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diff --git a/9856.txt b/9856.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b9b7e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/9856.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6820 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Inn at the Red Oak, by Latta Griswold + +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: The Inn at the Red Oak + +Author: Latta Griswold + +Posting Date: December 8, 2011 [EBook #9856] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 24, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INN AT THE RED OAK *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, David Garcia +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +THE INN AT THE RED OAK + +BY LATTA GRISWOLD + +1917 + + + + +[Illustration: "It's a treasure right enough!" cried Dan.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I +THE OLD MARQUIS + +I THE MARQUIS ARRIVES AT THE INN + +II THE LION'S EYE + +III THE MARQUIS AT NIGHT + +IV THE OAK PARLOUR + +V THE WALK THROUGH THE WOODS + + +PART II +THE TORN SCRAP OF PAPER + +VI THE HALF OF AN OLD SCRAP OF PAPER + +VII A DISAPPEARANCE + +VIII GREEN LIGHTS + +IX RECOLLECTIONS OF A FRENCH EXILE + +X MIDNIGHT VIGILS + + +PART III +THE SCHOONER IN THE COVE + +XI THE SOUTHERN CROSS + +XII TOM TURNS THE TABLES + +XIII MADAME DE LA FONTAINE + +XIV IN THE FOG + +XV NANCY + +XVI MADAME AT THE INN + +XVII THE MARQUIS LEAVES THE INN + + +PART IV +THE ATTACK ON THE INN + +XVIII THE AVENUE OF MAPLES + +XIX THE ATTACK + +XX THE OAK PARLOUR + +XXI THE TREASURE + + + + +The Inn at the Red Oak + + + + +PART I + +THE OLD MARQUIS + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MARQUIS ARRIVES AT THE INN + + +By the end of the second decade of the last century Monday Port had +passed the height of prosperity as one of the principal depots for the +West Indian trade. The shipping was rapidly being transferred to New York +and Boston, and the old families of the Port, having made their fortunes, +in rum and tobacco as often as not, were either moving away to follow the +trade or had acquiesced in the changed conditions and were settling down +to enjoy the fruit of their labours. The harbour now was frequently +deserted, except for an occasional coastwise trader; the streets began to +wear that melancholy aspect of a town whose good days are more a memory +than a present reality; and the old stage roads to Coventry and Perth +Anhault were no longer the arteries of travel they once had been. + +To the east of Monday Port, across Deal Great Water, an estuary of the +sea that expanded almost to the dignity of a lake, lay a pleasant rolling +wooded country known in Caesarea as Deal. It boasted no village, scarcely +a hamlet. Dr. Jeremiah Watson, a famous pedagogue and a graduate of +Kingsbridge, had started his modest establishment for "the education of +the sons of gentlemen" on Deal Hill; there were half-a-dozen prospering +farms, Squire Pembroke's Red Farm and Judge Meath's curiously lonely but +beautiful House on the Dunes among them; a little Episcopalian chapel on +the shores of the Strathsey river, a group of houses at the cross roads +north of Level's Woods, and the Inn at the Red Oak,--and that was all. + +In its day this inn had been a famous hostelry, much more popular with +travellers than the ill-kept provincial hotels in Monday Port; but now +for a long time it had scarcely provided a livelihood for old Mrs. Frost, +widow of the famous Peter who for so many years had been its popular +host. No one knew when the house had been built; though there was an old +corner stone on which local antiquarians professed to decipher the +figures "1693," and that year was assigned by tradition as the date of +its foundation. + +It was a long crazy building, with a great sloping roof, a wide porch +running its entire length, and attached to its sides and rear in all +sorts of unexpected ways and places were numerous out houses and offices. +Behind its high brick chimneys rose the thick growth of Lovel's Woods, +crowning the ridge that ran between Beaver Pond and the Strathsey river +to the sea. The house faced southwards, and from the cobbled court before +it meadow and woodland sloped to the beaches and the long line of sand +dunes that straggled out and lost themselves in Strathsey Neck. To the +east lay marshes and the dunes and beyond them the Strathsey, two miles +wide where its waters met those of the Atlantic; west lay the great +curve, known as the Second Beach, the blue surface of Deal Bay, and a +line of rocky shore, three miles in length, terminated by Rough Point, +near which began the out-lying houses of Monday Port. + +The old hostelry took its name from a giant oak which grew at its +doorstep just to one side of the maple-lined driveway that led down to +the Port Road, a hundred yards or so beyond. This enormous tree spread +its branches over the entire width and half the length of the roof. +Ordinarily, of course, its foliage was as green as the leaves on the +maples of the avenue or on the neighbouring elms, and the name of the Inn +might have seemed to the summer or winter traveller an odd misnomer; but +in autumn when the frost came early and the great mass of green flushed +to a deep crimson it could not have been known more appropriately than as +the Inn at the Red Oak. + +It was a solidly-built house, such as even in the early part of the +nineteenth century men were complaining they could no longer obtain; +built to weather centuries of biting southeasters, and--the legend +ran--to afford protection in its early days against Indians. At the time +of the Revolution it had been barricaded, pierced with portholes, and had +served, like innumerable other houses from Virginia to Massachusetts, as +Washington's headquarters. When Tom Pembroke knew it best, its old age +and decay had well set in. + +Pembroke was the son of the neighbouring squire, whose house, known as +the Red Farm, lay In the little valley on the other side of the Woods at +the head of Beaver Pond. From the time he had been able to thread his way +across the woodland by its devious paths--Tom had been at the Inn almost +every day to play with Dan Frost, the landlord's son. They had played in +the stables, then stocked with a score of horses, where now there were +only two or three; in the great haymows of the old barn in the clearing +back of the Inn; in the ramshackle garret under that amazing roof; or, +best of all, in the abandoned bowling-alley, where they rolled +dilapidated balls at rickety ten-pins. + +When Tom and Dan were eighteen--they were born within a day of each +other one bitter February--old Peter died, leaving the Inn to his wife. +Mrs. Frost pretended to carry on the business, but the actual task of +doing so soon devolved upon her son. And in this he was subjected to +little interference; for the poor lady, kindly inefficient soul that she +was, became almost helpless with rheumatism. But indeed it was rather on +the farm than to the Inn that more and more they depended for their +living. In the social hierarchy of Caesarea the Pembrokes held +themselves as vastly superior to the Frosts; but thanks to the +easy-going democratic customs of the young republic, more was made of +this by the women than the men. + +The two boys loved each other devotedly, though love is doubtless the +last word they would have chosen to express their relation. Dan was tall, +dark, muscular; he had a well-shaped head on his square shoulders; strong +well-cut features; a face that the sun had deeply tanned and dark hair +that it had burnished with gold. Altogether he was a prepossessing lad, +though he looked several years older than he was, and he was commonly +treated by his neighbours with a consideration that his years did not +merit. Tom Pembroke was fairer; more attractive, perhaps, on first +acquaintance; certainly more boyish in appearance and behaviour. He was +quicker in his movements and in his mental processes; more aristocratic +in his bearing. His blue eyes were more intelligent than Dan's, but no +less frank and kindly. Young Frost admired his friend almost as much as +he cared for him; for Dan, deprived of schooling, had a reverence for +learning, of which Tom had got a smattering at Dr. Watson's establishment +for "the sons of gentlemen" on the nearby hill. + +One stormy night in early January, the eve of Dan Frost's twenty-second +birthday, the two young men had their supper together at the Inn, and +afterwards sat for half-an-hour in the hot, stove-heated parlour until +Mrs. Frost began to nod over her knitting. + +"Off with you, boys," she said at length; "you will be wanting to smoke +your dreadful pipes. Nancy will keep me company." + +They took instant advantage of this permission and went into the deserted +bar, where they made a roaring fire on the great hearth, drew their +chairs near, filled their long clay pipes with Virginia tobacco, and fell +to talking. + +"Think of it!" exclaimed young Frost, as he took a great whiff at his +pipe; "here we are--the middle of the winter--and not a guest in the +house. Why we used to have a dozen travellers round the bar here, and the +whole house bustling. I've known my father to serve a hundred and more +with rum on a night like this. Now we do a fine business if we serve as +many in a winter. Times have changed since we were boys." + +"Aye," Tom agreed, "and it isn't so long ago, either. It seemed to me as +if the whole county used to be here on a Saturday night." + +"I'm thinking," resumed Dan musingly, "of throwing up the business, +what's the use of pretending to keep an inn? If it wasn't for mother +and for Nancy, I'd clear out, boy; go off and hunt my fortune. As it is, +with what I make on the farm and lose on the house, I just pull through +the year." + +"By gad," exclaimed Tom, "I'd go with you, Dan. I'm tired to my soul with +reading law in father's office. Why, you and I haven't been farther than +Coventry to the county fair, or to Perth Anhault to make a horse trade. +I'd like to see the world, go to London and Paris. I've wanted to go to +France ever since that queer Frenchman was here--remember?--and told us +those jolly tales about the Revolution and the great Napoleon. We were +hardly more than seven or eight then, I guess." + +"I would like to go, hanged if I wouldn't," said Dan. "I'm getting more +and more discontented. But there's not much use crying for the moon, and +France might as well be the moon, for all of me." He relapsed then into a +brooding silence. It was hard for an inn-keeper to be cheerful in +midwinter with an empty house. Tom too was silent, dreaming vividly, if +vaguely, of the France he longed to see. + +"Hark!" exclaimed Dan presently. "How it blows! There must be a big sea +outside to-night." + +He strode to the window, pushed back the curtains of faded chintz, and +stared out into the darkness. The wind was howling in the trees and about +the eaves of the old inn, the harsh roar of the surf mingled with the +noise of the storm, and the sleet lashed the window-panes in fury. + +"You will not be thinking of going home tonight, Tom?" + +"Not I," Pembroke answered, for he was as much at home in Dan's enormous +chamber as he was in his own little room under the roof at the Red Farm. + +As he turned from the window, the door into the parlour opened, and a +young girl quietly slipped in and seated herself in the chimney-corner. + +"Hello, Nance," Dan exclaimed, as she entered; "come close, child; you +need to be near the fire on a night like this." + +"Mother is asleep," the girl answered briefly, and then, resting her +chin upon her hands, she fixed her great dark eyes upon the glowing +logs. She was Dan's foster-sister, eighteen years of age, though she +looked hardly more than sixteen; a shy, slender, girl, lovely with a +wild, unusual charm. To Tom she had always been a silent elfin +creature, delightful as their playmate when a child, but now though +still so familiar, she seemed in an odd way, to grow more remote. +Apparently she liked to sit with them on these winter evenings in the +deserted bar, when Mrs. Frost had gone to bed; and to listen to their +conversation, though she took little part in it. + +As Dan resumed his seat, he looked at her with evident concern, for she +was shivering as she sat so quietly by the fireside. + +"Are you cold, Nance?" he asked. + +"A little," she replied. "I was afraid in the parlour with Mother asleep, +and the wind and the waves roaring so horribly." + +"Afraid?" exclaimed Tom, with an incredulous laugh. "I never knew you to +be really afraid of anything in the world, Nancy." + +She turned her dark eyes upon him for the moment, with a sharp +inquisitive glance which caused him to flush unaccountably. An answering +crimson showed in her cheeks, and she turned back to the fire. The colour +fled almost as quickly as it had come, and left her pale, despite the +glow of firelight. + +"I was afraid--to-night," she said, after a moment's silence. + +Suddenly there came the sound of a tremendous knocking on the door which +opened from the bar into the outer porch, and all three started in +momentary alarm. + +Dan jumped to his feet. "Who's that?" he cried. + +Again came the vigorous knocking. He ran across the room, let down the +great oaken beam, and opened the door to the night and storm. + +"Come in, travellers." A gust of wind and sleet rushed through the +opening and stung their faces. With the gust there seemed to blow in the +figure of a little old man wrapped in a great black coat, bouncing into +their midst as if he were an India rubber ball thrown by a gigantic hand. +Behind him strode in Manners, the liveryman of Monday Port. + +"Here's a guest for you, Mr. Frost. I confess I did my best to keep him +in town till morning, but nothing 'd do; he must get to the Inn at the +Red Oak to-night. We had a hellish time getting here too, begging the +lady's pardon; but here we are." + +Good-naturedly he had taken hold of his fare and, as he spoke, was +helping the stranger unwrap himself from the enveloping cloak. + +"He's welcome," said Dan. "Here, sir, let me help you." He put out his +hand to steady the curious old gentleman, who, at last, gasping for +breath and blinking the sleet out of his eyes, had been unrolled by +Manners from the dripping cloak. + +He was a strange figure of a man, they thought, as Dan led him to the +fire to thaw himself out. He was scarcely more than five and a half feet +in height, with tiny hands and feet almost out of proportion even to his +diminutive size. He was an old man, they would have said, though his +movements were quick and agile as if he were set up on springs. His face, +small, sharp-featured and weazened, was seamed with a thousand wrinkles. +His wig was awry, its powder, washed out by the melting sleet, was +dripping on his face in pasty streaks; and from beneath it had fallen +wisps of thin grey hair, which plastered themselves against his temples +and forehead. This last feature was also out of proportion to the rest of +his physiognomy, for it was of extraordinary height, and of a polished +smoothness, in strange contrast to his wrinkled cheeks. Beneath shone two +flashing black eyes, with the fire of youth in them, for all he seemed so +old. The lower part of his face was less distinctive. He had a small, +Suddenly there came the sound of a tremendous knocking on the door which +opened from the bar into the outer porch, and all three started in +momentary alarm. + +Dan jumped to his feet. "Who's that?" he cried. + +Again came the vigorous knocking. He ran across the room, let down the +great oaken beam, and opened the door to the night and storm. + +"Come in, travellers." A gust of wind and sleet rushed through the +opening and stung their faces. With the gust there seemed to blow in the +figure of a little old man wrapped in a great black coat, bouncing into +their midst as if he were an India rubber ball thrown by a gigantic hand. +Behind him strode in Manners, the liveryman of Monday Port. + +"Here's a guest for you, Mr. Frost. I confess I did my best to keep him +in town till morning, but nothing'd do; he must get to the Inn at the Red +Oak to-night. We had a hellish time getting here too, begging the lady's +pardon; but here we are." + +Good-naturedly he had taken hold of his fare and, as he spoke, was +helping the stranger unwrap himself from the enveloping cloak. + +"He's welcome," said Dan. "Here, sir, let me sharply-pointed nose; a +weak mouth, half-hidden by drooping white moustaches; and a small sharp +chin, accentuated by a white beard nattily trimmed to a point. He was +dressed entirely in black; a flowing coat of French cut, black small +clothes, black stockings and boots that reached to the calves of his +little legs. These boots were ornamented with great silver buckles, and +about his neck and wrists showed bedraggled bits of yellowed lace." + +He stood before the fire, speechless still; standing first on one foot +then on the other; rubbing his hands the while as he held them to the +grateful warmth. + +Nancy had in the meanwhile drawn a glass of rum, and now advancing +held it toward him a little gingerly. He took it eagerly and drained +it at a gulp. + +"_Merci, ma petite ange; merci, messieurs_" he exclaimed at last; and +then added in distinct, though somewhat strongly accented English, "I ask +your pardon. I forget you may not know my language. But now that this +good liquor has put new life in my poor old bones, I explain myself. I am +arrived, I infer, at the Inn at the Red Oak; and you, monsieur, though so +young, I take to be my host. I have your description, you perceive, from +the good postilion. You will do me the kindness to provide me with supper +and a bed?" + +"Certainly, sir," said Dan. "It is late and we are unprepared, but we +will put you up somehow. You too, Manners, had best let me bunk you till +morning; you'll not be going back to the Port tonight? Nancy a fresh +bumper for Mr. Manners." + +"Thankee, sir; I managed to get out with the gentleman yonder, and I +guess I'll manage to get back. But it's a rare night, masters. Just a +minute, sir, and I'll be getting his honour's bags.... Thank ye kindly, +Miss Nancy." + +He drained the tumbler of raw spirit that Nancy held out. Then he opened +the door again and went out into the storm, returning almost at once with +the stranger's bags. + +Dan turned to his sister. "Nancy dear, go stir up Susan and Deborah. We +must have a fire made in the south chamber and some hot supper got ready. +Tell Susan to rout out Jesse to help her. Say nothing to Mother; no need +to disturb her. And now, sir," he continued, turning again to the +stranger, "may I ask your name?" + +The old gentleman ceased his springing seesaw for a moment, and fixed +his keen black eyes on the questioner. + +"_Certainment, monsieur_--certainly, I should say," he replied in a high, +but not unpleasant, voice. "I am the Marquis de Boisdhyver, at your +service. I am to travel in the United States--oh! for a long time. I stay +here, if you are so good as to accommodate me, perhaps till you are weary +and wish me to go elsewhere. You have been greatly recommended to me by +my friend,--quiet, remote, secluded, an _auberge_--what you call it?--an +inn, well-suited to my habits, my tastes, my desire for rest. I am very +_fatigue_, monsieur." + +"Yes," said Dan, with a grim smile, "we are remote and quiet and +secluded. You are welcome, sir, to what we have. Tom, see that Manners +has another drink before he goes, will you? and do the honours for our +guest, while Nance and I get things ready." + +As he disappeared into the kitchen, following Nancy, the Marquis looking +after him with a comical expression of gratitude upon his face. Tom drew +another glass of rum, which Manners eagerly, if rashly, devoured. Then +the liveryman wrapped himself in his furs, bade them good-night, and +started out again into the storm for his drive back to Monday Port. + +All this time the old gentleman stood warming his feet and hands at the +fire, watching his two companions with quickly-shifting eyes, or glancing +curiously over the great bar which the light of the fire and the few +candles but faintly illuminated. + +Having barred the door, Tom turned back to the hearth. "It is a bad +night, sir." + +"But yes," exclaimed the Marquis. "I think I perish. Oh! that dreary +tavern at your Monday Port. I think when I arrive there I prefer to +perish. But this, this is the old Inn at the Red Oak, is it not? And it +dates, yes,--from the year 1693? The old inn, eh, by the great tree?" + +"Yes, certainly," Pembroke answered; "at least, that is the date that +some people claim is on the old cornerstone. You have been here before +then, sir?" + +"I?" exclaimed Monsieur de Boisdhyver. "Oh, no! not I. I have heard from +my friend who was here some years ago." + +"Oh, I see. And you have come far to-day?" + +"From Coventry, monsieur--Monsieur--?" + +"Pembroke," Tom replied, with a little start. + +"Ah! yes, Monsieur Pembroke. A member of the household?" + +"No--a friend." + +"I make a mistake," quickly interposed the traveller, "Pardon. I am come +from Coventry, Monsieur Pembroke, in an everlasting an eternal stage, a +monster of a carriage, monsieur. It is only a few days since that I +arrive from France." + +"Ah, France!" exclaimed Tom, recalling that only a little while before he +and Dan had been dreaming of that magic country. And here was a person +who actually lived in France, who had just come from there, who +extraordinarily chose to leave that delightful land for the Inn at the +Red Oak in mid-winter. + +"France," he repeated; "all my life, sir, I have been longing to +go there." + +"So?" said the Marquis, raising his white eyebrows with interest. "You +love _ma belle patrie_, eh? _Qui Sait_?--you will perhaps some day go +there. You have interests, friends in my country?" + +"No, none," Tom answered. "I wish I had. You come from Paris, sir?" + +"_Mais oui_." + +For some time they chatted in such fashion, the Marquis answering Tom's +many questions with characteristic French politeness, but turning ever +and anon a pathetic glance toward the door through which Dan and Nancy +had disappeared. It was with undisguised satisfaction that he greeted +young Frost when he returned to announce that supper was ready. + +"I famish!" the old gentleman exclaimed. "I have dined to-day on a +biscuit and a glass of water." + +They found the kitchen table amply spread with food,--cold meats, hot +eggs and coffee, and a bottle of port. Monsieur de Boisdhyver ate +heartily and drank his wine with relish, gracefully toasting Nancy as he +did so. When his meal was finished, he begged with many excuses to be +shown to his bedroom; and indeed his fatigue was evident. Dan saw him to +the great south chamber, carrying a pair of lighted candles before. He +made sure that all had been done that sulky sleepy maids could be induced +to do, and then left him to make ready for the night. + +Lights were extinguished in the parlour and the bar, the fires were +banked, and the two young men went up to Dan's own room. There on either +side of the warm hearth, had been drawn two great four-posted beds, and +it took the lads but a moment to tumble into them. + +"It's queer," said Dan, as he pulled the comfort snugly about his +shoulders, calling to Tom across the way; "it's queer--the old chap +evidently means to stay awhile. What does a French marquis want in a +deserted hole like this, I'd like to know? But if he pays, why the longer +he stays the better." + +"I hope he does," said Tom sleepily. "He has a reason, I fancy, for he +asked questions enough while you were out seeing to his supper. He seems +to know the place almost as well as if he had been here before, though he +said he hadn't. But, by gad, I wish you and I were snug in a little hotel +on the banks of the Seine to-night and not bothering our heads about a +doddering old marquis who hadn't sense enough to stay there." + +"Wish we were," Dan replied. "Good-night," he called, realizing that his +friend was too sleepy to lie awake and discuss any longer their +unexpected guest. + +"Good-night," murmured Tom, and promptly drifted away into dreams of the +wonderful land he had never seen. As for Dan he lay awake a long time, +wondering what could possibly have brought the old Marquis to the +deserted inn at such a time of the year and on such a night. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LIONS EYE + + +Toward daylight the storm blew itself out, the wind swung round to the +northwest, and the morning dawned clear and cold, with a sharp breeze +blowing and a bright sun shining upon a snow-clad, ice-crusted world and +a sparkling sapphire sea. + +Dan had risen early and had set Jesse to clear a way across the court and +down the avenue to the road. The maids, astir by dawn, were no longer +sulky but bustled about at the preparation of an unusually good breakfast +in honour of the new guest. + +Mrs. Frost, who habitually lay till nine or ten o'clock behind the +crimson curtains of her great bed, had caught wind of something out of +the ordinary, demanded Nancy's early assistance, and announced her +intention of breakfasting with the household. + +She was fretful during the complicated process of her toilette and so +hurt the feelings of her foster-daughter, that when Dan came to take her +into the breakfast room, Nancy found an excuse for not accompanying them. + +The Marquis was awaiting their appearance. He stood with his back-to the +fire, a spruce and carefully-dressed little figure, passing remarks upon +the weather with young Pembroke, who leaned his graceful length against +the mantelpiece. + +The noble traveller was presented with due ceremony to Mrs. Frost, who +greeted him with old-world courtesy. She had had, indeed, considerably +more association with distinguished personages than had most of the dames +of the neighbouring farms who considered themselves her social superiors. +She welcomed Monsieur de Boisdhyver graciously, enquiring with interest +of his journey and with solicitude as to his rest during the night. She +received with satisfaction his rapturous compliments on the comforts that +had been provided him, on the beauty of the surrounding country upon +which he had looked from the windows of his chamber, and on her own +condescension in vouchsafing to breakfast with them. She was delighted +that he should find the Inn at the Red Oak so much to his taste that he +proposed to stay with them indefinitely. + +They were soon seated at the breakfast-table and had addressed +themselves to the various good things that black Deborah had provided. +The native Johnny cakes, made of meal ground by their own windmill, the +Marquis professed to find particularly tempting. + +Despite Mrs. Frost's questions, despite his own voluble replies, Monsieur +de Boisdhyver gave no hint, that there was any deeper reason for his +seeking exile at the Inn of the Red Oak than that he desired rest and +quiet and had been assured that he would find them there. And who had so +complimented their simple abode of hospitality? + +"Ah, madame," he murmured, lifting his tiny hands, "so many!" + +"But I fear, monsieur," replied his hostess, "that you, who are +accustomed to the luxuries of a splendid city like Paris, to so many +things of which we read, will find little to interest and amuse you in +our remote countryside." + +"As for interest, madame," the Marquis protested, "there are the beauties +of nature, your so delightful household, my few books, my writing; and +for amusement, I have my violin;--I so love to play. You will not +mind?--perhaps, enjoy it?" + +"Indeed yes," said Mrs. Frost. "Dan, too, is a fiddler after a fashion; +and as for Nancy, she has a passion for music, and dreams away many an +evening while my son plays his old tunes." + +"Ah, yes," said the Marquis, "Mademoiselle Nancy, I have not the pleasure +to see her this morning?" + +"No," replied Mrs. Frost, flushing a trifle at the recollection of why +Nancy was not present, "she is somewhat indisposed--a mere trifle. You +will see her later in the day. But, monsieur, you should have come to us +in the spring or the summer, for then the country is truly beautiful; +now, with these snow-bound roads, when not even the stagecoach passes, we +are indeed lonely and remote." + +"It is that," insisted the Marquis, "which so charms me. When one is +old and when one has lived a life too occupied, it is this peace, +this quiet, this remoteness one desires. To walk a little, to sit by +your so marvellously warm fires, to look upon your beautiful country, +_cest bou_!" + +He held her for a moment with his piercing little eyes, a faint smile +upon his lips, as though to say that it was impossible he should be +convinced that he had not found precisely what he was seeking, and +insisting, as it were, that his hostess take his words as the compliment +they were designed to be. + +Before she had time to reply, he had turned to Dan. "What a fine harbour +you have, Monsieur Frost," he said, pointing through the window toward +the Cove, separated from the river and the sea by the great curve of +Strathsey Neck, its blue waters sparkling now in the light of the +morning sun. + +"Yes," replied Dan, glancing out upon the well-known shoreline, "it is a +good harbour, though nothing, of course, to compare with a Port. But it's +seldom that we see a ship at anchor here, now." + +"There is, however," inquired the Marquis with interest, "anchorage for a +vessel, a large vessel?" + +"Yes, indeed," Tom interrupted, "in the old days when my father had his +ships plying between Havana and the Port, he would often have them anchor +in the Cove for convenience in lading them with corn from the farm." + +"And they were large ships?" + +"Full-rigged, sir; many of 'em, and drawing eight feet at least." + +"_Eh bien_! And the old Inn, madame, it dates, your son tells me, +from 1693?" + +"We think so, sir, though I have no positive knowledge of its existence +before 1750. My husband purchased the place in '94, and it had then been +a hostelry for some years, certainly from the middle of the century. But +we have made many additions. Danny dear, perhaps it will interest the +Marquis if you should take him over the house. We are proud of our old +inn, sir." + +"And with reason, madame. If monsieur will, I shall be charmed." + +"I will leave you then with my son. Give me your arm, Dan, to the +parlour. Unfortunately, Monsieur le Marquis, affliction has crippled me +and I spend the day in my chair in the blue parlour. I shall be so +pleased, if you will come and chat with me. Tommy, you will be staying to +dinner with us?" + +"Thank you, Mrs. Frost, but I must get to the Port for the day. Mother +and Father are leaving by the afternoon stage, if it gets through. They +are going to spend the winter in Coventry. But I shall be back to-night +as I have promised Dan to spend that time with him." + +"We shall be glad to have you, as you know." + +Soon after Mrs. Frost had left the breakfast-room and Tom had started +forth with horse and sleigh, Dan returned. The Marquis promptly reminded +him of the suggestion that he should be taken over the Inn. It seemed to +Dan an uninteresting way to entertain his guest and the morning was a +busy one. However, he promised to be ready at eleven o'clock to show the +Marquis all there was in the old house. + +As Dan went about the offices and stables, performing himself much of the +work that in prosperous times fell to grooms and hostlers, he found +himself thinking about his new guest. Dan knew enough of French history +to be aware there were frequent occasions in France when partisans of the +various factions, royalist, imperialist, or republican, found it best to +expatriate themselves. He knew that in times past many of the most +distinguished exiles had found asylum in America. But at the present, he +understood, King Louis Philippe, was reigning quietly at the Tuileries +and, moreover, the Marquis de Boisdhyver, mysterious as he was, did not +suggest the political adventurer of whom Dan as a boy had heard his +parents tell such extraordinary tales. In the few years immediately after +the final fall of the great Bonaparte there had been an influx of +imperialistic supporters in America, some of whom had even found their +way to Monday Port and Deal. One of these, Dan remembered, had stayed +for some months in '14 or '15 at the Inn at the Red Oak, and it was he +whom Tom had recalled the night before as having told them stories of his +adventurous exploits in the wars of the Little Corporal. But it was too +long after Napoleon's fall to connect his present guest with the imperial +exiles. He could imagine no ulterior reason for the Marquis's coming and +was inclined to put it down as the caprice of an old restless gentleman +who had a genuine mania for solitude. Of solitude, certainly, he was apt +to get his fill at the Inn at the Red Oak. + +At eleven o'clock he returned to keep his appointment. He found the +Marquis established at a small table in the bar by an east window, from +which was obtained a view of the Cove, of the sand-dunes along the Neck, +and of the open sea beyond. A writing-desk was on the table, ink and +quills had been provided, a number of books and papers were strewn about, +and Monsieur de Boisdhyver was apparently busy with his correspondence. + +"Enchanted" he exclaimed, as he pulled out a great gold watch. "Punctual. +I find another virtue, monsieur, in a character to which I have already +had so much reason to pay my compliments. I trust I do not trespass upon +your more important duties." As he spoke, he rapidly swept the papers +into the writing-desk, closed and locked it, and carefully placed the +tiny golden key into the pocket of his gayly-embroidered waistcoat. + +"Not at all," Dan replied courteously, "I shall be glad to show you +about. But I fear you will find it cold and dismal, for the greater part +of the house is seldom used or even entered." + +"I bring my cloak," said the Marquis. "Interest will give me warmth. What +I have already seen of the Inn at the Red Oak is so charming, that I +doubt not there is much more to delight one. I imagine, monsieur, how gay +must have been this place once." + +He took his great cloak from the peg near the fire where it had been hung +the night before to dry wrapped himself snugly in it; and then, with a +little bow, preceded Dan into the cold and draughty corridor that opened +from the bar into the older part of the house. + +This hallway extended fifty or sixty feet to the north wall of the main +part of the inn whence a large window at the turn of a flight of stairs +gave light. On the right, extending the same distance as the hall +itself, was a great room known as the Red Drawing-room, into which Dan +first showed the Marquis. This room had not been used since father's +death four or five years before, and for a long time previous to that +only on the rare occasions when a county gathering of some sort was held +at the inn. It had been furnished in good taste and style in colonial +days, but was now dilapidated and musty. The heavy red damask curtains +were drawn before the windows, and the room was dark and cheerless. Dan +admitted the dazzling light of the sun; but the Marquis only shivered and +seemed anxious to pass quickly on. + +"You see, sir," observed the young landlord, "it is dismal enough." + +"_Mais oui_--_mais oui_," exclaimed the Marquis. + +At the foot of the stairway the corridor turned at right angles and ran +north. On either side opened a number of chambers in like conditions of +disrepair, which had been used as bedrooms in the palmy days of the +hostelry. This corridor ended at the bowling-alley, where as children Tom +and Dan had loved to play. Half-way to the entrance to the bowling-alley +a third hallway branched off to the right, leading to a similar set of +chambers. Into all these they entered, the Marquis examining each with +quick glances, dismissing them with the briefest interest and the most +obvious comment. + +Dan saved the _piece-de-resistance_ till last. This was a little room +entered from the second corridor just at the turn--the only room indeed, +as he truthfully said, that merited a visit. + +"This," he explained, "we call the Oak Parlour. It is the only room on +this floor worth showing you. My father brought the wainscoting from an +old English country-house in Dorsetshire. My father's people were +Torries, sir, and kept up their connection with the old country." + +It was a delightful room into which Dan now admitted the light of day, +drawing aside the heavy green curtains from the eastern windows. It was +wainscoted from floor to cornice in old black English oak, curiously and +elaborately carved, and divided into long narrow panels. The ceiling, of +similar materials and alike elaborately decorated, was supported by heavy +transverse beams that seemed solid and strong enough to support the roof +of a cathedral. On one side two windows opened upon the gallery and court +and looked out upon the Cove, on the other side stood a cabinet. It was +the most striking piece of furniture in the room, of enormous dimensions +and beautifully carved on the doors of the cupboards below and on the +top-pieces between the mirrors were lion's heads of almost life-size. +Opposite the heavy door, by which they had entered, was a large +fireplace, containing a pair of elaborately ornamented brass and irons. +There was not otherwise a great deal of furniture,--two or three tables, +some chairs, a deep window-seat, a writing-desk of French design; but +all, except this last, in keeping with the character of the room, and all +brought across the seas from the old Dorsetshire mansion, from which +Peter Frost had obtained the interior. + +"_Charmant_!" exclaimed the Marquis. "You have a jewel, _mon ami_; a bit +of old England or of old France in the heart of America; a room one finds +not elsewhere in the States. It is a _creation superbe_." + +With enthusiastic interest he moved about, touching each article of +furniture, examining with care the two of three old English landscapes +that had been let into panels on the west side of the room, pausing in +ecstacies before the great cabinet and standing before the fireplace as +if he were warming his hands at that generous hearth. + +"Ah, Monsieur Frost, could I but write, read, dream here...!" + +"I fear that would be impossible, sir," replied Dan. "It is difficult to +heat this portion of the house; and in fact, we never use it." + +"_Helas_!" exclaimed the Marquis, "those things which allure us in this +world are so often impossible. Perhaps in the spring, in the summer, when +there is no longer the necessity of the fire, you will permit me." + +"It may be, monsieur," Dan replied, "that long before the summer comes +you will have left us." + +"_Mais non_!" cried M. de Boisdhyver. "Every hour that I stay but proves +to me how long you will have to endure my company." + +Somewhat ungraciously, it seemed, young Frost made no reply to this +pleasantry; for already he was impatient to be gone. Although the room +was intensely cold and uncomfortable, still his guest lingered, standing +before the massive cabinet, exclaiming upon the exquisiteness of the +workmanship, and every now and then running his dainty fingers along the +carving of its front. As Dan stood waiting for the Marquis to leave, he +chanced to glance through the window to the court without, and saw Jesse +starting out in the sleigh. As he had given him no such order he ran +quickly to the window, rapped vigourously and then, excusing himself to +the Marquis, hurried out to ask Jesse to explain his errand. + +The Marquis de Boisdhyver stood for a moment, as Dan left him, motionless +in front of the cabinet. His face was bright with surprise and delight, +his eyes alert with interest and cunning. After a moment's hesitation he +stole cautiously to the window, and seeing Frost was engaged in +conversation with Jesse, he sprang back with quick steps to the cabinet. +He hastily ran the tips of his fingers along the beveled edges of the +wide shelf from end to end several times, each time the expression of +alertness deepening into one of disappointment. He stopped for a moment +and listened. All was quiet. Again with quick motions he felt beneath the +edges. Suddenly his eyes brightened and he breathed quickly; his +sensitive fingers had detected a slight unevenness in the smooth +woodwork. Again he paused and listened, and then pressed heavily until he +heard a slight click. He glanced up, as directly in front of him the eye +of one of the carved wooden lion's heads on the front of the board winked +and slowly raised, revealing a small aperture. With a look of +satisfaction, the Marquis thrust his fingers into the tiny opening and +drew forth a bit of tightly folded yellow paper; he glanced at it for an +instant and thrust it quickly into the pocket of his waistcoat. Then he +lowered the lid of the lion's eye. There was a slight click again; and he +turned, just as Dan reappeared in the doorway. + +"Excuse my leaving you so abruptly," said Frost, "but I saw Jesse going +off with the sleigh, and as I had given him no orders, I wanted to know +where he was going. But it was all right. Are you ready, sir? I am afraid +if we stay much longer you will catch cold." This last remark was added +as the Marquis politely smothered a sneeze with his flimsy lace +handkerchief. + +"_C'est bien_, monsieur. I fear I have taken a little cold. Perhaps it +would be just as well if we explore no further to-day." + +"If you prefer, sir," answered Dan, holding the door open for his guest +to go out. Monsieur de Boisdhyver turned and surveyed the Oak Parlour +once more before he left it. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "this so charming +room--it is of a perfection! Dorsetshire, you say? ... To me it would +seem French." They walked back rapidly along the dark cold corridors to +the bar. All the way the Marquis, wrapped tightly in his great cloak, +kept the thumb of his left hand in his waistcoat pocket, pressing +securely against the paper he had taken from the old cabinet in the Oak +Parlour. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MARQUIS AT NIGHT + + +The household of the Inn at the Red Oak soon became accustomed to the +presence of their new member; indeed, he seemed to them during those +bleak winter months a most welcome addition. Except for an occasional +traveller who spent a night or a Sunday at the Inn, he was the only +guest. He was gregarious and talkative, and would frequently keep them +for an hour or so at table as he talked to them of his life in France, +and of his adventures in the exciting times through which his country had +passed during the last fifty years. He was the cadet, he told them, of a +noble family of the Vendee, the head of which, though long faithful to +the exiled Bourbons, had gone over to Napoleon upon the establishment of +the Empire. But as for himself--Marie-Anne-Timelon-Armand de +Boisdhyver--he still clung to the Imperial cause, and though now for many +years his age and infirmities had forced him to withdraw from any part in +intrigues aiming at the restoration of the Empire, his sympathies were +still keen. + +When he talked in this strain, of his thrilling memories of the Terror +and of the extraordinary days when Bonaparte was Emperor, Dan and Tom +would listen to him by the hour. But Mrs. Frost preferred to hear the +Marquis's reminiscences of the _ancien regime_ and of the old court life +at Versailles. He had been a page, he said, to the unfortunate Marie +Antoinette; he would cross himself piously at the mention of the magic +name, and digress rapturously upon her beauty and grace, and bemoan, with +tears, her unhappy fate. She liked also to hear of the court of Napoleon +and of the life of the _faubourgs_ in the Paris of the day. On these +occasions the young men were apt to slip away and leave the Marquis alone +with Mrs. Frost and Nancy. + +For Nancy Monsieur de Boisdhyver seemed to have a fascination. She would +listen absorbed to his voluble tales, her bright eyes fixed on his +fantastic countenance, her head usually resting upon her hand, and her +body bent forward in an attitude of eager attention. She rarely spoke +even to ask a question; indeed, her only words would be an occasional +exclamation of interest, or the briefest reply. + +During the day their noble guest would potter about the house or, when +the weather was fine, stroll down to the shore, where he would walk up +and down the strip of sandy beach in the lee of the wind hour after hour. +Now and then he wandered out upon the dunes that stretched along the +Neck; and once, Dan afterwards learned, he paid a call upon old Mrs. +Meath who lived by herself in the lonely farmhouse on Strathsey Neck, +that was known as the House of the Dunes. + +After supper they were wont to gather in Mrs. Frost's parlour or in the +old bar before the great hearth on which a splendid fire always blazed; +and when the Marquis had had his special cup of black coffee, he would +get out his violin and play to them the long evening through. He played +well, with the skill of a master of the art, and with feeling. He seemed +at such times to forget himself and his surroundings; his bright eyes +would grow soft, a dreamy look would steal into them, and a happy little +smile play about the corners of his thin pale lips. Obligingly he gave +Dan lessons, and often the young man would accompany him, in the songs +his mother had known and loved in her youth, when old Peter had come +wooing with fiddle in hand. + +But best of all were the evenings when the Marquis chose to improvise. +Plaintive, tender melodies for the most part; prolonged trembling, +faintly-expiring airs; and sometimes harsh, strident notes that evoked +weird echoes from the bare wainscoted walls. Mrs. Frost would sit, tears +of sadness and of pleasure in her eyes, the kindly homely features of her +face moving with interest and delight. Nancy was usually by the table, +her sharp little chin propped up on the palms of her hands, never taking +her fascinated gaze from the musician. Sometimes Tom would look at her +and wonder of what she could be thinking. For certainly her spirit seemed +to be far away wandering in a world of dreams and of strange +inexpressible emotions. For Tom the music stirred delicate thoughts +bright dreams of beauty and of love; the vivid intangible dreams of +awakening youth. He had not had much experience with emotion; the story +of his love affairs contained no more dramatic moments than the stealing +of occasional kisses from the glowing cheeks of Maria Stonywell, the +beauty of the Tinterton road, as he had walked back to the old farm with +her on moonlight evenings. + +They would all be sorry when Monsieur pleaded weariness and bade them +good-night. Sometimes his music so moved the old Frenchman that the tears +would gather in his faded blue eyes and steal down his powdered cheeks; +and then, like as not, he was apt to break off suddenly, drop violin and +bow upon his knees, and exclaim, "_Ah! la musique! mon Dieu, mon Dieu! +elle me rappelle ma jeunesse. Et maintenant--et maintenant_!" And then, +brushing away the tears he would rise, make them a courtly bow, and hurry +out of the room. + +Dan alone did not fall under his spell. He and Tom would often talk of +their strange guest after they were gone to bed in the great chamber over +the dining-room. + +"I don't know what it is," Dan said one night, "but I am sorry he ever +came to the Inn; I wish he would go away." + +"How absurd, old boy!" protested Tom. "He has saved our lives this +frightful winter. I never knew your mother to be so cheerful and +contented; Nancy seems to adore him, and you yourself are making the most +of his fiddle lessons." + +"I know," Dan replied, "all that is true, but it is only half the truth. +Mother's cheerfulness is costing me a pretty penny, for I can't keep her +from ordering the most expensive things,--wines, and the like,--that we +can't afford. Maybe Nance adores him, as you say,--she is such a strange +wild child; but I have never known her to be so unlike herself. We used +to have good times together--Nance and I. But this winter I see nothing +of her at all." For the moment Dan forgot his complaint in the tender +thought of his foster-sister. "It probably is absurd," he added +presently, "but I don't like it; I don't like him, Tom! He plays the +fiddle well, I admit but he is so queer and shifty, nosing about, looking +this way and that, never meeting your eyes. It's just as though he were +waiting, biding his time, for--I don't know what." + +"Nonsense, Dan; you're not an old woman." + +"It may be, Tom, but I feel so anyway. The place hasn't seemed the same +to me since that Frenchman came. I wish he would go away; and apparently +he means to stay on forever." + +"I think you would miss him, if he were to go," insisted Pembroke, "for +my part I'm glad he is here. To tell the truth, Dan, he's been the life +of the house." + +"He has fascinated you as he has fascinated Mother and Nance," Dan +replied. "But it stands to reason, boy, that he can't be quite all +right. What does he want poking about in a deserted old hole like Deal?" + +"What he has said a thousand times; just what he so beautifully +gets--quiet and seclusion." + +"Perhaps you are right and I am wrong; but all the same I shall be glad +to see the last of him." + +The night was one of bright moonlight at the end of February. The bedroom +windows were open to the cold clear air. Tom was not sleepy, and he lay +for a long time recalling the dreams and emotions that had so stirred him +earlier in the evening, as he had listened to the Marquis's playing. He +kept whistling softly to himself such bars of the music as he could +remember. Dan's chamber faced west, and Tom's bed was so placed that he +could look out, without raising his head from the pillow, over the court +in the rear of the Inn and into the misty depths of Lovel's Woods beyond +the offices and stables. + +As he lay half-consciously musing--it must have been near midnight--his +attention was suddenly riveted upon the court below. It seemed to him +that he heard footsteps. He was instantly wide awake, and jumped from the +bed to the window, whence he peered from behind the curtain into the +courtyard. Close to the wall of the Inn, directly beneath the window, a +shadow flitted on the moonlight-flooded pavement, and he could hear the +crumbling of the snow. Cautiously he thrust his head out of the window. +Moving rapidly along near to the house, was a little figure wrapped in a +dark cloak, which looked to Tom for all the world like the Marquis de +Boisdhyver. + +For the moment he had the impulse to call to him by name, but the +conversation he had so recently had with Dan flashed into his mind, and +he decided to keep still and watch. The figure moved rapidly along the +west wall of the Inn almost the entire length of the building, until it +arrived at the entrance of the bowling-alley which abutted from the old +northern wing. Reaching this it paused for a moment, glancing about; then +inserted a key, fumbled for a moment with the latch, opened the door, and +disappeared within. + +Tom was perplexed. He could not be sure that it was the Marquis; but +whether it were or not, he knew that there was no reason for any one +entering the old portion of the Inn at midnight. His first thought was to +go down alone and investigate; his second was to waken Dan. + +He lowered the window gently, drew the curtains across it, and +bending over his friend, shook him gently by the shoulder. "Dan, Dan, +I say; wake up!" + +"What's the matter?" exclaimed Dan with a start of alarm, as he sat +up in bed. + +"Nothing, nothing; don't make a noise. I happened to be awake, and +hearing footsteps under the window, I got up and looked out. I saw some +one moving along close to the wall until he got to the bowling alley. He +opened the door and disappeared." + +"The door's locked," exclaimed Dan. "Who was it?" + +"He had a key, whoever he was then. To tell the truth, Dan, it looked +like the Marquis; though I couldn't swear to him. I certainly saw +some one." + +"You have not been asleep and dreaming, have you?" asked his friend, +rubbing his eyes. + +"I should say not. I'm going down to investigate; thought you'd like to +come along." + +"So I shall," said Dan, jumping out of bed and beginning to dress. "If +you really have seen any one, I'll wager you are right in thinking it's +the old marquis. That is just the sort of thing I have imagined him +being up to. What he wants though in the old part of the house is more +than I can think. He has pestered me to get back there ever since I +showed him over the place the day he arrived. Are you ready? Bring a +candle, and some matches. Ill just take my gun along on general +principles. I don't care how soon we get rid of the Marquis de +Boisdhyver, but I shouldn't exactly like to shoot him out with a load of +buckshot in his hide." + +Tom stood waiting with his boots in hand. Dan went to his bureau and took +out his father's old pistol, that had done duty in the West India trade +years ago, when pirates were not romantic memories but genuine menaces. + +"Sh!" whispered Dan as he opened the door. "Let's blow out the candle. +It's moonlight, and we will be safer without it. Be careful as you go +down stairs not to wake Mother and Nancy." + +Tom blew out the candle and slipped the end into his pocket, as he +tiptoed after Dan down the stairs. At every step the old boards seemed to +creak as though in pain. As they paused breathless half-way down on the +landing, they heard no sound save the loud ticking of the clock in the +hall below and the gentle whispering of the breeze without. The moon +gave light enough had they needed it, but each of them could have found +his way through every nook and corner of the Inn in darkness as well as +in broad day-light. They crept down the short flight from the landing, +paused and listened at the doors of Mrs. Frost's and Nancy's chambers, +and then slipped noiselessly into the bar where the logs still glowed on +the hearth. + +"Shall we," asked Tom in a low tone, "go down the corridor or +around outside?" + +"Best outside," Dan whispered. "If we go down the corridor we are like to +frighten him if he is the Marquis, or get a bullet in our gizzards if he +is not. Should he be inside, he'll have a light and we can find just +where he is. I have a notion that it's the Marquis and that he'll be in +the Oak Parlour. We'd better creep along the porch." + +Very softly he unlocked the door, and stepped outside. Tom was close +behind him. They crept stealthily along next the wall well within the +shadow of the roof, pausing at every window to peer through the +cracks of the shutters. But all were dark. As they turned the corner +of the porch at the end of the main portion of the inn from which +the north wing extended, Dan suddenly put his hand back and stopped +Tom. "Wait," he breathed, "there's a light in the Oak Parlour. Stay +here, while I peek in." + +With gun in hand he crept up to the nearest window of the Oak Parlour. +The heavy shutters were closed, but between the crack made by the warping +of the wood, he could distinguish a streak of golden light. He waited a +moment; and, then at the risk of alarming the intruder within, carefully +tried the shutter. To his great satisfaction it yielded and swung slowly, +almost noiselessly, back upon its hinges; the inside curtains were drawn; +but a slight gap had been left. Peering in through this, Dan found he +could get a view of a small section of the interior,--the end of the +great Dorsetshire cabinet on the farther side of the room and a part of +the wall. Before the cabinet, bending over its shelf, stood the familiar +form of the Marquis de Boisdhyver, apparently absorbed in a minute +examination of the carving. But Dan's attention was quickly diverted from +the figure of the old Frenchman, for by his side, also engaged in a +similar examination of the cabinet, stood Nancy. For a moment he watched +them with intent interest, but as he could not discover what so absorbed +them he slipped back to Tom, who was waiting at the turn of the porch. + +"It's the Marquis," he whispered in his friend's ear. + +"What is he up to?" + +"I don't know. Apparently he is examining the old cabinet. But, Tom, +Nancy is with him and as absorbed in the thing as he is. Look!" he +exclaimed suddenly. "They've blown out the light." + +As he spoke, he pointed to the window, now dark. "Come," he said, making +an instant decision, "let's hide ourselves in the hall and see if they +come back." + +"But Nancy--?" + +"No time for talk now. Come along." + +They ran back along the porch, slipped into the bar, and thence into the +hall. Dan motioned to Tom to conceal himself in a closet beneath the +stairway, and he himself slipped behind the clock. Hardly were they +safely hidden thus, than they heard a fumble at the latch of the door +into the bar. Then the door was pushed open, and the Marquis stepped +cautiously in the hall. He paused for a moment, listening intently. Then +he held open the door a little wider; and another figure, quite enveloped +by a long black coat, entered after him. They silently crossed the hall +to the door of Nancy's chamber. This the Marquis opened; then bowed low, +as his companion passed within. They were so close to him that Dan could +have reached out his hand and touched them. As Nancy entered her room, +Dan distinctly heard Monsieur de Boisdhyver whisper, "More success next +time, mademoiselle!" + +There was no reply. + +The Marquis turned, stole softly up the stairs, and in a moment Dan heard +the click of the latch as he closed his door. He slipped out from his +hiding place, and whispered to Tom. + +In a few moments they were back again in their bedroom. + +"Heavens! man, what do you make of it?" asked Tom. + +"Make of it!" exclaimed Dan, "I don't know what to make of it. It's +incomprehensible. What the devil is that old rascal after, and how has he +bewitched Nance?" + +"Perhaps," suggested Tom, more for Nancy's sake than because he believed +what he was saying, "it is simply that he is curious, and knowing that +you don't want him in the old part of the Inn, he has persuaded Nancy to +take him there at night." + +"Nonsense! that couldn't possibly account for such secrecy and caution. +No, Tom, he has some deviltry on foot, and we must find out what it is." + +"That should be simple enough. Ask Nance." + +"Ah!" exclaimed his friend, "you don't know Nance as well as I. You may +be sure he has sworn her to secrecy, and Nance would never betray a +promise whether she had been wise in making it or not." + +"Then go to the old man himself and demand an explanation." + +"He'd lie ..." + +"Turn him out." + +"I could do that, of course. But I think I would rather find out what he +is up to. It has something to do with the old cabinet in the Oak Parlour. +I'll find out the mystery of that if I have to hack the thing into a +thousand pieces. What I hate, is Nance's being mixed up in it." + +"We can watch again." + +"Yes; we'll do that. In the meanwhile, I am going to investigate that old +ark myself. There's something about, something concealed in it, that he +wants to get. When I took him in there the day after he came, he +couldn't keep his eyes off it. If you can get Nance out of the way +tomorrow afternoon, I'll send the Marquis off with Jesse for that +long-talked-of visit to Mondy Port; and I'll give Jesse instructions not +to get him back before dark. And while they are away, I'll investigate +the Oak Parlour myself. Can you get Nance off?" + +"I might ask her to go and look over the Red Farm with me. She might like +the walk through the woods. I could easily manage to be away for three or +four hours." + +"Good! You may think it odd, Tom, that I should seem to distrust Nance. I +don't distrust her, but there has always been a mystery about her. Mother +knows a good deal more than she has even been willing to tell to me, or +even to Nance, I guess. I know nothing except that she is of French +extraction, and I have sometimes wondered since she has been so often +with the old Marquis this winter, if he didn't know something about her. +It flashed over me to-night as I saw them in that deserted room. Whatever +is a-foot, I am going to get at the bottom of it. We will watch again +to-morrow night. I heard him whisper as he left Nance, 'More success next +time!' This sort of thing may have been going on for a month." + +They undressed again, and Dan put his gun away in his bureau. "We may +have use for that yet, Tommy," he said. "It would do me good, after what +I have seen to-night, to put a bit of lead into the Marquis de Boisdhyver +as a memento of his so delightful sojourn at _L'Auberge au Chene Rouge_." + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE OAK PARLOUR + + +The two young men felt self-conscious and ill-at-ease the next morning at +the breakfast table, but apparently their embarrassment was neither +shared nor observed. Mrs. Frost had kept her room, but Nancy and the +Marquis were in their accustomed places; the old gentleman, chattering +away in a fashion that demanded few answers and no attention; Nancy, +speaking only to ask necessary questions as to their wants at table and +meeting the occasional glances of Dan and Tom without suspicion. Tom +could scarcely realize in that bright morning light, that only seven or +eight hours earlier he and his friend had spied upon their companions +prowling about in the abandoned wing of the inn. + +Monsieur de Boisdhyver assented readily enough when Dan proposed that +Jesse should take him that day to Monday Port. He was curious to see the +old town, he said, having heard much of it from his friend; much also +from his celebrated compatriot, the Marquis de Lafayette. + +Tom took occasion during the discussion to ask Nancy if she would walk +across the woods with him after dinner, that he might pay a visit to the +Red Farm and see that all was going well in the absence of his parents. +He felt that the tones of his voice were charged with unwonted +significance; but Nancy accepted the invitation with a simple expression +of pleasure. When Mrs. Frost was informed of the plans for the day, she +came near thwarting Dan's carefully laid schemes. She had counted upon +Jesse to do her bidding and had, she declared, arranged that Nancy should +help her put together the silken patches of the quilt upon which she was +perennially engaged. Her foster-daughter's glance of displeasure at this +was tinder to the old lady's temper, and Dan entered most opportunely. + +"So!" she was exclaiming, "I am always the one to be sacrificed when it +is a question of some one's else pleasure." + +"Mother, Mother," Dan protested good-naturedly, as he bent over to kiss +her good-morning, "aren't you ever willing to spend a day alone with me?" + +"Danny dear," cried the old lady, as she began to smile again, "you know +I'm always willing. Of course, if Tom wants Nancy to go, the quilt can +wait; it has waited long enough, in all conscience. There, my dear," she +added, turning to the girl, "order an early dinner, and since you are +going to the Red Farm, you might as well come back by the dunes and +enquire for old Mrs. Meath. We have neglected that poor woman shamefully +this winter." + +"Yes, Mother,--if we have time." + +"Take the time, my dear," added Mrs. Frost sharply. + +"Yes, Mother." + +The Marquis started off with Jesse at eleven o'clock, as eager for the +excursion as a boy; and by half-past twelve Nancy and Tom had set out +across the woods for the Red Farm. Dan was impatient for them to be gone. +As soon as he saw them disappear in the woods back of the Inn, he made +excuses to his mother, and hurried to the north wing. He found the door +of the bowling alley securely locked, which convinced him that either the +Marquis or Nancy had taken the key from the closet of his chamber. Having +satisfied himself, he went directly to the Oak Parlour. + +It was cold and dark there. He opened the shutters and drew back the +curtains, letting in the cheerful midday sun, which revealed all the +antique, sombre beauty of the room, of the soft landscapes and the +exquisite carving of the Dorsetshire cabinet. But Dan was in no mood to +appreciate the old-world beauty of the Oak Parlour. In that cabinet he +felt sure there was something concealed which would reveal the mystery of +the Marquis's stay at the inn and possibly the nature of his influence +over Nancy. Whatever had been the object of the Marquis's search, it had +not been found: his parting words to Nancy the night before showed that. + +Dan took a long look at the cabinet first, estimating the possibility of +its containing secret drawers. Hidden compartments in old cabinets, +secret chambers in old houses, subterranean passageways leading to +dungeons in romantic castles, had been the material of many a tale that +Dan and Tom had told each other as boys. For years their dearest +possession had been a forbidden copy of "_The Mysteries of Udolpho_" +which they read in the mow of the barn lying in the dusty hay. However +unusual, the situation was real; and he felt himself confronted by as +hard a problem as he had ever tried to solve in fiction. He knew +something about carpentry, so that his first step, after examining the +drawers and cupboards and finding them empty, was to take careful +measurements of the entire cabinet, particularly of the thicknesses of +its sides, back, and partitions. It proved a piece of furniture of +absolutely simple and straightforward construction. After long +examination and careful soundings he came to the conclusion that a secret +drawer was an impossibility. + +Suddenly an idea occurred to him and he returned to the sitting-room. +"Mother," he said, "I have been looking over the old cabinet in the Oak +Parlour, thinking perhaps that I would have it brought into the +dining-room. I wonder, if by chance, there are any secret drawers in it. + +"Secret drawers? What an idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Frost. + +"You never knew of any did you?" + +"No.... Stop, let me think. Upon my word, I think there was something of +the sort, but it has been so long ago I have almost forgotten." + +"Try to remember, do!" urged Dan, striving to repress his excitement. + +"It was not a secret drawer, but there were little hidden +cubby-holes--three or four of them. I remember, now, your father once +showed me how they opened. They were little places where the Roman +Catholics used to hide the pages of their mass-books and such like in the +days of persecution in England." + +"Yes, yes," said Dan, "that makes it awfully interesting. Did father +ever find anything in them?" + +"No, I think not; but, dear me, it was over thirty years ago we brought +that old cabinet from England,--long before you were born, Dan." + +"Can you remember how to open the secret places? I have been looking it +over, but I can't see where they can be, much less how to get into them." + +"There were four of them, I think; all in the carving on the front, in +the eyes of the lions it seems to me, and in the lion's mouth, or in the +leaves somewhere. One spring that opened them I recollect, was under the +ledge of the shelf, another at the back of the cabinet and,--but no, I +really can't remember where the others were." + +Dan was impatient to try his luck at finding them, and hurried back to +the Oak Parlour. He ran his fingers many times under the ledge of the +shelf before he heard the click of a tiny spring, and, looking up, saw +the lion's eyelid wink and slowly open. With an exclamation of +satisfaction, he thrust his fingers into the tiny aperture, felt +carefully about, and was chagrined to find it empty. "More success next +time, _monsieur le marquis_!" he muttered. + +At length he found the spring that released the eyelid on the carved lion +on the other side of the panel. He glanced into the little opening and, +to his delight, saw the end of a bit of paper tucked away there. He dug +it out with the blade of his pocket knife and unfolded it. It was yellow +and brittle with age, covered with writing in a fine clear hand. But he +was annoyed to discover, as he bent closely over to read it, that it was +written in French, still worse, part of the paper was missing, for one +side of it was ragged as if it had been torn in two. + +Remembering with relief, that Pembroke had acquired a smattering of +French at Dr. Watson's school for the sons of gentlemen, he put the paper +carefully away in his pocket to wait for Tom's assistance in deciphering +it. Then he set to work to find the missing half. + +He fumbled about at the back of the cabinet for a spring that would +release another secret cubby-hole, and was rewarded at last by an +unexpected click, and the seemingly solid jaws of the lion fell apart +about half-an-inch. But the little aperture which they revealed was +empty. Further experiment at last discovered the fourth hiding place, but +this also contained nothing. + +It occurred to him then that the Marquis had already discovered the other +half of the paper, and like himself was searching for a missing portion. +As he stood thinking over the problem, he suddenly noticed that the room +was in deep shadow, and realized that the sun had set over the ridge of +Lovel's Woods. The Marquis would soon be returning. Carefully closing the +four openings in the carving he pushed the old cabinet back against the +wall, closed the shutters and drew the curtains. Then with a last glance +to see that all was as he found it, he went out and closed the door the +precious bit of paper in his inside pocket. + +He went directly to Mrs. Frost's parlour. "Mother," he said, "please +don't tell anyone that I have been in the north wing today. I have good +reasons which I will explain to you before long. Now, I shall be deeply +offended if you give the slightest hint." + +"Gracious! Dan, what is all this mystery about?" + +"You will never know, mother, unless you trust me absolutely. Mind! not +a word to Tom, Nancy or the Marquis." + +"Very well, Danny. You know I am as safe with a secret as though it had +been breathed into the grave." + +Dan did not quite share his mother's confidence in her own discretion, +but he knew he could count on her devotion to him to keep her silent even +where curiosity and the love of talk would render her indiscreet. He also +knew, and had often deplored it, that fond as she was of Nancy she was +not inclined to take the girl into her confidence. + +Having said all he dared to his mother, Dan went to his room and +carefully locked up the mysterious paper. He returned to the first +floor just as the Marquis and Jesse drove up in the sleigh to the door +of the inn. + +Monsieur de Boisdhyver was enthusiastic about all that he had seen--the +headquarters of General Washington, the house in which the Marquis de +Lafayette had slept, the old mill in the parade, the fort at the Narrows, +the shipping, the quaint old streets.... "But, O Monsieur Frost," he +exclaimed, "the weariness that is now so delightful! How soundly shall I +sleep to-night!" + +Dan smiled grimly as he assured his guest of his sympathy for a good +night and a sound sleep; thinking to himself, however, that if the +Marquis walked, he would not walk unattended. He had no intention of +trusting too implicitly to that loudly proclaimed fatigue. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WALK THROUGH THE WOODS + + +While Dan Frost was hunting for the secret places of the old cabinet, Tom +and Nancy were picking their way across the snowcovered paths of Lovel's +Woods to the Red Farm. These woods were a striking feature in the +landscape of the open coast country around Deal. Rising somewhat +precipitously almost out of the sea, three ridges extended far back into +the country, with deep ravines between. They were thickly wooded, for the +most part with juniper and pine. In some places the descent to the +ravines was sheer and massed with rocks heaped there by a primeval +glacier; in other parts they dipped more gently to the little valleys, +which were threaded with many a path worn smooth by the dwellers on the +eastern shore. Nearly two miles might be saved in a walk from the Inn to +Squire Pembroke's Farm by going across the Woods rather than by the +encircling road. + +As they were used to the frozen country Tom and Nancy preferred the +shorter if more difficult route. They had often found their way together +through the tangled thickets of the Woods or along the shores of the +Strathsey River, in season accompanied by dog and gun hunting fox and +rabbit or partridge and wild duck. In Tom's company Nancy seemed to +forget her shyness and would talk freely enough of her interests and her +doings. He had always been fond of her, though until lately she had +seemed to him hardly more than a child. This winter, as so frequently he +had watched her sitting in the firelight listening to the old Marquis's +playing and dreaming perhaps as he also dreamed, he realized that she was +growing up. A new beauty had come into her face and slender form, her +great dark eyes seemed to hold deeper interests, she was no longer in the +world of childhood. The mystery enveloping her origin, which for some +reason Mrs. Frost had never chosen to dispel, gave a certain piquancy to +the interest and affection Tom felt for her. In the imaginative tales he +had been fond of weaving for his own amusement, Nancy would frequently +figure, revealed at last as the child of noble parents, as a princess +doomed by some strange fate to exile. He thought of these things as from +time to time he glanced back at her, holding aside some branch that +crossed the path or giving her his hand to help her over a boulder in the +way. The red scarf about her neck, red cap on her dark hair, flashing in +and out of the tangled pathway against the background of the snow-clad +woods, gave a bright note of colour to the scene. + +They were obliged for the most part to walk in single file until the last +ridge descended over a mass of rocks to the marshes along Beaver Pond. +Then having given her his hand to help her down, he kept hold of it as +they went along the free path to the open meadows. The feeling of Nancy's +cool little hand in his gave Tom an odd and conscious sense of pleasure. + +"You have been uncommonly silent, Nance, even for you," he said at last. + +"Oh, I'm always silent, Tom," she replied. "It is because I am stupid and +have nothing to say." + +"Nonsense, my dear, you always have a lot to say to me. But you are +forever reading, thinking ... what's it all about?" + +"Oh, I think, Tom, because I have little else to do; but my thoughts +aren't often worth the telling. In truth there is no one, not even you, +who particularly cares to hear them. Tom," she said, "I am restless and +discontented. Sometimes I wish I were far away from the Inn at the Red +Oak and Deal, from all that I know,--even from you and Dan." + +Pembroke suddenly realized that he could not laugh at these +fancies, as he had so often done, and dismiss as if they were the +vagaries of a child. + +"Why are you restless and discontented, Nancy?" he asked seriously. + +"Aren't you ever?" she questioned for reply. "Don't you ever get weary +with the emptiness of it all, the everlasting round, the dullness? Don't +you ever want to get away from Deal, and know people and see things and +be somebody?" + +"I do that, Nance. I mean to go as soon as I am a lawyer. I won't poke +about Deal long after that, nor Monday Port either. I mean to set up in +Coventry." + +"Coventry!" exclaimed the girl with an accent of disdain. "That is just a +provincial town like the Port, only a little more important because it is +the capital of the state." + +"Being the capital means a lot," protested Tom in defense of his +ambitions of which for the first time he felt ashamed. "Men are sent to +Congress from there. Nance, girl, ours is a wonderful country; we are +making a great nation." + +"Some people may be. None of us are, Tom. I wonder at you more than I do +at Dan, for you have had more advantages. As for me, I am only a girl; +there's nothing for girls but to sit and sew, and prepare meals for men +to eat, and wait until some one comes and chooses to marry them. Then +they go off and do the same thing some place else." + +"But what have you to complain of, Nancy? you have the kindest brother, a +good mother, a comfortable home...." + +"The kindest brother, yes. But you know Mrs. Frost is not my mother. She +doesn't care for me and I can't care for her as if she were. I have never +loved any one but Dan." + +"You can't help loving Dan," said Tom, thinking of his good friend. +"But then, little girl, you love me too." And he pressed the hand in +his warmly. + +Nancy quickly withdrew her hand. "I am not a little girl. I have been +grown up in lots of ways ever so long." + +"But you love me?" + +"I like you. Oh, Tom, the life we all lead is so futile. If I weren't a +girl, I should go away." + +They had reached the stile by now that led into the meadow which sloped +down from the clump of poplars a hundred rods or so above, in the midst +of which the Red Farmhouse stood. Instead of helping his companion over +the steps in the wall, Tom stopped and stood with his back to them. +"Let's stay here a minute, Nance, and have it out." + +"Have what out?" she asked a trifle sharply. + +"You haven't any queer wild plan in your head to go away, have you?" + +"I don't know--sometimes I think I have. I dare say there are things +somewhere a girl could find to do." + +"But Mrs. Frost--?" + +"Oh, Mother would not miss me long--she'd have Dan." + +"But Dan would miss you." + +"Yes, Dan might. I couldn't go, if Dan really needed me here. I think +sometimes he doesn't. But, Tom, if you were in my position, if you didn't +know who your parents were, if all your life you had been living on the +charity of others--good and kind as they are, wonderful even as Dan has +always been--you couldn't be happy. I'm not happy." + +"But, Nance, what has come over you?" + +"No--nothing in particular; I have often felt this way." + +"But, dear, I couldn't let you go. I'd mind a lot, Nance." + +She looked at him with a sudden smile of incredulity. "You, Tommy?" + +"You can't go--you musn't go," Tom repeated, as he drew nearer to her. + +Suddenly he reached out and seized her hands. "Don't you realize it?