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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39066-8.txt b/39066-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c166ba --- /dev/null +++ b/39066-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12108 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Blackbird, by Hudson Douglas + +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/license + + +Title: The White Blackbird + +Author: Hudson Douglas + +Release Date: March 8, 2012 [EBook #39066] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE BLACKBIRD *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + THE WHITE BLACKBIRD + + BY HUDSON DOUGLAS + + AUTHOR OF "A MILLION A MINUTE," "THE LANTERN OF LUCK," ETC + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY + + HERMAN PFEIFER + + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1912 + + _Copyright, 1912_, + BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. + + _All rights reserved, including those of translation into + foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_ + + Published, September, 1912 + + THE COLONIAL PRESS + C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. + + + FOR + ISOBEL MY WIFE + AND + OUR DAUGHTER ISOBEL + + + + +[Illustration: "Feel my pulse now, before you go," the pseudo-doctor's +patient commanded.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A TROPICAL DISCUSSION 1 + + II. "DUTCH COURAGE" 11 + + III. EL FARISH 18 + + IV. THE MASQUE OF DEATH 28 + + V. AFLOAT AND ASHORE 38 + + VI. HOBSON'S CHOICE 51 + + VII. THE WHITE BLACKBIRD 64 + + VIII. UNMASKED 80 + + IX. AN OVERDRAFT ON THE FUTURE 91 + + X. THE GODDESS OF CHANCE 107 + + XI. A FOOL AND HIS FORTUNE 119 + + XII. THE PRICE OF FREEDOM 130 + + XIII. A MASTERSTROKE 143 + + XIV. "SALLIE HARRIS" 156 + + XV. THE LAW--AND THE PROFITS 169 + + XVI. "PLEASURES AND PALACES" 184 + + XVII. THE MAN IN POSSESSION 195 + + XVIII. THE LOSER 205 + + XIX. THE WINNER 217 + + XX. BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR 232 + + XXI. THE JURA SUCCESSION 243 + + XXII. THE PARTY OF THE FIRST PART 259 + + XXIII. A NEW IDEA 271 + + XXIV. BY RIGHT OF PURCHASE 280 + + XXV. THE WHITE LADY 295 + + XXVI. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH 306 + + XXVII. DEBIT AND CREDIT 320 + + XXVIII. ISHMAEL'S HERITAGE 332 + + XXIX. PRIDE'S PRICE 342 + + XXX. THE TENTH EARL 350 + + XXXI. "AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE" 358 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "FEEL MY PULSE NOW, BEFORE YOU GO," THE PSEUDO-DOCTOR'S + PATIENT COMMANDED. (_SEE PAGE 32_) _frontispiece_ + + "YOU WON'T FORGET," HE URGED, GRAVE AGAIN 89 + + SOMETHING VERY LIKE FEAR LOOKED OUT OF HIS EYES 258 + + SHE TOUCHED WITH HER LIPS THE BACK OF THE TOIL-STAINED + HAND 322 + + + + +The White Blackbird + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A TROPICAL DISCUSSION + + +"I'd far rather beg in the gutter than marry you, Jasper!" flashed the +girl, at last goaded past all patience. Her clouded, indignant eyes +expressed both contempt and aversion for the young man leaning over the +deck-rail beside her. + +He was still a young man as years go and in spite of the grey streaks in +his dark hair, the crow's-feet above his cheek-bones; more than passably +good-looking, too, with his regular profile and straight, spare, +athletic figure, though his sleepy eyes were a trifle close-set and more +than a trifle untrustworthy, though the black moustache he was twirling +with a long, thin, almost womanish hand hid a cruel, selfish mouth. + +In his smart white yachting-suit and panama, lounging over the sun-dried +teak taffrail with his knees crossed, he seemed to be neither oppressed +by the tropical heat nor impressed at all by anything that his companion +could say. + +"I'd _far_ rather beg in the gutter," she repeated, as if to settle the +matter. And the emphasis with which she spoke showed that she meant what +she said. + +"But--that doesn't make any difference, my dear Sallie," he once more +answered, displaying his white, even teeth in a slight, amused smile. +"You're going to marry me just the same. And you may as well make up +your mind right away--that it will pay you best to be pleasant about it. + +"Captain Dove has come to the point at last," he went on to explain +condescendingly, in the same cool, careless, conversational tone, a tone +which, however, could not quite hide the ugly determination behind it. +"You've upset him for good and all this time. He's aching to get rid of +you now. In fact, he's cursing himself that he didn't--when he might +have made more out of the deal. And, anyhow, he's promised you to me." + +The girl's slim, shapely body had suddenly stiffened. She started up and +away from him with a gesture of blind repulsion. Her pure, proud, +sensitive face showed the struggle that was going on in her +mind--between fear and hope; quick fear that what he had just said might +be true, slow hope that he had been lying to her again. + +He had turned on one elbow with a lazy air of inexhaustible tolerance, +that he might the more conveniently follow her with his greedy glance. +He was apparently quite sure of himself--and her. At any rate, he was +openly gloating over her beauty in her distress while she stood gazing +in dire dismay about the shabby, unkempt little steamer which was all +the home she had in the world, all the home she had ever had except for +a few forgotten years of her childhood. + +Its name, on a life-buoy triced to the rusty netting between the rails, +was the _Olive Branch_, but its port of registry had been painted out. +It rode deep although it was decked after the old-fashioned switchback +design and had no cargo on board. Its squat, inconspicuous smokestack +helped to give it a somewhat nefarious air. + +About its ill-kept, untidy decks there were very few signs of life and +none at all of luxury. Under a tattered canvas sun-screen on the +fo'c'sle-head a ragged deck hand was on the look-out, his scorched face +expressive of anything but contentment with his circumstances. He +shifted frequently from one bare, blistered foot to the other; it was +impossible to stand still for long, with the deck-plates as hot as any +frying-pan on a brisk fire. + +On the bridge, the officer of the watch was pacing to and fro. Every +time he turned on his beat beneath the dirty, weather-worn awning he +paused to dart a suspicious, expectant glance at the double hatchway +which led to the crew's quarters, forward. The open wheel-house behind +him was occupied only by the quartermaster on duty. The remainder of the +watch on deck were nowhere visible. + +Through the heat-haze to starboard the blurred outline of the low-lying +African coast was dimly discernible. Seaward, ahead, and astern, the +long, oily swell that the North-east Trades never reach blazed like +molten metal under the almost vertical afternoon sun. Except for the +lonely little grey steamer wallowing sluggishly northward through it, +the world of water was empty to the horizon. + +A poignant sense of her own no less forlorn plight there stirred the +girl to glance round at her companion, as if in helpless appeal. + +"You don't really mean--what you said, do you, Jasper?" she asked, with +a very pitiful inflection in her low, musical voice. + +"Every word," he answered her promptly. "If you don't believe me, go +down and ask Captain Dove." + +She turned away from him again, to hide the effect of his curt reply. +But her drooping shoulders no doubt betrayed that to him. He pulled out +a cigar-case and, having lighted a rank cheroot with languid +deliberation, puffed that contemplatively. + +"I _will_ go down and ask Captain Dove," she said to herself at length, +with tremulous courage, and was moving toward the companion-hatch when +she heard from the other end of the ship a sudden ominous discord, a +sound such as might have come from a nest of hornets about to swarm. +There seemed to be something wrong forward; and she faced about again, +instantly. + +Peering through the hurtful sunshine with anxious eyes, her scarlet lips +compressed and resolute, she saw that the look-out had turned on his +half-baked feet to stare from the fo'c'sle into the well-deck behind +him. The officer of the watch had ceased his regular march and +countermarch, and was also gazing downward in that direction. Even her +self-confident companion had started up from his idle posture, in +obvious alarm. + +A figure darted up one of the two ladders which led to the bridge. The +officer of the watch had left his post by the other at the same moment, +as if to avoid the new-comer, and was making his way aft, unhurriedly, +yet at speed. He did not look back, but she was aware of other figures +which also had appeared in a moment from nowhere, and were following him +on tiptoe, under cover where it could be had. Once, a flash, as of +flame, amidships, almost forced from her lips a wild cry of warning, but +that was only a glint of sun on a gun-barrel where the browning had +worn away and left the steel bright. And he, seemingly unaware of the +danger behind him, reached the poop unharmed, a big, fair, +bluff-looking, broad-shouldered man in shabby blue sea-uniform. + +At the foot of the narrow stairway by which alone access could be had to +the poop, he called softly up to the girl at the rail above, "They'll be +at our throats in a minute, Sallie. Get you away below, quick--and warn +the Old Man." + +At the top of the steps he stopped, and turned, and stayed there, +blocking the stairway with his great body. And the armed ruffians +swarming aft in his wake slackened their pace, then hung back about the +hatch on the deck below. But each had a finger crooked on the trigger of +a ready rifle. The simplest word or motion misplaced at that first +moment of crisis must have precipitated the murder that was to be. + +The girl had obeyed him promptly, if without appearance of haste and, +once out of sight of the mutineers, there was no need to study her +steps. She darted across the dim, daintily appointed saloon below and, +having knocked imperatively at one of the two doors on that side of the +ship entered, without waiting for any permission, the stateroom it +opened into. + +"The men have broken out, Captain Dove," she cried, breathless a little, +her bosom heaving. "They're coming aft--there isn't a moment to spare. +What are we to do?" + +In the berth behind the curtains some one was moving. The room was +practically in darkness, since the open port was also screened, to shut +out the searching sun. But, in spite of all such precautions, the heat +was almost unbearable. + +The curtains parted slightly and from their opening a face peered out +at her, the blandly benevolent face of a mild-looking, white-haired old +man who, at a casual glance, might perhaps have passed for a clergyman +or a missionary. + +But in an instant a most disconcerting change came over his features. +Some dormant devil seemed to have wakened within him and was glaring out +at the girl from behind evil, red-rimmed eyes. His appearance then might +have frightened a man away. But she stood her ground undismayed. + +No less suddenly he broke into a torrent of fierce abuse, freely +interspersed with blood-curdling, old-fashioned oaths. And that was only +stemmed by a frantic paroxysm of coughing which left a crimson froth +about the white stubble upon his chin. He fell back into the gloom +behind the curtains, as if he would choke. + +The girl hurriedly filled a glass with water from a carafe on a rack at +one side of the room, pulled the curtains apart, and held it to the sick +man's lips. He sipped at it and then struck it away so that most of its +contents spilled on her skirts. + +"Would you poison me now, you witch!" he gasped, and then, regaining his +voice a little, "Ambrizette," he called weakly, with a quavering +imprecation, "brandy. Bring me the bottle. Your mistress has poisoned +me." + +A coloured woman, stunted, misshapen, almost inconceivably ugly, came +shambling in with a bottle, which he snatched eagerly from her and set +to his lips, while she made off again, in very evident dread of him. The +colour came back to his face, and at last he laid it aside, with a sigh +of relief. + +"The men have broken out, have they?" he muttered, half to himself. "And +you come to _me_ to ask what's to be done!" He glowered down at one of +his arms which lay across his chest in a sling and tightly bandaged. +His voice once more became venomous. "It's your fault that I'm lying +here," he snarled. "You and your bully Yoxall have taken charge of my +ship between you. Why don't the two of you tackle them? What the Seven +Stars d'ye think I care now whether you sink or swim!" + +She turned away from him with a little, tired, hopeless gesture. + +"I don't care very much, either, now," she answered, dully, "what +happens to me. But--it's you they're after, Captain Dove, and there +isn't a moment to spare. They've got the guns up already." + +The old man was plucking with feverish fingers at the fine lace +counterpane which covered him. He made an effort to rise, but lay back +again with a groan. + +"They've got the guns up, have they!" he growled, deep down in his +throat, with a most horrid effect. "Then one of the mates at least must +be standing in with them--the mutinous dogs! And since it's come to +settling old scores, I'm ready; I'll settle all with them before we go +any farther." His eyes were sunken with sickness and he was so weak that +he could scarcely move, but his spirit seemed to be altogether +unquenchable. + +"I'm going to settle with them now," he declared, "and--don't you +interfere again, Sallie. I've stood all I'm going to stand from you, +too. You've got to fancy yourself far too much, my girl! Listen here! +Next time I have to talk to you, it'll be with that,"--he pointed to a +heavy _kourbash_ of hippopotamus-hide hanging from a hook on the +panelling,--"and, by all that's holy! if I've to begin, I'll lace you +from head to heel with it--as I should have done long ago." + +The girl shrank as if he had actually struck her with it. She knew he +was even capable of carrying out that threat. + +"Where's Jasper Slyne?" he demanded, in a low whisper, almost exhausted. + +"On deck, above, with Reuben Yoxall," she told him. + +"Send him down here to me. I must get up out o' this. To-day's Sunday, +isn't it? What was our position at noon?" + +She told him exactly, at once, and he seemed content to rely on her +nautical knowledge. He nodded, as if satisfied. + +"_That's_ all right. Off you go now. And don't forget what I've said to +you. Tell Slyne to look sharp--and stand the men off somehow till I get +on deck," he snapped, as she hurried away. + +She did not know what might have happened overhead while she had been +below, and heaved a heartfelt sigh of relief as, gaining the open air +again, she saw that the two men she had left there were still at the +rail, unharmed. Only one of them looked round as she approached, and it +was to him she spoke. + +"Captain Dove wants you in a hurry, Jasper," she said, and he went below +in his turn, not altogether unwillingly. + +As he disappeared behind her, she glanced down at the main-deck alive +with armed men, as evil-looking a crowd as could be recruited from the +purlieus of Hell's Kitchen or crimped from the Hole-in-the-Wall. The +flush on her face died away. + +"What are they waiting for, Rube?" she whispered to the big man at the +top of the steps, whose steady glance seemed to have such a repressive +effect on them. + +"Sunset, I suppose," he answered in a low tone. "If no one crosses +them, they'll maybe wait till it's dark before they begin. Better go +below again, Sallie." + +She shook her head and said "No," aloud, since he was not looking at +her. And he did not urge that precaution. The sun was already nearing +the steamy horizon. + +The sullen, lowering looks of the ill-favoured assemblage about the +hatch foretold the fate which threatened her and him. + +"But they won't shoot _you_, Sallie," he said, giving voice to his only +fear in a shaky whisper, his soul in his honest eyes as he glanced +wretchedly round at her. + +She laid a clenched hand on the rail and opened it slightly. "Don't +worry about me, Rube," she whispered back, very matter of fact, while he +gazed as if fascinated at the thin blue phial, with its red +danger-label, resting in her rosy palm. "I always carry a key that will +unlock the last gate of all. So there's no need to worry about me. I +just wish you'd say you forgive me all the trouble I've brought on you." + +"There's nothing to forgive, lass," he asserted stolidly, and, looking +away again as though her appealing regard had hurt him, was taken with a +gulping in the throat. + +Two or three of the mutineers had begun to knock loose the wedges +securing the tarpaulin cover of the after-hatch, through which alone +access to the ship's magazine was to be had. + +"There's no use in trying to stop them at that," he said, as if to +himself. "It's only a matter of minutes now, I suppose. And--" + +"Dutch courage is cheap enough," said a contemptuous, sneering voice in +the background, and the sound of shuffling footsteps succeeded it. The +men on the main-deck were gazing past him, handling their rifles, +muttering hoarsely, moving to get more elbow-room. The girl beside him +had turned at the words, but he kept his eyes steadfastly on the +foremost of the fermenting, murderous rabble below. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"DUTCH COURAGE" + + +Captain Dove had come up on deck, and was standing by the +companion-hatch, drawing difficult breaths, swaying to the rise and sink +of the ship on the long, slow, ceaseless swell. + +He had only a greatcoat secured by a single button about his shoulders +over his night-dress, and on his feet an old pair of carpet slippers. +Sallie darted a blazing glance of indignation at Jasper Slyne who, +instead of helping the sick old man, seemed only bent on aggravating him +with his evil tongue. + +"You coward!" she cried at that immaculate gentleman, and would have +gone to the old man's aid but that he angrily waved her also aside as he +tottered forward, changing his scowl by the way to that sleek, +benevolent smile which he could always assume at his pleasure. + +A slow silence followed on the low, suspicious rumble of voices with +which the mutineers had greeted his most unexpected appearance. They +had, of course, supposed him physically incapable of further +interference with them and their plans. But, as it was, he did not look +very dangerous in his grotesque dishabille. + +As he reached the rail, Reuben Yoxall stepped to one side, touching his +cap in his customary salute. Slyne had halted a couple of paces behind, +and Sallie, too, had drawn back. Captain Dove stood alone at the top of +the stairway, in the forefront of the little group there, and looked +contemplatively down at the men who, he knew very well, would listen to +no appeal of his for his life. From his placid, benign demeanour then he +might have been inspecting a Sunday-school. + +His features were in themselves of an unctuous cast, smooth, flat, +snub-nosed, clean-shaven as a rule, except for a straggling fringe of +whisker. His white hair and weak, winking eyes added to his smugly +sanctimonious expression. He was squat of build, unduly short in the +legs and long of arm. And, altogether, he cut no very dashing figure in +his ridiculous garments, one sleeve of his coat hanging limp and empty, +the arm that should have filled it lying across his chest in a sling, +his chin disfigured by a week's growth of stubble, his whiskers all +unkempt. + +But it had never been by his gallant presence that he had held to heel +the cut-throats who composed his crew, and, even then, when they had him +before them helpless, a certain target for their loaded rifles, not one +of them seized the immediate opportunity. + +He steadied himself with his free hand on the rail of the narrow +stairway, and so stepped downward among them. Still no one else moved. +It may have been that his almost inhuman daring daunted them in spite of +themselves. But Sallie, in the background, was holding her breath. She +knew he was courting a bloody death, and feared he would meet it there, +before her shrinking eyes. That tragedy and all its unspeakable +consequences were literally hanging on a hair-trigger. + +He reached the level below, still smiling blandly, and, letting go the +rail, shuffled forward, slowly but steadily enough, his slippers +flapping at his heels with ludicrous effect. Two or three of the men +confronting him stepped to one side, gave him free passage into the +throng, and closed in again behind him. He took no notice of anyone, but +held on his way till he reached the ladder which led from the break of +the poop to the quarter-deck. + +He climbed that at his leisure, panting a little, his back toward them. +They had faced about and were following his every movement with +malevolent eyes. A single shot would have made a quick end of him, but +no shot was fired. And, at the top of the ladder, he turned to speak. + +"I'll send Mr. Hobson aft to issue your ammunition," he said, in a voice +without any tremor of weakness. "Get two full bandoliers, each of you, +and then file forward again while the others come aft for theirs." + +And with that, leaving them to their own reflections, agape, absolutely +dumfounded by his audacity, he made his way up on to the bridge, the +skirts of his night-dress fluttering from under the shorter length of +his heavy coat. + +They fell to whispering among themselves, excited and distrustful. They +had only a few loose rounds for their rifles, and Captain Dove alone +knew how the ship's magazine might safely be entered. It would +undoubtedly have cost some of them their lives to force that secret. No +one of them would be willing to sacrifice himself for the common cause, +and Captain Dove's unlooked-for concession of their chief need had no +doubt mystified them altogether. + +Hobson, the second mate, came aft a few minutes later, a beetle-browed, +foxy-looking fellow, with a furtive smile of encouragement for his +accomplices. At a sign from him they unshipped the hatches. He +disappeared into the hold, a bunch of keys dangling from one wrist, and +presently shouted up some order, in terms much more polite than he had +lately been in the habit of using, to them at least. A chain of living +links was promptly formed from the magazine, and packed bandoliers, +passed rapidly from hand to hand, soon reached its farther end. The men +grinned meaningly at each other as they slung the web belts crosswise +over their shoulders. For with these they were still more absolutely +masters of the situation. + +Reuben Yoxall, back at his dangerous post by the stairway, was watching +them no less narrowly than before. It seemed the sheerest madness on +Captain Dove's part to have disclosed to their ringleader the secret of +the magazine, and no one could tell at what moment they might now assume +the offensive. The sun was already dipping behind the sea-rim. + +"We've changed our course," Sallie said to him in a puzzled whisper, and +he nodded silently. The _Olive Branch_ was heading inshore. The outline +of the coast had grown clearer under the last of the evening light. Here +and there against its smudgy-brown background showed dark green blots +that were mangroves or clumps of palm. A thin, white ribbon of surf was +distinctly visible on the distant beach. + +Captain Dove was at the starboard extremity of the bridge, his +binoculars at his eyes. He laid them down, and pointed out to the third +mate, at his elbow, some landmark directly ahead. Then he climbed +carefully down to the quarter-deck and began to make his way aft again. +Behind him, rifles in hand, came creeping another strong contingent of +his strangely numerous crew. Half a dozen of those nearest him had drawn +and fixed the long sword-bayonet each wore at his hip. + +The old man in greatcoat and slippers paused at the after-rail of the +quarter-deck. The bayonets were almost at his shoulder blades. But the +three anxious onlookers aft could not even warn him of that additional +danger, to which he seemed quite oblivious. + +The crowd at the open hatch looked round at him, as of one accord, and +the bulk turned on their heels towards him, but a few remained facing +the three still, silent figures on the poop. Sunset and the final +instant of crisis had come together. + +From among the men grouped about the hatch one stepped forward, as if to +speak. Captain Dove held up his hand and the fellow hesitated, with bent +brows. A quick, angry growl arose from among his neighbours. But Captain +Dove was not to be hurried. He cleared his throat and spat indifferently +into the scuppers. + +"I've a little job ashore for you lads to-night," he said then, in a +tone audible to all, "a job that'll fill our empty pockets properly--if +it's properly carried out. We haven't been so lucky of late that we can +afford to lay off just yet. What money there is on board means no more +than a few dollars apiece, share and share alike. I know where I can lay +my hands on a thousand at least for each of us. If you think that's +worth your while, get away forward now to your supper; the others are +coming aft for their ammunition." + +He ceased abruptly, and for a moment no one answered him or made any +move. He had succeeded in raising their curiosity, and so gained some +trifling respite at least for himself. They were turning over in their +dense minds, however suspiciously, this new and plausible suggestion of +his. + +It was no news that there was very little money on board, and--they were +of a class which always can be led to grasp at the shadow if that looks +larger to them than the substance itself. They hesitated--and they were +lost. Captain Dove had descended among them, and as if the subject were +closed, was pushing his way through the gathering with a good-humoured, +masterful, "Get forward. Get away forward, now." + +And they gave way again before him, apparently forgetful of their +purpose there, quite willing, since they held the power securely in +their own hands, to await the outcome of one more night. In the morning, +and rich, as he promised, or no worse off if his promise failed, they +could just as conveniently close their account with him. As the others +came crowding aft, those already possessed of bandoliers began to file +forward, exchanging rough jokes with their fellows. + +Captain Dove addressed a parting remark to them from the poop. "We won't +be going ashore till midnight," said he, "and I _must_ get some sleep or +I won't be fit for the work we've to do there. I'm sick enough as it is. +Get that hatch-cover on again as soon as you can, and keep to your own +end of the ship till the time comes. I'll send you forward a hogshead of +rum to help it along." + +"Ay, ay, sir," a voice answered him cheerily from out of the gathering +darkness, and Sallie saw that he almost smiled to himself as he +staggered toward the companion-hatch. + +There he would have fallen, spent, but that she, at his shoulder, caught +hold of him and held him up till Slyne came to her assistance. And they +together got him safely below. + +"Gimme brandy," he gasped, as he lay limply back in the chair on which +they had set him. His lips were white. His overworked heart had almost +failed him under the strain he had put on it. + +The stimulant still served its purpose, however. He sat up again, +revived. + +"But that was an uncommon close call!" he commented, half to himself. "I +felt blind-sure I'd have a bayonet through my back before I could play +my last card. And I didn't believe I'd win out even with that. But here +I am, and--" He turned to the girl at his side. + +"Don't stand there idling, Sallie," he ordered querulously, "when +there's so much to be done. Tell Ambrizette to bring me a bull's-eye +lantern. Go up and see if the decks are clear yet. Send Reuben Yoxall +down to me as soon as they are. And then get ready for going ashore. +You'll have to wear something that won't be seen--but take a couple of +Arab cloaks in a bundle with you as well." + +At that Jasper Slyne spoke, divided between doubt and anger. + +"What devilment have you in your mind now, Dove?" he demanded. "You +surely don't mean to--You told me yourself that there's nothing but +dangerous desert ashore here." + +"Never you mind what I mean to do, _Mister_ Slyne," Captain Dove +answered him with a gratified grin, picking up the brandy bottle again. +"When I want any advice from you, I'll let you know. And, if I ever ask +you again to help me into my clothes, you'll maybe be more obliging next +time. + +"Dutch courage is cheap enough, Mister Slyne," said the old man +tauntingly. "So I'm going ashore,--into the dangerous desert,--in a few +minutes, with Sallie. But there's nothing you need be afraid of, for +you're going to stay safe on board." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +EL FARISH + + +On the stealthy-looking little grey steamship at anchor under the +obscure stars not even a riding-light was visible. But she was close to +the desolate coast, well out of the way of all respectable traffic. And +a solitary figure, squatted in the bows, pipe in mouth, pannikin of rum +within easy reach, was keeping a perfunctory anchor-watch, staring idly +seaward so that he saw nothing of a tiny light which flashed three times +from the shore in belated response to a similar signal from a screened +port in the poop-cabin. + +But for him, the decks were deserted. From the crew's quarters came +frequent outbursts of ribald talk and uproarious laughter, the odour of +food, the clank and clatter of tin-ware empty or full. The crew were at +supper and satisfied for the present. + +From the companion-hatch on the poop four soundless shadows emerged. Two +of them were carrying cautiously a long, flat fabric which they in a +moment or two converted into a fourteen-foot canvas boat. These two +lowered that overside. One of the others, a bundle in hand, slipped +easily down into it by means of a rope made fast to a stanchion. The +last, cursing under his breath, was helped over the rail, with one foot +in a loop of the same line, by the two remaining on deck. + +Sallie, safely seated in the cockleshell below, laid a pair of muffled +oars in the rowlocks and pushed quietly off from under the dripping +overhang of the ship. Captain Dove, crouching in its stern, whispered +curt directions to her. She could just see Reuben Yoxall and Jasper +Slyne standing side by side at the steamer's taffrail, and then the +black bulk of the _Olive Branch_ became merged in the blacker water. + +Once out of earshot of the ship, she set to rowing in earnest, a strong, +steady stroke, like one well accustomed to that exercise; and Captain +Dove, with an eye cocked at a helpful star twinkling dimly through the +heat-haze, kept her heading straight for the shore. The boom of the +breakers soon began to grow louder, but, even when it had become almost +deafening, she did not look round. They had got into broken water and it +was taking her all her time to handle the oars. + +She was breathless and all but exhausted before they at length shot +dizzily out of the wild turmoil of the surf into a tranquil, land-locked +lagoon, concealed from seaward by a long sand-spit, which served it as a +breakwater in such smooth weather. + +"Way enough," said the old man gruffly, and, as Sallie shipped her oars, +the light craft lost speed. Presently, its prow took the sand, and at +last they were free of the ominous, phosphorescent black fins which had +followed them from where they had left the ship. + +"Strike a match," ordered Captain Dove, and held out a stump of candle. +"Light this and stick it on the gunwale. Now, on with your cloak and +hood--and lend me a hand with mine." + +The tiny flame at her elbow burned steadily enough in the still night, +while Sallie was slipping on over her dark dress the white robe he had +bidden her bring with her. As soon as she had hooded her head and drawn +the veil well over her features, she turned to help him. She was +smoothing the crumpled burnous about his shoulders while he tugged +irritably at it with his only available hand, grumbling at her in a low +monotone, when she heard a sudden splashing behind her and, glancing +round, saw a number of other white-robed figures wading out through the +shallows towards the boat and its flickering light. Captain Dove took +their coming as a matter of course, and she sat down again silently, +though that cost her a great effort. It was unspeakably eerie there, in +the very heart of a darkness that seemed to be whispering hints of such +horrors as only exist in the dark. + +The old man exchanged a few low words in doggerel Arabic with the +strangers. Two of them, tall, brown, fierce-faced fellows, slung over +their shoulders the long guns with which they were armed, stooped and +lifted Sallie lightly up, carried her to the shore dry-shod. She was +still shivering nervously when two more deposited Captain Dove at her +side, and then the canvas boat was brought high and dry. At a curt +remark from him a makeshift litter was formed of four rifles and, seated +on that, he was carried away as if he had been a mere featherweight, +Sallie following close behind on foot, uncomfortably conscious of the +shadows at her own shoulders. + +It was hard work for her in the darkness and ankle-deep in the soft, +loose sand at every step, although his bearers made little enough of +their burden. But farther on the footing grew firmer, and then they came +to a rough, trodden path. + +That led them to the still darker mouth of a narrow defile between two +low, rocky bluffs, and from the summit of one of these there suddenly +rang a harsh challenge. It was answered at once by their escort, and +they went on without pause through that pitch-black, crooked passage +with its invisible, whispering guard, until, emerging at an unexpected +turn from its landward outlet, a most astonishing panorama presented +itself to the girl's startled eyes. + +Within a titanic natural amphitheatre formed by the rock-ridge which, +except for the cleft they had entered by, enclosed it completely, there +had been pitched an encampment that occupied its entire arena. +Everywhere there were dry desert fires, burning redly, with little +flame, and the vault of heaven overhead was like some vast crimson dome +reflecting a light whose effect was weird and unreal to the last degree. +Sallie, gazing about her with lips a little apart behind her veil, could +scarcely convince herself that she was not dreaming. + +In the foreground, on one side of the wide way which led straight to the +heart of the camp, there were picketed rows upon rows of whinnying +horses, and on the other almost as many restless _mehari_ camels, among +which a number of negroes, presumably slaves, were briskly at work. Past +these was a wide, open space, at whose other edge stood a flagpole from +which a great green flag with a golden harp on it fluttered and flapped +in the red firelight on the first of the evening breeze. Under that was +a group of men, all in flowing garments, one seated in state, the others +standing about him. A dozen paces behind them a white pavilion that +seemed rose-pink, with a heavily curtained porch, occupied a roomy, +level expanse by itself. Surrounding and encircling it on three sides, +but at a respectful distance, stretching as far back as the foot of the +steep rock-rampart which hemmed them in, was ranged an orderly +assemblage of horsehair tents, whose inhabitants, loose-robed men, swart +women, and half-naked children, were all very busy about them in the +open air. Everywhere there was life and bustle.... + +Beneath the searching rays of the sun it would all, no doubt, have +appeared travel-stained and sordid and tawdry to a degree. But the +desert night and the dim stars brooding above it had imbued it with all +their own magic and mystery. + +Captain Dove's carriers strode forward with him and set him carefully on +his feet before the green flag, under which, on a great gilt chair, sat +one who was evidently their chief, a man in the very prime of life and +still younger yet than his years. Sallie eyed him over her veil with +anxious interest. The group behind his chair was regarding her with no +less curiosity. The attention of the multitude among the tents had been +attracted to the new arrivals, and many inquisitive onlookers, more +women than men, were beginning to gather about the boundaries of the +area sacred to their Emir and his officers. + +That dignitary got hastily up and came forward. He was tall and stalwart +on foot, a fine figure of a man even in his loose, shapeless garments, +with a bronzed, hook-nosed, handsome face of his own, a heavy moustache, +the brooding, patient, predatory eyes of a desert vulture. And, as he +confronted Captain Dove, over whom he seemed to tower threateningly, the +hood of the _selham_ slipped on to his shoulders, disclosing a flaming +shock of red hair. + +"At last!" he said, after a long time, in the difficult voice of one +amazed almost beyond words. The muscles of his lean, brown face were +working visibly. His eyes had become inflamed, his fingers were +twitching. + +"At last!" he said again, as if finally convinced in spite of himself, +and licked his lips. + +But Captain Dove met his wickedest glance unwinkingly, and made him no +answer at all. + +For a moment longer they two stood gazing thus at each other, the +onlookers silent and still. And then the big man's blazing eyes shifted +to the face of the girl at Captain Dove's elbow. Sallie's veil had +slipped to her chin, but she had been unconscious of that till then. She +pulled it up across the bridge of her nose again hastily. The red-haired +Emir's scowl had relaxed; he was scanning her with a very different +expression to that he had shown Captain Dove, but one which alarmed her +no less. + +He turned to the group behind him and, at a word, it melted away. The +onlookers in the distance also went about their own business again. A +black slave-boy came staggering forward with a heavy chair, and set that +down side by side with the other there. Captain Dove seated himself at +once, without ceremony. + +The Emir, biting his lip, followed suit, and sat for a time sunk in his +own reflections. He seemed to have mastered for the moment his first +almost overwhelming impulse at sight of that venerable-looking +adventurer, and had evidently some other and much more pleasant idea in +his mind. + +"That's a high-stepping filly you've brought with you," said he at +length in a puzzled tone, and glanced round at Sallie again. She was +standing at Captain Dove's other shoulder, her head bent, her hands +clasped before her, in helpless, patient suspense. Captain Dove had +gruffly informed her, before they had left the ship, that she would be +perfectly safe in his company, but even his own safety seemed to be +hanging on a very slender thread. + +"I wonder, now," the Emir went on, "if it's to seek trade that you've +come ashore here again--after all these years." His face once more +darkened, as if over some recollection that rankled sorely, but which he +was doing his best to dismiss from his thoughts in the meantime. + +"I've some trifles in hand that might interest you if it is trade you're +after," said he, speaking amicably with an effort, "such truck as +gold-dust, and jewels, and silk--and ivory, too, galore." + +The black boy had come back with an unwieldy tray of a dull yellow metal +on which were set two cool, moist, earthenware _chatties_ and a couple +of uncouth drinking-cups. Captain Dove, with unerring instinct, laid his +hand on the flagon which held strong drink, poured out for himself a +liberal helping of the sticky _magia_ it contained, and swallowed that +off without a word. After the Emir had also helped himself the boy would +have carried the tray away, but Captain Dove bade him set it down and +dealt him an indignant cuff, so that he fled empty-handed, with an +anguished yelp. + +"It wasn't exactly to pay you a polite call that I came ashore to this +God-forsaken hole, Farish," the old man at last remarked, with +uncompromising frankness. "The fact of the matter is--I'm in a bit of a +bog just now. And I've come to get you to give me a hand out of it--if +your price isn't too high for me to pay." + +The Emir stared at him, open-mouthed. + +"You were always the bold one, Captain Brown," said he, reminiscently, +after a lengthy interval, "but this beats all! And it's to the man you +set ashore here, alone, long years ago, to die in the desert like a mad +dog, that you come demanding a hand to get you out of a bit of a bog! +You've surely forgotten--" + +"I'm not one who forgets," Captain Dove interrupted sourly. "And you'll +maybe remember, since you think it's worth while to hark back to such +old stories, that I didn't shoot you down at once, as I might have +done--for disobedience of orders. I gave you a chance for your life, +anyhow. And you've made a very good thing out of it. You've risen in the +world, Farish, since you were the second mate of the old _Fer de +Lance_--and I was Captain John Bunyan Brown. I'm Captain Dove now, by +the way." + +"And how did you know who it was would be here to-night?" the +_soi-disant_ Emir demanded, turning it all over in his own mind. + +"The Spaniards at the Rio de Oro told me, when I called in there the +other day, that they were expecting the Emir El Farish shortly, from +this direction, and, of course, I pricked up my ears at the name. I +asked a few simple questions about him, and it didn't take a great deal +of brain-power to figure out that the famous Emir was just my old second +mate turned land pirate on his own account. They wanted me to wait on +the chance of a cargo from your caravan, but--I had other fish to fry at +the time. + +"Then, coming up the coast, I caught sight of your smoke from the +steamer's bridge--at least I judged it would be yours. I reckoned you'd +be camping here, you see, and, when you answered my signal, I was quite +sure. So--I'm in a bit of a bog, as I told you. And it'll pay you to +give me a hand out of it--if your price isn't too high." + +"The price that you'll have to pay for my help you can guess now without +my telling you," returned the Emir in a muffled whisper, and nodded +meaningly over his shoulder. "And you'll find me a fair man to deal +with, so long as you deal fairly by me." + +Captain Dove signified his comprehension by means of a non-committal +grunt. He stooped down and helped himself awkwardly to another drink +before making any other answer. + +"But--you've got a wife already," he whispered back, at a shrewd guess, +as he sat up again, smiling blandly. + +"I won't have her long, poor thing!" said the other, some tinge of real +regret in his tone. "And I'll miss her, too, when she's gone, let me +tell you." He sat silent for a moment, musing, and then, "'Twas a +notable revenge that I took on _them_-all!" he muttered darkly. "But +I'll miss her for herself as well--after all these years." + +"It's the desert has killed her," he said, pulling at his moustache. +"I've had a doctor-fellow with her for a while past--I saved him out of +an exploring party we cut up near Jebado. 'Twas nearly three weeks ago +he told me she hadn't a month to live. The sand's got into her lungs, he +says--and I've promised to shovel him into a sand-pit alive the day she +dies, to see how he likes the sand in his own lungs, the useless scum!" + +He sighed stormily, and then seemed to bethink himself again of the girl +listening behind. In answer to a call of his, in a caressing voice, +there came from the big tent in the background a woman, veiled as Sallie +was but clad in silk instead of cotton, who bowed submissively to what +he had to say to her and then held out a slender, bloodless, burning +hand to Sallie. + +"Go with her," ordered Captain Dove. "You'll be all right. I'll shout +for you when I want you again." + +And Sallie, glad so to escape from the Emir's glance, went willingly +enough. It would not have helped her in any way then to disobey Captain +Dove. But her hand, within the other woman's, was as cold as ice. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE MASQUE OF DEATH + + +They passed together through the curtained porch of the pavilion, and +Sallie looked about her with blinking eyes as the Emir's wife led her +toward a long, low, cushioned divan, with a tall screen of black carved +ebony behind it, which stood in one of the corners formed by the +partitions within. + +The entire interior of the tent was brilliantly lighted by many lamps of +a dull yellow metal, swung from under the billowy silken ceiling. +Underfoot were carpets and rugs of the most costly, chosen with taste. +The inner divisions seemed almost solid behind their heavy hangings of +embroidery and filigree work. About the couch in the corner were grouped +a number of languorous women slaves, all very richly dressed. The whole +effect was one of barbaric splendour and luxury. + +Her women crossed their arms on their breasts and bowed before the +Emir's wife, their golden bangles jingling. She drew Sallie down on the +couch beside her and waved them away. They backed into another corner +with heads still bent, but stealing furtive glances at the fair +stranger. Sallie had let her veil fall; the heat was stifling. + +The Emir's wife laid a hand on her heart and panted, as if she had been +running. A hectic flush had coloured her sunken cheeks. Sallie saw that +she must once have been a very good-looking girl. + +"How did you come to our camp?" she asked, suppressing with a great +effort the cough her labouring chest could scarcely contain. "Is there +another caravan near, or--a ship?" + +"A ship," Sallie answered gently, forgetting all her own urgent troubles +in quick compassion for that poor soul. And the dying girl's feverish +eyes grew suddenly eager. + +"A ship!" she repeated breathlessly, and for a moment or two seemed to +be searching Sallie's expressively pitiful features for some further +information, which she found there. The anxiety in her eyes changed to +appeal, and then certainty. + +"You'll help--me," she whispered. "I _know_ you will." And she began to +cough. + +Two or three of her women came running forward to offer her such first +aid as lay in their power. Another had hurried off through a curtained +doorway which led inward, and promptly returned, followed by two +enormous negroes, vile-looking rascals, each wearing a scanty tunic of +leopard-skins which hung from one shoulder and did not reach to his +knees, with a broad waist-belt which also served to contain a short, +heavy scimitar, in a metal scabbard. Between them walked a man, a white +man to judge by his hands, since his head was completely masked in a +hood of coarse scarlet cotton, with only a couple of careless +eyelet-holes and a rough round mouth cut in it. He was dressed in a worn +drill tunic and riding-breeches and pigskin puttees, and carried +himself, a thin, limber, muscular figure, with careless ease. + +Sallie took him to be that doctor of whom the Emir had spoken, and +shuddered at thought of the dreadful death with which the Emir had +threatened him. His guards' cruel faces grew still more watchful and +grim as he hastened, limping a little, toward the couch, while they were +still saluting its occupant. + +Sallie had risen from it and was standing with one arm about the other +girl's heaving shoulders, adjusting her veil. The cough had ceased +again, but its victim had not yet recovered her voice. The man in the +mask glanced most unhappily at her and then at Sallie. But it was not +concern on his own account that his steady grey eyes expressed. + +He was about to speak, when the Emir's wife held up a thin, transparent +hand. "Wait," she begged weakly. "There is so little time--and my +strength--" + +He pulled a glass tube from one of his pockets and gave her a tabloid. +She swallowed it down, with a mouthful of water, indifferently, but it +soon did her good. She signed her women aside, and looked imploringly up +at Sallie. + +"I can't live through another night," she said, "and--neither will this +man, unless you help me to help him. You _will_ do that, won't you? He's +an Englishman--a doctor--he has done all he possibly could for me--and I +_cannot_ die while I know that his life hangs on mine. It's too +horrible--" + +Sallie sat down again and clasped the wasted, writhing body closely to +her in her strong, young arms. + +"I'll do all I possibly can to help him," she promised in a quick +whisper. The grey eyes behind the horrible scarlet hood had seemed to +say that they would not hold her responsible for any promise given to +lighten that poor creature's last hours. And the Emir's wife lay back +against her shoulder with an exhausted sob of relief. + +"I'm really an American," said a pleasant and very grateful voice from +behind the mask which was gazing down at them so inscrutably now, "and +no doctor at all." He was speaking to Sallie; the Emir's wife was still +gasping for breath. "But--you can see for yourself how very harmful this +nervous excitement must be to her." + +"We must humour her--whatever may happen," his glance seemed to add, and +Sallie nodded in quick understanding and sympathy. + +She had been wondering what she, so helpless and uncertain herself, +could possibly do to reassure the dying girl and help the man who was +doomed. + +"If I could get back on board the ship," she said somewhat uncertainly, +in answer to the appealing look with which the Emir's wife was once more +regarding her, "I would bring or send a boat ashore--" + +The other girl's wan face displayed renewed life and animation. + +"Soon after midnight," she whispered eagerly. "You must give me till +then to do my part. But soon after midnight he will be waiting beyond +the outermost of the guards at the shore-end of the ravine which leads +from our camp. He'll be wearing that woman's cloak and veil, and +carrying a bucket--I sometimes send her to the beach for sea-water to +bathe my feet." She pointed to one of her slaves, but at that the man in +the mask intervened. + +"I couldn't do that. Your husband would--" + +She held up a hand again, and he said no more, only shaking his head. He +seemed to have forgotten that she was not to be contradicted. + +"The woman is mine," said the Emir's wife, "and my husband will not hurt +a hair of her head while she obeys me. He has sworn that on the Cross. +He will keep his oath--and you have my word as well that she shall come +to no harm. You need have no scruples, then!" + +She looked impatiently up at the scarlet mask bending over her, not to +be satisfied until it bowed in submission to her authority there. But +Sallie could read in the steadfast grey eyes behind it a dumb +determination that the slave girl should run no such risk, and she did +not think it needful at that moment to say anything about the other +difficulties to be overcome. She had promised that she would do all she +possibly could to help the man in the mask, and believed she could help +him best in the meantime by keeping her own troubles to herself. + +She did not even know as yet what Captain Dove's immediate intentions +toward her were, or whether she herself would ever see the _Olive +Branch_ again. But--she would know before very long, and it would be +time enough then to explain her own plight. + +"Feel my pulse now, before you go," the pseudo-doctor's patient +commanded, and he did so, drawing out his watch, while she continued to +plan for his flight. + +"I'll send for you again before midnight," she said rapidly, for his +guards had begun to show signs of unrest as his visit grew more +prolonged, "and you must bring your--your--" She tapped her chest, very +tenderly, with her free hand. + +"Stethoscope?" he suggested, and she nodded quickly. + +"You'll come in your cloak--it will be cold then. My women will draw a +screen about us. As soon as you are safely behind it, slip off your +shoes and gaiters while they are changing your cloak and hood. There +will not be a moment to spare. And now--you must go." + +He released her wrist and stood upright again. + +"I shall come whenever you send for me, of course," he assured her +soothingly, although his eyes, meeting Sallie's for an instant, betrayed +the stubborn will behind them. "And I'm far more grateful than I can +express for your good-will toward me. So now you'll rest quietly, won't +you? And try not to worry needlessly about--anything at all. You're not +afraid, I know. And neither am I." + +He bowed to them both in his hideous hood, and went back to his scowling +guards. + +The Emir's dying wife lay very quietly in Sallie's arms for some time +after he had gone. She was quite exhausted again. Her women, in a group +at a little distance, were watching with jealous eyes the fair stranger +who had supplanted them with such ease. The only sounds that broke the +silence were the sick girl's laboured breathing, the occasional hoarse, +angry rumble of Captain Dove's voice outside. Sallie was listening +anxiously for that. She could hear no word of what he said, but--she +wanted to be quite sure that he was still there. It was not her own fate +alone that now depended on what these strangely dragging minutes should +bring to pass. + +"Lay me back on the cushions now," begged the girl in her arms. "I feel +better--in every way. And--tell me how you came here, in the nick of +time. I'm so thankful--but you know that, and I mustn't talk too much, I +have so little strength left, and-- + +"Who is that shouting?" + +"It's Captain Dove," Sallie answered in haste. "He brought me here. I +must go to him now, but I'll come back before--" She had no time to say +more, for Captain Dove had called her again, in a very angry voice. + +He was shaking his only available fist impotently at the high heavens +when she stepped timidly out from under the curtained porch of the tent. + +She hesitated, but for no more than a moment, and then, drawing her veil +closer, went on across the sand, with beating heart. + +"You called me, Captain Dove?" she said, as she stopped at the old man's +shoulder. And he ceased blaspheming to glare round at her as though she +had been some intrusive stranger, his face very puffed and repulsive in +the red firelight. + +He did not answer at once, but reached again for the earthenware flagon. +It was lying on its side empty, for she had tipped it over with a +stealthy foot. + +His angry glance grew darker with suspicion, but her eyes were downcast. + +"Come round in front," he ordered harshly, and she had once more to +submit herself to the Emir's appraising glance. + +He and Captain Dove had still much to say to each other, too, while she +stood patiently there, like a slave for sale. They fell to arguing with +much heat some point in dispute between them, an argument she could not +follow since they were speaking some jargon of Arabic strange to her. +But she knew very well that it was about her they were wrangling, and a +cold fear clutched cruelly at her heart. + +At last, however, the Emir appeared to give in to his visitor, and +Captain Dove, after a final ineffectual snatch at the flagon, got on to +his feet, since even that hint seemed to be thrown away on his host. + +"We'll get off to the ship again," he said in English, and Sallie could +almost have cried aloud in relief from such sore suspense. + +"May I go back to the tent--just for a minute--to say good-bye?" she +begged in a breathless whisper, and turned and ran. + +The Emir's wife glanced eagerly up at her as she reappeared. + +"I'm going back on board now," Sallie told her with shining eyes, which +suddenly grew dim as she thought of the other girl's loneliness there. +She sank on her knees beside the couch, and the Emir's wife, leaning +forward, slipped a frail arm about her neck; and so they two, sisters in +trouble, kissed each other good-bye for all time. + +"You'll be sure to send the boat--soon after midnight?" the other asked, +but with no shadow of doubt in her low, weak tones. + +"I'll come myself, if I possibly can," Sallie promised, "and, if not, +I'll send a safe friend--soon after midnight." + +As she was rising, she saw on her bosom a little locket which hung from +a thin gold chain. She lifted a hand to it, and hesitated uncertainly. + +"It's all I have in the world that's my own," said the Emir's wife in a +pleading whisper, "all I can offer you but my empty thanks. I'd like to +think to-night that you will sometimes remember me. Will you not keep +it, for my sake?" + +"I'll wear it always--I'll never forget you--and oh! I'm so sorry that I +must go," cried Sallie, sorely distressed, and had to hurry away without +more words. Captain Dove had twice called her. There were tears in her +eyes as she ran back across the sand to where, under the green flag, he +was wrathfully waiting for her, and she scarcely heard his harsh order +to hurry up. + +Some of the Emir's men had come forward with a couple of litters. She +seated herself in one, although she would much rather have walked, and, +as soon as Captain Dove was ready, they were carried off, the Emir +shouting a valedictory message to the old man. + +"You keep your bargain and I'll keep mine," Captain Dove called back, +and snorted contemptuously. + +"That damned fellow talks to me as if I had been _his_ second mate!" he +commented, and snorted again. + +From the mouth of the dark defile which led toward the shore, Sallie +looked back over one shoulder, almost as an escaped prisoner might, at +the bizarre, fantastic scene the still camp made in that strange crimson +light. And the big, red-haired Emir standing motionless under his great +green flag, whose fluttering folds seen from that distance seemed of the +colour of blood, waved a hand to her ere she disappeared. + +She shivered, instinctively. She had been dumbly afraid of the man, and +that although she was possessed of a courage such as could look grim +death itself in the empty eye-holes and smile. She was correspondingly +thankful when, the gorge and its sentinels safely behind her, she found +herself once more facing the open sea. + +Captain Dove's carriers set him down alongside the boat, lying high and +dry on the sands where they had left it. Having set it afloat, they +lifted him carefully into it, and her also. A few shallow yards from the +shore, she slipped off her white cloak and head-covering at an order +from the old man, and so set to rowing again. + +Once, one of her oars touched some invisible body swimming parallel with +the boat, and a lightning-like flash of phosphorus showed a curved black +fin that darted to a little distance and then turned back toward them. +It was risky work crossing the bar, but both she and Captain Dove knew +just what they were about, and presently they shot free of the surf into +comparative safety. + +"Starboard a little," he told her then, and ten or twelve minutes' +pulling took them back to the _Olive Branch_, which he must have found +by sheer instinct, since the ship was showing no lights. + +They approached it almost soundlessly from astern, so that the sleepy +look-out on the fo'c'sle-head neither heard nor saw them. For even the +stars were invisible then through the curtain of vapour overhanging the +coast. + +Reuben Yoxall, the mate, was awaiting them at the poop-rail. He threw +Sallie a line, and running to the companion-hatch, called Jasper Slyne +up from the little saloon below. The two of them hoisted Captain Dove up +the side, and after him Sallie, as light and agile as any boy. The +canvas boat was easily got to the rail, folded flat and returned to its +hiding-place. + +Sallie stayed on deck, and Yoxall was not long in rejoining her there. +Slyne and Captain Dove had sat down to a leisurely supper below. The +_plup!_ of a cork popping in the saloon broke the silence just before +seven bells struck. They had half an hour yet till midnight. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AFLOAT AND ASHORE + + +"Who's that, Rube?--there, by the hatch," whispered Sallie, and pointed +to where a pair of white eyeballs had been uncannily visible for a +moment and then disappeared. She was nervous and overwrought in the +midst of so many uncertainties. + +Yoxall had stepped quickly in front of her. He caught sight of a shadow +crawling away in the dark on the deck below. + +"One of the niggers," he told her, and turned. "He's come scouting aft +more than once while you were ashore. Most of the men are asleep, I +suppose, but there are sure to be some standing guard--they won't run +any risk of being caught napping by Captain Dove." + +She fell into step with him again, and presently, pacing the poop at his +side, slipped an arm into one of his. He shivered a little. + +"Aren't you feeling all right?" she asked anxiously. "You're not going +to have fever, are you?" + +"No, lass," he answered at once. "Not much! I'm all right, of course. It +would never do for me to fall sick now, would it?" + +"It would be the last straw!" she agreed, and shivered also. For she was +counting on him in case the worst should come to the worst. + +"I don't know what I'd do without you, Rube," she said. And the big +Englishman blushed like any boy as she peered up into his face. "You're +the only real friend I have in the world. If it weren't for you--I'd be +quite desperate; I'm so unhappy here now." + +Reuben Yoxall pressed the arm that lay within his, and gulped. "Then why +won't you come away out of it, Sallie?" he asked in a husky voice he +could scarcely control. "It wouldn't be so very difficult--if Captain +Dove just manages to keep the men in hand till we make some port. And we +must call somewhere soon, for we're short of coal. + +"I have some money laid by--I'll work harder than ever for you. There's +a snug little farm in Cumberland that one of these days will be mine, +and till then the old folk would make you and me more than welcome +there." He was speaking very quickly, bent on making the most of that +unusual opportunity. + +"I'm not much of a man, I know," he went on, "but--such as I am, I'm +yours. And I'll always be yours, to do whatever you like with. You might +come to care more for me, Sallie, if you knew me better. Will you not +try? Just give me the chance, and I'll soon have you safely out of the +Old Man's clutches. But--so long as you insist on sticking to him, I +can't do any more for you than I'm doing." + +Her eyes grew dim as she thought of the dog-like devotion which he had +shown her, although she had so often told him that she could never repay +it as he would have liked. + +"I wish I could, Rube," she assured him again, "but--I can't. I'm _not_ +ungrateful, and I hate to hurt you, but--I just can't. And you wouldn't +want me to sell myself--even for a home and a husband, would you, Rube? +I'll never marry anyone. Jasper Slyne says that Captain Dove's going to +give me to him--but he doesn't know.... And--I'm not afraid." + +Reuben Yoxall sighed, very softly. But she heard, and her own heart grew +heavier. Life had become so difficult, and there was still so much to be +done, so many troubles to think about, while she did not even know yet +what Captain Dove was going to do next. + +She had just finished telling Yoxall about the man in the scarlet mask +and what she had promised to do for him, when sounds of stealthy bustle +from forward told her that the mutineers were once more mustering on +deck. She called down to Captain Dove, and he shortly came up from the +saloon, followed by Jasper Slyne in a neutral-tinted, workmanlike +semi-uniform, at whose belt hung a heavy-calibre Colt revolver. + +Under the sharp spur of necessity, Captain Dove appeared to have quite +overcome the physical weakness by which he had been oppressed. He +stepped briskly to the stair-head rail and thence looked down on the +shadowy, moving mass of armed men who had by that time gathered at the +after-hatch again. Aware of his presence, they ceased to shuffle about. +A tense silence ensued, and Captain Dove cleared his throat. + +"Are all hands aft?" he asked sharply, and "Ay, ay, sir," a voice +answered. "All hands but the engine-room crew. D'ye want them too?" + +"I do not," he declared, and Sallie felt dumbly thankful that the +engineers and their underlings were still, apparently, loyal to him. + +"Where's Mr. Hobson--and the third mate?" he demanded, and, "Here," +answered simultaneously two other very sullen, suspicious voices. + +"Listen, then, all of you," ordered Captain Dove, bristling in the dark +at that traitorous pair, and, raising his voice again, "I've got a fine +plum ripe for your picking to-night, lads!" cried he at his heartiest. +"There's a caravan camped ashore here, on its way to the Rio de Oro, +with close on a hundred camel-loads of such things as silk and +ivory--and jewels--and gold--and girls. I got a word of it from a friend +of mine at the Rio when we were in there, and--now's our chance! You can +see the flare of the camp-fires on the sky beyond the beach. I've been +in here before and I know the place. If you follow me now as you've +followed me in the past, I'll guarantee that you'll open your eyes at +what's waiting for you ashore." + +Slyne, safe in the background, listening, laughed furtively to himself. + +"But--if you're going back on me now, I give it up. Strike a light and +put a bullet through me right away, if you feel like that. I've only one +hand--I won't lift even that against you. And my share of what little +money there is on board you can divide among you." + +A general murmur of approval greeted this blatant speech. And not even +the two malcontent mates could pick any hole in that proposal. A faint +crimson glow amid the darkness beyond the surf on the shore served to +corroborate his statement in part. That he meant to accompany them was +his strongest guarantee of good faith. They were evidently ready and +willing, for such a prospect as he had held out to them, to follow him +wherever he liked to lead them. The two mates began to tell the men off +to the boats and get these swung outboard. A temporary atmosphere of +peace and good-will prevailed. + +Captain Dove turned to Reuben Yoxall. "You'll stay on board," he +whispered very brusquely, "in charge of the ship. I'll tell the chief +engineer to lend you two or three men, and you'll see to it that _they_ +don't lay their hands on any more guns. + +"You'll stick by me," he told Slyne, in the background, and Slyne merely +shrugged his shoulders impatiently as the old man passed on to where +Sallie was waiting to hear what her part was to be. She did not know in +the least what to make of his newly-declared intentions. + +"Am I to go with you?" she asked on the spur of the moment. And Captain +Dove stared at her. + +"No, you are _not_," he declared emphatically. "D'you want to be +shot--or kidnapped--or what! Get away down below, girl, and stay there +till I come aboard again. You must be mad!" + +She turned obediently toward the companion-hatch, and stopped there. He +went forward then, the men making way for him readily, and disappeared +into the engine-room. When he climbed carefully back on deck through the +fiddley-hatch in the skylight, he found all the boats afloat and only +one boat's crew remaining on board, under charge of the second mate, +Hobson, with the evident aim of making sure that he did not somehow give +them the slip or otherwise take any advantage of them. In response to a +shout from him, Jasper Slyne went jauntily forward, and, with +commendable promptitude, let himself down the falls overside. One of +these, unhooked, served Captain Dove for a sling, and he was soon seated +at the boat's tiller. The men followed swiftly, and the second mate +went last, no doubt satisfied by then that all would be well. + +"Give way, lads!" cried Captain Dove to those at the sweeps, "and we'll +show the others the short road ashore. I'm in no end of a hurry to get +what's coming to me from that caravan." + +Midnight lay very black on the bight where the _Olive Branch_ was riding +easily to a single anchor; as the dark hours sped they seemed to grow +always darker. The boats which had just put off from her were almost +instantly hidden from Sallie's sight. She stepped quietly out on deck +beside Reuben Yoxall. + +"Rube," she said in a low, determined voice. "I must be going too, now. +Will you help me to get out the canvas boat?" + +He stared at her, as Captain Dove had done, and swallowed down a lump in +his throat. + +"It's madness now!" he declared. "But--I'll go myself. You must stay +where you are. It would be worse than madness for you--" + +She was smiling very gratefully up into his unhappy, stubborn face. + +"We'll go together, Rube," she said, "or not at all. And, even although +it does seem hopeless, I know you wouldn't want me to break my promise. +So you get the boat launched while I go and tell Mr. Brasse." + +She turned and ran lightly down the steps and along the main-deck, +leaving the mate, sorely perturbed and uncertain, to carry out her +instructions or not, as he chose. As she reached the engine-room +skylight on the quarter-deck an unobtrusive shadow emerged from it and +would have passed her with a nod on its way toward the bridge. + +"Mr. Brasse," she said appealingly, and it halted to peer at her through +a single eye-glass, after touching its cap in a very precise salute. + +"Miss Sallie?" it answered in a surprised but courteous tone which told +that the speaker was, or had once been, a gentleman. + +"I'm going ashore," she went on in a hurry, "and Mr. Yoxall is going +with me. Will you look after things for him until we get back? Every one +else has gone already." + +"I have Captain Dove's orders to be on the bridge--for another purpose," +the chief engineer of the _Olive Branch_ informed her, "and I'll do my +best, of course, to make sure that nothing goes wrong in the chief +mate's absence. But--is it safe for you--" + +"Quite safe," she assured him. "And--Mr. Brasse, if I bring--I'm going +ashore to try to save a man--a white man the Arabs mean to murder +to-night. If I manage to bring him on board, will you help me to hide +him?--so that Captain Dove won't know?" + +The chief engineer of the _Olive Branch_ was obviously much perplexed. +But he was also obviously much better disposed toward Sallie than to +Captain Dove. + +"If he's willing to work in the stokehold," he stipulated, "I don't +think Captain Dove would ever know he's on board the ship. And then he +can slip ashore at the first safe port we manage to make." + +Sallie's lower lip trembled a little. She did not quite know how to +thank the punctilious engineer who had proved himself such a friend in +need. And time was passing. + +"You're always very good to me, Mr. Brasse," she said timidly. + +"Not at all," he returned with formal politeness, and, having saluted +again, went on his own way toward the bridge. + +When Sallie got back to the poop she found Reuben Yoxall awaiting her +there and the canvas boat already afloat. The mate, however slow-witted, +was smart enough in all his movements once he had made up his mind. He +helped her over the side without any more words, and was soon driving +the light boat along a straight, swift line for the landing-place. + +Sallie's sense of direction enabled her to show him that, and also +brought them safely across the bar into the lagoon where the other boats +from the _Olive Branch_ were lying empty, afloat. The third mate and +some of the men had seemingly been left there in charge of them. Sallie +caught sight of the former's sullen, furtive features in the sudden, +foolhardy light of a match he was holding over the pipe whose bowl his +hands hid. And there were shapes moving about him. She laid a shaky hand +on one of Yoxall's, and the oar in his, dipping, shifted their course. + +The boom of the breakers, behind them, killed all other sound. But she +lifted a finger to her lips, and he proved sufficiently quick-witted +then. Between them, they beached their own boat in the dark a couple of +hundred yards nearer the camp, and waded ashore with it, and left it +there, up-side down on the sand. + +The same magnetic instinct which had brought them safely across the bar +to the beach led her almost straight to the mouth of the narrow ravine +through which Captain Dove and she had reached the red-haired Emir's +camp. And Reuben Yoxall followed her, blind, through the night. + +"It was here that he was to meet us," she whispered breathlessly, her +heart in her mouth. They had met no one at all by the way, and there +seemed to be no one there. + +Yoxall scowled about him, unseeingly, and bit his lip, in helpless +dissatisfaction with everybody and everything. Then he sniffed +inquiringly, and in an instant all his relaxed muscles were taut again. +A faint whiff of tobacco-smoke had reached his nostrils on the hot, +humid night-air. + +Sallie was aware of it too, and had snatched at his hand, to draw him on +tiptoe toward the base of the great rock-wall that cropped up out of the +sand there. They reached its shelter unseen and unheard as a harsh, +suppressed voice spoke from round the corner, within the velvet-black +mouth of the gorge. It was Hobson's, the second mate's. + +"Put out that pipe," it ordered furiously, and was answered by a low, +mocking laugh. There followed the sound of a smashing blow, and a short, +sharp struggle that was interrupted by a muffled shout from high +overhead. "Hobson ahoy!" + +It was Captain Dove who had called cautiously down from the summit of +the ridge at one side of the ravine, and the second mate panted a quick +response. + +"You can get a move on now," cried the old man above the roar of the +surf. "The others will all be in position by the time you've pushed +through. Open fire as soon as ever you sight the camp. D'ye hear?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered the second mate, the habit of years still strong +upon him, and went on to issue his own commands in the curt growl of +custom. The fellow who had lighted a pipe in defiance of him was +apparently quelled. + +It seemed that he meant to leave some of his men to guard that end of +the gorge. "And you'll keep a sharp look-out," he instructed them very +threateningly. "If we're trapped in this damned tunnel there will be +all hell to pay--and you'll pay it! + +"Move on now, in front. Feel your way with your bayonets. And don't fire +so long as cold steel will serve." + +The two listeners could hear the dull clink and shuffle of the advance. +That soon died away. The men who had been left behind began a low, +intermittent grumbling over their own hard lot; they did not believe for +a moment that their comrades would share the loot fairly with them. +Hobson was a coward at heart, said one, or why, otherwise, would they be +wasting their time there? They were all smoking by then. + +"The whole thing's a cinch," declared the same speaker more loudly. +"I'll swear there isn't an Arab outside the ring-fence we've drawn round +'em, and--I'm going on along inside, to get what I want for myself. +_I'm_ not afraid of Mr. Blasted Hobson!" + +He came out into the open and stood for a moment or two listening +intently, within a few feet of where Sallie and Reuben Yoxall were +crouching, their backs toward him. But the ceaseless crash and rumble of +the breakers was all there was to be heard. + +He turned back, and tramped off into the gorge, with two of the others +for company. But three remained. + +Sallie felt Reuben Yoxall tug at her sleeve and began to move softly +away after him. From somewhere in the distance a shot suddenly rang out. +More followed, in quick succession. The irregular crackle of independent +rifle-fire soon made it clear that the concentric attack on the camp had +begun. The three men in the mouth of the gorge were shouting excitedly +to each other. + +"We must get away back on board--at once," Yoxall whispered +peremptorily. "We can't search the whole Sahara, blind, for a man you +wouldn't even know if you saw him. You've done all you can, Sallie. +You've kept your promise. Come away, now." + +She suppressed a hopeless sob with an effort. It seemed so inexpressibly +hard that they should have gained nothing at all by the grave risk they +were still running. But hope had failed her, too. + +"We'll wait by the boat--just for a little, Rube," she begged none the +less. "It may be that--" + +"Come on, then," he urged again. "Let's get to the boat,--and, if you'll +stay by it, I'll scout round a bit before we put off again." + +"More this way," she directed him, as he moved on, impatient to get her +back into at least comparative safety. And, under her guidance, they +soon reached the rough, trodden path that led toward the lagoon where +the boats were lying. + +A hundred yards further on, he stopped her abruptly, and dropped to the +ground, to set an anxious ear to it. He was up again in a second or two. + +"There's a whole army coming this way," he declared in a tone of +stricken dismay, "and horses with them too! + +"We must make for the soft sand and lie down and burrow as deep as we +can." + +He turned toward the sea, one arm about her, and almost carried her +across the deep, undulating drifts that clutched at her ankles like a +dry quicksand. His own strength soon failed against them. He stumbled +and fell on his face at the brink of a slope, and slipped on into its +hollow and lay there, quite still. But he had let go his hold of her, so +that she had not lost her feet: and she was soon cowering beside him, +face downward also. They had both heard the nearness of those other +feet--very many of them--which had seemingly crossed from the pathway to +intercept them. + +A hoarse murmur was audible behind them. Some one had ordered a halt. +They could hear the heavy breathing of men and the restless movements of +horses hock-deep in the drift. They could almost see the ghostly shapes +of the white-cloaked riders, but only the leader's horse was even very +dimly discernible--because it also was white. Its bridle was jingling a +little, too, as none of the others' were. + +He uttered a short, sharp order, and Sallie set her teeth to choke back +the cry of despair which had almost escaped her. For it was the Emir +himself into whose hands they seemed fated to fall, and his tone told +the temper he was in. + +From among his horsemen a number of men on foot seemed to have emerged, +and he was speaking to one of them, in English. + +"Are you there, my fine doctor?" he asked evilly, and leaned from his +saddle as though he could see through the dark. + +"I'm here," a level voice replied, and Sallie covered her face with her +hands in helpless horror. + +"You're here, you say! And here you'll stay, say I--as was promised +you," hissed the Emir. "'Tis not right that the likes of you should be +still drawing breath--and her-you-know-of already cold. You're quick +yet, and she's dead, my fine doctor--but yours is the funeral that comes +first. And you're standing over your own grave now--hell's waiting for +you beneath your feet. Stand to one side, and let my men dig down to +it." + +There was more movement about him, and then a quick shovelling of sand. + +"If it's all the same to you, I'll tell them to help you in head first," +said the Emir venomously. But the man in the scarlet mask answered +nothing at all to that. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HOBSON'S CHOICE + + +Sallie had made an effort to rise, but her knees had utterly failed her, +and Reuben Yoxall had laid a heavy arm across her shoulders. The +ceaseless uproar from within the camp had suddenly increased. + +The Emir was standing up in his stirrups to listen. He sank into his +saddle again, and issued some further orders, in Arabic. Most of his +force on foot in the rear made off at a staggering run. The horses of +his body-guard began to paw and curvet to free their feet as the loose +reins tightened on their necks. + +"I must be going now, my fine doctor," said the Emir most reluctantly, +"but I'll leave you company enough for the few minutes you've left, +although you're but a dumb dog! + +"And you'll maybe think of me when you're swallowing your first +mouthful. Till then you can mourn her-you-know-of." + +The white horse leaped and plunged as though he had rowelled it cruelly, +and then he was gone at a breakneck gallop, the white shadows that were +his body-guard hard at his heels, with lances free. + +The grave-diggers paused in their digging as he disappeared. A dozen or +more tongues broke into eager talking, and a fiendish, squealing laugh +out-shrilled them all. Sallie, with her face between her elbows, had +thrust a finger into each ear, and her eyes were tightly closed. + +She opened them a little, involuntarily, as the heavy arm that had been +holding her down was taken away. Reuben Yoxall nudged her, and she +looked round, with infinite caution. + +A blue-light, like a corpse-candle in the distance, had suddenly flared +up on the near ridge above the ravine that led to the camp. And in its +ghastly glow an unforgettable picture was vaguely visible for a moment +or two. + +The last of the Emir's mounted men were streaming after him into the +gorge, between whose open jaws lay three prone, trampled bodies, two +very still, the other writhing round and round on the axis of a long +lance. + +The breakers on the beach beyond the intervening sand-waves reared up, +and combed, and fell in blue-green foam. Outside them a black sea heaved +ceaselessly. + +Inland, a segment of the circular rock-rampart which enclosed the camp +loomed up above the endless, empty desert, and on its summit showed a +number of white-clad, crouching figures with rifles, all firing inward +and downward on the pandemonium raging below. + +Only a few yards away from where the two helpless onlookers lay the man +in the scarlet mask was standing, his hands behind him, between the two +big negroes Sallie had seen in the Emir's tent. And, grouped about them, +staring at the blue-light with wide eyes, were a dozen or more armed +Arabs. Two other negroes, knee-deep in a hole, were leaning on their +spades. + +Farther off, beside the lagoon where the boats were lying, the third +mate and his men were making the best fight they might for their lives +against overwhelming odds. More than one of them had already fallen +before the blue-light guttered away and that inferno was blotted out. + +But the renewed darkness lasted only for a few seconds before the +search-light on the bridge of the _Olive Branch_ in the bight answered +the signal from the ridge, cutting through the inky night a long, white, +fan-like swathe which swept the coast in sections until it finally found +its objective and settled there. + +The group about the half-dug grave were at first almost paralysed with +fear of that phenomenon. The two black eunuchs seized their prisoner and +pulled him to the ground, the men of the guard took cover, with rifles +ready, the grave-diggers dropped incontinently into the grave and +cowered there. + +But when, after its first gyrations, it steadied on to the ridge round +the camp, leaving them quite unharmed and outside its focus, they fell +to talking again, in awed whispers, while they gazed blinkingly at its +effect, all but the two who were busy digging again. + +Yoxall plucked at Sallie's sleeve. She crept after him, and by very slow +degrees they got safely round in rear of the burial-party. + +"Wait here," he breathed in her ear, and left her behind a low swell of +the sand. + +She crawled to its brink. He was wriggling back toward the shapes +silhouetted against the dusky light. She clenched both her hands tightly +over her lips as he reached the one that was lying motionless, a knee +upraised, quite close to the others' heels. + +The upraised knee slowly straightened. One of the two negro guards +looked round and kicked at their prisoner. The other spoke, and a +squealing laugh reached her ears. + +Each instant seemed an eternity until she thought she could see Reuben +Yoxall turn and begin to worm his way back toward her, with another +stealthy shadow following him. + +He reached her side. + +"Up and run for it now, lass," he panted, and stooped and lifted her to +her feet. "They can't hear us from there. For God's sake, don't give way +now." + +But she was quite limp and strengthless. The strain had been too much +for her. He picked her up in his arms and made for their boat at an +elephantine trot, the stranger struggling along after him through the +sand. She was sobbing brokenly when he set her down beside it. + +A piercing scream rang out across the sand from the near distance, above +all the other turmoil. But he had already got the boat turned right side +up and the man in the mask helped him to set it afloat. He splashed +ashore again and carried Sallie out to it, settling her very tenderly in +its stern. + +"We're all right now," he told her, and she whispered back, "Oh! I'm so +ashamed of myself, Rube,--I nearly fainted!" + +The other man sat down in the bow and the mate stepped carefully in. A +few minutes later they were beyond the bar, safe enough from pursuit. + +"I'll take an oar now," the stranger suggested, speaking for the first +time, and in a tone which showed how he had suffered. Yoxall passed him +one willingly. He had over-taxed his own strength at last. He was almost +exhausted before they at length ran alongside the _Olive Branch_, +skirting the arc of the search-light. He could scarcely scramble up the +rope he had left hanging from the poop. + +But with the other man's help he managed to get the boat aboard and +stowed away again. And they returned on deck together. + +"What do you think has happened ashore, Rube?" asked Sallie very +anxiously as he reappeared from below. + +"I wish I knew, lass," he answered, no less concerned. "I'll go and find +out what Brasse--" + +"I must see Mr. Brasse too," she told him. "He's promised--" She turned +to the stranger. + +"The stokehold's the only place on board where you will be safe," she +said, somewhat uncertainly. "Will you mind very much--" + +"I'll shovel coal _most_ contentedly," he assured her at once, in a tone +that was still very tremulous. "And--how to show my gratitude to both of +you, for the chance, I--I can't--" + +His voice broke. He could say no more. His silent self-control had been +too sorely tried. + +"Come on, then," said Reuben Yoxall uncomfortably. And Sallie clutched +at the big, stolid Englishman's arm again and clung to it as they went +forward, along the dark empty decks. + +On the bridge, in the dim, vaporous light at one side of the white hood +within which the carbon was burning, they caught sight of the chief +engineer, a raggedly disreputable-looking individual, with features +haggard, refined to the pitch of foolishness, rendered still more +fatuous by the single eye-glass he always affected and which he had worn +even while, when he had first joined the ship, he himself had worked in +the stokehold as one of the black gang who feed the furnaces. Brasse was +one of a number of human enigmas who had followed Captain Dove's flag +and fortunes for uncounted years, and Sallie had long ago heard the +common report that there was a hangman's rope waiting for him somewhere +ashore. + +He looked round as she approached, and his perspiring face expressed +heartfelt relief. + +"Just a moment," he begged, and once more applied an eye to the +telescope trained parallel with the light. + +"I thought so," he exclaimed, and turned a tap on a tube leading into +the hood. In the instant darkness which ensued, the flare of another +blue-light on the ridge above the ravine ashore produced a very weird +and startling effect. + +The engineer turned to Sallie. + +"Gad!" said he, hurriedly, "but I'm glad to see you safe back on board. +I was afraid that--Did you get your man?" + +"Yes, we brought him off. He's here, behind," Sallie answered briefly, +since there was so little time to explain anything. "But--what has gone +wrong ashore, Mr. Brasse?" + +"That second signal should mean that Captain Dove has been quite +successful," said Brasse, a bitter note in his voice. "I expect he'll be +back on board presently, too. So I'll get away below now and send some +of my men on deck to help. I'll have to see your friend fixed up before +the boats arrive. Have you explained to him--" + +"Yes, he understands," she assured him, and, as the stranger followed +the engineer silently from the bridge, she spoke to Yoxall again. He was +leaning over the rail behind her, gazing over the side. + +"What do you think has really happened, Rube?" she once more asked him. +"It didn't look as if our men were winning." + +"I wish I knew, lass," he repeated dully. "But--we'll know before very +long, and--we can do nothing to help. So you'd better be off aft again, +now, and seek some rest. I must see everything shipshape about the +decks." + +Sallie went slowly back to the poop, but she could not rest amid so many +anxieties. It was not very long, however, before the regular plash of +oars reached her ears where she was standing within the companion-hatch, +under cover from the dew that the awning dripped. And in another minute +Captain Dove's harsh voice hailed the ship. + +"Show a light at the gangway, quick!" the old man shouted. "Muster all +hands at the rails--and don't let a single son-of-a-gun on board you +till I give the word." + +These peremptory orders were promptly obeyed. Reuben Yoxall himself came +running to the break of the poop with a deck-lamp and let the +Jacob's-ladder down. But Captain Dove's boat was well ahead of the +others, although for all company in it he had only Jasper Slyne and +three white-robed Arabs, who, as they ran alongside, shipped their oars +smartly to clutch at the ladder, up which Captain Dove scrambled +swaying, with only one hand at his service. Slyne followed him, hot, +dusty, dishevelled, still bleeding from a deep cut in one cheek, and +then the Arabs, the Emir El Farish first, and the last with a turn of +the boat's painter about his wrist in seaman-like fashion. + +"Shift her forward now," Captain Dove commanded, "and up with the ladder +again." + +Which also was done, in a hurry, so that when the other boats arrived +they had to bring-to under the bare wet side of the steamer wallowing in +the swell. Sallie, herself unseen, saw that there were only three or +four men in each, and a sudden, sick understanding of Captain Dove's +successful expedient for ridding the ship of the rest of the mutineers +flashed through her mind. But she would not allow herself to surmise +what the Emir's visit might mean. + +Captain Dove, safe on board, surveyed for a space, in silence and very +much at his leisure, the men in the boats. But not one of them was able +or willing to meet his malevolent glance. A more cowed, unhappy, +hang-dog lot he had never seen, and he told them so, at some length. + +"Get on to your feet, you, Hobson," he snapped, and the second mate +stood up in his place, as if with a galvanic effort of will. Captain +Dove regarded him fixedly for some moments. + +"You're the worst that's left," he said then, in a steely voice, "and--I +don't quite know what to do with you. I've asked Far--the Emir here if +he'll have you as a gift, along with the others I left ashore, but he +won't. And I don't want you on the _Olive Branch_; there's no room on +board for a man like you--you might stir up another mutiny! Seems to me +the very best thing you can do for yourself now is to jump right +overboard before I have that boat swung and lay hands on you. For, if +you set foot on my ship again, I'll have you hove head-first into one of +the furnaces. D'ye hear? + +"But take your choice--one way or the other, it's all the same to me. + +"The rest of you mutinous swine can come aboard now. You've had your +lesson, I think, eh? Then stand by to pick Mr. Hobson up if he follows +you, and carry him down to the stokehold. + +"Let the ladder over again, there." + +The doomed wretch, staring wide-eyed at Captain Dove in the lamplight, +seemed to know that no appeal from that most monstrous penalty of his +scarcely less monstrous crime would serve any purpose at all, and looked +hopelessly about him while the others in the boat clambered, cringing, +up the ship's side. He shuddered convulsively as he caught sight of a +stealthy black fin in the water, within a few feet of him. His slack, +twisted lips were moving like those of a man with paralysis. + +"Put--put a bullet through me first," he begged piteously, and turning +about, scrambled, groping, into the stern-sheets. + +He stood there throughout an eternity of a few seconds, head bent, +shoulders heaving, hands hanging limp, and then, "For God's own sake--" +he cried, in a dreadful, whimpering voice, that was suddenly stilled by +a whip-like explosive crack as he pitched forward, headlong, out of the +boat. + +Sallie had darted, unnoticed, down the steps from the poop to where +Jasper Slyne was standing in the background, nonchalantly looking on. + +"Save him, Jasper--for my sake!" she beseeched of him, who alone had any +influence with the old man. + +"I will--if you'll promise to marry me," he whispered in answer, as if +inspired to snatch at even such a precarious chance of placing her under +that obligation to him, and, without waiting for any reply, he fired at +the black fin beyond the boat, ran to the rail and plunged over the +ship's side. Captain Dove swung around, snarling viciously, and struck +at him as he passed. + +The splash he made frightened the swarming sharks away for a moment or +two. He came up close beside Hobson, seized him by the scruff of the +neck, and, after a desperate struggle, succeeded in clambering into the +boat. A white streak seemed to leap from the water and snapped and +missed the second mate's helpless heels by an inch or two as Slyne, with +a final, frantic effort, jerked him inboard and fell backward over a +thwart. + +Captain Dove stood glaring about him, speechless. Sallie had drawn back, +unseen, in breathless suspense. But the old man said nothing at all, not +even when Slyne stepped, spent and dripping, over the rail, with Hobson +close behind crying like a child. + +"I've no more time to waste on such tomfoolery," said the Emir then, +angrily, "and no great taste for it, either, Captain Dove. So give me +the girl now, and I'll be gone." + +"Come below, for a minute," returned Captain Dove, in a strangled voice, +mastering his pent rage with a very visible effort. "Come below for a +minute till I send for her. + +"Mr. Yoxall, you'll let Mr. Brasse know that we'll be starting in half +an hour. Tell those men off in two watches, and send one lot below. +Leave Da Costa in charge of the deck--you'll be rated as second mate, +now, Da Costa, d'ye hear?--and turn in, yourself, Mr. Yoxall, till the +morning watch." + +"Ay, ay, sir," Yoxall responded mechanically, and Captain Dove, as he +led the way to his own quarters amidships--he had only been berthed aft, +in the poop, while he had been ill and the crew conspiring against +him--at length looked round at Slyne. + +"Better get into some dry clothes, quick," he said, civilly enough, but +in a tone which betrayed his real temper. "I want you to go aft and +bring Sallie along." + +When Slyne came aft again, a few minutes later, he was once more cool +and clean and spruce in white drill, with a plaster over the cut on his +face. He was also apparently well pleased with himself. + +He found Sallie crouching within the companion-hatch, and she shrank +still farther into its shelter as he approached. + +"What's the matter?" he asked in surprise, his greedy eyes searching her +white face in the misty darkness while she looked up at him in +speechless dismay. + +"Did you hear what Captain Dove said?" he asked, and laughed exultantly. +"You needn't worry about anything of that sort now, my dear. You've got +some one to look after you now, and--it's all part of his plan, don't +you understand? You must come along with me, but--there's nothing to be +afraid of. You're perfectly safe now--with me." + +She did not know what to believe, but, since there was no help for it, +she followed him, without a word, to the doorway of the mid-ship saloon, +within which the Emir and Captain Dove were amicably engaged over a +black bottle. + +"The real potheen!" El Farish was saying exultantly, a tumbler to his +hook-nose. "It's long since I've had the chance of such." He looked +round as Slyne stepped in. + +"Here, have a sip, Mr. Slyne," he said. "No, out of this glass of mine, +if you please, just to show that it isn't hocussed. I've known Captain +Brown--Captain Dove, I mean--long enough to be extra careful in his +company." + +He laughed as Slyne took the tumbler from him and, with a covert nod to +Captain Dove, half emptied it at a draught. And, as Slyne smacked his +lips, "If it does you so much good, it can't do me any harm," said the +Emir jovially. "So--here's to the pair of bright eyes that--Ah! there +she is. Come in, acushla, and let's have another look at you." + +But Sallie had stopped on the threshold, and stayed there, silent, +unable to move. The Emir, staring avidly at her, rose and lifted his +glass. + +"Here's happy days and no regrets--to the two of us!" he cried, and was +draining it off when Captain Dove, at his back, felled him to the floor +with a well-aimed blow of the full water-bottle, which was the most +convenient weapon at hand. + +"Are his two cut-throats out there safe?" the old man hissed from +between set teeth, and Sallie, looking round, saw two limp figures +huddled with hanging heads in the dark alleyway just beyond the door. + +"Safe as houses," Slyne answered evenly, since she stood silent, aghast. +"I made sure of them before I went aft. A single drink settled their +hash. You must have made the dose in the other bottle pretty strong." + +"It's just as well, after all, you see, that we didn't depend on fixing +him the same way," said Captain Dove, recovering his self-command and +indicating the prone Emir with a contemptuous foot. He seemed to have +forgotten for the moment his grudge against Slyne. "I was afraid he'd +smell a rat if we tried that old trick on him. + +"And now--the sooner he's over the side the better. Don't stand there +staring, Sallie! Go and call some of the men in." + +The girl turned and went, dazedly, drawing her skirts close as she +passed the two huddled figures in the alleyway. Half a dozen of the +watch on deck carried the Emir and his ineffectual retinue up the +gangway, flung them, like so much rubbish, into the boat out of which +the hapless Hobson had fallen, and at once cast it loose. + +"They'll probably all wake up before they drift into the surf," said +Captain Dove, looking on, with a laugh which made even Slyne glance +askance at him. "And, if not--it isn't my fault. + +"That fellow thought he could get the better of _me_, Slyne--and there's +the result! + +"Is that you, Mr. Da Costa? Where's Hobson?" + +"He's locked himself into his room, sir, and barricaded the door," the +new second mate answered swiftly, with a servile smile. + +"Humph!" exclaimed Captain Dove. "All right. Weigh anchor at once. Head +west for an hour and then due north. You'll be relieved before long. And +just bear in mind that we've got to be very careful of coal now; we've +no more on board than will take us to Genoa." + +Da Costa saluted briskly, and had disappeared before Captain Dove turned +and caught sight of Sallie again. + +"Get away aft and turn in at once," he called irritably to her. "You'll +have to take the bridge by and by, and for a good long spell, too--we've +all had a hard time of it ashore while you've been idling on board." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WHITE BLACKBIRD + + +"I could do with a sleep myself!" said Slyne, as he followed the old man +toward the mid-ship saloon after Sallie had gone. + +"There's no hurry," Captain Dove disagreed. "And--we've Hobson to get +rid of first. What the everlasting blazes made you bring him aboard +again!" + +Slyne darted a grimace of disgust at him. + +"An idea of my own," he answered slowly. + +"But--you're surely not going to murder him in his bed now!" he added. +Case-hardened and unscrupulous though he might be, he had not yet got so +far as to contemplate without a seasick qualm the idea of killing any +man in cold blood. + +He threw himself down on the settee in the malodorous little saloon. + +"I'm tired to death of you and your butcher's methods!" said he, +regardless of consequences. "Have you no conscience at all?" + +Captain Dove, blinking balefully at him from out of weak, red-rimmed +eyes, showed all his tobacco-stained fangs: but in an unexpected smile +instead of a snarl. The old man was evidently in a much better temper +now that he had turned the tables so neatly on nearly all of those who +had thought him utterly in their power. It seemed to amuse him to hear +Jasper Slyne in the rôle of mentor. + +"None at all," he answered amiably. "And--how about you?" + +"You can leave me out of your reckoning after this," Slyne declared, the +more morose since he knew very well what good grounds the other had for +that taunt. "I'm going ashore just as soon as we get to Genoa, and +you'll never set eyes on me again. I know when I've had enough--and I've +had enough now." + +"Not you," Captain Dove contradicted him blandly. "Say when." He had +whisked a bottle of champagne out from a locker under the settee, +knocked its wired head neatly off on the table-edge, and was pouring the +creamy wine out into a glass, with hospitable but steady hand. When the +glass was full he stopped, but not till then, since Slyne had said +nothing. + +He filled another for himself, and drank its contents off in a couple of +gulps, produced a box of cigars, and lighted one clumsily. Slyne +followed his example in both respects, but more deliberately, and the +heady liquor was not without its prompt effect on him. + +"What I mean, Dove," said he presently in that grandiose, patronising +manner which always rubbed Captain Dove the wrong way, "what I mean is +that I've had far more than enough of this rough-and-tumble work. It +isn't the sort of sport at all that appeals to a gentleman. And, what's +more, I haven't made a penny out of it all." + +Captain Dove's eyes began to kindle. Slyne had succeeded, as usual, in +touching him on the raw. + +"No more have I," he asserted with a fierce oath. "I've barely enough +left to pay the port-dues in Genoa and take my ship through the canal; +you know very well, too, that I won't be safe till I see Suez astern. +For a few tons of coal and some temporary repairs I'll have to trust to +my wits. I'm worse off now than I was when I picked you up in New York, +with your precious scheme for making our fortunes in Central America." + +The flagrant injustice of that reproach was so obvious that Slyne kept +his self-control. "Whose fault was it that you were so soft with Sallie +as to let her spoil all our plans?" he asked equably, and did not wait +for an answer. "And you're far better off at the finish than I am," said +he. "Your foolishness has cost us both our chance of a big haul--but +_you've_ still got her." + +"I've still got her," the old man admitted, if grudgingly. "That's true. +I've still got her. And she'll have to pay pretty high, perhaps, for all +she's cost me of late. You wouldn't believe, Slyne, how well I've always +treated that girl. I couldn't have done better by her if she had been my +own daughter. And I wouldn't have believed she'd ever go back on me as +she's done of late." + +"You don't know how to handle her at all," Slyne asserted bluntly. +"You're getting into your dotage. She's outgrown you. And what'll happen +in the end will be that you'll lose her too. You're far too grasping." + +Captain Dove shook his hoary head with a cunning grin. "If I don't know +how to handle her, there's nothing you can teach me," he commented. "And +yet you'd give your very eye-teeth for her!" + +"It would be the best bit of business you've done for long," Slyne +affirmed. "She's cost you far more already than you'll ever make again, +and me, too, for that matter. Look what a hoodoo she's been to us all +this trip. We might both have been millionaires at this minute but for +her interfering with--" + +"Avast there, now!" the old man growled savagely. "Don't keep harping on +that string, curse you! I know when I've had enough, too. So just keep +your head shut about it. And bear in mind, Slyne, that what I say goes, +on the _Olive Branch_, or--it'll maybe be 'Hobson's choice' for you too +before we make Genoa." + +Slyne gave him back glance for virulent glance, but kept silence, and +showed his wisdom thereby. For Captain Dove, in that frame of mind, +might very easily have been moved to some insane act of violence. The +old man had never before gone so far as actually to threaten his casual +accomplice. And even Slyne, who did not fear death itself, did not +desire to die in a more unpleasant manner than need be. He sat quiet, +searching his nimble brain for some more soothing speech. + +"What makes me so hot," he explained, relaxing his scowl as he held out +his empty glass, "is that I haven't the money you want for her. You've +no idea, Dove, how well I could do with a wife like that. And now--" + +"Sallie wouldn't whistle to your teachings now any more than she will to +mine--not so well, in fact," Captain Dove declared, accepting the +friendly hint, and reached for the bottle. "I wish to blazes that this +lame flipper of mine was fit for duty again. See if you can find a fresh +bottle below you, Slyne. And, for heaven's sake! talk sense. You haven't +the money--and that's the end of the matter." + +Slyne, searching under the settee, scowled to himself. He was not for a +moment prepared to admit that the matter was at an end, but neither was +he inclined to contradict his companion again. It irked him to have to +hold his tongue. He approached the subject afresh, from another +direction. + +"You may not find it so easy now as you think to dispose of her," he +adventured. "The world's not so wide as it was, for one thing, +and--she's developed a very strong will of her own these past few +months." + +"Tell me something I don't know," begged Captain Dove. "The world's +become far too small to suit me--or you either, Slyne--but I know one or +two quiet corners yet where the black flag's better known than the +British, if that's what you're hinting at. + +"Did you ever hear of the Pirate Isles, for instance? They're not what +they used to be, of course, but there's still trade to be done in those +waters, in spite of the French. I once met a Chinese mandarin there who +offered me a hundred thousand taels for the girl--close on eighty-five +thousand dollars. I'm going East again now, and I know where to lay my +hands on him when I want to. + +"A year ago I could have got rid of her to a son-of-a-gun from Shiraz +who tried to do me down over a deal in rifles for Afghanistan, but I +wouldn't let her go, to a scoundrel like that. + +"The Rajah of--But, pshaw! I've had a round dozen of such offers for +her, first and last, all good as government bonds--and a lot more than +that like yours, Slyne." + +Slyne almost choked over his champagne, but Captain Dove did not seem to +notice that. + +"And now I'll take the next--of the right sort--that comes along," the +old man went on, growing gloomy again. "I've been too particular, I'll +admit. I've picked and chosen for her, at my own expense, and always +meaning to see her as happily settled as might be. I couldn't have +considered her more if she had been my own daughter." + +Slyne pricked up his ears. "That's just where the trouble will come in +for you," said he. "She's somebody's daughter, and some day she'll find +out whose; she isn't by any means so simple as you suppose. Then there +will be the devil to pay--out of empty pockets." + +He hesitated over an impulse to argue the moral aspect of Captain Dove's +expressed intention regarding the helpless girl, but concluded to let +that go, since the pecuniary side of it was so much more to the point. +"I wonder you don't see," he went on patiently, "how much better it +would pay you in the long run to marry her to me, and so be done with +all your worries. I'm bound to make money. With her to help me I'd soon +be breaking the bank. + +"I'm not close-fisted, either; I'm willing to share the profits with you +as long as you've any use for them." He held up a protesting hand as +Captain Dove would have cut in, no doubt with some caustic sarcasm. +"What I'm offering you isn't eighty-five thousand dollars, remember," he +finished, "but a free income for life, that'll run into six figures a +year--or I'll be vastly surprised at your simple tastes!" + +"You'd be more surprised if I said 'done' to any such idiot's bargain," +opined Captain Dove, and laughed like an old hyena. "And the sooner you +set all such nonsensical projects aside, the better we'll get on +together. My pretty white blackbird will never have to fret her heart +out in any imitation-gilt cage. And more than that, I heard her tell you +not so long ago--I suppose you forgot that the open port below you was +just at my ear--that she'd far rather beg in the gutter than marry +you!" + +Slyne flushed darkly under his tan and darted an ugly glance at his +grinning tormentor. He had always plumed himself on his way with women, +and Captain Dove's chance shaft had sorely wounded his very sensitive +self-esteem. But he still controlled his own barbed tongue and said +nothing of the new card he had up his sleeve. + +"So be it, then," he agreed, with a somewhat difficult smile. "I can't +force you" ("you old fool!" he added mentally) "to take the chance of a +lifetime when it's offered you. And, of course, what you've told me now +makes all the difference. You've often given me to understand that +Sallie's a somebody by rights. Now you say she's only a slave!" + +Captain Dove cogitated deeply, and then drank again. The _Olive Branch_ +was moving smoothly along her course, leaving a heavy load of trouble +always a little further astern. A pleasant sense of security and comfort +had replaced the agonizing mental strain of the past few days. The wine +he had been imbibing was buoying him up, and he was inclined to be +garrulous. + +"I've often told you she ought to be at least a lady of title in her own +right," he remarked at length, "she's so damned high and mighty with me +at times. But--who she really is--I've never told you that, have I, +Slyne?" + +Slyne shook his head, with assumed unconcern. + +"I've never told you that--because I don't know," the old man chuckled +explosively. + +"I don't suppose it's ever struck you that it might pay you to find +out?" Slyne inquired with sardonic gravity, and Captain Dove began to +show signs of becoming restless again. + +"How the Seven Stars can I find out!" he demanded indignantly. "The +trader I bought her from, along with a shipload of niggers for the +Sultan of El Merayeh, when she was very little more than knee-high to +me--and a pretty stiff price I paid for her, too, let me tell you!--had +brought her from the other side of the Back o' Beyond that lies three +months away behind the mountains of God-knows-Where. So much I found out +from him one way and another, although he could speak no language that +I'd ever heard before. And no one will ever be able to find out more. +She's my property, by right of purchase. It wouldn't pay even her own +father, whoever he is, to try to take her away from me." + +"But where was it you ran across her?" asked Slyne, with somewhat too +much eagerness. "Oh, all right. You needn't tell me any more than you +want to. I'm not in the least inquisitive." + +He lighted another cigar, and lay back in his seat as if he took no +further interest in that strange story. But in his fertile brain he was +seeking some way to turn it to his own advantage. And the obstacles +before him merely made him the more determined. For the needy +adventurer's restless mind was inflamed by dreams of the future he might +achieve with a wife such as Sallie to help him, by the delusion that, +once she was legally his, he would succeed in bending or breaking her +will to his every wish. + +In the smoke that hung about the skylight of the squalid, grubby little +saloon, with its two evil-smelling, untended kerosene lamps overwhelming +even the odour of two rank cigars, he saw golden, diamond-set visions of +such a career as could only end at the very crest of that dazzling +society amid which crowns nod in friendly fashion to coronets, which +will, on occasion, open its doors as if hospitably to a man with money +and brains and a tempting wife. Slyne had more than once in his palmier +days strayed boldly over all boundaries into the outskirts of quite +august circles, and felt assured that he was fitted to shine among even +the most select. + +While as for Sallie--he could imagine her at his side, tall and slender, +in the very latest mode, but scarcely more than young girl yet, as +lissom and shapely as any sculptor's divinest dream of Aphrodite, with +her pure, proud, sensitive features faintly flushed under the scrutiny +of the multitude to the complexion of a wild-rose at its prime; with her +curved, crimson lips, drooped a little as though in appeal against the +envious stare of the other women, questioning eyebrows, eyes with the +wild wine of youth abrim behind their long, shadowy lashes, alive with +strange, lambent lights, like twin rainbows born between sunshine and +shower; and, over all, a glory of red-gold hair luridly aglow in the +gleam of innumerable electroliers. + +His own eyes hardened and narrowed again. A cock-roach crawling along a +beam had brought him back to crude matters of fact. + +"Does she know--what you've told me?" he tried afresh, with +unconquerable persistence. + +Captain Dove shook his head abstractedly, and then sat up with a scowl, +realising too late that he had admitted more than was maybe wise. + +"It doesn't make any difference, of course," said Slyne, to appease him, +"since there's so little to know: and she doesn't seem much interested, +does she? The upshot is that she's your property; there isn't a court in +the world that could say otherwise. And no other claimant could prove +his case. + +"If you'll take a tip from me, though, you'll see that she and Yoxall +don't give you the slip together some fine--" He halted, tongue-tied +under the old man's murderous glance. + +"You can count him out," Captain Dove asserted, with a cold assurance +which very much discomposed his more imaginative companion. "Is that +bottle empty too? Then I'll just see to him now, before I turn in. I'm +much obliged to you for reminding me." + +He rose, still scowling, and set his lips to one of several +speaking-tubes let into the bulkhead behind him. "Is that Mr. Brasse?" +he demanded. "I want one of those boxes of cigars you have in the +engine-room." He set one ear to the tube, nodded, and sat down again. + +"You're not going to--do anything rash?" Slyne asked, uncomfortably. + +"I'm not going to do anything that would upset an infant in arms--for +more than a minute," returned Captain Dove in his mildest tone, and +Slyne sprang to his feet with a startled oath as a hatch in the floor +beyond the table at which they were sitting suddenly lifted, and in the +opening appeared the bald head and stoop shoulders of the sullen chief +engineer. + +"It's all right. You needn't be nervous," said Captain Dove with a nasty +grin. "There are lots of other funny little contrivances you know +nothing about on this ship." And Slyne, looking angrily sheepish, +returned to its pocket in his white coat something he had pulled out in +a hurry, while his tormentor stooped and took gingerly from the engineer +the innocent looking cigar box which that individual was holding out to +him. + +The hatch descended again, noiselessly, and they were once more alone. + +"I don't like that infernal fellow," Slyne declared in a sulky voice, +"and he doesn't like me--or you either, for that matter. If I were you I +wouldn't turn my back on him when there's a hammer within his reach." + +"Don't you worry about me," Captain Dove advised in return, and, holding +the box to his ear, shook it slightly. "My head's quite as thick as your +own--if it comes to hammer-work," he added, in a provoking tone. But +that shot missed its mark. Slyne was very much more interested in the +cigar box. + +The old man set that down on the table, and, stooping, pulled off his +shoes. "I don't want Da Costa to notice us," he explained, and Slyne, +inspired by a fearful curiosity, followed his example. + +Box in hand, but at arm's length, Captain Dove left the saloon, tiptoed +laboriously up the steep stair which led, by way of the quarter-deck, to +the chart-house behind the bridge, and, stepping out on to the deck with +extreme precaution, passed aft into the darkness. + +The night was no less obscure now that dawn was near, but he could have +found his way about the ship blind, and Slyne crept closely after him, +not knowing what to expect, since Reuben Yoxall lay safely locked in one +of the rooms below. + +Captain Dove stopped behind the canvas shaft of one of the wind-sails +which had been spread to catch the scant breeze and relieve a little the +atmosphere of the mid-ship cabins. Its base was made fast about the hood +of an ordinary deck ventilator. + +"Cast it loose for a minute and listen," he whispered to his companion, +and Slyne obeyed. + +He listened there for a time, and then turned to whisper excitedly to +Captain Dove. + +"There's something wrong with him," he said. "He's raving. He's down +with fever, as sure's I live." + +"Let me hear," the old man commanded, and was very soon satisfied. + +"Hell!" he ejaculated. "Now, isn't that the limit! There's surely some +hoodoo on board this ship. + +"Tie it up again, Slyne. We needn't waste powder and shot on _him_. He's +booked out, express, on a free pass--and a damned good riddance, too!" + +Slyne was not slow in re-fastening the canvas to the ventilator again. +But even then Captain Dove was not done with him. + +"Hobson's in the next cabin," the old man remarked, "and we may as well +give him his ticket now as later on. We can't afford to let him bolt +ashore whenever we make port--and blow the gaff on us both, Slyne!" + +Slyne hung back, his gorge up again. + +"What are you going to do?" he demanded. + +"You do your part and I'll do mine," snapped Captain Dove. And Slyne +cast loose the second wind-chute. + +Into the wide, rusted mouth of the ventilator Captain Dove cautiously +thrust one end of the flat cigar box and pushed that well down its open +throat. A muffled click was no more than audible but, none the less, +caused Slyne to start apprehensively. And then the old man withdrew the +box, tossed it over the ship's side, and, with a hurried whisper to +Slyne to make the canvas fast again, scuttled off back to the saloon. + +Slyne was not slow in following him, but stubbed his toes hurtfully on +his way to the stair and could scarcely repress the curse that rose to +his lips. Just then, however, he caught sight of a shadow at the near +end of the bridge above, which, he knew, was Da Costa, on watch, and he +did not care to be detected in any such dangerous and undignified +predicament. When he limped into the saloon below he found Captain Dove +seated there, once more sucking at a cigar, head cocked on one side as +if listening for something. + +"Was it an explosive?" demanded Slyne, almost boiling over at the idea +that he had unwittingly been risking his life as a cat's-paw. + +"What the blazes are you talking about?" Captain Dove counter-questioned +acidly. "And where have you been, eh? I thought you said you were going +to bed." + +He stared unwinkingly into the other's angry, suspicious eyes. "What's +it like on deck?" he inquired. "Any sign of wind yet?" + +"You ought to know, you've just been on deck," snapped Slyne. + +"On deck!" exclaimed Captain Dove in surprise. "Not me. I've been +sitting smoking here since you left the saloon." + +Slyne, busy replacing his shoes, thought that over, and sat up again +with a sneering laugh. + +"Don't forget, Dove," said he, "that, if you ever go back on me at a +pinch, that will be the worst day's work you've ever done for yourself. +I'm the one who's been sitting here while you've been on deck--and I +don't know yet what you went for." + +"You'll hear presently," the other informed him, quite unmoved by his +threat. "And don't _you_ forget, Slyne, that, if you ever go back on me +at a pinch, I've another--box of cigars that I'm keeping for your +benefit; I don't think Brasse will fail to look very carefully after it, +either." + +Slyne blanched a little, in spite of himself, and at that moment a +stifled shout came from behind some closed door at the end of the +alleyway outside the airless saloon. He moved, as if to rise, but sat +still, rigid, his eyes dilated, as a blood-curdling, long-drawn cry +reached his ears dully from the distance, and finally died to silence in +a quavering agony. + +Even Captain Dove was uncomfortably affected by it. + +A shrill whistle made them both jump as the sight of a policeman just +then might have done. It was the old man who first recovered his nerve. + +"That's Da Costa, curse him!" he muttered, and darted a glance of +contempt at Slyne as he crossed to the bridge speaking-tube. + +"How the devil do I know!" he roared into that, after listening to what +his new second mate had to say. "Yes, I heard it. You'd better send down +and find out what it was." + +He set the whistle into the tube again and turned to Slyne. + +"Pull yourself together, you fool!" he said savagely. "This isn't the +time to show the white feather. I wouldn't trust--" He stopped abruptly, +hearing the sound of heavy feet in the passage as some of the watch on +deck came tramping in, and Slyne, who had also heard that, pulled out +his handkerchief to hide his tell-tale face. + +The footsteps did not stop at the saloon door, however, but went on to +the end of the alleyway. And, when Captain Dove at length looked out, +one of the men there was still knocking violently at the door of +Hobson's room. But he could obtain no answer. + +"Better get a hatchet and handspikes, Cassidy," said Captain Dove, "and +break the door in. Something must have gone wrong inside." + +The panelling soon began to splinter under these drastic measures. A +crash told that it had succumbed, and then the two listeners heard the +key being turned in the lock. + +They strained their ears to catch what the men were muttering to each +other. One jumped clumsily back into the passage with a hoarse bark of +alarm, and, over the shuffling of feet which ensued, could be heard the +soft thud of quick, desperate blows on some substance which muffled +them, until one fell on woodwork again and a murmur of eager +congratulations succeeded it. + +The man Cassidy came along to the saloon door, out of breath but +exultant. "Mr. Hobson's stone-dead, sir," said he, extending his +hatchet, on whose flat blade lay, black and limp, a long thin snake that +looked like a slimy shoe-string. "Mr. Hobson's stone-dead--and that's +what killed him. It all but got me too, while I was turning over the +blankets." + +"Bring it nearer the light," Captain Dove directed, and then bent over +it, frowning, while Slyne, at his shoulder, stared at it as if +fascinated. + +"Huh!" Captain Dove at length commented. "Your luck was certainly in, +Cassidy, when you managed to dodge _that_. It must have got on board +while we were alongside the wharf at the Rio. But my luck's out, since +I've lost another man--and the ship so short-handed too! + +"You might see if you can find a bottle of grog for those lads, Mr. +Slyne. And--Cassidy. Just rouse the carpenter out and tell him to tie a +fire-bar or two to the body and slip it over the side. We can't keep a +dead man on board till morning in weather like this." + +Cassidy touched his forelock and went off, apparently quite content with +the luck which had left him alive to enjoy his share of the bottle Slyne +had handed him. Captain Dove shut the door behind him, and looked +contemplatively round at Slyne. His own face was grey. The artificial +animation derived from the alcohol he had imbibed was dying away. He +looked very old and tired. + +He slouched across to the speaking-tube and whistled up the engine-room, +while Slyne sat watching him with sombre eyes. + +"We've got black-water fever on board now, Brasse," he said in a weary +voice. "Hobson's dead already, and the mate's down with it, too. I want +you to send one of your men up to see after him. I can't spare a single +deck-hand. And I must have some one--or Sallie will be wanting to nurse +him herself." + +He set his ear to the mouthpiece and, after he had waited a while, spoke +into it again. + +"That's good," he remarked. "Send him up to the mate's room right away. +He'll have to stay there, in quarantine. And whatever he does know about +doctoring will maybe help him to save his own life!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UNMASKED + + +Sallie sat up in her disordered cot with a start of alarm when +Ambrizette came in to wake her, as she had directed before she lay down. +She had scarcely slept at all amid dreadful dreams, and was still very +weary, both body and mind. She had not yet had time to forget the +horrors of over-night. + +But she had no desire to dwell on them, and--there was the day's work +awaiting her. Twenty minutes later she was on her way to the bridge, to +relieve Da Costa. + +That was not the first occasion, by many, on which she had had to fill a +man's place. For Captain Dove had trained her to all the +responsibilities of the sea. Da Costa touched his cap obsequiously to +her and gave her the course, which she repeated after him, with +mechanical precision. + +As he turned to go, yawning wearily, "If you'll send and have me woke +out again whenever you feel like it, Miss Sallie," he said with an +ingratiating flourish, "I'll--" + +"But Mr. Yoxall will be taking the next watch, won't he?" she asked, +renewed doubt and distrust in her tired eyes. + +The promoted Portuguese quartermaster shrugged his shoulders and spread +out his hands. + +"You and I must stand watch and watch for a little, Miss Sallie," he +told her with a self-satisfied smirk. "The chief mate is sick--of a +fever. That Hobson he is already dead and over the side. And Captain +Dove has sent order that he is not to be disturbed--unless necessary. He +is broke down, he says, with illness and worry." + +"Wait a minute, then, Mr. Da Costa," she said, so imperatively that he +halted and let her pass. "I won't be long, and then I'll stay on duty +till evening." + +She hurried below by the stairway behind the chart-house, and went +straight along the alleyway to Reuben Yoxall's room. She was very much +alarmed; she knew how sudden and deadly the dreaded West African fever +could be. She did not doubt that the wretched Hobson had fallen a victim +to it. + +All was quiet within the chief mate's room. She knocked gently, and the +door was opened almost at once. A young man in an ill-fitting, +coal-blackened suit of blue dungaree looked inquiringly out at her and +then frowned. + +"Keep to the other side of the passage, please," he requested crisply. +"This room's in strict quarantine, and the risk of infection--" + +"Oh, never mind about that," she broke in. "It's no worse for me than +for you. And I must speak to Rube--Mr. Yoxall. Is he very bad? How did +you--" + +She had recognised him by his voice. Without his horrible mask he looked +so much younger than she had supposed him that she had at first wondered +who he could be, although his keen, resolute face was haggard and lined, +his pale lips dreadfully drawn at the corners, and hideous remembrances +still seemed to lurk behind his steady grey eyes. + +"He's asleep at present--and pretty bad," said the stranger sorrowfully. +"I had to give him an opiate. I volunteered to look after him--which +was the very least I could do. There was no one else who knew anything, +and, although I'm not a doctor, I know some of the tricks of the trade. + +"And I know enough," he added, "to warn you that you must please stay +away from here in the meantime." + +"I won't," said Sallie simply. "He's my best friend, Mr.--" + +"Carthew's my name," the young man in the doorway informed her. + +"He's my best friend, Mr. Carthew. And--you must let me help." + +Mr. Carthew considered the matter, and nodded. + +"All right," he agreed. "If you like to see to his food--what the ship's +cook has left at the door will do him no good." And she listened +attentively while he went on to tell her what would be best for the sick +man. + +"Ambrizette will prepare it and bring it along," she promised. +"And--you'll let me see him next time I come down?" + +"As soon as he's fit to see anyone," her new acquaintance assured her. +And with that Sallie was quite content. She felt intuitively that she +could trust him. + +"Are you--all right, yourself?" she asked. + +"Perfectly all right," he assured her. "And very glad of the chance to +repay some small part of what I owe--our friend." + +"No one else will come near you here," she said reflectively. "It may +all be for the best in the end." + +He nodded again, and, as she turned away, shut the door very quietly. + +She hurried aft, to instruct Ambrizette as to the food to be prepared +and carried to the sick man's door, and no less hastily returned to the +bridge. Da Costa left it by the other ladder; he evidently did not care +to come too near her then. And there she remained all day, with only the +sullen, silent man at the wheel for company. + +Once during the afternoon she slipped down to ask how the mate was, and +found him delirious. Slyne came on deck as she returned to her post, and +frowned angrily as she told him, in answer to his quick question, where +she had been. He had obviously intended to join her up there, but +thought better of that. + +"You mustn't go near him again, Sallie," he called to her peremptorily. +"Captain Dove will be very ill-pleased." + +"I can't help that," she answered, thankful so to escape Jasper Slyne's +company. And he turned away with a still blacker frown. It was tiresome +talking against the stiff head-wind. + +The day dragged out its dreary length, until, late in the evening, Da +Costa came on deck again. + +"I'm good for all night now," he told Sallie from a safe distance. +"Captain Dove's still sound asleep, although the mate's been making no +end of a row." + +"I'll be up again some time in the morning watch, then," she told him, +and was soon knocking at the door of Yoxall's room. + +Carthew's face was very grave when he looked out. + +"Is he worse?" she asked breathlessly. + +"Better--in one way," the young American answered. "He's conscious now. +He's had some of the soup you sent along." + +"Can I see him?" she begged. + +"He's just been speaking of you. He told me to ask you not to come near +him again." + +She choked back a dry sob, and had pushed past him into the room before +he could interfere. + +"I'll sit with him for an hour or two now, while you get a sleep," she +said, and stifled another sob as she saw how the sick man's sunken eyes +grew glad at sight of her. + +Nor did anything that the acting doctor could urge make any difference +in her determination; and she hushed the mate's whispered protests with +a brave smile. + +"We're going to pull you through, Rube, between us," she whispered back, +bending over him. "And you're going to obey orders for the present, +instead of giving them. So don't say any more about it now." + +She had seated herself on a camp-stool beside him. Carthew, convinced +that it would be futile to argue any further with her, was evidently +only too glad to stretch himself on the sofa and draw the curtains. And +almost at once he fell fast asleep. + +It was very nearly midnight before he moved and woke and sprang to his +feet. And Sallie was still sitting there with one of the mate's huge +hands between both of hers. + +"He looks a little better, don't you think?" she asked wistfully before +she tiptoed out of the room. And Carthew, after a prolonged glance at +his patient, nodded approval and hope. + +That night and the next day and the next again passed without any change +of conditions on board. Captain Dove was still confined to his room, and +would not even see Slyne, who had, therefore, to live alone, bored to +the last limit, not so much afraid of the fever as shirking any +needless risk of infection, his intercourse with Sallie confined to an +occasional shouted caution or inquiry. + +Da Costa took the bridge by night and she by day. And every night she +relieved Carthew for a few hours from his unremitting attendance on the +sick man. She was with Reuben Yoxall when he died. + +What passed between the two of them during that last vigil is not to be +told. But the dead man's face was very calm and content when Sallie at +length roused Carthew from his scanty rest to tell him that the +appointed end had come. + +"But you promised to call me up," he said, most unhappy for her. + +"If there was any need," she corrected him gently. "But there was none. +He knew--before I came in." + +Her downcast eyes were dry, but grief almost beyond bearing showed in +them as she looked up at him on her way to the door. + +"You must get away to your own room now," he urged, "and have a long, +quiet rest. Don't forget that you've done all you could--and far more +than most folk would ever have dreamed of doing." + +Her lips trembled a little. She held out a hand to him gratefully. She +could not trust herself to speak. And, by and by, in her own quarters, +she slowly cried herself to sleep. + +Captain Dove was on the bridge next morning when she appeared, pale and +worn. And he flew into a passion at sight of her, rating her very +bitterly for her foolhardy behaviour. + +"Go away back to bed," he finally ordered, "and keep to the poop till I +give you leave to come forward again, d'ye hear?" + +Slyne, too, stepped hastily aside as she passed him on her way aft +again, and called after her some anxious advice as to taking better care +of herself. She was glad to think that she would be free of him for the +next few days, for always in the back of her mind was the fear of what +he had told her before still more urgent cares had come to overshadow +that for a time--that he had got Captain Dove to agree to give her to +him as his wife. And, now that Reuben Yoxall was gone, she felt utterly +forlorn and friendless. + +The _Olive Branch_ bored through the Strait of Gibraltar during the +night, and after that Captain Dove effected sundry surprising changes in +his ship's appearance. No one would have recognised the rakish _Olive +Branch_ in the clumsy looking craft with three bare pole-masts and a +smokestack as high as a factory chimney which went lurching, with +propellers awash, across the Gulf of Lyons. Even its name had been +changed again, and the new paint carefully aged. And a tattered +Norwegian flag lay ready at hand in the box beside the stubby pole at +its taffrail. + +No further case of fever had occurred in the interval, but he left +Sallie isolated in her own end of the ship until the lights of Genoa +showed white and clear in the distance. She was on deck, late though it +was, watching them as they grew always clearer, when Slyne came aft for +a moment to tell her that she was once more free of the ship. + +"And isn't it glorious to get back to civilisation again?" he exclaimed, +real gladness in his voice and his smiling eyes. "Think of the good +times we're going to have now, Sallie! I can't stop to tell you all I've +planned, but--I'll see you again very soon, eh? And meantime you can be +getting ready to slip ashore with me early to-morrow. I thought these +last few days would never end! I do believe I'd have jumped overboard +but for you and the promise you made me." + +He went off again, in a great hurry, before she could even deny having +promised him anything. "Captain Dove wants me to fake up an old Bill of +Health for him," he called back, and did not seem to hear her when she +cried to him to wait. + +Before she reached the quarter-deck, in her long oilskin coat, with a +broad sou'wester to keep the dew from her hair, he had disappeared. And +she did not care to follow him to the saloon below. + +The steamer had stopped in the offing to pick up a pilot, and was +already slinking in between the harbour head-lights to the quarantine +anchorage. As soon as its rusty cable roared through the hawse-pipe, +Captain Dove came down from the bridge, and Sallie stepped out from +among the shadows to confront him, on a quick impulse. + +"Is it true that you told Jasper Slyne I would marry him?" she asked +directly, without any preface. + +The old man shrugged his shoulders crossly. "Don't worry me just now, +girl!" he growled, but paused for a moment before passing on. + +"Has he been pestering you too?" he demanded, as if aggrieved himself, +"the bankrupt crook! Never mind him, Sallie. I'm going to kick him off +the ship first thing to-morrow morning. He hasn't a cent to bless +himself with, and--no man will ever marry you without money to burn, +believe me." + +Sallie drew a deep breath of belated relief. That load at least had +been lifted from her mind. She was at last free of the fear which had +been growing day by day as the _Olive Branch_ neared port. + +A head and shoulders emerged from the engine-room skylight and she went +that way. It was Brasse, the chief engineer, come up for a mouthful or +two of fresh air. He nodded to Sallie. + +"Your friend's all right," he told her in a low tone. "The old man left +him alone in the mate's room till an hour ago and then told me to take +him back to the stokehold. He's going to swim for it now. I must get a +line let down--" + +"I'll do that," she said swiftly, "there--between the two boats. Tell +him where to look for it. And oh! Mr. Brasse--" + +He would not wait to be thanked. "I'll send him up right away, then. The +sooner he's over the side the better," said he, and so disappeared. + +Sallie climbed the rail, and, having found a coil of rope within one of +the two life-boats there, was letting that gently overside when another +shadow joined her. + +"How are you going to manage after you get ashore?" she asked hurriedly +as she was making the rope fast. + +"I have my own kit in this water-tight bundle," he told her. "I'll make +for the steps below those bathing-houses on the breakwater. It's only a +short swim." + +"But afterwards? You'll need money." + +"I have a little--enough to get along with, I assure you. I've nothing +to worry about--if I could only think of some way to show you my +gratitude. Is there anything at all I can do for you?" + +She shook her head. + +"Are you sure?" he insisted. "I don't want to presume, of course, +but--Are you all right here, and quite happy? What sort of ship is this, +anyhow? And how--" + +"Listen, Mr. Carthew," she broke in. "The only thing you can do for me +is to forget all about me and the _Olive Branch_. And I'd be very +grateful to you if you would promise--" + +"Not to forget you," he said. "I couldn't. But--all the rest I promise." + +"Thank you," she returned simply. "And now--" + +"There's no hurry," he declared. "We're quite safe in here. And--I'm not +going to leave you until you agree that, if I can ever be of any service +to you, you will let me know at once." + +"Very well," she agreed, to save time. "I'll do that." + +"You know my name," he reminded her, and paused, frowning. + +"But--that won't suit either," he said to himself reflectively, "for +more than a few weeks. And I'll be at your orders all my life. + +"You see," he said, as if in apology, "I'm Justin Carthew just now, +but--I'll be the Earl of Jura very soon after I get to England. And if +you've ever any use for me then, all you need do will be to send word to +the Earl of Jura, in London; it will soon find me, wherever I happen to +be." + +He laughed a little, and Sallie almost smiled too. But he had spoken +quite seriously. + +"You won't forget," he urged, grave again. "The Earl of Jura. I'm not +joking, I assure you. And, some day I may be able--" + +[Illustration: "You won't forget," he urged, grave again.] + +"I won't forget," she promised, no less gravely, and held out a hand, in +her haste to get him safe away. + +He lifted it to his lips before letting it go, and stifled a sigh, and, +turning, let himself over the ship's side. + +Sallie sighed too, as she reclimbed the rail after he was safely gone. +She was wondering.... + +But she was not left to her own reflections for long. Slyne came on +deck, and had espied her before she could escape. + +"I was just going aft to look for you," he told her in a confidential +tone which she did not like at all. "How about to-morrow morning, +Sallie?" + +"I asked Captain Dove, Jasper," she answered in a low voice. "And he +says--" + +"But surely you're going to keep your promise to me!" Slyne exclaimed, +in a tragic voice. + +"How _can_ I?" she asked, not thinking it worth while even now to deny +that she had made him any promise at all. And at that moment Captain +Dove emerged from the chart-house behind. + +"A bargain's a bargain, Slyne," said he mockingly, having overheard. +"And Sallie can't keep her promise to you because you can't come away +with the ready cash. So you'd better say good-bye to her now, you won't +have another chance." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN OVERDRAFT ON THE FUTURE + + +Slyne had drawn back a step. One of his hands fell on the haft of a +flogging-hammer that some one had left lying loose on the casemate +there. Had it not been for the proximity of the pilot, drowsing away the +time till morning in the chart-house behind, he would most assuredly +have attempted to knock the old man on the head with it. He felt sure +that, but for Captain Dove, he could have managed Sallie now that Yoxall +was out of the way. He stood gnawing savagely at his lower lip as she +vanished along the deck in the darkness. He had taken no notice at all +of her timid good-bye. + +Captain Dove grinned spitefully at him through the gloom of the small +hours. "You'd better be off below and pack up," the old man suggested. +"You'll be going ashore as soon as we get pratique." + +"But--I'll be back. Give me time to turn!" Slyne snarled at him. "A +bargain's a bargain, and--I'll be back." + +"You'd better not," Captain Dove advised in a very ominous voice, and +went on his way below, leaving Slyne to his own aggrieved, embittered +reflections. + +To Jasper Slyne the past few days had been like a foretaste of +purgatory. Captain Dove had interdicted all communication with Sallie, +and had proved a most unpleasant companion himself throughout the +unspeakably wearisome passage from the North-west African coast, a +passage made at the poorest speed of the ship because coal was scarce +and he was afraid to call anywhere by the way to fill up his bunkers. +Amid the dire squalor and discomfort, the enforced inaction and +loneliness of life under such conditions, Slyne's only solace had been +the hope of finally winning Sallie, by fair means or foul. He who, in +his time, had met and made love to so many charming adventuresses, who +would not have thought any more about her had she been one of their +sort, had become absolutely obsessed by ambitions to be fulfilled with +her for his wife. + +And now--he knew that neither force nor finesse would avail him against +Captain Dove's ultimatum. He had not the cash to meet the old man's +demands, and that was apparently the end of the matter. + +Most men, in Slyne's place, would have owned themselves beaten then. But +not so he. Thinking it all over again, he would admit to himself no more +than that he was for the moment baffled by contrary circumstances; +circumstances such as had been his lot for so long that he could +contemplate them almost unmoved. It was his happy creed that in the very +face of failure itself one may, as often as not, discern the inspiriting +features of final success. The dark hour that heralds dawn he spent +pacing the cluttered quarter-deck of the _Olive Branch_ in the cold, his +far-away eyes always fixed on the twinkling dock-lights, his almost +bloodless lips straight and compressed under his black moustache, +cudgelling his brains for some safe means of immediately obtaining the +money he wanted. + +He had not the cash to meet Captain Dove's demands. But neither was he +so entirely penniless as Captain Dove supposed him. He had only a +hundred dollars in hand, but he had twenty thousand francs at his credit +in a French bank. Many a millionaire had risen to affluence from +infinitely smaller beginnings. + +But it would have been idle to offer Captain Dove any such trifling sum +on account of the price he had set on Sallie. And, rack his own +overworked wits as he would, Slyne could think of no safe plan for +turning his modest capital over at a sufficient profit within the time +at his disposal. + +"The only possible way," he told himself finally, his teeth set, "the +_only_ possible way is to chance my luck at those cursèd tables again. +Although, God knows that's a risk I'd give up anything else to avoid. +But--it's the only possible way now," he repeated vexedly, recalling the +very excellent reasons he had for never showing his face in Monte Carlo +again. + +For, only a season or two before, he had figured throughout the Côte +d'Azur as accessory in an _affaire_ with which the whole civilised world +had afterwards rung, in spite of every effort to hush it up, an +_affaire_ whose tragic consequences had caused such a flutter of +scandalised chagrin among the private police of three great European +powers that he could never again cross their frontiers without fear. +Since he knew very well that, if he were ever identified, he would +deservedly disappear, without any further fuss, to spend the rest of his +life as a nameless cypher, forgotten, among the living dead, entombed in +some secure fortress. In that cosmopolitan underworld to which such as +Slyne belong, occur many curious incidents not reported in the +newspapers, and the citizens of Cosmopolis have nowhere consul or +minister to protect them against unfortunate consequences. + +Slyne had no illusions as to what his fate would be if he were +recognised on the Riviera. + +"But she's worth the stake," he told himself with dogged determination, +"even though it _is_ life and liberty as well as my last few francs. +And--I'd just as soon be done with things if I can't capture Sallie from +that old scoundrel." + +He knew very well, of course, that his prospect of making a financial +success at the tables was no less of a forlorn hope. But he had all a +professional gambler's blind faith in the goddess of chance. And since +he would not withdraw from the contest, he had no option but to play +that losing hazard also. + +Day had broken before he had completed his plans. And then Captain Dove +reappeared, sleepy-eyed and unshaven, to interview the port-doctor. + +As soon as that functionary had glanced at the forged Bill of Health put +before him and seen the crew mustered to the tally it told, the yellow +flag at the fore was hauled down and Captain Dove hailed a shore-boat, +to which he had Slyne's baggage transferred, and curtly told Slyne to be +off ashore. + +Nor did Slyne delay to bid him farewell. Each was heartily sick of the +sight of the other, and each had plans of his own to promote in a hurry. +They separated without so much as a nod. Sallie was invisible. And +Slyne, in the boat on his way to the Custom-house, only looked back once +at the ports of the poop-cabin, to see, within the dingy brass frame of +one, a face that seemed to be watching him very thankfully as he went, a +horrible face, with blubber lips, almost inhumanly ugly, the face of +Sallie's devoted attendant, the dumb black dwarf, Ambrizette. + +A yawning Customs' searcher glanced at his baggage and passed it +unopened. In return for which courtesy Slyne bestowed upon him a +doubtful rix-dollar and a few words in fluent Italian concerning the +_Olive Branch_--words which would not improve Captain Dove's prospects +of an early departure from Genoa, but might, conversely, increase by a +little his own scanty time-allowance in that desperate bout with fortune +to which he had committed himself. He knew that Captain Dove was intent +on coaling and sailing again without the loss of a minute that might be +saved. + +He had all his own movements mapped out in anticipation. He drove to an +hotel at which he had stayed once before, and, after a Turkish bath and +breakfast, went on to the Crédit Lyonnais office to cash his draft. Then +he made a number of purchases in inconspicuous shops, where he had to +spend a good deal of time in bargaining, looked in at the Motor-Car Mart +& Exchange, where he saw a big touring-car over which he argued for some +minutes with the salesman; and, after a belated but liberal lunch in a +first-class restaurant, he turned back toward the sale-room. + +A man in an elaborate chauffeur's uniform, and evidently English, +stopped him in the street outside, to ask whether he would care to buy a +gold cigarette-case, a bargain. Slyne looked him over, and sized him up +at a glance. + +"Stranded?" he asked, and the man nodded sulkily. + +"Want a few days' work?" + +The chauffeur's dissipated face brightened. + +"Yes, sir," said he, "I do." + +"Wait here, then," said Slyne, and went inside. + +"Well," he asked the salesman, "have you thought it over? What's the +last word?" + +"Fifteen thousand _lire, milor_--not a _soldo_ less," declared the +dapper, frock-coated salesman, in a tone of final decision which Slyne's +sharp ears judged unfeigned. "The car is worth twice as much. Indeed, I +could not let it go at such a ruinous loss were it not--But, _ecco_! The +owner himself. He would probably be very ill pleased to hear it was +actually sold at that ridiculous price." + +Slyne looked round at the grey-haired, portly, prosperous-looking +individual threading his way through the agglomeration of cars in the +background, and his half-parted lips snapped together again. + +He wanted that particular car and had made up his mind to buy it, rash +though such an investment might prove, but he had surmised from a +lynx-like glance at the seller that he might be able to get it for even +less than the salesman was authorised to accept. And, since his own +pockets were so poorly lined for the expensive part he was playing, he, +who despised chaffering, was yet bent on making the very best bargain he +could. + +"It's more than I've got about me," he told the salesman in a very +audible voice, as the fat man in the fur coat halted indeterminately a +few paces away. And at the words the new-comer's puffy face lighted up, +as if with relief, behind the pince-nez he was wearing. He came forward +and spoke. + +"An Englishman, by Jove!" he remarked with a great semblance of +geniality. "So am I. Very happy to meet you, sir. You're interested in +my car?" + +"Not at the price," Slyne returned, with an indifferent hauteur which +he judged likely to be effective with one in the stranger's presumable +plight. And the fat man's lips drooped visibly, the pouches under his +uneasy eyes became more marked. He was obviously disappointed, and felt +himself snubbed. He did not seem quite sure what to say or do next. + +Slyne, congratulating himself on his talent for character reading, +turned away, to look at a cheap runabout, as carelessly as though he had +all time at his disposal, instead of being, as he was, in a fever of +ill-restrained impatience. The salesman figuratively washed his hands of +them both; he could already foresee a forced sale at a calamitous +sacrifice. And so it fell out. + +Slyne, cavalier to the verge of rudeness, finally bought the big scarlet +car, which the other almost forced upon him, for about half its market +value, and paid for it there and then, in the new French notes which had +almost been burning a hole in his pocket since he had left the Crédit +Lyonnais office--so eager was he to be off on his last forlorn hope of +winning Sallie. + +"If you had allowed me only a few hours longer, I could have got you +twice that amount," said the disappointed salesman in a stage aside to +the seller as he counted over his own diminished commission. But the fat +man merely bestowed on him a look of contemptuous annoyance, and, having +signed the receipt Slyne required, tucked away in an empty pocket-book +the balance of the crisply-rustling bills he had just received. + +Even then he did not appear to know what next to do with himself. For, +having glanced at his watch, he gave vent to a grunt of disgust, and +hung on his heel undecidedly, after making a move to go. + +"It's only about a hundred miles to Monaco, isn't it?" Slyne asked the +salesman; and was answered in the affirmative. + +The fat man gasped and choked for a moment, and then spoke again, with +more confidence: a change due, perhaps, to the improvement in his +finances. + +"Pardon me, sir," said he, "but--if you're going that way, I wonder--It +would be a most tremendous favour to me, and I haven't haggled over +giving you the best of our bargain. The train's just gone, and--" + +Slyne, chin in air, once more looked him over appraisingly, as he +stammered and hesitated; and was very much disposed to cut him adrift +without more ado. But some indefinable impulse, some feeling that here +was a bird of a feather very sadly astray, caused him to alter his mind. +"I'll be glad to give you a lift," he said, more graciously, "if you're +ready to start now. But I can't wait." + +The fat man's face lighted up again. "My luck's on the mend at last!" he +declared. "I'm in as great a hurry as you can be, sir. I'm more than +obliged to you for your courtesy. May I offer you my card?" + +Slyne glanced at the slip of pasteboard conferred upon him while the car +was being shifted out of the showroom into the street, where his +elaborate chauffeur was in waiting. And, "Jump in, Mr. Jobling," he +requested with unconcealed coldness as he himself took the wheel, +relegating the chauffeur to a back seat. It ruffled his self-satisfied +mood of the moment more than a little to learn that the fat man in the +fur coat was in fact a London solicitor. With the law in any shape or +form Jasper Slyne wanted nothing whatever to do, and especially at such +a juncture. He was already repenting his ill-timed politeness. + +However, he could not very well rid himself of his passenger then. All +he could do was to dash through the busy streets of Genoa in the dusk at +a pace calculated to make the hair of any respectable and +self-respecting solicitor stand on end. But, out of the corner of one +eye, he observed that Mr. Jobling was wearing a blandly contented smile. + +That gentleman did not seem so well pleased, however, as they turned +up-hill into the Via Roma, and Slyne, understanding, relented a little +again. "I have some baggage at the Isotta," he volunteered, and the +cloud at once lifted from Mr. Jobling's brow. + +Several assiduous porters stowed hastily in the tonneau, beside the +ornamental chauffeur, the travel-worn trunks and suit-cases which Slyne +had left there that morning, and stood at the salute till he drove away, +when they no doubt returned to their lairs to count the profits of such +politeness. He had, as usual, been very lavish with his small change. +And his passenger was also impressed by his liberality. + +Meanwhile the car was negotiating more carefully the lumpy patchwork +with which the old Via Carlo Alberto is paved, and Mr. Jobling's puffy +features spoke his discontent over its slow progress. But, once beyond +Sampierdarena, clear of close traffic, on the open road to Savona, Slyne +made more speed; and it was self-evident that he knew how to get the +most out of his horse-power. + +He looked, indeed,--if looks go for anything nowadays,--quite at home, +very much in his element, lying lazily back in the driver's seat of the +richly-appointed car which had been his companion's an hour before. It +was late on a winter afternoon, and what wind there was had a chill in +it, caught, no doubt, in crossing the Apennines. But Slyne also was +wearing a heavy fur coat and had pulled on a pair of gauntlets at the +hotel. + +As the car rocked and swayed on its rapid way through the last outskirts +of Savona, he was humming light-heartedly to himself the antique aria of +_The Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo_. + +"Been gambling a bit?" he presently asked his silent companion. And Mr. +Jobling admitted the soft impeachment. + +"And no luck," Slyne inferred amusedly. He could view with an equable +eye the misfortunes of others as well as his own; especially since the +stout solicitor's losses had brought his own way such a substantial +profit as could be readily realised by the re-sale of his car. + +"No luck at all," Mr. Jobling affirmed explosively, and the troubles +fermenting in his mind at length found outlet in speech. "I wouldn't +have believed anyone could have been so unlucky!" he declared with great +bitterness; "and at such a critical moment. I want so little, too; I've +no ambition to break the bank. It wasn't with any such foolish idea that +_I_ came to Monte Carlo. I wouldn't have had this happen for all the +bank holds." + +"Which isn't a great deal," commented Slyne. "I've broken the bank more +than once myself, and lost twice as much the next evening." + +"You play some system, perhaps?" his companion inquired, but Slyne shook +his head reminiscently. "I've tried several myself, but none seemed to +be of the slightest use. And now--It doesn't matter, of course. I didn't +come to Monaco to make money; I'm not such a fool! But it's most +infernally inconvenient ... may cost me my chance of a fortune ... +practically within my grasp." His voice had died away to a mere mutter. +Slyne was smiling in disdain. + +"But I can't go on losing at the tables for ever," he exploded again. +"My turn must come. I feel in better fettle this evening--as if my luck +had changed. It's no doubt since I met you; I must thank you again for +this lift. If I'd had to wait in Genoa for the slow train, I might have +got back too late to take the tide at the flood. I'm a great believer, +you know, in striking while the iron's hot." + +"So am I," said Slyne dryly, and much amused by his monologue. + +"I'm sure my luck's on the mend," Mr. Jobling went on, growing still +more communicative under encouragement, "and the mere matter of winning +a few thousand francs is nothing to what will follow--what _must_ +follow. I've made up my mind to win all along the line; and there's a +great deal in the theory that, if you apply sufficient will-power to any +project, its success is assured. I'm ab-so-lutely _determined_ to win +fifty thousand francs to-night, and then ... I fancy it was a mistake to +come here at all.... But, of course, a man who never makes a mistake +will never make anything.... I'll go straight back to London, and +surely, among the five or six million people there.... + +"_Look out!_ Good--God!" + +Between his two excited ejaculations Slyne had outwitted calamity. +Taking a rash curve at top speed, he had come to an unexpected rectangle +in the roadway running almost parallel there with the shore below, and, +rounding that corner safely with a quick wrench of the wheel, had almost +crashed into a heavy, high-built ox-wagon which was backing blindly out +from some steep, hidden side-lane. The hubs of the car's wheels had all +but grazed the parapet of the roadway at Mr. Jobling's side, and Slyne, +on the other, had barely escaped being brained by the timbers protruding +from the rear of the wagon. The ornamental chauffeur was fast asleep in +the tonneau behind. + +Mr. Jobling lay back and gasped while Slyne held on as if nothing had +happened, at the same breakneck pace. But neither spoke again for some +time. + +Through village after village they dashed, always at grave risk and yet +without accident. The moon rose just before they reached Alassio. Slyne +even managed to improve the pace a little then, and his passenger made +no protest, but sat with eyes downcast, his lips always moving mutely. + +"A slight overdraft on the future--it's no more than that," remarked Mr. +Jobling a little later, as if he had been alone, and Slyne looked round +at him for an instant, with nostrils curled in a faint, superior smile. + +Slyne thought he could guess some part at least of the troubles +afflicting his chance acquaintance, and was very little inclined to hear +more about them. He was too busy considering his own plan of campaign, +the blood in his own veins was running too briskly under the stimulus of +that wild flight through the keen night air, to waste any time or +thought on another man's worries. But--a fellow-feeling makes us +wondrous kind. "Cheer up!" said he suddenly. "Every one overdraws more +or less on his luck, at one time or another. If that's all you've done, +it's nothing to mope about." + +Mr. Jobling sat up with a start, and stared at him. "That's all," he +asserted, a little too hurried in his assurance. "I give you my word, +sir...." And then he recollected himself and laughed uncomfortably, +confused. + +"I've been thinking aloud," said he. "But you mustn't take any notice of +that. It's a bad habit of mine. And, as you say, we all overdraw on the +future, from time to time. As a man of the world, sir, you'll understand +what I mean to convey to you. And of course these little overdrafts are +always met when they're due. + +"What a fine night this is for a fast spin!" + +"What's the nature of your present overdraft?" Slyne inquired +perversely, safe in the certainty that the other could not resent that +rudeness, and was again amused by Mr. Jobling's cough of discomfiture. + +But, "Purely metaphorical," that gentleman countered cleverly. "We'll +soon be in San Remo at this rate. I wouldn't wonder if we've established +a record. It isn't every day there's such a car in the market." + +"No, it isn't," Slyne agreed. "Nor a buyer for it." And conversation +languished again. + +But Slyne's spirits, none the less, were steadily rising as he drew +nearer, mile by mile, to the chief temple of that goddess of chance to +whom he looked to befriend him now--since it was not on his own behalf +alone that he was seeking her shrine, since mischance must entail +consequences so dire to Sallie as well as to him. The personal risk he +was running lent added zest to the piquancy of his most unusual position +as a champion of maidenhood in distress. And what Sallie's fate would be +if his own luck failed him, he could picture in vivid detail from his +own experience of a world most men know nothing about. + +Within a few days the _Olive Branch_, with a supply of cheap coal and +some makeshift repairs, would be gone from Genoa, leaving behind no +trace but such bills as Captain Dove could escape without paying. She +would enter Port Said and leave Suez in some effective disguise and +under another assumed name which would last her through the Straits of +Bab-el-Mandeb; beyond which she would disappear, perhaps for good, into +whatever strange world she might raise over the mysterious sea-rim which +lies beyond "the Gate of the Place of Tears." + +Captain Dove was an old man already. And even he could not for ever go +on living such a life as he led. He had spoken of this trip East as his +last, and it was his avowed object in it to turn Sallie to some account. +Slyne, who, as you will perhaps suppose, was no squeamish moralist, +sickened at thought of what time might still have in store for the girl. + +"Just imagine _her_," said he to himself, "cooped up in some slat-eyed +Chinaman's filthy _yamen_ till she grows grey, or eating her heart out +in some coffee-coloured sultan's clay palace, with nothing to comfort +her but a crooked brass crown--and not even that by and by. It's +damnable to think--But what's the use of thinking about it! I'm going to +save her from all that--in spite of herself." And his selfishly +sentimental mood of the moment once more gave place to a philosophic +contentment with things as they were, and that in turn to an +exhilarating anticipation of pleasures to come. + +The lights of San Remo looked very alluring to him, who had for so long +spent his nights at sea with no more companionable illuminant than a +reeking kerosene lamp or the cold, aloof stars. He became jocular, in a +lofty way, with the always impatient Jobling, and at the frontier was so +patronisingly polite to the officials there that they let him pass +almost at once, under the apparent impression that he was some personage +of importance--a circumstance which lent him a little additional +self-confidence. + +From Menton Garavan in to Monte Carlo is only some seven miles. And for +that short distance he sat silent, once more mentally reviewing the +manifold chances of mischance ahead of him. While Mr. Jobling, beside +him, continued to mumble and mutter at intervals of misfortune--no fault +of his own--and fortune, that marvellous fortune which was to be his so +soon, since he had made up his mind that it must. + +"I'm absolutely _determined_," said Mr. Jobling, unconsciously raising +his voice again. "Eh? What? Oh, yes. I beg your pardon. I have a room at +the Métropole. Where are you going to put up?" + +"I always stay at the Paris," Slyne lied easily. He had no inclination +for any more of his companion's society, especially while he had no idea +how he himself might be received at any hotel in the Principality. + +"I'll walk on from here, then, if you'll allow me," suggested that +gentleman. "And--er--by the way, you won't be mentioning to anyone the +circumstances--er--about the car." + +"We'll let it be understood that I bought it in London--last month," +said Slyne, ready to be obliging since it would be for his own benefit; +and, cutting short with a curt "Good night" some further profuse +expressions of gratitude on the part of his passenger, glad, indeed, to +be so well quit of him, drove on in more state, his sleepy chauffeur in +the seat vacated by Mr. Jobling, to make his next move in that desperate +game in which he was going to stake life and liberty also on the +infinitesimal chance of returning triumphant to Genoa to claim Sallie +from Captain Dove. + +For, "If they spot me, I'll blow out my brains before they can lay hands +on me," said he to himself as he drew up with an imperative +_honk-honk-honk!_ before the Hôtel de Paris. