals?" he asked with his saddest intonation. + +"The cook keeps a parrot, and there's a donkey in one of the pastures." + +"Good. Are his powers of vocalization unimpaired?" + +"First rate. I occasionally hear his vesper hymn. He's in good voice." + +"Then I may speak to him, soul to soul, if I find that I bore myself." + +We climbed the steps to the cool shadows of the terrace. As we stood a +moment looking out on the lake we saw, far away toward the northern +shore, the _Stiletto_, that seemed just to have slipped out from the +lower lake. The humor of the situation pleased me; Helen was off there +in the sloop playing at being kidnapped to harass her aunt into coming +to terms with Henry Holbrook, and she was doubtless rejoicing in the +fact that she had effected a combination of events that would make her +father's case irresistible. + +But there was no time to lose. I made Gillespie comfortable indoors +and sent Ijima to get the bag I had asked for; and a few minutes later +the launch was skimming over the water toward the canoe-maker's house +at Red Gate. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE ROCKET SIGNAL + + Blow up the trumpet in the new moon. + --_The Psalter_. + + +Rosalind was cutting sweet peas in the garden where they climbed high +upon a filmy net, humming softly to herself. She was culling out white +ones, which somehow suggested her own white butterflies--a proper +business for any girl on a sunny morning, with the dew still bright +where the shadows lay, with bird-wings flashing about her, and the +kindliest of airs blowing her hair. + +"A penny for your thoughts!" I challenged. + +She snipped an imaginary flower from the air in my direction. + +"Keep your money! I was not thinking of you! You wear, sir, an intent +commercial air; have you thread and needles in your pack?" + +"It is ordained that we continue the game of last night. To-day you +are to invade the very citadel and deceive your aunt. Your cousin has +left without notice and the situation demands prompt action." + +I was already carrying the suit-case toward the house, explaining as we +walked along together. + +"But was I so successful last night? Was he really deceived, or did he +just play that he was?" + +"He's madly in love with you. You stole away all his senses. But he +thought you changed toward him unaccountably on the way home." + +"But why didn't she tell him?--she must have told him." + +"Oh, I took care of that! I rather warned her against betraying us. +And now she's trying to punish me by being kidnapped!" + +Rosalind paused at the threshold, gathering the stems of the sweet peas +in her hands. + +"Do you think," she began, "do you think he really liked me--I mean the +real me?" + +"Like you! That is not the right word for it. He's gloomily dreaming +of you--the real you--at this very moment over at Glenarm. But do +hasten into these things that Sister Margaret picked out for you. I +must see your father before I carry you off. We've no time to waste, I +can tell you!" + +The canoe-maker heard my story in silence and shook his head. + +"It is impossible; we should only get into deeper trouble. I have no +great faith in this resemblance. It may have worked once on young +Gillespie, but women have sharper eyes." + +"But it must be tried!" I pleaded. "We are approaching the end of +these troubles, and nothing must be allowed to interfere. Your sister +wishes to see you; this is her birthday." + +"So it is! So it is!" exclaimed the canoe-maker with feeling. + +"Helen must be saved from her own folly. Her aunt must not know of +this latest exploit; it would ruin everything." + +As we debated Rosalind joined her persuasions to mine. + +"Aunt Pat must not know what Helen has done if we can help it," she +said. + +While she changed her clothes I talked on at the house-boat with her +father. + +"My sister has asked for me?" + +"Yes; your sister is ready to settle with Henry; but she wishes to see +you first. She has begged me to find you; but Helen must go back to +her aunt. This fraudulent kidnapping must never be known to Miss Pat. +And on the other hand, I hope it may not be necessary for Helen to know +the truth about her father." + +"I dare say she would sacrifice my own daughter quickly enough," he +said. + +"No; you are wrong; I do not believe it! She is making no war on you, +or on her aunt! It's against me! She enjoys a contest; she's trying +to beat me." + +"She believes that I forged the Gillespie notes and ruined her father. +Henry has undoubtedly told her so." + +"Yes; and he has used her to get them away from young Gillespie. +There's no question about that. But I have the notes, and I propose +holding them for your protection. But I don't want to use them if I +can help it." + +"I appreciate what you are doing for me," he said quietly, but his eyes +were still troubled and I saw that he had little faith in the outcome. + +"Your sister is disposed to deal generously with Henry. She does not +know where the dishonor lies." + +"'We are all honorable men,'" he replied bitterly, slowly pacing the +floor. His sleeves were rolled away from his sun-browned arms, his +shirt was open at the throat, and though he wore the rough clothes of a +mechanic he looked more the artist at work in a rural studio than the +canoe-maker of the Tippecanoe. He walked to a window and looked down +for a moment upon the singing creek, then came back to me and spoke in +a different tone. + +"I have given these years of my life to protecting my brother, and they +must not be wasted. I have nothing to say against him; I shall keep +silent." + +"He has forfeited every right. Now is your time to punish him," I +said; but Arthur Holbrook only looked at me pityingly. + +"I don't want revenge, Mr. Donovan, but I am almost in a mood for +justice," he said with a rueful smile; and just then Rosalind entered +the shop. + +"Is my fate decided?" she demanded. + +The sight of her seemed to renew the canoe-maker's