--I +love you, Nance; I've always loved you!" He drew her close to him. She +did not resist nor did she yield, but still with her eyes she questioned +him. "Kiss me, Nancy," he whispered. She let him press his lips to hers +but without responding to the pressure, as though she still were +wondering of the meaning of this sudden unforeseen passion. But at last, +caught up in its intensity, she gave him back his kisses. He took her +face then between his hands and looked into it with a gaze that in itself +was a caress. "Oh my sweetheart!" he said softly. + +Slowly she disengaged herself. "Tom, Tom," she said, "this is +foolishness. We musn't do this." + +"Why not?" demanded Pembroke. "I tell you I love you!" + +"No--not that way, not that way. I didn't mean that. Why, you foolish +boy, haven't we kissed each other hundreds of times before?" + +"No, Nancy, not like that--not like this," he added, as again he put his +arm around her and drew her face to his. And again she yielded. "Say +it--say it, Nance--you love me." + +She drew back from him. "I think I must, Tom. I don't think I could let +you kiss me that way if I didn't. But now come ... Tom ... dear Tom ... +do come ... don't kiss me again." + +"But say it," he insisted, "say you love me." + +"Please help me over the stile." + +He gave her his hand and she sprang lightly to the top of the steps. In a +second he was by her side, both of them balancing somewhat uncertainly on +the top of the stone wall. "I won't let you down till you say it." + +"Please--". + +"No--you love me?" + +"Yes--there--I love you--now--". + +"No, kiss me again." + +"Tom--no." But the negative was weak and Pembroke took it so. + +"Now," he said, as they began to cross the meadow, "we must tell Mrs. +Frost and Dan." + +"Tell them what?" + +"Why, that we are in love with each other, and that you are going to +marry me. What else?" + +"No, no," exclaimed Nancy, "You must say nothing. I am not in love. I +don't mean to marry you." + +"But why not? You are. You do." + +"Are--do--?" + +"In love--you do mean to marry me." + +"No--Tom, listen--you know your father and mother would hate it. You have +at least two years before you can practice. We couldn't marry--we can't +marry. Oh, there are things I must do, before I can think of that." + +"Not marry me? Good Lord, what does it mean when people are in love with +each other, what does it mean when a girl kisses a fellow like that?" + +"I don't know! what it means--madness, I guess. Do you think I could +marry as I am, not knowing who I am?" + +"Oh, what do I care who your parents were! We'll find out. I swear we +will. Good Lord, I love you, Nancy; I love you!" + +"Please, please don't make me talk about it now." + +"But soon--?" + +"Yes, soon--only promise you'll say nothing to Dan or to Mother till we +have talked again. I must think; it is all so queer and unexpected; I +never dreamed that you cared for me except as a little girl." + +"I didn't know I did. But come to think of it, Nance, it has been you as +much as Dan that has brought me to the Inn at the Red Oak. Why it was you +I wanted to walk and talk and play with." + +"Please,--dear Tom--G--ive me time to think what it all means. Now be +careful, there's the farmer. You have a lot to do, and we have been +lingering too long. Mother wants us to go back by the dunes and enquire +for old Mrs. Meath; so we must hurry." + +The sun had set before they started on the homeward journey in one of +the squire's sleighs. As they turned the bend at the beach and started +across the dune road close to the sea, a great yellow moon rose over +Strathsey Neck. + +Tom had been so preoccupied with his own emotions and the unexpected and +absorbing relation in which he found himself with Nancy, that he had +altogether forgotten why he had asked her to go off with him that +afternoon. As they skimmed along over the snow-packed road across the +sands, Tom spied another sleigh on the Port road, the occupants of which +he recognized as Jesse and the Marquis. Suddenly the memory of the night +before flashed over him. He pointed with his whip in their direction. +"There's the old Marquis coming back from Monday Port," he said. + +Nancy looked without comment, but Tom thought the colour deepened in +her cheeks. + +"See here, Nance," he exclaimed impulsively; "has the Marquis anything to +do with the mood you were in this afternoon? Has he said anything to make +you discontented?" + +He was sure that now she paled. + +"What makes you ask?" + +"Oh--a number of things. I've seen you with him more or less; felt he had +some influence over you."--Tom was blundering now and knew it.-- + +She looked at him coldly. "I have been with the Marquis very little save +when others have been about. He has no influence over me. I don't care to +discuss such queer ideas." + +"Oh, all right ... I dare say I'm mistaken ... I only thought..." +He hesitated... "If you care for me, I don't mind what you think of +the Marquis." + +"Remember, Tom--you promised to say nothing until I gave you leave. +You're not fair..." + +"But you do love me?" + +Nancy was silent. + +"There is nothing between you and the old Frenchman--no mystery?" + +There was no reply. Nancy sat with compressed lips and drawn brows, +gazing fixedly at the distant House on the Dunes at the end of their +road. For a long while they drove on in silence. + +At the House on the Dunes they chatted for a while with old Mrs. Meath, +who lived there alone with a maid-of-all-work. She was a source of much +anxiety to Mrs. Frost, who sent several times each week to learn if all +was going well. But Mrs. Meath was a Quaker and apparently never gave a +thought to loneliness or fear. + +"They will never guess," she said to Nancy and Tom as they sat in the +tiled kitchen talking with her, "what I am going to do." + +"Not going to leave the House on the Dunes, Mrs. Meath?" + +"Deary me! no; but I am going to take a boarder." + +"Really?--you are setting up to rival the Inn, eh?" said Tom. + +"No", Tommy, nothing of the sort. But I am offered good pay for my front +room, and as Jane Frost is always nagging me about living here alone, I +thought I'd take her." + +"And who pray is your new boarder?" asked Nancy. + +"That is the funny part of it," replied Mrs. Meath, "I know nothing but +her name--Mrs. Fountain. Everything has been arranged by a lawyer man +from Coventry, and she is coming in a few days. Tell thy mother, Nancy +dear, that she need worry about me no longer." + +"I will, Mrs. Meath. I think it is a splendid idea, and I hope you will +like the lady. Mother will be so glad that you have some one with you." + +Soon they were on their way across the dunes and marshes to Tinterton +road and home. Dan was preoccupied, not with the news that was so +exciting to Mrs. Meath, but with the recollection of his conversation +with Nancy as they had driven toward the house. Despite her implicit +denial he knew there was a secret between the Marquis de Boisdhyver and +herself. He could not imagine what it might be, and it was evident +that she did not mean to tell him at present. But his anxieties on this +or kindred subjects were not relieved by his companion during the +remainder of the drive. Moreover his attempts to speak again of his +newly discovered passion were received coldly--so coldly indeed that he +had no heart for pleading for such proofs as she had given him earlier +in the afternoon that she shared his emotion. So despite the splendid +moon, the bright cold night, the merry jangle of the sleigh bells, the +drive back was not the unmixed joy Tom had promised himself; and he +felt his role of a declared and practically-accepted lover anything but +a satisfactory one. + +Finally they reached the Inn and entered the bar where they found the +Marquis sitting alone before a cheerful fire. All of Tom's suspicious +jealousies returned with fresh force, for Nancy rapidly crossed the room, +spoke a few words to the old gentleman in an inaudible tone of voice, and +passed quickly on to her own apartments. + + + + +PART II + +THE TORN SCRAP OF PAPER + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE HALF OF AN OLD PAPER + + +That evening Mrs. Frost made a particular request for music. Poor Dan, +impatient to be alone with Tom and show him the torn scrap of paper that +he had found that afternoon was forced to bring out his fiddle and +accompany the Marquis. Tom, for first part, was more concerned with his +own relations with Nancy than with the mysterious possibilities of the +previous night. The poignant notes of the violin set his pulses to +beating in tune with the throbbing of the music and transported him again +into the realms of youthful dreams. They were quaint plaintive songs of +old France that the Marquis chose to play that evening, folk tunes of the +Vendee, love songs of olden time. + +From where he sat in the shadow Tom got a full view of Nancy seated on +the oaken setlle near the fire. Her brows were drawn a little in deep +thought, her lips for the most part compressed, though ever and anon +relaxing at some gentler thought. Her hands were clasped, her head was +bent a little, but her body was held straight and tense. Her eyes, dark +and lustrous in the light of the flaming logs, always fixed upon the +musician, not once wandering in his direction. + +What was the influence, the fascination that strange old Frenchman seemed +to exert? It seemed to Tom impossible that there could be a secret which +she felt necessary to hide from them, her lifelong friends. But apart +from what he knew had taken place the night before as he looked back over +the past month, he was conscious that there had been a change in Nancy, a +change that mystified him. It was the danger in this change, he told +himself, that had awakened in him the knowledge of his love. + +But then as he looked across at her so lovely, in the firelight, he felt +again the thrill as when first he had taken her hand that afternoon. In +that moment all the dreams, the vague longings of his boyhood had found +their reality. + +Suddenly, while he was thinking thus, the Marquis laid his violin upon +his knees. "Ah, _ma jeunnesse_!" he exclaimed in a dramatic whisper, "_et +maintenant_--_et maintenant_!" + +For a moment no one spoke or stirred. They looked at him curiously as +they always did when he brought his playing to an end in such fashion. +Then he rose. "_Bon soir, madame; bon soir, messieurs; bon soir, +mademoiselle_" + +Tom saw his little faded blue eyes meet Nancy's with a look of swift +significance. Then he bowed with a flourish that included them all. + +"A thousand thanks, Monsieur le Marquis," murmured Mrs. Frost, "how much +pleasure you give us!" + +They all rose then, as the Marquis smiled his appreciation and withdrew. + +"Give me your arm, Dan," the old lady said. "It must be past my bedtime. +Come, Nancy." + +"Yes, mother." The girl rose wearily, stopping a moment at the +mantelpiece to snuff the candles there. Tom seized his opportunity, and +was by her side. She started, as she realized him near her. + +"Nance, Nance, I must have a word with you," he exclaimed in a tense +whisper, "don't go!" + +"Nance, come," called Mrs. Frost from the hall. + +"Yes, Mother, I am coming ... I must go, Tom. Don't delay me. You know +how Mother is ..." + +"What difference will it make if you wait a moment? Good Lord! Nance, I +have been trying all evening to get a word with you, and you have not so +much as given me a glance. Don't go--please don't go! Oh, Nancy dear,--I +love you so!" + +He seized her hands and kissed them passionately. "Nance, Nance ... +please ..." His arms were about her. + +"Tom, you make it so hard ... Remember, you promised me ... No word +of love until I can think, until I have time to know ... Please, Tom, +let me go." + +"I can't let you go. Oh sweetheart dear." + +"Tom, we musn't--Dan, Mother! ..." + +Unheeding her protest, he put his arms around her. An instant he felt +her yield, then quickly thrusting him aside, she ran from the room, +leaving him standing alone there, trembling with excitement, chagrin, +happiness, alarm. + +In a moment his friend returned and Tom pulled himself together. "Come +on," said Dan, "I have a lot to tell you." + +"Did you find anything this afternoon?" exclaimed Pembroke. + +"Sh! for heaven's sake be careful. Don't talk here. Let's go upstairs." + +A few minutes later they were closeted in Dan's chamber. The curtains +were tightly drawn and a heavy quilt was hung over the door. Good Lord! +thought Tom, could it be possible that these precautions in part at least +were taken against Nancy. The world seemed to have turned upside down for +him in the last twenty-four hours. + +"Aren't we going to keep watch to-night?" he asked. + +"Yes, but later. They are just getting to bed--or pretending to. Look +here, this may throw light on the mystery. I found this paper in a secret +cubby-hole in the old cabinet in the Oak Parlour. Draw a chair up to the +table so that you can see." + +"The cabinet," he continued, as he took the paper out of his strong-box +and began to unfold it, "was brought from some old manor house in +England. It has four little secret cubby-holes, opened by hidden springs, +that Mother says were probably used by the Roman Catholics to hide pages +of their mass-books during the days of persecution. She remembered +fortunately a little about them. They were all empty but one, and in that +I found this torn scrap of paper." + +He handed the yellowed bit of writing to Tom, who flattened it out on the +table before him. + +"Why it's written in French," Pembroke exclaimed, as he bent over to +examine it. + +"Yes, I know it is," said Dan. "I can't make head or tail of it. Besides +it seems to be only a part of a note or letter. I could hardly wait to +give you a chance at it. You can make something of it, can't you?" + +"I don't know--I guess I can. It's hard to read the handwriting. The +thing's torn in two--haven't you the rest of it?" + +"No, I tell you; that's all I could find; that's all, I am sure, that can +be in the cabinet now. My theory is that the old marquis has somehow come +across the other half and is still looking for this. God only knows who +hid it there. + +"How the deuce could the Marquis know about it. Ah! look--it's signed +somebody, something _de Boisdhyver_--'_ancois_--that's short for +Francois, I guess. Evidently 't wasn't the Marquis himself. Wonder what +it means?" + +For goodness' sake, try to read it." + +"Wait. Get that old French dictionary out of the bookcase downstairs, +will you? I'll see if I can translate." + +Dan crept softly out, leaving Tom bent over the paper. Again he smoothed +it out carefully on the table, bringing the two candles nearer, and tried +to puzzle out the faint fine handwriting. + +"I can make out some of it," he remarked to Dan, when his friend returned +with the dictionary. "Let me have that thing; there are a few words I +don't know at all, but I'll write out as good a translation as I can." + +While Tom was busy with the dictionary, Dan placed writing materials to +his hand, and sat down to wait as patiently as he could. His curiosity +was intensified by Pembroke's occasional exclamations and the absorption +with which he bent over the task. + +"There!" Tom exclaimed after half-an-hour's labour, "that's the +best I can do with it. You see the original note was evidently torn +into two or three strips and we have only got the righthand one, so we +don't get a single complete sentence--, but what we have is mighty +suggestive. Listen--This is what it says: Make great efforts ... gap ... +glorious, I am about to leave' ... gap ... 'to offer my' ... gap ... +'that I should not return' ... gap ... 'directions' ... gap ... 'this +paper which I tear' ... gap ... 'the explanation' ... something +missing ... 'to discover' ... that's the end of a sentence. The next one +begins, 'This treasure' ... than another gap ... 'jewels and money' ... +'secret chamber' ... 'one can enter' ... something gone here ... 'by the +_salon de chene_'--that's the Oak Parlour, I suppose ... something +missing again ... 'by a spring' ... 'hand of the lady in the picture' ... +'chimney on the north side of the' ... 'side a panel which reveals' ... +'one will find the directions' ... more missing ... 'of the treasure in a +golden chest' ... That's the end of it. And, as I said before it is +signed,--'ancois de Boisdhyver.' There, you can read it. That's the best +I can make of it." + +Dan bent over his friend's translation. "Whoever wrote it was +about to leave here to offer something to somebody, and if he did +not return, apparently he is giving directions, in this paper, which +he tears in to two or three parts, how to discover--a treasure?--jewels +and money, I guess,--that he is about to hide or has hidden in a secret +chamber, which is entered in some way from the Oak Parlour--? ... pushes +a spring,--Something to do with the hand of the lady in the picture, +near the chimney on the north side of the room ... then a panel which +reveals ...where? ... the directions will be found, for getting the +treasure, in a golden chest in the secret chamber? How's that for a +version? I reckon the other half doesn't tell as much ...'ancois de +Boisdhyver!--That can't be the Marquis, for none of his names end +'ancois; do they? Let's see, what are they?--Marie, Anne, Timelon, +Armand ... Tom,"--and Dan faced his friend excitedly,--"that old devil is +after treasure! Who the deuce is 'ancois de Boisdhyver, and how did he +come to leave money in the Oak Parlour? Hanged if I believe there's any +secret chamber! By gad, man, if I didn't hurt when I pinch myself, I'd +think I was asleep and dreaming. What do you make of it?" + +"Pretty much what you do. Somebody sometime,--a good many years ago, +concealed some valuables here in the Inn. It must be some one who is +connected with our marquis, for the last names are the same. These are +directions, or half the directions, for finding it. The Marquis knows +enough about it to have been hunting for this paper. Who the devil is +the Marquis?" + +"The Lord knows. But how does Nance come in?" + +"Blamed if I can see; wish I could! This accounts for the Marquis's +mysterious investigations, anyway. Probably he's no right to the paper. +Maybe he isn't a Boisdhyver at all. I'll be damned if I can understand +how he has got Nance to league with him." + +"And now what the deuce are we going to do about it?" asked Dan. + +"Hunt for the treasure ourselves, eh?" + +"Well, why not? but to do that we've got to get rid of the Marquis. He'll +be suspicious if we begin to poke about the north wing. Hanged if I +wouldn't like to have it all out with him!" + +"Yes, but we'd better think and talk it over before we decide to do +anything. We can watch them. We'll watch to-night any way, and plan +something definite to-morrow." + +"I tell you one thing, Tom, I am going to make Mother tell me all she +knows about Nancy. Perhaps she is mixed up in some way with all this. But +it's time to keep watch now. We'll put out the candles and I'll watch for +the first two hours. If you go to sleep, I'll wake you up to take the +next turn. How about it?" + +"Hang sleep!" Tom replied. + +"All right, but we must blow out the light. Lucky it's clear. Let's +whisper after this." + +Tom threw himself on the bed, while Dan sat near the window and kept his +eyes fixed on the door of the bowling-alley. They talked for some time in +low tones, but eventually Tom fell asleep. Dan waked him at twelve for +his vigil, and he in turn was wakened at two. During the third watch they +both succumbed to weariness. + +Tow awoke with a start about four, and sprang to the window. The moon was +sinking low in the western sky, but its light still flooded the deserted +courtyard beneath. He heard the patter of a horse's hoofs on the road +beyond and the crunching of the snow beneath the runners of a sleigh. +Well, he thought, as he rubbed his eyes, it was too near morning for +anything to happen, so he turned in and was soon asleep, as though no +difficult problems were puzzling his mind and heart and no mysteries were +being enacted around him. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A DISAPPEARANCE + + +When Dan came downstairs in the morning Mrs. Frost called him to the door +of her bedroom. "What on earth is the matter with Nancy?" she exclaimed; +"I have been waiting for her the past hour. No one has been near me since +Deborah came in to lay the fire. Call the girl Danny; I want to get up." + +"All right, mother. She has probably overslept; she had a long walk +yesterday." + +"But that is no excuse for sleeping till this time of day. Tell her +to hurry." + +"It is only seven, mother." + +"Yes, Danny, dear, but I mean to breakfast with you all this morning if I +ever succeed in getting dressed." + +Dan crossed the hall and knocked at Nancy's door. There was no response. +He knocked again, then opened the door and looked within. Nancy was not +there, and her bed had not been slept in. + +He went back to his mother. "Nancy is not in her room," he said. "She +has probably gone out for a walk. I'll go and look for her." + +He went to the kitchens to enquire of the maids, but they had not seen +their young mistress since the night before. + +"Spec she's taken dem dogs a walkin'," said black Deborah unconcernedly. +"Miss Nance she like de early morn' 'fore de sun come up." + +Dan went out to the stables. The setters came rushing out, bounding and +barking joyously about him. + +"Have you seen Miss Nancy this morning, Jess?" he asked. + +"No, Mister Dan, ain't seen her this mornin'. Be n't she in the house?" + +"She doesn't seem to be. Take a look down the road, and call after her, +will you? Down, Boy; down, Girl!" he cried to the dogs. + +Dan began to be thoroughly alarmed. If Nancy had gone out, the dogs would +certainly have followed her. She must be within! + +He went back into the house, and searched room after room, but no trace +of her was to be found. He returned at last to his mother's chamber. + +"I can't find Nancy," he said. "She must have gone off somewhere." + +"Gone off! why, she must have left very early then. I have been awake +these two hours--since daylight--; I would have heard every sound." + +"Well, she isn't about now, Mother. She will be back by breakfast time, I +don't doubt. Just stay abed this morning, I will send her to you as soon +as she comes." + +"I shall have to, I suppose. Really, Dan, it is extraordinary how +neglectful of me that child can sometimes be. She knew--" + +"Mother, don't find fault with her. She is devoted to you, and you know +it." + +"I daresay she is. Of course she is, and I am devoted to her. Where would +she be, I wonder, if it hadn't been for me? Good heavens! Dan, can +anything have happened to her?" + +"No, no--of course not,--nothing." + +"Search the house, boy; she may be lying some place in a faint. She isn't +strong--I have always been worried--" + +"Don't get excited, Mother. We will wait until breakfast time. If she +doesn't turn up then, you may be sure I shall find her." + +He looked at his watch. It was already nearly eight o'clock, so he +decided to say nothing to Pembroke until after breakfast. He found the +Marquis and Tom chatting before the fire in the bar. + +"Shall we have breakfast?" said Dan. "Mother will not be in this +morning." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the Marquis, as they took their seats at table, "that is +a disappointment. And shall we not wait for Mademoiselle Nancy?" + +"My sister has stepped out, monsieur; she may be late. Shall I give you +some coffee?" + +"If you please--. We have another of these so beautiful days, eh? This so +glorious weather, these moonlight nights, this snow--_C'est merveilleux_. +Last night I sat myself for a long time in my window. Ah _la nuit_--the +moon past its full, say you not?--the sea superbly dark, superbly blue, +the wonderful white country! As I sat there, messieurs, a sight too +beautiful greeted my eyes. A ship, with three great sails, appeared out +on the sea and sailed as a bird up the river to our little cove, _Voila, +mes amis_"--he waved his hand toward the eastern windows--"She is +anchored at our feet." + +The two young men looked in the direction in which the marquis pointed, +and to their astonishment they saw, riding securely at her moorings in +the cove, a large sailing vessel. She was a three-masted schooner of +perhaps fifteen hundred tons, a larger ship than they had seen at anchor +in the Strathsey for many a year. + +"By all that's good!" exclaimed Tom, "that is exactly the sort of ship my +father used to have in the West Indie trade, a dozen or fifteen years +ago. What is she? I wonder; and why is she anchored here instead of in +the Port?" + +The Marquis shrugged his shoulders. "That I can tell you not, my friend; +but I am happy that she is anchored there for the hours of beauty she +has already given to me. On this strange coast of yours one so rarely +sees a sail." + +"No, they go too far to the south... But what is she?" asked Dan. "We +must find out." He went to the cupboard, and got out his marine glass and +took a long look at the stranger. + +"What do you make her out?" asked Tom. + +"There are men on deck, some swabbing out the roundhouse. One of them is +lolling at the wheel. She flies the British flag." + +"Do you, perhaps, make out the name?" asked the Marquis. + +"I don't know--yes," Dan replied, twisting the lens to suit his eyes +better and spelling out the letters, "S,O,U,T,H,E,R,N,C,R--the +_Southern Cross_. By Jingo, Tom, we'll have to go down to the beach and +have a look at her." + +Tom took the glasses; turning them over presently to the Marquis. "She is +a good fine boat, eh?" exclaimed M. de Boisdhyver, as he applied his eye +to the end of the glass. + +"She certainly is," said Dan. + +They sat down at length and resumed their breakfast. The ship had +diverted Tom's attention for the moment from the fact that Nancy had +not appeared. + +"Where is Nance, Dan?" he asked at length, striving to conceal his +impatience. + +"I don't know," Dan replied. "I think she has gone over to see Mrs. Meath +and stayed for breakfast." + +"Madame Meath--?" enquired the Marquis. + +"At the House on the Dunes," Dan answered, a trifle sharply. + +"A long walk for Mademoiselle on a cold morning," commented Monsieur +Boisdhyver, as he sipped his coffee. + +In a few moments Dan rose. "Going to the Port to-day, Tom?" + +"Not till later, any way; I am going down to the beach to have a look at +that ship." + +"Wait a little, and I'll go with you," He turned to the door and motioned +Tom to follow him. + +Outside he took his friend's arm and drew him close. "Tom, something's +up; Nancy's not here." + +"Nancy's not here;" exclaimed Pembroke. "What do you mean? Where is she?" + +"To tell the truth, I don't know where she is; her bed has not been slept +in. I thought at first she had gone for a walk with the dogs as she does +sometimes, but Boy and Girl are both in the barn. It's half-past eight +now, and she ought to be back," + +"Good Lord! man, have you searched the house?" + +"I've been over it from garret to cellar." + +"And you can't find her?" + +"Not a sign of her." + +"Have you been through the north wing?" + +"Yes, all over it. I have been in every room in the house, boy. Nance +isn't there. You heard nothing in the night, did you?" + +"Nothing." + +"When did you go to sleep?" + +"Perhaps about half-past three. Come to think of it, I awoke at four +with a start, for I heard a sleigh on the Port Road. After that I +went to bed." + +"The sleigh hadn't been at the Inn?" + +"It couldn't have been--I'd have heard of it if it had; you see it woke +me up just going along the road." + +"I don't suppose we need worry. But it is queer--none of the servants +have seen her since last night." + +"My God, what can have happened to her?" cried Tom. + +"Sh, boy! We have nothing to go on, but I wager that old French devil +knows more than he will tell." + +"Then, we'll choke it out of him." + +"No, no, don't be a fool! She may be back any minute. I'll get the sleigh +and go over to the House on the Dunes. In the meanwhile don't show that +you are anxious! I'll be back inside of an hour, and we can have a look +at the ship. If Nance isn't with Mrs. Meath, why I am sure I'll find her +here. Let's not worry till we have to." + +Tom assented to this proposition somewhat unwillingly. Despite his +friend's reassuring words, he did not feel that Nancy would be found at +the House on the Dunes or that she would immediately return. He +remembered her telling him of her desire to go away. He remembered how +strangely she had received the declaration of his love, and he feared +almost as much that she had fled from him, as that the Marquis, weird and +evil as he began to think him, had any hand in her disappearance. + +After Dan's departure in the sleigh, Tom wandered about restlessly. When +half an hour passed and Frost did not return, he went out to look down +the road and see if he were coming. The white open country was still and +empty, and the only sign of life was the great three-masted ship riding +at anchor in the cove, with seamen lolling about her deck. + +As Tom stood under the Red Oak, the Marquis stepped out of the front +door. He was wrapped in his great coat, about to take his morning walk up +and down the gallery. + +"Why so pensive, Monsieur Pembroke? Is it that you are moved by the +beauty of the scene--, the land so white, the sea so blue, and the +_Southern Cross_ shining as it were in a northern sky!" + +Tom grunted a scarcely civil reply, and turning away to avoid further +conversation, strolled down the avenue of maples toward the road. + +Monsieur de Boisdhyver raised his eyebrows slightly, and began his walk. +By and by, still more impatient, Pembroke walked back toward the house. +If Dan did not return soon, he determined he would go after him. As he +came up to the gallery again the Marquis paused and spoke to him. "And +Mademoiselle, she has not returned?" he asked. + +"No!" Pembroke replied sharply. "She has gone to the House on the Dunes +and her brother has driven over to fetch her." + +"Ah! pardon," exclaimed Monsieur de Boisdhyver; "I did not know... But it +is cold for me, Monsieur Pembroke; I seek the fire." + +Tom did not reply. The Marquis went inside, and presently Tom could see +him standing at the window, the marine glass in his hands, sweeping the +countryside. + +Pembroke passed an anxious morning. Ten o'clock came; half-past; eleven +struck. Nancy had not appeared, or was there a sign of Dan. Unable to be +patient longer, he set out on the Port Road to meet his friend. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GREEN LIGHTS + + +The smoke was curling from the chimneys of the House on the Dunes as Dan +drove up the long marsh road from the beach. He had half convinced +himself that Nancy would be there, and he hoped that she herself would +answer his knock. When at length the door was opened it was not by Nancy +nor by Mrs. Meath, but by a stranger whom he had never seen before. + +"Yes?" a pleasant voice questioned, but giving an accent to the +monosyllable that made Dan think instantly of France. + +He found himself facing a charming woman, her bright blue eyes looking +into his with a smile that instantly attracted him. She was well-dressed, +with a different air from the women he knew. And she was undeniably +pretty--of that Dan was convinced, and the conviction overwhelmed him +with shyness. He stood awkward and ill-at-ease; for the moment forgetting +his errand. "I suppose," he stammered, "--I beg your pardon--but I +suppose you are Mrs. Heath's new boarder,--Mrs. Fountain?" + +"Yes," replied the strange lady with an amused smile, "that is what I +imagine that I am called. My name is Madame de La Fontaine. And you--?" + +"I?--Oh, yes--of course--I am Dan Frost from the Inn over yonder. I came +to see Mrs. Meath to ask if my sister Nancy is here." + +"Alas!" replied Madame de La Fontaine, "poor Mrs. Meath she this morning +is quite unwell. She is in her room, so that I am afraid you cannot see +her. But, I may tell you, there is no one else here, just myself and my +servants." + +"You have not seen or heard anything then of my sister, Nancy Frost?" +repeated Dan. + +"Nancy Frost?--your sister?--No, monsieur. I am arrived only last night +and have seen no one." + +"I had hoped my sister would be here. I am sorry about Mrs. Meath; +perhaps I can be of some service. If you should need me at any time, I +can almost always be found at the Inn at the Red Oak." + +"The Inn at the Red Oak?" repeated Madame de La Fontaine, "and is +that near by?" + +"It is about a mile and a half by the road," Frost replied, "but you can +see it plainly from the doorstep here." + +The foreign lady stepped out in the crisp February air. "Can you point it +out to me? I may need your assistance some time." + +"You see the woods and the oak at the edge of them," said Dan, pointing +across the Dunes. "That great tree is the Red Oak, the rambling old +building beneath it is the Inn." + +"Ah! one can see quite plainly from one house to the other, is it not +so?" + +"Quite," Dan replied. + +"Thank you, monsieur. I trust there will be no need for assistance. But +it makes one glad to know where are neighbours, especially--" she added, +"while poor Mrs. Meath is ill." + +As she spoke she turned to the door with the air of dismissing him, but +on second thoughts she faced him again. "I wonder, Mr. Frost, will you do +me a favour?" + +"I shall be delighted," Dan exclaimed. + +"My luggage arrived last night," said Madame de La Fontaine, "upon the +ship that is at anchor in the bay. They are to bring my boxes ashore. But +before that I desire to give directions to the captain at the beach, and +I cannot well do so by my servant. Will you be kind enough to walk with +me and show me the way?" + +Dan forgot about Nancy in his eagerness to assure this unusually +attractive lady that he was at her disposal. She disappeared within, and +he heard her give some quick, sharp directions in French to a maid. Then +in a moment she reappeared on the little porch, bonneted and wrapped for +a walk in the cold. + +As they set out across the Dunes, she kept up a rapid fire of questions +that might have seemed inquisitive to one more accustomed to the world +than Dan. He found himself in the course of that quarter of an hour +talking quite freely with the charming stranger. + +"No, I did not make the journey from France in the _Southern Cross_," she +replied to one of his interrogations, "that would have been +uncomfortable, I fear. But she brings over my boxes. She is arrived +somewhat sooner than I was promised." + +"Do you expect to signal her from the beach?" + +"But yes." + +"How will they know who you are?" + +"Oh, they have instructions. You must think all this curious!" she +commented with a smile. "You must think me an odd person." + +The possible oddness of Madame de La Fontaine made less impression upon +Dan than did her charm. He was conversing easily with a very lovely +woman, and all else was forgotten in that agreeable sensation. + +As they emerged from the Dunes upon the little beach of the Cove, Dan +observed on the deck of the _Southern Cross_ a sailor watching them +through a glass. Madame de La Fontaine drew her handkerchief from beneath +her cloak and waved it toward the ship. + +"This is the signal," she explained, "that they were instructed to look +out for. If I am not mistaken Captain Bonhomme will come to the shore for +my directions. You speak French, monsieur?" + +"Not at all," Dan replied. + +"Ah!" sighed the lady, "you lose a great deal." + +"I might have learned some this winter," said Dan; "for we have had a +French gentleman as our guest at the Inn." + +"Indeed! And who, may I ask, is your French gentleman?" + +"His name is the Marquis de Boisdhyver. Do you, by any chance, know him?" + +"The Marquis de Boisdhyver?" repeated Madame de La Fontaine. "I know the +name certainly; it is an old family with us, monsieur. But I do not +recall that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting any one who bore +it... But see! they are lowering the boat." + +They were now at the edge of the surf. Madame de La Fontaine again waved +a hand in the direction of the clipper. Dan saw a small boat alongside +her, into which several sailors and an officer, as it seemed, were +clambering over the rail. They pushed off, and began to row vigorously +for the shore. + +The French lady stood watching them intently. Within a few moments the +little boat was beached, the officer sprang out, advanced to Madame de La +Fontaine, and saluted. She exchanged sentences with him in French of +which Dan understood nothing. Then the seaman touched his cap, got into +his small boat, and gave orders to push off. + +"He understands no English," remarked Madame de La Fontaine. "I gave +directions about my boxes. We may return now, monsieur; or doubtless I am +able to find my way back alone." + +"Oh no," exclaimed Dan gallantly, "I will go with you." + +The lady smiled graciously. As they walked back across the Dunes, she +kept up a lively conversation, no longer asking him questions, nor, he +observed, giving him the opportunity to ask any. + +At the door of the House on the Dunes she dismissed him finally. "I am +but too grateful, Monsieur, for your kindness. I hope that we shall meet +again while I dwell in your beautiful country. In the meantime, I trust +you will find your sister." + +Dan flushed, how could he have forgotten Nancy! Taking the hand that his +new acquaintance offered, he hurried away. He met Tom on the Port Road +about half a mile from the Inn and was truly worried to find that Nancy +had not returned; he explained briefly his own delay in his expedition +with the strange lady to the beach. + +"It is certainly odd, though perhaps not so odd as stupid, that they +should have anchored in the Cove just to disembark one woman's boxes. It +would have been much simpler to go to the Port, as every well-bred +skipper does, and had the French woman's stuff carted out. At any rate, +we'll go down this afternoon and have a look at her." + +By the time they reached the Inn it was noon, and still there was no word +of Nancy. The dinner was a silent one, as the Marquis tactfully did not +disturb his companions' preoccupation, and Mrs. Frost, who was unusually +nervous, did not appear. + +After the meal the two young men started for the beach. At Tom's +suggestion they got a little dory from the boathouse and rowed out to the +clipper. The wind had shifted to the southeast, but still there was not +enough of a sea to give them any trouble; and in a few minutes they were +under the bows of _The Southern Cross_. Dan hailed a seaman who was +leaning over the gunwale and watching them with idle curiosity. If the +man replied in French, it was in a variety of that tongue that Tom's +limited attainments did not understand, and, annoyed by the +incomprehensible