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE GODDESS OF CHANCE + + +If you have ever had to walk unconcernedly into the crowded vestibule of +a fashionable hotel, not knowing at what moment you might be identified +and arrested as a notorious criminal, you will no doubt understand, and, +perhaps, sympathise with Slyne's state of mind as he entered the Hôtel +de Paris. If not, you can at least imagine how he felt as he made his +way through the throng toward the bureau, grimly conscious of every +inquisitive glance. + +There was little enough to shield him from immediate detection, beyond +the flight of time and the facts that he had been wearing a beard and +living under a French _alias_--or, as he would have preferred to put it, +incognito--when, only a season or two before, he had earned such +undesired and undesirable distinction throughout the Côte d'Azur. And he +knew very well what his fate would be if he were recognised. + +He was very devoutly thankful, therefore, when, having safely run the +gauntlet of all those argus eyes which had seemed to be searching his by +the way, he found himself installed in an ornate apartment vacated only +that morning by a grand duke. + +"I can't afford to do things by halves now!" he had reflected, shrugging +his shoulders, as he had agreed with the manager, who happened to be on +the spot, that the suite in question would probably serve his turn. And +even the manager had been impressed by his manner--and his fine car. + +"So far, so good, then," said Slyne to himself with a somewhat nervous +grimace, as he crossed to the window of his sitting-room and looked out +over the moonlit bay, after tossing his keys to a valet with a curt +order to lose no time. "And now--I must go on as I've begun. But--I +can't help wishing I were well through with it all. I didn't half like +the way that clerk watched me with his mouth wide open--and _I_ knew +_him_ all right!" + +No one could have appeared more care-free, however, than he when, an +hour later, he left his dressing-room, ready to face--and outface--the +detective talent he still must meet, and sauntered very much at his +leisure, a cigarette between his tight lips, in the direction of the +_table d'hôte_. + +"Seems pretty dull here," he commented, after an indifferent inspection +of the elaborate company there. "I've a good mind to go on to +Ciro's--and find out if they have forgotten my face by now too. I won't +have any peace of mind till I've been all round the old place." In +pursuit of which bold policy he sent a page for his coat and hat, and +stood displaying himself to the general public till they arrived. + +He found Ciro's well filled, as usual, when he strolled in, taking with +perfect outward calm the risk that he might be remembered there. But no +hostile glance met his roving eye as he entered the restaurant. He was +obsequiously received by an observant head-waiter, and shown to a table +which suited his immediate needs to a nicety. + +Among the more ebullient gathering in that gay resort he could discover +no cause for alarm. And no one took any special notice of him until, +among some still later comers, he noticed a haggardly handsome woman, in +a gown so scant that she might well have been glad of the great bunch of +camellias she wore at her breast, who was pointing him out to one of the +two men in her company. + +Slyne's heart almost stopped beating at that, and one of his hands +involuntarily slipped round to where, in a padded pocket within the +arm-hole of his thin evening-coat, he had a little double-barrelled +pistol concealed. + +He caught the woman's eye again while she was whispering volubly to the +attentive listener at her elbow, a fashionably foolish-looking young man +of a stamp whose appearance is sometimes deceitful, and wondered sickly +what was coming as that individual, having looked him over quite openly +and with the aid of an eye-glass, rose and approached him across the +room. + +He glanced up in admirably assumed surprise, however, for all answer to +the other's gruffly casual, "Good evenin', sir. + +"Will you excuse my askin' whether you'd care to sell the car I saw you +drivin' past in, an hour ago?" inquired the stranger, quite unabashed. +"Because--I want it, don't y'know." + +Slyne's face remained an immobile mask, although in his heart he was +dully conscious of an almost overwhelming sense of relief. + +"It isn't for sale at the moment," he answered, suavely enough, but as +if a little offended. + +"But--I want it," reiterated the stranger, who did not seem to lack a +sufficient sense of his own importance. "And I'll give you practically +your own price for it. It's for a lady, don't y'know--and as a favour +to me, eh?" + +"I'd be very glad to oblige you," said Slyne, elated beyond expression +to find not only that his fears had been groundless, that his visitor +was really a fool and not a knave in disguise, but also that, if he +played his own cards properly, he might pocket a still fatter profit +upon his car than he had anticipated, "but--I can't at the moment. Are +you going to be here for a few days?" + +"I'm at the Cap Martin for a week. As soon as you change your mind you +can come over an' see me there. Ask for Lord Ingoldsby. Good evenin' to +you," answered his visitor with all the sulky insolence of a spoiled +child; and slouched back to his own table, where, Slyne had the +satisfaction of seeing, he had to endure a rating from his enchantress +for his ill-success on her errand. And Slyne almost smiled. + +For he knew the Marquis of Ingoldsby quite well, by repute at least, as +an English pigeon with feathers well worth the plucking, and set the +other two down for what they were, a pair of those hawks to be found +hovering wherever the simple pigeon would try its wings. He became +contemplatively interested in the trio, although he knew the ways of +that wicked world far too well to suppose for an instant that he would +be allowed to make a quartette of it. + +"But you shall have your car, madame," he soliloquised, "presently, when +I'm finished with it. And, in exchange, I'll take--" + +"If only I had Sallie here now--" he said to himself with sudden +self-pity, and then was seized with a hot contempt for all such as the +noble marquis. "But no one under a royalty need hope for an +introduction to her then," he finished, and so stifled an inconvenient +twinge of conscience. + +"In the meantime it looks to me as if _my_ little overdraft on the +future is going to pay me most handsomely," he reflected. And that happy +thought added zest to his appetite for the excellent dinner his waiter +had ordered for him, the first good dinner to which he had sat down in +endless months. + +He had given the man _carte blanche_ in the matter of viands, only +reserving the choice of what he should drink. So that when he ordered +Vichy the waiter was not unduly depressed. Slyne also would have +preferred to see a silver bucket beside the table, a pursy gold neck +protruding from it, but he wanted all his wits about him that evening, +while he was once more pitting himself, alone, against all comers in +Monte Carlo--and, incidentally, against the odds in favour of the bank, +on which he hoped to draw to the tune of at least a hundred thousand +dollars during the next few days. He knew, of expensive experience, that +the Widow Clicquot and her charming companions are safer society after a +dangerous campaign is over than just before it begins. + +He would not even venture upon an after-dinner cigar, contenting himself +with a cigarette from the plain gold case with a crest on it which he +purchased from the chauffeur he had so providentially picked up in Genoa +that afternoon. But he tipped the waiter with such profusion that the +man preceded him to the door bent almost double with gratitude, and even +the Marquis of Ingoldsby was staringly impressed by the magnificence of +his exit--as Slyne had intended he should be. + +His masterly impersonation of an unostentatious millionaire was not +without its effect on the flunkeys of the Casino also. These made as +much of his entrance as he in his assumed modesty would allow on his way +into the _salles de jeu_, where he attracted not a few appraising, +inquisitive glances while he once more dared discovery as he roamed from +table to table, gazing about him as though that had really been his +first visit there. The world and the half-world alike seemed to be +wondering who he might be; a circumstance which, otherwise, would have +caused him ecstatic pleasure. + +It has been stated already that he was more than passably good-looking, +with regular profile and straight, spare, elegant figure. In evening +clothes which fitted him to perfection, neither over-groomed nor untidy +in any detail, without a flaw for the most fastidious to pick in either +appearance or manner, he seemed to bear some stamp of distinction which +might very well have passed current in circles much more exclusive. + +The rooms were well filled, although the really fashionable world had +just begun to flock south for the winter. The usual motley went to make +up the highly-coloured mosaic of worshippers at the chief shrine of the +goddess of chance. It would be a waste of your time and mine, too, to +describe again the types to be observed there, and Slyne had seen them +all very often before. He sauntered about for a little and then slipped +quietly into the only seat which had been vacated since he had arrived, +much to the annoyance of a short, fat Frenchman who seemed disposed to +insist on his own prior claim to it, till Slyne glanced over one +shoulder into his eyes. + +"Good luck to you!" cried a jovial voice from the other side of the +table as he sat down, and Slyne nodded coldly to his companion of the +afternoon. + +He did not desire Mr. Jobling's further acquaintance, and would have +ignored his greeting entirely but that he had noticed in front of the +stout solicitor quite a noteworthy stack of winnings; and he did not +know whether he might not yet have occasion to draw on the other's +expressed ambition to repay him a favour done. In any case, he dismissed +all such ideas from his mind for the moment, and started to play, very +cautiously. + +A cautious player, who can keep his head, need seldom lose a great deal +at any game. Slyne had drunk nothing stronger than Vichy since the night +before. He was tensely on the alert. His luck came and went until he had +lost a couple of thousand francs, and then he began to win. + +He had been winning, slowly but surely, with only an occasional +set-back, for over an hour before he became aware that a growing group +of interested onlookers had gathered behind him, and that he had +accumulated within the space between his protective elbows a pile of +notes and gold which reached to his chin. And, thus convinced that he +was in the vein, spurred on by some sudden remembrance of Sallie caged +in her cabin on the _Olive Branch_, an ever-present temptation to play +to the gallery, to stake no less than the maximum on every turn of the +wheel, had almost vanquished all his discretion when he encountered the +quiet glance of a man who was contemplating him from behind the players +seated at the other side of the table, a man whom he knew only too well +as one of the cleverest of those _mouchards_ whose frequent comings and +goings attract so little attention there, and who knew him. + +The brilliant lights about him grew strangely blurred. He felt faint +and ill. But, by a desperate effort of will, he managed to maintain an +outward composure. He yawned openly, and then let his eyes fall to look +at his watch. The detective was carelessly moving round the table in his +direction. He shifted his rake to his left hand and, slipping his right +across his chest to within the lapel of his evening-coat, laid out some +small further stake, entirely at random. + +He lost that, and two or three more, before he yawned again, as if +fatigued by such trifling, and pushed a much larger amount into place, +as a blind man might, for a final venture. No hand had as yet fallen on +his shoulder, but the suspense of not knowing at what moment that would +happen was hard to bear. He felt like one in the grip of a hideous +nightmare as the croupier presently shovelled over toward him a large +and miscellaneous assortment of notes and gold and counters, which, none +the less, he collected indifferently and dully conscious of an envious +sigh from behind him. + +He hesitated a little before letting go his hold of the pistol about +whose butt the fingers of his right hand were still closely clasped, in +order to pocket his profits of the evening. He had laid down his rake. +It was at once seized by a woman who had been standing close at his +shoulder, and, as she pushed eagerly past him into his seat, the bunch +of camellias in her corsage brushed his face. It was the woman with whom +Lord Ingoldsby had been dining. Slyne noticed her husband among the +crowd in the rear as he himself made his way out into the open. He +noticed also, approaching him entirely as if by accident, the +inconspicuous spy whose appearance there had so alarmed him. + +Slyne had not even time to hesitate. Without the slightest change of +expression he stopped and confronted his enemy, addressing him by name, +in the execrable French of the average Englishman. + +"_Bon soir, M. Dubois. Comment ça va? Bien_, eh?" + +"Monsieur has the advantage of me," the detective returned in effortless +English, and over his features flitted the faintest shadow of +disappointment. + +"Oh, I scarcely supposed you would know me," said Slyne with a +deprecatory shrug. "This is my first trip so far afield, though I've +seen you several times in Paris, and we all know you quite well in +London, of course." + +The faintest shadow of what might have developed into a smile hovered +for an instant about the famous man-hunter's lips and eyes, and Slyne +made a mental note of the fact that he was not above being flattered. + +"I'm over here after a fat fellow called Jobling," continued Slyne, +ingratiatingly communicative. "I don't suppose you know anything about +him?" + +The other sniffed, disdainfully. + +"An embryo embezzler," said he, in a tone of such conscious superiority +that Slyne would surely have laughed in his face if he himself had felt +safe. "Give him rope enough and he'll do the rest. Don't disclose +yourself for a day or two, but watch him carefully. + +"Are you working for New Scotland Yard?" + +Slyne had expected some such question, and did not stammer over his +answer. + +"I've started a private agency on my own account. This is my first case. +A thousand thanks for your hint. If all my official friends were as +courteous, life would be much pleasanter for me." He spoke with a most +respectful inflection, but always in barbarous Anglo-French. "_Mille +remerciements encore, mon confrère. Et maintenant--à demain._" + +His new acquaintance nodded with most gracious condescension and moved +on in the direction of an obese German diplomatist who had just met amid +the throng and greeted with over-acted surprise a pretty Viennese +countess. And Slyne did not fail to observe, amid all his own agitation, +how promptly the two of them parted again at sight of M. Dubois. + +He was conscious that his own nostrils were nervously twitching, and +that there were tiny beads of cold perspiration about his forehead. + +"He thought he knew me," said he to himself, very tremulously. "And, +though I've put him off the scent to some extent, he'll root about +till--" For all his nerve of steel, he shivered and changed countenance. + +"I can't trust myself to play any more to-night--and just when I was +getting my hand in! But I suppose I may thank my stars that I'm no worse +off since I caught his eye--he'd have been down on me in an instant, if +I had so much as blinked. And now I must bluff him out--I'm _not_ going +to be scared off. + +"There's this about it, anyhow--if I've really got him hoodwinked, none +of the others need worry me!" With which conditional self-encouragement, +and having made sure that his enemy was no longer watching him, he +turned back on an impulse, to see how Mr. Jobling was getting on. But +Mr. Jobling had already gone off with his winnings. + +"I wonder if he'd take a hand at écarté now?" thought Slyne. "His name +came in very useful just now--and I might as well have my own money back +out of him while he's got it. He'll probably be fancying himself at the +moment, too." + +And with that business-like ambition before him, he roamed the rooms +till he could be sure that his proposed victim was nowhere within the +Casino. Among the multitude there he could run across no one else who +seemed likely to prove easy prey. So he gave up the quest with a +philosophical shrug, got his coat and hat, and sauntered out on to the +terrace, a fragrant cigar between his thin lips. + +"And I'll stand myself a bottle of something at supper, to buck me up," +he promised himself. "I'll look into Ciro's again presently, and get the +good of the gold piece I had to waste on that scoundrelly waiter. If I +chance across Jobling there, I'll get a free meal as well; or, if I +should see that ass Ingoldsby, I'll tackle him while his precious +keepers are out of the way. They're evidently making _his_ feathers +fly!" + +The night was still, and even unusually mild for that season of the +year. The moon had disappeared. Slyne looked down at the sea, all dark +and mysterious, with a strong feeling of distaste; he had lately seen +more than enough of it to last him a lifetime. He turned his steps +toward the deserted gardens, to escape a party of chattering tourists +who had trespassed on his privacy. + +He was in no hurry at all for supper, and wanted a few minutes of peace +and quietness in which to compose his still troubled mind, and to +consider the situation as touching his lordship of Ingoldsby--who would +undoubtedly prove a far more profitable companion than Mr. Jobling, even +although the latter should have won the fifty thousand francs that had +been his ambition. + +"What a fool that fellow is, for a lawyer!" mused Slyne, having more or +less successfully combated an inclination to let his thoughts stray back +to the _Olive Branch_--and Sallie. And, _Click!_ something answered him +from behind a bush not very far from the verge of the path he was +meditatively pacing. + +He jumped aside at the sound, as any man would who has known what it is +to be ambushed, and then, recollecting himself, stood still, with a +mirthless, annoyed half-smile. He did not believe that Dubois would +adopt any such noisy means to get rid of him, but--none the less, he +felt impelled to find out who was in hiding behind that bush. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A FOOL AND HIS FORTUNE + + +Slyne skirted a flower-bed cautiously and, approaching the shadowy +background by a flank movement, found a stout individual in a voluminous +coat kneeling on the grass there, with some white, metallic object in +one trembling hand lifted in the direction of his own left eyelid. A +second _Click!_ startled Slyne disproportionately, and he spoke at that, +in a very querulous voice. "Hey! you fool," he said, "you're wasting +your time. Wait till I show you how. + +"Good Lord! is that _you_, Jobling?" + +Mr. Jobling suddenly cast a revolver from him, with a wailing +execration, and, attempting to rise, sank down beside it, blubbering, +entirely unstrung after the agonising strain of the past few seconds. +Slyne, eyeing him with exasperated contempt, picked the weapon up and +fingered it for an instant. + +"A damned rotten make!" he commented morosely. "But it'll do the job for +you all right now. You can't shoot it off, you know, with the safety +catch set." + +The miserable man on the grass held out his hand for it, humbly. But +Slyne was not at all prepared to take any risks on his account--for +suicide and murder are often very difficult to distinguish, in their +results--and made up his mind to keep it, in the meantime at any rate. + +"Get up," he ordered in his sharpest tone, "and come away out of this. +If you could only see yourself, you wouldn't want to sit there and +whimper." + +Under the spur of that insult Mr. Jobling seemed to recall some stray +shred of his forfeited self-respect. He got on to his knees, with an +effort, and thence by degrees to his feet. + +"I think you might show a little more decent feeling," he sobbed +brokenly, "when--" + +"And I think you might show a vast deal more sense," snapped Slyne. +"Button up your coat, and come away out of this. You can kill yourself +just as easily--a good deal more so, in fact, since I've shown you +how--in half an hour, after I'm in a safer position to prove an _alibi_ +if any inconvenient questions are asked about it afterwards. Come on, +now." + +His whilom acquaintance followed him meekly, muttering, to a secluded +corner where there was a seat. + +"What's the trouble?" demanded Slyne magisterially, sitting down at one +end of the bench and motioning him to the other. "But I suppose I need +scarcely ask. Trust funds mysteriously melted away--the usual childish +attempt to recover them by sheer chance, and with all the odds against +you!--the dread of exposure and disgrace--which never worry a dead man. +You've been a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, eh, my respectable +friend? And you'd rather die in the dark than face the world in broad +daylight without your immaculate fleece." + +Mr. Jobling groaned. + +"But why, after all, finish playing the knave by playing the fool? If +you were the man of the world you fancy yourself, you'd know that sheep +are very seldom successful in real life. It's all very well to pose in a +sheep-skin, but it isn't everything. A wolf undisguised can do very +well for himself, so long as his teeth are sufficiently sharp. And, when +he becomes a big millionaire, he can buy himself, among other things, a +nice new merino coat." + +His parable amused himself, but his auditor did not seem possessed of a +sufficient sense of humour to appreciate its personal application. + +"You're labouring under a misapprehension," said that gentleman, who had +meantime regained some grip on himself, in accents anything but properly +grateful. "I may, perhaps, have been unfortunate with--er--a few small +investments for clients, but your inference that I have--er--er--You're +positively insulting, sir!" + +Slyne laughed, in better humour. "Bah!" said he. "What's the use of +bluffing? You weren't going to blow out your brains--if any--because you +had been too honest, were you?" + +"I'm a desperate man," declared Mr. Jobling, thus rudely reminded of the +matter in hand. "Life isn't worth living, now that I've lost--" He +gulped and gasped, once more on the verge of tears, but a furtive glance +at Slyne's impassive features, dimly visible in the glow of a +half-smoked cigar, showed him he need not expect any excess of sympathy +from that quarter. It also seemed to suggest to him, in the midst of his +anguish of mind, an idea. He looked round at Slyne again. + +"You're a man of wealth," he said in a husky voice whose suddenly +inspired eagerness he could not conceal, and some spark of hope perhaps +sprang up in his fainting heart again since Slyne did not deny that +erroneous suggestion. Slyne was waiting to hear what more he might have +to say, though not with any intention of helping him. + +"I wonder--" the stout solicitor muttered. "It might interest you +to--Two heads are better than one, and--Some sort of partnership--" + +"I can only spare you five minutes more," said Slyne crisply. "As soon +as I've finished my cigar, I'm going across to Ciro's for supper. The +Marquis of Ingoldsby is expecting me." + +"Do you know his lordship?" breathed Mr. Jobling, his new-born hope no +doubt gaining strength and his respect for his chance companion +obviously increased. "Then you'll understand me when I tell you that +I've ruined myself--ab-so-lutely _ruined_ myself over the Jura +succession." + +"I haven't the least idea what the devil you're talking about," said +Slyne. + +Mr. Jobling groaned again. He was most grievously disappointed. + +"I thought every one had heard of the case," he went on. "A couple of +millions in cash--" + +"Millions of what?" demanded Slyne with a little more lively interest. + +"Pounds sterling," the London lawyer explained, rather testily. "A +couple of millions in cash and forty or fifty thousand a year going +a-begging may not seem a very important matter to a moneyed man like +you, but I've thought of nothing else, night and day, for the past five +years, and--" + +"I've been all over the world for the past five years," mentioned Slyne +loftily, but impatient now, "and the latest news of the parish pump has +probably failed to reach me. Get on with your story, anyhow. If there's +anything in it--I don't know but that I may be disposed to lend you a +hand--if there's anything in it." And, having lighted a fresh cigar, he +composed himself to listen. His time was his own. The chance of catching +Lord Ingoldsby alone at Ciro's was too remote to be worth more than the +passing thought. A story with so much money in it might prove at least +as entertaining as a solitary supper. + +Mr. Jobling gazed with glistening eyes at his providential acquaintance. +"I've told you what there is in it," said he in a tremulous tone. "A +couple of millions in cash and forty or fifty thousand a year that will +all ultimately fall to the Crown--unless I can find that girl, or--" + +"What girl?" Slyne demanded irritably. + +"The late Earl of Jura's daughter. You'll no doubt remember--But if +you've been abroad for so long, I'd better repeat--" And, having got +over his nervous prolixity, he became much more explicit. + +"The late earl's first wife, as you must recall, sir, was Lady Eulalie +Orlebarre. But she did not survive the birth of their only child, a son, +in 1876. + +"The earl married again, in '94. His second wife was Josceline +Beljambes, the famous dancer. A daughter was born to them. But they +separated, by mutual agreement, only a year or two later, and the +countess retained custody of her daughter. The earl was a good deal +older than she. + +"She was a very restless, erratic woman, and fond of travel. In '99 she +disappeared most mysteriously, somewhere abroad, and has never been +heard of since. + +"The following year, Lord St. Just, the earl's son by his first wife +and, of course, his heir, was found dead one day at the foot of the +cliffs near Loquhariot, the family seat in Scotland. He had grown up a +very headstrong, troublesome lad, I have heard. There was some suspicion +of foul play on the part of one of the gamekeepers on the estate--some +scandalous story about a girl in the village--but the coroner's jury +returned an open verdict. + +"The earl himself died in 1906, a little more than five years ago. The +estates fell into Chancery. And ever since I've been trying to trace his +second wife--or their child; for, failing an heir-male, the female line +of succession maintains in the family. + +"The Court of Chancery is quite prepared to presume the mother dead, and +I have evidence sufficient to prove that assumption a certainty. So that +now, you see, if I could only find--" + +He hesitated, to scrutinise his companion's inscrutable face. + +"I was a consummate fool, of course, ever to have come to Monte Carlo," +he went off at a tangent. "Though I had a good enough reason for +coming," he went on, defending himself to himself. "I didn't dare trust +anyone in London. And I--I thought that I might find here--" He balked +again. + +"It was merely to pass the time that I first tried my luck at the +tables--and look at me now! I haven't even money to pay my hotel bill. +For want of a few thousand francs I must lose my chance of the fortune +on which I've staked every penny I could scrape together and--and five +years of my good time, and--" He started to one side as Slyne cut him +short. + +"I'm not going to waste five seconds of _my_ good time," said Slyne with +concentrated bitterness, "in telling you how many different sorts of a +damned fool you are." His expensive cigar had gone out, unheeded. But +his keen, close-set eyes were aglow. He was finding it extremely +difficult to contain himself. + +"Are you _sure_ of your facts?" he demanded, in the same acid, +embittered voice. + +"From first to last," affirmed Mr. Jobling, so peevishly that Slyne was +satisfied. "Haven't I told you that I've spent five years of my life and +every penny I could--er--every penny I possessed, in sifting them out, +and that I'm a Chancery practitioner? I have most of the papers with me +at the Métropole. There's only the one link lacking to complete the long +chain I've forged. And--" He lowered his voice to a whisper after +looking about him furtively, and, at last, under the decent screen of +the darkness, completely demoralised by the events of the day, confided +in the Heaven-sent stranger beside him his chief ambition in coming to +Monte Carlo. "And even a good enough imitation might serve--" + +"No imitation would stand the strain," Slyne interrupted him hoarsely. +"And you'll very soon find yourself inside the four walls of a cell, my +friend, if you try any forgery of that sort. You can take my word for +that, because--_I'm_ the real rivet, and without me all the rest of your +precious chain isn't worth a snap of my fingers." + +Mr. Jobling subsided into a heap, and was staring at him, open-mouthed. +But Slyne said no more for a moment or two. Outwardly quite calm and +matter-of-fact, his mind was in a seething turmoil. If all the inept +rogue beside him had said were true--He could scarcely restrain an +impulse to get to his feet and shout for joy. + +The lawyer seemed to have nothing more to say, either. And Slyne, having +somewhat recovered command of himself, at length rose, tossing his cold +cigar away with an angry oath. "It makes my blood boil," said he, "to +think--But for the sheerest accident you'd be a dead man by now--and +where would _I_ have been then! You don't deserve such stupendous luck, +and, by the Lord Harry! if I find you playing the fool again--You're +going to put yourself into my hands from now on, d'ye hear? And, in the +first place, I must see those papers you spoke of; if they're in order, +I'll see the thing through. We can't work without each other, +unfortunately for me, or--" + +"You're going too fast," intervened Mr. Jobling, still seated, and with +some faint show of spirit. "You're taking too much for granted, sir. I +don't even know who you are, and--we must come to terms of some sort +before--" + +He shrank aside as Slyne stepped forward with twitching fingers and eyes +aflame. + +"You'll take whatever terms you get--and be precious thankful," hissed +Slyne, stooping over him. "You'll do exactly what you're told, no more, +and no less. And--you won't forget again, will you, that you've met your +master in me?" + +Mr. Jobling, gazing, aghast, into the muzzle of the cheap revolver which +had proved so ineffective in his own hands, at last regained voice +enough to subscribe solemnly to these stipulations, and from that moment +went uncomfortably, in fear for the life he himself had been trying to +take not an hour before. That was probably the first time he had ever +been threatened with personal violence, and a life spent chiefly in +Chancery Lane does not always foster an excess of that calculating +courage needed to deal with one of Slyne's dangerous sort. + +"Come on, then," said Slyne, and Mr. Jobling got shakily up from the +bench. "You needn't be afraid that I won't deal fair--generously with +you, but this is no time to be haggling here. We haven't a moment to +spare. I must see those papers at once. Step out!" + +The hall-porter at the Métropole raised his eyebrows over Mr. Jobling's +somewhat dishevelled appearance, but promptly lowered them again in +response to a look from Slyne. + +"Tell them to send up your bill," said Slyne to the lawyer. "If +everything's all right, I'll settle it and put you up at the Paris." + +And Mr. Jobling very meekly did as he was bidden. He could not well help +himself, just then. But his expression was not at all properly grateful +as he ushered Slyne into the room he himself had never expected to see +again, and there proceeded to display to that masterful adventurer the +mass of papers on which their further partnership was to depend. + +Slyne picked out the more important of these with an acumen which would +have done Mr. Jobling himself every credit; and for a busy hour they two +sat poring over one dog's-eared document after another, Slyne's mask of +indifference deserting him by degrees as he grasped point after point of +the case, till he threw the last down with a smile of triumph, and, +rising from the table, paced to and fro for a moment, rubbing his hands +in an ecstasy of exultation. + +"Everything's all right," he announced confidently. "My--our fortune's +as good as made; and I'll tell you what, Jobling,--you shall have ten +per cent. of the immediate cash for your share. How does that strike +you, eh? I don't say that you deserve any such consideration from me, +but--I'm ready to let bygones be bygones, and I want you to work for me +with a will." + +His self-assurance was contagious. Mr. Jobling, after the merest moment +of hesitation, rose in his turn, holding out a hand, which Slyne grasped +affectionately. And thus they came to an amicable understanding, without +more words. + +"Pack up now," commanded Slyne, pleasantly peremptory, "and we'll run +across to the Paris. I've any amount to do yet, before I can snatch a +sleep." + +"I'll be very thankful to get into _my_ bed," said Mr. Jobling, already +busy among his belongings, and more than a little dazed by the march of +events. "I've had a _most_ trying day." + +It did not take long to have his baggage transferred to the other hotel, +and there Slyne put him under confidential charge of the manager, with +very strict orders that he was not, on any pretext whatever, to be +allowed to decamp pending Slyne's return. Whereafter that active man of +affairs sent to the garage for his car, with word that his chauffeur +need not be disturbed and, having deposited his still uncounted winnings +with the cashier, started eastward again in such haste that he would not +even wait to change his thin evening clothes. + +Slyne was, in fact, fiercely excited. His particular Providence seemed +to be holding out to him such a chance in life as he could scarcely have +conceived himself in his wildest dreams. And he was in such frantic +haste to grasp that chance--which involved so much more than the mere +money--that he had quite forgotten his recent fear of M. Dubois. + +"I think I've got you this time, my girl!" said he to himself gleefully, +as he once more slowed down to stop at the Italian frontier. And that +was the burden of all his thoughts as he raced madly along the Corniche +Road in his high-powered car. In the darkness before the dawn, his eyes +intent on the long white ribbon of highway endlessly slipping toward his +head-lights, he saw only roseate visions of what the future now held for +him. As the sun rose to burnish the bare, brown mountains before him, he +nodded happily to himself, and his lips moved again to the glad refrain, +"I think I've got you quite safe this time, my girl!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE PRICE OF FREEDOM + + +Slyne's nostrils curled as he observed the dirty and dishevelled aspect +of the _Olive Branch_, lying idle in Genoa harbour alongside the +coal-chutes where the day's work had not yet begun. He had grown +extremely fastidious again within the very short space of time which had +passed since he had last seen her. + +There was no one visible about her littered decks except the watchman on +duty, whose sole salute to him as he stepped carefully up the insecure +gangplank was a sullen scowl. + +But that might have been deemed quite a hearty welcome in contrast with +his reception by Captain Dove. + +Captain Dove was, in point of fact, furious when he opened his little, +red-rimmed eyes and became aware of his former friend's intrusion upon +his privacy. Sitting up in his frowsy bunk, with the blankets huddled +about him, looking ludicrously like an incensed gorilla, he raged and +swore at his gratuitous visitor until his voice gave out. + +Slyne, forgetful, in his new enthusiasm, of the terms on which they had +parted, was at first somewhat taken aback by that outburst; but only at +first. And his sanguine anticipations enabled him to endure it unmoved. +It also gave him time to collect his ideas. He could see that his errand +was not going to prove quite so easy as he had expected, and that he +must play his new cards with discrimination. As soon as the evil old man +in the bunk had exhausted himself in invective, Slyne spoke, smooth and +cuttingly. + +"I came back to do you a good turn. But--if that's how you're going to +take it, you foul-mouthed old rapparee! I'll save my breath and be off +again. What th' deuce d'ye mean by shouting at me as if I were a drunken +deck-hand! Speak to me above a whisper now--and you'll see what'll +happen to you. That's the police-boat pulling past." + +The opportune plash of oars had suggested to him that plausible threat. +Captain Dove, listening intently, crouched back against the bulkhead, +his blinking, hot, suspicious eyes on Slyne's. The boat passed on. But +he had found time to observe that Slyne was in evening dress, with an +expensive fur coat to keep the cold out. And Slyne's cool contempt for +his ill-temper would seem to have impressed him no less than Slyne's air +of solid prosperity. + +He himself, it appeared, had had care and adversity for his companions +ever since parting with his former friend. His chief aim in calling at +Genoa had been cheap coal and cheaper repairs, and he thought that he +was less likely to be recognised there than elsewhere in the +Mediterranean. But coal, he had found, had risen to a ruinous price in +consequence of a recent strike among the miners in England; and for even +the most trifling repairs he would have to wait at least a week, because +the dock-yard people were already working over-time to make way for a +man-of-war. Credit of any sort was not to be had. His portage-bill bade +fair to swamp his insufficient cash resources--even although three of +his now scanty crew had already deserted. And who could foretell what +might happen to him if they should get wagging their tongues too freely +in some wine-shop ashore! While, as if for climax, the Customs' +authorities had been displaying a most suspicious interest in him and +his ship. Under such circumstances, even a saint might have been +pardoned, as he pointed out, for showing a temper something short of +seraphic. + +"And you've been doing me good turns--by your way of it--for some time +past," he continued, in a stifled, vehement whisper lest his voice +should still reach the receding boat. "Though--" He waved a claw-like +hand about him, words again failing him to describe adequately his +sufferings in consequence, as who should say, "See the result for +yourself." + +Slyne sat down on the sofa opposite him, not even condescending to +glance, in response to that invitation, round the squalid, +poverty-stricken little cabin. "Never mind about some time past," he +advised, more pacifically. "You'll never get rich quick yesterday. +To-day's when _I'm_ going to make my pile. And I meant to let you in--" + +"To another hole," Captain Dove concluded sceptically. "I only wish +you'd show me some sure way out of the one I'm in." + +Slyne looked his annoyance at that further interruption, and made as if +to rise, but did no more than draw his gold cigarette-case from its +pocket. He knew that Captain Dove was merely trying to aggravate him, +and it would not have been politic to stray from the matter in hand. He +lighted a cigarette at his leisure and waited for what should come next. +He had changed his mind as to taking the old man fully into his +confidence. He thought he could see his way to get all he wanted for a +very great deal less than that might have cost him. + +"Want a drink?" Captain Dove demanded, no doubt with the idea that a +dose of spirit might serve to stir up his visitor's temper, and looked +surprised at Slyne's curt head-shake, still more surprised over his +response. + +"I can't afford to drink at all hours of the day and night now," said +Slyne austerely. "That sort of thing was all very well at sea, but--The +business I have in hand isn't of the sort that can be carried out on raw +brandy. And you'll have to taper off too, if you want to come in." + +"Strike--me--sky-blue!" exclaimed the old man, and Slyne held up a +reproving hand. + +"I can do with a good deal less of your bad language into the bargain," +he mentioned coldly, "if you don't mind. In short, I want you to +understand from the start that you've got to behave as if you were a +reasonable human being and not a dangerous lunatic, or--I'll leave you +to rot, in the hole you've got yourself into." + +Captain Dove, scarcely able to credit the evidence of his own ears but, +none the less, apparently, thinking hard, darted a very ugly glance at +him, and noticed the diamonds in his shirt-front. Under the strongest +temptation to call in a couple of deck-hands and have him thrown off the +ship, Captain Dove obviously paused to consider whether those could be +of any intrinsic value. He was, of course, satisfied that he knew +exactly how much--or, rather, how little money Slyne had had in his +pockets when he went ashore. And, if Slyne had already, within four and +twenty hours, been able to turn that over at a profit sufficient to +provide himself with a fur coat and diamonds, it might perhaps pay +Captain Dove to hear what he had to propose. Slyne, reading all the old +man's thoughts, could see that he had decided to temporise. + +"But, I can do with a damn sight less of _your_ back-chat!" rumbled +Captain Dove, not to be put down without protest. "If you've come back +on board to offer me a founder's share in any new gold-brick factory, +fire straight ahead--and be short about it. It'll save time, too, if +you'll take it from me again that I'd rather have your room than your +company." + +And at that, Slyne made his next considered move. + +"All right," he said in a tone of the most utter contempt. "That's +enough. I'm off. + +"I came back to do you a good turn--although few men, in my position, +would ever have looked near you again," he paused in the doorway to +remark acridly. "But I can see now what's the matter with you--and I +only wish I had noticed it in time to save myself all it has cost me. +It's senile decay you're suffering from. You're far too old to be of any +more use--even to yourself. You're in your dotage, and you'll soon be in +an asylum--for pauper lunatics!" + +He had evidently lost his own temper at last. And Captain Dove was +visibly pleased with that result of his tactics; as a rule he was better +able to cope with Slyne on a basis of mutual abuse, heated on both +sides; Slyne cool and collected had him at a disadvantage. + +"Now you're talking!" he retorted approvingly. "Say what's in your mind, +straightforwardly, and we'll soon come to an understanding. Sit down +again, you strutting peacock! and tell me what it is you want." + +Slyne did not sit down again, however; to do so would scarcely have been +dignified. He stayed in the doorway, silent, a thin stream of +cigarette-smoke slowly filtering from his nostrils. His cold, +calculating eyes were once more on Captain Dove's. And it was Captain +Dove's would-be mocking glance that at length gave way. + +"You offered to give me Sallie, if I paid you a hundred thousand +dollars," said Slyne, judicially. + +"To see you safely married to her," Captain Dove corrected him. + +Slyne nodded, in grave assent. + +"Well, I'm going to hold you to your offer," said he. "The money's ready +and waiting for you--just as soon as we can settle a few trifling +formalities. I have Sallie's promise to marry me--" + +"The devil you have!" said Captain Dove, not slow to seize opportunity +either. "I thought I heard her say--" + +Slyne's face darkened again. "And, if you'll come ashore with me now," +he went on, controlling his temper, "I'll prove to you that your money +is perfectly safe." + +Captain Dove lay back in his bunk and laughed, most discordantly. He +laughed till his red-rimmed eyes were adrip, while Slyne sat looking at +him. He was still laughing when Slyne rose and, flicking the +cigarette-end from between two nicotine-stained fingers, began to button +his coat. He stopped laughing then, by calculated degrees. + +"Sit down--sit down!" said he wheezily. "What's your hurry? You haven't +told me yet what those few 'trifling formalities' are. And how am I to +know whether--" + +But Slyne was already beyond the doorway, fumbling with a last button. + +"If you believe I've come here to talk simply for the sake of talking," +said he with sombre magnificence, "I needn't waste any more breath on +you. Good-bye." + +Captain Dove jumped out of his bunk. He was clearly impressed, in spite +of himself, by the other's indomitable assurance. + +"Come back, you fool!" he called angrily. "Come back. I want to know-- + +"I'll go ashore with you," he shouted, raising his voice, since Slyne +was already on his way to the gangway. But Slyne did not seem to hear. + +"I'll take your offer--for Sallie," cried Captain Dove, in a slightly +lower tone. + +Slyne hesitated in his stride, stopped, and turned back into the +alleyway which led to the saloon. + +"What was that you said?" he demanded of Captain Dove. + +"Come on inside," requested Captain Dove, more curtly. + +"I don't believe I will," Slyne declared, inwardly elated over the +winning of that somewhat risky move. "You don't deserve another chance. +And, if I do give you another, you needn't suppose--" + +"Come on inside," begged Captain Dove, shivering, in no case to listen +to any lecture. "Come on, and we'll talk sense. Don't waste any more +good time." + +Slyne followed him in again, congratulating himself on his firmness. He +felt that he had gained the whip-hand of the old man, and he meant to +keep it. He curtly refused again Captain Dove's more hospitable offer of +some refreshment, and, while his aggrieved host was clumsily getting +into some warmer clothing, talked to him from the saloon through the +open doorway of his cramped sleeping-quarters. It was easier to arrange +matters so than under Captain Dove's direct observation. + +"You'll pay me cash, of course," Captain Dove stipulated, as though he +had been bargaining about a charter-party. + +"I'll pay you cash," Slyne agreed, "the day Sallie marries me. And +meantime I'll give you my note of hand at thirty days for the money." He +listened intently, but Captain Dove, struggling fretfully with +refractory buttons, maintained an ominous silence. + +"I'll have it backed by a London lawyer, to keep you safe," said Slyne. +"And listen! I'm not asking you to risk anything, or even to take my +note at its face value. I want you to come ashore with me and find out +for yourself from my lawyer that you can depend on the money. If you +don't feel satisfied about that after you've seen him, you needn't go +any farther, we'll call the bargain off; you can get back on board your +ship at once and no harm done. + +"And, even as regards Sallie, I'm going out of my way to keep you right. +I'd give a great deal to get married at once, but--I'm willing to wait +till the day I can hand you your hundred thousand in cash. Everything's +fair, square, and above-board now. I'm not asking you to risk anything. + +"And where in the wide world can you expect to do better for yourself!" +he argued. "If you go East you'll get no more for the girl--and look at +the expense! You'll be sorry all the rest of your life, too, for I know +you'd far sooner see her decently settled than sell her to any dog-faced +son-of-a-gun of a mandarin! + +"You can say what you like," he concluded, although Captain Dove had +said never a word. "Clean money's pleasanter to spend than dirty, any +day. If I had been born wealthy, I'd never have needed to touch a marked +card. And now's your chance, too, to pull out of a rotten rut that'll +sooner or later land you among the chain-gang." + +Captain Dove came forth from his cabin, indifferently clad, and eyed +Slyne with a sarcastic interest which somewhat disconcerted that +homilist. + +"You don't _look_ just like a Band o' Hope!" said the old man, "but--" + +Slyne rose again, and bit his lip, in simulated impatience. "Oh, all +right," said he. "If you're not interested--" + +Captain Dove scowled at him. "I'm interested," he said grudgingly. "I'll +see this lawyer-fellow of yours whenever you like to bring him aboard, +and--if the money's there, you can count me in." + +"He isn't the sort of lawyer you've been accustomed to, Dove," said +Slyne. "You've got to go to him." + +Captain Dove did his best to out-stare him, but failed. + +"And what's more," said Slyne, playing a trump card with great outward +indifference, "you can make him pay you for your time instead of you +paying him. I told you I came back here to do you a good turn. There's +more than a hundred thousand dollars of easy money for you in this +deal--if you go the right way about it. + +"But--don't take my word for anything." + +Captain Dove had palpable difficulty in suppressing the obvious repartee +to that last bit of advice. But cupidity and cunning kept him quiet for +a space. + +"All right. I'll go with you," he agreed very gruffly at last. And Slyne +heaved a silent sigh of relief; he had feared more than once that the +contest of wills would after all go against him. + +"You're wise," he commented carelessly. "It will pay you. + +"You'd better see Sallie now, don't you think, and tell her--" + +"I'm not going to interfere between you and her--till I get my money +from you," declared the old man with a crafty grin. "You must tackle her +yourself. She'll be up by now, but breakfast won't be ready for half an +hour. If I were you I'd take that coat off and let her have a sight of +those diamonds of yours." + +Slyne did not wait to hear any more. He was already on his way aft, a +somewhat incongruous figure on the decks of the _Olive Branch_. When he +reached the companion-hatch on the poop he was smiling sardonically. + +"I do believe it was my 'diamonds' that finally fetched that old +ruffian," said he to himself. "If they have the same effect on Sallie, I +won't grudge the few francs I paid for them!" + +He tiptoed down the short stairway, and, having tapped very quietly at +the door of the after-saloon, entered without more ado. He judged that +he might have difficulty in gaining admission if he delayed to ask +leave. + +The saloon was empty. But from an adjoining cabin came the sound of +splashing, and from its neighbour the shuffle of heavy feet, a faint +suggestion of deft hands busy among crisp muslin and sibilant silk. + +Slyne hesitated; he wanted to be very tactful and yet was unwilling to +give up the advantage he had thus gained. He closed the door carefully +behind him. It creaked a little. + +From the room whence had come the rustle of feminine garments an +uncanny-looking figure appeared, and darted an angry, apprehensive +glance about the saloon. The sound of splashing had ceased. + +"'Morning, Ambrizette," said Slyne briskly and standing his ground. "Is +your mistress up yet? Tell her I have Captain Dove's leave to pay her a +call." + +The dumb black dwarf's scowl grew darker, but her hand fell away from +her breast and she halted as Sallie's voice sounded from within. + +"Is that you, Jasper!" it ejaculated. "What do you want? I thought--" + +"I've come back--with good news for you, Sallie--wonderful news!" said +Slyne. "And I'm in no end of a hurry to be off again. Call Ambrizette in +and get dressed, as quick as you can. Captain Dove's waiting breakfast +for me and I mustn't delay him. How long will you be?" + +"What sort of news is it?" asked Sallie, no less dubious than her maid +had been; and called her maid in, notwithstanding her well-founded +doubts as to the nature of any news he could bring. For Slyne had held +out to her the same lure that the serpent offered to Eve, and her +womanly curiosity would not allow her to order him at once from her +domain. + +Slyne smiled slightly as he sat down in a basket-chair, to look about +him while she was still busy within. The little after-saloon which had +been her home for so long was finely furnished; more so, perhaps, than +was apparent to Slyne, whose taste in that respect inclined to the +florid. But he could not help noticing how dainty and neat and feminine +was its entire effect, with its cushioned cosy corners, snow-white +curtains and draperies. Its purely fragrant atmosphere stirred even +Slyne's conscience a little. + +He lay back in his seat, and, gazing about him, recalled to mind all he +had been able to learn as to Sallie's strange past. It all fitted in so +perfectly with the fabric of his wonderful new plans that he could find +no possible flaw in them. And when Sallie herself at length came out to +him from her cabin, he was optimistically disposed to be very generous +in his dealings with her. + +Fresh from her bath and doubly bewitching in her clinging, intimate +draperies, she met Slyne's glad, eager glance with grave, doubtful eyes, +and ignored entirely the hand he held out to her as he sprang from his +chair. But he affected not to notice her attitude of distrust, and, +greeting her gaily, saved his face by laying his outstretched hand on +another chair, which he set a little nearer his own. + +"Won't you sit down?" he suggested with debonair courtesy. + +But she shook her head; she was evidently afraid to receive him on any +such friendly footing. She did not even care to ask him what he was +doing in evening dress at breakfast-time and on board the _Olive +Branch_. But in her troubled eyes he could read that unspoken inquiry. + +"I've been travelling all night to get back to you, Sallie," he told +her, in a low, eager tone, "and I hadn't time to change--I was in such a +hurry to tell you the news. I've come to take you away from the _Olive +Branch_,--and Captain Dove. I've come to set you free." + +She stared at him as though she had not heard aright, her lips parted, +her eyebrows arched, a faint, puzzled, questioning frown on her +forehead. + +"I've come to set you free," he said again. + +"At what price?" she asked suddenly, with disconcerting directness, and +his would-be straightforward glance wavered. + +"Don't put it that way!" he urged. "I ask no more than the fulfilment of +the promise you made me. And--listen, Sallie. I've found out who you +really are and where your home is. I'll take you there if only you-- + +"I'm not asking you to marry me right away, either, remember. All you +must do in the meantime is to sign without question some papers that +will be required. Then I'll make everything quite safe for you and take +you to your own home." + +The quick doubt in her eyes had given place to an expression of helpless +amazement and growing dismay. But he did not wait to hear anything she +might have to say. + +"It's like this, you see," he went on hurriedly. "Captain Dove's +absolutely at the end of his wits for money, and now--I can pay him his +price for you if you'll keep your promise to me by and by. Otherwise I +can't; no matter how willing I might be, I can't, I swear to you. + +"He feels, too, that you owe it to him to make up in one way or another +for some part at least of what he and I have lost through your--your +interfering so much lately in his affairs. And, if you don't back me up +now, he'll have to take the _Olive Branch_ East as best he can. He'll +take you too, and--you'll never come back. + +"You don't understand. I'm not really trying to force you to marry me, +but to save you from a fate far worse than the worst you could imagine. +You don't understand that it's really freedom I'm offering you, and that +your only option is slavery. + +"You'd rather have a white man--even me!--for your husband, wouldn't +you? than a yellow one--or brown--or maybe black!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A MASTERSTROKE + + +Sallie sat down quickly in a cushioned chair, and lay back, trembling +like a captured bird. + +Slyne was not beyond feeling somewhat ashamed of himself, but found easy +solace in the reflection that all he had said was for her good as well +as his own. He could see that his last brutal argument had struck home. +For Sallie could no longer doubt, now, in the lurid light of her recent +experiences, that Captain Dove looked upon her as a mere chattel, to be +turned into cash as soon as occasion should offer. + +In a little she looked up at him again out of pleading, desperate eyes. +Some most unusual impulse of pity stirred him. She was only a young girl +yet, and her helplessness spoke its own appeal, even to him. He made up +his mind again, quite apart from any question of policy, to deal with +her as generously as might be practicable. + +"Will Captain Dove let me go now if I promise to marry you, Jasper?" she +asked. And he nodded solemnly. + +"And not unless I do?" she insisted. "You _know_ I didn't--before, +although you say I did." + +"I swear to God, Sallie," he declared, "that I can't raise the money the +Old Man wants any other way. And--I won't say another word about what's +past and done with. + +"If you'll really promise to marry me," he said eagerly, "I'll prove to +you that all I have told you is true before you need even leave Captain +Dove; I won't ask you to go a step farther with me until you're +perfectly satisfied; I'll take you safely to your own home as soon as +you _are_ satisfied that you can trust me. And I won't ask you to keep +your promise till--" + +An irrepressible light of longing had leaped up behind the despair in +her eyes. + +"You say that all I must do in the meantime is to sign some papers," she +interrupted. "You say you won't ask me to marry you right away. Will you +wait--a year?" + +"A year! I couldn't, Sallie!" he cried, and her pale lips drooped +piteously again. + +"How long, then?" she asked in a whisper. "Six months?" + +He had made up his mind to be generous, and he felt that he had not +failed in his intention as he answered, "Three months, and not a day +longer, Sallie." + +She sat still and silent for a while, considering that, and then, "All +right, Jasper," she agreed. "Take me safe home, and I'll marry you three +months from the day we get there--if we're both alive when the time +comes." + +He turned away from her for a moment. He had won all he wanted in the +meantime, and he could scarcely contain himself. When he presently held +out a hand to her, she took it, to bind that bargain. + +"And you won't have any cause to regret it, Sallie," he assured her, his +voice somewhat hoarse in spite of his effort to speak quite naturally. + +"So now, as soon as you're ready, we'll all go ashore together, and--" + +"I'll be ready in twenty minutes," she told him, clasping her hands at +her heart, her eyes very eager. "And, Jasper--you must let me take +Ambrizette with me." + +"You're free now to do as you like," he answered, and left her. He felt +as if he were treading on air on his way back to the mid-ship saloon. + +Captain Dove, in the same _négligé_ costume, was busy at breakfast when +Slyne walked in upon him again, but looked up from his plate for long +enough to mumble a malicious question. + +"Yes, I've fixed it all up with her," Slyne answered with assumed +nonchalance. "You can always trust me to know how to handle a woman, +Dove." + +Captain Dove shot a derisive glance in his direction. "Is she willing to +marry you after all, then?" he demanded, feigning a surprise by no means +complimentary. + +"Not just at once, of course," returned his companion, and left the old +man to infer whatever he pleased. + +In response to a shouted order of Captain Dove's a slatternly +cook-steward brought Slyne a steaming platter of beans with a bit of +bacon-rind on top, and an enamelled mug containing a brew which might, +by courtesy, have been called coffee. There was a tray of broken ship's +biscuits, a tin containing some peculiarly rank substitute for butter, +upon the table, with the other equally uninviting concomitants of a +meagre meal. + +"_Tchk-tchk!_" commented Slyne, and sat down to satisfy his hunger as +best he might; while Captain Dove, having overheard that criticism, eyed +him inimically, and proceeded to puff a peculiarly rank cigar in his +face. + +"You might as well be getting dressed now," said Slyne indifferently. +"By the time I'm through here, Sallie will be ready to go ashore." + +Captain Dove looked very fiercely at him, but without effect. + +"Sallie won't stir a step from the ship," the old man affirmed, "till +you've handed over the cash." + +Slyne looked up, in mild surprise. + +"But, dear me! Dove," he remarked, "you don't expect that the London +lawyer's going to take my word for a girl he's never even seen? Until +he's satisfied on that point, he won't endorse my note to you. So we've +_got_ to take her along with us. I'm doing my best to give you a square +deal; and all I ask in return is a square deal from you." + +"You'd better not try any crooked games with me," growled Captain Dove, +and sat for a time sunk in obviously aggravating reflections. + +"If we get on his soft side," suggested Slyne insidiously, "there's no +saying how much more we might both make." + +Captain Dove rose and retired into his sleeping-cabin without further +words; while Slyne, picking out with a two-pronged fork the cleanest of +the beans on his plate, smiled sneeringly to himself. + +"What's the latest long-shore fashion, Slyne?" the old man asked after +an interval. Slyne knew by his tone that he had dismissed dull care from +his mind and was prepared to be quarrelsome again. + +"It wouldn't suit a figure like yours," he answered coolly, and was +gratified to hear another hoarse growl. For, strange though it may seem, +Captain Dove was not without vanity. "All you really need to worry about +is how to keep sober. And I want it to be understood from the start--" + +"Not so much of it now!" snarled Captain Dove from his cabin. "You +attend to your own business--and I'll attend to mine. I know how to +behave myself--among gentlemen. And, don't you forget, either, that I'm +going ashore to play my own hand. I've a card or two up my sleeve, +Mister Slyne, that will maybe euchre your game for you--if you try to +bluff too high." + +Slyne swore hotly, under his breath. He would have given a great deal to +know exactly what the old man meant by that mysterious threat, and only +knew that it would be useless to ask him. There was nothing for it but +to put up with his capricious humours, as patiently as might +be--although Slyne shivered in anticipation of the strain that might +entail--till he could be dispensed with or got rid of altogether. + +Nor, as it presently appeared, were his fears at all ill-founded. For +Captain Dove emerged from his cabin got up for shore-going in a guise at +sight of which Slyne could by no means suppress an involuntary groan. + +"I'm all ready now," Captain Dove announced. "Will you pay for a cab if +I call one?" + +"My car's waiting," Slyne returned, and, as the old man whistled +amazedly over that further and unexpected proof that his former +accomplice's fortunes had changed for the better, "You look like a fool +in that outfit," said Slyne. "The right rig-out for motoring is a tweed +suit and a soft cap." + +Captain Dove was very visibly annoyed. He had been at particular pains +to array himself properly. "You want to be the only swell in the party, +of course!" he grunted. "You're jealous, that's what's the matter with +you." And he fell to polishing his furry, old-fashioned top-hat with a +tail of the scanty, ill-fitting frock-coat he had donned along with a +noisome waistcoat in honour of the occasion. + +Slyne shrugged his shoulders, despairingly, and, having made an end of +his unappetising meal, prepared for the road. Then he lighted a cigar +very much at his leisure, while Captain Dove regarded him grimly, and +led the way on deck without further words. + +Sallie was ready and waiting at the companion-hatch on the poop, as +pretty as a picture in the sables Captain Dove had given her a year +before--after a very lucrative season of poaching on the Siberian coast. +As soon as she caught sight of them she came forward, followed by +Ambrizette, whose appearance, in cloak and turban, was even a worse +offence to Slyne's fastidious taste than Captain Dove's had been. + +"What a calamitous circus!" he muttered between set teeth. "I must get +rid of those two somehow--and soon. But till then-- + +"My car's at the back of those coal-wagons there," he told Captain Dove +with great dignity, and Captain Dove turned to the engine-room hatch. + +"Below there!" he called down. "Is that Mr. Brasse? I'm off now, Brasse. +You'll carry out all my instructions, eh? And--don't quarrel with Da +Costa, d'ye hear?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered a dreary voice from the depths below, and +Captain Dove faced about again to find Sallie, flushed and anxious, +waiting with Ambrizette at the gangway. + +"Come on," he ordered irascibly, and Sallie followed him down the +plank. Ambrizette shuffled fearfully after her, and Slyne came last, his +chin in the air, triumphant. + +He led the way to his car, and was gratified to observe its salutary +effect on Captain Dove's somewhat contemptuous demeanour. The little +policeman in charge of it pending its opulent owner's return, came +forward, touching his képi, which further impressed Captain Dove, +uncomfortably. Slyne handed Sallie into the tonneau, and Ambrizette +after her, tossed the policeman a further tip which secured his +everlasting esteem, took his own seat at the wheel, and was hastily +followed by Captain Dove. + +"Where are we bound for?" asked Captain Dove, holding his top-hat on +with both hands, as Slyne took the road toward Sampierdarena at a round +pace. + +"Don't talk to the man at the wheel," answered Slyne, and laughed. +"We've a hundred miles or so ahead of us. Better chuck that old tile of +yours away and tie a handkerchief round your head; you'll find that less +uncomfortable." + +The old man, at a loss for any more effective retort, pulled his +antiquated beaver down almost to his ears, folded his long arms across +the chest of his flapping frock-coat, and sat silent, scowling at the +baggy umbrella between his knees. Nor did he open his mouth again during +the swift journey. + +But when they at length reached their destination and Slyne stopped the +car quietly before the imposing pile that forms the Hôtel de Paris, +Captain Dove's jaw dropped and his mouth opened mechanically. + +A resplendent porter came hurrying forward and bowed most humbly to the +magnificent Slyne. + +"Take this lady and her maid straight up to the suite next mine," +ordered Slyne as Sallie alighted, while Captain Dove listened, all ears. +"And ask Mr. Jobling to join me in my sitting-room. He's still here, I +suppose?" + +He gave vent to a heartfelt sigh of relief as the man, already preceding +his charges indoors, paused to answer in the affirmative. + +"I needn't book a room for you," he told Captain Dove, with calculated +indifference. "But Sallie must have somewhere to leave Ambrizette. + +"Hey! you. Call my chauffeur to take the car round to the garage." + +Captain Dove followed him toward the bureau, attracting not a few +glances of mingled surprise and amusement from the elaborate idlers in +its neighbourhood. Slyne was furious. + +"I can't have him tagging about after me in that ghastly get-up!" he +told himself on the way to the elevator; and cuffed the elevator-boy's +ears at the sound of a mirthful sneeze with which that unfortunate youth +had become afflicted. "Though how the deuce I'm to help myself I don't +know." + +In the corridor at which they got out he caught sight of Mr. Jobling +approaching, and hurried Captain Dove into the sitting-room of his +suite. + +"Give me five minutes to change my clothes," he requested of the old +man. "And don't get straying about, or you'll lose yourself." + +Mr. Jobling met him on the threshold as he shut the door. That gentleman +had marvellously recovered from his over-night's nervous break-down. A +sound sleep, a visit from the barber, a bath and a liberal breakfast had +all helped to alter him outwardly and inwardly for the better. He was +once more the respectably prosperous, self-confident solicitor. + +"I believe you've been out all night," he observed in a jocular tone of +reproof, a waggish forefinger uplifted. + +"I've covered a couple of hundred miles in the car while you've been +asleep," answered Slyne, turning into his dressing-room. "I've brought +the girl back with me--and the old man, her guardian. We're going to +have trouble with him unless we're very careful. So listen, and I'll +tell you how things stand." + +Mr. Jobling composed his features into their most professional aspect, +but that gave place by degrees to a variety of other expressions, while +Slyne, busy changing his clothes, related all he himself knew as to +Sallie's past history. + +"And now the old man thinks he is entitled to put a price on her," Slyne +concluded. "She's promised to marry me, but he won't let her go till I +hand him a hundred thousand dollars." + +Mr. Jobling lay back limply in his chair. In all his career he had +never, he asserted, heard a more scandalous suggestion. + +"Never mind about that," Slyne cut him short. "The money's no object to +me. But you can understand what a difficult fellow he is to deal with. +And what I'm going to do, merely as a precaution against his playing us +false in the end, is to give him my note of hand for the amount he +demands, endorsed by you, and payable the day I marry his adopted +daughter." + +Mr. Jobling sank still lower in his seat. + +"In return for that," Slyne went on, "he must sign a clear deliverance +from any further claim on any of us, subject, of course, to due payment +of the note. + +"Then, I want a document drawn up to confirm my engagement to the girl +and granting me the fullest possible power of attorney on her behalf +both before and after our marriage. She's so simple and inexperienced +that I must do everything for her. + +"And, lastly, you'd better make out a brief private agreement between +yourself and me--just as a matter of form, you know--to the effect that +you are willing to act in my interests throughout, in return for a +commission of ten per cent. on the accumulated revenues of the Jura +estates at the date of my marriage." + +Mr. Jobling looked at him for a time as a man suddenly bereft of his +spine might. + +"There's no time to spare," Slyne mentioned. "I want all that sort of +thing settled right off the reel--before lunch. + +"If the old man makes any kick about anything, you must back me up in +all I say. Although if he tries to raise his price by a few thousand +dollars, we needn't stick at that. The great thing is to get him to sign +the deliverance in return for our note. The girl has already agreed--" + +"And what if _I_ refuse?" croaked his companion with the courage of +desperation. It was evident that Mr. Jobling saw through his daring +scheme. "What if I insist on my fair share? What if I--" + +Slyne silenced him with a contemptuous gesture. + +"Whatever you do will make no difference to anyone in the wide world but +yourself," said Slyne. "If you do what you're told you'll get a great +deal more than you deserve out of it. If you don't--D'ye think I'd have +taken you into the team if I didn't know how to drive you!" he asked, +his eyes beginning to blaze. "Why, my good fellow, if you refuse, if +you don't travel up to your collar, if you so much as shy at anything +you see or hear--I won't even hurt you; I'll just hand you over to the +police. + +"So make up your mind now, quick!" + +"You've nothing against me," quavered the lawyer. + +"No, I've nothing--not very much, at least, yet," Slyne agreed, knotting +his tie neatly before the glass. "But--that may be because you haven't +embezzled any of my money--yet." He had most opportunely recalled what +the detective Dubois had told him about his new friend. + +Mr. Jobling's face was almost green. He got up with an evident effort. + +"I was only joking," he declared with a most ghastly grin. "I'll be +quite satisfied with ten per cent. of the accumulated income--in fact, +we'll call it a couple of hundred thousand pounds, if you like." + +"All right," Slyne agreed imperturbably. "Make it that amount if you'd +rather. How long will it take you to get the papers drawn out? It's +nearly one o'clock. And--you won't be safe till they're signed." + +"An hour," said Mr. Jobling. "I'm a quick writer." + +"All right," Slyne repeated. "We'll lunch at two--after they're all +signed. So--off you go, and get busy." + +The stout solicitor hurried away, cowed and obedient again, and Slyne, +very smart in an almost new flannel suit, rejoined Captain Dove. + +"I'm _too_ fashionable, that's what's the matter with me!" declared +Captain Dove with sudden conviction at sight of him, and gazed very +bitterly at his own image in an inconvenient mirror. + +"Never mind about that," Slyne advised soothingly. "It's not as if you +were staying here, you know. You'll be back on board your ship by +supper-time. And now, I must tell you how we've got to handle this +lawyer-fellow when he fetches in the raft of papers he'll want us all to +sign." + +Captain Dove listened gloomily while he went on to explain, at +considerable length, and in his most convincing manner, that they must +match their combined wits against the lawyer's for their own profit. + +"It's not that I don't trust him," said Slyne, "but--I'll feel more +secure after everything's settled in writing and signed. He can't go +back on us then." + +"He'd better not!" Captain Dove commented. "I'll wring his neck for him +if he tries--" + +"And, as for Sallie," Slyne cut him short, "I've made things quite--" + +"Sallie will do whatever I tell her," growled Captain Dove. "And don't +you attempt to interfere between me and her--till you've paid me my +money, Slyne. Where is she? Fetch her in here." + +Slyne had no farther to go to do that than to the next room, where he +found Sallie at the window, gazing pensively out at the sea. But he +delayed there for some time to make it still more clear to her that her +only hope of helping herself lay in abetting him blindly. + +When he at length returned to his own sitting-room with her, he found +Captain Dove staring fixedly at another arrival there, an overwhelmingly +up-to-date if rather imbecile-looking young man, whose general +gorgeousness, combined with a very vacant, fish-like eye much magnified +by a monocle, had evidently reduced the would-be fashionable seaman to a +stricken silence. + +Slyne, who had at first shot a most malevolent glance at the intruder, +was stepping forward to greet him just as Mr. Jobling put in an +appearance with a sheaf of papers in one hand. + +"How d'ye do, Lord Ingoldsby?" said Slyne quite suavely to the young man +with the eye-glass. He had caught sight of Mr. Jobling in the doorway, +and turned to Sallie, his quick mind bent on a masterstroke. + +"May I introduce to you the Marquis of Ingoldsby," he remarked to her in +the monotone of convention; and, as she bowed slightly in response to +that very modern young gentleman's ingratiating wriggle and grin, Slyne, +one eye on Captain Dove's astonished countenance, completed the +formality. + +"This is Lady Josceline Justice," said he to his smirking lordship, and +breathed delicately into a somewhat extensive ear the further +information, "the late Earl of Jura's daughter, you know--and my +_fiancée_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +"SALLIE HARRIS" + + +Sallie's first startled impulse was to deny the new identity Slyne had +so glibly bestowed on her. It seemed too preposterous to be believable; +and she was very suspicious of him. A little flushed, more than a little +afraid, and yet in some sense convinced in spite of herself by the +outward and visible signs about her that all these strange happenings +must have at least some foundation of fact, she sought to read the +others' thoughts in their faces. + +The Marquis of Ingoldsby was gaping at her, in open wonder and +admiration. Slyne's features wore a subdued expression of triumph, and +Captain Dove's a dazed, incredulous frown. Mr. Jobling was beaming about +him, so apparently satisfied with her, so respectably prosperous-looking +himself that her doubts as to Slyne's good faith began to give way. When +the lawyer was in turn presented to her and also addressed her by that +new name, she could scarcely disclaim it. + +"You'll stay and have luncheon with us, Lord Ingoldsby?" Slyne remarked, +touching the bell; and his lordship left off gaping at Sallie to look +him over with all the solemn sagacity of a young owl in broad daylight. + +"Er--all right," his lordship at length agreed. "Don't mind if I do. + +"Though I have some--er--friends waitin' for me," he added as an +afterthought, "that I promised to take for a run in your car, if--" + +"You'll have time enough after lunch," Slyne suggested, and drew the +noble marquis toward the window. + +"The Marquis of Ingoldsby!" muttered Captain Dove. "A run in Slyne's +car! And--_Lady Josceline Justice!_" He dug his knuckles forcibly into +his blinking eyes, and, "I seem to be wide enough awake," said he in a +stage aside as several waiters arrived on the scene. + +While they were setting the table Sallie tried to collect her thoughts. +Slyne had told her nothing till then, but that he had found out who her +folk were. And she had come away from the _Olive Branch_ blindly, only a +little less distrustful of him than of Captain Dove's cruel intentions +toward her if she had remained on board. Even now, she scarcely dared to +believe-- + +In response to a sign from Slyne she took her place at the flower-decked +table. The Marquis of Ingoldsby immediately settled himself at her side; +he also was obviously a young man who knew what he wanted, and meant to +have that at all hazards and, while the others were seating themselves, +he ogled her killingly. + +Slyne had sat down at her other hand, leaving Mr. Jobling and Captain +Dove to keep one another company behind the great silver centre-piece +which adorned the circular table. The marquis, leaning on one elbow, had +turned his back on Mr. Jobling, and Slyne turned his on Captain Dove. + +"This is a little bit of all right!" his lordship remarked to Sallie, +with a confidential grin. "Only--I wish--How is it that we haven't met +before, Lady Josephine? But never mind that. Let's be pals now. Shall +we, eh?" + +"I don't know," Sallie answered at random and since he seemed to expect +some reply to that fatuity. She had met a good many men in her time, but +never one quite like this Lord Ingoldsby--who actually seemed anxious to +look and act like a cunning fool. + +A waiter intervened between them. But his lordship waved that +functionary away. + +"Do let's," he implored with child-like insistence. "It would be so +deevy to be pals with you. And I'm beastly dull here, all by myself, +don't y'know. So-- + +"Eh?" He glared at Slyne, who had bluntly interrupted his _tête-à-tête_. +"No, I _don't_ want any oysters--I told that waiter-chap so. And I +_don't_ know any 'lady of the camellias.' I can't imagine what you're +talkin' about at all, I'm sure." + +"I saw her again last night, at the Casino," said Slyne, imperturbably, +and went on to entertain Sallie with a long if not over-truthful account +of his own over-night's doings there. So that, for all his lordship's +lack of manners, it was some time before that spoiled youth again +succeeded in monopolising her attention. At every turn Slyne was ready +to balk him, and, but for his native self-conceit coupled with a certain +blind obstinacy, he must very soon have understood what was perfectly +plain to Sallie, that he was there merely on sufferance, to serve some +purpose of Slyne's. + +"Goin' to be here long, Lady Josephine?" he managed to break in at last. +Slyne had turned to give a departing waiter some order. + +"I don't know," Sallie answered again, since she could say nothing else. + +"Hope to goodness you are," declared his lordship. "Stay for a week or +two, anyhow: and,"--he lowered his voice to a husky whisper, leaning +toward her--"let _me_ trot you about a bit, eh? You'll maybe see more +than enough of _him_ by and by!" He indicated Slyne with an eloquent +elbow, and further expressed his sentiments by means of an ardent sigh. + +Beyond the blossom-laden épergne, Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove, almost +cut off from other intercourse by that barrier, were exchanging coldly +critical glances. Neither seemed to be quite at his ease with the other, +and both had, of course, a great many urgent questions to put to Slyne +as soon as the Marquis of Ingoldsby should be gone. So that the +luncheon-party must have proved a very dull affair to them, and they +were no doubt glad when it was over. + +Slyne signalled to Sallie as soon as coffee was served, and she rose to +leave the room. She was quite accustomed to being promptly dispensed +with whenever her company might have been inconvenient. + +"Oh, I say!" protested Lord Ingoldsby. "You're not goin' yet, Lady J. +Half a mo'. Won't you come for a spin with me now that the car's mine? +Just say the word and I'll drop my other engagement. And then we could +dine at--" + +"Lady Josceline will be engaged with her lawyer all afternoon," Slyne +cut him short with the utmost coolness, "and she's leaving Monte Carlo +again to-night." + +The Marquis of Ingoldsby glowered at him. + +"I'll see you in Paris, then, Lady J.," he went on, pointedly ignoring +Slyne, "or in London, at least, later on. Well, good-bye--if you must be +goin'." + +He bowed her out of the room, and then, snatching up his hat and cane +with very visible annoyance, included the others in a curt nod of +farewell and made off himself. + +He passed her before she had closed her own door--and would gladly have +paused there. + +"You won't forget me, will you?" she heard him ask eagerly from behind +her. But she did not delay to answer that question. + +A few minutes later, Slyne knocked at her door and entered, followed by +the other two men. He had brought with him the papers which Mr. Jobling +had prepared. Mr. Jobling carried an inkstand, and Captain Dove a +decanter of brandy. Slyne seated himself at the table and waved Sallie +back to her chair by the window. + +"We're going to talk business for a few minutes," he told her, "and then +get everything settled in writing--to keep you safe. + +"Fire ahead now, Dove. You want to know--" + +"Is Sallie really--" + +"_I_ don't know anyone of that name now. D'you mean Lady Josceline?" + +Captain Dove glared at him, and then at the lawyer, and then at Sallie +herself. + +"Is that really who I am now, Jasper?" she asked, a most wistful +inflection in her low voice. + +"You needn't believe _me_," he answered her. "Ask Mr. Jobling. He'll +tell you." + +Mr. Jobling coughed importantly. "I'll tell you all I know myself, Lady +Josceline," he promised her, and proceeded to repeat in part what he had +told Slyne on the terrace the night before concerning the Jura family, +but without a single word of the fortune awaiting the next of kin. +Captain Dove's face expressed the extreme of astonishment as he too sat +listening with the closest attention. + +"That's as far as my present knowledge goes," the lawyer finished +blandly. "And now--I understand that Captain Dove is prepared to supply +the proof required in conclusion. + +"How long have you known Lady Josceline, Captain Dove?" + +Captain Dove frowned as if in deep thought, and Slyne looked very +crossly at him. + +"About three quarters of an hour," the old man answered, and, glancing +at Slyne, chuckled hoarsely. "She's only been Lady Josceline for so +long." + +Mr. Jobling nodded understanding and the creases on his fleshy forehead +disappeared again. + +"And before that--?" he suggested, politely patient. + +"Before that she was--what she still is so far's I'm concerned--Saleh +Harez, my adopted daughter." + +"Sallie--_Harris!_" Mr. Jobling ejaculated. "Dear me! Did you say +Sallie--er--Harris?" + +"I said Saleh Harez," affirmed Captain Dove, and filled the glass at his +elbow again. "But all that concerns you, so far's I can see, is that +I've known her ever since she was knee-high to me. I've been a father to +her all those years, and she's my adopted daughter. So now, you can take +it from me, Mr. Jobling, that I'm the joker, and both bowers too, in +this merry little game." + +"Which makes it all the more unfortunate for you that you haven't a +single penny to stake on your hand," Slyne put in, while the lawyer +looked somewhat blankly from one to the other of them. "So--don't waste +any more time bluffing, but tell Jobling how you found Sal--Lady +Josceline." + +Captain Dove darted a very evil look at his friendly adviser. "And what +if I refuse?" he asked. + +Slyne almost smiled. "Why cut off your own nose to spite your face?" he +returned. "You won't refuse, because it would cost you a hundred +thousand dollars to do so." + +Captain Dove stroked his chin contemplatively, and his face slowly +cleared. + +"A hundred and fifty thousand, you mean," he said in a most malevolent +tone. + +Slyne got up from the table as if in anger, and for some time the two +wrangled over that point, the stout solicitor gazing at them with +evident dismay, while Sallie awaited the upshot of it all with bated +breath. She knew it was over the price to be paid for her that they were +disputing, but that knowledge had ceased to be any novelty. The wrathful +voices of the two disputants seemed to come from a great distance. She +felt as if the whole affair were a dream from which she might at any +moment awake on board the _Olive Branch_ again. + +"There isn't money enough in it to pay you so much for a mere +affidavit," she heard Slyne say, and Mr. Jobling, under his glance, +confirmed that statement emphatically. + +"A hundred and twenty-one thousand is the last limit--a thousand down, +to bind the bargain, and the balance the day of my wedding with Sallie," +Slyne declared. "If that doesn't satisfy you--there's nothing more to be +said. And I'll maybe find other means--" + +"Show me even the first thousand," requested Captain Dove, and Slyne +counted out on to the table, at a safe distance from the old man's +twitching fingers, five thousand francs of the amount Lord Ingoldsby had +paid him for his car. + +"All right," said Captain Dove gruffly, and snatched at the notes. But +Slyne picked them up again. + +"As soon as you've given Jobling your statement," he said, "and signed +whatever other documents he may think necessary, I'll hand you these and +my note of hand, endorsed by him, for the balance remaining due you." + +Mr. Jobling picked up a pen and Slyne pushed a sheet of foolscap toward +him. Captain Dove, with a grunt of disgust, sat back in his chair and, +while the lawyer wrote rapidly, related how he had found Sallie. + +When he had finished, Mr. Jobling read his statement over aloud, and +chuckled ecstatically. His own eyes were shining. + +"That settles it, Lady Josceline," said he triumphantly, turning to +Sallie. "I'll stake my professional reputation on your identity now. You +need have no further doubt--" + +"And just to clinch the matter," growled Captain Dove, "you'd better add +this to your affidavy:--The clothes the kid was wearing when I fetched +her off that dhow were all marked with the moniker 'J. J.' and some sort +of crest. But--they were all lost when the ship I commanded then +was--went down at sea." + +Mr. Jobling groaned. "How _very_ unfortunate!" he remarked before he +resumed his writing. And Slyne stared fixedly at the old man until the +lawyer had finished. + +"Now," said Mr. Jobling, adjusting his pince-nez and beaming about him +again, "we can call in a couple of witnesses and--" + +"We'll witness each other's signatures." Slyne disagreed. "Better not +bring in any outsiders." + +The stout solicitor frowned over that, but finally nodded concurrence. +And Captain Dove took the pen from him, only to hand it to Slyne. + +"Gimme my thousand dollars and your joint note for the balance first," +he requested unamiably. + +Slyne signed the new note Mr. Jobling pushed across the table, and Mr. +Jobling endorsed it. Captain Dove read it over carefully before he +pocketed it, and also counted with great caution the bills Slyne tossed +to him. Then he in his turn signed, without reading it, the statement +the lawyer had drawn up from his dictation, and the more lengthy +agreement between Sallie and Jasper Slyne. + +Slyne and Jobling added their names to that, and Slyne attached his +careful signature to a promise to pay the solicitor the percentage +agreed upon. Captain Dove witnessed it and then called Sallie from her +seat in the window-alcove, and she came forward with anxious eyes, to +fulfil the undertaking she had finally had to give Jasper Slyne as the +price of his help in her most unhappy predicament. + +She did not know--nor did she greatly care then--what was contained in +the contract he laid before her without a word. She took from him +without demur the pen he held out to her. She had promised to do all he +told her and give him whatever he asked--except, for the present, +herself. + +"Sign 'Josceline Justice' at the foot of each page," he said gently, and +she did so without a word. For she would not for all the world contained +have broken any promise she had given. Then Mr. Jobling desired her to +witness the two other men's signatures. + +As she handed him back the pen she had a final question to ask him. + +"You said my father and mother are both dead, and my step-brother too. +Is there no one else--" + +"No one you need worry about in the least," he assured her, +misunderstanding. "There was a beggarly American who lodged a claim to +the title and--to the title; his name was Carthew, I think--yes, Justin +Carthew. But even if I--if he hadn't gone and got lost while looking for +you, his claim would be quite ineffectual now. You're your father's +daughter, Lady Josceline. Justin Carthew was a dozen or more degrees +removed from the trunk of your family tree. He had only the faintest +tinge of blue blood in his veins. He was an absolute outsider. We'll +hear no more about _him_ now." + +"You mean that it's an absolutely sure thing for her," Captain Dove +suggested, and Mr. Jobling looked pained. + +"I can't afford to risk anything on uncertainties, sir," he answered +stiffly. "And I'll stake my professional reputation on--" + +"Oh, never mind about all that," Slyne broke in, folding his share of +the papers together and pocketing them. "The syndicate's safely floated. +And now--as to our next move. + +"You'd better get away back to Genoa by the five o'clock train, Dove. +And you must take Ambrizette with you; I'll get Sal--Lady Josceline +another maid in Paris--one who won't attract quite so much attention to +us as that damned dwarf would. + +"Jobling and I will go on there by the night-mail, on our way to London +with--Lady Josceline. You can take the _Olive Branch_ round to some safe +English port and lay her up there in the meantime. As soon as you land, +you can rejoin us--at Jobling's address. By that time we'll probably be +ready to redeem our note to you." + +"By that time," Captain Dove returned with concentrated bitterness, +"you'll have found some way to give me the slip altogether. D'ye take me +for a blind idiot, Slyne? D'ye think I'm going to let Sallie out of my +sight, with you?" + +Slyne was visibly disconcerted. "But--aren't you going to take your ship +round to England?" he asked, in genuine surprise. "You can't very well +leave her lying in Genoa!" + +"I'll attend to my own end of the business," said Captain Dove with +angry decision. "If you're going to London by train to-night, so am I. +If you like to come back on board with me, I'll sail you round. But I'm +not the only man on the _Olive Branch_ who can sail a ship. Why, I've +half a dozen broken captains--and most of 'em with extra masters' +certificates, too--among my crew. + +"I've left Brasse and Da Costa in charge, and they'll work her across +the Bay if I tell them to. I've only to send them a wire. And all you +have to do now is to say which way you want to travel--with me; for I'm +going to stick to you like a leech till the day you pay me off." + +Slyne walked to the window, humming a tune. But it was obviously costing +him all of his refreshed fortitude to refrain from expressing his real +sentiments toward Captain Dove. His face, as he stood glaring blindly +out at the beautiful scene before him, was like that of a wild beast +balked of its fair prey. But from between his bared, set teeth the +careless hum came unbroken. + +"I think you're foolish," was all he said when he turned again, +convinced that it would be a waste of time to argue the matter with the +old man, "but--suit yourself. Jobling and I _must_ get to London with +Sal--Lady Josceline at the earliest possible moment. If you insist on +travelling with us to-night--so be it. All I want you to understand is +that there's to be no more drinking, and that you must be advised by me +in every other particular. This isn't really the sort of game you're +liable to shine in. It would be far better for all of us if you'd stay +on board your ship." + +Captain Dove's weather-beaten countenance was turning slowly purple. He +was striving after speech. Slyne, outwardly cool and contemptuous of his +visible fury, stood gazing down at him, hands in pockets. Mr. Jobling +was wriggling restlessly in his chair, glancing from one to the other, +prepared to flee from the coming storm. + +Still without a word, Captain Dove reached again for the +brandy-decanter, directly defying Slyne. Slyne stepped forward and +snatched it out of his hand. + +Simultaneously, the old man and Mr. Jobling sprang from their seats, the +former making for Slyne and the latter for the door, which opened just +as he reached it, so that he all but fell over a boy in buttons who had +knocked and entered carrying a telegram on a tray. + +Slyne had not moved. Captain Dove, almost at his throat, spun round on +one heel. + +"For me?" Mr. Jobling exclaimed anxiously as he ripped the envelope +open. And a slow pallor overspread his puffy pink features while he was +perusing its contents. + +"From Mullins, my managing clerk," he mumbled as he passed the message +to Slyne, who looked it over indifferently, and then re-read it aloud in +a low but very ominous voice: "'_American claimant landed at Genoa +yesterday. Now on way to London. Court granted decree in his favour._' +Handed in at Chancery Lane, in London,"--he pulled out his watch--"fifty +minutes ago." + +The page-boy had disappeared. Slyne pushed suddenly past Mr. Jobling and +set his back against the door. Captain Dove was approaching the +terrified solicitor softly, on tiptoe, his fists clenched, all his +tobacco-stained fangs displayed in a grin of fury. One of his long arms +shot out just as the door opened behind Slyne's back and a voice +announced: + +"M. Dubois." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE LAW--AND THE PROFITS + + +Sallie saw how Jasper Slyne's face blanched at sight of that very +untimely intruder, whose keen eyes seemed to take in the situation there +at a glance. + +Mr. Jobling had fallen backward into a convenient armchair and, with +both hands clapped to his nose, was moaning most piteously. Captain Dove +was standing over him, with features inflamed, in a very bellicose +posture and glaring at the new-comer, toward whom Slyne had turned +inquiringly. + +"You're--looking for some one, M. Dubois?" Slyne asked, in a tone of +polite surprise, which, Sallie knew, was assumed. + +"A thousand pardons," returned that individual. "I am indeed looking for +some one--whom I thought to find here. I had no intention, however, of +intruding upon a lady--" He bowed profusely to Sallie. "It may be," he +suggested, "that I have mistaken the number. Is not this the suite 161?" + +"One hundred and sixty," Slyne told him, and evidently did not think it +worth while to add that the next suite was his own. + +"A thousand pardons," repeated M. Dubois, very penitently. "I am too +stupid! But mademoiselle will perhaps be so gracious as to forgive me +this time." + +He bowed to Sallie again and to Slyne, and disappeared, sharply scanning +the latter's face to the last. + +"Who's that son of a sea-cook?" snapped Captain Dove, and Mr. Jobling +looked wanly up out of one eye. + +"A French detective," Slyne answered reflectively. But Sallie felt sure +that he was afraid of M. Dubois, and wondered why. + +"Well, he has nothing against me that I'm aware of," the old man +declared. "And now--what about this wire? Does it mean that some other +fellow has scooped the pool--and that I've had all my trouble for +nothing, eh?" He clenched his fist again and shook it in the lawyer's +face. + +"No, no," gasped Mr. Jobling. "Don't be so hasty. It makes no difference +at all, now that we have Lady Josceline with us. I told you that the +American, Carthew, is of no account against her--and how he has ever +cropped up again I can't conceive. In any case--" + +"In any case, you'd better be off to your room and ring for a bit of +beefsteak to doctor that eye with," Slyne interposed in a tone of +intense annoyance. + +"And I wish to goodness, Dove!" he added savagely, "that you would +behave a little more like a reasonable human being and less--" + +"Less of your lip, now!" snarled the old man. "And _don't_ keep on +saying that. Just take it from me again, both of you, that you'd better +not be so slow again in telling me--" + +"You didn't give me time," Mr. Jobling protested. + +Slyne opened the door. "Come on," he urged. "You've got to get your kit +packed, Jobling. We'll be leaving before very long now." + +"Have you made up your mind to come with us, Dove?" + +Captain Dove nodded, most emphatically. "I'll send word to Brasse and Da +Costa at once," he remarked, "and then I'll be ready to start whenever +you are." + +He left the room after Mr. Jobling, and Slyne, in the doorway, looked +back at Sallie, the reassuring smile on his lips belied by his cold, +calculating eyes. + +"And how about you, Sallie?" he asked. "Have you made up your mind? Are +you satisfied--so far? Or--would you rather go back to the _Olive +Branch_? + +"If you would--I'll let you off your promise, even now! And don't forget +that this will be your last chance to recall it." + +"You know I can't go back to the _Olive Branch_, Jasper," she answered +slowly. "But--" + +He did not give her time to say more. "That's settled for good, then," +he asserted. "Your promise stands, and I know you'll keep it when the +time comes--after I've done my part. + +"I'm only sorry I haven't been able to get rid of Captain Dove right +away, but it won't be long now till--You needn't worry any more about +him. I'll see that he behaves better. + +"If there's anything else I can do for your comfort, you must let me +know. And now, I'll leave you to your own devices until it's time to +start on our travels. Better get a rest while you can, eh? We've a very +busy week ahead of us." + +She saw that he did not intend to tell her any more in the meantime, and +was glad to see him go. Then she called Ambrizette in for company, and +sat down by the window again, to try to sort out for herself the +bewildering tangle that life had once more become within a few hours. + +Gazing out across the familiar sea with wistful, far-away eyes, she +mused for a time over what Captain Dove had told Mr. Jobling of her +history, and strove to piece together with that all she herself could +recall of that dim and always more mysterious past out of which she had +come to be Captain Dove's property, bought and paid for, at a high +price, as he had repeated several times. + +Her own earliest vague, disconnected, ineffectual memories were all of +some dark, savage mountain-country; of endless days of travel; of +camp-fires in the cold, and hungry camels squealing for fodder; of the +fragrant cinnamon-smell of the steam that came from the cooking-pots. + +Before, or, it might have been, after that, she had surely lived on some +seashore, in a shimmering white village with narrow, crooked lanes for +streets and little flat-roofed houses huddled together among hot +sandhills where the _suddra_ grew and lean goats bleated always for +their kids. + +Then, as if in a very vexing dream, she could almost but never quite +see, through the thickening mist of the years, once-familiar +faces--white men, with swords, in ragged uniforms, and big brown ones +with wicked eyes and long, thin guns, glaring down at her over a high +wall, through smoke and fire, and fighting, and the acrid reek of +powder.... + +And there remembrance grew blank altogether, until it connected with +Captain Dove, on the deck of a slaving-dhow far out of sight of any +land. She had been only a little child when he had carried her up the +side of his own ship in his arms, while she laughed gleefully in his +face and pulled at his shaggy moustache, but she could still remember +some of the incidents of that day. + +She had lived on board his successive ships ever since. And ever since, +until recently, he had always been very good to her, in his own queer, +gruff way. He had always treated her as though she were a child of his +own, shielding her, in so far as he could, from even the knowledge of +all the evil which he had done up and down the world. She had grown up +in the belief that his despotic guardianship was altogether for her good +and not to be disputed. + +But now--she was no longer a child. And all her old, unquestioning faith +in his inherent good intentions, toward her at least, was finally +shattered. She knew now that he really looked upon her as a mere +chattel, with a cash value--just as if she had been one of the hapless +cargo of human cattle confined in the pestiferous hold of the dhow on +whose deck he had found her at play. She knew now that he had bought and +paid for them as well as her, and sold them again at a fat profit, far +across the seas--all but the dumb, deformed black woman whom he had +picked from among them to act as her nurse. + +And if it did not occur to her to question either his power or his +perfect right to dispose of her future also as he might see fit, had not +all her experience gone to prove that might is right everywhere, that +law and justice are merely additional pretexts devised by the strong for +oppressing the weak? She had had to choose between remaining on board +the _Olive Branch_, or paying Jasper Slyne his price for the chance of +escape he had offered her in pursuance of his own aims. + +She disliked and distrusted Slyne scarcely less than before. But she did +not see how she could have chosen otherwise. And, in any case,--it was +too late now to revoke the promise she had made him. + +She was still afraid to place any faith in the promises he had made +her. She had no idea how he had come at his alleged discovery of her +real identity. But Mr. Jobling's obvious belief in that recurred to her +mind, and she fell to wondering timidly what life would be like as Lady +Josceline Justice. + +Her impressions on that point were very hazy, however, and she had still +to puzzle out the problem added by Justin Carthew. But she finally gave +up the attempt to solve that at the moment, contenting herself with the +tremulous hope that she might soon be on her way toward that dear, +unknown, dream-home for which her hungry heart had so often ached. + +Of the exorbitant price so soon to be paid for the brief glimpse of +happiness Slyne had agreed to allow her, she took no further thought at +all. She had already made up her mind to meet that without complaint. + +An hour or more later, when Slyne looked in to tell her that it was time +to start, she was still seated at the window, gazing out over the +steel-grey sea with wistful, far-away eyes. + +At his instigation she veiled herself very closely. And he had brought +with him a hooded cloak for Ambrizette. No one took any particular +notice of the inconspicuous party which presently left the Hôtel de +Paris in a hired car, as if for an excursion along the coast. + +At a station fifty miles away they left the car and caught the +night-mail for Paris. Slyne's baggage was on board it, in the care of a +sullen chauffeur, and there were also berths reserved for them all. + +"Did you see any more of Dubois?" Sallie heard Slyne ask the man, who +shook his head indifferently in reply. + +The long night-journey passed without other incident than a dispute +between Captain Dove and the sleeping-car attendant, which raged until +Slyne threatened to have the train stopped at the next station and send +for the police. And the sun was shining brightly when they reached +Paris. + +Mr. Jobling went straight on to London, but Slyne took Sallie and +Captain Dove to a quiet but expensive hotel, where they remained for a +few days, which passed in a perfect whirl of novelty and excitement for +her. And when they in their turn crossed the Channel, she had for +baggage at least a dozen new trunks containing the choicest spoils of +the Rue de la Paix. Slyne had pooh-poohed all her timid protests against +his lavish expenditure on her account, and had also provided for Captain +Dove and Ambrizette in their degree. He had evidently a fortune at his +disposal, and was bent on showing her how generous he could be. + +He was also unostentatiously displaying other good qualities which had +all gone to make those days pass very pleasantly for her. She could not +fail to appreciate the courtesy and consideration which he consistently +showed her now. His patience with Captain Dove, a trying companion at +the best of times and doubly troublesome idle, more than once made her +wonder whether he could be the same Jasper Slyne she had known on the +_Olive Branch_. Prosperity seemed to have improved him almost beyond +recognition. + +He had a cabin at her disposal on the Calais-Dover steamer but she +stayed on deck throughout the brief passage, glad to breathe the salt +sea-air again, while he entertained her with descriptions of London and +she watched the twinkling lights that were guiding her home. + +And then came London itself, at last, somewhat grey, and cold, and +disconsolate-looking on a wet winter morning. + +But after breakfast in a cosy suite at the Savoy, a blink of sunshine +along the Embankment helped to better that first hasty impression. And +then Slyne took Captain Dove and her in a taxicab along the thronged and +bustling Strand to Mr. Jobling's office in Chancery Lane. + +They got out in front of a dingy building not very far from Cursitor +Street. It was raining again, and Sallie, looking up and down the +narrow, turbid thoroughfare, felt glad that she did not need to live +there. + +Indoors, the atmosphere was scarcely less depressing. A dismal passage +led toward a dark stairway, up which they had to climb flight after +flight to reach at last a dusty, ill-smelling, gas-lighted room, +inhabited only by a shabby, shock-headed hobbledehoy of uncertain age +and unprepossessing appearance, perched on a preposterously high stool +at a still higher desk, behind a cage-like partition. + +"I want to see Mr. Jobling, at once," Slyne announced to him. And Mr. +Jobling's "managing clerk" looked slowly round, with a snake-like and +disconcerting effect due to a very long neck and a very low collar. + +"Show Mr. Slyne in immediately, Mullins," ordered a pompous voice from +within; and Mr. Jobling himself, a blackcoated, portly, important +personage there, came bustling out from his private office to welcome +his visitors. + +"How d'ye do, how d'ye do, Lady Josceline!" he exclaimed, and cocked an +arch eyebrow at Sallie's most becoming costume; although the effect he +intended was somewhat impaired by the fact that he was still suffering +from a black eye, painted over in haste--and by an incompetent artist. + +"I can see now what's been keeping _you_ in Paris!" he added +facetiously, and, having shaken hands with Slyne, who seemed to think +that superfluous, turned to receive Captain Dove with the same +politeness. + +"Phew!" whistled Mr. Jobling and drew back and stared at the old man. +"I'd _never_ have recognised you in that rig-out." + +Captain Dove pulled off a pair of smoked glasses he had been wearing, +the better to look him, with offensive intent, in his injured eye. For +Captain Dove was still enduring much mental as well as physical +discomfort in a disguise which he had only been induced to adopt a +couple of days before, and after an embittered quarrel with Slyne. The +stiff white collar round his corded neck was still threatening to choke +him and then cut his throat. He had been infinitely more at his ease in +his scanty, short-tailed frock-coat and furry top-hat than he was in the +somewhat baggy if more becoming black garb he had donned in its place, +with a soft wide-awake always flapping about his ears. + +"Come inside," Mr. Jobling begged hurriedly, and, looking round as he +followed them into his sanctum, "Mullins!" he snapped, "don't stand +there staring. Get on with your work, at once. + +"You're later than I expected," he remarked to Slyne as he closed the +door, "but just in time. The Court's closed, of course, for the +Christmas vacation, but I've filed an application for a hearing in +Chambers, and--" + +He paused as a telephone-bell rang shrilly outside, and a moment later +the shock head of his "managing clerk" protruded into the room, almost +as if it did not belong to a body at all. + +"Mr. Spettigrew says that our application in Chambers will be heard by +Mr. Justice Gaunt, in 57B, at eleven-thirty sharp this forenoon," +announced that youth and, with a final wriggle of his long neck, +withdrew. + +"Devil take him!" exclaimed Captain Dove, somewhat startled and much +incensed. "I wouldn't keep a crested cobra like that about me for--" + +"Let's see those accounts of yours, now," said Slyne, disregarding that +interruption, and Mr. Jobling, having first looked at his watch, +produced from another drawer a great sheaf of papers, all carefully +docketed. He slipped off the top one and somewhat reluctantly handed +that to his friend. + +Slyne took it from him eagerly, and sat for a time gloating over it with +eyes which presently began to glow. + +But when Captain Dove, growing restless, would have glanced over his +shoulder to see what was tickling his fancy so, he frowned and folded +that document up and returned it to Mr. Jobling. + +"Give it here, now!" growled Captain Dove, menacing Mr. Jobling with a +clenched fist; and the lawyer, after an appealing, impotent glance at +Slyne, had no recourse but to comply with that peremptory order. + +"Are you quite sure of your figures?" Slyne asked, with a scowl. He +seemed conscious that he, in his haste, had made a false step. And Mr. +Jobling nodded with nervous assurance. + +"I have inside sources of information as to the revenue of the estates," +he replied, "and a note of all the investments. I've allowed a wide +margin for all sorts of incidentals. I think you'll find, in fact, that +Lady Josceline's inheritance will amount to even more than I've +estimated." + +Slyne smiled again, more contentedly. Nor was his complaisance overcome +even when Mr. Jobling put to him a half-whispered petition for a +further small cash advance to account of expenses. + +"I wasn't even able to pay Mullins' wages with what you gave me in +Paris," said the stout solicitor vexedly. "Fees and so on swallowed it +all up, and--I'm actually short of cab-fares!" + +"Why don't you fire Mullins, then?" demanded Slyne with a shade of +impatience. "I've just got rid of my chauffeur because he was costing me +more than he was worth." + +"But I can't afford to get rid of Mullins. Just at the moment he's very +useful to me. It would create a bad impression if I had to run my own +errands. And--the fact is, he knows far too much. I'll pay him off and +shut his mouth by and by, when I have more time to attend to such +matters." + +"How much do you want?" Slyne inquired with a frown evidently meant to +warn his friend to be modest. + +"Can you spare twenty pounds--to go on with?" + +Slyne hesitated, but only for a few seconds. Then he pulled out a +pocket-book and surreptitiously passed that sum to the penniless man of +law, who accepted it with no more than a nod of thanks. + +"I'll pay Mullins now," he remarked, and immediately hurried out of the +room. Captain Dove was gasping for breath and showed every other symptom +of a forthcoming explosion. + +As soon as the door shut behind him, the old man gave open vent to his +wrath. And a most furious quarrel followed between Slyne and him. +Sallie, too, learned then, for the first time, of the vast inheritance +which would be hers, of Slyne's cunning plan to buy Captain Dove out for +a mere pittance, and how he himself expected to profit through marrying +her. + +But she was not overwhelmed with surprise by that belated discovery. She +had almost anticipated the final disclosure of some such latent motive +behind all Slyne's professions to her. The only difference it might make +would be to Captain Dove. Slyne and he were still snarling at each other +when Mr. Jobling walked jauntily in again. But at sight of him Captain +Dove began to subside. + +"We mustn't be late. Mr. Spettigrew will be expecting us now. I've sent +Mullins on ahead with my papers," observed Mr. Jobling breezily, and +went on to explain that Mr. Justice Gaunt, by nature a somewhat +cross-grained old limb of the law, had been very ill-pleased over being +bothered again, and at a moment when most of his colleagues were +enjoying a holiday, about any such apparently endless case as that of +the Jura succession, which had been cropping up before him, at more or +less lengthy intervals, for quite a number of years, and concerning +which he had, only a few days before, made an order of court in favour +of Justin Carthew. + +Captain Dove clapped his soft felt hat on his head with a very +devil-may-care expression. + +"Come on, then," said he grimly, and Mr. Jobling was not slow to lead +the way. So that they reached Mr. Justice Gaunt's chambers punctually at +the hour appointed, and were ushered into his lordship's presence by Mr. +Spettigrew, the learned counsel retained by Mr. Jobling on Sallie's +behalf, a long, lifeless-looking gentleman in a wig and gown and +spectacles. And his lordship smiled very pleasantly as Sallie raised her +heavy veil at counsel's crafty request. + +"Pray be seated, my dear young lady," his lordship begged with fatherly, +old-fashioned kindness, and indicated a chair meant for counsel, much +nearer his own than the rest. Nor did he often take his eyes from her +face throughout the course of a long and convincing dissertation by Mr. +Spettigrew, on her past history, present position in life, and claims on +the future, with some reference to the rival claims of Mr. Justin +Carthew. + +"And I have full proof to place before you, at once, if you wish it, +m'lud," concluded Mr. Spettigrew in his most professional drone, "in +support of the fact that the lady before you is the lawful daughter of +the late earl and the countess, his second wife, who died in the desert. +Mr. Justin Carthew, on the other hand, is related to the family in a +very different and distant degree, and there are, as y'r ludship has +been good enough to agree, no other survivors. + +"I beg leave now to request that y'r ludship will rescind the authority +granted to Mr. Justin Carthew, and admit my client's petition _ad +referendum_." + +"Produce your proofs," ordered his lordship, and Mr. Spettigrew +extracted from a capacious black bag a pile of papers at which Mr. +Justice Gaunt looked with no little disgust. + +"What are they, in chief?" asked Mr. Justice Gaunt, turning over page +after page of closely written law-script, as gingerly as if he believed +that one might perhaps explode and blow him to pieces. And Mr. +Spettigrew launched forth again into a long list of certificates, +records, researches, findings, orders of court, sworn statements and +affidavits, by Captain Dove--"Then trading in his own ship, m'lud, now +retired and devoting his time to mission-work among deep-sea sailors;" +by Mr. Jasper Slyne, gentleman; by Mr. Jobling, whom he did not pause +to describe; by a couple of dozen other people, living or dead, at home +or abroad; all in due legal form and not to be controverted. + +"I think you'll find them in perfect order, and absolutely conclusive, +m'lud," counsel came to a finish triumphantly, and sat down, greatly to +the relief of all present. + +"H'm!" said his lordship, still gravely regarding Sallie: whose eyes had +nothing to conceal from him. "And so this is the long-lost Lady +Josceline!" + +His searching glance travelled slowly to Captain Dove's face, and then +to Slyne's; both of whom met it without winking, although Captain Dove +was no doubt glad of the protection of his smoked glasses. + +"I'll have to go through the proofs, of course," said his lordship +reflectively and let his gaze rest on Sallie again. "But--if +everything's as you say, I don't think it will be long before Lady +Josceline finds herself in full enjoyment of all her rights and +privileges. If everything's as you say, I'll do whatever lies in my +power to expedite matters; I think I can promise you that the case will +be called immediately the vacation is over. Meanwhile, however, and till +I have looked through the proofs, I can make no further order." + +He rose, and they also got up from their chairs as he came round from +behind his desk and confronted Sallie, a tall, stooping old man with a +wrinkled face and tired but kindly eyes. + +She looked up into them frankly, and he laid a hand on her shoulder. + +"Yours has been a very sad history so far, my dear young lady," he said, +his head on one side, still studying her. "I hope it will be all the +brighter henceforth. I knew--the last Earl of Jura--when we were both +young men--before he married. You remind me of him, as he was then, in +many respects. Good day to you now; my time here is not my own, you +know. But some day, perhaps you will allow me to pay my respects to +you--at Justicehall, since we're to be neighbours; my own home isn't +very far from yours." + +Outside in the corridor, Mr. Jobling shook hands rapturously with every +one, even with Captain Dove. + +"We've turned the trick already," he declared. "You heard what his +lordship said. With him on our side, the whole thing's as good as +settled. All we have to do now is to wait until the Courts take up again +and confirm--" + +"How long will that be?" Slyne inquired. He, too, was smiling +ecstatically. + +"Not much more than a fortnight," the lawyer informed him. "It will soon +pass. We must just be patient." + +"We must keep very quiet, too," said Slyne, "unless we want to give the +whole show away to the enemy in advance. We must clear off out of London +till then. I'll tell you what, Jobling! Why shouldn't we all go down to +Scotland to-night?" + +Mr. Jobling nodded agreement. "An excellent idea," he declared. "There's +nothing to keep us here." + +"That's settled, then," Slyne asserted. "And we'll all dine together at +the Savoy before we start. I think we can afford to celebrate the +occasion, eh! And I want to show Lady Josceline a few of her future +friends." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"PLEASURES AND PALACES" + + +The Duchess of Dawn was dining a number of notabilities at the Savoy, on +her way to a command performance at the Gaiety; a fact of which the +fashionable world was well aware, because the young duchess is a great +lady in London as well as elsewhere, and all her doings are chronicled +in advance. The fashionable world had promptly decided to dine there +too, and telephoned in breathless haste for tables. It filled the +restaurant at an unusually early hour, and a disappointed overflow +displayed itself in the _foyer_. + +The Duchess of Dawn is one of the most beautiful women in England. The +eyes of the fashionable world were focussed on her and her guests, among +whom were a minor European prince and a famous field-marshal who had not +been on show in London for long, until there appeared from the crowded +_foyer_, upon the arm of an old-young man of distinguished appearance +and faultless _tenue_, a tall, slender girl, at whom, as she passed, +every one turned to gaze, with undisguised admiration or envy, according +to sex and temperament. + +She was gowned to distraction, and by an artist in women's wear. Her +beautiful bare arms and shoulders and bosom were free of superfluous +ornament. Her pure, proud, sensitive features were faintly flushed,--as +though, if that were conceivable, she was wearing evening dress for the +first time, and found it trying,--but her curved crimson lips were +slightly parted in a most bewitching smile, and, from under their +drooping lashes, her radiant eyes looked a demure, amused, impersonal +defiance at the frankly curious faces upturned toward her. The shaded +lights made most enchanting lights and shadows among her hair, red-gold +and heaped about her head in heavy coils, as she moved modestly through +the thronged room toward a corner where, about a beautifully decorated +table, four motionless waiters were standing guard over four empty +chairs. + +She sat down there, her back to the bulk of the company, and her escort +took the seat opposite. A portly, prosperous-looking, elderly man, with +something a little suspicious about one of his eyes, and a squat, +queerly-shaped old fellow in semi-clerical garb and wearing smoked +glasses, completed the party. Their waiters began to hover about them, +and the fashionable world went on with its dinner. + +"Who was that _lovely_ girl?" the Duchess of Dawn demanded of her +_vis-à-vis_, the veteran soldier, and he, reputed among women to have no +heart at all, recalled himself with an evident start from the reverie +into which he had fallen. He almost blushed, indeed, under the duchess's +blandly discerning smile. + +"I don't know, I'm sure, duchess," he returned, smiling also, in spite +of himself, and beckoned to a servant behind him, whom he despatched on +some errand. + +"She's registered as Miss Harris, your lordship," the man announced in +an undertone when he returned. + +"Miss Harris!" echoed the prince, who was also a soldier. He had +overheard. And, as he in turn caught the duchess's eyes, he lay back +laughing, a little ruefully. But the man opposite him, the master of +armies, was not amused. + +"I'd like to know who and what those three fellows with Miss Harris may +be," said he. + + * * * * * + +At their table in the corner, they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying +themselves. The three men were toasting Sallie and each other with equal +good-will. And even Sallie had dismissed from her mind the last of her +lingering doubts as to the reality and endurance of her part in that +most amazing new life, had put the past with all its horrors resolutely +behind her, was too much interested in the entertaining present to +trouble about the future at the moment. + +Captain Dove had seemingly forgotten, for the time being at any rate, +his grievance against Slyne, and was in his most lamb-like mood. While +Slyne did not even demur against the quantities of expensive wine the +old man consumed during dinner. Mr. Jobling, too, was displaying +symptoms of convivial hilarity when they at length left the restaurant. +But most of the other tables were empty by then. + +Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove, arm in arm, affectionately maintained each +other as far as their sitting-room, while Slyne accompanied Sallie to +her own door. He had been making himself most agreeable to her, and had +pointed out a number of the notorieties and one or two of the +celebrities present; although it had somewhat startled her to be told +that she would very soon be on familiar terms with them all. + +"Aren't you glad now that you agreed to the bargain we made on the +_Olive Branch_--and in Monte Carlo?" he asked by the way. He was smiling +gaily. + +She smiled back at him, and, "I'm not sorry--so far, Jasper," she +answered, looking deep into his eyes. + +He nodded, as if quite satisfied, and turned away to escape that +embarrassing scrutiny. + +"We'll be starting in half an hour or so," he informed her from a safe +distance, and, "I'll be all ready," she called cheerfully after him. + +A little before eleven he came in again and they all set out for the +station to catch their train. + +It was a cold, clear, frosty night, and the Strand was at its busiest as +Sallie looked out at it from the taxi into which Slyne and Ambrizette +had followed her at the hotel portico. Another, containing Captain Dove +and their legal adviser, still on the most amicable terms, although +Captain Dove as a rule could not stand anyone afflicted with hiccough, +crawled close behind them through the turmoil until, at the Gaiety +corner, a policeman delayed it to let the cross-traffic through. + +A crowd had gathered there to gaze at the royalties who would presently +be coming out of the theatre. Slyne drew Sallie back from the open +window at sight of two men, one of whom seemed all shirt-front, looking +down at the congested street from the empty steps of the principal +entrance. + +"That ass Ingoldsby!" he explained to Sallie, and was evidently a good +deal disturbed. "And--Dubois, as well," he added. "I thought I had +shaken him off in Paris. I'm sure he saw me, too." + +A little farther on he stopped the taxi and beckoned to one of those +street-arabs who make a living about the kerb. + +"Go to the gentleman with the beard, on the steps of the Gaiety," he +instructed that very alert messenger, "and say to him that a friend +wants a word with him here." + +Sallie observed the suppressed grimace of surprise on the face of the +individual who almost at once arrived in the wake of his ragged Mercury: +and Slyne, having tossed the latter a shilling, held out his hand to M. +Dubois. + +"Charmed to see you in London, _mon confrère_," said he. "Have you yet +discovered your man?" + +"I am hard at his heels," the detective answered, his eyes searching +Slyne's as if, Sallie thought, for some sign that that shaft had hit +home. + +But Slyne's expression was one of ingenuous simplicity. He bowed, as if +with deep respect. + +"I caught a glimpse of some one most amazingly like myself, one day on +the Faubourg St. Honoré, as I was passing through Paris," he mentioned +reflectively. + +"Thanks," returned Dubois. "It was he, no doubt. And--he's in London +now." + +Slyne did not wince, even at that. + +"He was dining at the Savoy to-night," said Dubois indifferently. "How +does your own affair progress?" + +"_Assez bien_," Slyne answered in an even voice. "I have followed my +quarry home and am awaiting developments." + +"You will be in London for a little, then?" + +"For the next week or ten days, I expect," Slyne lied with perfect +aplomb. + +"We shall meet again, in that case," declared the detective, glancing at +Sallie; and, "_Au plaisir de vous revoir, monsieur_," Slyne returned +deferentially. + +"To Grosvenor Square now--and hurry along," he directed the driver in a +voice his enemy could not fail to hear. And the taxicab swung into Drury +Lane, on its way west. + +For a few minutes he sat silent, with bent head, biting at his +moustache. Then he looked round at Sallie. + +"That fellow takes me for another man," he told her querulously. "He's +been dogging me ever since he first saw me at Monte Carlo. You've no +idea, Sallie, what a dangerous risk I had to run there--for your sake." + +"You haven't told me much about--anything, Jasper," she reminded him. +And he proceeded to describe in lurid detail the fate which would +undoubtedly have befallen him had M. Dubois been able then to fasten on +him responsibility for the misdeeds of that criminal whom he so +unfortunately resembled. + +Sallie listened in silence. She had been wondering whether M. Dubois +could be in any way concerned with her affairs. She gathered that he was +interested only in Slyne. The latter's story of grave risk run for her +sake fell somewhat flat, since it seemed to rest on the mere possibility +of his having been mistaken for somebody else. She could scarcely +believe that his fear of M. Dubois had no other foundation. She even +ventured to suggest that he could easily have proved the detective in +the wrong. + +"He wouldn't have paid the slightest attention to anything I could say," +Slyne assured her tartly. "He wouldn't have asked any questions or +listened to any statement of mine. You don't know anything about the +outrages that are committed every day by fellows like that on men like +myself who have no fixed residence, Sallie; and no powerful friends to +whom to appeal against such infernal injustice. I can't tell you how +thankful I'll be, on your account as well as my own, when we're married +and safely settled down, with a home of our own to feel safe in! + +"Look, there's where we'll live when we're in London." + +Sallie looked out. They were whirling past one of the most imposing +houses in Grosvenor Square. "Is it an hotel?" she asked, and observed +that all but one or two of its topmost windows were dark. + +"It's the Earl of Jura's town house," said Slyne, apparently somewhat +piqued by her seeming indifference. "It's yours now--or will be as soon +as the Chancery Court wakes up again." + +Sallie glanced back and caught another glimpse of it as the taxicab +slowed again to take the corner of the square. Slyne had picked up the +speaking-tube. + +"Get us to the station now, as fast as you can," he told the driver: and +then, having glanced at his watch, lighted a cigarette. He seemed to +have no more to say at the moment, and Sallie was busy with thoughts of +her own. She was wondering whether Justin Carthew could be living in +that great house. She could not understand.... But she did not dare to +ask Jasper Slyne for any information, since he had shown her more than +once already that he did not intend to tell her any more than he thought +fit. + +When they finally reached the station they found Mr. Jobling awaiting +them there and very anxious over their late arrival. + +"We drove round by Grosvenor Square," Slyne told the lawyer +nonchalantly. "And--we're in lots of time." + +Mr. Jobling looked cross. "Five minutes more would have lost you the +train," he remarked somewhat sourly. "And where would Captain Dove and I +have been then!" + +As it was, however, they found Captain Dove in his berth, sound asleep, +although still fully dressed. And, as Slyne ushered Sallie into the +double compartment reserved for her and Ambrizette, "Don't go to bed +just yet," he begged. "I want to show you something by and by. You'll +have lots of time for a long sleep before we arrive." + +"All right, Jasper," she agreed. "I'll wait up till you come for me." + +When he at length knocked at her door again, Mr. Jobling was still with +her. She came out between them into the narrow corridor. Slyne rubbed +clear one steamy window to let her see the wintry landscape through +which they were travelling at express speed. And Sallie looked out +delighted, at the sleeping English countryside as its broad grass-lands +and bare brown acres, coverts and coppices, hedgerows and lanes, with +here and there a grange or a group of cottages, all still and silent, +flashed into sight and so disappeared; until, overlooking them all from +a knoll on the near bank of a broad, winding river, there loomed up a +most magnificent mansion, embedded, in lordly seclusion, among many +gnarled and age-old oaks, with gardens terrace on terrace about it, tall +fountains among their empty flower-beds, a moss-grown sun-dial at the +edge of a quiet, silver lake. + +The moon was shining full on its innumerable windows, so that it seemed +to be lighted up from within, although, in reality, all were shuttered +and dark. Aloof and very stately it stood on that windless night, an +empty palace which came and went in a few moments, wing after wing, with +its stabling and courtyards, and still more gardens, all within an +endless, ivy-clad encircling wall. + +"What place is that?" asked Sallie in an awed tone as soon as the train +had rumbled across the bridge. + +"That's Justicehall, Lady Josceline,--your English country seat, and one +of the finest properties in the Shires," Mr. Jobling informed her before +Slyne could speak. "You'll be living there within a few weeks--and +forgetting all your old friends!" + +Sallie did not sleep much that night. Her brain was far too busy. She +could scarcely believe that less than a week had elapsed since she had +stepped ashore from the _Olive Branch_. + +Nor could she yet reconcile herself to the fact that her new life must +lie amid such scenes as those to which Jasper Slyne had so far +introduced her. She had liked Monte Carlo, and Paris, and London as any +girl might. The great house in Grosvenor Square she had mistaken for an +hotel. But the calmly arrogant grandeur of Justicehall had merely +oppressed her. And the idea that she might have to live there did not +please her at all. For how could she, a creature of the free air, of +sunshine and wind and sea and the world's waste places, be happy immured +within that immense edifice, encircled by servants, hemmed in on every +side by unaccustomed conventionalities, all as distasteful as new to +her. She made up her mind, there and then, that, if she might have any +say on that subject, Justicehall should stay empty. + +But--would she have any say on that subject, or any other? She did not +know. Jasper Slyne had so far told her only so much as he thought fit of +what was before her. She lay quite still in her narrow berth, gazing out +at the window whose blind she had bidden Ambrizette loose from the +catch, a hundred puzzled, helpless questions thronging through her head, +till the moon failed her and all was darkness but for the flashes of red +or green or yellow light that swept past as the train sped through some +wayside station or sleeping town. + +Then she too fell asleep at last, and so forgot her difficulties till +she awoke again in a new and most wonderful world; a world of gaunt, +grey mountains and wide dark moors, white tumbling torrents on +hillsides, in deep ravines, forests of stately fir and pine that looked +like the masts of ships; a world, moreover, which seemed in some sense +familiar and friendly to her. + +Day was breaking and Ambrizette was already astir. She had come quietly +in and closed the curtains during the night, and was now once more +looping them back to let in the first of the sun. Sallie lay for a +little longer watching the sunrise warm those enchanted solitudes into a +golden semblance of fairy-land. + +There was snow on the near mountain-tops that turned from the tint of +pigeon-blood rubies to pink, from pink to amber, and so to the purest +white. The train was travelling through an extensive plantation of +silver birches, amid which a lordly stag, paralysed by its swift +approach, stood starkly at bay with a timid hind at its heels. A myriad +rabbits were diving madly into the bracken on every side. Above in the +blue a belated wild-goose was winging its hasty way to some warmer +clime; for there was something more than a hint of hard, black frost in +the morning air. + +Another station swept past, a trim little place with some picturesque +cottages perched on the high ground about it. A marvellous vista of +water, a long, winding lake in the midst of the mountains, was visible +for a few moments, and then Ambrizette brought in tea. + +Twenty minutes later, Sallie was up and dressed for the day, in a +short-skirted shooting-suit of Harris tweed, heather-proof stockings and +smart ankle-boots. When Slyne knocked and she went out to speak to him, +he stood for a moment gazing at her with unbounded gratification, and +then, "Gad! Sallie," said he, holding out his hand. "You're her ladyship +to the life now. You'll certainly look your part at Loquhariot." + +She smiled back at him. He was scarcely less trig than herself in his +knickerbockers and Norfolk jacket. + +"I hope--It isn't a place like Justicehall, is it, Jasper?" she asked +anxiously. + +He raised his eyebrows, and laughed, a little surprised. + +"Why, scarcely," said he, "from what Jobling tells me. But--didn't you +like the look of Justicehall? Well, I hope you won't actually despise +Loquhariot, Sallie. 'Be it never so humble,' you know--" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE MAN IN POSSESSION + + +"Is _that_ Loquhariot!" asked Sallie. + +The weatherly little steamer on which she had been travelling along that +wonderful coast since leaving the train had just rounded a high, bluff +headland and all at once opened out the wide waters of Loch Jura, +mirror-like in the still afternoon among the frowning mountains about +them. Mr. Jobling and Slyne were with her on the bridge. Captain Dove +strolled up at that moment, his hands in his pockets, his soft felt hat +on the back of his head, a cigar cocked between his teeth at an equally +rakish angle. Sallie was staring straight ahead, with wide, apprehensive +eyes. + +"Is _that_ Loquhariot!" she asked again, almost in a whisper, as she +gazed helplessly at the high battlements of the ancient stronghold which +looks from its lofty promontory down the whole length of the loch, +unchanged in its seaward face since the date of its building. Even +Captain Dove was impressed by the picture it made. + +"That's your Castle of Loquhariot, Lady Josceline," Mr. Jobling at +length replied, and went on to tell her its history, learned from the +guide-book and locally when he had been there before. + +The Castle of Loquhariot dates back to the sixteenth century. But for +long ere that, a squat, four-square fortalice had occupied its site. +Legend has it that the grim, grey keep which to-day covers the whole +surface of what was then a high rocky island but is now a mere peninsula +of the mainland, was first conceived in the mind of the then Lord Jura, +a plain Scots baron of piratical tendencies, who had brought back from +the Spanish Main--whither he had sailed in the company of another of the +same kidney as himself, one Francis Drake--a veritable shipload of +doubloons and pieces-of-eight; and that its ramparts had first been +armed and manned, in haste, when the remains of the Great Armada came +drifting southward from Cape Wrath on its hapless way home to Spain, +after that same Francis Drake had done with it. + +To-day, at any rate, may be seen in more than one of the embrasures on +those ramparts, some culverin or falconet salved from the wreck of a +great galleon which went to pieces on the Small Isles, at the mouth of +the loch. And in a little graveyard on the smallest of the Small Isles +stands a weather-beaten stone which says that round about it lie buried +the bones of a great mort of Spaniards there interred by their sworn +enemies in August, A. D. 1588. + +It must undoubtedly have cost at least a shipload of doubloons to build +the castle. But the then baron did not build it all, for there are +towers and wings and bastions added, on the landward side, during the +next two centuries; whose cost would seem to show that his piratical +lordship did not leave his descendants quite penniless. The circular +North Keep alone--where the billiard-room is nowadays--must undoubtedly +have cost its imaginative progenitor a small fortune. + +The whole edifice, as it now stands, is a monument, apparently +imperishable, to the greatness and grandeur, past, present, and to +come, of the Jura family. And Sallie, staring at it with wide, +apprehensive eyes, from the bridge of the busy little coaster, listening +to Mr. Jobling's descriptive quotations, with Captain Dove of the _Olive +Branch_, and Jasper Slyne for company, felt infinitely dispirited by the +knowledge that she and none other was the present representative of that +proud race. + +The steamer drew in toward the anchorage and a ferryboat put off from +the shore to meet it. The kilted Highlandmen therein looked askance at +Ambrizette and crossed themselves quite openly as she was handed down +into it from the gangway. Slyne followed and held out his arms to +Sallie, but she needed no such assistance. And the men in the boat +seemed better content after a glance or two at her as she sat down and +slipped a warm arm around Ambrizette, who was shivering in the winter +afternoon. + +The two remaining travellers jumped in, the baggage was transshipped, +and the steamer swung about on her way to the farther north. The captain +sounded his steam-whistle and waved his cap in parting salute as the +ferry made its slow way ashore to the further accompaniment of a +dirge-like chorus from the crew at its heavy sweeps; at which music +Captain Dove snorted his disgust very audibly. He had awoke with a +headache and had been in a bad temper all day. + +By the way Slyne held a low-toned conversation with Mr. Jobling. And +when the big boat was at length beached beside a rude pier, he paid the +ferryman liberally, distributed some small change among the oarsmen, and +bade them bring the baggage along to the little inn on the roadside at a +short distance. + +"Better send Ambrizette with me," he said to Sallie, and the black +dwarf trotted off after him in obedience to a few words from her +mistress, while Mr. Jobling turned the other way, toward the Castle. + +"We'll just have time to see over the old place before it's dark, Lady +Josceline," the lawyer explained, and Sallie followed him with Captain +Dove. + +Slyne rejoined them before they were half-way up the long hill on the +road which leads from the shore-level to the plateau. Sallie was still +staring with troubled eyes at the huge, picturesque, rambling pile which +seemed to grow always more immense as they drew nearer to it. It dwarfed +into proportions almost infinitesimal the cluster of white cottages +nestling cosily at the base of the great rock which formed its +foundation. It seemed to dominate the whole visible world, to challenge +even the mighty mountains which shut it in with the sea. + +"That's the water-gate," Mr. Jobling mentioned and pointed out a black, +oblong opening in the cliff-face at some height above even high-water +mark and protected against possible intrusion by a heavy iron grating +whose bars must have been as thick as a grown man's wrist. "I suppose +the sea would be right up to its sill when the place was built. + +"There's an underground passage connecting it with the interior of the +castle, and they'd no doubt use that a good deal in the old days. + +"And this is the North Keep, as it's called; newer, you'll maybe notice, +than the west frontage, although it looks just as ancient. We'll soon +have the Jura house-flag afloat again from the Warder's Tower, Lady +Josceline, and the beacon-fire alight after dark. It always burns at +night, you know, when the head of the family's in residence--a custom +dating back to the days when there were no other lights on the coast. + +"You'll see the moat now. Long ago it was always full, even at low tide. +But now it's as dry as--" + +"As I am!" grumbled Captain Dove, spitting down into the deep fosse +which had formerly cut the castle off from the mainland but is now no +more than an empty ravine spanned by an ornate drawbridge of modern +date. + +They crossed that, their footsteps producing an eerie clank on the +planking, and came to a halt before the main entrance, over whose heavy, +iron-studded oak doors still hung, a mute reminder of more stormy times, +a massive portcullis armed with _chevaux-de-frise_ of long, pointed +spikes. + +Slyne rang the electric door-bell. + +It was some time before that summons was answered, but no one of the +waiting group seemed to have anything to say to the others during the +interval. The mystery of time itself was in the atmosphere. Some +brooding spirit of the past might have been peering out at them from the +watchman's wicket in the bartizan above. They stood still and silent +until, at last, the postern in the big double-doorway was unlatched from +within and a grey-haired, elderly woman with a hard-featured face, much +lined and seamed, in the stiffly rustling garb of a superior servant, +appeared in the narrow opening and dropped them an old-fashioned curtsy +after a quick, shrewd glance at them. + +"If it isn't too late, we'd like to be allowed to look over the castle," +Slyne said politely raising his cap. + +The woman was gazing intently at Sallie. She started as Mr. Jobling +coughed, with intention, after they had waited a second or two for an +answer. + +"You will be very welcome, sirs," she said hastily. "I have authority to +admit visitors. Will you be pleased to step in." + +She looked long and very closely at Sallie again as the girl crossed the +threshold; and then at the others in turn as they entered, one at a +time, by the narrow postern. She closed it behind them, and led the way +through a low, arched passage into a dimly lighted but spacious hall. + +"We've just passed through the walls," Mr. Jobling informed them +patronisingly, of his superior knowledge. "They're twelve feet thick on +this front. Loquhariot would still be a hard nut to crack, eh?" + +"I'd sooner crack a bottle than a nut," commented Captain Dove aside to +Slyne, who frowned reprovingly at him. + +The great hall they entered next could almost have housed a regiment. +But it, like the guard-room through which they had come, was peopled +only in dusky corners by fearsomely lifelike suits of armour. Its empty +fireplaces made it seem still more desolate and deserted. War-worn flags +hung from the gallery overhead, to which a wide stairway with many +shallow steps gave access. Dead and gone Justices and St. Justs and +Juras looked coldly down, from out of dark, tarnished frames, at the +whispering intruders. + +"You're Mrs. M'Kissock, aren't you?" Mr. Jobling remarked with affable +condescension as they followed that hard-featured personage into a +seemingly endless passage lined and hung with heads and horns and other +trophies of the chase from all parts of the world. + +She glanced sharply round at him again and bowed in silent assent. + +"I've been here before, you know," he mentioned as she ushered the +little party into the first of an extensive suite of rooms at the far +end of the corridor they had traversed. Sallie could scarcely repress +the exclamation of pleasure that rose to her lips; for the rooms, all +opening into each other and with the doors wide, stretched across the +entire breadth of the building, so that their furthest windows looked +straight out to sea. There was nothing between them and the wide +Atlantic but a cluster of miniature islets, emerald-green, at the +distant mouth of the loch. + +"This was her late ladyship's favourite suite," said Mrs. M'Kissock +precisely. "The outermost room was her boudoir once. But his lordship +had that altered--afterwards." + +Sallie listened like one in a dream. She could scarcely believe that +these had once been her own mother's rooms, that this gaunt, austere +serving-woman was stating matters of fact in that dry, lifeless voice of +hers. She longed to get Mrs. M'Kissock alone and question her +about--everything. But she had been warned by both Mr. Jobling and +Jasper Slyne that she must contain every symptom of curiosity till they +could grant her permission to speak for herself. + +She passed, with a little, impatient sigh, from one range of rooms to +another, each with its own tag of story or history duly related by Mrs. +M'Kissock, until they reached the great hall again from a further +passage, and very glad of her expert guidance through such a maze. + +From there the housekeeper took them, by way of the central staircase +and gallery up a steep corkscrew stair in a turret to the top of what +had been the main tower before the North Keep had been built, and out on +to the battlements, where the Spanish guns still stand guard, among a +multitude of other obsolete pieces, including a carronade or two from +the ancient foundry at Falkirk, over the equally futile suits of mail in +the halls below. + +She offered to show them the dungeons and torture-chamber and oubliette, +on the way to the water-gate, but Mr. Jobling declared that it was too +late by then to go underground that day, and she led them instead along +the north corridor, through the late earl's private study and library +and smoking-room, through a dozen other equally superfluous apartments, +till they regained the corridor at the end where an open doorway led +through into the spacious circular hall at the base of the North Keep. + +"This part of the castle is private, sir," Mrs. M'Kissock informed Mr. +Jobling, who had already stepped in. + +"I'd like my friends to see the sunset from the Warder's Tower," he +returned, "if you don't mind. We won't disturb anyone on our way +upstairs." + +Mrs. M'Kissock still looked uncertain, but Slyne had already followed +the lawyer's lead and Captain Dove was calmly pushing past her. She +glanced at Sallie again, and then bowed her also in. And they all +proceeded quietly up the carpeted winding staircase, past several +landings, the doors of which were closed. + +But the door at the turret-top was wide, and Mrs. M'Kissock was +obviously a good deal disturbed in her mind as Mr. Jobling stepped to +one side and politely gave Sallie precedence out into the open air. + +Sallie smiled careless thanks for the courtesy and was still smiling +when she emerged from the low doorway and stopped just beyond its +threshold, so that Mr. Jobling and the others behind her had to wait +patiently where they were while she gazed, enraptured and forgetful of +all else, at the scene before her. + +The sun was setting, blood-red, over the far sea-rim, and there was no +least cloud in the radiant sky. The clear-cut mountains on either hand, +the still loch and the broad Atlantic beyond it were all aglow with a +marvellous, mystic light; the little cottages on the shore, three +hundred sheer feet below her, were crimson instead of white; the very +smoke which came from their chimneys seemed somehow ethereal and unreal. + +She stood alone for a moment or two in a world transformed, till the +quick, keen, exquisite pleasure of it brought a mist to her eyes that +blurred it all, and, as she raised a hand to brush that away, she +suddenly realized that she was not alone. There was a young man leaning +over an embrasure at one corner of the battlements, who had been gazing, +like her, at the sunset till she had come forth. + +He was gazing at her now, and with even more admiration, however +unconscious, than he had been bestowing on the beauties of nature +inanimate; for the waning light had transfigured her sweet, sensitive +features also, and into a semblance such as one might imagine an angel +would wear. + +Her eyes met his, and they two stood regarding each other so for the +space of five fateful seconds. She had recognised him at once, but it +was apparent that he did not yet know who she was. + +He came forward then, limping a little, and bowed, bareheaded, to her; a +sufficiently self-confident youth, straight and limber, good-looking +enough, with smiling grey eyes and a mobile mouth, somewhat wistful at +that moment in spite of his eyes. + +"I'm sorry if I'm in the way," he said pleasantly. "Won't you come out +and look round? The view all about is beyond any words of mine--and +you're only seeing part of it there." + +He hesitated slightly, regarding her with a very puzzled expression, +before plunging further, and then, "I'm Justin Carthew," he continued, +since she made no move at all, "although my lawyers would have me +believe that I'm the ninth Earl of Jura now!" He laughed aloud, as if +that idea were amusing. "In any case," he concluded naïvely, "the sunset +doesn't belong to me." + +She stepped out into the afterglow, still without a word, her mind full +of vague misgivings. And, as Mr. Jobling followed her from the doorway, +with Slyne and Captain Dove at his heels, and Mrs. M'Kissock, nervously +fumbling with her chatelaine, last of all, Justin Carthew drew back a +couple of paces. + +"Your lawyers have misinformed you, Mr. Carthew," said Mr. Jobling in +his most dogmatic manner. "You are no more the ninth Earl of Jura than I +am, because--Let me introduce you--more formally!--to Lady Josceline +Justice, the late earl's daughter, on whose property you are trespassing +here." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LOSER + + +Justin Carthew was standing as if thunderstruck by these extraordinary +statements. His incredulous glance shifted from the stout stranger of +the tinted eye and the inimical stare to the others of the little group +regarding him, until it met Sallie's again, and they two looked blankly +into each other's eyes while Mr. Jobling proceeded to introduce himself +as her ladyship's legal adviser, and stated briefly the grounds on which +his dogmatic assertion was based. + +To Carthew, the lawyer's voice seemed to come from very far away, but +none the less intelligibly, as he himself stood gazing at the girl to +whom he owed his life, whom he had last seen late at night among the +shadows on the deck of the _Olive Branch_ in Genoa harbour. At first +sight it had seemed so utterly impossible that it could be she who had +stepped out on to the Warder's Tower of Loquhariot that he had supposed +the sun in his eyes and a striking resemblance must have combined to +delude him. + +But--he knew now that it was really she. And as Mr. Jobling, concluding +his homily, mentioned again who she claimed to be, he was dazedly +thankful that he had not at once contradicted her lawyer; as he might +have done--since he knew as a matter of fact that the real Lady +Josceline Justice was dead. + +Mr. Jobling had also repeated that Mr. Carthew was trespassing there. +But at that Sallie turned on her legal adviser in generous indignation, +and he shrank into the background again as she spoke. + +"If this is _my_ property, as you say it is," she flashed, "what right +have _you_ to tell any visitor that he is trespassing here! And if Mr. +Carthew has been misinformed--" + +"He isn't a visitor, Sallie. He's the man in possession at present," +whispered the smartly-dressed young-old man who had been studying +Carthew with a most supercilious expression, "and you'd better leave Mr. +Jobling to deal with him." He was obviously not at all pleased with her, +and his whisper was perfectly audible. + +The girl had stopped to listen to him. "We're evidently the trespassers, +then," she finished. "_We_ have no business here at all while he remains +in possession." + +The other man of the party, a white-haired old fellow in clerical garb +and wearing a pair of smoked glasses, also turned angrily toward her. +But at that moment Mrs. M'Kissock came stumbling forward between them, +with a little broken cry, all her habitual self-restraint vanished, her +harsh features working, very near tears; and, lifting a hand of the +girl's in both of her own to her lips, fondled it foolishly, muttering +disconnected phrases. + +"I knew--_I_ knew it from the first," she mumbled, "and yet--I did not +dare believe my own eyes. But now--God bless your bonny ladyship! And +God be thanked for that you have at last come back to your own! +Loquhariot has waited very long for this late day, and-- + +"Say ye now there's a _man_ in possession!" she spoke up, glancing +defiance at the individual in the Norfolk suit and then, though with +less of disfavour, at Justin Carthew. "Say ye so?--and to me, who have +kept the keys of the empty Castle of Loquhariot for her ladyship here, +ever since the Red Earl her father laid that trust on me from his +death-bed! + +"You have been ill-informed. There is _no_ man in possession here." + +Carthew was staring at her as if he were altogether at his wits' end. He +almost doubted the evidence of his own ears. Had he not known as a +matter of fact that Lady Josceline Justice was _dead_, old Janet +M'Kissock's spontaneous championship of this pretender would almost have +convinced him to the contrary. He could feel sure of only one further +fact, which was that Sallie herself had been tricked into her impostor's +part. + +However, he had no time just then to come to any further conclusion. He +had to decide at once what he should do to safeguard her, and did so, +recalling only the debt he owed her. + +"There _has_ evidently been some mistake," said he, looking levelly into +her troubled eyes. "I hope you won't hold me to blame for that. And, +believe me, I'm very glad that you have come to Loquhariot." + +He could say no more than that at the moment. He bowed to her, and, +turning into the turret doorway, limped off downstairs. He wanted to be +alone for a little. He wanted time to think. He felt absolutely stunned. + +Mrs. M'Kissock, no less perturbed, her cap all awry, followed him down +the winding stairway as far as the door of the rooms he had only +occupied for a day or two. + +"I'm going to remove to the inn," he said, in answer to her agitated +excuses and explanations. "It will be better so in the meantime. Will +you tell one of the men to take my baggage there for me, please?" + +He did not deem it advisable just then to ask her any question or make +any comment at all. And within another minute or two he had passed out +of the postern, surrendering the Castle of Loquhariot, for the time +being, to one who had no claim or title to it. + +But, as he stopped beyond the drawbridge to light the pipe he had +mechanically pulled out, he pursed up his lips as though to whistle. +And, "What proof can _I_ produce!" he exclaimed, moving on again with +the cold pipe between his teeth, his head bent, perplexed to the last +degree. + +The walk through the darkling woods to the village and the cold, clean +air cleared his wits a little. He found Ambrizette huddled over the fire +in the best room at the Jura Arms, and, having bespoken supper and a bed +for himself, went on along the shore road to think things out, if he +could. + +Only half an hour before, he had been congratulating himself on the fact +that his troubles were nearing an end. And now-- + +"It's been nothing but trouble ever since I first saw that damned +advertisement," he remarked to himself, recalling step after painful +step of the way he had travelled to where he was. + +A few months before he had seen and answered an anxious advertisement in +an American paper for any surviving relative, no matter how distant, of +the Jura family, he had invested all of his scarce capital in a +cattle-run in Texas which seemed to promise to pay quick profits. And, +in spite of all that the English lawyers who had replied to his letter +could say to tempt him, he had remained quite firm in his wise +resolution to stay there and reap those profits before crossing the +Atlantic in pursuit of his further fortune; until a smart junior partner +of theirs had paid him a flying visit at the ranch, and proved to him +how foolishly he was acting against his own interests. + +For it seemed, after due investigation and proof positive of his distant +kinship with the family, that there could be only one life between him +and the title of Earl of Jura, with all that pertained thereto--a life +which even the very conservative English Court of Chancery was by then +disposed to presume extinct. + +The astute young lawyer had told Carthew all the facts which his firm +had managed to ferret out concerning the late countess's disappearance +and death. It seemed, humanly speaking, impossible that her child could +have survived her. Justin Carthew had thought it all over and an +accident had settled the question for him. His pony came down with him +one day and he was badly trampled by the steers he had been heading. His +doctor sentenced him to six months' rest--out of the saddle. As soon as +he was able to move he raised a mortgage on the ranch and made for +London. That mortgage was almost due by now, and his expected profit on +the run had faded into a stiff loss during his absence. + +Messrs. Bolder & Bolder, the lawyers aforesaid, had made it clear to him +from the first that, while they had the utmost faith in the outcome of +their exertions on his behalf, they could not see their way to place +their services and special knowledge at his disposal except on a +spot-cash basis; that, in short, he must provide in advance the money to +foot their bill. He had done so, and they, in return, had not failed to +implement all their promises. Even now he could not feel that they had +dealt unfairly by him. + +And the balance of his bank account had been eaten up by his expedition +to Africa in search of more authentic record of the ex-dancer countess's +death and as to the fate of her child. He had taken that somewhat rash +step, too, of his own free will and for his own personal satisfaction. +He was personally aware now that both the countess and her daughter were +dead; but--he could bring forward no proof at all of that fact, and, as +Bolder & Bolder had politely pointed out to him, his personal testimony +alone was that of an interested party and worthless to them or anyone +else. + +He had suffered sorely, both body and mind, since he and his party had +been betrayed into El Farish's hands by an Arab guide. And now-- + +He was a penniless peer of the United Kingdom, with every prospect of +being unable to maintain those rights which he knew were his, an +impecunious citizen of the United States, with a foreclosure threatening +him there. The result of all his own efforts so far was failure. + +And yet, he felt that he ought to be thankful that he had come through +alive. "A living dog is better than a dead lion," he told himself. +"And--I owe that girl my life. But for her, I'd be--" He shrugged his +shoulders. It was not pleasant, there in the dark, to recall that hole +in the sand on the African coast which he had only escaped by a +hairbreadth, thanks to her. + +"I wouldn't be here at all," he reflected. "And that fat lawyer of hers +would see her settled into my place without any fuss. He said, in fact, +that the Chancery Court had practically admitted her claim to it +already. + +"And now--_how_ am I to get up and swear she's a fraud! How am I to +repay all I owe her--by fighting her for another man's leavings!" + +He halted, to fill his pipe, and found it full. He lighted it, and +turned back toward the inn. It had just recurred to him that, even if he +were disposed to fight her for his inheritance, there were very strong +financial reasons as well as merely sentimental ones against that +course. He was already in Bolder & Bolder's debt. He had had to apply to +them by wire for his fare to London from Genoa. They had further +defrayed the Court costs of that order of access to the archives of +Loquhariot which Mr. Justice Gaunt had recently made in his favour, and +had furnished him with a few pounds for subsequent expenses. + +But they had taken the opportunity to mention, always politely, that +they could go no farther than that beyond the terms of their original +bargain: and that the next advance of cash must come from him to them. + +In a word, he could not afford to fight either her or anyone else just +then. And he had a very strong impression that the fat lawyer who had +interposed between him and the girl would put up a protracted, expensive +battle on her behalf. + +"But some day I'll have a couple of rounds with _him_," Carthew promised +himself. "Just at the moment--my hands are tied. And, what's more, the +Courts are closed." + +He sighed. + +"I can't hurt her, in any case," he declared conclusively to the night. +"I'm not much of a judge of girls, but--she's-- + +"I must just wait and see," he said to himself. "I'm helpless. And--I'm +hers, anyhow, as I told her in Genoa. A promise is a promise, no matter +what its keeping costs." + +He looked up at the black bulk of the castle in the distance. Its +numberless narrow windows were all aglow, and in a cresset on one tower +a fire was burning brightly. + +"She's taken possession all right," he cogitated. "But probably she +doesn't even know that the beacon's been kindled." + +As he limped through the village again, he could not but notice the +unusual stir in its long single street. At every cottage door there was +a whispering group staring up at the Warder's Tower. The sound of oars +in haste reached his ears from across the loch. And he was aware of many +inquisitive glances directed at him as he passed. + +His simple supper was awaiting him in the best room of the little inn. +The black dwarf had been sent for from the castle, the outwardly stolid +and incurious maid-of-all-work informed him. He sat down by the fire, +content for the moment as he recalled the glamour of the afterglow from +the west and Sallie's grave glance. + +He thought of nothing else throughout his meal, and afterwards, puffing +at a cigar in the lamp-lit porch with a plaid about him to keep the cold +out, could scarcely bring himself to consider his own precarious +situation again. When he at last applied his mind to that he was +somewhat dispirited. + +He had only a few shillings left in his purse, and could not afford to +stay where he was for more than a day or two. He was a stranger in a +strange land, a land in which, as he had learned already, men in their +prime had to compete keenly for work which might bring them in no more +than four or five dollars a week: a very unpromising land in which to be +left with empty pockets. + +"Perhaps old Herries will give me a week or two's work at something or +other about the estate," he communed with himself. "But, then,--that +bloated lawyer would probably interfere; and, while I lie low, Herries +will be under his thumb to a great extent. He's under the weather too, +poor old chap!" + +He was still shaking his head disconsolately when his cogitations were +cut short by the sound of clattering hoofs and the hurried arrival of +one on horseback, who galloped up to the Jura Arms and slipped like a +sack from his saddle, and swayed and staggered while his blown steed +looked inquiringly round at him, till Justin Carthew slipped an arm +about him and would have led him indoors. + +"What are _you_ doing here, Mr. Herries?" Carthew demanded, amazed. "You +should be at home in bed, and--" + +"The beacon?" gasped the new-comer, a haggard, sick-looking old man with +a long white beard, almost spent, but none the less resolute not to +enter the inn. + +"It seems that Lady Josceline Justice has just arrived at the castle," +Carthew informed him concisely, after a moment of hesitation. + +"Lady--Josceline--Justice!" the other repeated dazedly, but with evident +disbelief. "Did you say--Lady Josceline Justice! You're surely joking, +Mr. Carthew--although it would be no joke for you if her ladyship had +come back to life." + +"I'm not joking," Carthew assured him. + +"But--how can it be!" the other demanded. "I can't conceive--Have you +seen her yourself?" + +"Yes, I've seen her," declared Carthew. He could not have answered +otherwise without betraying Sallie. + +"But come away in. You must get between the blankets again at once," he +insisted firmly. "A five-mile gallop on a night like this is quite +enough to finish you. And there will be time enough in the morning--to +pay her ladyship a call." + +"I've been factor of Loquhariot these five and thirty years--and it +would ill become me to be abed at such a moment. I'm going up now," the +sick man asserted stubbornly. "I'm responsible for all that goes on +here, as you know very well, Mr. Carthew--and I've had no news at all of +this. I can't understand--And yet--it must indeed be her ladyship, as +you say, since Janet M'Kissock--" + +He caught at his horse's bridle again and tried to clamber into the +saddle. + +A group of whispering villagers had gathered about the inn door, and +they joined Carthew in his well-meant remonstrances. But the anxious +steward of the estate was not to be gainsaid by anyone. + +"If the Lady Josceline Justice has come back to her own at last," he +declared, shivering, "it is my undoubted duty to be on hand. And what +matters else? Get the pipes out, lads, and gather together. Shall it be +said of us that her ladyship lacked a true Highland welcome home?" + +Carthew, seeing him so set in his purpose and not knowing how to prevent +him except, perhaps, at Sallie's expense, saw nothing for it but to let +events shape themselves. He brought the old man a little brandy, which +served to steady him somewhat, so that he sat in his saddle none so limp +at the head of the muster formed at his bidding. And Carthew walked up +the hill by his side, partly to help him, and partly in hope of another +glimpse of the girl who had surely bewitched himself. + +At his heels tramped three stalwart pipers, and the still, star-lit +night rang again to the shrill strains of the march they struck up; +while close behind, keeping step to its lilt, came a couple of hundred +or so of the villagers and their visitors from mountain and glen and +shore. Blazing pine-knots served for torches and lighted the way well, +until they at length reached the landward front of the castle, where the +sick man marshalled them in a wide, crimson half-moon about the +drawbridge, while Carthew held his horse for him at one side. + +The postern-door opened noiselessly and Janet M'Kissock looked out from +within. Herries crossed the drawbridge toward her, and, "Eh, Janet, +woman!" said he, "what's all this I hear so late? They tell me that the +Lady Josceline Justice has come to Loquhariot, and--" + +"It was because you were so ill that I didn't send word at once, Mr. +Herries," the housekeeper put in defensively as he paused. "The beacon +was fired without her ladyship's knowledge by one of her friends. I +don't--" + +"It _is_ her ladyship, then?" the factor demanded, searching her face +with his keen, anxious, fevered eyes. "Whence came she so suddenly, +Janet?" + +"It is indeed her ladyship," the old woman answered solemnly. "But--more +than that I do not know. I have had all to see to since the sun set, +and--" + +The other checked her plaint with an uplifted hand. + +"I'll hear about everything else by and by. And meantime--I've brought +some of her own folk up to offer her welcome--since it _is_ she," he +said, all his doubts evidently dispelled by Janet M'Kissock's emphatic +assurance. "Will she come out to us for a few minutes, think ye?" + +"That will she, I'm sure," answered Mrs. M'Kissock. "Her ladyship has a +heart of gold, as it were, and a very kindly way with her. I'll send in +word that her folk are here--she'll have finished dinner by now." + +She turned and left him, closing the postern behind her so that only the +red torch-light illumined the high portcullis and level drawbridge +until, presently, the massive main-doors of the castle swung slowly back +on their well-oiled hinges and in the heart of the glow from within +appeared Sallie, with that young-old man whom Justin Carthew so disliked +at her side in very correct evening clothes. But he stayed a little +behind as she stepped forward and stopped under the portcullis, the +flare of the torches full on her face, a very dazzling vision indeed. +For she also was dressed for the evening, and in a creation from Paris. + +Carthew's heart was thumping as he drew farther aside into the shadows. +She had not noticed him in his plaid, holding the old man's horse. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE WINNER + + +Even during the bewildering whirl of those days which had passed so +swiftly since she had escaped from the _Olive Branch_, Sallie had +thought very often of Justin Carthew and the strange situation in which +circumstances had all conspired to place them toward each other. + +Since she had found out what her rehabilitation, as Lady Josceline +Justice, was going to cost him, she had been very anxious to see him +again and make everything clear between him and her. But she could +scarcely disclose to the others that she had met him before. Neither +Captain Dove nor Jasper Slyne knew anything about him beyond what they +had heard from Mr. Jobling. And Mr. Jobling could or would tell her +nothing, in reply to a timid question or two she had put to him, beyond +the bare fact that she had nothing to fear from the young American's +ill-founded claim to her rightful place in the world. + +She had been very anxious to see him again. But it had startled and +confused her at first to find him, so evidently at home, on the Warder's +Tower of Loquhariot. For she could not then, before the others, say +anything at all of what was in her mind; and she was afraid that he +might unguardedly, on the spur of the moment, reveal their unavoidable +joint secret. + +She could see that he had recognised her at last and that he was no +less at a loss than herself. Mr. Jobling's gratuitous rudeness to him +vexed her very much. The old housekeeper's half-hysterical outbreak +surprised her beyond expression. And then he was gone, before she could +make up her mind that it was her own proper part to have bidden him stay +till something could have been settled. + +But when she suggested that to Slyne he pooh-poohed the idea as absurd, +and told her she ought to be very glad to have got rid of her rival so +easily. + +He himself was in high glee over that unexpected outcome of Mr. +Jobling's brusquely peremptory method with the interloper, and Captain +Dove's face wore a triumphant grin. Mr. Jobling himself seemed inclined +to be sulky with her, but the other two only laughed at his petulance. + +"We've got possession!" said Slyne exultantly, "and that's nine points +of the law, as _you_ ought to know. If she hadn't taken the fellow's +part he might have been more inclined to stand his ground. But now--up +drawbridge and down portcullis! We'll hold the fort here, till that old +Chancery Court of yours comes away with its final decision." + +Captain Dove poked the portly lawyer in the short ribs. "Buck up, old +rarebit!" he begged. "Don't look so glum. This is home, sweet home now. +Come on down below and I'll get you some sort of a bracer from that +sour-faced old Scotch hag with the keys. My mouth feels just as if it +were made of blotting-paper, too." + +"But you must go very slow yet, Dove," Slyne cautioned the elated seaman +as he turned toward the stairway. "Don't go too fast. We aren't safely +enough settled yet to--" + +Captain Dove paused to look him between the eyes with a mirthless, +meaning laugh. + +"This is my adopted daughter's castle now, Mister Slyne," said he. "When +we want any advice from you about how we're to behave in it--or anything +else--we'll let you know. D'ye see?" + +Slyne's lips parted and closed again. He had evidently thought better of +giving voice to any retort, however effective. + +"After you," he remarked politely, since Captain Dove still stood +blocking the stairway and grinning fixedly back at him. "I must send +down to the inn for Ambrizette and our baggage at once. It will soon be +quite dark." + +Sallie followed them slowly, like one in a dream, and Mr. Jobling came +last. As they reached the circular hall below, Mrs. M'Kissock, still +much perturbed, came hurrying in from the corridor. + +"Mr. Carthew has gone, my lady," she said, dropping Sallie another deep +curtsey, "and if your ladyship will be pleased to rest here for a +little, it will not be long till the West Wing is all in order. I have +only two maids to help me, with the castle empty so long, but I have +sent down to the village for more, and maybe your ladyship will +excuse--" + +Sallie went up to her and took hold of the two trembling hands clasped +tightly together against a jingling silver chatelaine. + +"Janet," she said softly, and the agitated old woman looked gratefully +up into her grave, wistful eyes, "I think you and I are going to be good +friends, Janet," she said, "because--we have both been so lonely. And I +want you not to worry yourself about anything. There's no hurry, and +we'll be quite content here till you have everything arranged as you +wish." + +"I thank you kindly, my lady," answered Mrs. M'Kissock, and curtsied +again, and was going off about her business, when Slyne signed to her to +wait a moment and drew Sallie toward the door. + +"I'll have to go into a number of matters with you," said he +condescendingly to the old housekeeper. "To save Lady Josceline trouble, +you'll get all your instructions from me." + +Mrs. M'Kissock looked mutely to her new mistress for refutation or +confirmation of his right to claim her services so; and Sallie could not +but nod as she recalled with a strange, new pang the promise she had +made in Genoa, and the lengthy document she had signed in the Hôtel de +Paris. + +"This is Mr. Jasper Slyne, Janet," said she, "and--" + +"Her ladyship's future--" Slyne was about to explain the importance of +his position there when Captain Dove interposed. + +"Slyne!" he called across the hall. "If there's nothing to drink in the +house, whoever goes down to the inn for our baggage had better bring +up--" + +But Slyne had already got Mrs. M'Kissock out into the corridor. + +"I'll send something in at once. Try to keep him quiet for a little," he +said to Sallie, and she, having carefully closed the door, went back +toward the fireplace to pacify the old man. + +A few minutes later a pink-complexioned, flaxen-haired maid came +tripping demurely in, with a great silver salver on which was set such +an array of decanters that Captain Dove at once became most amiable +again. + +"And I will bring tea for your ladyship now," said the maid in her +quaint Highland accent. "It was the other gentleman that told me to +bring this first." + +"That was quite right," Sallie reassured her, and asked her name. + +"It is Mairi, my lady," the girl answered with a shy, gratified smile, +and was very soon back with a beautiful service of Sèvres and a steaming +urn. + +Mr. Jobling virtuously declined Captain Dove's cordial invitation to +help himself to a decanter, and asked Sallie for a cup of weak tea. At +which the old man was still cackling discordantly when Slyne came in +again a few minutes later. + +"That's an obstinate old baggage!" said he, obviously incensed. "You +must tell her, Sal--Lady Josceline, that she's to attend to my orders +without any more back-talk." + +Captain Dove turned in his armchair before the fire. + +"That woman's my adopted daughter's housekeeper now, Mister Slyne," said +he, frowning darkly. "And I'll trouble you not to interfere in what's no +concern of yours. You're only a visitor here, you know." + +Slyne darted a black glance at him, but did not answer him otherwise. "I +told her to get your mother's rooms ready for you," he mentioned to +Sallie. "And Ambrizette will be there by the time you'll want her. + +"That fellow Carthew has gone off to the inn," he remarked to Mr. +Jobling. "I expect he'll be busy by now wiring Bolder & Bolder the +news." + +"That won't do him any good," Mr. Jobling returned. "And, even if he had +any case to go on with, there's nothing more they could do for him until +the Hilary Sittings come on--very nearly a fortnight yet. As it is, he +hasn't a leg left to stand on. You heard what old Gaunt said to her +ladyship." + +"There's no fear of anything getting into the newspapers prematurely, is +there?" asked Slyne. + +"I told Spettigrew to keep everything quiet," the lawyer answered +complacently. "And, besides, they're all full to overflowing about the +election that's coming on." + +"I wonder if anyone ever wades through all the lurid twaddle they print +at such times?" said Slyne, apparently pleased. And they two maintained +a desultory conversation, to which Sallie only listened when it now and +then veered back to matters which might affect Carthew or herself, until +a sonorous gong began to sound in the corridor. + +As its increasing thunder suddenly disturbed the cloistral quiet, +Captain Dove, comfortably settled in his armchair beside the fire with a +black clay pipe, started up in alarm and spilled the contents of the +glass in his hand. + +"What the devil are they about out there!" he ejaculated irascibly. +"I'll blow a hole through that infernal tom-tom if they don't drop it." + +"Time to dress for dinner," Slyne explained with a tolerant smile, and, +rising, rang the bell. "Our rooms will be ready by now, I expect. But +there's no hurry. All you need to change is your waistcoat." + +"Damn nonsense!" snorted Captain Dove, and reaching for a decanter, was +liberally refilling his glass when the girl Mairi answered the bell. + +"Show her ladyship to her own rooms," Slyne directed. And Sallie +followed the demure, flaxen-haired maid very eagerly. + +On her way to the West Wing she could not but notice the change which +had come over the place. A pleasant atmosphere of ordered activity +seemed to pervade the vast building. There were men as well as +women-servants busy everywhere. Light and warmth and life had put to +flight the darkness and desolation which had come down with the dusk on +its emptiness. She gave herself up for the moment to a delicious, +childish sensation of snugness and safety there. And when she at length +reached the open door of the splendid suite which, Mrs. M'Kissock had +told her, had once been her mother's, she felt that she could not, after +all, grudge the price she must pay by and by for her glimpse of home. + +Ambrizette, with rolling eyes and open mouth, had everything in +readiness for her in her dressing-room, for the hideous dwarf was indeed +a very efficient _femme de chambre_. Within half an hour Sallie had had +her bath and was dressed again, in the same frock that she had worn at +the Savoy. She patted the dumb black creature on the head before turning +away from the glass, and paused on the threshold to glance back into the +cosy, fire-lit room with eyes which had grown unaccountably dim. + +She found Mairi in the main hall, demurely flirting with one of the +footmen whom Mrs. M'Kissock had conjured up, and Mairi showed her into a +luxurious drawing-room where Slyne was standing, hands in pockets, +before a cavernous, marble-faced fireplace in which a veritable bonfire +of logs was cheerily crackling. + +His eyes lighted up as she entered. The mirrors about the walls seemed +to frame innumerable pictures of her as she crossed the slippery, +age-blackened floor toward the big bearskin rug which made an oasis +before the fire. He held out his hands to her, dumbly. And just at that +moment Mr. Jobling appeared in the doorway, trumpeting into his +handkerchief. + +Captain Dove arrived shortly after him, under convoy of a scared +housemaid who, it seemed, had found him astray in some far corner of the +castle and whom he had impressed into his service as guide. The gongs +resounded again, just in time to drown his added denunciation of the oak +floor, on which he had all but come to grief as soon as he set foot on +it. The folding-doors at one end of the long room were pulled apart and +a resonant voice announced ceremoniously that dinner was served. Slyne +offered Sallie an arm a second or two in advance of the slower Jobling, +and, as she laid a light hand on his sleeve, led her into the +banquet-hall. + +"I told them we'd dine here to-night, although there are lots of more +modern rooms," he mentioned to her, and frowned in helpless annoyance as +Captain Dove, following, gave vent to a very audible whistle. + +A butler and four tall footmen, all in tartan kilts and full-dress +doublets, were at their places about a table resplendent with silver +displayed with old-fashioned profusion. Rare crystal and fine foreign +glassware flashed and sparkled under the shaded lights standing on +damask like snow, to which hot-house fruit and flowers added an +exquisite note of colour. In the dim background, barely visible in the +faint firelight, hung faded tapestries with, here and there, some +portrait or pair of horns. There seemed to be a small gallery at the +farther end of the hall. The unceiled rafters overhead were also almost +in darkness. + +Sallie, glancing about her with eager, delighted eyes, paused on the way +to the table to peer through a pane of plate-glass let into the +panelling over one mantel. + +"That's the famous Fairy Horn, Lady Josceline," said Mr. Jobling +officiously. "But--you haven't heard the old Jura legend yet, I +suppose?" He coughed in his most important manner. + +"Well,--the Fairy Horn is said to have been presented to one of your +ancestors a very long time ago by the White Lady--the family ghost; +every real old Scots family, you know, has a private ghost of its own. +And the horn carried with it the privilege, to him or any succeeding +chief of the clan, of summoning the White Lady, on three occasions, to +fulfil any wish so urgent as to be worth the price of her help. For, +every time she does show up, the head of the family dies. So that--the +Fairy Horn has only been sounded twice, I've been told, during the +centuries which have passed since then; and--on each occasion the wish +expressed has been duly fulfilled, at the price of the chieftain's +life." + +Captain Dove turned restlessly in the chair on which he had scarcely sat +down. Sallie knew that he was intensely superstitious, as so many seamen +are, and that that shadowed hall would be the last place in which he +would be willing to hear ghost-stories. + +"Huh!" said he, irritably. "I don't believe a word of it, anyhow. What +are we waiting for now? Gimme some soup, or something, you!" + +He was still scowling over his shoulder at a surprised servant when, in +an instant, there rose from behind the tapestry in a dark corner a low, +moaning wail which swelled and sank and swelled again to a bitter, +blood-curdling shriek. Captain Dove's face blanched as he pushed his +chair from under him and sprang to his feet, armed with the nearest +available weapon, a table-knife. The servant behind him had stepped +back, in obvious alarm. + +A man came striding out of the dusk in the distant corner, and, as he +marched proudly up the room, the blare of the bagpipes over his shoulder +seemed to make the very rafters ring. Twice he encircled the table, and +then passed out of sight by the farther door. + +Captain Dove had sat down again, grinding his teeth audibly. To cover +his confusion, Sallie turned to the butler behind her chair, and, "What +tune was that?" she asked, pleasantly. + +Her face flushed as the Highlandman answered, in careful English, "It +will be none other than the _Welcome to Jura_ that your ladyship's +head-piper would play this night." + +She would have been even happier in her wonderful new home if she had +not thought of Justin Carthew again at that moment, and of the +difference her coming had made to him. She wished that she had been able +to tell him at once, on the Warder's Tower, what was once more in her +mind as she looked lovingly round the banquet-hall of Loquhariot--from +which she had ousted him. She could not forget how gallantly he had +faced fate at every turn, always making little of his own share in the +tragic happenings which had involved them both. + +She felt that she could not rest until she had set herself right with +him, and made up her mind that as soon as dinner was over, she would ask +Mairi or Mrs. M'Kissock to send a message down to the inn for her. + +But dinner, under such conditions, was a long business. And, although +both Mr. Jobling and Jasper Slyne did their best to make the time pass +pleasantly for her, she was very glad when a message the butler brought +her gave her an excuse for leaving the table a little before she would +otherwise have got away. + +She had hoped to escape alone, but Slyne had overheard what the man had +said and accompanied her to the hall, where the old housekeeper was +awaiting her. + +"What's all this, Mrs. M'Kissock?" he asked, somewhat sharply. +"And--who's Mr. Herries?" + +"Mr. Herries is the factor in charge of the estates, sir," she answered, +"and some of her ladyship's tenantry have come up from the village with +him to offer her welcome. It was not my place to turn them away from the +door without word from her ladyship's self." + +"Oh, no," said Sallie, her eyes aglow and a sudden lump in her throat to +think that her own folk were making her welcome. "I must see them, +Janet. I must thank them--" + +Slyne frowned, but made no further demur as Mrs. M'Kissock gave orders +to open the doors. + +The glare of the torches half-blinded Sallie as she stepped out; and she +halted beneath the portcullis. But she saw an old man alone on the +drawbridge and went on alone toward him. He doffed his Highland bonnet +to her and bowed with old-fashioned deference. Then he looked her in the +face for a moment or two, very keenly, while she returned his searching +glance with happily smiling eyes which had nothing to hide from him. And +all the time the pipers in the background were blowing their best. + +He held up a trembling hand to them, and the shrill music ceased. The +sputter of the torches was the only sound that broke the stillness until +he spoke. + +"Lady Josceline Justice?" he asked, and, as Sallie nodded, still +smiling, "I am Ian Herries," he told her, "factor of Loquhariot and your +ladyship's humble servant. I had no news of your ladyship's coming or I +would have been here in time to say welcome home on behalf of your +ladyship's tenantry and myself." + +"Oh, thank you, Mr. Herries," said Sallie, in a shy and very tremulous +voice whose tone changed suddenly to one of urgent alarm. "But--you're +ill. You must come in and rest. + +"Oh, Jasper--" + +The old man had almost collapsed, but Slyne hurried forward in time to +save him from falling. + +"I'll see to Mr. Herries," said he, with a great air of sympathy, and +helped the sick man indoors. + +Sallie looked a little uncertainly after him, and then faced the +flickering torches alone again. The silent scrutiny of all the eyes +regarding her was something of an ordeal, but she went bravely on across +the drawbridge. + +She did not notice the nip in the air, but some one among the assemblage +had wrapped her about in a heavy plaid and drawn back before she could +see who it was. + +"Your ladyship will find the Jura tartan as warm as the welcome we all +wish your ladyship," said a stalwart, bearded mountaineer, who had +stepped to the front to speak for his fellows; and, as she smiled shy +but very contentedly up into his scarlet face, he bent his head above +the hand she had held out to him. + +One after another the hill-men and fisherfolk of the village filed past +her then, each with some stammered salutation, in difficult English or +guttural Gaelic. And for each she had a shy, grateful smile and a word +of thanks, until at the last came Justin Carthew and had also stooped +and kissed her hand before she could prevent him. + +He would have passed on like the others but that she, blushing hotly, +begged him to wait. For Janet M'Kissock had come to her shoulder to say +that at the Jura Arms in the village would be provided a loving-cup in +which all might drink her ladyship's health, as was proper on such an +occasion, and had brought out the big, silver-mounted hunting-quaich in +which every new Earl of Jura had pledged his people on his accession. + +The butts of the torches had been flung in a heap on the ground before +the girl, and formed a fiery pyramid between her and the waiting throng. + +She lifted up the drinking-horn, her eyes very bright, and cried at the +pitch of her clear, sweet voice a single, strangely-sounding word in the +Gaelic, that Janet M'Kissock had whispered to her once or twice. And the +sudden, thunderous roar of response that rang out in answer, as if from +a single throat, awoke wild echoes among the surrounding hills. + +"Your ladyship will come inbye now," begged Mrs. M'Kissock, as the pipes +struck up again at the head of the gathering on its way back to the +village. + +But, "Just in a minute, Janet," said Sallie, "I'm quite warm. And--you +needn't wait." + +The bonfire before her was burning low in spite of the wind which had +just begun to blow and promised to freshen. She stayed beside it, +watching, until all but Carthew were gone. And then she turned to him, +the tears very near her eyes and her starved heart almost satisfied. + +"Oh, Mr. Carthew," she said timidly, "I wanted to tell you at once how +sorry I am about--everything. I had no idea at all, when you told me on +the _Olive Branch_--" + +"Of course not," said Justin Carthew concisely. + +"And Mr. Jobling was so--abrupt; and--I didn't know what to do. Won't +you please forgive me; I had no idea--" + +"I was pretty much taken aback myself," said Justin Carthew, and laughed +a little, though not very merrily. "But--I'm all right again now. And +you mustn't worry about me, please. I'm all right, again, and--" + +"You'll wait for a little?" she interrupted, she was so eager to +reassure him. "I can't help being who I am, but--if you will only wait +for a little, everything will turn out all right for you, too." + +She could see that he was puzzled. + +"I can't explain," she went on hurriedly, afraid that he would demand +explanation. "But I want you to give me a little time, if you will. I +want you not to go away. If you will just wait--for only three +months--everything will turn out all right for you in the end." + +"But--how--" he was beginning, when she cut him short again. + +"I can't explain," she repeated. "Only--you once promised that I might +ask you to do anything I wanted. Will you not just wait here, and trust +me--for only three months? And then you'll understand." + +He looked helplessly about him. + +"I'll wait here--and trust you--all the rest of my life," he said, "if +you say so. And then I'll still be in your debt." + +"All I ask is my three months," she told him gravely. "And then--" + +He looked his utter perplexity. + +"You don't mean that you're Lady Josceline Justice only for the time +being?" he asked, his forehead wrinkled. + +"Oh, no," she answered assuredly. "I'll be Lady Josceline Justice all +my life. And--you'll keep your promise?" + +"I'll keep my promise," he affirmed. "I'll wait here and trust you for +three months--and for the rest of my life, if you say so." + +She smiled at him, very contentedly. "I'm going to be very happy here +now," she said, and looked round. She had heard Slyne's voice, calling +her. She could see him beyond the drawbridge gazing blindly out into the +darkness. + +"Good night," she said to Carthew. But she did not go in until he had +swung himself into the saddle and ridden away, always looking back. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR + + +The wind that rose during the night brought with it a change in the +weather. When the day broke and a round red sun rose from among the +mountains, it showed the whole world white--the land deep under snow and +the sea all foam. + +Slyne's first sensation when he woke and saw the storm, from behind the +double windows of his comfortable rooms in the Warder's Tower, was one +of relief, since it would surely serve to stave off inconvenient +visitors. He had been afraid that the news the beacon had blazoned the +night before would travel altogether too fast and too far to suit his +plans; it would have been awkward in the extreme to be inundated with +curious callers in a position practically carried by assault, only +tenable by stealth and while no one in active authority should challenge +it. + +The coming of Herries, the factor, had opened his eyes to that. For the +old fellow, ill as he was, had shown a most annoying inclination to +cross-question Slyne about various dry legal details; and Slyne had only +been able to put him off temporarily by promising that her ladyship's +own man of law would go into all such matters with him in the morning. + +Now, fortunately for Slyne and his friends, the factor need not be +further considered for some little time to come, if indeed at all. The +fever in him had refused to yield to any of Mrs. M'Kissock's simple +medicaments, and he was delirious. He seemed very likely, indeed, to die +unless he were very lucky. Slyne did not fail to congratulate himself on +that score also, as he sat up in bed to reach for a cigarette after his +late breakfast and contemplate the cuffs of his expensive pink silk +pajamas. + +The rest of the company in the castle he thought he could find means to +control, for the present, at any rate, although he did not +under-estimate the chances of trouble with his two disaffected +associates, who had already displayed such a lamentable tendency toward +open mutiny. But, on the whole, he felt satisfied that, if he could only +keep matters running smoothly during the days that must still elapse +before the Court of Chancery should resume its usual routine and finally +settle the Jura succession on Sallie, he would by then have managed to +make his own footing there absolutely secure. + +He snuggled back between the blankets again, with an inexpressible +sensation of comfort, and, watching the blue spirals of smoke curl +upwards from under his moustache, forgot all the anxious uncertainties +and the ever more painful pinch of the present in contemplative +anticipations of that fair future which he had so carefully planned for +himself. Not even the fact that he had almost exhausted his cash +resources could worry him when he thought of the wealth that was to be +his as soon as he should be safely married to Sallie; and until then he +could command unlimited local credit, on her behalf. + +She was Lady Josceline Justice already. She would be Countess of Jura in +her own right as soon as the Court of Chancery should admit her +identity. She would have ten millions of dollars in ready money for him +to spend and a quarter of a million for annual income. He had been a +poor man all his life, but now--he looked luxuriously out at the snow +and the storm. + +"Mr. Jasper Slyne and the Countess of Jura," he said aloud, and smiled +and curled his moustache. + +He rose by and by and betook himself to his dressing-room, whistling a +cheery tune. "And although I don't want to rush things," said he to +himself as he stepped briskly into his bath, "if either Dove or that fat +suicide makes any more fuss, I'll have to show 'em my teeth. They must +both keep to the bargains we struck. And I think I've made things pretty +safe for myself by now." + +When he at length strolled downstairs, infinitely refreshed after his +long rest, he found Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove in close conclave in +the library. And he did not like their looks in the least or their +sudden silence at sight of him. He felt certain that they had been +conspiring against him, and did not delay in commencing a +counter-attack. + +"'Morning, Dove. 'Morning, Jobling," said he casually, as he stopped to +select a cigar from the box on the table. "Change of weather, eh! You'll +have a cold journey back to London, Jobling." + +Mr. Jobling looked very coldly across at him. "I do not propose to +return to London at present, Mr. Slyne," he replied. "Mr. Spettigrew +will look after everything there." + +"You're no more use to me here," said Slyne bluntly, "and you _may_ be +of some service in London." + +"You are no longer a client of mine, Mr. Slyne," the lawyer retorted, no +doubt emboldened by the promise of Captain Dove's unswerving support. "I +can no longer act for you with any feeling of confidence--since I have +found out how unfairly you have attempted to treat Captain Dove." + +Slyne understood that open war was declared. "I won't be a client of +yours for long, if you're going to be troublesome," he affirmed. "I +think you've got a little out of your depth again, my friend. I don't +think you'll find it will pay you to take that tone." + +Mr. Jobling began to splutter, and Captain Dove evidently felt impelled +to come to his aid. + +"You take too much on yourself, Slyne," said he, eyeing that gentleman +with extreme disfavour. "You seem to think you're the whole show here, +though you're nothing but a hanger-on, as I've told you before. Let's +have a good deal less of it, or--We can get on just as well, or even +better--without you, you know." + +Slyne turned a contemptuous stare on him. "So that's the idea now, is +it!" he remarked, without any sign of heat. "You two think it's a case +of dog eat dog now, do you! And--after you've got rid of me, who picked +you both up out of the gutter, you'll be at each other's throats. You're +a great pair!" + +His nonchalance incensed the old man, as he had intended it should. + +"I want none of your damned lip," declared Captain Dove, glaring at him, +"you precious upstart! You're nothing but a beggar on horseback +yourself, for all your grand airs. Me and this other gentleman are both +sick-tired of them. You're one too many--" + +"I'm one too many for you two, at any rate; and you may both stake your +last cent on that," Slyne told him with a composure admirable under the +circumstances. "You surely don't imagine, do you, that I'm here on any +such unsafe footing as you are! I thought you knew me well enough, Dove, +to be sure that I'd leave you no opportunity to go back on your bargain +with me." + +"To hell with you and your bargains!" cried Captain Dove: and then, +restraining his rage, lowered his voice again. "The mistake you've +always made with me, Slyne, has been to take me for an old fool--as +you've very often called me to my face. You think I'm in my dotage. +But--I'm not too old to show _you_ a trick or two yet, if you and I come +to grips. And, as for being such a fool as you seem to think me--you +wait and see! I've a card or two up my sleeve, Mr. Slyne, that'll maybe +euchre your game for you, if you try to bluff too high!" + +Slyne sat back and studied the old man's face. Captain Dove had made +that same mysterious threat on board the _Olive Branch_ in Genoa, before +they had started out on their present adventure. It had disconcerted +Slyne then. It disconcerted him still more now. + +"Don't you think that you're a little inclined to overrate your +importance and--er--capacity, Mr. Slyne?" put in Mr. Jobling acidly +during the pause, involuntary on Slyne's part. "All your ideas are no +doubt based on the documents we mutually signed in Monte Carlo; and you +are probably not aware, as I am--now that I have a clearer insight into +your motives--that they amount to neither more nor less than a +conspiracy to defraud. You would be well advised, believe me, to put +them all in the fire." + +Slyne turned on him in an instant. "Now, see here, my friend! I want you +to understand, once and for all, that I've got _you_ safe where I want +you, and that, if I hear much more from you, you'll find yourself in a +very unpleasant fix. You wouldn't look well at all in a striped +suit--or I believe it's the broad-arrow pattern they supply in the +prisons here. And that's what you'll come to, believe me, unless you +walk the line I've laid down for you. You can't embezzle trust funds, +you know, and pay the interest with promises to be met as soon as you +lay your hands on some of the plunder here, without running a very +dangerous risk indeed. Why, even the car you sold me in Genoa was +another man's property--and I hold your receipt for the price I paid you +for it. + +"So shut up," he concluded sharply, and proceeded to deal with Captain +Dove as if the lawyer had not been there. + +Mr. Jobling's flaccid face had become of the colour of mottled clay. He +was respiring stertorously, through his mouth. His eyes had grown +blood-shot. His back-bone seemed to have given way. He sat huddled up, +silent, staring at Slyne with eyes full of impotent fear. + +"You talk to me about bluffing!" Slyne was saying to Captain Dove, who +also seemed to have grown suddenly apprehensive of some unforeseen +mischance. "You talk to me about bluffing, although I've played a +straight game with you from the start and stuck to our bargain even +against my own interests. Wait a minute. Listen to me--and then you can +talk till you're tired. + +"Do you want to keep your clever new friend there company in his cell? +How long do you think you'd be left at liberty if I mentioned to the +authorities that you're the same man who--" + +"Stop, now, curse you!" roared Captain Dove and so drowned the +disclosures which Slyne seemed minded to make. "And don't go too far +with me, or--" + +Slyne looked without winking into the muzzle of the revolver which the +old man had produced in an instant and levelled at him. "You talk to me +about bluffing!" he said again, and laughed, without mirth. "You'd be +better occupied, Dove, in making sure that your own bluff isn't called. +You've done your best for a week past to give yourself away to the +police, and--if you manage that in the end, you won't have me to blame, +remember. _I'm_ not the sort of yellow dog you seem to want to make +yourself out." + +He paused, to let that vitriolic criticism sink in, and to consider just +how far he might safely go. Captain Dove had laid his revolver down but +kept a hand on its butt. He was watching Slyne intently. + +"I wish you could get it into your head," the latter resumed a little +more peaceably, "that beggar-my-neighbour isn't the easiest game to play +with me. And that I've got brains enough to take care of myself. + +"If you and your cute new friend there were to be put away to-morrow, +I'd stay here safe and sound. I've nothing to fear. + +"I've kept my bargain with you both so far, and I'm quite willing to +complete it. I'm going to see, at the same time, that you keep yours +with me. You'll each get your promised share of the profits here, no +more and no less; and then--I'll be done with you. Till then--don't go +_too_ far with me," he finished warningly. + +"To hear you talk, any one would think you owned Loquhariot already!" +remarked Captain Dove. "I'd like to hear what Sallie has to say about it +all now." + +"I'll get her to tell you at once, if you like," Slyne answered evenly +and, rising, rang the bell. + +"Ask her ladyship to favour us with her company for a few minutes," he +instructed the footman who answered that summons, "or if she'd prefer to +receive us in her own room." Then he lay back in his chair again, his +wits busily at work. He could not feel quite sure himself what Sallie +would have to say about it all now; but--he meant to master her also. + +The servant, however, came back with word that her ladyship had gone +out. And at that Slyne scowled. It was at a most inopportune moment for +him that Sallie had taken a liberty of which she would not have dreamed +a few days before; and, furthermore, it did not fit in with his plans at +all to have her making such use of her new-found freedom; there was no +telling whom she might meet--there was that fellow Carthew, for +instance! + +"Which way did her ladyship go, do you know?" he called after the +footman, as casually as he could. + +"To the village, I think, sir," the man replied, and he rose, yawning, +to look discontentedly out at the wintry landscape. It was very +beautiful in the brisk morning sunshine, but also very wet underfoot. + +"I'll stroll down the road after her," he announced, "and fetch her +back. You can be packing up in the meantime, Jobling. The steamer south +sails early in the afternoon." + +He did not hesitate to leave the two conspirators alone together again; +he judged that he had succeeded in cowing them both. He even smiled to +himself on his way outdoors. + +"I thought I was done for when I met Dubois," he reflected, perfectly +self-satisfied, "but--I was really in luck. And that was a most +opportune chat I had with Mullins in London, too. I've got Jobling +fairly fixed. If I can't manage the old man--I'm a bigger fool than I +take myself for. And I've made things all right for myself with Sallie, +or I'm mistaken." + +He paused in the main hall to look appreciatively about him while a +servant was fetching his coat and cap from the cloak-room. The sun was +streaming in through the stained glass of a lofty, mullioned window, the +heart of each of whose panels showed in vivid scarlet against the light +a clenched hand holding a dagger, the Jura crest. + +"_They_ won it all that way," said Slyne to himself, and drew a deep +breath of contentment as he looked round the noble hall again. He felt +very proud of the place already, and only wished that some of his former +friends could have seen him there. + +Outside, beyond the drawbridge, he halted to look admiringly up at the +massive, ivy-clad frontage of the Main Keep, with its crenellated +ramparts and narrow fighting-windows and bartizan. Then he turned with a +high heart toward the road that runs between hazel thickets and clumps +of alder or silver birch down the long hill to the village and the +seashore. He was humming a contented tune to himself as he tramped +through the melting snow. + +He had not far to seek Sallie. Within the open doorway of the first +cottage he came to, he caught sight of her beside the peat-fire with a +laughing child on her lap and its proud mother smiling beside her. + +He walked in on them, and she looked up at him very happily as he +entered. The mother curtsied, which pleased him. So that he made himself +most agreeable to them both, and did not take Sallie away at once as he +had intended. He was quite gratified to see how graciously she filled +the part of Lady Bountiful. He wanted her to be popular among the +villagers, and meant to make himself popular as well. He was only afraid +that her ignorance of the conventions might lead her into making herself +too cheap. + +She was only a young girl yet, and he knew that her innate purity of +mind had never been sullied nor her sweet, loyal, lovable nature in any +way warped amid the strange surroundings and circumstances in which she +had lived till then. She was as happy playing with the cottager's child +as she would have been in a palace. But--the daughter of Torquil Fitz-J. +Justice, Earl of Jura and Baron St. Just of Justicehall and Loquhariot, +must not make herself too cheap, thought Slyne. And presently he +suggested to her that it was time to be going. + +She rose, a little reluctantly, and followed him; while he bowed +patronisingly to the fisherman's wife--just as he imagined a grand +gentleman would do. + +He did not demur when Sallie turned down the village street instead of +up-hill again. He was quite pleased to show himself there at her +side--and touch his cap condescendingly in response to the salutations +of all who passed. He only omitted that very casual courtesy to Justin +Carthew, standing at the door of the Inn. + +"I suppose there's no doubt that Mr. Carthew was wrongly informed by his +lawyers, Jasper?" Sallie asked him a few minutes later. + +"No doubt in the world," Slyne answered her. "He's of no account at all +now. The best thing he can do now for himself is to clear off back to +America, where he belongs. + +"And--there's another thing, my dear. Captain Dove and that fat ass +Jobling have got to go too. We'll never have any peace while they're +hanging about. But they're both inclined to be troublesome, and I want +you to back me up against them. + +"It was Captain Dove who ordered the beacon to be lighted last night. +And--Lord only knows how much annoyance that may cause us yet! In fact, +they're a pretty difficult pair to handle. So, when we get back to the +castle, I want you to tell them that you intend to keep your promise to +me; I'll be better able to manage them then, you see. + +"You haven't forgotten just what you promised me, have you?" + +"No, Jasper," answered the girl, and gazed across the wind-swept loch +with fond, despairing eyes, "I haven't forgotten. And--I'll keep my +promise, if--when the time comes." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE JURA SUCCESSION + + +Captain Dove, sucking at his black cutty-pipe in the library of +Loquhariot, looked very contemptuously at Mr. Jobling. It was +self-evident that Mr. Jobling was afraid of Slyne and feeling very sorry +for himself. + +But Captain Dove was in no such disconsolate mood. Glancing at the +despondent lawyer out of his little red-rimmed eyes, he even grinned, +still more contemptuously. _He_ was not afraid of Slyne, he told +himself, and it made no material difference to him that his recent +attempt to brow-beat that grasping scoundrel had failed, even with the +London lawyer for ally. For Captain Dove did not intend that either of +the other two should eventually get the better of him. He was playing a +waiting game, in which he meant to come out winner at any cost. + +So far as Captain Dove was concerned there were only two persons really +concerned in the question of the Jura succession. One was Sallie, the +other himself--her adopted father! + +He looked upon Mr. Jobling as a mere mechanical instrument, such as +could be replaced at a moment's notice if that were needful, now that +the legal details of the case had been carried so far toward final +success. Slyne was absolutely superfluous there and had outlived his +usefulness, in so far, at least, as Captain Dove was concerned. More +than that, he was in Captain Dove's way. So, to some extent, was Justin +Carthew, since it seemed that Sallie felt called upon to make a fool of +herself for his benefit; but Captain Dove did not anticipate any great +difficulty in dealing with him. And so was Herries, the factor, who had +so many inconvenient questions to ask--although he need scarcely be +taken into account at present while he was abed and likely to be there +for some time to come. + +With all of these, in any case, he felt quite capable of coping--except +with Jasper Slyne, who had threatened, a few moments before and in the +hearing of an attentive witness ... Slyne was undoubtedly dangerous now; +and it must be his first care to free himself for all time from the risk +of Slyne's telling.... + +"I have it," said Captain Dove, his furrowed forehead suddenly cleared +and his face contorted into a smile at sight of which Mr. Jobling was +seized with a sickly, sinking sensation. "I have it. We must keep quiet +of course, until the _Olive Branch_ turns up, but she shouldn't be very +long now, and then-- + +"I'll send for Brasse. I warned that fool Slyne to play fair with +me--but he won't. And so--since it's beggar-my-neighbour we're at, _he_ +won't be my neighbour for long." + +Mr. Jobling rose, coughing irritably. The reek from Captain Dove's foul +pipe was too much for him. + +"I'll go and pack now," he announced. "I'd never have come here at all +if I had thought--" + +"You leave things here to me, old cock," Captain Dove encouraged him. +"And go and jag your friend Spettigrew along till he gets judgment for +us. That's the most important part of the game at present. Leave things +here to me, and you'll find, when the time comes, that Slyne will have +to take a back seat." + +But the stout solicitor did not seem grateful at all for that crumb of +comfort. He merely looked at Captain Dove with equal dislike and +disbelief as he left the room. + +He left the castle immediately after lunch, to catch the steamer south, +a little less depressed, perhaps, after a few further words with Captain +Dove, who thought it only politic to inspirit him in his efforts on +Sallie's behalf. And he had not been gone very long before Captain Dove +began to miss him--as a boon-companion, a part which Slyne refused to +play any longer. So that the old man soon began to find the time hang +very heavy on his hands, and his grudge against Slyne always grew. + +Under any circumstances, he could not have been happy for long on land. +Nor could he feel altogether safe there, even in the distasteful +disguise he had adopted at Slyne's advice; and for discrediting which he +had been so repeatedly called to account by Slyne. He could scarcely but +repent having sacrificed his undisputed autocracy on the _Olive Branch_ +in order to figure as a mere puppet in Slyne's company, as he had +undoubtedly become since he had left his ship. He grew very angry indeed +with Slyne when he thought of that, as he often did during those endless +days of waiting. + +It was all Slyne's fault, he assured himself, that he was thus stranded +there; that he had not fifty cents left to bless himself with, since one +expensive evening in Paris; and that, even if he had had such a sum in +his pockets, it might have worn a hole in them before he could spend it, +in such a forsaken spot! + +Of what use to him, he inquired of himself, going off at another +tangent, could a huge, ghost-haunted pile like the Castle of Loquhariot +be? Or a great empty barrack like Justicehall?--which reminded him +unpleasantly of the Law Courts in London. How could he ever hope to +spend such an excess of wealth as was soon to be Sallie's, and, +therefore, at his disposal? A perfect nausea of money possessed Captain +Dove at such moments. He would almost have preferred the prospect of +poverty again, if only for the sake of the interest in life the struggle +to live might restore to him. + +"Enough is as good as a feast!" said he to himself every now and then +while he gazed, with gloom in his soul, at the cut-crystal decanters on +a salver of solid silver which was never far from his elbow; and, with +that wise saw on his lips, he would continue to drown his contradictory +sorrows as deeply as possible. + +But there was luckily room and to spare in the castle for all its +inmates. Slyne and he kept as much as possible out of each other's way, +although they had resumed a spasmodic outward semblance of amity, a +steadfast inward determination to get the better of one another, whether +by fair means or foul. He could scarcely seek Sallie's company now that +she knew his treacherous intentions toward her. The sick man, Herries, +was still in bed, in a sufficiently precarious state. So that he lived +very much alone with his various grievances, since his walks abroad, as +far as the Jura Arms,--where he soon became almost popular among the +occasional profligates of the village,--were not so frequent as they +would probably have been in better weather. + +A bitter east wind, bringing always more snow, had blown almost +ceaselessly for the best part of a fortnight before any change came in +the wildest weather that had befallen Loquhariot in long years. + +The mountain roads for miles in all directions were quite impassable. +The mail-cart, with its driver and horses, and also the hastily +improvised snow-plough which had attempted their rescue, lay buried deep +below the ever deepening drift into which it had plunged on its last +outward journey. The single telegraph-line that served the locality had +broken down at a dozen points which were quite unapproachable. Stress of +weather had prevented the weekly steamer from making its usual call. +Loquhariot was absolutely cut off from the outer world. + +And then, with a wet westerly wind which soon grew into a gale, the snow +on the mountains began to melt and floods made matters still worse, +swelling every unconsidered stream into a destructive torrent, cutting +wide chasms across the precipitous main-road over the Pass, under-mining +its bridges and even washing some of them away bodily. In several of the +more outlying districts sheer famine began to grow imminent. The flocks +and herds of the countryside were in still worse case than the wild deer +which had escaped from their forest sanctuaries before the first of the +snow and had been huddling about the village while it endured. + +No word had come through from Mr. Jobling in all that time. And Captain +Dove was almost beyond the end of his outworn patience before, scowling +blackly out of the library window one day when the westerly gale had all +but blown itself out, he caught sight of a shabby, sea-going, +cargo-tramp, flying the Norwegian flag, which seemed to be seeking an +anchorage behind the Small Isles at the mouth of the loch. + +It was the _Olive Branch_. He would have known her in the dark, disguise +or no disguise. + +"Uh-hum!" he exclaimed, in an ecstasy of relief. "_Now_ I can make +things move a little at last. Now we'll soon see who's who here." + +He dashed off a peremptory note to his chief engineer, put that in his +pocket, clapped his smoked spectacles on his nose and his soft felt hat +on his head, and made for the village, where he hoped to find, in the +Jura Arms, a local poacher who would undertake an errand out to the +steamer. + +He found his man at the inn, and his credit there enabled him to drive a +speedy bargain. It also helped him to pass the time contentedly enough +till the fishing-boat returned from its wet trip with word for the +public that the strange steamer had put into the loch on account of an +accident in her engine-room which would delay her there for a little, +although she would need no help from the village; and with a hasty +private note from the chief engineer for Captain Dove--to the effect +that Mr. Brasse refused to come ashore. + +"Curse him!" snarled Captain Dove as his messenger retired to the bar +again. "I suppose he's afraid of the police--though there isn't a +policeman within thirty miles, and, even if there were, it wouldn't +matter very much." And he sat down to compose another and still more +peremptory note, bidding Brasse obey his lawful commands or take the +consequences of disobedience. + +He would have put off to the steamer himself but for the obvious reasons +against that course. And, to induce his messenger to make the trip again +after dark, he had to promise the man twice as much as for the first +run, still outstanding. + +When he finally emerged from the inn, in no very pleasant temper, he +caught sight, first, of the weekly steamer already half way up the loch, +inward bound, and then of Sallie at a bend of the road in the distance, +on her way back to the castle from the village. There was some one with +her. It was Carthew. + +Captain Dove became still more incensed, and, his mind a good deal +inflamed by his recent potations, set off up the hill in pursuit of +them, breathing noisily, not even pausing to scowl at the children who +scurried indoors as he passed with the skirts of his long black coat +streaming out behind him. + +He had heard from Slyne that Herries, the factor, had formally appointed +the young American his deputy until he should be able to undertake his +own duties again. And, in spite of all Slyne and he could say to Sallie, +she had obstinately refused to assist in getting rid of Carthew. He had +heard from Slyne that Carthew was making far too many occasions for +seeing her, and when he had cautioned Sallie on that score she had shown +no disposition at all to take his advice. + +"I've warned her often enough," he muttered with steadily rising wrath, +"to quit monkeying with that fellow. And she'll get right out of hand +now, unless I let her see, once and for all, who's going to be master +here. Where would I come in if _he_ managed to get married to her! He's +got to go. That's all there is to it. I can't afford to have him hanging +about here any longer." + +The couple in front seemed to be in no hurry, however. He had almost +overtaken them before he paused at a hazel-clump to cut himself a stout +cudgel. By the time he had got that trimmed to his taste, they had +almost reached the castle. + +"I'll wait till she's gone in," said Captain Dove to himself. He had +noticed that Carthew was carrying what looked like a woodman's axe. But +that did not daunt him at all in his purpose. He lingered along the edge +of an alder-thicket until at length Sallie shook hands in very friendly +fashion with the young American and went her own way, while Carthew took +to a trail through the woods and made off at a round pace, +notwithstanding his limp, axe on shoulder, whistling blithely. + +The path he was following wound in and out among plantations of pine and +great groves of grey, leafless birches, until, at a distance of half a +mile, it found the clear edge of the cliffs overlooking the circular +inlet which forms the head of the loch, and finally faded away at the +marge of a smooth plateau of bare rock enclosed on three sides by a +thick tangle of woodland and rank undergrowth. + +Captain Dove stalked him with all precaution, stepping from stone to +stone among the wet snow which was rapidly melting, so that he might +leave no traceable footprints on the soft, spongy soil or damp, dead +leaves. And once, when Carthew halted to light a pipe, the old man, with +murder in his mind, dropped into cover behind a moss-grown boulder at +one side of the path--because that would have been a most unadvisable +spot at which to attack a man armed with an axe. Then, as Carthew moved +on, he once more took up the pursuit, through the clumps of bramble and +bracken between the dark trunks of the firs about him. + +Carthew stepped unconcernedly out of the dusk of the woods into the open +space at the end of the path, and stopped there, axe on shoulder, to +look about him. But Captain Dove did not immediately spring upon him as +he had been minded to do, for he had just observed, at a corner of the +convenient plateau, a round hut, stone-built and roofed with heather, +which might or might not be inhabited. Captain Dove wormed his way round +toward it, within the thicket. + +The windows of the hut were shuttered and its door pad-locked on the +outside. Captain Dove was delighted. He turned to squint across at +Carthew from behind a bush and judge his distance, but still delayed his +attack. + +Carthew seemed to have seen something of interest in the dark wood +behind Captain Dove, and Captain Dove looked round in instant alarm. It +would have been most unpleasant to find that he himself was being spied +upon. There was some one or some thing, a tall white shadow, very dimly +discernible, moving among the gloom. + +A sudden and most unusual sensation of panic seized Captain Dove. The +inexplicable shape was flitting soundlessly toward him. He felt thankful +that Carthew was there behind him, alive and well, for company. But when +he rose upright and glanced swiftly over one shoulder the plateau was +empty. Carthew had gone. + +The evening was drawing in, and even the pathway by which they had come +there was growing dim as the light slowly failed. Captain Dove made a +blind dash for it across the open space, and so fled headlong, in fear. + +He only once looked back, and then he saw the shadow again. It was +following him. And he did not stop running till he reached the +drawbridge of the castle. But there he halted, panting, to swear at +himself for a superstitious old fool, and stare back into the woods with +eyes in which terror was mingled with rage. + +"Some stray cow--or maybe a stag!" he declared to himself. "If I had +had a shot-gun handy--or even my revolver--" + +But, stare as he would, he could see nothing more of the creature. And +he went in through the postern, still swearing under his breath. + +He had never felt quite at his ease in the great main hall of the +castle, which, with its empty suits of mail in all sorts of unexpected +corners, the flags overhead flapping soundlessly in every draught, the +pale faces peering down from their dark frames in the gallery, possessed +an uncanny atmosphere of its own, especially in the dusk. + +However, the two big fires blazing on their cavernous hearths at either +side of its wide expanse made it a good deal more homelike, less eerie +than it had seemed when he had first seen it. And he crossed it almost +without concern on his way toward his own quarters in the North Keep. + +But by the way some obscure movement among the shadows beyond the nearer +fire brought his heart to his mouth again in an instant, and a hand +slipped mechanically toward the empty hip-pocket beneath the skirt of +his coat. He had halted. He moved on, into the dim recess whence some +one was watching him, and presently emerged again, dragging after him +into the firelight a shock-headed, pasty-faced lad, whose long neck was +writhing in anguish as Captain Dove gave the long ear between his finger +and thumb another fierce tweak. + +"What the devil are _you_ doing here!" the old man demanded, peering +into the features of Mr. Jobling's managing clerk. + +"Nothing," answered Mullins with legal exactitude. But he quickly became +more discursive under Captain Dove's threatening glance. "Mr. Jobling +brought me here with him," he explained. "We arrived by the steamer an +hour ago, after a most terrible passage. I never saw such--" + +Captain Dove silenced him with a scowl. "Where's your master?" he +demanded. + +"In there," replied Mullins promptly, pointing to the door of the +gun-room, which opened off the main hall; and Captain Dove, casting him +loose without more words, marched in upon Mr. Jobling and Slyne in +excited conference. + +They looked round as the door opened, and the lawyer, seeing who the +unceremonious intruder was, waved a fat hand in gleeful welcome. "We're +safe now," he vociferated. "The Jura succession is settled at last. +Where's Lady Josceline? She'll be Countess of Jura in her own right as +soon as--" + +"Not so much of your noise," Captain Dove commanded, and, suddenly, +reopening the door, all but overset himself in accomplishing a hasty +kick, which elicited a loud yelp from without. + +"Was that Mullins!" Mr. Jobling exclaimed. "I don't know _what_ I'm to +do with him. He's really becoming a dangerous nuisance. I had to bring +him away from London with me to prevent him--" + +"He'll keep clear of keyholes for a while," Captain Dove put in +confidently. "Now let's hear your news." + +Mr. Jobling's clouded face cleared again. "You've heard it already," he +said. "I've won our case. The Chancery Court has admitted my proofs. We +are to attend again, all of us, the day after to-morrow if possible, +when Mr. Justice Gaunt will give us decree. And Lady Josceline will be +the Countess of Jura as soon as--" + +"When will she get any money?" asked Captain Dove bluntly, and Mr. +Jobling looked pained. + +"By Friday, I should think," he stated, "I'll have everything in such +shape that she can draw a cheque for a mill--" + +"She'll draw no cheques," Slyne interrupted decisively. "You know very +well that I have her formal authority to attend to all such matters for +her. Whatever small sums she may require _I'll_ procure for her, and any +payments to be made on her behalf _I'll_ make." + +He met with perfect tranquillity the glances of his associates. "I'll go +and tell her the news now," he remarked, and left the room. + +As soon as the door had closed behind him, the lawyer turned toward +Captain Dove, and, "Well?" he asked eagerly. "Was that your ship I saw +at the mouth of the loch? How are you going to get rid of that +domineering upstart? There isn't much time left to--" + +Captain Dove held up a protesting hand, but Mr. Jobling would not be put +down in that manner. He was evidently determined now to stand up for +himself and those hard-earned rights out of which Slyne had undoubtedly +jockeyed him in the most bare-faced, contemptuous manner. + +"I really must insist on knowing what you mean to do," he declared +irascibly. "I have far too much at stake to leave anything to chance at +this late moment. Once Mr. Slyne reaches London, it will be too late +to--" + +"Hold your row!" ordered Captain Dove, so fiercely that Mr. Jobling +jumped. "And--don't interfere in what doesn't concern you. All you need +to know is that--Slyne will never see London again. Does that satisfy +you?" + +"It would--if I could believe it," observed Mr. Jobling, valiantly. +"But--" + +"And neither will you, if you worry me," added Captain Dove in a voice +which seemed to affect his neighbour's nerve very adversely. "So help +yourself to another peg and pass the bottle. I can scarcely hear myself +think for your chatter, and I've got a good deal to think about." + +Mr. Jobling did his very best to meet the old man's irate glance +resolutely, but his own irresolute, blinking eyes soon fell before the +cold menace in Captain Dove's. He replenished his glass, and having +sulkily shoved the decanter across the table, lay back in his chair. + +"You said that she could draw her money on Friday, didn't you?" asked +Captain Dove, and he nodded, with very ill grace. + +"And Slyne has her power of attorney to sign any cheques he likes to +write," the old man went on musingly. "But--that doesn't matter. Brasse +will be ashore to-night. And we'll be off to London to-morrow, me an' +you, Jobling, d'ye hear?" + +Mr. Jobling could not deny that he heard, and did not seem inclined to +ask any more questions. But Captain Dove had a great many more to ask +him, and when Slyne looked into the room, some time later, he found the +two of them chatting quite amicably. They both fell silent, however, at +sight of him. + +"Lady Josceline is entertaining visitors," he announced: "the Duchess of +Dawn--and that unlicked cub Ingoldsby." + +"Lord Ingoldsby's her grace's nephew, of course," Mr. Jobling mentioned +reverentially. "And one of the wealthiest peers in England--or anywhere +else. But--how did they get here? Dawn's on the other side of the +mountains, and--" + +"They rode across," said Slyne, "to find out who was here. If Dove +hadn't ordered the beacon to be lighted the night we arrived, they'd +never have heard--But maybe, after all, it will help-- + +"They're going to dine and stay the night, anyhow. It's come on to snow +again. + +"There's a great hullabaloo below-stairs," he said in a somewhat +querulous tone as he crossed toward the fireplace and helped himself to +a cigarette from the silver box on the mantel. "One of the gamekeepers +sent in word that he had seen the 'white lady' about in the woods this +afternoon. And now an hysterical housemaid is having fits in the +servants' hall, on the insufficient ground that she had met the same +mysterious personage in one of the passages a little ago. The whole +outfit, in fact, are in the very devil of a fluster." + +"How unfortunate!" exclaimed Mr. Jobling, while Captain Dove was still +regarding Slyne with an expression of mingled doubt and dismay. "Nothing +could have been more ill-timed, too--since her grace is going to honour +us with her company. Every one about the place believes implicitly in +that old superstition--and they say, you know, that the head of the +family _has_ died whenever the so-called 'white lady' has made her +appearance." + +Slyne laughed, and blew a cloud of smoke from his nostrils. + +"Lady Josceline will outlast most of us," he declared with the utmost +nonchalance. "And, in any case, I've dared anyone to breathe a word +about it to her. We don't want our dinner spoiled with any nonsense of +that sort." + +Mr. Jobling got up to go, alleging that he was tired after his long +journey and wanted a rest before dinner. + +"Of course, it's all nonsense," he agreed, if with no great conviction. +"But it won't be before to-morrow that you'll get the Highlanders here +to believe that." + +Slyne laughed again, contemptuously, as the lawyer left the room, and +then turned toward Captain Dove. + +"You don't believe in ghosts, do you, Dove?" he demanded, quite well +aware of the old man's weakness in that respect. + +"I've seen one or two in my time," answered that superstitious seaman in +a low growl. + +"You're luckier than I've ever been, then," said Slyne mockingly. "And I +only believe in what I can see for myself. But, all the same, I'm not +going to take any losing chances. And, you must admit, it would be most +damnably awkward for us if Sallie should, by any chance, fall under the +fatal spell of the family spectre." + +Captain Dove gave voice to another growl, unintelligible, and moved +restlessly in his chair. It had not, as a matter of fact, occurred to +him that any immediate mischance to Sallie must mean ruin to himself. +And Slyne's sneering insensibility was difficult to endure when he +recalled what he himself had also seen in the woods. + +"I think it would be as well in any case to make sure that we won't be +left lamenting her and absolutely penniless," Slyne went on, his +features suddenly set and serious. "And I'm going to make things safe +for us all to-night," he affirmed. "Are you listening, Dove? + +"It might be dangerous now to delay even until to-morrow. You and I have +too much at stake to run any avoidable risk. And remember that, if you +fail me again, it isn't only a matter of the money you'll lose by your +folly. I know very well that Jobling and you have been plotting together +against me, but--I don't believe you've forgotten what I told you both +the day before he left for London. It would scarcely be worth your while +to go back on me now and spend the rest of your life in prison, or, much +more probably,--hang." + +Captain Dove nodded perfectly civil assent to that self-evident +proposition. He was inwardly wondering at what hour Brasse would be +ashore. + +"Very well," Slyne concluded. "You've got to stand by me, for your own +sake. I'm going to clinch matters with Sallie now. I'll announce our +engagement at dinner. And immediately after dinner, she and I will go +through the simple formality of a Scotch marriage--the worthy Mrs. +M'Kissock has told me exactly how that can be done. The duchess will +serve as one witness and I'll find another trust-worthy one. So that, +all going well, the future Countess of Jura will be my lawful wife +before any harm can come to her even from the 'white lady.' How does +that strike you, eh?" + +Captain Dove once more nodded polite agreement, and then looked very +slowly round over one shoulder behind him. Slyne darted an involuntary +glance in the same direction, and the fag-end of his cigarette fell from +between nerveless fingers. A sudden pallor had overspread his tanned +features, and something very like fear looked out of his eyes at the dim +white form standing motionless just beyond the range of the lamplight. + +[Illustration: Something very like fear looked out of his eyes.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE PARTY OF THE FIRST PART + + +The shadow which had followed Captain Dove throughout his headlong +flight from the hut on the cliffs had halted behind a bush at the edge +of the wood while he lingered on the drawbridge to look back. As soon as +he disappeared through the postern it flitted in the dusk across the +gravel sweep in front of the castle, down into the dry moat and up again +on the other side to a dark window: through which it gained easy +ingress. And from that point, moving stealthily and with extreme +precaution along the servants' passageways, it finally reached the +housekeeper's quarters: where it stood listening intently for a few +seconds before stepping in on Mrs. M'Kissock. + +She was seated at her early supper, alone, and looked round in surprise, +which quickly deepened into dire bewilderment and dread. + +"Farish!" she whispered with pale lips, as he cast off the soiled and +travel-worn white Arab cloak which had covered him, showing himself a +big, bent, white-bearded, fierce-looking, haggard-faced fellow, +barefooted, almost in rags. He was glancing about him with the +expression of a wild beast in a cage while the old housekeeper gazed at +him, breathing over-quickly, her hands at her heart. + +"Ay, it's Farish, Janet," said he at length, in a very bitter voice, and +threw himself wearily into a chair. "None other than your ne'er-do-well +brother, Farish, come home to die on your hands. I've been hiding in the +woods all day, waiting a chance to creep in. I'm starving, too." + +She turned, trembling sickly, to a full cupboard and set more food on +the table in haste. He fell upon it like a famished wolf, and while he +was devouring it they talked, in broken sentences. + +"Where have you come from--in such a state?" the old woman asked, +watching him with woe in her face. + +"From hell," he mumbled hoarsely, his mouth full, "to square accounts +with another devil who seems to have made the Castle of Loquhariot his +home too. What's Dove, as he calls himself, doing here, Janet?" + +"He came with the Lady Josceline Justice," Mrs. M'Kissock made difficult +answer. + +"He came with the Lady Josceline Justice!" repeated her brother +mechanically, and ceased eating for an instant to stare at her out of +blank, disbelieving eyes. Then he went on with his ravenous feast and +his questioning. "Who else is here?" + +"Mr. Slyne," his sister told him meekly, "and Mr. Jobling, her +ladyship's London lawyer. The Duchess of Dawn and Lord Ingoldsby came +across the Pass to call on her ladyship this afternoon. And there's Mr. +Herries, too, ill in bed, as he's been since the night of her ladyship's +coming." + +"I know the man Slyne," muttered Farish M'Kissock. "But--what's Lady +Josceline Justice like?" + +He listened attentively to his sister's brief, fond description, and +then pushed the plates from before him. + +"Can you give me something to drink now?" he asked, in a strained, +unsteady voice. She brought him a bottle of wine from the cupboard and +he swallowed some, very sparingly. It brought a little colour back into +his ashen face. + +"I'll eat some more in a minute or two," he muttered, and sank back into +his chair, and sighed. And there he sat, still and silent, while the big +grandfather's clock in its corner ticked away an eternity of suspense. + +"And so it's--_her_!" he whispered to himself, and looked up at his +sister again as if he had been unaware of her company. + +"Listen, Janet," said he then, in a stronger voice, "and I'll tell you +something of what I owe Dove. + +"When I had to flee this country, at the time of Lord St. Just's death, +I took to the sea for a while, and, knocking about the world, I chanced +across Dove and his ship--the old _Fer de Lance_ it was then. And I +signed on with him--it was in San Thomé--for reasons that don't matter +now. But he and I soon fell foul of each other--for reasons that don't +matter either--and what d'ye think he did to get rid of me! He set me +ashore, on the African coast, alone--to die in the desert there." + +A dangerous light was beginning to burn in his sunken eyes. He had set +his two twitching hands on the table, was leaning forward. + +"But--I didn't die, after all, you see," he said. "I didn't die then, +Janet. I'm not dead yet. + +"It would only weary you to hear all that happened to me before I came +into my kingdom. For I was as good as a king there, Janet, and-- + +"No, I'm not mad, though I might well be after all I've suffered +through--him. It _was_ a kingdom I'd made for myself before he came my +way again. From Tripoli to the Susa, my word was all but law, and there +was scarcely a tribe but paid me tribute. The Sultan of Morocco himself +would send me presents when I passed by. I've fought and beaten the +French, time and again, in country they claim for their own. _They_ knew +the Emir El Farish, Janet, although you think that it's raving I am. + +"But never mind that. What you'll understand better is that I had come +to be a very rich man there. I had horses and camels by hundreds, and +gold and jewels almost more than I had time to count, and an army of +fine fighting men to keep them all safe. I had wealth as well as power, +all but as much as I wanted of both, when Dove came slinking into my +camp on the coast one dark night, like some dirty jackal. + +"His ship was lying in the bight, and--I had business on board with him. +I went off in a boat, with no more than two of my men, blind fool that I +was! + +"I might have known better," he mused very bitterly, "but-- + +"He struck me down from behind. He turned me and my men adrift, +insensible, in an open boat. + +"It blew out to sea. I lived, without food or water, for nearly a week +before I was picked up by a passing steamer that took me to Spain, but +the other two died. + +"I was as good as a king in Africa, and--Look at me now! I've lost +all--all but these rags, and I'm spent, as the Spaniards say. I can't go +back to reclaim what was mine. And what will have happened among my +people without me, I can scarcely bear to think. For I was fond of them, +Janet, in my own way. + +"But, after all, it's enough for me now that I've found him again--and +in time. I could scarcely believe that it was really him I saw by the +hut." + +He was speaking in a strange, far-away voice, almost contemplatively; +and, while he spoke, he was fingering the hilt of the long sheath-knife +at his frayed black belt. + +"Would you do murder here again, Farish!" whispered his sister, her +clasped hands still tight at her heart. She had heard him out in tense +silence, without a word. "Was not once enough! Must I be the one to +betray you now--lest you do murder here again!" + +Her brother's gaunt features twisted slowly into a horrible grin, and +relaxed again into an expression of some concern as he observed her +evident stress of mind. + +"It was no murder, but justice, that I did on Torquil St. Just," said +he. "He would have killed me if he could. But I suppose they will always +blame me for his death, Janet; and it would no doubt go hard with me, +even after all these years, if any but you knew my whereabouts. + +"But--I'm safe with you, Janet. And I'll do no murder, I give you my +word. I have other means-- + +"I'm safe with you, Janet," he repeated, glancing about the quiet, +lamp-lit room. + +"None will enter without my leave," she hastened to reassure him. "You +can stay safe here, Farish, till we can come at some plan to help each +other, for I cannot bide in the castle for long either, now you've come +back. + +"But--you must work no more harm in the house whose bread I have eaten +so long. Whatever hurt Torquil St. Just did you, he has long gone to his +account, and you have surely no ill will to her ladyship. She has +suffered sorely too, poor thing! in her time, or I'm much mistaken." + +"When did she come to Loquhariot?" Farish demanded. + +"Not much more than a fortnight ago--and just in time. For before her +had come, from America, a far cousin, one Mr. Justin Carthew, to claim +the rights that are hers, thinking, as I did indeed, that she must be +dead." + +"You _can't_ mean yon whistling, limber fellow that walks with a limp? I +saw him too at the hut," said the wreck in the chair at the table with a +sudden, fierce, eager light in his lack-lustre eyes. "But--I took him +for a ghost. How came _he_ here? My men told me--" + +His sister had nodded silently. She sat staring at him in abject +suspense, hope and despair alternately flitting across her wrinkled +face. + +But he said nothing more for some time. That last unaccountable twist of +fate had almost stupefied him. + +A telephone bell rang behind his sister, and startled him out of his +reverie. + +"Mr. Slyne says her ladyship wishes rooms prepared for the duchess and +Lord Ingoldsby," she told him as she turned back from the instrument. +"And dinner's to be served in the banquet-hall. I must be off about my +business now, Farish. Will you wait here till I come again--and promise +to work no more harm?" + +"I'll find a quieter corner to hide in," he answered indifferently. And, +in response to her harassed glance, "You must just trust me to take care +of myself and not trouble you more than need be," he told her. "I know +this old vulture's-nest well enough not to be discovered in it. +And--I'll do Dove no violence, Janet; you have my pledged word for +that." + +She lingered still, almost distracted, not knowing what to do for the +best. But she did know, of old and sad experience, how little heed he +was likely to pay to any advice or direction of hers, and at last had to +hurry away to her duties leaving him, safe enough there, to his own +devices till she could return. + +As soon as she had gone, he swallowed a little more of the food and wine +on the table, put on his dirty white robe again, pulling its baggy hood +well over his features, and, having assured himself that the long +passage down which she had disappeared was empty, set out with soundless +but steadier steps to secrete himself in some more remote recess of the +spacious castle. + +He knew his way about every turn of the back-corridors intimately. He +was passing the gun-room pantry when he heard from within a voice that +he recognised at once, shouting, "Hold your row!" He paused. Distant +footfalls in the passage prompted him to a swift decision. The pantry +door was ajar. He pushed it a little further open, stepped inside, and +closed it behind him. + +The place was practically in darkness, but he soon found the +service-wicket, and, having first made sure that he would not be +intruded upon, slipped the blade of his knife under its wooden shutter, +raised it, without sound, sufficiently to hear and see all that was +going on in the gun-room. + +His eyes began to gleam balefully as he looked through at its +unsuspecting inmates. The old man Dove and the London lawyer were +evidently at loggerheads, but presently calmed down again, and grew +almost confidential together. And afterwards Slyne came in to them with +his contemptuous story of the White Lady--at which the lurking listener +frowned anxiously, since it went to show that he must have been seen +notwithstanding all his precautions. And then the lawyer got up to go. + +To Slyne's subsequent conversation with Captain Dove the ex-Emir +listened no less greedily, licking his lips. And after that he pushed +noiselessly past the swing-door of the pantry, into their company. He +thought he could see his way quite clearly by then. + +Slyne drew back in speechless alarm at sight of the gaunt, hooded figure +coming forward on soundless feet. Captain Dove had made an attempt to +rise, but apparently could not; he sat still, staring over one shoulder, +aghast, at that grey ghost of a man he had never expected to see again. + +Farish M'Kissock threw back his hood and mutely held out his two empty +hands. Slyne let one of his own fall from a hip-pocket. Captain Dove was +evidently striving to speak. The silent intruder stood waiting to hear +whatever he might have to say. + +"How can it be!" Captain Dove said at length, in the difficult voice of +one amazed almost beyond words, and got to his feet with an effort, to +scan the intruder still more searchingly, to stare transfixed at the +tangled grey locks which had formerly been of a flaming red. + +"It _is_--Farish!" he whispered fearfully, as if at last convinced in +spite of himself. And the man before him nodded slowly, three times. + +"None but me, Captain Brown--or Captain Dove--or whatever you care to +call yourself," said Farish M'Kissock, and tried to moisten his dry lips +with a dry tongue. "None but the man you have twice betrayed and turned +adrift to die like a dog; once in the desert and yet again in a boat on +the open sea." + +"Didn't you get ashore?" Slyne asked softly, as if he thought that the +mysterious new-comer must be mad, and did not desire to anger him. + +"Sit down, both of you," said Farish M'Kissock, "and we'll talk +together. 'Tis no more than meet that you should both know the why and +the wherefore of what's to come. I will not seek to harm you," he said, +and so sat down himself. + +Slyne seated himself on the table and Captain Dove was content with an +arm of the chair in which he had been ensconced; both were obviously +prepared to spring up again instantly. And Farish M'Kissock looked at +his leisure from one to the other of them before he said anything more. +Captain Dove's unusual attire seemed to hold his attention. + +"You've changed your coat since you saw me last," he at length remarked +in an even, almost indifferent voice. "And you've come to a very snug +anchorage. You're both going to settle down here and be gentlemen now, I +suppose." + +Captain Dove glared at him, but could not overmaster his steady glance +and at last was compelled to seek shelter behind his smoked glasses, at +which added disguise his enemy gazed with no less offensive interest. + +"You have both done very well for yourselves," said Farish M'Kissock, +and turned toward Slyne. + +"You're going to marry the Lady Josceline Justice," said he. "And +so--you'll be master here--of her and her millions. You'll be a rich man +then--but not so rich, surely, as I'd have been if you two had kept your +bargain with me; for I was not bankrupt when Captain Dove promised her +to me--though I'm bankrupt now." + +His slow speech stung, but they both heard him out in hang-dog silence. + +"I'm bankrupt now," he repeated, looking over at Captain Dove. "All I +won for myself in this world I've lost, thanks to you. And so--I've +made my way home, to die. They told me in the hospital that I hadn't +long to live then, and I reckon my tramp across the mountains will help +to finish me. But--first, there's our account to be squared; all I have +lost." + +"I'll make that up to you, Farish," said Captain Dove, finding his +tongue again, and evidently anxious to be very diplomatic since he could +by no means outface his former accomplice. "I'll do the right thing by +you now. I hadn't any idea, you know, but that you'd get safely ashore +and back to your camp--" + +"It was a long chance you took, with the wind offshore," the other broke +in, without raising his voice, in the same implacable monotone. "It was +almost too long. But the boat you set me adrift in was picked up far out +at sea, with two dead men in it, and one who was minded to live long +enough to repay what he owes you. + +"What has happened among my folks there, God alone knows. But they would +fare ill without me, I fear, and--I had some liking for them." + +"You've always been far too soft-hearted, Farish. That's your only +fault," said Captain Dove encouragingly. "Forget them--and I'll make all +the rest up to you." + +"But how did you come here?" Slyne demanded with more spirit than he had +at first shown. + +He had to wait some time for an answer, but Captain Dove did not +interrupt again, and presently the other proceeded to make that also +more clear. + +"You don't know yet who I am now," he muttered. "I had forgotten-- + +"I'm Farish M'Kissock, own brother to old Janet, the housekeeper here. +And I was born at Loquhariot, after my father came from Kilmarnock to +be head-keeper to the old earl. That's why I call it home, though it's +no home of mine. + +"I left the last half of my name behind me when I fled the country, long +years ago, at the time of Lord St. Just's death. I had a hand in that, +although I did not murder him as some said. He had done me a foul wrong, +the foulest one man may do another. It cost him his life, but--I did not +murder him. That would have been but a poor revenge in my eyes. I would +fain he had lived till this day." + +"And what do you propose to do now?" Slyne asked, somewhat impatiently. +He had evidently got over his first confusion. + +The ex-Emir regarded him meditatively for a moment or two, and then +broke into a low, mirthless laugh. + +"You're going to marry the Lady Josceline Justice," said he, "and you're +in a hurry. You've no time to waste on me--or on my memories of old +wrongs. Well, I don't blame you. I once had a fancy for her myself, +and--I was in just such a hurry; when my wife died in my arms as we +carried her out from my camp, to suit your convenience, Captain Dove, +and I hadn't even the time to bury my own dead wife decently before I +put off to your ship in search of--the other. If I had been in less +haste about it, I'd maybe have made better speed. + +"But you've managed very well for yourself, so far, Mr. Slyne. Though +you've robbed me of one who should have been mine, just as did Torquil +St. Just. + +"And now--if you'll wait for a minute more--I'll even matters among us; +and you'll understand the drift of my story better. You've managed very +well for yourself, so far, and you've very nearly won all you wanted. +But--here I am, just in time. + +"Did it ever come out how the Countess of Jura, the dancer that was, met +her death?" + +Slyne, listening with strained attention now, nodded swift assent. +Captain Dove, crouched low on his perch, was gazing at Farish M'Kissock +as if fascinated. + +"She shot herself," said the ex-Emir, with the calm certainty of one who +can vouch for his facts, "rather than fall into the hands of my men. We +had raided a camp of fool tourists who had come too far afield, to find +out what the real desert was like, and she was among them. She saw me +before she pulled trigger, and knew me, and cried on me to save her +child. + +"All the rest were--wiped out. But--I spared the child, because--it had +the Jura blood in its veins. It was the Lady Josceline Justice, and she +grew up among our tents until she died in my arms the same night I made +my unlucky bargain with you, Captain Dove; and I hadn't even the time to +bury her ladyship, my dead wife, decently before I put off to your +ship!" + +He drew a skeleton-like hand across his sunken eyes and blinked at the +blazing logs on the hearth before him. + +"And now you know where the real Lady Josceline Justice is," said he. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A NEW IDEA + + +"And now you know where the real Lady Josceline Justice is," said Farish +M'Kissock drearily, almost as if the savour of his overwhelming revenge +on all who had wronged him had cloyed already. "The girl you have +here--" + +"Never mind about her," Captain Dove interrupted hoarsely, and darted a +quick, furtive glance at Slyne, who looked very much as if he had just +been struck on the back of the head with a hammer. "What are you going +to do about it? That's all we want to hear from you." + +He had been scarcely less overcome by that most calamitous disclosure +than was his unhappy accomplice. And he did not doubt for a moment that +Farish M'Kissock was speaking the truth; although until then he himself +had been almost convinced that Sallie must indeed be the dead Earl of +Jura's daughter. That possibility had been proven so perfectly probable +that even the Court of Chancery had accepted it for a fact. But now-- + +The sudden and cataclysmic collapse of all his own prospects along with +hers had spurred Captain Dove's momentarily stunned faculties into a +perfect frenzy. + +"What are you going to do about it?" he demanded again, imperatively, +since the other was slow to answer. + +"I need do nothing more--to thwart your fine schemes," said Farish +M'Kissock quietly: "for--they will fail. Although it matters little to +me now who may rule here, since the last of the old brood lies dead and +unburied in Africa; and she was fond of me, too, as I was of her. 'Twas +a notable revenge that I took on _them_-all! And I think ye'll allow +that I've settled old scores handsomely with the both of you two as +well. + +"You might maybe murder me yet, to still my tongue, as you're thinking, +but that would end as ill for yourselves, and I'm not here for long +anyhow. There's nothing in this world or the next that will avail you +against me now, and--" + +His voice died away, wearily. He was gazing into the flickering flames, +brooding over his own desperate memories. + +"I might murder you, as you say, and in self-defence at that, Farish," +replied Captain Dove, in a tone that he was striving to make more +friendly. "But--how would it be if we went partners instead? What's the +use of cutting your nose off to spite your face? There's surely enough +here for all of us. And your share would more than make up to you for--" + +The gaunt wreck in the armchair beside the fire broke into a low, +mocking laugh. + +"It's to close my account with you that I'm here, Captain Dove," said he +implacably, "and not to open a new one." + +Captain Dove, his face distorted with impotent fury, darted another +devilish look at Slyne, but Slyne was still sitting motionless, staring +at the ex-Emir, like one in a trance. Captain Dove glanced again at the +stooping figure on the other side of the fireplace, set one foot firm on +the floor, and leaped at his enemy like a wild beast. + +Farish M'Kissock fought fiercely, with a strength surprising in one of +his enfeebled appearance, had almost succeeded, indeed, in freeing +himself from the old man's vice-like grip before Slyne at last awoke +from his lethargy and, of mechanical instinct, came to Captain Dove's +assistance. The two of them soon got him down, and then Captain Dove +lashed his wrists and ankles securely with a strong fishing-line +snatched from a rack on the wall. + +"This way with him now," he panted, and, drawing aside a blind panel in +the wainscot of the near wall, disclosed a low, wide opening, toward +which he pulled their prostrate prisoner by the heels. And together they +bundled the groaning body down a steep flight of dry stone steps, into +an unlighted cell at one side of the dark tunnel below. + +"He'll be safe enough in there," said Captain Dove vindictively, as he +held up the match he had struck while Slyne, with fumbling fingers, drew +its rusty iron outside bolt across the door of the cell. "And it will be +easy to get him down the tunnel to the water-gate, too." + +"Can anyone get in by the water-gate?" asked Slyne in a breathless +whisper. + +"I have the key in my pocket," Captain Dove answered shortly, and drew +the blind panel back into place as they regained the gun-room together. + +There, he made at once for the half-empty decanter upon the table. But +Slyne sat down before the fire again, with bent head, as if utterly +crushed. + +It was self-evident that he had come to believe implicitly in Sallie's +right to the new identity he had bestowed upon her, had never doubted +that the proofs on which that belief had been based were anything but +genuine. He could scarcely doubt now that Captain Dove had hoodwinked +him from first to last, that Farish M'Kissock's story was the real truth +of the matter. And, thus in a moment confronted with the ruinous outcome +of his credulity, he could not yet bring his mind to bear on anything +but the utter eclipse of all his own golden dreams. + +"And so--that fellow Carthew will be Earl of Jura," he said suddenly, +and looked up at Captain Dove with a hell of hate aflame behind his dull +eyes. "And you've been lying to me all along," he said, in a still, +dispassionate voice. + +Captain Dove, back in his own chair, better pleased with himself, paused +to consider before replying. He had been investigating the pantry and +found out how Farish M'Kissock had come there. + +"You're wrong, both times," he at length remarked. "I've told you +nothing that wasn't the truth. All I've said about Sallie, I can prove +up to the hilt. And, anyhow, you've been managing the whole business. +You've told me often enough not to butt in! You can't blame _me_ for any +mistake that's been made. + +"And, what's more," he went on, marshalling his ideas, "it remains to be +proved that there _has_ been any mistake. You're surely not going to +take the mere word of a fellow like Farish for that--a mutinous second +mate I had to maroon to get rid of him. Anyhow, if you're going to lie +down and die at his orders, I'm not. D'ye see?" + +Slyne drew a shaky hand across a damp forehead. He was obviously all +unstrung. + +"You didn't cast any doubt on his story," he muttered. + +"There was no need," declared Captain Dove. "Let him disprove yours +first. It was you who discovered who Sallie should be. I had no idea +whose daughter she was--and neither had she. You and Jobling it was who +put two and two together and made out four. I don't believe +Farish--M'Kissock, as he calls himself now--could better that." + +"Don't you believe what he said?" asked Slyne. + +"Not me," lied Captain Dove. "The man's mad, that's what's the matter +with him. He's probably made the whole thing up, just to get even with +us, and knowing that we could do little more than contradict it. But--he +didn't know that we have the Chancery Court behind us now. And that +makes all the difference. We've won--and he's lost. D'ye see? + +"I was scared at first, I'll admit--when he walked in. It was that +infernal 'white lady' tale of yours that upset me. But--_you_ don't +believe in ghosts! What's wrong with you is sheer funk." + +But even that insult seemed to have no immediate effect on Slyne, and +Captain Dove got up, growling. + +"Here," said he. "Drink this down--and try if you can't muster even a +little Dutch courage." + +Slyne swallowed, still without a word in retort, the dose of spirit +which the old man had poured out for him; and that seemed to restore a +little his crippled self-confidence. Some faint spark of hope that all +might not yet be lost seemed to have sprung up in his heavy heart. His +benumbed brain was apparently beginning to work again. He sat up, with +an effort. + +"But--how are we to carry on here?" he asked, in a tone which told how +very feeble his faith was. "If any such story gets to the ears of--" + +"It will get no farther than it has gone," declared Captain Dove with +assured emphasis. "If Farish hasn't told that old hag of a sister of his +yet, it stays between you and me. We'll make sure of her silence--and +his. That will be easy enough." + +Slyne sank back into his chair again, and scowled. He did not affect to +misunderstand his companion's sinister promptings. + +"Will you undertake to look after them, then?" he stipulated, with dire +distaste, after further consideration. + +Captain Dove in his turn took time to cogitate over that selfish +suggestion. He had no intention whatever of helping Slyne at his own +hazard. On the contrary, he had already made up his mind to get rid of +Slyne at the same time as the other two. But, of course, it was only +politic to pretend a little reluctance. + +"All right," he agreed at length. "I'll look after them. But you must +lend me a hand, if it's necessary. There's no one else I can trust, and +we're both in the same boat now. You must lend me a hand, if it's +necessary." + +"And what about Carthew?" Slyne demanded, recovering himself by degrees +under the old man's most matter of fact example. "If he should get any +inkling--" + +"Oh, don't _make_ difficulties!" growled Captain Dove. + +"What's to hinder our settling his hash the same way as the others? +There are only the three of them in our way. We'll make a clean sweep. +We'll get him up here--we'll send him word that Sallie would like to see +him, and--the rest will be easy." + +"But, good God!" cried Slyne, "how are you going to account for their +disappearance? It's madness--" + +"Farish is mad, all right," said Captain Dove reflectively. "Which will +account for whatever happens to him and his precious sister. If they +were both found with broken necks at the foot of this infernal rock, +who's going to make us responsible? And, as for that fellow Carthew, if +we can't explain away his disappearance we'll deserve to lose +everything, Slyne. + +"Damn it, man! What are you afraid of! Are you going to throw up the +sponge just before the fight's won!" + +"If we _were_ once clear of the three of them, that would leave us +perfectly safe," said Slyne, in a voice that was not very steady. "But +what if Mrs. M'Kissock knows already--" + +"We'll ring for her now and find out," answered Captain Dove with savage +decision. "If she seems to know more than she should--she can keep her +infernal brother company until Brasse comes ashore." + +He rose, and had almost reached the bell-push beside the mantel when the +door opened and the Marquis of Ingoldsby walked into the room, looking +much less imbecile and more of a man in his splashed breeches and boots +and spurs. + +Captain Dove glared at him. + +"Howdy do, Captain Dubb," said his lordship, politely, after peering +through his eye-glass at Slyne. "Glad to see you again. Lady Josceline +told me I would probably find you here, and--I want to talk to +you--about her." + +He let his eye-glass drop and helped himself to a brandy and soda. Slyne +was staring at him. Captain Dove was dumb. + +"I've just been askin' her to marry me," his lordship remarked, after +slaking his thirst. And, as he paused to light a cigarette, "The devil +you have!" exclaimed Captain Dove, considering that idea. + +"She said she couldn't," Lord Ingoldsby mentioned, straddling across the +hearth-rug, his hands on his hips, disregarding Slyne's presence +entirely now. "But--she wouldn't tell me why. And I thought I'd ask you, +don't y'know. So far as I can understand, you're her nearest livin' +relative--her stepfather, or godfather, or somethin' of that sort, what? +And I thought that maybe you wouldn't mind talkin' over the matter with +me." + +Captain Dove scratched his head. He could see that Slyne was watching +him very closely. It had no doubt flashed through Slyne's mind as +through his own that here was a providential by-path of escape, for him +at least, from his present predicament; that, if all else went askew, +Sallie might prove profitable enough, to him at least, as the +Marchioness of Ingoldsby. For had not Mr. Jobling stated that the young +man before the fire was one of the wealthiest peers in England or +elsewhere. + +"I don't want to over-hurry her, y'know," said the noble marquis, "and, +maybe, I've been a bit sudden. But I've been huntin' high and low for +her ever since I last saw her, and--here I am, don't y'know. So I +thought I'd ask her." + +"Didn't you hear me tell you in Monte Carlo that Lady Josceline is +engaged to marry me?" Slyne broke in, with a sudden access of anger, +since Captain Dove still seemed to have nothing to say. + +"That's so," said Captain Dove slowly. "She's engaged to this +gentleman--on conditions." + +Lord Ingoldsby screwed his eye-glass into his face and gravely regarded +Slyne again. + +"But she's not married to him yet," said he. "And--it's a woman's +privilege to change her mind. Besides, if her engagement is only +conditional--" + +"We needn't discuss it just now," Captain Dove put in with unusual +diplomacy. He could see that Slyne was liable to explode dangerously at +any moment. + +"All right, then," said Lord Ingoldsby in a tone of great determination. +"I'll just have to do the best I can for myself." And, having finished +his light refreshment, he strolled off again, taking not the slightest +notice of Slyne's very obvious indignation. + +As soon as he was safely out of earshot, Slyne fell foul of Captain +Dove, who listened patiently enough to all he had to say. + +"But I'm _not_ interfering," said the old man. "All that sort of thing +lies between you and her, Slyne. If you can get her to marry you right +away--" + +"Of course I can--if you back me up," Slyne declared wrathfully. "And +you've got to do that now, Dove--for your own sake. We're both in the +same boat, remember,--and if it upsets, we'll both drown. I'll make +quite sure of that. + +"So--we'll get hold of Sallie now before the thing goes any further--and +settle that question for good." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +BY RIGHT OF PURCHASE + + +Sallie had been far too happily occupied since she had come to +Loquhariot to have been conscious of the wheels within wheels revolving +about her there. + +She could scarcely at once accustom herself to look upon the great, +grey, age-old castle as her home; but there was Janet M'Kissock always +eager to help her in that respect, with endless stories of bygone days +which made the place seem always more familiar and friendly to her. She +grew, by degrees, to know and love it almost as if she had lived there +all her life. + +It was much more difficult to grasp the idea that the whole of the +beautiful white world beyond its windows was also hers, and hers alone; +from the rugged, snow-clad mountains towering behind and on either hand, +even to the Small Isles, like bergs in the sun amid the smoking seas in +that turbulent weather. But Slyne missed no opportunity to impress that +important fact upon her. And she was finding it always easier to forget +her unhappy past, to enjoy the marvellous present and the most +inspiriting part in it, to leave the over-difficult future to evolve +itself. + +The men and women about the place were all devoted to her. She had very +soon won the staunch good-will of the cottagers at the cliff-foot. And +her soft sway was everywhere undisputed, although Slyne had at first +been inclined to contest it himself. But he soon seemed to realise that +it would be best, in the meantime, to order events from the background +and in her voice. + +He had shown some disposition, too, to question the extent of the +liberty she might now assume to herself. But he had not pressed that +point unduly either, and they continued on that footing of pleasant +comradeship which he had been at such ceaseless pains to promote. His +debonair courtesy to her, his easy deference to most of her wishes, were +very different indeed from his off-hand manner of former days. And she +could not but be grateful to him, in the meantime, for the almost +over-ample fulfilment of his original promise. + +Regarding her pledge to him, he had said nothing more, although she +spent long afternoons and evenings in his company when the weather was +at its worst, while Mr. Jobling was away. Captain Dove left the two of +them very much to themselves, and Slyne had offered to teach her to play +billiards, to pass the time. + +She would have been entirely content, indeed, but for the hardship her +coming had entailed on Justin Carthew. She had met him more than once +out of doors, and he had always seemed pleased to see her, but--it was +of common report that he was a poor man, and she could not help feeling +that he had shown himself very much more generous to her than she to +him. She found comfort, however, in the conclusion that circumstances +were quite beyond her control, and that he would understand better by +and by the complications through which she had had to find her way as +best she could. + +She had gone down to the village on the afternoon when the _Olive +Branch_ arrived in the loch, and she walked back as far as the castle +with Carthew. The reappearance of that ill-omened craft had alarmed her +more than a little, and she could see that Carthew was becoming always +more sorely puzzled. But he had promised her to await events without +question for three short months; and he was keeping his promise loyally. +She could have told him nothing, in any case. + +She met Slyne in the hall, on her way indoors, and he reassured her as +to her perfect safety from any further risk of evil-doing by Captain +Dove. He pointed out, too, that the steamer's crew was too scanty now to +cope with the force he could call to her aid from the village in case +the old man should attempt to make any mischief, which was most +unlikely. And she went on to her own cosy quarters, quite content again. + +She was changing her outdoor dress for one of her pretty Parisian +tea-gowns, when word was brought her that the Duchess of Dawn and Lord +Ingoldsby had come across the mountains to pay her a call. + +She remembered Lord Ingoldsby, and wondered what could have brought him +to Loquhariot. The idea of entertaining a duchess dismayed her a little; +she had no notion at all what the conventions called for under +circumstances so unusual in her own experience--although Slyne had been +at some pains to explain a number of other conventions to her. But she +went along to the blue drawing-room at once, and was relieved to find +Slyne there before her, unconcernedly chatting with a very beautiful +young woman in a sadly splashed habit, her back to the fire, booted feet +a little apart, hunting-crop in clasped hands, laughter in her clear +eyes; while Lord Ingoldsby, looking much less imbecile and more of a +man in his travel-soiled riding-kit, stood listening gloomily. + +His face cleared at sight of Sallie, however. "Here's Lady Josceline, +Aunt Jane," he cried, and the duchess, after a single swift, appraising +glance at her, came forward with outstretched hands and kissed her +without any more ado. + +"Oh! my dear," said the duchess impulsively, "you can't imagine what a +relief you are. Ingoldsby has been simply raving about you, and--I was +so anxious, don't you know. But I don't blame him now. + +"I've seen you before, too--one night at the Savoy. If I had only known +then who you were--But some one said you were a Miss Harris! You've kept +it all such a close secret! We wouldn't have known even now if we hadn't +heard, quite by chance, that the beacon had been lighted one night. And +we've been wondering ever since--So you must tell me all about +everything now, if you will." And she drew Sallie down beside her on a +low couch at one side of the white marble fireplace, leaving the two men +to their own devices while she went on to explain herself no less +volubly. + +"It was madness, of course, to cross the Pass in weather like this, +but--Ingoldsby would give me no peace; and I've been so curious myself +to find out who could be here. I'm your nearest neighbour, you know, +although Castle Dawn is ten miles away; those are worse than twenty +anywhere else. So, when the rain stopped this forenoon we set out--and +here we are, covered with mud! The road's in a dreadful state, but you +must come over and stay with me as soon as the bridges are mended. We're +going to be great friends. I knew your father--although I'm not quite so +old as you might imagine from that, for I wasn't out of short +petticoats the last time he spoke to me. And, as for being the aunt of +that scapegrace there, he's five years older than I am in years--and +fifty in--" + +"Don't be too rough on a fellah, Aunt Jane!" interrupted her noble +nephew, who had been regarding Sallie with fixed vacuity through his +eye-glass. "An' don't you believe all you hear about me, Lady Josceline: +I'm not so black as I'm painted, at any rate." + +"He's been simply raving about you," the duchess declared again, in a +laughing whisper. "I couldn't imagine what had brought him down to Dawn +in midwinter, until he confided in me that he had been searching the +wide world for you ever since he met you first: and he imagined that you +might, after all, be here, at home." + +She had a great many questions to ask Sallie then, questions which +Sallie, in such a situation, might have found it very difficult to +answer but for Jasper Slyne's sharp ears and tactful tongue. And the +duchess was not slow to understand. + +"Of course you can't confide in me yet," she declared laughingly. "But +some day you must tell me all your adventures. Your home-coming after +all these years will make a nine days' wonder once the papers get to +hear of it." + +A servant came in to light the lamps, and Slyne sauntered to a window +before the curtains were drawn. + +"It's snowing again, Ingoldsby," said he. "You won't get back to Dawn +to-night." + +The duchess looked a little alarmed, but was soon laughing again. + +"All right," she agreed, in response to Sallie's prompt proffer of +hospitality. "I'll be most happy to stay over-night--and so will +Ingoldsby, I'm sure." + +"I'll go and let Mrs. M'Kissock know," Slyne volunteered. "Will you look +into the gun-room when you pass, Lady Josceline?" + +"Is old Janet still here?" the duchess asked as he left the room. "I +must have a chat with her. She and I used to be great friends +before--when Torquil St. Just was still alive and my mother would bring +me over to Loquhariot when she came to call on yours. I was Jane +Gairloch in those days." + +Lord Ingoldsby sat listening very patiently for a time while they talked +to each other, and then he became possessed by a strangled cough--to +which the duchess paid no attention. + +"You might give a fellah a chance, Aunt Jane," he at length suggested +desperately, and she rose from the couch with a most penitent +expression. + +"Bless my heart, child!" she said. "I had almost forgotten--But--I'll go +and talk to old Janet now." And she disappeared without other apology. + +Sallie looked surprised. But Lord Ingoldsby, having cleared his throat +again, claimed her attention. + +"You've no idea, Lady Josceline," he said hurriedly, "what a deuce of a +bât I've been in for nearly a fortnight. I was afraid I'd never find you +again. And, now that I've found you, don't y'know, what I want to say to +you is--It's very difficult to express--But I mean--What I'm trying to +tell you is that I thought we might maybe make a match of it. Will you +marry me, Lady Josceline?" + +Sallie looked still more surprised. But she was not slow in answering +such a preposterous question. + +"I can't," she said, concisely. + +"But why not?" he cried. "For heaven's sake! don't go so fast. Give me +time to--" + +"Time couldn't make any difference," she said, seeing that he was very +much in earnest. "I can't--" + +"But--why not?" he insisted. "Is--is there some one else already? It's +not that fellah I met in Monte Carlo with you, I'm sure; he's such a +rank outsider--you _couldn't_ care for him, I'm sure. And why not give +me just a chance to show you-- + +"There's nothing I wouldn't do for you, Lady Josceline. Give me just a +chance." + +"I can't," she repeated for the third time, and he stared at her as if +in abject despair. + +"Why can't you?" he demanded in a difficult, husky voice. + +She could scarcely answer that question, a question which he had no +right to ask. But--she felt sorry for him in his very obvious +disappointment. + +"If you care to ask Captain Dove, perhaps he will tell you," she said, +unable to think of any other safe way out of that difficulty, and not +caring very much what Captain Dove might say. + +But Lord Ingoldsby was not so easily to be got rid of. He stayed where +he was, arguing and imploring by turns until his youthful aunt appeared +again, looking somewhat serious; she seemed to take in the situation +between them at a shrewd glance. + +He left the room then for a little, and when he returned Sallie and the +duchess were on the point of retiring. + +"I'm going to have a hot bath and a rest before dinner, Ingoldsby," his +aunt informed him. + +"Your rooms will be ready now, too," Sallie added, unwilling to be left +alone there with him again. And he went off, very glumly, under convoy +of a servant, toward the bachelor apartments in the Warder's Tower. + +Sallie saw the duchess settled in the suite which had been prepared for +her, and having provided her with a plentiful choice of evening frocks, +went on to the gun-room, to see what Slyne wanted with her. + +Captain Dove and he were seated on either side of the fireplace, and +looked round rather uncertainly as she came into the room. + +"I've made the duchess quite comfortable, Jasper," she said with a +smile, "and she's been exceedingly nice to me. I hope you'll look as +well after Lord Ingoldsby." + +"I've told them to give him the run of my wardrobe," Slyne answered +indifferently. "So he'll be all right. + +"And--what I wanted to say to you, Sallie, is that--I've just heard--All +my hard work for you has been successful at last," he stammered, in a +changed voice. "The claim I made for you has been allowed by the law. +We're all going up to London to-morrow to get matters finally settled, +and then--you'll be Countess of Jura in your own right." + +He paused, effectively. Captain Dove was glancing from one to the other +of them with judicial gravity. + +"So that you can keep your promise to me now, without any further +delay," said Slyne. "I want you to tell the others at dinner +to-night--that you've chosen me for your husband." + +The happy light in her eyes died out instantly. A faint frown furrowed +her smooth white forehead. Her curved lips trembled a little. The old +unhappiness and dread were plucking at her heart again. But she did not +shirk the issue. + +"But you agreed to wait--for three months, Jasper," she said in a low, +pleading voice. + +"That was only in case it took so long to fix things up for you," he +lied easily. "Our signed agreement makes that quite clear, and it's +absolutely binding, you know. Mr. Jobling will tell you that--and he's a +lawyer." + +She was gazing at him with something very like horror in her wide eyes. + +"Was that in the paper I signed?" she asked breathlessly. But her lips +had grown set and resolute. "I thought--" + +"You must have misunderstood me, then," Slyne interrupted with assumed +impatience. "But--you signed it of your own free will, before +responsible witnesses. I've kept my part of our bargain; and now--you +must keep yours, or the law will make you." + +Her heart was beating almost painfully. To her, in her ignorance, the +law was merely an instrument of injustice. She believed herself to be +bound without hope of release by the document she had signed, and that +the same inexorable law which had, only the other day, ruined Justin +Carthew to raise her up in his place, would now force her to abide by +whatever was written above her disastrous signature. The whole fair +fabric of that wonderful new world to which she had so recently gained +admittance had in these minutes come tumbling about her ears. And the +crash of its falling palaces left her helpless and stupefied. She looked +dizzily round at Captain Dove. But his features were quite unreadable. + +"There's another point, Sallie," said Slyne, all his quick wits at work +again as he saw the impression his words had made, determined to hammer +home every argument that might weigh with her in her ignorance, +"another point that I'd never have mentioned if you had been prepared to +deal fairly with me after all I've done for you." + +She shivered at that further thrust; she, who had never dealt unfairly +with either friend or enemy. + +"Even without your promise, you're mine--by right of purchase. You were +Captain Dove's property before, as you know very well. He bought you and +paid for you. And he sold you to me, to save you from a worse master. + +"You can't say now that you didn't know what was ahead of you, for I +told you, in Genoa. And I gave you a last chance, too, before we left +Monte Carlo, to draw back and go your own way with him. Now you're +doubly mine. Ask him, if you don't believe me." + +The girl glanced in agonised appeal at the old man sitting motionless in +his chair, his eyes on the ground. But Captain Dove merely nodded, like +some mechanical figure. + +Slyne scowled, as if at an end of his patience, and, striding across to +the door, locked it, pocketing the key. + +"However," said he, "I'm not going to argue with you. I've evidently +wasted my time in treating you reasonably. Now, there are only two +courses open to you. You can come my way, with me, or--" + +He crossed the room again and pulled back the loose panel in the +wainscot, pointed to the dark cavity it had concealed. + +"There's a boat from the _Olive Branch_ at the water-gate at the end of +this passage. You're perfectly free to go back on board with Captain +Dove, and--if you do, I wish you joy of your choice. I'm maybe not much +of a catch as a husband, but--" He left the inference unspoken, +significantly, daring her to go back to that dreadful fate by hinting +at which he had once before forced her to change her mind. + +Captain Dove got on to his feet with a puzzled scowl. Slyne had turned +aside, to light a couple of candles, as if in preparation for a descent +underground. + +Captain Dove slowly drew the back of one hand across his mouth and from +behind it whispered a few words to Sallie. "Humour him just now," he +advised with suppressed vehemence. "I'll see you safe." + +"Well?" Slyne demanded and came toward her. "Which is it to be? Time's +up." + +His hands hung open but tense at his sides. His teeth were set between +parted lips, his knees bent a little as he braced himself to spring at +her wrists before she could make any movement in self-defence. Captain +Dove had stepped up behind her and she did not doubt that, unless she +fell in with their wishes, they meant now to overpower her and carry her +off. + +She did not move for a moment, but her clouded eyes slowly cleared, and +Slyne, studying her features intently, relaxed his own strained attitude +a little as if in fore-knowledge of final success. + +Sallie's expression of utter despair had given place to one of +resignation, almost of peace. She had made up her mind to have done with +the seemingly endless, unequal struggle. + +"Very well, Jasper," she said slowly at last, in a very hurtful voice. +"You may tell the others--whatever you like--at dinner to-night, if +you'll wait till then." + +Captain Dove drew back and returned to his chair, as if satisfied for +the moment. Slyne's dogged glance had dropped before the tragedy in her +eyes. + +"You can surely trust me, Sallie," he said, "after all I've done for +you. And, listen! I'm not trying to rush you, either. If you'll tell the +others at dinner to-night just that you take me for your husband--I'll +wait till the end of the three months for our real wedding in church." + +She could not quite understand what he really wanted, and looked her +perplexity. But her mind was made up. She meant to keep any promise she +might have made him, whether in writing or otherwise, and even +mistakenly. + +"Will you let me go now?" she begged brokenly, and he went to open the +door for her. + +"You'll say nothing about it to anyone till--the time comes," he +stipulated before he would turn the key, and to that also she agreed +with a nod, not trusting herself to speak. + +She was very thankful that she met no one on her way to her own rooms, +for her eyes were wet. She had never felt so utterly forlorn and +friendless as now. There was no one in whom she might safely confide, no +one who could help her safely past the promise into which she had been +tricked, that promise to which, she did not doubt, the law would hold +her firmly. And, in any case, she could not have gone back on board the +_Olive Branch_--to a fate even worse. + +Ambrizette was awaiting her, to dress her for dinner, but, on a sudden +impulse, she sat down at the escritoire in her boudoir to write a few +hurried lines to Carthew. She thought she would like to see him again, +before-- + +Her letter ready, she bade Ambrizette ring the bell. It was the maid +Mairi who answered it, and, when Sallie looked up again, she saw that +the girl was silently crying. + +"What's the matter, Mairi?" she asked in her gentle voice, forgetting +her own cruel cares for the moment, and at that the half-hysterical +maid broke into a storm of unintelligible explanations in Gaelic, with +here and there a broken sentence that Sallie could understand. + +Her heavy-hearted mistress rose and put a protecting arm about her. + +"You must tell me what the trouble is," said Sallie softly, "and I'll +try to help you. What is it that has gone wrong?" + +"_Ochon--ochon--ochanorie!_" the girl sobbed. "It is for your +ladyship--not for me--and I was not to tell you, whatever. But--it is +not right at all that I must not speak. Your ladyship should be told in +time--it is that the White Lady has come to the castle again--and--there +will be doom to follow before daylight. _Ochon, ochon!_" + +Sallie shivered in spite of herself, as she recalled the uncanny legend +which Mr. Jobling had related on the evening of their arrival. She had +scarcely thought of it since, but now-- + +"Who has seen the White Lady, Mairi?" she asked patiently, and the girl +grew a little calmer. + +"I, with my own eyes, your ladyship," she declared. "It was at a turn of +the passage not far from Mistress M'Kissock's room. And I did not run +from it, moreover. I stood and watched till it disappeared, for I was +afraid to move. And Mistress M'Kissock will say that it is all havers +and nonsense, but I am sure. For it was seen in the woods as well, on +the way to the hut that was Lord St. Just's, and Donuil Mohr, the +forester, it was who saw it there." + +Sallie sighed. She did not know what to think of it all, she who had so +much else to think about. But she comforted the distressed Mairi, and +presently sent her off on her errand, dry-eyed at last, and with word +for the other servants that her ladyship was not in the least afraid of +any such shadow seen in the dusk. + +Sallie had almost forgotten the matter, indeed, before Ambrizette--much +exercised in her mind by her beloved mistress's very evident and unusual +preoccupation--had finished brushing out her beautiful hair and heaped +it about her bent head in a heavy red-gold crown. When her toilette was +quite complete, she looked wistfully round the luxurious rooms in which +she had dreamed such happy dreams, and then went quietly through, a +tall, slender, white-robed figure herself in the firelight, to one of +the windows that look down Loch Jura and out to sea. She stopped there, +and stayed for a time gazing out at the silver sheen of the ripple among +which the Small Isles were set. The snow had ceased for the moment, but +it looked as if there were more to come. + +She looked directly downward, at the quiet village below. There was only +a single light visible, and that at the inn. It was suddenly +extinguished and Sallie turned away from the window. + +"I wonder--I think he will come," she told herself, if a little +doubtfully, as she passed through her boudoir again on her way to rejoin +her guests; she paused for an instant to throw two warm, white arms +about Ambrizette watching her as she went, out of dog-like eyes with a +world of dumb devotion in them. + +"I think he will come," she encouraged herself as she entered the +distant drawing-room. "He promised-- + +"Oh, Mr. Herries!" + +She had stopped, a little startled, at sight of the solitary figure +before the fire. But it was none other than the old factor, a very +cadaverous spectacle in evening clothes much too ample for one so +emaciated, who came forward with a hasty apology for his intrusion. + +"I'm quite well again now," he assured her, in reply to her anxious +questions, "and--I thought I would risk taking the liberty--if you will +grant me permission to sit at table with you to-night. I always had that +privilege with the earl." + +Sallie thought she knew his real reason for being there, and it touched +her sore heart to think that he was so eager to be at her side, sick or +well, while the strange portent of which Mairi had told her was still +impending. + +"Do you really believe in the White Lady, Mr. Herries?" she asked with a +little laugh that was half a sigh, as she put her hands into his and so +set him down on a chair. + +"I couldn't exactly say either yes or no," the old man answered with +native caution. "But, at any rate, I've never seen--any such nonsense +myself." + +"I don't," declared Sallie, with simple conviction, and, turning as some +one else entered the room, "He _will_ come," said she to herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE WHITE LADY + + +As Carthew, at the brink of the smooth plateau before the hut on the +cliffs looked round instinctively, he caught sight of a tall white +shadow that seemed to be moving toward him through the gloom among the +tree-trunks. The evening was drawing in. He had thought he was quite +alone there. He went round outside the hut to see what that stealthy +shape might be. + +He heard a sudden rustling not far away, and saw Captain Dove spring up +from behind a bush to gaze about apprehensively. It flashed across his +mind that Captain Dove must have been dogging him. He stayed where he +was, watching the old man's precipitate flight followed by the figure in +cloak and hood, which had darted a horrified, disbelieving glance of +recognition at himself as it passed but was evidently too intent on its +pursuit to pause. + +Carthew had recognised it too, although it passed his understanding +altogether to conceive how his own old enemy could have come to +Loquhariot. He was, indeed, so taken aback at sight of the Emir El +Farish there, and in such a state, that it was some minutes later before +he had recovered his wits sufficiently to follow the trail of the +strange chase he had witnessed. + +He was too late then, and it was already dark. But he ranged the woods +for some time before he would give up his anxious quest. He felt very +much inclined to call at the castle and come to some understanding with +Captain Dove. But--his promise to Sallie prevented him. He must keep +that at all costs. Until the three months' grace she had begged should +be up, he must continue to possess his soul in patience--or otherwise. + +But now--that would be even more difficult than it had lately become. +For, until now, he had quietly acquiesced in all that had happened +because he could not help either her or himself. But now--the proof he +had lacked could be obtained--from El Farish; proof that Sallie was +usurping a dead woman's name and place. + +He walked down the hill to the inn with his chin on his chest, wondering +what the upshot would be if he should take Sallie herself into his +confidence. But he was afraid to do that. He felt almost sure that, if +she found out from him how she herself had been imposed upon, he might +forthwith give up his dearest hope. + +On the little green board in the hallway of the Jura Arms, he found two +letters awaiting him. The steamer which had arrived that afternoon had +evidently brought a belated mail. He noticed incuriously that his two +correspondents were Messrs. Bolder & Bolder, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, +London, W.C., and the Western lawyer who had arranged the mortgage of +his ranch. Then he laid the letters aside and sat down on the edge of +his truckle-bed with a pipe. + +A little later the maid-of-all-work knocked at his door with a note from +the castle. He opened it and read it at once. Then he called after her +to order a conveyance for him, and began to hunt out his evening clothes +in a hurry. He had only half an hour in which to change and get to the +castle again. He was going to dine there, with Sallie--who signed her +name as Josceline Justice. + +All the previous timid invitations which she had extended to him when he +had chanced to meet her out of doors he had refused. But to-night he +felt that it might be unwise to absent himself--some premonition of +trouble impending caused him to frown at himself in his glass as he +hastily patted a white tie into its place. + +He paused to open his mail before leaving his room. The first letter +briefly begged to inform him that the mortgage on his ranch had not been +met on the due date and, failing an immediate remittance, must be called +in with all costs. The second told him no less concisely that Sallie's +claim to his title and inheritance had, to all intents and purposes, +been recognised and admitted as valid by the Court of Chancery, +expressed Messrs. Bolder & Bolder's polite regrets over the +disappointment which that could not but occasion him, and served to +enclose a small account of theirs against him, still outstanding. He put +them both in the fire and hurried downstairs. + +He was a little late in reaching the castle, but found the company still +in the drawing-room; and, as Sallie came forward to greet him, a little +look of belated contentment crept into her tired eyes. + +"I'm glad you were able to come," was all she said in answer to his +apologies, and turned to present him to the Duchess of Dawn, with whom +Slyne was chatting, two very aristocratic figures, the young duchess a +ravishing picture in one of Sallie's Parisian gowns, Slyne elegant as +always in evening clothes. + +Lord Ingoldsby, less perfectly fitted and with more than one crease in +his white waistcoat, nodded indifferently to Carthew and intercepted +Sallie as she introduced the young American to him. So Carthew turned to +congratulate Mr. Herries on his recovery. Captain Dove and Mr. Jobling +had carefully avoided his eyes. That had been a somewhat awkward moment +for all of them, and Carthew, although his own conscience was clear as +regarded the other men, was glad that dinner was promptly announced. + +That was the first time he had seen the banquet-hall under such +conditions, and he blinked at the vista displayed as the big double +doors were drawn apart. + +The dinner-table in the distance was ablaze under its branching +candelabra, in each of which were burning numberless wicks under silken +shades. The silver girandoles above the butler's buffet beyond it were +no less dazzling, while everywhere else a warm dusk deepened into almost +absolute darkness wherever the glow from the still log-fires could not +penetrate. + +The table appointments seemed to be the most splendid the castle could +boast. Carthew could catch the dull glint of gold plate on the buffet. +Eight heavy, high-backed chairs of black carved oak were set about the +white oasis that the table made on the dark floor. Behind each stood a +silent footman, tartan-kilted, tanned of face above a spacious white +shirt-front which showed off an old-fashioned doublet handsomely. + +Slyne was leading the Duchess of Dawn to her seat. Lord Ingoldsby had +Sallie upon his arm: and Mr. Jobling hovered close at her other +shoulder. She sat down between them, with his sullen lordship on her +right facing the effusive lawyer. And Carthew, following, noticed that +she looked round once or twice in his own direction. Captain Dove, a +queer-looking figure, had seated himself at Slyne's side, opposite the +duchess, and Herries took the chair between him and Lord Ingoldsby, +leaving Carthew next the duchess. + +The piper made his appearance according to the time-honoured tradition, +and marched twice round the table while the oaken rafters overhead rang +to the dirl of the dance he drew from his chanter. It was undoubtedly a +picturesque if somewhat deafening preliminary to dinner, thought +Carthew, looking on much interested at the ceremonial which should have +been his prerogative instead of Sallie's. And, as the man withdrew to +the inner corridor, Carthew encountered Captain Dove's furtive glance. + +But it fell instantly, and the old man went on contemplatively crumbling +the roll before him. He seemed to be in a somewhat somnolent mood. It +occurred to Carthew that he must have been drinking a good deal before +dinner. + +A brisk conversation had been begun at Sallie's end of the table, where +Mr. Jobling and Lord Ingoldsby were both talking to her at once. Slyne +was entertaining the duchess. Carthew exchanged a casual remark or two +across the table with Herries and then was drawn into a laughing +discussion with the duchess, in which Slyne also took part, suave but by +no means friendly toward Carthew. And so course of the stately dinner +succeeded course. + +More than once, Carthew wished that it were well over. There seemed to +be something in the air that affected his nerves unpleasantly. His eyes +were always meeting Sallie's--and it seemed to him that it was costing +her also no little effort to maintain any interest in the trivialities +of the table. + +He felt sure that both Captain Dove and Slyne had some secret on their +minds. But whether that affected her and him he had no means of finding +out. The coming of El Farish had further complicated a situation already +complicated almost beyond his mental powers. He felt quite impotent to +cope with it, under the added handicap of his promise to Sallie. He felt +as though his promise in some sense made him a party to the unspeakably +cruel deception which must have been practised on her, and that she +might perhaps be justified in blaming him when she should find out--as +she surely must--that her presence there was no more than part of a +fraudulent masquerade. He was afraid to think how she might deal with +him on that score when he should offer her, as he intended to do +whenever he should find himself free to speak, himself--and his earldom, +for what that was worth. + +It suddenly occurred to him that he might find out something concerning +El Farish from Captain Dove. All the others but Herries and he were +busy. Carthew spoke to Herries across the table. + +"I had a queer adventure this afternoon," he said, "at the hut on the +cliffs near the head of the loch." + +The old factor nodded. "That was Lord St. Just's workshop, Mr. Carthew," +he mentioned. + +"Well, I went up there to see how the timber had stood the storm, as you +told me. And, just before turning into the woods, I took a notion to see +what was over the edge--it seemed to me that a good stout railing was +badly wanted there." + +Herries nodded again. "That's so," he assented, lowering his voice. +"It's a very dangerous spot. That was where Lord St. Just lost his life. +But now--no one ever goes near the hut." + +Carthew glanced at Captain Dove. But the old man's eyes were quite +unreadable behind his smoked glasses. He was listening indifferently. + +"I can't imagine," Carthew went on, "what it was that suddenly made me +look round, but I did. And I caught a glimpse of a most uncanny figure +watching me from among the undergrowth about the trees behind. It was +all in white, with a hood pulled over its head." + +A lull in the conversation elsewhere left only his voice audible. The +attention of the others had been attracted, and even the soft-footed +servants seemed to be hanging upon his words. Sallie looked surprised, +puzzled, even a little afraid. Captain Dove's features spoke a gnawing +anxiety now. Slyne's close-set, unfriendly eyes were fixed intently upon +him. + +"That gave me a cold scare," Carthew continued, almost inclined to wish +that he had not mentioned the matter at all. "I'm not quite acclimatised +yet to such apparitions. So I dodged behind the hut for shelter and to +get a better look at it. But it made off again, almost immediately, in +the direction of the castle. + +"I chased after it in a minute or two--but I was too late. It had +disappeared. And I've been wondering ever since, who and what it could +have been," he finished, his eyes, meeting Captain Dove's, expressing +only innocent inquiry. + +The footman behind him dropped a plate, and the crash that produced +startled every one more than it need have. An atmosphere of strained +expectancy and unrest seemed to pervade the shadowy banquet-hall. Even +Lord Ingoldsby, who had been regarding Carthew with sulky ill-will, +could not but notice it. + +"Isn't there a tame ghost of some sort about Loquhariot?" he asked +Sallie, and, catching the duchess's eye, shrank into himself again under +the glance she darted at him. + +"Not another word about wraiths and spectres!" his youthful aunt ordered +briskly. "We don't want our dinner spoiled with any such nonsense. The +White Lady isn't a subject for table-talk, Ingoldsby. We've a skeleton +in the cupboard at Dawn, too, you know, as every respectable Highland +family has. But I fancy that what Mr. Carthew really saw to-day was +simply some snow-laden bush." + +"Dawn must be a very beautiful old place," Slyne remarked to the +duchess, and Lord Ingoldsby turned toward Sallie again; as did Mr. +Jobling after a glance of extreme disfavour at Carthew, on his other +hand. And Carthew could not at all understand the general gravity, until +Herries whispered over to him, under cover of the renewed conversation, +"You haven't heard of our White Lady here, yet, Mr. Carthew. But she +brings dule to the house, and--they say it was her that was seen in the +woods this afternoon." + +Carthew nodded. He had heard nothing of any such superstition, but knew +enough already of the natives of those wilds to understand how they +would cling to it. He thought for a moment of telling Herries that it +was a man and no woman whom he had seen, but that would perhaps have +disclosed too much to Captain Dove, and he decided to keep his own +counsel until he could obtain some safer clue to all those mysteries. + +Some movement in the little gallery above the buffet caught his +attention, and he thought he could see the old housekeeper, Mrs. +M'Kissock, at the balustrade with Ambrizette, Sallie's black maid, all +eyes, looking down at the gathering. And the smile Sallie flashed at +him as he looked at her told him she also knew that they were there. + +Slyne grew somewhat distrait and restless as the long dinner ran its +course, and Carthew had to devote more attention to the duchess. Among +the rest of the company all seemed to be going well. Mr. Jobling and +Lord Ingoldsby were both growing always more garrulous, and even Captain +Dove had brightened up under the sunny influence of the rare vintages +dispensed by the butler; he had got to the length of discussing the +lights on that coast with Herries, the factor, before the pop of a cork +at the buffet served to announce that the champagne was coming next. + +Slyne was obviously about to claim the attention of the table. Carthew +supposed he must be going to propose some toast, and wondered whether he +did not know any better than that. But he waited till every glass was +filled before he made any move, and when Sallie would have refused the +wine he sent the butler back to her with a whispered message. At which, +Carthew observed, a sudden pallor overspread her face; he was watching +her very closely. + +The rest of the company and the servants also looked round at Slyne in +surprise as he rose, but Carthew did not. He had seen Sallie lift a +filmy, lace-edged handkerchief from her lap--and caught sight of +something that it was meant to conceal. She raised a clenched hand above +the wine-glass before her, and Carthew could have sworn that he saw some +colourless drops splash down on the bubbling champagne. Then she slipped +her handkerchief out of sight again, and sat with bent head, idly +twirling the stem of the wine-glass between her fingers, watching the +white froth break at its brim. + +And still Slyne said nothing. Carthew scarcely dared to glance up at him +till he saw that Sallie was gazing that way with wonder and fear in her +eyes. + +Slyne was standing rigid. The glass he had lifted was tilting over, its +contents dripping out on the table-cloth. His mouth was open, as if to +speak, and his lips were moving but emitted no sound. He was staring +fixedly into an obscure corner under the musicians' gallery, where was +the service-doorway from which the piper always appeared. + +The others had turned their eyes in the same direction. The very +servants seemed to have lost all self-control, stood stricken, gasping, +helpless. And no one even breathed as a shadowy figure came slowly +shambling out of the dusk into the crimson light of the fire. + +It halted, irresolute, a lean, stooping, bald-headed figure, with a +haggard, foolish face contorted to hold a single eye-glass in place. On +its forehead was a red smudge, as of iron-rust. It was wearing a +disreputable, greasy blue uniform with not a few ragged rents in it. Its +boots were equally shapeless and one was burst. There was snow on them. + +Captain Dove was the first among the company to recover the power of +speech. + +"What the devil do _you_ want here, Brasse!" he cried, in a choking +voice, which yet was charged with relief as if from some paralysing +fear. + +But before the engineer could answer a word, Herries, the old factor, +had risen shakily from his seat and shuffled across the floor toward +him, was peering stupidly into his face, looking him up and down with +eyes that were almost blind. The duchess had got up too. Slyne had sunk +into his chair again, scowling blackly, pulling at his moustache. Lord +Ingoldsby and Carthew and Mr. Jobling were still gazing blankly at the +intruder. Sallie sat motionless, with one hand always at the stem of her +wine-glass. + +The duchess lifted the shade off one of the lights on the candelabra and +looked still more searchingly at the engineer. + +"Torquil St. Just!" she whispered at length, and "Lord St. Just!" cried +Herries at the same moment. + +The scarecrow with the eye-glass held out a slack hand to the old +factor. "Hullo, Herries," he remarked, in a husky voice, "I didn't +recognise you at first. You've aged a lot." And, glancing across at the +duchess, "Isn't that Lady Jane Gairloch, Herries?" he asked in an +audible aside. "She was only a slip of a girl, you know, old chap, +when--I left home." + +"She's the--Duchess--of Dawn, now,--my lord," answered Herries, the +factor, helplessly. "And--you're Earl of Jura--now." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH + + +When the chief engineer of the _Olive Branch_ at last put off from the +ship for the shore in response to Captain Dove's second and still more +peremptory message, he took the tiller of the boat himself, and steered +straight for the water-gate of the castle. In one of his pockets he had +a rusty key which presently served to turn its creaking lock. + +He had left his coat in the boat and ordered the boat's crew to await +his return. And he made his way with accustomed steps, almost +noiselessly in his rubber-soled shoes, up the sloping underground +passage which leads from the long-disused water-gate toward the gun-room +which long ago was the armoury of the castle. + +Once he halted to strike a match. Its feeble light showed him the rough +rock walls and roof of the tunnel, the uneven slope underfoot worn +almost smooth by nefarious traffic long since at an end. + +He advanced again, cautiously, till he came to the brink of a broad, +gaping chasm, which, but for a couple of carelessly carpentered +fir-trunks stretching across it, would have closed that pathway +effectually against him or anyone attempting to enter the castle by +stealth, as he was doing. + +He tested that makeshift bridge as well as he might before crossing it. +Half-way over, a cold, damp breath from the depths beneath blew out +another match he had struck as he started. A muted gurgle and squatter +that came uncannily to his ears told of the subterranean tide crawling +in to cleanse again the far floor of the pit below which had so often in +the past served for a charnel-house. Creeping over the tree-trunks, he +shrugged his shoulders as that thought passed through his mind, and drew +a breath of relief as he stepped on to the solid rock on the other side. + +From there, the way to the steps at the gun-room entrance was clear and +the old iron gates above and below were both wide, as he discovered by +sense of touch. He set an ear to the panel beyond, to find out whether +the gun-room was occupied, and heard only a long-drawn groan. That +seemed to come from somewhere behind him. He descended the steps again, +listening intently. + +Another safety-match sputtered and broke into a blue light in his +tremulous fingers. He saw that the bolt on the outside of the cell door +at the foot of the steps was shot and judged that there must be some one +within. For a moment, he hesitated; and then he pulled the bolt free. + +"Who's there?" he asked of the darkness that gave him back only another +low groan for answer. + +The heavy hinges of the door creaked as he thrust it open and entered. +His last match showed him a huddled white heap in one corner, two hands +tied behind it, a grey-haired and bleeding head. He turned back and +pushed up into the gun-room without more ado. It was empty. + +He looked dazedly about him in the bright lamplight, and his eyes fell +on a couple of candlesticks. He picked one up and found a full box of +matches beside it. From the decanter on the table before the fire he +partly filled a glass, and disappeared down the steps again with his +candle to show him the way, drawing the panel back into place behind +him. + +Within the cell door he set down the glass he was carrying and, pulling +out a pocket-knife, cut through the cord which secured the wrists of the +prone figure in the corner. Its hands fell limply apart and lay palms +upward. He did not at once release its ankles, but, stooping over it, +pulled it round on to its back--and sprang away from it in such frantic +haste that the candle jumped from its holder and left him in darkness +again. + +He all but brained himself as he rushed for the door, but he got outside +and, stunned as he was, set his shoulder to it. It closed with a clang +and, as he shot the bolt home, he sank to his knees, breathing brokenly, +his forehead on its rusty iron. He righted himself with an effort, but +stayed where he was, sitting huddled together against the rock wall, his +face damp with cold perspiration. He was blind in the blackness about +him and could hear nothing but the trip-hammer beat of his own strained +heart. + +Its turbulence began to die down by degrees and in time he regained some +command of his stupefied faculties. + +"It couldn't possibly be," he kept on assuring himself. "I must have +been mistaken. It couldn't possibly--" + +He pulled his slack limbs up under him, and rose, slowly, forcing them +to obey him. + +"But I must make sure," he muttered, and still let himself linger +outside the cell door, to listen for any sound from within. + +A groan, fainter than the first he had heard, encouraged him. + +"Pretty far through, whoever he is," said he to himself, and with +another effort of will-power once more pulled back the bolt. + +The fresh match he struck, before going further, showed him that the man +inside had not moved, and he found his candle where it had fallen, in +time to light it before his match burned out. With it in one hand he +went forward on tiptoe, to study the other's features intently, his own +expressing fear, absolute disbelief, doubt, a growing conviction in +turn. + +"It is M'Kissock!" he cried finally, and at the words unconsciously +uttered, the other's eyelids began to flicker in the candle-light until +at length they opened and remained open at their widest. And for a long +time they two stayed thus, regarding each other as if bereft of power of +movement or speech. + +Then Farish M'Kissock's slack jaws took to twitching convulsively. A low +moaning broke from his mouth. A film came over his dreadfully staring +eyes. He would have fallen unconscious again had not the engineer +snatched up the glass at one side and poured down his throat a few drops +of the spirit it held. His teeth closed with a snap and he groaned +again, heartrendingly; but, in a little, he had so far benefited by that +hurtful remedy as to recover the use of his voice. His lips moved and +his rescuer leaned forward to catch the hoarse, agonised whisper that +came from them. + +"You were always--a cruel devil, Lord St. Just," gasped Farish +M'Kissock, "even when you were alive. It should be my right--to torment +_you_ now, and not--you me!" + +The engineer drew back a little. He knew then that he had not been +mistaken. + +"You're not dead yet, M'Kissock," said he soothingly, in his voice of a +gentleman, "although--I'll be damned if I can understand how that is!" +And then, suddenly realising a little of all it must mean to him that +his old enemy was still living, "If I had only known--" he murmured with +exceeding bitterness. "Oh, my God! Think of all those awful years!" + +Farish M'Kissock attempted to laugh, with a very horrid effect. He +raised a trembling hand to his head, and looked at its fingers, all +smeared with red. His rolling eyes tried to pierce the obscurity of the +vault in which he was lying. Remembrance of the more immediate past +began to stir in his mind. He drew a long, deep, painful breath. + +"I thought--I thought--" he mumbled brokenly, and his eyes closed. He +was once more insensible. + +The engineer of the _Olive Branch_ looked round for the candlestick he +had dropped, and, finding that, made his light safe. Then he kneeled +down beside the other and raised his head and lifted him so that his +shoulders should rest on the rock behind. Another teaspoonful of the +stimulant in the glass flogged his patient's flagging heart into further +effort, and Farish M'Kissock opened his eyes again. + +"Loose my feet," he begged brokenly, and the engineer did so: but he lay +still where he was, too weak to move. For a time, the only sound to be +heard was his hurtful, irregular breathing. Then he glanced curiously, +for the first time, at his rescuer's threadbare blue uniform. + +"You're just in time, Lord St. Just," said he, his voice clearer and his +ideas beginning to gain some coherent shape. "Though that's not the name +I should be calling you now, since you're still living in spite of me, +and Earl of Jura by all the laws of the land. + +"But--where have you come from so late-along? Where have you been +since--They hold it against me here to this day that I murdered your +lordship; and--there was your body found later on at the foot of the +cliffs in front of your hut." + +The other sat down by the doorway, with a limp shrug of the shoulders +that spoke a weariness beyond words. + +"I didn't fall very far, M'Kissock," he answered presently. "And--I +thought you must have slipped over too as we fought there--for I saw a +body sunk among the rocks in the water below; it was a still day, you +remember. But--where were you?" + +"I took to my heels through the woods, thinking it would go ill with me +when what I believed had happened to you came out; for it was known that +I had gone to your hut to seek you, and why." His voice grew very hard, +and he shot a glance of unquenchable hatred at his companion. "So I lay +hid in the hills till nightfall, and then fled the countryside. I heard +afterwards that they had found your body, although it was scarcely more +than a rickle of bare bones by then, and of course they put the blame of +it all on me without more ado." + +The engineer of the _Olive Branch_ who was also the Earl of Jura sighed +drearily. The best years of his life had gone to pay the penalty fate +had exacted, through that mistake, for a fault he had almost forgotten. +And now, desire had failed him; his spirit was utterly broken. + +"I was just such another fool as yourself, M'Kissock!" said he in a +hopeless tone. "I was afraid they would lay your death at my door, +and--I bolted too; without a word to a living soul. I've been afraid +ever since, because--I've been told that the police were always looking +for me." + +M'Kissock's jaw dropped. He looked again at the other's torn uniform. + +"Who was it told you that?" he asked, almost in a whisper. + +"The Old Man on the _Olive Branch_. I've been chief engineer on his ship +for five or six years, and before that--I shipped as a stoker at first, +M'Kissock, at Yedo, in Japan. I was starving there. And I've worked for +him all that time like a slave--on the strength of a groundless lie!" + +"Had he any idea who you were?" the other demanded. + +"I thought he must know; but I can see now that he was simply making a +fool of me for his own ends. If he had known, he surely wouldn't have +sent for me to come ashore here." + +"He certainly would not," agreed his companion with grim assurance, and +they both fell silent again, each engrossed in his own overwhelming, +embittered reflections. + +"Dove knows nothing at all about you," said Farish M'Kissock presently, +and Lord Jura looked up as if astonished at the sound of his voice. + +"But--how do you know that, M'Kissock?" the latter inquired in a +querulous tone, pulling nervously at his under-lip. "What are you doing +here, in that queer rig-out? I don't understand. Where have you--" + +"I've been just such another fool as yourself, my lord," said Farish +M'Kissock, his voice vibrant with impotent, irrepressible anger. "It's +worse than damnable to think--You'll scarcely believe that I've served +under Dove in my time, but it's true enough. I was second mate on the +_Fer de Lance_, long ago, when he called himself Captain Brown. And--I +owe him a score as heavy as yours, ay, and heavier; a score I came here +to pay. But I was too hasty, and--he got the better of me at the start; +I was no match for the two of them--he had the man Slyne on his side." +His breath almost failed him and he fell to coughing convulsively. + +"And--what has brought them to Loquhariot?" the other asked in utter +amazement as soon as he could make himself heard. But Farish M'Kissock +sat wheezing and gasping for some little time before answering that. + +"They have come with one whom they call the Lady Josceline Justice," +said he at length, glancing askance at his companion. "Slyne's minded to +marry her now--and so lay hands on all that is yours." + +The Earl of Jura gazed blankly at his burst boots. His mind was all in a +muddle. The stokehold of the _Olive Branch_, and then its engine-room, +seemed to have sapped whatever intelligence he might once have +possessed. His belated release from slavery had left him with his wits +benumbed and torpid. + +"But, of course, they don't know that I--" he began, his face +brightening, and then broke off. "Where did they get hold of her, +M'Kissock?" + +"Dove's had her on board his ship for years," said Farish M'Kissock +brusquely. + +"Is it Sallie you're talking about!" he exclaimed. "Good God! Can it be +possible that--But never mind now. I must--" He made as if to rise. + +"Wait a minute, my lord," requested Farish M'Kissock in a tone which +compelled his attention. "You've got two desperate men to deal with +above-stairs. You've seen how they've handled me, and they would think +nothing of throwing the two of us, neck and crop, into the drowning-hole +in the tunnel behind you. You will be very ill-advised to beard them +alone. I can help you--" + +"How?" + +"You'll see when the time comes." + +"But I can't stay squatting here like a rat in a drain while they--I'm a +free man--now that I know you're alive after all," declared the ragged +scarecrow with the eye-glass, as if to encourage himself. "And I'm Earl +of Jura; there's no getting out of that. I must put a stop to Slyne's +villainous scheme at once, M'Kissock. He's a rotten bad egg; _I_ know +him. It would never do to let him get--her into his infernal clutches." + +Farish M'Kissock eyed him with no good will. + +"Ay," he agreed reluctantly. "Your lordship's a belted earl now, by all +the laws of the land. And Farish M'Kissock that was a king is fated to +die a beggar. + +"But, first,--and it's hard, dooms hard!--I must help you--so far at +least. It's the two of us against those other two, for the moment. +Afterwards, we will talk of--yon old matter between us; for, mind you! +Lord Jura, I neither forget nor forgive." + +The Earl of Jura shrugged his shoulders again. He had almost forgotten +the cause of his old quarrel on the cliffs with the gamekeeper's son. He +had more than enough to think about in its seemingly endless outcome. +And his apparent indifference seemed to inflame the hatred the other +still bore him. + +"I will help you--but only because I _must_," said Farish M'Kissock +harshly. "And you must help me to help you--to your own hurt." + +He leaned forward, panting, as if enraged over his own weakness of body. +The engineer rose, regarding him as if not very sure of his sanity, +and, having picked up the candle, assisted him to his feet. He stood for +a moment supporting himself by the wall, his knees giving and recovering +under him, and then the giddiness passed. He took a tentative step or +two and presently was able to follow his rescuer from the cell. + +"Is there anyone in the gun-room?" he asked in an anxious whisper at the +foot of the steps. Lord Jura listened closely for a moment or two at the +panel above, drew it open a little, and looking down again, shook his +head. He pulled the panel wide and then held out a hand to his follower; +who took it very reluctantly and, with its aid, reached the room above, +step by slow, uncertain step. + +"Sit down and rest for a minute or two," suggested the engineer. + +"Not here," he demurred. "It wouldn't be safe--too near the tunnel. We +must have help at hand when we meet them. What time is it? They'll be at +dinner now. Take me along the servants' passage and by the terrace to +the Pipers' Port: we should meet no one that way." + +But the other, a hand at his tremulous lips, was looking with mazed eyes +about the remembered room that he had so often seen in his dreams during +the age-long time of torment he had endured. His rods lay ready for use +in the long rack where he had left them. A pair of guns his father had +given him stood in their usual place at one end of the full stand +adorning one wall. The head of his first stag still hung above the +mantel, and the big wild-cat he had killed in the wood behind his hut on +the cliffs glared at him out of its glass eyes from over the door +leading to the pantry. That corner at least of the castle was quite +unchanged. + +He caught sight of his own reflection in the plate-glass casing which +covered another full stand of guns, and turned away from it with a +grimace of distaste. He had certainly changed, and very much for the +worse, himself, since he had last seen Loquhariot. He glanced at Farish +M'Kissock, the gamekeeper's son with whom he had fought, as he almost +blushed to remember, about a girl, and was still more shocked to see the +skeleton-like, decrepit-looking old man regarding him with hot, inimical +eyes from under shaggy down-drawn white eyebrows above which hung long +matted locks of grey hair darkly discoloured with drying blood; for they +two had been headstrong lads together, friends in some sort, companions +at least in many a scapegrace prank. + +"Ay," said Farish M'Kissock unpleasantly, as though reading the thought +that ran through his mind. "I'm far worse-looking than you are, my lord. +And something of that I am owing your lordship. But never mind now; we +have other matters before us first, and it will be well to attend to +them before it may be too late." + +The engineer started at that. His head was not very clear and he had for +the moment almost forgotten-- + +"Come on, then, M'Kissock," said he, and blew out the candle he was +still unconsciously carrying and led the way through the little pantry +behind. + +The two of them emerged from that into a dimly lighted passage along +which they proceeded without a sound as far as another door which opened +outward on to the lower battlements at the seaward front of the castle. + +"Let me through first," requested Farish M'Kissock, after his companion +had made sure that there was no one beyond it, "and mind that the wind +doesn't drive it shut with a clash." He was firmer upon his feet now and +seemed to have gained some measure of strength from the stimulus of his +stubborn purpose. Bare-foot as he was, he took no notice of the driving +snow on the terrace outside, although his companion shivered as they +turned along the wall in the teeth of the blast that was blowing. + +"Get inside, for God's sake!" Lord Jura begged of the ghostly figure in +front of him as it stooped to set an ear to the keyhole in the portico +at the other end of the terrace, and his teeth were chattering when he +entered the dark, empty closet behind it. + +He had to set his shoulder to it to shut it against the storm. As soon +as he had accomplished that, he shook the snow from his ragged coat and +struck a match and glanced stupidly about him. + +"Put that out," ordered Farish M'Kissock in a suppressed, angry whisper. +"They'll maybe see some glimmer--they're all inside." + +The other obeyed him meekly, and for a space the two of them stood there +in the darkness, on the alert, drawing quick, restricted breaths. They +could hear the echo of voices from the banquet-hall. These gradually +died away, all but one which seemed to be telling some story. A distant +crash, as of a dish dropped on the floor, alarmed the two listeners, but +after that the conversation and laughter within went on again. The +engineer crossed the closet noiselessly on his rubber soles, and, "What +next, M'Kissock?" he whispered, as if content to resign himself to the +guidance of the more masterful will. + +"You will go in to them," the other instructed him. "Hear what you can +before you declare yourself, and--you must judge for yourself what to +say and do. I'll wait behind for a bit--Dove and Slyne believe that I'm +safely out of the way--but, as soon as it's needful, I'll face them +too. Till then, never mention my name nor any word of what I have told +you. + +"Pluck up some heart!" he hissed savagely. "This is the Castle of +Loquhariot--and you're the Earl of Jura. But they'll out-match you yet +unless you stand your ground against them." + +The engineer humbly attempted to square his shoulders, and, fumbling, +found the latch of the door. He opened it very quietly, enough and no +more to see through into the banquet-hall: and stood there for a time +studying the scene at the table. Farish M'Kissock, at his elbow, was +staring out at it too, with fierce, eager eyes. He pulled the door +slowly back, and Lord Jura passed through, unnoticed among the shadows +in that obscure corner. + +A cork popped explosively, and the butler came forward from the buffet +with a big, golden-necked bottle. The engineer paused. He had recognised +Captain Dove in the distance and notwithstanding the old man's unusual +garb and black glasses. + +He caught sight of Sallie, bewilderingly beautiful in a costume such as +he had not set eyes upon since--he had last dined there himself. He +squared his stooping shoulders again, and saw Slyne rise from his seat, +the wine-glass the butler had just filled for him in one hand. + +The talk and laughter gradually subsided and silence ensued. Lord Jura +took a tentative step toward the table, and stopped again as Slyne's +careless, smiling glance suddenly met his and changed to a rigid scowl. +Then Captain Dove looked round, and, after a breathless interval, "What +the devil do _you_ want here, Brasse!" he cried explosively. + +At the sound of that harsh, hated voice, all the uncertain presence of +mind the intruder could boast deserted him. He stood as if rooted +there, a shrinking, irresolute figure, until the old factor came +shuffling across the floor toward him and some one else lifted the shade +off one of the lights on the candelabra so that it shone full on his +drawn, haggard face. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +DEBIT AND CREDIT + + +"And you're--Earl of Jura--now," stammered Herries, helplessly, as +though that undeniable fact altogether staggered belief. + +The ragged scarecrow with the eye-glass nodded, somewhat shamefacedly, +and once more made a pitiful effort to straighten his stooping +shoulders. Herries looked away, wretchedly, and then, as if +understanding something of what must be in his mind, took it upon +himself to dismiss the servants, but bidding them remain within call and +also to see to it that no word went elsewhere of what they had seen and +heard in the banquet-hall. + +The rest of the company were regarding the ex-engineer of the _Olive +Branch_ with very varied expressions. A sickly pallor had overspread +Slyne's rigid features as he heard the title by which Herries had +addressed that untimeous intruder. Captain Dove, his hands still on the +table before him, and crouching as if to spring, was breathing jerkily +from between set teeth, like one with a seizure. The Marquis of +Ingoldsby's narrow forehead was corrugated by a fixed and splenetic +frown which kept his eyes and mouth at their very widest. Behind +Sallie's questioning, compassionate, clouded glance lurked hope, and +fear, and a steadfast determination; she was still holding fast the stem +of her wine-glass. Justin Carthew looked as if he did not know in the +least who or where he was. Mr. Jobling's purple visage and pendulous +jowl spoke plainly the apoplectic and painful nature of his emotions. Of +them all, only the Duchess of Dawn seemed to have preserved any measure +of self-possession. + +While Herries was giving the butler his orders, she crossed toward the +fireplace with a little characteristic, impulsive gesture. + +"I hope you haven't forgotten me, Torquil?" said she, almost timidly. It +could not but hurt her to see what the years had made of the man who, +when she had met him last, had been little more than a teasing, +mischievous school-boy. + +"I knew you at once," he replied, and blinked back at her and cleared +his throat uncomfortably. The pinch of his present decayed estate before +her once more quickened his numb sense of the grievous injury done him +by Captain Dove. He glanced again in Captain Dove's direction, but the +old man's gaze met his absolutely mystified; and his heavy heart began +to grow hot again as he recalled how often his cunning taskmaster had +cowed him by dint of threats to disclose his unknown identity to the +police. + +"We all believed you were dead," said the duchess, and he answered her +stupidly, at random. His sullen eyes had encountered Slyne's, in which +he read aright dismay unspeakable and a stunned seeking after some +elusive scheme to turn the tables upon him yet. She saw how distrait he +was. "But you'll tell me by and by something of your adventures," said +she. "I just wanted to say how glad I am--that you're safe and sound +after all. And now I'll be off to the drawing-room with Ingoldsby. We're +only in the way here. I know you must have a great deal to say to your +sister." + +He started at hearing Sallie so styled. His restless regard had reached +her, at the end of the table next him, and he wondered what it could be +that had brought such an uncontrollable gleam of relief into her still +bewildered eyes. + +"I wish you would wait for a little, if you don't mind," he answered the +duchess. "I'd like you to stay beside her until--I get rid of some of +those others, if you don't mind." + +She nodded, if rather reluctantly, and turned aside toward Herries as +Sallie approached, holding out to the shabby prodigal whose belated +return had brought about such a stupefying change in the situation there +a tremulous, eager hand. + +"You're just in time," Sallie said to him in such a glad, warm, grateful +voice that even he, who knew very well her generous nature, was almost +surprised by her evident pleasure in thus admitting his prior right to +the high rank and vast heritage which he believed should have been hers +but for him. He was infinitely embarrassed when, before them all, she +stooped and touched with her lips the back of the claw-like, +toil-stained hand, he had tried hard to withhold from her. + +[Illustration: She touched with her lips the back of the toil-stained +hand.] + +And she, having sealed her abdication in such wise, looked up into his +flushed face with a swift, shy smile, the flutter of the fledgling hope +in her heart stirring softly the priceless lace that outlined her bosom, +and the little golden locket that lay therein. + +"You're my brother--my step-brother, now, aren't you, Mr. Brasse?" she +asked, almost in a whisper. + +"It seems so, Sallie," he answered mechanically, his wandering wits +almost beyond his control. Her unconscious use of the name by which she +had always known him had brought to his mental vision a blurred +picture of her on the bridge of the _Olive Branch_ in a stiff breeze, +himself at the fiddley-hatch. + +"And everything that might have been mine is yours now?" + +"Ours," he corrected, without any interest, as if that was of no +consequence. "There should be enough for us both; and, in any case, I +need very little--now." + +"But it's all yours by law, isn't it?" she urged. "I must make sure, +because--" She looked back, over her shoulder. Mr. Jobling had joined +Slyne and Captain Dove; the three of them were engaged, with bated +breaths, in a sibilant argument, their heads very close together. Lord +Ingoldsby had just risen and was slouching over to the other ingle-nook, +where the duchess had made Herries sit down. Only Justin Carthew +remained motionless, half turned in his high-backed chair, leaning +heavily on one of its arms while he still stared, almost unseeingly, at +Sallie and her companion. + +"How does that fellow come to be here?" asked the ex-engineer, +indicating Carthew with a puzzled nod, and, as Sallie told him what had +occurred since she herself had arrived at Loquhariot, his expression +grew always more blank again. But when she went on to explain how Slyne +had tried to entrap her for his own profit, his dull eyes brightened and +began to burn. + +"And now," she said at last, "perhaps he won't want to marry me--when +there's nothing to be gained by it. I can't tell you how thankful I am +that you've come home in time." + +Carthew got up from the table then and came limping forward to greet the +man whose belated home-coming had made such a difference to him. And +Mr. Jobling, evidently fired by his example, followed, to beg an +introduction from her ladyship to his lordship. + +"I've been acting for Lady Josceline, my lord," he explained very +volubly, having thus secured his lordship's by no means favourable +attention, "just as I would have been most happy to act for your +lordship if I had known--" He came to a sudden stop, except for a +stifled, explosive hiccough, as Captain Dove shouldered him aside and +confronted the ex-engineer of the _Olive Branch_ with his most sleek, +benevolent expression. + +Slyne was close behind Captain Dove. The pallor had passed from his +face. Mr. Jobling apparently did not deem it politic to push in again +just then. He choked down his not unnatural indignation and stayed +hovering about, very ill at ease, in the background. The others, all but +Sallie, had also moved a little away. + +But it did not seem to be Captain Dove's idea to exchange any quiet +confidences with his late chief-engineer. What he had to say was for all +ears. Without witnesses he would, no doubt, have conducted himself very +differently. Handicapped as he was by their company, he had no recourse +but to enlist their sympathies on his side. + +"Well, if this doesn't beat all for luck!" said he in a tone of the +extremest gratification, his visible features wreathed in an unctuous +smile. "I don't suppose you're sorry _now_ that you came ashore when I +sent for you, eh! You must admit that I've managed a very pleasant +little surprise for you--" + +"You've managed nothing--except to put your own neck into a noose at +last," retorted Lord Jura. He was standing very erect although he could +not control the nervous tremor at the back of his neck. He saw no need +now to mince matters with the old man, whose callous effrontery was +stirring his sluggish pulses to such a pitch that he could scarcely +resist the dire temptation to spring at his throat and choke the evil +life out of him there and then. But a light hand laid on his arm +diverted him for a moment from any such insane idea, and his unreasoning +rage died down a little as he looked round into Sallie's appealing eyes. + +"How long will it take to get the police here, Herries?" he asked +abruptly over one shoulder. And, at that, the arras in the dark corner +beside the Pipers' Port swayed slightly, as though there were some one +behind it about to come forth. + +"The telegraph-wire is down, my lord," the old factor answered +doubtfully, "and--it would maybe be wasting a life to send anyone to +attempt the Pass with a message in weather like this. But--till we can +safely get word to the police, there are lots of stout lads in +Loquhariot that will do your lordship's bidding." + +"And more on board the _Olive Branch_ that will do mine," Captain Dove +interrupted, with a smooth assurance which could not but add to the +listeners' perturbation. "Da Costa has his orders, too. It will be a bad +look out for Loquhariot if ever he and his lambs have to come ashore +here to look for me. You've seen them crack far harder nuts than this +ramshackle old castle of yours! You know very well-- + +"But what's the use of arguing about it? You owe me far too much to talk +in that style. If you could fetch the police here at this moment, you +couldn't afford to face them. You've surely forgotten--" + +"I have forgotten nothing," Lord Jura assured him, in a steady, ominous +voice. + +"That's just as well," declared Captain Dove, who seemed determined to +stand his ground, "because it will save me reminding you, before your +fashionable friends, how much I've done for you, first and last, since I +picked you up derelict on the beach at Yedo. You'd have been very badly +off without me then, eh! And, but for me, you'd maybe have come to a +worse end than starving, since. I've brought you back to your own, when +all's said and done. It doesn't say much for you, Lord Jura, that you'd +turn round on _me_ now!" + +He spoke pathetically, as one disappointed in the return made him for +favours lavished with a free hand. And such of the others as did not +know the real facts of the matter looked somewhat doubtfully at Lord +Jura. Captain Dove was obviously pleased with the impression he had +produced. + +"Everything you have done has been done entirely to serve your own +ends," the ex-engineer answered him in few words. "I owe you no +favour--not the very slightest. You owe me God knows how many years of +my life that you've tricked me out of. And, what's more--" + +"And what's more," Captain Dove interrupted, "you think you owe me only +a grudge. You've no more use for me now that I've served your turn. I've +asked nothing of you, you'll notice. It's only because you've thought +fit to threaten me that I've reminded you--" + +"There was no need," Lord Jura asserted. "I have forgotten nothing. You +can tell your side of the story to the judge at the next assizes--and +I'll tell mine." + +Mr. Jobling's puffy face blanched at that, but Captain Dove did not even +change countenance. + +"So much for yourself," said he patiently. "You think you can best +whiten your own record by trying to blacken mine. I'll say no more about +that--except that it isn't always true that dead men tell no tales. And +you'll have to tell the judge at the next assizes the real reason why +you ran away from home." + +He was watching the other's face narrowly, to see what effect that stray +shot might have, and was clearly encouraged at seeing Lord Jura wince. + +"But there's another point to be settled," he went on with slow +insistence, "before we go any further. I've brought you back to your +own, as I said, and, more than that, I've brought you back--your sister. +I wouldn't have made any song-an'-dance about such a small matter +either, but--since it's to be debit and credit between us, I'd like to +know how you think that affects the account. + +"You say you've forgotten nothing. Have you remembered that I've brought +her up, so to speak, since she was knee-high to me? Have you ever +thought where she'd be to-day if I hadn't--But, of course, you don't +know where I came across _her_. And I'm not going to tell you just +now. All I _will_ say is that it rests absolutely in my hands +whether--whether she stays safe here with you or--You may believe me or +not, as you like, but--Better talk it over with her before you go any +further,--my lord!" + +He frowned, as if warningly, at Sallie, and turned on his heel and, +swaggering back to the table, grotesquely aggressive, sat down again +with his back to them all, leaving them to make whatever they liked of +his veiled threat and half-spoken hints as to his mysterious power over +her. Slyne followed him. But Mr. Jobling pushed forward again, eager to +establish himself on a safer footing of service to the other side. + +"If your lordship will allow me," said he, his head on one side, +shoulders bent and hands clasped, "I think I can undertake to arrange +matters for you with Captain Dove. Some small money payment, perhaps, +would save further unpleasantness--for her ladyship as well. We can +scarcely contest his claim for at least the amount of--" + +"I don't know what you're talking about--or what business it is of +yours!" said Lord Jura sharply and turned to give Herries some order. +But, before he could speak, Sallie claimed his attention again. + +"Let them go," she implored of him vehemently. "Oh, please let them go. +Don't send for the police. I couldn't bear to think that they had come +to any harm through helping me--even for their own purposes. And some of +what Captain Dove says is true enough: he's looked after me for longer +than I can remember, almost--and but for him I wouldn't be here now. The +past has sometimes been very hard for us both. It would spoil the future +entirely for me if I felt that I had been the means of betraying him to +the police. If they'll only promise to leave us alone now, won't you let +them go?--for my sake." + +Lord Jura pulled at his under-lip in helpless indecision. He knew that +he could not for long deny the girl anything she asked of him thus. + +"You don't understand, Sallie," he said at length, very vexedly. "You'd +better go off to your own room now,--and take Lady Jane--the +duchess--with you. Leave me to deal with the Old Man and Slyne; it isn't +only on my own account--" + +"Will you set them on board the _Olive Branch_ safe, if they promise to +leave us alone now?" she urged, not to be denied in her purpose. + +"But,--what are they to you?" he demanded. "Surely--it can't be--You +don't--care for Jasper Slyne, do you, Sallie? I'll let _him_ go, if you +like--though he doesn't deserve it." + +She shuddered. "If you hadn't come to-night," she told him tremulously, +"you wouldn't have found me here--alive. I had made up my mind--" Her +voice died away, but he understood. + +"But I can't treat them as they would me," she reminded him, her anxious +eyes holding his till he looked away, with an effort of will. "I could +never be happy here, or anywhere else, if I left any of my old shipmates +in the power of the law. Chance has brought us both here--and in time. +Will you not wipe the past out of your mind entirely, as I have done, +and--You won't refuse me the first favour I have asked of you, here in +your home? And I won't ever forget how good you have always been to me." + +He looked into her eyes again, and was lost. "Have it your own way, +then," he said, as if with a grudge. "But--" His face fell. He looked +furtively behind him. He had just remembered his pact with Farish +M'Kissock. "You must get rid of them both at once, and very quietly," he +whispered. "I won't answer for what may happen yet unless--" + +Sallie did not even wait to thank him for his weak-willed complaisance. +She crossed swiftly to the table where Jasper Slyne and Mr. Jobling were +once more in low-voiced conclave with Captain Dove. + +The three conspirators, sitting with heads together, in angry, +undertoned argument, glanced up as she approached them. Their lowering +faces lightened a little at sight of her, but fell again into black, +rebellious masks while they listened sullenly to what she had to say. As +she finished, Captain Dove brought a heavy fist down upon the table like +a sledge-hammer, and, while the glasses still rang to its impact on the +solid oak, "I'll be damned if I budge from here by one step," he cried +at the top of his voice, and sprang from his chair, "till it suits me." +He pulled his smoked glasses from off his nose, flung them on the floor, +and trod viciously upon them as he advanced on Lord Jura again, ignoring +all his companions' attempts to restrain him. + +"Now, see here, my friend!" said he with another fierce imprecation, and +thrust his face up close to the ex-engineer's while Carthew stepped +hastily forward beside Lord Jura. "Now, see here, my friend! I've had +about enough of you and your nonsense. Say whatever you've got to say to +me now yourself and be done with it. Then I'll tell _you_ what you're +going to do--for me and my adopted daughter. There's no need for any +more humming and hawing about it. Speak up!" + +But his former slave did not shrink from before his withering glance. +The banquet-hall of Loquhariot was not the bridge of the _Olive Branch_: +and Lord Jura was even glad that his one-time tyrant did not seem +disposed to avail himself of that last chance of escape at which Sallie +had beguiled him into conniving. + +"For my sister's sake," he said quietly, and not without dignity, "I was +willing to--" + +"You'll do whatever I tell you--for your own sake as well as your +sister's," broke in Captain Dove, and looked him up and down with a +virtuous frown. "Why, but for me, you'd have no sister!" He lowered his +voice to a threatening whisper. "And you'd have hung long ago yourself, +for the murder that you did here!" he hissed. + +Lord Jura regarded him gravely for a moment or two, in silence; and +then, turning toward the Pipers' Port, "Are you there, M'Kissock?" he +called, in the tone of one entitled to prompt attention. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +ISHMAEL'S HERITAGE + + +There was something very dreadful about Farish M'Kissock's appearance as +he came shuffling forward from the corner under the gallery. His torn +and travel-stained white robe gave him a ghostly aspect which was +heightened by the cold and clammy pallor of his face, his sunken eyes, +the matted, blood-stained tangle of grey hair that merged into a long, +unkempt beard and moustache. He moved like an automaton, with all his +limbs and joints loose. The stamp of death was on him. + +The Duchess of Dawn shrank into the ingle behind her as he approached, +and her noble nephew backed after her, one elbow uplifted, fists +clenched, with the apparent idea of protecting her from that +spectre-like apparition; at whom Herries also was gazing, aghast but +motionless, while Mr. Jobling, with bulging eyes and open mouth, felt +about him as if for some friendly hand to clutch at and, finding none, +laid hold of Slyne by the coat--who struck his fingers away with a +muttered oath. Slyne and Captain Dove and Justin Carthew were all +regarding him with blank dismay. Sallie uttered a little, low, pitiful +cry as she recognised in the worn-out wreck who had halted mutely a few +paces away the man she had seen only a month or two before in the prime +of life and the plenitude of his power, the Emir El Farish. + +His burning eyes met and held Captain Dove's cowed, murderous, questing +glance for a moment; and then he laughed, in a most grisly manner. + +"I'm dying now, Captain Dove," said he, in a strong, deep voice that +contrasted strangely with his obvious bodily exhaustion, "a day or two +sooner than need have been--but for you. _You're_ hale and strong yet. +You'll fight hard--when the hangman and his mates come quietly into your +cell at daybreak to pinion you. And, when you're standing on the trap, +with your head in a bag and the knot in a new rope rasping under one +ear, you'll think of me that's waiting for you in the pit below the +scaffold. + +"But that's for by and by; and there's to-day to be done with first." He +laughed again, in such a fashion that the listeners shuddered. "I told +you there was nothing at all that would avail you against me," said he. +"Maybe you'll believe me now!" + +Captain Dove looked furtively round at the others' faces, and spoke, +with obvious difficulty. "I've no idea what you're talking about--" + +"I found M'Kissock--where you left him," interrupted Lord Jura, as if to +say that it was needless now to deny anything. + +"You'd better send him back there, then," Captain Dove retorted +rancorously. "The man's mad--and dangerous. That's why I had him shut +up. He thinks he has some grudge against you, too. Take care he +doesn't--" + +"I'm not mad. I'm not even dangerous enough to save the hangman his job +with you," said Farish M'Kissock quietly, and turned to Lord Jura again. +"But _you'll_ see to it, my lord, that the cruel wrongs this old Judas +has wrought you and me--ay, and even the innocent girl beside you +there--are avenged to the uttermost. I can trust you for that at least." + +Lord Jura looked forlornly at Sallie. He could not now recall his +promise to her if Captain Dove still chose to take advantage of that. + +"Sal--My sister has begged me to let him go free, M'Kissock," he said at +length, almost apologetically, "and--I've agreed." + +Farish M'Kissock's head had begun to shake as if with palsy. He tried to +speak, but could not articulate. The veins about his clammy, yellow +temples were swelling darkly out, like cords. Carthew limped across to +the table and brought him over a glass of water. He swallowed some with +difficulty, and, finding his voice again, "You fool!" he cried, with +inexpressible bitterness. "Oh, you blind fool! Will you let him serve +you as he served me with her to help him!" + +Lord Jura's face flushed. + +"I want to hear no more from you in that strain," he said haughtily, as +if the old spirit of place and power were stirring within him again. "It +is sufficient that my sister's wishes--" + +"If Sallie _were_ your sister, it would make no difference," the dying +man declared with fierce impatience. "This is no time to humour whim of +hers. In any case--she is no kin of yours, Lord Jura, as Captain Dove +well knows. He could have told you--_Keep him off!_ He'll make an end of +me before my time if he can, to silence me. And you must hear, before I +go,--" He staggered backward, coughing, and almost choked for want of +breath. Captain Dove had made a wild lunge at him, but Justin Carthew +had sprung forward in time to save him from the old man's frenzied +attempt: and Herries and Lord Ingoldsby also stepped in between him and +his would-be murderer. + +"All right, then," panted Captain Dove. "Leave me alone, and I'll do him +no harm. I quite forgot that he was off his head, his lies provoke me +so." + +Lord Jura had put Sallie behind him to shield her in the struggle that +promised. He looked round at her then with dazed, doubtful eyes and read +in hers pain and horror and disbelief equally dreadful. He drew a deep, +sobbing breath and confronted Farish M'Kissock again. + +"What in God's name are you driving at!" he demanded, in a tone which +told the stress of mind he was suffering. And Farish M'Kissock regarded +him very evilly for a little before replying. Slyne and Captain Dove and +Carthew were waiting, as if on barbed tenter-hooks. The others, and +Sallie also, seemed to be stricken speechless and still. + +"I am here to seek my revenge, my lord, as you know," said Farish +M'Kissock slowly at length, and licked his bloodless lips. "There is +still a small matter betwixt your lordship and me that remains to be +settled--an old wrong done, which your lordship has almost forgotten, it +seems. _I_ neither forget nor forgive. + +"I may not have time left to tell all I owe Captain Dove there--for that +goes back through long years to what I owe you. But, before I am done +with, I think I can settle with you as well as with him. + +"Sallie is no sister of yours, as Captain Dove knows--though she herself +has been beguiled as easily as your lordship. Your lordship's sister, +the Lady Josceline Justice, died in my arms eight or nine weeks ago: and +she was my wife. Sallie there, knowing nothing, saw her a few hours +before--" + +He blinked and hung his head for a moment, as if recalling all that had +come to pass since he had laid the light, wasted body aside on the sand, +and set a guard over it until--until he could spare time to see to a +decent grave. + +"She was my wife," he said again, looking up at the last of the haughty +Juras with hate unquenchable in his glance. "And that's the revenge I +have taken on you and yours, my lord, for the ill your lordship lightly +wrought--the other, that should have been." + +A woman's voice came wailingly from the musicians' gallery and Mr. +Jobling uttered a low moan of abject fear. His nerves had evidently +failed him altogether. Hasty steps were descending the short stone +stairway which led to the gallery, and then Janet M'Kissock came +tottering forth across the floor from the foot of it. + +"Oh, Farish!" the old woman cried to her brother. "Have you no heart at +all! Are there not enough lives ruined already that you would wreck her +ladyship's here as well?" And she turned toward Sallie with a poor, +pitiful gesture as of protection. "It _cannot_ be as you say," she +whimpered. "For how could _I_ be mistaken, that knew her father far +better than you--ay, and the countess her mother too; whose locket she +was wearing at her neck the day she first came to Loquhariot. I'll swear +to it, at any rate! I had it for a time in my own keeping, before the +countess--went away. + +"Ask her ladyship where she got the locket, your grace. And then my +poor, distracted brother will maybe admit that he's been deceived about +her." + +The duchess's anxious, encouraging look seemed to beg an answer of +Sallie. But the girl was gazing, with dumb dismay in her wide, wounded +eyes, at Farish M'Kissock, recalling as well as she could amid such a +maze the incidents of the hours she had spent in his camp on the African +coast. + +Under the spell of his piercing glance the shadowy banquet-hall of +Loquhariot seemed to fade away from her, and in its place she saw again +the spacious rose-pink pavilion behind the carved chair on which he was +seated in state among his staring councillors, under a great green flag +with a golden harp on its heavy folds. Behind her, from about the +picket-lines where she had noticed the negro slaves at their work, she +seemed to hear the whinnying of the horses, the vicious squeals of the +restless camels. In the dim crimson glow of the dying fires she was +gazing again at the horsehair tents in the background, and the multitude +of men and women and children all busy about them in the open air. + +She saw, as if in a vision, the Emir spring from his seat and come +hastily forward to where she stood shrinkingly at Captain Dove's +shoulder. He was tall and stalwart on foot, a fine figure of a man even +in his loose, shapeless garments, with a bronzed, hook-nosed, handsome +face of his own, a heavy moustache, the brooding, patient, predatory +eyes of a desert vulture. And, as he confronted Captain Dove, over whom +he seemed to tower threateningly, the hood of his _selham_ slipped back, +disclosing a flaming shock of red hair. + +Her own veil had slipped to her chin, but she had been unconscious of +that until his blazing eyes had shifted from Captain Dove's unconcerned +face to hers. She pulled it hurriedly back into place, and he, turning +to the curious onlookers, rid himself of their company before he called, +in a caressing voice, on some one within the big, white tent that was +the heart of his stronghold. And there came forth a woman, veiled as she +herself had been, but clad in silk instead of cotton, who bowed +submissively to what he had to say, and then held out a slender, +bloodless, burning hand to her.... + +It all came back to her memory, as if in a lightning-flash that left her +stunned and helpless to face the appalling present again. She knew now +who the Emir's wife had been--a girl of her own age, but grown old +before her time and weary of the little life that had been left in her +then. She knew that Farish M'Kissock was speaking the truth now, and +that she must bear witness to it at whatever cost to herself. It made no +difference that Captain Dove's expression was a mute and none the less +dreadful threat of what she might look for at his hands if she dared to +do so. The helpless horror of the position in which his cunning intrigue +had left her broke on her mind like a thunderbolt. She covered her +shamed, white face with both hands, and turned, swaying on her feet, and +would have fallen had not the duchess thrown both arms about her and +held her there in a close, warm clasp, while Justin Carthew and Lord +Ingoldsby, who had both darted forward to help her, glared at each other +vindictively. + +"It _can't_ be true!" said the duchess, half to herself, but Sallie +heard, and stood upright again, dizzily, letting her hands fall, +prepared to do public penance for her innocent and unwitting part in the +shameless fraud that had been perpetrated. She did not give a thought to +the fact that all her own fair dreams of the future were finally +shattered and past repair. But she wondered what the poor folk she had +befriended about the village would have to say when they heard that she +was no better than a common impostor, and the duchess, who had +befriended her, and Justin Carthew, whom Mr. Jobling had treated as a +trespasser there! + +"It _is_ true," she asserted, desperately, in a tone which might have +touched even Captain Dove, "though I didn't know till now--" She almost +broke down under the dire humiliation she was enduring, but the duchess +would not let her go when she would have drawn away from the arm at her +waist, and she forced herself to go on with her unspeakably hurtful +confession. + +"The locket was given me by the girl who died in the desert--who was +that man's wife," she said so that all might hear, her face aflame now +under the others' blankly believing glances. "I didn't want to take it +at all--but she believed she would not live long, and I felt that it +would be unkind to refuse." + +Farish M'Kissock looked round, in baleful triumph, at Captain Dove, +whose hopes he had thus thwarted and brought to nought. But Captain +Dove's evil eyes were fixed on Lord Jura. + +"Did she tell you nothing at all of herself--or her history?" the +duchess asked very gently. + +"Not a word," Sallie answered with transparent honesty. + +"But there's another here that knew who she was," said Farish M'Kissock, +and pointed to Justin Carthew, who could only nod most unhappily, +avoiding Sallie's sudden, incredulous glance. + +And, at that, Lord Jura seemed to start from the stupor into which he +had gradually lapsed. His haggard face grew dark with insane and +uncontrollable passion as he began to realise the fiendish ingenuity of +the revenge exacted by the man whom he had, in the first place, wronged +so cruelly. No other torture, bodily or mental, could have caused him +such anguish as the thought of all his sister must have suffered ere she +died. He lifted two twitching hands and suddenly leaped, as a tiger +might, at Farish M'Kissock's throat. + +So swift and unforeseen was the movement that no one could interfere. +But he overshot his mark and slipped and fell on the polished oaken +floor as Farish M'Kissock stumbled aside, just in time to escape his +clutch. He came down with a crash, and his eye-glass dropped and +splashed about him in fragments as his forehead struck. But, stunned as +he was, he turned on one shoulder and thrust an arm out, and was trying +to rise when something seemed to snap in the coat-pocket underneath him, +and he uttered a scream of agony as his arm collapsed at the elbow, so +that he fell face forward again, struggling like a swimmer with cramp. + +"_Keep back!_" shouted Slyne. And Justin Carthew, in the act of stooping +to try to help the ex-engineer, sprang to one side in time and no more +to escape the touch of a wriggling thing, black and slimy, like a live +shoe-string, which had come slithering out from under the hand with +which the fallen man was clawing at the floor. It was almost at +Carthew's ankles. He leaped convulsively again, and came down on it with +both feet. Its little venomous head writhed round and struck more than +once at the patent leather of his low shoes, and then fell limply back +and lay still. He set his heel on it, to make sure that it would work no +more harm, and turned hastily toward Lord Jura again. + +Herries was before him, however, and had already lifted the stricken +man's head and shoulders a little. Carthew would have helped to raise +him to a sitting posture, but all his limbs curled in a dreadful +convulsion and straightened rigidly and curled again in a last awful +spasm, and so relaxed, lifeless, while his rolling eyeballs also grew +fixed and still. He had ceased to breathe. + +"He's dead," said Captain Dove, and started, as if alarmed by the sound +of his own voice. And for a space no one else spoke, and no one moved at +all. The only undertones that broke the silence were the subdued, +helpless weeping of the three women, the muted moaning of the wind on +the terrace without. Carthew and Herries were still on their knees, one +on either side of the dead man, from one of whose pockets protruded a +broken, empty cigar-box. The others stood staring down at him as if they +could scarcely yet understand what it was that had made such an instant +difference in him. + +Carthew got stiffly to his feet. "We must get the women away out of this +at once," he whispered to Herries, and held out a hand to help the old +factor up. + +Herries gazed at him, out of lack-lustre eyes into which a slow return +of intelligence crept as he too rose. + +"Yes,--my lord," he answered in a low voice, that yet was audible to all +but the unhearing ears of him who had been the ninth Earl of Jura, whose +heritage was now no more than a quiet niche in the lonely graveyard on +the most seaward of the Small Isles, and a young girl's ignorant prayers +that he might there find rest and peace. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +PRIDE'S PRICE + + +Carthew whispered some further hasty instructions to Herries, and, "Yes, +my lord," the old factor answered again so that all could hear, and all +understood that the tenth Earl of Jura and Baron St. Just had thus +succeeded the ninth--who lay there dead on the floor before them. + +The duchess was gently leading Sallie away. Herries followed them, on +his own errands, while Captain Dove and his accomplices remained looking +on with sullen, suspicious eyes, straining their ears in a vain attempt +to hear what was to be their fate. + +Carthew turned to them. "I'll bid you good night now," he said, in a +tone not without a new tinge of authority in it, and at which they +looked anything but well pleased. "You'll be more comfortable in your +own quarters than anywhere else in the meantime." And, with that +sufficiently broad hint, he stood waiting for them to go. + +Captain Dove had opened his mouth as if to speak, but said nothing. +Slyne, very pinched and white about the nostrils, drew Mr. Jobling +toward the door, as if he would not trust the shifty lawyer with +Carthew, and answered for them all, with a most sarcastic inflection, +"Good night,--my lord!" Now that the worst had come to the worst he was +his old cool, careless, calculating self again. + +Captain Dove paused at the buffet in passing, and went on with both +hands full. Both he and Slyne, on their way toward the North Keep with +Mr. Jobling shambling along between them, not unlike a condemned +criminal, noticed the unusual number of able-bodied men-servants who +seemed to have found aimless occupation of some sort about the corridor, +and drew their own discomforting conclusions therefrom. + +Slyne even hesitated for a moment on the threshold of the cosy +living-hall which occupies the base of the North Keep, and then, with a +grimace of disdain, followed the other two, closing the heavy door +behind him. Almost immediately he heard the key turned quietly in the +lock outside--and knew that his suspicions had been only too well +founded. Carthew intended to keep him and his associates prisoners +there. He bit his lip and pulled at his moustache as he watched Captain +Dove drawing the cork of one of the two bottles of champagne that +strategist had brought from the banquet-hall. + +"We're cornered at last," he said suddenly, as the old man set the +bottle down after having imbibed the best half of its contents. "They've +locked us in here." + +Captain Dove turned to glare disbelievingly at him, and then, darting +across to the door, tugged furiously at its wrought-iron handle. He set +a foot against the wall and tried again, with no better results. He +bounced about, almost frantic, blaspheming as if bereft of all +self-control. Mr. Jobling stood wringing his hands helplessly, his +flaccid features expressive of abject despair. But Slyne continued to +eye the old man with a strained, disconcerting composure. + +"We haven't so much time to spare, Dove," said he bitingly, "that we +can afford to waste any more watching you play the fool. I expect that +fellow Carthew will have your whole history out of Farish M'Kissock +within--" + +"If you had only kept _your_ damned mouth shut when Brasse was kicking +the bucket," cried Captain Dove, very venomously, "Carthew would be +keeping _him_ company now. The snake would have got him too. And we'd +have won out after all." + +Slyne ground his teeth. But that was no moment for futile recrimination, +and self-interest served to stay the acrid retort on the tip of his +tongue. + +"'If this and if that' doesn't make any difference now," he declared +evenly. "I'm not going to argue with you. I want to get out of this +before worse comes my way." + +"But how--" moaned Mr. Jobling, across whose mental vision also were no +doubt flashing pictures of Wandsworth Common and Wormwood Scrubbs. + +Slyne silenced him with a glance. "I'd very gladly leave you here to +your fate, you fat bungler!" said he, with irrepressible bitterness, "if +it weren't that you'd turn informer on us. So come on, both of you. +We've only one chance left among us. And, but for me, neither of you +would have even that." Wherewith, and only pausing to take a long pull +at Captain Dove's open bottle, he turned up the staircase, leaving them +to follow him or stay where they were, as they chose. + +Captain Dove did follow him, curiously, but not forgetting to pocket the +other bottle. The shivering lawyer came close at his heels, no less +eager to snatch at any possibility of escape. + +"Get into a change of clothes," ordered Slyne, as he opened the door of +his own room. "And I wouldn't be slow about it, if I were you--for _I'm_ +going as soon as I'm ready." + +Captain Dove's change did not unduly detain him, since he merely pulled +on a pair of serge trousers and a pilot-jacket on top of his other +attire. And Mr. Jobling was back in Slyne's room no less promptly. They +found it in darkness and Captain Dove uttered a stifled imprecation. But +almost immediately, they heard hasty footsteps on the stair without and +Slyne reappeared with a coil of thin strong cord in one hand. + +"The flagpole-halliards," he explained breathlessly as he shut the door +behind him again. "My window looks out on the battlements. We must +clamber down. Make the rope secure at this end, Dove, but so that we can +pull it after us once we're all down--it's long enough to go +double--while I get some things together." + +Captain Dove did as he was bidden, so deftly that Slyne had not quite +completed his own preparations when the old man called on him to go +first. + +"Send Jobling down," said Slyne, pulling on an overcoat to cover his +evening clothes, and the stout solicitor gave voice to a very +heartrending groan as he glared blankly out into the black gulf beyond +the window. + +"I won't go--" he was beginning when Captain Dove ran furiously at him, +clutched him round the waist in a gorilla-like grip, and thrust him, +feet foremost, struggling insanely, over the sill. + +"Catch hold of the cord--both strands--or I'll drop you!" snarled the +old man. "Down you go, now. You'll find a knot every foot or so. You +needn't slip unless you force me to start you with a slam on the head." +And he stood watching, grimly amused, while his moaning victim sank out +of sight, very gradually. + +In a few moments the weight on the rope relaxed. + +"Are you there?" he demanded, and had to shout the question again at the +top of his voice, so strong was the wind. + +"Yes, all right," the answer came back, very faint but palpably +freighted with helpless wrath. + +"Come on, then, Slyne," ordered Captain Dove, and himself prepared to +follow the injured lawyer. "What's that for?" he called in through the +window. Slyne was busy securing a bundle about his own shoulders. + +"Some spare wraps," Slyne shouted back from between set teeth. "We're +going to take Sallie away with us. On you go--I'll be right after you." + +Nor had the other two long to wait till he came scrambling down in his +turn. And, as soon as they had retrieved their rope, they followed his +lead through the darkness. + +The three fugitives made their way in the teeth of the wind along the +battlements to a point overlooking the terrace that lies at the back of +the banquet-hall. And there again their rope stood them in good stead. +Slyne thanked his stars that he had studied all the intricacies of the +castle so thoroughly, as he led the way, with infinite precaution, from +the terrace into the empty passage down which they crept as far as the +service-pantry behind the gun-room. + +The gun-room was empty also. As he entered it, he gave vent to a long +sigh of heartfelt relief. + +"We're safe now," he told Captain Dove in a guarded tone, and, pulling +off his overcoat, smoothed down his crumpled shirt-front. "But you'd +better hurry down to the water-gate and make sure that the boat there +doesn't go off without us. As soon as Sallie comes along, we'll--" + +"But what if she won't come?" asked Captain Dove, becoming recalcitrant +again. "And how do you know there's a boat below?" + +"You don't suppose Brasse swam ashore, do you!" Slyne retorted +impatiently. "The boat that brought him from the _Olive Branch_ was +still there a few minutes ago--while I was at the top of the tower. I +suppose he told them to wait for him, in case he struck trouble here. +But they may not wait much longer, if you waste any more time. + +"And, as to Sallie, leave me to manage. If you trip me up again now with +any of your damned nonsense," he finished with sudden fury, "I'll go to +gaol quite contentedly--and make sure there that you hang." + +"I might still make terms with that fellow Carthew," Captain Dove +suggested provokingly and with a great air of cunning. + +"All right," returned Slyne. "That's enough." And, crossing toward the +fireplace, he pressed the bell-push beside the mantel. + +Captain Dove snatched up a candle and, with that, made a dart for the +panel in the wainscot. It would not move despite his most desperate +efforts. Slyne pulled a bunch of keys from one pocket and promptly +released the powerful spring-lock. At a sign from him, Mr. Jobling +descended the steps below in Captain Dove's wake. Slyne pulled the panel +back into place and was seated quietly writing at the table in one +corner when a sleepy-looking footman entered the room. + +"I want you to take this note along to her ladyship's rooms," said +Slyne, and yawned. "Give it to her maid. You needn't wait for an +answer." + +"Very well, sir," the man returned with all the respect due to Slyne's +recent standing there and evidently still without suspicion of any +change. Slyne yawned again, as if ready for bed, re-reading what he had +written. And then, watching his messenger go off with the missive, +breathed a thanksgiving that was, at the same time, a prayer to the +goddess of chance who was his deity. For he was taking risks now that +were recklessly dangerous and might, at any moment, prove deadly to him. + +"It would be pretty fatal, for instance, if Carthew chanced to be with +the duchess and her when Ambrizette takes my note in," he told himself. +"But--there are a dozen other chances of accident, and what's the use of +worrying? The wind doesn't always blow from the same quarter. I'd feel +safe enough if I only knew where Carthew is at this precise moment." + +He crossed to the fireplace, picking up a cigarette by the way, and, +having lighted it with trembling fingers, stood staring down into the +dull glow of the dying logs on the hearth. He was wondering whether +_all_ was really lost, and listening most impatiently to every slightest +sound. But he had not long to wait before Sallie, pale of face and with +a world of woe in her wet eyes, came very quietly into the room. + +He held out both his hands to her, but she stopped at a little distance. + +"You mustn't blame me, Sallie," he said in a voice meant to carry +conviction with it. "I didn't know--I had no idea--I believed honestly +from the first that you were--" + +"It makes no difference now," she interrupted, "and--I--I--Oh! I'm _so_ +ashamed. What can Mr. Carthew think of me! And he _knew_ all the time +that I had no right to be here!" + +"It wasn't your fault either," he assured her soothingly. "You were +misled--no less than I was. How could we ever have foreseen--But there's +no time to talk of that just now. We must be off. Captain Dove has gone +on ahead. He left me to show you the way to the boat." + +She lifted a hand dazedly to her forehead. + +"I don't know what to do," she murmured. "But--of course, I can't stay +here now." + +Slyne was watching her tensely. "Most assuredly not," he agreed in haste +and trying hard to hide his elation. "You can't possibly stay +here--after what has happened. You've far too much proper pride." + +"And my promise to you is no longer binding," she said, "since I'm +not--It was Lady Josceline Justice with whom you made that bargain--and +not with me." + +He saw that it was no moment to argue that point. All he wanted at once +was to get her safely on board the _Olive Branch_. And he did not +contradict her. + +"Ambrizette must come with me, Jasper," she said brokenly. "I won't +leave her behind." + +He set his teeth to stifle an angry refusal of that difficult condition. + +"All right, Sallie," he answered smoothly. "I'll risk that too, since +you say so. Slip on this coat--it will be bitter cold in the boat. And +I'll send for Ambrizette." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE TENTH EARL + + +Carthew was feeling anything but fit to cope with all the cares and +responsibilities which had devolved upon him again, under circumstances +so shocking, no less suddenly than he had been relieved of them +all--along with that place in life to which they pertained--by the man +now lying dead on the floor before him. As he watched the Duchess of +Dawn leading Sallie gently out of the banquet-hall, he would have given +a very great deal to have been free to follow them, for Sallie had +looked back at him out of tear-dimmed eyes as she went, with an +expression he could not quite understand. And, now that she too knew the +very worst there was to be told, he was desperately anxious to find out +how she was going to deal with him, under such changed conditions. + +But there were matters even more urgent to be disposed of, for her sake +too, before he could set himself right with her. He pulled himself +together, with a great effort. + +It was clear that he must not permit Captain Dove and his two +confederates to decamp. He had heard enough already to justify him in +taking the law into his own hands for the nonce and detaining them +there. It was equally clear that he must not delay for a moment in +finding out as much more as he might from Farish M'Kissock, who looked +as if he could scarcely live for another hour. + +He whispered to Herries to take such steps as would ensure that no one +whosoever should be allowed to leave the castle, and to shut the three +accomplices up together in the North Keep if that could be done quietly, +without any scandal. Then, having got rid of Captain Dove and the other +two, he was left in the banquet-hall with only the Marquis of Ingoldsby, +in a state of apparent coma, old Janet M'Kissock, grief-stricken to the +very verge of endurance, and her unfortunate brother, still standing +motionless, with bent head and hands clasped, staring down at the dead +man--so near in semblance and yet so far beyond reach of his animosity. + +The grey-haired housekeeper was pleading with Farish M'Kissock to come +away, but he resisted all her attempts to get him to leave that spot. + +"Let me bide where I am," he answered her querulously. "In a very +little, Janet, I'll be away off after his foolish lordship there, that +thinks he has slipped through my feckless fingers again--as he did once +before. But I'll soon be on his track again, for they'll have to streek +me on the same stretching-board that serves him. Let me bide beside him +till then." + +Carthew looked anxiously across at the Marquis of Ingoldsby. There was +nobody who might better serve as a witness to whatever M'Kissock might +still be induced to tell concerning that nightmare past in which the +poor corpse on the floor and the girl who had gone away weeping and he +himself had all been involved. + +"There's somethin' doosid fishy about all these goin's-on," Lord +Ingoldsby commented with a good deal more candour than tact, when +Carthew made that suggestion to him. "And I'm for Lady Josceline, right +through from start to finish. I don't believe a word of that +goat-bearded fellow's yarn. He's been and caught sunstroke +somewhere--that's what's the matter with him, eh? He's mad as a hatter. + +"But, all the same, I'm willin' to listen to anything more he has to +say--and take a mental note of it, so to speak. I want to know who's who +and what's what myself." + +Carthew turned to Farish M'Kissock then, and the latter looked him over +with a frown as of dim remembrance which gradually changed to a scowl of +hate. + +"And so," said the ex-Emir in a rancorous voice, "_you_ have come to +your own at last amid it all. Is there no end to your ill race? My men +told me that you were safely buried and dead--they showed me the mound +that they said covered you. How--" + +"Come away from here," said Carthew steadily, "and I'll tell you how I +escaped." And Farish M'Kissock, leaning heavily on his sister's +shoulder, at last allowed her to lead him to her own room. + +Carthew told him then, in few words, while Lord Ingoldsby, listening +gloomily, scowled over it, the story of Sallie's daring and his own +escape from death, on the African coast. + +The ex-Emir's heavy eyes lighted up a little. + +"Ay," said Farish M'Kissock, musingly. "And so it was--her--that helped +you past your dug grave! I knew her for a mettlesome filly the first +time I ever clapped eyes on her. And now--to think that but for you and +me she'd be cosily settled, knowing nothing, in this old nest--that +should by rights have been my wife's and mine! It's a damned upside-down +world this, my fine doctor! But--you'll make it up to her, maybe, in +another way?" + +He was gazing at Carthew with something of his old imperious, +indomitable spirit. "You owe--her--your very coronet, my new Lord Jura," +said he. + +"I'll pay all I owe," said Carthew, to humour him, "if she'll take any +payment from me." And at that the Marquis of Ingoldsby scowled still +more blackly. + +The ex-Emir made a gruesome effort to laugh sardonically. + +"She'll take it," said he, "if you're man enough, if you're man enough +to master her," said he and sank back on his couch. + +"And now--about Captain Dove," Carthew suggested as he brought paper and +ink to the table from the desk in one corner. And the dying man sat up +again as if spurred to a final effort. + +He looked round at his stricken sister. "Leave us for a little, Janet, +woman," said he in a more kindly tone. "There is that to be told now +which you would like ill to hear, and his lordship will call you back +when I'm through with it." + +Carthew nodded hastily to the old housekeeper. "We'll be as quick as we +can," he promised: "and you can stay within call." + +She went, however unwillingly, and then her brother began the story of +all his dealings with Captain Dove, speaking slowly, in a low voice, +husbanding his strength, while Carthew wrote down every word of it. + +In his eagerness to ensure the downfall of his surviving enemy, he had +no hesitation in incriminating himself. Lord Ingoldsby listened as if +stricken dumb and Carthew had hard work to contain himself as he heard, +among other infamies, of the bargain the ex-Emir had driven with +Captain Dove over Sallie. He would have thrown down his pen during +M'Kissock's laboured, self-compassionate account of how Captain Dove had +outwitted him, had not the man on the couch at the other side of the +table been almost across death's threshold already. M'Kissock's rabid +thirst for revenge, his obvious impenitence for all his own crimes and +misdeeds, excited repugnance in place of the pity his plight might +otherwise have inspired. Carthew was devoutly thankful when that most +distasteful task was at length completed, and Farish M'Kissock's feeble, +straggling signature attached to the document he had drawn up. Lord +Ingoldsby and he both added their names as witnesses, and then he called +the housekeeper in again. Her brother, having thus accomplished his +final object in life, was evidently sinking fast. + +In the corridor outside, Lord Ingoldsby called a halt as Carthew would +have turned to leave him with a few hurried words of thanks for the +jealous service he had just rendered. + +"Half a mo'," interposed his lordship, very morosely. "We might just as +well come to an understandin' now as later on. I want to tell you that, +whoever Lady Josceline is or is not, I've asked her to marry me--and, if +you're goin' to see her now--I don't know what your ideas are, but--we +might just as well start fair." + +Carthew contemplated him for a moment in surprised silence, and then +nodded curtly. He was going to see Sallie at once, if he could, as his +rival had divined. + +"All right," he assented. "Come on." + +He looked into the banquet-hall in passing. Herries was there, with the +butler and all his assistants. The dinner-table had been cleared and +draped with a great black mort-cloth. And on it lay, recumbent, with +clasped hands, in the clear, mellow light of the tall, white tapers at +its head and feet, the unheeding shape of Carthew's predecessor in the +earldom of Jura, still dressed in its disreputable, greasy blue uniform +and burst boots, with a red smudge, as of iron-rust, on its forehead. + +The fires had both been raked out and their hearth-stones strewn with +the ashes, not to be rekindled before that night on which the dead earl +should be carried away by the water-gate from his catafalque to the +great black burial-barge, with the pipes wailing a wild lament for the +mountains to echo, and the waves or the still sea-surface, as might +befall, crimson under the twinkling torches of those who would follow, +with muffled oars. + +Herries came forward to speak to Carthew. "I'm seeing to everything here +now, my lord, and we'll soon have all as it should be," said he. +"Captain Dove and his friends are fast, in the North Keep. And your +other orders have all been observed." + +"I'll see you again in a little, then," Carthew returned, and went on +his way, by no means inspirited. + +It was the Duchess of Dawn, her blue eyes still blurred and showing +traces of tears, who came to the door of the boudoir in Sallie's suite +in the distant West Wing, in response to Carthew's knock. + +"Have you not brought her back with you?" she asked, and looked +surprisedly past him at Lord Ingoldsby. + +"Where is she?" Carthew asked, in sudden alarm. "I haven't seen her." + +"She went along to the gun-room a little ago--a note came to say she was +wanted there. And--I supposed it would be from you." + +"I'll find her there, then," declared Carthew, and turned and retraced +his steps very hurriedly. An instant dread of some unforeseen mischance +among his over-rapid plans for her welfare had filled his mind; and his +face grew dark as he hobbled back along that endless corridor and across +the deserted main hall again, with Lord Ingoldsby at his elbow. + +Of the sleepy servants they passed by the way he asked no questions, for +only the butler and his immediate underlings knew anything as yet of +what had happened. It had been Carthew's own idea to prevent any garbled +report being spread about till he should have devised some means to save +Sallie from pain and scandal. + +He found the gun-room empty, and stared about it in dire distress. Then +he sniffed the air, frowning. And then he noticed a half-smoked +cigarette smouldering in the fireplace. He picked it up hastily and saw +Jasper Slyne's monogram upon it. + +"Must have been a long time burning," he thought, and a concrete +suspicion flashed through his mind. But that seemed so far-fetched at +first that he shook his head impatiently over it. + +"They could scarcely escape from the North Keep," said he to himself. +"But--I may as well make sure that everything's safe here while I'm +about it," he muttered, and limped across to the panel that covered the +passage to the water-gate. + +It was unlocked. + +He pulled it open and looked down into the darkness, listening intently. +Then he swung round and, snatching up the lighted lamp on the table +beside the fire, made off down the steps, leaving Lord Ingoldsby in the +dark. + +But his gaping lordship was not to be left behind. He followed hot-foot, +uttering foolish oaths as he barked an elbow on the rock wall. + +Carthew stopped suddenly. He could hear voices not very far ahead and +the movement of some heavy weight. The tunnel curved a little there, and +he knew he must be near the bridge that crosses the oubliette. He went +on again, very cautiously, keeping close to one wall and shading the +lamp as well as he could, till he came to a point where further +precaution was idle. For, fifty yards away, straight ahead, he could see +Slyne holding a candle beside Captain Dove, who was stooping over the +roughly carpentered tree-trunk which still stretched from lip to lip of +the intervening chasm. Its former neighbour had disappeared. + +Captain Dove looked up and caught sight of Carthew in his turn. He had +got his hands under the heavy trunk, and staggered sideways, straddling +it, till its butt-end was close to the brink. Carthew had all but +reached the opposite edge of the pit between them when he let it go with +a breathless grunt and it fell almost soundlessly into the void below. + +Slyne blew out his candle then, with a bitter, mocking laugh, but not +before Carthew had observed Mr. Jobling and Ambrizette in the +background, with a drooping figure between them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +"AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE" + + +Captain Dove looked across at Carthew with a hoarse chuckle, no less +malicious. He was evidently in that mordant, capricious humour most +common with him at moments when his potations had merely begun their +evil work on his wits. + +"Light that candle again, Slyne, confound you!" he ordered sharply. "His +noble lordship, our American friend, can scarcely see us--to say +good-bye." + +"Oh, come on," Slyne urged, obviously almost at the end of his patience. +"We've no more than time to get safely away before we'll have the hue +and cry after us in the fishermen's boats--and they're faster than you +imagine." + +"_You_ can't teach _me_ anything about boats!" Captain Dove retorted +with crapulous dignity. "So just light--Or, here--gimme the candle, +quick! And don't address any more of--of your in--invidious conversation +to me." + +"I'll see Sallie safely afloat, then," suggested Slyne. "We'll have to +send her down in a whip, I expect. The sea's always rising." + +"She's a better seaman than you are, Slyne," the old man returned with a +sneer. "And she'll go down hand under hand, same as I will--when I'm +quite ready. Till then, she'll stay here with me, so that his loving +lordship there can have a last, long look at her." He chuckled again, +most discordantly. "But--you can see that fat stiff, Jobling, safely +afloat, if you like. It will probably take a whip to tempt _him_ to run +the risk of a wetting on his way aboard." + +The wretched object of his derision gave vent to a very audible groan, +hearing which, Captain Dove laughed aloud, with malevolent relish. And, +having at length succeeded in striking a match, he turned again toward +Carthew, standing still and silent on the other side of the apparently +bottomless chasm which cut the pathway apart. + +"Are there only the two of you there?" he asked, darting a contemptuous +glance at Lord Ingoldsby. + +"That's all," Carthew answered tersely. He was absolutely at his wits' +end, but thought he could not do better than detain the old man there as +long as he might. + +"But you've raised the alarm up above?" Captain Dove suggested, with all +the fatuous cunning of one half-fuddled. "And we'll have a pack of your +cut-throats in petticoats down on us in a minute or two?" + +He looked savagely round at Slyne. "I thought I told you to see that +bloated Jonah into the boat!" he blurted explosively. And Slyne, with an +exasperated shrug of the shoulders, sauntered away, with Mr. Jobling in +very uncertain attendance. + +"I want to talk to you on my own account for five seconds or so, +young-fellow-my-lad," Captain Dove continued, as if in confidence, to +Carthew. "But--is it safe, eh? You haven't answered my questions yet. +And--you've turned the key on us once already!" + +"You're safe from pursuit in the meantime," Carthew reassured him. + +"I'll take your word for it, sir," Captain Dove declared, and, bowing +very graciously, all but over-balanced himself. "And now let me ask you +whether you have been listening to any more lies from Farish M'Kissock; +because, if you have, we must part brass-rags right away." + +Carthew was most sorely tempted to spare the truth, and made haste to +answer honestly while he might. "I've heard all he had to tell," said +he, "and--" + +"And you believe it all!" Captain Dove interposed, with maudlin pathos, +his evident intention to see whether he could not even yet make terms of +some sort for himself with the young American knocked on the head. +"Well, well! We must be jogging now, Sallie." + +The girl stepped forward beside him at that, and Carthew was thankful to +see Ambrizette clinging to her skirts, for she had told him more than +once how often the dumb, black dwarf had stood betwixt her and imminent +harm. + +Her sweet, sensitive features were very pale, but placid, as if, after +the sore stress she had suffered, she had found some sort of peace. And +all the pride seemed to have died out of her downcast eyes as she faced +him across the dark, impassable gulf that stretched between them. + +"I don't want you to think that I have gone away unwillingly, Mr. +Carthew," she said, and his heart almost failed him as he heard that. It +had never occurred to him that she might have taken such a sheerly +suicidal step of her own free will. + +"But why--" he cried, and the hurt in his voice perhaps helped to salve +a little the sore wounds in her own heart. + +"I couldn't possibly have stayed here, you see--after what has happened. +And,--I'm not afraid of the future now. You don't understand, perhaps, +but--you will remember--I wasn't afraid." + +"Come away now, Sallie," said Captain Dove. An irascible voice in the +distance was calling upon him insistently. + +"Good-bye," she said, submissively, to Carthew, and, looking up, her +eyes met his for an instant. + +"Wait a minute--only a minute more, for God's sake!" Carthew implored +the old man. "It won't do any of you any harm to stand by till I've said +my say. It won't help you in the least, Captain Dove, to carry Sallie +away--and you'll be far safer, believe me, if you leave her here. I've +only been waiting my chance to ask her to marry me, and--" + +"I've asked her already," interrupted Lord Ingoldsby, in a tone no doubt +meant to be most impressive but strongly resembling a squeal. No one, +however, paid him any more attention than if he had been the shadow he +seemed. + +"And if you carry her off just now," Carthew continued hurriedly, +encouraged by the benevolent smile with which Captain Dove was regarding +him, "you'll have good cause to regret it. For I'll hunt you down till I +find you, and then--" + +"Now you're talking," the old man commented approvingly, quite +undismayed by that threat. "And then we'll make terms, if you come in +time and bring enough money with you. + +"I'd even have waited here and fixed it all up, but--" He wagged his +shameless white head sorrowfully. "It wouldn't be wise," said he. +"You've been prejudiced against me--by Farish M'Kissock. It's too late +to think of that now. So I must be off, for my own sake. + +"But maybe we'll meet again," he concluded with cheerful complacence, +"in some safer spot for me. And, if Sallie's still on my hands when you +show up--" + +"So be it, then," Carthew agreed, seeing clearly that further appeal +would be futile, all eagerness to get above-ground again and begin the +chase. He could have the whole fishing-fleet of the village armed and +afloat within half an hour, and might even yet succeed in boarding the +_Olive Branch_ at her anchorage. But, manlike, he had counted without +the woman in the case. + +"I'm going away of my own free will, Mr. Carthew," said Sallie suddenly, +with the same strange expression of face that he had observed when she +had looked back at him in the banquet-hall. "And--I don't want you to +follow me. You have been far more than generous, but--I couldn't marry +you--in any case." + +"Don't say that, Sallie," he beseeched, and, "Dove!" cried a very +wrathful voice in the distance. "We'll be off without you if you don't +come down at once." + +The old man's smug, blinking smile instantaneously changed to a furious +scowl. He pulled a big, golden-necked bottle from one of his pockets, +removed the cork, and, having poured its remaining contents hastily down +his throat, tiptoed off down the tunnel with it in one hand, making +motions as if to hurl it with accurate aim, leaving Sallie alone there. + +Carthew glared across the black gulf at his feet, his free hand +clenched, in helpless despair. He would gladly have given his earldom +then in exchange for a pair of wings. + +"I'll bolt up and get a ladder brought down," groaned Lord Ingoldsby. +And he would have made off without more ado but that Carthew had seized +him by the sleeve. + +"Here! Hold this," commanded Carthew, and thrust the smoking lamp into +his hands. Sallie had turned to follow Captain Dove, with dragging +steps. He could not believe that she meant what she had said. He would +not let her go without making sure. Farish M'Kissock's contemptuous +words had recurred to his mind--"if you're man enough to master her!" +Instinct told him that she would not turn back now, and--a man's last +stake was all he had left to venture. + +"Stop, stop! It's sheer suicide," the marquis cried shrilly, as Carthew +ran limping up the tunnel as far as the straight extended, and faced +about, throwing off his coat, and balanced there for a breathless +instant and then came racing down past him to launch himself bodily into +space. + +No human being could have leaped the distance, and Carthew had been +further handicapped by his lameness. He shot, as if from a catapult, +nearly as high as the arched rock-roof, his elbows close, chin on chest, +head between his shoulders, knees at his temples and heels tucked back, +and, on the downward curve, reached the lower lip of the chasm, landing +on one shoulder, to hang there for the space of a couple of heart-beats, +as if poised for the inevitable rebound. + +Lord Ingoldsby heard the dull thud of his fall and Sallie's stifled, +heart-broken cry. He opened his eyes and saw the girl desperately +striving to pull a hunched-up, relaxing body back from the brink over +which, but for her, it would already have toppled. He thought they must +both have slipped over before, at the finish, Sallie succeeded in +drawing Carthew into safety, and sat down beside him, swaying from side +to side, as if her own back were broken. + +But, presently, Carthew looked up and then he scrambled on to his knees +with a suppressed grunt of agony. For a time the whole world swam redly +about him, but he clenched his teeth, not to be overcome. And when +Sallie in turn got on to her feet again, white and shaking, he had +recovered the use of his voice. + +"I won't let you go--dear," he said dazedly, and started, in renewed +alarm for her, as they heard Captain Dove calling her harshly from +below. + +"Coming," she called back, since she could not help herself. + +"You must stay here, or--he'll kill you!" she whispered in an agony of +entreaty. "I'll go now; it will be best so. And if, by and by, you still +care to follow--" + +"You go on," he said gently. "I'm going to follow you now." + +She had no option but to obey him, since to have remained there would +merely have meant that Captain Dove, coming back for her, would have him +at a greater disadvantage. And as she led the way in the dark, with slow +steps, he followed quietly; while Lord Ingoldsby, left to his own +devices as they disappeared, was brilliantly inspired to bolt back for +help. + +A little further on a thick twilight made progress more easily possible, +and they could feel the salt breath of the sea on their fevered faces. +Then, at last, they drew near the oblong opening in the cliff-face at +which Captain Dove had for several minutes been busy abusing the men in +the boat below. But he was in no better temper by then, since the empty +bottle he had hurled at Slyne had knocked the steersman insensible. + +"Is that you, Sallie?" he snapped, looking round. + +"Below there, you lubbers! Stand in again. We're coming down now. + +"Hurry up, girl!" he barked, impatiently. "It's high time we were +away." + +He was leaning out over the ledge, clinging with one hand to a bar of +the great water-gate, so thick, that his stubby fingers did not meet +round it. Carthew, creeping after Sallie set her suddenly aside, and ran +at him. + +Captain Dove heard him coming, but too late to save himself. He felt as +if a bullock had kicked him in the small of the back, and, as his hold +broke, he fell headlong, howling like an evil spirit, into the +smothering, yeasty surge through which his boat was already hastily +backing to pick him up. + +Carthew set his back to the heavy gate, and it swung slowly shut. But +Slyne had not left behind the key he had for its modern lock, and its +old-fashioned draw-bolts were rusted fast. He could only hope that Lord +Ingoldsby would bring back some means of bridging the drowning-hole +before Captain Dove and his helpers could storm the position again. + +He laughed, a little light-headed by then, as he stumbled up the long, +dark slope, with Sallie close at his shoulder. + +"I told you I wouldn't let you go,--dear," he declared triumphantly, and +his laugh changed to a low, choked groan as she would have taken his arm +to help him; for he was walking unsteadily. + +"Don't touch that one," he begged. "It's a bit sore; I came down on it +when I jumped." + +"Do you think it's broken?" she whispered, and her eyes grew dim as she +thought of all he had suffered through her. She had stopped. There were +lights coming down the tunnel, and hurrying feet, on the further side of +the drowning-hole. + +He slipped his sound arm about her. "There's nothing broken that can't +be mended now," he murmured contentedly. "Unless you're really +determined to break my heart." + +THE END + + * * * * * + +_A Story of Charm and Cheeriness_ + +ALL THE WORLD TO NOTHING + +_By_ WYNDHAM MARTYN + +Illustrated by H. H. Leonard. + + +A few years ago Wyndham Martyn's first book, "The Man Outside," was one +of the "best sellers" of its season. His new novel shows a distinct +advance in the art of the story-teller, and will make many new friends +for its author. Richard Chester, a young American of family, with a +care-free disposition and a dashing outlook on life, goes through all +his money, and has the choice of appealing to his older brother for +assistance or working to avoid starvation. + +Choosing the latter alternative, and the odds against him, he pursues +his unfaltering way through many trials and vicissitudes, not afraid to +try labor of the meanest sort; and throughout his struggle for existence +his hopes are sustained through love of a true-hearted woman. No man +fights more gallantly than he for what is dear to him; neither hardship +nor ill-success has power to stay his impetuous course. + +The reader must learn for himself the place that a curious will and a +chance meeting have in the unusual plot, and the reader may be sure of +finding in "All the World to Nothing" a story of charm and cheeriness +and unusual appeal. + + * * * * * + +_By the author of "The Haunted Pajamas"_ + +THE GIFT OF ABOU HASSAN + +_By_ FRANCIS PERRY ELLIOTT + +Illustrated by Hanson Booth. + + +This is absolutely the cleverest, catchiest book of the season, the +Arabian Nights up-to-date in modern New York, a rapid, rollicking +romance of love and laughter, fun and absurdity, all told in the most +delightfully whimsical manner imaginable. A young club-man, whose +distinguishing characteristic is the possession of unblushing audacity +and nerve, sees a pretty girl outside the antique-shop of a Persian +dealer, to which the girl's aunt has come in quest of a wonderful +rug--and then the fun begins and never stops. + +For Abou Hassan's shop holds a rug more wonderful than the world has +known in many centuries: a magic rug--put foot upon it and one can't be +seen or heard. And the hero's love-making, his masquerade as another +man, the complications for which the magic rug is responsible, these +make a steady stream of comedy that brings laughter to your lips and +tears to your eyes while you are held entranced by the mirthful medley +of mysterious events that follow. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Blackbird, by Hudson Douglas + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE BLACKBIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 39066-8.txt or 39066-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/6/39066/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The White Blackbird + +Author: Hudson Douglas + +Release Date: March 8, 2012 [EBook #39066] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE BLACKBIRD *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<h1>THE WHITE BLACKBIRD</h1> + +<h2>BY HUDSON DOUGLAS</h2> + +<h3>AUTHOR OF "A MILLION A MINUTE," "THE LANTERN OF LUCK," ETC.</h3> + +<h3>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY</h3> + +<h3>HERMAN PFEIFER</h3> + + +<p class="center">BOSTON<br /> +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY<br /> +1912</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1912</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By Little, Brown, and Company.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved, including those of translation into<br /> +foreign languages, including the Scandinavian</i></p> + +<p class="center">Published, September, 1912</p> + +<p class="center">THE COLONIAL PRESS<br /> +C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center">FOR<br /> +ISOBEL MY WIFE<br /> +AND<br /> +OUR DAUGHTER ISOBEL</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"Feel my pulse now, before you go," the pseudo-doctor's +patient commanded.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table summary="contents"> +<tr><td align="right">CHAPTER </td><td> </td><td align="right"> PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">I. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">A Tropical Discussion</span></a></td><td align="right">1</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">"<span class="smcap">Dutch Courage</span>"</a></td><td align="right">11</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">El Farish</span></a></td><td align="right">18</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">The Masque of Death</span></a></td><td align="right">28</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">V. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">Afloat and Ashore</span></a></td><td align="right">38</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">Hobson's Choice</span></a></td><td align="right">51</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">The White Blackbird</span></a></td><td align="right">64</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">Unmasked</span></a></td><td align="right">80</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">An Overdraft on the Future</span></a></td><td align="right">91</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">X. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">The Goddess of Chance</span></a></td><td align="right">107</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">A Fool and his Fortune</span></a></td><td align="right">119</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">The Price of Freedom</span></a></td><td align="right">130</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">A Masterstroke</span></a></td><td align="right">143</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">"<span class="smcap">Sallie Harris</span>"</a></td><td align="right">156</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">The Law—and the Profits</span></a></td><td align="right">169</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">"<span class="smcap">Pleasures and Palaces</span>"</a></td><td align="right">184</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><span class="smcap">The Man in Possession</span></a></td><td align="right">195</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><span class="smcap">The Loser</span></a></td><td align="right">205</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><span class="smcap">The Winner</span></a></td><td align="right">217</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><span class="smcap">Beggar-My-Neighbour</span></a></td><td align="right">232</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><span class="smcap">The Jura Succession</span></a></td><td align="right">243</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><span class="smcap">The Party of the First Part</span></a></td><td align="right">259</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><span class="smcap">A New Idea</span></a></td><td align="right">271</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><span class="smcap">By Right of Purchase</span></a></td><td align="right">280</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXV. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><span class="smcap">The White Lady</span></a></td><td align="right">295</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><span class="smcap">A Matter of Life and Death</span></a></td><td align="right">306</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><span class="smcap">Debit and Credit</span></a></td><td align="right">320</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVIII. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><span class="smcap">Ishmael's Heritage</span></a></td><td align="right">332</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><span class="smcap">Pride's Price</span></a></td><td align="right">342</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXX. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><span class="smcap">The Tenth Earl</span></a></td><td align="right">350</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXXI. </td><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">"<span class="smcap">At the End of the Passage</span>"</a></td><td align="right">358</td></tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<table summary="illustrations"> + +<tr><td></td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#illus1"><span class="smcap">"Feel my pulse now, before you go," the pseudo-doctor's +patient commanded.</span> (<i>See page 32</i>) </a></td><td align="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#illus2"><span class="smcap">"You won't forget," he urged, grave again</span></a></td><td align="right">89</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#illus3"><span class="smcap">Something very like fear looked out of his eyes</span></a></td><td align="right">258</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#illus4"><span class="smcap">She touched with her lips the back of the toil-stained hand</span></a></td><td align="right">322</td></tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>The White Blackbird</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>A TROPICAL DISCUSSION</h3> + + +<p>"I'd far rather beg in the gutter than marry you, Jasper!" flashed the +girl, at last goaded past all patience. Her clouded, indignant eyes +expressed both contempt and aversion for the young man leaning over the +deck-rail beside her.</p> + +<p>He was still a young man as years go and in spite of the grey streaks in +his dark hair, the crow's-feet above his cheek-bones; more than passably +good-looking, too, with his regular profile and straight, spare, +athletic figure, though his sleepy eyes were a trifle close-set and more +than a trifle untrustworthy, though the black moustache he was twirling +with a long, thin, almost womanish hand hid a cruel, selfish mouth.</p> + +<p>In his smart white yachting-suit and panama, lounging over the sun-dried +teak taffrail with his knees crossed, he seemed to be neither oppressed +by the tropical heat nor impressed at all by anything that his companion +could say.</p> + +<p>"I'd <i>far</i> rather beg in the gutter," she repeated, as if to settle the +matter. And the emphasis with which she spoke showed that she meant what +she said.</p> + +<p>"But—that doesn't make any difference, my dear Sallie," he once more +answered, displaying his white, even teeth in a slight, amused smile. +"You're going to marry me just the same. And you may as well make up +your mind right away—that it will pay you best to be pleasant about it.</p> + +<p>"Captain Dove has come to the point at last," he went on to explain +condescendingly, in the same cool, careless, conversational tone, a tone +which, however, could not quite hide the ugly determination behind it. +"You've upset him for good and all this time. He's aching to get rid of +you now. In fact, he's cursing himself that he didn't—when he might +have made more out of the deal. And, anyhow, he's promised you to me."</p> + +<p>The girl's slim, shapely body had suddenly stiffened. She started up and +away from him with a gesture of blind repulsion. Her pure, proud, +sensitive face showed the struggle that was going on in her +mind—between fear and hope; quick fear that what he had just said might +be true, slow hope that he had been lying to her again.</p> + +<p>He had turned on one elbow with a lazy air of inexhaustible tolerance, +that he might the more conveniently follow her with his greedy glance. +He was apparently quite sure of himself—and her. At any rate, he was +openly gloating over her beauty in her distress while she stood gazing +in dire dismay about the shabby, unkempt little steamer which was all +the home she had in the world, all the home she had ever had except for +a few forgotten years of her childhood.</p> + +<p>Its name, on a life-buoy triced to the rusty netting between the rails, +was the <i>Olive Branch</i>, but its port of registry had been painted out. +It rode deep although it was decked after the old-fashioned switchback +design and had no cargo on board. Its squat, inconspicuous smokestack +helped to give it a somewhat nefarious air.</p> + +<p>About its ill-kept, untidy decks there were very few signs of life and +none at all of luxury. Under a tattered canvas sun-screen on the +fo'c'sle-head a ragged deck hand was on the look-out, his scorched face +expressive of anything but contentment with his circumstances. He +shifted frequently from one bare, blistered foot to the other; it was +impossible to stand still for long, with the deck-plates as hot as any +frying-pan on a brisk fire.</p> + +<p>On the bridge, the officer of the watch was pacing to and fro. Every +time he turned on his beat beneath the dirty, weather-worn awning he +paused to dart a suspicious, expectant glance at the double hatchway +which led to the crew's quarters, forward. The open wheel-house behind +him was occupied only by the quartermaster on duty. The remainder of the +watch on deck were nowhere visible.</p> + +<p>Through the heat-haze to starboard the blurred outline of the low-lying +African coast was dimly discernible. Seaward, ahead, and astern, the +long, oily swell that the North-east Trades never reach blazed like +molten metal under the almost vertical afternoon sun. Except for the +lonely little grey steamer wallowing sluggishly northward through it, +the world of water was empty to the horizon.</p> + +<p>A poignant sense of her own no less forlorn plight there stirred the +girl to glance round at her companion, as if in helpless appeal.</p> + +<p>"You don't really mean—what you said, do you, Jasper?" she asked, with +a very pitiful inflection in her low, musical voice.</p> + +<p>"Every word," he answered her promptly. "If you don't believe me, go +down and ask Captain Dove."</p> + +<p>She turned away from him again, to hide the effect of his curt reply. +But her drooping shoulders no doubt betrayed that to him. He pulled out +a cigar-case and, having lighted a rank cheroot with languid +deliberation, puffed that contemplatively.</p> + +<p>"I <i>will</i> go down and ask Captain Dove," she said to herself at length, +with tremulous courage, and was moving toward the companion-hatch when +she heard from the other end of the ship a sudden ominous discord, a +sound such as might have come from a nest of hornets about to swarm. +There seemed to be something wrong forward; and she faced about again, +instantly.</p> + +<p>Peering through the hurtful sunshine with anxious eyes, her scarlet lips +compressed and resolute, she saw that the look-out had turned on his +half-baked feet to stare from the fo'c'sle into the well-deck behind +him. The officer of the watch had ceased his regular march and +countermarch, and was also gazing downward in that direction. Even her +self-confident companion had started up from his idle posture, in +obvious alarm.</p> + +<p>A figure darted up one of the two ladders which led to the bridge. The +officer of the watch had left his post by the other at the same moment, +as if to avoid the new-comer, and was making his way aft, unhurriedly, +yet at speed. He did not look back, but she was aware of other figures +which also had appeared in a moment from nowhere, and were following him +on tiptoe, under cover where it could be had. Once, a flash, as of +flame, amidships, almost forced from her lips a wild cry of warning, but +that was only a glint of sun on a gun-barrel where the browning had +worn away and left the steel bright. And he, seemingly unaware of the +danger behind him, reached the poop unharmed, a big, fair, +bluff-looking, broad-shouldered man in shabby blue sea-uniform.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the narrow stairway by which alone access could be had to +the poop, he called softly up to the girl at the rail above, "They'll be +at our throats in a minute, Sallie. Get you away below, quick—and warn +the Old Man."</p> + +<p>At the top of the steps he stopped, and turned, and stayed there, +blocking the stairway with his great body. And the armed ruffians +swarming aft in his wake slackened their pace, then hung back about the +hatch on the deck below. But each had a finger crooked on the trigger of +a ready rifle. The simplest word or motion misplaced at that first +moment of crisis must have precipitated the murder that was to be.</p> + +<p>The girl had obeyed him promptly, if without appearance of haste and, +once out of sight of the mutineers, there was no need to study her +steps. She darted across the dim, daintily appointed saloon below and, +having knocked imperatively at one of the two doors on that side of the +ship entered, without waiting for any permission, the stateroom it +opened into.</p> + +<p>"The men have broken out, Captain Dove," she cried, breathless a little, +her bosom heaving. "They're coming aft—there isn't a moment to spare. +What are we to do?"</p> + +<p>In the berth behind the curtains some one was moving. The room was +practically in darkness, since the open port was also screened, to shut +out the searching sun. But, in spite of all such precautions, the heat +was almost unbearable.</p> + +<p>The curtains parted slightly and from their opening a face peered out +at her, the blandly benevolent face of a mild-looking, white-haired old +man who, at a casual glance, might perhaps have passed for a clergyman +or a missionary.</p> + +<p>But in an instant a most disconcerting change came over his features. +Some dormant devil seemed to have wakened within him and was glaring out +at the girl from behind evil, red-rimmed eyes. His appearance then might +have frightened a man away. But she stood her ground undismayed.</p> + +<p>No less suddenly he broke into a torrent of fierce abuse, freely +interspersed with blood-curdling, old-fashioned oaths. And that was only +stemmed by a frantic paroxysm of coughing which left a crimson froth +about the white stubble upon his chin. He fell back into the gloom +behind the curtains, as if he would choke.</p> + +<p>The girl hurriedly filled a glass with water from a carafe on a rack at +one side of the room, pulled the curtains apart, and held it to the sick +man's lips. He sipped at it and then struck it away so that most of its +contents spilled on her skirts.</p> + +<p>"Would you poison me now, you witch!" he gasped, and then, regaining his +voice a little, "Ambrizette," he called weakly, with a quavering +imprecation, "brandy. Bring me the bottle. Your mistress has poisoned +me."</p> + +<p>A coloured woman, stunted, misshapen, almost inconceivably ugly, came +shambling in with a bottle, which he snatched eagerly from her and set +to his lips, while she made off again, in very evident dread of him. The +colour came back to his face, and at last he laid it aside, with a sigh +of relief.</p> + +<p>"The men have broken out, have they?" he muttered, half to himself. "And +you come to <i>me</i> to ask what's to be done!" He glowered down at one of +his arms which lay across his chest in a sling and tightly bandaged. +His voice once more became venomous. "It's your fault that I'm lying +here," he snarled. "You and your bully Yoxall have taken charge of my +ship between you. Why don't the two of you tackle them? What the Seven +Stars d'ye think I care now whether you sink or swim!"</p> + +<p>She turned away from him with a little, tired, hopeless gesture.</p> + +<p>"I don't care very much, either, now," she answered, dully, "what +happens to me. But—it's you they're after, Captain Dove, and there +isn't a moment to spare. They've got the guns up already."</p> + +<p>The old man was plucking with feverish fingers at the fine lace +counterpane which covered him. He made an effort to rise, but lay back +again with a groan.</p> + +<p>"They've got the guns up, have they!" he growled, deep down in his +throat, with a most horrid effect. "Then one of the mates at least must +be standing in with them—the mutinous dogs! And since it's come to +settling old scores, I'm ready; I'll settle all with them before we go +any farther." His eyes were sunken with sickness and he was so weak that +he could scarcely move, but his spirit seemed to be altogether +unquenchable.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to settle with them now," he declared, "and—don't you +interfere again, Sallie. I've stood all I'm going to stand from you, +too. You've got to fancy yourself far too much, my girl! Listen here! +Next time I have to talk to you, it'll be with that,"—he pointed to a +heavy <i>kourbash</i> of hippopotamus-hide hanging from a hook on the +panelling,—"and, by all that's holy! if I've to begin, I'll lace you +from head to heel with it—as I should have done long ago."</p> + +<p>The girl shrank as if he had actually struck her with it. She knew he +was even capable of carrying out that threat.</p> + +<p>"Where's Jasper Slyne?" he demanded, in a low whisper, almost exhausted.</p> + +<p>"On deck, above, with Reuben Yoxall," she told him.</p> + +<p>"Send him down here to me. I must get up out o' this. To-day's Sunday, +isn't it? What was our position at noon?"</p> + +<p>She told him exactly, at once, and he seemed content to rely on her +nautical knowledge. He nodded, as if satisfied.</p> + +<p>"<i>That's</i> all right. Off you go now. And don't forget what I've said to +you. Tell Slyne to look sharp—and stand the men off somehow till I get +on deck," he snapped, as she hurried away.</p> + +<p>She did not know what might have happened overhead while she had been +below, and heaved a heartfelt sigh of relief as, gaining the open air +again, she saw that the two men she had left there were still at the +rail, unharmed. Only one of them looked round as she approached, and it +was to him she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Captain Dove wants you in a hurry, Jasper," she said, and he went below +in his turn, not altogether unwillingly.</p> + +<p>As he disappeared behind her, she glanced down at the main-deck alive +with armed men, as evil-looking a crowd as could be recruited from the +purlieus of Hell's Kitchen or crimped from the Hole-in-the-Wall. The +flush on her face died away.</p> + +<p>"What are they waiting for, Rube?" she whispered to the big man at the +top of the steps, whose steady glance seemed to have such a repressive +effect on them.</p> + +<p>"Sunset, I suppose," he answered in a low tone. "If no one crosses +them, they'll maybe wait till it's dark before they begin. Better go +below again, Sallie."</p> + +<p>She shook her head and said "No," aloud, since he was not looking at +her. And he did not urge that precaution. The sun was already nearing +the steamy horizon.</p> + +<p>The sullen, lowering looks of the ill-favoured assemblage about the +hatch foretold the fate which threatened her and him.</p> + +<p>"But they won't shoot <i>you</i>, Sallie," he said, giving voice to his only +fear in a shaky whisper, his soul in his honest eyes as he glanced +wretchedly round at her.</p> + +<p>She laid a clenched hand on the rail and opened it slightly. "Don't +worry about me, Rube," she whispered back, very matter of fact, while he +gazed as if fascinated at the thin blue phial, with its red +danger-label, resting in her rosy palm. "I always carry a key that will +unlock the last gate of all. So there's no need to worry about me. I +just wish you'd say you forgive me all the trouble I've brought on you."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing to forgive, lass," he asserted stolidly, and, looking +away again as though her appealing regard had hurt him, was taken with a +gulping in the throat.</p> + +<p>Two or three of the mutineers had begun to knock loose the wedges +securing the tarpaulin cover of the after-hatch, through which alone +access to the ship's magazine was to be had.</p> + +<p>"There's no use in trying to stop them at that," he said, as if to +himself. "It's only a matter of minutes now, I suppose. And—"</p> + +<p>"Dutch courage is cheap enough," said a contemptuous, sneering voice in +the background, and the sound of shuffling footsteps succeeded it. The +men on the main-deck were gazing past him, handling their rifles, +muttering hoarsely, moving to get more elbow-room. The girl beside him +had turned at the words, but he kept his eyes steadfastly on the +foremost of the fermenting, murderous rabble below.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>"DUTCH COURAGE"</h3> + + +<p>Captain Dove had come up on deck, and was standing by the +companion-hatch, drawing difficult breaths, swaying to the rise and sink +of the ship on the long, slow, ceaseless swell.</p> + +<p>He had only a greatcoat secured by a single button about his shoulders +over his night-dress, and on his feet an old pair of carpet slippers. +Sallie darted a blazing glance of indignation at Jasper Slyne who, +instead of helping the sick old man, seemed only bent on aggravating him +with his evil tongue.</p> + +<p>"You coward!" she cried at that immaculate gentleman, and would have +gone to the old man's aid but that he angrily waved her also aside as he +tottered forward, changing his scowl by the way to that sleek, +benevolent smile which he could always assume at his pleasure.</p> + +<p>A slow silence followed on the low, suspicious rumble of voices with +which the mutineers had greeted his most unexpected appearance. They +had, of course, supposed him physically incapable of further +interference with them and their plans. But, as it was, he did not look +very dangerous in his grotesque dishabille.</p> + +<p>As he reached the rail, Reuben Yoxall stepped to one side, touching his +cap in his customary salute. Slyne had halted a couple of paces behind, +and Sallie, too, had drawn back. Captain Dove stood alone at the top of +the stairway, in the forefront of the little group there, and looked +contemplatively down at the men who, he knew very well, would listen to +no appeal of his for his life. From his placid, benign demeanour then he +might have been inspecting a Sunday-school.</p> + +<p>His features were in themselves of an unctuous cast, smooth, flat, +snub-nosed, clean-shaven as a rule, except for a straggling fringe of +whisker. His white hair and weak, winking eyes added to his smugly +sanctimonious expression. He was squat of build, unduly short in the +legs and long of arm. And, altogether, he cut no very dashing figure in +his ridiculous garments, one sleeve of his coat hanging limp and empty, +the arm that should have filled it lying across his chest in a sling, +his chin disfigured by a week's growth of stubble, his whiskers all +unkempt.</p> + +<p>But it had never been by his gallant presence that he had held to heel +the cut-throats who composed his crew, and, even then, when they had him +before them helpless, a certain target for their loaded rifles, not one +of them seized the immediate opportunity.</p> + +<p>He steadied himself with his free hand on the rail of the narrow +stairway, and so stepped downward among them. Still no one else moved. +It may have been that his almost inhuman daring daunted them in spite of +themselves. But Sallie, in the background, was holding her breath. She +knew he was courting a bloody death, and feared he would meet it there, +before her shrinking eyes. That tragedy and all its unspeakable +consequences were literally hanging on a hair-trigger.</p> + +<p>He reached the level below, still smiling blandly, and, letting go the +rail, shuffled forward, slowly but steadily enough, his slippers +flapping at his heels with ludicrous effect. Two or three of the men +confronting him stepped to one side, gave him free passage into the +throng, and closed in again behind him. He took no notice of anyone, but +held on his way till he reached the ladder which led from the break of +the poop to the quarter-deck.</p> + +<p>He climbed that at his leisure, panting a little, his back toward them. +They had faced about and were following his every movement with +malevolent eyes. A single shot would have made a quick end of him, but +no shot was fired. And, at the top of the ladder, he turned to speak.</p> + +<p>"I'll send Mr. Hobson aft to issue your ammunition," he said, in a voice +without any tremor of weakness. "Get two full bandoliers, each of you, +and then file forward again while the others come aft for theirs."</p> + +<p>And with that, leaving them to their own reflections, agape, absolutely +dumfounded by his audacity, he made his way up on to the bridge, the +skirts of his night-dress fluttering from under the shorter length of +his heavy coat.</p> + +<p>They fell to whispering among themselves, excited and distrustful. They +had only a few loose rounds for their rifles, and Captain Dove alone +knew how the ship's magazine might safely be entered. It would +undoubtedly have cost some of them their lives to force that secret. No +one of them would be willing to sacrifice himself for the common cause, +and Captain Dove's unlooked-for concession of their chief need had no +doubt mystified them altogether.</p> + +<p>Hobson, the second mate, came aft a few minutes later, a beetle-browed, +foxy-looking fellow, with a furtive smile of encouragement for his +accomplices. At a sign from him they unshipped the hatches. He +disappeared into the hold, a bunch of keys dangling from one wrist, and +presently shouted up some order, in terms much more polite than he had +lately been in the habit of using, to them at least. A chain of living +links was promptly formed from the magazine, and packed bandoliers, +passed rapidly from hand to hand, soon reached its farther end. The men +grinned meaningly at each other as they slung the web belts crosswise +over their shoulders. For with these they were still more absolutely +masters of the situation.</p> + +<p>Reuben Yoxall, back at his dangerous post by the stairway, was watching +them no less narrowly than before. It seemed the sheerest madness on +Captain Dove's part to have disclosed to their ringleader the secret of +the magazine, and no one could tell at what moment they might now assume +the offensive. The sun was already dipping behind the sea-rim.</p> + +<p>"We've changed our course," Sallie said to him in a puzzled whisper, and +he nodded silently. The <i>Olive Branch</i> was heading inshore. The outline +of the coast had grown clearer under the last of the evening light. Here +and there against its smudgy-brown background showed dark green blots +that were mangroves or clumps of palm. A thin, white ribbon of surf was +distinctly visible on the distant beach.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove was at the starboard extremity of the bridge, his +binoculars at his eyes. He laid them down, and pointed out to the third +mate, at his elbow, some landmark directly ahead. Then he climbed +carefully down to the quarter-deck and began to make his way aft again. +Behind him, rifles in hand, came creeping another strong contingent of +his strangely numerous crew. Half a dozen of those nearest him had drawn +and fixed the long sword-bayonet each wore at his hip.</p> + +<p>The old man in greatcoat and slippers paused at the after-rail of the +quarter-deck. The bayonets were almost at his shoulder blades. But the +three anxious onlookers aft could not even warn him of that additional +danger, to which he seemed quite oblivious.</p> + +<p>The crowd at the open hatch looked round at him, as of one accord, and +the bulk turned on their heels towards him, but a few remained facing +the three still, silent figures on the poop. Sunset and the final +instant of crisis had come together.</p> + +<p>From among the men grouped about the hatch one stepped forward, as if to +speak. Captain Dove held up his hand and the fellow hesitated, with bent +brows. A quick, angry growl arose from among his neighbours. But Captain +Dove was not to be hurried. He cleared his throat and spat indifferently +into the scuppers.</p> + +<p>"I've a little job ashore for you lads to-night," he said then, in a +tone audible to all, "a job that'll fill our empty pockets properly—if +it's properly carried out. We haven't been so lucky of late that we can +afford to lay off just yet. What money there is on board means no more +than a few dollars apiece, share and share alike. I know where I can lay +my hands on a thousand at least for each of us. If you think that's +worth your while, get away forward now to your supper; the others are +coming aft for their ammunition."</p> + +<p>He ceased abruptly, and for a moment no one answered him or made any +move. He had succeeded in raising their curiosity, and so gained some +trifling respite at least for himself. They were turning over in their +dense minds, however suspiciously, this new and plausible suggestion of +his.</p> + +<p>It was no news that there was very little money on board, and—they were +of a class which always can be led to grasp at the shadow if that looks +larger to them than the substance itself. They hesitated—and they were +lost. Captain Dove had descended among them, and as if the subject were +closed, was pushing his way through the gathering with a good-humoured, +masterful, "Get forward. Get away forward, now."</p> + +<p>And they gave way again before him, apparently forgetful of their +purpose there, quite willing, since they held the power securely in +their own hands, to await the outcome of one more night. In the morning, +and rich, as he promised, or no worse off if his promise failed, they +could just as conveniently close their account with him. As the others +came crowding aft, those already possessed of bandoliers began to file +forward, exchanging rough jokes with their fellows.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove addressed a parting remark to them from the poop. "We won't +be going ashore till midnight," said he, "and I <i>must</i> get some sleep or +I won't be fit for the work we've to do there. I'm sick enough as it is. +Get that hatch-cover on again as soon as you can, and keep to your own +end of the ship till the time comes. I'll send you forward a hogshead of +rum to help it along."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir," a voice answered him cheerily from out of the gathering +darkness, and Sallie saw that he almost smiled to himself as he +staggered toward the companion-hatch.</p> + +<p>There he would have fallen, spent, but that she, at his shoulder, caught +hold of him and held him up till Slyne came to her assistance. And they +together got him safely below.</p> + +<p>"Gimme brandy," he gasped, as he lay limply back in the chair on which +they had set him. His lips were white. His overworked heart had almost +failed him under the strain he had put on it.</p> + +<p>The stimulant still served its purpose, however. He sat up again, +revived.</p> + +<p>"But that was an uncommon close call!" he commented, half to himself. "I +felt blind-sure I'd have a bayonet through my back before I could play +my last card. And I didn't believe I'd win out even with that. But here +I am, and—" He turned to the girl at his side.</p> + +<p>"Don't stand there idling, Sallie," he ordered querulously, "when +there's so much to be done. Tell Ambrizette to bring me a bull's-eye +lantern. Go up and see if the decks are clear yet. Send Reuben Yoxall +down to me as soon as they are. And then get ready for going ashore. +You'll have to wear something that won't be seen—but take a couple of +Arab cloaks in a bundle with you as well."</p> + +<p>At that Jasper Slyne spoke, divided between doubt and anger.</p> + +<p>"What devilment have you in your mind now, Dove?" he demanded. "You +surely don't mean to—You told me yourself that there's nothing but +dangerous desert ashore here."</p> + +<p>"Never you mind what I mean to do, <i>Mister</i> Slyne," Captain Dove +answered him with a gratified grin, picking up the brandy bottle again. +"When I want any advice from you, I'll let you know. And, if I ever ask +you again to help me into my clothes, you'll maybe be more obliging next +time.</p> + +<p>"Dutch courage is cheap enough, Mister Slyne," said the old man +tauntingly. "So I'm going ashore,—into the dangerous desert,—in a few +minutes, with Sallie. But there's nothing you need be afraid of, for +you're going to stay safe on board."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>EL FARISH</h3> + + +<p>On the stealthy-looking little grey steamship at anchor under the +obscure stars not even a riding-light was visible. But she was close to +the desolate coast, well out of the way of all respectable traffic. And +a solitary figure, squatted in the bows, pipe in mouth, pannikin of rum +within easy reach, was keeping a perfunctory anchor-watch, staring idly +seaward so that he saw nothing of a tiny light which flashed three times +from the shore in belated response to a similar signal from a screened +port in the poop-cabin.</p> + +<p>But for him, the decks were deserted. From the crew's quarters came +frequent outbursts of ribald talk and uproarious laughter, the odour of +food, the clank and clatter of tin-ware empty or full. The crew were at +supper and satisfied for the present.</p> + +<p>From the companion-hatch on the poop four soundless shadows emerged. Two +of them were carrying cautiously a long, flat fabric which they in a +moment or two converted into a fourteen-foot canvas boat. These two +lowered that overside. One of the others, a bundle in hand, slipped +easily down into it by means of a rope made fast to a stanchion. The +last, cursing under his breath, was helped over the rail, with one foot +in a loop of the same line, by the two remaining on deck.</p> + +<p>Sallie, safely seated in the cockleshell below, laid a pair of muffled +oars in the rowlocks and pushed quietly off from under the dripping +overhang of the ship. Captain Dove, crouching in its stern, whispered +curt directions to her. She could just see Reuben Yoxall and Jasper +Slyne standing side by side at the steamer's taffrail, and then the +black bulk of the <i>Olive Branch</i> became merged in the blacker water.</p> + +<p>Once out of earshot of the ship, she set to rowing in earnest, a strong, +steady stroke, like one well accustomed to that exercise; and Captain +Dove, with an eye cocked at a helpful star twinkling dimly through the +heat-haze, kept her heading straight for the shore. The boom of the +breakers soon began to grow louder, but, even when it had become almost +deafening, she did not look round. They had got into broken water and it +was taking her all her time to handle the oars.</p> + +<p>She was breathless and all but exhausted before they at length shot +dizzily out of the wild turmoil of the surf into a tranquil, land-locked +lagoon, concealed from seaward by a long sand-spit, which served it as a +breakwater in such smooth weather.</p> + +<p>"Way enough," said the old man gruffly, and, as Sallie shipped her oars, +the light craft lost speed. Presently, its prow took the sand, and at +last they were free of the ominous, phosphorescent black fins which had +followed them from where they had left the ship.</p> + +<p>"Strike a match," ordered Captain Dove, and held out a stump of candle. +"Light this and stick it on the gunwale. Now, on with your cloak and +hood—and lend me a hand with mine."</p> + +<p>The tiny flame at her elbow burned steadily enough in the still night, +while Sallie was slipping on over her dark dress the white robe he had +bidden her bring with her. As soon as she had hooded her head and drawn +the veil well over her features, she turned to help him. She was +smoothing the crumpled burnous about his shoulders while he tugged +irritably at it with his only available hand, grumbling at her in a low +monotone, when she heard a sudden splashing behind her and, glancing +round, saw a number of other white-robed figures wading out through the +shallows towards the boat and its flickering light. Captain Dove took +their coming as a matter of course, and she sat down again silently, +though that cost her a great effort. It was unspeakably eerie there, in +the very heart of a darkness that seemed to be whispering hints of such +horrors as only exist in the dark.</p> + +<p>The old man exchanged a few low words in doggerel Arabic with the +strangers. Two of them, tall, brown, fierce-faced fellows, slung over +their shoulders the long guns with which they were armed, stooped and +lifted Sallie lightly up, carried her to the shore dry-shod. She was +still shivering nervously when two more deposited Captain Dove at her +side, and then the canvas boat was brought high and dry. At a curt +remark from him a makeshift litter was formed of four rifles and, seated +on that, he was carried away as if he had been a mere featherweight, +Sallie following close behind on foot, uncomfortably conscious of the +shadows at her own shoulders.</p> + +<p>It was hard work for her in the darkness and ankle-deep in the soft, +loose sand at every step, although his bearers made little enough of +their burden. But farther on the footing grew firmer, and then they came +to a rough, trodden path.</p> + +<p>That led them to the still darker mouth of a narrow defile between two +low, rocky bluffs, and from the summit of one of these there suddenly +rang a harsh challenge. It was answered at once by their escort, and +they went on without pause through that pitch-black, crooked passage +with its invisible, whispering guard, until, emerging at an unexpected +turn from its landward outlet, a most astonishing panorama presented +itself to the girl's startled eyes.</p> + +<p>Within a titanic natural amphitheatre formed by the rock-ridge which, +except for the cleft they had entered by, enclosed it completely, there +had been pitched an encampment that occupied its entire arena. +Everywhere there were dry desert fires, burning redly, with little +flame, and the vault of heaven overhead was like some vast crimson dome +reflecting a light whose effect was weird and unreal to the last degree. +Sallie, gazing about her with lips a little apart behind her veil, could +scarcely convince herself that she was not dreaming.</p> + +<p>In the foreground, on one side of the wide way which led straight to the +heart of the camp, there were picketed rows upon rows of whinnying +horses, and on the other almost as many restless <i>mehari</i> camels, among +which a number of negroes, presumably slaves, were briskly at work. Past +these was a wide, open space, at whose other edge stood a flagpole from +which a great green flag with a golden harp on it fluttered and flapped +in the red firelight on the first of the evening breeze. Under that was +a group of men, all in flowing garments, one seated in state, the others +standing about him. A dozen paces behind them a white pavilion that +seemed rose-pink, with a heavily curtained porch, occupied a roomy, +level expanse by itself. Surrounding and encircling it on three sides, +but at a respectful distance, stretching as far back as the foot of the +steep rock-rampart which hemmed them in, was ranged an orderly +assemblage of horsehair tents, whose inhabitants, loose-robed men, swart +women, and half-naked children, were all very busy about them in the +open air. Everywhere there was life and bustle....</p> + +<p>Beneath the searching rays of the sun it would all, no doubt, have +appeared travel-stained and sordid and tawdry to a degree. But the +desert night and the dim stars brooding above it had imbued it with all +their own magic and mystery.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove's carriers strode forward with him and set him carefully on +his feet before the green flag, under which, on a great gilt chair, sat +one who was evidently their chief, a man in the very prime of life and +still younger yet than his years. Sallie eyed him over her veil with +anxious interest. The group behind his chair was regarding her with no +less curiosity. The attention of the multitude among the tents had been +attracted to the new arrivals, and many inquisitive onlookers, more +women than men, were beginning to gather about the boundaries of the +area sacred to their Emir and his officers.</p> + +<p>That dignitary got hastily up and came forward. He was tall and stalwart +on foot, a fine figure of a man even in his loose, shapeless garments, +with a bronzed, hook-nosed, handsome face of his own, a heavy moustache, +the brooding, patient, predatory eyes of a desert vulture. And, as he +confronted Captain Dove, over whom he seemed to tower threateningly, the +hood of the <i>selham</i> slipped on to his shoulders, disclosing a flaming +shock of red hair.</p> + +<p>"At last!" he said, after a long time, in the difficult voice of one +amazed almost beyond words. The muscles of his lean, brown face were +working visibly. His eyes had become inflamed, his fingers were +twitching.</p> + +<p>"At last!" he said again, as if finally convinced in spite of himself, +and licked his lips.</p> + +<p>But Captain Dove met his wickedest glance unwinkingly, and made him no +answer at all.</p> + +<p>For a moment longer they two stood gazing thus at each other, the +onlookers silent and still. And then the big man's blazing eyes shifted +to the face of the girl at Captain Dove's elbow. Sallie's veil had +slipped to her chin, but she had been unconscious of that till then. She +pulled it up across the bridge of her nose again hastily. The red-haired +Emir's scowl had relaxed; he was scanning her with a very different +expression to that he had shown Captain Dove, but one which alarmed her +no less.</p> + +<p>He turned to the group behind him and, at a word, it melted away. The +onlookers in the distance also went about their own business again. A +black slave-boy came staggering forward with a heavy chair, and set that +down side by side with the other there. Captain Dove seated himself at +once, without ceremony.</p> + +<p>The Emir, biting his lip, followed suit, and sat for a time sunk in his +own reflections. He seemed to have mastered for the moment his first +almost overwhelming impulse at sight of that venerable-looking +adventurer, and had evidently some other and much more pleasant idea in +his mind.</p> + +<p>"That's a high-stepping filly you've brought with you," said he at +length in a puzzled tone, and glanced round at Sallie again. She was +standing at Captain Dove's other shoulder, her head bent, her hands +clasped before her, in helpless, patient suspense. Captain Dove had +gruffly informed her, before they had left the ship, that she would be +perfectly safe in his company, but even his own safety seemed to be +hanging on a very slender thread.</p> + +<p>"I wonder, now," the Emir went on, "if it's to seek trade that you've +come ashore here again—after all these years." His face once more +darkened, as if over some recollection that rankled sorely, but which he +was doing his best to dismiss from his thoughts in the meantime.</p> + +<p>"I've some trifles in hand that might interest you if it is trade you're +after," said he, speaking amicably with an effort, "such truck as +gold-dust, and jewels, and silk—and ivory, too, galore."</p> + +<p>The black boy had come back with an unwieldy tray of a dull yellow metal +on which were set two cool, moist, earthenware <i>chatties</i> and a couple +of uncouth drinking-cups. Captain Dove, with unerring instinct, laid his +hand on the flagon which held strong drink, poured out for himself a +liberal helping of the sticky <i>magia</i> it contained, and swallowed that +off without a word. After the Emir had also helped himself the boy would +have carried the tray away, but Captain Dove bade him set it down and +dealt him an indignant cuff, so that he fled empty-handed, with an +anguished yelp.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't exactly to pay you a polite call that I came ashore to this +God-forsaken hole, Farish," the old man at last remarked, with +uncompromising frankness. "The fact of the matter is—I'm in a bit of a +bog just now. And I've come to get you to give me a hand out of it—if +your price isn't too high for me to pay."</p> + +<p>The Emir stared at him, open-mouthed.</p> + +<p>"You were always the bold one, Captain Brown," said he, reminiscently, +after a lengthy interval, "but this beats all! And it's to the man you +set ashore here, alone, long years ago, to die in the desert like a mad +dog, that you come demanding a hand to get you out of a bit of a bog! +You've surely forgotten—"</p> + +<p>"I'm not one who forgets," Captain Dove interrupted sourly. "And you'll +maybe remember, since you think it's worth while to hark back to such +old stories, that I didn't shoot you down at once, as I might have +done—for disobedience of orders. I gave you a chance for your life, +anyhow. And you've made a very good thing out of it. You've risen in the +world, Farish, since you were the second mate of the old <i>Fer de +Lance</i>—and I was Captain John Bunyan Brown. I'm Captain Dove now, by +the way."</p> + +<p>"And how did you know who it was would be here to-night?" the +<i>soi-disant</i> Emir demanded, turning it all over in his own mind.</p> + +<p>"The Spaniards at the Rio de Oro told me, when I called in there the +other day, that they were expecting the Emir El Farish shortly, from +this direction, and, of course, I pricked up my ears at the name. I +asked a few simple questions about him, and it didn't take a great deal +of brain-power to figure out that the famous Emir was just my old second +mate turned land pirate on his own account. They wanted me to wait on +the chance of a cargo from your caravan, but—I had other fish to fry at +the time.</p> + +<p>"Then, coming up the coast, I caught sight of your smoke from the +steamer's bridge—at least I judged it would be yours. I reckoned you'd +be camping here, you see, and, when you answered my signal, I was quite +sure. So—I'm in a bit of a bog, as I told you. And it'll pay you to +give me a hand out of it—if your price isn't too high."</p> + +<p>"The price that you'll have to pay for my help you can guess now without +my telling you," returned the Emir in a muffled whisper, and nodded +meaningly over his shoulder. "And you'll find me a fair man to deal +with, so long as you deal fairly by me."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove signified his comprehension by means of a non-committal +grunt. He stooped down and helped himself awkwardly to another drink +before making any other answer.</p> + +<p>"But—you've got a wife already," he whispered back, at a shrewd guess, +as he sat up again, smiling blandly.</p> + +<p>"I won't have her long, poor thing!" said the other, some tinge of real +regret in his tone. "And I'll miss her, too, when she's gone, let me +tell you." He sat silent for a moment, musing, and then, "'Twas a +notable revenge that I took on <i>them</i>-all!" he muttered darkly. "But +I'll miss her for herself as well—after all these years."</p> + +<p>"It's the desert has killed her," he said, pulling at his moustache. +"I've had a doctor-fellow with her for a while past—I saved him out of +an exploring party we cut up near Jebado. 'Twas nearly three weeks ago +he told me she hadn't a month to live. The sand's got into her lungs, he +says—and I've promised to shovel him into a sand-pit alive the day she +dies, to see how he likes the sand in his own lungs, the useless scum!"</p> + +<p>He sighed stormily, and then seemed to bethink himself again of the girl +listening behind. In answer to a call of his, in a caressing voice, +there came from the big tent in the background a woman, veiled as Sallie +was but clad in silk instead of cotton, who bowed submissively to what +he had to say to her and then held out a slender, bloodless, burning +hand to Sallie.</p> + +<p>"Go with her," ordered Captain Dove. "You'll be all right. I'll shout +for you when I want you again."</p> + +<p>And Sallie, glad so to escape from the Emir's glance, went willingly +enough. It would not have helped her in any way then to disobey Captain +Dove. But her hand, within the other woman's, was as cold as ice.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE MASQUE OF DEATH</h3> + + +<p>They passed together through the curtained porch of the pavilion, and +Sallie looked about her with blinking eyes as the Emir's wife led her +toward a long, low, cushioned divan, with a tall screen of black carved +ebony behind it, which stood in one of the corners formed by the +partitions within.</p> + +<p>The entire interior of the tent was brilliantly lighted by many lamps of +a dull yellow metal, swung from under the billowy silken ceiling. +Underfoot were carpets and rugs of the most costly, chosen with taste. +The inner divisions seemed almost solid behind their heavy hangings of +embroidery and filigree work. About the couch in the corner were grouped +a number of languorous women slaves, all very richly dressed. The whole +effect was one of barbaric splendour and luxury.</p> + +<p>Her women crossed their arms on their breasts and bowed before the +Emir's wife, their golden bangles jingling. She drew Sallie down on the +couch beside her and waved them away. They backed into another corner +with heads still bent, but stealing furtive glances at the fair +stranger. Sallie had let her veil fall; the heat was stifling.</p> + +<p>The Emir's wife laid a hand on her heart and panted, as if she had been +running. A hectic flush had coloured her sunken cheeks. Sallie saw that +she must once have been a very good-looking girl.</p> + +<p>"How did you come to our camp?" she asked, suppressing with a great +effort the cough her labouring chest could scarcely contain. "Is there +another caravan near, or—a ship?"</p> + +<p>"A ship," Sallie answered gently, forgetting all her own urgent troubles +in quick compassion for that poor soul. And the dying girl's feverish +eyes grew suddenly eager.</p> + +<p>"A ship!" she repeated breathlessly, and for a moment or two seemed to +be searching Sallie's expressively pitiful features for some further +information, which she found there. The anxiety in her eyes changed to +appeal, and then certainty.</p> + +<p>"You'll help—me," she whispered. "I <i>know</i> you will." And she began to +cough.</p> + +<p>Two or three of her women came running forward to offer her such first +aid as lay in their power. Another had hurried off through a curtained +doorway which led inward, and promptly returned, followed by two +enormous negroes, vile-looking rascals, each wearing a scanty tunic of +leopard-skins which hung from one shoulder and did not reach to his +knees, with a broad waist-belt which also served to contain a short, +heavy scimitar, in a metal scabbard. Between them walked a man, a white +man to judge by his hands, since his head was completely masked in a +hood of coarse scarlet cotton, with only a couple of careless +eyelet-holes and a rough round mouth cut in it. He was dressed in a worn +drill tunic and riding-breeches and pigskin puttees, and carried +himself, a thin, limber, muscular figure, with careless ease.</p> + +<p>Sallie took him to be that doctor of whom the Emir had spoken, and +shuddered at thought of the dreadful death with which the Emir had +threatened him. His guards' cruel faces grew still more watchful and +grim as he hastened, limping a little, toward the couch, while they were +still saluting its occupant.</p> + +<p>Sallie had risen from it and was standing with one arm about the other +girl's heaving shoulders, adjusting her veil. The cough had ceased +again, but its victim had not yet recovered her voice. The man in the +mask glanced most unhappily at her and then at Sallie. But it was not +concern on his own account that his steady grey eyes expressed.</p> + +<p>He was about to speak, when the Emir's wife held up a thin, transparent +hand. "Wait," she begged weakly. "There is so little time—and my +strength—"</p> + +<p>He pulled a glass tube from one of his pockets and gave her a tabloid. +She swallowed it down, with a mouthful of water, indifferently, but it +soon did her good. She signed her women aside, and looked imploringly up +at Sallie.</p> + +<p>"I can't live through another night," she said, "and—neither will this +man, unless you help me to help him. You <i>will</i> do that, won't you? He's +an Englishman—a doctor—he has done all he possibly could for me—and I +<i>cannot</i> die while I know that his life hangs on mine. It's too +horrible—"</p> + +<p>Sallie sat down again and clasped the wasted, writhing body closely to +her in her strong, young arms.</p> + +<p>"I'll do all I possibly can to help him," she promised in a quick +whisper. The grey eyes behind the horrible scarlet hood had seemed to +say that they would not hold her responsible for any promise given to +lighten that poor creature's last hours. And the Emir's wife lay back +against her shoulder with an exhausted sob of relief.</p> + +<p>"I'm really an American," said a pleasant and very grateful voice from +behind the mask which was gazing down at them so inscrutably now, "and +no doctor at all." He was speaking to Sallie; the Emir's wife was still +gasping for breath. "But—you can see for yourself how very harmful this +nervous excitement must be to her."</p> + +<p>"We must humour her—whatever may happen," his glance seemed to add, and +Sallie nodded in quick understanding and sympathy.</p> + +<p>She had been wondering what she, so helpless and uncertain herself, +could possibly do to reassure the dying girl and help the man who was +doomed.</p> + +<p>"If I could get back on board the ship," she said somewhat uncertainly, +in answer to the appealing look with which the Emir's wife was once more +regarding her, "I would bring or send a boat ashore—"</p> + +<p>The other girl's wan face displayed renewed life and animation.</p> + +<p>"Soon after midnight," she whispered eagerly. "You must give me till +then to do my part. But soon after midnight he will be waiting beyond +the outermost of the guards at the shore-end of the ravine which leads +from our camp. He'll be wearing that woman's cloak and veil, and +carrying a bucket—I sometimes send her to the beach for sea-water to +bathe my feet." She pointed to one of her slaves, but at that the man in +the mask intervened.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't do that. Your husband would—"</p> + +<p>She held up a hand again, and he said no more, only shaking his head. He +seemed to have forgotten that she was not to be contradicted.</p> + +<p>"The woman is mine," said the Emir's wife, "and my husband will not hurt +a hair of her head while she obeys me. He has sworn that on the Cross. +He will keep his oath—and you have my word as well that she shall come +to no harm. You need have no scruples, then!"</p> + +<p>She looked impatiently up at the scarlet mask bending over her, not to +be satisfied until it bowed in submission to her authority there. But +Sallie could read in the steadfast grey eyes behind it a dumb +determination that the slave girl should run no such risk, and she did +not think it needful at that moment to say anything about the other +difficulties to be overcome. She had promised that she would do all she +possibly could to help the man in the mask, and believed she could help +him best in the meantime by keeping her own troubles to herself.</p> + +<p>She did not even know as yet what Captain Dove's immediate intentions +toward her were, or whether she herself would ever see the <i>Olive +Branch</i> again. But—she would know before very long, and it would be +time enough then to explain her own plight.</p> + +<p>"Feel my pulse now, before you go," the pseudo-doctor's patient +commanded, and he did so, drawing out his watch, while she continued to +plan for his flight.</p> + +<p>"I'll send for you again before midnight," she said rapidly, for his +guards had begun to show signs of unrest as his visit grew more +prolonged, "and you must bring your—your—" She tapped her chest, very +tenderly, with her free hand.</p> + +<p>"Stethoscope?" he suggested, and she nodded quickly.</p> + +<p>"You'll come in your cloak—it will be cold then. My women will draw a +screen about us. As soon as you are safely behind it, slip off your +shoes and gaiters while they are changing your cloak and hood. There +will not be a moment to spare. And now—you must go."</p> + +<p>He released her wrist and stood upright again.</p> + +<p>"I shall come whenever you send for me, of course," he assured her +soothingly, although his eyes, meeting Sallie's for an instant, betrayed +the stubborn will behind them. "And I'm far more grateful than I can +express for your good-will toward me. So now you'll rest quietly, won't +you? And try not to worry needlessly about—anything at all. You're not +afraid, I know. And neither am I."</p> + +<p>He bowed to them both in his hideous hood, and went back to his scowling +guards.</p> + +<p>The Emir's dying wife lay very quietly in Sallie's arms for some time +after he had gone. She was quite exhausted again. Her women, in a group +at a little distance, were watching with jealous eyes the fair stranger +who had supplanted them with such ease. The only sounds that broke the +silence were the sick girl's laboured breathing, the occasional hoarse, +angry rumble of Captain Dove's voice outside. Sallie was listening +anxiously for that. She could hear no word of what he said, but—she +wanted to be quite sure that he was still there. It was not her own fate +alone that now depended on what these strangely dragging minutes should +bring to pass.</p> + +<p>"Lay me back on the cushions now," begged the girl in her arms. "I feel +better—in every way. And—tell me how you came here, in the nick of +time. I'm so thankful—but you know that, and I mustn't talk too much, I +have so little strength left, and—</p> + +<p>"Who is that shouting?"</p> + +<p>"It's Captain Dove," Sallie answered in haste. "He brought me here. I +must go to him now, but I'll come back before—" She had no time to say +more, for Captain Dove had called her again, in a very angry voice.</p> + +<p>He was shaking his only available fist impotently at the high heavens +when she stepped timidly out from under the curtained porch of the tent.</p> + +<p>She hesitated, but for no more than a moment, and then, drawing her veil +closer, went on across the sand, with beating heart.</p> + +<p>"You called me, Captain Dove?" she said, as she stopped at the old man's +shoulder. And he ceased blaspheming to glare round at her as though she +had been some intrusive stranger, his face very puffed and repulsive in +the red firelight.</p> + +<p>He did not answer at once, but reached again for the earthenware flagon. +It was lying on its side empty, for she had tipped it over with a +stealthy foot.</p> + +<p>His angry glance grew darker with suspicion, but her eyes were downcast.</p> + +<p>"Come round in front," he ordered harshly, and she had once more to +submit herself to the Emir's appraising glance.</p> + +<p>He and Captain Dove had still much to say to each other, too, while she +stood patiently there, like a slave for sale. They fell to arguing with +much heat some point in dispute between them, an argument she could not +follow since they were speaking some jargon of Arabic strange to her. +But she knew very well that it was about her they were wrangling, and a +cold fear clutched cruelly at her heart.</p> + +<p>At last, however, the Emir appeared to give in to his visitor, and +Captain Dove, after a final ineffectual snatch at the flagon, got on to +his feet, since even that hint seemed to be thrown away on his host.</p> + +<p>"We'll get off to the ship again," he said in English, and Sallie could +almost have cried aloud in relief from such sore suspense.</p> + +<p>"May I go back to the tent—just for a minute—to say good-bye?" she +begged in a breathless whisper, and turned and ran.</p> + +<p>The Emir's wife glanced eagerly up at her as she reappeared.</p> + +<p>"I'm going back on board now," Sallie told her with shining eyes, which +suddenly grew dim as she thought of the other girl's loneliness there. +She sank on her knees beside the couch, and the Emir's wife, leaning +forward, slipped a frail arm about her neck; and so they two, sisters in +trouble, kissed each other good-bye for all time.</p> + +<p>"You'll be sure to send the boat—soon after midnight?" the other asked, +but with no shadow of doubt in her low, weak tones.</p> + +<p>"I'll come myself, if I possibly can," Sallie promised, "and, if not, +I'll send a safe friend—soon after midnight."</p> + +<p>As she was rising, she saw on her bosom a little locket which hung from +a thin gold chain. She lifted a hand to it, and hesitated uncertainly.</p> + +<p>"It's all I have in the world that's my own," said the Emir's wife in a +pleading whisper, "all I can offer you but my empty thanks. I'd like to +think to-night that you will sometimes remember me. Will you not keep +it, for my sake?"</p> + +<p>"I'll wear it always—I'll never forget you—and oh! I'm so sorry that I +must go," cried Sallie, sorely distressed, and had to hurry away without +more words. Captain Dove had twice called her. There were tears in her +eyes as she ran back across the sand to where, under the green flag, he +was wrathfully waiting for her, and she scarcely heard his harsh order +to hurry up.</p> + +<p>Some of the Emir's men had come forward with a couple of litters. She +seated herself in one, although she would much rather have walked, and, +as soon as Captain Dove was ready, they were carried off, the Emir +shouting a valedictory message to the old man.</p> + +<p>"You keep your bargain and I'll keep mine," Captain Dove called back, +and snorted contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"That damned fellow talks to me as if I had been <i>his</i> second mate!" he +commented, and snorted again.</p> + +<p>From the mouth of the dark defile which led toward the shore, Sallie +looked back over one shoulder, almost as an escaped prisoner might, at +the bizarre, fantastic scene the still camp made in that strange crimson +light. And the big, red-haired Emir standing motionless under his great +green flag, whose fluttering folds seen from that distance seemed of the +colour of blood, waved a hand to her ere she disappeared.</p> + +<p>She shivered, instinctively. She had been dumbly afraid of the man, and +that although she was possessed of a courage such as could look grim +death itself in the empty eye-holes and smile. She was correspondingly +thankful when, the gorge and its sentinels safely behind her, she found +herself once more facing the open sea.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove's carriers set him down alongside the boat, lying high and +dry on the sands where they had left it. Having set it afloat, they +lifted him carefully into it, and her also. A few shallow yards from the +shore, she slipped off her white cloak and head-covering at an order +from the old man, and so set to rowing again.</p> + +<p>Once, one of her oars touched some invisible body swimming parallel with +the boat, and a lightning-like flash of phosphorus showed a curved black +fin that darted to a little distance and then turned back toward them. +It was risky work crossing the bar, but both she and Captain Dove knew +just what they were about, and presently they shot free of the surf into +comparative safety.</p> + +<p>"Starboard a little," he told her then, and ten or twelve minutes' +pulling took them back to the <i>Olive Branch</i>, which he must have found +by sheer instinct, since the ship was showing no lights.</p> + +<p>They approached it almost soundlessly from astern, so that the sleepy +look-out on the fo'c'sle-head neither heard nor saw them. For even the +stars were invisible then through the curtain of vapour overhanging the +coast.</p> + +<p>Reuben Yoxall, the mate, was awaiting them at the poop-rail. He threw +Sallie a line, and running to the companion-hatch, called Jasper Slyne +up from the little saloon below. The two of them hoisted Captain Dove up +the side, and after him Sallie, as light and agile as any boy. The +canvas boat was easily got to the rail, folded flat and returned to its +hiding-place.</p> + +<p>Sallie stayed on deck, and Yoxall was not long in rejoining her there. +Slyne and Captain Dove had sat down to a leisurely supper below. The +<i>plup!</i> of a cork popping in the saloon broke the silence just before +seven bells struck. They had half an hour yet till midnight.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>AFLOAT AND ASHORE</h3> + + +<p>"Who's that, Rube?—there, by the hatch," whispered Sallie, and pointed +to where a pair of white eyeballs had been uncannily visible for a +moment and then disappeared. She was nervous and overwrought in the +midst of so many uncertainties.</p> + +<p>Yoxall had stepped quickly in front of her. He caught sight of a shadow +crawling away in the dark on the deck below.</p> + +<p>"One of the niggers," he told her, and turned. "He's come scouting aft +more than once while you were ashore. Most of the men are asleep, I +suppose, but there are sure to be some standing guard—they won't run +any risk of being caught napping by Captain Dove."</p> + +<p>She fell into step with him again, and presently, pacing the poop at his +side, slipped an arm into one of his. He shivered a little.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you feeling all right?" she asked anxiously. "You're not going +to have fever, are you?"</p> + +<p>"No, lass," he answered at once. "Not much! I'm all right, of course. It +would never do for me to fall sick now, would it?"</p> + +<p>"It would be the last straw!" she agreed, and shivered also. For she was +counting on him in case the worst should come to the worst.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I'd do without you, Rube," she said. And the big +Englishman blushed like any boy as she peered up into his face. "You're +the only real friend I have in the world. If it weren't for you—I'd be +quite desperate; I'm so unhappy here now."</p> + +<p>Reuben Yoxall pressed the arm that lay within his, and gulped. "Then why +won't you come away out of it, Sallie?" he asked in a husky voice he +could scarcely control. "It wouldn't be so very difficult—if Captain +Dove just manages to keep the men in hand till we make some port. And we +must call somewhere soon, for we're short of coal.</p> + +<p>"I have some money laid by—I'll work harder than ever for you. There's +a snug little farm in Cumberland that one of these days will be mine, +and till then the old folk would make you and me more than welcome +there." He was speaking very quickly, bent on making the most of that +unusual opportunity.</p> + +<p>"I'm not much of a man, I know," he went on, "but—such as I am, I'm +yours. And I'll always be yours, to do whatever you like with. You might +come to care more for me, Sallie, if you knew me better. Will you not +try? Just give me the chance, and I'll soon have you safely out of the +Old Man's clutches. But—so long as you insist on sticking to him, I +can't do any more for you than I'm doing."</p> + +<p>Her eyes grew dim as she thought of the dog-like devotion which he had +shown her, although she had so often told him that she could never repay +it as he would have liked.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could, Rube," she assured him again, "but—I can't. I'm <i>not</i> +ungrateful, and I hate to hurt you, but—I just can't. And you wouldn't +want me to sell myself—even for a home and a husband, would you, Rube? +I'll never marry anyone. Jasper Slyne says that Captain Dove's going to +give me to him—but he doesn't know.... And—I'm not afraid."</p> + +<p>Reuben Yoxall sighed, very softly. But she heard, and her own heart grew +heavier. Life had become so difficult, and there was still so much to be +done, so many troubles to think about, while she did not even know yet +what Captain Dove was going to do next.</p> + +<p>She had just finished telling Yoxall about the man in the scarlet mask +and what she had promised to do for him, when sounds of stealthy bustle +from forward told her that the mutineers were once more mustering on +deck. She called down to Captain Dove, and he shortly came up from the +saloon, followed by Jasper Slyne in a neutral-tinted, workmanlike +semi-uniform, at whose belt hung a heavy-calibre Colt revolver.</p> + +<p>Under the sharp spur of necessity, Captain Dove appeared to have quite +overcome the physical weakness by which he had been oppressed. He +stepped briskly to the stair-head rail and thence looked down on the +shadowy, moving mass of armed men who had by that time gathered at the +after-hatch again. Aware of his presence, they ceased to shuffle about. +A tense silence ensued, and Captain Dove cleared his throat.</p> + +<p>"Are all hands aft?" he asked sharply, and "Ay, ay, sir," a voice +answered. "All hands but the engine-room crew. D'ye want them too?"</p> + +<p>"I do not," he declared, and Sallie felt dumbly thankful that the +engineers and their underlings were still, apparently, loyal to him.</p> + +<p>"Where's Mr. Hobson—and the third mate?" he demanded, and, "Here," +answered simultaneously two other very sullen, suspicious voices.</p> + +<p>"Listen, then, all of you," ordered Captain Dove, bristling in the dark +at that traitorous pair, and, raising his voice again, "I've got a fine +plum ripe for your picking to-night, lads!" cried he at his heartiest. +"There's a caravan camped ashore here, on its way to the Rio de Oro, +with close on a hundred camel-loads of such things as silk and +ivory—and jewels—and gold—and girls. I got a word of it from a friend +of mine at the Rio when we were in there, and—now's our chance! You can +see the flare of the camp-fires on the sky beyond the beach. I've been +in here before and I know the place. If you follow me now as you've +followed me in the past, I'll guarantee that you'll open your eyes at +what's waiting for you ashore."</p> + +<p>Slyne, safe in the background, listening, laughed furtively to himself.</p> + +<p>"But—if you're going back on me now, I give it up. Strike a light and +put a bullet through me right away, if you feel like that. I've only one +hand—I won't lift even that against you. And my share of what little +money there is on board you can divide among you."</p> + +<p>A general murmur of approval greeted this blatant speech. And not even +the two malcontent mates could pick any hole in that proposal. A faint +crimson glow amid the darkness beyond the surf on the shore served to +corroborate his statement in part. That he meant to accompany them was +his strongest guarantee of good faith. They were evidently ready and +willing, for such a prospect as he had held out to them, to follow him +wherever he liked to lead them. The two mates began to tell the men off +to the boats and get these swung outboard. A temporary atmosphere of +peace and good-will prevailed.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove turned to Reuben Yoxall. "You'll stay on board," he +whispered very brusquely, "in charge of the ship. I'll tell the chief +engineer to lend you two or three men, and you'll see to it that <i>they</i> +don't lay their hands on any more guns.</p> + +<p>"You'll stick by me," he told Slyne, in the background, and Slyne merely +shrugged his shoulders impatiently as the old man passed on to where +Sallie was waiting to hear what her part was to be. She did not know in +the least what to make of his newly-declared intentions.</p> + +<p>"Am I to go with you?" she asked on the spur of the moment. And Captain +Dove stared at her.</p> + +<p>"No, you are <i>not</i>," he declared emphatically. "D'you want to be +shot—or kidnapped—or what! Get away down below, girl, and stay there +till I come aboard again. You must be mad!"</p> + +<p>She turned obediently toward the companion-hatch, and stopped there. He +went forward then, the men making way for him readily, and disappeared +into the engine-room. When he climbed carefully back on deck through the +fiddley-hatch in the skylight, he found all the boats afloat and only +one boat's crew remaining on board, under charge of the second mate, +Hobson, with the evident aim of making sure that he did not somehow give +them the slip or otherwise take any advantage of them. In response to a +shout from him, Jasper Slyne went jauntily forward, and, with +commendable promptitude, let himself down the falls overside. One of +these, unhooked, served Captain Dove for a sling, and he was soon seated +at the boat's tiller. The men followed swiftly, and the second mate +went last, no doubt satisfied by then that all would be well.</p> + +<p>"Give way, lads!" cried Captain Dove to those at the sweeps, "and we'll +show the others the short road ashore. I'm in no end of a hurry to get +what's coming to me from that caravan."</p> + +<p>Midnight lay very black on the bight where the <i>Olive Branch</i> was riding +easily to a single anchor; as the dark hours sped they seemed to grow +always darker. The boats which had just put off from her were almost +instantly hidden from Sallie's sight. She stepped quietly out on deck +beside Reuben Yoxall.</p> + +<p>"Rube," she said in a low, determined voice. "I must be going too, now. +Will you help me to get out the canvas boat?"</p> + +<p>He stared at her, as Captain Dove had done, and swallowed down a lump in +his throat.</p> + +<p>"It's madness now!" he declared. "But—I'll go myself. You must stay +where you are. It would be worse than madness for you—"</p> + +<p>She was smiling very gratefully up into his unhappy, stubborn face.</p> + +<p>"We'll go together, Rube," she said, "or not at all. And, even although +it does seem hopeless, I know you wouldn't want me to break my promise. +So you get the boat launched while I go and tell Mr. Brasse."</p> + +<p>She turned and ran lightly down the steps and along the main-deck, +leaving the mate, sorely perturbed and uncertain, to carry out her +instructions or not, as he chose. As she reached the engine-room +skylight on the quarter-deck an unobtrusive shadow emerged from it and +would have passed her with a nod on its way toward the bridge.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brasse," she said appealingly, and it halted to peer at her through +a single eye-glass, after touching its cap in a very precise salute.</p> + +<p>"Miss Sallie?" it answered in a surprised but courteous tone which told +that the speaker was, or had once been, a gentleman.</p> + +<p>"I'm going ashore," she went on in a hurry, "and Mr. Yoxall is going +with me. Will you look after things for him until we get back? Every one +else has gone already."</p> + +<p>"I have Captain Dove's orders to be on the bridge—for another purpose," +the chief engineer of the <i>Olive Branch</i> informed her, "and I'll do my +best, of course, to make sure that nothing goes wrong in the chief +mate's absence. But—is it safe for you—"</p> + +<p>"Quite safe," she assured him. "And—Mr. Brasse, if I bring—I'm going +ashore to try to save a man—a white man the Arabs mean to murder +to-night. If I manage to bring him on board, will you help me to hide +him?—so that Captain Dove won't know?"</p> + +<p>The chief engineer of the <i>Olive Branch</i> was obviously much perplexed. +But he was also obviously much better disposed toward Sallie than to +Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"If he's willing to work in the stokehold," he stipulated, "I don't +think Captain Dove would ever know he's on board the ship. And then he +can slip ashore at the first safe port we manage to make."</p> + +<p>Sallie's lower lip trembled a little. She did not quite know how to +thank the punctilious engineer who had proved himself such a friend in +need. And time was passing.</p> + +<p>"You're always very good to me, Mr. Brasse," she said timidly.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," he returned with formal politeness, and, having saluted +again, went on his own way toward the bridge.</p> + +<p>When Sallie got back to the poop she found Reuben Yoxall awaiting her +there and the canvas boat already afloat. The mate, however slow-witted, +was smart enough in all his movements once he had made up his mind. He +helped her over the side without any more words, and was soon driving +the light boat along a straight, swift line for the landing-place.</p> + +<p>Sallie's sense of direction enabled her to show him that, and also +brought them safely across the bar into the lagoon where the other boats +from the <i>Olive Branch</i> were lying empty, afloat. The third mate and +some of the men had seemingly been left there in charge of them. Sallie +caught sight of the former's sullen, furtive features in the sudden, +foolhardy light of a match he was holding over the pipe whose bowl his +hands hid. And there were shapes moving about him. She laid a shaky hand +on one of Yoxall's, and the oar in his, dipping, shifted their course.</p> + +<p>The boom of the breakers, behind them, killed all other sound. But she +lifted a finger to her lips, and he proved sufficiently quick-witted +then. Between them, they beached their own boat in the dark a couple of +hundred yards nearer the camp, and waded ashore with it, and left it +there, up-side down on the sand.</p> + +<p>The same magnetic instinct which had brought them safely across the bar +to the beach led her almost straight to the mouth of the narrow ravine +through which Captain Dove and she had reached the red-haired Emir's +camp. And Reuben Yoxall followed her, blind, through the night.</p> + +<p>"It was here that he was to meet us," she whispered breathlessly, her +heart in her mouth. They had met no one at all by the way, and there +seemed to be no one there.</p> + +<p>Yoxall scowled about him, unseeingly, and bit his lip, in helpless +dissatisfaction with everybody and everything. Then he sniffed +inquiringly, and in an instant all his relaxed muscles were taut again. +A faint whiff of tobacco-smoke had reached his nostrils on the hot, +humid night-air.</p> + +<p>Sallie was aware of it too, and had snatched at his hand, to draw him on +tiptoe toward the base of the great rock-wall that cropped up out of the +sand there. They reached its shelter unseen and unheard as a harsh, +suppressed voice spoke from round the corner, within the velvet-black +mouth of the gorge. It was Hobson's, the second mate's.</p> + +<p>"Put out that pipe," it ordered furiously, and was answered by a low, +mocking laugh. There followed the sound of a smashing blow, and a short, +sharp struggle that was interrupted by a muffled shout from high +overhead. "Hobson ahoy!"</p> + +<p>It was Captain Dove who had called cautiously down from the summit of +the ridge at one side of the ravine, and the second mate panted a quick +response.</p> + +<p>"You can get a move on now," cried the old man above the roar of the +surf. "The others will all be in position by the time you've pushed +through. Open fire as soon as ever you sight the camp. D'ye hear?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir," answered the second mate, the habit of years still strong +upon him, and went on to issue his own commands in the curt growl of +custom. The fellow who had lighted a pipe in defiance of him was +apparently quelled.</p> + +<p>It seemed that he meant to leave some of his men to guard that end of +the gorge. "And you'll keep a sharp look-out," he instructed them very +threateningly. "If we're trapped in this damned tunnel there will be +all hell to pay—and you'll pay it!</p> + +<p>"Move on now, in front. Feel your way with your bayonets. And don't fire +so long as cold steel will serve."</p> + +<p>The two listeners could hear the dull clink and shuffle of the advance. +That soon died away. The men who had been left behind began a low, +intermittent grumbling over their own hard lot; they did not believe for +a moment that their comrades would share the loot fairly with them. +Hobson was a coward at heart, said one, or why, otherwise, would they be +wasting their time there? They were all smoking by then.</p> + +<p>"The whole thing's a cinch," declared the same speaker more loudly. +"I'll swear there isn't an Arab outside the ring-fence we've drawn round +'em, and—I'm going on along inside, to get what I want for myself. +<i>I'm</i> not afraid of Mr. Blasted Hobson!"</p> + +<p>He came out into the open and stood for a moment or two listening +intently, within a few feet of where Sallie and Reuben Yoxall were +crouching, their backs toward him. But the ceaseless crash and rumble of +the breakers was all there was to be heard.</p> + +<p>He turned back, and tramped off into the gorge, with two of the others +for company. But three remained.</p> + +<p>Sallie felt Reuben Yoxall tug at her sleeve and began to move softly +away after him. From somewhere in the distance a shot suddenly rang out. +More followed, in quick succession. The irregular crackle of independent +rifle-fire soon made it clear that the concentric attack on the camp had +begun. The three men in the mouth of the gorge were shouting excitedly +to each other.</p> + +<p>"We must get away back on board—at once," Yoxall whispered +peremptorily. "We can't search the whole Sahara, blind, for a man you +wouldn't even know if you saw him. You've done all you can, Sallie. +You've kept your promise. Come away, now."</p> + +<p>She suppressed a hopeless sob with an effort. It seemed so inexpressibly +hard that they should have gained nothing at all by the grave risk they +were still running. But hope had failed her, too.</p> + +<p>"We'll wait by the boat—just for a little, Rube," she begged none the +less. "It may be that—"</p> + +<p>"Come on, then," he urged again. "Let's get to the boat,—and, if you'll +stay by it, I'll scout round a bit before we put off again."</p> + +<p>"More this way," she directed him, as he moved on, impatient to get her +back into at least comparative safety. And, under her guidance, they +soon reached the rough, trodden path that led toward the lagoon where +the boats were lying.</p> + +<p>A hundred yards further on, he stopped her abruptly, and dropped to the +ground, to set an anxious ear to it. He was up again in a second or two.</p> + +<p>"There's a whole army coming this way," he declared in a tone of +stricken dismay, "and horses with them too!</p> + +<p>"We must make for the soft sand and lie down and burrow as deep as we +can."</p> + +<p>He turned toward the sea, one arm about her, and almost carried her +across the deep, undulating drifts that clutched at her ankles like a +dry quicksand. His own strength soon failed against them. He stumbled +and fell on his face at the brink of a slope, and slipped on into its +hollow and lay there, quite still. But he had let go his hold of her, so +that she had not lost her feet: and she was soon cowering beside him, +face downward also. They had both heard the nearness of those other +feet—very many of them—which had seemingly crossed from the pathway to +intercept them.</p> + +<p>A hoarse murmur was audible behind them. Some one had ordered a halt. +They could hear the heavy breathing of men and the restless movements of +horses hock-deep in the drift. They could almost see the ghostly shapes +of the white-cloaked riders, but only the leader's horse was even very +dimly discernible—because it also was white. Its bridle was jingling a +little, too, as none of the others' were.</p> + +<p>He uttered a short, sharp order, and Sallie set her teeth to choke back +the cry of despair which had almost escaped her. For it was the Emir +himself into whose hands they seemed fated to fall, and his tone told +the temper he was in.</p> + +<p>From among his horsemen a number of men on foot seemed to have emerged, +and he was speaking to one of them, in English.</p> + +<p>"Are you there, my fine doctor?" he asked evilly, and leaned from his +saddle as though he could see through the dark.</p> + +<p>"I'm here," a level voice replied, and Sallie covered her face with her +hands in helpless horror.</p> + +<p>"You're here, you say! And here you'll stay, say I—as was promised +you," hissed the Emir. "'Tis not right that the likes of you should be +still drawing breath—and her-you-know-of already cold. You're quick +yet, and she's dead, my fine doctor—but yours is the funeral that comes +first. And you're standing over your own grave now—hell's waiting for +you beneath your feet. Stand to one side, and let my men dig down to +it."</p> + +<p>There was more movement about him, and then a quick shovelling of sand.</p> + +<p>"If it's all the same to you, I'll tell them to help you in head first," +said the Emir venomously. But the man in the scarlet mask answered +nothing at all to that.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>HOBSON'S CHOICE</h3> + + +<p>Sallie had made an effort to rise, but her knees had utterly failed her, +and Reuben Yoxall had laid a heavy arm across her shoulders. The +ceaseless uproar from within the camp had suddenly increased.</p> + +<p>The Emir was standing up in his stirrups to listen. He sank into his +saddle again, and issued some further orders, in Arabic. Most of his +force on foot in the rear made off at a staggering run. The horses of +his body-guard began to paw and curvet to free their feet as the loose +reins tightened on their necks.</p> + +<p>"I must be going now, my fine doctor," said the Emir most reluctantly, +"but I'll leave you company enough for the few minutes you've left, +although you're but a dumb dog!</p> + +<p>"And you'll maybe think of me when you're swallowing your first +mouthful. Till then you can mourn her-you-know-of."</p> + +<p>The white horse leaped and plunged as though he had rowelled it cruelly, +and then he was gone at a breakneck gallop, the white shadows that were +his body-guard hard at his heels, with lances free.</p> + +<p>The grave-diggers paused in their digging as he disappeared. A dozen or +more tongues broke into eager talking, and a fiendish, squealing laugh +out-shrilled them all. Sallie, with her face between her elbows, had +thrust a finger into each ear, and her eyes were tightly closed.</p> + +<p>She opened them a little, involuntarily, as the heavy arm that had been +holding her down was taken away. Reuben Yoxall nudged her, and she +looked round, with infinite caution.</p> + +<p>A blue-light, like a corpse-candle in the distance, had suddenly flared +up on the near ridge above the ravine that led to the camp. And in its +ghastly glow an unforgettable picture was vaguely visible for a moment +or two.</p> + +<p>The last of the Emir's mounted men were streaming after him into the +gorge, between whose open jaws lay three prone, trampled bodies, two +very still, the other writhing round and round on the axis of a long +lance.</p> + +<p>The breakers on the beach beyond the intervening sand-waves reared up, +and combed, and fell in blue-green foam. Outside them a black sea heaved +ceaselessly.</p> + +<p>Inland, a segment of the circular rock-rampart which enclosed the camp +loomed up above the endless, empty desert, and on its summit showed a +number of white-clad, crouching figures with rifles, all firing inward +and downward on the pandemonium raging below.</p> + +<p>Only a few yards away from where the two helpless onlookers lay the man +in the scarlet mask was standing, his hands behind him, between the two +big negroes Sallie had seen in the Emir's tent. And, grouped about them, +staring at the blue-light with wide eyes, were a dozen or more armed +Arabs. Two other negroes, knee-deep in a hole, were leaning on their +spades.</p> + +<p>Farther off, beside the lagoon where the boats were lying, the third +mate and his men were making the best fight they might for their lives +against overwhelming odds. More than one of them had already fallen +before the blue-light guttered away and that inferno was blotted out.</p> + +<p>But the renewed darkness lasted only for a few seconds before the +search-light on the bridge of the <i>Olive Branch</i> in the bight answered +the signal from the ridge, cutting through the inky night a long, white, +fan-like swathe which swept the coast in sections until it finally found +its objective and settled there.</p> + +<p>The group about the half-dug grave were at first almost paralysed with +fear of that phenomenon. The two black eunuchs seized their prisoner and +pulled him to the ground, the men of the guard took cover, with rifles +ready, the grave-diggers dropped incontinently into the grave and +cowered there.</p> + +<p>But when, after its first gyrations, it steadied on to the ridge round +the camp, leaving them quite unharmed and outside its focus, they fell +to talking again, in awed whispers, while they gazed blinkingly at its +effect, all but the two who were busy digging again.</p> + +<p>Yoxall plucked at Sallie's sleeve. She crept after him, and by very slow +degrees they got safely round in rear of the burial-party.</p> + +<p>"Wait here," he breathed in her ear, and left her behind a low swell of +the sand.</p> + +<p>She crawled to its brink. He was wriggling back toward the shapes +silhouetted against the dusky light. She clenched both her hands tightly +over her lips as he reached the one that was lying motionless, a knee +upraised, quite close to the others' heels.</p> + +<p>The upraised knee slowly straightened. One of the two negro guards +looked round and kicked at their prisoner. The other spoke, and a +squealing laugh reached her ears.</p> + +<p>Each instant seemed an eternity until she thought she could see Reuben +Yoxall turn and begin to worm his way back toward her, with another +stealthy shadow following him.</p> + +<p>He reached her side.</p> + +<p>"Up and run for it now, lass," he panted, and stooped and lifted her to +her feet. "They can't hear us from there. For God's sake, don't give way +now."