distress, and I led +the way at once to the door. I think that in spite of my efforts to be +gay and to carry the affair off lightly, we all felt that the day was +momentous. + +"When shall I expect you back?" asked Holbrook, when we had reached the +launch. + +"Early to-night," I answered. + +"But if anything should happen here?" The tears flashed in Rosalind's +eyes, and she clung a moment to his hand. + +"He will hardly be troubled by daylight, and this evening he can send +up a rocket if any one molests him. Go ahead, Ijima!" + +As we cleared Battle Orchard and sped on toward Glenarm there was a +sting in the wind, and Lake Annandale had fretted itself into foam. We +saw the _Stiletto_ running prettily before the wind along the Glenarm +shore, and I stopped the engine before crossing her wake and let the +launch jump the waves. Helen would not, I hoped, believe me capable of +attempting to palm off Rosalind on Miss Pat; and I had no wish to +undeceive her. My passenger had wrapped herself in my mackintosh and +taken my cap, so that at the distance at which we passed she was not +recognizable. + +Sister Margaret was waiting for us at the Glenarm pier. I had been a +little afraid of Sister Margaret. It was presuming a good deal to take +her into the conspiracy, and I stood by in apprehension while she +scrutinized Rosalind. She was clearly bewildered and drew close to the +girl, as Rosalind threw off the wet mackintosh and flung down the +dripping cap. + +"Will she do, Sister Margaret?" + +"I believe she will; I really believe she will!" And the Sister's face +brightened with relief. She had a color in her face that I had not +seen before, as the joy of the situation took hold of her. She was, I +realized, a woman after all, and a young woman at that, with a heart +not hardened against life's daily adventures. + +"It is time for luncheon. Miss Pat expects you, too." + +"Then I must leave you to instruct Miss Holbrook and carry off the +first meeting. Miss Holbrook has been--" + +"--For a long walk"--the Sister supplied--"and will enter St. Agatha's +parlor a little tired from her tramp. She shall go at once to her +room--with me. I have put out a white gown for her; and at luncheon we +will talk only of safe things." + +"And I shall have this bouquet of sweet peas," added Rosalind, "that I +brought from a farmer's garden near by, as an offering for Aunt Pat's +birthday. And you will both be there to keep me from making mistakes." + +"Then after luncheon we shall drive until Miss Pat's birthday dinner; +and the dinner shall be on the terrace at Glenarm, which is even now +being decorated for a fete occasion. And before the night is old Helen +shall be back. Good luck attend us all!" I said; and we parted in the +best of spirits. + +I had forgotten Gillespie, and was surprised to find him at the table +in my room, absorbed in business papers. + +"'Button, button, who's got the button!'" he chanted as he looked me +over. "You appear to have been swimming in your clothes. I had my +mail sent out here. I've got to shut down the factory at Ponsocket. +The thought of it bores me extravagantly. What time's luncheon?" + +"Whenever you ring three times. I'm lunching out." + +"Ladies?" he asked, raising his brows. "You appear to be a little +social favorite; couldn't you get me in on something? How about +dinner?" + +"I am myself entertaining at dinner; and your name isn't on the list, +I'm sorry to say, Buttons. But to-morrow! Everything will be possible +to-morrow. I expect Miss Pat and Helen here to-night. It's Miss Pat's +birthday, and I want to make it a happy day for her. She's going to +settle with Henry as soon as some preliminaries are arranged, so the +war's nearly over." + +"She can't settle with him until something definite is known about +Arthur. If he's really dead--" + +"I've promised to settle that; but I must hurry now. Will you meet me +at the Glenarm boat-house at eight? If I'm not there; wait. I shall +have something for you to do." + +"Meanwhile I'm turned out of your house, am I? But I positively +decline to go until I'm fed." + +As I got into a fresh coat he played a lively tune on the electric +bell, and I left him giving his orders to the butler. + +I was reassured by the sound of voices as I passed under the windows of +St. Agatha's, and Sister Margaret met me in the hall with a smiling +face. + +"Luncheon waits. We will go out at once. Everything has passed off +smoothly, perfectly." + +I did not dare look at Rosalind until we were seated in the +dining-room. Her sweet peas graced the center of the round table, and +Sister Margaret had placed them in a tall vase so that Rosalind was +well screened from her aunt's direct gaze. The Sister had managed +admirably. Rosalind's hair was swept up in exactly Helen's pompadour; +and in one of Helen's white gowns, with Helen's own particular shade of +scarlet ribbon at her throat and waist, the resemblance was even more +complete than I had thought it before. But we were cast at once upon +deep waters. + +"Helen, where did you find that article on Charles Lamb you read the +other evening? I have looked for it everywhere." + +Rosalind took rather more time than was necessary to help herself to +the asparagus, and my heart sank; but Sister Margaret promptly saved +the day. + +"It was in the _Round World_. That article we were reading on The +Authorship of the Collects is in the same number." + +"Yes; of course," said Rosalind, turning to me. + +Art seemed a safe topic; and I steered for the open, and spoke in a +large way, out of my ignorance, of Michelangelo's influence, winding up +presently with a suggestion that Miss Pat should have her portrait +painted. This was a successful stroke, for we all fell into a +discussion of contemporaneous portrait painters about whom Sister +Margaret fortunately knew something; but a cold chill went down my back +a moment later when Miss Pat turned upon Rosalind and asked her a +direct question: + +"Helen, what was the name of the artist who did that miniature of your +mother?" + +Sister Margaret swallowed a glass of water, and I stooped to pick up my +napkin. + +"Van Arsdel, wasn't it?" asked Rosalind instantly. + +"Yes; so it was," replied Miss Pat. Luck was favoring us, and Rosalind +was rising to the emergency splendidly. It appeared afterward that her +own mother had been painted by the same artist, and she had boldly +risked the guess. Sister Margaret and I were frightened into a +discussion of the possibilities of aerial navigation, with a vague +notion, I think, of keeping the talk in the air, and it sufficed until +we had concluded the simple luncheon. I walked beside Miss Pat to the +parlor. The sky had cleared, and I broached a drive at once. I had +read in the newspapers that a considerable body of regular troops was +passing near Annandale on a practice march from Fort Sheridan to a +rendezvous somewhere to the south of us. + +"Let us go and see the soldiers," I suggested. + +"Very well, Larry," she said. "We can make believe they are sent out +to do honor to my birthday. You are a thoughtful boy. I can never +thank you for all your consideration and kindness. And you will not +fail to find Arthur,--I am asking you no questions; I'd rather not know +where he is. I'm afraid of truth!" She turned her head away +quickly--we were seated by ourselves in a corner of the room. "I am +afraid, I am afraid to ask!" + +"He is well; quite well. I shall have news of him, to-night." + +She glanced across the room to where Rosalind and Sister Margaret +talked quietly together. I felt Miss Pat's hand touch mine, and +suddenly there were tears in her eyes. + +"I was wrong! I was most unjust in what I said to you of her. She was +all tenderness, all gentleness when she came in this morning." She +fumbled at her belt and held up a small cluster of the sweet peas that +Rosalind had brought from Red Gate. + +"I told you so!" I said, trying to laugh off her contrition. "What you +said to me is forgotten, Miss Pat." + +"And now when everything is settled, if she wants to marry Gillespie, +let her do it." + +"But she won't! Haven't I told you that Helen shall never marry him?" + +I had ordered a buckboard, and it was now announced. + +"Don't trouble to go up-stairs, Aunt Pat; I will bring your things for +you," said Rosalind; and Miss Pat turned upon me with an air of +satisfaction and pride, as much as to say, "You see how devoted she is +to me!" + +I wish to acknowledge here my obligations to Sister Margaret for giving +me the benefit of her care and resourcefulness on that difficult day. +There was no nice detail that she overlooked, no danger that she did +not anticipate. She sat by Miss Pat on the long drive, while Rosalind +and I chattered nonsense behind them. We were so fortunate as to +strike the first battalion, and saw it go into camp on a bit of open +prairie to await the arrival of the artillery that followed. But at no +time did I lose sight of the odd business that still lay ahead of me, +nor did I remember with any satisfaction how Helen, somewhere across +woodland and lake, chafed at the delayed climax of her plot. The girl +at my side, lovely and gracious as she was, struck me increasingly as +but a tame shadow of that other one, so like and so unlike! I marveled +that Miss Pat had not seen it; and in a period of silence on the drive +home I think Rosalind must have guessed my thought; for I caught her +regarding me with a mischievous smile and she said, as Miss Pat and +Sister Margaret rather too generously sought to ignore us: + +"You can see now how different I am--how very different!" + +When I left them at St. Agatha's with an hour to spare before dinner, +Sister Margaret assured me with her eyes that there was nothing to fear. + +I was nervously pacing the long terrace when I saw my guests +approaching. I told the butler to order dinner at once and went down +to meet them. Miss Pat declared that she never felt better; and under +the excitement of the hour Sister Margaret's eyes glowed brightly. + +"Sister Margaret is wonderful!" whispered Rosalind. "Aren't my clothes +becoming? She found them and got me into them; and she has kept me +away from Aunt Pat and taken me over the hard places wonderfully. I +really don't know who I am," she laughed; "but it's quite clear that +you have seen the difference. I must play up now and try to be +brilliant--like Helen!" she said. "I can tell by the things in Helen's +room, that I'm much less sophisticated. I found his photograph, by the +way!" + +"What!" I cried so abruptly that the others turned and looked at us. +Rosalind laughed in honest glee. + +"Mr. Gillespie's photograph. I think I shall keep it. It was upside +down in a trunk where Sister Margaret told me I should find these +pretty slippers. Do you know, this playing at being somebody else is +positively uncanny. But this gown--isn't it fetching?" + +"It's pink, isn't it? You said that photograph was face down, didn't +you?" + +"It was! And at the very bottom under a pair of overshoes." + +"Well, I hope _you_ will be good to him," I observed. + +"Mr. Donovan," she said, in a mocking tone that was so like Helen's +that I stared stupidly, "Mr. Donovan, you are a person of amazing +penetration!" + +As we sat down in the screened corner of the broad terrace, with the +first grave approach of twilight in the sky, and the curved trumpet of +the young moon hanging in the west, it might have seemed to an onlooker +that the gods of chance had oddly ordered our little company. Miss +Patricia in white was a picture of serenity, with the smile constant +about her lips, happy in her hope for the future. Rosalind, fresh to +these surroundings, showed clearly her pleasure in the pretty setting +of the scene, and read into it, in bright phrases, the delight of a +story-book incident. + +"Let me see," she said reflectively, "just who we are: we are the lady +of