replies, he asked for "le captaine". At +length,--possibly attracted by the altercation at the bows,--the +authoritative-looking person who had come ashore in the morning in +response to Madame de La Fontaine's signal, now appeared at the gunwale +and glanced below at the two young men in the dory. His expression +betrayed no sign that he recognized Frost. Indeed he vouchsafed no +syllable of reply to the questions Dan asked in English or to those that +Tom ventured to phrase in Dr. Watson's French. + +He was not, they thought, an attractive person; his countenance was +swarthy, his eyes were black his hair was black, his heavy jaw was +shadowed by an enormous black mustachio. A kerchief of brilliant red tied +about his throat gave him the appearance of the matador in a Spanish +bullfight rather than the officer of an English merchantman. He glanced +at the dory occasionally, shook his head silently in response to the +requests to go aboard, and at length when that did not serve to put an +end to them, he shrugged his shoulders and disappeared. The seaman +continued to lean over the gunwale and spat nonchalantly as though that +were the measure of their appreciation of this unasked-for visit. + +"I move we skip up the rope," said Tom, "and explain ourselves at close +quarters." + +"Thanks, no," replied Dan. "Either of those two amiable gentlemen +looks capable and willing of pitching us overboard. The water is too +cold for bathing." + +"Very well," said Tom, "I will yield to your sober judgment for the +moment; but I propose to see the inside of that ship sooner or later +unless she weighs anchor in the hour and sails away. But we ought to be +getting to town to make enquiries about Nancy. For Heavens' sake, Dan, +where do you suppose she can be?" + +They rowed back to the beach, stowed the dory in the boathouse, and set +out in the sleigh for Monday Port. Diligent enquiry there, in likely and +unlikely places, proved fruitless. It was nightfall when they returned +to the Inn. + +They were greeted by the Marquis in the bar. "Mademoiselle Nancy, she has +not been found?" + +"No," said Dan. "I take it from your question that she has not come home +yet either." + +"She is not come, no. Perhaps she stays at the House on the Dunes?" + +"I do not know," Dan answered tartly. "I expect her every moment, but it +is idle to conceal from you, Monsieur, that we are much concerned as to +her absence." + +The Marquis grew sympathetic,--optimistically sympathetic. Tom clutched +at his re-assuring words, but Dan was even more irritated by the silence +that Monsieur de Boisdhyver had maintained throughout the day. + +Directly after supper Dan went into his mother's parlour, leaving the +others to their own devices. The Marquis settled himself near the fire +and was soon absorbed in reading an old folio; Tom wandered restlessly +about, now up and down the long bar, now in the corridors, now on the +gallery and in the court without. + +The night, after the bright day, had set in raw and cold; a damp breeze +blew from the southwest, and gave promise both of wind and rain. From his +position under the Red Oak, Tom could see the red and green lights of +_The Southern Cross_ at her moorings in the Cove below, and across the +Neck the lighted windows of the House on the Dunes. Over all else the +night had cast its black damp mantle. + +As he stood watching, deeply anxious for the welfare of the girl he +loved, he noticed a new light appear in one of the upper windows of the +House on the Dunes--not yellow as is the light of candles, but green like +the light on the port side of the clipper in the Cove. Had he not seen +the lights from the other windows he could have thought it was another +ship on the ocean side of the Neck. + +He looked for a long time at the tiny spark in the distance, wondering +what whim had induced Mrs. Meath to shade her candles with so deep a +green. As he strolled back toward the Inn, he glanced through the windows +of the bar where the Marquis still read by the fireside. Suddenly the +old gentleman, as Tom curiously watched him, laid his book down on the +table and rose from his chair. He looked about the room and then advanced +to the window. Tom instinctively slipped behind the trunk of the great +oak. Monsieur de Boisdhyver stood for several moments peering into the +darkness. Then he turned away and crossed the room to the door into the +front hall. It flashed through Tom's mind that possibly the Marquis had +started on another of his mysterious tours. He ran down again into the +court far enough from the house to command a view of the entire facade, +and watched curiously, particularly the north wing. All was dark, save +for the lights below. + +Suddenly he saw the flicker of a candle in one of the windows, not of the +north wing, but of the south. A moment's glance, and he made sure that it +was the room occupied as a sleeping apartment by Monsieur de Boisdhyver. + +The Marquis was standing by the window, with his face pressed close to +the pane, peering out into the night. He still held the candle in his +hand. To Dan's surprise, he placed it carefully on the broad window-sill, +and drew down the dark shade to within a foot of the sill, blotting out +all save a narrow band of light. Then the Marquis disappeared for several +moments into the interior of the room. Dan was about to turn back into +the house, when again Monsieur de Boisdhyver came to the window. He did +not raise the shade, but inserted between the windowpane and the candle a +strip of dark green paper. It was translucent and had the effect of +sending a beam of green light southward, across the meadows and the +dunes, to meet--Tom suddenly realized--the rays of the green light from +the House on the Dunes. + +Was it a signal being exchanged, and between whom? The coincidence of +green lights from the Inn and the House on the Dunes, at the same moment, +was too marked to be without significance. To what end was the Marquis de +Boisdhyver exchanging mysterious signals with some one in that lonely +farmhouse, and what did they mean? + +Tom repressed his agitation and remained for some time watching the two +green lights that glowed toward one another over the dark landscape. + +Suddenly the light in the House on the Dunes was extinguished; then, +momentarily it shone again, but quickly went out and left the great sweep +of dunes in darkness. Two minutes later the same thing took place in the +window of the south chamber of the Inn. The light flashed and was gone, +flashed again and shone no more. + +Tom went in, by a rear entrance, to the bar. The Marquis was seated by a +table, absorbed in reading. He started as Tom entered. "Still no word of +Mademoiselle?" he piped. + +"Still no word, monsieur," Pembroke answered laconically. He also +seated himself in the candle light and took up the last issue of the +_Port News_. + +"Do you know what has become of Dan?" Pembroke asked presently. + +"Monsieur Frost he has been closeted with madame his mother for the past +half-hour. You have no further plans for seeking Mademoiselle? For +myself, I grow alarmed." + +"I know nothing but what you know, monsieur. Nancy has not returned. +There has been no word of her. We shall have to wait." With tremendous +effort to conceal his agitation and annoyance, Tom resumed his reading. + +Monsieur de Boisdhyver glanced at him for a moment with a little air of +interrogation, then shrugged his shoulders slightly and turned again to +his French paper. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MRS. FROST'S RECOLLECTIONS OF A FRENCH EXILE + + +After the long day of fruitless search and enquiry for the vanished +Nancy, supper being over and Tom having gone outside, Dan joined his +mother in the blue parlour. + +Mrs. Frost was weary with waiting and anxiety, but as Dan threw himself +on a couch near her chair, she watched him patiently. + +"There is no clue, Dan?" she ventured at last. + +"No clue, mother, not the slightest. Nancy seems to have vanished as +completely as if she had dissolved into air. As you know, the house has +been thoroughly searched; the servants carefully questioned; and +enquiries have been made at every conceivable place in Monday Port. I +have been to the House on the Dunes, and to the farmhouses on every road +round about. No one has seen or heard of her. She has taken French leave, +but for what reason I can't imagine." + +"Nancy has not been happy for some time, Dan," said Mrs. Frost. + +"No, I have fancied that she was not. But why? Do you suppose she has +left us deliberately? or--". He paused uncertain whether or not to give +voice to his suspicions. + +"Or what?" asked his mother. + +"Or she has been forced away against her will." + +"Against her will!" the old lady exclaimed. "Who could have forced her? +and for what reason? Do you think she may have been kidnapped?" + +"Either kidnapped or decoyed away." + +"But who could have designs upon Nancy? It is more reasonable to suppose +that she left of her own accord. I confess that would not altogether +surprise me." + +"I don't know, mother, but I have my fears and suspicions. There may be +some one who has a deep interest in Nancy, who for reasons of his own, +which I don't yet understand, may wish to control her movements. I wish +you would tell me all you know of Nancy's origin. You have never told +me;--you have never told her, I fancy,--who she really is and how you +came to adopt her as your own child. I have never been curious to know, +in fact I have not wanted to know, for she has always been to me +precisely what a sister of my own blood would be. But now, it may help +me to understand certain strange things that have happened in the last +few days." + +For a moment Mrs. Frost was silent. "No, I have never spoken to you or +to Nancy of her early history, Dan; simply because, to all intent she +has been our own. I have always wished that she should feel absolutely +one with us; and I think she always has, until this winter. But of late +I have noticed her discontent, her growing restlessness, and I have +sometimes wondered if she could be brooding over the mystery of her +early years. But she has never asked me a direct question; and I have +kept silent." + +"I think now, mother," Dan replied, "it is your duty to tell me all +you know." + +"I have no reason, my dear, to keep anything from you. I should have told +you years ago, if you had asked me. There is not much to tell. You may +remember when you were a boy about six or seven years old, a French exile +came to the Inn, a military gentleman, who had left France in consequence +of the fall of the great Napoleon." + +"Yes, I remember him distinctly," said Dan. "He used to tell stories to +Tom and me of his adventures in the wars. Tom was speaking of him only +the other day." + +"Well," continued Mrs. Frost, "this gentleman called himself General +Pointelle. I learned afterwards it was not his real name. Who he actually +was, I have not the slightest idea. He brought with him a little girl two +years old, a sweet little black-eyed girl, to whom I, having lost your +only sister at about that age, took a great fancy. The General also had +two servants with him, a valet, and a maid. The maid, a pretty young +thing, took care of the child. They arrived in mid-summer, on a +merchantman that plied between Marseilles and Monday Port. I do not know +why General Pointelle came to this part of the country, or why he chose +to stay at the Inn; at any rate he came, and he engaged for an indefinite +period the best suite of apartments in the old north wing. He had the Oak +Parlour--" + +"The Oak Parlour!" exclaimed Dan. + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Frost, "that was part of the suite reserved usually +for our most distinguished guests. The general used that for a +sitting-room and the adjoining chamber as a bed-room. The maid and child +occupied connecting rooms across the hall. The valet, I believe, was in +some other part of the house. General Pointelle proved himself a +fascinating guest, and his little daughter Eloise was a favourite with +all the household. The maid, pretty as she certainly was and apparently +above her station, I somehow never trusted. I have always believed that +the relations between the general and herself were not what they should +have been. But Frenchmen look at such things differently, I am told; and +it was not to our interests to be over-curious. + +"They had been with us about two months when one fine morning we awoke to +find that General Pointelle, his valet, and the charming Marie had +disappeared, and little Eloise was crying alone in her big room. You have +probably guessed the child was Nancy." + +"Yes," Dan agreed, "but do you mean that the father actually +abandoned her?" + +"Practically. He left a note for me and a little bag of gold amounting to +two thousand dollars to be used for the child. If you will hand me that +old secretary there, I will show you the letter." + +Dan placed the old-fashioned writing-desk on the table beside her, and +waited anxiously while she fumbled in her pocket for the key. She +unlocked the desk, and after searching a few moments amongst innumerable +papers, drew out an old letter. This she unfolded carefully and handed +to Dan. It was written in English, in a fine running hand. He read it +attentively. + +"_The Inn at the Red Oak, Deal_: + +"14 October, '814. + +"Madame: + +"Political circumstances over which I have no control, patriotic +considerations which I cannot withstand, demand my immediate return to +France. In the conditions into which I am about to be plunged the care of +my dear little daughter becomes an impossibility. Inhuman as it must seem +to you, lacking in all sense of Christian duty as it must appear to you, +I entrust, without the formality of consulting you, my beautiful little +Eloise to your humane and tender care. With this letter I deposit with +you the sum of two thousand dollars in gold, which will go a little way +at least to compensate you for the burden I thus unceremoniously, but of +necessity, thrust upon you. I appeal to and confide in the goodness of +your heart, of which already I have such abundant testimony, that will +take pity upon the misfortune of a helpless infant and an equally +helpless parent. May you be a mother to the motherless, and may the +Heavenly Father bless you for what you shall do. + +"I embark, madame, upon a dangerous and uncertain mission. Should that +mission prove successful and restore the fortunes of my house, I will +return and claim my daughter. Should fate overwhelm me with disaster, I +must beg that you will continue to regard her and love her as your own. +The issue will have been decided within five years. Permit me to add but +one thing more,--in the event that I fall in the cause I have embraced, I +have made arrangements whereby communications shall be established with +you, madame, that will redound to your own good fortune and that of the +little Eloise. + +"All effort to thwart my plans or to establish my identity in the +meantime, will, I must warn you, be fruitless. + +"Adieu, madame: accept the assurance of my gratitude for all that you +have already done to sweeten exile and of my earnest prayer for the +blessing of God upon your great good heart. + +"I remain, madame, for the present, but always, under whatever name, + +"Your grateful and sincere servant, + +"GASTON POINTELLE," + +As Dan, with gathering brows, concluded the reading of this +extraordinary letter, Mrs. Frost resumed her story. + +"We always imagined that the general and his companions had sailed in a +French vessel that lay at that time in the Passage and left that morning +at dawn. There was nothing to do but adopt little Eloise Pointelle for my +own. I changed her name, at your father's suggestion, to Nancy Frost; +knowing that Pointelle was not the general's real name. For five years we +looked to see our guest return; and afterwards for years, we hoped to +receive some communication that would prove, as he promised, of advantage +to Nancy and ourselves. But from the night General Pointelle left our +house to this day, I have not heard one word to show that he still +existed or, indeed, that he ever had existed. We brought Nancy up as our +own daughter, though, never concealing from her the fact that she was not +of our blood. Indeed, Dan, I have loved her dearly." + +"Certainly, you have always treated her with the greatest kindness. But +this is quite extraordinary, Mother. I think it will throw light on +Nancy's present disappearance." + +"Do you think the father is alive, Dan? that he has communicated +with her?" + +"Not that, mother; I am really in the dark. But I believe that the +Marquis de Boisdhyver has some connection with your General Pointelle, +and that his stay with us this winter has something to do with Nancy." + +In response to Mrs. Frost's questions, he told of the meetings of Nancy +and the marquis, but decided to say nothing about the paper that he had +found in the Oak Parlour. + +"I want you to be careful, Mother, to give no hint to the Marquis that we +suspect him in any way. Tom and I are trying to solve the mystery, and +secrecy is of the greatest importance. It is a more complicated business +than we imagined. I must go now and find Tom. May I keep this letter?" + +"Yes, but keep it under lock and key. I have guarded it for sixteen +years; and it is the only evidence I possess of Nancy's origin." + +Dan returned to the bar, where he found the Marquis and Tom still reading +their papers. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Monsieur de Boisdhyver, "I trust, Monsieur Frost, you +bring us the good news at last of the return of Mademoiselle." + +"Unfortunately, I do not, monsieur," Dan replied. "Our efforts to find +out what has become of her have been entirely unsuccessful. I am very +anxious, as you may imagine." + +"And to what mishap do you attribute Mademoiselle's so unceremonious +departure?" + +"I do not attribute it to any mishap," replied Dan. "I think that my +sister has gone off on a visit to some friends, and that her messages to +us have been miscarried. I feel certain that to-morrow we will be +completely reassured." + +"Ah! I hope so with all my heart," exclaimed the Marquis fervently. "It +is a matter of deep distress to me--monsieur. But if--to-morrow passes +and still you do not hear--?" + +"God knows, sir. We must do everything to find her." + +"We shall find her," cried Tom, as he sprang to his feet, unable longer +to repress his anxiety or his irritation. "And if we do not find her safe +and well, woe to the man who has harmed her." + +"Bravo!" cried the Marquis. "Permit me to adopt those words to express +my own sentiments. I applaud this determination, monsieur, _de tout +mon coeur_." + +Tom glared at the little old man with an expression of illconcealed rage. +He was about to blurt out some angry reply, when a warning gesture from +Dan checked him. Without speaking, he flung himself out of the room. + +"Poor Tom!" said Dan quickly, to cover Pembroke's attitude toward the +Marquis, "this takes him especially hard. He is in love with Nancy." + +"_Eh bien_! I sympathize with his good taste. It is that that accounts +for his vigour of his expressions, so much more _emphatique_ than our +good host." + +"More emphatic, perhaps," said Dan, "though I do not feel less strongly." + +The Marquis made a little bow, as he rose to retire. "If, chance, +monsieur could require my assistance--" + +"Thank you," said Dan quickly. "In that case, sir, I shall be only too +happy to call upon you." He rose also, and courteously held the candle +till the Marquis had reached the top of the stairs. + +Tom waited his friend impatiently in their common chamber. And when at +last, having closed the house for the night, Dan joined him, he told at +once of the signals which he supposed had been exchanged between the +Marquis at the Inn and someone at the House on the Dunes. In return Dan +repeated what he had learned about Nancy from Mrs. Frost. + +"There is no doubt in my mind," said Dan, "that the Marquis knows all +about Nancy's disappearance and where she is, and further I believe that +Nancy's disappearance is part of a plot with the Marquis here, Madame de +la Fontaine at the House on the Dunes, and that schooner riding at anchor +in the Cove. I have a plan, Tom." + +"Go ahead for heaven's sake. If we don't do something, I'll go in and +choke the truth out of that old reprobate. He applauds my sentiments, eh! +Good God! If he knew them!" + +"Yes, yes," said Dan. "But the time for choking has not come. You nearly +gave yourself away to-night, you will ruin our plans, and involve Nancy +in some harm. She is probably in that old villain's power. Now listen to +me. The first thing to do is to discover Nancy's whereabouts. The second +is to get at the bottom of the Marquis's plot and the secret of the torn +scrap of paper. We will find the clew to both, I think, if we can +discover the meaning of the signals between the Marquis and the lady in +the House on the Dunes." + +"Right!" cried Tom. "But how?" + +"One of us must stay at the Inn and watch the Marquis to-night, and the +other investigate the House on the Dunes. I have already been there and +made the acquaintance of the lady, so I had better do that, and you stay +here. Do you agree?" + +"Yes, of course; though I envy you the chance to be out and doing." + +"You will be doing something here. I want you to hide yourself in the +hallway near the Marquis's door and watch all night--till dawn anyway. +He cannot get out of his room without coming into the hall, and we must +know what he does to-night. If the Marquis can spend a sleepless night, +we can afford to do so. I don't know what I can do at the House on the +Dunes but I shall take the pistol, and you can keep my gun. To-morrow I +will get more arms, for I shouldn't be surprised if we needed them. Is +everything clear?" + +"Perfectly," said Tom. "I'll watch as soon as you are off." + +"Good-night, old boy, good luck." + +"Good-night," and Dan slipped out of the room and down the dark stairs. + + + +CHAPTER X + +MIDNIGHT VIGILS + + +As soon as Dan had gone Tom blew out his light and slipped into +the hallway. + +This portion of the Inn was simple in design. A long corridor ran through +the middle of the house to meet a similar passage at the southern end +extending at right angles to the main hall. The South Chamber, occupied +by the Marquis de Boisdhyver, opened into the southwest passage, but the +door was well beyond the juncture of the two corridors. It was Pembroke's +intention to conceal himself in the bedroom next the Marquis's chamber, +from the door of which he could look down the entire length of the main +hall, and by stepping outside get a view of the branch hallway into which +the door of this room and that of the Marquis actually opened. A further +advantage was that the windows of this room, like those of the South +Chamber, looked out upon the Dunes and the Cove. + +As Tom stepped from his chamber, the house seemed utterly deserted; save +for the roaring of the wind without and an occasional creak or crack in +the time-worn boards, there were no sounds. + +The night was not a dark one, although the wind was rising and rain was +threatening; for a full moon lurked behind the thick veil of cloud and +something of its weird weak light relieved the darkness even of the great +corridor of the Inn. + +Tom stole softly down the hallway and gained the room next the Marquis's. +He took his position in a great chair, which he drew near the open door, +and laid his gun on the floor near at hand. No one could enter the hall +without his seeing him. Every few moments he would tiptoe to the doorway, +thrust his head into the corridor, and listen intently for any sound in +the South Chamber. + +It was a lonely and unpleasant vigil. The night was wild, the storm was +rising, the old Inn was moaning as though in distress; and, despite his +natural courage, fantastic terrors and dangers thrust themselves upon his +excited imagination. He would much have preferred, he felt, to be out in +the open as Dan was, even facing real dangers and greater difficulties. +Deeper than by these imaginary fears of the night, he was racked with +anxiety to know what had become of the girl he loved. Had she been +decoyed away by the evil genius of the place; was she in danger? Had she +disappeared of her own free will; and didn't she really love him? + +He was not in the least sleepy; but after a while the vigil began to tell +upon his nerves. He found it almost impossible to sit still and wait, +perhaps in vain. He made innumerable trips across the room to the windows +to look out into the bleak night. The landscape was blotted out. Not a +light showed from the House on the Dunes; only the two lamps on the +schooner at anchor in the Cove gleamed across the night. Eleven o'clock, +twelve o'clock struck solemnly from the old clock on the stairs. + +Once as he was looking out of the window, it seemed to him that the green +light on the _Southern Cross_ was moving. But it was impossible that she +should weigh anchor in the teeth of the rising storm. He was mistaken. +Nay, he was sure. But it was rising, slowly, steadily, as though drawn by +an invisible hand, to about the height of the masthead. There at last it +stopped, and swung to the wind, to and fro, to and fro; high above its +red companion, high above the deck. + +And then, suddenly, as if to answer this mysterious manoeuvre, the green +light, that earlier in the evening had glowed from a north window of the +House on the Dunes, now flashed from an east window of the old farmhouse; +flashed, then gleamed steadily. The light on the _Southern Cross_ was +lowered slowly, then raised again. The light in the House on the Dunes +vanished; soon flashed again and then vanished once more. Slowly the +light in the schooner descended to its normal position. A moment later +the green light appeared on the north side of the House on the Dunes, +where it had been earlier, and shone there steadily. + +Was it a signal to the Marquis de Boisdhyver? Tom tiptoed to the +partition between his room and the South Chamber, and put his ear to the +wall to listen. Not a sound reached him. He turned to the door to go into +the corridor, and stood suddenly motionless. For there, advancing ever so +cautiously down the hall, carrying a lighted candle in his hand, was the +old Marquis. He was clad in night dress and cap, with a gayly-coloured +dressing-gown worn over the white shirt. Slowly, silently, pausing every +instant to listen; he stole on, gun in hand, and Tom followed him as +cautiously and as quietly. Instead of turning to the right at the +partition that divides the north and south wings of the Inn and going +down stairs, the Marquis turned to the left, into the short hall that led +directly to the great chamber occupied by Tom and Dan. + +By the time Pembroke in pursuit had reached the turn and dared to peep +around the corner of the wall, the Marquis was at the door of Dan's room. +He stood there, ear bent close to the panel, intently listening. + +Tom waited breathless. Not satisfied, Monsieur de Boisdhyver turned about +and went into an adjoining chamber, the door of which stood open. +Pembroke was about to advance, when the Marquis emerged again into the +corridor, having left his lighted candle in the empty room. This +manoeuvre, whatever advantage it had for the Marquis, was fortunate for +Pembroke, for it left the end of the little hall, where he stood +watching, in deep shadow. He could now step boldly from behind the +concealing wall without fear of immediate detection. + +Again the Marquis stood and listened at the door of Dan's room, then +cautiously turned the knob. The door yielded and opened an inch or so. +Monsieur de Boisdhyver put his ear to the crack. Dissatisfied with the +absolute silence that must have met him, he pushed open the door a little +further and thrust his head inside. In a moment he disappeared within. + +Tom realized that the Marquis would soon discover the fact that the +room was empty. He looked about quickly for a place of concealment that +would command a view of all the halls. Fortunately the partition that +divided the long corridor between the north and south wings was hung +with heavy curtains. Deciding instantly, Pembroke slipped behind them, +and ruthlessly slit an opening in the thick green stuff, through which +he could peek out. He was just in time, as the Marquis came out of +their bedroom and softly closed the door. He stood irresolute; then, +with even greater caution, re-entered the room in which he had left his +candle. To Tom's chagrin, the candle was suddenly extinguished and the +Inn left in darkness. + +For some moments, there was absolute silence. Then Tom could hear +faintly,--or feel rather than hear--the Marquis cautiously finding his +way back. Luckily, the old Frenchman was groping his way next the other +wall. Pembroke slipped from behind the curtains and stole softly in +pursuit. As he reached the south end of the corridor, he heard the latch +of the Marquis's door click softly. Alarmed by discovering that they were +not in bed, thought Tom, he had abandoned whatever purpose he had in mind +for his midnight prowl. + +After waiting a little and hearing no more, Tom went again to the window. +The rain had begun now and the wind was blowing a gale. Suddenly Pembroke +discerned a light shining from the window next the very one from which he +was peering into the darkness,--the steady glow of a deep red light. + +"Another signal!" he murmured; then waited to see if it would be answered +by the House on the Dunes. Perhaps fifteen minutes passed, and then, +suddenly, there gleamed through the rain and dark, a tiny bit of red +flame, just where the House on the Dunes must be. A little later the red +lamp on the _Southern Cross_ performed a fantastic ascension to what +Pembroke took to be the masthead. + +The red light in the neighbouring window was extinguished. Almost +instantly the red spark on the Dunes disappeared, and in a few moments +the schooner's lamp began its descent. Simultaneously they glowed again +and the ship's light danced upward; then the two red lights on shore +vanished and the lamp on the _Southern Cross_ sank to its proper place +and stayed there. + +Of one thing Tom was sure: The Marquis, the lady at the House on the +Dunes, and the skipper of the schooner in the Cove, were in collusion. Of +another thing he felt almost equally certain: the red light was a signal +of danger, and the message of danger flashed across the night was the +fact that he and Dan were not safe asleep in bed. + +For a long time he watched, keen with excitement; listened patiently; +started at every sound. But nothing more unusual did he hear that night +than the roar of the wind, the dash of the brawling southeaster against +the panes, and the groans of the old house, shaken by the storm. Toward +morning he crept back to bed and fell instantly into a deep and +dreamless sleep. + +While Tom was thus watching and sleeping a somewhat different experience +had fallen to the lot of Dan Frost. He had no definite plan in making a +midnight visit to the vicinity of the House on the Dunes, but he hoped to +discover some clue to the surrounding mysteries. From time to time during +the day he had taken his field glasses to one of the upper rooms of the +Inn, and scanned the countryside but nothing unusual seemed astir in the +white world without. The _Southern Cross_ had lain on the surface of the +little cove all day, swaying with wind and tide, no sign of activity upon +her decks. It was after ten when he started forth. The night was not +quite dark, for the full moon was shining somewhere behind the thick veil +of clouds. Earlier in the evening Dan had intended to go boldly to the +House itself and demand an interview with old Mrs. Meath; but he +reflected that he would probably be met with the excuse that Mrs. Meath +was ill, and he did not know how he could force himself in, particularly +past the barrier of Madame de la Fontaine's charming manner. + +It was an unpleasant walk with the wind in his face, and it was nearly +eleven before he turned into the long dune road, which branched from the +Port Road near the Rocking Stone and led directly to the old farmhouse on +Strathsey Neck. To his chagrin it appeared that all lights had been +extinguished as if the inmates of the house had gone to bed. + +The old farmhouse loomed before him, dark and forbidding. On either side +there were outhouses, and in the rear quite near the house a barn. There +was not a tree on the place; indeed, there was little vegetation upon the +entire Neck, save the grass of the middle meadows which in summer +furnished scant nourishment for the cattle and a flock of sheep. Now all +was bleak and covered with snow, and a freshening gale swept out of the +great maw of the Atlantic. + +Keeping close to the fence, Frost began to make a complete circuit of +the farmhouse. As he turned a corner of the south end, or rear of the +house, he was relieved to see a light burning in the kitchen. He stole +cautiously to a position within the shadow of the barn from which he +could get a glimpse of the interior. In the kitchen standing before a +deal table, he saw a young woman--not Jane, Mrs. Heath's +maid-of-all-work, but a stranger,--with her hands deep in a bowl of +dough. Her back was toward him, but he guessed that she was Madame de la +Fontaine's maid, whom he had seen in the morning. The door into the +dining-room beyond stood open, and by craning his neck, Dan could see +that the room was lighter, but he could not discover whether or not it +were occupied. The shutters of the dining-room were so closely barred +and the curtains so tightly drawn that not a ray of light penetrated to +the outside. + +The girl in the kitchen proceeded busily about her work. She was +evidently engaged, despite the lateness of the hour, in mixing bread. + +Once while he waited patiently, to what end he hardly knew, Madame de la +Fontaine entered the kitchen. She was clad in black and held in her hands +what Dan took to be a ship's lamp. She stood for a moment in the doorway +and spoke to the servant maid. The girl stopped her work, and taking a +strip of paper, ignited it at a candle and lighted the lamp, which Madame +de la Fontaine held up for her. It glowed instantly with a deep green +flame, such as Tom had described as shining from a window of the House on +the Dunes in the early evening. + +As soon as her lamp was lighted Madame de la Fontaine left the room. +Supposing that she was about to give a signal, Dan's heart leaped at the +prospect of some result to his eavesdropping, and he stole carefully +around to the front of the house. Presently from an upper window in the +east side of the house, not the north as he had expected, he saw the +green light sending forth its message across the Dunes--to whom? Probably +the signal could be seen from the Inn, but it more likely was intended +for the schooner in the Cove. Sure enough, as he watched, Dan saw the +phenomenon of the ascending lamp on the _Southern Cross_, which at that +identical moment Tom Pembroke was watching from his post of vantage in +one of the south windows of the Inn. + +A little later the signal was removed from the east window of the +farmhouse and placed in a north window. Dan looked to see the answering +gleam from the Inn at the Red Oak. But none came. Crouched in a corner of +the fence, he waited perhaps for half-an-hour. + +Suddenly a signal gleamed from the Inn, but this time it was not green as +he expected, but red. In a few moments a form appeared in the window of +the farmhouse, and a white hand, which he supposed was that of Madame de +la Fontaine, took hold of the lamp and reversed it, so that now it showed +red. The light in the Inn vanished, reappeared, vanished again. The same +thing happened to the light in the House on the Dunes. And looking +eastward, Dan saw the ship's red lamp perform its fantastic ascent and +descent. Soon all was left in darkness. Frost slipped back to his post +near the barn and looked again into the kitchen. + +Madame de la Fontaine was standing in the doorway as before. The maid, +turning away from the table, came at that moment to the window, and +raised the sash, as though she were overheated. Presently, leaving the +window open, she turned to her mistress, and Dan could hear the sharp +staccato of her voice as she said something in what seemed to him her +barbarous French. + +Impelled by curiosity, he crept closer to the house. He was within six +feet of the window, standing on the tip of his toes. Suddenly he felt +himself pinioned from behind; his arms were gripped as in a vise, a hand +grasped his throat and began to choke him, and a sharp knee was planted +with terrific force in the small of his back. He made a gurgling sound as +he went backward, but there was no opportunity for struggling. He +recovered from the shock to find himself stretched at full length in the +wet snow. Some one was sitting upon him, struggling to thrust a gag into +his mouth; some one else was binding his hands and feet. + +He could just distinguish, in the sickly moonlight and the dim rays of +the candle from the kitchen, the faces of his assailants. One was the +murderous looking Frenchman, the skipper of the _Southern Cross_, the +other he took to be a common seaman. + +Attracted by the scuffle, the French maid had thrust her head out of the +window and was addressing the combatants in vigorous French. Neither then +nor later did Madame de la Fontaine appear. When Frost was safely bound +and gagged, Captain Bonhomme arose, said a few words to his companion, +and disappeared into the farmhouse. Dan's guard searched him rapidly, +confiscated his revolver and knife, and then resumed his seat upon his +legs. Inside the kitchen Dan could hear the sounds of an animated French +dialogue, in which he imagined from time to time that he detected the +silvery tones of Madame de la Fontaine's voice. Perhaps fifteen minutes +elapsed. Captain Bonhomme came out of the house, strode to the spot where +Dan was lying, and addressed him in excellent English. + +"Monsieur; for purposes which it is superfluous to explain, it is decided +to extend to you for a while the hospitality of my good ship the +_Southern Cross_--a hospitality, I may say, that your unceremonious +eavesdropping has thrust upon you. I will release your feet; and then, +monsieur, you follow my good Jean across the sands. If you are quiet, no +harm shall come to you. If you resist, _cher monsieur_, it will be of +painful duty that I entrust the contents of this revolver into--_mais +non! Vous comprenez, n'est-ce pas?