</p> + +<p>But she was quite limp and strengthless. The strain had been too much +for her. He picked her up in his arms and made for their boat at an +elephantine trot, the stranger struggling along after him through the +sand. She was sobbing brokenly when he set her down beside it.</p> + +<p>A piercing scream rang out across the sand from the near distance, above +all the other turmoil. But he had already got the boat turned right side +up and the man in the mask helped him to set it afloat. He splashed +ashore again and carried Sallie out to it, settling her very tenderly in +its stern.</p> + +<p>"We're all right now," he told her, and she whispered back, "Oh! I'm so +ashamed of myself, Rube,—I nearly fainted!"</p> + +<p>The other man sat down in the bow and the mate stepped carefully in. A +few minutes later they were beyond the bar, safe enough from pursuit.</p> + +<p>"I'll take an oar now," the stranger suggested, speaking for the first +time, and in a tone which showed how he had suffered. Yoxall passed him +one willingly. He had over-taxed his own strength at last. He was almost +exhausted before they at length ran alongside the <i>Olive Branch</i>, +skirting the arc of the search-light. He could scarcely scramble up the +rope he had left hanging from the poop.</p> + +<p>But with the other man's help he managed to get the boat aboard and +stowed away again. And they returned on deck together.</p> + +<p>"What do you think has happened ashore, Rube?" asked Sallie very +anxiously as he reappeared from below.</p> + +<p>"I wish I knew, lass," he answered, no less concerned. "I'll go and find +out what Brasse—"</p> + +<p>"I must see Mr. Brasse too," she told him. "He's promised—" She turned +to the stranger.</p> + +<p>"The stokehold's the only place on board where you will be safe," she +said, somewhat uncertainly. "Will you mind very much—"</p> + +<p>"I'll shovel coal <i>most</i> contentedly," he assured her at once, in a tone +that was still very tremulous. "And—how to show my gratitude to both of +you, for the chance, I—I can't—"</p> + +<p>His voice broke. He could say no more. His silent self-control had been +too sorely tried.</p> + +<p>"Come on, then," said Reuben Yoxall uncomfortably. And Sallie clutched +at the big, stolid Englishman's arm again and clung to it as they went +forward, along the dark empty decks.</p> + +<p>On the bridge, in the dim, vaporous light at one side of the white hood +within which the carbon was burning, they caught sight of the chief +engineer, a raggedly disreputable-looking individual, with features +haggard, refined to the pitch of foolishness, rendered still more +fatuous by the single eye-glass he always affected and which he had worn +even while, when he had first joined the ship, he himself had worked in +the stokehold as one of the black gang who feed the furnaces. Brasse was +one of a number of human enigmas who had followed Captain Dove's flag +and fortunes for uncounted years, and Sallie had long ago heard the +common report that there was a hangman's rope waiting for him somewhere +ashore.</p> + +<p>He looked round as she approached, and his perspiring face expressed +heartfelt relief.</p> + +<p>"Just a moment," he begged, and once more applied an eye to the +telescope trained parallel with the light.</p> + +<p>"I thought so," he exclaimed, and turned a tap on a tube leading into +the hood. In the instant darkness which ensued, the flare of another +blue-light on the ridge above the ravine ashore produced a very weird +and startling effect.</p> + +<p>The engineer turned to Sallie.</p> + +<p>"Gad!" said he, hurriedly, "but I'm glad to see you safe back on board. +I was afraid that—Did you get your man?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we brought him off. He's here, behind," Sallie answered briefly, +since there was so little time to explain anything. "But—what has gone +wrong ashore, Mr. Brasse?"</p> + +<p>"That second signal should mean that Captain Dove has been quite +successful," said Brasse, a bitter note in his voice. "I expect he'll be +back on board presently, too. So I'll get away below now and send some +of my men on deck to help. I'll have to see your friend fixed up before +the boats arrive. Have you explained to him—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he understands," she assured him, and, as the stranger followed +the engineer silently from the bridge, she spoke to Yoxall again. He was +leaning over the rail behind her, gazing over the side.</p> + +<p>"What do you think has really happened, Rube?" she once more asked him. +"It didn't look as if our men were winning."</p> + +<p>"I wish I knew, lass," he repeated dully. "But—we'll know before very +long, and—we can do nothing to help. So you'd better be off aft again, +now, and seek some rest. I must see everything shipshape about the +decks."</p> + +<p>Sallie went slowly back to the poop, but she could not rest amid so many +anxieties. It was not very long, however, before the regular plash of +oars reached her ears where she was standing within the companion-hatch, +under cover from the dew that the awning dripped. And in another minute +Captain Dove's harsh voice hailed the ship.</p> + +<p>"Show a light at the gangway, quick!" the old man shouted. "Muster all +hands at the rails—and don't let a single son-of-a-gun on board you +till I give the word."</p> + +<p>These peremptory orders were promptly obeyed. Reuben Yoxall himself came +running to the break of the poop with a deck-lamp and let the +Jacob's-ladder down. But Captain Dove's boat was well ahead of the +others, although for all company in it he had only Jasper Slyne and +three white-robed Arabs, who, as they ran alongside, shipped their oars +smartly to clutch at the ladder, up which Captain Dove scrambled +swaying, with only one hand at his service. Slyne followed him, hot, +dusty, dishevelled, still bleeding from a deep cut in one cheek, and +then the Arabs, the Emir El Farish first, and the last with a turn of +the boat's painter about his wrist in seaman-like fashion.</p> + +<p>"Shift her forward now," Captain Dove commanded, "and up with the ladder +again."</p> + +<p>Which also was done, in a hurry, so that when the other boats arrived +they had to bring-to under the bare wet side of the steamer wallowing in +the swell. Sallie, herself unseen, saw that there were only three or +four men in each, and a sudden, sick understanding of Captain Dove's +successful expedient for ridding the ship of the rest of the mutineers +flashed through her mind. But she would not allow herself to surmise +what the Emir's visit might mean.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove, safe on board, surveyed for a space, in silence and very +much at his leisure, the men in the boats. But not one of them was able +or willing to meet his malevolent glance. A more cowed, unhappy, +hang-dog lot he had never seen, and he told them so, at some length.</p> + +<p>"Get on to your feet, you, Hobson," he snapped, and the second mate +stood up in his place, as if with a galvanic effort of will. Captain +Dove regarded him fixedly for some moments.</p> + +<p>"You're the worst that's left," he said then, in a steely voice, "and—I +don't quite know what to do with you. I've asked Far—the Emir here if +he'll have you as a gift, along with the others I left ashore, but he +won't. And I don't want you on the <i>Olive Branch</i>; there's no room on +board for a man like you—you might stir up another mutiny! Seems to me +the very best thing you can do for yourself now is to jump right +overboard before I have that boat swung and lay hands on you. For, if +you set foot on my ship again, I'll have you hove head-first into one of +the furnaces. D'ye hear?</p> + +<p>"But take your choice—one way or the other, it's all the same to me.</p> + +<p>"The rest of you mutinous swine can come aboard now. You've had your +lesson, I think, eh? Then stand by to pick Mr. Hobson up if he follows +you, and carry him down to the stokehold.</p> + +<p>"Let the ladder over again, there."</p> + +<p>The doomed wretch, staring wide-eyed at Captain Dove in the lamplight, +seemed to know that no appeal from that most monstrous penalty of his +scarcely less monstrous crime would serve any purpose at all, and looked +hopelessly about him while the others in the boat clambered, cringing, +up the ship's side. He shuddered convulsively as he caught sight of a +stealthy black fin in the water, within a few feet of him. His slack, +twisted lips were moving like those of a man with paralysis.</p> + +<p>"Put—put a bullet through me first," he begged piteously, and turning +about, scrambled, groping, into the stern-sheets.</p> + +<p>He stood there throughout an eternity of a few seconds, head bent, +shoulders heaving, hands hanging limp, and then, "For God's own sake—" +he cried, in a dreadful, whimpering voice, that was suddenly stilled by +a whip-like explosive crack as he pitched forward, headlong, out of the +boat.</p> + +<p>Sallie had darted, unnoticed, down the steps from the poop to where +Jasper Slyne was standing in the background, nonchalantly looking on.</p> + +<p>"Save him, Jasper—for my sake!" she beseeched of him, who alone had any +influence with the old man.</p> + +<p>"I will—if you'll promise to marry me," he whispered in answer, as if +inspired to snatch at even such a precarious chance of placing her under +that obligation to him, and, without waiting for any reply, he fired at +the black fin beyond the boat, ran to the rail and plunged over the +ship's side. Captain Dove swung around, snarling viciously, and struck +at him as he passed.</p> + +<p>The splash he made frightened the swarming sharks away for a moment or +two. He came up close beside Hobson, seized him by the scruff of the +neck, and, after a desperate struggle, succeeded in clambering into the +boat. A white streak seemed to leap from the water and snapped and +missed the second mate's helpless heels by an inch or two as Slyne, with +a final, frantic effort, jerked him inboard and fell backward over a +thwart.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove stood glaring about him, speechless. Sallie had drawn back, +unseen, in breathless suspense. But the old man said nothing at all, not +even when Slyne stepped, spent and dripping, over the rail, with Hobson +close behind crying like a child.</p> + +<p>"I've no more time to waste on such tomfoolery," said the Emir then, +angrily, "and no great taste for it, either, Captain Dove. So give me +the girl now, and I'll be gone."</p> + +<p>"Come below, for a minute," returned Captain Dove, in a strangled voice, +mastering his pent rage with a very visible effort. "Come below for a +minute till I send for her.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Yoxall, you'll let Mr. Brasse know that we'll be starting in half +an hour. Tell those men off in two watches, and send one lot below. +Leave Da Costa in charge of the deck—you'll be rated as second mate, +now, Da Costa, d'ye hear?—and turn in, yourself, Mr. Yoxall, till the +morning watch."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir," Yoxall responded mechanically, and Captain Dove, as he +led the way to his own quarters amidships—he had only been berthed aft, +in the poop, while he had been ill and the crew conspiring against +him—at length looked round at Slyne.</p> + +<p>"Better get into some dry clothes, quick," he said, civilly enough, but +in a tone which betrayed his real temper. "I want you to go aft and +bring Sallie along."</p> + +<p>When Slyne came aft again, a few minutes later, he was once more cool +and clean and spruce in white drill, with a plaster over the cut on his +face. He was also apparently well pleased with himself.</p> + +<p>He found Sallie crouching within the companion-hatch, and she shrank +still farther into its shelter as he approached.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" he asked in surprise, his greedy eyes searching her +white face in the misty darkness while she looked up at him in +speechless dismay.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear what Captain Dove said?" he asked, and laughed exultantly. +"You needn't worry about anything of that sort now, my dear. You've got +some one to look after you now, and—it's all part of his plan, don't +you understand? You must come along with me, but—there's nothing to be +afraid of. You're perfectly safe now—with me."</p> + +<p>She did not know what to believe, but, since there was no help for it, +she followed him, without a word, to the doorway of the mid-ship saloon, +within which the Emir and Captain Dove were amicably engaged over a +black bottle.</p> + +<p>"The real potheen!" El Farish was saying exultantly, a tumbler to his +hook-nose. "It's long since I've had the chance of such." He looked +round as Slyne stepped in.</p> + +<p>"Here, have a sip, Mr. Slyne," he said. "No, out of this glass of mine, +if you please, just to show that it isn't hocussed. I've known Captain +Brown—Captain Dove, I mean—long enough to be extra careful in his +company."</p> + +<p>He laughed as Slyne took the tumbler from him and, with a covert nod to +Captain Dove, half emptied it at a draught. And, as Slyne smacked his +lips, "If it does you so much good, it can't do me any harm," said the +Emir jovially. "So—here's to the pair of bright eyes that—Ah! there +she is. Come in, acushla, and let's have another look at you."</p> + +<p>But Sallie had stopped on the threshold, and stayed there, silent, +unable to move. The Emir, staring avidly at her, rose and lifted his +glass.</p> + +<p>"Here's happy days and no regrets—to the two of us!" he cried, and was +draining it off when Captain Dove, at his back, felled him to the floor +with a well-aimed blow of the full water-bottle, which was the most +convenient weapon at hand.</p> + +<p>"Are his two cut-throats out there safe?" the old man hissed from +between set teeth, and Sallie, looking round, saw two limp figures +huddled with hanging heads in the dark alleyway just beyond the door.</p> + +<p>"Safe as houses," Slyne answered evenly, since she stood silent, aghast. +"I made sure of them before I went aft. A single drink settled their +hash. You must have made the dose in the other bottle pretty strong."</p> + +<p>"It's just as well, after all, you see, that we didn't depend on fixing +him the same way," said Captain Dove, recovering his self-command and +indicating the prone Emir with a contemptuous foot. He seemed to have +forgotten for the moment his grudge against Slyne. "I was afraid he'd +smell a rat if we tried that old trick on him.</p> + +<p>"And now—the sooner he's over the side the better. Don't stand there +staring, Sallie! Go and call some of the men in."</p> + +<p>The girl turned and went, dazedly, drawing her skirts close as she +passed the two huddled figures in the alleyway. Half a dozen of the +watch on deck carried the Emir and his ineffectual retinue up the +gangway, flung them, like so much rubbish, into the boat out of which +the hapless Hobson had fallen, and at once cast it loose.</p> + +<p>"They'll probably all wake up before they drift into the surf," said +Captain Dove, looking on, with a laugh which made even Slyne glance +askance at him. "And, if not—it isn't my fault.</p> + +<p>"That fellow thought he could get the better of <i>me</i>, Slyne—and there's +the result!</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Mr. Da Costa? Where's Hobson?"</p> + +<p>"He's locked himself into his room, sir, and barricaded the door," the +new second mate answered swiftly, with a servile smile.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" exclaimed Captain Dove. "All right. Weigh anchor at once. Head +west for an hour and then due north. You'll be relieved before long. And +just bear in mind that we've got to be very careful of coal now; we've +no more on board than will take us to Genoa."</p> + +<p>Da Costa saluted briskly, and had disappeared before Captain Dove turned +and caught sight of Sallie again.</p> + +<p>"Get away aft and turn in at once," he called irritably to her. "You'll +have to take the bridge by and by, and for a good long spell, too—we've +all had a hard time of it ashore while you've been idling on board."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE WHITE BLACKBIRD</h3> + + +<p>"I could do with a sleep myself!" said Slyne, as he followed the old man +toward the mid-ship saloon after Sallie had gone.</p> + +<p>"There's no hurry," Captain Dove disagreed. "And—we've Hobson to get +rid of first. What the everlasting blazes made you bring him aboard +again!"</p> + +<p>Slyne darted a grimace of disgust at him.</p> + +<p>"An idea of my own," he answered slowly.</p> + +<p>"But—you're surely not going to murder him in his bed now!" he added. +Case-hardened and unscrupulous though he might be, he had not yet got so +far as to contemplate without a seasick qualm the idea of killing any +man in cold blood.</p> + +<p>He threw himself down on the settee in the malodorous little saloon.</p> + +<p>"I'm tired to death of you and your butcher's methods!" said he, +regardless of consequences. "Have you no conscience at all?"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove, blinking balefully at him from out of weak, red-rimmed +eyes, showed all his tobacco-stained fangs: but in an unexpected smile +instead of a snarl. The old man was evidently in a much better temper +now that he had turned the tables so neatly on nearly all of those who +had thought him utterly in their power. It seemed to amuse him to hear +Jasper Slyne in the rôle of mentor.</p> + +<p>"None at all," he answered amiably. "And—how about you?"</p> + +<p>"You can leave me out of your reckoning after this," Slyne declared, the +more morose since he knew very well what good grounds the other had for +that taunt. "I'm going ashore just as soon as we get to Genoa, and +you'll never set eyes on me again. I know when I've had enough—and I've +had enough now."</p> + +<p>"Not you," Captain Dove contradicted him blandly. "Say when." He had +whisked a bottle of champagne out from a locker under the settee, +knocked its wired head neatly off on the table-edge, and was pouring the +creamy wine out into a glass, with hospitable but steady hand. When the +glass was full he stopped, but not till then, since Slyne had said +nothing.</p> + +<p>He filled another for himself, and drank its contents off in a couple of +gulps, produced a box of cigars, and lighted one clumsily. Slyne +followed his example in both respects, but more deliberately, and the +heady liquor was not without its prompt effect on him.</p> + +<p>"What I mean, Dove," said he presently in that grandiose, patronising +manner which always rubbed Captain Dove the wrong way, "what I mean is +that I've had far more than enough of this rough-and-tumble work. It +isn't the sort of sport at all that appeals to a gentleman. And, what's +more, I haven't made a penny out of it all."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove's eyes began to kindle. Slyne had succeeded, as usual, in +touching him on the raw.</p> + +<p>"No more have I," he asserted with a fierce oath. "I've barely enough +left to pay the port-dues in Genoa and take my ship through the canal; +you know very well, too, that I won't be safe till I see Suez astern. +For a few tons of coal and some temporary repairs I'll have to trust to +my wits. I'm worse off now than I was when I picked you up in New York, +with your precious scheme for making our fortunes in Central America."</p> + +<p>The flagrant injustice of that reproach was so obvious that Slyne kept +his self-control. "Whose fault was it that you were so soft with Sallie +as to let her spoil all our plans?" he asked equably, and did not wait +for an answer. "And you're far better off at the finish than I am," said +he. "Your foolishness has cost us both our chance of a big haul—but +<i>you've</i> still got her."</p> + +<p>"I've still got her," the old man admitted, if grudgingly. "That's true. +I've still got her. And she'll have to pay pretty high, perhaps, for all +she's cost me of late. You wouldn't believe, Slyne, how well I've always +treated that girl. I couldn't have done better by her if she had been my +own daughter. And I wouldn't have believed she'd ever go back on me as +she's done of late."</p> + +<p>"You don't know how to handle her at all," Slyne asserted bluntly. +"You're getting into your dotage. She's outgrown you. And what'll happen +in the end will be that you'll lose her too. You're far too grasping."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove shook his hoary head with a cunning grin. "If I don't know +how to handle her, there's nothing you can teach me," he commented. "And +yet you'd give your very eye-teeth for her!"</p> + +<p>"It would be the best bit of business you've done for long," Slyne +affirmed. "She's cost you far more already than you'll ever make again, +and me, too, for that matter. Look what a hoodoo she's been to us all +this trip. We might both have been millionaires at this minute but for +her interfering with—"</p> + +<p>"Avast there, now!" the old man growled savagely. "Don't keep harping on +that string, curse you! I know when I've had enough, too. So just keep +your head shut about it. And bear in mind, Slyne, that what I say goes, +on the <i>Olive Branch</i>, or—it'll maybe be 'Hobson's choice' for you too +before we make Genoa."</p> + +<p>Slyne gave him back glance for virulent glance, but kept silence, and +showed his wisdom thereby. For Captain Dove, in that frame of mind, +might very easily have been moved to some insane act of violence. The +old man had never before gone so far as actually to threaten his casual +accomplice. And even Slyne, who did not fear death itself, did not +desire to die in a more unpleasant manner than need be. He sat quiet, +searching his nimble brain for some more soothing speech.</p> + +<p>"What makes me so hot," he explained, relaxing his scowl as he held out +his empty glass, "is that I haven't the money you want for her. You've +no idea, Dove, how well I could do with a wife like that. And now—"</p> + +<p>"Sallie wouldn't whistle to your teachings now any more than she will to +mine—not so well, in fact," Captain Dove declared, accepting the +friendly hint, and reached for the bottle. "I wish to blazes that this +lame flipper of mine was fit for duty again. See if you can find a fresh +bottle below you, Slyne. And, for heaven's sake! talk sense. You haven't +the money—and that's the end of the matter."</p> + +<p>Slyne, searching under the settee, scowled to himself. He was not for a +moment prepared to admit that the matter was at an end, but neither was +he inclined to contradict his companion again. It irked him to have to +hold his tongue. He approached the subject afresh, from another +direction.</p> + +<p>"You may not find it so easy now as you think to dispose of her," he +adventured. "The world's not so wide as it was, for one thing, +and—she's developed a very strong will of her own these past few +months."</p> + +<p>"Tell me something I don't know," begged Captain Dove. "The world's +become far too small to suit me—or you either, Slyne—but I know one or +two quiet corners yet where the black flag's better known than the +British, if that's what you're hinting at.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear of the Pirate Isles, for instance? They're not what +they used to be, of course, but there's still trade to be done in those +waters, in spite of the French. I once met a Chinese mandarin there who +offered me a hundred thousand taels for the girl—close on eighty-five +thousand dollars. I'm going East again now, and I know where to lay my +hands on him when I want to.</p> + +<p>"A year ago I could have got rid of her to a son-of-a-gun from Shiraz +who tried to do me down over a deal in rifles for Afghanistan, but I +wouldn't let her go, to a scoundrel like that.</p> + +<p>"The Rajah of—But, pshaw! I've had a round dozen of such offers for +her, first and last, all good as government bonds—and a lot more than +that like yours, Slyne."</p> + +<p>Slyne almost choked over his champagne, but Captain Dove did not seem to +notice that.</p> + +<p>"And now I'll take the next—of the right sort—that comes along," the +old man went on, growing gloomy again. "I've been too particular, I'll +admit. I've picked and chosen for her, at my own expense, and always +meaning to see her as happily settled as might be. I couldn't have +considered her more if she had been my own daughter."</p> + +<p>Slyne pricked up his ears. "That's just where the trouble will come in +for you," said he. "She's somebody's daughter, and some day she'll find +out whose; she isn't by any means so simple as you suppose. Then there +will be the devil to pay—out of empty pockets."</p> + +<p>He hesitated over an impulse to argue the moral aspect of Captain Dove's +expressed intention regarding the helpless girl, but concluded to let +that go, since the pecuniary side of it was so much more to the point. +"I wonder you don't see," he went on patiently, "how much better it +would pay you in the long run to marry her to me, and so be done with +all your worries. I'm bound to make money. With her to help me I'd soon +be breaking the bank.</p> + +<p>"I'm not close-fisted, either; I'm willing to share the profits with you +as long as you've any use for them." He held up a protesting hand as +Captain Dove would have cut in, no doubt with some caustic sarcasm. +"What I'm offering you isn't eighty-five thousand dollars, remember," he +finished, "but a free income for life, that'll run into six figures a +year—or I'll be vastly surprised at your simple tastes!"</p> + +<p>"You'd be more surprised if I said 'done' to any such idiot's bargain," +opined Captain Dove, and laughed like an old hyena. "And the sooner you +set all such nonsensical projects aside, the better we'll get on +together. My pretty white blackbird will never have to fret her heart +out in any imitation-gilt cage. And more than that, I heard her tell you +not so long ago—I suppose you forgot that the open port below you was +just at my ear—that she'd far rather beg in the gutter than marry +you!"</p> + +<p>Slyne flushed darkly under his tan and darted an ugly glance at his +grinning tormentor. He had always plumed himself on his way with women, +and Captain Dove's chance shaft had sorely wounded his very sensitive +self-esteem. But he still controlled his own barbed tongue and said +nothing of the new card he had up his sleeve.</p> + +<p>"So be it, then," he agreed, with a somewhat difficult smile. "I can't +force you" ("you old fool!" he added mentally) "to take the chance of a +lifetime when it's offered you. And, of course, what you've told me now +makes all the difference. You've often given me to understand that +Sallie's a somebody by rights. Now you say she's only a slave!"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove cogitated deeply, and then drank again. The <i>Olive Branch</i> +was moving smoothly along her course, leaving a heavy load of trouble +always a little further astern. A pleasant sense of security and comfort +had replaced the agonizing mental strain of the past few days. The wine +he had been imbibing was buoying him up, and he was inclined to be +garrulous.</p> + +<p>"I've often told you she ought to be at least a lady of title in her own +right," he remarked at length, "she's so damned high and mighty with me +at times. But—who she really is—I've never told you that, have I, +Slyne?"</p> + +<p>Slyne shook his head, with assumed unconcern.</p> + +<p>"I've never told you that—because I don't know," the old man chuckled +explosively.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose it's ever struck you that it might pay you to find +out?" Slyne inquired with sardonic gravity, and Captain Dove began to +show signs of becoming restless again.</p> + +<p>"How the Seven Stars can I find out!" he demanded indignantly. "The +trader I bought her from, along with a shipload of niggers for the +Sultan of El Merayeh, when she was very little more than knee-high to +me—and a pretty stiff price I paid for her, too, let me tell you!—had +brought her from the other side of the Back o' Beyond that lies three +months away behind the mountains of God-knows-Where. So much I found out +from him one way and another, although he could speak no language that +I'd ever heard before. And no one will ever be able to find out more. +She's my property, by right of purchase. It wouldn't pay even her own +father, whoever he is, to try to take her away from me."</p> + +<p>"But where was it you ran across her?" asked Slyne, with somewhat too +much eagerness. "Oh, all right. You needn't tell me any more than you +want to. I'm not in the least inquisitive."</p> + +<p>He lighted another cigar, and lay back in his seat as if he took no +further interest in that strange story. But in his fertile brain he was +seeking some way to turn it to his own advantage. And the obstacles +before him merely made him the more determined. For the needy +adventurer's restless mind was inflamed by dreams of the future he might +achieve with a wife such as Sallie to help him, by the delusion that, +once she was legally his, he would succeed in bending or breaking her +will to his every wish.</p> + +<p>In the smoke that hung about the skylight of the squalid, grubby little +saloon, with its two evil-smelling, untended kerosene lamps overwhelming +even the odour of two rank cigars, he saw golden, diamond-set visions of +such a career as could only end at the very crest of that dazzling +society amid which crowns nod in friendly fashion to coronets, which +will, on occasion, open its doors as if hospitably to a man with money +and brains and a tempting wife. Slyne had more than once in his palmier +days strayed boldly over all boundaries into the outskirts of quite +august circles, and felt assured that he was fitted to shine among even +the most select.</p> + +<p>While as for Sallie—he could imagine her at his side, tall and slender, +in the very latest mode, but scarcely more than young girl yet, as +lissom and shapely as any sculptor's divinest dream of Aphrodite, with +her pure, proud, sensitive features faintly flushed under the scrutiny +of the multitude to the complexion of a wild-rose at its prime; with her +curved, crimson lips, drooped a little as though in appeal against the +envious stare of the other women, questioning eyebrows, eyes with the +wild wine of youth abrim behind their long, shadowy lashes, alive with +strange, lambent lights, like twin rainbows born between sunshine and +shower; and, over all, a glory of red-gold hair luridly aglow in the +gleam of innumerable electroliers.</p> + +<p>His own eyes hardened and narrowed again. A cock-roach crawling along a +beam had brought him back to crude matters of fact.</p> + +<p>"Does she know—what you've told me?" he tried afresh, with +unconquerable persistence.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove shook his head abstractedly, and then sat up with a scowl, +realising too late that he had admitted more than was maybe wise.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't make any difference, of course," said Slyne, to appease him, +"since there's so little to know: and she doesn't seem much interested, +does she? The upshot is that she's your property; there isn't a court in +the world that could say otherwise. And no other claimant could prove +his case.</p> + +<p>"If you'll take a tip from me, though, you'll see that she and Yoxall +don't give you the slip together some fine—" He halted, tongue-tied +under the old man's murderous glance.</p> + +<p>"You can count him out," Captain Dove asserted, with a cold assurance +which very much discomposed his more imaginative companion. "Is that +bottle empty too? Then I'll just see to him now, before I turn in. I'm +much obliged to you for reminding me."</p> + +<p>He rose, still scowling, and set his lips to one of several +speaking-tubes let into the bulkhead behind him. "Is that Mr. Brasse?" +he demanded. "I want one of those boxes of cigars you have in the +engine-room." He set one ear to the tube, nodded, and sat down again.</p> + +<p>"You're not going to—do anything rash?" Slyne asked, uncomfortably.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to do anything that would upset an infant in arms—for +more than a minute," returned Captain Dove in his mildest tone, and +Slyne sprang to his feet with a startled oath as a hatch in the floor +beyond the table at which they were sitting suddenly lifted, and in the +opening appeared the bald head and stoop shoulders of the sullen chief +engineer.</p> + +<p>"It's all right. You needn't be nervous," said Captain Dove with a nasty +grin. "There are lots of other funny little contrivances you know +nothing about on this ship." And Slyne, looking angrily sheepish, +returned to its pocket in his white coat something he had pulled out in +a hurry, while his tormentor stooped and took gingerly from the engineer +the innocent looking cigar box which that individual was holding out to +him.</p> + +<p>The hatch descended again, noiselessly, and they were once more alone.</p> + +<p>"I don't like that infernal fellow," Slyne declared in a sulky voice, +"and he doesn't like me—or you either, for that matter. If I were you I +wouldn't turn my back on him when there's a hammer within his reach."</p> + +<p>"Don't you worry about me," Captain Dove advised in return, and, holding +the box to his ear, shook it slightly. "My head's quite as thick as your +own—if it comes to hammer-work," he added, in a provoking tone. But +that shot missed its mark. Slyne was very much more interested in the +cigar box.</p> + +<p>The old man set that down on the table, and, stooping, pulled off his +shoes. "I don't want Da Costa to notice us," he explained, and Slyne, +inspired by a fearful curiosity, followed his example.</p> + +<p>Box in hand, but at arm's length, Captain Dove left the saloon, tiptoed +laboriously up the steep stair which led, by way of the quarter-deck, to +the chart-house behind the bridge, and, stepping out on to the deck with +extreme precaution, passed aft into the darkness.</p> + +<p>The night was no less obscure now that dawn was near, but he could have +found his way about the ship blind, and Slyne crept closely after him, +not knowing what to expect, since Reuben Yoxall lay safely locked in one +of the rooms below.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove stopped behind the canvas shaft of one of the wind-sails +which had been spread to catch the scant breeze and relieve a little the +atmosphere of the mid-ship cabins. Its base was made fast about the hood +of an ordinary deck ventilator.</p> + +<p>"Cast it loose for a minute and listen," he whispered to his companion, +and Slyne obeyed.</p> + +<p>He listened there for a time, and then turned to whisper excitedly to +Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"There's something wrong with him," he said. "He's raving. He's down +with fever, as sure's I live."</p> + +<p>"Let me hear," the old man commanded, and was very soon satisfied.</p> + +<p>"Hell!" he ejaculated. "Now, isn't that the limit! There's surely some +hoodoo on board this ship.</p> + +<p>"Tie it up again, Slyne. We needn't waste powder and shot on <i>him</i>. He's +booked out, express, on a free pass—and a damned good riddance, too!"</p> + +<p>Slyne was not slow in re-fastening the canvas to the ventilator again. +But even then Captain Dove was not done with him.</p> + +<p>"Hobson's in the next cabin," the old man remarked, "and we may as well +give him his ticket now as later on. We can't afford to let him bolt +ashore whenever we make port—and blow the gaff on us both, Slyne!"</p> + +<p>Slyne hung back, his gorge up again.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"You do your part and I'll do mine," snapped Captain Dove. And Slyne +cast loose the second wind-chute.</p> + +<p>Into the wide, rusted mouth of the ventilator Captain Dove cautiously +thrust one end of the flat cigar box and pushed that well down its open +throat. A muffled click was no more than audible but, none the less, +caused Slyne to start apprehensively. And then the old man withdrew the +box, tossed it over the ship's side, and, with a hurried whisper to +Slyne to make the canvas fast again, scuttled off back to the saloon.</p> + +<p>Slyne was not slow in following him, but stubbed his toes hurtfully on +his way to the stair and could scarcely repress the curse that rose to +his lips. Just then, however, he caught sight of a shadow at the near +end of the bridge above, which, he knew, was Da Costa, on watch, and he +did not care to be detected in any such dangerous and undignified +predicament. When he limped into the saloon below he found Captain Dove +seated there, once more sucking at a cigar, head cocked on one side as +if listening for something.</p> + +<p>"Was it an explosive?" demanded Slyne, almost boiling over at the idea +that he had unwittingly been risking his life as a cat's-paw.</p> + +<p>"What the blazes are you talking about?" Captain Dove counter-questioned +acidly. "And where have you been, eh? I thought you said you were going +to bed."</p> + +<p>He stared unwinkingly into the other's angry, suspicious eyes. "What's +it like on deck?" he inquired. "Any sign of wind yet?"</p> + +<p>"You ought to know, you've just been on deck," snapped Slyne.</p> + +<p>"On deck!" exclaimed Captain Dove in surprise. "Not me. I've been +sitting smoking here since you left the saloon."</p> + +<p>Slyne, busy replacing his shoes, thought that over, and sat up again +with a sneering laugh.</p> + +<p>"Don't forget, Dove," said he, "that, if you ever go back on me at a +pinch, that will be the worst day's work you've ever done for yourself. +I'm the one who's been sitting here while you've been on deck—and I +don't know yet what you went for."</p> + +<p>"You'll hear presently," the other informed him, quite unmoved by his +threat. "And don't <i>you</i> forget, Slyne, that, if you ever go back on me +at a pinch, I've another—box of cigars that I'm keeping for your +benefit; I don't think Brasse will fail to look very carefully after it, +either."</p> + +<p>Slyne blanched a little, in spite of himself, and at that moment a +stifled shout came from behind some closed door at the end of the +alleyway outside the airless saloon. He moved, as if to rise, but sat +still, rigid, his eyes dilated, as a blood-curdling, long-drawn cry +reached his ears dully from the distance, and finally died to silence in +a quavering agony.</p> + +<p>Even Captain Dove was uncomfortably affected by it.</p> + +<p>A shrill whistle made them both jump as the sight of a policeman just +then might have done. It was the old man who first recovered his nerve.</p> + +<p>"That's Da Costa, curse him!" he muttered, and darted a glance of +contempt at Slyne as he crossed to the bridge speaking-tube.</p> + +<p>"How the devil do I know!" he roared into that, after listening to what +his new second mate had to say. "Yes, I heard it. You'd better send down +and find out what it was."</p> + +<p>He set the whistle into the tube again and turned to Slyne.</p> + +<p>"Pull yourself together, you fool!" he said savagely. "This isn't the +time to show the white feather. I wouldn't trust—" He stopped abruptly, +hearing the sound of heavy feet in the passage as some of the watch on +deck came tramping in, and Slyne, who had also heard that, pulled out +his handkerchief to hide his tell-tale face.</p> + +<p>The footsteps did not stop at the saloon door, however, but went on to +the end of the alleyway. And, when Captain Dove at length looked out, +one of the men there was still knocking violently at the door of +Hobson's room. But he could obtain no answer.</p> + +<p>"Better get a hatchet and handspikes, Cassidy," said Captain Dove, "and +break the door in. Something must have gone wrong inside."</p> + +<p>The panelling soon began to splinter under these drastic measures. A +crash told that it had succumbed, and then the two listeners heard the +key being turned in the lock.</p> + +<p>They strained their ears to catch what the men were muttering to each +other. One jumped clumsily back into the passage with a hoarse bark of +alarm, and, over the shuffling of feet which ensued, could be heard the +soft thud of quick, desperate blows on some substance which muffled +them, until one fell on woodwork again and a murmur of eager +congratulations succeeded it.</p> + +<p>The man Cassidy came along to the saloon door, out of breath but +exultant. "Mr. Hobson's stone-dead, sir," said he, extending his +hatchet, on whose flat blade lay, black and limp, a long thin snake that +looked like a slimy shoe-string. "Mr. Hobson's stone-dead—and that's +what killed him. It all but got me too, while I was turning over the +blankets."</p> + +<p>"Bring it nearer the light," Captain Dove directed, and then bent over +it, frowning, while Slyne, at his shoulder, stared at it as if +fascinated.</p> + +<p>"Huh!" Captain Dove at length commented. "Your luck was certainly in, +Cassidy, when you managed to dodge <i>that</i>. It must have got on board +while we were alongside the wharf at the Rio. But my luck's out, since +I've lost another man—and the ship so short-handed too!</p> + +<p>"You might see if you can find a bottle of grog for those lads, Mr. +Slyne. And—Cassidy. Just rouse the carpenter out and tell him to tie a +fire-bar or two to the body and slip it over the side. We can't keep a +dead man on board till morning in weather like this."</p> + +<p>Cassidy touched his forelock and went off, apparently quite content with +the luck which had left him alive to enjoy his share of the bottle Slyne +had handed him. Captain Dove shut the door behind him, and looked +contemplatively round at Slyne. His own face was grey. The artificial +animation derived from the alcohol he had imbibed was dying away. He +looked very old and tired.</p> + +<p>He slouched across to the speaking-tube and whistled up the engine-room, +while Slyne sat watching him with sombre eyes.</p> + +<p>"We've got black-water fever on board now, Brasse," he said in a weary +voice. "Hobson's dead already, and the mate's down with it, too. I want +you to send one of your men up to see after him. I can't spare a single +deck-hand. And I must have some one—or Sallie will be wanting to nurse +him herself."</p> + +<p>He set his ear to the mouthpiece and, after he had waited a while, spoke +into it again.</p> + +<p>"That's good," he remarked. "Send him up to the mate's room right away. +He'll have to stay there, in quarantine. And whatever he does know about +doctoring will maybe help him to save his own life!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>UNMASKED</h3> + + +<p>Sallie sat up in her disordered cot with a start of alarm when +Ambrizette came in to wake her, as she had directed before she lay down. +She had scarcely slept at all amid dreadful dreams, and was still very +weary, both body and mind. She had not yet had time to forget the +horrors of over-night.</p> + +<p>But she had no desire to dwell on them, and—there was the day's work +awaiting her. Twenty minutes later she was on her way to the bridge, to +relieve Da Costa.</p> + +<p>That was not the first occasion, by many, on which she had had to fill a +man's place. For Captain Dove had trained her to all the +responsibilities of the sea. Da Costa touched his cap obsequiously to +her and gave her the course, which she repeated after him, with +mechanical precision.</p> + +<p>As he turned to go, yawning wearily, "If you'll send and have me woke +out again whenever you feel like it, Miss Sallie," he said with an +ingratiating flourish, "I'll—"</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Yoxall will be taking the next watch, won't he?" she asked, +renewed doubt and distrust in her tired eyes.</p> + +<p>The promoted Portuguese quartermaster shrugged his shoulders and spread +out his hands.</p> + +<p>"You and I must stand watch and watch for a little, Miss Sallie," he +told her with a self-satisfied smirk. "The chief mate is sick—of a +fever. That Hobson he is already dead and over the side. And Captain +Dove has sent order that he is not to be disturbed—unless necessary. He +is broke down, he says, with illness and worry."</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute, then, Mr. Da Costa," she said, so imperatively that he +halted and let her pass. "I won't be long, and then I'll stay on duty +till evening."</p> + +<p>She hurried below by the stairway behind the chart-house, and went +straight along the alleyway to Reuben Yoxall's room. She was very much +alarmed; she knew how sudden and deadly the dreaded West African fever +could be. She did not doubt that the wretched Hobson had fallen a victim +to it.</p> + +<p>All was quiet within the chief mate's room. She knocked gently, and the +door was opened almost at once. A young man in an ill-fitting, +coal-blackened suit of blue dungaree looked inquiringly out at her and +then frowned.</p> + +<p>"Keep to the other side of the passage, please," he requested crisply. +"This room's in strict quarantine, and the risk of infection—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind about that," she broke in. "It's no worse for me than +for you. And I must speak to Rube—Mr. Yoxall. Is he very bad? How did +you—"</p> + +<p>She had recognised him by his voice. Without his horrible mask he looked +so much younger than she had supposed him that she had at first wondered +who he could be, although his keen, resolute face was haggard and lined, +his pale lips dreadfully drawn at the corners, and hideous remembrances +still seemed to lurk behind his steady grey eyes.</p> + +<p>"He's asleep at present—and pretty bad," said the stranger sorrowfully. +"I had to give him an opiate. I volunteered to look after him—which +was the very least I could do. There was no one else who knew anything, +and, although I'm not a doctor, I know some of the tricks of the trade.</p> + +<p>"And I know enough," he added, "to warn you that you must please stay +away from here in the meantime."</p> + +<p>"I won't," said Sallie simply. "He's my best friend, Mr.—"</p> + +<p>"Carthew's my name," the young man in the doorway informed her.</p> + +<p>"He's my best friend, Mr. Carthew. And—you must let me help."</p> + +<p>Mr. Carthew considered the matter, and nodded.</p> + +<p>"All right," he agreed. "If you like to see to his food—what the ship's +cook has left at the door will do him no good." And she listened +attentively while he went on to tell her what would be best for the sick +man.</p> + +<p>"Ambrizette will prepare it and bring it along," she promised. +"And—you'll let me see him next time I come down?"</p> + +<p>"As soon as he's fit to see anyone," her new acquaintance assured her. +And with that Sallie was quite content. She felt intuitively that she +could trust him.</p> + +<p>"Are you—all right, yourself?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Perfectly all right," he assured her. "And very glad of the chance to +repay some small part of what I owe—our friend."</p> + +<p>"No one else will come near you here," she said reflectively. "It may +all be for the best in the end."</p> + +<p>He nodded again, and, as she turned away, shut the door very quietly.</p> + +<p>She hurried aft, to instruct Ambrizette as to the food to be prepared +and carried to the sick man's door, and no less hastily returned to the +bridge. Da Costa left it by the other ladder; he evidently did not care +to come too near her then. And there she remained all day, with only the +sullen, silent man at the wheel for company.</p> + +<p>Once during the afternoon she slipped down to ask how the mate was, and +found him delirious. Slyne came on deck as she returned to her post, and +frowned angrily as she told him, in answer to his quick question, where +she had been. He had obviously intended to join her up there, but +thought better of that.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't go near him again, Sallie," he called to her peremptorily. +"Captain Dove will be very ill-pleased."</p> + +<p>"I can't help that," she answered, thankful so to escape Jasper Slyne's +company. And he turned away with a still blacker frown. It was tiresome +talking against the stiff head-wind.</p> + +<p>The day dragged out its dreary length, until, late in the evening, Da +Costa came on deck again.</p> + +<p>"I'm good for all night now," he told Sallie from a safe distance. +"Captain Dove's still sound asleep, although the mate's been making no +end of a row."</p> + +<p>"I'll be up again some time in the morning watch, then," she told him, +and was soon knocking at the door of Yoxall's room.</p> + +<p>Carthew's face was very grave when he looked out.</p> + +<p>"Is he worse?" she asked breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Better—in one way," the young American answered. "He's conscious now. +He's had some of the soup you sent along."</p> + +<p>"Can I see him?" she begged.</p> + +<p>"He's just been speaking of you. He told me to ask you not to come near +him again."</p> + +<p>She choked back a dry sob, and had pushed past him into the room before +he could interfere.</p> + +<p>"I'll sit with him for an hour or two now, while you get a sleep," she +said, and stifled another sob as she saw how the sick man's sunken eyes +grew glad at sight of her.</p> + +<p>Nor did anything that the acting doctor could urge make any difference +in her determination; and she hushed the mate's whispered protests with +a brave smile.</p> + +<p>"We're going to pull you through, Rube, between us," she whispered back, +bending over him. "And you're going to obey orders for the present, +instead of giving them. So don't say any more about it now."</p> + +<p>She had seated herself on a camp-stool beside him. Carthew, convinced +that it would be futile to argue any further with her, was evidently +only too glad to stretch himself on the sofa and draw the curtains. And +almost at once he fell fast asleep.</p> + +<p>It was very nearly midnight before he moved and woke and sprang to his +feet. And Sallie was still sitting there with one of the mate's huge +hands between both of hers.</p> + +<p>"He looks a little better, don't you think?" she asked wistfully before +she tiptoed out of the room. And Carthew, after a prolonged glance at +his patient, nodded approval and hope.</p> + +<p>That night and the next day and the next again passed without any change +of conditions on board. Captain Dove was still confined to his room, and +would not even see Slyne, who had, therefore, to live alone, bored to +the last limit, not so much afraid of the fever as shirking any +needless risk of infection, his intercourse with Sallie confined to an +occasional shouted caution or inquiry.</p> + +<p>Da Costa took the bridge by night and she by day. And every night she +relieved Carthew for a few hours from his unremitting attendance on the +sick man. She was with Reuben Yoxall when he died.</p> + +<p>What passed between the two of them during that last vigil is not to be +told. But the dead man's face was very calm and content when Sallie at +length roused Carthew from his scanty rest to tell him that the +appointed end had come.</p> + +<p>"But you promised to call me up," he said, most unhappy for her.</p> + +<p>"If there was any need," she corrected him gently. "But there was none. +He knew—before I came in."</p> + +<p>Her downcast eyes were dry, but grief almost beyond bearing showed in +them as she looked up at him on her way to the door.</p> + +<p>"You must get away to your own room now," he urged, "and have a long, +quiet rest. Don't forget that you've done all you could—and far more +than most folk would ever have dreamed of doing."</p> + +<p>Her lips trembled a little. She held out a hand to him gratefully. She +could not trust herself to speak. And, by and by, in her own quarters, +she slowly cried herself to sleep.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove was on the bridge next morning when she appeared, pale and +worn. And he flew into a passion at sight of her, rating her very +bitterly for her foolhardy behaviour.</p> + +<p>"Go away back to bed," he finally ordered, "and keep to the poop till I +give you leave to come forward again, d'ye hear?"</p> + +<p>Slyne, too, stepped hastily aside as she passed him on her way aft +again, and called after her some anxious advice as to taking better care +of herself. She was glad to think that she would be free of him for the +next few days, for always in the back of her mind was the fear of what +he had told her before still more urgent cares had come to overshadow +that for a time—that he had got Captain Dove to agree to give her to +him as his wife. And, now that Reuben Yoxall was gone, she felt utterly +forlorn and friendless.</p> + +<p>The <i>Olive Branch</i> bored through the Strait of Gibraltar during the +night, and after that Captain Dove effected sundry surprising changes in +his ship's appearance. No one would have recognised the rakish <i>Olive +Branch</i> in the clumsy looking craft with three bare pole-masts and a +smokestack as high as a factory chimney which went lurching, with +propellers awash, across the Gulf of Lyons. Even its name had been +changed again, and the new paint carefully aged. And a tattered +Norwegian flag lay ready at hand in the box beside the stubby pole at +its taffrail.</p> + +<p>No further case of fever had occurred in the interval, but he left +Sallie isolated in her own end of the ship until the lights of Genoa +showed white and clear in the distance. She was on deck, late though it +was, watching them as they grew always clearer, when Slyne came aft for +a moment to tell her that she was once more free of the ship.</p> + +<p>"And isn't it glorious to get back to civilisation again?" he exclaimed, +real gladness in his voice and his smiling eyes. "Think of the good +times we're going to have now, Sallie! I can't stop to tell you all I've +planned, but—I'll see you again very soon, eh? And meantime you can be +getting ready to slip ashore with me early to-morrow. I thought these +last few days would never end! I do believe I'd have jumped overboard +but for you and the promise you made me."</p> + +<p>He went off again, in a great hurry, before she could even deny having +promised him anything. "Captain Dove wants me to fake up an old Bill of +Health for him," he called back, and did not seem to hear her when she +cried to him to wait.</p> + +<p>Before she reached the quarter-deck, in her long oilskin coat, with a +broad sou'wester to keep the dew from her hair, he had disappeared. And +she did not care to follow him to the saloon below.</p> + +<p>The steamer had stopped in the offing to pick up a pilot, and was +already slinking in between the harbour head-lights to the quarantine +anchorage. As soon as its rusty cable roared through the hawse-pipe, +Captain Dove came down from the bridge, and Sallie stepped out from +among the shadows to confront him, on a quick impulse.</p> + +<p>"Is it true that you told Jasper Slyne I would marry him?" she asked +directly, without any preface.</p> + +<p>The old man shrugged his shoulders crossly. "Don't worry me just now, +girl!" he growled, but paused for a moment before passing on.</p> + +<p>"Has he been pestering you too?" he demanded, as if aggrieved himself, +"the bankrupt crook! Never mind him, Sallie. I'm going to kick him off +the ship first thing to-morrow morning. He hasn't a cent to bless +himself with, and—no man will ever marry you without money to burn, +believe me."</p> + +<p>Sallie drew a deep breath of belated relief. That load at least had +been lifted from her mind. She was at last free of the fear which had +been growing day by day as the <i>Olive Branch</i> neared port.</p> + +<p>A head and shoulders emerged from the engine-room skylight and she went +that way. It was Brasse, the chief engineer, come up for a mouthful or +two of fresh air. He nodded to Sallie.</p> + +<p>"Your friend's all right," he told her in a low tone. "The old man left +him alone in the mate's room till an hour ago and then told me to take +him back to the stokehold. He's going to swim for it now. I must get a +line let down—"</p> + +<p>"I'll do that," she said swiftly, "there—between the two boats. Tell +him where to look for it. And oh! Mr. Brasse—"</p> + +<p>He would not wait to be thanked. "I'll send him up right away, then. The +sooner he's over the side the better," said he, and so disappeared.</p> + +<p>Sallie climbed the rail, and, having found a coil of rope within one of +the two life-boats there, was letting that gently overside when another +shadow joined her.</p> + +<p>"How are you going to manage after you get ashore?" she asked hurriedly +as she was making the rope fast.</p> + +<p>"I have my own kit in this water-tight bundle," he told her. "I'll make +for the steps below those bathing-houses on the breakwater. It's only a +short swim."</p> + +<p>"But afterwards? You'll need money."</p> + +<p>"I have a little—enough to get along with, I assure you. I've nothing +to worry about—if I could only think of some way to show you my +gratitude. Is there anything at all I can do for you?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" he insisted. "I don't want to presume, of course, +but—Are you all right here, and quite happy? What sort of ship is this, +anyhow? And how—"</p> + +<p>"Listen, Mr. Carthew," she broke in. "The only thing you can do for me +is to forget all about me and the <i>Olive Branch</i>. And I'd be very +grateful to you if you would promise—"</p> + +<p>"Not to forget you," he said. "I couldn't. But—all the rest I promise."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she returned simply. "And now—"</p> + +<p>"There's no hurry," he declared. "We're quite safe in here. And—I'm not +going to leave you until you agree that, if I can ever be of any service +to you, you will let me know at once."</p> + +<p>"Very well," she agreed, to save time. "I'll do that."</p> + +<p>"You know my name," he reminded her, and paused, frowning.</p> + +<p>"But—that won't suit either," he said to himself reflectively, "for +more than a few weeks. And I'll be at your orders all my life.</p> + +<p>"You see," he said, as if in apology, "I'm Justin Carthew just now, +but—I'll be the Earl of Jura very soon after I get to England. And if +you've ever any use for me then, all you need do will be to send word to +the Earl of Jura, in London; it will soon find me, wherever I happen to +be."</p> + +<p>He laughed a little, and Sallie almost smiled too. But he had spoken +quite seriously.</p> + +<p>"You won't forget," he urged, grave again. "The Earl of Jura. I'm not +joking, I assure you. And, some day I may be able—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"You won't forget," he urged, grave again.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>"I won't forget," she promised, no less gravely, and held out a hand, in +her haste to get him safe away.</p> + +<p>He lifted it to his lips before letting it go, and stifled a sigh, and, +turning, let himself over the ship's side.</p> + +<p>Sallie sighed too, as she reclimbed the rail after he was safely gone. +She was wondering....</p> + +<p>But she was not left to her own reflections for long. Slyne came on +deck, and had espied her before she could escape.</p> + +<p>"I was just going aft to look for you," he told her in a confidential +tone which she did not like at all. "How about to-morrow morning, +Sallie?"</p> + +<p>"I asked Captain Dove, Jasper," she answered in a low voice. "And he +says—"</p> + +<p>"But surely you're going to keep your promise to me!" Slyne exclaimed, +in a tragic voice.</p> + +<p>"How <i>can</i> I?" she asked, not thinking it worth while even now to deny +that she had made him any promise at all. And at that moment Captain +Dove emerged from the chart-house behind.</p> + +<p>"A bargain's a bargain, Slyne," said he mockingly, having overheard. +"And Sallie can't keep her promise to you because you can't come away +with the ready cash. So you'd better say good-bye to her now, you won't +have another chance."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>AN OVERDRAFT ON THE FUTURE</h3> + + +<p>Slyne had drawn back a step. One of his hands fell on the haft of a +flogging-hammer that some one had left lying loose on the casemate +there. Had it not been for the proximity of the pilot, drowsing away the +time till morning in the chart-house behind, he would most assuredly +have attempted to knock the old man on the head with it. He felt sure +that, but for Captain Dove, he could have managed Sallie now that Yoxall +was out of the way. He stood gnawing savagely at his lower lip as she +vanished along the deck in the darkness. He had taken no notice at all +of her timid good-bye.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove grinned spitefully at him through the gloom of the small +hours. "You'd better be off below and pack up," the old man suggested. +"You'll be going ashore as soon as we get pratique."</p> + +<p>"But—I'll be back. Give me time to turn!" Slyne snarled at him. "A +bargain's a bargain, and—I'll be back."</p> + +<p>"You'd better not," Captain Dove advised in a very ominous voice, and +went on his way below, leaving Slyne to his own aggrieved, embittered +reflections.</p> + +<p>To Jasper Slyne the past few days had been like a foretaste of +purgatory. Captain Dove had interdicted all communication with Sallie, +and had proved a most unpleasant companion himself throughout the +unspeakably wearisome passage from the North-west African coast, a +passage made at the poorest speed of the ship because coal was scarce +and he was afraid to call anywhere by the way to fill up his bunkers. +Amid the dire squalor and discomfort, the enforced inaction and +loneliness of life under such conditions, Slyne's only solace had been +the hope of finally winning Sallie, by fair means or foul. He who, in +his time, had met and made love to so many charming adventuresses, who +would not have thought any more about her had she been one of their +sort, had become absolutely obsessed by ambitions to be fulfilled with +her for his wife.</p> + +<p>And now—he knew that neither force nor finesse would avail him against +Captain Dove's ultimatum. He had not the cash to meet the old man's +demands, and that was apparently the end of the matter.</p> + +<p>Most men, in Slyne's place, would have owned themselves beaten then. But +not so he. Thinking it all over again, he would admit to himself no more +than that he was for the moment baffled by contrary circumstances; +circumstances such as had been his lot for so long that he could +contemplate them almost unmoved. It was his happy creed that in the very +face of failure itself one may, as often as not, discern the inspiriting +features of final success. The dark hour that heralds dawn he spent +pacing the cluttered quarter-deck of the <i>Olive Branch</i> in the cold, his +far-away eyes always fixed on the twinkling dock-lights, his almost +bloodless lips straight and compressed under his black moustache, +cudgelling his brains for some safe means of immediately obtaining the +money he wanted.</p> + +<p>He had not the cash to meet Captain Dove's demands. But neither was he +so entirely penniless as Captain Dove supposed him. He had only a +hundred dollars in hand, but he had twenty thousand francs at his credit +in a French bank. Many a millionaire had risen to affluence from +infinitely smaller beginnings.</p> + +<p>But it would have been idle to offer Captain Dove any such trifling sum +on account of the price he had set on Sallie. And, rack his own +overworked wits as he would, Slyne could think of no safe plan for +turning his modest capital over at a sufficient profit within the time +at his disposal.</p> + +<p>"The only possible way," he told himself finally, his teeth set, "the +<i>only</i> possible way is to chance my luck at those cursèd tables again. +Although, God knows that's a risk I'd give up anything else to avoid. +But—it's the only possible way now," he repeated vexedly, recalling the +very excellent reasons he had for never showing his face in Monte Carlo +again.</p> + +<p>For, only a season or two before, he had figured throughout the Côte +d'Azur as accessory in an <i>affaire</i> with which the whole civilised world +had afterwards rung, in spite of every effort to hush it up, an +<i>affaire</i> whose tragic consequences had caused such a flutter of +scandalised chagrin among the private police of three great European +powers that he could never again cross their frontiers without fear. +Since he knew very well that, if he were ever identified, he would +deservedly disappear, without any further fuss, to spend the rest of his +life as a nameless cypher, forgotten, among the living dead, entombed in +some secure fortress. In that cosmopolitan underworld to which such as +Slyne belong, occur many curious incidents not reported in the +newspapers, and the citizens of Cosmopolis have nowhere consul or +minister to protect them against unfortunate consequences.</p> + +<p>Slyne had no illusions as to what his fate would be if he were +recognised on the Riviera.</p> + +<p>"But she's worth the stake," he told himself with dogged determination, +"even though it <i>is</i> life and liberty as well as my last few francs. +And—I'd just as soon be done with things if I can't capture Sallie from +that old scoundrel."</p> + +<p>He knew very well, of course, that his prospect of making a financial +success at the tables was no less of a forlorn hope. But he had all a +professional gambler's blind faith in the goddess of chance. And since +he would not withdraw from the contest, he had no option but to play +that losing hazard also.</p> + +<p>Day had broken before he had completed his plans. And then Captain Dove +reappeared, sleepy-eyed and unshaven, to interview the port-doctor.</p> + +<p>As soon as that functionary had glanced at the forged Bill of Health put +before him and seen the crew mustered to the tally it told, the yellow +flag at the fore was hauled down and Captain Dove hailed a shore-boat, +to which he had Slyne's baggage transferred, and curtly told Slyne to be +off ashore.</p> + +<p>Nor did Slyne delay to bid him farewell. Each was heartily sick of the +sight of the other, and each had plans of his own to promote in a hurry. +They separated without so much as a nod. Sallie was invisible. And +Slyne, in the boat on his way to the Custom-house, only looked back once +at the ports of the poop-cabin, to see, within the dingy brass frame of +one, a face that seemed to be watching him very thankfully as he went, a +horrible face, with blubber lips, almost inhumanly ugly, the face of +Sallie's devoted attendant, the dumb black dwarf, Ambrizette.</p> + +<p>A yawning Customs' searcher glanced at his baggage and passed it +unopened. In return for which courtesy Slyne bestowed upon him a +doubtful rix-dollar and a few words in fluent Italian concerning the +<i>Olive Branch</i>—words which would not improve Captain Dove's prospects +of an early departure from Genoa, but might, conversely, increase by a +little his own scanty time-allowance in that desperate bout with fortune +to which he had committed himself. He knew that Captain Dove was intent +on coaling and sailing again without the loss of a minute that might be +saved.</p> + +<p>He had all his own movements mapped out in anticipation. He drove to an +hotel at which he had stayed once before, and, after a Turkish bath and +breakfast, went on to the Crédit Lyonnais office to cash his draft. Then +he made a number of purchases in inconspicuous shops, where he had to +spend a good deal of time in bargaining, looked in at the Motor-Car Mart +& Exchange, where he saw a big touring-car over which he argued for some +minutes with the salesman; and, after a belated but liberal lunch in a +first-class restaurant, he turned back toward the sale-room.</p> + +<p>A man in an elaborate chauffeur's uniform, and evidently English, +stopped him in the street outside, to ask whether he would care to buy a +gold cigarette-case, a bargain. Slyne looked him over, and sized him up +at a glance.</p> + +<p>"Stranded?" he asked, and the man nodded sulkily.</p> + +<p>"Want a few days' work?"</p> + +<p>The chauffeur's dissipated face brightened.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said he, "I do."</p> + +<p>"Wait here, then," said Slyne, and went inside.</p> + +<p>"Well," he asked the salesman, "have you thought it over? What's the +last word?"</p> + +<p>"Fifteen thousand <i>lire, milor</i>—not a <i>soldo</i> less," declared the +dapper, frock-coated salesman, in a tone of final decision which Slyne's +sharp ears judged unfeigned. "The car is worth twice as much. Indeed, I +could not let it go at such a ruinous loss were it not—But, <i>ecco</i>! The +owner himself. He would probably be very ill pleased to hear it was +actually sold at that ridiculous price."</p> + +<p>Slyne looked round at the grey-haired, portly, prosperous-looking +individual threading his way through the agglomeration of cars in the +background, and his half-parted lips snapped together again.</p> + +<p>He wanted that particular car and had made up his mind to buy it, rash +though such an investment might prove, but he had surmised from a +lynx-like glance at the seller that he might be able to get it for even +less than the salesman was authorised to accept. And, since his own +pockets were so poorly lined for the expensive part he was playing, he, +who despised chaffering, was yet bent on making the very best bargain he +could.</p> + +<p>"It's more than I've got about me," he told the salesman in a very +audible voice, as the fat man in the fur coat halted indeterminately a +few paces away. And at the words the new-comer's puffy face lighted up, +as if with relief, behind the pince-nez he was wearing. He came forward +and spoke.</p> + +<p>"An Englishman, by Jove!" he remarked with a great semblance of +geniality. "So am I. Very happy to meet you, sir. You're interested in +my car?"</p> + +<p>"Not at the price," Slyne returned, with an indifferent hauteur which +he judged likely to be effective with one in the stranger's presumable +plight. And the fat man's lips drooped visibly, the pouches under his +uneasy eyes became more marked. He was obviously disappointed, and felt +himself snubbed. He did not seem quite sure what to say or do next.</p> + +<p>Slyne, congratulating himself on his talent for character reading, +turned away, to look at a cheap runabout, as carelessly as though he had +all time at his disposal, instead of being, as he was, in a fever of +ill-restrained impatience. The salesman figuratively washed his hands of +them both; he could already foresee a forced sale at a calamitous +sacrifice. And so it fell out.</p> + +<p>Slyne, cavalier to the verge of rudeness, finally bought the big scarlet +car, which the other almost forced upon him, for about half its market +value, and paid for it there and then, in the new French notes which had +almost been burning a hole in his pocket since he had left the Crédit +Lyonnais office—so eager was he to be off on his last forlorn hope of +winning Sallie.</p> + +<p>"If you had allowed me only a few hours longer, I could have got you +twice that amount," said the disappointed salesman in a stage aside to +the seller as he counted over his own diminished commission. But the fat +man merely bestowed on him a look of contemptuous annoyance, and, having +signed the receipt Slyne required, tucked away in an empty pocket-book +the balance of the crisply-rustling bills he had just received.</p> + +<p>Even then he did not appear to know what next to do with himself. For, +having glanced at his watch, he gave vent to a grunt of disgust, and +hung on his heel undecidedly, after making a move to go.</p> + +<p>"It's only about a hundred miles to Monaco, isn't it?" Slyne asked the +salesman; and was answered in the affirmative.</p> + +<p>The fat man gasped and choked for a moment, and then spoke again, with +more confidence: a change due, perhaps, to the improvement in his +finances.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, sir," said he, "but—if you're going that way, I wonder—It +would be a most tremendous favour to me, and I haven't haggled over +giving you the best of our bargain. The train's just gone, and—"</p> + +<p>Slyne, chin in air, once more looked him over appraisingly, as he +stammered and hesitated; and was very much disposed to cut him adrift +without more ado. But some indefinable impulse, some feeling that here +was a bird of a feather very sadly astray, caused him to alter his mind. +"I'll be glad to give you a lift," he said, more graciously, "if you're +ready to start now. But I can't wait."</p> + +<p>The fat man's face lighted up again. "My luck's on the mend at last!" he +declared. "I'm in as great a hurry as you can be, sir. I'm more than +obliged to you for your courtesy. May I offer you my card?"</p> + +<p>Slyne glanced at the slip of pasteboard conferred upon him while the car +was being shifted out of the showroom into the street, where his +elaborate chauffeur was in waiting. And, "Jump in, Mr. Jobling," he +requested with unconcealed coldness as he himself took the wheel, +relegating the chauffeur to a back seat. It ruffled his self-satisfied +mood of the moment more than a little to learn that the fat man in the +fur coat was in fact a London solicitor. With the law in any shape or +form Jasper Slyne wanted nothing whatever to do, and especially at such +a juncture. He was already repenting his ill-timed politeness.</p> + +<p>However, he could not very well rid himself of his passenger then. All +he could do was to dash through the busy streets of Genoa in the dusk at +a pace calculated to make the hair of any respectable and +self-respecting solicitor stand on end. But, out of the corner of one +eye, he observed that Mr. Jobling was wearing a blandly contented smile.</p> + +<p>That gentleman did not seem so well pleased, however, as they turned +up-hill into the Via Roma, and Slyne, understanding, relented a little +again. "I have some baggage at the Isotta," he volunteered, and the +cloud at once lifted from Mr. Jobling's brow.</p> + +<p>Several assiduous porters stowed hastily in the tonneau, beside the +ornamental chauffeur, the travel-worn trunks and suit-cases which Slyne +had left there that morning, and stood at the salute till he drove away, +when they no doubt returned to their lairs to count the profits of such +politeness. He had, as usual, been very lavish with his small change. +And his passenger was also impressed by his liberality.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the car was negotiating more carefully the lumpy patchwork +with which the old Via Carlo Alberto is paved, and Mr. Jobling's puffy +features spoke his discontent over its slow progress. But, once beyond +Sampierdarena, clear of close traffic, on the open road to Savona, Slyne +made more speed; and it was self-evident that he knew how to get the +most out of his horse-power.</p> + +<p>He looked, indeed,—if looks go for anything nowadays,—quite at home, +very much in his element, lying lazily back in the driver's seat of the +richly-appointed car which had been his companion's an hour before. It +was late on a winter afternoon, and what wind there was had a chill in +it, caught, no doubt, in crossing the Apennines. But Slyne also was +wearing a heavy fur coat and had pulled on a pair of gauntlets at the +hotel.</p> + +<p>As the car rocked and swayed on its rapid way through the last outskirts +of Savona, he was humming light-heartedly to himself the antique aria of +<i>The Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo</i>.</p> + +<p>"Been gambling a bit?" he presently asked his silent companion. And Mr. +Jobling admitted the soft impeachment.</p> + +<p>"And no luck," Slyne inferred amusedly. He could view with an equable +eye the misfortunes of others as well as his own; especially since the +stout solicitor's losses had brought his own way such a substantial +profit as could be readily realised by the re-sale of his car.</p> + +<p>"No luck at all," Mr. Jobling affirmed explosively, and the troubles +fermenting in his mind at length found outlet in speech. "I wouldn't +have believed anyone could have been so unlucky!" he declared with great +bitterness; "and at such a critical moment. I want so little, too; I've +no ambition to break the bank. It wasn't with any such foolish idea that +<i>I</i> came to Monte Carlo. I wouldn't have had this happen for all the +bank holds."</p> + +<p>"Which isn't a great deal," commented Slyne. "I've broken the bank more +than once myself, and lost twice as much the next evening."</p> + +<p>"You play some system, perhaps?" his companion inquired, but Slyne shook +his head reminiscently. "I've tried several myself, but none seemed to +be of the slightest use. And now—It doesn't matter, of course. I didn't +come to Monaco to make money; I'm not such a fool! But it's most +infernally inconvenient ... may cost me my chance of a fortune ... +practically within my grasp." His voice had died away to a mere mutter. +Slyne was smiling in disdain.</p> + +<p>"But I can't go on losing at the tables for ever," he exploded again. +"My turn must come. I feel in better fettle this evening—as if my luck +had changed. It's no doubt since I met you; I must thank you again for +this lift. If I'd had to wait in Genoa for the slow train, I might have +got back too late to take the tide at the flood. I'm a great believer, +you know, in striking while the iron's hot."</p> + +<p>"So am I," said Slyne dryly, and much amused by his monologue.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure my luck's on the mend," Mr. Jobling went on, growing still +more communicative under encouragement, "and the mere matter of winning +a few thousand francs is nothing to what will follow—what <i>must</i> +follow. I've made up my mind to win all along the line; and there's a +great deal in the theory that, if you apply sufficient will-power to any +project, its success is assured. I'm ab-so-lutely <i>determined</i> to win +fifty thousand francs to-night, and then ... I fancy it was a mistake to +come here at all.... But, of course, a man who never makes a mistake +will never make anything.... I'll go straight back to London, and +surely, among the five or six million people there....</p> + +<p>"<i>Look out!</i> Good—God!"</p> + +<p>Between his two excited ejaculations Slyne had outwitted calamity. +Taking a rash curve at top speed, he had come to an unexpected rectangle +in the roadway running almost parallel there with the shore below, and, +rounding that corner safely with a quick wrench of the wheel, had almost +crashed into a heavy, high-built ox-wagon which was backing blindly out +from some steep, hidden side-lane. The hubs of the car's wheels had all +but grazed the parapet of the roadway at Mr. Jobling's side, and Slyne, +on the other, had barely escaped being brained by the timbers protruding +from the rear of the wagon. The ornamental chauffeur was fast asleep in +the tonneau behind.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling lay back and gasped while Slyne held on as if nothing had +happened, at the same breakneck pace. But neither spoke again for some +time.</p> + +<p>Through village after village they dashed, always at grave risk and yet +without accident. The moon rose just before they reached Alassio. Slyne +even managed to improve the pace a little then, and his passenger made +no protest, but sat with eyes downcast, his lips always moving mutely.</p> + +<p>"A slight overdraft on the future—it's no more than that," remarked Mr. +Jobling a little later, as if he had been alone, and Slyne looked round +at him for an instant, with nostrils curled in a faint, superior smile.</p> + +<p>Slyne thought he could guess some part at least of the troubles +afflicting his chance acquaintance, and was very little inclined to hear +more about them. He was too busy considering his own plan of campaign, +the blood in his own veins was running too briskly under the stimulus of +that wild flight through the keen night air, to waste any time or +thought on another man's worries. But—a fellow-feeling makes us +wondrous kind. "Cheer up!" said he suddenly. "Every one overdraws more +or less on his luck, at one time or another. If that's all you've done, +it's nothing to mope about."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling sat up with a start, and stared at him. "That's all," he +asserted, a little too hurried in his assurance. "I give you my word, +sir...." And then he recollected himself and laughed uncomfortably, +confused.</p> + +<p>"I've been thinking aloud," said he. "But you mustn't take any notice of +that. It's a bad habit of mine. And, as you say, we all overdraw on the +future, from time to time. As a man of the world, sir, you'll understand +what I mean to convey to you. And of course these little overdrafts are +always met when they're due.</p> + +<p>"What a fine night this is for a fast spin!"</p> + +<p>"What's the nature of your present overdraft?" Slyne inquired +perversely, safe in the certainty that the other could not resent that +rudeness, and was again amused by Mr. Jobling's cough of discomfiture.</p> + +<p>But, "Purely metaphorical," that gentleman countered cleverly. "We'll +soon be in San Remo at this rate. I wouldn't wonder if we've established +a record. It isn't every day there's such a car in the market."</p> + +<p>"No, it isn't," Slyne agreed. "Nor a buyer for it." And conversation +languished again.</p> + +<p>But Slyne's spirits, none the less, were steadily rising as he drew +nearer, mile by mile, to the chief temple of that goddess of chance to +whom he looked to befriend him now—since it was not on his own behalf +alone that he was seeking her shrine, since mischance must entail +consequences so dire to Sallie as well as to him. The personal risk he +was running lent added zest to the piquancy of his most unusual position +as a champion of maidenhood in distress. And what Sallie's fate would be +if his own luck failed him, he could picture in vivid detail from his +own experience of a world most men know nothing about.</p> + +<p>Within a few days the <i>Olive Branch</i>, with a supply of cheap coal and +some makeshift repairs, would be gone from Genoa, leaving behind no +trace but such bills as Captain Dove could escape without paying. She +would enter Port Said and leave Suez in some effective disguise and +under another assumed name which would last her through the Straits of +Bab-el-Mandeb; beyond which she would disappear, perhaps for good, into +whatever strange world she might raise over the mysterious sea-rim which +lies beyond "the Gate of the Place of Tears."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove was an old man already. And even he could not for ever go +on living such a life as he led. He had spoken of this trip East as his +last, and it was his avowed object in it to turn Sallie to some account. +Slyne, who, as you will perhaps suppose, was no squeamish moralist, +sickened at thought of what time might still have in store for the girl.</p> + +<p>"Just imagine <i>her</i>," said he to himself, "cooped up in some slat-eyed +Chinaman's filthy <i>yamen</i> till she grows grey, or eating her heart out +in some coffee-coloured sultan's clay palace, with nothing to comfort +her but a crooked brass crown—and not even that by and by. It's +damnable to think—But what's the use of thinking about it! I'm going to +save her from all that—in spite of herself." And his selfishly +sentimental mood of the moment once more gave place to a philosophic +contentment with things as they were, and that in turn to an +exhilarating anticipation of pleasures to come.</p> + +<p>The lights of San Remo looked very alluring to him, who had for so long +spent his nights at sea with no more companionable illuminant than a +reeking kerosene lamp or the cold, aloof stars. He became jocular, in a +lofty way, with the always impatient Jobling, and at the frontier was so +patronisingly polite to the officials there that they let him pass +almost at once, under the apparent impression that he was some personage +of importance—a circumstance which lent him a little additional +self-confidence.</p> + +<p>From Menton Garavan in to Monte Carlo is only some seven miles. And for +that short distance he sat silent, once more mentally reviewing the +manifold chances of mischance ahead of him. While Mr. Jobling, beside +him, continued to mumble and mutter at intervals of misfortune—no fault +of his own—and fortune, that marvellous fortune which was to be his so +soon, since he had made up his mind that it must.</p> + +<p>"I'm absolutely <i>determined</i>," said Mr. Jobling, unconsciously raising +his voice again. "Eh? What? Oh, yes. I beg your pardon. I have a room at +the Métropole. Where are you going to put up?"</p> + +<p>"I always stay at the Paris," Slyne lied easily. He had no inclination +for any more of his companion's society, especially while he had no idea +how he himself might be received at any hotel in the Principality.</p> + +<p>"I'll walk on from here, then, if you'll allow me," suggested that +gentleman. "And—er—by the way, you won't be mentioning to anyone the +circumstances—er—about the car."</p> + +<p>"We'll let it be understood that I bought it in London—last month," +said Slyne, ready to be obliging since it would be for his own benefit; +and, cutting short with a curt "Good night" some further profuse +expressions of gratitude on the part of his passenger, glad, indeed, to +be so well quit of him, drove on in more state, his sleepy chauffeur in +the seat vacated by Mr. Jobling, to make his next move in that desperate +game in which he was going to stake life and liberty also on the +infinitesimal chance of returning triumphant to Genoa to claim Sallie +from Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>For, "If they spot me, I'll blow out my brains before they can lay hands +on me," said he to himself as he drew up with an imperative +<i>honk-honk-honk!</i> before the Hôtel de Paris.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE GODDESS OF CHANCE</h3> + + +<p>If you have ever had to walk unconcernedly into the crowded vestibule of +a fashionable hotel, not knowing at what moment you might be identified +and arrested as a notorious criminal, you will no doubt understand, and, +perhaps, sympathise with Slyne's state of mind as he entered the Hôtel +de Paris. If not, you can at least imagine how he felt as he made his +way through the throng toward the bureau, grimly conscious of every +inquisitive glance.</p> + +<p>There was little enough to shield him from immediate detection, beyond +the flight of time and the facts that he had been wearing a beard and +living under a French <i>alias</i>—or, as he would have preferred to put it, +incognito—when, only a season or two before, he had earned such +undesired and undesirable distinction throughout the Côte d'Azur. And he +knew very well what his fate would be if he were recognised.</p> + +<p>He was very devoutly thankful, therefore, when, having safely run the +gauntlet of all those argus eyes which had seemed to be searching his by +the way, he found himself installed in an ornate apartment vacated only +that morning by a grand duke.</p> + +<p>"I can't afford to do things by halves now!" he had reflected, shrugging +his shoulders, as he had agreed with the manager, who happened to be on +the spot, that the suite in question would probably serve his turn. And +even the manager had been impressed by his manner—and his fine car.</p> + +<p>"So far, so good, then," said Slyne to himself with a somewhat nervous +grimace, as he crossed to the window of his sitting-room and looked out +over the moonlit bay, after tossing his keys to a valet with a curt +order to lose no time. "And now—I must go on as I've begun. But—I +can't help wishing I were well through with it all. I didn't half like +the way that clerk watched me with his mouth wide open—and <i>I</i> knew +<i>him</i> all right!"</p> + +<p>No one could have appeared more care-free, however, than he when, an +hour later, he left his dressing-room, ready to face—and outface—the +detective talent he still must meet, and sauntered very much at his +leisure, a cigarette between his tight lips, in the direction of the +<i>table d'hôte</i>.</p> + +<p>"Seems pretty dull here," he commented, after an indifferent inspection +of the elaborate company there. "I've a good mind to go on to +Ciro's—and find out if they have forgotten my face by now too. I won't +have any peace of mind till I've been all round the old place." In +pursuit of which bold policy he sent a page for his coat and hat, and +stood displaying himself to the general public till they arrived.</p> + +<p>He found Ciro's well filled, as usual, when he strolled in, taking with +perfect outward calm the risk that he might be remembered there. But no +hostile glance met his roving eye as he entered the restaurant. He was +obsequiously received by an observant head-waiter, and shown to a table +which suited his immediate needs to a nicety.</p> + +<p>Among the more ebullient gathering in that gay resort he could discover +no cause for alarm. And no one took any special notice of him until, +among some still later comers, he noticed a haggardly handsome woman, in +a gown so scant that she might well have been glad of the great bunch of +camellias she wore at her breast, who was pointing him out to one of the +two men in her company.</p> + +<p>Slyne's heart almost stopped beating at that, and one of his hands +involuntarily slipped round to where, in a padded pocket within the +arm-hole of his thin evening-coat, he had a little double-barrelled +pistol concealed.</p> + +<p>He caught the woman's eye again while she was whispering volubly to the +attentive listener at her elbow, a fashionably foolish-looking young man +of a stamp whose appearance is sometimes deceitful, and wondered sickly +what was coming as that individual, having looked him over quite openly +and with the aid of an eye-glass, rose and approached him across the +room.</p> + +<p>He glanced up in admirably assumed surprise, however, for all answer to +the other's gruffly casual, "Good evenin', sir.</p> + +<p>"Will you excuse my askin' whether you'd care to sell the car I saw you +drivin' past in, an hour ago?" inquired the stranger, quite unabashed. +"Because—I want it, don't y'know."</p> + +<p>Slyne's face remained an immobile mask, although in his heart he was +dully conscious of an almost overwhelming sense of relief.</p> + +<p>"It isn't for sale at the moment," he answered, suavely enough, but as +if a little offended.</p> + +<p>"But—I want it," reiterated the stranger, who did not seem to lack a +sufficient sense of his own importance. "And I'll give you practically +your own price for it. It's for a lady, don't y'know—and as a favour +to me, eh?"</p> + +<p>"I'd be very glad to oblige you," said Slyne, elated beyond expression +to find not only that his fears had been groundless, that his visitor +was really a fool and not a knave in disguise, but also that, if he +played his own cards properly, he might pocket a still fatter profit +upon his car than he had anticipated, "but—I can't at the moment. Are +you going to be here for a few days?"</p> + +<p>"I'm at the Cap Martin for a week. As soon as you change your mind you +can come over an' see me there. Ask for Lord Ingoldsby. Good evenin' to +you," answered his visitor with all the sulky insolence of a spoiled +child; and slouched back to his own table, where, Slyne had the +satisfaction of seeing, he had to endure a rating from his enchantress +for his ill-success on her errand. And Slyne almost smiled.</p> + +<p>For he knew the Marquis of Ingoldsby quite well, by repute at least, as +an English pigeon with feathers well worth the plucking, and set the +other two down for what they were, a pair of those hawks to be found +hovering wherever the simple pigeon would try its wings. He became +contemplatively interested in the trio, although he knew the ways of +that wicked world far too well to suppose for an instant that he would +be allowed to make a quartette of it.</p> + +<p>"But you shall have your car, madame," he soliloquised, "presently, when +I'm finished with it. And, in exchange, I'll take—"</p> + +<p>"If only I had Sallie here now—" he said to himself with sudden +self-pity, and then was seized with a hot contempt for all such as the +noble marquis. "But no one under a royalty need hope for an +introduction to her then," he finished, and so stifled an inconvenient +twinge of conscience.</p> + +<p>"In the meantime it looks to me as if <i>my</i> little overdraft on the +future is going to pay me most handsomely," he reflected. And that happy +thought added zest to his appetite for the excellent dinner his waiter +had ordered for him, the first good dinner to which he had sat down in +endless months.</p> + +<p>He had given the man <i>carte blanche</i> in the matter of viands, only +reserving the choice of what he should drink. So that when he ordered +Vichy the waiter was not unduly depressed. Slyne also would have +preferred to see a silver bucket beside the table, a pursy gold neck +protruding from it, but he wanted all his wits about him that evening, +while he was once more pitting himself, alone, against all comers in +Monte Carlo—and, incidentally, against the odds in favour of the bank, +on which he hoped to draw to the tune of at least a hundred thousand +dollars during the next few days. He knew, of expensive experience, that +the Widow Clicquot and her charming companions are safer society after a +dangerous campaign is over than just before it begins.</p> + +<p>He would not even venture upon an after-dinner cigar, contenting himself +with a cigarette from the plain gold case with a crest on it which he +purchased from the chauffeur he had so providentially picked up in Genoa +that afternoon. But he tipped the waiter with such profusion that the +man preceded him to the door bent almost double with gratitude, and even +the Marquis of Ingoldsby was staringly impressed by the magnificence of +his exit—as Slyne had intended he should be.</p> + +<p>His masterly impersonation of an unostentatious millionaire was not +without its effect on the flunkeys of the Casino also. These made as +much of his entrance as he in his assumed modesty would allow on his way +into the <i>salles de jeu</i>, where he attracted not a few appraising, +inquisitive glances while he once more dared discovery as he roamed from +table to table, gazing about him as though that had really been his +first visit there. The world and the half-world alike seemed to be +wondering who he might be; a circumstance which, otherwise, would have +caused him ecstatic pleasure.</p> + +<p>It has been stated already that he was more than passably good-looking, +with regular profile and straight, spare, elegant figure. In evening +clothes which fitted him to perfection, neither over-groomed nor untidy +in any detail, without a flaw for the most fastidious to pick in either +appearance or manner, he seemed to bear some stamp of distinction which +might very well have passed current in circles much more exclusive.</p> + +<p>The rooms were well filled, although the really fashionable world had +just begun to flock south for the winter. The usual motley went to make +up the highly-coloured mosaic of worshippers at the chief shrine of the +goddess of chance. It would be a waste of your time and mine, too, to +describe again the types to be observed there, and Slyne had seen them +all very often before. He sauntered about for a little and then slipped +quietly into the only seat which had been vacated since he had arrived, +much to the annoyance of a short, fat Frenchman who seemed disposed to +insist on his own prior claim to it, till Slyne glanced over one +shoulder into his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Good luck to you!" cried a jovial voice from the other side of the +table as he sat down, and Slyne nodded coldly to his companion of the +afternoon.</p> + +<p>He did not desire Mr. Jobling's further acquaintance, and would have +ignored his greeting entirely but that he had noticed in front of the +stout solicitor quite a noteworthy stack of winnings; and he did not +know whether he might not yet have occasion to draw on the other's +expressed ambition to repay him a favour done. In any case, he dismissed +all such ideas from his mind for the moment, and started to play, very +cautiously.</p> + +<p>A cautious player, who can keep his head, need seldom lose a great deal +at any game. Slyne had drunk nothing stronger than Vichy since the night +before. He was tensely on the alert. His luck came and went until he had +lost a couple of thousand francs, and then he began to win.</p> + +<p>He had been winning, slowly but surely, with only an occasional +set-back, for over an hour before he became aware that a growing group +of interested onlookers had gathered behind him, and that he had +accumulated within the space between his protective elbows a pile of +notes and gold which reached to his chin. And, thus convinced that he +was in the vein, spurred on by some sudden remembrance of Sallie caged +in her cabin on the <i>Olive Branch</i>, an ever-present temptation to play +to the gallery, to stake no less than the maximum on every turn of the +wheel, had almost vanquished all his discretion when he encountered the +quiet glance of a man who was contemplating him from behind the players +seated at the other side of the table, a man whom he knew only too well +as one of the cleverest of those <i>mouchards</i> whose frequent comings and +goings attract so little attention there, and who knew him.</p> + +<p>The brilliant lights about him grew strangely blurred. He felt faint +and ill. But, by a desperate effort of will, he managed to maintain an +outward composure. He yawned openly, and then let his eyes fall to look +at his watch. The detective was carelessly moving round the table in his +direction. He shifted his rake to his left hand and, slipping his right +across his chest to within the lapel of his evening-coat, laid out some +small further stake, entirely at random.</p> + +<p>He lost that, and two or three more, before he yawned again, as if +fatigued by such trifling, and pushed a much larger amount into place, +as a blind man might, for a final venture. No hand had as yet fallen on +his shoulder, but the suspense of not knowing at what moment that would +happen was hard to bear. He felt like one in the grip of a hideous +nightmare as the croupier presently shovelled over toward him a large +and miscellaneous assortment of notes and gold and counters, which, none +the less, he collected indifferently and dully conscious of an envious +sigh from behind him.</p> + +<p>He hesitated a little before letting go his hold of the pistol about +whose butt the fingers of his right hand were still closely clasped, in +order to pocket his profits of the evening. He had laid down his rake. +It was at once seized by a woman who had been standing close at his +shoulder, and, as she pushed eagerly past him into his seat, the bunch +of camellias in her corsage brushed his face. It was the woman with whom +Lord Ingoldsby had been dining. Slyne noticed her husband among the +crowd in the rear as he himself made his way out into the open. He +noticed also, approaching him entirely as if by accident, the +inconspicuous spy whose appearance there had so alarmed him.</p> + +<p>Slyne had not even time to hesitate. Without the slightest change of +expression he stopped and confronted his enemy, addressing him by name, +in the execrable French of the average Englishman.</p> + +<p>"<i>Bon soir, M. Dubois. Comment ça va? Bien</i>, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Monsieur has the advantage of me," the detective returned in effortless +English, and over his features flitted the faintest shadow of +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I scarcely supposed you would know me," said Slyne with a +deprecatory shrug. "This is my first trip so far afield, though I've +seen you several times in Paris, and we all know you quite well in +London, of course."</p> + +<p>The faintest shadow of what might have developed into a smile hovered +for an instant about the famous man-hunter's lips and eyes, and Slyne +made a mental note of the fact that he was not above being flattered.</p> + +<p>"I'm over here after a fat fellow called Jobling," continued Slyne, +ingratiatingly communicative. "I don't suppose you know anything about +him?"</p> + +<p>The other sniffed, disdainfully.</p> + +<p>"An embryo embezzler," said he, in a tone of such conscious superiority +that Slyne would surely have laughed in his face if he himself had felt +safe. "Give him rope enough and he'll do the rest. Don't disclose +yourself for a day or two, but watch him carefully.</p> + +<p>"Are you working for New Scotland Yard?"</p> + +<p>Slyne had expected some such question, and did not stammer over his +answer.</p> + +<p>"I've started a private agency on my own account. This is my first case. +A thousand thanks for your hint. If all my official friends were as +courteous, life would be much pleasanter for me." He spoke with a most +respectful inflection, but always in barbarous Anglo-French. "<i>Mille +remerciements encore, mon confrère. Et maintenant—à demain.</i>"</p> + +<p>His new acquaintance nodded with most gracious condescension and moved +on in the direction of an obese German diplomatist who had just met amid +the throng and greeted with over-acted surprise a pretty Viennese +countess. And Slyne did not fail to observe, amid all his own agitation, +how promptly the two of them parted again at sight of M. Dubois.</p> + +<p>He was conscious that his own nostrils were nervously twitching, and +that there were tiny beads of cold perspiration about his forehead.</p> + +<p>"He thought he knew me," said he to himself, very tremulously. "And, +though I've put him off the scent to some extent, he'll root about +till—" For all his nerve of steel, he shivered and changed countenance.</p> + +<p>"I can't trust myself to play any more to-night—and just when I was +getting my hand in! But I suppose I may thank my stars that I'm no worse +off since I caught his eye—he'd have been down on me in an instant, if +I had so much as blinked. And now I must bluff him out—I'm <i>not</i> going +to be scared off.</p> + +<p>"There's this about it, anyhow—if I've really got him hoodwinked, none +of the others need worry me!" With which conditional self-encouragement, +and having made sure that his enemy was no longer watching him, he +turned back on an impulse, to see how Mr. Jobling was getting on. But +Mr. Jobling had already gone off with his winnings.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if he'd take a hand at écarté now?" thought Slyne. "His name +came in very useful just now—and I might as well have my own money back +out of him while he's got it. He'll probably be fancying himself at the +moment, too."</p> + +<p>And with that business-like ambition before him, he roamed the rooms +till he could be sure that his proposed victim was nowhere within the +Casino. Among the multitude there he could run across no one else who +seemed likely to prove easy prey. So he gave up the quest with a +philosophical shrug, got his coat and hat, and sauntered out on to the +terrace, a fragrant cigar between his thin lips.</p> + +<p>"And I'll stand myself a bottle of something at supper, to buck me up," +he promised himself. "I'll look into Ciro's again presently, and get the +good of the gold piece I had to waste on that scoundrelly waiter. If I +chance across Jobling there, I'll get a free meal as well; or, if I +should see that ass Ingoldsby, I'll tackle him while his precious +keepers are out of the way. They're evidently making <i>his</i> feathers +fly!"</p> + +<p>The night was still, and even unusually mild for that season of the +year. The moon had disappeared. Slyne looked down at the sea, all dark +and mysterious, with a strong feeling of distaste; he had lately seen +more than enough of it to last him a lifetime. He turned his steps +toward the deserted gardens, to escape a party of chattering tourists +who had trespassed on his privacy.</p> + +<p>He was in no hurry at all for supper, and wanted a few minutes of peace +and quietness in which to compose his still troubled mind, and to +consider the situation as touching his lordship of Ingoldsby—who would +undoubtedly prove a far more profitable companion than Mr. Jobling, even +although the latter should have won the fifty thousand francs that had +been his ambition.</p> + +<p>"What a fool that fellow is, for a lawyer!" mused Slyne, having more or +less successfully combated an inclination to let his thoughts stray back +to the <i>Olive Branch</i>—and Sallie. And, <i>Click!</i> something answered him +from behind a bush not very far from the verge of the path he was +meditatively pacing.</p> + +<p>He jumped aside at the sound, as any man would who has known what it is +to be ambushed, and then, recollecting himself, stood still, with a +mirthless, annoyed half-smile. He did not believe that Dubois would +adopt any such noisy means to get rid of him, but—none the less, he +felt impelled to find out who was in hiding behind that bush.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>A FOOL AND HIS FORTUNE</h3> + + +<p>Slyne skirted a flower-bed cautiously and, approaching the shadowy +background by a flank movement, found a stout individual in a voluminous +coat kneeling on the grass there, with some white, metallic object in +one trembling hand lifted in the direction of his own left eyelid. A +second <i>Click!</i> startled Slyne disproportionately, and he spoke at that, +in a very querulous voice. "Hey! you fool," he said, "you're wasting +your time. Wait till I show you how.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord! is that <i>you</i>, Jobling?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling suddenly cast a revolver from him, with a wailing +execration, and, attempting to rise, sank down beside it, blubbering, +entirely unstrung after the agonising strain of the past few seconds. +Slyne, eyeing him with exasperated contempt, picked the weapon up and +fingered it for an instant.</p> + +<p>"A damned rotten make!" he commented morosely. "But it'll do the job for +you all right now. You can't shoot it off, you know, with the safety +catch set."</p> + +<p>The miserable man on the grass held out his hand for it, humbly. But +Slyne was not at all prepared to take any risks on his account—for +suicide and murder are often very difficult to distinguish, in their +results—and made up his mind to keep it, in the meantime at any rate.</p> + +<p>"Get up," he ordered in his sharpest tone, "and come away out of this. +If you could only see yourself, you wouldn't want to sit there and +whimper."</p> + +<p>Under the spur of that insult Mr. Jobling seemed to recall some stray +shred of his forfeited self-respect. He got on to his knees, with an +effort, and thence by degrees to his feet.</p> + +<p>"I think you might show a little more decent feeling," he sobbed +brokenly, "when—"</p> + +<p>"And I think you might show a vast deal more sense," snapped Slyne. +"Button up your coat, and come away out of this. You can kill yourself +just as easily—a good deal more so, in fact, since I've shown you +how—in half an hour, after I'm in a safer position to prove an <i>alibi</i> +if any inconvenient questions are asked about it afterwards. Come on, +now."</p> + +<p>His whilom acquaintance followed him meekly, muttering, to a secluded +corner where there was a seat.</p> + +<p>"What's the trouble?" demanded Slyne magisterially, sitting down at one +end of the bench and motioning him to the other. "But I suppose I need +scarcely ask. Trust funds mysteriously melted away—the usual childish +attempt to recover them by sheer chance, and with all the odds against +you!—the dread of exposure and disgrace—which never worry a dead man. +You've been a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, eh, my respectable +friend? And you'd rather die in the dark than face the world in broad +daylight without your immaculate fleece."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling groaned.</p> + +<p>"But why, after all, finish playing the knave by playing the fool? If +you were the man of the world you fancy yourself, you'd know that sheep +are very seldom successful in real life. It's all very well to pose in a +sheep-skin, but it isn't everything. A wolf undisguised can do very +well for himself, so long as his teeth are sufficiently sharp. And, when +he becomes a big millionaire, he can buy himself, among other things, a +nice new merino coat."</p> + +<p>His parable amused himself, but his auditor did not seem possessed of a +sufficient sense of humour to appreciate its personal application.</p> + +<p>"You're labouring under a misapprehension," said that gentleman, who had +meantime regained some grip on himself, in accents anything but properly +grateful. "I may, perhaps, have been unfortunate with—er—a few small +investments for clients, but your inference that I have—er—er—You're +positively insulting, sir!"</p> + +<p>Slyne laughed, in better humour. "Bah!" said he. "What's the use of +bluffing? You weren't going to blow out your brains—if any—because you +had been too honest, were you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm a desperate man," declared Mr. Jobling, thus rudely reminded of the +matter in hand. "Life isn't worth living, now that I've lost—" He +gulped and gasped, once more on the verge of tears, but a furtive glance +at Slyne's impassive features, dimly visible in the glow of a +half-smoked cigar, showed him he need not expect any excess of sympathy +from that quarter. It also seemed to suggest to him, in the midst of his +anguish of mind, an idea. He looked round at Slyne again.</p> + +<p>"You're a man of wealth," he said in a husky voice whose suddenly +inspired eagerness he could not conceal, and some spark of hope perhaps +sprang up in his fainting heart again since Slyne did not deny that +erroneous suggestion. Slyne was waiting to hear what more he might have +to say, though not with any intention of helping him.</p> + +<p>"I wonder—" the stout solicitor muttered. "It might interest you +to—Two heads are better than one, and—Some sort of partnership—"</p> + +<p>"I can only spare you five minutes more," said Slyne crisply. "As soon +as I've finished my cigar, I'm going across to Ciro's for supper. The +Marquis of Ingoldsby is expecting me."</p> + +<p>"Do you know his lordship?" breathed Mr. Jobling, his new-born hope no +doubt gaining strength and his respect for his chance companion +obviously increased. "Then you'll understand me when I tell you that +I've ruined myself—ab-so-lutely <i>ruined</i> myself over the Jura +succession."</p> + +<p>"I haven't the least idea what the devil you're talking about," said +Slyne.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling groaned again. He was most grievously disappointed.</p> + +<p>"I thought every one had heard of the case," he went on. "A couple of +millions in cash—"</p> + +<p>"Millions of what?" demanded Slyne with a little more lively interest.</p> + +<p>"Pounds sterling," the London lawyer explained, rather testily. "A +couple of millions in cash and forty or fifty thousand a year going +a-begging may not seem a very important matter to a moneyed man like +you, but I've thought of nothing else, night and day, for the past five +years, and—"</p> + +<p>"I've been all over the world for the past five years," mentioned Slyne +loftily, but impatient now, "and the latest news of the parish pump has +probably failed to reach me. Get on with your story, anyhow. If there's +anything in it—I don't know but that I may be disposed to lend you a +hand—if there's anything in it." And, having lighted a fresh cigar, he +composed himself to listen. His time was his own. The chance of catching +Lord Ingoldsby alone at Ciro's was too remote to be worth more than the +passing thought. A story with so much money in it might prove at least +as entertaining as a solitary supper.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling gazed with glistening eyes at his providential acquaintance. +"I've told you what there is in it," said he in a tremulous tone. "A +couple of millions in cash and forty or fifty thousand a year that will +all ultimately fall to the Crown—unless I can find that girl, or—"</p> + +<p>"What girl?" Slyne demanded irritably.</p> + +<p>"The late Earl of Jura's daughter. You'll no doubt remember—But if +you've been abroad for so long, I'd better repeat—" And, having got +over his nervous prolixity, he became much more explicit.</p> + +<p>"The late earl's first wife, as you must recall, sir, was Lady Eulalie +Orlebarre. But she did not survive the birth of their only child, a son, +in 1876.</p> + +<p>"The earl married again, in '94. His second wife was Josceline +Beljambes, the famous dancer. A daughter was born to them. But they +separated, by mutual agreement, only a year or two later, and the +countess retained custody of her daughter. The earl was a good deal +older than she.</p> + +<p>"She was a very restless, erratic woman, and fond of travel. In '99 she +disappeared most mysteriously, somewhere abroad, and has never been +heard of since.</p> + +<p>"The following year, Lord St. Just, the earl's son by his first wife +and, of course, his heir, was found dead one day at the foot of the +cliffs near Loquhariot, the family seat in Scotland. He had grown up a +very headstrong, troublesome lad, I have heard. There was some suspicion +of foul play on the part of one of the gamekeepers on the estate—some +scandalous story about a girl in the village—but the coroner's jury +returned an open verdict.</p> + +<p>"The earl himself died in 1906, a little more than five years ago. The +estates fell into Chancery. And ever since I've been trying to trace his +second wife—or their child; for, failing an heir-male, the female line +of succession maintains in the family.</p> + +<p>"The Court of Chancery is quite prepared to presume the mother dead, and +I have evidence sufficient to prove that assumption a certainty. So that +now, you see, if I could only find—"</p> + +<p>He hesitated, to scrutinise his companion's inscrutable face.</p> + +<p>"I was a consummate fool, of course, ever to have come to Monte Carlo," +he went off at a tangent. "Though I had a good enough reason for +coming," he went on, defending himself to himself. "I didn't dare trust +anyone in London. And I—I thought that I might find here—" He balked +again.</p> + +<p>"It was merely to pass the time that I first tried my luck at the +tables—and look at me now! I haven't even money to pay my hotel bill. +For want of a few thousand francs I must lose my chance of the fortune +on which I've staked every penny I could scrape together and—and five +years of my good time, and—" He started to one side as Slyne cut him +short.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to waste five seconds of <i>my</i> good time," said Slyne with +concentrated bitterness, "in telling you how many different sorts of a +damned fool you are." His expensive cigar had gone out, unheeded. But +his keen, close-set eyes were aglow. He was finding it extremely +difficult to contain himself.</p> + +<p>"Are you <i>sure</i> of your facts?" he demanded, in the same acid, +embittered voice.</p> + +<p>"From first to last," affirmed Mr. Jobling, so peevishly that Slyne was +satisfied. "Haven't I told you that I've spent five years of my life and +every penny I could—er—every penny I possessed, in sifting them out, +and that I'm a Chancery practitioner? I have most of the papers with me +at the Métropole. There's only the one link lacking to complete the long +chain I've forged. And—" He lowered his voice to a whisper after +looking about him furtively, and, at last, under the decent screen of +the darkness, completely demoralised by the events of the day, confided +in the Heaven-sent stranger beside him his chief ambition in coming to +Monte Carlo. "And even a good enough imitation might serve—"</p> + +<p>"No imitation would stand the strain," Slyne interrupted him hoarsely. +"And you'll very soon find yourself inside the four walls of a cell, my +friend, if you try any forgery of that sort. You can take my word for +that, because—<i>I'm</i> the real rivet, and without me all the rest of your +precious chain isn't worth a snap of my fingers."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling subsided into a heap, and was staring at him, open-mouthed. +But Slyne said no more for a moment or two. Outwardly quite calm and +matter-of-fact, his mind was in a seething turmoil. If all the inept +rogue beside him had said were true—He could scarcely restrain an +impulse to get to his feet and shout for joy.</p> + +<p>The lawyer seemed to have nothing more to say, either. And Slyne, having +somewhat recovered command of himself, at length rose, tossing his cold +cigar away with an angry oath. "It makes my blood boil," said he, "to +think—But for the sheerest accident you'd be a dead man by now—and +where would <i>I</i> have been then! You don't deserve such stupendous luck, +and, by the Lord Harry! if I find you playing the fool again—You're +going to put yourself into my hands from now on, d'ye hear? And, in the +first place, I must see those papers you spoke of; if they're in order, +I'll see the thing through. We can't work without each other, +unfortunately for me, or—"</p> + +<p>"You're going too fast," intervened Mr. Jobling, still seated, and with +some faint show of spirit. "You're taking too much for granted, sir. I +don't even know who you are, and—we must come to terms of some sort +before—"</p> + +<p>He shrank aside as Slyne stepped forward with twitching fingers and eyes +aflame.</p> + +<p>"You'll take whatever terms you get—and be precious thankful," hissed +Slyne, stooping over him. "You'll do exactly what you're told, no more, +and no less. And—you won't forget again, will you, that you've met your +master in me?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling, gazing, aghast, into the muzzle of the cheap revolver which +had proved so ineffective in his own hands, at last regained voice +enough to subscribe solemnly to these stipulations, and from that moment +went uncomfortably, in fear for the life he himself had been trying to +take not an hour before. That was probably the first time he had ever +been threatened with personal violence, and a life spent chiefly in +Chancery Lane does not always foster an excess of that calculating +courage needed to deal with one of Slyne's dangerous sort.</p> + +<p>"Come on, then," said Slyne, and Mr. Jobling got shakily up from the +bench. "You needn't be afraid that I won't deal fair—generously with +you, but this is no time to be haggling here. We haven't a moment to +spare. I must see those papers at once. Step out!"</p> + +<p>The hall-porter at the Métropole raised his eyebrows over Mr. Jobling's +somewhat dishevelled appearance, but promptly lowered them again in +response to a look from Slyne.</p> + +<p>"Tell them to send up your bill," said Slyne to the lawyer. "If +everything's all right, I'll settle it and put you up at the Paris."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Jobling very meekly did as he was bidden. He could not well help +himself, just then. But his expression was not at all properly grateful +as he ushered Slyne into the room he himself had never expected to see +again, and there proceeded to display to that masterful adventurer the +mass of papers on which their further partnership was to depend.</p> + +<p>Slyne picked out the more important of these with an acumen which would +have done Mr. Jobling himself every credit; and for a busy hour they two +sat poring over one dog's-eared document after another, Slyne's mask of +indifference deserting him by degrees as he grasped point after point of +the case, till he threw the last down with a smile of triumph, and, +rising from the table, paced to and fro for a moment, rubbing his hands +in an ecstasy of exultation.</p> + +<p>"Everything's all right," he announced confidently. "My—our fortune's +as good as made; and I'll tell you what, Jobling,—you shall have ten +per cent. of the immediate cash for your share. How does that strike +you, eh? I don't say that you deserve any such consideration from me, +but—I'm ready to let bygones be bygones, and I want you to work for me +with a will."</p> + +<p>His self-assurance was contagious. Mr. Jobling, after the merest moment +of hesitation, rose in his turn, holding out a hand, which Slyne grasped +affectionately. And thus they came to an amicable understanding, without +more words.</p> + +<p>"Pack up now," commanded Slyne, pleasantly peremptory, "and we'll run +across to the Paris. I've any amount to do yet, before I can snatch a +sleep."</p> + +<p>"I'll be very thankful to get into <i>my</i> bed," said Mr. Jobling, already +busy among his belongings, and more than a little dazed by the march of +events. "I've had a <i>most</i> trying day."</p> + +<p>It did not take long to have his baggage transferred to the other hotel, +and there Slyne put him under confidential charge of the manager, with +very strict orders that he was not, on any pretext whatever, to be +allowed to decamp pending Slyne's return. Whereafter that active man of +affairs sent to the garage for his car, with word that his chauffeur +need not be disturbed and, having deposited his still uncounted winnings +with the cashier, started eastward again in such haste that he would not +even wait to change his thin evening clothes.</p> + +<p>Slyne was, in fact, fiercely excited. His particular Providence seemed +to be holding out to him such a chance in life as he could scarcely have +conceived himself in his wildest dreams. And he was in such frantic +haste to grasp that chance—which involved so much more than the mere +money—that he had quite forgotten his recent fear of M. Dubois.</p> + +<p>"I think I've got you this time, my girl!" said he to himself gleefully, +as he once more slowed down to stop at the Italian frontier. And that +was the burden of all his thoughts as he raced madly along the Corniche +Road in his high-powered car. In the darkness before the dawn, his eyes +intent on the long white ribbon of highway endlessly slipping toward his +head-lights, he saw only roseate visions of what the future now held for +him. As the sun rose to burnish the bare, brown mountains before him, he +nodded happily to himself, and his lips moved again to the glad refrain, +"I think I've got you quite safe this time, my girl!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE PRICE OF FREEDOM</h3> + + +<p>Slyne's nostrils curled as he observed the dirty and dishevelled aspect +of the <i>Olive Branch</i>, lying idle in Genoa harbour alongside the +coal-chutes where the day's work had not yet begun. He had grown +extremely fastidious again within the very short space of time which had +passed since he had last seen her.</p> + +<p>There was no one visible about her littered decks except the watchman on +duty, whose sole salute to him as he stepped carefully up the insecure +gangplank was a sullen scowl.</p> + +<p>But that might have been deemed quite a hearty welcome in contrast with +his reception by Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove was, in point of fact, furious when he opened his little, +red-rimmed eyes and became aware of his former friend's intrusion upon +his privacy. Sitting up in his frowsy bunk, with the blankets huddled +about him, looking ludicrously like an incensed gorilla, he raged and +swore at his gratuitous visitor until his voice gave out.</p> + +<p>Slyne, forgetful, in his new enthusiasm, of the terms on which they had +parted, was at first somewhat taken aback by that outburst; but only at +first. And his sanguine anticipations enabled him to endure it unmoved. +It also gave him time to collect his ideas. He could see that his errand +was not going to prove quite so easy as he had expected, and that he +must play his new cards with discrimination. As soon as the evil old man +in the bunk had exhausted himself in invective, Slyne spoke, smooth and +cuttingly.</p> + +<p>"I came back to do you a good turn. But—if that's how you're going to +take it, you foul-mouthed old rapparee! I'll save my breath and be off +again. What th' deuce d'ye mean by shouting at me as if I were a drunken +deck-hand! Speak to me above a whisper now—and you'll see what'll +happen to you. That's the police-boat pulling past."</p> + +<p>The opportune plash of oars had suggested to him that plausible threat. +Captain Dove, listening intently, crouched back against the bulkhead, +his blinking, hot, suspicious eyes on Slyne's. The boat passed on. But +he had found time to observe that Slyne was in evening dress, with an +expensive fur coat to keep the cold out. And Slyne's cool contempt for +his ill-temper would seem to have impressed him no less than Slyne's air +of solid prosperity.</p> + +<p>He himself, it appeared, had had care and adversity for his companions +ever since parting with his former friend. His chief aim in calling at +Genoa had been cheap coal and cheaper repairs, and he thought that he +was less likely to be recognised there than elsewhere in the +Mediterranean. But coal, he had found, had risen to a ruinous price in +consequence of a recent strike among the miners in England; and for even +the most trifling repairs he would have to wait at least a week, because +the dock-yard people were already working over-time to make way for a +man-of-war. Credit of any sort was not to be had. His portage-bill bade +fair to swamp his insufficient cash resources—even although three of +his now scanty crew had already deserted. And who could foretell what +might happen to him if they should get wagging their tongues too freely +in some wine-shop ashore! While, as if for climax, the Customs' +authorities had been displaying a most suspicious interest in him and +his ship. Under such circumstances, even a saint might have been +pardoned, as he pointed out, for showing a temper something short of +seraphic.</p> + +<p>"And you've been doing me good turns—by your way of it—for some time +past," he continued, in a stifled, vehement whisper lest his voice +should still reach the receding boat. "Though—" He waved a claw-like +hand about him, words again failing him to describe adequately his +sufferings in consequence, as who should say, "See the result for +yourself."</p> + +<p>Slyne sat down on the sofa opposite him, not even condescending to +glance, in response to that invitation, round the squalid, +poverty-stricken little cabin. "Never mind about some time past," he +advised, more pacifically. "You'll never get rich quick yesterday. +To-day's when <i>I'm</i> going to make my pile. And I meant to let you in—"</p> + +<p>"To another hole," Captain Dove concluded sceptically. "I only wish +you'd show me some sure way out of the one I'm in."</p> + +<p>Slyne looked his annoyance at that further interruption, and made as if +to rise, but did no more than draw his gold cigarette-case from its +pocket. He knew that Captain Dove was merely trying to aggravate him, +and it would not have been politic to stray from the matter in hand. He +lighted a cigarette at his leisure and waited for what should come next. +He had changed his mind as to taking the old man fully into his +confidence. He thought he could see his way to get all he wanted for a +very great deal less than that might have cost him.</p> + +<p>"Want a drink?" Captain Dove demanded, no doubt with the idea that a +dose of spirit might serve to stir up his visitor's temper, and looked +surprised at Slyne's curt head-shake, still more surprised over his +response.</p> + +<p>"I can't afford to drink at all hours of the day and night now," said +Slyne austerely. "That sort of thing was all very well at sea, but—The +business I have in hand isn't of the sort that can be carried out on raw +brandy. And you'll have to taper off too, if you want to come in."</p> + +<p>"Strike—me—sky-blue!" exclaimed the old man, and Slyne held up a +reproving hand.</p> + +<p>"I can do with a good deal less of your bad language into the bargain," +he mentioned coldly, "if you don't mind. In short, I want you to +understand from the start that you've got to behave as if you were a +reasonable human being and not a dangerous lunatic, or—I'll leave you +to rot, in the hole you've got yourself into."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove, scarcely able to credit the evidence of his own ears but, +none the less, apparently, thinking hard, darted a very ugly glance at +him, and noticed the diamonds in his shirt-front. Under the strongest +temptation to call in a couple of deck-hands and have him thrown off the +ship, Captain Dove obviously paused to consider whether those could be +of any intrinsic value. He was, of course, satisfied that he knew +exactly how much—or, rather, how little money Slyne had had in his +pockets when he went ashore. And, if Slyne had already, within four and +twenty hours, been able to turn that over at a profit sufficient to +provide himself with a fur coat and diamonds, it might perhaps pay +Captain Dove to hear what he had to propose. Slyne, reading all the old +man's thoughts, could see that he had decided to temporise.</p> + +<p>"But, I can do with a damn sight less of <i>your</i> back-chat!" rumbled +Captain Dove, not to be put down without protest. "If you've come back +on board to offer me a founder's share in any new gold-brick factory, +fire straight ahead—and be short about it. It'll save time, too, if +you'll take it from me again that I'd rather have your room than your +company."</p> + +<p>And at that, Slyne made his next considered move.</p> + +<p>"All right," he said in a tone of the most utter contempt. "That's +enough. I'm off.</p> + +<p>"I came back to do you a good turn—although few men, in my position, +would ever have looked near you again," he paused in the doorway to +remark acridly. "But I can see now what's the matter with you—and I +only wish I had noticed it in time to save myself all it has cost me. +It's senile decay you're suffering from. You're far too old to be of any +more use—even to yourself. You're in your dotage, and you'll soon be in +an asylum—for pauper lunatics!"</p> + +<p>He had evidently lost his own temper at last. And Captain Dove was +visibly pleased with that result of his tactics; as a rule he was better +able to cope with Slyne on a basis of mutual abuse, heated on both +sides; Slyne cool and collected had him at a disadvantage.</p> + +<p>"Now you're talking!" he retorted approvingly. "Say what's in your mind, +straightforwardly, and we'll soon come to an understanding. Sit down +again, you strutting peacock! and tell me what it is you want."</p> + +<p>Slyne did not sit down again, however; to do so would scarcely have been +dignified. He stayed in the doorway, silent, a thin stream of +cigarette-smoke slowly filtering from his nostrils. His cold, +calculating eyes were once more on Captain Dove's. And it was Captain +Dove's would-be mocking glance that at length gave way.</p> + +<p>"You offered to give me Sallie, if I paid you a hundred thousand +dollars," said Slyne, judicially.</p> + +<p>"To see you safely married to her," Captain Dove corrected him.</p> + +<p>Slyne nodded, in grave assent.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going to hold you to your offer," said he. "The money's ready +and waiting for you—just as soon as we can settle a few trifling +formalities. I have Sallie's promise to marry me—"</p> + +<p>"The devil you have!" said Captain Dove, not slow to seize opportunity +either. "I thought I heard her say—"</p> + +<p>Slyne's face darkened again. "And, if you'll come ashore with me now," +he went on, controlling his temper, "I'll prove to you that your money +is perfectly safe."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove lay back in his bunk and laughed, most discordantly. He +laughed till his red-rimmed eyes were adrip, while Slyne sat looking at +him. He was still laughing when Slyne rose and, flicking the +cigarette-end from between two nicotine-stained fingers, began to button +his coat. He stopped laughing then, by calculated degrees.</p> + +<p>"Sit down—sit down!" said he wheezily. "What's your hurry? You haven't +told me yet what those few 'trifling formalities' are. And how am I to +know whether—"</p> + +<p>But Slyne was already beyond the doorway, fumbling with a last button.</p> + +<p>"If you believe I've come here to talk simply for the sake of talking," +said he with sombre magnificence, "I needn't waste any more breath on +you. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove jumped out of his bunk. He was clearly impressed, in spite +of himself, by the other's indomitable assurance.</p> + +<p>"Come back, you fool!" he called angrily. "Come back. I want to know—</p> + +<p>"I'll go ashore with you," he shouted, raising his voice, since Slyne +was already on his way to the gangway. But Slyne did not seem to hear.</p> + +<p>"I'll take your offer—for Sallie," cried Captain Dove, in a slightly +lower tone.</p> + +<p>Slyne hesitated in his stride, stopped, and turned back into the +alleyway which led to the saloon.</p> + +<p>"What was that you said?" he demanded of Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"Come on inside," requested Captain Dove, more curtly.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I will," Slyne declared, inwardly elated over the +winning of that somewhat risky move. "You don't deserve another chance. +And, if I do give you another, you needn't suppose—"</p> + +<p>"Come on inside," begged Captain Dove, shivering, in no case to listen +to any lecture. "Come on, and we'll talk sense. Don't waste any more +good time."</p> + +<p>Slyne followed him in again, congratulating himself on his firmness. He +felt that he had gained the whip-hand of the old man, and he meant to +keep it. He curtly refused again Captain Dove's more hospitable offer of +some refreshment, and, while his aggrieved host was clumsily getting +into some warmer clothing, talked to him from the saloon through the +open doorway of his cramped sleeping-quarters. It was easier to arrange +matters so than under Captain Dove's direct observation.</p> + +<p>"You'll pay me cash, of course," Captain Dove stipulated, as though he +had been bargaining about a charter-party.</p> + +<p>"I'll pay you cash," Slyne agreed, "the day Sallie marries me. And +meantime I'll give you my note of hand at thirty days for the money." He +listened intently, but Captain Dove, struggling fretfully with +refractory buttons, maintained an ominous silence.</p> + +<p>"I'll have it backed by a London lawyer, to keep you safe," said Slyne. +"And listen! I'm not asking you to risk anything, or even to take my +note at its face value. I want you to come ashore with me and find out +for yourself from my lawyer that you can depend on the money. If you +don't feel satisfied about that after you've seen him, you needn't go +any farther, we'll call the bargain off; you can get back on board your +ship at once and no harm done.</p> + +<p>"And, even as regards Sallie, I'm going out of my way to keep you right. +I'd give a great deal to get married at once, but—I'm willing to wait +till the day I can hand you your hundred thousand in cash. Everything's +fair, square, and above-board now. I'm not asking you to risk anything.</p> + +<p>"And where in the wide world can you expect to do better for yourself!" +he argued. "If you go East you'll get no more for the girl—and look at +the expense! You'll be sorry all the rest of your life, too, for I know +you'd far sooner see her decently settled than sell her to any dog-faced +son-of-a-gun of a mandarin!</p> + +<p>"You can say what you like," he concluded, although Captain Dove had +said never a word. "Clean money's pleasanter to spend than dirty, any +day. If I had been born wealthy, I'd never have needed to touch a marked +card. And now's your chance, too, to pull out of a rotten rut that'll +sooner or later land you among the chain-gang."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove came forth from his cabin, indifferently clad, and eyed +Slyne with a sarcastic interest which somewhat disconcerted that +homilist.</p> + +<p>"You don't <i>look</i> just like a Band o' Hope!" said the old man, "but—"</p> + +<p>Slyne rose again, and bit his lip, in simulated impatience. "Oh, all +right," said he. "If you're not interested—"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove scowled at him. "I'm interested," he said grudgingly. "I'll +see this lawyer-fellow of yours whenever you like to bring him aboard, +and—if the money's there, you can count me in."</p> + +<p>"He isn't the sort of lawyer you've been accustomed to, Dove," said +Slyne. "You've got to go to him."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove did his best to out-stare him, but failed.</p> + +<p>"And what's more," said Slyne, playing a trump card with great outward +indifference, "you can make him pay you for your time instead of you +paying him. I told you I came back here to do you a good turn. There's +more than a hundred thousand dollars of easy money for you in this +deal—if you go the right way about it.</p> + +<p>"But—don't take my word for anything."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove had palpable difficulty in suppressing the obvious repartee +to that last bit of advice. But cupidity and cunning kept him quiet for +a space.</p> + +<p>"All right. I'll go with you," he agreed very gruffly at last. And Slyne +heaved a silent sigh of relief; he had feared more than once that the +contest of wills would after all go against him.</p> + +<p>"You're wise," he commented carelessly. "It will pay you.</p> + +<p>"You'd better see Sallie now, don't you think, and tell her—"</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to interfere between you and her—till I get my money +from you," declared the old man with a crafty grin. "You must tackle her +yourself. She'll be up by now, but breakfast won't be ready for half an +hour. If I were you I'd take that coat off and let her have a sight of +those diamonds of yours."</p> + +<p>Slyne did not wait to hear any more. He was already on his way aft, a +somewhat incongruous figure on the decks of the <i>Olive Branch</i>. When he +reached the companion-hatch on the poop he was smiling sardonically.</p> + +<p>"I do believe it was my 'diamonds' that finally fetched that old +ruffian," said he to himself. "If they have the same effect on Sallie, I +won't grudge the few francs I paid for them!"</p> + +<p>He tiptoed down the short stairway, and, having tapped very quietly at +the door of the after-saloon, entered without more ado. He judged that +he might have difficulty in gaining admission if he delayed to ask +leave.</p> + +<p>The saloon was empty. But from an adjoining cabin came the sound of +splashing, and from its neighbour the shuffle of heavy feet, a faint +suggestion of deft hands busy among crisp muslin and sibilant silk.</p> + +<p>Slyne hesitated; he wanted to be very tactful and yet was unwilling to +give up the advantage he had thus gained. He closed the door carefully +behind him. It creaked a little.</p> + +<p>From the room whence had come the rustle of feminine garments an +uncanny-looking figure appeared, and darted an angry, apprehensive +glance about the saloon. The sound of splashing had ceased.</p> + +<p>"'Morning, Ambrizette," said Slyne briskly and standing his ground. "Is +your mistress up yet? Tell her I have Captain Dove's leave to pay her a +call."</p> + +<p>The dumb black dwarf's scowl grew darker, but her hand fell away from +her breast and she halted as Sallie's voice sounded from within.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Jasper!" it ejaculated. "What do you want? I thought—"</p> + +<p>"I've come back—with good news for you, Sallie—wonderful news!" said +Slyne. "And I'm in no end of a hurry to be off again. Call Ambrizette in +and get dressed, as quick as you can. Captain Dove's waiting breakfast +for me and I mustn't delay him. How long will you be?"</p> + +<p>"What sort of news is it?" asked Sallie, no less dubious than her maid +had been; and called her maid in, notwithstanding her well-founded +doubts as to the nature of any news he could bring. For Slyne had held +out to her the same lure that the serpent offered to Eve, and her +womanly curiosity would not allow her to order him at once from her +domain.</p> + +<p>Slyne smiled slightly as he sat down in a basket-chair, to look about +him while she was still busy within. The little after-saloon which had +been her home for so long was finely furnished; more so, perhaps, than +was apparent to Slyne, whose taste in that respect inclined to the +florid. But he could not help noticing how dainty and neat and feminine +was its entire effect, with its cushioned cosy corners, snow-white +curtains and draperies. Its purely fragrant atmosphere stirred even +Slyne's conscience a little.</p> + +<p>He lay back in his seat, and, gazing about him, recalled to mind all he +had been able to learn as to Sallie's strange past. It all fitted in so +perfectly with the fabric of his wonderful new plans that he could find +no possible flaw in them. And when Sallie herself at length came out to +him from her cabin, he was optimistically disposed to be very generous +in his dealings with her.</p> + +<p>Fresh from her bath and doubly bewitching in her clinging, intimate +draperies, she met Slyne's glad, eager glance with grave, doubtful eyes, +and ignored entirely the hand he held out to her as he sprang from his +chair. But he affected not to notice her attitude of distrust, and, +greeting her gaily, saved his face by laying his outstretched hand on +another chair, which he set a little nearer his own.</p> + +<p>"Won't you sit down?" he suggested with debonair courtesy.</p> + +<p>But she shook her head; she was evidently afraid to receive him on any +such friendly footing. She did not even care to ask him what he was +doing in evening dress at breakfast-time and on board the <i>Olive +Branch</i>. But in her troubled eyes he could read that unspoken inquiry.</p> + +<p>"I've been travelling all night to get back to you, Sallie," he told +her, in a low, eager tone, "and I hadn't time to change—I was in such a +hurry to tell you the news. I've come to take you away from the <i>Olive +Branch</i>,—and Captain Dove. I've come to set you free."</p> + +<p>She stared at him as though she had not heard aright, her lips parted, +her eyebrows arched, a faint, puzzled, questioning frown on her +forehead.</p> + +<p>"I've come to set you free," he said again.</p> + +<p>"At what price?" she asked suddenly, with disconcerting directness, and +his would-be straightforward glance wavered.</p> + +<p>"Don't put it that way!" he urged. "I ask no more than the fulfilment of +the promise you made me. And—listen, Sallie. I've found out who you +really are and where your home is. I'll take you there if only you—</p> + +<p>"I'm not asking you to marry me right away, either, remember. All you +must do in the meantime is to sign without question some papers that +will be required. Then I'll make everything quite safe for you and take +you to your own home."</p> + +<p>The quick doubt in her eyes had given place to an expression of helpless +amazement and growing dismay. But he did not wait to hear anything she +might have to say.</p> + +<p>"It's like this, you see," he went on hurriedly. "Captain Dove's +absolutely at the end of his wits for money, and now—I can pay him his +price for you if you'll keep your promise to me by and by. Otherwise I +can't; no matter how willing I might be, I can't, I swear to you.</p> + +<p>"He feels, too, that you owe it to him to make up in one way or another +for some part at least of what he and I have lost through your—your +interfering so much lately in his affairs. And, if you don't back me up +now, he'll have to take the <i>Olive Branch</i> East as best he can. He'll +take you too, and—you'll never come back.</p> + +<p>"You don't understand. I'm not really trying to force you to marry me, +but to save you from a fate far worse than the worst you could imagine. +You don't understand that it's really freedom I'm offering you, and that +your only option is slavery.</p> + +<p>"You'd rather have a white man—even me!—for your husband, wouldn't +you? than a yellow one—or brown—or maybe black!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>A MASTERSTROKE</h3> + + +<p>Sallie sat down quickly in a cushioned chair, and lay back, trembling +like a captured bird.</p> + +<p>Slyne was not beyond feeling somewhat ashamed of himself, but found easy +solace in the reflection that all he had said was for her good as well +as his own. He could see that his last brutal argument had struck home. +For Sallie could no longer doubt, now, in the lurid light of her recent +experiences, that Captain Dove looked upon her as a mere chattel, to be +turned into cash as soon as occasion should offer.</p> + +<p>In a little she looked up at him again out of pleading, desperate eyes. +Some most unusual impulse of pity stirred him. She was only a young girl +yet, and her helplessness spoke its own appeal, even to him. He made up +his mind again, quite apart from any question of policy, to deal with +her as generously as might be practicable.</p> + +<p>"Will Captain Dove let me go now if I promise to marry you, Jasper?" she +asked. And he nodded solemnly.</p> + +<p>"And not unless I do?" she insisted. "You <i>know</i> I didn't—before, +although you say I did."</p> + +<p>"I swear to God, Sallie," he declared, "that I can't raise the money the +Old Man wants any other way. And—I won't say another word about what's +past and done with.</p> + +<p>"If you'll really promise to marry me," he said eagerly, "I'll prove to +you that all I have told you is true before you need even leave Captain +Dove; I won't ask you to go a step farther with me until you're +perfectly satisfied; I'll take you safely to your own home as soon as +you <i>are</i> satisfied that you can trust me. And I won't ask you to keep +your promise till—"</p> + +<p>An irrepressible light of longing had leaped up behind the despair in +her eyes.</p> + +<p>"You say that all I must do in the meantime is to sign some papers," she +interrupted. "You say you won't ask me to marry you right away. Will you +wait—a year?"</p> + +<p>"A year! I couldn't, Sallie!" he cried, and her pale lips drooped +piteously again.</p> + +<p>"How long, then?" she asked in a whisper. "Six months?"</p> + +<p>He had made up his mind to be generous, and he felt that he had not +failed in his intention as he answered, "Three months, and not a day +longer, Sallie."</p> + +<p>She sat still and silent for a while, considering that, and then, "All +right, Jasper," she agreed. "Take me safe home, and I'll marry you three +months from the day we get there—if we're both alive when the time +comes."</p> + +<p>He turned away from her for a moment. He had won all he wanted in the +meantime, and he could scarcely contain himself. When he presently held +out a hand to her, she took it, to bind that bargain.</p> + +<p>"And you won't have any cause to regret it, Sallie," he assured her, his +voice somewhat hoarse in spite of his effort to speak quite naturally.</p> + +<p>"So now, as soon as you're ready, we'll all go ashore together, and—"</p> + +<p>"I'll be ready in twenty minutes," she told him, clasping her hands at +her heart, her eyes very eager. "And, Jasper—you must let me take +Ambrizette with me."</p> + +<p>"You're free now to do as you like," he answered, and left her. He felt +as if he were treading on air on his way back to the mid-ship saloon.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove, in the same <i>négligé</i> costume, was busy at breakfast when +Slyne walked in upon him again, but looked up from his plate for long +enough to mumble a malicious question.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've fixed it all up with her," Slyne answered with assumed +nonchalance. "You can always trust me to know how to handle a woman, +Dove."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove shot a derisive glance in his direction. "Is she willing to +marry you after all, then?" he demanded, feigning a surprise by no means +complimentary.</p> + +<p>"Not just at once, of course," returned his companion, and left the old +man to infer whatever he pleased.</p> + +<p>In response to a shouted order of Captain Dove's a slatternly +cook-steward brought Slyne a steaming platter of beans with a bit of +bacon-rind on top, and an enamelled mug containing a brew which might, +by courtesy, have been called coffee. There was a tray of broken ship's +biscuits, a tin containing some peculiarly rank substitute for butter, +upon the table, with the other equally uninviting concomitants of a +meagre meal.</p> + +<p>"<i>Tchk-tchk!</i>" commented Slyne, and sat down to satisfy his hunger as +best he might; while Captain Dove, having overheard that criticism, eyed +him inimically, and proceeded to puff a peculiarly rank cigar in his +face.</p> + +<p>"You might as well be getting dressed now," said Slyne indifferently. +"By the time I'm through here, Sallie will be ready to go ashore."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove looked very fiercely at him, but without effect.</p> + +<p>"Sallie won't stir a step from the ship," the old man affirmed, "till +you've handed over the cash."</p> + +<p>Slyne looked up, in mild surprise.</p> + +<p>"But, dear me! Dove," he remarked, "you don't expect that the London +lawyer's going to take my word for a girl he's never even seen? Until +he's satisfied on that point, he won't endorse my note to you. So we've +<i>got</i> to take her along with us. I'm doing my best to give you a square +deal; and all I ask in return is a square deal from you."</p> + +<p>"You'd better not try any crooked games with me," growled Captain Dove, +and sat for a time sunk in obviously aggravating reflections.</p> + +<p>"If we get on his soft side," suggested Slyne insidiously, "there's no +saying how much more we might both make."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove rose and retired into his sleeping-cabin without further +words; while Slyne, picking out with a two-pronged fork the cleanest of +the beans on his plate, smiled sneeringly to himself.</p> + +<p>"What's the latest long-shore fashion, Slyne?" the old man asked after +an interval. Slyne knew by his tone that he had dismissed dull care from +his mind and was prepared to be quarrelsome again.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't suit a figure like yours," he answered coolly, and was +gratified to hear another hoarse growl. For, strange though it may seem, +Captain Dove was not without vanity. "All you really need to worry about +is how to keep sober. And I want it to be understood from the start—"</p> + +<p>"Not so much of it now!" snarled Captain Dove from his cabin. "You +attend to your own business—and I'll attend to mine. I know how to +behave myself—among gentlemen. And, don't you forget, either, that I'm +going ashore to play my own hand. I've a card or two up my sleeve, +Mister Slyne, that will maybe euchre your game for you—if you try to +bluff too high."</p> + +<p>Slyne swore hotly, under his breath. He would have given a great deal to +know exactly what the old man meant by that mysterious threat, and only +knew that it would be useless to ask him. There was nothing for it but +to put up with his capricious humours, as patiently as might +be—although Slyne shivered in anticipation of the strain that might +entail—till he could be dispensed with or got rid of altogether.</p> + +<p>Nor, as it presently appeared, were his fears at all ill-founded. For +Captain Dove emerged from his cabin got up for shore-going in a guise at +sight of which Slyne could by no means suppress an involuntary groan.</p> + +<p>"I'm all ready now," Captain Dove announced. "Will you pay for a cab if +I call one?"</p> + +<p>"My car's waiting," Slyne returned, and, as the old man whistled +amazedly over that further and unexpected proof that his former +accomplice's fortunes had changed for the better, "You look like a fool +in that outfit," said Slyne. "The right rig-out for motoring is a tweed +suit and a soft cap."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove was very visibly annoyed. He had been at particular pains +to array himself properly. "You want to be the only swell in the party, +of course!" he grunted. "You're jealous, that's what's the matter with +you." And he fell to polishing his furry, old-fashioned top-hat with a +tail of the scanty, ill-fitting frock-coat he had donned along with a +noisome waistcoat in honour of the occasion.</p> + +<p>Slyne shrugged his shoulders, despairingly, and, having made an end of +his unappetising meal, prepared for the road. Then he lighted a cigar +very much at his leisure, while Captain Dove regarded him grimly, and +led the way on deck without further words.</p> + +<p>Sallie was ready and waiting at the companion-hatch on the poop, as +pretty as a picture in the sables Captain Dove had given her a year +before—after a very lucrative season of poaching on the Siberian coast. +As soon as she caught sight of them she came forward, followed by +Ambrizette, whose appearance, in cloak and turban, was even a worse +offence to Slyne's fastidious taste than Captain Dove's had been.</p> + +<p>"What a calamitous circus!" he muttered between set teeth. "I must get +rid of those two somehow—and soon. But till then—</p> + +<p>"My car's at the back of those coal-wagons there," he told Captain Dove +with great dignity, and Captain Dove turned to the engine-room hatch.</p> + +<p>"Below there!" he called down. "Is that Mr. Brasse? I'm off now, Brasse. +You'll carry out all my instructions, eh? And—don't quarrel with Da +Costa, d'ye hear?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir," answered a dreary voice from the depths below, and +Captain Dove faced about again to find Sallie, flushed and anxious, +waiting with Ambrizette at the gangway.</p> + +<p>"Come on," he ordered irascibly, and Sallie followed him down the +plank. Ambrizette shuffled fearfully after her, and Slyne came last, his +chin in the air, triumphant.</p> + +<p>He led the way to his car, and was gratified to observe its salutary +effect on Captain Dove's somewhat contemptuous demeanour. The little +policeman in charge of it pending its opulent owner's return, came +forward, touching his képi, which further impressed Captain Dove, +uncomfortably. Slyne handed Sallie into the tonneau, and Ambrizette +after her, tossed the policeman a further tip which secured his +everlasting esteem, took his own seat at the wheel, and was hastily +followed by Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"Where are we bound for?" asked Captain Dove, holding his top-hat on +with both hands, as Slyne took the road toward Sampierdarena at a round +pace.</p> + +<p>"Don't talk to the man at the wheel," answered Slyne, and laughed. +"We've a hundred miles or so ahead of us. Better chuck that old tile of +yours away and tie a handkerchief round your head; you'll find that less +uncomfortable."</p> + +<p>The old man, at a loss for any more effective retort, pulled his +antiquated beaver down almost to his ears, folded his long arms across +the chest of his flapping frock-coat, and sat silent, scowling at the +baggy umbrella between his knees. Nor did he open his mouth again during +the swift journey.</p> + +<p>But when they at length reached their destination and Slyne stopped the +car quietly before the imposing pile that forms the Hôtel de Paris, +Captain Dove's jaw dropped and his mouth opened mechanically.</p> + +<p>A resplendent porter came hurrying forward and bowed most humbly to the +magnificent Slyne.</p> + +<p>"Take this lady and her maid straight up to the suite next mine," +ordered Slyne as Sallie alighted, while Captain Dove listened, all ears. +"And ask Mr. Jobling to join me in my sitting-room. He's still here, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>He gave vent to a heartfelt sigh of relief as the man, already preceding +his charges indoors, paused to answer in the affirmative.</p> + +<p>"I needn't book a room for you," he told Captain Dove, with calculated +indifference. "But Sallie must have somewhere to leave Ambrizette.</p> + +<p>"Hey! you. Call my chauffeur to take the car round to the garage."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove followed him toward the bureau, attracting not a few +glances of mingled surprise and amusement from the elaborate idlers in +its neighbourhood. Slyne was furious.</p> + +<p>"I can't have him tagging about after me in that ghastly get-up!" he +told himself on the way to the elevator; and cuffed the elevator-boy's +ears at the sound of a mirthful sneeze with which that unfortunate youth +had become afflicted. "Though how the deuce I'm to help myself I don't +know."</p> + +<p>In the corridor at which they got out he caught sight of Mr. Jobling +approaching, and hurried Captain Dove into the sitting-room of his +suite.</p> + +<p>"Give me five minutes to change my clothes," he requested of the old +man. "And don't get straying about, or you'll lose yourself."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling met him on the threshold as he shut the door. That gentleman +had marvellously recovered from his over-night's nervous break-down. A +sound sleep, a visit from the barber, a bath and a liberal breakfast had +all helped to alter him outwardly and inwardly for the better. He was +once more the respectably prosperous, self-confident solicitor.</p> + +<p>"I believe you've been out all night," he observed in a jocular tone of +reproof, a waggish forefinger uplifted.</p> + +<p>"I've covered a couple of hundred miles in the car while you've been +asleep," answered Slyne, turning into his dressing-room. "I've brought +the girl back with me—and the old man, her guardian. We're going to +have trouble with him unless we're very careful. So listen, and I'll +tell you how things stand."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling composed his features into their most professional aspect, +but that gave place by degrees to a variety of other expressions, while +Slyne, busy changing his clothes, related all he himself knew as to +Sallie's past history.</p> + +<p>"And now the old man thinks he is entitled to put a price on her," Slyne +concluded. "She's promised to marry me, but he won't let her go till I +hand him a hundred thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling lay back limply in his chair. In all his career he had +never, he asserted, heard a more scandalous suggestion.</p> + +<p>"Never mind about that," Slyne cut him short. "The money's no object to +me. But you can understand what a difficult fellow he is to deal with. +And what I'm going to do, merely as a precaution against his playing us +false in the end, is to give him my note of hand for the amount he +demands, endorsed by you, and payable the day I marry his adopted +daughter."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling sank still lower in his seat.</p> + +<p>"In return for that," Slyne went on, "he must sign a clear deliverance +from any further claim on any of us, subject, of course, to due payment +of the note.</p> + +<p>"Then, I want a document drawn up to confirm my engagement to the girl +and granting me the fullest possible power of attorney on her behalf +both before and after our marriage. She's so simple and inexperienced +that I must do everything for her.</p> + +<p>"And, lastly, you'd better make out a brief private agreement between +yourself and me—just as a matter of form, you know—to the effect that +you are willing to act in my interests throughout, in return for a +commission of ten per cent. on the accumulated revenues of the Jura +estates at the date of my marriage."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling looked at him for a time as a man suddenly bereft of his +spine might.</p> + +<p>"There's no time to spare," Slyne mentioned. "I want all that sort of +thing settled right off the reel—before lunch.</p> + +<p>"If the old man makes any kick about anything, you must back me up in +all I say. Although if he tries to raise his price by a few thousand +dollars, we needn't stick at that. The great thing is to get him to sign +the deliverance in return for our note. The girl has already agreed—"</p> + +<p>"And what if <i>I</i> refuse?" croaked his companion with the courage of +desperation. It was evident that Mr. Jobling saw through his daring +scheme. "What if I insist on my fair share? What if I—"</p> + +<p>Slyne silenced him with a contemptuous gesture.</p> + +<p>"Whatever you do will make no difference to anyone in the wide world but +yourself," said Slyne. "If you do what you're told you'll get a great +deal more than you deserve out of it. If you don't—D'ye think I'd have +taken you into the team if I didn't know how to drive you!" he asked, +his eyes beginning to blaze. "Why, my good fellow, if you refuse, if +you don't travel up to your collar, if you so much as shy at anything +you see or hear—I won't even hurt you; I'll just hand you over to the +police.</p> + +<p>"So make up your mind now, quick!"</p> + +<p>"You've nothing against me," quavered the lawyer.</p> + +<p>"No, I've nothing—not very much, at least, yet," Slyne agreed, knotting +his tie neatly before the glass. "But—that may be because you haven't +embezzled any of my money—yet." He had most opportunely recalled what +the detective Dubois had told him about his new friend.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling's face was almost green. He got up with an evident effort.</p> + +<p>"I was only joking," he declared with a most ghastly grin. "I'll be +quite satisfied with ten per cent. of the accumulated income—in fact, +we'll call it a couple of hundred thousand pounds, if you like."</p> + +<p>"All right," Slyne agreed imperturbably. "Make it that amount if you'd +rather. How long will it take you to get the papers drawn out? It's +nearly one o'clock. And—you won't be safe till they're signed."</p> + +<p>"An hour," said Mr. Jobling. "I'm a quick writer."</p> + +<p>"All right," Slyne repeated. "We'll lunch at two—after they're all +signed. So—off you go, and get busy."</p> + +<p>The stout solicitor hurried away, cowed and obedient again, and Slyne, +very smart in an almost new flannel suit, rejoined Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"I'm <i>too</i> fashionable, that's what's the matter with me!" declared +Captain Dove with sudden conviction at sight of him, and gazed very +bitterly at his own image in an inconvenient mirror.</p> + +<p>"Never mind about that," Slyne advised soothingly. "It's not as if you +were staying here, you know. You'll be back on board your ship by +supper-time. And now, I must tell you how we've got to handle this +lawyer-fellow when he fetches in the raft of papers he'll want us all to +sign."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove listened gloomily while he went on to explain, at +considerable length, and in his most convincing manner, that they must +match their combined wits against the lawyer's for their own profit.</p> + +<p>"It's not that I don't trust him," said Slyne, "but—I'll feel more +secure after everything's settled in writing and signed. He can't go +back on us then."</p> + +<p>"He'd better not!" Captain Dove commented. "I'll wring his neck for him +if he tries—"</p> + +<p>"And, as for Sallie," Slyne cut him short, "I've made things quite—"</p> + +<p>"Sallie will do whatever I tell her," growled Captain Dove. "And don't +you attempt to interfere between me and her—till you've paid me my +money, Slyne. Where is she? Fetch her in here."</p> + +<p>Slyne had no farther to go to do that than to the next room, where he +found Sallie at the window, gazing pensively out at the sea. But he +delayed there for some time to make it still more clear to her that her +only hope of helping herself lay in abetting him blindly.</p> + +<p>When he at length returned to his own sitting-room with her, he found +Captain Dove staring fixedly at another arrival there, an overwhelmingly +up-to-date if rather imbecile-looking young man, whose general +gorgeousness, combined with a very vacant, fish-like eye much magnified +by a monocle, had evidently reduced the would-be fashionable seaman to a +stricken silence.</p> + +<p>Slyne, who had at first shot a most malevolent glance at the intruder, +was stepping forward to greet him just as Mr. Jobling put in an +appearance with a sheaf of papers in one hand.</p> + +<p>"How d'ye do, Lord Ingoldsby?" said Slyne quite suavely to the young man +with the eye-glass. He had caught sight of Mr. Jobling in the doorway, +and turned to Sallie, his quick mind bent on a masterstroke.</p> + +<p>"May I introduce to you the Marquis of Ingoldsby," he remarked to her in +the monotone of convention; and, as she bowed slightly in response to +that very modern young gentleman's ingratiating wriggle and grin, Slyne, +one eye on Captain Dove's astonished countenance, completed the +formality.</p> + +<p>"This is Lady Josceline Justice," said he to his smirking lordship, and +breathed delicately into a somewhat extensive ear the further +information, "the late Earl of Jura's daughter, you know—and my +<i>fiancée</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>"SALLIE HARRIS"</h3> + + +<p>Sallie's first startled impulse was to deny the new identity Slyne had +so glibly bestowed on her. It seemed too preposterous to be believable; +and she was very suspicious of him. A little flushed, more than a little +afraid, and yet in some sense convinced in spite of herself by the +outward and visible signs about her that all these strange happenings +must have at least some foundation of fact, she sought to read the +others' thoughts in their faces.</p> + +<p>The Marquis of Ingoldsby was gaping at her, in open wonder and +admiration. Slyne's features wore a subdued expression of triumph, and +Captain Dove's a dazed, incredulous frown. Mr. Jobling was beaming about +him, so apparently satisfied with her, so respectably prosperous-looking +himself that her doubts as to Slyne's good faith began to give way. When +the lawyer was in turn presented to her and also addressed her by that +new name, she could scarcely disclaim it.