the castle perilous dining _al fresco_, with the abbess, who is also +a noble lady, come across the fields to sit at meat with her. And you, +sir, are a knight full orgulous, feared in many lands, and sworn to the +defense of these ladies." + +"And you,"--and Miss Pat's eyes were beautifully kind and gentle, as +she took the cue and turned to Rosalind, "you are the well-loved +daughter of my house, faithful in all service, in all ways +self-forgetful and kind, our hope, our joy and our pride." + +It may have been the spirit of the evening that touched us, or only the +light of her countenance and the deep sincerity of her voice; but I +knew that tears were bright in all our eyes for a moment. And then +Rosalind glanced at the western heavens through the foliage. + +"There are the stars, Aunt Pat--brighter than ever to-night for your +birthday." + +Presently, as the dark gathered about us, the candles were lighted, and +their glow shut out the world. To my relief the three women carried +the talk alone, leaving me to my own thoughts of Helen and my plans for +restoring her to her aunt with no break in the new confidence that +Rosalind had inspired. I had so completely yielded myself to this +undercurrent of reflection that I was startled to find Miss Pat with +the coffee service before her. + +"Larry, you are dreaming. How can I remember whether you take sugar?" + +Sister Margaret's eyes were upon me reproachfully for my inattention, +and my heart-beats quickened as eight strokes of the chapel chime stole +lingeringly through the quiet air. I had half-raised my cup when I was +startled by a question from Miss Pat--a request innocent enough and +spoken, it seemed, utterly without intention. + +"Let me see your ring a moment, Helen." + +Sister Margaret flashed a glance of inquiry at me, but Rosalind met the +situation instantly. + +"Certainly, Aunt Pat,"--and she slipped the ring from her finger, +passed it across the table, and folded her hands quietly upon the white +cloth. She did not look at me, but I saw her breath come and go +quickly. If the rings were not the same them we were undone. This +thought gripped the three of us, and I heard my cup beating a tattoo on +the edge of my saucer in the tense silence, while Miss Pat bent close +to the candle before her and studied the ring, turning it over slowly. +Rosalind half opened her lips to speak, but Sister Margaret's snowy +hand clasped the girl's fingers. The little circlet of gold with its +beautiful green stone had been to me one of the convincing items of the +remarkable resemblance between the cousins; but if there should be some +differentiating mark Miss Pat was not so stupid as to overlook it. + +Miss Pat put down the ring abruptly, and looked at Rosalind and then +smiled quizzically at me. + +"You are a clever boy, Larry." + +Then, turning to Rosalind, Miss Pat remarked, with the most casual air +imaginable: + +"Helen pronounces either with the long _e_. I noticed at luncheon that +you say eyether. Where's your father, Rosalind?" + +[Illustration: "Where's your father, Rosalind?"] + +My eyes were turning from her to Rosalind when, on her last word, as +though by prearranged signal, far across the water, against the dark +shadows of the lake's remoter shore, a rocket's spent ball broke and +flung its stars against the night. + +I spoke no word, but leaped over the stone balustrade and ran to the +boat-house where Gillespie waited. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +"WITH MY HANDS" + + Maybe in spite of their tameless days + Of outcast liberty, + They're sick at heart for the homely ways + Where their gathered brothers be. + + And oft at night, when the plains fall dark + And hills loom large and dim, + For the shepherd's voice they mutely hark, + And their souls go out to him. + + Meanwhile "Black sheep! black sheep!" we cry, + Safe in the inner fold: + And maybe they hear, and wonder why, + And marvel, out in the cold. + --_Richard Burton_. + + +Gillespie was smoking his pipe on the boat-house steps. He had come +over from the village in his own launch, which tossed placidly beside +mine. Ijima stepped forward promptly with a lantern as I ran out upon +the planking of the pier. + +"Jump into my launch, Gillespie, and be in a hurry!" and to my relief +he obeyed without his usual parley. Ijima cast us off, the engine +sputtered a moment, and then the launch got away. I bade Gillespie +steer, and when we were free of the pier told him to head for the +Tippecanoe. + +The handful of stars that had brightened against the sky had been a +real shock, and I accused myself in severe terms for having left Arthur +Holbrook alone. As we swept into the open Glenarm House stood forth +from the encircling wood, marked by the bright lights of the terrace +where Miss Pat had, with so much composure and in so few words, made +comedy of my attempt to shield Helen. I had certainly taken chances, +but I had reckoned only with a man's wits, which, to say the least, are +not a woman's; and I had contrived a new situation and had now incurred +the wrath and indignation of three women where there had been but one +before! In throwing off my coat my hand touched the envelope +containing the forged notes which I had thrust into my pocket before +dinner, and the contact sobered me; there was still a chance for me to +be of use. But at the thought of what might be occurring at the +house-boat on the Tippecanoe I forced the launch's speed to the limit. +Gillespie still maintained silence, grimly clenching his empty pipe. +He now roused himself and bawled at me: + +"Did you ever meet the coroner of this county?" + +"No!" I shouted. + +"Well, you will--coming down! You'll blow up in about three minutes." + +I did not slow down until we reached Battle Orchard, where it was +necessary to feel our way across the shallow channel. Here I shut off +the power and paddled with an oar. + +As we floated by the island a lantern flashed at the