--Bien_!" + +He gave a sharp order to the seaman. The handkerchief about Dan's ankles +was untied, and he was roughly assisted to his feet. + +"The snow is wet, eh! Yes, for the good wind is moist. Now, _Allons_!" + +Jean led the way, and Dan, deciding that he had no choice in the matter, +followed obediently. The captain brought up the rear. As they went out +through the gate, Dan turned for a moment and looked back at the house. +He could see the French maid still at the kitchen window. At the same +moment Captain Bonhomme glanced back and ceremoniously raised his hat. + +"_Bonsoir, mam'zelle_." + +"_Bonsoir, monsieur_," was the sharp reply, and the window was lowered +with a bang. + +They went on in silence across the Dunes to the beach. There, drawn up +above high water line, they found a skiff. The captain and Jean shoved +off, sprang in, and the little boat plunged into the combing waves. They +reached the _Southern Cross_ without misadventure. The captain blew a +call upon a boatswain's whistle. A rope was lowered and Jean made the +skiff fast to the ladder at the schooner's side. The captain took out +his revolver and held it in his hand, while Jean unloosed the cords that +bound Dan's wrists. + +"Now up, _mon ami_." + +For a moment Dan thought of risking a scuffle in the unsteady skiff, but +discretion proved the better part of valour, and he climbed obediently on +to the deck. The seaman stood close by till the captain and Jean had +clambered up after him. A few words in French to his men, then Captain +Bonhomme, beckoning to Dan to follow, led the way down the companion. He +opened the door of a little cabin amidships and bade Frost enter. + +"You will find everything required for your comfort, monsieur," he said, +"and I trust you will make yourself at home, as you say; and enjoy a good +night and a sound sleep. We can discuss our affairs in the morning." + +And with the words, he closed the door, turned the key in the lock, and +left Dan to his reflections. + + + + +PART III + +THE SCHOONER IN THE COVE + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE SOUTHERN CROSS + + +Dan spent a miserable night. He had soon satisfied himself that escape +was impossible. A child could not have squeezed through the port hole, +and the stoutness of the door--barred, he fancied, as well as locked on +the outside,--seemed to indicate that this particular cabin had been +constructed for the purpose of keeping an enemy out of mischief. + +Young Frost's reflections, as at length he stretched himself upon the +bunk, were anything but agreeable. The reconnoitre at the House on the +Dunes had established nothing but what they already practically +knew--that the Marquis, the lady, and the captain of the schooner were +working together. If they were responsible for Nancy's disappearance, as +Dan was convinced, he had not succeeded in getting a scrap of evidence +against them. And to cap the climax, he had stupidly allowed himself to +be captured. The method of his capture seemed to him quite as ignominious +as the fact. + +He was not particularly alarmed for his own safety. He did not doubt that +eventually he would escape, though at the moment he could not imagine +how; or, failing in that, he supposed he would be released,--honorably +discharged, as it were,--when it was too late for him to interfere with +the designs of the conspirators. And this was the bitterest reflection of +all: that a carefully-planned conspiracy was on foot, and no sooner had +he and Tom realized it than through sheer stupidity he must not only make +it clear to the Marquis and his colleagues that they were being watched, +but must let himself fall into their power. Poor Tom! thought Dan +ruefully as he tossed upon the little bunk, there must fall upon him now +the brunt of whatever was to be done for Nancy's rescue, for the +thwarting of whatever nefarious designs this gang of French desperados +were concocting. + +Escape! A dozen times and more he sprang from his bed to press his face +against the thick glass of the little port and to rage futilely that he +could not elongate his six feet of anatomy, and slip through. In vain he +would throw his weight against the door, without so much as shaking it. +And then he would sink back upon the bunk and determine to conserve his +strength by snatching a bit of sleep. And he would wait--since he must +wait--till morning. + +The gale had lashed itself into a fury; the rain was pouring in +torrents; and the ship rolled distressingly in the rising sea. It was +near dawn before Dan succeeded in getting to sleep at all, but from then +on for several hours he slept heavily. When he awoke the storm, like +many storms that come out of the south, had exhausted itself. The rain +had ceased, the wind had fallen, and it was evident from the motion of +the ship, that the sea was going down. Dan sprang to the port hole and +peered out, and was thankful to realize that the peep hole of his prison +gave upon the shore. + +Though it had stopped raining, the clouds were still grey and lowering, +and the morning light was weak and pale. The Dunes, beyond the disturbed +waters of the little cove, looked dirty and bedraggled. The snow had been +washed off the hillocks, the little streams that here and there emptied +into the Cove had swollen to the size of respectable brooks, and the high +water of the night had strewn the beach with brown tangled seaweed. There +was no sign of human life in evidence. Dan could just see the upper story +of the House on the Dunes, but no other habitation save the deserted +fisherman's huts that straggled along the beach. + +His watch showed half-past seven when the evil-visaged Jean unbarred the +door, opened it about a foot, and thrust in upon the floor a tray of +food. Dan sprang forward and succeeded in getting his foot into the +opening, so that Jean could not close the door. He was prepared to fight +for his liberty. Despite Jean's superior strength, Dan had the advantage +in that his own body acted as a lever, and for a moment it seemed that he +was to be successful; but the Frenchman, with a violent execration, +suddenly let go his hold on the knob, the door swung in, and Dan fell +back on all fours upon the floor. By the time he had recovered himself +for another dash, he was confronted by Jean, a disagreeable leer upon his +unpleasant countenance and a cocked pistol in his hand. + +Dan stood in his tracks. "I want to see Captain Bonhomme!" he demanded, +making up in the tone of his voice for the vigor his movements +suddenly lacked. + +"_Je ne parle pas englais_," was the irritating reply, as Jean, menacing +the prisoner with the pistol, reached for the door and closed it with a +snap. Dan had the chagrin of hearing the key turn in the lock and the +heavy bar fall into place across the panels. + +He sat down ruefully, but after a moment or so took up the tray and +placed it on the bunk before him. He made a bad breakfast off thick +gruel, black bread and villainous coffee, and then kicked his heels +impatiently for an hour or more. + +Eventually Jean reappeared, this time pistol in hand, and behind him, to +Dan's relief, Captain Bonhomme. The captain entered the little cabin, +leaving the door open behind him while Jean stood in the passage on duty +as guard. The swarthy unattractive face of Captain Bonhomme wore this +morning an expression of sarcastic levity that was more irritating to +Frost than its ferocious anger had been the night before. + +"_Bon jour, monsieur_," said the captain in a tone of obnoxious +pleasantry. "I trust the night has gone well with you." + +"You will oblige me," snapped Dan for reply, "by omitting your +hypocritical courtesy. I demand to know what you mean by this +proceeding,--capturing me like a common thief and imprisoning me on this +confounded ship?" + +Captain Bonhomme's countenance quickly lost its factitious cheerfulness. +"Monsieur," he replied sharply, "I did not come to you to bandy words. If +you will reflect on the occupation you were indulging last night at the +moment we surprised you, you will comprehend that it was certainly to be +inferred that, if you were not a thief, you were an eavesdropper; which, +to my way of thinking, is as bad. If you address me again in that +insulting tone, I shall leave you till such a time as you may be willing +to listen at least with common courtesy to what I have to say. You are, +young gentleman, a prisoner on my ship and very much in my power. You +have grossly offended a distinguished countrywoman who is under my +protection in your barbarous country. Madame de la Fontaine, however, has +been good enough to interest herself in your behalf and to beg that I +shall not unceremoniously pitch you overboard to feed the fishes as you +so richly deserve." + +Dan bit his lips, but for the moment kept silent. + +"I am come this morning," continued Captain Bonhomme, "not for the +pleasure of entering upon a discussion, but to inform you that a little +later in the morning, when this infernal wind of yours has blown itself +out, Madame de la Fontaine proposes to come aboard. For reasons of her +own, she does you the honor to desire a conversation with you. I have to +ask that you will meet my distinguished patroness as the gentleman you +doubtless profess to be, and that you will give me your word not to +attempt to escape while Madame is on board the ship." + +"I shall not give my word," protested Dan, "under any circumstances to a +pirate such as I take you to be." + +"_Eh bien, monsieur_; in that case, you will appear before Madame in +irons. From your window, so admirably small, you will see at what hour +Madame comes aboard. If in the meantime you have decided to give us your +word of honour, well and good; if you continue to display your freedom of +choice by the exercise of your stupidity, also, well and good. And now, +_an revoir_." Captain Bonhomme smiled grimly, bowed again with insulting +politeness, and left Dan alone in the cabin. + +An hour, two hours passed. The wind had abated, the sun was struggling to +dissipate the murky bank of cloud that hung from zenith to the eastern +horizon. From his coign of vantage at the little port hole Dan saw Madame +de la Fontaine pick her way across the Dunes and come upon the little +beach. A small boat had put off from the schooner and was being rowed to +shore by two seamen. The French lady gathered her skirts about her +ankles, and stepped lightly into the skiff, as the men held it at the +edge of the surf. The little boat was then pushed off and rowed briskly +toward the _Southern Cross_. + +Half-an-hour passed before the door of Dan's cabin was opened again, and +Captain Bonhomme, attended by the faithful Jean, reappeared. In the +skipper's hand was a pair of irons. + +"Monsieur," said the captain, holding up the irons, "Madame de la +Fontaine does you the honour of desiring an interview in the saloon. May +I venture to enquire your pleasure?" + +The ignominy of appearing before his charming acquaintance of the day +before manacled like a criminal, was too much for Dan's vanity. "I give +you my word of honour," he said gruffly. + +"Ah, monsieur," murmured the captain, "permit me to applaud your good +taste. But let us be exact: until you are returned to this cabin and are +again under lock and key, that is to say until Madame is safely upon +shore again,--you give me your word of honour as a gentleman to make no +attempt to escape?" + +"Yes, yes," said Dan, striving to conceal his irritation. "But spare me, +I beg, your explanations. As you know, I am practically helpless. We +understand each other. I trust that Madame de la Fontaine will give me an +explanation of the outrage that you have refused." + +"_Sans doute, sane doute_!" exclaimed the captain. He waved his +hand toward the door. "_Apres vous, monsieur_. Our worthy Jean will +lead the way." + +Without more ado they left the little cabin that had served as +Dan's prison and traversed a narrow passageway aft to the door of a +little saloon. + +In the saloon, seated in a deep arm chair by the side of the table, was +Madame de la Fontaine. She was clad in some soft green gown, with furs +about her neck and wrists, and a little bonnet, adorned by the gay +plumage of a tropical bird, worn close upon her head. At first glance she +was as bewitchingly beautiful, as entirely charming, as she had seemed to +Dan the day before. He blushed to the roots of his hair and for the +moment quite forgot the extraordinary predicament in which he was placed. +Madame de la Fontaine rose, a bright smile beaming from her soft blue +eyes, and waited for Dan to approach. + +"Good morning, Mr. Frost. This is charming of you. And now, Captain +Bonhomme, if you will be so kind,--" she turned with her delightful smile +to the skipper. "_Eh bien_, Jean!" This last remark was uttered in a +sharp tone of command, very different from the silvery accents in which +she had spoken to Frost and the captain. Dan wondered at it. + +The disagreeable impression was but momentary, for the lady turned +again to Dan, engaged him with her frank and pleasant glance, and young +Frost forgot everything in the presence of the most charming woman he +had ever met. + +Captain Bonhomme and his watchdog had disappeared, closing the saloon +door behind them. Dan and Madame de la Fontaine were alone. + +"Will you not seat yourself, monsieur?" she said. "We shall then talk so +much more at our ease." + +"Thank you," Dan murmured vaguely, and advancing a step or two nearer, +seated himself in the first chair within reach. + +"Ah, not there, Mr. Frost," the lady protested with a little laugh +of amusement. "It will never be that we are able to talk at so +great a distance." She indicated a more comfortable chair at much +closer quarters. + +Dan obediently changed his seat, and waited for Madame de la Fontaine to +begin the conversation. But she continued for a moment silently to regard +him with a naive air of interest and of unconcealed admiration. + +"May I ask," said Dan at length, disturbed by this scrutiny, and rising +to a courtesy that was in reality beyond him, "for what reason you have +done me the honour to wish to speak with me?" + +"_Vraiment_," replied Madame de la Fontaine; "after the events of last +night there is need that we should have some conversation. You are very +young and I have reason to be grateful to you for courtesy and kindness, +so I have yielded to impulse, against my judgment, to interfere with +Captain Bonhomme who has great anger with you." + +"You are very kind, madame," Dan replied with dignity. "I am to infer +then that my liberty or my further unwarranted imprisonment on this ship +is to be determined by you?" + +"_Mais non, Monsieur_. It is true only that I have a little influence +with Captain Bonhomme. Last night you were watching me, so it interests +me to know why." + +"I was watching Mrs. Heath's house," Dan answered. + +"Ah! but I and my maid were alone in the room into which you so +unceremoniously looked, monsieur!" + +"Yes, madame, but why should you infer that my motive in looking into +that room was interest in your affairs?" + +"I do not altogether assume that, Mr. Frost," the lady protested. "I +infer simply--but, pardon! you were to say--?" + +"Merely to ask you, madame, what Captain Bonhomme proposes to do with me, +should you not be so good as to use your influence in my behalf?" + +For reply the lady shrugged her shoulders a trifle. "I have fear, +monsieur," she said after a moment, "that Captain Bonhomme will take you +for a sail, perhaps a long sail, on the _Southern Cross_." + +"Then," said Dan, "since there is no doubt in my mind of your influence +with the captain, I beg that you will have him release me." + +"It is that that I desire, monsieur; and yet--?" Madame de la Fontaine +paused and glanced at her companion with a charming little air of +interrogation. + +"And yet?" repeated Dan, flushing a little as he looked into the lovely +blue eyes that met his so frankly. + +"I confess, monsieur, I must first discover if you are really deserving +of my efforts. I care to know very much why you watched me last night +at the House on the Dunes. For what reason do you watch me at midnight? +a stranger, a woman? Why is it that my affairs give you interest? I +would know." + +Her voice, her countenance expressed now only her sense of injury, an +injury which, as it were, she was striving not to regard also as an +insult. Under the persistent searching of her soft glance, Dan felt +himself very small indeed. + +"Answer me, if you please," she said. This time Dan detected just a trace +of the sharpness with which she had dismissed the obsequious Jean. It +gave him courage and a sense of protection from the fascination he knew +that this strange woman was successfully exerting over him. + +As he replied, his glance encountered hers with frankness. "Madame de la +Fontaine, I told you yesterday morning, my sister, Nancy Frost, has +disappeared. We searched for her all day in vain. Not a trace of her has +been found. But certain strange events have led me to suspect that +certain persons have had something to do with her disappearance and must +know her whereabouts. I will be frank Madame. One of the persons whom I +so suspect is yourself." + +"I!--_mon Dieu_! and why is it that you believe this, Monsieur?" + +"I suspect you, madame, because I suspect the Marquis de Boisdhyver." + +"Ah! the French gentleman who is staying with you at the Inn at the Red +Oak, is it not so?" + +"Yes." + +"But--why me?" + +"Because, madame, I discovered that you and the Marquis de Boisdhyver +have been in secret communication with each other." + +"_C'est impossible. Te me comprende pas, monsieur_. Will you tell me why +it is that you can think that this Marquis de Bois--what is the name?" + +"De Boisdhyver." + +"_Merci_. Why is it that you can think that the Marquis de Boisdhyver and +I have been in secret communication?" + +"Lights, green and red lights, have been used as signals; by the Marquis +at the Inn; by you, madame, from the House on the Dunes; and by some +one,--Captain Bonhomme, I suppose,--from this ship." + +"Lights, you have seen lights?" + +"Several times last night, Madame. My suspicions were aroused. I was +determined to find my sister. I resolved to learn the meaning of those +mysterious signals. My method was stupid: I blundered, and as you have +several times so gently hinted, I am in your power." + +For a moment Madame de la Fontaine was silent, then she looked quickly +up; a half-vexed, half-amused expression curling her pretty lips. + +"Look at me, monsieur," she said. "Do you know what you tell me? That I +am an adventuress?" + +Dan flushed suddenly as he met her steadfast gaze. "I have stated only a +suspicion, madame, to account for my own stupid blundering. But if you +think that my suspicions are extraordinary, don't you think that our +present situation and conversation are also extraordinary, and that they +might rather confirm my suspicions?" + +Madame de la Fontaine dropped her eyes with a perceptible frown of +displeasure; but again she looked up, smiling. + +"_C'est drole_, monsieur, but I find you very attractive? You are at once +so naive and so clever?" + +Dan, finding nothing to reply to this unexpected remark, bit his lips. + +"Will you not trust me?" she asked him suddenly, and putting out her hand +she touched his own with the tips of her fingers. + +Poor Frost tingled at this unaccustomed contact. "I--I--" he stammered +awkwardly. "I have certainly no desire to distrust you, madame." + +"And yet it is that you do distrust me." + +"But what would you have me do?" + +"Ah!" Her hand spontaneously closed upon his with a clasp that delighted +and yet disconcerted him. "I hope that we shall make each other to +understand." + +"What would you have me do?" Dan repeated. + +"Monsieur, let me make to you a confession. I understand your +suspicions; I understand your desire to find if they are true. You have +reason; Monsieur le Marquis de Boisdhyver and I have exchanged the +mysterious signals that you have witnessed. Why should I deny that which +already you know? Monsieur de Boisdhyver and I are occupied with affairs +of great importance, and it is necessary that all is kept secret. But I +believe, that it is that I can trust you, monsieur." + +"And Nancy--?" exclaimed Dan. + +"_Pas si vite, pas si vite_!" said the lady, laughing gayly, Dan's hand +still in her friendly pressure. "All in good time, _mon ami_. It is +necessary before I confide in you our little secret that I consult +Monsieur le Marquis." + +Dan's face betrayed his disappointment. "But you do know about Nancy," he +insisted; "you will assure me--" + +"Of nothing, dear boy,"--and she withdrew her hand. "But it had been so +much better for us all if only Monsieur le Marquis had at the first +confided in you." + +Madame de la Fontaine had risen now and was holding out her hand to +say good-bye. + +"It is necessary that I return to the shore. I will see Monsieur le +Marquis this afternoon, and immediately afterward--" + +"But, madame, surely," Dan exclaimed, "I am to accompany you?" + +"Ah! monsieur," she replied with a charming little smile, "for the +present you must rest content to be _mon captif_. We must quite clearly +understand each other before--well. But you are too impetuous, Monsieur +Dan. For the moment I leave you here." + +"But Madame de la Fontaine," cried Dan, "I cannot consent--" + +"No! no!" she said, as with a gay laugh, she placed a cool little hand +across his mouth to prevent his finishing his sentence. + +What absurd impulse fired his blood at this sudden familiarity, Dan did +not know; but, quite spontaneously, as though all his life he had been in +the habit of paying such gallantries to charming ladies, he kissed the +soft fingers upon his lips. Madame de la Fontaine quickly withdrew them. + +"Ah, _mon ami_;" she said, "I expected not to find here _une telle +galanterie_." + +"I have offended you," murmured Dan, blushing furiously. + +"Ah, _pas du tout_!" said Madame de la Fontaine. "You are a dear boy, +monsieur Dan, and I--well, I find you charming." + +As she said this, to Dan's complete confusion, Madame de la Fontaine +lightly brushed his cheeks with her lips, and passing him rapidly, went +out of the door of the saloon. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TOM TURNS THE TABLES + + +Owing to his long watch during the greater part of the night, Pembroke +slept heavily until late the next morning. Indeed, he did not waken until +Jesse, alarmed that neither Dan nor he had appeared, knocked on their +door. He sprang up quickly then, and began to dress hastily. Dan's bed +had not been slept in, and Tom wondered how the night had gone with him. + +In a few moments he was down stairs and in the breakfast-room. He found +the Marquis de Boisdhyver already at table, pouring out his coffee, which +Deborah had just placed before him. Mrs. Frost had not appeared. + +Tom murmured an apology for being late, and delayed the black woman, who +was on the point of leaving the room, by a question. + +"Where is Mr. Dan?" + +"Sure an, Mass' Tom, I ain't seen him dis mornin' yet. Ain't he done +over-slept hisself like you?" + +"No; but I dare say he is about the place somewheres. All right, Deb; +bring my breakfast quickly, please." + +"You will pardon me," said Monsieur de Boisdhyver, "for having begun +without you?" + +"Oh, certainly," said Tom; "Don't know what was the matter, but I slept +unusually soundly last night; that is, after I got to sleep, for the +storm kept me awake for hours." + +"_Et moi aussi_," said the Marquis. "What wind! I am but thankful it +has exhausted itself at last. And Monsieur Frost, he has also +over-slept, you say?" + +"No. He got up early without disturbing me. I guess he will be in any +minute now." + +The Marquis stirred his coffee and slowly sipped it. + +Tom made a hasty breakfast, and then went outside to reconnoitre. He +discovered no trace of his friend. There was but one inference in his +uneasy mind: Dan had met with some misadventure at the House on the +Dunes. At last, after wandering about aimlessly for some time, he decided +to tell Jesse of his uneasiness. + +"If Mr. Dan is not back by dinner time, I shall go over to the House on +the Dunes and try to find out what has become of him. Heaven knows what +has become of Miss Nancy. I don't like that schooner, Jess, and its ugly +crew, lying there in the Cove. It's all a darn queer business." + +"They're certainly a rough-looking lot, Mr. Tom, as I saw when I was on +the beach yesterday. And she don't appear to have any particular business +anchoring there. I hope they've nothing to do with Miss Nancy's and Mr. +Dan's being away." + +"I don't know, Jess, what to think. But listen here I want you to go into +the Port this morning and engage Ezra Manners to come out here and stay +with us for a week or so. Don't tell him too much, but I guess Ezra won't +balk at the notion of a scrap. Bring him out with you, and offer to pay +him enough to make sure of his coming. And I want you to go to Breeze's +on the Parade and get some guns and powder, enough to arm every blessed +soul of us in the Inn. Charge the stuff to me. And be careful how you +bring it back, for I don't want any one here to know about it, +particularly the old Frenchman. Understand? You ought to get back by +dinner-time, if you start at once. I'll stay here till you return." + +"I'll start right off, sir. Guess I'll have to drive, for the +rain'll have washed the snow off the roads. I'll be back by halfpast +twelve, Mr. Tom." + +"All right," said Pembroke. "Be sure not to let any one know what you +are doing." + +"Sure I won't, sir. I've been pretty much worried myself about Miss +Nancy. Didn't seem a bit like Miss Nance to go off without sayin' a word +to anybody. + +"Well, hurry along now, Jesse." + +"Yes, sir." + +Tom's next task was to try to explain to Mrs. Frost without alarming her. +She happily jumped to the idea that Dan had gotten trace of Nancy, had +gone to fetch her, and would return with her before nightfall. So Tom +left her quite cheerfully knitting in her room for the day. + +From time to time during the morning Tom wandered into the bar always to +find Monsieur de Boisdhyver absorbed in his writing before the fire. The +morning passed--a long restless morning for Pembroke--and nothing had +happened. Dan had not returned. He tried to think out a plan of action. +He went into the north wing of the Inn and barricaded the door leading +from the bowling alley into the hallway. He made sure that all other +doors and windows were fastened, and he put the key of the door that +opened from the bar into the old wing into his pocket. Then he looked at +the doors and windows in the south wing. + +About noon, as he was standing at an upper window anxiously scanning the +landscape for any sign of his friend, Tom saw the Marquis, wrapped in his +great black cloak, emerge from the gallery, go down the steps by the Red +Oak, and walk rapidly down the avenue of maples. He went along the Port +Road, to the point where a little road branched off and led to the beach +of the Cove; here he turned and walked in the direction of the beach. +With the field glass Tom could follow him quite easily as he picked his +way through the slush. + +Beyond, on the waters of the Cove, the _Southern Cross_ rode at anchor. A +small boat had put off from the schooner, two seamen at the oars, and a +woman seated in the stern. The boat reached the shore, the lady was +lifted out upon the sands, the men jumped in again, pushed off and rowed +briskly back to the schooner. Tom could not distinguish the lady's +features, but from the style of her dress, cut in so different a fashion +than that the ladies of Caesarea were wont to display, and from the +character of her easy graceful walk, he judged that that was the Madame +de la Fontaine, of whom Dan had told him the day before. The lady, +whoever she might be, advanced along the beach and turned into the road +down which the Marquis de Boisdhyver was going to meet her. Tom could see +her extend her hand, and the old gentleman, bending ceremoniously, lift +it to his lips. Then leaning against a stone wall beside a meadow of +bedraggled snow, they engaged in animated conversation. The lady talked, +the Marquis talked. They shrugged their shoulders, they nodded their +heads, they pointed this way and then that. Poor Tom felt he must know +what was being said. At last, their conference ended, they parted as +ceremoniously as they had met, the lady starting across the Dunes and the +Marquis retracing his steps toward the Inn. + +In the meantime, fortunately before the Marquis reached the Port Road, +Jesse had returned, accompanied by the able-bodied Ezra Manners, and +laden with the supply of arms and ammunition that Pembroke had ordered. + +Within half-an-hour Tom and Monsieur de Boisdhyver were seated together +in the dining-room. + +"Ah, and where is Monsieur Dan?" asked the Marquis, with an affectation +of cheerfulness. "Is he not returned?" + +"Not yet, monsieur," Tom replied grimly. + +"But you have heard from him?" + +"Oh, yes," was Tom's answer; "I have heard from him of course." + +"And from Mademoiselle Nancy, I trust, also?" + +"Yes, from Nancy also." + +"Ah, I am so relieved, Monsieur Pembroke. I was most anxious for their +safety. One knows not what may happen. We shall have a charming little +reunion at supper, _n'est-ce pas_?" + +"Delightful," said Tom, but in a tone of voice that did not encourage the +Marquis to ask further questions or to continue his comments. + +After dinner, Tom slipped the field glass beneath his jacket, and ran +upstairs to take another view of the countryside. To his great +satisfaction he saw a dark spot moving across the snowy dunes and +recognized the lady of the morning. Apparently she was on her way to the +Cove again. + +He took a loaded pistol, ran down stairs, gave Jesse strict orders to +keep his eye on the Marquis, saddled his horse, and galloped off madly +for Mrs. Meath's house. + +When he reached the gate of the farmhouse, Tom hitched his horse to the +fence, went rapidly up the little walk, and knocked boldly and loudly on +the front door. Repeated and prolonged knocking brought no response. He +tried the door and found it fastened. He walked about the house. Every +window on the ground floor was tightly closed and barred. There was no +sign of life. He knocked at the door of the kitchen, but with no result. +He tried it, and found it also locked. Determined not to be thwarted in +his effort to see Mrs. Meath, he kicked vigourously against the door with +his great hob-nailed boots. Unsuccessful in this, he detached a rail from +the top of the fence and used it against the door as a battering-ram. At +the first crash of timbers, the sash of a window in the second story, +directly above the kitchen, was thrown open, and a dark-eyed, +dark-haired, excessively angry-looking, young woman thrust her head out. + +"_Qui va la_?" she exclaimed. + +"Well," said Tom, smiling a little in spite of himself, for the young +woman was in a state of great indignation. "I want to see Mrs. Meath. I +may say, I am determined to see Mrs. Meath." + +"_Peste! Je ne parle pas anglais_!" snapped the damsel. + +"Very well then, mademoiselle, I'll try you in French," said Tom. And in +very bad French indeed, scarcely even the French of Dr. Watson's school +for the sons of gentlemen, Pembroke repeated his remarks. + +"_Je ne comprend pas_," said the young woman. + +Tom essayed his explanation again, but whether the youthful female in the +window could or would not understand, she kept repeating in the midst of +his every sentence "_Je ne parle pas anglais_," till Tom lost his temper. + +"_Bien_, my fine girl," he exclaimed at last; "I am going to enter this +house. If you won't open the door, I will batter it down. Understand? +_Comprenez-vous_?" + +"_Je ne parle pas anglais_." + +"As you will." He raised the fence-rail again and made as if to ram the +door. "_Ouvrez la porte_! Do you understand that?" + +"_Bete_!" cried the girl, withdrawing her head and slamming down +the window. + +Tom waited a moment to see if his threats had been effective, and was +relieved by hearing the bar within removed and the key turned in the +lock. The door was opened, and the young woman stood on the sill and +volleyed forth a series of French execrations that made Tom wince, +though he did not understand a word she was saying. Despite her protests, +he brushed her aside and stalked into the house. He went rapidly from +room to room, upstairs and down, from garret to cellar, the girl +following him with her chorus of abusive reproach. She might have held +her peace, thought Tom, for within half-an-hour he was convinced that +there was not a person in the House on the Dunes save himself and his +excited companion. All he discovered for his pains was that old Mrs. +Meath was also among the missing. + +"_Ou est Madame Meath_?" + +"_Madame Meath! Que voulez vous? Je ne connais pas Madame Meath_...." And +infinitely more of which Tom could gather neither head nor tail. + +Satisfied at last that there was nothing to be gained by further search +or parley with the woman, he thanked her civilly enough and went out. He +unhitched his horse, vaulted into the saddle, and dashed back, as fast as +his beast could be urged to carry him, to the Inn. He was certain now +that the schooner held the secret of his vanished friends, and it +occurred to him to play their own game and turn the tables on Monsieur +the Marquis de Boisdhyver. + +Arrived at the Inn, Tom turned his horse, white with lather, over to +Jesse; made sure that the Marquis was in the bar; and then, with the help +of Manners, rapidly made a few preparations. + +It was about five o'clock when, his arrangements completed, he returned +to the bar, where Monsieur de Boisdhyver was quietly taking his tea. Tom +bowed to the old gentleman, seated himself in a great chair about five +feet away, and somewhat ostentatiously took from his pocket a pistol, +laid it on the arm of his chair, and let his fingers lightly play upon +the handle. The old marquis watched Pembroke's movements out of the +corner of his eye, still somewhat deliberately sipping his tea. Manners, +meanwhile, had entered, and stood respectfully in the doorway, oddly +enough also with a pistol in his hand. + +Suddenly Monsieur de Boisdhyver placed his teacup on the table, and +leaning back in his chair, surveyed Tom with an air of indignant +astonishment. + +"Monsieur Pembroke," he said, "to what am I to attribute these so unusual +attentions? Is it that you are mad?" + +"You may attribute these unusual attentions, marquis, to the fact that +from now on, you are not a guest of the Inn at the Red Oak, but a +prisoner." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the Marquis with a start, as he made a spasmodic motion +toward the pocket of his coat. But if his intention had been to draw a +weapon, Tom was too quick for him. The Marquis found himself staring into +the barrel of a pistol and heard the unpleasant click of the trigger as +it was cocked. + +The old gentleman paled, whether with fright or indignation, Tom was not +concerned to know. "You will please keep perfectly still, marquis." + +"Monsieur Pembroke," exclaimed the old gentleman, "_C'est_ abominable, +outrageous, _Mon Dieu_, what insult!" + +"Manners," said Tom, "kindly search that gentleman and put his firearms +out of his reach." + +"Monsieur, _c'est extraordinaire_. I protest." + +"Quick, Ezra," replied Tom, "or one of us is likely to know how it feels +to have a bullet in his skin. Up with your hands, marquis." + +Monsieur de Boisdhyver obeyed perforce, while Manners quickly searched +him, removed a small pistol from his coat pocket and a stiletto from his +waistcoat, and handed them to Tom. + +"I thought as much," said Pembroke, slipping them into his pocket. "Now, +sir, you will oblige me by dropping that attitude of surprised +indignation." + +"Monsieur," said the Marquis, "What is it that you do? Why is it that you +so insult me?" + +"Monsieur, I will explain. You are my prisoner. I intend to lock you up +safely and securely until my friend and his sister return, unharmed, to +the Inn. When they are safe at home, when Madame de la Fontaine has taken +her departure from the House on the Dunes, and when the _Southern Cross_ +has sailed out of the Strathsey, we shall release you and see you also +safely out of this country. Is that clear?" + +"_Mais, monsieur_--" + +"I am quite convinced that you know where Nancy is and what has happened +to Dan. As my friends are probably in your power or in the power of your +friends, so, dear marquis, you are in mine. If you wish to regain your +own liberty, you will have to see that they have theirs. Now kindly +follow Manners; it will give him pleasure to show you to your apartment. +There you may burn either red or green lights, and I am sure the +snowbirds and rabbits of Lovel's Woods will enjoy them. After you, +monsieur." + +"Sir, I refuse." + +"My dear marquis, do not make me add force to discourtesy. After you." + +The Marquis bowed ironically, shrugged his shoulders, and followed +Manners up the stairs. He was ushered into a chamber on the west side of +the Inn, whose windows, had they not been heavily barred, would have +given him a view but of the thick tangles of the Woods. + +"I trust you will be able to make yourself comfortable here," said Tom. +"Your meals will be served at the accustomed hours. I shall return myself +in a short time, and perhaps by then you will have reconciled yourself to +the insult I have offered you and be prepared to talk with me." + +With that Tom bowed as ironically as the Marquis had done, went out and +closed the door, and securely locked and barred it outside. Monsieur de +Boisdhyver was left to his reflections. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MADAME DE LA FONTAINE + + +For several hours after his return to the little cabin Dan had ample +leisure in which to think over his extraordinary interview. There could +be no doubt that the conspirators, for such he had come to call them to +himself, were determined and desperate enough to go to any lengths in +accomplishing their designs. Whether his suspicions and activity in +seeking Nancy had precipitated their plans, his unexpected capture seemed +to embarrass his captors as much as it did himself. At least, he gathered +this from Madame de la Fontaine's conversation. Whatever might be the +motive of the lady's proposed confidence, poor Frost could see nothing +for it but to await their disclosure and then seize whatever advantage +they might open to him. Notwithstanding the fact that Dan had cautioned +himself against trusting the flattery of his charming visitor, +notwithstanding that he told himself to be forewarned, even by his own +suspicions, was to be forearmed, he was in reality unconscious of the +degree to which he had proved susceptible to the lady's blandishments, if +indeed she had employed blandishments and had not merely given him the +evidence of a good heart upon which his youth and naivete had made a +genuine impression. + +Dan's experiences with girls up to this time had been limited. His +emotional nature had never, as yet, been deeply stirred. But no one could +be insensible to Madame de la Fontaine's beauty and charm, and her +delightfully natural familiarity; and, finally, her fleeting kiss had +seemed to Dan but evidence of a warm impulsive heart. To be sure, with +all the good will in the world, he could not acquit her of being +concerned in a mysterious plot--indeed, had she not admitted so +much?