</p> + +<p>"You'll stay and have luncheon with us, Lord Ingoldsby?" Slyne remarked, +touching the bell; and his lordship left off gaping at Sallie to look +him over with all the solemn sagacity of a young owl in broad daylight.</p> + +<p>"Er—all right," his lordship at length agreed. "Don't mind if I do.</p> + +<p>"Though I have some—er—friends waitin' for me," he added as an +afterthought, "that I promised to take for a run in your car, if—"</p> + +<p>"You'll have time enough after lunch," Slyne suggested, and drew the +noble marquis toward the window.</p> + +<p>"The Marquis of Ingoldsby!" muttered Captain Dove. "A run in Slyne's +car! And—<i>Lady Josceline Justice!</i>" He dug his knuckles forcibly into +his blinking eyes, and, "I seem to be wide enough awake," said he in a +stage aside as several waiters arrived on the scene.</p> + +<p>While they were setting the table Sallie tried to collect her thoughts. +Slyne had told her nothing till then, but that he had found out who her +folk were. And she had come away from the <i>Olive Branch</i> blindly, only a +little less distrustful of him than of Captain Dove's cruel intentions +toward her if she had remained on board. Even now, she scarcely dared to +believe—</p> + +<p>In response to a sign from Slyne she took her place at the flower-decked +table. The Marquis of Ingoldsby immediately settled himself at her side; +he also was obviously a young man who knew what he wanted, and meant to +have that at all hazards and, while the others were seating themselves, +he ogled her killingly.</p> + +<p>Slyne had sat down at her other hand, leaving Mr. Jobling and Captain +Dove to keep one another company behind the great silver centre-piece +which adorned the circular table. The marquis, leaning on one elbow, had +turned his back on Mr. Jobling, and Slyne turned his on Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"This is a little bit of all right!" his lordship remarked to Sallie, +with a confidential grin. "Only—I wish—How is it that we haven't met +before, Lady Josephine? But never mind that. Let's be pals now. Shall +we, eh?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Sallie answered at random and since he seemed to expect +some reply to that fatuity. She had met a good many men in her time, but +never one quite like this Lord Ingoldsby—who actually seemed anxious to +look and act like a cunning fool.</p> + +<p>A waiter intervened between them. But his lordship waved that +functionary away.</p> + +<p>"Do let's," he implored with child-like insistence. "It would be so +deevy to be pals with you. And I'm beastly dull here, all by myself, +don't y'know. So—</p> + +<p>"Eh?" He glared at Slyne, who had bluntly interrupted his <i>tête-à-tête</i>. +"No, I <i>don't</i> want any oysters—I told that waiter-chap so. And I +<i>don't</i> know any 'lady of the camellias.' I can't imagine what you're +talkin' about at all, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"I saw her again last night, at the Casino," said Slyne, imperturbably, +and went on to entertain Sallie with a long if not over-truthful account +of his own over-night's doings there. So that, for all his lordship's +lack of manners, it was some time before that spoiled youth again +succeeded in monopolising her attention. At every turn Slyne was ready +to balk him, and, but for his native self-conceit coupled with a certain +blind obstinacy, he must very soon have understood what was perfectly +plain to Sallie, that he was there merely on sufferance, to serve some +purpose of Slyne's.</p> + +<p>"Goin' to be here long, Lady Josephine?" he managed to break in at last. +Slyne had turned to give a departing waiter some order.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Sallie answered again, since she could say nothing else.</p> + +<p>"Hope to goodness you are," declared his lordship. "Stay for a week or +two, anyhow: and,"—he lowered his voice to a husky whisper, leaning +toward her—"let <i>me</i> trot you about a bit, eh? You'll maybe see more +than enough of <i>him</i> by and by!" He indicated Slyne with an eloquent +elbow, and further expressed his sentiments by means of an ardent sigh.</p> + +<p>Beyond the blossom-laden épergne, Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove, almost +cut off from other intercourse by that barrier, were exchanging coldly +critical glances. Neither seemed to be quite at his ease with the other, +and both had, of course, a great many urgent questions to put to Slyne +as soon as the Marquis of Ingoldsby should be gone. So that the +luncheon-party must have proved a very dull affair to them, and they +were no doubt glad when it was over.</p> + +<p>Slyne signalled to Sallie as soon as coffee was served, and she rose to +leave the room. She was quite accustomed to being promptly dispensed +with whenever her company might have been inconvenient.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say!" protested Lord Ingoldsby. "You're not goin' yet, Lady J. +Half a mo'. Won't you come for a spin with me now that the car's mine? +Just say the word and I'll drop my other engagement. And then we could +dine at—"</p> + +<p>"Lady Josceline will be engaged with her lawyer all afternoon," Slyne +cut him short with the utmost coolness, "and she's leaving Monte Carlo +again to-night."</p> + +<p>The Marquis of Ingoldsby glowered at him.</p> + +<p>"I'll see you in Paris, then, Lady J.," he went on, pointedly ignoring +Slyne, "or in London, at least, later on. Well, good-bye—if you must be +goin'."</p> + +<p>He bowed her out of the room, and then, snatching up his hat and cane +with very visible annoyance, included the others in a curt nod of +farewell and made off himself.</p> + +<p>He passed her before she had closed her own door—and would gladly have +paused there.</p> + +<p>"You won't forget me, will you?" she heard him ask eagerly from behind +her. But she did not delay to answer that question.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later, Slyne knocked at her door and entered, followed by +the other two men. He had brought with him the papers which Mr. Jobling +had prepared. Mr. Jobling carried an inkstand, and Captain Dove a +decanter of brandy. Slyne seated himself at the table and waved Sallie +back to her chair by the window.</p> + +<p>"We're going to talk business for a few minutes," he told her, "and then +get everything settled in writing—to keep you safe.</p> + +<p>"Fire ahead now, Dove. You want to know—"</p> + +<p>"Is Sallie really—"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> don't know anyone of that name now. D'you mean Lady Josceline?"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove glared at him, and then at the lawyer, and then at Sallie +herself.</p> + +<p>"Is that really who I am now, Jasper?" she asked, a most wistful +inflection in her low voice.</p> + +<p>"You needn't believe <i>me</i>," he answered her. "Ask Mr. Jobling. He'll +tell you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling coughed importantly. "I'll tell you all I know myself, Lady +Josceline," he promised her, and proceeded to repeat in part what he had +told Slyne on the terrace the night before concerning the Jura family, +but without a single word of the fortune awaiting the next of kin. +Captain Dove's face expressed the extreme of astonishment as he too sat +listening with the closest attention.</p> + +<p>"That's as far as my present knowledge goes," the lawyer finished +blandly. "And now—I understand that Captain Dove is prepared to supply +the proof required in conclusion.</p> + +<p>"How long have you known Lady Josceline, Captain Dove?"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove frowned as if in deep thought, and Slyne looked very +crossly at him.</p> + +<p>"About three quarters of an hour," the old man answered, and, glancing +at Slyne, chuckled hoarsely. "She's only been Lady Josceline for so +long."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling nodded understanding and the creases on his fleshy forehead +disappeared again.</p> + +<p>"And before that—?" he suggested, politely patient.</p> + +<p>"Before that she was—what she still is so far's I'm concerned—Saleh +Harez, my adopted daughter."</p> + +<p>"Sallie—<i>Harris!</i>" Mr. Jobling ejaculated. "Dear me! Did you say +Sallie—er—Harris?"</p> + +<p>"I said Saleh Harez," affirmed Captain Dove, and filled the glass at his +elbow again. "But all that concerns you, so far's I can see, is that +I've known her ever since she was knee-high to me. I've been a father to +her all those years, and she's my adopted daughter. So now, you can take +it from me, Mr. Jobling, that I'm the joker, and both bowers too, in +this merry little game."</p> + +<p>"Which makes it all the more unfortunate for you that you haven't a +single penny to stake on your hand," Slyne put in, while the lawyer +looked somewhat blankly from one to the other of them. "So—don't waste +any more time bluffing, but tell Jobling how you found Sal—Lady +Josceline."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove darted a very evil look at his friendly adviser. "And what +if I refuse?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Slyne almost smiled. "Why cut off your own nose to spite your face?" he +returned. "You won't refuse, because it would cost you a hundred +thousand dollars to do so."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove stroked his chin contemplatively, and his face slowly +cleared.</p> + +<p>"A hundred and fifty thousand, you mean," he said in a most malevolent +tone.</p> + +<p>Slyne got up from the table as if in anger, and for some time the two +wrangled over that point, the stout solicitor gazing at them with +evident dismay, while Sallie awaited the upshot of it all with bated +breath. She knew it was over the price to be paid for her that they were +disputing, but that knowledge had ceased to be any novelty. The wrathful +voices of the two disputants seemed to come from a great distance. She +felt as if the whole affair were a dream from which she might at any +moment awake on board the <i>Olive Branch</i> again.</p> + +<p>"There isn't money enough in it to pay you so much for a mere +affidavit," she heard Slyne say, and Mr. Jobling, under his glance, +confirmed that statement emphatically.</p> + +<p>"A hundred and twenty-one thousand is the last limit—a thousand down, +to bind the bargain, and the balance the day of my wedding with Sallie," +Slyne declared. "If that doesn't satisfy you—there's nothing more to be +said. And I'll maybe find other means—"</p> + +<p>"Show me even the first thousand," requested Captain Dove, and Slyne +counted out on to the table, at a safe distance from the old man's +twitching fingers, five thousand francs of the amount Lord Ingoldsby had +paid him for his car.</p> + +<p>"All right," said Captain Dove gruffly, and snatched at the notes. But +Slyne picked them up again.</p> + +<p>"As soon as you've given Jobling your statement," he said, "and signed +whatever other documents he may think necessary, I'll hand you these and +my note of hand, endorsed by him, for the balance remaining due you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling picked up a pen and Slyne pushed a sheet of foolscap toward +him. Captain Dove, with a grunt of disgust, sat back in his chair and, +while the lawyer wrote rapidly, related how he had found Sallie.</p> + +<p>When he had finished, Mr. Jobling read his statement over aloud, and +chuckled ecstatically. His own eyes were shining.</p> + +<p>"That settles it, Lady Josceline," said he triumphantly, turning to +Sallie. "I'll stake my professional reputation on your identity now. You +need have no further doubt—"</p> + +<p>"And just to clinch the matter," growled Captain Dove, "you'd better add +this to your affidavy:—The clothes the kid was wearing when I fetched +her off that dhow were all marked with the moniker 'J. J.' and some sort +of crest. But—they were all lost when the ship I commanded then +was—went down at sea."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling groaned. "How <i>very</i> unfortunate!" he remarked before he +resumed his writing. And Slyne stared fixedly at the old man until the +lawyer had finished.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Mr. Jobling, adjusting his pince-nez and beaming about him +again, "we can call in a couple of witnesses and—"</p> + +<p>"We'll witness each other's signatures." Slyne disagreed. "Better not +bring in any outsiders."</p> + +<p>The stout solicitor frowned over that, but finally nodded concurrence. +And Captain Dove took the pen from him, only to hand it to Slyne.</p> + +<p>"Gimme my thousand dollars and your joint note for the balance first," +he requested unamiably.</p> + +<p>Slyne signed the new note Mr. Jobling pushed across the table, and Mr. +Jobling endorsed it. Captain Dove read it over carefully before he +pocketed it, and also counted with great caution the bills Slyne tossed +to him. Then he in his turn signed, without reading it, the statement +the lawyer had drawn up from his dictation, and the more lengthy +agreement between Sallie and Jasper Slyne.</p> + +<p>Slyne and Jobling added their names to that, and Slyne attached his +careful signature to a promise to pay the solicitor the percentage +agreed upon. Captain Dove witnessed it and then called Sallie from her +seat in the window-alcove, and she came forward with anxious eyes, to +fulfil the undertaking she had finally had to give Jasper Slyne as the +price of his help in her most unhappy predicament.</p> + +<p>She did not know—nor did she greatly care then—what was contained in +the contract he laid before her without a word. She took from him +without demur the pen he held out to her. She had promised to do all he +told her and give him whatever he asked—except, for the present, +herself.</p> + +<p>"Sign 'Josceline Justice' at the foot of each page," he said gently, and +she did so without a word. For she would not for all the world contained +have broken any promise she had given. Then Mr. Jobling desired her to +witness the two other men's signatures.</p> + +<p>As she handed him back the pen she had a final question to ask him.</p> + +<p>"You said my father and mother are both dead, and my step-brother too. +Is there no one else—"</p> + +<p>"No one you need worry about in the least," he assured her, +misunderstanding. "There was a beggarly American who lodged a claim to +the title and—to the title; his name was Carthew, I think—yes, Justin +Carthew. But even if I—if he hadn't gone and got lost while looking for +you, his claim would be quite ineffectual now. You're your father's +daughter, Lady Josceline. Justin Carthew was a dozen or more degrees +removed from the trunk of your family tree. He had only the faintest +tinge of blue blood in his veins. He was an absolute outsider. We'll +hear no more about <i>him</i> now."</p> + +<p>"You mean that it's an absolutely sure thing for her," Captain Dove +suggested, and Mr. Jobling looked pained.</p> + +<p>"I can't afford to risk anything on uncertainties, sir," he answered +stiffly. "And I'll stake my professional reputation on—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind about all that," Slyne broke in, folding his share of +the papers together and pocketing them. "The syndicate's safely floated. +And now—as to our next move.</p> + +<p>"You'd better get away back to Genoa by the five o'clock train, Dove. +And you must take Ambrizette with you; I'll get Sal—Lady Josceline +another maid in Paris—one who won't attract quite so much attention to +us as that damned dwarf would.</p> + +<p>"Jobling and I will go on there by the night-mail, on our way to London +with—Lady Josceline. You can take the <i>Olive Branch</i> round to some safe +English port and lay her up there in the meantime. As soon as you land, +you can rejoin us—at Jobling's address. By that time we'll probably be +ready to redeem our note to you."</p> + +<p>"By that time," Captain Dove returned with concentrated bitterness, +"you'll have found some way to give me the slip altogether. D'ye take me +for a blind idiot, Slyne? D'ye think I'm going to let Sallie out of my +sight, with you?"</p> + +<p>Slyne was visibly disconcerted. "But—aren't you going to take your ship +round to England?" he asked, in genuine surprise. "You can't very well +leave her lying in Genoa!"</p> + +<p>"I'll attend to my own end of the business," said Captain Dove with +angry decision. "If you're going to London by train to-night, so am I. +If you like to come back on board with me, I'll sail you round. But I'm +not the only man on the <i>Olive Branch</i> who can sail a ship. Why, I've +half a dozen broken captains—and most of 'em with extra masters' +certificates, too—among my crew.</p> + +<p>"I've left Brasse and Da Costa in charge, and they'll work her across +the Bay if I tell them to. I've only to send them a wire. And all you +have to do now is to say which way you want to travel—with me; for I'm +going to stick to you like a leech till the day you pay me off."</p> + +<p>Slyne walked to the window, humming a tune. But it was obviously costing +him all of his refreshed fortitude to refrain from expressing his real +sentiments toward Captain Dove. His face, as he stood glaring blindly +out at the beautiful scene before him, was like that of a wild beast +balked of its fair prey. But from between his bared, set teeth the +careless hum came unbroken.</p> + +<p>"I think you're foolish," was all he said when he turned again, +convinced that it would be a waste of time to argue the matter with the +old man, "but—suit yourself. Jobling and I <i>must</i> get to London with +Sal—Lady Josceline at the earliest possible moment. If you insist on +travelling with us to-night—so be it. All I want you to understand is +that there's to be no more drinking, and that you must be advised by me +in every other particular. This isn't really the sort of game you're +liable to shine in. It would be far better for all of us if you'd stay +on board your ship."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove's weather-beaten countenance was turning slowly purple. He +was striving after speech. Slyne, outwardly cool and contemptuous of his +visible fury, stood gazing down at him, hands in pockets. Mr. Jobling +was wriggling restlessly in his chair, glancing from one to the other, +prepared to flee from the coming storm.</p> + +<p>Still without a word, Captain Dove reached again for the +brandy-decanter, directly defying Slyne. Slyne stepped forward and +snatched it out of his hand.</p> + +<p>Simultaneously, the old man and Mr. Jobling sprang from their seats, the +former making for Slyne and the latter for the door, which opened just +as he reached it, so that he all but fell over a boy in buttons who had +knocked and entered carrying a telegram on a tray.</p> + +<p>Slyne had not moved. Captain Dove, almost at his throat, spun round on +one heel.</p> + +<p>"For me?" Mr. Jobling exclaimed anxiously as he ripped the envelope +open. And a slow pallor overspread his puffy pink features while he was +perusing its contents.</p> + +<p>"From Mullins, my managing clerk," he mumbled as he passed the message +to Slyne, who looked it over indifferently, and then re-read it aloud in +a low but very ominous voice: "'<i>American claimant landed at Genoa +yesterday. Now on way to London. Court granted decree in his favour.</i>' +Handed in at Chancery Lane, in London,"—he pulled out his watch—"fifty +minutes ago."</p> + +<p>The page-boy had disappeared. Slyne pushed suddenly past Mr. Jobling and +set his back against the door. Captain Dove was approaching the +terrified solicitor softly, on tiptoe, his fists clenched, all his +tobacco-stained fangs displayed in a grin of fury. One of his long arms +shot out just as the door opened behind Slyne's back and a voice +announced:</p> + +<p>"M. Dubois."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE LAW—AND THE PROFITS</h3> + + +<p>Sallie saw how Jasper Slyne's face blanched at sight of that very +untimely intruder, whose keen eyes seemed to take in the situation there +at a glance.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling had fallen backward into a convenient armchair and, with +both hands clapped to his nose, was moaning most piteously. Captain Dove +was standing over him, with features inflamed, in a very bellicose +posture and glaring at the new-comer, toward whom Slyne had turned +inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"You're—looking for some one, M. Dubois?" Slyne asked, in a tone of +polite surprise, which, Sallie knew, was assumed.</p> + +<p>"A thousand pardons," returned that individual. "I am indeed looking for +some one—whom I thought to find here. I had no intention, however, of +intruding upon a lady—" He bowed profusely to Sallie. "It may be," he +suggested, "that I have mistaken the number. Is not this the suite 161?"</p> + +<p>"One hundred and sixty," Slyne told him, and evidently did not think it +worth while to add that the next suite was his own.</p> + +<p>"A thousand pardons," repeated M. Dubois, very penitently. "I am too +stupid! But mademoiselle will perhaps be so gracious as to forgive me +this time."</p> + +<p>He bowed to Sallie again and to Slyne, and disappeared, sharply scanning +the latter's face to the last.</p> + +<p>"Who's that son of a sea-cook?" snapped Captain Dove, and Mr. Jobling +looked wanly up out of one eye.</p> + +<p>"A French detective," Slyne answered reflectively. But Sallie felt sure +that he was afraid of M. Dubois, and wondered why.</p> + +<p>"Well, he has nothing against me that I'm aware of," the old man +declared. "And now—what about this wire? Does it mean that some other +fellow has scooped the pool—and that I've had all my trouble for +nothing, eh?" He clenched his fist again and shook it in the lawyer's +face.</p> + +<p>"No, no," gasped Mr. Jobling. "Don't be so hasty. It makes no difference +at all, now that we have Lady Josceline with us. I told you that the +American, Carthew, is of no account against her—and how he has ever +cropped up again I can't conceive. In any case—"</p> + +<p>"In any case, you'd better be off to your room and ring for a bit of +beefsteak to doctor that eye with," Slyne interposed in a tone of +intense annoyance.</p> + +<p>"And I wish to goodness, Dove!" he added savagely, "that you would +behave a little more like a reasonable human being and less—"</p> + +<p>"Less of your lip, now!" snarled the old man. "And <i>don't</i> keep on +saying that. Just take it from me again, both of you, that you'd better +not be so slow again in telling me—"</p> + +<p>"You didn't give me time," Mr. Jobling protested.</p> + +<p>Slyne opened the door. "Come on," he urged. "You've got to get your kit +packed, Jobling. We'll be leaving before very long now."</p> + +<p>"Have you made up your mind to come with us, Dove?"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove nodded, most emphatically. "I'll send word to Brasse and Da +Costa at once," he remarked, "and then I'll be ready to start whenever +you are."</p> + +<p>He left the room after Mr. Jobling, and Slyne, in the doorway, looked +back at Sallie, the reassuring smile on his lips belied by his cold, +calculating eyes.</p> + +<p>"And how about you, Sallie?" he asked. "Have you made up your mind? Are +you satisfied—so far? Or—would you rather go back to the <i>Olive +Branch</i>?</p> + +<p>"If you would—I'll let you off your promise, even now! And don't forget +that this will be your last chance to recall it."</p> + +<p>"You know I can't go back to the <i>Olive Branch</i>, Jasper," she answered +slowly. "But—"</p> + +<p>He did not give her time to say more. "That's settled for good, then," +he asserted. "Your promise stands, and I know you'll keep it when the +time comes—after I've done my part.</p> + +<p>"I'm only sorry I haven't been able to get rid of Captain Dove right +away, but it won't be long now till—You needn't worry any more about +him. I'll see that he behaves better.</p> + +<p>"If there's anything else I can do for your comfort, you must let me +know. And now, I'll leave you to your own devices until it's time to +start on our travels. Better get a rest while you can, eh? We've a very +busy week ahead of us."</p> + +<p>She saw that he did not intend to tell her any more in the meantime, and +was glad to see him go. Then she called Ambrizette in for company, and +sat down by the window again, to try to sort out for herself the +bewildering tangle that life had once more become within a few hours.</p> + +<p>Gazing out across the familiar sea with wistful, far-away eyes, she +mused for a time over what Captain Dove had told Mr. Jobling of her +history, and strove to piece together with that all she herself could +recall of that dim and always more mysterious past out of which she had +come to be Captain Dove's property, bought and paid for, at a high +price, as he had repeated several times.</p> + +<p>Her own earliest vague, disconnected, ineffectual memories were all of +some dark, savage mountain-country; of endless days of travel; of +camp-fires in the cold, and hungry camels squealing for fodder; of the +fragrant cinnamon-smell of the steam that came from the cooking-pots.</p> + +<p>Before, or, it might have been, after that, she had surely lived on some +seashore, in a shimmering white village with narrow, crooked lanes for +streets and little flat-roofed houses huddled together among hot +sandhills where the <i>suddra</i> grew and lean goats bleated always for +their kids.</p> + +<p>Then, as if in a very vexing dream, she could almost but never quite +see, through the thickening mist of the years, once-familiar +faces—white men, with swords, in ragged uniforms, and big brown ones +with wicked eyes and long, thin guns, glaring down at her over a high +wall, through smoke and fire, and fighting, and the acrid reek of +powder....</p> + +<p>And there remembrance grew blank altogether, until it connected with +Captain Dove, on the deck of a slaving-dhow far out of sight of any +land. She had been only a little child when he had carried her up the +side of his own ship in his arms, while she laughed gleefully in his +face and pulled at his shaggy moustache, but she could still remember +some of the incidents of that day.</p> + +<p>She had lived on board his successive ships ever since. And ever since, +until recently, he had always been very good to her, in his own queer, +gruff way. He had always treated her as though she were a child of his +own, shielding her, in so far as he could, from even the knowledge of +all the evil which he had done up and down the world. She had grown up +in the belief that his despotic guardianship was altogether for her good +and not to be disputed.</p> + +<p>But now—she was no longer a child. And all her old, unquestioning faith +in his inherent good intentions, toward her at least, was finally +shattered. She knew now that he really looked upon her as a mere +chattel, with a cash value—just as if she had been one of the hapless +cargo of human cattle confined in the pestiferous hold of the dhow on +whose deck he had found her at play. She knew now that he had bought and +paid for them as well as her, and sold them again at a fat profit, far +across the seas—all but the dumb, deformed black woman whom he had +picked from among them to act as her nurse.</p> + +<p>And if it did not occur to her to question either his power or his +perfect right to dispose of her future also as he might see fit, had not +all her experience gone to prove that might is right everywhere, that +law and justice are merely additional pretexts devised by the strong for +oppressing the weak? She had had to choose between remaining on board +the <i>Olive Branch</i>, or paying Jasper Slyne his price for the chance of +escape he had offered her in pursuance of his own aims.</p> + +<p>She disliked and distrusted Slyne scarcely less than before. But she did +not see how she could have chosen otherwise. And, in any case,—it was +too late now to revoke the promise she had made him.</p> + +<p>She was still afraid to place any faith in the promises he had made +her. She had no idea how he had come at his alleged discovery of her +real identity. But Mr. Jobling's obvious belief in that recurred to her +mind, and she fell to wondering timidly what life would be like as Lady +Josceline Justice.</p> + +<p>Her impressions on that point were very hazy, however, and she had still +to puzzle out the problem added by Justin Carthew. But she finally gave +up the attempt to solve that at the moment, contenting herself with the +tremulous hope that she might soon be on her way toward that dear, +unknown, dream-home for which her hungry heart had so often ached.</p> + +<p>Of the exorbitant price so soon to be paid for the brief glimpse of +happiness Slyne had agreed to allow her, she took no further thought at +all. She had already made up her mind to meet that without complaint.</p> + +<p>An hour or more later, when Slyne looked in to tell her that it was time +to start, she was still seated at the window, gazing out over the +steel-grey sea with wistful, far-away eyes.</p> + +<p>At his instigation she veiled herself very closely. And he had brought +with him a hooded cloak for Ambrizette. No one took any particular +notice of the inconspicuous party which presently left the Hôtel de +Paris in a hired car, as if for an excursion along the coast.</p> + +<p>At a station fifty miles away they left the car and caught the +night-mail for Paris. Slyne's baggage was on board it, in the care of a +sullen chauffeur, and there were also berths reserved for them all.</p> + +<p>"Did you see any more of Dubois?" Sallie heard Slyne ask the man, who +shook his head indifferently in reply.</p> + +<p>The long night-journey passed without other incident than a dispute +between Captain Dove and the sleeping-car attendant, which raged until +Slyne threatened to have the train stopped at the next station and send +for the police. And the sun was shining brightly when they reached +Paris.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling went straight on to London, but Slyne took Sallie and +Captain Dove to a quiet but expensive hotel, where they remained for a +few days, which passed in a perfect whirl of novelty and excitement for +her. And when they in their turn crossed the Channel, she had for +baggage at least a dozen new trunks containing the choicest spoils of +the Rue de la Paix. Slyne had pooh-poohed all her timid protests against +his lavish expenditure on her account, and had also provided for Captain +Dove and Ambrizette in their degree. He had evidently a fortune at his +disposal, and was bent on showing her how generous he could be.</p> + +<p>He was also unostentatiously displaying other good qualities which had +all gone to make those days pass very pleasantly for her. She could not +fail to appreciate the courtesy and consideration which he consistently +showed her now. His patience with Captain Dove, a trying companion at +the best of times and doubly troublesome idle, more than once made her +wonder whether he could be the same Jasper Slyne she had known on the +<i>Olive Branch</i>. Prosperity seemed to have improved him almost beyond +recognition.</p> + +<p>He had a cabin at her disposal on the Calais-Dover steamer but she +stayed on deck throughout the brief passage, glad to breathe the salt +sea-air again, while he entertained her with descriptions of London and +she watched the twinkling lights that were guiding her home.</p> + +<p>And then came London itself, at last, somewhat grey, and cold, and +disconsolate-looking on a wet winter morning.</p> + +<p>But after breakfast in a cosy suite at the Savoy, a blink of sunshine +along the Embankment helped to better that first hasty impression. And +then Slyne took Captain Dove and her in a taxicab along the thronged and +bustling Strand to Mr. Jobling's office in Chancery Lane.</p> + +<p>They got out in front of a dingy building not very far from Cursitor +Street. It was raining again, and Sallie, looking up and down the +narrow, turbid thoroughfare, felt glad that she did not need to live +there.</p> + +<p>Indoors, the atmosphere was scarcely less depressing. A dismal passage +led toward a dark stairway, up which they had to climb flight after +flight to reach at last a dusty, ill-smelling, gas-lighted room, +inhabited only by a shabby, shock-headed hobbledehoy of uncertain age +and unprepossessing appearance, perched on a preposterously high stool +at a still higher desk, behind a cage-like partition.</p> + +<p>"I want to see Mr. Jobling, at once," Slyne announced to him. And Mr. +Jobling's "managing clerk" looked slowly round, with a snake-like and +disconcerting effect due to a very long neck and a very low collar.</p> + +<p>"Show Mr. Slyne in immediately, Mullins," ordered a pompous voice from +within; and Mr. Jobling himself, a blackcoated, portly, important +personage there, came bustling out from his private office to welcome +his visitors.</p> + +<p>"How d'ye do, how d'ye do, Lady Josceline!" he exclaimed, and cocked an +arch eyebrow at Sallie's most becoming costume; although the effect he +intended was somewhat impaired by the fact that he was still suffering +from a black eye, painted over in haste—and by an incompetent artist.</p> + +<p>"I can see now what's been keeping <i>you</i> in Paris!" he added +facetiously, and, having shaken hands with Slyne, who seemed to think +that superfluous, turned to receive Captain Dove with the same +politeness.</p> + +<p>"Phew!" whistled Mr. Jobling and drew back and stared at the old man. +"I'd <i>never</i> have recognised you in that rig-out."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove pulled off a pair of smoked glasses he had been wearing, +the better to look him, with offensive intent, in his injured eye. For +Captain Dove was still enduring much mental as well as physical +discomfort in a disguise which he had only been induced to adopt a +couple of days before, and after an embittered quarrel with Slyne. The +stiff white collar round his corded neck was still threatening to choke +him and then cut his throat. He had been infinitely more at his ease in +his scanty, short-tailed frock-coat and furry top-hat than he was in the +somewhat baggy if more becoming black garb he had donned in its place, +with a soft wide-awake always flapping about his ears.</p> + +<p>"Come inside," Mr. Jobling begged hurriedly, and, looking round as he +followed them into his sanctum, "Mullins!" he snapped, "don't stand +there staring. Get on with your work, at once.</p> + +<p>"You're later than I expected," he remarked to Slyne as he closed the +door, "but just in time. The Court's closed, of course, for the +Christmas vacation, but I've filed an application for a hearing in +Chambers, and—"</p> + +<p>He paused as a telephone-bell rang shrilly outside, and a moment later +the shock head of his "managing clerk" protruded into the room, almost +as if it did not belong to a body at all.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Spettigrew says that our application in Chambers will be heard by +Mr. Justice Gaunt, in 57B, at eleven-thirty sharp this forenoon," +announced that youth and, with a final wriggle of his long neck, +withdrew.</p> + +<p>"Devil take him!" exclaimed Captain Dove, somewhat startled and much +incensed. "I wouldn't keep a crested cobra like that about me for—"</p> + +<p>"Let's see those accounts of yours, now," said Slyne, disregarding that +interruption, and Mr. Jobling, having first looked at his watch, +produced from another drawer a great sheaf of papers, all carefully +docketed. He slipped off the top one and somewhat reluctantly handed +that to his friend.</p> + +<p>Slyne took it from him eagerly, and sat for a time gloating over it with +eyes which presently began to glow.</p> + +<p>But when Captain Dove, growing restless, would have glanced over his +shoulder to see what was tickling his fancy so, he frowned and folded +that document up and returned it to Mr. Jobling.</p> + +<p>"Give it here, now!" growled Captain Dove, menacing Mr. Jobling with a +clenched fist; and the lawyer, after an appealing, impotent glance at +Slyne, had no recourse but to comply with that peremptory order.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure of your figures?" Slyne asked, with a scowl. He +seemed conscious that he, in his haste, had made a false step. And Mr. +Jobling nodded with nervous assurance.</p> + +<p>"I have inside sources of information as to the revenue of the estates," +he replied, "and a note of all the investments. I've allowed a wide +margin for all sorts of incidentals. I think you'll find, in fact, that +Lady Josceline's inheritance will amount to even more than I've +estimated."</p> + +<p>Slyne smiled again, more contentedly. Nor was his complaisance overcome +even when Mr. Jobling put to him a half-whispered petition for a +further small cash advance to account of expenses.</p> + +<p>"I wasn't even able to pay Mullins' wages with what you gave me in +Paris," said the stout solicitor vexedly. "Fees and so on swallowed it +all up, and—I'm actually short of cab-fares!"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you fire Mullins, then?" demanded Slyne with a shade of +impatience. "I've just got rid of my chauffeur because he was costing me +more than he was worth."</p> + +<p>"But I can't afford to get rid of Mullins. Just at the moment he's very +useful to me. It would create a bad impression if I had to run my own +errands. And—the fact is, he knows far too much. I'll pay him off and +shut his mouth by and by, when I have more time to attend to such +matters."</p> + +<p>"How much do you want?" Slyne inquired with a frown evidently meant to +warn his friend to be modest.</p> + +<p>"Can you spare twenty pounds—to go on with?"</p> + +<p>Slyne hesitated, but only for a few seconds. Then he pulled out a +pocket-book and surreptitiously passed that sum to the penniless man of +law, who accepted it with no more than a nod of thanks.</p> + +<p>"I'll pay Mullins now," he remarked, and immediately hurried out of the +room. Captain Dove was gasping for breath and showed every other symptom +of a forthcoming explosion.</p> + +<p>As soon as the door shut behind him, the old man gave open vent to his +wrath. And a most furious quarrel followed between Slyne and him. +Sallie, too, learned then, for the first time, of the vast inheritance +which would be hers, of Slyne's cunning plan to buy Captain Dove out for +a mere pittance, and how he himself expected to profit through marrying +her.</p> + +<p>But she was not overwhelmed with surprise by that belated discovery. She +had almost anticipated the final disclosure of some such latent motive +behind all Slyne's professions to her. The only difference it might make +would be to Captain Dove. Slyne and he were still snarling at each other +when Mr. Jobling walked jauntily in again. But at sight of him Captain +Dove began to subside.</p> + +<p>"We mustn't be late. Mr. Spettigrew will be expecting us now. I've sent +Mullins on ahead with my papers," observed Mr. Jobling breezily, and +went on to explain that Mr. Justice Gaunt, by nature a somewhat +cross-grained old limb of the law, had been very ill-pleased over being +bothered again, and at a moment when most of his colleagues were +enjoying a holiday, about any such apparently endless case as that of +the Jura succession, which had been cropping up before him, at more or +less lengthy intervals, for quite a number of years, and concerning +which he had, only a few days before, made an order of court in favour +of Justin Carthew.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove clapped his soft felt hat on his head with a very +devil-may-care expression.</p> + +<p>"Come on, then," said he grimly, and Mr. Jobling was not slow to lead +the way. So that they reached Mr. Justice Gaunt's chambers punctually at +the hour appointed, and were ushered into his lordship's presence by Mr. +Spettigrew, the learned counsel retained by Mr. Jobling on Sallie's +behalf, a long, lifeless-looking gentleman in a wig and gown and +spectacles. And his lordship smiled very pleasantly as Sallie raised her +heavy veil at counsel's crafty request.</p> + +<p>"Pray be seated, my dear young lady," his lordship begged with fatherly, +old-fashioned kindness, and indicated a chair meant for counsel, much +nearer his own than the rest. Nor did he often take his eyes from her +face throughout the course of a long and convincing dissertation by Mr. +Spettigrew, on her past history, present position in life, and claims on +the future, with some reference to the rival claims of Mr. Justin +Carthew.</p> + +<p>"And I have full proof to place before you, at once, if you wish it, +m'lud," concluded Mr. Spettigrew in his most professional drone, "in +support of the fact that the lady before you is the lawful daughter of +the late earl and the countess, his second wife, who died in the desert. +Mr. Justin Carthew, on the other hand, is related to the family in a +very different and distant degree, and there are, as y'r ludship has +been good enough to agree, no other survivors.</p> + +<p>"I beg leave now to request that y'r ludship will rescind the authority +granted to Mr. Justin Carthew, and admit my client's petition <i>ad +referendum</i>."</p> + +<p>"Produce your proofs," ordered his lordship, and Mr. Spettigrew +extracted from a capacious black bag a pile of papers at which Mr. +Justice Gaunt looked with no little disgust.</p> + +<p>"What are they, in chief?" asked Mr. Justice Gaunt, turning over page +after page of closely written law-script, as gingerly as if he believed +that one might perhaps explode and blow him to pieces. And Mr. +Spettigrew launched forth again into a long list of certificates, +records, researches, findings, orders of court, sworn statements and +affidavits, by Captain Dove—"Then trading in his own ship, m'lud, now +retired and devoting his time to mission-work among deep-sea sailors;" +by Mr. Jasper Slyne, gentleman; by Mr. Jobling, whom he did not pause +to describe; by a couple of dozen other people, living or dead, at home +or abroad; all in due legal form and not to be controverted.</p> + +<p>"I think you'll find them in perfect order, and absolutely conclusive, +m'lud," counsel came to a finish triumphantly, and sat down, greatly to +the relief of all present.</p> + +<p>"H'm!" said his lordship, still gravely regarding Sallie: whose eyes had +nothing to conceal from him. "And so this is the long-lost Lady +Josceline!"</p> + +<p>His searching glance travelled slowly to Captain Dove's face, and then +to Slyne's; both of whom met it without winking, although Captain Dove +was no doubt glad of the protection of his smoked glasses.</p> + +<p>"I'll have to go through the proofs, of course," said his lordship +reflectively and let his gaze rest on Sallie again. "But—if +everything's as you say, I don't think it will be long before Lady +Josceline finds herself in full enjoyment of all her rights and +privileges. If everything's as you say, I'll do whatever lies in my +power to expedite matters; I think I can promise you that the case will +be called immediately the vacation is over. Meanwhile, however, and till +I have looked through the proofs, I can make no further order."</p> + +<p>He rose, and they also got up from their chairs as he came round from +behind his desk and confronted Sallie, a tall, stooping old man with a +wrinkled face and tired but kindly eyes.</p> + +<p>She looked up into them frankly, and he laid a hand on her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Yours has been a very sad history so far, my dear young lady," he said, +his head on one side, still studying her. "I hope it will be all the +brighter henceforth. I knew—the last Earl of Jura—when we were both +young men—before he married. You remind me of him, as he was then, in +many respects. Good day to you now; my time here is not my own, you +know. But some day, perhaps you will allow me to pay my respects to +you—at Justicehall, since we're to be neighbours; my own home isn't +very far from yours."</p> + +<p>Outside in the corridor, Mr. Jobling shook hands rapturously with every +one, even with Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"We've turned the trick already," he declared. "You heard what his +lordship said. With him on our side, the whole thing's as good as +settled. All we have to do now is to wait until the Courts take up again +and confirm—"</p> + +<p>"How long will that be?" Slyne inquired. He, too, was smiling +ecstatically.</p> + +<p>"Not much more than a fortnight," the lawyer informed him. "It will soon +pass. We must just be patient."</p> + +<p>"We must keep very quiet, too," said Slyne, "unless we want to give the +whole show away to the enemy in advance. We must clear off out of London +till then. I'll tell you what, Jobling! Why shouldn't we all go down to +Scotland to-night?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling nodded agreement. "An excellent idea," he declared. "There's +nothing to keep us here."</p> + +<p>"That's settled, then," Slyne asserted. "And we'll all dine together at +the Savoy before we start. I think we can afford to celebrate the +occasion, eh! And I want to show Lady Josceline a few of her future +friends."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>"PLEASURES AND PALACES"</h3> + + +<p>The Duchess of Dawn was dining a number of notabilities at the Savoy, on +her way to a command performance at the Gaiety; a fact of which the +fashionable world was well aware, because the young duchess is a great +lady in London as well as elsewhere, and all her doings are chronicled +in advance. The fashionable world had promptly decided to dine there +too, and telephoned in breathless haste for tables. It filled the +restaurant at an unusually early hour, and a disappointed overflow +displayed itself in the <i>foyer</i>.</p> + +<p>The Duchess of Dawn is one of the most beautiful women in England. The +eyes of the fashionable world were focussed on her and her guests, among +whom were a minor European prince and a famous field-marshal who had not +been on show in London for long, until there appeared from the crowded +<i>foyer</i>, upon the arm of an old-young man of distinguished appearance +and faultless <i>tenue</i>, a tall, slender girl, at whom, as she passed, +every one turned to gaze, with undisguised admiration or envy, according +to sex and temperament.</p> + +<p>She was gowned to distraction, and by an artist in women's wear. Her +beautiful bare arms and shoulders and bosom were free of superfluous +ornament. Her pure, proud, sensitive features were faintly flushed,—as +though, if that were conceivable, she was wearing evening dress for the +first time, and found it trying,—but her curved crimson lips were +slightly parted in a most bewitching smile, and, from under their +drooping lashes, her radiant eyes looked a demure, amused, impersonal +defiance at the frankly curious faces upturned toward her. The shaded +lights made most enchanting lights and shadows among her hair, red-gold +and heaped about her head in heavy coils, as she moved modestly through +the thronged room toward a corner where, about a beautifully decorated +table, four motionless waiters were standing guard over four empty +chairs.</p> + +<p>She sat down there, her back to the bulk of the company, and her escort +took the seat opposite. A portly, prosperous-looking, elderly man, with +something a little suspicious about one of his eyes, and a squat, +queerly-shaped old fellow in semi-clerical garb and wearing smoked +glasses, completed the party. Their waiters began to hover about them, +and the fashionable world went on with its dinner.</p> + +<p>"Who was that <i>lovely</i> girl?" the Duchess of Dawn demanded of her +<i>vis-à-vis</i>, the veteran soldier, and he, reputed among women to have no +heart at all, recalled himself with an evident start from the reverie +into which he had fallen. He almost blushed, indeed, under the duchess's +blandly discerning smile.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, I'm sure, duchess," he returned, smiling also, in spite +of himself, and beckoned to a servant behind him, whom he despatched on +some errand.</p> + +<p>"She's registered as Miss Harris, your lordship," the man announced in +an undertone when he returned.</p> + +<p>"Miss Harris!" echoed the prince, who was also a soldier. He had +overheard. And, as he in turn caught the duchess's eyes, he lay back +laughing, a little ruefully. But the man opposite him, the master of +armies, was not amused.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know who and what those three fellows with Miss Harris may +be," said he.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>At their table in the corner, they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying +themselves. The three men were toasting Sallie and each other with equal +good-will. And even Sallie had dismissed from her mind the last of her +lingering doubts as to the reality and endurance of her part in that +most amazing new life, had put the past with all its horrors resolutely +behind her, was too much interested in the entertaining present to +trouble about the future at the moment.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove had seemingly forgotten, for the time being at any rate, +his grievance against Slyne, and was in his most lamb-like mood. While +Slyne did not even demur against the quantities of expensive wine the +old man consumed during dinner. Mr. Jobling, too, was displaying +symptoms of convivial hilarity when they at length left the restaurant. +But most of the other tables were empty by then.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove, arm in arm, affectionately maintained each +other as far as their sitting-room, while Slyne accompanied Sallie to +her own door. He had been making himself most agreeable to her, and had +pointed out a number of the notorieties and one or two of the +celebrities present; although it had somewhat startled her to be told +that she would very soon be on familiar terms with them all.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you glad now that you agreed to the bargain we made on the +<i>Olive Branch</i>—and in Monte Carlo?" he asked by the way. He was smiling +gaily.</p> + +<p>She smiled back at him, and, "I'm not sorry—so far, Jasper," she +answered, looking deep into his eyes.</p> + +<p>He nodded, as if quite satisfied, and turned away to escape that +embarrassing scrutiny.</p> + +<p>"We'll be starting in half an hour or so," he informed her from a safe +distance, and, "I'll be all ready," she called cheerfully after him.</p> + +<p>A little before eleven he came in again and they all set out for the +station to catch their train.</p> + +<p>It was a cold, clear, frosty night, and the Strand was at its busiest as +Sallie looked out at it from the taxi into which Slyne and Ambrizette +had followed her at the hotel portico. Another, containing Captain Dove +and their legal adviser, still on the most amicable terms, although +Captain Dove as a rule could not stand anyone afflicted with hiccough, +crawled close behind them through the turmoil until, at the Gaiety +corner, a policeman delayed it to let the cross-traffic through.</p> + +<p>A crowd had gathered there to gaze at the royalties who would presently +be coming out of the theatre. Slyne drew Sallie back from the open +window at sight of two men, one of whom seemed all shirt-front, looking +down at the congested street from the empty steps of the principal +entrance.</p> + +<p>"That ass Ingoldsby!" he explained to Sallie, and was evidently a good +deal disturbed. "And—Dubois, as well," he added. "I thought I had +shaken him off in Paris. I'm sure he saw me, too."</p> + +<p>A little farther on he stopped the taxi and beckoned to one of those +street-arabs who make a living about the kerb.</p> + +<p>"Go to the gentleman with the beard, on the steps of the Gaiety," he +instructed that very alert messenger, "and say to him that a friend +wants a word with him here."</p> + +<p>Sallie observed the suppressed grimace of surprise on the face of the +individual who almost at once arrived in the wake of his ragged Mercury: +and Slyne, having tossed the latter a shilling, held out his hand to M. +Dubois.</p> + +<p>"Charmed to see you in London, <i>mon confrère</i>," said he. "Have you yet +discovered your man?"</p> + +<p>"I am hard at his heels," the detective answered, his eyes searching +Slyne's as if, Sallie thought, for some sign that that shaft had hit +home.</p> + +<p>But Slyne's expression was one of ingenuous simplicity. He bowed, as if +with deep respect.</p> + +<p>"I caught a glimpse of some one most amazingly like myself, one day on +the Faubourg St. Honoré, as I was passing through Paris," he mentioned +reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Thanks," returned Dubois. "It was he, no doubt. And—he's in London +now."</p> + +<p>Slyne did not wince, even at that.</p> + +<p>"He was dining at the Savoy to-night," said Dubois indifferently. "How +does your own affair progress?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Assez bien</i>," Slyne answered in an even voice. "I have followed my +quarry home and am awaiting developments."</p> + +<p>"You will be in London for a little, then?"</p> + +<p>"For the next week or ten days, I expect," Slyne lied with perfect +aplomb.</p> + +<p>"We shall meet again, in that case," declared the detective, glancing at +Sallie; and, "<i>Au plaisir de vous revoir, monsieur</i>," Slyne returned +deferentially.</p> + +<p>"To Grosvenor Square now—and hurry along," he directed the driver in a +voice his enemy could not fail to hear. And the taxicab swung into Drury +Lane, on its way west.</p> + +<p>For a few minutes he sat silent, with bent head, biting at his +moustache. Then he looked round at Sallie.</p> + +<p>"That fellow takes me for another man," he told her querulously. "He's +been dogging me ever since he first saw me at Monte Carlo. You've no +idea, Sallie, what a dangerous risk I had to run there—for your sake."</p> + +<p>"You haven't told me much about—anything, Jasper," she reminded him. +And he proceeded to describe in lurid detail the fate which would +undoubtedly have befallen him had M. Dubois been able then to fasten on +him responsibility for the misdeeds of that criminal whom he so +unfortunately resembled.</p> + +<p>Sallie listened in silence. She had been wondering whether M. Dubois +could be in any way concerned with her affairs. She gathered that he was +interested only in Slyne. The latter's story of grave risk run for her +sake fell somewhat flat, since it seemed to rest on the mere possibility +of his having been mistaken for somebody else. She could scarcely +believe that his fear of M. Dubois had no other foundation. She even +ventured to suggest that he could easily have proved the detective in +the wrong.</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't have paid the slightest attention to anything I could say," +Slyne assured her tartly. "He wouldn't have asked any questions or +listened to any statement of mine. You don't know anything about the +outrages that are committed every day by fellows like that on men like +myself who have no fixed residence, Sallie; and no powerful friends to +whom to appeal against such infernal injustice. I can't tell you how +thankful I'll be, on your account as well as my own, when we're married +and safely settled down, with a home of our own to feel safe in!</p> + +<p>"Look, there's where we'll live when we're in London."</p> + +<p>Sallie looked out. They were whirling past one of the most imposing +houses in Grosvenor Square. "Is it an hotel?" she asked, and observed +that all but one or two of its topmost windows were dark.</p> + +<p>"It's the Earl of Jura's town house," said Slyne, apparently somewhat +piqued by her seeming indifference. "It's yours now—or will be as soon +as the Chancery Court wakes up again."</p> + +<p>Sallie glanced back and caught another glimpse of it as the taxicab +slowed again to take the corner of the square. Slyne had picked up the +speaking-tube.</p> + +<p>"Get us to the station now, as fast as you can," he told the driver: and +then, having glanced at his watch, lighted a cigarette. He seemed to +have no more to say at the moment, and Sallie was busy with thoughts of +her own. She was wondering whether Justin Carthew could be living in +that great house. She could not understand.... But she did not dare to +ask Jasper Slyne for any information, since he had shown her more than +once already that he did not intend to tell her any more than he thought +fit.</p> + +<p>When they finally reached the station they found Mr. Jobling awaiting +them there and very anxious over their late arrival.</p> + +<p>"We drove round by Grosvenor Square," Slyne told the lawyer +nonchalantly. "And—we're in lots of time."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling looked cross. "Five minutes more would have lost you the +train," he remarked somewhat sourly. "And where would Captain Dove and I +have been then!"</p> + +<p>As it was, however, they found Captain Dove in his berth, sound asleep, +although still fully dressed. And, as Slyne ushered Sallie into the +double compartment reserved for her and Ambrizette, "Don't go to bed +just yet," he begged. "I want to show you something by and by. You'll +have lots of time for a long sleep before we arrive."</p> + +<p>"All right, Jasper," she agreed. "I'll wait up till you come for me."</p> + +<p>When he at length knocked at her door again, Mr. Jobling was still with +her. She came out between them into the narrow corridor. Slyne rubbed +clear one steamy window to let her see the wintry landscape through +which they were travelling at express speed. And Sallie looked out +delighted, at the sleeping English countryside as its broad grass-lands +and bare brown acres, coverts and coppices, hedgerows and lanes, with +here and there a grange or a group of cottages, all still and silent, +flashed into sight and so disappeared; until, overlooking them all from +a knoll on the near bank of a broad, winding river, there loomed up a +most magnificent mansion, embedded, in lordly seclusion, among many +gnarled and age-old oaks, with gardens terrace on terrace about it, tall +fountains among their empty flower-beds, a moss-grown sun-dial at the +edge of a quiet, silver lake.</p> + +<p>The moon was shining full on its innumerable windows, so that it seemed +to be lighted up from within, although, in reality, all were shuttered +and dark. Aloof and very stately it stood on that windless night, an +empty palace which came and went in a few moments, wing after wing, with +its stabling and courtyards, and still more gardens, all within an +endless, ivy-clad encircling wall.</p> + +<p>"What place is that?" asked Sallie in an awed tone as soon as the train +had rumbled across the bridge.</p> + +<p>"That's Justicehall, Lady Josceline,—your English country seat, and one +of the finest properties in the Shires," Mr. Jobling informed her before +Slyne could speak. "You'll be living there within a few weeks—and +forgetting all your old friends!"</p> + +<p>Sallie did not sleep much that night. Her brain was far too busy. She +could scarcely believe that less than a week had elapsed since she had +stepped ashore from the <i>Olive Branch</i>.</p> + +<p>Nor could she yet reconcile herself to the fact that her new life must +lie amid such scenes as those to which Jasper Slyne had so far +introduced her. She had liked Monte Carlo, and Paris, and London as any +girl might. The great house in Grosvenor Square she had mistaken for an +hotel. But the calmly arrogant grandeur of Justicehall had merely +oppressed her. And the idea that she might have to live there did not +please her at all. For how could she, a creature of the free air, of +sunshine and wind and sea and the world's waste places, be happy immured +within that immense edifice, encircled by servants, hemmed in on every +side by unaccustomed conventionalities, all as distasteful as new to +her. She made up her mind, there and then, that, if she might have any +say on that subject, Justicehall should stay empty.</p> + +<p>But—would she have any say on that subject, or any other? She did not +know. Jasper Slyne had so far told her only so much as he thought fit of +what was before her. She lay quite still in her narrow berth, gazing out +at the window whose blind she had bidden Ambrizette loose from the +catch, a hundred puzzled, helpless questions thronging through her head, +till the moon failed her and all was darkness but for the flashes of red +or green or yellow light that swept past as the train sped through some +wayside station or sleeping town.</p> + +<p>Then she too fell asleep at last, and so forgot her difficulties till +she awoke again in a new and most wonderful world; a world of gaunt, +grey mountains and wide dark moors, white tumbling torrents on +hillsides, in deep ravines, forests of stately fir and pine that looked +like the masts of ships; a world, moreover, which seemed in some sense +familiar and friendly to her.</p> + +<p>Day was breaking and Ambrizette was already astir. She had come quietly +in and closed the curtains during the night, and was now once more +looping them back to let in the first of the sun. Sallie lay for a +little longer watching the sunrise warm those enchanted solitudes into a +golden semblance of fairy-land.</p> + +<p>There was snow on the near mountain-tops that turned from the tint of +pigeon-blood rubies to pink, from pink to amber, and so to the purest +white. The train was travelling through an extensive plantation of +silver birches, amid which a lordly stag, paralysed by its swift +approach, stood starkly at bay with a timid hind at its heels. A myriad +rabbits were diving madly into the bracken on every side. Above in the +blue a belated wild-goose was winging its hasty way to some warmer +clime; for there was something more than a hint of hard, black frost in +the morning air.</p> + +<p>Another station swept past, a trim little place with some picturesque +cottages perched on the high ground about it. A marvellous vista of +water, a long, winding lake in the midst of the mountains, was visible +for a few moments, and then Ambrizette brought in tea.</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes later, Sallie was up and dressed for the day, in a +short-skirted shooting-suit of Harris tweed, heather-proof stockings and +smart ankle-boots. When Slyne knocked and she went out to speak to him, +he stood for a moment gazing at her with unbounded gratification, and +then, "Gad! Sallie," said he, holding out his hand. "You're her ladyship +to the life now. You'll certainly look your part at Loquhariot."</p> + +<p>She smiled back at him. He was scarcely less trig than herself in his +knickerbockers and Norfolk jacket.</p> + +<p>"I hope—It isn't a place like Justicehall, is it, Jasper?" she asked +anxiously.</p> + +<p>He raised his eyebrows, and laughed, a little surprised.</p> + +<p>"Why, scarcely," said he, "from what Jobling tells me. But—didn't you +like the look of Justicehall? Well, I hope you won't actually despise +Loquhariot, Sallie. 'Be it never so humble,' you know—"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>THE MAN IN POSSESSION</h3> + + +<p>"Is <i>that</i> Loquhariot!" asked Sallie.</p> + +<p>The weatherly little steamer on which she had been travelling along that +wonderful coast since leaving the train had just rounded a high, bluff +headland and all at once opened out the wide waters of Loch Jura, +mirror-like in the still afternoon among the frowning mountains about +them. Mr. Jobling and Slyne were with her on the bridge. Captain Dove +strolled up at that moment, his hands in his pockets, his soft felt hat +on the back of his head, a cigar cocked between his teeth at an equally +rakish angle. Sallie was staring straight ahead, with wide, apprehensive +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Is <i>that</i> Loquhariot!" she asked again, almost in a whisper, as she +gazed helplessly at the high battlements of the ancient stronghold which +looks from its lofty promontory down the whole length of the loch, +unchanged in its seaward face since the date of its building. Even +Captain Dove was impressed by the picture it made.</p> + +<p>"That's your Castle of Loquhariot, Lady Josceline," Mr. Jobling at +length replied, and went on to tell her its history, learned from the +guide-book and locally when he had been there before.</p> + +<p>The Castle of Loquhariot dates back to the sixteenth century. But for +long ere that, a squat, four-square fortalice had occupied its site. +Legend has it that the grim, grey keep which to-day covers the whole +surface of what was then a high rocky island but is now a mere peninsula +of the mainland, was first conceived in the mind of the then Lord Jura, +a plain Scots baron of piratical tendencies, who had brought back from +the Spanish Main—whither he had sailed in the company of another of the +same kidney as himself, one Francis Drake—a veritable shipload of +doubloons and pieces-of-eight; and that its ramparts had first been +armed and manned, in haste, when the remains of the Great Armada came +drifting southward from Cape Wrath on its hapless way home to Spain, +after that same Francis Drake had done with it.</p> + +<p>To-day, at any rate, may be seen in more than one of the embrasures on +those ramparts, some culverin or falconet salved from the wreck of a +great galleon which went to pieces on the Small Isles, at the mouth of +the loch. And in a little graveyard on the smallest of the Small Isles +stands a weather-beaten stone which says that round about it lie buried +the bones of a great mort of Spaniards there interred by their sworn +enemies in August, A. D. 1588.</p> + +<p>It must undoubtedly have cost at least a shipload of doubloons to build +the castle. But the then baron did not build it all, for there are +towers and wings and bastions added, on the landward side, during the +next two centuries; whose cost would seem to show that his piratical +lordship did not leave his descendants quite penniless. The circular +North Keep alone—where the billiard-room is nowadays—must undoubtedly +have cost its imaginative progenitor a small fortune.</p> + +<p>The whole edifice, as it now stands, is a monument, apparently +imperishable, to the greatness and grandeur, past, present, and to +come, of the Jura family. And Sallie, staring at it with wide, +apprehensive eyes, from the bridge of the busy little coaster, listening +to Mr. Jobling's descriptive quotations, with Captain Dove of the <i>Olive +Branch</i>, and Jasper Slyne for company, felt infinitely dispirited by the +knowledge that she and none other was the present representative of that +proud race.</p> + +<p>The steamer drew in toward the anchorage and a ferryboat put off from +the shore to meet it. The kilted Highlandmen therein looked askance at +Ambrizette and crossed themselves quite openly as she was handed down +into it from the gangway. Slyne followed and held out his arms to +Sallie, but she needed no such assistance. And the men in the boat +seemed better content after a glance or two at her as she sat down and +slipped a warm arm around Ambrizette, who was shivering in the winter +afternoon.</p> + +<p>The two remaining travellers jumped in, the baggage was transshipped, +and the steamer swung about on her way to the farther north. The captain +sounded his steam-whistle and waved his cap in parting salute as the +ferry made its slow way ashore to the further accompaniment of a +dirge-like chorus from the crew at its heavy sweeps; at which music +Captain Dove snorted his disgust very audibly. He had awoke with a +headache and had been in a bad temper all day.</p> + +<p>By the way Slyne held a low-toned conversation with Mr. Jobling. And +when the big boat was at length beached beside a rude pier, he paid the +ferryman liberally, distributed some small change among the oarsmen, and +bade them bring the baggage along to the little inn on the roadside at a +short distance.</p> + +<p>"Better send Ambrizette with me," he said to Sallie, and the black +dwarf trotted off after him in obedience to a few words from her +mistress, while Mr. Jobling turned the other way, toward the Castle.</p> + +<p>"We'll just have time to see over the old place before it's dark, Lady +Josceline," the lawyer explained, and Sallie followed him with Captain +Dove.</p> + +<p>Slyne rejoined them before they were half-way up the long hill on the +road which leads from the shore-level to the plateau. Sallie was still +staring with troubled eyes at the huge, picturesque, rambling pile which +seemed to grow always more immense as they drew nearer to it. It dwarfed +into proportions almost infinitesimal the cluster of white cottages +nestling cosily at the base of the great rock which formed its +foundation. It seemed to dominate the whole visible world, to challenge +even the mighty mountains which shut it in with the sea.</p> + +<p>"That's the water-gate," Mr. Jobling mentioned and pointed out a black, +oblong opening in the cliff-face at some height above even high-water +mark and protected against possible intrusion by a heavy iron grating +whose bars must have been as thick as a grown man's wrist. "I suppose +the sea would be right up to its sill when the place was built.</p> + +<p>"There's an underground passage connecting it with the interior of the +castle, and they'd no doubt use that a good deal in the old days.</p> + +<p>"And this is the North Keep, as it's called; newer, you'll maybe notice, +than the west frontage, although it looks just as ancient. We'll soon +have the Jura house-flag afloat again from the Warder's Tower, Lady +Josceline, and the beacon-fire alight after dark. It always burns at +night, you know, when the head of the family's in residence—a custom +dating back to the days when there were no other lights on the coast.</p> + +<p>"You'll see the moat now. Long ago it was always full, even at low tide. +But now it's as dry as—"</p> + +<p>"As I am!" grumbled Captain Dove, spitting down into the deep fosse +which had formerly cut the castle off from the mainland but is now no +more than an empty ravine spanned by an ornate drawbridge of modern +date.</p> + +<p>They crossed that, their footsteps producing an eerie clank on the +planking, and came to a halt before the main entrance, over whose heavy, +iron-studded oak doors still hung, a mute reminder of more stormy times, +a massive portcullis armed with <i>chevaux-de-frise</i> of long, pointed +spikes.</p> + +<p>Slyne rang the electric door-bell.</p> + +<p>It was some time before that summons was answered, but no one of the +waiting group seemed to have anything to say to the others during the +interval. The mystery of time itself was in the atmosphere. Some +brooding spirit of the past might have been peering out at them from the +watchman's wicket in the bartizan above. They stood still and silent +until, at last, the postern in the big double-doorway was unlatched from +within and a grey-haired, elderly woman with a hard-featured face, much +lined and seamed, in the stiffly rustling garb of a superior servant, +appeared in the narrow opening and dropped them an old-fashioned curtsy +after a quick, shrewd glance at them.</p> + +<p>"If it isn't too late, we'd like to be allowed to look over the castle," +Slyne said politely raising his cap.</p> + +<p>The woman was gazing intently at Sallie. She started as Mr. Jobling +coughed, with intention, after they had waited a second or two for an +answer.</p> + +<p>"You will be very welcome, sirs," she said hastily. "I have authority to +admit visitors. Will you be pleased to step in."</p> + +<p>She looked long and very closely at Sallie again as the girl crossed the +threshold; and then at the others in turn as they entered, one at a +time, by the narrow postern. She closed it behind them, and led the way +through a low, arched passage into a dimly lighted but spacious hall.</p> + +<p>"We've just passed through the walls," Mr. Jobling informed them +patronisingly, of his superior knowledge. "They're twelve feet thick on +this front. Loquhariot would still be a hard nut to crack, eh?"</p> + +<p>"I'd sooner crack a bottle than a nut," commented Captain Dove aside to +Slyne, who frowned reprovingly at him.</p> + +<p>The great hall they entered next could almost have housed a regiment. +But it, like the guard-room through which they had come, was peopled +only in dusky corners by fearsomely lifelike suits of armour. Its empty +fireplaces made it seem still more desolate and deserted. War-worn flags +hung from the gallery overhead, to which a wide stairway with many +shallow steps gave access. Dead and gone Justices and St. Justs and +Juras looked coldly down, from out of dark, tarnished frames, at the +whispering intruders.</p> + +<p>"You're Mrs. M'Kissock, aren't you?" Mr. Jobling remarked with affable +condescension as they followed that hard-featured personage into a +seemingly endless passage lined and hung with heads and horns and other +trophies of the chase from all parts of the world.</p> + +<p>She glanced sharply round at him again and bowed in silent assent.</p> + +<p>"I've been here before, you know," he mentioned as she ushered the +little party into the first of an extensive suite of rooms at the far +end of the corridor they had traversed. Sallie could scarcely repress +the exclamation of pleasure that rose to her lips; for the rooms, all +opening into each other and with the doors wide, stretched across the +entire breadth of the building, so that their furthest windows looked +straight out to sea. There was nothing between them and the wide +Atlantic but a cluster of miniature islets, emerald-green, at the +distant mouth of the loch.</p> + +<p>"This was her late ladyship's favourite suite," said Mrs. M'Kissock +precisely. "The outermost room was her boudoir once. But his lordship +had that altered—afterwards."</p> + +<p>Sallie listened like one in a dream. She could scarcely believe that +these had once been her own mother's rooms, that this gaunt, austere +serving-woman was stating matters of fact in that dry, lifeless voice of +hers. She longed to get Mrs. M'Kissock alone and question her +about—everything. But she had been warned by both Mr. Jobling and +Jasper Slyne that she must contain every symptom of curiosity till they +could grant her permission to speak for herself.</p> + +<p>She passed, with a little, impatient sigh, from one range of rooms to +another, each with its own tag of story or history duly related by Mrs. +M'Kissock, until they reached the great hall again from a further +passage, and very glad of her expert guidance through such a maze.</p> + +<p>From there the housekeeper took them, by way of the central staircase +and gallery up a steep corkscrew stair in a turret to the top of what +had been the main tower before the North Keep had been built, and out on +to the battlements, where the Spanish guns still stand guard, among a +multitude of other obsolete pieces, including a carronade or two from +the ancient foundry at Falkirk, over the equally futile suits of mail in +the halls below.</p> + +<p>She offered to show them the dungeons and torture-chamber and oubliette, +on the way to the water-gate, but Mr. Jobling declared that it was too +late by then to go underground that day, and she led them instead along +the north corridor, through the late earl's private study and library +and smoking-room, through a dozen other equally superfluous apartments, +till they regained the corridor at the end where an open doorway led +through into the spacious circular hall at the base of the North Keep.</p> + +<p>"This part of the castle is private, sir," Mrs. M'Kissock informed Mr. +Jobling, who had already stepped in.</p> + +<p>"I'd like my friends to see the sunset from the Warder's Tower," he +returned, "if you don't mind. We won't disturb anyone on our way +upstairs."</p> + +<p>Mrs. M'Kissock still looked uncertain, but Slyne had already followed +the lawyer's lead and Captain Dove was calmly pushing past her. She +glanced at Sallie again, and then bowed her also in. And they all +proceeded quietly up the carpeted winding staircase, past several +landings, the doors of which were closed.</p> + +<p>But the door at the turret-top was wide, and Mrs. M'Kissock was +obviously a good deal disturbed in her mind as Mr. Jobling stepped to +one side and politely gave Sallie precedence out into the open air.</p> + +<p>Sallie smiled careless thanks for the courtesy and was still smiling +when she emerged from the low doorway and stopped just beyond its +threshold, so that Mr. Jobling and the others behind her had to wait +patiently where they were while she gazed, enraptured and forgetful of +all else, at the scene before her.</p> + +<p>The sun was setting, blood-red, over the far sea-rim, and there was no +least cloud in the radiant sky. The clear-cut mountains on either hand, +the still loch and the broad Atlantic beyond it were all aglow with a +marvellous, mystic light; the little cottages on the shore, three +hundred sheer feet below her, were crimson instead of white; the very +smoke which came from their chimneys seemed somehow ethereal and unreal.</p> + +<p>She stood alone for a moment or two in a world transformed, till the +quick, keen, exquisite pleasure of it brought a mist to her eyes that +blurred it all, and, as she raised a hand to brush that away, she +suddenly realized that she was not alone. There was a young man leaning +over an embrasure at one corner of the battlements, who had been gazing, +like her, at the sunset till she had come forth.</p> + +<p>He was gazing at her now, and with even more admiration, however +unconscious, than he had been bestowing on the beauties of nature +inanimate; for the waning light had transfigured her sweet, sensitive +features also, and into a semblance such as one might imagine an angel +would wear.</p> + +<p>Her eyes met his, and they two stood regarding each other so for the +space of five fateful seconds. She had recognised him at once, but it +was apparent that he did not yet know who she was.</p> + +<p>He came forward then, limping a little, and bowed, bareheaded, to her; a +sufficiently self-confident youth, straight and limber, good-looking +enough, with smiling grey eyes and a mobile mouth, somewhat wistful at +that moment in spite of his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry if I'm in the way," he said pleasantly. "Won't you come out +and look round? The view all about is beyond any words of mine—and +you're only seeing part of it there."</p> + +<p>He hesitated slightly, regarding her with a very puzzled expression, +before plunging further, and then, "I'm Justin Carthew," he continued, +since she made no move at all, "although my lawyers would have me +believe that I'm the ninth Earl of Jura now!" He laughed aloud, as if +that idea were amusing. "In any case," he concluded naïvely, "the sunset +doesn't belong to me."</p> + +<p>She stepped out into the afterglow, still without a word, her mind full +of vague misgivings. And, as Mr. Jobling followed her from the doorway, +with Slyne and Captain Dove at his heels, and Mrs. M'Kissock, nervously +fumbling with her chatelaine, last of all, Justin Carthew drew back a +couple of paces.</p> + +<p>"Your lawyers have misinformed you, Mr. Carthew," said Mr. Jobling in +his most dogmatic manner. "You are no more the ninth Earl of Jura than I +am, because—Let me introduce you—more formally!—to Lady Josceline +Justice, the late earl's daughter, on whose property you are trespassing +here."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE LOSER</h3> + + +<p>Justin Carthew was standing as if thunderstruck by these extraordinary +statements. His incredulous glance shifted from the stout stranger of +the tinted eye and the inimical stare to the others of the little group +regarding him, until it met Sallie's again, and they two looked blankly +into each other's eyes while Mr. Jobling proceeded to introduce himself +as her ladyship's legal adviser, and stated briefly the grounds on which +his dogmatic assertion was based.</p> + +<p>To Carthew, the lawyer's voice seemed to come from very far away, but +none the less intelligibly, as he himself stood gazing at the girl to +whom he owed his life, whom he had last seen late at night among the +shadows on the deck of the <i>Olive Branch</i> in Genoa harbour. At first +sight it had seemed so utterly impossible that it could be she who had +stepped out on to the Warder's Tower of Loquhariot that he had supposed +the sun in his eyes and a striking resemblance must have combined to +delude him.</p> + +<p>But—he knew now that it was really she. And as Mr. Jobling, concluding +his homily, mentioned again who she claimed to be, he was dazedly +thankful that he had not at once contradicted her lawyer; as he might +have done—since he knew as a matter of fact that the real Lady +Josceline Justice was dead.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling had also repeated that Mr. Carthew was trespassing there. +But at that Sallie turned on her legal adviser in generous indignation, +and he shrank into the background again as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"If this is <i>my</i> property, as you say it is," she flashed, "what right +have <i>you</i> to tell any visitor that he is trespassing here! And if Mr. +Carthew has been misinformed—"</p> + +<p>"He isn't a visitor, Sallie. He's the man in possession at present," +whispered the smartly-dressed young-old man who had been studying +Carthew with a most supercilious expression, "and you'd better leave Mr. +Jobling to deal with him." He was obviously not at all pleased with her, +and his whisper was perfectly audible.</p> + +<p>The girl had stopped to listen to him. "We're evidently the trespassers, +then," she finished. "<i>We</i> have no business here at all while he remains +in possession."</p> + +<p>The other man of the party, a white-haired old fellow in clerical garb +and wearing a pair of smoked glasses, also turned angrily toward her. +But at that moment Mrs. M'Kissock came stumbling forward between them, +with a little broken cry, all her habitual self-restraint vanished, her +harsh features working, very near tears; and, lifting a hand of the +girl's in both of her own to her lips, fondled it foolishly, muttering +disconnected phrases.</p> + +<p>"I knew—<i>I</i> knew it from the first," she mumbled, "and yet—I did not +dare believe my own eyes. But now—God bless your bonny ladyship! And +God be thanked for that you have at last come back to your own! +Loquhariot has waited very long for this late day, and—</p> + +<p>"Say ye now there's a <i>man</i> in possession!" she spoke up, glancing +defiance at the individual in the Norfolk suit and then, though with +less of disfavour, at Justin Carthew. "Say ye so?—and to me, who have +kept the keys of the empty Castle of Loquhariot for her ladyship here, +ever since the Red Earl her father laid that trust on me from his +death-bed!</p> + +<p>"You have been ill-informed. There is <i>no</i> man in possession here."</p> + +<p>Carthew was staring at her as if he were altogether at his wits' end. He +almost doubted the evidence of his own ears. Had he not known as a +matter of fact that Lady Josceline Justice was <i>dead</i>, old Janet +M'Kissock's spontaneous championship of this pretender would almost have +convinced him to the contrary. He could feel sure of only one further +fact, which was that Sallie herself had been tricked into her impostor's +part.</p> + +<p>However, he had no time just then to come to any further conclusion. He +had to decide at once what he should do to safeguard her, and did so, +recalling only the debt he owed her.</p> + +<p>"There <i>has</i> evidently been some mistake," said he, looking levelly into +her troubled eyes. "I hope you won't hold me to blame for that. And, +believe me, I'm very glad that you have come to Loquhariot."</p> + +<p>He could say no more than that at the moment. He bowed to her, and, +turning into the turret doorway, limped off downstairs. He wanted to be +alone for a little. He wanted time to think. He felt absolutely stunned.</p> + +<p>Mrs. M'Kissock, no less perturbed, her cap all awry, followed him down +the winding stairway as far as the door of the rooms he had only +occupied for a day or two.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to remove to the inn," he said, in answer to her agitated +excuses and explanations. "It will be better so in the meantime. Will +you tell one of the men to take my baggage there for me, please?"</p> + +<p>He did not deem it advisable just then to ask her any question or make +any comment at all. And within another minute or two he had passed out +of the postern, surrendering the Castle of Loquhariot, for the time +being, to one who had no claim or title to it.</p> + +<p>But, as he stopped beyond the drawbridge to light the pipe he had +mechanically pulled out, he pursed up his lips as though to whistle. +And, "What proof can <i>I</i> produce!" he exclaimed, moving on again with +the cold pipe between his teeth, his head bent, perplexed to the last +degree.</p> + +<p>The walk through the darkling woods to the village and the cold, clean +air cleared his wits a little. He found Ambrizette huddled over the fire +in the best room at the Jura Arms, and, having bespoken supper and a bed +for himself, went on along the shore road to think things out, if he +could.</p> + +<p>Only half an hour before, he had been congratulating himself on the fact +that his troubles were nearing an end. And now—</p> + +<p>"It's been nothing but trouble ever since I first saw that damned +advertisement," he remarked to himself, recalling step after painful +step of the way he had travelled to where he was.</p> + +<p>A few months before he had seen and answered an anxious advertisement in +an American paper for any surviving relative, no matter how distant, of +the Jura family, he had invested all of his scarce capital in a +cattle-run in Texas which seemed to promise to pay quick profits. And, +in spite of all that the English lawyers who had replied to his letter +could say to tempt him, he had remained quite firm in his wise +resolution to stay there and reap those profits before crossing the +Atlantic in pursuit of his further fortune; until a smart junior partner +of theirs had paid him a flying visit at the ranch, and proved to him +how foolishly he was acting against his own interests.</p> + +<p>For it seemed, after due investigation and proof positive of his distant +kinship with the family, that there could be only one life between him +and the title of Earl of Jura, with all that pertained thereto—a life +which even the very conservative English Court of Chancery was by then +disposed to presume extinct.</p> + +<p>The astute young lawyer had told Carthew all the facts which his firm +had managed to ferret out concerning the late countess's disappearance +and death. It seemed, humanly speaking, impossible that her child could +have survived her. Justin Carthew had thought it all over and an +accident had settled the question for him. His pony came down with him +one day and he was badly trampled by the steers he had been heading. His +doctor sentenced him to six months' rest—out of the saddle. As soon as +he was able to move he raised a mortgage on the ranch and made for +London. That mortgage was almost due by now, and his expected profit on +the run had faded into a stiff loss during his absence.</p> + +<p>Messrs. Bolder & Bolder, the lawyers aforesaid, had made it clear to him +from the first that, while they had the utmost faith in the outcome of +their exertions on his behalf, they could not see their way to place +their services and special knowledge at his disposal except on a +spot-cash basis; that, in short, he must provide in advance the money to +foot their bill. He had done so, and they, in return, had not failed to +implement all their promises. Even now he could not feel that they had +dealt unfairly by him.</p> + +<p>And the balance of his bank account had been eaten up by his expedition +to Africa in search of more authentic record of the ex-dancer countess's +death and as to the fate of her child. He had taken that somewhat rash +step, too, of his own free will and for his own personal satisfaction. +He was personally aware now that both the countess and her daughter were +dead; but—he could bring forward no proof at all of that fact, and, as +Bolder & Bolder had politely pointed out to him, his personal testimony +alone was that of an interested party and worthless to them or anyone +else.</p> + +<p>He had suffered sorely, both body and mind, since he and his party had +been betrayed into El Farish's hands by an Arab guide. And now—</p> + +<p>He was a penniless peer of the United Kingdom, with every prospect of +being unable to maintain those rights which he knew were his, an +impecunious citizen of the United States, with a foreclosure threatening +him there. The result of all his own efforts so far was failure.</p> + +<p>And yet, he felt that he ought to be thankful that he had come through +alive. "A living dog is better than a dead lion," he told himself. +"And—I owe that girl my life. But for her, I'd be—" He shrugged his +shoulders. It was not pleasant, there in the dark, to recall that hole +in the sand on the African coast which he had only escaped by a +hairbreadth, thanks to her.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't be here at all," he reflected. "And that fat lawyer of hers +would see her settled into my place without any fuss. He said, in fact, +that the Chancery Court had practically admitted her claim to it +already.</p> + +<p>"And now—<i>how</i> am I to get up and swear she's a fraud! How am I to +repay all I owe her—by fighting her for another man's leavings!"</p> + +<p>He halted, to fill his pipe, and found it full. He lighted it, and +turned back toward the inn. It had just recurred to him that, even if he +were disposed to fight her for his inheritance, there were very strong +financial reasons as well as merely sentimental ones against that +course. He was already in Bolder & Bolder's debt. He had had to apply to +them by wire for his fare to London from Genoa. They had further +defrayed the Court costs of that order of access to the archives of +Loquhariot which Mr. Justice Gaunt had recently made in his favour, and +had furnished him with a few pounds for subsequent expenses.</p> + +<p>But they had taken the opportunity to mention, always politely, that +they could go no farther than that beyond the terms of their original +bargain: and that the next advance of cash must come from him to them.</p> + +<p>In a word, he could not afford to fight either her or anyone else just +then. And he had a very strong impression that the fat lawyer who had +interposed between him and the girl would put up a protracted, expensive +battle on her behalf.</p> + +<p>"But some day I'll have a couple of rounds with <i>him</i>," Carthew promised +himself. "Just at the moment—my hands are tied. And, what's more, the +Courts are closed."</p> + +<p>He sighed.</p> + +<p>"I can't hurt her, in any case," he declared conclusively to the night. +"I'm not much of a judge of girls, but—she's—</p> + +<p>"I must just wait and see," he said to himself. "I'm helpless. And—I'm +hers, anyhow, as I told her in Genoa. A promise is a promise, no matter +what its keeping costs."</p> + +<p>He looked up at the black bulk of the castle in the distance. Its +numberless narrow windows were all aglow, and in a cresset on one tower +a fire was burning brightly.</p> + +<p>"She's taken possession all right," he cogitated. "But probably she +doesn't even know that the beacon's been kindled."</p> + +<p>As he limped through the village again, he could not but notice the +unusual stir in its long single street. At every cottage door there was +a whispering group staring up at the Warder's Tower. The sound of oars +in haste reached his ears from across the loch. And he was aware of many +inquisitive glances directed at him as he passed.</p> + +<p>His simple supper was awaiting him in the best room of the little inn. +The black dwarf had been sent for from the castle, the outwardly stolid +and incurious maid-of-all-work informed him. He sat down by the fire, +content for the moment as he recalled the glamour of the afterglow from +the west and Sallie's grave glance.</p> + +<p>He thought of nothing else throughout his meal, and afterwards, puffing +at a cigar in the lamp-lit porch with a plaid about him to keep the cold +out, could scarcely bring himself to consider his own precarious +situation again. When he at last applied his mind to that he was +somewhat dispirited.</p> + +<p>He had only a few shillings left in his purse, and could not afford to +stay where he was for more than a day or two. He was a stranger in a +strange land, a land in which, as he had learned already, men in their +prime had to compete keenly for work which might bring them in no more +than four or five dollars a week: a very unpromising land in which to be +left with empty pockets.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps old Herries will give me a week or two's work at something or +other about the estate," he communed with himself. "But, then,—that +bloated lawyer would probably interfere; and, while I lie low, Herries +will be under his thumb to a great extent. He's under the weather too, +poor old chap!"</p> + +<p>He was still shaking his head disconsolately when his cogitations were +cut short by the sound of clattering hoofs and the hurried arrival of +one on horseback, who galloped up to the Jura Arms and slipped like a +sack from his saddle, and swayed and staggered while his blown steed +looked inquiringly round at him, till Justin Carthew slipped an arm +about him and would have led him indoors.</p> + +<p>"What are <i>you</i> doing here, Mr. Herries?" Carthew demanded, amazed. "You +should be at home in bed, and—"</p> + +<p>"The beacon?" gasped the new-comer, a haggard, sick-looking old man with +a long white beard, almost spent, but none the less resolute not to +enter the inn.</p> + +<p>"It seems that Lady Josceline Justice has just arrived at the castle," +Carthew informed him concisely, after a moment of hesitation.</p> + +<p>"Lady—Josceline—Justice!" the other repeated dazedly, but with evident +disbelief. "Did you say—Lady Josceline Justice! You're surely joking, +Mr. Carthew—although it would be no joke for you if her ladyship had +come back to life."</p> + +<p>"I'm not joking," Carthew assured him.</p> + +<p>"But—how can it be!" the other demanded. "I can't conceive—Have you +seen her yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've seen her," declared Carthew. He could not have answered +otherwise without betraying Sallie.</p> + +<p>"But come away in. You must get between the blankets again at once," he +insisted firmly. "A five-mile gallop on a night like this is quite +enough to finish you. And there will be time enough in the morning—to +pay her ladyship a call."</p> + +<p>"I've been factor of Loquhariot these five and thirty years—and it +would ill become me to be abed at such a moment. I'm going up now," the +sick man asserted stubbornly. "I'm responsible for all that goes on +here, as you know very well, Mr. Carthew—and I've had no news at all of +this. I can't understand—And yet—it must indeed be her ladyship, as +you say, since Janet M'Kissock—"</p> + +<p>He caught at his horse's bridle again and tried to clamber into the +saddle.</p> + +<p>A group of whispering villagers had gathered about the inn door, and +they joined Carthew in his well-meant remonstrances. But the anxious +steward of the estate was not to be gainsaid by anyone.</p> + +<p>"If the Lady Josceline Justice has come back to her own at last," he +declared, shivering, "it is my undoubted duty to be on hand. And what +matters else? Get the pipes out, lads, and gather together. Shall it be +said of us that her ladyship lacked a true Highland welcome home?"</p> + +<p>Carthew, seeing him so set in his purpose and not knowing how to prevent +him except, perhaps, at Sallie's expense, saw nothing for it but to let +events shape themselves. He brought the old man a little brandy, which +served to steady him somewhat, so that he sat in his saddle none so limp +at the head of the muster formed at his bidding. And Carthew walked up +the hill by his side, partly to help him, and partly in hope of another +glimpse of the girl who had surely bewitched himself.</p> + +<p>At his heels tramped three stalwart pipers, and the still, star-lit +night rang again to the shrill strains of the march they struck up; +while close behind, keeping step to its lilt, came a couple of hundred +or so of the villagers and their visitors from mountain and glen and +shore. Blazing pine-knots served for torches and lighted the way well, +until they at length reached the landward front of the castle, where the +sick man marshalled them in a wide, crimson half-moon about the +drawbridge, while Carthew held his horse for him at one side.</p> + +<p>The postern-door opened noiselessly and Janet M'Kissock looked out from +within. Herries crossed the drawbridge toward her, and, "Eh, Janet, +woman!" said he, "what's all this I hear so late? They tell me that the +Lady Josceline Justice has come to Loquhariot, and—"</p> + +<p>"It was because you were so ill that I didn't send word at once, Mr. +Herries," the housekeeper put in defensively as he paused. "The beacon +was fired without her ladyship's knowledge by one of her friends. I +don't—"</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> her ladyship, then?" the factor demanded, searching her face +with his keen, anxious, fevered eyes. "Whence came she so suddenly, +Janet?"</p> + +<p>"It is indeed her ladyship," the old woman answered solemnly. "But—more +than that I do not know. I have had all to see to since the sun set, +and—"</p> + +<p>The other checked her plaint with an uplifted hand.</p> + +<p>"I'll hear about everything else by and by. And meantime—I've brought +some of her own folk up to offer her welcome—since it <i>is</i> she," he +said, all his doubts evidently dispelled by Janet M'Kissock's emphatic +assurance. "Will she come out to us for a few minutes, think ye?"</p> + +<p>"That will she, I'm sure," answered Mrs. M'Kissock. "Her ladyship has a +heart of gold, as it were, and a very kindly way with her. I'll send in +word that her folk are here—she'll have finished dinner by now."</p> + +<p>She turned and left him, closing the postern behind her so that only the +red torch-light illumined the high portcullis and level drawbridge +until, presently, the massive main-doors of the castle swung slowly back +on their well-oiled hinges and in the heart of the glow from within +appeared Sallie, with that young-old man whom Justin Carthew so disliked +at her side in very correct evening clothes. But he stayed a little +behind as she stepped forward and stopped under the portcullis, the +flare of the torches full on her face, a very dazzling vision indeed. +For she also was dressed for the evening, and in a creation from Paris.</p> + +<p>Carthew's heart was thumping as he drew farther aside into the shadows. +She had not noticed him in his plaid, holding the old man's horse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE WINNER</h3> + + +<p>Even during the bewildering whirl of those days which had passed so +swiftly since she had escaped from the <i>Olive Branch</i>, Sallie had +thought very often of Justin Carthew and the strange situation in which +circumstances had all conspired to place them toward each other.</p> + +<p>Since she had found out what her rehabilitation, as Lady Josceline +Justice, was going to cost him, she had been very anxious to see him +again and make everything clear between him and her. But she could +scarcely disclose to the others that she had met him before. Neither +Captain Dove nor Jasper Slyne knew anything about him beyond what they +had heard from Mr. Jobling. And Mr. Jobling could or would tell her +nothing, in reply to a timid question or two she had put to him, beyond +the bare fact that she had nothing to fear from the young American's +ill-founded claim to her rightful place in the world.</p> + +<p>She had been very anxious to see him again. But it had startled and +confused her at first to find him, so evidently at home, on the Warder's +Tower of Loquhariot. For she could not then, before the others, say +anything at all of what was in her mind; and she was afraid that he +might unguardedly, on the spur of the moment, reveal their unavoidable +joint secret.</p> + +<p>She could see that he had recognised her at last and that he was no +less at a loss than herself. Mr. Jobling's gratuitous rudeness to him +vexed her very much. The old housekeeper's half-hysterical outbreak +surprised her beyond expression. And then he was gone, before she could +make up her mind that it was her own proper part to have bidden him stay +till something could have been settled.</p> + +<p>But when she suggested that to Slyne he pooh-poohed the idea as absurd, +and told her she ought to be very glad to have got rid of her rival so +easily.</p> + +<p>He himself was in high glee over that unexpected outcome of Mr. +Jobling's brusquely peremptory method with the interloper, and Captain +Dove's face wore a triumphant grin. Mr. Jobling himself seemed inclined +to be sulky with her, but the other two only laughed at his petulance.</p> + +<p>"We've got possession!" said Slyne exultantly, "and that's nine points +of the law, as <i>you</i> ought to know. If she hadn't taken the fellow's +part he might have been more inclined to stand his ground. But now—up +drawbridge and down portcullis! We'll hold the fort here, till that old +Chancery Court of yours comes away with its final decision."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove poked the portly lawyer in the short ribs. "Buck up, old +rarebit!" he begged. "Don't look so glum. This is home, sweet home now. +Come on down below and I'll get you some sort of a bracer from that +sour-faced old Scotch hag with the keys. My mouth feels just as if it +were made of blotting-paper, too."</p> + +<p>"But you must go very slow yet, Dove," Slyne cautioned the elated seaman +as he turned toward the stairway. "Don't go too fast. We aren't safely +enough settled yet to—"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove paused to look him between the eyes with a mirthless, +meaning laugh.</p> + +<p>"This is my adopted daughter's castle now, Mister Slyne," said he. "When +we want any advice from you about how we're to behave in it—or anything +else—we'll let you know. D'ye see?"</p> + +<p>Slyne's lips parted and closed again. He had evidently thought better of +giving voice to any retort, however effective.</p> + +<p>"After you," he remarked politely, since Captain Dove still stood +blocking the stairway and grinning fixedly back at him. "I must send +down to the inn for Ambrizette and our baggage at once. It will soon be +quite dark."</p> + +<p>Sallie followed them slowly, like one in a dream, and Mr. Jobling came +last. As they reached the circular hall below, Mrs. M'Kissock, still +much perturbed, came hurrying in from the corridor.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Carthew has gone, my lady," she said, dropping Sallie another deep +curtsey, "and if your ladyship will be pleased to rest here for a +little, it will not be long till the West Wing is all in order. I have +only two maids to help me, with the castle empty so long, but I have +sent down to the village for more, and maybe your ladyship will +excuse—"</p> + +<p>Sallie went up to her and took hold of the two trembling hands clasped +tightly together against a jingling silver chatelaine.</p> + +<p>"Janet," she said softly, and the agitated old woman looked gratefully +up into her grave, wistful eyes, "I think you and I are going to be good +friends, Janet," she said, "because—we have both been so lonely. And I +want you not to worry yourself about anything. There's no hurry, and +we'll be quite content here till you have everything arranged as you +wish."</p> + +<p>"I thank you kindly, my lady," answered Mrs. M'Kissock, and curtsied +again, and was going off about her business, when Slyne signed to her to +wait a moment and drew Sallie toward the door.</p> + +<p>"I'll have to go into a number of matters with you," said he +condescendingly to the old housekeeper. "To save Lady Josceline trouble, +you'll get all your instructions from me."</p> + +<p>Mrs. M'Kissock looked mutely to her new mistress for refutation or +confirmation of his right to claim her services so; and Sallie could not +but nod as she recalled with a strange, new pang the promise she had +made in Genoa, and the lengthy document she had signed in the Hôtel de +Paris.</p> + +<p>"This is Mr. Jasper Slyne, Janet," said she, "and—"</p> + +<p>"Her ladyship's future—" Slyne was about to explain the importance of +his position there when Captain Dove interposed.</p> + +<p>"Slyne!" he called across the hall. "If there's nothing to drink in the +house, whoever goes down to the inn for our baggage had better bring +up—"</p> + +<p>But Slyne had already got Mrs. M'Kissock out into the corridor.</p> + +<p>"I'll send something in at once. Try to keep him quiet for a little," he +said to Sallie, and she, having carefully closed the door, went back +toward the fireplace to pacify the old man.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later a pink-complexioned, flaxen-haired maid came +tripping demurely in, with a great silver salver on which was set such +an array of decanters that Captain Dove at once became most amiable +again.</p> + +<p>"And I will bring tea for your ladyship now," said the maid in her +quaint Highland accent. "It was the other gentleman that told me to +bring this first."</p> + +<p>"That was quite right," Sallie reassured her, and asked her name.</p> + +<p>"It is Mairi, my lady," the girl answered with a shy, gratified smile, +and was very soon back with a beautiful service of Sèvres and a steaming +urn.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling virtuously declined Captain Dove's cordial invitation to +help himself to a decanter, and asked Sallie for a cup of weak tea. At +which the old man was still cackling discordantly when Slyne came in +again a few minutes later.</p> + +<p>"That's an obstinate old baggage!" said he, obviously incensed. "You +must tell her, Sal—Lady Josceline, that she's to attend to my orders +without any more back-talk."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove turned in his armchair before the fire.</p> + +<p>"That woman's my adopted daughter's housekeeper now, Mister Slyne," said +he, frowning darkly. "And I'll trouble you not to interfere in what's no +concern of yours. You're only a visitor here, you know."</p> + +<p>Slyne darted a black glance at him, but did not answer him otherwise. "I +told her to get your mother's rooms ready for you," he mentioned to +Sallie. "And Ambrizette will be there by the time you'll want her.</p> + +<p>"That fellow Carthew has gone off to the inn," he remarked to Mr. +Jobling. "I expect he'll be busy by now wiring Bolder & Bolder the +news."</p> + +<p>"That won't do him any good," Mr. Jobling returned. "And, even if he had +any case to go on with, there's nothing more they could do for him until +the Hilary Sittings come on—very nearly a fortnight yet. As it is, he +hasn't a leg left to stand on. You heard what old Gaunt said to her +ladyship."</p> + +<p>"There's no fear of anything getting into the newspapers prematurely, is +there?" asked Slyne.</p> + +<p>"I told Spettigrew to keep everything quiet," the lawyer answered +complacently. "And, besides, they're all full to overflowing about the +election that's coming on."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if anyone ever wades through all the lurid twaddle they print +at such times?" said Slyne, apparently pleased. And they two maintained +a desultory conversation, to which Sallie only listened when it now and +then veered back to matters which might affect Carthew or herself, until +a sonorous gong began to sound in the corridor.</p> + +<p>As its increasing thunder suddenly disturbed the cloistral quiet, +Captain Dove, comfortably settled in his armchair beside the fire with a +black clay pipe, started up in alarm and spilled the contents of the +glass in his hand.</p> + +<p>"What the devil are they about out there!" he ejaculated irascibly. +"I'll blow a hole through that infernal tom-tom if they don't drop it."</p> + +<p>"Time to dress for dinner," Slyne explained with a tolerant smile, and, +rising, rang the bell. "Our rooms will be ready by now, I expect. But +there's no hurry. All you need to change is your waistcoat."</p> + +<p>"Damn nonsense!" snorted Captain Dove, and reaching for a decanter, was +liberally refilling his glass when the girl Mairi answered the bell.</p> + +<p>"Show her ladyship to her own rooms," Slyne directed. And Sallie +followed the demure, flaxen-haired maid very eagerly.</p> + +<p>On her way to the West Wing she could not but notice the change which +had come over the place. A pleasant atmosphere of ordered activity +seemed to pervade the vast building. There were men as well as +women-servants busy everywhere. Light and warmth and life had put to +flight the darkness and desolation which had come down with the dusk on +its emptiness. She gave herself up for the moment to a delicious, +childish sensation of snugness and safety there. And when she at length +reached the open door of the splendid suite which, Mrs. M'Kissock had +told her, had once been her mother's, she felt that she could not, after +all, grudge the price she must pay by and by for her glimpse of home.</p> + +<p>Ambrizette, with rolling eyes and open mouth, had everything in +readiness for her in her dressing-room, for the hideous dwarf was indeed +a very efficient <i>femme de chambre</i>. Within half an hour Sallie had had +her bath and was dressed again, in the same frock that she had worn at +the Savoy. She patted the dumb black creature on the head before turning +away from the glass, and paused on the threshold to glance back into the +cosy, fire-lit room with eyes which had grown unaccountably dim.</p> + +<p>She found Mairi in the main hall, demurely flirting with one of the +footmen whom Mrs. M'Kissock had conjured up, and Mairi showed her into a +luxurious drawing-room where Slyne was standing, hands in pockets, +before a cavernous, marble-faced fireplace in which a veritable bonfire +of logs was cheerily crackling.</p> + +<p>His eyes lighted up as she entered. The mirrors about the walls seemed +to frame innumerable pictures of her as she crossed the slippery, +age-blackened floor toward the big bearskin rug which made an oasis +before the fire. He held out his hands to her, dumbly. And just at that +moment Mr. Jobling appeared in the doorway, trumpeting into his +handkerchief.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove arrived shortly after him, under convoy of a scared +housemaid who, it seemed, had found him astray in some far corner of the +castle and whom he had impressed into his service as guide. The gongs +resounded again, just in time to drown his added denunciation of the oak +floor, on which he had all but come to grief as soon as he set foot on +it. The folding-doors at one end of the long room were pulled apart and +a resonant voice announced ceremoniously that dinner was served. Slyne +offered Sallie an arm a second or two in advance of the slower Jobling, +and, as she laid a light hand on his sleeve, led her into the +banquet-hall.</p> + +<p>"I told them we'd dine here to-night, although there are lots of more +modern rooms," he mentioned to her, and frowned in helpless annoyance as +Captain Dove, following, gave vent to a very audible whistle.</p> + +<p>A butler and four tall footmen, all in tartan kilts and full-dress +doublets, were at their places about a table resplendent with silver +displayed with old-fashioned profusion. Rare crystal and fine foreign +glassware flashed and sparkled under the shaded lights standing on +damask like snow, to which hot-house fruit and flowers added an +exquisite note of colour. In the dim background, barely visible in the +faint firelight, hung faded tapestries with, here and there, some +portrait or pair of horns. There seemed to be a small gallery at the +farther end of the hall. The unceiled rafters overhead were also almost +in darkness.</p> + +<p>Sallie, glancing about her with eager, delighted eyes, paused on the way +to the table to peer through a pane of plate-glass let into the +panelling over one mantel.</p> + +<p>"That's the famous Fairy Horn, Lady Josceline," said Mr. Jobling +officiously. "But—you haven't heard the old Jura legend yet, I +suppose?" He coughed in his most important manner.</p> + +<p>"Well,—the Fairy Horn is said to have been presented to one of your +ancestors a very long time ago by the White Lady—the family ghost; +every real old Scots family, you know, has a private ghost of its own. +And the horn carried with it the privilege, to him or any succeeding +chief of the clan, of summoning the White Lady, on three occasions, to +fulfil any wish so urgent as to be worth the price of her help. For, +every time she does show up, the head of the family dies. So that—the +Fairy Horn has only been sounded twice, I've been told, during the +centuries which have passed since then; and—on each occasion the wish +expressed has been duly fulfilled, at the price of the chieftain's +life."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove turned restlessly in the chair on which he had scarcely sat +down. Sallie knew that he was intensely superstitious, as so many seamen +are, and that that shadowed hall would be the last place in which he +would be willing to hear ghost-stories.</p> + +<p>"Huh!" said he, irritably. "I don't believe a word of it, anyhow. What +are we waiting for now? Gimme some soup, or something, you!"</p> + +<p>He was still scowling over his shoulder at a surprised servant when, in +an instant, there rose from behind the tapestry in a dark corner a low, +moaning wail which swelled and sank and swelled again to a bitter, +blood-curdling shriek. Captain Dove's face blanched as he pushed his +chair from under him and sprang to his feet, armed with the nearest +available weapon, a table-knife. The servant behind him had stepped +back, in obvious alarm.</p> + +<p>A man came striding out of the dusk in the distant corner, and, as he +marched proudly up the room, the blare of the bagpipes over his shoulder +seemed to make the very rafters ring. Twice he encircled the table, and +then passed out of sight by the farther door.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove had sat down again, grinding his teeth audibly. To cover +his confusion, Sallie turned to the butler behind her chair, and, "What +tune was that?" she asked, pleasantly.</p> + +<p>Her face flushed as the Highlandman answered, in careful English, "It +will be none other than the <i>Welcome to Jura</i> that your ladyship's +head-piper would play this night."</p> + +<p>She would have been even happier in her wonderful new home if she had +not thought of Justin Carthew again at that moment, and of the +difference her coming had made to him. She wished that she had been able +to tell him at once, on the Warder's Tower, what was once more in her +mind as she looked lovingly round the banquet-hall of Loquhariot—from +which she had ousted him. She could not forget how gallantly he had +faced fate at every turn, always making little of his own share in the +tragic happenings which had involved them both.</p> + +<p>She felt that she could not rest until she had set herself right with +him, and made up her mind that as soon as dinner was over, she would ask +Mairi or Mrs. M'Kissock to send a message down to the inn for her.</p> + +<p>But dinner, under such conditions, was a long business. And, although +both Mr. Jobling and Jasper Slyne did their best to make the time pass +pleasantly for her, she was very glad when a message the butler brought +her gave her an excuse for leaving the table a little before she would +otherwise have got away.</p> + +<p>She had hoped to escape alone, but Slyne had overheard what the man had +said and accompanied her to the hall, where the old housekeeper was +awaiting her.</p> + +<p>"What's all this, Mrs. M'Kissock?" he asked, somewhat sharply. +"And—who's Mr. Herries?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Herries is the factor in charge of the estates, sir," she answered, +"and some of her ladyship's tenantry have come up from the village with +him to offer her welcome. It was not my place to turn them away from the +door without word from her ladyship's self."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Sallie, her eyes aglow and a sudden lump in her throat to +think that her own folk were making her welcome. "I must see them, +Janet. I must thank them—"</p> + +<p>Slyne frowned, but made no further demur as Mrs. M'Kissock gave orders +to open the doors.</p> + +<p>The glare of the torches half-blinded Sallie as she stepped out; and she +halted beneath the portcullis. But she saw an old man alone on the +drawbridge and went on alone toward him. He doffed his Highland bonnet +to her and bowed with old-fashioned deference. Then he looked her in the +face for a moment or two, very keenly, while she returned his searching +glance with happily smiling eyes which had nothing to hide from him. And +all the time the pipers in the background were blowing their best.</p> + +<p>He held up a trembling hand to them, and the shrill music ceased. The +sputter of the torches was the only sound that broke the stillness until +he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Lady Josceline Justice?" he asked, and, as Sallie nodded, still +smiling, "I am Ian Herries," he told her, "factor of Loquhariot and your +ladyship's humble servant. I had no news of your ladyship's coming or I +would have been here in time to say welcome home on behalf of your +ladyship's tenantry and myself."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you, Mr. Herries," said Sallie, in a shy and very tremulous +voice whose tone changed suddenly to one of urgent alarm. "But—you're +ill. You must come in and rest.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jasper—"</p> + +<p>The old man had almost collapsed, but Slyne hurried forward in time to +save him from falling.</p> + +<p>"I'll see to Mr. Herries," said he, with a great air of sympathy, and +helped the sick man indoors.</p> + +<p>Sallie looked a little uncertainly after him, and then faced the +flickering torches alone again. The silent scrutiny of all the eyes +regarding her was something of an ordeal, but she went bravely on across +the drawbridge.</p> + +<p>She did not notice the nip in the air, but some one among the assemblage +had wrapped her about in a heavy plaid and drawn back before she could +see who it was.</p> + +<p>"Your ladyship will find the Jura tartan as warm as the welcome we all +wish your ladyship," said a stalwart, bearded mountaineer, who had +stepped to the front to speak for his fellows; and, as she smiled shy +but very contentedly up into his scarlet face, he bent his head above +the hand she had held out to him.</p> + +<p>One after another the hill-men and fisherfolk of the village filed past +her then, each with some stammered salutation, in difficult English or +guttural Gaelic. And for each she had a shy, grateful smile and a word +of thanks, until at the last came Justin Carthew and had also stooped +and kissed her hand before she could prevent him.</p> + +<p>He would have passed on like the others but that she, blushing hotly, +begged him to wait. For Janet M'Kissock had come to her shoulder to say +that at the Jura Arms in the village would be provided a loving-cup in +which all might drink her ladyship's health, as was proper on such an +occasion, and had brought out the big, silver-mounted hunting-quaich in +which every new Earl of Jura had pledged his people on his accession.</p> + +<p>The butts of the torches had been flung in a heap on the ground before +the girl, and formed a fiery pyramid between her and the waiting throng.</p> + +<p>She lifted up the drinking-horn, her eyes very bright, and cried at the +pitch of her clear, sweet voice a single, strangely-sounding word in the +Gaelic, that Janet M'Kissock had whispered to her once or twice. And the +sudden, thunderous roar of response that rang out in answer, as if from +a single throat, awoke wild echoes among the surrounding hills.</p> + +<p>"Your ladyship will come inbye now," begged Mrs. M'Kissock, as the pipes +struck up again at the head of the gathering on its way back to the +village.</p> + +<p>But, "Just in a minute, Janet," said Sallie, "I'm quite warm. And—you +needn't wait."</p> + +<p>The bonfire before her was burning low in spite of the wind which had +just begun to blow and promised to freshen. She stayed beside it, +watching, until all but Carthew were gone. And then she turned to him, +the tears very near her eyes and her starved heart almost satisfied.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Carthew," she said timidly, "I wanted to tell you at once how +sorry I am about—everything. I had no idea at all, when you told me on +the <i>Olive Branch</i>—"</p> + +<p>"Of course not," said Justin Carthew concisely.</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Jobling was so—abrupt; and—I didn't know what to do. Won't +you please forgive me; I had no idea—"</p> + +<p>"I was pretty much taken aback myself," said Justin Carthew, and laughed +a little, though not very merrily. "But—I'm all right again now. And +you mustn't worry about me, please. I'm all right, again, and—"</p> + +<p>"You'll wait for a little?" she interrupted, she was so eager to +reassure him. "I can't help being who I am, but—if you will only wait +for a little, everything will turn out all right for you, too."</p> + +<p>She could see that he was puzzled.</p> + +<p>"I can't explain," she went on hurriedly, afraid that he would demand +explanation. "But I want you to give me a little time, if you will. I +want you not to go away. If you will just wait—for only three +months—everything will turn out all right for you in the end."</p> + +<p>"But—how—" he was beginning, when she cut him short again.</p> + +<p>"I can't explain," she repeated. "Only—you once promised that I might +ask you to do anything I wanted. Will you not just wait here, and trust +me—for only three months? And then you'll understand."</p> + +<p>He looked helplessly about him.</p> + +<p>"I'll wait here—and trust you—all the rest of my life," he said, "if +you say so. And then I'll still be in your debt."</p> + +<p>"All I ask is my three months," she told him gravely. "And then—"</p> + +<p>He looked his utter perplexity.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean that you're Lady Josceline Justice only for the time +being?" he asked, his forehead wrinkled.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," she answered assuredly. "I'll be Lady Josceline Justice all +my life. And—you'll keep your promise?"</p> + +<p>"I'll keep my promise," he affirmed. "I'll wait here and trust you for +three months—and for the rest of my life, if you say so."</p> + +<p>She smiled at him, very contentedly. "I'm going to be very happy here +now," she said, and looked round. She had heard Slyne's voice, calling +her. She could see him beyond the drawbridge gazing blindly out into the +darkness.</p> + +<p>"Good night," she said to Carthew. But she did not go in until he had +swung himself into the saddle and ridden away, always looking back.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR</h3> + + +<p>The wind that rose during the night brought with it a change in the +weather. When the day broke and a round red sun rose from among the +mountains, it showed the whole world white—the land deep under snow and +the sea all foam.</p> + +<p>Slyne's first sensation when he woke and saw the storm, from behind the +double windows of his comfortable rooms in the Warder's Tower, was one +of relief, since it would surely serve to stave off inconvenient +visitors. He had been afraid that the news the beacon had blazoned the +night before would travel altogether too fast and too far to suit his +plans; it would have been awkward in the extreme to be inundated with +curious callers in a position practically carried by assault, only +tenable by stealth and while no one in active authority should challenge +it.</p> + +<p>The coming of Herries, the factor, had opened his eyes to that. For the +old fellow, ill as he was, had shown a most annoying inclination to +cross-question Slyne about various dry legal details; and Slyne had only +been able to put him off temporarily by promising that her ladyship's +own man of law would go into all such matters with him in the morning.</p> + +<p>Now, fortunately for Slyne and his friends, the factor need not be +further considered for some little time to come, if indeed at all. The +fever in him had refused to yield to any of Mrs. M'Kissock's simple +medicaments, and he was delirious. He seemed very likely, indeed, to die +unless he were very lucky. Slyne did not fail to congratulate himself on +that score also, as he sat up in bed to reach for a cigarette after his +late breakfast and contemplate the cuffs of his expensive pink silk +pajamas.</p> + +<p>The rest of the company in the castle he thought he could find means to +control, for the present, at any rate, although he did not +under-estimate the chances of trouble with his two disaffected +associates, who had already displayed such a lamentable tendency toward +open mutiny. But, on the whole, he felt satisfied that, if he could only +keep matters running smoothly during the days that must still elapse +before the Court of Chancery should resume its usual routine and finally +settle the Jura succession on Sallie, he would by then have managed to +make his own footing there absolutely secure.</p> + +<p>He snuggled back between the blankets again, with an inexpressible +sensation of comfort, and, watching the blue spirals of smoke curl +upwards from under his moustache, forgot all the anxious uncertainties +and the ever more painful pinch of the present in contemplative +anticipations of that fair future which he had so carefully planned for +himself. Not even the fact that he had almost exhausted his cash +resources could worry him when he thought of the wealth that was to be +his as soon as he should be safely married to Sallie; and until then he +could command unlimited local credit, on her behalf.</p> + +<p>She was Lady Josceline Justice already. She would be Countess of Jura in +her own right as soon as the Court of Chancery should admit her +identity. She would have ten millions of dollars in ready money for him +to spend and a quarter of a million for annual income. He had been a +poor man all his life, but now—he looked luxuriously out at the snow +and the storm.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jasper Slyne and the Countess of Jura," he said aloud, and smiled +and curled his moustache.</p> + +<p>He rose by and by and betook himself to his dressing-room, whistling a +cheery tune. "And although I don't want to rush things," said he to +himself as he stepped briskly into his bath, "if either Dove or that fat +suicide makes any more fuss, I'll have to show 'em my teeth. They must +both keep to the bargains we struck. And I think I've made things pretty +safe for myself by now."</p> + +<p>When he at length strolled downstairs, infinitely refreshed after his +long rest, he found Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove in close conclave in +the library. And he did not like their looks in the least or their +sudden silence at sight of him. He felt certain that they had been +conspiring against him, and did not delay in commencing a +counter-attack.</p> + +<p>"'Morning, Dove. 'Morning, Jobling," said he casually, as he stopped to +select a cigar from the box on the table. "Change of weather, eh! You'll +have a cold journey back to London, Jobling."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling looked very coldly across at him. "I do not propose to +return to London at present, Mr. Slyne," he replied. "Mr. Spettigrew +will look after everything there."</p> + +<p>"You're no more use to me here," said Slyne bluntly, "and you <i>may</i> be +of some service in London."</p> + +<p>"You are no longer a client of mine, Mr. Slyne," the lawyer retorted, no +doubt emboldened by the promise of Captain Dove's unswerving support. "I +can no longer act for you with any feeling of confidence—since I have +found out how unfairly you have attempted to treat Captain Dove."</p> + +<p>Slyne understood that open war was declared. "I won't be a client of +yours for long, if you're going to be troublesome," he affirmed. "I +think you've got a little out of your depth again, my friend. I don't +think you'll find it will pay you to take that tone."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling began to splutter, and Captain Dove evidently felt impelled +to come to his aid.</p> + +<p>"You take too much on yourself, Slyne," said he, eyeing that gentleman +with extreme disfavour. "You seem to think you're the whole show here, +though you're nothing but a hanger-on, as I've told you before. Let's +have a good deal less of it, or—We can get on just as well, or even +better—without you, you know."</p> + +<p>Slyne turned a contemptuous stare on him. "So that's the idea now, is +it!" he remarked, without any sign of heat. "You two think it's a case +of dog eat dog now, do you! And—after you've got rid of me, who picked +you both up out of the gutter, you'll be at each other's throats. You're +a great pair!"</p> + +<p>His nonchalance incensed the old man, as he had intended it should.</p> + +<p>"I want none of your damned lip," declared Captain Dove, glaring at him, +"you precious upstart! You're nothing but a beggar on horseback +yourself, for all your grand airs. Me and this other gentleman are both +sick-tired of them. You're one too many—"</p> + +<p>"I'm one too many for you two, at any rate; and you may both stake your +last cent on that," Slyne told him with a composure admirable under the +circumstances. "You surely don't imagine, do you, that I'm here on any +such unsafe footing as you are! I thought you knew me well enough, Dove, +to be sure that I'd leave you no opportunity to go back on your bargain +with me."</p> + +<p>"To hell with you and your bargains!" cried Captain Dove: and then, +restraining his rage, lowered his voice again. "The mistake you've +always made with me, Slyne, has been to take me for an old fool—as +you've very often called me to my face. You think I'm in my dotage. +But—I'm not too old to show <i>you</i> a trick or two yet, if you and I come +to grips. And, as for being such a fool as you seem to think me—you +wait and see! I've a card or two up my sleeve, Mr. Slyne, that'll maybe +euchre your game for you, if you try to bluff too high!"</p> + +<p>Slyne sat back and studied the old man's face. Captain Dove had made +that same mysterious threat on board the <i>Olive Branch</i> in Genoa, before +they had started out on their present adventure. It had disconcerted +Slyne then. It disconcerted him still more now.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think that you're a little inclined to overrate your +importance and—er—capacity, Mr. Slyne?" put in Mr. Jobling acidly +during the pause, involuntary on Slyne's part. "All your ideas are no +doubt based on the documents we mutually signed in Monte Carlo; and you +are probably not aware, as I am—now that I have a clearer insight into +your motives—that they amount to neither more nor less than a +conspiracy to defraud. You would be well advised, believe me, to put +them all in the fire."</p> + +<p>Slyne turned on him in an instant. "Now, see here, my friend! I want you +to understand, once and for all, that I've got <i>you</i> safe where I want +you, and that, if I hear much more from you, you'll find yourself in a +very unpleasant fix. You wouldn't look well at all in a striped +suit—or I believe it's the broad-arrow pattern they supply in the +prisons here. And that's what you'll come to, believe me, unless you +walk the line I've laid down for you. You can't embezzle trust funds, +you know, and pay the interest with promises to be met as soon as you +lay your hands on some of the plunder here, without running a very +dangerous risk indeed. Why, even the car you sold me in Genoa was +another man's property—and I hold your receipt for the price I paid you +for it.</p> + +<p>"So shut up," he concluded sharply, and proceeded to deal with Captain +Dove as if the lawyer had not been there.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling's flaccid face had become of the colour of mottled clay. He +was respiring stertorously, through his mouth. His eyes had grown +blood-shot. His back-bone seemed to have given way. He sat huddled up, +silent, staring at Slyne with eyes full of impotent fear.</p> + +<p>"You talk to me about bluffing!" Slyne was saying to Captain Dove, who +also seemed to have grown suddenly apprehensive of some unforeseen +mischance. "You talk to me about bluffing, although I've played a +straight game with you from the start and stuck to our bargain even +against my own interests. Wait a minute. Listen to me—and then you can +talk till you're tired.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to keep your clever new friend there company in his cell? +How long do you think you'd be left at liberty if I mentioned to the +authorities that you're the same man who—"</p> + +<p>"Stop, now, curse you!" roared Captain Dove and so drowned the +disclosures which Slyne seemed minded to make. "And don't go too far +with me, or—"</p> + +<p>Slyne looked without winking into the muzzle of the revolver which the +old man had produced in an instant and levelled at him. "You talk to me +about bluffing!" he said again, and laughed, without mirth. "You'd be +better occupied, Dove, in making sure that your own bluff isn't called. +You've done your best for a week past to give yourself away to the +police, and—if you manage that in the end, you won't have me to blame, +remember. <i>I'm</i> not the sort of yellow dog you seem to want to make +yourself out."</p> + +<p>He paused, to let that vitriolic criticism sink in, and to consider just +how far he might safely go. Captain Dove had laid his revolver down but +kept a hand on its butt. He was watching Slyne intently.</p> + +<p>"I wish you could get it into your head," the latter resumed a little +more peaceably, "that beggar-my-neighbour isn't the easiest game to play +with me. And that I've got brains enough to take care of myself.</p> + +<p>"If you and your cute new friend there were to be put away to-morrow, +I'd stay here safe and sound. I've nothing to fear.</p> + +<p>"I've kept my bargain with you both so far, and I'm quite willing to +complete it. I'm going to see, at the same time, that you keep yours +with me. You'll each get your promised share of the profits here, no +more and no less; and then—I'll be done with you. Till then—don't go +<i>too</i> far with me," he finished warningly.</p> + +<p>"To hear you talk, any one would think you owned Loquhariot already!" +remarked Captain Dove. "I'd like to hear what Sallie has to say about it +all now."</p> + +<p>"I'll get her to tell you at once, if you like," Slyne answered evenly +and, rising, rang the bell.</p> + +<p>"Ask her ladyship to favour us with her company for a few minutes," he +instructed the footman who answered that summons, "or if she'd prefer to +receive us in her own room." Then he lay back in his chair again, his +wits busily at work. He could not feel quite sure himself what Sallie +would have to say about it all now; but—he meant to master her also.</p> + +<p>The servant, however, came back with word that her ladyship had gone +out. And at that Slyne scowled. It was at a most inopportune moment for +him that Sallie had taken a liberty of which she would not have dreamed +a few days before; and, furthermore, it did not fit in with his plans at +all to have her making such use of her new-found freedom; there was no +telling whom she might meet—there was that fellow Carthew, for +instance!</p> + +<p>"Which way did her ladyship go, do you know?" he called after the +footman, as casually as he could.</p> + +<p>"To the village, I think, sir," the man replied, and he rose, yawning, +to look discontentedly out at the wintry landscape. It was very +beautiful in the brisk morning sunshine, but also very wet underfoot.</p> + +<p>"I'll stroll down the road after her," he announced, "and fetch her +back. You can be packing up in the meantime, Jobling. The steamer south +sails early in the afternoon."</p> + +<p>He did not hesitate to leave the two conspirators alone together again; +he judged that he had succeeded in cowing them both. He even smiled to +himself on his way outdoors.</p> + +<p>"I thought I was done for when I met Dubois," he reflected, perfectly +self-satisfied, "but—I was really in luck. And that was a most +opportune chat I had with Mullins in London, too. I've got Jobling +fairly fixed. If I can't manage the old man—I'm a bigger fool than I +take myself for. And I've made things all right for myself with Sallie, +or I'm mistaken."</p> + +<p>He paused in the main hall to look appreciatively about him while a +servant was fetching his coat and cap from the cloak-room. The sun was +streaming in through the stained glass of a lofty, mullioned window, the +heart of each of whose panels showed in vivid scarlet against the light +a clenched hand holding a dagger, the Jura crest.</p> + +<p>"<i>They</i> won it all that way," said Slyne to himself, and drew a deep +breath of contentment as he looked round the noble hall again. He felt +very proud of the place already, and only wished that some of his former +friends could have seen him there.</p> + +<p>Outside, beyond the drawbridge, he halted to look admiringly up at the +massive, ivy-clad frontage of the Main Keep, with its crenellated +ramparts and narrow fighting-windows and bartizan. Then he turned with a +high heart toward the road that runs between hazel thickets and clumps +of alder or silver birch down the long hill to the village and the +seashore. He was humming a contented tune to himself as he tramped +through the melting snow.</p> + +<p>He had not far to seek Sallie. Within the open doorway of the first +cottage he came to, he caught sight of her beside the peat-fire with a +laughing child on her lap and its proud mother smiling beside her.</p> + +<p>He walked in on them, and she looked up at him very happily as he +entered. The mother curtsied, which pleased him. So that he made himself +most agreeable to them both, and did not take Sallie away at once as he +had intended. He was quite gratified to see how graciously she filled +the part of Lady Bountiful. He wanted her to be popular among the +villagers, and meant to make himself popular as well. He was only afraid +that her ignorance of the conventions might lead her into making herself +too cheap.</p> + +<p>She was only a young girl yet, and he knew that her innate purity of +mind had never been sullied nor her sweet, loyal, lovable nature in any +way warped amid the strange surroundings and circumstances in which she +had lived till then. She was as happy playing with the cottager's child +as she would have been in a palace. But—the daughter of Torquil Fitz-J. +Justice, Earl of Jura and Baron St. Just of Justicehall and Loquhariot, +must not make herself too cheap, thought Slyne. And presently he +suggested to her that it was time to be going.</p> + +<p>She rose, a little reluctantly, and followed him; while he bowed +patronisingly to the fisherman's wife—just as he imagined a grand +gentleman would do.</p> + +<p>He did not demur when Sallie turned down the village street instead of +up-hill again. He was quite pleased to show himself there at her +side—and touch his cap condescendingly in response to the salutations +of all who passed. He only omitted that very casual courtesy to Justin +Carthew, standing at the door of the Inn.</p> + +<p>"I suppose there's no doubt that Mr. Carthew was wrongly informed by his +lawyers, Jasper?" Sallie asked him a few minutes later.</p> + +<p>"No doubt in the world," Slyne answered her. "He's of no account at all +now. The best thing he can do now for himself is to clear off back to +America, where he belongs.</p> + +<p>"And—there's another thing, my dear. Captain Dove and that fat ass +Jobling have got to go too. We'll never have any peace while they're +hanging about. But they're both inclined to be troublesome, and I want +you to back me up against them.</p> + +<p>"It was Captain Dove who ordered the beacon to be lighted last night. +And—Lord only knows how much annoyance that may cause us yet! In fact, +they're a pretty difficult pair to handle. So, when we get back to the +castle, I want you to tell them that you intend to keep your promise to +me; I'll be better able to manage them then, you see.</p> + +<p>"You haven't forgotten just what you promised me, have you?"</p> + +<p>"No, Jasper," answered the girl, and gazed across the wind-swept loch +with fond, despairing eyes, "I haven't forgotten. And—I'll keep my +promise, if—when the time comes."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE JURA SUCCESSION</h3> + + +<p>Captain Dove, sucking at his black cutty-pipe in the library of +Loquhariot, looked very contemptuously at Mr. Jobling. It was +self-evident that Mr. Jobling was afraid of Slyne and feeling very sorry +for himself.</p> + +<p>But Captain Dove was in no such disconsolate mood. Glancing at the +despondent lawyer out of his little red-rimmed eyes, he even grinned, +still more contemptuously. <i>He</i> was not afraid of Slyne, he told +himself, and it made no material difference to him that his recent +attempt to brow-beat that grasping scoundrel had failed, even with the +London lawyer for ally. For Captain Dove did not intend that either of +the other two should eventually get the better of him. He was playing a +waiting game, in which he meant to come out winner at any cost.</p> + +<p>So far as Captain Dove was concerned there were only two persons really +concerned in the question of the Jura succession. One was Sallie, the +other himself—her adopted father!</p> + +<p>He looked upon Mr. Jobling as a mere mechanical instrument, such as +could be replaced at a moment's notice if that were needful, now that +the legal details of the case had been carried so far toward final +success. Slyne was absolutely superfluous there and had outlived his +usefulness, in so far, at least, as Captain Dove was concerned. More +than that, he was in Captain Dove's way. So, to some extent, was Justin +Carthew, since it seemed that Sallie felt called upon to make a fool of +herself for his benefit; but Captain Dove did not anticipate any great +difficulty in dealing with him. And so was Herries, the factor, who had +so many inconvenient questions to ask—although he need scarcely be +taken into account at present while he was abed and likely to be there +for some time to come.</p> + +<p>With all of these, in any case, he felt quite capable of coping—except +with Jasper Slyne, who had threatened, a few moments before and in the +hearing of an attentive witness ... Slyne was undoubtedly dangerous now; +and it must be his first care to free himself for all time from the risk +of Slyne's telling....</p> + +<p>"I have it," said Captain Dove, his furrowed forehead suddenly cleared +and his face contorted into a smile at sight of which Mr. Jobling was +seized with a sickly, sinking sensation. "I have it. We must keep quiet +of course, until the <i>Olive Branch</i> turns up, but she shouldn't be very +long now, and then—</p> + +<p>"I'll send for Brasse. I warned that fool Slyne to play fair with +me—but he won't. And so—since it's beggar-my-neighbour we're at, <i>he</i> +won't be my neighbour for long."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling rose, coughing irritably. The reek from Captain Dove's foul +pipe was too much for him.</p> + +<p>"I'll go and pack now," he announced. "I'd never have come here at all +if I had thought—"</p> + +<p>"You leave things here to me, old cock," Captain Dove encouraged him. +"And go and jag your friend Spettigrew along till he gets judgment for +us. That's the most important part of the game at present. Leave things +here to me, and you'll find, when the time comes, that Slyne will have +to take a back seat."</p> + +<p>But the stout solicitor did not seem grateful at all for that crumb of +comfort. He merely looked at Captain Dove with equal dislike and +disbelief as he left the room.</p> + +<p>He left the castle immediately after lunch, to catch the steamer south, +a little less depressed, perhaps, after a few further words with Captain +Dove, who thought it only politic to inspirit him in his efforts on +Sallie's behalf. And he had not been gone very long before Captain Dove +began to miss him—as a boon-companion, a part which Slyne refused to +play any longer. So that the old man soon began to find the time hang +very heavy on his hands, and his grudge against Slyne always grew.</p> + +<p>Under any circumstances, he could not have been happy for long on land. +Nor could he feel altogether safe there, even in the distasteful +disguise he had adopted at Slyne's advice; and for discrediting which he +had been so repeatedly called to account by Slyne. He could scarcely but +repent having sacrificed his undisputed autocracy on the <i>Olive Branch</i> +in order to figure as a mere puppet in Slyne's company, as he had +undoubtedly become since he had left his ship. He grew very angry indeed +with Slyne when he thought of that, as he often did during those endless +days of waiting.</p> + +<p>It was all Slyne's fault, he assured himself, that he was thus stranded +there; that he had not fifty cents left to bless himself with, since one +expensive evening in Paris; and that, even if he had had such a sum in +his pockets, it might have worn a hole in them before he could spend it, +in such a forsaken spot!</p> + +<p>Of what use to him, he inquired of himself, going off at another +tangent, could a huge, ghost-haunted pile like the Castle of Loquhariot +be? Or a great empty barrack like Justicehall?—which reminded him +unpleasantly of the Law Courts in London. How could he ever hope to +spend such an excess of wealth as was soon to be Sallie's, and, +therefore, at his disposal? A perfect nausea of money possessed Captain +Dove at such moments. He would almost have preferred the prospect of +poverty again, if only for the sake of the interest in life the struggle +to live might restore to him.</p> + +<p>"Enough is as good as a feast!" said he to himself every now and then +while he gazed, with gloom in his soul, at the cut-crystal decanters on +a salver of solid silver which was never far from his elbow; and, with +that wise saw on his lips, he would continue to drown his contradictory +sorrows as deeply as possible.</p> + +<p>But there was luckily room and to spare in the castle for all its +inmates. Slyne and he kept as much as possible out of each other's way, +although they had resumed a spasmodic outward semblance of amity, a +steadfast inward determination to get the better of one another, whether +by fair means or foul. He could scarcely seek Sallie's company now that +she knew his treacherous intentions toward her. The sick man, Herries, +was still in bed, in a sufficiently precarious state. So that he lived +very much alone with his various grievances, since his walks abroad, as +far as the Jura Arms,—where he soon became almost popular among the +occasional profligates of the village,—were not so frequent as they +would probably have been in better weather.</p> + +<p>A bitter east wind, bringing always more snow, had blown almost +ceaselessly for the best part of a fortnight before any change came in +the wildest weather that had befallen Loquhariot in long years.</p> + +<p>The mountain roads for miles in all directions were quite impassable. +The mail-cart, with its driver and horses, and also the hastily +improvised snow-plough which had attempted their rescue, lay buried deep +below the ever deepening drift into which it had plunged on its last +outward journey. The single telegraph-line that served the locality had +broken down at a dozen points which were quite unapproachable. Stress of +weather had prevented the weekly steamer from making its usual call. +Loquhariot was absolutely cut off from the outer world.</p> + +<p>And then, with a wet westerly wind which soon grew into a gale, the snow +on the mountains began to melt and floods made matters still worse, +swelling every unconsidered stream into a destructive torrent, cutting +wide chasms across the precipitous main-road over the Pass, under-mining +its bridges and even washing some of them away bodily. In several of the +more outlying districts sheer famine began to grow imminent. The flocks +and herds of the countryside were in still worse case than the wild deer +which had escaped from their forest sanctuaries before the first of the +snow and had been huddling about the village while it endured.</p> + +<p>No word had come through from Mr. Jobling in all that time. And Captain +Dove was almost beyond the end of his outworn patience before, scowling +blackly out of the library window one day when the westerly gale had all +but blown itself out, he caught sight of a shabby, sea-going, +cargo-tramp, flying the Norwegian flag, which seemed to be seeking an +anchorage behind the Small Isles at the mouth of the loch.</p> + +<p>It was the <i>Olive Branch</i>. He would have known her in the dark, disguise +or no disguise.</p> + +<p>"Uh-hum!" he exclaimed, in an ecstasy of relief. "<i>Now</i> I can make +things move a little at last. Now we'll soon see who's who here."</p> + +<p>He dashed off a peremptory note to his chief engineer, put that in his +pocket, clapped his smoked spectacles on his nose and his soft felt hat +on his head, and made for the village, where he hoped to find, in the +Jura Arms, a local poacher who would undertake an errand out to the +steamer.</p> + +<p>He found his man at the inn, and his credit there enabled him to drive a +speedy bargain. It also helped him to pass the time contentedly enough +till the fishing-boat returned from its wet trip with word for the +public that the strange steamer had put into the loch on account of an +accident in her engine-room which would delay her there for a little, +although she would need no help from the village; and with a hasty +private note from the chief engineer for Captain Dove—to the effect +that Mr. Brasse refused to come ashore.</p> + +<p>"Curse him!" snarled Captain Dove as his messenger retired to the bar +again. "I suppose he's afraid of the police—though there isn't a +policeman within thirty miles, and, even if there were, it wouldn't +matter very much." And he sat down to compose another and still more +peremptory note, bidding Brasse obey his lawful commands or take the +consequences of disobedience.</p> + +<p>He would have put off to the steamer himself but for the obvious reasons +against that course. And, to induce his messenger to make the trip again +after dark, he had to promise the man twice as much as for the first +run, still outstanding.</p> + +<p>When he finally emerged from the inn, in no very pleasant temper, he +caught sight, first, of the weekly steamer already half way up the loch, +inward bound, and then of Sallie at a bend of the road in the distance, +on her way back to the castle from the village. There was some one with +her. It was Carthew.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove became still more incensed, and, his mind a good deal +inflamed by his recent potations, set off up the hill in pursuit of +them, breathing noisily, not even pausing to scowl at the children who +scurried indoors as he passed with the skirts of his long black coat +streaming out behind him.</p> + +<p>He had heard from Slyne that Herries, the factor, had formally appointed +the young American his deputy until he should be able to undertake his +own duties again. And, in spite of all Slyne and he could say to Sallie, +she had obstinately refused to assist in getting rid of Carthew. He had +heard from Slyne that Carthew was making far too many occasions for +seeing her, and when he had cautioned Sallie on that score she had shown +no disposition at all to take his advice.</p> + +<p>"I've warned her often enough," he muttered with steadily rising wrath, +"to quit monkeying with that fellow. And she'll get right out of hand +now, unless I let her see, once and for all, who's going to be master +here. Where would I come in if <i>he</i> managed to get married to her! He's +got to go. That's all there is to it. I can't afford to have him hanging +about here any longer."</p> + +<p>The couple in front seemed to be in no hurry, however. He had almost +overtaken them before he paused at a hazel-clump to cut himself a stout +cudgel. By the time he had got that trimmed to his taste, they had +almost reached the castle.</p> + +<p>"I'll wait till she's gone in," said Captain Dove to himself. He had +noticed that Carthew was carrying what looked like a woodman's axe. But +that did not daunt him at all in his purpose. He lingered along the edge +of an alder-thicket until at length Sallie shook hands in very friendly +fashion with the young American and went her own way, while Carthew took +to a trail through the woods and made off at a round pace, +notwithstanding his limp, axe on shoulder, whistling blithely.</p> + +<p>The path he was following wound in and out among plantations of pine and +great groves of grey, leafless birches, until, at a distance of half a +mile, it found the clear edge of the cliffs overlooking the circular +inlet which forms the head of the loch, and finally faded away at the +marge of a smooth plateau of bare rock enclosed on three sides by a +thick tangle of woodland and rank undergrowth.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove stalked him with all precaution, stepping from stone to +stone among the wet snow which was rapidly melting, so that he might +leave no traceable footprints on the soft, spongy soil or damp, dead +leaves. And once, when Carthew halted to light a pipe, the old man, with +murder in his mind, dropped into cover behind a moss-grown boulder at +one side of the path—because that would have been a most unadvisable +spot at which to attack a man armed with an axe. Then, as Carthew moved +on, he once more took up the pursuit, through the clumps of bramble and +bracken between the dark trunks of the firs about him.</p> + +<p>Carthew stepped unconcernedly out of the dusk of the woods into the open +space at the end of the path, and stopped there, axe on shoulder, to +look about him. But Captain Dove did not immediately spring upon him as +he had been minded to do, for he had just observed, at a corner of the +convenient plateau, a round hut, stone-built and roofed with heather, +which might or might not be inhabited. Captain Dove wormed his way round +toward it, within the thicket.</p> + +<p>The windows of the hut were shuttered and its door pad-locked on the +outside. Captain Dove was delighted. He turned to squint across at +Carthew from behind a bush and judge his distance, but still delayed his +attack.</p> + +<p>Carthew seemed to have seen something of interest in the dark wood +behind Captain Dove, and Captain Dove looked round in instant alarm. It +would have been most unpleasant to find that he himself was being spied +upon. There was some one or some thing, a tall white shadow, very dimly +discernible, moving among the gloom.</p> + +<p>A sudden and most unusual sensation of panic seized Captain Dove. The +inexplicable shape was flitting soundlessly toward him. He felt thankful +that Carthew was there behind him, alive and well, for company. But when +he rose upright and glanced swiftly over one shoulder the plateau was +empty. Carthew had gone.</p> + +<p>The evening was drawing in, and even the pathway by which they had come +there was growing dim as the light slowly failed. Captain Dove made a +blind dash for it across the open space, and so fled headlong, in fear.</p> + +<p>He only once looked back, and then he saw the shadow again. It was +following him. And he did not stop running till he reached the +drawbridge of the castle. But there he halted, panting, to swear at +himself for a superstitious old fool, and stare back into the woods with +eyes in which terror was mingled with rage.</p> + +<p>"Some stray cow—or maybe a stag!" he declared to himself. "If I had +had a shot-gun handy—or even my revolver—"</p> + +<p>But, stare as he would, he could see nothing more of the creature. And +he went in through the postern, still swearing under his breath.</p> + +<p>He had never felt quite at his ease in the great main hall of the +castle, which, with its empty suits of mail in all sorts of unexpected +corners, the flags overhead flapping soundlessly in every draught, the +pale faces peering down from their dark frames in the gallery, possessed +an uncanny atmosphere of its own, especially in the dusk.</p> + +<p>However, the two big fires blazing on their cavernous hearths at either +side of its wide expanse made it a good deal more homelike, less eerie +than it had seemed when he had first seen it. And he crossed it almost +without concern on his way toward his own quarters in the North Keep.</p> + +<p>But by the way some obscure movement among the shadows beyond the nearer +fire brought his heart to his mouth again in an instant, and a hand +slipped mechanically toward the empty hip-pocket beneath the skirt of +his coat. He had halted. He moved on, into the dim recess whence some +one was watching him, and presently emerged again, dragging after him +into the firelight a shock-headed, pasty-faced lad, whose long neck was +writhing in anguish as Captain Dove gave the long ear between his finger +and thumb another fierce tweak.</p> + +<p>"What the devil are <i>you</i> doing here!" the old man demanded, peering +into the features of Mr. Jobling's managing clerk.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," answered Mullins with legal exactitude. But he quickly became +more discursive under Captain Dove's threatening glance. "Mr. Jobling +brought me here with him," he explained. "We arrived by the steamer an +hour ago, after a most terrible passage. I never saw such—"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove silenced him with a scowl. "Where's your master?" he +demanded.</p> + +<p>"In there," replied Mullins promptly, pointing to the door of the +gun-room, which opened off the main hall; and Captain Dove, casting him +loose without more words, marched in upon Mr. Jobling and Slyne in +excited conference.</p> + +<p>They looked round as the door opened, and the lawyer, seeing who the +unceremonious intruder was, waved a fat hand in gleeful welcome. "We're +safe now," he vociferated. "The Jura succession is settled at last. +Where's Lady Josceline? She'll be Countess of Jura in her own right as +soon as—"</p> + +<p>"Not so much of your noise," Captain Dove commanded, and, suddenly, +reopening the door, all but overset himself in accomplishing a hasty +kick, which elicited a loud yelp from without.</p> + +<p>"Was that Mullins!" Mr. Jobling exclaimed. "I don't know <i>what</i> I'm to +do with him. He's really becoming a dangerous nuisance. I had to bring +him away from London with me to prevent him—"</p> + +<p>"He'll keep clear of keyholes for a while," Captain Dove put in +confidently. "Now let's hear your news."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling's clouded face cleared again. "You've heard it already," he +said. "I've won our case. The Chancery Court has admitted my proofs. We +are to attend again, all of us, the day after to-morrow if possible, +when Mr. Justice Gaunt will give us decree. And Lady Josceline will be +the Countess of Jura as soon as—"</p> + +<p>"When will she get any money?" asked Captain Dove bluntly, and Mr. +Jobling looked pained.</p> + +<p>"By Friday, I should think," he stated, "I'll have everything in such +shape that she can draw a cheque for a mill—"</p> + +<p>"She'll draw no cheques," Slyne interrupted decisively. "You know very +well that I have her formal authority to attend to all such matters for +her. Whatever small sums she may require <i>I'll</i> procure for her, and any +payments to be made on her behalf <i>I'll</i> make."</p> + +<p>He met with perfect tranquillity the glances of his associates. "I'll go +and tell her the news now," he remarked, and left the room.</p> + +<p>As soon as the door had closed behind him, the lawyer turned toward +Captain Dove, and, "Well?" he asked eagerly. "Was that your ship I saw +at the mouth of the loch? How are you going to get rid of that +domineering upstart? There isn't much time left to—"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove held up a protesting hand, but Mr. Jobling would not be put +down in that manner. He was evidently determined now to stand up for +himself and those hard-earned rights out of which Slyne had undoubtedly +jockeyed him in the most bare-faced, contemptuous manner.</p> + +<p>"I really must insist on knowing what you mean to do," he declared +irascibly. "I have far too much at stake to leave anything to chance at +this late moment. Once Mr. Slyne reaches London, it will be too late +to—"</p> + +<p>"Hold your row!" ordered Captain Dove, so fiercely that Mr. Jobling +jumped. "And—don't interfere in what doesn't concern you. All you need +to know is that—Slyne will never see London again. Does that satisfy +you?"</p> + +<p>"It would—if I could believe it," observed Mr. Jobling, valiantly. +"But—"</p> + +<p>"And neither will you, if you worry me," added Captain Dove in a voice +which seemed to affect his neighbour's nerve very adversely. "So help +yourself to another peg and pass the bottle. I can scarcely hear myself +think for your chatter, and I've got a good deal to think about."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling did his very best to meet the old man's irate glance +resolutely, but his own irresolute, blinking eyes soon fell before the +cold menace in Captain Dove's. He replenished his glass, and having +sulkily shoved the decanter across the table, lay back in his chair.</p> + +<p>"You said that she could draw her money on Friday, didn't you?" asked +Captain Dove, and he nodded, with very ill grace.</p> + +<p>"And Slyne has her power of attorney to sign any cheques he likes to +write," the old man went on musingly. "But—that doesn't matter. Brasse +will be ashore to-night. And we'll be off to London to-morrow, me an' +you, Jobling, d'ye hear?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling could not deny that he heard, and did not seem inclined to +ask any more questions. But Captain Dove had a great many more to ask +him, and when Slyne looked into the room, some time later, he found the +two of them chatting quite amicably. They both fell silent, however, at +sight of him.</p> + +<p>"Lady Josceline is entertaining visitors," he announced: "the Duchess of +Dawn—and that unlicked cub Ingoldsby."</p> + +<p>"Lord Ingoldsby's her grace's nephew, of course," Mr. Jobling mentioned +reverentially. "And one of the wealthiest peers in England—or anywhere +else. But—how did they get here? Dawn's on the other side of the +mountains, and—"</p> + +<p>"They rode across," said Slyne, "to find out who was here. If Dove +hadn't ordered the beacon to be lighted the night we arrived, they'd +never have heard—But maybe, after all, it will help—</p> + +<p>"They're going to dine and stay the night, anyhow. It's come on to snow +again.</p> + +<p>"There's a great hullabaloo below-stairs," he said in a somewhat +querulous tone as he crossed toward the fireplace and helped himself to +a cigarette from the silver box on the mantel. "One of the gamekeepers +sent in word that he had seen the 'white lady' about in the woods this +afternoon. And now an hysterical housemaid is having fits in the +servants' hall, on the insufficient ground that she had met the same +mysterious personage in one of the passages a little ago. The whole +outfit, in fact, are in the very devil of a fluster."</p> + +<p>"How unfortunate!" exclaimed Mr. Jobling, while Captain Dove was still +regarding Slyne with an expression of mingled doubt and dismay. "Nothing +could have been more ill-timed, too—since her grace is going to honour +us with her company. Every one about the place believes implicitly in +that old superstition—and they say, you know, that the head of the +family <i>has</i> died whenever the so-called 'white lady' has made her +appearance."</p> + +<p>Slyne laughed, and blew a cloud of smoke from his nostrils.</p> + +<p>"Lady Josceline will outlast most of us," he declared with the utmost +nonchalance. "And, in any case, I've dared anyone to breathe a word +about it to her. We don't want our dinner spoiled with any nonsense of +that sort."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling got up to go, alleging that he was tired after his long +journey and wanted a rest before dinner.</p> + +<p>"Of course, it's all nonsense," he agreed, if with no great conviction. +"But it won't be before to-morrow that you'll get the Highlanders here +to believe that."</p> + +<p>Slyne laughed again, contemptuously, as the lawyer left the room, and +then turned toward Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"You don't believe in ghosts, do you, Dove?" he demanded, quite well +aware of the old man's weakness in that respect.</p> + +<p>"I've seen one or two in my time," answered that superstitious seaman in +a low growl.</p> + +<p>"You're luckier than I've ever been, then," said Slyne mockingly. "And I +only believe in what I can see for myself. But, all the same, I'm not +going to take any losing chances. And, you must admit, it would be most +damnably awkward for us if Sallie should, by any chance, fall under the +fatal spell of the family spectre."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove gave voice to another growl, unintelligible, and moved +restlessly in his chair. It had not, as a matter of fact, occurred to +him that any immediate mischance to Sallie must mean ruin to himself. +And Slyne's sneering insensibility was difficult to endure when he +recalled what he himself had also seen in the woods.