water's edge and +disappeared. But my first errand was at the canoe-maker's; the +whereabouts of Helen and the _Stiletto_ were questions that must wait. + +We were soon creeping along the margin of the second lake seeking the +creek, whose intake quickly lay hold of us. + +"We'll land just inside, on the west bank, Gillespie." A moment later +we jumped out and secured the launch. I wrapped our lantern in +Gillespie's coat, and ran up the bank to the path. At the top I turned +and spoke to him. + +"You'll have to trust me. I don't know what may be happening here, but +surely our interests are the same to-night." + +He caught me roughly by the arm. + +"If this means any injury to Helen--" + +"No! It is for her!" And he followed silently at my heels toward Red +Gate. + +The calm of the summer night lay upon the creek that babbled drowsily +in its bed. We seemed to have this corner of the world to ourselves, +and the thump of our feet in the path broke heavily on the night +silence. As we crossed the lower end of the garden I saw the cottage +mistily outlined among the trees near the highway, and, remembering +Gillespie's unfamiliarity with the place, I checked my pace to guide +him. I caught a glimpse of the lights of the house-boat below. + +The voices of two men in loud debate rang out sharply upon us through +the open windows of the house-boat as we crept down upon the deck. +Then followed the sound of blows, and the rattle of furniture knocked +about, and as we reached the door a lamp fell with a crash and the +place was dark. We seemed to strike matches at the same instant, and +as they blazed upon their sticks we looked down upon Arthur Holbrook, +who lay sprawling with his arms outflung on the floor, and over him +stood his brother with hands clenched, his face twitching. + +"I have killed him--I have killed him!" he muttered several times in a +low whisper. "I had to do it. There was no other way." + +My blood went cold at the thought that we were too late. Gillespie was +fumbling about, striking matches, and I was somewhat reassured by the +sound of my own voice as I called him. + +"There are candles at the side--make a light, Gillespie." + +And soon we were taking account of one another in the soft candle-light. + +"I must go," said Henry huskily, looking stupidly down upon his +brother, who lay quite still, his head resting on his arm. + +"You will stay," I said; and I stood beside him while Gillespie filled +a pail at the creek and laved Arthur's wrists and temples with cool +water. We worked a quarter of an hour before he gave any signs of +life; but when he opened his eyes Henry flung himself down in a chair +and mopped his forehead. + +"He is not dead," he said, grinning foolishly. + +"Where is Helen?" I demanded. + +"She's safe," he replied cunningly, nodding his head. "I suppose Pat +has sent you to take her back. She may go, if you have brought my +money." Cunning and greed, and the marks of drink, had made his face +repulsive. Gillespie got Arthur to his feet a moment later, and I gave +him brandy from a flask in the cupboard. His brother's restoration +seemed now to amuse Henry. + +"It was a mere love-tap. You're tougher than you look, Arthur. It's +the simple life down here in the woods. My own nerves are all gone." +He turned to me with the air of dominating the situation. "I'm glad +you've come, you and our friend of button fame. Rivals, gentlemen? A +friendly rivalry for my daughter's hand flatters the house of Holbrook. +Between ourselves I favor you, Mr. Donovan; the button-making business +is profitable, but damned vulgar. Now, Helen--" + +"That will do!"--and I clapped my hand on his shoulder roughly. "I +have business with you. Your sister is ready to settle with you; but +she wishes to see Arthur first." + +"No--no! She must not see him!" He leaped forward and caught hold of +me. "She must not see him!"--and his cowardly fear angered me anew. + +"You will do, Mr. Holbrook, very much as I tell you in this matter. I +intend that your sister shall see her brother Arthur to-night, and time +flies. This last play of yours, this flimsy trick of kidnapping, was +sprung at a very unfortunate moment. It has delayed the settlement and +done a grave injury to your daughter." + +"Helen would have it; it was her idea!" + +"If you speak of your daughter again in such a way I will break your +neck and throw you into the creek!" + +He stared a moment, then laughed aloud. + +"So you are the one--are you? I really thought it was Buttons." + +"I am the one, Mr. Holbrook. And now I am going to take your brother +to your sister. She has asked for him, and she is waiting." + +Arthur Holbrook came gravely toward us, and I have never been so struck +with pity for a man as I was for him. There was a red circle on his +brow where Henry's knuckles had cut, but his eyes showed no anger; they +were even kind with the tenderness that lies in the eyes of women who +have suffered. He advanced a step nearer his brother and spoke slowly +and distinctly. + +"You have nothing to fear, Henry. I shall tell her nothing." + +"But"--Henry glanced uneasily from Gillespie to me--"Gillespie's notes. +They are here among you somewhere. You shall not give them to Pat. If +she knew--" + +"If she knew you would not get a cent," I said, wishing him to know +that I knew. + +He whirled upon me hotly. + +"You tricked Helen to get them, and now, by God! I want them! I want +them!" And he struck at me crazily. I knocked his arm away, but he +flung himself upon me, clasping me with his arms. I caught his wrists +and held him for a moment. I wished to be done with him and off to +Glenarm with Arthur; and he wasted time. + +"I have that packet you sent Helen to get--I have it--still unopened! +Your secret is as safe with me, Mr. Holbrook, as that other secret of +yours with your Italian body-guard." + +His face went white, then gray, and he would have fallen if I had not +kept hold of him. + +"Will you not be