--though, also, he must in justice remember that he knew very little +of the nature of the plot in question. + +As he paced restlessly back and forth the length of his prison, he tried +to think clearly of the accumulating mystery. Was there a hidden treasure +and how did the Marquis know about it? What part had the _Southern Cross_ +to play with its diabolical looking captain, and what could have become +of Nancy? Then why had Madame de la Fontaine--but again his cheek would +burn and remembrance of the bewitching Frenchwoman blotted out all else. + +At half-past twelve Captain Bonhomme appeared again. This time he invited +Dan to partake of luncheon with him on the condition once more of a +parole. And Dan accepted. He and the Captain made their luncheon +together, attended by the faithful Jean; and, though no mention was made +to their anomalous position, the meal was not altogether a comfortable +one. Captain Bonhomme asked a great many questions about the country, to +which Frost was inclined to give but the briefest replies; nor, on his +part, did he show more disposition to be communicative in response to +Dan's questions about France. Jean regarded the situation with obviously +surly disapproval. When the meal was finished, Frost was conducted back +to his little cabin. + +About two o'clock he saw the small boat put off for shore, and glancing +in that direction, he was relieved to see Madame de la Fontaine already +waiting upon the beach. Within half-an-hour he was again in her +presence in the Captain's saloon, where their conversation had taken +place in the morning. + +The lady received him graciously. "Ah! monsieur Dan, I fear you have had +a weary day of it; but it was impossible for me to return sooner." + +"It is very kind of you to return at all," replied Dan, gallantly enough. + +"Now, Monsieur, you are anxious, I know, that I keep my promise of +the morning." + +"Most anxious," said Dan. + +"Without doubt. Come here, my friend, sit near me and listen attentively +to a long story." + +"You have consulted with the Marquis?" + +"_Mais oui_. It was difficult, but I have brought him to my way of +thinking. I am certain that it was an error in the first place not +taking you into our confidence. _Eh bien_! Tell me, do you know how +your foster-sister came to be in the charge of your mother at the Inn +at the Red Oak?" + +"Yes, I know what my mother has told me. The child was abandoned to her +rather than left in her charge." + +"_Mais non_" said Madame de la Fontaine; "General Pointelle was impelled +to act as he did by the strongest motives,--nothing less than the +tremendous task, undertaken for his country, to liberate the Emperor +Napoleon from Elba. General Pointelle was a soldier,--more, he was a +marechal of the Empire; the greatest responsibilities devolved upon him. +It was impossible for him to be burdened with a child." + +"But why, madame, did he not take my mother into his confidence?" + +"Secrecy was imperative, monsieur. Even to this day, you do not know who +General Pointelle actually was. His was a name well-known in France, +glorious in the annals of the Empire; a name, too, familiar to you in a +somewhat different connection. 'General Pointelle' was the +_nom-de-guerre_, as it were, of Francois, Marquis de Boisdhyver, marechal +de France." + +"Francois! you say, _Francois_!" exclaimed Dan. + +"_Mais oui_, monsieur; but that should hardly astonish you so much as the +fact that he was a Boisdhyver. Why are you surprised?" + +"Simply, madame," exclaimed Dan hastily, "by the fact that it is the same +name as that of our Marquis." + +"Not quite," corrected the lady; "our Marquis--as you say--is +Marie-Anne-Timelon-Armand de Boisdhyver, the General's younger brother." + +"Ah! and therefore Nancy's uncle?" + +"Yes, the uncle of Nancy Frost, or of Eloise de Boisdhyver." + +"I see," said Dan. "I begin to see." + +"_Eh bien_, monsieur. General Pointelle--the marechal de +Boisdhyver,--left the Inn at the Red Oak upon a mission for the Emperor, +then at Elba. _Helas_! that mission ended with disaster after the Hundred +Days; for, as you know, the Emperor was sent in exile to St. Helena; and, +as you may not know, the Marechal de Boisdhyver was killed on the plains +of Waterloo. _Allons_; when he left Deal, he concealed in a hidden +chamber, which one enters, I believe, from a room you call the Oak +Parlour, a large treasure, of jewels and gold. This treasure, saved from +the _debacle_ in France, he had brought with him to America, and he hid +it in the Inn, for the future of his little daughter Eloise. You remember +that your mother was to hear something of advantage to her and the child, +did not the General return. It was the secret of the treasure and the +directions to find it. Well, Monsieur, at Waterloo, you must know, the +Marechal and his brother, the present Marquis, fought side by side. +Francois de Boisdhyver fell, nobly fighting for the glory of France; +Marie-Anne had the good fortune to preserve his life, but was taken +prisoner by the English. Before the Marechal received his death wound, +the two brothers spoke with each other for the last time. In that +moment, monsieur, the Marquis Francois revealed to the Marquis Marie-Anne +that he had abandoned his daughter in America and that he had concealed +in your old inn a treasure sufficient to provide for her future. He +charged his brother to go to America, if he survived the battle; claim +the little Eloise; rescue the treasure, and return with her to France and +restore the fallen fortunes of the House of Boisdhyver. + +"It took the Marquis Marie-Anne a long time to carry out his brother's +dying injunctions," said Dan. + +"Ah! but yes. You do not realize that the Marquis Marie-Anne, after the +fall of Napoleon, spent many years in a military prison in England, for I +have already told you that he fell into the hands of the enemy on the +field of Waterloo. When at last he was released, he was aged, broken, and +in poverty. His brother, in those dreadful moments on the battlefield, +had been able to give him but the briefest description of the Inn at the +Red Oak and the hidden treasure. He did not tell him where the treasure +was, but only how he might obtain the paper of instructions which the +Marechal had concealed in a curiously-carved old cabinet in the Oak +Parlour. The Marechal, monsieur, loved the mysterious, and chose the +device of tearing into two parts this paper of directions and concealing +them in different hiding-places of the cabinet. Those directions, after +many years, grew vague in the younger brother's memory. + +"_Eh bien_, the Marquis was at last able to make the journey to this +country. You must remember he had nothing wherewith to prove his story, +if he gave you his confidence at once; and so, he decided, to investigate +quietly alone. But he won the confidence of Mademoiselle Nancy,--that is, +of his niece, Eloise de Boisdhyver,--and revealed to her the secret of +her identity and the mysterious story of the treasure. You follow me in +all this, Monsieur Dan?" + +"Perfectly, madame," Frost replied. "But as yet you have told me nothing +of your own connection with this strange history." + +"Pardon, dear boy," rejoined Madame de la Fontaine; "I was about to do +so, but there is so much to tell. My own connection with the affair is +quite simple. I am an old friend, one of the oldest, of Monsieur le +Marquis de Boisdhyver, and, when I was a very young girl, I knew the +Marechal himself. It has been my happiness to be able to prove my +friendship for a noble and a fallen family. One day last summer, Monsieur +de Boisdhyver told me his brother's dying words, and it was I, Monsieur +Dan, who was able to give the money for this strange expedition. The poor +Marquis had lost quite all his fortune." + +"I understand," said Frost. "But, yet, madame, I do not see the necessity +for the secrecy, the mystery, for these strange signals at night, for +these midnight investigations, for this schooner and its rough crew, for +Nancy's disappearance, for my own imprisonment here." + +"Please, please," murmured Madame de la Fontaine, as she held up her +hands in smiling protest. "You go too fast for me. _Un moment, mon ami, +un moment_. It was sixteen years ago that the Marechal de Boisdhyver was +a guest at the Inn at the Red Oak. You forget that the Marquis de +Boisdhyver had no proof of his right to the treasure, save his own story, +save his account of his brother's instructions on the field of Waterloo. +By telling all he might have awakened deeper suspicions than by secrecy." + +"That, I must say," Dan interrupted, "would hardly be possible." + +"So!" exclaimed Madame de la Fontaine, with an accent of displeasure. +"_Ecoutez_! Monsieur le Marquis was to come a month in advance, as he did +come; take up his quarters at the Inn; reconnoitre the ground; and win, +if possible, the confidence and aid of mademoiselle. He fortunately +succeeded in this last, for he found it otherwise impossible to enter +into the old wing of the Inn and examine the Oak Parlour. With the +assistance of Eloise, this was accomplished at last, and the paper of +directions was found; at least, found in part. + +"Then I, having impressed the services of Captain Bonhomme and his ship +the _Southern Cross_, set sail and arrived at the House on the Dunes only +a few days ago, as you already know. The signals that you saw flashing at +night were to indicate that all was well." + +"The green light, I suppose," commented Dan, "was to indicate that; and +the red--" + +"Was the signal of danger. Because the Marquis discovered last night that +you were not in the house; he flashed the warning that made Captain +Bonhomme go to the House on the Dunes. Quite recently the manners of your +friend, Mr.--eh--?" + +"Pembroke?" + +"Yes, Mr. Pembroke--led the Marquis to believe that he was being +watched. + +"I understand," said Dan, "but nothing you have told me so far, madame, +accounts for Nancy's disappearance, and I am as anxious as ever to know +where she is." + +"Mademoiselle is perfectly safe, Monsieur Dan; I assure you. She left the +Inn because she had fear of betraying our plans, particularly as she +loved your friend, Mr. Pembroke." + +"It is still strange to me, madame, that Nancy should distrust her oldest +and best friends. But now you will let me see her?" + +"Of course I shall soon, very soon, my dear boy. I have told you all, and +now you will aid me to find the treasure that is your foster-sister's +heritage, will you not?" + +"Why certainly I want Nancy to have what is hers," replied Dan. + +"Bravo, my friend. We are to count you one of us, I am sure." + +"Just a moment," said Dan, resisting the temptation to touch the little +hand that had been placed impulsively upon his arm. "May I ask one more +question?" + +"A thousand, my dear, if you desire." + +"Why then, since until last night everything has gone as you planned it, +why has not the treasure already been discovered?" + +"Because, _mon ami_; the Marquis has only been able to visit the Oak +Parlour at night. And also it was decided to wait until I arrived." + +"With the schooner?" suggested Dan. + +"With the schooner, if you will. And you may remember that it was only +the day before yesterday that I reached your so hospitable countryside." + +"Ah! I understand; so then all that you desire of me, madame, is that I +shall permit the Marquis or anyone else whom you may select for the +purpose, to make such investigation of the Oak Parlour as is desired." + +"Yes, my friend; and also there is yet another thing that we desire." + +"But suppose, madame, that I cannot agree to that?" + +"Ah! _cher ami_, but you will. I confess--you must remember that the +Marquis de Boisdhyver has been a soldier--that my friends have not agreed +with me entirely. It has seemed to them simpler that we should keep you a +prisoner on this ship, as we could so easily do, until our mission is +accomplished. But,--I like you too much to agree to that." + +Dan flushed a trifle, but he was not yet quite sure enough to fall in +entirely with his charming gaoler's suggestions. "Madame de la Fontaine," +he said after a moment's reflection, "I am greatly obliged to you for +explaining the situation to me so fully. I shall be only too happy to +help you, particularly in anything that is for the benefit of Nancy." + +"I was sure of it. Now, my friend, there is a service that you can +immediately render." + +"And that is?" asked Dan. + +"To entrust to me the other half of the paper of directions written by +Francois de Boisdhyver, which you found in a secret cubby-hole in the +old cabinet." + +"What makes you think that I was successful in finding that, when the +Marquis failed?" + +"Because, at first having forgotten his precise directions after so many +years, the Marquis could not find the fourth and last hiding-place in the +cabinet, in which he knew the Marechal had placed the other half of the +torn scrap of paper. Another time he did find the cubby-hole, and it was +empty. So knowing he was watched by you and Mr. Pembroke, he decided +that you must have found it. Is it not so, that you have it?" + +"It is certainly not in my possession at this moment," said Dan. + +"No, but you have it?" + +"And if I have?" + +"It is necessary for our success." + +"Then, my first service, is to put you into complete possession of +the secret?" + +"If you will so express it." + +"Very well, madame, I will do so; but, on one condition." + +"And what is that, my friend?" + +"That I be allowed to see Nancy, and that she herself shall ask me to do +as you desire." + +For a moment Madame de la Fontaine was silent. "_Eh bien_," she said at +last, "you do not trust me?" + +"But, dear madame, think of my situation, it is hard for me." + +"Ah! I know it, believe me. _C'est difficile_. But I hoped you would +trust me as I have you." + +"Indeed, madame," exclaimed Dan, "I must try to think of everything, +the mystery, this extraordinary mission upon which you are engaged, the +fact that I am quite literally your prisoner. When I think about you, +I know only you are beautiful, that you are lovely, and that I am happy +near you." + +She looked at him for a moment with a glance of anxious interrogation, +as if to ask were it safe for her to believe these protestations. "You +say, my friend," she asked at length, "that you care a little for me, +for just me? _C'est impossible_. If Claire de la Fontaine could +believe that, understand me, monsieur, it would be very sweet and very +precious to her." + +"I do care," cried Dan. + +"Ah!" she exclaimed. "You have touched my heart. I am not a young girl, +_mon ami_, but I confess that you have made me to know again the dreams +of youth." + +"Only let me prove that I care," cried Dan, considering but little now to +what he committed himself. + +"Let me prove," cried she, "that I too believe in you. I must first see +the Marquis, and then, tonight, if it can be arranged, you shall receive +from Eloise de Boisdhyver's own lips the request I have made of you. But +if, for any reason, this cannot be arranged for to-night, you must be +patient till morning; you must trust me to the extent of remaining on +this ship. I cannot act entirely on my own judgment, but I assure you +that in the end my judgment will prevail. And now, _au revoir_." + +She placed her hand in his, and responded to the impulsive pressure with +which he clasped it. Their eyes met; in Dan's the frankest expression of +her conquest of his emotions; in her's a glance at once tender and sad, +above all a glance that seemed to search his spirit for assurance that he +was in earnest. Suddenly fired by her alluring beauty, Dan drew her to +him and bent his head to hers. + +"Ah! my friend," she murmured, "you are taking an unfair advantage of the +fact that this morning I too rashly yielded to an impulse." + +"I cannot help it," Dan stammered. "You bewitch me." He bent lower to +kiss her cheek, when he suddenly thrilled to the realization that his +lips had met hers. + +A moment later Madame de la Fontaine was gone and Captain Bonhomme had +reappeared in the doorway. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +IN THE FOG + + +Tom Pembroke was as good as his word. He returned to the little room, in +which he had confined the Marquis, within an hour after he had left him. +It was then nearly supper-time and dusk was fast settling upon the gloomy +countryside. An unwonted calm had fallen upon land and sea after the +sharp blow of the previous night, but the sky was still gray and there +was promise of more rain, if not of wind. + +To Tom's indignation and alarm, though scarcely to his surprise, there +had been no sign or word from Dan or Nancy. Shortly after he had left the +Marquis, he saw, by aid of the field-glass, Madame de la Fontaine, +attended by two seamen, leave the schooner and return to the House on the +Dunes. He smiled a little as he thought of the account the lively young +maid-servant would give of his recent visit. But withal, he felt very +much as if he were playing a game of blind man's buff and that he was +"it." He was impatient for his interview with the Marquis, though he was +but little hopeful that an hour's confinement would have been sufficient +to bring the old gentleman to terms. Nor was he to be surprised. + +He found Monsieur de Boisdhyver huddled in a great arm chair near the +fire that that been kindled on the hearth of his prison. The Marquis +glanced up, as Tom entered, but dropped his eyes at once and offered him +no greeting. Tom placed his candle on the table and, drawing up a chair, +seated himself between the Marquis and the door. + +"Well, sir," he said at last, "as I promised you, I have returned within +an hour. Have you anything to say to me?" + +"Have I anything to say to you!" exclaimed the Marquis. "For why, +monsieur? If I venture to express my astonishment and indignation at the +way I am treated, you subject me to a barbarity that could be matched no +where else in the civilized world than in this extraordinary country. My +life is menaced with firearms. My protests are sneered at. I have left +but one inference--you have gone mad." + +"No, marquis," said Pembroke, "I am not mad. I am simply determined that +the mysteries by which we have been surrounded and of which you are the +center, shall cease. You have a free choice: put me in the way of getting +my friend and his sister back to the Inn, or resign yourself to a +prolonged confinement in this room." + +"But monsieur I have nothing to communicate to you concerning the +disappearance of your friends." + +"Pardon me, marquis," returned Pembroke; "you have much to communicate to +me. Perhaps you are not aware that I know the motive of your coming to +the Inn at the Red Oak; that I know the reason for your prolonged stay +here; that I know of the influence that you have acquired over Nancy +Frost; and that I have been a witness of your midnight prowlings about +the Inn. Nor am I in ignorance of your connection with the +rascally-looking captain of the schooner at anchor in the Cove and with +the mysterious woman, who has taken possession of the House on the Dunes. +I am convinced that you know what has become of Dan as well as what has +happened to Nancy. And, believe me, I am determined to find out." + +"_Bien_!" exclaimed Monsieur de Boisdhyver, "permit me to wish you good +luck in your undertaking. I repeat, Monsieur Pembroke, I have no +information to give to you. I do not know to what extent I have been +watched, but I may say with truth that my actions do not in the least +concern you." + +"They concern my friends," said Tom. "Dan, as you know, is more to me +than a brother; and as for his sister Nancy, I hope and expect to make +her my wife." + +"In that case," rejoined the Marquis with ill-concealed irony, "I may be +permitted to offer to you my congratulations. But even so, monsieur, +there is nothing that I can do to facilitate your matrimonial plans." + +"You refuse then to come to terms?" asked Pembroke. + +The Marquis raised his hands with a gesture of despair. "What shall I +say, monsieur? If you insisted upon my flying from here to yonder beach, +I might have all the desire in the world to oblige you, but the fact +would remain that I was without the means of doing so. Since you are so +little disposed to accept my protestations, I will no longer make them, +but simply decline your proposal. And, pardon me, but so long as I am +submitted to the indignity of this confinement, it would be a courtesy +that I should appreciate if you would spare me your company." + +"Very good," said Tom. "Your meals will be served regularly; and you may +ask the servant for anything necessary. I shall not visit you again until +you request me to do so." + +"_Merci_," said the Marquis drily. He rose from his seat as Dan turned +toward the door, and bowed ironically. + +Pembroke went downstairs to have his supper with Mrs. Frost. He said what +he could to pacify her, not altogether with success, for as darkness fell +the old lady became increasingly apprehensive. + +"I know you are anxious, Mrs. Frost," said Tom, "but you must not worry. +Try to believe that all will come out right. I am going out after supper, +but I shall leave Jesse and Ezra on guard, and you may be sure everything +will be safe." + +It was some time before Mrs. Frost would consent to his leaving the Inn. +If she had yielded to her inclinations, she would have spent the evening +in hysterics with Tom at hand to administer comfort. Pembroke, however, +deputed that office to black Deborah, and immediately after supper set +about his business. + +He gave the necessary instructions to Jesse, Ezra and the maids, saw that +everything was closely locked and barred, supplied himself with arms and +ammunition, and slipped out into the night. Having saddled Fleetwing, he +swung himself on the young hunter's back, and trotted down the avenue to +the Port Road. The night was intensely dark and still. The moon had not +yet risen, and a thick fog rolled in from the sea, shrouding the +countryside with its impenetrable veil. + +At the Beach Road Pembroke dismounted, tied his horse to a fence rail, +and proceeded thence on foot toward the Cove. Stumbling along through the +heavy sand, he made his way to the boathouse at the northern end of the +little beach. There he ventured to light his lantern, unlocked the door +and stepped within. On either side of the entrance were the two sailboats +that he and Dan used in summer and to the rear was the old-fashioned +whaleboat with which they did their deep fishing. Over it, in a rudely +constructed rack, was the Indian birch-bark canoe which Dan had purchased +in the mountains a few years before. As the sea had fallen to a dead +calm, he decided to use this canoe, which he could paddle quite +noiselessly, and pulling down the little craft from its winter +resting-place, he carried it to the water's edge. The sea, so angry the +night before, now scarcely murmured; only a low lazy swell, at regularly +recurring intervals, slapped the shore and hissed upon the sands. Tom +pushed the nose of the canoe into the water, leaped lightly over the +rail, and with his paddle thrust it off the beach. He was launched +without mishap. + +Not the faintest gleam of light showed the position of the _Southern +Cross_, but estimating as well as he could the general direction, he +paddled out through the enshrouding fog. For ten minutes or so, he pushed +on into the strange, misty night. Then suddenly he found himself +alongside an old fisherman's yawl that had been rotting all winter at her +moorings, and he knew from her position that he could not be far from the +_Southern Cross_. + +A few more strokes to leeward, and a spot of dull light broke through the +darkness. He headed directly for it. To his relief it grew brighter; when +suddenly, too late to stop the progress of his canoe, he shot under it, +and the bow of his craft bumped with a dull thud against the timber side +of the schooner. Its dark outlines were just perceptible above him; and +at one or two points there gleamed rays of light in the fog, green and +red from the night lamps on the masthead, and dull yellow from the port +holes in the rear. A second after the contact the canoe receded, then the +wash of the sea drew her toward the stern. Another moment and Pembroke +felt his prow scrape gently against the rudder, which prevented further +drifting. Apparently, since he heard nothing from the deck above, he had +reached his goal without attracting attention. + +He kept perfectly still, however, for some little time, until satisfied +that there was no one at the wheel above, he pushed the canoe softly back +to the rope ladder, that a day or so before he had seen hanging over the +side. It was the work of a moment to make his little boat fast to the +lower rung. Then slipping over the rail, he climbed stealthily up till +his head protruded above the gunwhale. The immediate deck seemed +deserted; but he was sure that some one was keeping the watch, and +probably near the point where he was, that is to say, where access to the +deck was easiest. But the fog and the darkness afforded him protection, +as he climbed over the gunwhale and, without making a sound, moved toward +the stern, crossed the after-deck and found the wheel. As he had +surmised, it was deserted. The watch evidently was forward. Beneath him, +sending its ineffectual rays obliquely into the fog, shone the light from +the little cabin below. + +Determined to get a look through the port, he climbed over the gunwhale +again, fastened a stern-sheet about his waist and to a staple, and at the +risk, if he slipped or if the rope gave way, of plunging head foremost +into the icy waters of the Cove, he let himself down until his head was +on a level of the port. + +Through the blurred glass he peered into a tiny cabin. There with back +toward him, just a few feet away stood Nancy Frost. He steadied himself +with an effort, and looking again saw that she was alone. A moment's +hesitation, and he tapped resolutely on the pane with his finger tips. At +first Nancy did not hear, but presently, aroused by the slight tapping, +she glanced with a frightened expression toward the door, and stood +anxiously listening. Tom continued to knock on the window, not daring to +make it louder for fear of being heard above. The alarm deepened on +Nancy's face, and in sheer pity Tom was tempted to desist; but at that +instant her attention was riveted upon the spot whence the tapping came. +At last, still with the expression of alarm on her face, she came slowly +toward the port. She hesitated, then pressed her face against the pane +over which Tom had spread his fingers. At whatever risk, of frightening +her or of danger to himself, as she drew back, he pressed his own face +against the outside of the little window glass. She stared at him as if +she were looking at a ghost. + +He moved his lips to form the word "Open." At length, in obedience to +this direction, Nancy cautiously unloosened the window of the port and +drew it back. + +"Good heavens, Tom!" she whispered. "Is it you?" + +"Yes, yes," Pembroke whispered back. "But for God's sake, speak softly. +I'm in a devilishly unpleasant position, and can hang here but a minute. +Tell me quickly--are you here of your own free will or are you a +prisoner?" + +"How can you ask?" she exclaimed. "For the love of heaven, help me +to escape." + +"That's what I'm here for," was Toms reply. "Now, quick; are you only +locked in or barred as well? I've brought some keys along." + +"Only locked, I think." + +"Where does that door lead?" + +"Into a little passage off the companion-way. Give me your keys. They +have but one man on watch. The captain is on shore to-night, apt to +return at any moment. And you?" + +"I have a canoe tied to the ladder on the shore side. If the captain +returns, I'm caught. Try those keys." He slipped into her the bunch of +keys that he had brought along. "I was sure you were here, and against +your will." + +"Dan, too, is locked up on board." + +"I thought as much; but you first. Hurry." + +Nancy sprang to the door, trying one key after another in feverish haste. +At last, to Tom's infinite relief, he saw the key turn in the lock, and +the door open. + +"On deck," she whispered; "at the ladder. I'm not likely to be caught." +Then she waved her hand and disappeared into the passage. + +Tom pulled himself up, unloosed the rope, and stole along the rail toward +the ladder. For a few moments, which seemed like a thousand years, he +stood in anguished suspense waiting for Nancy. Then suddenly she came out +of the mist and was at his side. They stood for a moment like disembodied +spirits, creatures of the night and the fog. The next instant a hand shot +out and grasped the girl's shoulder. + +"_Peste! mam'zelle_," a rough voice hissed, "_ou allez-vous_?" + +As the man spoke Tom swung at him with the butt of his revolver, and +without a murmur the figure fell to the deck. + +"Quick now," Pembroke whispered, "down the ladder." + +Instantly Nancy was over the rail and Tom was climbing down after her. As +he knelt in the bow and fumbled with the painter, the plash of oars +sounded a dozen yards away. + +"_Ho! Croix du Midi_!" came a hail through the fog. + +"Curse it!" muttered Tom; "the painter's caught." He drew out his knife, +slashed the rope that bound them to the schooner, got to his place +amidships, and pushed the canoe free. The lights of a small boat were +just emerging from the dark a dozen feet away. But the canoe slid by +unobserved, in the fog. They heard the nose of the small boat bump +against the schooner; then an oath, and a man's voice calling the watch. + +"They've found my painter," whispered Tom, "and in a second they'll find +the sailor on their deck." + +The lights of the _Southern Cross_ grew dim; vanished; the sound of angry +voices became muffled. They were half-way to shore when they heard the +noise of oars again. Evidently some one had started in pursuit. For a +moment Tom rested, listening intently; but the sound was still some +distance away. Probably, he thought, they were heading directly for the +shore, whereas he, at a considerable angle, was making for the boathouse +at the north end of the beach. In ten minutes he had beached the canoe +within a rod of the point from where he embarked. + +"I can't hear them," whispered Tom, after a moment's listening. "They've +made for shore down the beach. They can't find us in the dark. I've got +Fleetwing tied to a fence in the meadow yonder. Come." + +It was the work of a moment to stow the canoe, lock the boathouse, run +across the sands, and mount Nancy in front of him on the back of his +trusty hunter. A second later Fleetwing's hoofs were striking fire on the +stones that the high tides had washed into the beach road. In the +distance there was a cry, the sharp ring of a pistol shot; but they were +safe on their way, racing wildly for the Inn. The escape, the adventure +had thrilled Nancy. Tom's arms were around her, and her hands on his that +grasped the bridle. At last they were in the avenue, and Tom pulled in +under the great branches of the Red Oak. He slipped from the back of the +horse and held out his arms to Nance. + +"We are safe, girl," he whispered. + +"You are sure? Oh, thank God, thank God! Quick, let us in! Can they be +following?" + +"No, no. They won't follow. It's all right. Easy,--before we go +in--please, dear--once--kiss me." + +"Oh, Tom, Tom," she whispered, as she lifted her face to his. + +"I have you at last, sweetheart," he murmured. "You love me?" + +"Ah!" she cried, "with my whole heart and soul." + + + +CHAPTER XV + +NANCY + + +It was after eleven before Nancy rejoined Tom in the bar. She seemed more +like herself as she slipped in and took her accustomed seat beside the +blazing logs. + +"Oh, I am all right, thank you," she insisted, declining the glass of +wine that Pembroke poured out for her. "I wonder, Tom, if you killed that +poor wretch on the deck?" + +"Don't know," Tom answered. "I hope so. But what the deuce, Nance, has +been happening? I can wait till to-morrow to hear, if you are too tired +to tell me; but I do want awfully to know." + +"I am not tired," Nancy replied, "and I shan't sleep a wink anyway. If I +close my eyes I'll feel that hand on my shoulder and hear the thud of +that man's fall on the deck. I can't bear to think that this miserable +business will bring bloodshed." + +"But tell me, Nance, who is the Marquis--what happened--how did they get +you away?" + +"Ah! the Marquis," exclaimed Nancy with a shudder. "I am glad you have +him locked up. I can't bear to think of him, but I'll tell you what I +know. You remember, Tom, he tried to be friends with me from the first; +and he seemed to fascinate me in some unaccountable way. Then he +questioned me about my identity, and began to drop hints that he knew +more than he cared to let appear to the others, and my curiosity was +excited. I have always known of course that there was some mystery about +my being left to Mrs. Frost's care. She has been kind, good, all that she +should be; but she wasn't my mother. Well, the Marquis stirred all the +old wonder that I had as a child, and before long quite won my +confidence. He told me after a time that I was the daughter of his elder +brother, the Marquis Francois de Boisdhyver, who in 1814 stayed here at +the Inn at the Red Oak under the name of General Pointelle. I was not +altogether surprised, for I have always believed that I was French by +birth, and his assertion that I was his niece seemed to account for his +interest in me. My father, if this Marquis de Boisdhyver was my father, +was one of the Emperor Napoleon's marshals and was a party to the plot to +rescue the Emperor from Elba. He was obliged to return to France, and +since it was impossible for him to take me with him--I was a little girl +of two at the time--he left me with Mrs. Frost. Thinking of my future, he +hid a large treasure in some secret chamber off the Oak Parlour." + +"I know," Tom interrupted. + +"What? You mean there is a treasure?" + +"I think there is; but go on. I will tell you afterwards." + +"Then he set sail for France, took part in the great events of the +Hundred Days, and fell at Waterloo. It was on the field of Waterloo that +he met his younger brother--our Marquis--and told him about the child +left in America and about the treasure hidden in the Inn at the Red Oak." + +"Well," Nancy continued, having answered a volley of questions from Tom, +"the Marquis--I mean our old Marquis--was held for many years in a +military prison in England. Upon his release he was poor and unable to +come to America to seek his little niece and the fortune that he believed +to be hidden in the Inn. Tom, at first I didn't believe this strange +story about a treasure; but gradually I became convinced; for the Marquis +believed in it thoroughly, and for proof of it he showed me a torn scrap +of paper that he found in the cabinet in the Oak Parlour the day after +he arrived at the Inn. It seems the old marshal had torn the paper in two +and hidden the parts in different cubby-holes of that old Dorsetshire +cabinet. He couldn't find an opportunity to hunt for the other half, so +at last he persuaded me to help him in the search. Of course, he swore me +to secrecy, and I was foolish enough to give him my promise. I got the +key to the bowling alley from the ring in Dan's closet, and two or three +times went with him at night after you all were asleep." + +"I know you did," said Tom. + +"How could you know it--has the Marquis--?" + +"No, Dan and I saw you. I woke one night, happened to look out of the +window and saw the Marquis going into the bowling alley. It was +moonlight, you know. I woke Dan, we slipped down stairs, saw a light in +the Oak Parlour, peeped through the shutters and saw you and the old +Marquis at the cabinet." + +"When was this?" asked Nancy. + +"The night--before our walk in the woods." + +"And you did not tell me! What could you think I was doing?" + +"I didn't know. How could I know? It was that which first made me +suspicious of the Marquis. We made up our minds to watch. But that day in +the woods--well, I forgot everything in the world but just that I was in +love with you." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Nancy, flushing. + +"But tell me," asked Tom, "What did you find in the cabinet?" + +"We found nothing. I began to think that the Marquis had deceived me. I +didn't know what to believe. I didn't know what to do. I threatened each +day to tell Dan. And then came our walk. When we came in that night--do +you recall?