</p> + +<p>"I think it would be as well in any case to make sure that we won't be +left lamenting her and absolutely penniless," Slyne went on, his +features suddenly set and serious. "And I'm going to make things safe +for us all to-night," he affirmed. "Are you listening, Dove?</p> + +<p>"It might be dangerous now to delay even until to-morrow. You and I have +too much at stake to run any avoidable risk. And remember that, if you +fail me again, it isn't only a matter of the money you'll lose by your +folly. I know very well that Jobling and you have been plotting together +against me, but—I don't believe you've forgotten what I told you both +the day before he left for London. It would scarcely be worth your while +to go back on me now and spend the rest of your life in prison, or, much +more probably,—hang."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove nodded perfectly civil assent to that self-evident +proposition. He was inwardly wondering at what hour Brasse would be +ashore.</p> + +<p>"Very well," Slyne concluded. "You've got to stand by me, for your own +sake. I'm going to clinch matters with Sallie now. I'll announce our +engagement at dinner. And immediately after dinner, she and I will go +through the simple formality of a Scotch marriage—the worthy Mrs. +M'Kissock has told me exactly how that can be done. The duchess will +serve as one witness and I'll find another trust-worthy one. So that, +all going well, the future Countess of Jura will be my lawful wife +before any harm can come to her even from the 'white lady.' How does +that strike you, eh?"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove once more nodded polite agreement, and then looked very +slowly round over one shoulder behind him. Slyne darted an involuntary +glance in the same direction, and the fag-end of his cigarette fell from +between nerveless fingers. A sudden pallor had overspread his tanned +features, and something very like fear looked out of his eyes at the dim +white form standing motionless just beyond the range of the lamplight.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>Something very like fear looked out of his eyes.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE PARTY OF THE FIRST PART</h3> + + +<p>The shadow which had followed Captain Dove throughout his headlong +flight from the hut on the cliffs had halted behind a bush at the edge +of the wood while he lingered on the drawbridge to look back. As soon as +he disappeared through the postern it flitted in the dusk across the +gravel sweep in front of the castle, down into the dry moat and up again +on the other side to a dark window: through which it gained easy +ingress. And from that point, moving stealthily and with extreme +precaution along the servants' passageways, it finally reached the +housekeeper's quarters: where it stood listening intently for a few +seconds before stepping in on Mrs. M'Kissock.</p> + +<p>She was seated at her early supper, alone, and looked round in surprise, +which quickly deepened into dire bewilderment and dread.</p> + +<p>"Farish!" she whispered with pale lips, as he cast off the soiled and +travel-worn white Arab cloak which had covered him, showing himself a +big, bent, white-bearded, fierce-looking, haggard-faced fellow, +barefooted, almost in rags. He was glancing about him with the +expression of a wild beast in a cage while the old housekeeper gazed at +him, breathing over-quickly, her hands at her heart.</p> + +<p>"Ay, it's Farish, Janet," said he at length, in a very bitter voice, and +threw himself wearily into a chair. "None other than your ne'er-do-well +brother, Farish, come home to die on your hands. I've been hiding in the +woods all day, waiting a chance to creep in. I'm starving, too."</p> + +<p>She turned, trembling sickly, to a full cupboard and set more food on +the table in haste. He fell upon it like a famished wolf, and while he +was devouring it they talked, in broken sentences.</p> + +<p>"Where have you come from—in such a state?" the old woman asked, +watching him with woe in her face.</p> + +<p>"From hell," he mumbled hoarsely, his mouth full, "to square accounts +with another devil who seems to have made the Castle of Loquhariot his +home too. What's Dove, as he calls himself, doing here, Janet?"</p> + +<p>"He came with the Lady Josceline Justice," Mrs. M'Kissock made difficult +answer.</p> + +<p>"He came with the Lady Josceline Justice!" repeated her brother +mechanically, and ceased eating for an instant to stare at her out of +blank, disbelieving eyes. Then he went on with his ravenous feast and +his questioning. "Who else is here?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Slyne," his sister told him meekly, "and Mr. Jobling, her +ladyship's London lawyer. The Duchess of Dawn and Lord Ingoldsby came +across the Pass to call on her ladyship this afternoon. And there's Mr. +Herries, too, ill in bed, as he's been since the night of her ladyship's +coming."</p> + +<p>"I know the man Slyne," muttered Farish M'Kissock. "But—what's Lady +Josceline Justice like?"</p> + +<p>He listened attentively to his sister's brief, fond description, and +then pushed the plates from before him.</p> + +<p>"Can you give me something to drink now?" he asked, in a strained, +unsteady voice. She brought him a bottle of wine from the cupboard and +he swallowed some, very sparingly. It brought a little colour back into +his ashen face.</p> + +<p>"I'll eat some more in a minute or two," he muttered, and sank back into +his chair, and sighed. And there he sat, still and silent, while the big +grandfather's clock in its corner ticked away an eternity of suspense.</p> + +<p>"And so it's—<i>her</i>!" he whispered to himself, and looked up at his +sister again as if he had been unaware of her company.</p> + +<p>"Listen, Janet," said he then, in a stronger voice, "and I'll tell you +something of what I owe Dove.</p> + +<p>"When I had to flee this country, at the time of Lord St. Just's death, +I took to the sea for a while, and, knocking about the world, I chanced +across Dove and his ship—the old <i>Fer de Lance</i> it was then. And I +signed on with him—it was in San Thomé—for reasons that don't matter +now. But he and I soon fell foul of each other—for reasons that don't +matter either—and what d'ye think he did to get rid of me! He set me +ashore, on the African coast, alone—to die in the desert there."</p> + +<p>A dangerous light was beginning to burn in his sunken eyes. He had set +his two twitching hands on the table, was leaning forward.</p> + +<p>"But—I didn't die, after all, you see," he said. "I didn't die then, +Janet. I'm not dead yet.</p> + +<p>"It would only weary you to hear all that happened to me before I came +into my kingdom. For I was as good as a king there, Janet, and—</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not mad, though I might well be after all I've suffered +through—him. It <i>was</i> a kingdom I'd made for myself before he came my +way again. From Tripoli to the Susa, my word was all but law, and there +was scarcely a tribe but paid me tribute. The Sultan of Morocco himself +would send me presents when I passed by. I've fought and beaten the +French, time and again, in country they claim for their own. <i>They</i> knew +the Emir El Farish, Janet, although you think that it's raving I am.</p> + +<p>"But never mind that. What you'll understand better is that I had come +to be a very rich man there. I had horses and camels by hundreds, and +gold and jewels almost more than I had time to count, and an army of +fine fighting men to keep them all safe. I had wealth as well as power, +all but as much as I wanted of both, when Dove came slinking into my +camp on the coast one dark night, like some dirty jackal.</p> + +<p>"His ship was lying in the bight, and—I had business on board with him. +I went off in a boat, with no more than two of my men, blind fool that I +was!</p> + +<p>"I might have known better," he mused very bitterly, "but—</p> + +<p>"He struck me down from behind. He turned me and my men adrift, +insensible, in an open boat.</p> + +<p>"It blew out to sea. I lived, without food or water, for nearly a week +before I was picked up by a passing steamer that took me to Spain, but +the other two died.</p> + +<p>"I was as good as a king in Africa, and—Look at me now! I've lost +all—all but these rags, and I'm spent, as the Spaniards say. I can't go +back to reclaim what was mine. And what will have happened among my +people without me, I can scarcely bear to think. For I was fond of them, +Janet, in my own way.</p> + +<p>"But, after all, it's enough for me now that I've found him again—and +in time. I could scarcely believe that it was really him I saw by the +hut."</p> + +<p>He was speaking in a strange, far-away voice, almost contemplatively; +and, while he spoke, he was fingering the hilt of the long sheath-knife +at his frayed black belt.</p> + +<p>"Would you do murder here again, Farish!" whispered his sister, her +clasped hands still tight at her heart. She had heard him out in tense +silence, without a word. "Was not once enough! Must I be the one to +betray you now—lest you do murder here again!"</p> + +<p>Her brother's gaunt features twisted slowly into a horrible grin, and +relaxed again into an expression of some concern as he observed her +evident stress of mind.</p> + +<p>"It was no murder, but justice, that I did on Torquil St. Just," said +he. "He would have killed me if he could. But I suppose they will always +blame me for his death, Janet; and it would no doubt go hard with me, +even after all these years, if any but you knew my whereabouts.</p> + +<p>"But—I'm safe with you, Janet. And I'll do no murder, I give you my +word. I have other means—</p> + +<p>"I'm safe with you, Janet," he repeated, glancing about the quiet, +lamp-lit room.</p> + +<p>"None will enter without my leave," she hastened to reassure him. "You +can stay safe here, Farish, till we can come at some plan to help each +other, for I cannot bide in the castle for long either, now you've come +back.</p> + +<p>"But—you must work no more harm in the house whose bread I have eaten +so long. Whatever hurt Torquil St. Just did you, he has long gone to his +account, and you have surely no ill will to her ladyship. She has +suffered sorely too, poor thing! in her time, or I'm much mistaken."</p> + +<p>"When did she come to Loquhariot?" Farish demanded.</p> + +<p>"Not much more than a fortnight ago—and just in time. For before her +had come, from America, a far cousin, one Mr. Justin Carthew, to claim +the rights that are hers, thinking, as I did indeed, that she must be +dead."</p> + +<p>"You <i>can't</i> mean yon whistling, limber fellow that walks with a limp? I +saw him too at the hut," said the wreck in the chair at the table with a +sudden, fierce, eager light in his lack-lustre eyes. "But—I took him +for a ghost. How came <i>he</i> here? My men told me—"</p> + +<p>His sister had nodded silently. She sat staring at him in abject +suspense, hope and despair alternately flitting across her wrinkled +face.</p> + +<p>But he said nothing more for some time. That last unaccountable twist of +fate had almost stupefied him.</p> + +<p>A telephone bell rang behind his sister, and startled him out of his +reverie.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Slyne says her ladyship wishes rooms prepared for the duchess and +Lord Ingoldsby," she told him as she turned back from the instrument. +"And dinner's to be served in the banquet-hall. I must be off about my +business now, Farish. Will you wait here till I come again—and promise +to work no more harm?"</p> + +<p>"I'll find a quieter corner to hide in," he answered indifferently. And, +in response to her harassed glance, "You must just trust me to take care +of myself and not trouble you more than need be," he told her. "I know +this old vulture's-nest well enough not to be discovered in it. +And—I'll do Dove no violence, Janet; you have my pledged word for +that."</p> + +<p>She lingered still, almost distracted, not knowing what to do for the +best. But she did know, of old and sad experience, how little heed he +was likely to pay to any advice or direction of hers, and at last had to +hurry away to her duties leaving him, safe enough there, to his own +devices till she could return.</p> + +<p>As soon as she had gone, he swallowed a little more of the food and wine +on the table, put on his dirty white robe again, pulling its baggy hood +well over his features, and, having assured himself that the long +passage down which she had disappeared was empty, set out with soundless +but steadier steps to secrete himself in some more remote recess of the +spacious castle.</p> + +<p>He knew his way about every turn of the back-corridors intimately. He +was passing the gun-room pantry when he heard from within a voice that +he recognised at once, shouting, "Hold your row!" He paused. Distant +footfalls in the passage prompted him to a swift decision. The pantry +door was ajar. He pushed it a little further open, stepped inside, and +closed it behind him.</p> + +<p>The place was practically in darkness, but he soon found the +service-wicket, and, having first made sure that he would not be +intruded upon, slipped the blade of his knife under its wooden shutter, +raised it, without sound, sufficiently to hear and see all that was +going on in the gun-room.</p> + +<p>His eyes began to gleam balefully as he looked through at its +unsuspecting inmates. The old man Dove and the London lawyer were +evidently at loggerheads, but presently calmed down again, and grew +almost confidential together. And afterwards Slyne came in to them with +his contemptuous story of the White Lady—at which the lurking listener +frowned anxiously, since it went to show that he must have been seen +notwithstanding all his precautions. And then the lawyer got up to go.</p> + +<p>To Slyne's subsequent conversation with Captain Dove the ex-Emir +listened no less greedily, licking his lips. And after that he pushed +noiselessly past the swing-door of the pantry, into their company. He +thought he could see his way quite clearly by then.</p> + +<p>Slyne drew back in speechless alarm at sight of the gaunt, hooded figure +coming forward on soundless feet. Captain Dove had made an attempt to +rise, but apparently could not; he sat still, staring over one shoulder, +aghast, at that grey ghost of a man he had never expected to see again.</p> + +<p>Farish M'Kissock threw back his hood and mutely held out his two empty +hands. Slyne let one of his own fall from a hip-pocket. Captain Dove was +evidently striving to speak. The silent intruder stood waiting to hear +whatever he might have to say.</p> + +<p>"How can it be!" Captain Dove said at length, in the difficult voice of +one amazed almost beyond words, and got to his feet with an effort, to +scan the intruder still more searchingly, to stare transfixed at the +tangled grey locks which had formerly been of a flaming red.</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i>—Farish!" he whispered fearfully, as if at last convinced in +spite of himself. And the man before him nodded slowly, three times.</p> + +<p>"None but me, Captain Brown—or Captain Dove—or whatever you care to +call yourself," said Farish M'Kissock, and tried to moisten his dry lips +with a dry tongue. "None but the man you have twice betrayed and turned +adrift to die like a dog; once in the desert and yet again in a boat on +the open sea."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you get ashore?" Slyne asked softly, as if he thought that the +mysterious new-comer must be mad, and did not desire to anger him.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, both of you," said Farish M'Kissock, "and we'll talk +together. 'Tis no more than meet that you should both know the why and +the wherefore of what's to come. I will not seek to harm you," he said, +and so sat down himself.</p> + +<p>Slyne seated himself on the table and Captain Dove was content with an +arm of the chair in which he had been ensconced; both were obviously +prepared to spring up again instantly. And Farish M'Kissock looked at +his leisure from one to the other of them before he said anything more. +Captain Dove's unusual attire seemed to hold his attention.</p> + +<p>"You've changed your coat since you saw me last," he at length remarked +in an even, almost indifferent voice. "And you've come to a very snug +anchorage. You're both going to settle down here and be gentlemen now, I +suppose."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove glared at him, but could not overmaster his steady glance +and at last was compelled to seek shelter behind his smoked glasses, at +which added disguise his enemy gazed with no less offensive interest.</p> + +<p>"You have both done very well for yourselves," said Farish M'Kissock, +and turned toward Slyne.</p> + +<p>"You're going to marry the Lady Josceline Justice," said he. "And +so—you'll be master here—of her and her millions. You'll be a rich man +then—but not so rich, surely, as I'd have been if you two had kept your +bargain with me; for I was not bankrupt when Captain Dove promised her +to me—though I'm bankrupt now."</p> + +<p>His slow speech stung, but they both heard him out in hang-dog silence.</p> + +<p>"I'm bankrupt now," he repeated, looking over at Captain Dove. "All I +won for myself in this world I've lost, thanks to you. And so—I've +made my way home, to die. They told me in the hospital that I hadn't +long to live then, and I reckon my tramp across the mountains will help +to finish me. But—first, there's our account to be squared; all I have +lost."</p> + +<p>"I'll make that up to you, Farish," said Captain Dove, finding his +tongue again, and evidently anxious to be very diplomatic since he could +by no means outface his former accomplice. "I'll do the right thing by +you now. I hadn't any idea, you know, but that you'd get safely ashore +and back to your camp—"</p> + +<p>"It was a long chance you took, with the wind offshore," the other broke +in, without raising his voice, in the same implacable monotone. "It was +almost too long. But the boat you set me adrift in was picked up far out +at sea, with two dead men in it, and one who was minded to live long +enough to repay what he owes you.</p> + +<p>"What has happened among my folks there, God alone knows. But they would +fare ill without me, I fear, and—I had some liking for them."</p> + +<p>"You've always been far too soft-hearted, Farish. That's your only +fault," said Captain Dove encouragingly. "Forget them—and I'll make all +the rest up to you."</p> + +<p>"But how did you come here?" Slyne demanded with more spirit than he had +at first shown.</p> + +<p>He had to wait some time for an answer, but Captain Dove did not +interrupt again, and presently the other proceeded to make that also +more clear.</p> + +<p>"You don't know yet who I am now," he muttered. "I had forgotten—</p> + +<p>"I'm Farish M'Kissock, own brother to old Janet, the housekeeper here. +And I was born at Loquhariot, after my father came from Kilmarnock to +be head-keeper to the old earl. That's why I call it home, though it's +no home of mine.</p> + +<p>"I left the last half of my name behind me when I fled the country, long +years ago, at the time of Lord St. Just's death. I had a hand in that, +although I did not murder him as some said. He had done me a foul wrong, +the foulest one man may do another. It cost him his life, but—I did not +murder him. That would have been but a poor revenge in my eyes. I would +fain he had lived till this day."</p> + +<p>"And what do you propose to do now?" Slyne asked, somewhat impatiently. +He had evidently got over his first confusion.</p> + +<p>The ex-Emir regarded him meditatively for a moment or two, and then +broke into a low, mirthless laugh.</p> + +<p>"You're going to marry the Lady Josceline Justice," said he, "and you're +in a hurry. You've no time to waste on me—or on my memories of old +wrongs. Well, I don't blame you. I once had a fancy for her myself, +and—I was in just such a hurry; when my wife died in my arms as we +carried her out from my camp, to suit your convenience, Captain Dove, +and I hadn't even the time to bury my own dead wife decently before I +put off to your ship in search of—the other. If I had been in less +haste about it, I'd maybe have made better speed.</p> + +<p>"But you've managed very well for yourself, so far, Mr. Slyne. Though +you've robbed me of one who should have been mine, just as did Torquil +St. Just.</p> + +<p>"And now—if you'll wait for a minute more—I'll even matters among us; +and you'll understand the drift of my story better. You've managed very +well for yourself, so far, and you've very nearly won all you wanted. +But—here I am, just in time.</p> + +<p>"Did it ever come out how the Countess of Jura, the dancer that was, met +her death?"</p> + +<p>Slyne, listening with strained attention now, nodded swift assent. +Captain Dove, crouched low on his perch, was gazing at Farish M'Kissock +as if fascinated.</p> + +<p>"She shot herself," said the ex-Emir, with the calm certainty of one who +can vouch for his facts, "rather than fall into the hands of my men. We +had raided a camp of fool tourists who had come too far afield, to find +out what the real desert was like, and she was among them. She saw me +before she pulled trigger, and knew me, and cried on me to save her +child.</p> + +<p>"All the rest were—wiped out. But—I spared the child, because—it had +the Jura blood in its veins. It was the Lady Josceline Justice, and she +grew up among our tents until she died in my arms the same night I made +my unlucky bargain with you, Captain Dove; and I hadn't even the time to +bury her ladyship, my dead wife, decently before I put off to your +ship!"</p> + +<p>He drew a skeleton-like hand across his sunken eyes and blinked at the +blazing logs on the hearth before him.</p> + +<p>"And now you know where the real Lady Josceline Justice is," said he.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>A NEW IDEA</h3> + + +<p>"And now you know where the real Lady Josceline Justice is," said Farish +M'Kissock drearily, almost as if the savour of his overwhelming revenge +on all who had wronged him had cloyed already. "The girl you have +here—"</p> + +<p>"Never mind about her," Captain Dove interrupted hoarsely, and darted a +quick, furtive glance at Slyne, who looked very much as if he had just +been struck on the back of the head with a hammer. "What are you going +to do about it? That's all we want to hear from you."</p> + +<p>He had been scarcely less overcome by that most calamitous disclosure +than was his unhappy accomplice. And he did not doubt for a moment that +Farish M'Kissock was speaking the truth; although until then he himself +had been almost convinced that Sallie must indeed be the dead Earl of +Jura's daughter. That possibility had been proven so perfectly probable +that even the Court of Chancery had accepted it for a fact. But now—</p> + +<p>The sudden and cataclysmic collapse of all his own prospects along with +hers had spurred Captain Dove's momentarily stunned faculties into a +perfect frenzy.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do about it?" he demanded again, imperatively, +since the other was slow to answer.</p> + +<p>"I need do nothing more—to thwart your fine schemes," said Farish +M'Kissock quietly: "for—they will fail. Although it matters little to +me now who may rule here, since the last of the old brood lies dead and +unburied in Africa; and she was fond of me, too, as I was of her. 'Twas +a notable revenge that I took on <i>them</i>-all! And I think ye'll allow +that I've settled old scores handsomely with the both of you two as +well.</p> + +<p>"You might maybe murder me yet, to still my tongue, as you're thinking, +but that would end as ill for yourselves, and I'm not here for long +anyhow. There's nothing in this world or the next that will avail you +against me now, and—"</p> + +<p>His voice died away, wearily. He was gazing into the flickering flames, +brooding over his own desperate memories.</p> + +<p>"I might murder you, as you say, and in self-defence at that, Farish," +replied Captain Dove, in a tone that he was striving to make more +friendly. "But—how would it be if we went partners instead? What's the +use of cutting your nose off to spite your face? There's surely enough +here for all of us. And your share would more than make up to you for—"</p> + +<p>The gaunt wreck in the armchair beside the fire broke into a low, +mocking laugh.</p> + +<p>"It's to close my account with you that I'm here, Captain Dove," said he +implacably, "and not to open a new one."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove, his face distorted with impotent fury, darted another +devilish look at Slyne, but Slyne was still sitting motionless, staring +at the ex-Emir, like one in a trance. Captain Dove glanced again at the +stooping figure on the other side of the fireplace, set one foot firm on +the floor, and leaped at his enemy like a wild beast.</p> + +<p>Farish M'Kissock fought fiercely, with a strength surprising in one of +his enfeebled appearance, had almost succeeded, indeed, in freeing +himself from the old man's vice-like grip before Slyne at last awoke +from his lethargy and, of mechanical instinct, came to Captain Dove's +assistance. The two of them soon got him down, and then Captain Dove +lashed his wrists and ankles securely with a strong fishing-line +snatched from a rack on the wall.</p> + +<p>"This way with him now," he panted, and, drawing aside a blind panel in +the wainscot of the near wall, disclosed a low, wide opening, toward +which he pulled their prostrate prisoner by the heels. And together they +bundled the groaning body down a steep flight of dry stone steps, into +an unlighted cell at one side of the dark tunnel below.</p> + +<p>"He'll be safe enough in there," said Captain Dove vindictively, as he +held up the match he had struck while Slyne, with fumbling fingers, drew +its rusty iron outside bolt across the door of the cell. "And it will be +easy to get him down the tunnel to the water-gate, too."</p> + +<p>"Can anyone get in by the water-gate?" asked Slyne in a breathless +whisper.</p> + +<p>"I have the key in my pocket," Captain Dove answered shortly, and drew +the blind panel back into place as they regained the gun-room together.</p> + +<p>There, he made at once for the half-empty decanter upon the table. But +Slyne sat down before the fire again, with bent head, as if utterly +crushed.</p> + +<p>It was self-evident that he had come to believe implicitly in Sallie's +right to the new identity he had bestowed upon her, had never doubted +that the proofs on which that belief had been based were anything but +genuine. He could scarcely doubt now that Captain Dove had hoodwinked +him from first to last, that Farish M'Kissock's story was the real truth +of the matter. And, thus in a moment confronted with the ruinous outcome +of his credulity, he could not yet bring his mind to bear on anything +but the utter eclipse of all his own golden dreams.</p> + +<p>"And so—that fellow Carthew will be Earl of Jura," he said suddenly, +and looked up at Captain Dove with a hell of hate aflame behind his dull +eyes. "And you've been lying to me all along," he said, in a still, +dispassionate voice.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove, back in his own chair, better pleased with himself, paused +to consider before replying. He had been investigating the pantry and +found out how Farish M'Kissock had come there.</p> + +<p>"You're wrong, both times," he at length remarked. "I've told you +nothing that wasn't the truth. All I've said about Sallie, I can prove +up to the hilt. And, anyhow, you've been managing the whole business. +You've told me often enough not to butt in! You can't blame <i>me</i> for any +mistake that's been made.</p> + +<p>"And, what's more," he went on, marshalling his ideas, "it remains to be +proved that there <i>has</i> been any mistake. You're surely not going to +take the mere word of a fellow like Farish for that—a mutinous second +mate I had to maroon to get rid of him. Anyhow, if you're going to lie +down and die at his orders, I'm not. D'ye see?"</p> + +<p>Slyne drew a shaky hand across a damp forehead. He was obviously all +unstrung.</p> + +<p>"You didn't cast any doubt on his story," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"There was no need," declared Captain Dove. "Let him disprove yours +first. It was you who discovered who Sallie should be. I had no idea +whose daughter she was—and neither had she. You and Jobling it was who +put two and two together and made out four. I don't believe +Farish—M'Kissock, as he calls himself now—could better that."</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe what he said?" asked Slyne.</p> + +<p>"Not me," lied Captain Dove. "The man's mad, that's what's the matter +with him. He's probably made the whole thing up, just to get even with +us, and knowing that we could do little more than contradict it. But—he +didn't know that we have the Chancery Court behind us now. And that +makes all the difference. We've won—and he's lost. D'ye see?</p> + +<p>"I was scared at first, I'll admit—when he walked in. It was that +infernal 'white lady' tale of yours that upset me. But—<i>you</i> don't +believe in ghosts! What's wrong with you is sheer funk."</p> + +<p>But even that insult seemed to have no immediate effect on Slyne, and +Captain Dove got up, growling.</p> + +<p>"Here," said he. "Drink this down—and try if you can't muster even a +little Dutch courage."</p> + +<p>Slyne swallowed, still without a word in retort, the dose of spirit +which the old man had poured out for him; and that seemed to restore a +little his crippled self-confidence. Some faint spark of hope that all +might not yet be lost seemed to have sprung up in his heavy heart. His +benumbed brain was apparently beginning to work again. He sat up, with +an effort.</p> + +<p>"But—how are we to carry on here?" he asked, in a tone which told how +very feeble his faith was. "If any such story gets to the ears of—"</p> + +<p>"It will get no farther than it has gone," declared Captain Dove with +assured emphasis. "If Farish hasn't told that old hag of a sister of his +yet, it stays between you and me. We'll make sure of her silence—and +his. That will be easy enough."</p> + +<p>Slyne sank back into his chair again, and scowled. He did not affect to +misunderstand his companion's sinister promptings.</p> + +<p>"Will you undertake to look after them, then?" he stipulated, with dire +distaste, after further consideration.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove in his turn took time to cogitate over that selfish +suggestion. He had no intention whatever of helping Slyne at his own +hazard. On the contrary, he had already made up his mind to get rid of +Slyne at the same time as the other two. But, of course, it was only +politic to pretend a little reluctance.</p> + +<p>"All right," he agreed at length. "I'll look after them. But you must +lend me a hand, if it's necessary. There's no one else I can trust, and +we're both in the same boat now. You must lend me a hand, if it's +necessary."</p> + +<p>"And what about Carthew?" Slyne demanded, recovering himself by degrees +under the old man's most matter of fact example. "If he should get any +inkling—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't <i>make</i> difficulties!" growled Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>"What's to hinder our settling his hash the same way as the others? +There are only the three of them in our way. We'll make a clean sweep. +We'll get him up here—we'll send him word that Sallie would like to see +him, and—the rest will be easy."</p> + +<p>"But, good God!" cried Slyne, "how are you going to account for their +disappearance? It's madness—"</p> + +<p>"Farish is mad, all right," said Captain Dove reflectively. "Which will +account for whatever happens to him and his precious sister. If they +were both found with broken necks at the foot of this infernal rock, +who's going to make us responsible? And, as for that fellow Carthew, if +we can't explain away his disappearance we'll deserve to lose +everything, Slyne.</p> + +<p>"Damn it, man! What are you afraid of! Are you going to throw up the +sponge just before the fight's won!"</p> + +<p>"If we <i>were</i> once clear of the three of them, that would leave us +perfectly safe," said Slyne, in a voice that was not very steady. "But +what if Mrs. M'Kissock knows already—"</p> + +<p>"We'll ring for her now and find out," answered Captain Dove with savage +decision. "If she seems to know more than she should—she can keep her +infernal brother company until Brasse comes ashore."</p> + +<p>He rose, and had almost reached the bell-push beside the mantel when the +door opened and the Marquis of Ingoldsby walked into the room, looking +much less imbecile and more of a man in his splashed breeches and boots +and spurs.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove glared at him.</p> + +<p>"Howdy do, Captain Dubb," said his lordship, politely, after peering +through his eye-glass at Slyne. "Glad to see you again. Lady Josceline +told me I would probably find you here, and—I want to talk to +you—about her."</p> + +<p>He let his eye-glass drop and helped himself to a brandy and soda. Slyne +was staring at him. Captain Dove was dumb.</p> + +<p>"I've just been askin' her to marry me," his lordship remarked, after +slaking his thirst. And, as he paused to light a cigarette, "The devil +you have!" exclaimed Captain Dove, considering that idea.</p> + +<p>"She said she couldn't," Lord Ingoldsby mentioned, straddling across the +hearth-rug, his hands on his hips, disregarding Slyne's presence +entirely now. "But—she wouldn't tell me why. And I thought I'd ask you, +don't y'know. So far as I can understand, you're her nearest livin' +relative—her stepfather, or godfather, or somethin' of that sort, what? +And I thought that maybe you wouldn't mind talkin' over the matter with +me."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove scratched his head. He could see that Slyne was watching +him very closely. It had no doubt flashed through Slyne's mind as +through his own that here was a providential by-path of escape, for him +at least, from his present predicament; that, if all else went askew, +Sallie might prove profitable enough, to him at least, as the +Marchioness of Ingoldsby. For had not Mr. Jobling stated that the young +man before the fire was one of the wealthiest peers in England or +elsewhere.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to over-hurry her, y'know," said the noble marquis, "and, +maybe, I've been a bit sudden. But I've been huntin' high and low for +her ever since I last saw her, and—here I am, don't y'know. So I +thought I'd ask her."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you hear me tell you in Monte Carlo that Lady Josceline is +engaged to marry me?" Slyne broke in, with a sudden access of anger, +since Captain Dove still seemed to have nothing to say.</p> + +<p>"That's so," said Captain Dove slowly. "She's engaged to this +gentleman—on conditions."</p> + +<p>Lord Ingoldsby screwed his eye-glass into his face and gravely regarded +Slyne again.</p> + +<p>"But she's not married to him yet," said he. "And—it's a woman's +privilege to change her mind. Besides, if her engagement is only +conditional—"</p> + +<p>"We needn't discuss it just now," Captain Dove put in with unusual +diplomacy. He could see that Slyne was liable to explode dangerously at +any moment.</p> + +<p>"All right, then," said Lord Ingoldsby in a tone of great determination. +"I'll just have to do the best I can for myself." And, having finished +his light refreshment, he strolled off again, taking not the slightest +notice of Slyne's very obvious indignation.</p> + +<p>As soon as he was safely out of earshot, Slyne fell foul of Captain +Dove, who listened patiently enough to all he had to say.</p> + +<p>"But I'm <i>not</i> interfering," said the old man. "All that sort of thing +lies between you and her, Slyne. If you can get her to marry you right +away—"</p> + +<p>"Of course I can—if you back me up," Slyne declared wrathfully. "And +you've got to do that now, Dove—for your own sake. We're both in the +same boat, remember,—and if it upsets, we'll both drown. I'll make +quite sure of that.</p> + +<p>"So—we'll get hold of Sallie now before the thing goes any further—and +settle that question for good."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>BY RIGHT OF PURCHASE</h3> + + +<p>Sallie had been far too happily occupied since she had come to +Loquhariot to have been conscious of the wheels within wheels revolving +about her there.</p> + +<p>She could scarcely at once accustom herself to look upon the great, +grey, age-old castle as her home; but there was Janet M'Kissock always +eager to help her in that respect, with endless stories of bygone days +which made the place seem always more familiar and friendly to her. She +grew, by degrees, to know and love it almost as if she had lived there +all her life.</p> + +<p>It was much more difficult to grasp the idea that the whole of the +beautiful white world beyond its windows was also hers, and hers alone; +from the rugged, snow-clad mountains towering behind and on either hand, +even to the Small Isles, like bergs in the sun amid the smoking seas in +that turbulent weather. But Slyne missed no opportunity to impress that +important fact upon her. And she was finding it always easier to forget +her unhappy past, to enjoy the marvellous present and the most +inspiriting part in it, to leave the over-difficult future to evolve +itself.</p> + +<p>The men and women about the place were all devoted to her. She had very +soon won the staunch good-will of the cottagers at the cliff-foot. And +her soft sway was everywhere undisputed, although Slyne had at first +been inclined to contest it himself. But he soon seemed to realise that +it would be best, in the meantime, to order events from the background +and in her voice.</p> + +<p>He had shown some disposition, too, to question the extent of the +liberty she might now assume to herself. But he had not pressed that +point unduly either, and they continued on that footing of pleasant +comradeship which he had been at such ceaseless pains to promote. His +debonair courtesy to her, his easy deference to most of her wishes, were +very different indeed from his off-hand manner of former days. And she +could not but be grateful to him, in the meantime, for the almost +over-ample fulfilment of his original promise.</p> + +<p>Regarding her pledge to him, he had said nothing more, although she +spent long afternoons and evenings in his company when the weather was +at its worst, while Mr. Jobling was away. Captain Dove left the two of +them very much to themselves, and Slyne had offered to teach her to play +billiards, to pass the time.</p> + +<p>She would have been entirely content, indeed, but for the hardship her +coming had entailed on Justin Carthew. She had met him more than once +out of doors, and he had always seemed pleased to see her, but—it was +of common report that he was a poor man, and she could not help feeling +that he had shown himself very much more generous to her than she to +him. She found comfort, however, in the conclusion that circumstances +were quite beyond her control, and that he would understand better by +and by the complications through which she had had to find her way as +best she could.</p> + +<p>She had gone down to the village on the afternoon when the <i>Olive +Branch</i> arrived in the loch, and she walked back as far as the castle +with Carthew. The reappearance of that ill-omened craft had alarmed her +more than a little, and she could see that Carthew was becoming always +more sorely puzzled. But he had promised her to await events without +question for three short months; and he was keeping his promise loyally. +She could have told him nothing, in any case.</p> + +<p>She met Slyne in the hall, on her way indoors, and he reassured her as +to her perfect safety from any further risk of evil-doing by Captain +Dove. He pointed out, too, that the steamer's crew was too scanty now to +cope with the force he could call to her aid from the village in case +the old man should attempt to make any mischief, which was most +unlikely. And she went on to her own cosy quarters, quite content again.</p> + +<p>She was changing her outdoor dress for one of her pretty Parisian +tea-gowns, when word was brought her that the Duchess of Dawn and Lord +Ingoldsby had come across the mountains to pay her a call.</p> + +<p>She remembered Lord Ingoldsby, and wondered what could have brought him +to Loquhariot. The idea of entertaining a duchess dismayed her a little; +she had no notion at all what the conventions called for under +circumstances so unusual in her own experience—although Slyne had been +at some pains to explain a number of other conventions to her. But she +went along to the blue drawing-room at once, and was relieved to find +Slyne there before her, unconcernedly chatting with a very beautiful +young woman in a sadly splashed habit, her back to the fire, booted feet +a little apart, hunting-crop in clasped hands, laughter in her clear +eyes; while Lord Ingoldsby, looking much less imbecile and more of a +man in his travel-soiled riding-kit, stood listening gloomily.</p> + +<p>His face cleared at sight of Sallie, however. "Here's Lady Josceline, +Aunt Jane," he cried, and the duchess, after a single swift, appraising +glance at her, came forward with outstretched hands and kissed her +without any more ado.</p> + +<p>"Oh! my dear," said the duchess impulsively, "you can't imagine what a +relief you are. Ingoldsby has been simply raving about you, and—I was +so anxious, don't you know. But I don't blame him now.</p> + +<p>"I've seen you before, too—one night at the Savoy. If I had only known +then who you were—But some one said you were a Miss Harris! You've kept +it all such a close secret! We wouldn't have known even now if we hadn't +heard, quite by chance, that the beacon had been lighted one night. And +we've been wondering ever since—So you must tell me all about +everything now, if you will." And she drew Sallie down beside her on a +low couch at one side of the white marble fireplace, leaving the two men +to their own devices while she went on to explain herself no less +volubly.</p> + +<p>"It was madness, of course, to cross the Pass in weather like this, +but—Ingoldsby would give me no peace; and I've been so curious myself +to find out who could be here. I'm your nearest neighbour, you know, +although Castle Dawn is ten miles away; those are worse than twenty +anywhere else. So, when the rain stopped this forenoon we set out—and +here we are, covered with mud! The road's in a dreadful state, but you +must come over and stay with me as soon as the bridges are mended. We're +going to be great friends. I knew your father—although I'm not quite so +old as you might imagine from that, for I wasn't out of short +petticoats the last time he spoke to me. And, as for being the aunt of +that scapegrace there, he's five years older than I am in years—and +fifty in—"</p> + +<p>"Don't be too rough on a fellah, Aunt Jane!" interrupted her noble +nephew, who had been regarding Sallie with fixed vacuity through his +eye-glass. "An' don't you believe all you hear about me, Lady Josceline: +I'm not so black as I'm painted, at any rate."</p> + +<p>"He's been simply raving about you," the duchess declared again, in a +laughing whisper. "I couldn't imagine what had brought him down to Dawn +in midwinter, until he confided in me that he had been searching the +wide world for you ever since he met you first: and he imagined that you +might, after all, be here, at home."</p> + +<p>She had a great many questions to ask Sallie then, questions which +Sallie, in such a situation, might have found it very difficult to +answer but for Jasper Slyne's sharp ears and tactful tongue. And the +duchess was not slow to understand.</p> + +<p>"Of course you can't confide in me yet," she declared laughingly. "But +some day you must tell me all your adventures. Your home-coming after +all these years will make a nine days' wonder once the papers get to +hear of it."</p> + +<p>A servant came in to light the lamps, and Slyne sauntered to a window +before the curtains were drawn.</p> + +<p>"It's snowing again, Ingoldsby," said he. "You won't get back to Dawn +to-night."</p> + +<p>The duchess looked a little alarmed, but was soon laughing again.</p> + +<p>"All right," she agreed, in response to Sallie's prompt proffer of +hospitality. "I'll be most happy to stay over-night—and so will +Ingoldsby, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"I'll go and let Mrs. M'Kissock know," Slyne volunteered. "Will you look +into the gun-room when you pass, Lady Josceline?"</p> + +<p>"Is old Janet still here?" the duchess asked as he left the room. "I +must have a chat with her. She and I used to be great friends +before—when Torquil St. Just was still alive and my mother would bring +me over to Loquhariot when she came to call on yours. I was Jane +Gairloch in those days."</p> + +<p>Lord Ingoldsby sat listening very patiently for a time while they talked +to each other, and then he became possessed by a strangled cough—to +which the duchess paid no attention.</p> + +<p>"You might give a fellah a chance, Aunt Jane," he at length suggested +desperately, and she rose from the couch with a most penitent +expression.</p> + +<p>"Bless my heart, child!" she said. "I had almost forgotten—But—I'll go +and talk to old Janet now." And she disappeared without other apology.</p> + +<p>Sallie looked surprised. But Lord Ingoldsby, having cleared his throat +again, claimed her attention.</p> + +<p>"You've no idea, Lady Josceline," he said hurriedly, "what a deuce of a +bât I've been in for nearly a fortnight. I was afraid I'd never find you +again. And, now that I've found you, don't y'know, what I want to say to +you is—It's very difficult to express—But I mean—What I'm trying to +tell you is that I thought we might maybe make a match of it. Will you +marry me, Lady Josceline?"</p> + +<p>Sallie looked still more surprised. But she was not slow in answering +such a preposterous question.</p> + +<p>"I can't," she said, concisely.</p> + +<p>"But why not?" he cried. "For heaven's sake! don't go so fast. Give me +time to—"</p> + +<p>"Time couldn't make any difference," she said, seeing that he was very +much in earnest. "I can't—"</p> + +<p>"But—why not?" he insisted. "Is—is there some one else already? It's +not that fellah I met in Monte Carlo with you, I'm sure; he's such a +rank outsider—you <i>couldn't</i> care for him, I'm sure. And why not give +me just a chance to show you—</p> + +<p>"There's nothing I wouldn't do for you, Lady Josceline. Give me just a +chance."</p> + +<p>"I can't," she repeated for the third time, and he stared at her as if +in abject despair.</p> + +<p>"Why can't you?" he demanded in a difficult, husky voice.</p> + +<p>She could scarcely answer that question, a question which he had no +right to ask. But—she felt sorry for him in his very obvious +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"If you care to ask Captain Dove, perhaps he will tell you," she said, +unable to think of any other safe way out of that difficulty, and not +caring very much what Captain Dove might say.</p> + +<p>But Lord Ingoldsby was not so easily to be got rid of. He stayed where +he was, arguing and imploring by turns until his youthful aunt appeared +again, looking somewhat serious; she seemed to take in the situation +between them at a shrewd glance.</p> + +<p>He left the room then for a little, and when he returned Sallie and the +duchess were on the point of retiring.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to have a hot bath and a rest before dinner, Ingoldsby," his +aunt informed him.</p> + +<p>"Your rooms will be ready now, too," Sallie added, unwilling to be left +alone there with him again. And he went off, very glumly, under convoy +of a servant, toward the bachelor apartments in the Warder's Tower.</p> + +<p>Sallie saw the duchess settled in the suite which had been prepared for +her, and having provided her with a plentiful choice of evening frocks, +went on to the gun-room, to see what Slyne wanted with her.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove and he were seated on either side of the fireplace, and +looked round rather uncertainly as she came into the room.</p> + +<p>"I've made the duchess quite comfortable, Jasper," she said with a +smile, "and she's been exceedingly nice to me. I hope you'll look as +well after Lord Ingoldsby."</p> + +<p>"I've told them to give him the run of my wardrobe," Slyne answered +indifferently. "So he'll be all right.</p> + +<p>"And—what I wanted to say to you, Sallie, is that—I've just heard—All +my hard work for you has been successful at last," he stammered, in a +changed voice. "The claim I made for you has been allowed by the law. +We're all going up to London to-morrow to get matters finally settled, +and then—you'll be Countess of Jura in your own right."</p> + +<p>He paused, effectively. Captain Dove was glancing from one to the other +of them with judicial gravity.</p> + +<p>"So that you can keep your promise to me now, without any further +delay," said Slyne. "I want you to tell the others at dinner +to-night—that you've chosen me for your husband."</p> + +<p>The happy light in her eyes died out instantly. A faint frown furrowed +her smooth white forehead. Her curved lips trembled a little. The old +unhappiness and dread were plucking at her heart again. But she did not +shirk the issue.</p> + +<p>"But you agreed to wait—for three months, Jasper," she said in a low, +pleading voice.</p> + +<p>"That was only in case it took so long to fix things up for you," he +lied easily. "Our signed agreement makes that quite clear, and it's +absolutely binding, you know. Mr. Jobling will tell you that—and he's a +lawyer."</p> + +<p>She was gazing at him with something very like horror in her wide eyes.</p> + +<p>"Was that in the paper I signed?" she asked breathlessly. But her lips +had grown set and resolute. "I thought—"</p> + +<p>"You must have misunderstood me, then," Slyne interrupted with assumed +impatience. "But—you signed it of your own free will, before +responsible witnesses. I've kept my part of our bargain; and now—you +must keep yours, or the law will make you."</p> + +<p>Her heart was beating almost painfully. To her, in her ignorance, the +law was merely an instrument of injustice. She believed herself to be +bound without hope of release by the document she had signed, and that +the same inexorable law which had, only the other day, ruined Justin +Carthew to raise her up in his place, would now force her to abide by +whatever was written above her disastrous signature. The whole fair +fabric of that wonderful new world to which she had so recently gained +admittance had in these minutes come tumbling about her ears. And the +crash of its falling palaces left her helpless and stupefied. She looked +dizzily round at Captain Dove. But his features were quite unreadable.</p> + +<p>"There's another point, Sallie," said Slyne, all his quick wits at work +again as he saw the impression his words had made, determined to hammer +home every argument that might weigh with her in her ignorance, +"another point that I'd never have mentioned if you had been prepared to +deal fairly with me after all I've done for you."</p> + +<p>She shivered at that further thrust; she, who had never dealt unfairly +with either friend or enemy.</p> + +<p>"Even without your promise, you're mine—by right of purchase. You were +Captain Dove's property before, as you know very well. He bought you and +paid for you. And he sold you to me, to save you from a worse master.</p> + +<p>"You can't say now that you didn't know what was ahead of you, for I +told you, in Genoa. And I gave you a last chance, too, before we left +Monte Carlo, to draw back and go your own way with him. Now you're +doubly mine. Ask him, if you don't believe me."</p> + +<p>The girl glanced in agonised appeal at the old man sitting motionless in +his chair, his eyes on the ground. But Captain Dove merely nodded, like +some mechanical figure.</p> + +<p>Slyne scowled, as if at an end of his patience, and, striding across to +the door, locked it, pocketing the key.</p> + +<p>"However," said he, "I'm not going to argue with you. I've evidently +wasted my time in treating you reasonably. Now, there are only two +courses open to you. You can come my way, with me, or—"</p> + +<p>He crossed the room again and pulled back the loose panel in the +wainscot, pointed to the dark cavity it had concealed.</p> + +<p>"There's a boat from the <i>Olive Branch</i> at the water-gate at the end of +this passage. You're perfectly free to go back on board with Captain +Dove, and—if you do, I wish you joy of your choice. I'm maybe not much +of a catch as a husband, but—" He left the inference unspoken, +significantly, daring her to go back to that dreadful fate by hinting +at which he had once before forced her to change her mind.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove got on to his feet with a puzzled scowl. Slyne had turned +aside, to light a couple of candles, as if in preparation for a descent +underground.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove slowly drew the back of one hand across his mouth and from +behind it whispered a few words to Sallie. "Humour him just now," he +advised with suppressed vehemence. "I'll see you safe."</p> + +<p>"Well?" Slyne demanded and came toward her. "Which is it to be? Time's +up."</p> + +<p>His hands hung open but tense at his sides. His teeth were set between +parted lips, his knees bent a little as he braced himself to spring at +her wrists before she could make any movement in self-defence. Captain +Dove had stepped up behind her and she did not doubt that, unless she +fell in with their wishes, they meant now to overpower her and carry her +off.</p> + +<p>She did not move for a moment, but her clouded eyes slowly cleared, and +Slyne, studying her features intently, relaxed his own strained attitude +a little as if in fore-knowledge of final success.</p> + +<p>Sallie's expression of utter despair had given place to one of +resignation, almost of peace. She had made up her mind to have done with +the seemingly endless, unequal struggle.</p> + +<p>"Very well, Jasper," she said slowly at last, in a very hurtful voice. +"You may tell the others—whatever you like—at dinner to-night, if +you'll wait till then."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove drew back and returned to his chair, as if satisfied for +the moment. Slyne's dogged glance had dropped before the tragedy in her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"You can surely trust me, Sallie," he said, "after all I've done for +you. And, listen! I'm not trying to rush you, either. If you'll tell the +others at dinner to-night just that you take me for your husband—I'll +wait till the end of the three months for our real wedding in church."</p> + +<p>She could not quite understand what he really wanted, and looked her +perplexity. But her mind was made up. She meant to keep any promise she +might have made him, whether in writing or otherwise, and even +mistakenly.</p> + +<p>"Will you let me go now?" she begged brokenly, and he went to open the +door for her.</p> + +<p>"You'll say nothing about it to anyone till—the time comes," he +stipulated before he would turn the key, and to that also she agreed +with a nod, not trusting herself to speak.</p> + +<p>She was very thankful that she met no one on her way to her own rooms, +for her eyes were wet. She had never felt so utterly forlorn and +friendless as now. There was no one in whom she might safely confide, no +one who could help her safely past the promise into which she had been +tricked, that promise to which, she did not doubt, the law would hold +her firmly. And, in any case, she could not have gone back on board the +<i>Olive Branch</i>—to a fate even worse.</p> + +<p>Ambrizette was awaiting her, to dress her for dinner, but, on a sudden +impulse, she sat down at the escritoire in her boudoir to write a few +hurried lines to Carthew. She thought she would like to see him again, +before—</p> + +<p>Her letter ready, she bade Ambrizette ring the bell. It was the maid +Mairi who answered it, and, when Sallie looked up again, she saw that +the girl was silently crying.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Mairi?" she asked in her gentle voice, forgetting +her own cruel cares for the moment, and at that the half-hysterical +maid broke into a storm of unintelligible explanations in Gaelic, with +here and there a broken sentence that Sallie could understand.</p> + +<p>Her heavy-hearted mistress rose and put a protecting arm about her.</p> + +<p>"You must tell me what the trouble is," said Sallie softly, "and I'll +try to help you. What is it that has gone wrong?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Ochon—ochon—ochanorie!</i>" the girl sobbed. "It is for your +ladyship—not for me—and I was not to tell you, whatever. But—it is +not right at all that I must not speak. Your ladyship should be told in +time—it is that the White Lady has come to the castle again—and—there +will be doom to follow before daylight. <i>Ochon, ochon!</i>"</p> + +<p>Sallie shivered in spite of herself, as she recalled the uncanny legend +which Mr. Jobling had related on the evening of their arrival. She had +scarcely thought of it since, but now—</p> + +<p>"Who has seen the White Lady, Mairi?" she asked patiently, and the girl +grew a little calmer.</p> + +<p>"I, with my own eyes, your ladyship," she declared. "It was at a turn of +the passage not far from Mistress M'Kissock's room. And I did not run +from it, moreover. I stood and watched till it disappeared, for I was +afraid to move. And Mistress M'Kissock will say that it is all havers +and nonsense, but I am sure. For it was seen in the woods as well, on +the way to the hut that was Lord St. Just's, and Donuil Mohr, the +forester, it was who saw it there."</p> + +<p>Sallie sighed. She did not know what to think of it all, she who had so +much else to think about. But she comforted the distressed Mairi, and +presently sent her off on her errand, dry-eyed at last, and with word +for the other servants that her ladyship was not in the least afraid of +any such shadow seen in the dusk.</p> + +<p>Sallie had almost forgotten the matter, indeed, before Ambrizette—much +exercised in her mind by her beloved mistress's very evident and unusual +preoccupation—had finished brushing out her beautiful hair and heaped +it about her bent head in a heavy red-gold crown. When her toilette was +quite complete, she looked wistfully round the luxurious rooms in which +she had dreamed such happy dreams, and then went quietly through, a +tall, slender, white-robed figure herself in the firelight, to one of +the windows that look down Loch Jura and out to sea. She stopped there, +and stayed for a time gazing out at the silver sheen of the ripple among +which the Small Isles were set. The snow had ceased for the moment, but +it looked as if there were more to come.</p> + +<p>She looked directly downward, at the quiet village below. There was only +a single light visible, and that at the inn. It was suddenly +extinguished and Sallie turned away from the window.</p> + +<p>"I wonder—I think he will come," she told herself, if a little +doubtfully, as she passed through her boudoir again on her way to rejoin +her guests; she paused for an instant to throw two warm, white arms +about Ambrizette watching her as she went, out of dog-like eyes with a +world of dumb devotion in them.</p> + +<p>"I think he will come," she encouraged herself as she entered the +distant drawing-room. "He promised—</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Herries!"</p> + +<p>She had stopped, a little startled, at sight of the solitary figure +before the fire. But it was none other than the old factor, a very +cadaverous spectacle in evening clothes much too ample for one so +emaciated, who came forward with a hasty apology for his intrusion.</p> + +<p>"I'm quite well again now," he assured her, in reply to her anxious +questions, "and—I thought I would risk taking the liberty—if you will +grant me permission to sit at table with you to-night. I always had that +privilege with the earl."</p> + +<p>Sallie thought she knew his real reason for being there, and it touched +her sore heart to think that he was so eager to be at her side, sick or +well, while the strange portent of which Mairi had told her was still +impending.</p> + +<p>"Do you really believe in the White Lady, Mr. Herries?" she asked with a +little laugh that was half a sigh, as she put her hands into his and so +set him down on a chair.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't exactly say either yes or no," the old man answered with +native caution. "But, at any rate, I've never seen—any such nonsense +myself."</p> + +<p>"I don't," declared Sallie, with simple conviction, and, turning as some +one else entered the room, "He <i>will</i> come," said she to herself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>THE WHITE LADY</h3> + + +<p>As Carthew, at the brink of the smooth plateau before the hut on the +cliffs looked round instinctively, he caught sight of a tall white +shadow that seemed to be moving toward him through the gloom among the +tree-trunks. The evening was drawing in. He had thought he was quite +alone there. He went round outside the hut to see what that stealthy +shape might be.</p> + +<p>He heard a sudden rustling not far away, and saw Captain Dove spring up +from behind a bush to gaze about apprehensively. It flashed across his +mind that Captain Dove must have been dogging him. He stayed where he +was, watching the old man's precipitate flight followed by the figure in +cloak and hood, which had darted a horrified, disbelieving glance of +recognition at himself as it passed but was evidently too intent on its +pursuit to pause.</p> + +<p>Carthew had recognised it too, although it passed his understanding +altogether to conceive how his own old enemy could have come to +Loquhariot. He was, indeed, so taken aback at sight of the Emir El +Farish there, and in such a state, that it was some minutes later before +he had recovered his wits sufficiently to follow the trail of the +strange chase he had witnessed.</p> + +<p>He was too late then, and it was already dark. But he ranged the woods +for some time before he would give up his anxious quest. He felt very +much inclined to call at the castle and come to some understanding with +Captain Dove. But—his promise to Sallie prevented him. He must keep +that at all costs. Until the three months' grace she had begged should +be up, he must continue to possess his soul in patience—or otherwise.</p> + +<p>But now—that would be even more difficult than it had lately become. +For, until now, he had quietly acquiesced in all that had happened +because he could not help either her or himself. But now—the proof he +had lacked could be obtained—from El Farish; proof that Sallie was +usurping a dead woman's name and place.</p> + +<p>He walked down the hill to the inn with his chin on his chest, wondering +what the upshot would be if he should take Sallie herself into his +confidence. But he was afraid to do that. He felt almost sure that, if +she found out from him how she herself had been imposed upon, he might +forthwith give up his dearest hope.</p> + +<p>On the little green board in the hallway of the Jura Arms, he found two +letters awaiting him. The steamer which had arrived that afternoon had +evidently brought a belated mail. He noticed incuriously that his two +correspondents were Messrs. Bolder & Bolder, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, +London, W.C., and the Western lawyer who had arranged the mortgage of +his ranch. Then he laid the letters aside and sat down on the edge of +his truckle-bed with a pipe.</p> + +<p>A little later the maid-of-all-work knocked at his door with a note from +the castle. He opened it and read it at once. Then he called after her +to order a conveyance for him, and began to hunt out his evening clothes +in a hurry. He had only half an hour in which to change and get to the +castle again. He was going to dine there, with Sallie—who signed her +name as Josceline Justice.</p> + +<p>All the previous timid invitations which she had extended to him when he +had chanced to meet her out of doors he had refused. But to-night he +felt that it might be unwise to absent himself—some premonition of +trouble impending caused him to frown at himself in his glass as he +hastily patted a white tie into its place.</p> + +<p>He paused to open his mail before leaving his room. The first letter +briefly begged to inform him that the mortgage on his ranch had not been +met on the due date and, failing an immediate remittance, must be called +in with all costs. The second told him no less concisely that Sallie's +claim to his title and inheritance had, to all intents and purposes, +been recognised and admitted as valid by the Court of Chancery, +expressed Messrs. Bolder & Bolder's polite regrets over the +disappointment which that could not but occasion him, and served to +enclose a small account of theirs against him, still outstanding. He put +them both in the fire and hurried downstairs.</p> + +<p>He was a little late in reaching the castle, but found the company still +in the drawing-room; and, as Sallie came forward to greet him, a little +look of belated contentment crept into her tired eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you were able to come," was all she said in answer to his +apologies, and turned to present him to the Duchess of Dawn, with whom +Slyne was chatting, two very aristocratic figures, the young duchess a +ravishing picture in one of Sallie's Parisian gowns, Slyne elegant as +always in evening clothes.</p> + +<p>Lord Ingoldsby, less perfectly fitted and with more than one crease in +his white waistcoat, nodded indifferently to Carthew and intercepted +Sallie as she introduced the young American to him. So Carthew turned to +congratulate Mr. Herries on his recovery. Captain Dove and Mr. Jobling +had carefully avoided his eyes. That had been a somewhat awkward moment +for all of them, and Carthew, although his own conscience was clear as +regarded the other men, was glad that dinner was promptly announced.</p> + +<p>That was the first time he had seen the banquet-hall under such +conditions, and he blinked at the vista displayed as the big double +doors were drawn apart.</p> + +<p>The dinner-table in the distance was ablaze under its branching +candelabra, in each of which were burning numberless wicks under silken +shades. The silver girandoles above the butler's buffet beyond it were +no less dazzling, while everywhere else a warm dusk deepened into almost +absolute darkness wherever the glow from the still log-fires could not +penetrate.</p> + +<p>The table appointments seemed to be the most splendid the castle could +boast. Carthew could catch the dull glint of gold plate on the buffet. +Eight heavy, high-backed chairs of black carved oak were set about the +white oasis that the table made on the dark floor. Behind each stood a +silent footman, tartan-kilted, tanned of face above a spacious white +shirt-front which showed off an old-fashioned doublet handsomely.</p> + +<p>Slyne was leading the Duchess of Dawn to her seat. Lord Ingoldsby had +Sallie upon his arm: and Mr. Jobling hovered close at her other +shoulder. She sat down between them, with his sullen lordship on her +right facing the effusive lawyer. And Carthew, following, noticed that +she looked round once or twice in his own direction. Captain Dove, a +queer-looking figure, had seated himself at Slyne's side, opposite the +duchess, and Herries took the chair between him and Lord Ingoldsby, +leaving Carthew next the duchess.</p> + +<p>The piper made his appearance according to the time-honoured tradition, +and marched twice round the table while the oaken rafters overhead rang +to the dirl of the dance he drew from his chanter. It was undoubtedly a +picturesque if somewhat deafening preliminary to dinner, thought +Carthew, looking on much interested at the ceremonial which should have +been his prerogative instead of Sallie's. And, as the man withdrew to +the inner corridor, Carthew encountered Captain Dove's furtive glance.</p> + +<p>But it fell instantly, and the old man went on contemplatively crumbling +the roll before him. He seemed to be in a somewhat somnolent mood. It +occurred to Carthew that he must have been drinking a good deal before +dinner.</p> + +<p>A brisk conversation had been begun at Sallie's end of the table, where +Mr. Jobling and Lord Ingoldsby were both talking to her at once. Slyne +was entertaining the duchess. Carthew exchanged a casual remark or two +across the table with Herries and then was drawn into a laughing +discussion with the duchess, in which Slyne also took part, suave but by +no means friendly toward Carthew. And so course of the stately dinner +succeeded course.</p> + +<p>More than once, Carthew wished that it were well over. There seemed to +be something in the air that affected his nerves unpleasantly. His eyes +were always meeting Sallie's—and it seemed to him that it was costing +her also no little effort to maintain any interest in the trivialities +of the table.</p> + +<p>He felt sure that both Captain Dove and Slyne had some secret on their +minds. But whether that affected her and him he had no means of finding +out. The coming of El Farish had further complicated a situation already +complicated almost beyond his mental powers. He felt quite impotent to +cope with it, under the added handicap of his promise to Sallie. He felt +as though his promise in some sense made him a party to the unspeakably +cruel deception which must have been practised on her, and that she +might perhaps be justified in blaming him when she should find out—as +she surely must—that her presence there was no more than part of a +fraudulent masquerade. He was afraid to think how she might deal with +him on that score when he should offer her, as he intended to do +whenever he should find himself free to speak, himself—and his earldom, +for what that was worth.</p> + +<p>It suddenly occurred to him that he might find out something concerning +El Farish from Captain Dove. All the others but Herries and he were +busy. Carthew spoke to Herries across the table.</p> + +<p>"I had a queer adventure this afternoon," he said, "at the hut on the +cliffs near the head of the loch."</p> + +<p>The old factor nodded. "That was Lord St. Just's workshop, Mr. Carthew," +he mentioned.</p> + +<p>"Well, I went up there to see how the timber had stood the storm, as you +told me. And, just before turning into the woods, I took a notion to see +what was over the edge—it seemed to me that a good stout railing was +badly wanted there."</p> + +<p>Herries nodded again. "That's so," he assented, lowering his voice. +"It's a very dangerous spot. That was where Lord St. Just lost his life. +But now—no one ever goes near the hut."</p> + +<p>Carthew glanced at Captain Dove. But the old man's eyes were quite +unreadable behind his smoked glasses. He was listening indifferently.</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine," Carthew went on, "what it was that suddenly made me +look round, but I did. And I caught a glimpse of a most uncanny figure +watching me from among the undergrowth about the trees behind. It was +all in white, with a hood pulled over its head."</p> + +<p>A lull in the conversation elsewhere left only his voice audible. The +attention of the others had been attracted, and even the soft-footed +servants seemed to be hanging upon his words. Sallie looked surprised, +puzzled, even a little afraid. Captain Dove's features spoke a gnawing +anxiety now. Slyne's close-set, unfriendly eyes were fixed intently upon +him.</p> + +<p>"That gave me a cold scare," Carthew continued, almost inclined to wish +that he had not mentioned the matter at all. "I'm not quite acclimatised +yet to such apparitions. So I dodged behind the hut for shelter and to +get a better look at it. But it made off again, almost immediately, in +the direction of the castle.</p> + +<p>"I chased after it in a minute or two—but I was too late. It had +disappeared. And I've been wondering ever since, who and what it could +have been," he finished, his eyes, meeting Captain Dove's, expressing +only innocent inquiry.</p> + +<p>The footman behind him dropped a plate, and the crash that produced +startled every one more than it need have. An atmosphere of strained +expectancy and unrest seemed to pervade the shadowy banquet-hall. Even +Lord Ingoldsby, who had been regarding Carthew with sulky ill-will, +could not but notice it.</p> + +<p>"Isn't there a tame ghost of some sort about Loquhariot?" he asked +Sallie, and, catching the duchess's eye, shrank into himself again under +the glance she darted at him.</p> + +<p>"Not another word about wraiths and spectres!" his youthful aunt ordered +briskly. "We don't want our dinner spoiled with any such nonsense. The +White Lady isn't a subject for table-talk, Ingoldsby. We've a skeleton +in the cupboard at Dawn, too, you know, as every respectable Highland +family has. But I fancy that what Mr. Carthew really saw to-day was +simply some snow-laden bush."</p> + +<p>"Dawn must be a very beautiful old place," Slyne remarked to the +duchess, and Lord Ingoldsby turned toward Sallie again; as did Mr. +Jobling after a glance of extreme disfavour at Carthew, on his other +hand. And Carthew could not at all understand the general gravity, until +Herries whispered over to him, under cover of the renewed conversation, +"You haven't heard of our White Lady here, yet, Mr. Carthew. But she +brings dule to the house, and—they say it was her that was seen in the +woods this afternoon."</p> + +<p>Carthew nodded. He had heard nothing of any such superstition, but knew +enough already of the natives of those wilds to understand how they +would cling to it. He thought for a moment of telling Herries that it +was a man and no woman whom he had seen, but that would perhaps have +disclosed too much to Captain Dove, and he decided to keep his own +counsel until he could obtain some safer clue to all those mysteries.</p> + +<p>Some movement in the little gallery above the buffet caught his +attention, and he thought he could see the old housekeeper, Mrs. +M'Kissock, at the balustrade with Ambrizette, Sallie's black maid, all +eyes, looking down at the gathering. And the smile Sallie flashed at +him as he looked at her told him she also knew that they were there.</p> + +<p>Slyne grew somewhat distrait and restless as the long dinner ran its +course, and Carthew had to devote more attention to the duchess. Among +the rest of the company all seemed to be going well. Mr. Jobling and +Lord Ingoldsby were both growing always more garrulous, and even Captain +Dove had brightened up under the sunny influence of the rare vintages +dispensed by the butler; he had got to the length of discussing the +lights on that coast with Herries, the factor, before the pop of a cork +at the buffet served to announce that the champagne was coming next.</p> + +<p>Slyne was obviously about to claim the attention of the table. Carthew +supposed he must be going to propose some toast, and wondered whether he +did not know any better than that. But he waited till every glass was +filled before he made any move, and when Sallie would have refused the +wine he sent the butler back to her with a whispered message. At which, +Carthew observed, a sudden pallor overspread her face; he was watching +her very closely.</p> + +<p>The rest of the company and the servants also looked round at Slyne in +surprise as he rose, but Carthew did not. He had seen Sallie lift a +filmy, lace-edged handkerchief from her lap—and caught sight of +something that it was meant to conceal. She raised a clenched hand above +the wine-glass before her, and Carthew could have sworn that he saw some +colourless drops splash down on the bubbling champagne. Then she slipped +her handkerchief out of sight again, and sat with bent head, idly +twirling the stem of the wine-glass between her fingers, watching the +white froth break at its brim.</p> + +<p>And still Slyne said nothing. Carthew scarcely dared to glance up at him +till he saw that Sallie was gazing that way with wonder and fear in her +eyes.</p> + +<p>Slyne was standing rigid. The glass he had lifted was tilting over, its +contents dripping out on the table-cloth. His mouth was open, as if to +speak, and his lips were moving but emitted no sound. He was staring +fixedly into an obscure corner under the musicians' gallery, where was +the service-doorway from which the piper always appeared.</p> + +<p>The others had turned their eyes in the same direction. The very +servants seemed to have lost all self-control, stood stricken, gasping, +helpless. And no one even breathed as a shadowy figure came slowly +shambling out of the dusk into the crimson light of the fire.</p> + +<p>It halted, irresolute, a lean, stooping, bald-headed figure, with a +haggard, foolish face contorted to hold a single eye-glass in place. On +its forehead was a red smudge, as of iron-rust. It was wearing a +disreputable, greasy blue uniform with not a few ragged rents in it. Its +boots were equally shapeless and one was burst. There was snow on them.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove was the first among the company to recover the power of +speech.</p> + +<p>"What the devil do <i>you</i> want here, Brasse!" he cried, in a choking +voice, which yet was charged with relief as if from some paralysing +fear.</p> + +<p>But before the engineer could answer a word, Herries, the old factor, +had risen shakily from his seat and shuffled across the floor toward +him, was peering stupidly into his face, looking him up and down with +eyes that were almost blind. The duchess had got up too. Slyne had sunk +into his chair again, scowling blackly, pulling at his moustache. Lord +Ingoldsby and Carthew and Mr. Jobling were still gazing blankly at the +intruder. Sallie sat motionless, with one hand always at the stem of her +wine-glass.</p> + +<p>The duchess lifted the shade off one of the lights on the candelabra and +looked still more searchingly at the engineer.</p> + +<p>"Torquil St. Just!" she whispered at length, and "Lord St. Just!" cried +Herries at the same moment.</p> + +<p>The scarecrow with the eye-glass held out a slack hand to the old +factor. "Hullo, Herries," he remarked, in a husky voice, "I didn't +recognise you at first. You've aged a lot." And, glancing across at the +duchess, "Isn't that Lady Jane Gairloch, Herries?" he asked in an +audible aside. "She was only a slip of a girl, you know, old chap, +when—I left home."</p> + +<p>"She's the—Duchess—of Dawn, now,—my lord," answered Herries, the +factor, helplessly. "And—you're Earl of Jura—now."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH</h3> + + +<p>When the chief engineer of the <i>Olive Branch</i> at last put off from the +ship for the shore in response to Captain Dove's second and still more +peremptory message, he took the tiller of the boat himself, and steered +straight for the water-gate of the castle. In one of his pockets he had +a rusty key which presently served to turn its creaking lock.</p> + +<p>He had left his coat in the boat and ordered the boat's crew to await +his return. And he made his way with accustomed steps, almost +noiselessly in his rubber-soled shoes, up the sloping underground +passage which leads from the long-disused water-gate toward the gun-room +which long ago was the armoury of the castle.</p> + +<p>Once he halted to strike a match. Its feeble light showed him the rough +rock walls and roof of the tunnel, the uneven slope underfoot worn +almost smooth by nefarious traffic long since at an end.</p> + +<p>He advanced again, cautiously, till he came to the brink of a broad, +gaping chasm, which, but for a couple of carelessly carpentered +fir-trunks stretching across it, would have closed that pathway +effectually against him or anyone attempting to enter the castle by +stealth, as he was doing.</p> + +<p>He tested that makeshift bridge as well as he might before crossing it. +Half-way over, a cold, damp breath from the depths beneath blew out +another match he had struck as he started. A muted gurgle and squatter +that came uncannily to his ears told of the subterranean tide crawling +in to cleanse again the far floor of the pit below which had so often in +the past served for a charnel-house. Creeping over the tree-trunks, he +shrugged his shoulders as that thought passed through his mind, and drew +a breath of relief as he stepped on to the solid rock on the other side.</p> + +<p>From there, the way to the steps at the gun-room entrance was clear and +the old iron gates above and below were both wide, as he discovered by +sense of touch. He set an ear to the panel beyond, to find out whether +the gun-room was occupied, and heard only a long-drawn groan. That +seemed to come from somewhere behind him. He descended the steps again, +listening intently.</p> + +<p>Another safety-match sputtered and broke into a blue light in his +tremulous fingers. He saw that the bolt on the outside of the cell door +at the foot of the steps was shot and judged that there must be some one +within. For a moment, he hesitated; and then he pulled the bolt free.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" he asked of the darkness that gave him back only another +low groan for answer.</p> + +<p>The heavy hinges of the door creaked as he thrust it open and entered. +His last match showed him a huddled white heap in one corner, two hands +tied behind it, a grey-haired and bleeding head. He turned back and +pushed up into the gun-room without more ado. It was empty.</p> + +<p>He looked dazedly about him in the bright lamplight, and his eyes fell +on a couple of candlesticks. He picked one up and found a full box of +matches beside it. From the decanter on the table before the fire he +partly filled a glass, and disappeared down the steps again with his +candle to show him the way, drawing the panel back into place behind +him.</p> + +<p>Within the cell door he set down the glass he was carrying and, pulling +out a pocket-knife, cut through the cord which secured the wrists of the +prone figure in the corner. Its hands fell limply apart and lay palms +upward. He did not at once release its ankles, but, stooping over it, +pulled it round on to its back—and sprang away from it in such frantic +haste that the candle jumped from its holder and left him in darkness +again.</p> + +<p>He all but brained himself as he rushed for the door, but he got outside +and, stunned as he was, set his shoulder to it. It closed with a clang +and, as he shot the bolt home, he sank to his knees, breathing brokenly, +his forehead on its rusty iron. He righted himself with an effort, but +stayed where he was, sitting huddled together against the rock wall, his +face damp with cold perspiration. He was blind in the blackness about +him and could hear nothing but the trip-hammer beat of his own strained +heart.</p> + +<p>Its turbulence began to die down by degrees and in time he regained some +command of his stupefied faculties.</p> + +<p>"It couldn't possibly be," he kept on assuring himself. "I must have +been mistaken. It couldn't possibly—"</p> + +<p>He pulled his slack limbs up under him, and rose, slowly, forcing them +to obey him.</p> + +<p>"But I must make sure," he muttered, and still let himself linger +outside the cell door, to listen for any sound from within.</p> + +<p>A groan, fainter than the first he had heard, encouraged him.</p> + +<p>"Pretty far through, whoever he is," said he to himself, and with +another effort of will-power once more pulled back the bolt.</p> + +<p>The fresh match he struck, before going further, showed him that the man +inside had not moved, and he found his candle where it had fallen, in +time to light it before his match burned out. With it in one hand he +went forward on tiptoe, to study the other's features intently, his own +expressing fear, absolute disbelief, doubt, a growing conviction in +turn.</p> + +<p>"It is M'Kissock!" he cried finally, and at the words unconsciously +uttered, the other's eyelids began to flicker in the candle-light until +at length they opened and remained open at their widest. And for a long +time they two stayed thus, regarding each other as if bereft of power of +movement or speech.</p> + +<p>Then Farish M'Kissock's slack jaws took to twitching convulsively. A low +moaning broke from his mouth. A film came over his dreadfully staring +eyes. He would have fallen unconscious again had not the engineer +snatched up the glass at one side and poured down his throat a few drops +of the spirit it held. His teeth closed with a snap and he groaned +again, heartrendingly; but, in a little, he had so far benefited by that +hurtful remedy as to recover the use of his voice. His lips moved and +his rescuer leaned forward to catch the hoarse, agonised whisper that +came from them.</p> + +<p>"You were always—a cruel devil, Lord St. Just," gasped Farish +M'Kissock, "even when you were alive. It should be my right—to torment +<i>you</i> now, and not—you me!"</p> + +<p>The engineer drew back a little. He knew then that he had not been +mistaken.</p> + +<p>"You're not dead yet, M'Kissock," said he soothingly, in his voice of a +gentleman, "although—I'll be damned if I can understand how that is!" +And then, suddenly realising a little of all it must mean to him that +his old enemy was still living, "If I had only known—" he murmured with +exceeding bitterness. "Oh, my God! Think of all those awful years!"</p> + +<p>Farish M'Kissock attempted to laugh, with a very horrid effect. He +raised a trembling hand to his head, and looked at its fingers, all +smeared with red. His rolling eyes tried to pierce the obscurity of the +vault in which he was lying. Remembrance of the more immediate past +began to stir in his mind. He drew a long, deep, painful breath.</p> + +<p>"I thought—I thought—" he mumbled brokenly, and his eyes closed. He +was once more insensible.</p> + +<p>The engineer of the <i>Olive Branch</i> looked round for the candlestick he +had dropped, and, finding that, made his light safe. Then he kneeled +down beside the other and raised his head and lifted him so that his +shoulders should rest on the rock behind. Another teaspoonful of the +stimulant in the glass flogged his patient's flagging heart into further +effort, and Farish M'Kissock opened his eyes again.</p> + +<p>"Loose my feet," he begged brokenly, and the engineer did so: but he lay +still where he was, too weak to move. For a time, the only sound to be +heard was his hurtful, irregular breathing. Then he glanced curiously, +for the first time, at his rescuer's threadbare blue uniform.</p> + +<p>"You're just in time, Lord St. Just," said he, his voice clearer and his +ideas beginning to gain some coherent shape. "Though that's not the name +I should be calling you now, since you're still living in spite of me, +and Earl of Jura by all the laws of the land.</p> + +<p>"But—where have you come from so late-along? Where have you been +since—They hold it against me here to this day that I murdered your +lordship; and—there was your body found later on at the foot of the +cliffs in front of your hut."</p> + +<p>The other sat down by the doorway, with a limp shrug of the shoulders +that spoke a weariness beyond words.</p> + +<p>"I didn't fall very far, M'Kissock," he answered presently. "And—I +thought you must have slipped over too as we fought there—for I saw a +body sunk among the rocks in the water below; it was a still day, you +remember. But—where were you?"</p> + +<p>"I took to my heels through the woods, thinking it would go ill with me +when what I believed had happened to you came out; for it was known that +I had gone to your hut to seek you, and why." His voice grew very hard, +and he shot a glance of unquenchable hatred at his companion. "So I lay +hid in the hills till nightfall, and then fled the countryside. I heard +afterwards that they had found your body, although it was scarcely more +than a rickle of bare bones by then, and of course they put the blame of +it all on me without more ado."</p> + +<p>The engineer of the <i>Olive Branch</i> who was also the Earl of Jura sighed +drearily. The best years of his life had gone to pay the penalty fate +had exacted, through that mistake, for a fault he had almost forgotten. +And now, desire had failed him; his spirit was utterly broken.</p> + +<p>"I was just such another fool as yourself, M'Kissock!" said he in a +hopeless tone. "I was afraid they would lay your death at my door, +and—I bolted too; without a word to a living soul. I've been afraid +ever since, because—I've been told that the police were always looking +for me."</p> + +<p>M'Kissock's jaw dropped. He looked again at the other's torn uniform.</p> + +<p>"Who was it told you that?" he asked, almost in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"The Old Man on the <i>Olive Branch</i>. I've been chief engineer on his ship +for five or six years, and before that—I shipped as a stoker at first, +M'Kissock, at Yedo, in Japan. I was starving there. And I've worked for +him all that time like a slave—on the strength of a groundless lie!"</p> + +<p>"Had he any idea who you were?" the other demanded.</p> + +<p>"I thought he must know; but I can see now that he was simply making a +fool of me for his own ends. If he had known, he surely wouldn't have +sent for me to come ashore here."</p> + +<p>"He certainly would not," agreed his companion with grim assurance, and +they both fell silent again, each engrossed in his own overwhelming, +embittered reflections.</p> + +<p>"Dove knows nothing at all about you," said Farish M'Kissock presently, +and Lord Jura looked up as if astonished at the sound of his voice.</p> + +<p>"But—how do you know that, M'Kissock?" the latter inquired in a +querulous tone, pulling nervously at his under-lip. "What are you doing +here, in that queer rig-out? I don't understand. Where have you—"</p> + +<p>"I've been just such another fool as yourself, my lord," said Farish +M'Kissock, his voice vibrant with impotent, irrepressible anger. "It's +worse than damnable to think—You'll scarcely believe that I've served +under Dove in my time, but it's true enough. I was second mate on the +<i>Fer de Lance</i>, long ago, when he called himself Captain Brown. And—I +owe him a score as heavy as yours, ay, and heavier; a score I came here +to pay. But I was too hasty, and—he got the better of me at the start; +I was no match for the two of them—he had the man Slyne on his side." +His breath almost failed him and he fell to coughing convulsively.</p> + +<p>"And—what has brought them to Loquhariot?" the other asked in utter +amazement as soon as he could make himself heard. But Farish M'Kissock +sat wheezing and gasping for some little time before answering that.</p> + +<p>"They have come with one whom they call the Lady Josceline Justice," +said he at length, glancing askance at his companion. "Slyne's minded to +marry her now—and so lay hands on all that is yours."</p> + +<p>The Earl of Jura gazed blankly at his burst boots. His mind was all in a +muddle. The stokehold of the <i>Olive Branch</i>, and then its engine-room, +seemed to have sapped whatever intelligence he might once have +possessed. His belated release from slavery had left him with his wits +benumbed and torpid.</p> + +<p>"But, of course, they don't know that I—" he began, his face +brightening, and then broke off. "Where did they get hold of her, +M'Kissock?"</p> + +<p>"Dove's had her on board his ship for years," said Farish M'Kissock +brusquely.</p> + +<p>"Is it Sallie you're talking about!" he exclaimed. "Good God! Can it be +possible that—But never mind now. I must—" He made as if to rise.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute, my lord," requested Farish M'Kissock in a tone which +compelled his attention. "You've got two desperate men to deal with +above-stairs. You've seen how they've handled me, and they would think +nothing of throwing the two of us, neck and crop, into the drowning-hole +in the tunnel behind you. You will be very ill-advised to beard them +alone. I can help you—"</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"You'll see when the time comes."</p> + +<p>"But I can't stay squatting here like a rat in a drain while they—I'm a +free man—now that I know you're alive after all," declared the ragged +scarecrow with the eye-glass, as if to encourage himself. "And I'm Earl +of Jura; there's no getting out of that. I must put a stop to Slyne's +villainous scheme at once, M'Kissock. He's a rotten bad egg; <i>I</i> know +him. It would never do to let him get—her into his infernal clutches."</p> + +<p>Farish M'Kissock eyed him with no good will.</p> + +<p>"Ay," he agreed reluctantly. "Your lordship's a belted earl now, by all +the laws of the land. And Farish M'Kissock that was a king is fated to +die a beggar.</p> + +<p>"But, first,—and it's hard, dooms hard!—I must help you—so far at +least. It's the two of us against those other two, for the moment. +Afterwards, we will talk of—yon old matter between us; for, mind you! +Lord Jura, I neither forget nor forgive."</p> + +<p>The Earl of Jura shrugged his shoulders again. He had almost forgotten +the cause of his old quarrel on the cliffs with the gamekeeper's son. He +had more than enough to think about in its seemingly endless outcome. +And his apparent indifference seemed to inflame the hatred the other +still bore him.</p> + +<p>"I will help you—but only because I <i>must</i>," said Farish M'Kissock +harshly. "And you must help me to help you—to your own hurt."</p> + +<p>He leaned forward, panting, as if enraged over his own weakness of body. +The engineer rose, regarding him as if not very sure of his sanity, +and, having picked up the candle, assisted him to his feet. He stood for +a moment supporting himself by the wall, his knees giving and recovering +under him, and then the giddiness passed. He took a tentative step or +two and presently was able to follow his rescuer from the cell.</p> + +<p>"Is there anyone in the gun-room?" he asked in an anxious whisper at the +foot of the steps. Lord Jura listened closely for a moment or two at the +panel above, drew it open a little, and looking down again, shook his +head. He pulled the panel wide and then held out a hand to his follower; +who took it very reluctantly and, with its aid, reached the room above, +step by slow, uncertain step.</p> + +<p>"Sit down and rest for a minute or two," suggested the engineer.</p> + +<p>"Not here," he demurred. "It wouldn't be safe—too near the tunnel. We +must have help at hand when we meet them. What time is it? They'll be at +dinner now. Take me along the servants' passage and by the terrace to +the Pipers' Port: we should meet no one that way."</p> + +<p>But the other, a hand at his tremulous lips, was looking with mazed eyes +about the remembered room that he had so often seen in his dreams during +the age-long time of torment he had endured. His rods lay ready for use +in the long rack where he had left them. A pair of guns his father had +given him stood in their usual place at one end of the full stand +adorning one wall. The head of his first stag still hung above the +mantel, and the big wild-cat he had killed in the wood behind his hut on +the cliffs glared at him out of its glass eyes from over the door +leading to the pantry. That corner at least of the castle was quite +unchanged.</p> + +<p>He caught sight of his own reflection in the plate-glass casing which +covered another full stand of guns, and turned away from it with a +grimace of distaste. He had certainly changed, and very much for the +worse, himself, since he had last seen Loquhariot. He glanced at Farish +M'Kissock, the gamekeeper's son with whom he had fought, as he almost +blushed to remember, about a girl, and was still more shocked to see the +skeleton-like, decrepit-looking old man regarding him with hot, inimical +eyes from under shaggy down-drawn white eyebrows above which hung long +matted locks of grey hair darkly discoloured with drying blood; for they +two had been headstrong lads together, friends in some sort, companions +at least in many a scapegrace prank.</p> + +<p>"Ay," said Farish M'Kissock unpleasantly, as though reading the thought +that ran through his mind. "I'm far worse-looking than you are, my lord. +And something of that I am owing your lordship. But never mind now; we +have other matters before us first, and it will be well to attend to +them before it may be too late."</p> + +<p>The engineer started at that. His head was not very clear and he had for +the moment almost forgotten—</p> + +<p>"Come on, then, M'Kissock," said he, and blew out the candle he was +still unconsciously carrying and led the way through the little pantry +behind.</p> + +<p>The two of them emerged from that into a dimly lighted passage along +which they proceeded without a sound as far as another door which opened +outward on to the lower battlements at the seaward front of the castle.</p> + +<p>"Let me through first," requested Farish M'Kissock, after his companion +had made sure that there was no one beyond it, "and mind that the wind +doesn't drive it shut with a clash." He was firmer upon his feet now and +seemed to have gained some measure of strength from the stimulus of his +stubborn purpose. Bare-foot as he was, he took no notice of the driving +snow on the terrace outside, although his companion shivered as they +turned along the wall in the teeth of the blast that was blowing.</p> + +<p>"Get inside, for God's sake!" Lord Jura begged of the ghostly figure in +front of him as it stooped to set an ear to the keyhole in the portico +at the other end of the terrace, and his teeth were chattering when he +entered the dark, empty closet behind it.</p> + +<p>He had to set his shoulder to it to shut it against the storm. As soon +as he had accomplished that, he shook the snow from his ragged coat and +struck a match and glanced stupidly about him.</p> + +<p>"Put that out," ordered Farish M'Kissock in a suppressed, angry whisper. +"They'll maybe see some glimmer—they're all inside."</p> + +<p>The other obeyed him meekly, and for a space the two of them stood there +in the darkness, on the alert, drawing quick, restricted breaths. They +could hear the echo of voices from the banquet-hall. These gradually +died away, all but one which seemed to be telling some story. A distant +crash, as of a dish dropped on the floor, alarmed the two listeners, but +after that the conversation and laughter within went on again. The +engineer crossed the closet noiselessly on his rubber soles, and, "What +next, M'Kissock?" he whispered, as if content to resign himself to the +guidance of the more masterful will.</p> + +<p>"You will go in to them," the other instructed him. "Hear what you can +before you declare yourself, and—you must judge for yourself what to +say and do. I'll wait behind for a bit—Dove and Slyne believe that I'm +safely out of the way—but, as soon as it's needful, I'll face them +too. Till then, never mention my name nor any word of what I have told +you.</p> + +<p>"Pluck up some heart!" he hissed savagely. "This is the Castle of +Loquhariot—and you're the Earl of Jura. But they'll out-match you yet +unless you stand your ground against them."</p> + +<p>The engineer humbly attempted to square his shoulders, and, fumbling, +found the latch of the door. He opened it very quietly, enough and no +more to see through into the banquet-hall: and stood there for a time +studying the scene at the table. Farish M'Kissock, at his elbow, was +staring out at it too, with fierce, eager eyes. He pulled the door +slowly back, and Lord Jura passed through, unnoticed among the shadows +in that obscure corner.</p> + +<p>A cork popped explosively, and the butler came forward from the buffet +with a big, golden-necked bottle. The engineer paused. He had recognised +Captain Dove in the distance and notwithstanding the old man's unusual +garb and black glasses.</p> + +<p>He caught sight of Sallie, bewilderingly beautiful in a costume such as +he had not set eyes upon since—he had last dined there himself. He +squared his stooping shoulders again, and saw Slyne rise from his seat, +the wine-glass the butler had just filled for him in one hand.</p> + +<p>The talk and laughter gradually subsided and silence ensued. Lord Jura +took a tentative step toward the table, and stopped again as Slyne's +careless, smiling glance suddenly met his and changed to a rigid scowl. +Then Captain Dove looked round, and, after a breathless interval, "What +the devil do <i>you</i> want here, Brasse!" he cried explosively.</p> + +<p>At the sound of that harsh, hated voice, all the uncertain presence of +mind the intruder could boast deserted him. He stood as if rooted +there, a shrinking, irresolute figure, until the old factor came +shuffling across the floor toward him and some one else lifted the shade +off one of the lights on the candelabra so that it shone full on his +drawn, haggard face.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>DEBIT AND CREDIT</h3> + + +<p>"And you're—Earl of Jura—now," stammered Herries, helplessly, as +though that undeniable fact altogether staggered belief.</p> + +<p>The ragged scarecrow with the eye-glass nodded, somewhat shamefacedly, +and once more made a pitiful effort to straighten his stooping +shoulders. Herries looked away, wretchedly, and then, as if +understanding something of what must be in his mind, took it upon +himself to dismiss the servants, but bidding them remain within call and +also to see to it that no word went elsewhere of what they had seen and +heard in the banquet-hall.</p> + +<p>The rest of the company were regarding the ex-engineer of the <i>Olive +Branch</i> with very varied expressions. A sickly pallor had overspread +Slyne's rigid features as he heard the title by which Herries had +addressed that untimeous intruder. Captain Dove, his hands still on the +table before him, and crouching as if to spring, was breathing jerkily +from between set teeth, like one with a seizure. The Marquis of +Ingoldsby's narrow forehead was corrugated by a fixed and splenetic +frown which kept his eyes and mouth at their very widest. Behind +Sallie's questioning, compassionate, clouded glance lurked hope, and +fear, and a steadfast determination; she was still holding fast the stem +of her wine-glass. Justin Carthew looked as if he did not know in the +least who or where he was. Mr. Jobling's purple visage and pendulous +jowl spoke plainly the apoplectic and painful nature of his emotions. Of +them all, only the Duchess of Dawn seemed to have preserved any measure +of self-possession.</p> + +<p>While Herries was giving the butler his orders, she crossed toward the +fireplace with a little characteristic, impulsive gesture.</p> + +<p>"I hope you haven't forgotten me, Torquil?" said she, almost timidly. It +could not but hurt her to see what the years had made of the man who, +when she had met him last, had been little more than a teasing, +mischievous school-boy.</p> + +<p>"I knew you at once," he replied, and blinked back at her and cleared +his throat uncomfortably. The pinch of his present decayed estate before +her once more quickened his numb sense of the grievous injury done him +by Captain Dove. He glanced again in Captain Dove's direction, but the +old man's gaze met his absolutely mystified; and his heavy heart began +to grow hot again as he recalled how often his cunning taskmaster had +cowed him by dint of threats to disclose his unknown identity to the +police.</p> + +<p>"We all believed you were dead," said the duchess, and he answered her +stupidly, at random. His sullen eyes had encountered Slyne's, in which +he read aright dismay unspeakable and a stunned seeking after some +elusive scheme to turn the tables upon him yet. She saw how distrait he +was. "But you'll tell me by and by something of your adventures," said +she. "I just wanted to say how glad I am—that you're safe and sound +after all. And now I'll be off to the drawing-room with Ingoldsby. We're +only in the way here. I know you must have a great deal to say to your +sister."</p> + +<p>He started at hearing Sallie so styled. His restless regard had reached +her, at the end of the table next him, and he wondered what it could be +that had brought such an uncontrollable gleam of relief into her still +bewildered eyes.</p> + +<p>"I wish you would wait for a little, if you don't mind," he answered the +duchess. "I'd like you to stay beside her until—I get rid of some of +those others, if you don't mind."</p> + +<p>She nodded, if rather reluctantly, and turned aside toward Herries as +Sallie approached, holding out to the shabby prodigal whose belated +return had brought about such a stupefying change in the situation there +a tremulous, eager hand.</p> + +<p>"You're just in time," Sallie said to him in such a glad, warm, grateful +voice that even he, who knew very well her generous nature, was almost +surprised by her evident pleasure in thus admitting his prior right to +the high rank and vast heritage which he believed should have been hers +but for him. He was infinitely embarrassed when, before them all, she +stooped and touched with her lips the back of the claw-like, +toil-stained hand, he had tried hard to withhold from her.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a> +<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>She touched with her lips the back of the toil-stained hand.</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p>And she, having sealed her abdication in such wise, looked up into his +flushed face with a swift, shy smile, the flutter of the fledgling hope +in her heart stirring softly the priceless lace that outlined her bosom, +and the little golden locket that lay therein.</p> + +<p>"You're my brother—my step-brother, now, aren't you, Mr. Brasse?" she +asked, almost in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"It seems so, Sallie," he answered mechanically, his wandering wits +almost beyond his control. Her unconscious use of the name by which she +had always known him had brought to his mental vision a blurred +picture of her on the bridge of the <i>Olive Branch</i> in a stiff breeze, +himself at the fiddley-hatch.</p> + +<p>"And everything that might have been mine is yours now?"</p> + +<p>"Ours," he corrected, without any interest, as if that was of no +consequence. "There should be enough for us both; and, in any case, I +need very little—now."</p> + +<p>"But it's all yours by law, isn't it?" she urged. "I must make sure, +because—" She looked back, over her shoulder. Mr. Jobling had joined +Slyne and Captain Dove; the three of them were engaged, with bated +breaths, in a sibilant argument, their heads very close together. Lord +Ingoldsby had just risen and was slouching over to the other ingle-nook, +where the duchess had made Herries sit down. Only Justin Carthew +remained motionless, half turned in his high-backed chair, leaning +heavily on one of its arms while he still stared, almost unseeingly, at +Sallie and her companion.</p> + +<p>"How does that fellow come to be here?" asked the ex-engineer, +indicating Carthew with a puzzled nod, and, as Sallie told him what had +occurred since she herself had arrived at Loquhariot, his expression +grew always more blank again. But when she went on to explain how Slyne +had tried to entrap her for his own profit, his dull eyes brightened and +began to burn.</p> + +<p>"And now," she said at last, "perhaps he won't want to marry me—when +there's nothing to be gained by it. I can't tell you how thankful I am +that you've come home in time."</p> + +<p>Carthew got up from the table then and came limping forward to greet the +man whose belated home-coming had made such a difference to him. And +Mr. Jobling, evidently fired by his example, followed, to beg an +introduction from her ladyship to his lordship.</p> + +<p>"I've been acting for Lady Josceline, my lord," he explained very +volubly, having thus secured his lordship's by no means favourable +attention, "just as I would have been most happy to act for your +lordship if I had known—" He came to a sudden stop, except for a +stifled, explosive hiccough, as Captain Dove shouldered him aside and +confronted the ex-engineer of the <i>Olive Branch</i> with his most sleek, +benevolent expression.</p> + +<p>Slyne was close behind Captain Dove. The pallor had passed from his +face. Mr. Jobling apparently did not deem it politic to push in again +just then. He choked down his not unnatural indignation and stayed +hovering about, very ill at ease, in the background. The others, all but +Sallie, had also moved a little away.</p> + +<p>But it did not seem to be Captain Dove's idea to exchange any quiet +confidences with his late chief-engineer. What he had to say was for all +ears. Without witnesses he would, no doubt, have conducted himself very +differently. Handicapped as he was by their company, he had no recourse +but to enlist their sympathies on his side.</p> + +<p>"Well, if this doesn't beat all for luck!" said he in a tone of the +extremest gratification, his visible features wreathed in an unctuous +smile. "I don't suppose you're sorry <i>now</i> that you came ashore when I +sent for you, eh! You must admit that I've managed a very pleasant +little surprise for you—"</p> + +<p>"You've managed nothing—except to put your own neck into a noose at +last," retorted Lord Jura. He was standing very erect although he could +not control the nervous tremor at the back of his neck. He saw no need +now to mince matters with the old man, whose callous effrontery was +stirring his sluggish pulses to such a pitch that he could scarcely +resist the dire temptation to spring at his throat and choke the evil +life out of him there and then. But a light hand laid on his arm +diverted him for a moment from any such insane idea, and his unreasoning +rage died down a little as he looked round into Sallie's appealing eyes.</p> + +<p>"How long will it take to get the police here, Herries?" he asked +abruptly over one shoulder. And, at that, the arras in the dark corner +beside the Pipers' Port swayed slightly, as though there were some one +behind it about to come forth.</p> + +<p>"The telegraph-wire is down, my lord," the old factor answered +doubtfully, "and—it would maybe be wasting a life to send anyone to +attempt the Pass with a message in weather like this. But—till we can +safely get word to the police, there are lots of stout lads in +Loquhariot that will do your lordship's bidding."</p> + +<p>"And more on board the <i>Olive Branch</i> that will do mine," Captain Dove +interrupted, with a smooth assurance which could not but add to the +listeners' perturbation. "Da Costa has his orders, too. It will be a bad +look out for Loquhariot if ever he and his lambs have to come ashore +here to look for me. You've seen them crack far harder nuts than this +ramshackle old castle of yours! You know very well—</p> + +<p>"But what's the use of arguing about it? You owe me far too much to talk +in that style. If you could fetch the police here at this moment, you +couldn't afford to face them. You've surely forgotten—"</p> + +<p>"I have forgotten nothing," Lord Jura assured him, in a steady, ominous +voice.</p> + +<p>"That's just as well," declared Captain Dove, who seemed determined to +stand his ground, "because it will save me reminding you, before your +fashionable friends, how much I've done for you, first and last, since I +picked you up derelict on the beach at Yedo. You'd have been very badly +off without me then, eh! And, but for me, you'd maybe have come to a +worse end than starving, since. I've brought you back to your own, when +all's said and done. It doesn't say much for you, Lord Jura, that you'd +turn round on <i>me</i> now!"</p> + +<p>He spoke pathetically, as one disappointed in the return made him for +favours lavished with a free hand. And such of the others as did not +know the real facts of the matter looked somewhat doubtfully at Lord +Jura. Captain Dove was obviously pleased with the impression he had +produced.</p> + +<p>"Everything you have done has been done entirely to serve your own +ends," the ex-engineer answered him in few words. "I owe you no +favour—not the very slightest. You owe me God knows how many years of +my life that you've tricked me out of. And, what's more—"</p> + +<p>"And what's more," Captain Dove interrupted, "you think you owe me only +a grudge. You've no more use for me now that I've served your turn. I've +asked nothing of you, you'll notice. It's only because you've thought +fit to threaten me that I've reminded you—"</p> + +<p>"There was no need," Lord Jura asserted. "I have forgotten nothing. You +can tell your side of the story to the judge at the next assizes—and +I'll tell mine."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jobling's puffy face blanched at that, but Captain Dove did not even +change countenance.</p> + +<p>"So much for yourself," said he patiently. "You think you can best +whiten your own record by trying to blacken mine. I'll say no more about +that—except that it isn't always true that dead men tell no tales. And +you'll have to tell the judge at the next assizes the real reason why +you ran away from home."</p> + +<p>He was watching the other's face narrowly, to see what effect that stray +shot might have, and was clearly encouraged at seeing Lord Jura wince.</p> + +<p>"But there's another point to be settled," he went on with slow +insistence, "before we go any further. I've brought you back to your +own, as I said, and, more than that, I've brought you back—your sister. +I wouldn't have made any song-an'-dance about such a small matter +either, but—since it's to be debit and credit between us, I'd like to +know how you think that affects the account.</p> + +<p>"You say you've forgotten nothing. Have you remembered that I've brought +her up, so to speak, since she was knee-high to me? Have you ever +thought where she'd be to-day if I hadn't—But, of course, you don't +know where I came across <i>her</i>. And I'm not going to tell you just +now. All I <i>will</i> say is that it rests absolutely in my hands +whether—whether she stays safe here with you or—You may believe me or +not, as you like, but—Better talk it over with her before you go any +further,—my lord!"</p> + +<p>He frowned, as if warningly, at Sallie, and turned on his heel and, +swaggering back to the table, grotesquely aggressive, sat down again +with his back to them all, leaving them to make whatever they liked of +his veiled threat and half-spoken hints as to his mysterious power over +her. Slyne followed him. But Mr. Jobling pushed forward again, eager to +establish himself on a safer footing of service to the other side.</p> + +<p>"If your lordship will allow me," said he, his head on one side, +shoulders bent and hands clasped, "I think I can undertake to arrange +matters for you with Captain Dove. Some small money payment, perhaps, +would save further unpleasantness—for her ladyship as well. We can +scarcely contest his claim for at least the amount of—"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you're talking about—or what business it is of +yours!" said Lord Jura sharply and turned to give Herries some order. +But, before he could speak, Sallie claimed his attention again.</p> + +<p>"Let them go," she implored of him vehemently. "Oh, please let them go. +Don't send for the police. I couldn't bear to think that they had come +to any harm through helping me—even for their own purposes. And some of +what Captain Dove says is true enough: he's looked after me for longer +than I can remember, almost—and but for him I wouldn't be here now. The +past has sometimes been very hard for us both. It would spoil the future +entirely for me if I felt that I had been the means of betraying him to +the police. If they'll only promise to leave us alone now, won't you let +them go?—for my sake."</p> + +<p>Lord Jura pulled at his under-lip in helpless indecision. He knew that +he could not for long deny the girl anything she asked of him thus.</p> + +<p>"You don't understand, Sallie," he said at length, very vexedly. "You'd +better go off to your own room now,—and take Lady Jane—the +duchess—with you. Leave me to deal with the Old Man and Slyne; it isn't +only on my own account—"</p> + +<p>"Will you set them on board the <i>Olive Branch</i> safe, if they promise to +leave us alone now?" she urged, not to be denied in her purpose.</p> + +<p>"But,—what are they to you?" he demanded. "Surely—it can't be—You +don't—care for Jasper Slyne, do you, Sallie? I'll let <i>him</i> go, if you +like—though he doesn't deserve it."</p> + +<p>She shuddered. "If you hadn't come to-night," she told him tremulously, +"you wouldn't have found me here—alive. I had made up my mind—" Her +voice died away, but he understood.</p> + +<p>"But I can't treat them as they would me," she reminded him, her anxious +eyes holding his till he looked away, with an effort of will. "I could +never be happy here, or anywhere else, if I left any of my old shipmates +in the power of the law. Chance has brought us both here—and in time. +Will you not wipe the past out of your mind entirely, as I have done, +and—You won't refuse me the first favour I have asked of you, here in +your home? And I won't ever forget how good you have always been to me."</p> + +<p>He looked into her eyes again, and was lost. "Have it your own way, +then," he said, as if with a grudge. "But—" His face fell. He looked +furtively behind him. He had just remembered his pact with Farish +M'Kissock. "You must get rid of them both at once, and very quietly," he +whispered. "I won't answer for what may happen yet unless—"</p> + +<p>Sallie did not even wait to thank him for his weak-willed complaisance. +She crossed swiftly to the table where Jasper Slyne and Mr. Jobling were +once more in low-voiced conclave with Captain Dove.</p> + +<p>The three conspirators, sitting with heads together, in angry, +undertoned argument, glanced up as she approached them. Their lowering +faces lightened a little at sight of her, but fell again into black, +rebellious masks while they listened sullenly to what she had to say. As +she finished, Captain Dove brought a heavy fist down upon the table like +a sledge-hammer, and, while the glasses still rang to its impact on the +solid oak, "I'll be damned if I budge from here by one step," he cried +at the top of his voice, and sprang from his chair, "till it suits me." +He pulled his smoked glasses from off his nose, flung them on the floor, +and trod viciously upon them as he advanced on Lord Jura again, ignoring +all his companions' attempts to restrain him.</p> + +<p>"Now, see here, my friend!" said he with another fierce imprecation, and +thrust his face up close to the ex-engineer's while Carthew stepped +hastily forward beside Lord Jura. "Now, see here, my friend! I've had +about enough of you and your nonsense. Say whatever you've got to say to +me now yourself and be done with it. Then I'll tell <i>you</i> what you're +going to do—for me and my adopted daughter. There's no need for any +more humming and hawing about it. Speak up!"</p> + +<p>But his former slave did not shrink from before his withering glance. +The banquet-hall of Loquhariot was not the bridge of the <i>Olive Branch</i>: +and Lord Jura was even glad that his one-time tyrant did not seem +disposed to avail himself of that last chance of escape at which Sallie +had beguiled him into conniving.</p> + +<p>"For my sister's sake," he said quietly, and not without dignity, "I was +willing to—"</p> + +<p>"You'll do whatever I tell you—for your own sake as well as your +sister's," broke in Captain Dove, and looked him up and down with a +virtuous frown. "Why, but for me, you'd have no sister!" He lowered his +voice to a threatening whisper. "And you'd have hung long ago yourself, +for the murder that you did here!" he hissed.</p> + +<p>Lord Jura regarded him gravely for a moment or two, in silence; and +then, turning toward the Pipers' Port, "Are you there, M'Kissock?" he +called, in the tone of one entitled to prompt attention.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>ISHMAEL'S HERITAGE</h3> + + +<p>There was something very dreadful about Farish M'Kissock's appearance as +he came shuffling forward from the corner under the gallery. His torn +and travel-stained white robe gave him a ghostly aspect which was +heightened by the cold and clammy pallor of his face, his sunken eyes, +the matted, blood-stained tangle of grey hair that merged into a long, +unkempt beard and moustache. He moved like an automaton, with all his +limbs and joints loose. The stamp of death was on him.</p> + +<p>The Duchess of Dawn shrank into the ingle behind her as he approached, +and her noble nephew backed after her, one elbow uplifted, fists +clenched, with the apparent idea of protecting her from that +spectre-like apparition; at whom Herries also was gazing, aghast but +motionless, while Mr. Jobling, with bulging eyes and open mouth, felt +about him as if for some friendly hand to clutch at and, finding none, +laid hold of Slyne by the coat—who struck his fingers away with a +muttered oath. Slyne and Captain Dove and Justin Carthew were all +regarding him with blank dismay. Sallie uttered a little, low, pitiful +cry as she recognised in the worn-out wreck who had halted mutely a few +paces away the man she had seen only a month or two before in the prime +of life and the plenitude of his power, the Emir El Farish.</p> + +<p>His burning eyes met and held Captain Dove's cowed, murderous, questing +glance for a moment; and then he laughed, in a most grisly manner.</p> + +<p>"I'm dying now, Captain Dove," said he, in a strong, deep voice that +contrasted strangely with his obvious bodily exhaustion, "a day or two +sooner than need have been—but for you. <i>You're</i> hale and strong yet. +You'll fight hard—when the hangman and his mates come quietly into your +cell at daybreak to pinion you. And, when you're standing on the trap, +with your head in a bag and the knot in a new rope rasping under one +ear, you'll think of me that's waiting for you in the pit below the +scaffold.</p> + +<p>"But that's for by and by; and there's to-day to be done with first." He +laughed again, in such a fashion that the listeners shuddered. "I told +you there was nothing at all that would avail you against me," said he. +"Maybe you'll believe me now!"</p> + +<p>Captain Dove looked furtively round at the others' faces, and spoke, +with obvious difficulty. "I've no idea what you're talking about—"</p> + +<p>"I found M'Kissock—where you left him," interrupted Lord Jura, as if to +say that it was needless now to deny anything.</p> + +<p>"You'd better send him back there, then," Captain Dove retorted +rancorously. "The man's mad—and dangerous. That's why I had him shut +up. He thinks he has some grudge against you, too. Take care he +doesn't—"</p> + +<p>"I'm not mad. I'm not even dangerous enough to save the hangman his job +with you," said Farish M'Kissock quietly, and turned to Lord Jura again. +"But <i>you'll</i> see to it, my lord, that the cruel wrongs this old Judas +has wrought you and me—ay, and even the innocent girl beside you +there—are avenged to the uttermost. I can trust you for that at least."</p> + +<p>Lord Jura looked forlornly at Sallie. He could not now recall his +promise to her if Captain Dove still chose to take advantage of that.</p> + +<p>"Sal—My sister has begged me to let him go free, M'Kissock," he said at +length, almost apologetically, "and—I've agreed."</p> + +<p>Farish M'Kissock's head had begun to shake as if with palsy. He tried to +speak, but could not articulate. The veins about his clammy, yellow +temples were swelling darkly out, like cords. Carthew limped across to +the table and brought him over a glass of water. He swallowed some with +difficulty, and, finding his voice again, "You fool!" he cried, with +inexpressible bitterness. "Oh, you blind fool! Will you let him serve +you as he served me with her to help him!"</p> + +<p>Lord Jura's face flushed.</p> + +<p>"I want to hear no more from you in that strain," he said haughtily, as +if the old spirit of place and power were stirring within him again. "It +is sufficient that my sister's wishes—"</p> + +<p>"If Sallie <i>were</i> your sister, it would make no difference," the dying +man declared with fierce impatience. "This is no time to humour whim of +hers. In any case—she is no kin of yours, Lord Jura, as Captain Dove +well knows. He could have told you—<i>Keep him off!</i> He'll make an end of +me before my time if he can, to silence me. And you must hear, before I +go,—" He staggered backward, coughing, and almost choked for want of +breath. Captain Dove had made a wild lunge at him, but Justin Carthew +had sprung forward in time to save him from the old man's frenzied +attempt: and Herries and Lord Ingoldsby also stepped in between him and +his would-be murderer.</p> + +<p>"All right, then," panted Captain Dove. "Leave me alone, and I'll do him +no harm. I quite forgot that he was off his head, his lies provoke me +so."</p> + +<p>Lord Jura had put Sallie behind him to shield her in the struggle that +promised. He looked round at her then with dazed, doubtful eyes and read +in hers pain and horror and disbelief equally dreadful. He drew a deep, +sobbing breath and confronted Farish M'Kissock again.</p> + +<p>"What in God's name are you driving at!" he demanded, in a tone which +told the stress of mind he was suffering. And Farish M'Kissock regarded +him very evilly for a little before replying. Slyne and Captain Dove and +Carthew were waiting, as if on barbed tenter-hooks. The others, and +Sallie also, seemed to be stricken speechless and still.</p> + +<p>"I am here to seek my revenge, my lord, as you know," said Farish +M'Kissock slowly at length, and licked his bloodless lips. "There is +still a small matter betwixt your lordship and me that remains to be +settled—an old wrong done, which your lordship has almost forgotten, it +seems. <i>I</i> neither forget nor forgive.</p> + +<p>"I may not have time left to tell all I owe Captain Dove there—for that +goes back through long years to what I owe you. But, before I am done +with, I think I can settle with you as well as with him.</p> + +<p>"Sallie is no sister of yours, as Captain Dove knows—though she herself +has been beguiled as easily as your lordship. Your lordship's sister, +the Lady Josceline Justice, died in my arms eight or nine weeks ago: and +she was my wife. Sallie there, knowing nothing, saw her a few hours +before—"</p> + +<p>He blinked and hung his head for a moment, as if recalling all that had +come to pass since he had laid the light, wasted body aside on the sand, +and set a guard over it until—until he could spare time to see to a +decent grave.</p> + +<p>"She was my wife," he said again, looking up at the last of the haughty +Juras with hate unquenchable in his glance. "And that's the revenge I +have taken on you and yours, my lord, for the ill your lordship lightly +wrought—the other, that should have been."</p> + +<p>A woman's voice came wailingly from the musicians' gallery and Mr. +Jobling uttered a low moan of abject fear. His nerves had evidently +failed him altogether. Hasty steps were descending the short stone +stairway which led to the gallery, and then Janet M'Kissock came +tottering forth across the floor from the foot of it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Farish!" the old woman cried to her brother. "Have you no heart at +all! Are there not enough lives ruined already that you would wreck her +ladyship's here as well?" And she turned toward Sallie with a poor, +pitiful gesture as of protection. "It <i>cannot</i> be as you say," she +whimpered. "For how could <i>I</i> be mistaken, that knew her father far +better than you—ay, and the countess her mother too; whose locket she +was wearing at her neck the day she first came to Loquhariot. I'll swear +to it, at any rate! I had it for a time in my own keeping, before the +countess—went away.</p> + +<p>"Ask her ladyship where she got the locket, your grace. And then my +poor, distracted brother will maybe admit that he's been deceived about +her."</p> + +<p>The duchess's anxious, encouraging look seemed to beg an answer of +Sallie. But the girl was gazing, with dumb dismay in her wide, wounded +eyes, at Farish M'Kissock, recalling as well as she could amid such a +maze the incidents of the hours she had spent in his camp on the African +coast.</p> + +<p>Under the spell of his piercing glance the shadowy banquet-hall of +Loquhariot seemed to fade away from her, and in its place she saw again +the spacious rose-pink pavilion behind the carved chair on which he was +seated in state among his staring councillors, under a great green flag +with a golden harp on its heavy folds. Behind her, from about the +picket-lines where she had noticed the negro slaves at their work, she +seemed to hear the whinnying of the horses, the vicious squeals of the +restless camels. In the dim crimson glow of the dying fires she was +gazing again at the horsehair tents in the background, and the multitude +of men and women and children all busy about them in the open air.</p> + +<p>She saw, as if in a vision, the Emir spring from his seat and come +hastily forward to where she stood shrinkingly at Captain Dove's +shoulder. He was tall and stalwart on foot, a fine figure of a man even +in his loose, shapeless garments, with a bronzed, hook-nosed, handsome +face of his own, a heavy moustache, the brooding, patient, predatory +eyes of a desert vulture. And, as he confronted Captain Dove, over whom +he seemed to tower threateningly, the hood of his <i>selham</i> slipped back, +disclosing a flaming shock of red hair.</p> + +<p>Her own veil had slipped to her chin, but she had been unconscious of +that until his blazing eyes had shifted from Captain Dove's unconcerned +face to hers. She pulled it hurriedly back into place, and he, turning +to the curious onlookers, rid himself of their company before he called, +in a caressing voice, on some one within the big, white tent that was +the heart of his stronghold. And there came forth a woman, veiled as she +herself had been, but clad in silk instead of cotton, who bowed +submissively to what he had to say, and then held out a slender, +bloodless, burning hand to her....</p> + +<p>It all came back to her memory, as if in a lightning-flash that left her +stunned and helpless to face the appalling present again. She knew now +who the Emir's wife had been—a girl of her own age, but grown old +before her time and weary of the little life that had been left in her +then. She knew that Farish M'Kissock was speaking the truth now, and +that she must bear witness to it at whatever cost to herself. It made no +difference that Captain Dove's expression was a mute and none the less +dreadful threat of what she might look for at his hands if she dared to +do so. The helpless horror of the position in which his cunning intrigue +had left her broke on her mind like a thunderbolt. She covered her +shamed, white face with both hands, and turned, swaying on her feet, and +would have fallen had not the duchess thrown both arms about her and +held her there in a close, warm clasp, while Justin Carthew and Lord +Ingoldsby, who had both darted forward to help her, glared at each other +vindictively.</p> + +<p>"It <i>can't</i> be true!" said the duchess, half to herself, but Sallie +heard, and stood upright again, dizzily, letting her hands fall, +prepared to do public penance for her innocent and unwitting part in the +shameless fraud that had been perpetrated. She did not give a thought to +the fact that all her own fair dreams of the future were finally +shattered and past repair. But she wondered what the poor folk she had +befriended about the village would have to say when they heard that she +was no better than a common impostor, and the duchess, who had +befriended her, and Justin Carthew, whom Mr. Jobling had treated as a +trespasser there!</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> true," she asserted, desperately, in a tone which might have +touched even Captain Dove, "though I didn't know till now—" She almost +broke down under the dire humiliation she was enduring, but the duchess +would not let her go when she would have drawn away from the arm at her +waist, and she forced herself to go on with her unspeakably hurtful +confession.</p> + +<p>"The locket was given me by the girl who died in the desert—who was +that man's wife," she said so that all might hear, her face aflame now +under the others' blankly believing glances. "I didn't want to take it +at all—but she believed she would not live long, and I felt that it +would be unkind to refuse."</p> + +<p>Farish M'Kissock looked round, in baleful triumph, at Captain Dove, +whose hopes he had thus thwarted and brought to nought. But Captain +Dove's evil eyes were fixed on Lord Jura.</p> + +<p>"Did she tell you nothing at all of herself—or her history?" the +duchess asked very gently.</p> + +<p>"Not a word," Sallie answered with transparent honesty.</p> + +<p>"But there's another here that knew who she was," said Farish M'Kissock, +and pointed to Justin Carthew, who could only nod most unhappily, +avoiding Sallie's sudden, incredulous glance.</p> + +<p>And, at that, Lord Jura seemed to start from the stupor into which he +had gradually lapsed. His haggard face grew dark with insane and +uncontrollable passion as he began to realise the fiendish ingenuity of +the revenge exacted by the man whom he had, in the first place, wronged +so cruelly. No other torture, bodily or mental, could have caused him +such anguish as the thought of all his sister must have suffered ere she +died. He lifted two twitching hands and suddenly leaped, as a tiger +might, at Farish M'Kissock's throat.</p> + +<p>So swift and unforeseen was the movement that no one could interfere. +But he overshot his mark and slipped and fell on the polished oaken +floor as Farish M'Kissock stumbled aside, just in time to escape his +clutch. He came down with a crash, and his eye-glass dropped and +splashed about him in fragments as his forehead struck. But, stunned as +he was, he turned on one shoulder and thrust an arm out, and was trying +to rise when something seemed to snap in the coat-pocket underneath him, +and he uttered a scream of agony as his arm collapsed at the elbow, so +that he fell face forward again, struggling like a swimmer with cramp.</p> + +<p>"<i>Keep back!</i>" shouted Slyne. And Justin Carthew, in the act of stooping +to try to help the ex-engineer, sprang to one side in time and no more +to escape the touch of a wriggling thing, black and slimy, like a live +shoe-string, which had come slithering out from under the hand with +which the fallen man was clawing at the floor. It was almost at +Carthew's ankles. He leaped convulsively again, and came down on it with +both feet. Its little venomous head writhed round and struck more than +once at the patent leather of his low shoes, and then fell limply back +and lay still. He set his heel on it, to make sure that it would work no +more harm, and turned hastily toward Lord Jura again.</p> + +<p>Herries was before him, however, and had already lifted the stricken +man's head and shoulders a little. Carthew would have helped to raise +him to a sitting posture, but all his limbs curled in a dreadful +convulsion and straightened rigidly and curled again in a last awful +spasm, and so relaxed, lifeless, while his rolling eyeballs also grew +fixed and still. He had ceased to breathe.</p> + +<p>"He's dead," said Captain Dove, and started, as if alarmed by the sound +of his own voice. And for a space no one else spoke, and no one moved at +all. The only undertones that broke the silence were the subdued, +helpless weeping of the three women, the muted moaning of the wind on +the terrace without. Carthew and Herries were still on their knees, one +on either side of the dead man, from one of whose pockets protruded a +broken, empty cigar-box. The others stood staring down at him as if they +could scarcely yet understand what it was that had made such an instant +difference in him.</p> + +<p>Carthew got stiffly to his feet. "We must get the women away out of this +at once," he whispered to Herries, and held out a hand to help the old +factor up.</p> + +<p>Herries gazed at him, out of lack-lustre eyes into which a slow return +of intelligence crept as he too rose.</p> + +<p>"Yes,—my lord," he answered in a low voice, that yet was audible to all +but the unhearing ears of him who had been the ninth Earl of Jura, whose +heritage was now no more than a quiet niche in the lonely graveyard on +the most seaward of the Small Isles, and a young girl's ignorant prayers +that he might there find rest and peace.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>PRIDE'S PRICE</h3> + + +<p>Carthew whispered some further hasty instructions to Herries, and, "Yes, +my lord," the old factor answered again so that all could hear, and all +understood that the tenth Earl of Jura and Baron St. Just had thus +succeeded the ninth—who lay there dead on the floor before them.</p> + +<p>The duchess was gently leading Sallie away. Herries followed them, on +his own errands, while Captain Dove and his accomplices remained looking +on with sullen, suspicious eyes, straining their ears in a vain attempt +to hear what was to be their fate.</p> + +<p>Carthew turned to them. "I'll bid you good night now," he said, in a +tone not without a new tinge of authority in it, and at which they +looked anything but well pleased. "You'll be more comfortable in your +own quarters than anywhere else in the meantime." And, with that +sufficiently broad hint, he stood waiting for them to go.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove had opened his mouth as if to speak, but said nothing. +Slyne, very pinched and white about the nostrils, drew Mr. Jobling +toward the door, as if he would not trust the shifty lawyer with +Carthew, and answered for them all, with a most sarcastic inflection, +"Good night,—my lord!" Now that the worst had come to the worst he was +his old cool, careless, calculating self again.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove paused at the buffet in passing, and went on with both +hands full. Both he and Slyne, on their way toward the North Keep with +Mr. Jobling shambling along between them, not unlike a condemned +criminal, noticed the unusual number of able-bodied men-servants who +seemed to have found aimless occupation of some sort about the corridor, +and drew their own discomforting conclusions therefrom.</p> + +<p>Slyne even hesitated for a moment on the threshold of the cosy +living-hall which occupies the base of the North Keep, and then, with a +grimace of disdain, followed the other two, closing the heavy door +behind him. Almost immediately he heard the key turned quietly in the +lock outside—and knew that his suspicions had been only too well +founded. Carthew intended to keep him and his associates prisoners +there. He bit his lip and pulled at his moustache as he watched Captain +Dove drawing the cork of one of the two bottles of champagne that +strategist had brought from the banquet-hall.</p> + +<p>"We're cornered at last," he said suddenly, as the old man set the +bottle down after having imbibed the best half of its contents. "They've +locked us in here."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove turned to glare disbelievingly at him, and then, darting +across to the door, tugged furiously at its wrought-iron handle. He set +a foot against the wall and tried again, with no better results. He +bounced about, almost frantic, blaspheming as if bereft of all +self-control. Mr. Jobling stood wringing his hands helplessly, his +flaccid features expressive of abject despair. But Slyne continued to +eye the old man with a strained, disconcerting composure.</p> + +<p>"We haven't so much time to spare, Dove," said he bitingly, "that we +can afford to waste any more watching you play the fool. I expect that +fellow Carthew will have your whole history out of Farish M'Kissock +within—"</p> + +<p>"If you had only kept <i>your</i> damned mouth shut when Brasse was kicking +the bucket," cried Captain Dove, very venomously, "Carthew would be +keeping <i>him</i> company now. The snake would have got him too. And we'd +have won out after all."</p> + +<p>Slyne ground his teeth. But that was no moment for futile recrimination, +and self-interest served to stay the acrid retort on the tip of his +tongue.</p> + +<p>"'If this and if that' doesn't make any difference now," he declared +evenly. "I'm not going to argue with you. I want to get out of this +before worse comes my way."</p> + +<p>"But how—" moaned Mr. Jobling, across whose mental vision also were no +doubt flashing pictures of Wandsworth Common and Wormwood Scrubbs.</p> + +<p>Slyne silenced him with a glance. "I'd very gladly leave you here to +your fate, you fat bungler!" said he, with irrepressible bitterness, "if +it weren't that you'd turn informer on us. So come on, both of you. +We've only one chance left among us. And, but for me, neither of you +would have even that." Wherewith, and only pausing to take a long pull +at Captain Dove's open bottle, he turned up the staircase, leaving them +to follow him or stay where they were, as they chose.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove did follow him, curiously, but not forgetting to pocket the +other bottle. The shivering lawyer came close at his heels, no less +eager to snatch at any possibility of escape.</p> + +<p>"Get into a change of clothes," ordered Slyne, as he opened the door of +his own room. "And I wouldn't be slow about it, if I were you—for <i>I'm</i> +going as soon as I'm ready."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove's change did not unduly detain him, since he merely pulled +on a pair of serge trousers and a pilot-jacket on top of his other +attire. And Mr. Jobling was back in Slyne's room no less promptly. They +found it in darkness and Captain Dove uttered a stifled imprecation. But +almost immediately, they heard hasty footsteps on the stair without and +Slyne reappeared with a coil of thin strong cord in one hand.</p> + +<p>"The flagpole-halliards," he explained breathlessly as he shut the door +behind him again. "My window looks out on the battlements. We must +clamber down. Make the rope secure at this end, Dove, but so that we can +pull it after us once we're all down—it's long enough to go +double—while I get some things together."</p> + +<p>Captain Dove did as he was bidden, so deftly that Slyne had not quite +completed his own preparations when the old man called on him to go +first.</p> + +<p>"Send Jobling down," said Slyne, pulling on an overcoat to cover his +evening clothes, and the stout solicitor gave voice to a very +heartrending groan as he glared blankly out into the black gulf beyond +the window.</p> + +<p>"I won't go—" he was beginning when Captain Dove ran furiously at him, +clutched him round the waist in a gorilla-like grip, and thrust him, +feet foremost, struggling insanely, over the sill.</p> + +<p>"Catch hold of the cord—both strands—or I'll drop you!" snarled the +old man. "Down you go, now. You'll find a knot every foot or so. You +needn't slip unless you force me to start you with a slam on the head." +And he stood watching, grimly amused, while his moaning victim sank out +of sight, very gradually.</p> + +<p>In a few moments the weight on the rope relaxed.</p> + +<p>"Are you there?" he demanded, and had to shout the question again at the +top of his voice, so strong was the wind.</p> + +<p>"Yes, all right," the answer came back, very faint but palpably +freighted with helpless wrath.</p> + +<p>"Come on, then, Slyne," ordered Captain Dove, and himself prepared to +follow the injured lawyer. "What's that for?" he called in through the +window. Slyne was busy securing a bundle about his own shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Some spare wraps," Slyne shouted back from between set teeth. "We're +going to take Sallie away with us. On you go—I'll be right after you."</p> + +<p>Nor had the other two long to wait till he came scrambling down in his +turn. And, as soon as they had retrieved their rope, they followed his +lead through the darkness.</p> + +<p>The three fugitives made their way in the teeth of the wind along the +battlements to a point overlooking the terrace that lies at the back of +the banquet-hall. And there again their rope stood them in good stead. +Slyne thanked his stars that he had studied all the intricacies of the +castle so thoroughly, as he led the way, with infinite precaution, from +the terrace into the empty passage down which they crept as far as the +service-pantry behind the gun-room.</p> + +<p>The gun-room was empty also. As he entered it, he gave vent to a long +sigh of heartfelt relief.</p> + +<p>"We're safe now," he told Captain Dove in a guarded tone, and, pulling +off his overcoat, smoothed down his crumpled shirt-front. "But you'd +better hurry down to the water-gate and make sure that the boat there +doesn't go off without us. As soon as Sallie comes along, we'll—"</p> + +<p>"But what if she won't come?" asked Captain Dove, becoming recalcitrant +again. "And how do you know there's a boat below?"</p> + +<p>"You don't suppose Brasse swam ashore, do you!" Slyne retorted +impatiently. "The boat that brought him from the <i>Olive Branch</i> was +still there a few minutes ago—while I was at the top of the tower. I +suppose he told them to wait for him, in case he struck trouble here. +But they may not wait much longer, if you waste any more time.</p> + +<p>"And, as to Sallie, leave me to manage. If you trip me up again now with +any of your damned nonsense," he finished with sudden fury, "I'll go to +gaol quite contentedly—and make sure there that you hang."</p> + +<p>"I might still make terms with that fellow Carthew," Captain Dove +suggested provokingly and with a great air of cunning.</p> + +<p>"All right," returned Slyne. "That's enough." And, crossing toward the +fireplace, he pressed the bell-push beside the mantel.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove snatched up a candle and, with that, made a dart for the +panel in the wainscot. It would not move despite his most desperate +efforts. Slyne pulled a bunch of keys from one pocket and promptly +released the powerful spring-lock. At a sign from him, Mr. Jobling +descended the steps below in Captain Dove's wake. Slyne pulled the panel +back into place and was seated quietly writing at the table in one +corner when a sleepy-looking footman entered the room.</p> + +<p>"I want you to take this note along to her ladyship's rooms," said +Slyne, and yawned. "Give it to her maid. You needn't wait for an +answer."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir," the man returned with all the respect due to Slyne's +recent standing there and evidently still without suspicion of any +change. Slyne yawned again, as if ready for bed, re-reading what he had +written. And then, watching his messenger go off with the missive, +breathed a thanksgiving that was, at the same time, a prayer to the +goddess of chance who was his deity. For he was taking risks now that +were recklessly dangerous and might, at any moment, prove deadly to him.</p> + +<p>"It would be pretty fatal, for instance, if Carthew chanced to be with +the duchess and her when Ambrizette takes my note in," he told himself. +"But—there are a dozen other chances of accident, and what's the use of +worrying? The wind doesn't always blow from the same quarter. I'd feel +safe enough if I only knew where Carthew is at this precise moment."</p> + +<p>He crossed to the fireplace, picking up a cigarette by the way, and, +having lighted it with trembling fingers, stood staring down into the +dull glow of the dying logs on the hearth. He was wondering whether +<i>all</i> was really lost, and listening most impatiently to every slightest +sound. But he had not long to wait before Sallie, pale of face and with +a world of woe in her wet eyes, came very quietly into the room.</p> + +<p>He held out both his hands to her, but she stopped at a little distance.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't blame me, Sallie," he said in a voice meant to carry +conviction with it. "I didn't know—I had no idea—I believed honestly +from the first that you were—"</p> + +<p>"It makes no difference now," she interrupted, "and—I—I—Oh! I'm <i>so</i> +ashamed. What can Mr. Carthew think of me! And he <i>knew</i> all the time +that I had no right to be here!"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't your fault either," he assured her soothingly. "You were +misled—no less than I was. How could we ever have foreseen—But there's +no time to talk of that just now. We must be off. Captain Dove has gone +on ahead. He left me to show you the way to the boat."</p> + +<p>She lifted a hand dazedly to her forehead.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what to do," she murmured. "But—of course, I can't stay +here now."</p> + +<p>Slyne was watching her tensely. "Most assuredly not," he agreed in haste +and trying hard to hide his elation. "You can't possibly stay +here—after what has happened. You've far too much proper pride."</p> + +<p>"And my promise to you is no longer binding," she said, "since I'm +not—It was Lady Josceline Justice with whom you made that bargain—and +not with me."</p> + +<p>He saw that it was no moment to argue that point. All he wanted at once +was to get her safely on board the <i>Olive Branch</i>. And he did not +contradict her.</p> + +<p>"Ambrizette must come with me, Jasper," she said brokenly. "I won't +leave her behind."</p> + +<p>He set his teeth to stifle an angry refusal of that difficult condition.</p> + +<p>"All right, Sallie," he answered smoothly. "I'll risk that too, since +you say so. Slip on this coat—it will be bitter cold in the boat. And +I'll send for Ambrizette."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>THE TENTH EARL</h3> + + +<p>Carthew was feeling anything but fit to cope with all the cares and +responsibilities which had devolved upon him again, under circumstances +so shocking, no less suddenly than he had been relieved of them +all—along with that place in life to which they pertained—by the man +now lying dead on the floor before him. As he watched the Duchess of +Dawn leading Sallie gently out of the banquet-hall, he would have given +a very great deal to have been free to follow them, for Sallie had +looked back at him out of tear-dimmed eyes as she went, with an +expression he could not quite understand. And, now that she too knew the +very worst there was to be told, he was desperately anxious to find out +how she was going to deal with him, under such changed conditions.</p> + +<p>But there were matters even more urgent to be disposed of, for her sake +too, before he could set himself right with her. He pulled himself +together, with a great effort.</p> + +<p>It was clear that he must not permit Captain Dove and his two +confederates to decamp. He had heard enough already to justify him in +taking the law into his own hands for the nonce and detaining them +there. It was equally clear that he must not delay for a moment in +finding out as much more as he might from Farish M'Kissock, who looked +as if he could scarcely live for another hour.</p> + +<p>He whispered to Herries to take such steps as would ensure that no one +whosoever should be allowed to leave the castle, and to shut the three +accomplices up together in the North Keep if that could be done quietly, +without any scandal. Then, having got rid of Captain Dove and the other +two, he was left in the banquet-hall with only the Marquis of Ingoldsby, +in a state of apparent coma, old Janet M'Kissock, grief-stricken to the +very verge of endurance, and her unfortunate brother, still standing +motionless, with bent head and hands clasped, staring down at the dead +man—so near in semblance and yet so far beyond reach of his animosity.</p> + +<p>The grey-haired housekeeper was pleading with Farish M'Kissock to come +away, but he resisted all her attempts to get him to leave that spot.</p> + +<p>"Let me bide where I am," he answered her querulously. "In a very +little, Janet, I'll be away off after his foolish lordship there, that +thinks he has slipped through my feckless fingers again—as he did once +before. But I'll soon be on his track again, for they'll have to streek +me on the same stretching-board that serves him. Let me bide beside him +till then."</p> + +<p>Carthew looked anxiously across at the Marquis of Ingoldsby. There was +nobody who might better serve as a witness to whatever M'Kissock might +still be induced to tell concerning that nightmare past in which the +poor corpse on the floor and the girl who had gone away weeping and he +himself had all been involved.</p> + +<p>"There's somethin' doosid fishy about all these goin's-on," Lord +Ingoldsby commented with a good deal more candour than tact, when +Carthew made that suggestion to him. "And I'm for Lady Josceline, right +through from start to finish. I don't believe a word of that +goat-bearded fellow's yarn. He's been and caught sunstroke +somewhere—that's what's the matter with him, eh? He's mad as a hatter.</p> + +<p>"But, all the same, I'm willin' to listen to anything more he has to +say—and take a mental note of it, so to speak. I want to know who's who +and what's what myself."</p> + +<p>Carthew turned to Farish M'Kissock then, and the latter looked him over +with a frown as of dim remembrance which gradually changed to a scowl of +hate.</p> + +<p>"And so," said the ex-Emir in a rancorous voice, "<i>you</i> have come to +your own at last amid it all. Is there no end to your ill race? My men +told me that you were safely buried and dead—they showed me the mound +that they said covered you. How—"</p> + +<p>"Come away from here," said Carthew steadily, "and I'll tell you how I +escaped." And Farish M'Kissock, leaning heavily on his sister's +shoulder, at last allowed her to lead him to her own room.</p> + +<p>Carthew told him then, in few words, while Lord Ingoldsby, listening +gloomily, scowled over it, the story of Sallie's daring and his own +escape from death, on the African coast.</p> + +<p>The ex-Emir's heavy eyes lighted up a little.</p> + +<p>"Ay," said Farish M'Kissock, musingly. "And so it was—her—that helped +you past your dug grave! I knew her for a mettlesome filly the first +time I ever clapped eyes on her. And now—to think that but for you and +me she'd be cosily settled, knowing nothing, in this old nest—that +should by rights have been my wife's and mine! It's a damned upside-down +world this, my fine doctor! But—you'll make it up to her, maybe, in +another way?"</p> + +<p>He was gazing at Carthew with something of his old imperious, +indomitable spirit. "You owe—her—your very coronet, my new Lord Jura," +said he.</p> + +<p>"I'll pay all I owe," said Carthew, to humour him, "if she'll take any +payment from me." And at that the Marquis of Ingoldsby scowled still +more blackly.</p> + +<p>The ex-Emir made a gruesome effort to laugh sardonically.</p> + +<p>"She'll take it," said he, "if you're man enough, if you're man enough +to master her," said he and sank back on his couch.</p> + +<p>"And now—about Captain Dove," Carthew suggested as he brought paper and +ink to the table from the desk in one corner. And the dying man sat up +again as if spurred to a final effort.</p> + +<p>He looked round at his stricken sister. "Leave us for a little, Janet, +woman," said he in a more kindly tone. "There is that to be told now +which you would like ill to hear, and his lordship will call you back +when I'm through with it."</p> + +<p>Carthew nodded hastily to the old housekeeper. "We'll be as quick as we +can," he promised: "and you can stay within call."</p> + +<p>She went, however unwillingly, and then her brother began the story of +all his dealings with Captain Dove, speaking slowly, in a low voice, +husbanding his strength, while Carthew wrote down every word of it.</p> + +<p>In his eagerness to ensure the downfall of his surviving enemy, he had +no hesitation in incriminating himself. Lord Ingoldsby listened as if +stricken dumb and Carthew had hard work to contain himself as he heard, +among other infamies, of the bargain the ex-Emir had driven with +Captain Dove over Sallie. He would have thrown down his pen during +M'Kissock's laboured, self-compassionate account of how Captain Dove had +outwitted him, had not the man on the couch at the other side of the +table been almost across death's threshold already. M'Kissock's rabid +thirst for revenge, his obvious impenitence for all his own crimes and +misdeeds, excited repugnance in place of the pity his plight might +otherwise have inspired. Carthew was devoutly thankful when that most +distasteful task was at length completed, and Farish M'Kissock's feeble, +straggling signature attached to the document he had drawn up. Lord +Ingoldsby and he both added their names as witnesses, and then he called +the housekeeper in again. Her brother, having thus accomplished his +final object in life, was evidently sinking fast.</p> + +<p>In the corridor outside, Lord Ingoldsby called a halt as Carthew would +have turned to leave him with a few hurried words of thanks for the +jealous service he had just rendered.</p> + +<p>"Half a mo'," interposed his lordship, very morosely. "We might just as +well come to an understandin' now as later on. I want to tell you that, +whoever Lady Josceline is or is not, I've asked her to marry me—and, if +you're goin' to see her now—I don't know what your ideas are, but—we +might just as well start fair."</p> + +<p>Carthew contemplated him for a moment in surprised silence, and then +nodded curtly. He was going to see Sallie at once, if he could, as his +rival had divined.</p> + +<p>"All right," he assented. "Come on."</p> + +<p>He looked into the banquet-hall in passing. Herries was there, with the +butler and all his assistants. The dinner-table had been cleared and +draped with a great black mort-cloth. And on it lay, recumbent, with +clasped hands, in the clear, mellow light of the tall, white tapers at +its head and feet, the unheeding shape of Carthew's predecessor in the +earldom of Jura, still dressed in its disreputable, greasy blue uniform +and burst boots, with a red smudge, as of iron-rust, on its forehead.</p> + +<p>The fires had both been raked out and their hearth-stones strewn with +the ashes, not to be rekindled before that night on which the dead earl +should be carried away by the water-gate from his catafalque to the +great black burial-barge, with the pipes wailing a wild lament for the +mountains to echo, and the waves or the still sea-surface, as might +befall, crimson under the twinkling torches of those who would follow, +with muffled oars.</p> + +<p>Herries came forward to speak to Carthew. "I'm seeing to everything here +now, my lord, and we'll soon have all as it should be," said he. +"Captain Dove and his friends are fast, in the North Keep. And your +other orders have all been observed."</p> + +<p>"I'll see you again in a little, then," Carthew returned, and went on +his way, by no means inspirited.</p> + +<p>It was the Duchess of Dawn, her blue eyes still blurred and showing +traces of tears, who came to the door of the boudoir in Sallie's suite +in the distant West Wing, in response to Carthew's knock.</p> + +<p>"Have you not brought her back with you?" she asked, and looked +surprisedly past him at Lord Ingoldsby.</p> + +<p>"Where is she?" Carthew asked, in sudden alarm. "I haven't seen her."</p> + +<p>"She went along to the gun-room a little ago—a note came to say she was +wanted there. And—I supposed it would be from you."</p> + +<p>"I'll find her there, then," declared Carthew, and turned and retraced +his steps very hurriedly. An instant dread of some unforeseen mischance +among his over-rapid plans for her welfare had filled his mind; and his +face grew dark as he hobbled back along that endless corridor and across +the deserted main hall again, with Lord Ingoldsby at his elbow.</p> + +<p>Of the sleepy servants they passed by the way he asked no questions, for +only the butler and his immediate underlings knew anything as yet of +what had happened. It had been Carthew's own idea to prevent any garbled +report being spread about till he should have devised some means to save +Sallie from pain and scandal.</p> + +<p>He found the gun-room empty, and stared about it in dire distress. Then +he sniffed the air, frowning. And then he noticed a half-smoked +cigarette smouldering in the fireplace. He picked it up hastily and saw +Jasper Slyne's monogram upon it.</p> + +<p>"Must have been a long time burning," he thought, and a concrete +suspicion flashed through his mind. But that seemed so far-fetched at +first that he shook his head impatiently over it.</p> + +<p>"They could scarcely escape from the North Keep," said he to himself. +"But—I may as well make sure that everything's safe here while I'm +about it," he muttered, and limped across to the panel that covered the +passage to the water-gate.</p> + +<p>It was unlocked.</p> + +<p>He pulled it open and looked down into the darkness, listening intently. +Then he swung round and, snatching up the lighted lamp on the table +beside the fire, made off down the steps, leaving Lord Ingoldsby in the +dark.</p> + +<p>But his gaping lordship was not to be left behind. He followed hot-foot, +uttering foolish oaths as he barked an elbow on the rock wall.</p> + +<p>Carthew stopped suddenly. He could hear voices not very far ahead and +the movement of some heavy weight. The tunnel curved a little there, and +he knew he must be near the bridge that crosses the oubliette. He went +on again, very cautiously, keeping close to one wall and shading the +lamp as well as he could, till he came to a point where further +precaution was idle. For, fifty yards away, straight ahead, he could see +Slyne holding a candle beside Captain Dove, who was stooping over the +roughly carpentered tree-trunk which still stretched from lip to lip of +the intervening chasm. Its former neighbour had disappeared.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove looked up and caught sight of Carthew in his turn. He had +got his hands under the heavy trunk, and staggered sideways, straddling +it, till its butt-end was close to the brink. Carthew had all but +reached the opposite edge of the pit between them when he let it go with +a breathless grunt and it fell almost soundlessly into the void below.</p> + +<p>Slyne blew out his candle then, with a bitter, mocking laugh, but not +before Carthew had observed Mr. Jobling and Ambrizette in the +background, with a drooping figure between them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + +<h3>"AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE"</h3> + + +<p>Captain Dove looked across at Carthew with a hoarse chuckle, no less +malicious. He was evidently in that mordant, capricious humour most +common with him at moments when his potations had merely begun their +evil work on his wits.</p> + +<p>"Light that candle again, Slyne, confound you!" he ordered sharply. "His +noble lordship, our American friend, can scarcely see us—to say +good-bye."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come on," Slyne urged, obviously almost at the end of his patience. +"We've no more than time to get safely away before we'll have the hue +and cry after us in the fishermen's boats—and they're faster than you +imagine."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> can't teach <i>me</i> anything about boats!" Captain Dove retorted +with crapulous dignity. "So just light—Or, here—gimme the candle, +quick! And don't address any more of—of your in—invidious conversation +to me."</p> + +<p>"I'll see Sallie safely afloat, then," suggested Slyne. "We'll have to +send her down in a whip, I expect. The sea's always rising."</p> + +<p>"She's a better seaman than you are, Slyne," the old man returned with a +sneer. "And she'll go down hand under hand, same as I will—when I'm +quite ready. Till then, she'll stay here with me, so that his loving +lordship there can have a last, long look at her." He chuckled again, +most discordantly. "But—you can see that fat stiff, Jobling, safely +afloat, if you like. It will probably take a whip to tempt <i>him</i> to run +the risk of a wetting on his way aboard."</p> + +<p>The wretched object of his derision gave vent to a very audible groan, +hearing which, Captain Dove laughed aloud, with malevolent relish. And, +having at length succeeded in striking a match, he turned again toward +Carthew, standing still and silent on the other side of the apparently +bottomless chasm which cut the pathway apart.</p> + +<p>"Are there only the two of you there?" he asked, darting a contemptuous +glance at Lord Ingoldsby.</p> + +<p>"That's all," Carthew answered tersely. He was absolutely at his wits' +end, but thought he could not do better than detain the old man there as +long as he might.</p> + +<p>"But you've raised the alarm up above?" Captain Dove suggested, with all +the fatuous cunning of one half-fuddled. "And we'll have a pack of your +cut-throats in petticoats down on us in a minute or two?"</p> + +<p>He looked savagely round at Slyne. "I thought I told you to see that +bloated Jonah into the boat!" he blurted explosively. And Slyne, with an +exasperated shrug of the shoulders, sauntered away, with Mr. Jobling in +very uncertain attendance.</p> + +<p>"I want to talk to you on my own account for five seconds or so, +young-fellow-my-lad," Captain Dove continued, as if in confidence, to +Carthew. "But—is it safe, eh? You haven't answered my questions yet. +And—you've turned the key on us once already!"</p> + +<p>"You're safe from pursuit in the meantime," Carthew reassured him.</p> + +<p>"I'll take your word for it, sir," Captain Dove declared, and, bowing +very graciously, all but over-balanced himself. "And now let me ask you +whether you have been listening to any more lies from Farish M'Kissock; +because, if you have, we must part brass-rags right away."