decent--reasonable--sane--for an hour, till we can +present you as an honorable man to your sister? If you will not, your +sailor shall deliver you to the law with his own hands. You delay +matters--can't you see that we are your friends, that we are trying to +protect you, that we are ready to lie to your sister that we may be rid +of you?" + +I was beside myself with rage and impatient that time must be wasted on +him. I did not hear steps on the deck, or Gillespie's quick warning, +and I had begun again, still holding Henry Holbrook close to me with +one hand. + +"We expect to deceive your sister--we will lie to her--lie to her--lie +to her--" + +"For God's sake, stop!" cried Arthur Holbrook, clutching my arm. + +I flung round and faced Miss Pat and Rosalind. They stood for a moment +in the doorway; then Miss Pat advanced slowly toward us where we formed +a little semi-circle, and as I dropped Henry's wrists the brothers +stood side by side. Arthur took a step forward, half murmuring his +sister's name; then he drew back and waited, his head bowed, his hands +thrust into the side pockets of his coat. In the dead quiet I heard +the babble of the creek outside, and when Miss Pat spoke her voice +seemed to steal off and mingle with the subdued murmur of the stream. + +"Gentlemen, what is it you wish to lie to me about?" + +A brave little smile played about Miss Pat's lips. She stood there in +the light of the candles, all in white as I had left her on the terrace +of Glenarm, in her lace cap, with only a light shawl about her +shoulders. I felt that the situation might yet be saved, and I was +about to speak when Henry, with some wild notion of justifying himself, +broke out stridently: + +"Yes; they meant to lie to you! They plotted against me and hounded me +when I wished to see you peaceably and to make amends. They have now +charged me with murder; they are ready to swear away my honor, my life. +I am glad you are here that you may see for yourself how they are +against me." + +He broke off a little grandly, as though convinced by his own words. + +"Yes; father speaks the truth, as Mr. Donovan can tell you!" + +I could have sworn that it was Rosalind who spoke; but there by +Rosalind's side in the doorway stood Helen. Her head was lifted, and +she faced us all with her figure tense, her eyes blazing. Rosalind +drew away a little, and I saw Gillespie touch her hand. It was as +though a quicker sense than sight had on the instant undeceived him; +but he did not look at Rosalind; his eyes were upon the angry girl who +was about to speak again. Miss Pat glanced about, and her eyes rested +on me. + +"Larry, what were the lies you were going to tell me?" she asked, and +smiled again. + +"They were about father; he wished to involve him in dishonor. But he +shall not, he shall not!" cried Helen. + +"Is that true, Larry?" asked Miss Pat. + +"I have done the best I could," I replied evasively. + +Miss Pat scrutinized us all slowly as though studying our faces for the +truth. Then she repeated: + +"_But if either of my said sons shall have teen touched by dishonor +through his own act, as honor is accounted, reckoned and valued among +men_--" and ceased abruptly, looking from Arthur to Henry. "What was +the truth about Gillespie?" she asked. + +And Arthur would have spoken. I saw the word that would have saved his +brother formed upon his lips. + +Miss Pat alone seemed unmoved; I saw her hand open and shut at her side +as she controlled herself, but her face was calm and her voice was +steady when she turned appealingly to the canoe-maker. + +"What is the truth, Arthur?" she asked quietly. + +"Why go into this now? Why not let bygones be bygones?"--and for a +moment I thought I had checked the swift current. It was Helen I +wished to save now, from herself, from the avalanche she seemed doomed +to bring down upon her head. + +"I will hear what you have to say, Arthur," said Miss Pat; and I knew +that there was no arresting the tide. I snatched out the sealed +envelope and turned with it to Arthur Holbrook; and he took it into his +hands and turned it over quietly, though his hands trembled. + +"Tell me the truth, gentlemen!"--and Miss Pat's voice thrilled now with +anger. + +"Trickery, more trickery; those were stolen from Helen!" blurted Henry, +his eyes on the envelope; but we were waiting for the canoe-maker to +speak, and Henry's words rang emptily in the shop. + +Arthur looked at his brother; then he faced his sister. + +"Henry is not guilty," he said calmly. + +He turned with a quick gesture and thrust the envelope into the flame +of one of the candles; but Helen sprang forward and caught away the +blazing packet and smothered the flame between her hands. + +"We will keep the proof," she said in a tone of triumph; and I knew +then how completely she had believed in her father. + +"I don't know what is in that packet," said Gillespie slowly, speaking +for the first time. "It has never been opened. My lawyer told me that +father had sworn to a statement about the trouble with Holbrook +Brothers and placed it with the notes. My father was a peculiar man in +some ways," continued Gillespie, embarrassed by the attention that was +now riveted upon him. "His lawyer told me that I was to open that +package--before--before marrying into"--and he grew red and stammered +helplessly, with his eyes on the floor--"before marrying into the +Holbrook family. I gave up that packet"--and he hesitated, coloring, +and turning from Helen to Rosalind--"by mistake. But it's mine, and I +demand it now." + +"I wish Aunt Pat to open the envelope," said Rosalind, very white. + +Henry turned a look of appeal upon his brother; but Miss Pat took the +envelope from Helen and tore it open; and we stood by as though we +waited for death or watched earth fall upon a grave. She bent down to +one of the candles nearest her and took out the notes, which were +wrapped in a sheet of legal cap. A red seal brightened in