--we found the Marquis sitting in the bar before the fire, and +I went over and spoke to him." + +"Yes, I remember," Tom answered. + +"I had made up my mind that I must take you all,--mother and you and +Dan,--into my confidence. I told him so. He begged me to wait until the +next day and promised that he would tell you then himself. I was +beginning to think he might be a little crazy, that there was no hidden +treasure." + +"I'm sure there is," said Tom. "There was another half of that torn scrap +of paper, hidden in one of the cubby-holes of the old cabinet. Dan found +it. It's the directions, sure enough, for finding the treasure." + +"Ah! but what has it all to do with me?" + +"I don't know; something I fancy, or the Marquis would not have told you +as much as he did. But here is the other half. You can tell whether it is +part of the paper he showed you." + +He drew from his pocket the yellowed bit of paper and spread it on the +table before them. Nance bent over and examined it closely. + +"I believe it is the other half. See, it is signed ...'ancois de +Boisdhyver'. I remember perfectly that the signature of the other was +missing, except for the letters 'F-r-' It is, it must be, Francois de +Boisdhyver, who, the Marquis says, was my father. Then look! here are the +words '_tresor', 'bijoux et monaie_'. I remember in the other there were +phrases that seemed to go with these--'_tresor cache' 'lingots d'or_'. +Ah! do you suppose there really is a fortune hidden away in the Inn all +these years?" + +"Yes, I think so," said Tom. "And I feel certain you have some claim to +it, or they wouldn't have made such an effort to involve you in their +plot. But, please, Nance, tell me the rest. You got to the night of your +disappearance." + +"It was a horror--that night!" exclaimed Nancy. "It must have been about +twelve that the Marquis came and tapped at my door. For some reason I was +restless and had not gone to bed. I slipped out into the hall with him +and we came in here to talk. He begged me to make one more expedition +with him to the Oak Parlour. But I refused--I insisted that I must tell +Dan. Suddenly, Tom, without the slightest warning, I felt my arms +pinioned from behind, and before I could scream, the Marquis himself had +thrust a handkerchief in my mouth, and I was gagged and bound. Everything +was done so quickly, so noiselessly, that not a soul in the house could +have heard. They carried me out of the Inn and into the avenue of maples. +From there on I was forced to walk. We went to the beach. I was put into +a small boat and rowed out to the schooner, and there they locked me up +in the little cabin in which you found me." + +"What time did you say it was?" asked Tom. + +"About twelve--after midnight, perhaps; I don't know for sure. The +Marquis went to the beach with us and pretended to assure me that I was +in no danger; that I would be released in good time, and that he would +see me again. As a matter of fact for three days I have seen no one but +Captain Bonhomme. He brought my meals, and was inclined to talk about +anything that come into his head. Last night he told me that Dan was also +a prisoner on the _Southern Cross_, if that would be of any consolation +to me. Then he said he had to go ashore and locked me up. Several times I +was taken on deck for exercise, but the captain kept close by my side." + +"And you haven't seen or heard from the Marquis again?" + +"No! nor do I want to see him. But, Tom, what is the meaning of it all? +How are we going to rescue Dan? What are we going to do? We can't keep +the Marquis a prisoner indefinitely." + +Tom gave her his own version of the last few days. He told her of what he +and Dan had suspected, of Dan's proposal to visit the House on the Dunes +and his disappearance, of his own investigations there, and his +determination to play the same game with the Marquis as hostage. + +"But what to do next, I confess I don't know," he continued. "At present +it seems to be stale mate. For to-night, any way, we are safe, I think, +for I shall take turns in keeping guard with Jesse and Ezra. I have the +idea that to-morrow, when they realize something has happened to the +Marquis we shall hear from Madame de la Fontaine or from the schooner. In +the morning I am going to take you and Mrs. Frost to the Red Farm for +safety. I intend to fight this thing out with that gang, whatever +happens. If there is treasure, according to their own story, it belongs +to you. If I don't get a proposal from them, I shall make the offer, +through Madame de la Fontaine, of exchanging the Marquis for Dan.... But +I must go now, Nance, and relieve one of the men. We must all get some +sleep to-night, and it's already after twelve. Go to bed, sweetheart, and +try to get some rest. One of us will be within call all night, watching +right there in the hall; so don't be afraid." + +"It was my wretched curiosity that got us into all this trouble." + +"Not a bit of it! The trouble was all arranged by the Marquis; he was +simply waiting for the schooner. Now that I have you back again, my heart +is fairly light. We shall get Dan to-morrow, I am sure." + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MADAME AT THE INN + + +In the morning the fog lifted, a bright sun shone from a cloudless sky, +the marshes sparkled with pools of melted snow and the long-promised thaw +seemed definitely to have set in. Soon after breakfast Tom sent Jesse to +the Red Farm with directions for the people there to make preparations +for Mrs. Frost and Nancy, whom he proposed to drive over himself in the +course of the afternoon. + +About the middle of the morning as Tom and Nancy stood on the gallery +discussing the situation, Tom drew her attention to a small boat putting +off from _The Southern Cross_. They examined it through the glass, and +Nancy recognized the figure of Captain Bonhomme sitting amongst the +stern-sheets. + +"You may depend upon it," said Tom, "he is going to the House on the +Dunes to report your disappearance to Madame de la Fontaine. The most +curious thing about this whole business to me is the mixing-up in it of +such a woman as Dan described Madame de la Fontaine to be." + +"It is strange," Nancy agreed, "but from the bits of talk I've overheard, +I should say that she was the prime mover in it all." + +"In a way I am rather glad of that," said Tom, "for with a woman at the +head of things there is less chance of their resorting to force to gain +their ends. But the stake they are playing for must be a big one, and +already they have done enough to make me sure that we should be prepared +for anything. I shall be surprised if we don't get some communication +from them to-day. The old Marquis counts on it, or he would not keep so +still. At any cost, we must get Dan back." + +They talked for some time longer and were about to go in, when Nancy +pointed to a horse and rider coming down the avenue of Maples. A +glance sufficed to show that the rider was a woman. Nancy slipped +inside to escape observation, while Tom waited on the gallery to +receive the visitor. + +As the lady drew rein under the Red Oak, he ran down the steps, and +helped her to dismount. Her grace, her beauty, her manner as of the +great world, made him sure that he was in the presence of Madame de +la Fontaine. + +"Good morning, sir," said the lady, with a charming smile, "if I mistake +not, I have the pleasure of addressing Mr. Pembroke?" + +"Yes, madam,--at you service," replied Tom. + +"I am come on a strange errand, monsieur; as an ambassadress, so to say, +of those whom I fear you take to be your enemies." + +"You are frank, madam. I believe that I am speaking with--?" + +"Madame de la Fontaine," the lady instantly supplied. "Events have so +precipitated themselves, monsieur, that pretense and conventionality were +an affectation. I am informed, you understand, of your brilliant rescue +of Mademoiselle Eloise de Boisdhyver." + +"If you mean Nancy Frost by Mademoiselle Eloise de Boisdhyver, madam, +your information is correct. I gathered that you had been told of +this, when I saw Captain Bonhomme make his way to the House on the +Dunes this morning." + +"Ah! What eyes, monsieur!" exclaimed the lady. "But I have grown +accustomed to having my privacy examined over-curiously during the few +days I have spent on your hospitable shores. _Mais pardon_--my purpose in +coming to the Inn at the Red Oak this morning was but to request that my +name be conveyed to Monsieur the Marquis de Boisdhyver." + +"You mean, madam, that you wish to see the Marquis?" + +"Yes, monsieur, if you will be so good as to allow me to do so." + +"I am sorry," Tom rejoined, "that I must disappoint you. Circumstances +over which the Marquis has no control will deprive him of the pleasure of +seeing you this morning." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Madame de la Fontaine, "I was right then. Monsieur le +Marquis is, shall we say, in confinement?" + +"As you please, madam; as safe, for the time, as is my friend Dan Frost." + +"_Eh bien_, monsieur! It is that you have--do you not say?--turned the +tables upon us?" + +"Precisely, madam," assented Tom. + +"And you will not permit me even a word--ever so little a word--with my +poor friend?" murmured Madame de la Fontaine plaintively. + +"Again I am sorry to refuse you, madam; but--not even a little word." + +"So! _Mais oui_, I am not greatly surprised. I was assured last +night...." + +"When you did not see the signals?" suggested Tom quickly. + +"When I did not see the signals," repeated the lady, with a glance of the +briefest enquiry, "I was assured that something had befallen Monsieur le +Marquis. _Mais vraiment_, monsieur, you do us much dishonour in assuming +a wicked conspiracy on our parts. The Marquis is my friend; he is also +the friend of the charming Mademoiselle. All that we wish, all that we +would do is as much in her interest as in his own. But it is impossible +that my old friend shall remain in confinement. On what condition, +monsieur, will you release the Marquis de Boisdhyver?" + +"On the condition, naturally, that my friend Dan Frost is released from +the _Southern Cross_." + +"Ah! Is it that you are quite sure that Monsieur Frost is confined on +the ship?" + +"Quite sure, Madame de la Fontaine. I was on board _The Southern Cross_ +last night." + +"Yes, I know it; and I congratulate you upon your extraordinary success. +Very well, then, I accept your condition. Monsieur Dan Frost returns; +Monsieur le Marquis is released. And now you will perhaps have the +kindness--" + +"No, madame; in this affair the Marquis and his friends have been the +aggressors. I cannot consent that you should hold any communication with +the Marquis till Dan returns free and unharmed to the Inn." + +"And what assurance then shall I have that the Marquis will be released?" + +"None, madame, but my word of honour." + +"_Pardon, monsieur_. I accept your terms. Monsieur Frost shall +return. The instant he enters the Inn at the Red Oak, you promise +that the Marquis de Boisdhyver be released and that he be given this +note from me?" + +"Certainly, madam." + +The lady took a sealed note from the pocket of her habit and handed it to +Tom. "There remains, monsieur," she murmured, "but to bid you good-day. +If you will be so kind--" + +She ran lightly down the steps, and held up her foot for Tom to assist +her into the saddle. + +"Your friend will return _tout de suite_, monsieur," she cried gayly, as +she drew in the rein. + +"And we shall have the pleasure of seeing you again?" asked Tom. + +"Ah! who can tell?" She touched the horse lightly with her whip, inclined +her head, and soon disappeared down the avenue of maples. + +Some time later Nancy and Tom watched her cantering across the beach. +She waved her handkerchief as a signal to the schooner; a small boat put +ashore, and she was rowed out to _The Southern Cross_. + +"Once Dan is back, and we get rid of the old Marquis," said Tom, "I shall +breathe considerably easier." + +"I can't believe they will give the game up so easily," was Nancy's +reply. "Seizing the Marquis, Tom, was a check, not a mate." + +Out on the schooner in the Cove, Madame de la Fontaine and Dan Frost were +once more talking together. + +"Dear boy," said the lady. "I cannot do that which I promised. It is +impossible that your sister shall make to you the request to give me the +torn scrap of paper, for the reason that Mademoiselle Nancy has chosen to +disappear. Have no fear, monsieur, for I have good reason to believe she +has returned to the Inn at the Red Oak. Our schemes, _mon ami_, have +failed. You are no longer a prisoner, you are free. And this is good-bye. +I abandon our mission. I leave the House on the Dunes to-day; to-morrow I +return to France." + +"But, madame, you bewilder me," exclaimed Dan. "Why should you go; why +should we not all join forces, hunt for the treasure together, if there +is a treasure; why this division of interests?" + +"_C'est impossible_!" she exclaimed impetuously. "Monsieur le Marquis +will not consent. He is treated with intolerable rudeness by your friend +Mr. Pembroke. He will not accept that which I propose. And I--_vraiment, +I_ desire no longer to work against you. No, monsieur Dan, _tout est +fini_, we must say good-bye." + +She held out her hands and Dan impetuously seized them. Then, suddenly, +she was in his arms and his lips were seeking hers. + +"I cannot let you go," he cried hoarsely. "I cannot say good-bye." + +For a moment he held her, but soon, almost brusquely, she repulsed him. +"_C'est folie, mon ami, folie_! We lose our heads, we lose our hearts." + +"But I love you," cried Dan. "You must believe it; will you believe it if +I give you the paper?" + +"No, no!--What!--you wish to give to me the secret of the Oak Parlour?--" + +"Aye, to entrust to you my life, my soul, my honour." + +"Ah, but you must go," she murmured tensely. + +"Captain Bonhomme is returning. It is better that he knows of your +release after you are gone. _C'est vrai_, my friend, that I risk not a +little in your behalf. Go now, quickly ... No! No!" she protested, as she +drew away from him. "I tell you, _C'est folie_,--madness and folly. You +do not know me. Go now, while there is time!" + +"But you will see me again?" insisted Dan. "Promise me that; or, on my +honour, I refuse to leave. Do with me what you will, but--" + +"Listen!" she whispered hurriedly. "I shall meet you to-night at ten +o'clock, at the end of the avenue of maples near to your inn; you know +the place? _Bien_! Bring me the paper there, to prove that you trust me. +And I--_mais non_, I implore you--go quickly!" + +Dan turned at last and opened the door. Madame de la Fontaine called +sharply to the waiting Jean, and he, motioning to Dan to follow him, led +the way on deck. In a moment they were in a little boat heading for the +shore. The afternoon sun was bright in the western sky. The _Southern +Cross_ rode serenely at anchor, and from her deck, Madame de la Fontaine +was waving him good-bye. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE MARQUIS LEAVES THE INN + + +By the time Dan was put ashore on the beach of the Cove it was afternoon. +During the short row from the schooner he had been unable to exchange +remarks with the surly Jean, for that individual's only response to his +repeated efforts, was a surly "_Je ne parle pas anglais_," which seemed +to answer as a general formula to the conspirators. He gave up at last in +disgust, and waited impatiently for the small boat to be beached, +distrustful lest at the last moment some fresh trick be played upon him. +Not that his ingenuous faith in the beautiful French lady failed him, but +he was suspicious lest, having acted independently of the Marquis and +Captain Bonhomme in releasing him, she should not have the power to make +that release genuinely effective. + +But his apprehensions were groundless. The seaman rowed straight for the +shore, beached the boat with a last sturdy pull at the oars, and leaping +out into the curling surf, held the skiff steady. + +"Thank you very much," said Dan, shaking the spray from his coat. + +"Eh?" grunted Jean. + +"Oh!--beg pardon!--_merci_," he explained, exaggerating the pronunciation +of the French word. + +"Huh!" was the gutteral reply, as the man jumped back into the skiff, and +pushed off. Dan looked once more towards the distant schooner and the +slight figure in the stern. Then he started at a rapid pace for the Inn. + +As he turned into the avenue of maples, he was surprised to see +Jesse standing on the gallery, musket in hand, as though he were a +sentinel on guard. + +"Bless my soul, Mister Dan! I thought the Frenchies had made way with +you. You're a blessed sight to lay eyes on. But Mister Tom was right, he +said you'd be coming back this afternoon." + +"Well, here I am, Jesse," Dan replied grasping his hand, "as large as +life and twice as natural, I guess. I feel as if I'd been away for a year +and a day. But tell me, what's the news? Where is Tom? Has Nancy come +back? How is Mother? Have you been having trouble, that you are guarding +the door like a soldier on duty?" + +"Well, now, Mister Dan, one at a time, _if_ you please. Can't say +exactly as we've been havin' trouble; but we've sort of been lookin' for +it. And Mister Tom--" + +"Where is Tom? I must see him at once.' + +"He ain't here, sir; he left about an hour ago, driving the old Miss and +Miss Nancy to the Red Farm, sir; so as to be out of harm's way. He'll be +back before night, sir." + +"Ah, good! Then Nance is back? When did she come?" + +"She come back last night, sir; leastways Mister Tom brought her back. +Mister Tom, he got the idea that they'd cooped Miss Nance up on that +there schooner laying in the Cove, and sure enough, he found her there +and got her off somehows last night." + +"Good for Tom! How did he work it?" + +"I ain't heard no particulars, Mister Dan. We've been too busy watching +things to talk much. We got Ezra Manners out from the Port to help do +guard duty." + +"Guard?--what?" + +"Why, the Inn, sir. Mister Tom he's been sort of expectin' some kind of +attack. That's the reason he took the women folks over to the Red Farm." + +"I see--and where's the old Marquis?" + +Jesse chuckled. "The old Marquis's where he hasn't been doin' any harm +for the last twenty-four hours, sir. Mister Tom he locked him up last +night in one of the south bedrooms. That reminds me, I was to let him out +just as soon as you come back." + +"Why lock him up, and then let him out? Things have been moving at the +Inn, Jess, since I've been gone!" + +"Moving--yes, sir. But them's my orders--first thing I was to do soon as +you come back was to let the old Frenchy out and do as he pleased. Mister +Tom was to arrange everything else with you, sir." + +"Seems as if Tom had a whole campaign planned out. All right--we'll obey +orders, Jess. Let the Marquis out, and tell him he can find me in the bar +if he wants to see me. What time will Tom be back?" + +"Before dark, sir, I'm sure. He's been gone over an hour." + +Dan ran up to his bedroom, made a quick toilet, took the torn scrap of +paper from his strong-box, and put it in his wallet. Then he went down +stairs into the bar. The Marquis, released from his confinement, was +awaiting him. + +"Ah, Monsieur Frost!" the old gentleman exclaimed, coming forward with +outstretched hands, "I rejoice at your return. Now this so horrible +nightmare will end... Ah!" This last exclamation was uttered in a tone of +surprise and indignation, for Dan faced him with folded arms, +deliberately refusing the handclasp. + +"Yes, Marquis," he said, "I have returned; but I cannot say that I am +particularly pleased to see you." + +"Monsieur, _te me comprends pas_; this abuse, this insult--it is +impossible that I understand." + +"Pray, Monsieur de Boisdhyver," replied Dan, with dignity, "Let us have +done with make-believe and sham. For two days I have been in prison on +that confounded ship yonder, whose villainous crew are in your pay." + +"You in prison--the ship--the villainous crew!" repeated the Marquis. +"What is it that you say?" + +"Come, Marquis, your protests are useless," Dan interrupted. "I know of +the conspiracy in which you are engaged, of your deceit and trickery +here, of your part in my poor sister's disappearance. You know that +Madame de la Fontaine has told me much. Do you expect me to meet you as +though nothing had happened?" + +"But, _mon cher, monsieur_," continued the Marquis, "if it is that you +have been told anything by Madame de la Fontaine, my so good friend, the +bright angel of an old age too-cruelly shattered by misfortune, you well +know how innocent are my designs, how sincere my efforts for your +foster-sister, for her who is my niece." + +"Marquis, I do not understand all that has taken place. I may say further +that I do not care to discuss the situation with you until I have talked +with my sister and Mr. Pembroke." + +"Ah! then Eloise--then Mademoiselle Nancy, is returned?" exclaimed the +old gentleman. + +"I believe so. But I have not seen her. I must decline, Marquis, to +continue this conversation. I must first learn what has taken place in my +absence. When Tom returns--he is out just now--I am perfectly willing to +talk matters over with you and him together." + +The Marquis's eyes flashed. "But, Monsieur," he protested, "you must +understand that I cannot submit to meet with Monsieur Pembroke again. A +Marquis de Boisdhyver does not twice put himself in the position to be +insulted with impunity." + +"I should hardly imagine," Dan replied, "that it would be more +difficult for you to meet Pembroke again than it has been difficult for +me to meet you." + +"How--me?--_je ne comprends pas_. But I have been insulted, imprisoned, I +have suffered much that is terrible." + +"I found myself in an identical situation," said Dan. + +"But, monsieur, _un moment_" protested the old gentleman, as Dan made as +if to leave the room, "give me the time to explain to you this +misunderstanding.--" + +"No, Marquis. I will not talk until I have seen Tom." + +The black eyes of Monsieur de Boisdhyver gleamed unpleasantly. "I have +said to you, Monsieur Frost, that I refuse to meet Monsieur Tom Pembroke +once more. It would be intolerable. _Impossible, absolutment_! I must +insist that you will be kind enough to facilitate my departure at once." + +"Certainly, as you wish, Marquis." + +The old gentleman hesitated. For once indecision was shown by the +agitation of his features and the shifting of his eyes, but he gave no +other expression to the quandaries in his mind. After a moment's silence +he drew himself up with exaggerated dignity. With one hand upon his +breast and the other extended, in a fashion at once absurd and a little +pathetic, he addressed Dan for the last time, as might an ambassador +taking leave of a sovereign upon his declaration of war. + +"Monsieur, I renew my gratitude for the hospitality of the Inn at the Red +Oak, so long enjoyed, so discourteously withdrawn. I require but the +presentation of my account for the time, I have trespassed upon your good +will, and I request the assistance of a servant to facilitate my +departure. But I do not take my farewell without protesting, _avec tout +mon coeur_, at the misunderstanding to which I am persistently subjected. +The inevitable bitterness in my soul does not prevent me even now to +forget the sweet hours of rest that I have enjoyed here. The +unwillingness on your part, monsieur, to comprehend my position, does not +interfere to stifle in my breast the consciousness but of honourable +purpose. I make my compliments to mesdames." + +"Very good, marquis--and at what time shall I have a carriage +ready for you?" + +The Marquis glanced nonchalantly at his watch, "In fifteen minutes, +monsieur." + +"It will be ready, Marquis." + +"Your very obedient servant; Monsieur Frost." + +"Your obedient servant, Marquis de Boisdhyver." + +The old gentleman bowed again with elaborate courtesy and, turning +sharply on his heel, left the room. + +Somewhat disturbed by the turn affairs had taken, Dan stood for a moment +lost in thought. There was nothing for it, he supposed: Tom, who had +been in command, had given orders, and they should be obeyed; besides +there was no reason that he could see why the Marquis should be detained +at the Inn if he chose to leave it. So he sat down at a table, made out +the old gentleman's bill for the month, and then stepped to the door to +call for Jesse. + +"Take this," he said when the man appeared in response to his summons, +"to the old Marquis. It is the bill for his board. If he pays you, well +and good; if not--in any case, treat him courteously, and do not +interfere with his movements. He is leaving the Inn for good. I want you +to have the buggy ready within half-an-hour and drive him where he wishes +to go. I fancy he will want his stuff put on the schooner in the Cove." + +"All right, sir," replied Jesse. "Now that you and Miss Nance are back, +sir, I guess the sooner we get rid of the Marquis the better." + +Jesse carried the bill to the Marquis, then came down and went to the +barn to harness the horse. A little later he drove round to the +courtyard, hitched the horse to a ring in the Red Oak, and ran upstairs +to fetch the Marquis's boxes. + +Perhaps half-an-hour had passed when he returned to Dan in the Bar. "The +old gentleman's gone, sir," he said. + +"Gone!--where?" cried Dan. + +"Don't know, sir," Jesse replied. "To the schooner, I guess. He left this +money on his dressing-bureau." + +Dan took the gold which Jesse held out to him. "Well, well," he murmured, +"quite on his dignity, eh? All right, Jess, take his stuff to the beach +and hail the schooner. He will probably have given directions. I hope +we've seen the last of him." + + + + +PART IV + +THE ATTACK ON THE INN + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE AVENUE OF MAPLES + + +The Marquis's belongings were sent after him to the schooner, where, +however, it appeared that they had not been expected, for it was some +time before Jesse could obtain an answer to his hail from the shore, and +still longer before he could make the men on the ship understand what it +was he wanted with them. Eventually Captain Bonhomme had rowed ashore, +and the Marquis's bags, boxes, writing-desk, and fiddle were loaded into +the small boat and taken off to _The Southern Cross_. + +It appeared from Jesse's report that the Captain had been sufficiently +polite, and had attributed the misunderstanding of his men to their +inability to speak English. They had not gotten their orders for the +Marquis. He had asked no further questions about Monsieur de Boisdhyver +or about his recent prisoners, but had feed Jesse liberally, and +dismissed him, with his own and the Marquis's thanks. + +"Well," said Tom, who had returned an hour before and had been +exchanging experiences with Dan, "that seems to be the end of him for +the present. I don't know that I did right in promising your French lady +that I should release him, but there seemed no other way to make sure of +getting you back." + +"I am glad you promised," replied Dan. "It is a relief not to have him +under our roof. For the last week I've felt as if the place were haunted +by an evil spirit." + +"So it has been, and so it still will be, I am afraid," was Tom's reply. +"If there is treasure here, you may be sure that gang won't sail away +without making a desperate effort to get it. I move that we beat them out +by hunting for it ourselves. Why not begin to-night?" + +"Not to-night," protested Dan. "I am tired to death. You can imagine that +I didn't get much sleep cooped up on that confounded ship." + +"No more have I, old boy. But I believe in striking while the iron is +hot. Every day's delay gives them a better chance for their plans, if +they mean to attack the Inn." + +"I doubt if they'll do that. I don't think force is precisely their line. +You know, I believe that the story Madame de la Fontaine told isn't +altogether a fiction." + +"Pshaw!" exclaimed Tom. "I don't believe a word of it. Naturally they +wouldn't use force, if they could help it. But their plans have all been +upset, and a gang like that won't stop at anything." + +"But we live in a civilized community, my boy. This isn't the +middle ages." + +"We live in a civilized community, perhaps; but if you can find a more +isolated spot, a place more remote from help, in any other part of the +civilized world, I'd be glad to see it. We might as well be in the middle +of the Sahara desert. Find the treasure and get it out of harm's +way--that's my idea." + +"All right, but to-morrow; I swear I'm not up to it to-night." + +"To-morrow! Well, then to-morrow. Though for the life of me, I don't see +why you want to delay things. Jesse and Ezra can keep watch tonight." + +"But we must get some sleep, Tom." + +"The devil with sleep! However, you're the boss now. It's your inn, your +treasure, your sister, that are involved. I'll take a back seat." + +"Come, come, Tom--don't let's quarrel. Give me to-night to--to get myself +together, and tomorrow I'll pull the Inn down with you, if you wish." + +Perhaps Dan was right, he did need rest and sleep and a few hours would +restore him. They had their supper, then, apportioned the night into +watches, and Dan went upstairs for his first period of sleep. + +His brain was a-whirl. All through the afternoon, during his talk with +the Marquis, and later during his talk with Tom, one idea had been +dominating his thought, dictating his plan of action, colouring his +judgment. The fascination which Madame de la Fontaine exerted over his +senses was too strong for him even to contemplate resisting it. She was +confessedly in league with a gang of adventurers upon a quest for +treasure. She had lied to him at first about the Marquis, she had lied +to him about Nancy, she had lied to him about his release; and when she +had left him under the pretext of arranging his return to the Inn, she +had in fact gone to Tom to bargain an exchange of him for the old +Marquis. Her lies, her subterfuges, her flatteries, had been evidently +designed but to get possession of the torn scrap of paper which was so +necessary to their finding the hidden treasure. All this Dan told +himself a hundred times, and then, quickly dispelling the witness of +these cold hard facts, there would flash before him the vision of her +wonderful eyes, of her strange appealing beauty, of her stirring +personality; he would feel once more the touch of her cheek and her lips +pressing his, intoxicating as wine; and delicious fires flamed through +his veins, and set his heart to beating, and made havoc of his honour +and his conscience. Whatever were the consequences, he would meet her +again that night as he had promised. It was his first experience of +passion and it was sweeping him off his feet. + +Alone in his room Dan sat down at the table. He drew from his pocket the +torn paper, and as an act of justice to the friends he felt that he was +about to betray, he labourously made a copy of the difficult French +handwriting. This done, he locked the copy in his strong box and put the +original back in his pocket. Then, like the criminal he thought himself +to be, he crept cautiously down the stairs. The door into the bar was +open, and he stood for a moment, shoes in hand, peering into the +dimly-lit room. Tom sat by the hearth, reading, a pipe in his mouth and a +cocked pistol on the table by his side. A pang went through Dan's breast, +but he checked the impulse to speak, and stole softly across the hall and +into his mother's parlour. Ever so cautiously he closed the door behind +him, crossed the room, and raised the sash of one of the windows. + +It was dark, but starlight; the moon had not yet risen. In a moment he +had slipped over the sill and stood upon the porch. Lowering the sash, he +crept across the band of light that shone from the windows of the bar, +and into the shadow of the Red Oak. There he buttoned his great coat +tightly about him, put on his shoes, and started softly down the avenue +of maples. Scarcely a sound disturbed the silence of the night, save the +lazy creaking of the windmill as it turned now and then to the puff of a +gentle breeze. + +At every few steps, he paused to listen, fearful lest his absence had +been detected and he were followed by some one from the Inn. Then he +would start on again, peering eagerly into the darkness ahead for any +sign of her whom he sought. At last he reached the end of the avenue. +His heart was beating wildly, in a very terror that she might not come. +Nothing--no catastrophe, no danger, no disgrace,--could be so terrible +to him as that the woman he loved so recklessly and madly should not +come. She must not fail! He looked at his watch; it was already three +minutes past ten. If in five--then minutes she did not come, he would go +to seek her--to the House on the Dunes, aye, if must be to _The Southern +Cross_ itself. + +Suddenly a dark figure slipped out of the gloom, and Claire de la +Fontaine was in his arms. For a moment she let him clasp her, let his +lips again meet hers; then quickly she disengaged herself. "Are we safe?" +she asked in a whisper. "Is it that we can talk here." + +"We are perfectly safe," he answered. "Nothing can be heard from the Inn. +No one is about." + +"You escaped without notice? Are you certain that no one follows you?" + +"Absolutely. I am sure. And you?" + +"I?--Oh, no, no--. There is no one to question me. I have been at the +House on the Dunes all the evening. Marie, my maid,--she thinks that I +am gone to the schooner. _Mon Dieu! cher ami_, what terrors I have +suffered for you. It had not seemed possible that Claire de la Fontaine +would ride and walk two so long miles in a desolate country to meet a +lover--It must be that we are gone mad." + +"Madness then is the sweetest experience of life," said Dan, seizing her +hand again and carrying it to his lips. + +"Ah _peut-etre, mon ami_. But now there are many affairs to discuss. Tell +me--the Marquis, he was released, as your friend has promised me he +should be?" + +"Of course, didn't you know it?" + +"I know nothing. Why then is it he has not left the Inn?" + +"But he did leave--in the middle of the afternoon, half an hour after I +returned." + +"And where is it that he has gone?" + +"To the schooner, I suppose. He left alone, giving directions for his +things to be sent after him." + +"Ah! to the schooner, you say? You are certain?" + +"Yes--that is, I think he went there. Jesse took his boxes and bags down +to the shore, and Captain Bonhomme received them, and thanked him in the +Marquis's name,'' + +"_Mais non! Est-ce possible_?" For a moment she was silent, considering +deeply. "_Bien_!" she exclaimed presently. "It is as you say, of course. +And you, my friend?" She stopped suddenly, for they had been walking +slowly forward, and withdrawing her hand from his arm, she held it out +before him. "The paper?" she demanded. + +"Here it is," murmured Dan, fumbling in his pocket, and pulling out the +scrap of paper. She took it eagerly from his hand and held it up before +her eyes as though trying to see it in the dark. + +"This is it, really?" she asked. + +"I swear it," he answered. "It is the piece of writing that I found in +the hidden cubby-hole of the old cabinet in the Oak Parlour. It is written +in French, you know." + +"Yes, I know, I know," she assented absently. For a moment she was quite +still, and then, with a strange exclamation, she put the paper to her +lips. "_Quels souvenirs, d'autrefois_!" she murmured. "_Ah, mon Dieu, +mon Dieu_!" + +"Dearest, what is it?" asked Dan. + +"Nothing, nothing," she replied, withdrawing a little from his touch. "I +was unwell for the moment,--_ce ne fait rien_. No, no, you are not to +kiss me, please." Again she unloosed his arm from about her neck, slipped +the paper into her muff, and pressed a little forward. For a space they +walked slowly, silently, toward the Inn. + +"But, dearest one," murmured Dan, "this proves to you my love, doesn't +it? You no longer doubt me. For your sake, I give my honour; it may be, +the safety of my friends. You must see how I love you with all my heart +and soul. Won't you,--" + +Suddenly she stopped again quite still and faced him. "My poor boy," she +said gently, "you really love me?" + +"Love you! My God, have I not proved it! What more would you have me do?" + +"_Mais oui_," she answered quickly. "You have proved it, but I have +thought that it was not possible." + +"And you--you do care--oh, tell me--" + +"_Helas, mon paurve ami_. I love as tenderly as it remains in me to love. +Ah, dear, dear boy, so sincerely, that I cannot have you to sell your +honour for the futile kisses of Claire de la Fontaine." + +"What do you mean? Have I--" + +"No, no, no! This--take the paper. You must not again give it me, I +desire that you will not." She drew the paper from her muff with an +impulsive movement and thrust it toward him. "Take it, I implore you." + +"But why--?" + +"Because that you shall not give your honour to a woman such as I am. +_Mai vraiment_, I love you. That is why you must take back the paper." + +"But you must explain--" + +"_Mon Dieu_! is it that I have not explained? There is time for nothing +more. I have fear, _mon ami_; a kiss, and it is necessary that I go. It +is good-bye." + +"But you love me, you have said so. I cannot, I will not let you go." + +"Listen to me, my friend," she said, her voice rising for the moment +above the whisper in which she had cautiously spoken heretofore. "From +the first I have deceived you, betrayed you, played upon your affection +but to betray you afresh. And now I find that I love you. I am not that +which you call good, but it is impossible that I injure you. Go back to +your friends." + +"Never! I love you. What matters now anything that you have said or done? +And you love me. Ah dearest one, what can that mean but good?" + +"_Bien-aime_, what will you that I say?" she interrupted speaking +rapidly, "I am what you Americans call 'a bad woman',--the sort of woman +that you know nothing of. I was the woman who sixteen years ago stayed at +the Inn at the Red Oak with Francois de Boisdhyver, the woman your mother +called nurse, who cared for his little daughter. And now I have told you +all. Will you know from now that I am a thousand times unworthy? _Pour +l'amour de Dieu_, give it to me to do this one act of honour and of +generosity." + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE ATTACK + + +With these words she thrust the scrap of paper into his hands and turning +swiftly, started forward as though to escape his further importunities by +flight. But Dan was instantly by her side, trying to catch her hand in +the darkness. + +Again she faced him passionately. "_C'est folie_," she cried hoarsely, +"have I not told you that we are in great danger? Go, go back to the Inn. +It is there only that you will be safe.--O, _mon Dieu!"_ + +A figure had sprung suddenly from the blackness of the trees. Dan felt a +sharp blow on his shoulder, and then he was grappling with a wiry +antagonist, striving to keep at safe distance a hand that clutched an +open knife. Locked in a close embrace, swaying from side to side of the +road, they fought desperately. Dan striving to get at the pistol which he +carried, his assailant trying to use his knife. + +It seemed as if Dan could no longer hold the man off when two small +hands closed over the fist that held the gleaming knife and a clear voice +rang out in French. Dan felt his antagonist's grip loosen and he wrenched +himself free. Madame de la Fontaine had come to his rescue. "Quick, +quick--to the Inn. I am safe. You have but one chance for your life," she +cried. Already his assailant had put a boatswain's whistle to his lips +and was sounding a shrill blast. + +As Dan hesitated, uncertain what to do, he heard a number of men come +crashing through the underbrush of the neighbouring field. Again Madame +de la Fontaine cried, "_Mon Dieu_! will you not run?" Then she turned and +disappeared in the darkness. Simultaneously came the crack of a pistol +shot, and a bullet whizzed by his ear. There was nothing for it but to +run; and run he did, shouting at the top of his voice the while to Tom in +the Inn. He probably owed his start to the fact that for the moment his +attacker, who had been held at bay by Madame de la Fontaine, was +uncertain whether to follow her or Dan. That moment's delay saved Dan's +life, for though, with a curse, the man started after him now, he had a +poor chance of catching him in the darkness. But on he came only a dozen +yards or so behind, and after him the thundering steps and harsh cries +of those who had responded to the call of the whistle. + +At last Dan was at the door of the Inn, beating wildly upon it, and +calling, "Open, Tom; quick, for God's sake! It's Dan." As the door was +flung back, he sprang in and slammed it shut. Already the attackers were +in the courtyard, a volley of shots rang against the stout oak, followed +almost at once, by the flinging against it of half-a-dozen men. But the +great oaken beam had been slipped into place and held firmly. Dan was +none the worse for his experience, save for a graze on the cheek where +the knife had glanced, and a slit on his shoulder from a bullet. + +"They're here!" he cried. "No time for explanations, Tom. I went +out--fool that I was!