the light, +and we heard the slight rattle of the paper in her tremulous fingers as +she read. Suddenly a tear flashed upon the white sheet. When she had +quite finished she gathered Gillespie's statement and the notes in her +hand and turned and gave them to Henry; but she did not speak to him or +meet his eyes. She crossed to where Arthur stood beside me, his head +bowed, and as she advanced he turned away; but her arms stole over his +shoulders and she said "Arthur" once, and again very softly. + +"I think," she said, turning toward us all, with her sweet dignity, her +brave air, that touched me as at first and always, beyond any words of +mine to describe, but strong and beautiful and sweet and thrilling +through me now, like bugles blown at dawn; "I think that we do well, +Arthur, to give Henry his money." + +And now it was Arthur's voice that rose in the shop; and it seemed that +he spoke of his brother as of one who was afar off. We listened with +painful intentness to this man who had suffered much and given much, +and who still, in his simple heart, asked no praise for what he had +done. + +"He was so strong, and I was weak; and I did for him what I could. And +what I gave, I gave freely, for it is not often in this world that the +weak may help the strong. He had the gifts, Pat, that I had not, and +troops of friends; and he had ambitions that in my weakness I was not +capable of; so I had not much to give. But what I had, Pat, I gave to +him; I went to Gillespie and confessed; I took the blame; and I came +here and worked with my hands--with my hands--" And he extended them +as though the proof were asked; and kept repeating, between, his sobs, +"With my hands." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DAYBREAK + + Just as of old! The world rolls on and on; + The day dies into night--night into dawn-- + Dawn into dusk--through centuries untold.-- + Just as of old. + + * * * * * + + Lo! where is the beginning, where the end + Of living, loving, longing? _Listen_, friend!-- + God answers with a silence of pure gold-- + Just as of old. + --_James Whitcomb Riley_. + + +At midnight Gillespie and I discussed the day's affairs on the terrace +at Glenarm. There were long pauses in our talk. Such things as we had +seen and heard that night, in the canoe-maker's shop on the little +creek, were beyond our poor range of words. And in the silences my own +reflections were not wholly happy. If Miss Pat and Rosalind had not +followed me to the canoe-maker's I might have spared Helen; but looking +back, I would not change it now if I could. Helen had returned to St. +Agatha's with her aunt, who would have it so; and we had parted at the +school door, Miss Pat and Helen, Gillespie and I, with restraint heavy +upon us all. Miss Pat had, it seemed, summoned her lawyer from New +York several days before, to discuss the final settlement of her +father's estate; and he was expected the next morning. I had asked +them all to Glenarm for breakfast; and Arthur Holbrook and Rosalind, +and Henry, who had broken down at the end, had agreed to come. + +As we talked on, Gillespie and I, there under the stars, he disclosed, +all unconsciously, new and surprising traits, and I felt my heart +warming to him. + +"He's a good deal of a man, that Arthur Holbrook," he remarked after a +long pause. "He's beyond me. The man who runs the enemy's lines to +bring relief to the garrison, or the leader of a forlorn hope, is tame +after this. I suppose the world would call him a fool." + +"Undoubtedly," I answered. "But he didn't do it for the world; he did +it for himself. We can't applaud a thing like that in the usual +phrases." + +"No," Gillespie added; "only get down on our knees and bow our heads in +the dust before it." + +He rose and paced the long terrace. In his boat-shoes and white +flannels he glided noiselessly back and forth, like a ghost in the star +dusk. He paused at the western balustrade and looked off at St. +Agatha's. Then he passed me and paused again, gazing lakeward through +the wood, as though turning from Helen to Rosalind; and I knew that it +was with her, far over the water, in the little cottage at Red Gate, +that his thoughts lingered. But when he came and stood beside me and +rested his hand on my shoulder I knew that he wished to speak of Helen +and I took his hand, and spoke to him to make it easier. + +"Well, old man!" + +"I was thinking of Helen," he said. + +"So was I, Buttons." + +"They are different, the two. They are very different." + +"They are as like as God ever made two people; and yet they are +different." + +"I think you understand Helen. I never did," he declared mournfully. + +"You don't have to," I replied; and laughed, and rose and stood beside +him. "And now there's something I want to speak to you about to-night. +Helen borrowed some money of you a little while ago to meet one of her +father's demands. I expect a draft for that money by the morning mail, +and I want you to accept it with my thanks, and hers. And the incident +shall pass as though it had never been." + +About one o'clock the wind freshened and the trees flung out their arms +like runners rushing before it; and from the west marched a storm with +banners of lightning. It was a splendid spectacle, and we went indoors +only when the rain began, to wash across the terrace. We still watched +it from our windows after we went up-stairs, the lightning now blazing +out blindingly, like sheets of flame from a furnace door, and again +cracking about the house like a fiery whip. + +"We ought to have brought Henry here to-night," remarked Gillespie. +"He's alone over there on the island with that dago and they're very +likely celebrating by getting drunk." + +"The lightning's getting on your nerves; go to bed," I called back. + +The storm left peace behind and I was abroad early, eager to have the +first shock of the morning's meetings over. Gillespie greeted me +cheerily and I told him to follow when he was ready. I went out and +paced the walk between the house and St. Agatha's, and as I peered +through the iron gate I saw Miss Pat come out of the house and turn +into the garden. I came upon her walking slowly with her hands clasped +behind her. She spoke first, as though to avoid any expression of +sympathy, putting out her hand. + +Filmy lace at the wrists gave to her hands a quaint touch akin to that +imparted by the cap on her white head. I was struck afresh by the +background that seemed always to be sketched in for her, and just now, +beyond the bright garden, it was a candle-lighted garret, with trunks +of old letters tied in dim ribbons, and lavender scented chests of +Valenciennes and silks in forgotten patterns. + +"I am well, quite well, Larry!" + +"I am glad! I wished to be sure!" + +"Do not trouble about me. I am glad of everything that has +happened--glad and relieved. And I am grateful to you." + +"I have served you ill enough. I stumbled in the dark much of the +time. I wanted to spare you, Miss Pat." + +"I know that; and you tried to save Helen. She was blind and +misguided. She had believed in her father and the last blow crushed +her. Everything looks dark to her. She refuses to come over this +morning; she thinks she can not face her uncle, her cousin or you +again." + +"But she must come," I said. "It will be easier to-day than at any +later time. There's Gillespie, calling me now. He's going across the +lake to meet Arthur and Rosalind. I shall take the launch over to the +island to bring Henry. We should all be back at Glenarm in an hour. +Please tell Helen that we must have her, that no one should stay away." + +Miss Pat looked at me oddly, and her fingers touched a stalk of +hollyhock beside her as her eyes rested on mine. + +"Larry," she said, "do not be sorry for Helen if pity is all you have +for her." + +I laughed and seized her hands. + +"Miss Pat, I could not feel pity for any one so skilled with the sword +as she! It would be gratuitous! She put up a splendid fight, and it's +to her credit that she stood by her father and resented my +interference, as she had every right to. She was not really against +you, Miss Pat; it merely happened that you were in the way when she +struck at me with the foil, don't you see?" + +"Not just that way, Larry,"--and she continued to gaze at me with a +sweet distress in her eyes; then, "Rosalind is very different," she +added. + +"I have observed it! The ways in which they are utterly unlike are +remarkable; but I mustn't keep Gillespie waiting. Good-by for a little +while!" And some foreboding told me that sorrow had not yet done with +her. + +Gillespie shouted impatiently as I ran toward him at the boat-house. + +"It's the _Stiletto_," he called, pointing to where the sloop lay, +midway of the lake. "She's in a bad way." + +"The storm blew her out," I suggested, but the sight of the boat, +listing badly as though water-logged, struck me ominously. + +"We'd better pick her up," he said; and he was already dropping one of +the canoes into the water. We paddled swiftly toward the sloop. The +lake was still fretful from the storm's lashing, but the sky was +without fleck or flaw. The earliest of the little steamers was +crossing from the village, her whistle echoing and re-echoing round the +lake. + +"The sloop's about done for," said Gillespie over his shoulder; and we +drove our blades deeper. The _Stiletto_ was floating stern-on and +rolling loggily, but retaining still, I thought, something of the +sinister air that she had worn on her strange business through those +summer days. + +"She vent to bed all right; see, her sails are furled snug and +everything's in shape. The storm drove her over here," said Gillespie. +"She's struck something, or somebody's smashed her." + +It seemed impossible that the storm unassisted had blown her from +Battle Orchard across Lake Annandale; but we were now close upon her +and seeking for means of getting aboard. + +"She's a bit sloppy," observed Gillespie as we swung round and caught +hold. The water gurgled drunkenly in the cuddy, and a broken lantern +rattled on the deck. I held fast as he climbed over, sending me off a +little as he jumped aboard, and I was working back again with the +paddle when he cried out in alarm. + +As I came alongside he came back to help me, and when he bent over to +catch the painter, I saw that his face was white. + +"We might have known it," he said. "It's the last and worst that could +happen." + +Face down across the cuddy lay the body of Henry Holbrook. His +water-soaked clothing was torn as though in a fierce struggle. A knife +thrust in the side told the story; he had crawled to the cuddy roof to +get away from the water and had died there. + +"It was the Italian," said Gillespie. "They must have had a row last +night after we left them, and if came to this. He chopped a hole in +the _Stiletto_ and set her adrift to sink." + +I looked about for the steamer, which was backing away from the pier at +Port Annandale, and signaled her with my handkerchief. And when I +faced Gillespie again he pointed silently toward the lower lake, where +a canoe rode the bright water. + +Rosalind and her father were on their way from Red Gate to Glenarm. +Two blades flashed in the sun as the canoe came toward us. Gillespie's +lips quivered and he tried to speak as he pointed to them; and then we +both turned silently toward St. Agatha's, where the chapel tower rose +above the green wood. + +"Stay and do what is to be done," I said. "I will find Helen and tell +her." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rosalind at Red Gate, by Meredith Nicholson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSALIND AT RED GATE *** + +***** This file should be named 34512.txt or 34512.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/5/1/34512/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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