--was attacked. They're here in force." + +By this time Jesse had rushed into the bar, attracted by the firing, and +soon Ezra Manners came running down from the floor above. After the first +impact against the door those without had withdrawn, evidently taking up +a position in the courtyard again, for almost at once there was a +fusilade of shots against door and windows, which luckily the heavy oak +was proof against. + +"They're welcome to keep that up all night," said Tom. "Only a waste of +ammunition. How many are there?" He would liked to have asked Dan why he +had gone out, but there was no time for discussion. + +"I don't know--half-a-dozen at least, I should guess," was Dan's reply. +"Bonhomme is at their head, I'm sure. It was he who tackled me in the +avenue. They may have the whole crew of the schooner here. That would +mean a dozen or more." + +"Well," said Tom, "we're in for it now, I guess. We'll have to watch in +different parts of the house, for we don't know where they will attack. +Unless they are all fools, it won't be here." + +"You're right. I'll stay and look out for the south wing. You go to the +north wing, Tom; Jesse to the kitchen, and Ezra to the end of the south +passage. That'll cover the house as well as we can cover it. They'll try +to force an entrance somewheres. Have you all got guns? Good. Leave the +doors open so that we can hear each other call." + +Evidently the attacking party had concluded that they were wasting their +lead and their time in shooting at doors and window-shutters, for as Tom +had said, all was now quiet outside. Fifteen minutes, half-an-hour +passed, and nothing occurred to alarm or to relieve the tension on the +anxious watchers within. At length Dan stole upstairs to reconnoitre. + +It was fortunate that he chose the precise moment he did, for as his +head emerged above the last stair, he saw that the great shutters at +the end of the south corridor were open, and a man stood before the +window, evidently on the top rung of a ladder, trying the sash. It was +locked to be sure, but at the instant Dan saw him, he raised his fist +and smashed it. He was about to leap through the opening, fringed +though it was with jagged glass, when Dan aimed his pistol carefully, +and fired. There was a cry, and the form at the window fell crashing to +the ground below. Dan rushed to the casement, and could hear in the +court beneath him the curses and exclamations of the surprised +assailants. Quickly he thrust the end of the ladder from the wall, then +seizing a fresh pistol from his belt, fired at random into the darkness +below. Another cry of pain attested to the fact that his chance shot +had taken effect. By this time Tom had rushed to his assistance, and +together they barred the window again. + +Dan gave a brief account of the incident. "But, for heaven's sake, Tom," +he concluded, "get back to the north wing. We are in danger there every +moment. I'll watch out here." + +As Tom returned to his post in the cold corridor of the north wing, he +heard heavy crashes, as of a battering-ram, against the great door that +opened into the gallery. A shrill whistle brought Ezra Manners to his +assistance. "Watch here!" he commanded. "If the door crashes in, shoot, +and shoot to kill; then run into the bar and barricade the door between. +I've a plan." + +He himself ran into the bar, blew out the candles, and risking perhaps +too much on the chance of success, cautiously opened the front door. He +could scarcely make out the group at the farther end of the gallery, as +he stepped out; but he could hear the resounding crashes against the door +into the north hall, each one of which seemed to be the last that even +that massive frame could hold out against. Leveling his pistol at the +group; he took aim, and fired; snatched another from his pocket, and +fired a second time. Again, by good luck, the defender's shots had told. +There was a thud on the gallery floor, and the besiegers scurried to +cover beyond the courtyard fence. Tom dashed safely back into the house, +and slipped the great beam into place. + +Upstairs Dan's attention had been attracted by the commotion in front of +the inn. He opened a window on to the roof of the gallery, climbed out, +and crawled along on his belly till his head just abutted over the eaves. +For a few moments, after the firing, he could hear the attackers moving +about behind the fence across the courtyard. At length, a couple of them +stole across the court and up on to the gallery beneath him. In a moment +they returned carrying the dead or wounded comrade; then all of them +seemed to go off together up the dark avenue of maples. He waited till +they could be heard no more, then crept back into the house and ran down +to tell Dan of their temporary withdrawal. For an hour or more the four +defenders of the Inn kept themselves occupied parading the corridors and +rooms, on the watch for a fresh attack. But nothing happened. They felt +no security, however, and would feel none till daylight. + +In the silent watching of that night Dan had ample opportunity to reflect +upon his extraordinary interview with Madame de la Fontaine. He loved +her. Good heavens how he loved her, but--had she been sincere in her +refusal at the last to keep the scrap of paper for the possession of +which she had so desperately intrigued? Had she decoyed him to the +rendezvous in the dark but to betray him to the bandits with whom she was +in league? At first it would seem so. And yet the paper was in his +possession; and, she it was who had rescued him from the assassin's +knife. Where was she now? What had become of her? What was to be the end +of this mad night's work? That she was the woman who had accompanied +General Pointelle--or the Marechal de Boisdhyver--somehow did not +surprise him. And for the time the full import of what that implied did +not dawn upon him. But what mattered anything now that he loved her? + +He determined at last to reconnoitre again from the roof of the gallery. +It still lay in shadow, but it would not be long before the moon, now +rising over the eastern hills beyond the Strathsey flooded it with light. +In a moment, he had opened the window, was over the sill, and, creeping +cautiously along the roof to the ledge, he worked his way toward the +great oak at the farther end. + +All was still and deserted below as the Inn courtyard would have been in +the middle of any winter's night. While he stood peering into the +darkness, listening intently, the moon, just showing above the distant +tree tops, cast the first rays of its light into the courtyard beneath +him. At the instant the figure of a woman stole across the flagged +pavement and crept fearfully to the Red Oak. With a strange thrill he +recognized Claire de la Fontaine. Reaching the shelter of the great tree, +she stooped, gathered a handful of gravel from the road bed, and then +cast it boldly at the shutters of the bar, calling softly, "Dan, Dan." + +Instantly he replied. "Claire! Is that you? What is it? I am here, above +you, on the roof." + +"Ah, _mon Dieu_!" she exclaimed, as she looked up startled, and +discerned his form leaning over the eaves, "for the love of heaven, my +friend, open to me. I am in danger and I must tell you that which is of +great importance to you. _Mais vite, mon ami_. In ten minutes they will +return again." + +It did not occur to Dan to doubt her. Careless of the risk, he rushed +back to the window, climbed in, and in a few seconds had opened the door +to the anxious woman without. She seemed physically exhausted as she +stepped into the warm bar. Taking her in his arms, he carried her to a +chair, and poured out a glass of wine, which she eagerly drank. + +"It matters not what I have been doing," she murmured in reply to his +questions, "I have but little time to give you my warning. _Ecoute_. +Bonhomme and his men are gone only to carry back their dead and wounded, +and to bring cutlasses, and the two or three sailors who were left on the +schooner. I have followed them--God knows how--and heard something of +their plans. They will make an attack--now, in a moment--in two different +places. But these attacks will be shams,--is not that the word?--they +will mean nothing. It is the Oak Parlour that they desire to enter. At +the window of that so horrible room Bonhomme will try to make an entrance +without alarm while the others hold your attention at the front and back +of the Inn. Is it that you understand? It is necessary that you are +prepared for these sham attacks, but the great danger is Bonhomme. The +window in the Oak Parlour is not strong. They have information--recent +information--from the Marquis probably,--that it will not be difficult to +break in. One of you must conceal himself in the dark and shoot Bonhomme +when he enters; you must shoot and shoot to kill, then we will be safe. +I have no fear of Monsieur le Marquis. The others--they are brutes--but +they will flee. And they know nothing, they do this for money,--ah, _mon +Dieu_, for money which I have furnished!" + +For a moment, torn between his love and his deep distrust of this woman, +poor Dan stood uncertainly. Suddenly he knelt at her side and clasped his +arms about her. "Claire, you are on our side? You swear it." + +"Ah, _mon Dieu_! is it that I deserve this?" she exclaimed bitterly. +"Ah! I tell you truth," she cried. "You must believe me--Listen! Are +they come already?" + +"No, no, there is nothing. But I trust you, I will go." + +Suddenly she sprang to her feet. "Let me go with you. It is terrible to +me to enter again that room; but I desire to prove myself of honour. +_Allous, allous_!" + +"Tom is there." + +"Ah! send him here to the bar. But do you come, _mon ami_. See, I go with +you." She rose and forcing herself to the effort, led the way across the +bar and into the corridor of the north wing, as if to show him that in +sixteen years she had not forgotten. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IN THE OAK PARLOUR + + +"You know the way?" Dan exclaimed as he caught up with her, and held open +the door that led into the old north wing. + +"But so well," she replied, catching her breath. "Would to God that +I did not!" + +"Ah!" he murmured, "I forgot that you have been here before." + +They pressed on silently. At the turn of the corridor upon which the Oak +Parlour gave, they discerned Tom Pembroke, a weird figure, in the dim +light of the tallow dip upon the table, that cast fantastic shadows upon +the whitewashed walls. + +As he recognized them, he sprang forward in astonishment. "Madame de la +Fontaine! Dan! What does this mean?" he cried. + +"You know Madame?" Dan replied hastily and in evident confusion. "At +great risk she has come to warn us--she is our friend, understand.--She +has come to tell us how Bonhomme and his men will attack the Inn." + +Tom listened to his explanation with unconcealed dismay. "Good heavens, +Dan!" he protested, "You trust this woman? You know she is in league with +these ruffians. Do you want us to fall into a trap?" + +"No, no, Monsieur Pembroke," interrupted Madame de la Fontaine, "you must +listen to me. I understand your fear. But at last you can trust me. I +repent that which I have done. Ah, _mon Dieu_, with what bitterness! And +now I desire to do all that is possible to save you. You must trust me." + +"I do not--I can not trust you," Tom cried sternly. "Don't go in there, +Dan. Don't I beg of you, trust this woman's word. It is a trick." + +"Perhaps," said Dan grimly, "but go back. I take the responsibility. I +do trust her, I shall trust her--to death. There is no time to lose, +man. Go back!" + +"What deviltry has bewitched you?" cried Tom passionately. "Already once +to-night you have risked our lives by your fool-hardiness,--for the sake +of this woman, eh? By gad, man, I begin to see. But I tell you now, I +refuse to be a victim to your madness." + +"_Mais non_, Monsieur Pembroke," Claire cried again. "By all that is good +and holy, I swear to you, that that which I have said is true. You must +go. They will attack the bar and the kitchen. If those places are not +defended, there will be danger." + +"At any rate," said Dan, "I am going into the Oak Parlour. If you refuse +to act with me, barricade the door between the bar and the north wing. If +need be, I shall fight alone. Only now we lose time, precious time." + +Pembroke looked at him as if he had gone mad, then shrugging his +shoulders he turned back into the bar, whistling for Jesse and Ezra as +he did so. + +For a moment, glancing after Tom's retreating figure, shaken to his soul +by conflicting emotions, Dan stood irresolute. + +"But come," said Madame de la Fontaine, touching his arm. Again like the +weird genius of this strange night she led the way on down the shadowy +hall, and paused only when her hand rested upon the knob of the door into +the Oak Parlour. "It is here," she said simply. + +As Dan reached her side, she opened the door. The light of the candle +down the hallway did not penetrate the gloom of the disused room. A musty +smell as of cold stagnant air came strong to their nostrils, and Dan +felt, as they crossed the threshold together, that he was entering a +place where no life had been for a long long time, a place full of dead +nameless horrors. + +The woman by his side was trembling violently. He put his arm about her +to reassure her, and there shot through him a sensation of strange and +terrible joy to be with her alone in this darkness and danger. For the +moment he was exulting that for her sake he had risked his honour, that +for her sake now he was risking life itself. He bent his head to hers. + +"No! no!--not here!" she whispered hoarsely, but yet clinging to him with +shaking hands. "It is so cold, so dark. I have fear," she murmured. + +"It is like a tomb," he said. + +"The tomb of my hopes, of my youth," she breathed softly. + +"Shall I strike a light?" + +"No, no,--no light, I implore you. _Ecoute_! What is it that I hear?" + +"I hear nothing. It is the wind in the Red Oak outside." + +"But listen!" + +"It is an owl hooting." + +Suddenly she drew her hand from his, and he could hear her moving swiftly +about. "All is as it used to be?" she asked. + +"Precisely," he answered; "nothing has been changed." + +"Here is the cabinet," she said, from across the room. "I can feel the +lion's head. It is opposite to the window and the moonlight will stream +in when the casement is opened, but if I crouch low I shall not be seen. +_Bien_! And you, _mon ami_? Tell me, is the old _escritoire_ still to the +left of the door?" Now she was back at his side once again. + +"The _escritoire_?" he repeated. + +"The little table where one writes. Ah! yes, it is here. See, behind +this, _mon ami_, shall you hide yourself. The moonlight will not reach +here--and it is so arranged that you will see plainly any one that +appears at the window. When the casement is opened, you will shoot, will +you not, and shoot to kill?" + +"Yes, I will shoot," said Dan, his voice trembling. + +"You promise me?" she cried in a tense whisper, as she grasped his arm +and held it tight in her grip. + +"I tell you, yes." + +"You must not fail." + +"No. Shall I shoot at any one who opens?" + +"Any one?--it will be Bonhomme,--no other." + +Suddenly there came, from the front and the rear of the Inn, at the same +instant it seemed, the sharp staccato of a fusilade of pistol shots, and +the lumbering blows as of beams being thrust at distant doors. + +"They are come!" she whispered, "hide." Dan could hear the swish of her +garments as she rapidly glided across the room to the old cabinet, then +he turned and crouched low behind the writing desk that she had chosen +for his place of concealment. He knelt there motionless, a cocked pistol +clenched in his right hand. His breath seemed to have stopped, but his +heart was pounding as though it must burst through his breast. How could +he shoot down in cold blood a fellow man? The horror of it crowded out +all other impressions, sensations fears. He could fight, risk his life, +but to pull the trigger of that pistol when the casement should open +seemed to him an impossibility. He would wait, grapple with him, fight +as men should. + +Suddenly a ray of moonlight fell across the dark floor. Dan, looking up, +seemed frozen by horror. The shutters had opened, the casement swung back +noiselessly, and there in the opening, sharply outlined against the +moonlight-flooded night, was the great black hulk of Captain Bonhomme. + +For a moment he stood there irresolute, listening intently. Dan was +fascinated, motionless, held as in a vice by the horror of the thing. + +Suddenly Bonhomme moved his head to one side as if to listen more +acutely. As he did so, the ray of moonlight fell upon the cabinet, fell +upon Claire de la Fontaine, upon something that she held in an +outstretched hand that gleamed. + +"_Nom de Dieu_!" There was the flash and crack of a pistol, a sharp cry, +and the great figure fell back and sank out of sight. + +With that Dan sprang forward, reckless of danger, and ran to the window. +He heard without the confused sounds as of persons scurrying to cover, +saw their forms dash across the moonlit courtyard, into the shadows of +the trees and outhouses. Beneath him on the floor of the gallery was +something horrible and still. + +Almost instantly Claire de la Fontaine was by his side, and as +regardless of danger as he, she was calling sharply, calling men by their +names. Her hair had been loosened and fell over her shoulders in black +waves, her dark eyes flashed with excitement and passion, and her face, +strangely pale, in the silver moonlight, was set in stern harsh lines. +Even then this vision of her tragic beauty thrilled the man at her side. + +But she was as unconscious of him as she was of her danger. With hand +uplifted she called by name the desperados, who had taken shelter in the +darkness and to those who now came running from front and rear where +their attacks had been unsuccessful. + +Appalled, spell-bound by the vision, even as Dan was, they stopped, and +stood listening mutely to the torrent of words that she poured +forth,--vehement French of which Dan had no understanding. + +At last, ending the frightful tension of the scene, two of the men came +forward, crept up to the lifeless body of Bonhomme, and grasping it by +head and feet, carried it away, across the courtyard, into the darkness +of the avenue of maples. One by one, still mysteriously silent, the +others of the gang followed, till at length the last one had disappeared +into the gloom. Weird silence fell once more upon the Inn. + +It was only then that Madame de la Fontaine turned to Dan. "They will +come no more," she said in a strained unnatural voice. "We are saved, +safe.... I have proved, is it not so?--my honour, my love." + +With the words she sank at his feet, just as Tom, candle in hand, +appeared in the doorway. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE TREASURE + + +Owing doubtless to the death of Bonhomme and to the orders given in no +uncertain tones by Madame de la Fontaine, the bandits from the schooner +in the cove did not make a further effort to attack the Inn that night. +There was no rest, however, for Madame de la Fontaine, after her heroic +exploit in the Oak Parlour, had swooned completely away. They carried her +to the couch in Mrs. Frost's parlour, and, awkwardly enough, did what +could be done for her by men. It was over an hour before they succeeded +in restoring her to consciousness, and when they did so, she awoke to +delirium and fever. Distracted by anxiety and by their helplessness, at +the first streak of dawn, Dan started for town to get a doctor, and Ezra +Manners volunteered to go to the Red Farm and bring back Mrs. Frost, +Nancy, and the maids. + +About six o'clock in the morning the women folk returned to the Inn. But +the briefest account of the attack was given them, though they were told +in no uncertain terms of Madame de la Fontaine's heroic action in coming +to warn them and of her courageous shot at the leader. Then Mrs. Frost +and Nancy turned all their attention to the sick woman, caring for her as +tenderly and devotedly as if she were their own. Half-an-hour later Dan +returned from Monday Port with the family doctor, a grave silent old +gentleman, in whose skill and discretion they trusted. After making an +examination of his patient, he nodded his head encouragingly; gave a few +directions to Mrs. Frost, and then left, promising to return later in the +morning with medicines and supplies. + +At last, utterly worn out, the four men threw themselves on their beds +and slept from sheer exhaustion. The sun was high in the sky when they +came down stairs again and found Nancy waiting for them, and a smoking +breakfast ready on the table. After greeting them, she pointed to the +window, across the fields, almost bare of snow now and gleaming in the +morning sunlight, to the bright waters of the cove. "See!" she cried, +"the schooner has disappeared." + +They both looked. "By Jove, it has!" exclaimed Tom, rushing to the other +side of the room, and peering out at the shipless sea. "Heigho! that's a +relief. Pray God we've seen the last of her. The Marquis gone, the +schooner gone,--we three together once more! Perhaps we shall begin to +live again. Ah!" he added more softly, glancing with sudden sympathy at +Dan's white drawn face, "I forgot the poor woman across the hall." + +Dan turned aside to hide his emotion, for though a load of anxiety had +been lifted from his heart by the vanishing of _The Southern Cross_, he +was sick with fear for the issue of the illness that had stricken down +the woman he loved,--the woman who had proved her love for him by so +terrible and so tragic a deed. + +As though aware that for the moment they were best left together alone, +Nancy slipped away into the kitchen. + +"You love her, Dan?" asked Tom simply. + +"Yes, Tom, with all my heart and soul. I staked my honour, my life, on +her sincerity. And how she has proved that we were right to trust her! It +can't be--she mustn't die--I couldn't bear it!" + +"She'll be all right, old fellow, don't worry; trust to your mother and +Nance. It is only the shock of the terrible things she went through last +night. Come on, we must take something to eat. Here is Nancy back again." + +There was no doubt of the fact, _The Southern Cross_ had sailed away, +vanished in the night as mysteriously as a week before she had appeared +in the Strathsey and found moorings in the Cove. They did not count on +the certainty of her not reappearing, however; and that night and for +many nights thereafter the Inn was securely barricaded and a watch was +kept, but neither then nor ever did _The Southern Cross_ spread her sails +in those waters again. She and her crew disappeared from their lives as +completely as from the seas that stretched around the coast of Deal. + +Tom at once was for making a search in the Oak Parlour for the hidden +treasure, but for the time Dan had no heart for the undertaking. He urged +delay at least until Madame de la Fontaine had recovered; and as for +Nancy she would not hear of it. + +"I can't bear to think of it,--of the trouble, the crime, the suffering +of which it has been the cause. When our poor lady recovers, she will +tell us all we need to know. I dread the Oak Parlour. I would not go into +that room for anything in the world. Nor, believe me, Tom, could Dan do +so now. You have guessed, haven't you, that he loves Madame de la +Fontaine?" + +"Of course, dearest; poor fellow! he betrays his love by every word and +act. But good heaven, Nance, he couldn't marry her!" + +"No--I don't know. I suppose not. But Dan will do as he will. To oppose +him now would only make him the more wretched." + +"Does your mother know?" + +"No, and it is best she should not. I don't think she has the faintest +suspicion." + +"Well, I suppose we had better let things rest awhile;" Tom assented, +"but I swear I would like to get at the Oak Parlour and tear the secret +out of it." + +"We must wait a bit, Tom dear. Let's just be glad now of what we +have and are." + +And with that he drew her toward him and pressed for a definite answer to +the question which so deeply concerned their future. + +"When Madame has recovered, when we know all and the mystery is solved," +she replied; then she added inconsequently, "I wonder if we shall ever +hear of the old Marquis again." + +"I wonder too," Tom exclaimed. "Though he has sailed away on _The +Southern Cross_, I doubt if he will willingly leave the treasure +behind him." + +"That dreadful treasure, Tom," cried Nancy. "I wish to goodness that the +Marquis had it and might keep it always. We have each other." + +The evening of the second day after the terrible night of the attack, as +Dan was entering the Inn from his work outside, he saw Madame de la +Fontaine standing on the gallery under the Red Oak. It was the dusk of a +mild pleasant day. She was clad still in her soft grey gown with furs +about her waists and neck, and a grey scarf over her head. But there was +something infinitely pathetic to him in the listlessness of her attitude, +in the expression of a deep and melancholy that had come into her face. + +He stole swiftly to her side, and taking her hand in his pressed it to +his lips, with a gesture that was as reverent as it was tender. For a +moment something of the old brightness returned to her face as she bent +her clear gaze upon his bowed head. + +"You love me, Dan?" she murmured. + +"You know I love you," he whispered passionately. + +"Yes, I believe that you do," she said simply. "I shall always be +thankful that I have won a good man's love." But suddenly she withdrew +her hand, as the door of the bar opened. "See, here is Mademoiselle +Nancy. She is coming for me: she is to be with me to-night. There is +much for me to do." + +His heart surged within him; for he knew that in her simple words there +was the tragic note of farewell; but he could not speak, he could not +plead from that sad and broken woman for a passion that he knew but too +well she could never give. He knew that she would leave him on the +morrow, that his protests would be vain;--nay,--he would not even utter +them! With the gathering of the darkness about the old Inn, he felt that +the light in his heart was being obscured forever. + +The evening passed, the night. Morning came, and Madame de la Fontaine, +accompanied by Nancy, left the Inn at the Red Oak for Coventry. There +remained to Dan of his brief and tragic passion but one letter, which Tom +handed to him that morning, and which, with despairing heart, he read and +re-read a hundred times. + +"_Mon cher ami_: + +"You would forgive that I do not know well how to express myself as I +desire, if you could read my heart. I bade you good-bye to-night under +the Red Oak, tree for me of such tragic and such beautiful memories. I +could not say farewell otherwise, dear friend, nor could you. We have +loved sincerely, have we not? We will remember that in days to come; you +will remember it even in the happier days to come that I pray God to +grant you. I know all that you would say, my friend, but it cannot be. I +must vanish from your life, be gone as completely as though I had never +entered it. I love you deeply, tenderly, but I could not be to you what I +know that now you wish. All the past forbids. The very tragedy that +proved to you that I was worthy of your trust forbids. It is my only +justification that I saved your lives, dear friend; but oh how bitterly I +ask pardon of God for what has been done! Then also, dearest friend, my +heart is no longer capable to bear passion, but only to feel great +tenderness. I could not say these things, and yet they must be written. I +cannot go with them unsaid. Certain other things must be told you in +justice to all. + +"The story I told you on the schooner that day was largely truth. The +General Pointelle, who was at the Inn at the Red Oak in 1814, was in +reality the Marechal de Boisdhyver, the father of your foster-sister +Nancy. She is truly Eloise de Boisdhyver. The Marechal returned to France +to support the Emperor, as he wrote to madame your good mother; and he +fell, as I told you, on the field of Waterloo. Admitting the importance +of his mission, admitting my ambiguous relation to him (indefensible as +it was), to have left the child as he did was an act of kindness. In +truth the treasure concealed in the Oak Parlour is considerable, and it +was always my purpose to return, but the necessary directions for finding +it were not entrusted to me, but to the Marquis Marie-Anne, whom I didn't +meet until many years after Waterloo. Then I was induced by the +Marquis,--your old Marquis--to provide the money for the miserable +enterprise, of which we know the tragic result. From the first I was +uncertain about the method we adopted; and then soon after our arrival +here, from a hundred little indications, I became convinced that Bonhomme +was prepared to betray us, once we secured the treasure. As for the +Marquis, I suppose that he sailed away on the schooner. You need fear him +no longer. It was he, I am convinced, that conveyed to them the +information of the loosened casement in the Oak Parlour, and unwittingly +arranged for his own undoing and our salvation. At all events he will +have realized now that he has hopelessly lost the fight. As for the +treasure, by right it belongs to Eloise, who should not disdain to use +it. I enclose a transcription of the other half of the torn scrap of +paper, which will supplement the directions in your possession. + +"And as for me, my friend, I shall seek a shelter in my own country apart +from the world in which I have lived so to little purpose and for the +most part so unhappily. Believe me, so it is best. My heart is too full +for me to express all that I feel for you. + +"Dear, dear friend, do not render me the more unhappy to know that my +brief friendship with you shall have harmed your life. Your place is in +the world, to take part in the life of your own country, not, dear Dan, +to waste youth and energy in the fruitless desolation of this beautiful +Deal, not above all to grieve for a woman who was unworthy. + +"I commend you to God, and I shall never forget you. + +"CLAIRE DE LA FONTAINE." + +It was with a heavy heart that Dan consented later in the morning to +Tom's proposal that they force at last the secret of the Oak Parlour. He +got the torn scrap of paper which he had found,--such ages ago it seemed, +though it was scarcely a week,--in the old cabinet, and gave it to Tom, +with the copy of the other half which Madame de la Fontaine had enclosed +in her letter of farewell. The copy in Madame de la Fontaine's +handwriting did not dovetail exactly into the jagged edges of the +original portion, so that it was some time before they could get it into +position for reading. But at last it was pasted together on a large bit +of cardboard, and Tom, with the aid of a dictionary, succeeded in making +a translation, which Dan took down. + +"Learning of the attempt of my Emperor to regain his glorious throne, I +leave these hospitable shores to offer my sword to his cause. In case I +do not return, the person having instructions for the discovery of this +paper, which I tear in two parts, will find herein the necessary +directions for the finding of my hidden treasure. This treasure, bullion, +jewels, and coins, is concealed in a secret chamber in this Inn at the +Red Oak. This secret chamber will be entered from the Oak Parlour. The +hidden door is released by a spring beneath the hand of the lady in the +picture nearest the fireplace on the north side of the room. A panel +slides back revealing the entrance. Instructions as to the deposition of +the treasure will be found in the golden casket therewith. + +"FRANCOIS DE BOISDHYVER." + +"Well?" said Tom, "the instructions are definite enough. Now we can put +them to the test. Let's get to work at once. Wait a second till I get +some wood, and well make a fire in the Oak Parlour." He filled his arms +with logs from the bin under the settle in the bar, while Dan got the key +for the north wing. + +Soon they were at the end of the old hall. It was with an effort that Dan +brought himself to enter the room, for there flashed into his mind the +vision of the last time he was there,--the cold silver moonlight, the +dark burly form at the casement, the white drawn face of Claire de la +Fontaine, and then the sharp flash and crack of the pistol. + +But with an impatient gesture, as if to thrust aside these tragic +memories, he stepped across the threshold, and kneeling at the hearth, +took the wood from Tom's arms and began to lay a fire. In the meantime +his friend fumbled at the window casements, opened them, and let in the +light of day and the pure air of out-of-doors. Soon the fire was +crackling cheerily on the great andirons and casting its bright +reflection on the dark oak panelling of the walls. Nothing had been +disturbed--the old cabinet with the lions' heads stood opposite the +window; the little _escritoire_, behind which he had crouched on the +fatal night, was pushed back against the wall; the chairs, the tables, +thick with dust, stood just as they had been standing for many years. + +"Do you realize, Tom," Dan said, as they stood side by side watching the +blazing logs, "that it is sixteen years since General Pointelle stayed at +the Inn and used this room? And the treasure, if there is any treasure, +has been mouldering here all that time." + +"Let's get at it," said Tom. "I confess this place gives me the creeps. +Have you got my translation of the directions?" + +"Yes, here it is." Dan spread out the bit of paper on one of the tables. +"'The hidden door is released by a spring beneath the hand of the lady in +the picture nearest the fireplace on the north side of the room.' Ah! +that must be it--that old landscape let into the panel there." He walked +nearer and examined it closely. + +It was a simple landscape, a garden in the foreground, forest and hills +in the distance; and in the midst a lady in Eighteenth century costume +caressing the head of a greyhound. It was beautifully mellow in tone, and +might well have been a production of Gainsborough, though the Frosts had +preserved no such tradition. + +Dan began to fumble, according to the directions, beneath the hand of +the stately lady, pressing vigourously here and there with thumb and +forefinger. "What's that?" he cried suddenly. A faint click, as of a +spring in action, had sounded sharp in the stillness, but apparently with +no other effect. "By Jove!" he exclaimed, "I believe there is something +behind it. You heard the click? See there! the panel's opened a bit at +the side." Surely enough, there was a long crack on the right--the length +of the picture. "Here, let's push." + +Careless of the landscape, they put their hands upon the panel and +pressed with all their force to the left. It yielded slowly, slipping +back side-wise into the wall, and revealed a narrow opening, beyond which +was a little circular stairway, leading apparently to some chamber above. + +"Here's the entrance to the secret chamber all right," Dan exclaimed. +"Let's see where it goes to." He climbed in and started up the winding +flight of stairs, Tom close behind him. About half way up the height +of the Oak Parlour he came to a door. "Can't go any farther," he +called to Tom. + +"What's the matter?" + +"There's a door here; it leads, evidently, into some little room between +the Oak Parlour and the bedroom next. Who would ever have guessed it?" + +"Can't you open the door; is it locked?" + +Dan fumbled about till he found and turned the knob. "No," he answered. +"I've opened it. But it's pitch dark inside. Get a candle." + +He waited anxiously while Tom went below again to get a candle, a +strange feeling of dread creeping over him now that at last he was about +to penetrate the secret which had been of such tragic purport in his +life. In a moment Tom had returned, a candle in either hand, one of +which he handed to Dan, and together they entered the secret chamber. It +was a little room scarcely six feet square, without light, and so far as +they could see without ventilation. As they stood looking about the +candle flickered strangely casting weird shadows over the walls. +Suddenly they saw at their feet a tiny golden casket, and then, in a +corner of the room a row of small cloth bags, several of which had been +ripped open, so that a stream of golden coin flowed out upon the floor. +Nearby stood another little golden chest; and Tom, lifting the lid, +started back astonished. For there sparkling and glowing in the candle +light as though they were living moving things, lay a heap of precious +gems--diamonds, rubies, opals, sapphires, amethysts, that might have +been the ransom of a princess. + +"It's a treasure right enough!" cried Dan. "But what's this?" He turned +to the opposite corner where there lay a heap of something covered with a +great black cloth. They approached gingerly, and Dan stooped and picked +up an edge of the covering. "It's a cloak," he exclaimed. Startled, he +paused for a moment; then quickly pulled the cloak away, uncovering, to +their horror, a lifeless body. + +"Tom!" Dan cried in a ghastly whisper. "A man has died here." + +Tom held the candle over the gruesome heap. "But who?" he asked in a +hoarse whisper. + +For reply Dan pointed significantly to the cloak which he had dropped on +the floor. + +"What!" cried Tom. "Good God! the old Marquis! But how? I don't +understand--" he added, staring blankly. + +"He must have come here the afternoon he pretended to leave the Inn, must +have learned the secret passage somehow. It was he who loosened the +casement in the Oak Parlour that night, and got his message to Bonhomme. +He was waiting here for him. Can't you see it all--the panel slipped +back; he couldn't open it again; Bonhomme didn't come; he was caught like +a rat in a trap." + +"My God, what a fate!" + +"We can't leave his body here. We must give it decent burial, you and I, +Tom, for we can't let this be known." + +"And the treasure?" + +"Ah! there was treasure, wasn't there? Wait, let's see what is in the +little casket." He picked up the golden casket that they had stepped over +as they entered, and raised the lid. A single scrap of paper was inside +on the little velvet cushion, inscribed in the same handwriting as the +paper of directions, "_Pour Eloise de Boisdhyver_." + +"But come," Tom whispered, holding back the door, "I can't stand this any +longer. We'll come back again, and do what must be done. Come, Dan." + +Dan gave a last look into the strange horrible little room, then he +followed his friend. They closed the door behind them and crept slowly +down the narrow winding stairs to the Oak Parlour, leaving the +treasure in the secret chamber and the Marquis guarding it in the +silence and darkness of death. What had been so basely striven for was +sorrily won at last. + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Inn at the Red Oak, by Latta Griswold + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INN AT THE RED OAK *** + +***** This file should be named 9856.txt or 9856.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/5/9856/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, David Garcia +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +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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