</p> + +<p>Carthew was most sorely tempted to spare the truth, and made haste to +answer honestly while he might. "I've heard all he had to tell," said +he, "and—"</p> + +<p>"And you believe it all!" Captain Dove interposed, with maudlin pathos, +his evident intention to see whether he could not even yet make terms of +some sort for himself with the young American knocked on the head. +"Well, well! We must be jogging now, Sallie."</p> + +<p>The girl stepped forward beside him at that, and Carthew was thankful to +see Ambrizette clinging to her skirts, for she had told him more than +once how often the dumb, black dwarf had stood betwixt her and imminent +harm.</p> + +<p>Her sweet, sensitive features were very pale, but placid, as if, after +the sore stress she had suffered, she had found some sort of peace. And +all the pride seemed to have died out of her downcast eyes as she faced +him across the dark, impassable gulf that stretched between them.</p> + +<p>"I don't want you to think that I have gone away unwillingly, Mr. +Carthew," she said, and his heart almost failed him as he heard that. It +had never occurred to him that she might have taken such a sheerly +suicidal step of her own free will.</p> + +<p>"But why—" he cried, and the hurt in his voice perhaps helped to salve +a little the sore wounds in her own heart.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't possibly have stayed here, you see—after what has happened. +And,—I'm not afraid of the future now. You don't understand, perhaps, +but—you will remember—I wasn't afraid."</p> + +<p>"Come away now, Sallie," said Captain Dove. An irascible voice in the +distance was calling upon him insistently.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," she said, submissively, to Carthew, and, looking up, her +eyes met his for an instant.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute—only a minute more, for God's sake!" Carthew implored +the old man. "It won't do any of you any harm to stand by till I've said +my say. It won't help you in the least, Captain Dove, to carry Sallie +away—and you'll be far safer, believe me, if you leave her here. I've +only been waiting my chance to ask her to marry me, and—"</p> + +<p>"I've asked her already," interrupted Lord Ingoldsby, in a tone no doubt +meant to be most impressive but strongly resembling a squeal. No one, +however, paid him any more attention than if he had been the shadow he +seemed.</p> + +<p>"And if you carry her off just now," Carthew continued hurriedly, +encouraged by the benevolent smile with which Captain Dove was regarding +him, "you'll have good cause to regret it. For I'll hunt you down till I +find you, and then—"</p> + +<p>"Now you're talking," the old man commented approvingly, quite +undismayed by that threat. "And then we'll make terms, if you come in +time and bring enough money with you.</p> + +<p>"I'd even have waited here and fixed it all up, but—" He wagged his +shameless white head sorrowfully. "It wouldn't be wise," said he. +"You've been prejudiced against me—by Farish M'Kissock. It's too late +to think of that now. So I must be off, for my own sake.</p> + +<p>"But maybe we'll meet again," he concluded with cheerful complacence, +"in some safer spot for me. And, if Sallie's still on my hands when you +show up—"</p> + +<p>"So be it, then," Carthew agreed, seeing clearly that further appeal +would be futile, all eagerness to get above-ground again and begin the +chase. He could have the whole fishing-fleet of the village armed and +afloat within half an hour, and might even yet succeed in boarding the +<i>Olive Branch</i> at her anchorage. But, manlike, he had counted without +the woman in the case.</p> + +<p>"I'm going away of my own free will, Mr. Carthew," said Sallie suddenly, +with the same strange expression of face that he had observed when she +had looked back at him in the banquet-hall. "And—I don't want you to +follow me. You have been far more than generous, but—I couldn't marry +you—in any case."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that, Sallie," he beseeched, and, "Dove!" cried a very +wrathful voice in the distance. "We'll be off without you if you don't +come down at once."</p> + +<p>The old man's smug, blinking smile instantaneously changed to a furious +scowl. He pulled a big, golden-necked bottle from one of his pockets, +removed the cork, and, having poured its remaining contents hastily down +his throat, tiptoed off down the tunnel with it in one hand, making +motions as if to hurl it with accurate aim, leaving Sallie alone there.</p> + +<p>Carthew glared across the black gulf at his feet, his free hand +clenched, in helpless despair. He would gladly have given his earldom +then in exchange for a pair of wings.</p> + +<p>"I'll bolt up and get a ladder brought down," groaned Lord Ingoldsby. +And he would have made off without more ado but that Carthew had seized +him by the sleeve.</p> + +<p>"Here! Hold this," commanded Carthew, and thrust the smoking lamp into +his hands. Sallie had turned to follow Captain Dove, with dragging +steps. He could not believe that she meant what she had said. He would +not let her go without making sure. Farish M'Kissock's contemptuous +words had recurred to his mind—"if you're man enough to master her!" +Instinct told him that she would not turn back now, and—a man's last +stake was all he had left to venture.</p> + +<p>"Stop, stop! It's sheer suicide," the marquis cried shrilly, as Carthew +ran limping up the tunnel as far as the straight extended, and faced +about, throwing off his coat, and balanced there for a breathless +instant and then came racing down past him to launch himself bodily into +space.</p> + +<p>No human being could have leaped the distance, and Carthew had been +further handicapped by his lameness. He shot, as if from a catapult, +nearly as high as the arched rock-roof, his elbows close, chin on chest, +head between his shoulders, knees at his temples and heels tucked back, +and, on the downward curve, reached the lower lip of the chasm, landing +on one shoulder, to hang there for the space of a couple of heart-beats, +as if poised for the inevitable rebound.</p> + +<p>Lord Ingoldsby heard the dull thud of his fall and Sallie's stifled, +heart-broken cry. He opened his eyes and saw the girl desperately +striving to pull a hunched-up, relaxing body back from the brink over +which, but for her, it would already have toppled. He thought they must +both have slipped over before, at the finish, Sallie succeeded in +drawing Carthew into safety, and sat down beside him, swaying from side +to side, as if her own back were broken.</p> + +<p>But, presently, Carthew looked up and then he scrambled on to his knees +with a suppressed grunt of agony. For a time the whole world swam redly +about him, but he clenched his teeth, not to be overcome. And when +Sallie in turn got on to her feet again, white and shaking, he had +recovered the use of his voice.</p> + +<p>"I won't let you go—dear," he said dazedly, and started, in renewed +alarm for her, as they heard Captain Dove calling her harshly from +below.</p> + +<p>"Coming," she called back, since she could not help herself.</p> + +<p>"You must stay here, or—he'll kill you!" she whispered in an agony of +entreaty. "I'll go now; it will be best so. And if, by and by, you still +care to follow—"</p> + +<p>"You go on," he said gently. "I'm going to follow you now."</p> + +<p>She had no option but to obey him, since to have remained there would +merely have meant that Captain Dove, coming back for her, would have him +at a greater disadvantage. And as she led the way in the dark, with slow +steps, he followed quietly; while Lord Ingoldsby, left to his own +devices as they disappeared, was brilliantly inspired to bolt back for +help.</p> + +<p>A little further on a thick twilight made progress more easily possible, +and they could feel the salt breath of the sea on their fevered faces. +Then, at last, they drew near the oblong opening in the cliff-face at +which Captain Dove had for several minutes been busy abusing the men in +the boat below. But he was in no better temper by then, since the empty +bottle he had hurled at Slyne had knocked the steersman insensible.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Sallie?" he snapped, looking round.</p> + +<p>"Below there, you lubbers! Stand in again. We're coming down now.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up, girl!" he barked, impatiently. "It's high time we were +away."</p> + +<p>He was leaning out over the ledge, clinging with one hand to a bar of +the great water-gate, so thick, that his stubby fingers did not meet +round it. Carthew, creeping after Sallie set her suddenly aside, and ran +at him.</p> + +<p>Captain Dove heard him coming, but too late to save himself. He felt as +if a bullock had kicked him in the small of the back, and, as his hold +broke, he fell headlong, howling like an evil spirit, into the +smothering, yeasty surge through which his boat was already hastily +backing to pick him up.</p> + +<p>Carthew set his back to the heavy gate, and it swung slowly shut. But +Slyne had not left behind the key he had for its modern lock, and its +old-fashioned draw-bolts were rusted fast. He could only hope that Lord +Ingoldsby would bring back some means of bridging the drowning-hole +before Captain Dove and his helpers could storm the position again.</p> + +<p>He laughed, a little light-headed by then, as he stumbled up the long, +dark slope, with Sallie close at his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I told you I wouldn't let you go,—dear," he declared triumphantly, and +his laugh changed to a low, choked groan as she would have taken his arm +to help him; for he was walking unsteadily.</p> + +<p>"Don't touch that one," he begged. "It's a bit sore; I came down on it +when I jumped."</p> + +<p>"Do you think it's broken?" she whispered, and her eyes grew dim as she +thought of all he had suffered through her. She had stopped. There were +lights coming down the tunnel, and hurrying feet, on the further side of +the drowning-hole.</p> + +<p>He slipped his sound arm about her. "There's nothing broken that can't +be mended now," he murmured contentedly. "Unless you're really +determined to break my heart."</p> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3><i>A Story of Charm and Cheeriness</i></h3> + +<h2>ALL THE WORLD TO NOTHING</h2> + +<h3><i>By</i> WYNDHAM MARTYN</h3> + +<h3>Illustrated by H. H. Leonard.</h3> + + +<p>A few years ago Wyndham Martyn's first book, "The Man Outside," was one +of the "best sellers" of its season. His new novel shows a distinct +advance in the art of the story-teller, and will make many new friends +for its author. Richard Chester, a young American of family, with a +care-free disposition and a dashing outlook on life, goes through all +his money, and has the choice of appealing to his older brother for +assistance or working to avoid starvation.</p> + +<p>Choosing the latter alternative, and the odds against him, he pursues +his unfaltering way through many trials and vicissitudes, not afraid to +try labor of the meanest sort; and throughout his struggle for existence +his hopes are sustained through love of a true-hearted woman. No man +fights more gallantly than he for what is dear to him; neither hardship +nor ill-success has power to stay his impetuous course.</p> + +<p>The reader must learn for himself the place that a curious will and a +chance meeting have in the unusual plot, and the reader may be sure of +finding in "All the World to Nothing" a story of charm and cheeriness +and unusual appeal.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3><i>By the author of "The Haunted Pajamas"</i></h3> + +<h2>THE GIFT OF ABOU HASSAN</h2> + +<h3><i>By</i> FRANCIS PERRY ELLIOTT</h3> + +<h3>Illustrated by Hanson Booth.</h3> + + +<p>This is absolutely the cleverest, catchiest book of the season, the +Arabian Nights up-to-date in modern New York, a rapid, rollicking +romance of love and laughter, fun and absurdity, all told in the most +delightfully whimsical manner imaginable. A young club-man, whose +distinguishing characteristic is the possession of unblushing audacity +and nerve, sees a pretty girl outside the antique-shop of a Persian +dealer, to which the girl's aunt has come in quest of a wonderful +rug—and then the fun begins and never stops.</p> + +<p>For Abou Hassan's shop holds a rug more wonderful than the world has +known in many centuries: a magic rug—put foot upon it and one can't be +seen or heard. And the hero's love-making, his masquerade as another +man, the complications for which the magic rug is responsible, these +make a steady stream of comedy that brings laughter to your lips and +tears to your eyes while you are held entranced by the mirthful medley +of mysterious events that follow.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Blackbird, by Hudson Douglas + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE BLACKBIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 39066-h.htm or 39066-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/6/39066/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The White Blackbird + +Author: Hudson Douglas + +Release Date: March 8, 2012 [EBook #39066] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE BLACKBIRD *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + THE WHITE BLACKBIRD + + BY HUDSON DOUGLAS + + AUTHOR OF "A MILLION A MINUTE," "THE LANTERN OF LUCK," ETC + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY + + HERMAN PFEIFER + + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1912 + + _Copyright, 1912_, + BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. + + _All rights reserved, including those of translation into + foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_ + + Published, September, 1912 + + THE COLONIAL PRESS + C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. + + + FOR + ISOBEL MY WIFE + AND + OUR DAUGHTER ISOBEL + + + + +[Illustration: "Feel my pulse now, before you go," the pseudo-doctor's +patient commanded.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A TROPICAL DISCUSSION 1 + + II. "DUTCH COURAGE" 11 + + III. EL FARISH 18 + + IV. THE MASQUE OF DEATH 28 + + V. AFLOAT AND ASHORE 38 + + VI. HOBSON'S CHOICE 51 + + VII. THE WHITE BLACKBIRD 64 + + VIII. UNMASKED 80 + + IX. AN OVERDRAFT ON THE FUTURE 91 + + X. THE GODDESS OF CHANCE 107 + + XI. A FOOL AND HIS FORTUNE 119 + + XII. THE PRICE OF FREEDOM 130 + + XIII. A MASTERSTROKE 143 + + XIV. "SALLIE HARRIS" 156 + + XV. THE LAW--AND THE PROFITS 169 + + XVI. "PLEASURES AND PALACES" 184 + + XVII. THE MAN IN POSSESSION 195 + + XVIII. THE LOSER 205 + + XIX. THE WINNER 217 + + XX. BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR 232 + + XXI. THE JURA SUCCESSION 243 + + XXII. THE PARTY OF THE FIRST PART 259 + + XXIII. A NEW IDEA 271 + + XXIV. BY RIGHT OF PURCHASE 280 + + XXV. THE WHITE LADY 295 + + XXVI. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH 306 + + XXVII. DEBIT AND CREDIT 320 + + XXVIII. ISHMAEL'S HERITAGE 332 + + XXIX. PRIDE'S PRICE 342 + + XXX. THE TENTH EARL 350 + + XXXI. "AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE" 358 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "FEEL MY PULSE NOW, BEFORE YOU GO," THE PSEUDO-DOCTOR'S + PATIENT COMMANDED. (_SEE PAGE 32_) _frontispiece_ + + "YOU WON'T FORGET," HE URGED, GRAVE AGAIN 89 + + SOMETHING VERY LIKE FEAR LOOKED OUT OF HIS EYES 258 + + SHE TOUCHED WITH HER LIPS THE BACK OF THE TOIL-STAINED + HAND 322 + + + + +The White Blackbird + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A TROPICAL DISCUSSION + + +"I'd far rather beg in the gutter than marry you, Jasper!" flashed the +girl, at last goaded past all patience. Her clouded, indignant eyes +expressed both contempt and aversion for the young man leaning over the +deck-rail beside her. + +He was still a young man as years go and in spite of the grey streaks in +his dark hair, the crow's-feet above his cheek-bones; more than passably +good-looking, too, with his regular profile and straight, spare, +athletic figure, though his sleepy eyes were a trifle close-set and more +than a trifle untrustworthy, though the black moustache he was twirling +with a long, thin, almost womanish hand hid a cruel, selfish mouth. + +In his smart white yachting-suit and panama, lounging over the sun-dried +teak taffrail with his knees crossed, he seemed to be neither oppressed +by the tropical heat nor impressed at all by anything that his companion +could say. + +"I'd _far_ rather beg in the gutter," she repeated, as if to settle the +matter. And the emphasis with which she spoke showed that she meant what +she said. + +"But--that doesn't make any difference, my dear Sallie," he once more +answered, displaying his white, even teeth in a slight, amused smile. +"You're going to marry me just the same. And you may as well make up +your mind right away--that it will pay you best to be pleasant about it. + +"Captain Dove has come to the point at last," he went on to explain +condescendingly, in the same cool, careless, conversational tone, a tone +which, however, could not quite hide the ugly determination behind it. +"You've upset him for good and all this time. He's aching to get rid of +you now. In fact, he's cursing himself that he didn't--when he might +have made more out of the deal. And, anyhow, he's promised you to me." + +The girl's slim, shapely body had suddenly stiffened. She started up and +away from him with a gesture of blind repulsion. Her pure, proud, +sensitive face showed the struggle that was going on in her +mind--between fear and hope; quick fear that what he had just said might +be true, slow hope that he had been lying to her again. + +He had turned on one elbow with a lazy air of inexhaustible tolerance, +that he might the more conveniently follow her with his greedy glance. +He was apparently quite sure of himself--and her. At any rate, he was +openly gloating over her beauty in her distress while she stood gazing +in dire dismay about the shabby, unkempt little steamer which was all +the home she had in the world, all the home she had ever had except for +a few forgotten years of her childhood. + +Its name, on a life-buoy triced to the rusty netting between the rails, +was the _Olive Branch_, but its port of registry had been painted out. +It rode deep although it was decked after the old-fashioned switchback +design and had no cargo on board. Its squat, inconspicuous smokestack +helped to give it a somewhat nefarious air. + +About its ill-kept, untidy decks there were very few signs of life and +none at all of luxury. Under a tattered canvas sun-screen on the +fo'c'sle-head a ragged deck hand was on the look-out, his scorched face +expressive of anything but contentment with his circumstances. He +shifted frequently from one bare, blistered foot to the other; it was +impossible to stand still for long, with the deck-plates as hot as any +frying-pan on a brisk fire. + +On the bridge, the officer of the watch was pacing to and fro. Every +time he turned on his beat beneath the dirty, weather-worn awning he +paused to dart a suspicious, expectant glance at the double hatchway +which led to the crew's quarters, forward. The open wheel-house behind +him was occupied only by the quartermaster on duty. The remainder of the +watch on deck were nowhere visible. + +Through the heat-haze to starboard the blurred outline of the low-lying +African coast was dimly discernible. Seaward, ahead, and astern, the +long, oily swell that the North-east Trades never reach blazed like +molten metal under the almost vertical afternoon sun. Except for the +lonely little grey steamer wallowing sluggishly northward through it, +the world of water was empty to the horizon. + +A poignant sense of her own no less forlorn plight there stirred the +girl to glance round at her companion, as if in helpless appeal. + +"You don't really mean--what you said, do you, Jasper?" she asked, with +a very pitiful inflection in her low, musical voice. + +"Every word," he answered her promptly. "If you don't believe me, go +down and ask Captain Dove." + +She turned away from him again, to hide the effect of his curt reply. +But her drooping shoulders no doubt betrayed that to him. He pulled out +a cigar-case and, having lighted a rank cheroot with languid +deliberation, puffed that contemplatively. + +"I _will_ go down and ask Captain Dove," she said to herself at length, +with tremulous courage, and was moving toward the companion-hatch when +she heard from the other end of the ship a sudden ominous discord, a +sound such as might have come from a nest of hornets about to swarm. +There seemed to be something wrong forward; and she faced about again, +instantly. + +Peering through the hurtful sunshine with anxious eyes, her scarlet lips +compressed and resolute, she saw that the look-out had turned on his +half-baked feet to stare from the fo'c'sle into the well-deck behind +him. The officer of the watch had ceased his regular march and +countermarch, and was also gazing downward in that direction. Even her +self-confident companion had started up from his idle posture, in +obvious alarm. + +A figure darted up one of the two ladders which led to the bridge. The +officer of the watch had left his post by the other at the same moment, +as if to avoid the new-comer, and was making his way aft, unhurriedly, +yet at speed. He did not look back, but she was aware of other figures +which also had appeared in a moment from nowhere, and were following him +on tiptoe, under cover where it could be had. Once, a flash, as of +flame, amidships, almost forced from her lips a wild cry of warning, but +that was only a glint of sun on a gun-barrel where the browning had +worn away and left the steel bright. And he, seemingly unaware of the +danger behind him, reached the poop unharmed, a big, fair, +bluff-looking, broad-shouldered man in shabby blue sea-uniform. + +At the foot of the narrow stairway by which alone access could be had to +the poop, he called softly up to the girl at the rail above, "They'll be +at our throats in a minute, Sallie. Get you away below, quick--and warn +the Old Man." + +At the top of the steps he stopped, and turned, and stayed there, +blocking the stairway with his great body. And the armed ruffians +swarming aft in his wake slackened their pace, then hung back about the +hatch on the deck below. But each had a finger crooked on the trigger of +a ready rifle. The simplest word or motion misplaced at that first +moment of crisis must have precipitated the murder that was to be. + +The girl had obeyed him promptly, if without appearance of haste and, +once out of sight of the mutineers, there was no need to study her +steps. She darted across the dim, daintily appointed saloon below and, +having knocked imperatively at one of the two doors on that side of the +ship entered, without waiting for any permission, the stateroom it +opened into. + +"The men have broken out, Captain Dove," she cried, breathless a little, +her bosom heaving. "They're coming aft--there isn't a moment to spare. +What are we to do?" + +In the berth behind the curtains some one was moving. The room was +practically in darkness, since the open port was also screened, to shut +out the searching sun. But, in spite of all such precautions, the heat +was almost unbearable. + +The curtains parted slightly and from their opening a face peered out +at her, the blandly benevolent face of a mild-looking, white-haired old +man who, at a casual glance, might perhaps have passed for a clergyman +or a missionary. + +But in an instant a most disconcerting change came over his features. +Some dormant devil seemed to have wakened within him and was glaring out +at the girl from behind evil, red-rimmed eyes. His appearance then might +have frightened a man away. But she stood her ground undismayed. + +No less suddenly he broke into a torrent of fierce abuse, freely +interspersed with blood-curdling, old-fashioned oaths. And that was only +stemmed by a frantic paroxysm of coughing which left a crimson froth +about the white stubble upon his chin. He fell back into the gloom +behind the curtains, as if he would choke. + +The girl hurriedly filled a glass with water from a carafe on a rack at +one side of the room, pulled the curtains apart, and held it to the sick +man's lips. He sipped at it and then struck it away so that most of its +contents spilled on her skirts. + +"Would you poison me now, you witch!" he gasped, and then, regaining his +voice a little, "Ambrizette," he called weakly, with a quavering +imprecation, "brandy. Bring me the bottle. Your mistress has poisoned +me." + +A coloured woman, stunted, misshapen, almost inconceivably ugly, came +shambling in with a bottle, which he snatched eagerly from her and set +to his lips, while she made off again, in very evident dread of him. The +colour came back to his face, and at last he laid it aside, with a sigh +of relief. + +"The men have broken out, have they?" he muttered, half to himself. "And +you come to _me_ to ask what's to be done!" He glowered down at one of +his arms which lay across his chest in a sling and tightly bandaged. +His voice once more became venomous. "It's your fault that I'm lying +here," he snarled. "You and your bully Yoxall have taken charge of my +ship between you. Why don't the two of you tackle them? What the Seven +Stars d'ye think I care now whether you sink or swim!" + +She turned away from him with a little, tired, hopeless gesture. + +"I don't care very much, either, now," she answered, dully, "what +happens to me. But--it's you they're after, Captain Dove, and there +isn't a moment to spare. They've got the guns up already." + +The old man was plucking with feverish fingers at the fine lace +counterpane which covered him. He made an effort to rise, but lay back +again with a groan. + +"They've got the guns up, have they!" he growled, deep down in his +throat, with a most horrid effect. "Then one of the mates at least must +be standing in with them--the mutinous dogs! And since it's come to +settling old scores, I'm ready; I'll settle all with them before we go +any farther." His eyes were sunken with sickness and he was so weak that +he could scarcely move, but his spirit seemed to be altogether +unquenchable. + +"I'm going to settle with them now," he declared, "and--don't you +interfere again, Sallie. I've stood all I'm going to stand from you, +too. You've got to fancy yourself far too much, my girl! Listen here! +Next time I have to talk to you, it'll be with that,"--he pointed to a +heavy _kourbash_ of hippopotamus-hide hanging from a hook on the +panelling,--"and, by all that's holy! if I've to begin, I'll lace you +from head to heel with it--as I should have done long ago." + +The girl shrank as if he had actually struck her with it. She knew he +was even capable of carrying out that threat. + +"Where's Jasper Slyne?" he demanded, in a low whisper, almost exhausted. + +"On deck, above, with Reuben Yoxall," she told him. + +"Send him down here to me. I must get up out o' this. To-day's Sunday, +isn't it? What was our position at noon?" + +She told him exactly, at once, and he seemed content to rely on her +nautical knowledge. He nodded, as if satisfied. + +"_That's_ all right. Off you go now. And don't forget what I've said to +you. Tell Slyne to look sharp--and stand the men off somehow till I get +on deck," he snapped, as she hurried away. + +She did not know what might have happened overhead while she had been +below, and heaved a heartfelt sigh of relief as, gaining the open air +again, she saw that the two men she had left there were still at the +rail, unharmed. Only one of them looked round as she approached, and it +was to him she spoke. + +"Captain Dove wants you in a hurry, Jasper," she said, and he went below +in his turn, not altogether unwillingly. + +As he disappeared behind her, she glanced down at the main-deck alive +with armed men, as evil-looking a crowd as could be recruited from the +purlieus of Hell's Kitchen or crimped from the Hole-in-the-Wall. The +flush on her face died away. + +"What are they waiting for, Rube?" she whispered to the big man at the +top of the steps, whose steady glance seemed to have such a repressive +effect on them. + +"Sunset, I suppose," he answered in a low tone. "If no one crosses +them, they'll maybe wait till it's dark before they begin. Better go +below again, Sallie." + +She shook her head and said "No," aloud, since he was not looking at +her. And he did not urge that precaution. The sun was already nearing +the steamy horizon. + +The sullen, lowering looks of the ill-favoured assemblage about the +hatch foretold the fate which threatened her and him. + +"But they won't shoot _you_, Sallie," he said, giving voice to his only +fear in a shaky whisper, his soul in his honest eyes as he glanced +wretchedly round at her. + +She laid a clenched hand on the rail and opened it slightly. "Don't +worry about me, Rube," she whispered back, very matter of fact, while he +gazed as if fascinated at the thin blue phial, with its red +danger-label, resting in her rosy palm. "I always carry a key that will +unlock the last gate of all. So there's no need to worry about me. I +just wish you'd say you forgive me all the trouble I've brought on you." + +"There's nothing to forgive, lass," he asserted stolidly, and, looking +away again as though her appealing regard had hurt him, was taken with a +gulping in the throat. + +Two or three of the mutineers had begun to knock loose the wedges +securing the tarpaulin cover of the after-hatch, through which alone +access to the ship's magazine was to be had. + +"There's no use in trying to stop them at that," he said, as if to +himself. "It's only a matter of minutes now, I suppose. And--" + +"Dutch courage is cheap enough," said a contemptuous, sneering voice in +the background, and the sound of shuffling footsteps succeeded it. The +men on the main-deck were gazing past him, handling their rifles, +muttering hoarsely, moving to get more elbow-room. The girl beside him +had turned at the words, but he kept his eyes steadfastly on the +foremost of the fermenting, murderous rabble below. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"DUTCH COURAGE" + + +Captain Dove had come up on deck, and was standing by the +companion-hatch, drawing difficult breaths, swaying to the rise and sink +of the ship on the long, slow, ceaseless swell. + +He had only a greatcoat secured by a single button about his shoulders +over his night-dress, and on his feet an old pair of carpet slippers. +Sallie darted a blazing glance of indignation at Jasper Slyne who, +instead of helping the sick old man, seemed only bent on aggravating him +with his evil tongue. + +"You coward!" she cried at that immaculate gentleman, and would have +gone to the old man's aid but that he angrily waved her also aside as he +tottered forward, changing his scowl by the way to that sleek, +benevolent smile which he could always assume at his pleasure. + +A slow silence followed on the low, suspicious rumble of voices with +which the mutineers had greeted his most unexpected appearance. They +had, of course, supposed him physically incapable of further +interference with them and their plans. But, as it was, he did not look +very dangerous in his grotesque dishabille. + +As he reached the rail, Reuben Yoxall stepped to one side, touching his +cap in his customary salute. Slyne had halted a couple of paces behind, +and Sallie, too, had drawn back. Captain Dove stood alone at the top of +the stairway, in the forefront of the little group there, and looked +contemplatively down at the men who, he knew very well, would listen to +no appeal of his for his life. From his placid, benign demeanour then he +might have been inspecting a Sunday-school. + +His features were in themselves of an unctuous cast, smooth, flat, +snub-nosed, clean-shaven as a rule, except for a straggling fringe of +whisker. His white hair and weak, winking eyes added to his smugly +sanctimonious expression. He was squat of build, unduly short in the +legs and long of arm. And, altogether, he cut no very dashing figure in +his ridiculous garments, one sleeve of his coat hanging limp and empty, +the arm that should have filled it lying across his chest in a sling, +his chin disfigured by a week's growth of stubble, his whiskers all +unkempt. + +But it had never been by his gallant presence that he had held to heel +the cut-throats who composed his crew, and, even then, when they had him +before them helpless, a certain target for their loaded rifles, not one +of them seized the immediate opportunity. + +He steadied himself with his free hand on the rail of the narrow +stairway, and so stepped downward among them. Still no one else moved. +It may have been that his almost inhuman daring daunted them in spite of +themselves. But Sallie, in the background, was holding her breath. She +knew he was courting a bloody death, and feared he would meet it there, +before her shrinking eyes. That tragedy and all its unspeakable +consequences were literally hanging on a hair-trigger. + +He reached the level below, still smiling blandly, and, letting go the +rail, shuffled forward, slowly but steadily enough, his slippers +flapping at his heels with ludicrous effect. Two or three of the men +confronting him stepped to one side, gave him free passage into the +throng, and closed in again behind him. He took no notice of anyone, but +held on his way till he reached the ladder which led from the break of +the poop to the quarter-deck. + +He climbed that at his leisure, panting a little, his back toward them. +They had faced about and were following his every movement with +malevolent eyes. A single shot would have made a quick end of him, but +no shot was fired. And, at the top of the ladder, he turned to speak. + +"I'll send Mr. Hobson aft to issue your ammunition," he said, in a voice +without any tremor of weakness. "Get two full bandoliers, each of you, +and then file forward again while the others come aft for theirs." + +And with that, leaving them to their own reflections, agape, absolutely +dumfounded by his audacity, he made his way up on to the bridge, the +skirts of his night-dress fluttering from under the shorter length of +his heavy coat. + +They fell to whispering among themselves, excited and distrustful. They +had only a few loose rounds for their rifles, and Captain Dove alone +knew how the ship's magazine might safely be entered. It would +undoubtedly have cost some of them their lives to force that secret. No +one of them would be willing to sacrifice himself for the common cause, +and Captain Dove's unlooked-for concession of their chief need had no +doubt mystified them altogether. + +Hobson, the second mate, came aft a few minutes later, a beetle-browed, +foxy-looking fellow, with a furtive smile of encouragement for his +accomplices. At a sign from him they unshipped the hatches. He +disappeared into the hold, a bunch of keys dangling from one wrist, and +presently shouted up some order, in terms much more polite than he had +lately been in the habit of using, to them at least. A chain of living +links was promptly formed from the magazine, and packed bandoliers, +passed rapidly from hand to hand, soon reached its farther end. The men +grinned meaningly at each other as they slung the web belts crosswise +over their shoulders. For with these they were still more absolutely +masters of the situation. + +Reuben Yoxall, back at his dangerous post by the stairway, was watching +them no less narrowly than before. It seemed the sheerest madness on +Captain Dove's part to have disclosed to their ringleader the secret of +the magazine, and no one could tell at what moment they might now assume +the offensive. The sun was already dipping behind the sea-rim. + +"We've changed our course," Sallie said to him in a puzzled whisper, and +he nodded silently. The _Olive Branch_ was heading inshore. The outline +of the coast had grown clearer under the last of the evening light. Here +and there against its smudgy-brown background showed dark green blots +that were mangroves or clumps of palm. A thin, white ribbon of surf was +distinctly visible on the distant beach. + +Captain Dove was at the starboard extremity of the bridge, his +binoculars at his eyes. He laid them down, and pointed out to the third +mate, at his elbow, some landmark directly ahead. Then he climbed +carefully down to the quarter-deck and began to make his way aft again. +Behind him, rifles in hand, came creeping another strong contingent of +his strangely numerous crew. Half a dozen of those nearest him had drawn +and fixed the long sword-bayonet each wore at his hip. + +The old man in greatcoat and slippers paused at the after-rail of the +quarter-deck. The bayonets were almost at his shoulder blades. But the +three anxious onlookers aft could not even warn him of that additional +danger, to which he seemed quite oblivious. + +The crowd at the open hatch looked round at him, as of one accord, and +the bulk turned on their heels towards him, but a few remained facing +the three still, silent figures on the poop. Sunset and the final +instant of crisis had come together. + +From among the men grouped about the hatch one stepped forward, as if to +speak. Captain Dove held up his hand and the fellow hesitated, with bent +brows. A quick, angry growl arose from among his neighbours. But Captain +Dove was not to be hurried. He cleared his throat and spat indifferently +into the scuppers. + +"I've a little job ashore for you lads to-night," he said then, in a +tone audible to all, "a job that'll fill our empty pockets properly--if +it's properly carried out. We haven't been so lucky of late that we can +afford to lay off just yet. What money there is on board means no more +than a few dollars apiece, share and share alike. I know where I can lay +my hands on a thousand at least for each of us. If you think that's +worth your while, get away forward now to your supper; the others are +coming aft for their ammunition." + +He ceased abruptly, and for a moment no one answered him or made any +move. He had succeeded in raising their curiosity, and so gained some +trifling respite at least for himself. They were turning over in their +dense minds, however suspiciously, this new and plausible suggestion of +his. + +It was no news that there was very little money on board, and--they were +of a class which always can be led to grasp at the shadow if that looks +larger to them than the substance itself. They hesitated--and they were +lost. Captain Dove had descended among them, and as if the subject were +closed, was pushing his way through the gathering with a good-humoured, +masterful, "Get forward. Get away forward, now." + +And they gave way again before him, apparently forgetful of their +purpose there, quite willing, since they held the power securely in +their own hands, to await the outcome of one more night. In the morning, +and rich, as he promised, or no worse off if his promise failed, they +could just as conveniently close their account with him. As the others +came crowding aft, those already possessed of bandoliers began to file +forward, exchanging rough jokes with their fellows. + +Captain Dove addressed a parting remark to them from the poop. "We won't +be going ashore till midnight," said he, "and I _must_ get some sleep or +I won't be fit for the work we've to do there. I'm sick enough as it is. +Get that hatch-cover on again as soon as you can, and keep to your own +end of the ship till the time comes. I'll send you forward a hogshead of +rum to help it along." + +"Ay, ay, sir," a voice answered him cheerily from out of the gathering +darkness, and Sallie saw that he almost smiled to himself as he +staggered toward the companion-hatch. + +There he would have fallen, spent, but that she, at his shoulder, caught +hold of him and held him up till Slyne came to her assistance. And they +together got him safely below. + +"Gimme brandy," he gasped, as he lay limply back in the chair on which +they had set him. His lips were white. His overworked heart had almost +failed him under the strain he had put on it. + +The stimulant still served its purpose, however. He sat up again, +revived. + +"But that was an uncommon close call!" he commented, half to himself. "I +felt blind-sure I'd have a bayonet through my back before I could play +my last card. And I didn't believe I'd win out even with that. But here +I am, and--" He turned to the girl at his side. + +"Don't stand there idling, Sallie," he ordered querulously, "when +there's so much to be done. Tell Ambrizette to bring me a bull's-eye +lantern. Go up and see if the decks are clear yet. Send Reuben Yoxall +down to me as soon as they are. And then get ready for going ashore. +You'll have to wear something that won't be seen--but take a couple of +Arab cloaks in a bundle with you as well." + +At that Jasper Slyne spoke, divided between doubt and anger. + +"What devilment have you in your mind now, Dove?" he demanded. "You +surely don't mean to--You told me yourself that there's nothing but +dangerous desert ashore here." + +"Never you mind what I mean to do, _Mister_ Slyne," Captain Dove +answered him with a gratified grin, picking up the brandy bottle again. +"When I want any advice from you, I'll let you know. And, if I ever ask +you again to help me into my clothes, you'll maybe be more obliging next +time. + +"Dutch courage is cheap enough, Mister Slyne," said the old man +tauntingly. "So I'm going ashore,--into the dangerous desert,--in a few +minutes, with Sallie. But there's nothing you need be afraid of, for +you're going to stay safe on board." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +EL FARISH + + +On the stealthy-looking little grey steamship at anchor under the +obscure stars not even a riding-light was visible. But she was close to +the desolate coast, well out of the way of all respectable traffic. And +a solitary figure, squatted in the bows, pipe in mouth, pannikin of rum +within easy reach, was keeping a perfunctory anchor-watch, staring idly +seaward so that he saw nothing of a tiny light which flashed three times +from the shore in belated response to a similar signal from a screened +port in the poop-cabin. + +But for him, the decks were deserted. From the crew's quarters came +frequent outbursts of ribald talk and uproarious laughter, the odour of +food, the clank and clatter of tin-ware empty or full. The crew were at +supper and satisfied for the present. + +From the companion-hatch on the poop four soundless shadows emerged. Two +of them were carrying cautiously a long, flat fabric which they in a +moment or two converted into a fourteen-foot canvas boat. These two +lowered that overside. One of the others, a bundle in hand, slipped +easily down into it by means of a rope made fast to a stanchion. The +last, cursing under his breath, was helped over the rail, with one foot +in a loop of the same line, by the two remaining on deck. + +Sallie, safely seated in the cockleshell below, laid a pair of muffled +oars in the rowlocks and pushed quietly off from under the dripping +overhang of the ship. Captain Dove, crouching in its stern, whispered +curt directions to her. She could just see Reuben Yoxall and Jasper +Slyne standing side by side at the steamer's taffrail, and then the +black bulk of the _Olive Branch_ became merged in the blacker water. + +Once out of earshot of the ship, she set to rowing in earnest, a strong, +steady stroke, like one well accustomed to that exercise; and Captain +Dove, with an eye cocked at a helpful star twinkling dimly through the +heat-haze, kept her heading straight for the shore. The boom of the +breakers soon began to grow louder, but, even when it had become almost +deafening, she did not look round. They had got into broken water and it +was taking her all her time to handle the oars. + +She was breathless and all but exhausted before they at length shot +dizzily out of the wild turmoil of the surf into a tranquil, land-locked +lagoon, concealed from seaward by a long sand-spit, which served it as a +breakwater in such smooth weather. + +"Way enough," said the old man gruffly, and, as Sallie shipped her oars, +the light craft lost speed. Presently, its prow took the sand, and at +last they were free of the ominous, phosphorescent black fins which had +followed them from where they had left the ship. + +"Strike a match," ordered Captain Dove, and held out a stump of candle. +"Light this and stick it on the gunwale. Now, on with your cloak and +hood--and lend me a hand with mine." + +The tiny flame at her elbow burned steadily enough in the still night, +while Sallie was slipping on over her dark dress the white robe he had +bidden her bring with her. As soon as she had hooded her head and drawn +the veil well over her features, she turned to help him. She was +smoothing the crumpled burnous about his shoulders while he tugged +irritably at it with his only available hand, grumbling at her in a low +monotone, when she heard a sudden splashing behind her and, glancing +round, saw a number of other white-robed figures wading out through the +shallows towards the boat and its flickering light. Captain Dove took +their coming as a matter of course, and she sat down again silently, +though that cost her a great effort. It was unspeakably eerie there, in +the very heart of a darkness that seemed to be whispering hints of such +horrors as only exist in the dark. + +The old man exchanged a few low words in doggerel Arabic with the +strangers. Two of them, tall, brown, fierce-faced fellows, slung over +their shoulders the long guns with which they were armed, stooped and +lifted Sallie lightly up, carried her to the shore dry-shod. She was +still shivering nervously when two more deposited Captain Dove at her +side, and then the canvas boat was brought high and dry. At a curt +remark from him a makeshift litter was formed of four rifles and, seated +on that, he was carried away as if he had been a mere featherweight, +Sallie following close behind on foot, uncomfortably conscious of the +shadows at her own shoulders. + +It was hard work for her in the darkness and ankle-deep in the soft, +loose sand at every step, although his bearers made little enough of +their burden. But farther on the footing grew firmer, and then they came +to a rough, trodden path. + +That led them to the still darker mouth of a narrow defile between two +low, rocky bluffs, and from the summit of one of these there suddenly +rang a harsh challenge. It was answered at once by their escort, and +they went on without pause through that pitch-black, crooked passage +with its invisible, whispering guard, until, emerging at an unexpected +turn from its landward outlet, a most astonishing panorama presented +itself to the girl's startled eyes. + +Within a titanic natural amphitheatre formed by the rock-ridge which, +except for the cleft they had entered by, enclosed it completely, there +had been pitched an encampment that occupied its entire arena. +Everywhere there were dry desert fires, burning redly, with little +flame, and the vault of heaven overhead was like some vast crimson dome +reflecting a light whose effect was weird and unreal to the last degree. +Sallie, gazing about her with lips a little apart behind her veil, could +scarcely convince herself that she was not dreaming. + +In the foreground, on one side of the wide way which led straight to the +heart of the camp, there were picketed rows upon rows of whinnying +horses, and on the other almost as many restless _mehari_ camels, among +which a number of negroes, presumably slaves, were briskly at work. Past +these was a wide, open space, at whose other edge stood a flagpole from +which a great green flag with a golden harp on it fluttered and flapped +in the red firelight on the first of the evening breeze. Under that was +a group of men, all in flowing garments, one seated in state, the others +standing about him. A dozen paces behind them a white pavilion that +seemed rose-pink, with a heavily curtained porch, occupied a roomy, +level expanse by itself. Surrounding and encircling it on three sides, +but at a respectful distance, stretching as far back as the foot of the +steep rock-rampart which hemmed them in, was ranged an orderly +assemblage of horsehair tents, whose inhabitants, loose-robed men, swart +women, and half-naked children, were all very busy about them in the +open air. Everywhere there was life and bustle.... + +Beneath the searching rays of the sun it would all, no doubt, have +appeared travel-stained and sordid and tawdry to a degree. But the +desert night and the dim stars brooding above it had imbued it with all +their own magic and mystery. + +Captain Dove's carriers strode forward with him and set him carefully on +his feet before the green flag, under which, on a great gilt chair, sat +one who was evidently their chief, a man in the very prime of life and +still younger yet than his years. Sallie eyed him over her veil with +anxious interest. The group behind his chair was regarding her with no +less curiosity. The attention of the multitude among the tents had been +attracted to the new arrivals, and many inquisitive onlookers, more +women than men, were beginning to gather about the boundaries of the +area sacred to their Emir and his officers. + +That dignitary got hastily up and came forward. He was tall and stalwart +on foot, a fine figure of a man even in his loose, shapeless garments, +with a bronzed, hook-nosed, handsome face of his own, a heavy moustache, +the brooding, patient, predatory eyes of a desert vulture. And, as he +confronted Captain Dove, over whom he seemed to tower threateningly, the +hood of the _selham_ slipped on to his shoulders, disclosing a flaming +shock of red hair. + +"At last!" he said, after a long time, in the difficult voice of one +amazed almost beyond words. The muscles of his lean, brown face were +working visibly. His eyes had become inflamed, his fingers were +twitching. + +"At last!" he said again, as if finally convinced in spite of himself, +and licked his lips. + +But Captain Dove met his wickedest glance unwinkingly, and made him no +answer at all. + +For a moment longer they two stood gazing thus at each other, the +onlookers silent and still. And then the big man's blazing eyes shifted +to the face of the girl at Captain Dove's elbow. Sallie's veil had +slipped to her chin, but she had been unconscious of that till then. She +pulled it up across the bridge of her nose again hastily. The red-haired +Emir's scowl had relaxed; he was scanning her with a very different +expression to that he had shown Captain Dove, but one which alarmed her +no less. + +He turned to the group behind him and, at a word, it melted away. The +onlookers in the distance also went about their own business again. A +black slave-boy came staggering forward with a heavy chair, and set that +down side by side with the other there. Captain Dove seated himself at +once, without ceremony. + +The Emir, biting his lip, followed suit, and sat for a time sunk in his +own reflections. He seemed to have mastered for the moment his first +almost overwhelming impulse at sight of that venerable-looking +adventurer, and had evidently some other and much more pleasant idea in +his mind. + +"That's a high-stepping filly you've brought with you," said he at +length in a puzzled tone, and glanced round at Sallie again. She was +standing at Captain Dove's other shoulder, her head bent, her hands +clasped before her, in helpless, patient suspense. Captain Dove had +gruffly informed her, before they had left the ship, that she would be +perfectly safe in his company, but even his own safety seemed to be +hanging on a very slender thread. + +"I wonder, now," the Emir went on, "if it's to seek trade that you've +come ashore here again--after all these years." His face once more +darkened, as if over some recollection that rankled sorely, but which he +was doing his best to dismiss from his thoughts in the meantime. + +"I've some trifles in hand that might interest you if it is trade you're +after," said he, speaking amicably with an effort, "such truck as +gold-dust, and jewels, and silk--and ivory, too, galore." + +The black boy had come back with an unwieldy tray of a dull yellow metal +on which were set two cool, moist, earthenware _chatties_ and a couple +of uncouth drinking-cups. Captain Dove, with unerring instinct, laid his +hand on the flagon which held strong drink, poured out for himself a +liberal helping of the sticky _magia_ it contained, and swallowed that +off without a word. After the Emir had also helped himself the boy would +have carried the tray away, but Captain Dove bade him set it down and +dealt him an indignant cuff, so that he fled empty-handed, with an +anguished yelp. + +"It wasn't exactly to pay you a polite call that I came ashore to this +God-forsaken hole, Farish," the old man at last remarked, with +uncompromising frankness. "The fact of the matter is--I'm in a bit of a +bog just now. And I've come to get you to give me a hand out of it--if +your price isn't too high for me to pay." + +The Emir stared at him, open-mouthed. + +"You were always the bold one, Captain Brown," said he, reminiscently, +after a lengthy interval, "but this beats all! And it's to the man you +set ashore here, alone, long years ago, to die in the desert like a mad +dog, that you come demanding a hand to get you out of a bit of a bog! +You've surely forgotten--" + +"I'm not one who forgets," Captain Dove interrupted sourly. "And you'll +maybe remember, since you think it's worth while to hark back to such +old stories, that I didn't shoot you down at once, as I might have +done--for disobedience of orders. I gave you a chance for your life, +anyhow. And you've made a very good thing out of it. You've risen in the +world, Farish, since you were the second mate of the old _Fer de +Lance_--and I was Captain John Bunyan Brown. I'm Captain Dove now, by +the way." + +"And how did you know who it was would be here to-night?" the +_soi-disant_ Emir demanded, turning it all over in his own mind. + +"The Spaniards at the Rio de Oro told me, when I called in there the +other day, that they were expecting the Emir El Farish shortly, from +this direction, and, of course, I pricked up my ears at the name. I +asked a few simple questions about him, and it didn't take a great deal +of brain-power to figure out that the famous Emir was just my old second +mate turned land pirate on his own account. They wanted me to wait on +the chance of a cargo from your caravan, but--I had other fish to fry at +the time. + +"Then, coming up the coast, I caught sight of your smoke from the +steamer's bridge--at least I judged it would be yours. I reckoned you'd +be camping here, you see, and, when you answered my signal, I was quite +sure. So--I'm in a bit of a bog, as I told you. And it'll pay you to +give me a hand out of it--if your price isn't too high." + +"The price that you'll have to pay for my help you can guess now without +my telling you," returned the Emir in a muffled whisper, and nodded +meaningly over his shoulder. "And you'll find me a fair man to deal +with, so long as you deal fairly by me." + +Captain Dove signified his comprehension by means of a non-committal +grunt. He stooped down and helped himself awkwardly to another drink +before making any other answer. + +"But--you've got a wife already," he whispered back, at a shrewd guess, +as he sat up again, smiling blandly. + +"I won't have her long, poor thing!" said the other, some tinge of real +regret in his tone. "And I'll miss her, too, when she's gone, let me +tell you." He sat silent for a moment, musing, and then, "'Twas a +notable revenge that I took on _them_-all!" he muttered darkly. "But +I'll miss her for herself as well--after all these years." + +"It's the desert has killed her," he said, pulling at his moustache. +"I've had a doctor-fellow with her for a while past--I saved him out of +an exploring party we cut up near Jebado. 'Twas nearly three weeks ago +he told me she hadn't a month to live. The sand's got into her lungs, he +says--and I've promised to shovel him into a sand-pit alive the day she +dies, to see how he likes the sand in his own lungs, the useless scum!" + +He sighed stormily, and then seemed to bethink himself again of the girl +listening behind. In answer to a call of his, in a caressing voice, +there came from the big tent in the background a woman, veiled as Sallie +was but clad in silk instead of cotton, who bowed submissively to what +he had to say to her and then held out a slender, bloodless, burning +hand to Sallie. + +"Go with her," ordered Captain Dove. "You'll be all right. I'll shout +for you when I want you again." + +And Sallie, glad so to escape from the Emir's glance, went willingly +enough. It would not have helped her in any way then to disobey Captain +Dove. But her hand, within the other woman's, was as cold as ice. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE MASQUE OF DEATH + + +They passed together through the curtained porch of the pavilion, and +Sallie looked about her with blinking eyes as the Emir's wife led her +toward a long, low, cushioned divan, with a tall screen of black carved +ebony behind it, which stood in one of the corners formed by the +partitions within. + +The entire interior of the tent was brilliantly lighted by many lamps of +a dull yellow metal, swung from under the billowy silken ceiling. +Underfoot were carpets and rugs of the most costly, chosen with taste. +The inner divisions seemed almost solid behind their heavy hangings of +embroidery and filigree work. About the couch in the corner were grouped +a number of languorous women slaves, all very richly dressed. The whole +effect was one of barbaric splendour and luxury. + +Her women crossed their arms on their breasts and bowed before the +Emir's wife, their golden bangles jingling. She drew Sallie down on the +couch beside her and waved them away. They backed into another corner +with heads still bent, but stealing furtive glances at the fair +stranger. Sallie had let her veil fall; the heat was stifling. + +The Emir's wife laid a hand on her heart and panted, as if she had been +running. A hectic flush had coloured her sunken cheeks. Sallie saw that +she must once have been a very good-looking girl. + +"How did you come to our camp?" she asked, suppressing with a great +effort the cough her labouring chest could scarcely contain. "Is there +another caravan near, or--a ship?" + +"A ship," Sallie answered gently, forgetting all her own urgent troubles +in quick compassion for that poor soul. And the dying girl's feverish +eyes grew suddenly eager. + +"A ship!" she repeated breathlessly, and for a moment or two seemed to +be searching Sallie's expressively pitiful features for some further +information, which she found there. The anxiety in her eyes changed to +appeal, and then certainty. + +"You'll help--me," she whispered. "I _know_ you will." And she began to +cough. + +Two or three of her women came running forward to offer her such first +aid as lay in their power. Another had hurried off through a curtained +doorway which led inward, and promptly returned, followed by two +enormous negroes, vile-looking rascals, each wearing a scanty tunic of +leopard-skins which hung from one shoulder and did not reach to his +knees, with a broad waist-belt which also served to contain a short, +heavy scimitar, in a metal scabbard. Between them walked a man, a white +man to judge by his hands, since his head was completely masked in a +hood of coarse scarlet cotton, with only a couple of careless +eyelet-holes and a rough round mouth cut in it. He was dressed in a worn +drill tunic and riding-breeches and pigskin puttees, and carried +himself, a thin, limber, muscular figure, with careless ease. + +Sallie took him to be that doctor of whom the Emir had spoken, and +shuddered at thought of the dreadful death with which the Emir had +threatened him. His guards' cruel faces grew still more watchful and +grim as he hastened, limping a little, toward the couch, while they were +still saluting its occupant. + +Sallie had risen from it and was standing with one arm about the other +girl's heaving shoulders, adjusting her veil. The cough had ceased +again, but its victim had not yet recovered her voice. The man in the +mask glanced most unhappily at her and then at Sallie. But it was not +concern on his own account that his steady grey eyes expressed. + +He was about to speak, when the Emir's wife held up a thin, transparent +hand. "Wait," she begged weakly. "There is so little time--and my +strength--" + +He pulled a glass tube from one of his pockets and gave her a tabloid. +She swallowed it down, with a mouthful of water, indifferently, but it +soon did her good. She signed her women aside, and looked imploringly up +at Sallie. + +"I can't live through another night," she said, "and--neither will this +man, unless you help me to help him. You _will_ do that, won't you? He's +an Englishman--a doctor--he has done all he possibly could for me--and I +_cannot_ die while I know that his life hangs on mine. It's too +horrible--" + +Sallie sat down again and clasped the wasted, writhing body closely to +her in her strong, young arms. + +"I'll do all I possibly can to help him," she promised in a quick +whisper. The grey eyes behind the horrible scarlet hood had seemed to +say that they would not hold her responsible for any promise given to +lighten that poor creature's last hours. And the Emir's wife lay back +against her shoulder with an exhausted sob of relief. + +"I'm really an American," said a pleasant and very grateful voice from +behind the mask which was gazing down at them so inscrutably now, "and +no doctor at all." He was speaking to Sallie; the Emir's wife was still +gasping for breath. "But--you can see for yourself how very harmful this +nervous excitement must be to her." + +"We must humour her--whatever may happen," his glance seemed to add, and +Sallie nodded in quick understanding and sympathy. + +She had been wondering what she, so helpless and uncertain herself, +could possibly do to reassure the dying girl and help the man who was +doomed. + +"If I could get back on board the ship," she said somewhat uncertainly, +in answer to the appealing look with which the Emir's wife was once more +regarding her, "I would bring or send a boat ashore--" + +The other girl's wan face displayed renewed life and animation. + +"Soon after midnight," she whispered eagerly. "You must give me till +then to do my part. But soon after midnight he will be waiting beyond +the outermost of the guards at the shore-end of the ravine which leads +from our camp. He'll be wearing that woman's cloak and veil, and +carrying a bucket--I sometimes send her to the beach for sea-water to +bathe my feet." She pointed to one of her slaves, but at that the man in +the mask intervened. + +"I couldn't do that. Your husband would--" + +She held up a hand again, and he said no more, only shaking his head. He +seemed to have forgotten that she was not to be contradicted. + +"The woman is mine," said the Emir's wife, "and my husband will not hurt +a hair of her head while she obeys me. He has sworn that on the Cross. +He will keep his oath--and you have my word as well that she shall come +to no harm. You need have no scruples, then!" + +She looked impatiently up at the scarlet mask bending over her, not to +be satisfied until it bowed in submission to her authority there. But +Sallie could read in the steadfast grey eyes behind it a dumb +determination that the slave girl should run no such risk, and she did +not think it needful at that moment to say anything about the other +difficulties to be overcome. She had promised that she would do all she +possibly could to help the man in the mask, and believed she could help +him best in the meantime by keeping her own troubles to herself. + +She did not even know as yet what Captain Dove's immediate intentions +toward her were, or whether she herself would ever see the _Olive +Branch_ again. But--she would know before very long, and it would be +time enough then to explain her own plight. + +"Feel my pulse now, before you go," the pseudo-doctor's patient +commanded, and he did so, drawing out his watch, while she continued to +plan for his flight. + +"I'll send for you again before midnight," she said rapidly, for his +guards had begun to show signs of unrest as his visit grew more +prolonged, "and you must bring your--your--" She tapped her chest, very +tenderly, with her free hand. + +"Stethoscope?" he suggested, and she nodded quickly. + +"You'll come in your cloak--it will be cold then. My women will draw a +screen about us. As soon as you are safely behind it, slip off your +shoes and gaiters while they are changing your cloak and hood. There +will not be a moment to spare. And now--you must go." + +He released her wrist and stood upright again. + +"I shall come whenever you send for me, of course," he assured her +soothingly, although his eyes, meeting Sallie's for an instant, betrayed +the stubborn will behind them. "And I'm far more grateful than I can +express for your good-will toward me. So now you'll rest quietly, won't +you? And try not to worry needlessly about--anything at all. You're not +afraid, I know. And neither am I." + +He bowed to them both in his hideous hood, and went back to his scowling +guards. + +The Emir's dying wife lay very quietly in Sallie's arms for some time +after he had gone. She was quite exhausted again. Her women, in a group +at a little distance, were watching with jealous eyes the fair stranger +who had supplanted them with such ease. The only sounds that broke the +silence were the sick girl's laboured breathing, the occasional hoarse, +angry rumble of Captain Dove's voice outside. Sallie was listening +anxiously for that. She could hear no word of what he said, but--she +wanted to be quite sure that he was still there. It was not her own fate +alone that now depended on what these strangely dragging minutes should +bring to pass. + +"Lay me back on the cushions now," begged the girl in her arms. "I feel +better--in every way. And--tell me how you came here, in the nick of +time. I'm so thankful--but you know that, and I mustn't talk too much, I +have so little strength left, and-- + +"Who is that shouting?" + +"It's Captain Dove," Sallie answered in haste. "He brought me here. I +must go to him now, but I'll come back before--" She had no time to say +more, for Captain Dove had called her again, in a very angry voice. + +He was shaking his only available fist impotently at the high heavens +when she stepped timidly out from under the curtained porch of the tent. + +She hesitated, but for no more than a moment, and then, drawing her veil +closer, went on across the sand, with beating heart. + +"You called me, Captain Dove?" she said, as she stopped at the old man's +shoulder. And he ceased blaspheming to glare round at her as though she +had been some intrusive stranger, his face very puffed and repulsive in +the red firelight. + +He did not answer at once, but reached again for the earthenware flagon. +It was lying on its side empty, for she had tipped it over with a +stealthy foot. + +His angry glance grew darker with suspicion, but her eyes were downcast. + +"Come round in front," he ordered harshly, and she had once more to +submit herself to the Emir's appraising glance. + +He and Captain Dove had still much to say to each other, too, while she +stood patiently there, like a slave for sale. They fell to arguing with +much heat some point in dispute between them, an argument she could not +follow since they were speaking some jargon of Arabic strange to her. +But she knew very well that it was about her they were wrangling, and a +cold fear clutched cruelly at her heart. + +At last, however, the Emir appeared to give in to his visitor, and +Captain Dove, after a final ineffectual snatch at the flagon, got on to +his feet, since even that hint seemed to be thrown away on his host. + +"We'll get off to the ship again," he said in English, and Sallie could +almost have cried aloud in relief from such sore suspense. + +"May I go back to the tent--just for a minute--to say good-bye?" she +begged in a breathless whisper, and turned and ran. + +The Emir's wife glanced eagerly up at her as she reappeared. + +"I'm going back on board now," Sallie told her with shining eyes, which +suddenly grew dim as she thought of the other girl's loneliness there. +She sank on her knees beside the couch, and the Emir's wife, leaning +forward, slipped a frail arm about her neck; and so they two, sisters in +trouble, kissed each other good-bye for all time. + +"You'll be sure to send the boat--soon after midnight?" the other asked, +but with no shadow of doubt in her low, weak tones. + +"I'll come myself, if I possibly can," Sallie promised, "and, if not, +I'll send a safe friend--soon after midnight." + +As she was rising, she saw on her bosom a little locket which hung from +a thin gold chain. She lifted a hand to it, and hesitated uncertainly. + +"It's all I have in the world that's my own," said the Emir's wife in a +pleading whisper, "all I can offer you but my empty thanks. I'd like to +think to-night that you will sometimes remember me. Will you not keep +it, for my sake?" + +"I'll wear it always--I'll never forget you--and oh! I'm so sorry that I +must go," cried Sallie, sorely distressed, and had to hurry away without +more words. Captain Dove had twice called her. There were tears in her +eyes as she ran back across the sand to where, under the green flag, he +was wrathfully waiting for her, and she scarcely heard his harsh order +to hurry up. + +Some of the Emir's men had come forward with a couple of litters. She +seated herself in one, although she would much rather have walked, and, +as soon as Captain Dove was ready, they were carried off, the Emir +shouting a valedictory message to the old man. + +"You keep your bargain and I'll keep mine," Captain Dove called back, +and snorted contemptuously. + +"That damned fellow talks to me as if I had been _his_ second mate!" he +commented, and snorted again. + +From the mouth of the dark defile which led toward the shore, Sallie +looked back over one shoulder, almost as an escaped prisoner might, at +the bizarre, fantastic scene the still camp made in that strange crimson +light. And the big, red-haired Emir standing motionless under his great +green flag, whose fluttering folds seen from that distance seemed of the +colour of blood, waved a hand to her ere she disappeared. + +She shivered, instinctively. She had been dumbly afraid of the man, and +that although she was possessed of a courage such as could look grim +death itself in the empty eye-holes and smile. She was correspondingly +thankful when, the gorge and its sentinels safely behind her, she found +herself once more facing the open sea. + +Captain Dove's carriers set him down alongside the boat, lying high and +dry on the sands where they had left it. Having set it afloat, they +lifted him carefully into it, and her also. A few shallow yards from the +shore, she slipped off her white cloak and head-covering at an order +from the old man, and so set to rowing again. + +Once, one of her oars touched some invisible body swimming parallel with +the boat, and a lightning-like flash of phosphorus showed a curved black +fin that darted to a little distance and then turned back toward them. +It was risky work crossing the bar, but both she and Captain Dove knew +just what they were about, and presently they shot free of the surf into +comparative safety. + +"Starboard a little," he told her then, and ten or twelve minutes' +pulling took them back to the _Olive Branch_, which he must have found +by sheer instinct, since the ship was showing no lights. + +They approached it almost soundlessly from astern, so that the sleepy +look-out on the fo'c'sle-head neither heard nor saw them. For even the +stars were invisible then through the curtain of vapour overhanging the +coast. + +Reuben Yoxall, the mate, was awaiting them at the poop-rail. He threw +Sallie a line, and running to the companion-hatch, called Jasper Slyne +up from the little saloon below. The two of them hoisted Captain Dove up +the side, and after him Sallie, as light and agile as any boy. The +canvas boat was easily got to the rail, folded flat and returned to its +hiding-place. + +Sallie stayed on deck, and Yoxall was not long in rejoining her there. +Slyne and Captain Dove had sat down to a leisurely supper below. The +_plup!_ of a cork popping in the saloon broke the silence just before +seven bells struck. They had half an hour yet till midnight. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AFLOAT AND ASHORE + + +"Who's that, Rube?--there, by the hatch," whispered Sallie, and pointed +to where a pair of white eyeballs had been uncannily visible for a +moment and then disappeared. She was nervous and overwrought in the +midst of so many uncertainties. + +Yoxall had stepped quickly in front of her. He caught sight of a shadow +crawling away in the dark on the deck below. + +"One of the niggers," he told her, and turned. "He's come scouting aft +more than once while you were ashore. Most of the men are asleep, I +suppose, but there are sure to be some standing guard--they won't run +any risk of being caught napping by Captain Dove." + +She fell into step with him again, and presently, pacing the poop at his +side, slipped an arm into one of his. He shivered a little. + +"Aren't you feeling all right?" she asked anxiously. "You're not going +to have fever, are you?" + +"No, lass," he answered at once. "Not much! I'm all right, of course. It +would never do for me to fall sick now, would it?" + +"It would be the last straw!" she agreed, and shivered also. For she was +counting on him in case the worst should come to the worst. + +"I don't know what I'd do without you, Rube," she said. And the big +Englishman blushed like any boy as she peered up into his face. "You're +the only real friend I have in the world. If it weren't for you--I'd be +quite desperate; I'm so unhappy here now." + +Reuben Yoxall pressed the arm that lay within his, and gulped. "Then why +won't you come away out of it, Sallie?" he asked in a husky voice he +could scarcely control. "It wouldn't be so very difficult--if Captain +Dove just manages to keep the men in hand till we make some port. And we +must call somewhere soon, for we're short of coal. + +"I have some money laid by--I'll work harder than ever for you. There's +a snug little farm in Cumberland that one of these days will be mine, +and till then the old folk would make you and me more than welcome +there." He was speaking very quickly, bent on making the most of that +unusual opportunity. + +"I'm not much of a man, I know," he went on, "but--such as I am, I'm +yours. And I'll always be yours, to do whatever you like with. You might +come to care more for me, Sallie, if you knew me better. Will you not +try? Just give me the chance, and I'll soon have you safely out of the +Old Man's clutches. But--so long as you insist on sticking to him, I +can't do any more for you than I'm doing." + +Her eyes grew dim as she thought of the dog-like devotion which he had +shown her, although she had so often told him that she could never repay +it as he would have liked. + +"I wish I could, Rube," she assured him again, "but--I can't. I'm _not_ +ungrateful, and I hate to hurt you, but--I just can't. And you wouldn't +want me to sell myself--even for a home and a husband, would you, Rube? +I'll never marry anyone. Jasper Slyne says that Captain Dove's going to +give me to him--but he doesn't know.... And--I'm not afraid." + +Reuben Yoxall sighed, very softly. But she heard, and her own heart grew +heavier. Life had become so difficult, and there was still so much to be +done, so many troubles to think about, while she did not even know yet +what Captain Dove was going to do next. + +She had just finished telling Yoxall about the man in the scarlet mask +and what she had promised to do for him, when sounds of stealthy bustle +from forward told her that the mutineers were once more mustering on +deck. She called down to Captain Dove, and he shortly came up from the +saloon, followed by Jasper Slyne in a neutral-tinted, workmanlike +semi-uniform, at whose belt hung a heavy-calibre Colt revolver. + +Under the sharp spur of necessity, Captain Dove appeared to have quite +overcome the physical weakness by which he had been oppressed. He +stepped briskly to the stair-head rail and thence looked down on the +shadowy, moving mass of armed men who had by that time gathered at the +after-hatch again. Aware of his presence, they ceased to shuffle about. +A tense silence ensued, and Captain Dove cleared his throat. + +"Are all hands aft?" he asked sharply, and "Ay, ay, sir," a voice +answered. "All hands but the engine-room crew. D'ye want them too?" + +"I do not," he declared, and Sallie felt dumbly thankful that the +engineers and their underlings were still, apparently, loyal to him. + +"Where's Mr. Hobson--and the third mate?" he demanded, and, "Here," +answered simultaneously two other very sullen, suspicious voices. + +"Listen, then, all of you," ordered Captain Dove, bristling in the dark +at that traitorous pair, and, raising his voice again, "I've got a fine +plum ripe for your picking to-night, lads!" cried he at his heartiest. +"There's a caravan camped ashore here, on its way to the Rio de Oro, +with close on a hundred camel-loads of such things as silk and +ivory--and jewels--and gold--and girls. I got a word of it from a friend +of mine at the Rio when we were in there, and--now's our chance! You can +see the flare of the camp-fires on the sky beyond the beach. I've been +in here before and I know the place. If you follow me now as you've +followed me in the past, I'll guarantee that you'll open your eyes at +what's waiting for you ashore." + +Slyne, safe in the background, listening, laughed furtively to himself. + +"But--if you're going back on me now, I give it up. Strike a light and +put a bullet through me right away, if you feel like that. I've only one +hand--I won't lift even that against you. And my share of what little +money there is on board you can divide among you." + +A general murmur of approval greeted this blatant speech. And not even +the two malcontent mates could pick any hole in that proposal. A faint +crimson glow amid the darkness beyond the surf on the shore served to +corroborate his statement in part. That he meant to accompany them was +his strongest guarantee of good faith. They were evidently ready and +willing, for such a prospect as he had held out to them, to follow him +wherever he liked to lead them. The two mates began to tell the men off +to the boats and get these swung outboard. A temporary atmosphere of +peace and good-will prevailed. + +Captain Dove turned to Reuben Yoxall. "You'll stay on board," he +whispered very brusquely, "in charge of the ship. I'll tell the chief +engineer to lend you two or three men, and you'll see to it that _they_ +don't lay their hands on any more guns. + +"You'll stick by me," he told Slyne, in the background, and Slyne merely +shrugged his shoulders impatiently as the old man passed on to where +Sallie was waiting to hear what her part was to be. She did not know in +the least what to make of his newly-declared intentions. + +"Am I to go with you?" she asked on the spur of the moment. And Captain +Dove stared at her. + +"No, you are _not_," he declared emphatically. "D'you want to be +shot--or kidnapped--or what! Get away down below, girl, and stay there +till I come aboard again. You must be mad!" + +She turned obediently toward the companion-hatch, and stopped there. He +went forward then, the men making way for him readily, and disappeared +into the engine-room. When he climbed carefully back on deck through the +fiddley-hatch in the skylight, he found all the boats afloat and only +one boat's crew remaining on board, under charge of the second mate, +Hobson, with the evident aim of making sure that he did not somehow give +them the slip or otherwise take any advantage of them. In response to a +shout from him, Jasper Slyne went jauntily forward, and, with +commendable promptitude, let himself down the falls overside. One of +these, unhooked, served Captain Dove for a sling, and he was soon seated +at the boat's tiller. The men followed swiftly, and the second mate +went last, no doubt satisfied by then that all would be well. + +"Give way, lads!" cried Captain Dove to those at the sweeps, "and we'll +show the others the short road ashore. I'm in no end of a hurry to get +what's coming to me from that caravan." + +Midnight lay very black on the bight where the _Olive Branch_ was riding +easily to a single anchor; as the dark hours sped they seemed to grow +always darker. The boats which had just put off from her were almost +instantly hidden from Sallie's sight. She stepped quietly out on deck +beside Reuben Yoxall. + +"Rube," she said in a low, determined voice. "I must be going too, now. +Will you help me to get out the canvas boat?" + +He stared at her, as Captain Dove had done, and swallowed down a lump in +his throat. + +"It's madness now!" he declared. "But--I'll go myself. You must stay +where you are. It would be worse than madness for you--" + +She was smiling very gratefully up into his unhappy, stubborn face. + +"We'll go together, Rube," she said, "or not at all. And, even although +it does seem hopeless, I know you wouldn't want me to break my promise. +So you get the boat launched while I go and tell Mr. Brasse." + +She turned and ran lightly down the steps and along the main-deck, +leaving the mate, sorely perturbed and uncertain, to carry out her +instructions or not, as he chose. As she reached the engine-room +skylight on the quarter-deck an unobtrusive shadow emerged from it and +would have passed her with a nod on its way toward the bridge. + +"Mr. Brasse," she said appealingly, and it halted to peer at her through +a single eye-glass, after touching its cap in a very precise salute. + +"Miss Sallie?" it answered in a surprised but courteous tone which told +that the speaker was, or had once been, a gentleman. + +"I'm going ashore," she went on in a hurry, "and Mr. Yoxall is going +with me. Will you look after things for him until we get back? Every one +else has gone already." + +"I have Captain Dove's orders to be on the bridge--for another purpose," +the chief engineer of the _Olive Branch_ informed her, "and I'll do my +best, of course, to make sure that nothing goes wrong in the chief +mate's absence. But--is it safe for you--" + +"Quite safe," she assured him. "And--Mr. Brasse, if I bring--I'm going +ashore to try to save a man--a white man the Arabs mean to murder +to-night. If I manage to bring him on board, will you help me to hide +him?--so that Captain Dove won't know?" + +The chief engineer of the _Olive Branch_ was obviously much perplexed. +But he was also obviously much better disposed toward Sallie than to +Captain Dove. + +"If he's willing to work in the stokehold," he stipulated, "I don't +think Captain Dove would ever know he's on board the ship. And then he +can slip ashore at the first safe port we manage to make." + +Sallie's lower lip trembled a little. She did not quite know how to +thank the punctilious engineer who had proved himself such a friend in +need. And time was passing. + +"You're always very good to me, Mr. Brasse," she said timidly. + +"Not at all," he returned with formal politeness, and, having saluted +again, went on his own way toward the bridge. + +When Sallie got back to the poop she found Reuben Yoxall awaiting her +there and the canvas boat already afloat. The mate, however slow-witted, +was smart enough in all his movements once he had made up his mind. He +helped her over the side without any more words, and was soon driving +the light boat along a straight, swift line for the landing-place. + +Sallie's sense of direction enabled her to show him that, and also +brought them safely across the bar into the lagoon where the other boats +from the _Olive Branch_ were lying empty, afloat. The third mate and +some of the men had seemingly been left there in charge of them. Sallie +caught sight of the former's sullen, furtive features in the sudden, +foolhardy light of a match he was holding over the pipe whose bowl his +hands hid. And there were shapes moving about him. She laid a shaky hand +on one of Yoxall's, and the oar in his, dipping, shifted their course. + +The boom of the breakers, behind them, killed all other sound. But she +lifted a finger to her lips, and he proved sufficiently quick-witted +then. Between them, they beached their own boat in the dark a couple of +hundred yards nearer the camp, and waded ashore with it, and left it +there, up-side down on the sand. + +The same magnetic instinct which had brought them safely across the bar +to the beach led her almost straight to the mouth of the narrow ravine +through which Captain Dove and she had reached the red-haired Emir's +camp. And Reuben Yoxall followed her, blind, through the night. + +"It was here that he was to meet us," she whispered breathlessly, her +heart in her mouth. They had met no one at all by the way, and there +seemed to be no one there. + +Yoxall scowled about him, unseeingly, and bit his lip, in helpless +dissatisfaction with everybody and everything. Then he sniffed +inquiringly, and in an instant all his relaxed muscles were taut again. +A faint whiff of tobacco-smoke had reached his nostrils on the hot, +humid night-air. + +Sallie was aware of it too, and had snatched at his hand, to draw him on +tiptoe toward the base of the great rock-wall that cropped up out of the +sand there. They reached its shelter unseen and unheard as a harsh, +suppressed voice spoke from round the corner, within the velvet-black +mouth of the gorge. It was Hobson's, the second mate's. + +"Put out that pipe," it ordered furiously, and was answered by a low, +mocking laugh. There followed the sound of a smashing blow, and a short, +sharp struggle that was interrupted by a muffled shout from high +overhead. "Hobson ahoy!" + +It was Captain Dove who had called cautiously down from the summit of +the ridge at one side of the ravine, and the second mate panted a quick +response. + +"You can get a move on now," cried the old man above the roar of the +surf. "The others will all be in position by the time you've pushed +through. Open fire as soon as ever you sight the camp. D'ye hear?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered the second mate, the habit of years still strong +upon him, and went on to issue his own commands in the curt growl of +custom. The fellow who had lighted a pipe in defiance of him was +apparently quelled. + +It seemed that he meant to leave some of his men to guard that end of +the gorge. "And you'll keep a sharp look-out," he instructed them very +threateningly. "If we're trapped in this damned tunnel there will be +all hell to pay--and you'll pay it! + +"Move on now, in front. Feel your way with your bayonets. And don't fire +so long as cold steel will serve." + +The two listeners could hear the dull clink and shuffle of the advance. +That soon died away. The men who had been left behind began a low, +intermittent grumbling over their own hard lot; they did not believe for +a moment that their comrades would share the loot fairly with them. +Hobson was a coward at heart, said one, or why, otherwise, would they be +wasting their time there? They were all smoking by then. + +"The whole thing's a cinch," declared the same speaker more loudly. +"I'll swear there isn't an Arab outside the ring-fence we've drawn round +'em, and--I'm going on along inside, to get what I want for myself. +_I'm_ not afraid of Mr. Blasted Hobson!" + +He came out into the open and stood for a moment or two listening +intently, within a few feet of where Sallie and Reuben Yoxall were +crouching, their backs toward him. But the ceaseless crash and rumble of +the breakers was all there was to be heard. + +He turned back, and tramped off into the gorge, with two of the others +for company. But three remained. + +Sallie felt Reuben Yoxall tug at her sleeve and began to move softly +away after him. From somewhere in the distance a shot suddenly rang out. +More followed, in quick succession. The irregular crackle of independent +rifle-fire soon made it clear that the concentric attack on the camp had +begun. The three men in the mouth of the gorge were shouting excitedly +to each other. + +"We must get away back on board--at once," Yoxall whispered +peremptorily. "We can't search the whole Sahara, blind, for a man you +wouldn't even know if you saw him. You've done all you can, Sallie. +You've kept your promise. Come away, now." + +She suppressed a hopeless sob with an effort. It seemed so inexpressibly +hard that they should have gained nothing at all by the grave risk they +were still running. But hope had failed her, too. + +"We'll wait by the boat--just for a little, Rube," she begged none the +less. "It may be that--" + +"Come on, then," he urged again. "Let's get to the boat,--and, if you'll +stay by it, I'll scout round a bit before we put off again." + +"More this way," she directed him, as he moved on, impatient to get her +back into at least comparative safety. And, under her guidance, they +soon reached the rough, trodden path that led toward the lagoon where +the boats were lying. + +A hundred yards further on, he stopped her abruptly, and dropped to the +ground, to set an anxious ear to it. He was up again in a second or two. + +"There's a whole army coming this way," he declared in a tone of +stricken dismay, "and horses with them too! + +"We must make for the soft sand and lie down and burrow as deep as we +can." + +He turned toward the sea, one arm about her, and almost carried her +across the deep, undulating drifts that clutched at her ankles like a +dry quicksand. His own strength soon failed against them. He stumbled +and fell on his face at the brink of a slope, and slipped on into its +hollow and lay there, quite still. But he had let go his hold of her, so +that she had not lost her feet: and she was soon cowering beside him, +face downward also. They had both heard the nearness of those other +feet--very many of them--which had seemingly crossed from the pathway to +intercept them. + +A hoarse murmur was audible behind them. Some one had ordered a halt. +They could hear the heavy breathing of men and the restless movements of +horses hock-deep in the drift. They could almost see the ghostly shapes +of the white-cloaked riders, but only the leader's horse was even very +dimly discernible--because it also was white. Its bridle was jingling a +little, too, as none of the others' were. + +He uttered a short, sharp order, and Sallie set her teeth to choke back +the cry of despair which had almost escaped her. For it was the Emir +himself into whose hands they seemed fated to fall, and his tone told +the temper he was in. + +From among his horsemen a number of men on foot seemed to have emerged, +and he was speaking to one of them, in English. + +"Are you there, my fine doctor?" he asked evilly, and leaned from his +saddle as though he could see through the dark. + +"I'm here," a level voice replied, and Sallie covered her face with her +hands in helpless horror. + +"You're here, you say! And here you'll stay, say I--as was promised +you," hissed the Emir. "'Tis not right that the likes of you should be +still drawing breath--and her-you-know-of already cold. You're quick +yet, and she's dead, my fine doctor--but yours is the funeral that comes +first. And you're standing over your own grave now--hell's waiting for +you beneath your feet. Stand to one side, and let my men dig down to +it." + +There was more movement about him, and then a quick shovelling of sand. + +"If it's all the same to you, I'll tell them to help you in head first," +said the Emir venomously. But the man in the scarlet mask answered +nothing at all to that. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HOBSON'S CHOICE + + +Sallie had made an effort to rise, but her knees had utterly failed her, +and Reuben Yoxall had laid a heavy arm across her shoulders. The +ceaseless uproar from within the camp had suddenly increased. + +The Emir was standing up in his stirrups to listen. He sank into his +saddle again, and issued some further orders, in Arabic. Most of his +force on foot in the rear made off at a staggering run. The horses of +his body-guard began to paw and curvet to free their feet as the loose +reins tightened on their necks. + +"I must be going now, my fine doctor," said the Emir most reluctantly, +"but I'll leave you company enough for the few minutes you've left, +although you're but a dumb dog! + +"And you'll maybe think of me when you're swallowing your first +mouthful. Till then you can mourn her-you-know-of." + +The white horse leaped and plunged as though he had rowelled it cruelly, +and then he was gone at a breakneck gallop, the white shadows that were +his body-guard hard at his heels, with lances free. + +The grave-diggers paused in their digging as he disappeared. A dozen or +more tongues broke into eager talking, and a fiendish, squealing laugh +out-shrilled them all. Sallie, with her face between her elbows, had +thrust a finger into each ear, and her eyes were tightly closed. + +She opened them a little, involuntarily, as the heavy arm that had been +holding her down was taken away. Reuben Yoxall nudged her, and she +looked round, with infinite caution. + +A blue-light, like a corpse-candle in the distance, had suddenly flared +up on the near ridge above the ravine that led to the camp. And in its +ghastly glow an unforgettable picture was vaguely visible for a moment +or two. + +The last of the Emir's mounted men were streaming after him into the +gorge, between whose open jaws lay three prone, trampled bodies, two +very still, the other writhing round and round on the axis of a long +lance. + +The breakers on the beach beyond the intervening sand-waves reared up, +and combed, and fell in blue-green foam. Outside them a black sea heaved +ceaselessly. + +Inland, a segment of the circular rock-rampart which enclosed the camp +loomed up above the endless, empty desert, and on its summit showed a +number of white-clad, crouching figures with rifles, all firing inward +and downward on the pandemonium raging below. + +Only a few yards away from where the two helpless onlookers lay the man +in the scarlet mask was standing, his hands behind him, between the two +big negroes Sallie had seen in the Emir's tent. And, grouped about them, +staring at the blue-light with wide eyes, were a dozen or more armed +Arabs. Two other negroes, knee-deep in a hole, were leaning on their +spades. + +Farther off, beside the lagoon where the boats were lying, the third +mate and his men were making the best fight they might for their lives +against overwhelming odds. More than one of them had already fallen +before the blue-light guttered away and that inferno was blotted out. + +But the renewed darkness lasted only for a few seconds before the +search-light on the bridge of the _Olive Branch_ in the bight answered +the signal from the ridge, cutting through the inky night a long, white, +fan-like swathe which swept the coast in sections until it finally found +its objective and settled there. + +The group about the half-dug grave were at first almost paralysed with +fear of that phenomenon. The two black eunuchs seized their prisoner and +pulled him to the ground, the men of the guard took cover, with rifles +ready, the grave-diggers dropped incontinently into the grave and +cowered there. + +But when, after its first gyrations, it steadied on to the ridge round +the camp, leaving them quite unharmed and outside its focus, they fell +to talking again, in awed whispers, while they gazed blinkingly at its +effect, all but the two who were busy digging again. + +Yoxall plucked at Sallie's sleeve. She crept after him, and by very slow +degrees they got safely round in rear of the burial-party. + +"Wait here," he breathed in her ear, and left her behind a low swell of +the sand. + +She crawled to its brink. He was wriggling back toward the shapes +silhouetted against the dusky light. She clenched both her hands tightly +over her lips as he reached the one that was lying motionless, a knee +upraised, quite close to the others' heels. + +The upraised knee slowly straightened. One of the two negro guards +looked round and kicked at their prisoner. The other spoke, and a +squealing laugh reached her ears. + +Each instant seemed an eternity until she thought she could see Reuben +Yoxall turn and begin to worm his way back toward her, with another +stealthy shadow following him. + +He reached her side. + +"Up and run for it now, lass," he panted, and stooped and lifted her to +her feet. "They can't hear us from there. For God's sake, don't give way +now." + +But she was quite limp and strengthless. The strain had been too much +for her. He picked her up in his arms and made for their boat at an +elephantine trot, the stranger struggling along after him through the +sand. She was sobbing brokenly when he set her down beside it. + +A piercing scream rang out across the sand from the near distance, above +all the other turmoil. But he had already got the boat turned right side +up and the man in the mask helped him to set it afloat. He splashed +ashore again and carried Sallie out to it, settling her very tenderly in +its stern. + +"We're all right now," he told her, and she whispered back, "Oh! I'm so +ashamed of myself, Rube,--I nearly fainted!" + +The other man sat down in the bow and the mate stepped carefully in. A +few minutes later they were beyond the bar, safe enough from pursuit. + +"I'll take an oar now," the stranger suggested, speaking for the first +time, and in a tone which showed how he had suffered. Yoxall passed him +one willingly. He had over-taxed his own strength at last. He was almost +exhausted before they at length ran alongside the _Olive Branch_, +skirting the arc of the search-light. He could scarcely scramble up the +rope he had left hanging from the poop. + +But with the other man's help he managed to get the boat aboard and +stowed away again. And they returned on deck together. + +"What do you think has happened ashore, Rube?" asked Sallie very +anxiously as he reappeared from below. + +"I wish I knew, lass," he answered, no less concerned. "I'll go and find +out what Brasse--" + +"I must see Mr. Brasse too," she told him. "He's promised--" She turned +to the stranger. + +"The stokehold's the only place on board where you will be safe," she +said, somewhat uncertainly. "Will you mind very much--" + +"I'll shovel coal _most_ contentedly," he assured her at once, in a tone +that was still very tremulous. "And--how to show my gratitude to both of +you, for the chance, I--I can't--" + +His voice broke. He could say no more. His silent self-control had been +too sorely tried. + +"Come on, then," said Reuben Yoxall uncomfortably. And Sallie clutched +at the big, stolid Englishman's arm again and clung to it as they went +forward, along the dark empty decks. + +On the bridge, in the dim, vaporous light at one side of the white hood +within which the carbon was burning, they caught sight of the chief +engineer, a raggedly disreputable-looking individual, with features +haggard, refined to the pitch of foolishness, rendered still more +fatuous by the single eye-glass he always affected and which he had worn +even while, when he had first joined the ship, he himself had worked in +the stokehold as one of the black gang who feed the furnaces. Brasse was +one of a number of human enigmas who had followed Captain Dove's flag +and fortunes for uncounted years, and Sallie had long ago heard the +common report that there was a hangman's rope waiting for him somewhere +ashore. + +He looked round as she approached, and his perspiring face expressed +heartfelt relief. + +"Just a moment," he begged, and once more applied an eye to the +telescope trained parallel with the light. + +"I thought so," he exclaimed, and turned a tap on a tube leading into +the hood. In the instant darkness which ensued, the flare of another +blue-light on the ridge above the ravine ashore produced a very weird +and startling effect. + +The engineer turned to Sallie. + +"Gad!" said he, hurriedly, "but I'm glad to see you safe back on board. +I was afraid that--Did you get your man?" + +"Yes, we brought him off. He's here, behind," Sallie answered briefly, +since there was so little time to explain anything. "But--what has gone +wrong ashore, Mr. Brasse?" + +"That second signal should mean that Captain Dove has been quite +successful," said Brasse, a bitter note in his voice. "I expect he'll be +back on board presently, too. So I'll get away below now and send some +of my men on deck to help. I'll have to see your friend fixed up before +the boats arrive. Have you explained to him--" + +"Yes, he understands," she assured him, and, as the stranger followed +the engineer silently from the bridge, she spoke to Yoxall again. He was +leaning over the rail behind her, gazing over the side. + +"What do you think has really happened, Rube?" she once more asked him. +"It didn't look as if our men were winning." + +"I wish I knew, lass," he repeated dully. "But--we'll know before very +long, and--we can do nothing to help. So you'd better be off aft again, +now, and seek some rest. I must see everything shipshape about the +decks." + +Sallie went slowly back to the poop, but she could not rest amid so many +anxieties. It was not very long, however, before the regular plash of +oars reached her ears where she was standing within the companion-hatch, +under cover from the dew that the awning dripped. And in another minute +Captain Dove's harsh voice hailed the ship. + +"Show a light at the gangway, quick!" the old man shouted. "Muster all +hands at the rails--and don't let a single son-of-a-gun on board you +till I give the word." + +These peremptory orders were promptly obeyed. Reuben Yoxall himself came +running to the break of the poop with a deck-lamp and let the +Jacob's-ladder down. But Captain Dove's boat was well ahead of the +others, although for all company in it he had only Jasper Slyne and +three white-robed Arabs, who, as they ran alongside, shipped their oars +smartly to clutch at the ladder, up which Captain Dove scrambled +swaying, with only one hand at his service. Slyne followed him, hot, +dusty, dishevelled, still bleeding from a deep cut in one cheek, and +then the Arabs, the Emir El Farish first, and the last with a turn of +the boat's painter about his wrist in seaman-like fashion. + +"Shift her forward now," Captain Dove commanded, "and up with the ladder +again." + +Which also was done, in a hurry, so that when the other boats arrived +they had to bring-to under the bare wet side of the steamer wallowing in +the swell. Sallie, herself unseen, saw that there were only three or +four men in each, and a sudden, sick understanding of Captain Dove's +successful expedient for ridding the ship of the rest of the mutineers +flashed through her mind. But she would not allow herself to surmise +what the Emir's visit might mean. + +Captain Dove, safe on board, surveyed for a space, in silence and very +much at his leisure, the men in the boats. But not one of them was able +or willing to meet his malevolent glance. A more cowed, unhappy, +hang-dog lot he had never seen, and he told them so, at some length. + +"Get on to your feet, you, Hobson," he snapped, and the second mate +stood up in his place, as if with a galvanic effort of will. Captain +Dove regarded him fixedly for some moments. + +"You're the worst that's left," he said then, in a steely voice, "and--I +don't quite know what to do with you. I've asked Far--the Emir here if +he'll have you as a gift, along with the others I left ashore, but he +won't. And I don't want you on the _Olive Branch_; there's no room on +board for a man like you--you might stir up another mutiny! Seems to me +the very best thing you can do for yourself now is to jump right +overboard before I have that boat swung and lay hands on you. For, if +you set foot on my ship again, I'll have you hove head-first into one of +the furnaces. D'ye hear? + +"But take your choice--one way or the other, it's all the same to me. + +"The rest of you mutinous swine can come aboard now. You've had your +lesson, I think, eh? Then stand by to pick Mr. Hobson up if he follows +you, and carry him down to the stokehold. + +"Let the ladder over again, there." + +The doomed wretch, staring wide-eyed at Captain Dove in the lamplight, +seemed to know that no appeal from that most monstrous penalty of his +scarcely less monstrous crime would serve any purpose at all, and looked +hopelessly about him while the others in the boat clambered, cringing, +up the ship's side. He shuddered convulsively as he caught sight of a +stealthy black fin in the water, within a few feet of him. His slack, +twisted lips were moving like those of a man with paralysis. + +"Put--put a bullet through me first," he begged piteously, and turning +about, scrambled, groping, into the stern-sheets. + +He stood there throughout an eternity of a few seconds, head bent, +shoulders heaving, hands hanging limp, and then, "For God's own sake--" +he cried, in a dreadful, whimpering voice, that was suddenly stilled by +a whip-like explosive crack as he pitched forward, headlong, out of the +boat. + +Sallie had darted, unnoticed, down the steps from the poop to where +Jasper Slyne was standing in the background, nonchalantly looking on. + +"Save him, Jasper--for my sake!" she beseeched of him, who alone had any +influence with the old man. + +"I will--if you'll promise to marry me," he whispered in answer, as if +inspired to snatch at even such a precarious chance of placing her under +that obligation to him, and, without waiting for any reply, he fired at +the black fin beyond the boat, ran to the rail and plunged over the +ship's side. Captain Dove swung around, snarling viciously, and struck +at him as he passed. + +The splash he made frightened the swarming sharks away for a moment or +two. He came up close beside Hobson, seized him by the scruff of the +neck, and, after a desperate struggle, succeeded in clambering into the +boat. A white streak seemed to leap from the water and snapped and +missed the second mate's helpless heels by an inch or two as Slyne, with +a final, frantic effort, jerked him inboard and fell backward over a +thwart. + +Captain Dove stood glaring about him, speechless. Sallie had drawn back, +unseen, in breathless suspense. But the old man said nothing at all, not +even when Slyne stepped, spent and dripping, over the rail, with Hobson +close behind crying like a child. + +"I've no more time to waste on such tomfoolery," said the Emir then, +angrily, "and no great taste for it, either, Captain Dove. So give me +the girl now, and I'll be gone." + +"Come below, for a minute," returned Captain Dove, in a strangled voice, +mastering his pent rage with a very visible effort. "Come below for a +minute till I send for her. + +"Mr. Yoxall, you'll let Mr. Brasse know that we'll be starting in half +an hour. Tell those men off in two watches, and send one lot below. +Leave Da Costa in charge of the deck--you'll be rated as second mate, +now, Da Costa, d'ye hear?--and turn in, yourself, Mr. Yoxall, till the +morning watch." + +"Ay, ay, sir," Yoxall responded mechanically, and Captain Dove, as he +led the way to his own quarters amidships--he had only been berthed aft, +in the poop, while he had been ill and the crew conspiring against +him--at length looked round at Slyne. + +"Better get into some dry clothes, quick," he said, civilly enough, but +in a tone which betrayed his real temper. "I want you to go aft and +bring Sallie along." + +When Slyne came aft again, a few minutes later, he was once more cool +and clean and spruce in white drill, with a plaster over the cut on his +face. He was also apparently well pleased with himself. + +He found Sallie crouching within the companion-hatch, and she shrank +still farther into its shelter as he approached. + +"What's the matter?" he asked in surprise, his greedy eyes searching her +white face in the misty darkness while she looked up at him in +speechless dismay. + +"Did you hear what Captain Dove said?" he asked, and laughed exultantly. +"You needn't worry about anything of that sort now, my dear. You've got +some one to look after you now, and--it's all part of his plan, don't +you understand? You must come along with me, but--there's nothing to be +afraid of. You're perfectly safe now--with me." + +She did not know what to believe, but, since there was no help for it, +she followed him, without a word, to the doorway of the mid-ship saloon, +within which the Emir and Captain Dove were amicably engaged over a +black bottle. + +"The real potheen!" El Farish was saying exultantly, a tumbler to his +hook-nose. "It's long since I've had the chance of such." He looked +round as Slyne stepped in. + +"Here, have a sip, Mr. Slyne," he said. "No, out of this glass of mine, +if you please, just to show that it isn't hocussed. I've known Captain +Brown--Captain Dove, I mean--long enough to be extra careful in his +company." + +He laughed as Slyne took the tumbler from him and, with a covert nod to +Captain Dove, half emptied it at a draught. And, as Slyne smacked his +lips, "If it does you so much good, it can't do me any harm," said the +Emir jovially. "So--here's to the pair of bright eyes that--Ah! there +she is. Come in, acushla, and let's have another look at you." + +But Sallie had stopped on the threshold, and stayed there, silent, +unable to move. The Emir, staring avidly at her, rose and lifted his +glass. + +"Here's happy days and no regrets--to the two of us!" he cried, and was +draining it off when Captain Dove, at his back, felled him to the floor +with a well-aimed blow of the full water-bottle, which was the most +convenient weapon at hand. + +"Are his two cut-throats out there safe?" the old man hissed from +between set teeth, and Sallie, looking round, saw two limp figures +huddled with hanging heads in the dark alleyway just beyond the door. + +"Safe as houses," Slyne answered evenly, since she stood silent, aghast. +"I made sure of them before I went aft. A single drink settled their +hash. You must have made the dose in the other bottle pretty strong." + +"It's just as well, after all, you see, that we didn't depend on fixing +him the same way," said Captain Dove, recovering his self-command and +indicating the prone Emir with a contemptuous foot. He seemed to have +forgotten for the moment his grudge against Slyne. "I was afraid he'd +smell a rat if we tried that old trick on him. + +"And now--the sooner he's over the side the better. Don't stand there +staring, Sallie! Go and call some of the men in." + +The girl turned and went, dazedly, drawing her skirts close as she +passed the two huddled figures in the alleyway. Half a dozen of the +watch on deck carried the Emir and his ineffectual retinue up the +gangway, flung them, like so much rubbish, into the boat out of which +the hapless Hobson had fallen, and at once cast it loose. + +"They'll probably all wake up before they drift into the surf," said +Captain Dove, looking on, with a laugh which made even Slyne glance +askance at him. "And, if not--it isn't my fault. + +"That fellow thought he could get the better of _me_, Slyne--and there's +the result! + +"Is that you, Mr. Da Costa? Where's Hobson?" + +"He's locked himself into his room, sir, and barricaded the door," the +new second mate answered swiftly, with a servile smile. + +"Humph!" exclaimed Captain Dove. "All right. Weigh anchor at once. Head +west for an hour and then due north. You'll be relieved before long. And +just bear in mind that we've got to be very careful of coal now; we've +no more on board than will take us to Genoa." + +Da Costa saluted briskly, and had disappeared before Captain Dove turned +and caught sight of Sallie again. + +"Get away aft and turn in at once," he called irritably to her. "You'll +have to take the bridge by and by, and for a good long spell, too--we've +all had a hard time of it ashore while you've been idling on board." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WHITE BLACKBIRD + + +"I could do with a sleep myself!" said Slyne, as he followed the old man +toward the mid-ship saloon after Sallie had gone. + +"There's no hurry," Captain Dove disagreed. "And--we've Hobson to get +rid of first. What the everlasting blazes made you bring him aboard +again!" + +Slyne darted a grimace of disgust at him. + +"An idea of my own," he answered slowly. + +"But--you're surely not going to murder him in his bed now!" he added. +Case-hardened and unscrupulous though he might be, he had not yet got so +far as to contemplate without a seasick qualm the idea of killing any +man in cold blood. + +He threw himself down on the settee in the malodorous little saloon. + +"I'm tired to death of you and your butcher's methods!" said he, +regardless of consequences. "Have you no conscience at all?" + +Captain Dove, blinking balefully at him from out of weak, red-rimmed +eyes, showed all his tobacco-stained fangs: but in an unexpected smile +instead of a snarl. The old man was evidently in a much better temper +now that he had turned the tables so neatly on nearly all of those who +had thought him utterly in their power. It seemed to amuse him to hear +Jasper Slyne in the role of mentor. + +"None at all," he answered amiably. "And--how about you?" + +"You can leave me out of your reckoning after this," Slyne declared, the +more morose since he knew very well what good grounds the other had for +that taunt. "I'm going ashore just as soon as we get to Genoa, and +you'll never set eyes on me again. I know when I've had enough--and I've +had enough now." + +"Not you," Captain Dove contradicted him blandly. "Say when." He had +whisked a bottle of champagne out from a locker under the settee, +knocked its wired head neatly off on the table-edge, and was pouring the +creamy wine out into a glass, with hospitable but steady hand. When the +glass was full he stopped, but not till then, since Slyne had said +nothing. + +He filled another for himself, and drank its contents off in a couple of +gulps, produced a box of cigars, and lighted one clumsily. Slyne +followed his example in both respects, but more deliberately, and the +heady liquor was not without its prompt effect on him. + +"What I mean, Dove," said he presently in that grandiose, patronising +manner which always rubbed Captain Dove the wrong way, "what I mean is +that I've had far more than enough of this rough-and-tumble work. It +isn't the sort of sport at all that appeals to a gentleman. And, what's +more, I haven't made a penny out of it all." + +Captain Dove's eyes began to kindle. Slyne had succeeded, as usual, in +touching him on the raw. + +"No more have I," he asserted with a fierce oath. "I've barely enough +left to pay the port-dues in Genoa and take my ship through the canal; +you know very well, too, that I won't be safe till I see Suez astern. +For a few tons of coal and some temporary repairs I'll have to trust to +my wits. I'm worse off now than I was when I picked you up in New York, +with your precious scheme for making our fortunes in Central America." + +The flagrant injustice of that reproach was so obvious that Slyne kept +his self-control. "Whose fault was it that you were so soft with Sallie +as to let her spoil all our plans?" he asked equably, and did not wait +for an answer. "And you're far better off at the finish than I am," said +he. "Your foolishness has cost us both our chance of a big haul--but +_you've_ still got her." + +"I've still got her," the old man admitted, if grudgingly. "That's true. +I've still got her. And she'll have to pay pretty high, perhaps, for all +she's cost me of late. You wouldn't believe, Slyne, how well I've always +treated that girl. I couldn't have done better by her if she had been my +own daughter. And I wouldn't have believed she'd ever go back on me as +she's done of late." + +"You don't know how to handle her at all," Slyne asserted bluntly. +"You're getting into your dotage. She's outgrown you. And what'll happen +in the end will be that you'll lose her too. You're far too grasping." + +Captain Dove shook his hoary head with a cunning grin. "If I don't know +how to handle her, there's nothing you can teach me," he commented. "And +yet you'd give your very eye-teeth for her!" + +"It would be the best bit of business you've done for long," Slyne +affirmed. "She's cost you far more already than you'll ever make again, +and me, too, for that matter. Look what a hoodoo she's been to us all +this trip. We might both have been millionaires at this minute but for +her interfering with--" + +"Avast there, now!" the old man growled savagely. "Don't keep harping on +that string, curse you! I know when I've had enough, too. So just keep +your head shut about it. And bear in mind, Slyne, that what I say goes, +on the _Olive Branch_, or--it'll maybe be 'Hobson's choice' for you too +before we make Genoa." + +Slyne gave him back glance for virulent glance, but kept silence, and +showed his wisdom thereby. For Captain Dove, in that frame of mind, +might very easily have been moved to some insane act of violence. The +old man had never before gone so far as actually to threaten his casual +accomplice. And even Slyne, who did not fear death itself, did not +desire to die in a more unpleasant manner than need be. He sat quiet, +searching his nimble brain for some more soothing speech. + +"What makes me so hot," he explained, relaxing his scowl as he held out +his empty glass, "is that I haven't the money you want for her. You've +no idea, Dove, how well I could do with a wife like that. And now--" + +"Sallie wouldn't whistle to your teachings now any more than she will to +mine--not so well, in fact," Captain Dove declared, accepting the +friendly hint, and reached for the bottle. "I wish to blazes that this +lame flipper of mine was fit for duty again. See if you can find a fresh +bottle below you, Slyne. And, for heaven's sake! talk sense. You haven't +the money--and that's the end of the matter." + +Slyne, searching under the settee, scowled to himself. He was not for a +moment prepared to admit that the matter was at an end, but neither was +he inclined to contradict his companion again. It irked him to have to +hold his tongue. He approached the subject afresh, from another +direction. + +"You may not find it so easy now as you think to dispose of her," he +adventured. "The world's not so wide as it was, for one thing, +and--she's developed a very strong will of her own these past few +months." + +"Tell me something I don't know," begged Captain Dove. "The world's +become far too small to suit me--or you either, Slyne--but I know one or +two quiet corners yet where the black flag's better known than the +British, if that's what you're hinting at. + +"Did you ever hear of the Pirate Isles, for instance? They're not what +they used to be, of course, but there's still trade to be done in those +waters, in spite of the French. I once met a Chinese mandarin there who +offered me a hundred thousand taels for the girl--close on eighty-five +thousand dollars. I'm going East again now, and I know where to lay my +hands on him when I want to. + +"A year ago I could have got rid of her to a son-of-a-gun from Shiraz +who tried to do me down over a deal in rifles for Afghanistan, but I +wouldn't let her go, to a scoundrel like that. + +"The Rajah of--But, pshaw! I've had a round dozen of such offers for +her, first and last, all good as government bonds--and a lot more than +that like yours, Slyne." + +Slyne almost choked over his champagne, but Captain Dove did not seem to +notice that. + +"And now I'll take the next--of the right sort--that comes along," the +old man went on, growing gloomy again. "I've been too particular, I'll +admit. I've picked and chosen for her, at my own expense, and always +meaning to see her as happily settled as might be. I couldn't have +considered her more if she had been my own daughter." + +Slyne pricked up his ears. "That's just where the trouble will come in +for you," said he. "She's somebody's daughter, and some day she'll find +out whose; she isn't by any means so simple as you suppose. Then there +will be the devil to pay--out of empty pockets." + +He hesitated over an impulse to argue the moral aspect of Captain Dove's +expressed intention regarding the helpless girl, but concluded to let +that go, since the pecuniary side of it was so much more to the point. +"I wonder you don't see," he went on patiently, "how much better it +would pay you in the long run to marry her to me, and so be done with +all your worries. I'm bound to make money. With her to help me I'd soon +be breaking the bank. + +"I'm not close-fisted, either; I'm willing to share the profits with you +as long as you've any use for them." He held up a protesting hand as +Captain Dove would have cut in, no doubt with some caustic sarcasm. +"What I'm offering you isn't eighty-five thousand dollars, remember," he +finished, "but a free income for life, that'll run into six figures a +year--or I'll be vastly surprised at your simple tastes!" + +"You'd be more surprised if I said 'done' to any such idiot's bargain," +opined Captain Dove, and laughed like an old hyena. "And the sooner you +set all such nonsensical projects aside, the better we'll get on +together. My pretty white blackbird will never have to fret her heart +out in any imitation-gilt cage. And more than that, I heard her tell you +not so long ago--I suppose you forgot that the open port below you was +just at my ear--that she'd far rather beg in the gutter than marry +you!" + +Slyne flushed darkly under his tan and darted an ugly glance at his +grinning tormentor. He had always plumed himself on his way with women, +and Captain Dove's chance shaft had sorely wounded his very sensitive +self-esteem. But he still controlled his own barbed tongue and said +nothing of the new card he had up his sleeve. + +"So be it, then," he agreed, with a somewhat difficult smile. "I can't +force you" ("you old fool!" he added mentally) "to take the chance of a +lifetime when it's offered you. And, of course, what you've told me now +makes all the difference. You've often given me to understand that +Sallie's a somebody by rights. Now you say she's only a slave!" + +Captain Dove cogitated deeply, and then drank again. The _Olive Branch_ +was moving smoothly along her course, leaving a heavy load of trouble +always a little further astern. A pleasant sense of security and comfort +had replaced the agonizing mental strain of the past few days. The wine +he had been imbibing was buoying him up, and he was inclined to be +garrulous. + +"I've often told you she ought to be at least a lady of title in her own +right," he remarked at length, "she's so damned high and mighty with me +at times. But--who she really is--I've never told you that, have I, +Slyne?" + +Slyne shook his head, with assumed unconcern. + +"I've never told you that--because I don't know," the old man chuckled +explosively. + +"I don't suppose it's ever struck you that it might pay you to find +out?" Slyne inquired with sardonic gravity, and Captain Dove began to +show signs of becoming restless again. + +"How the Seven Stars can I find out!" he demanded indignantly. "The +trader I bought her from, along with a shipload of niggers for the +Sultan of El Merayeh, when she was very little more than knee-high to +me--and a pretty stiff price I paid for her, too, let me tell you!--had +brought her from the other side of the Back o' Beyond that lies three +months away behind the mountains of God-knows-Where. So much I found out +from him one way and another, although he could speak no language that +I'd ever heard before. And no one will ever be able to find out more. +She's my property, by right of purchase. It wouldn't pay even her own +father, whoever he is, to try to take her away from me." + +"But where was it you ran across her?" asked Slyne, with somewhat too +much eagerness. "Oh, all right. You needn't tell me any more than you +want to. I'm not in the least inquisitive." + +He lighted another cigar, and lay back in his seat as if he took no +further interest in that strange story. But in his fertile brain he was +seeking some way to turn it to his own advantage. And the obstacles +before him merely made him the more determined. For the needy +adventurer's restless mind was inflamed by dreams of the future he might +achieve with a wife such as Sallie to help him, by the delusion that, +once she was legally his, he would succeed in bending or breaking her +will to his every wish. + +In the smoke that hung about the skylight of the squalid, grubby little +saloon, with its two evil-smelling, untended kerosene lamps overwhelming +even the odour of two rank cigars, he saw golden, diamond-set visions of +such a career as could only end at the very crest of that dazzling +society amid which crowns nod in friendly fashion to coronets, which +will, on occasion, open its doors as if hospitably to a man with money +and brains and a tempting wife. Slyne had more than once in his palmier +days strayed boldly over all boundaries into the outskirts of quite +august circles, and felt assured that he was fitted to shine among even +the most select. + +While as for Sallie--he could imagine her at his side, tall and slender, +in the very latest mode, but scarcely more than young girl yet, as +lissom and shapely as any sculptor's divinest dream of Aphrodite, with +her pure, proud, sensitive features faintly flushed under the scrutiny +of the multitude to the complexion of a wild-rose at its prime; with her +curved, crimson lips, drooped a little as though in appeal against the +envious stare of the other women, questioning eyebrows, eyes with the +wild wine of youth abrim behind their long, shadowy lashes, alive with +strange, lambent lights, like twin rainbows born between sunshine and +shower; and, over all, a glory of red-gold hair luridly aglow in the +gleam of innumerable electroliers. + +His own eyes hardened and narrowed again. A cock-roach crawling along a +beam had brought him back to crude matters of fact. + +"Does she know--what you've told me?" he tried afresh, with +unconquerable persistence. + +Captain Dove shook his head abstractedly, and then sat up with a scowl, +realising too late that he had admitted more than was maybe wise. + +"It doesn't make any difference, of course," said Slyne, to appease him, +"since there's so little to know: and she doesn't seem much interested, +does she? The upshot is that she's your property; there isn't a court in +the world that could say otherwise. And no other claimant could prove +his case. + +"If you'll take a tip from me, though, you'll see that she and Yoxall +don't give you the slip together some fine--" He halted, tongue-tied +under the old man's murderous glance. + +"You can count him out," Captain Dove asserted, with a cold assurance +which very much discomposed his more imaginative companion. "Is that +bottle empty too? Then I'll just see to him now, before I turn in. I'm +much obliged to you for reminding me." + +He rose, still scowling, and set his lips to one of several +speaking-tubes let into the bulkhead behind him. "Is that Mr. Brasse?" +he demanded. "I want one of those boxes of cigars you have in the +engine-room." He set one ear to the tube, nodded, and sat down again. + +"You're not going to--do anything rash?" Slyne asked, uncomfortably. + +"I'm not going to do anything that would upset an infant in arms--for +more than a minute," returned Captain Dove in his mildest tone, and +Slyne sprang to his feet with a startled oath as a hatch in the floor +beyond the table at which they were sitting suddenly lifted, and in the +opening appeared the bald head and stoop shoulders of the sullen chief +engineer. + +"It's all right. You needn't be nervous," said Captain Dove with a nasty +grin. "There are lots of other funny little contrivances you know +nothing about on this ship." And Slyne, looking angrily sheepish, +returned to its pocket in his white coat something he had pulled out in +a hurry, while his tormentor stooped and took gingerly from the engineer +the innocent looking cigar box which that individual was holding out to +him. + +The hatch descended again, noiselessly, and they were once more alone. + +"I don't like that infernal fellow," Slyne declared in a sulky voice, +"and he doesn't like me--or you either, for that matter. If I were you I +wouldn't turn my back on him when there's a hammer within his reach." + +"Don't you worry about me," Captain Dove advised in return, and, holding +the box to his ear, shook it slightly. "My head's quite as thick as your +own--if it comes to hammer-work," he added, in a provoking tone. But +that shot missed its mark. Slyne was very much more interested in the +cigar box. + +The old man set that down on the table, and, stooping, pulled off his +shoes. "I don't want Da Costa to notice us," he explained, and Slyne, +inspired by a fearful curiosity, followed his example. + +Box in hand, but at arm's length, Captain Dove left the saloon, tiptoed +laboriously up the steep stair which led, by way of the quarter-deck, to +the chart-house behind the bridge, and, stepping out on to the deck with +extreme precaution, passed aft into the darkness. + +The night was no less obscure now that dawn was near, but he could have +found his way about the ship blind, and Slyne crept closely after him, +not knowing what to expect, since Reuben Yoxall lay safely locked in one +of the rooms below. + +Captain Dove stopped behind the canvas shaft of one of the wind-sails +which had been spread to catch the scant breeze and relieve a little the +atmosphere of the mid-ship cabins. Its base was made fast about the hood +of an ordinary deck ventilator. + +"Cast it loose for a minute and listen," he whispered to his companion, +and Slyne obeyed. + +He listened there for a time, and then turned to whisper excitedly to +Captain Dove. + +"There's something wrong with him," he said. "He's raving. He's down +with fever, as sure's I live." + +"Let me hear," the old man commanded, and was very soon satisfied. + +"Hell!" he ejaculated. "Now, isn't that the limit! There's surely some +hoodoo on board this ship. + +"Tie it up again, Slyne. We needn't waste powder and shot on _him_. He's +booked out, express, on a free pass--and a damned good riddance, too!" + +Slyne was not slow in re-fastening the canvas to the ventilator again. +But even then Captain Dove was not done with him. + +"Hobson's in the next cabin," the old man remarked, "and we may as well +give him his ticket now as later on. We can't afford to let him bolt +ashore whenever we make port--and blow the gaff on us both, Slyne!" + +Slyne hung back, his gorge up again. + +"What are you going to do?" he demanded. + +"You do your part and I'll do mine," snapped Captain Dove. And Slyne +cast loose the second wind-chute. + +Into the wide, rusted mouth of the ventilator Captain Dove cautiously +thrust one end of the flat cigar box and pushed that well down its open +throat. A muffled click was no more than audible but, none the less, +caused Slyne to start apprehensively. And then the old man withdrew the +box, tossed it over the ship's side, and, with a hurried whisper to +Slyne to make the canvas fast again, scuttled off back to the saloon. + +Slyne was not slow in following him, but stubbed his toes hurtfully on +his way to the stair and could scarcely repress the curse that rose to +his lips. Just then, however, he caught sight of a shadow at the near +end of the bridge above, which, he knew, was Da Costa, on watch, and he +did not care to be detected in any such dangerous and undignified +predicament. When he limped into the saloon below he found Captain Dove +seated there, once more sucking at a cigar, head cocked on one side as +if listening for something. + +"Was it an explosive?" demanded Slyne, almost boiling over at the idea +that he had unwittingly been risking his life as a cat's-paw. + +"What the blazes are you talking about?" Captain Dove counter-questioned +acidly. "And where have you been, eh? I thought you said you were going +to bed." + +He stared unwinkingly into the other's angry, suspicious eyes. "What's +it like on deck?" he inquired. "Any sign of wind yet?" + +"You ought to know, you've just been on deck," snapped Slyne. + +"On deck!" exclaimed Captain Dove in surprise. "Not me. I've been +sitting smoking here since you left the saloon." + +Slyne, busy replacing his shoes, thought that over, and sat up again +with a sneering laugh. + +"Don't forget, Dove," said he, "that, if you ever go back on me at a +pinch, that will be the worst day's work you've ever done for yourself. +I'm the one who's been sitting here while you've been on deck--and I +don't know yet what you went for." + +"You'll hear presently," the other informed him, quite unmoved by his +threat. "And don't _you_ forget, Slyne, that, if you ever go back on me +at a pinch, I've another--box of cigars that I'm keeping for your +benefit; I don't think Brasse will fail to look very carefully after it, +either." + +Slyne blanched a little, in spite of himself, and at that moment a +stifled shout came from behind some closed door at the end of the +alleyway outside the airless saloon. He moved, as if to rise, but sat +still, rigid, his eyes dilated, as a blood-curdling, long-drawn cry +reached his ears dully from the distance, and finally died to silence in +a quavering agony. + +Even Captain Dove was uncomfortably affected by it. + +A shrill whistle made them both jump as the sight of a policeman just +then might have done. It was the old man who first recovered his nerve. + +"That's Da Costa, curse him!" he muttered, and darted a glance of +contempt at Slyne as he crossed to the bridge speaking-tube. + +"How the devil do I know!" he roared into that, after listening to what +his new second mate had to say. "Yes, I heard it. You'd better send down +and find out what it was." + +He set the whistle into the tube again and turned to Slyne. + +"Pull yourself together, you fool!" he said savagely. "This isn't the +time to show the white feather. I wouldn't trust--" He stopped abruptly, +hearing the sound of heavy feet in the passage as some of the watch on +deck came tramping in, and Slyne, who had also heard that, pulled out +his handkerchief to hide his tell-tale face. + +The footsteps did not stop at the saloon door, however, but went on to +the end of the alleyway. And, when Captain Dove at length looked out, +one of the men there was still knocking violently at the door of +Hobson's room. But he could obtain no answer. + +"Better get a hatchet and handspikes, Cassidy," said Captain Dove, "and +break the door in. Something must have gone wrong inside." + +The panelling soon began to splinter under these drastic measures. A +crash told that it had succumbed, and then the two listeners heard the +key being turned in the lock. + +They strained their ears to catch what the men were muttering to each +other. One jumped clumsily back into the passage with a hoarse bark of +alarm, and, over the shuffling of feet which ensued, could be heard the +soft thud of quick, desperate blows on some substance which muffled +them, until one fell on woodwork again and a murmur of eager +congratulations succeeded it. + +The man Cassidy came along to the saloon door, out of breath but +exultant. "Mr. Hobson's stone-dead, sir," said he, extending his +hatchet, on whose flat blade lay, black and limp, a long thin snake that +looked like a slimy shoe-string. "Mr. Hobson's stone-dead--and that's +what killed him. It all but got me too, while I was turning over the +blankets." + +"Bring it nearer the light," Captain Dove directed, and then bent over +it, frowning, while Slyne, at his shoulder, stared at it as if +fascinated. + +"Huh!" Captain Dove at length commented. "Your luck was certainly in, +Cassidy, when you managed to dodge _that_. It must have got on board +while we were alongside the wharf at the Rio. But my luck's out, since +I've lost another man--and the ship so short-handed too! + +"You might see if you can find a bottle of grog for those lads, Mr. +Slyne. And--Cassidy. Just rouse the carpenter out and tell him to tie a +fire-bar or two to the body and slip it over the side. We can't keep a +dead man on board till morning in weather like this." + +Cassidy touched his forelock and went off, apparently quite content with +the luck which had left him alive to enjoy his share of the bottle Slyne +had handed him. Captain Dove shut the door behind him, and looked +contemplatively round at Slyne. His own face was grey. The artificial +animation derived from the alcohol he had imbibed was dying away. He +looked very old and tired. + +He slouched across to the speaking-tube and whistled up the engine-room, +while Slyne sat watching him with sombre eyes. + +"We've got black-water fever on board now, Brasse," he said in a weary +voice. "Hobson's dead already, and the mate's down with it, too. I want +you to send one of your men up to see after him. I can't spare a single +deck-hand. And I must have some one--or Sallie will be wanting to nurse +him herself." + +He set his ear to the mouthpiece and, after he had waited a while, spoke +into it again. + +"That's good," he remarked. "Send him up to the mate's room right away. +He'll have to stay there, in quarantine. And whatever he does know about +doctoring will maybe help him to save his own life!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UNMASKED + + +Sallie sat up in her disordered cot with a start of alarm when +Ambrizette came in to wake her, as she had directed before she lay down. +She had scarcely slept at all amid dreadful dreams, and was still very +weary, both body and mind. She had not yet had time to forget the +horrors of over-night. + +But she had no desire to dwell on them, and--there was the day's work +awaiting her. Twenty minutes later she was on her way to the bridge, to +relieve Da Costa. + +That was not the first occasion, by many, on which she had had to fill a +man's place. For Captain Dove had trained her to all the +responsibilities of the sea. Da Costa touched his cap obsequiously to +her and gave her the course, which she repeated after him, with +mechanical precision. + +As he turned to go, yawning wearily, "If you'll send and have me woke +out again whenever you feel like it, Miss Sallie," he said with an +ingratiating flourish, "I'll--" + +"But Mr. Yoxall will be taking the next watch, won't he?" she asked, +renewed doubt and distrust in her tired eyes. + +The promoted Portuguese quartermaster shrugged his shoulders and spread +out his hands. + +"You and I must stand watch and watch for a little, Miss Sallie," he +told her with a self-satisfied smirk. "The chief mate is sick--of a +fever. That Hobson he is already dead and over the side. And Captain +Dove has sent order that he is not to be disturbed--unless necessary. He +is broke down, he says, with illness and worry." + +"Wait a minute, then, Mr. Da Costa," she said, so imperatively that he +halted and let her pass. "I won't be long, and then I'll stay on duty +till evening." + +She hurried below by the stairway behind the chart-house, and went +straight along the alleyway to Reuben Yoxall's room. She was very much +alarmed; she knew how sudden and deadly the dreaded West African fever +could be. She did not doubt that the wretched Hobson had fallen a victim +to it. + +All was quiet within the chief mate's room. She knocked gently, and the +door was opened almost at once. A young man in an ill-fitting, +coal-blackened suit of blue dungaree looked inquiringly out at her and +then frowned. + +"Keep to the other side of the passage, please," he requested crisply. +"This room's in strict quarantine, and the risk of infection--" + +"Oh, never mind about that," she broke in. "It's no worse for me than +for you. And I must speak to Rube--Mr. Yoxall. Is he very bad? How did +you--" + +She had recognised him by his voice. Without his horrible mask he looked +so much younger than she had supposed him that she had at first wondered +who he could be, although his keen, resolute face was haggard and lined, +his pale lips dreadfully drawn at the corners, and hideous remembrances +still seemed to lurk behind his steady grey eyes. + +"He's asleep at present--and pretty bad," said the stranger sorrowfully. +"I had to give him an opiate. I volunteered to look after him--which +was the very least I could do. There was no one else who knew anything, +and, although I'm not a doctor, I know some of the tricks of the trade. + +"And I know enough," he added, "to warn you that you must please stay +away from here in the meantime." + +"I won't," said Sallie simply. "He's my best friend, Mr.--" + +"Carthew's my name," the young man in the doorway informed her. + +"He's my best friend, Mr. Carthew. And--you must let me help." + +Mr. Carthew considered the matter, and nodded. + +"All right," he agreed. "If you like to see to his food--what the ship's +cook has left at the door will do him no good." And she listened +attentively while he went on to tell her what would be best for the sick +man. + +"Ambrizette will prepare it and bring it along," she promised. +"And--you'll let me see him next time I come down?" + +"As soon as he's fit to see anyone," her new acquaintance assured her. +And with that Sallie was quite content. She felt intuitively that she +could trust him. + +"Are you--all right, yourself?" she asked. + +"Perfectly all right," he assured her. "And very glad of the chance to +repay some small part of what I owe--our friend." + +"No one else will come near you here," she said reflectively. "It may +all be for the best in the end." + +He nodded again, and, as she turned away, shut the door very quietly. + +She hurried aft, to instruct Ambrizette as to the food to be prepared +and carried to the sick man's door, and no less hastily returned to the +bridge. Da Costa left it by the other ladder; he evidently did not care +to come too near her then. And there she remained all day, with only the +sullen, silent man at the wheel for company. + +Once during the afternoon she slipped down to ask how the mate was, and +found him delirious. Slyne came on deck as she returned to her post, and +frowned angrily as she told him, in answer to his quick question, where +she had been. He had obviously intended to join her up there, but +thought better of that. + +"You mustn't go near him again, Sallie," he called to her peremptorily. +"Captain Dove will be very ill-pleased." + +"I can't help that," she answered, thankful so to escape Jasper Slyne's +company. And he turned away with a still blacker frown. It was tiresome +talking against the stiff head-wind. + +The day dragged out its dreary length, until, late in the evening, Da +Costa came on deck again. + +"I'm good for all night now," he told Sallie from a safe distance. +"Captain Dove's still sound asleep, although the mate's been making no +end of a row." + +"I'll be up again some time in the morning watch, then," she told him, +and was soon knocking at the door of Yoxall's room. + +Carthew's face was very grave when he looked out. + +"Is he worse?" she asked breathlessly. + +"Better--in one way," the young American answered. "He's conscious now. +He's had some of the soup you sent along." + +"Can I see him?" she begged. + +"He's just been speaking of you. He told me to ask you not to come near +him again." + +She choked back a dry sob, and had pushed past him into the room before +he could interfere. + +"I'll sit with him for an hour or two now, while you get a sleep," she +said, and stifled another sob as she saw how the sick man's sunken eyes +grew glad at sight of her. + +Nor did anything that the acting doctor could urge make any difference +in her determination; and she hushed the mate's whispered protests with +a brave smile. + +"We're going to pull you through, Rube, between us," she whispered back, +bending over him. "And you're going to obey orders for the present, +instead of giving them. So don't say any more about it now." + +She had seated herself on a camp-stool beside him. Carthew, convinced +that it would be futile to argue any further with her, was evidently +only too glad to stretch himself on the sofa and draw the curtains. And +almost at once he fell fast asleep. + +It was very nearly midnight before he moved and woke and sprang to his +feet. And Sallie was still sitting there with one of the mate's huge +hands between both of hers. + +"He looks a little better, don't you think?" she asked wistfully before +she tiptoed out of the room. And Carthew, after a prolonged glance at +his patient, nodded approval and hope. + +That night and the next day and the next again passed without any change +of conditions on board. Captain Dove was still confined to his room, and +would not even see Slyne, who had, therefore, to live alone, bored to +the last limit, not so much afraid of the fever as shirking any +needless risk of infection, his intercourse with Sallie confined to an +occasional shouted caution or inquiry. + +Da Costa took the bridge by night and she by day. And every night she +relieved Carthew for a few hours from his unremitting attendance on the +sick man. She was with Reuben Yoxall when he died. + +What passed between the two of them during that last vigil is not to be +told. But the dead man's face was very calm and content when Sallie at +length roused Carthew from his scanty rest to tell him that the +appointed end had come. + +"But you promised to call me up," he said, most unhappy for her. + +"If there was any need," she corrected him gently. "But there was none. +He knew--before I came in." + +Her downcast eyes were dry, but grief almost beyond bearing showed in +them as she looked up at him on her way to the door. + +"You must get away to your own room now," he urged, "and have a long, +quiet rest. Don't forget that you've done all you could--and far more +than most folk would ever have dreamed of doing." + +Her lips trembled a little. She held out a hand to him gratefully. She +could not trust herself to speak. And, by and by, in her own quarters, +she slowly cried herself to sleep. + +Captain Dove was on the bridge next morning when she appeared, pale and +worn. And he flew into a passion at sight of her, rating her very +bitterly for her foolhardy behaviour. + +"Go away back to bed," he finally ordered, "and keep to the poop till I +give you leave to come forward again, d'ye hear?" + +Slyne, too, stepped hastily aside as she passed him on her way aft +again, and called after her some anxious advice as to taking better care +of herself. She was glad to think that she would be free of him for the +next few days, for always in the back of her mind was the fear of what +he had told her before still more urgent cares had come to overshadow +that for a time--that he had got Captain Dove to agree to give her to +him as his wife. And, now that Reuben Yoxall was gone, she felt utterly +forlorn and friendless. + +The _Olive Branch_ bored through the Strait of Gibraltar during the +night, and after that Captain Dove effected sundry surprising changes in +his ship's appearance. No one would have recognised the rakish _Olive +Branch_ in the clumsy looking craft with three bare pole-masts and a +smokestack as high as a factory chimney which went lurching, with +propellers awash, across the Gulf of Lyons. Even its name had been +changed again, and the new paint carefully aged. And a tattered +Norwegian flag lay ready at hand in the box beside the stubby pole at +its taffrail. + +No further case of fever had occurred in the interval, but he left +Sallie isolated in her own end of the ship until the lights of Genoa +showed white and clear in the distance. She was on deck, late though it +was, watching them as they grew always clearer, when Slyne came aft for +a moment to tell her that she was once more free of the ship. + +"And isn't it glorious to get back to civilisation again?" he exclaimed, +real gladness in his voice and his smiling eyes. "Think of the good +times we're going to have now, Sallie! I can't stop to tell you all I've +planned, but--I'll see you again very soon, eh? And meantime you can be +getting ready to slip ashore with me early to-morrow. I thought these +last few days would never end! I do believe I'd have jumped overboard +but for you and the promise you made me." + +He went off again, in a great hurry, before she could even deny having +promised him anything. "Captain Dove wants me to fake up an old Bill of +Health for him," he called back, and did not seem to hear her when she +cried to him to wait. + +Before she reached the quarter-deck, in her long oilskin coat, with a +broad sou'wester to keep the dew from her hair, he had disappeared. And +she did not care to follow him to the saloon below. + +The steamer had stopped in the offing to pick up a pilot, and was +already slinking in between the harbour head-lights to the quarantine +anchorage. As soon as its rusty cable roared through the hawse-pipe, +Captain Dove came down from the bridge, and Sallie stepped out from +among the shadows to confront him, on a quick impulse. + +"Is it true that you told Jasper Slyne I would marry him?" she asked +directly, without any preface. + +The old man shrugged his shoulders crossly. "Don't worry me just now, +girl!" he growled, but paused for a moment before passing on. + +"Has he been pestering you too?" he demanded, as if aggrieved himself, +"the bankrupt crook! Never mind him, Sallie. I'm going to kick him off +the ship first thing to-morrow morning. He hasn't a cent to bless +himself with, and--no man will ever marry you without money to burn, +believe me." + +Sallie drew a deep breath of belated relief. That load at least had +been lifted from her mind. She was at last free of the fear which had +been growing day by day as the _Olive Branch_ neared port. + +A head and shoulders emerged from the engine-room skylight and she went +that way. It was Brasse, the chief engineer, come up for a mouthful or +two of fresh air. He nodded to Sallie. + +"Your friend's all right," he told her in a low tone. "The old man left +him alone in the mate's room till an hour ago and then told me to take +him back to the stokehold. He's going to swim for it now. I must get a +line let down--" + +"I'll do that," she said swiftly, "there--between the two boats. Tell +him where to look for it. And oh! Mr. Brasse--" + +He would not wait to be thanked. "I'll send him up right away, then. The +sooner he's over the side the better," said he, and so disappeared. + +Sallie climbed the rail, and, having found a coil of rope within one of +the two life-boats there, was letting that gently overside when another +shadow joined her. + +"How are you going to manage after you get ashore?" she asked hurriedly +as she was making the rope fast. + +"I have my own kit in this water-tight bundle," he told her. "I'll make +for the steps below those bathing-houses on the breakwater. It's only a +short swim." + +"But afterwards? You'll need money." + +"I have a little--enough to get along with, I assure you. I've nothing +to worry about--if I could only think of some way to show you my +gratitude. Is there anything at all I can do for you?" + +She shook her head. + +"Are you sure?" he insisted. "I don't want to presume, of course, +but--Are you all right here, and quite happy? What sort of ship is this, +anyhow? And how--" + +"Listen, Mr. Carthew," she broke in. "The only thing you can do for me +is to forget all about me and the _Olive Branch_. And I'd be very +grateful to you if you would promise--" + +"Not to forget you," he said. "I couldn't. But--all the rest I promise." + +"Thank you," she returned simply. "And now--" + +"There's no hurry," he declared. "We're quite safe in here. And--I'm not +going to leave you until you agree that, if I can ever be of any service +to you, you will let me know at once." + +"Very well," she agreed, to save time. "I'll do that." + +"You know my name," he reminded her, and paused, frowning. + +"But--that won't suit either," he said to himself reflectively, "for +more than a few weeks. And I'll be at your orders all my life. + +"You see," he said, as if in apology, "I'm Justin Carthew just now, +but--I'll be the Earl of Jura very soon after I get to England. And if +you've ever any use for me then, all you need do will be to send word to +the Earl of Jura, in London; it will soon find me, wherever I happen to +be." + +He laughed a little, and Sallie almost smiled too. But he had spoken +quite seriously. + +"You won't forget," he urged, grave again. "The Earl of Jura. I'm not +joking, I assure you. And, some day I may be able--" + +[Illustration: "You won't forget," he urged, grave again.] + +"I won't forget," she promised, no less gravely, and held out a hand, in +her haste to get him safe away. + +He lifted it to his lips before letting it go, and stifled a sigh, and, +turning, let himself over the ship's side. + +Sallie sighed too, as she reclimbed the rail after he was safely gone. +She was wondering.... + +But she was not left to her own reflections for long. Slyne came on +deck, and had espied her before she could escape. + +"I was just going aft to look for you," he told her in a confidential +tone which she did not like at all. "How about to-morrow morning, +Sallie?" + +"I asked Captain Dove, Jasper," she answered in a low voice. "And he +says--" + +"But surely you're going to keep your promise to me!" Slyne exclaimed, +in a tragic voice. + +"How _can_ I?" she asked, not thinking it worth while even now to deny +that she had made him any promise at all. And at that moment Captain +Dove emerged from the chart-house behind. + +"A bargain's a bargain, Slyne," said he mockingly, having overheard. +"And Sallie can't keep her promise to you because you can't come away +with the ready cash. So you'd better say good-bye to her now, you won't +have another chance." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN OVERDRAFT ON THE FUTURE + + +Slyne had drawn back a step. One of his hands fell on the haft of a +flogging-hammer that some one had left lying loose on the casemate +there. Had it not been for the proximity of the pilot, drowsing away the +time till morning in the chart-house behind, he would most assuredly +have attempted to knock the old man on the head with it. He felt sure +that, but for Captain Dove, he could have managed Sallie now that Yoxall +was out of the way. He stood gnawing savagely at his lower lip as she +vanished along the deck in the darkness. He had taken no notice at all +of her timid good-bye. + +Captain Dove grinned spitefully at him through the gloom of the small +hours. "You'd better be off below and pack up," the old man suggested. +"You'll be going ashore as soon as we get pratique." + +"But--I'll be back. Give me time to turn!" Slyne snarled at him. "A +bargain's a bargain, and--I'll be back." + +"You'd better not," Captain Dove advised in a very ominous voice, and +went on his way below, leaving Slyne to his own aggrieved, embittered +reflections. + +To Jasper Slyne the past few days had been like a foretaste of +purgatory. Captain Dove had interdicted all communication with Sallie, +and had proved a most unpleasant companion himself throughout the +unspeakably wearisome passage from the North-west African coast, a +passage made at the poorest speed of the ship because coal was scarce +and he was afraid to call anywhere by the way to fill up his bunkers. +Amid the dire squalor and discomfort, the enforced inaction and +loneliness of life under such conditions, Slyne's only solace had been +the hope of finally winning Sallie, by fair means or foul. He who, in +his time, had met and made love to so many charming adventuresses, who +would not have thought any more about her had she been one of their +sort, had become absolutely obsessed by ambitions to be fulfilled with +her for his wife. + +And now--he knew that neither force nor finesse would avail him against +Captain Dove's ultimatum. He had not the cash to meet the old man's +demands, and that was apparently the end of the matter. + +Most men, in Slyne's place, would have owned themselves beaten then. But +not so he. Thinking it all over again, he would admit to himself no more +than that he was for the moment baffled by contrary circumstances; +circumstances such as had been his lot for so long that he could +contemplate them almost unmoved. It was his happy creed that in the very +face of failure itself one may, as often as not, discern the inspiriting +features of final success. The dark hour that heralds dawn he spent +pacing the cluttered quarter-deck of the _Olive Branch_ in the cold, his +far-away eyes always fixed on the twinkling dock-lights, his almost +bloodless lips straight and compressed under his black moustache, +cudgelling his brains for some safe means of immediately obtaining the +money he wanted. + +He had not the cash to meet Captain Dove's demands. But neither was he +so entirely penniless as Captain Dove supposed him. He had only a +hundred dollars in hand, but he had twenty thousand francs at his credit +in a French bank. Many a millionaire had risen to affluence from +infinitely smaller beginnings. + +But it would have been idle to offer Captain Dove any such trifling sum +on account of the price he had set on Sallie. And, rack his own +overworked wits as he would, Slyne could think of no safe plan for +turning his modest capital over at a sufficient profit within the time +at his disposal. + +"The only possible way," he told himself finally, his teeth set, "the +_only_ possible way is to chance my luck at those cursed tables again. +Although, God knows that's a risk I'd give up anything else to avoid. +But--it's the only possible way now," he repeated vexedly, recalling the +very excellent reasons he had for never showing his face in Monte Carlo +again. + +For, only a season or two before, he had figured throughout the Cote +d'Azur as accessory in an _affaire_ with which the whole civilised world +had afterwards rung, in spite of every effort to hush it up, an +_affaire_ whose tragic consequences had caused such a flutter of +scandalised chagrin among the private police of three great European +powers that he could never again cross their frontiers without fear. +Since he knew very well that, if he were ever identified, he would +deservedly disappear, without any further fuss, to spend the rest of his +life as a nameless cypher, forgotten, among the living dead, entombed in +some secure fortress. In that cosmopolitan underworld to which such as +Slyne belong, occur many curious incidents not reported in the +newspapers, and the citizens of Cosmopolis have nowhere consul or +minister to protect them against unfortunate consequences. + +Slyne had no illusions as to what his fate would be if he were +recognised on the Riviera. + +"But she's worth the stake," he told himself with dogged determination, +"even though it _is_ life and liberty as well as my last few francs. +And--I'd just as soon be done with things if I can't capture Sallie from +that old scoundrel." + +He knew very well, of course, that his prospect of making a financial +success at the tables was no less of a forlorn hope. But he had all a +professional gambler's blind faith in the goddess of chance. And since +he would not withdraw from the contest, he had no option but to play +that losing hazard also. + +Day had broken before he had completed his plans. And then Captain Dove +reappeared, sleepy-eyed and unshaven, to interview the port-doctor. + +As soon as that functionary had glanced at the forged Bill of Health put +before him and seen the crew mustered to the tally it told, the yellow +flag at the fore was hauled down and Captain Dove hailed a shore-boat, +to which he had Slyne's baggage transferred, and curtly told Slyne to be +off ashore. + +Nor did Slyne delay to bid him farewell. Each was heartily sick of the +sight of the other, and each had plans of his own to promote in a hurry. +They separated without so much as a nod. Sallie was invisible. And +Slyne, in the boat on his way to the Custom-house, only looked back once +at the ports of the poop-cabin, to see, within the dingy brass frame of +one, a face that seemed to be watching him very thankfully as he went, a +horrible face, with blubber lips, almost inhumanly ugly, the face of +Sallie's devoted attendant, the dumb black dwarf, Ambrizette. + +A yawning Customs' searcher glanced at his baggage and passed it +unopened. In return for which courtesy Slyne bestowed upon him a +doubtful rix-dollar and a few words in fluent Italian concerning the +_Olive Branch_--words which would not improve Captain Dove's prospects +of an early departure from Genoa, but might, conversely, increase by a +little his own scanty time-allowance in that desperate bout with fortune +to which he had committed himself. He knew that Captain Dove was intent +on coaling and sailing again without the loss of a minute that might be +saved. + +He had all his own movements mapped out in anticipation. He drove to an +hotel at which he had stayed once before, and, after a Turkish bath and +breakfast, went on to the Credit Lyonnais office to cash his draft. Then +he made a number of purchases in inconspicuous shops, where he had to +spend a good deal of time in bargaining, looked in at the Motor-Car Mart +& Exchange, where he saw a big touring-car over which he argued for some +minutes with the salesman; and, after a belated but liberal lunch in a +first-class restaurant, he turned back toward the sale-room. + +A man in an elaborate chauffeur's uniform, and evidently English, +stopped him in the street outside, to ask whether he would care to buy a +gold cigarette-case, a bargain. Slyne looked him over, and sized him up +at a glance. + +"Stranded?" he asked, and the man nodded sulkily. + +"Want a few days' work?" + +The chauffeur's dissipated face brightened. + +"Yes, sir," said he, "I do." + +"Wait here, then," said Slyne, and went inside. + +"Well," he asked the salesman, "have you thought it over? What's the +last word?" + +"Fifteen thousand _lire, milor_--not a _soldo_ less," declared the +dapper, frock-coated salesman, in a tone of final decision which Slyne's +sharp ears judged unfeigned. "The car is worth twice as much. Indeed, I +could not let it go at such a ruinous loss were it not--But, _ecco_! The +owner himself. He would probably be very ill pleased to hear it was +actually sold at that ridiculous price." + +Slyne looked round at the grey-haired, portly, prosperous-looking +individual threading his way through the agglomeration of cars in the +background, and his half-parted lips snapped together again. + +He wanted that particular car and had made up his mind to buy it, rash +though such an investment might prove, but he had surmised from a +lynx-like glance at the seller that he might be able to get it for even +less than the salesman was authorised to accept. And, since his own +pockets were so poorly lined for the expensive part he was playing, he, +who despised chaffering, was yet bent on making the very best bargain he +could. + +"It's more than I've got about me," he told the salesman in a very +audible voice, as the fat man in the fur coat halted indeterminately a +few paces away. And at the words the new-comer's puffy face lighted up, +as if with relief, behind the pince-nez he was wearing. He came forward +and spoke. + +"An Englishman, by Jove!" he remarked with a great semblance of +geniality. "So am I. Very happy to meet you, sir. You're interested in +my car?" + +"Not at the price," Slyne returned, with an indifferent hauteur which +he judged likely to be effective with one in the stranger's presumable +plight. And the fat man's lips drooped visibly, the pouches under his +uneasy eyes became more marked. He was obviously disappointed, and felt +himself snubbed. He did not seem quite sure what to say or do next. + +Slyne, congratulating himself on his talent for character reading, +turned away, to look at a cheap runabout, as carelessly as though he had +all time at his disposal, instead of being, as he was, in a fever of +ill-restrained impatience. The salesman figuratively washed his hands of +them both; he could already foresee a forced sale at a calamitous +sacrifice. And so it fell out. + +Slyne, cavalier to the verge of rudeness, finally bought the big scarlet +car, which the other almost forced upon him, for about half its market +value, and paid for it there and then, in the new French notes which had +almost been burning a hole in his pocket since he had left the Credit +Lyonnais office--so eager was he to be off on his last forlorn hope of +winning Sallie. + +"If you had allowed me only a few hours longer, I could have got you +twice that amount," said the disappointed salesman in a stage aside to +the seller as he counted over his own diminished commission. But the fat +man merely bestowed on him a look of contemptuous annoyance, and, having +signed the receipt Slyne required, tucked away in an empty pocket-book +the balance of the crisply-rustling bills he had just received. + +Even then he did not appear to know what next to do with himself. For, +having glanced at his watch, he gave vent to a grunt of disgust, and +hung on his heel undecidedly, after making a move to go. + +"It's only about a hundred miles to Monaco, isn't it?" Slyne asked the +salesman; and was answered in the affirmative. + +The fat man gasped and choked for a moment, and then spoke again, with +more confidence: a change due, perhaps, to the improvement in his +finances. + +"Pardon me, sir," said he, "but--if you're going that way, I wonder--It +would be a most tremendous favour to me, and I haven't haggled over +giving you the best of our bargain. The train's just gone, and--" + +Slyne, chin in air, once more looked him over appraisingly, as he +stammered and hesitated; and was very much disposed to cut him adrift +without more ado. But some indefinable impulse, some feeling that here +was a bird of a feather very sadly astray, caused him to alter his mind. +"I'll be glad to give you a lift," he said, more graciously, "if you're +ready to start now. But I can't wait." + +The fat man's face lighted up again. "My luck's on the mend at last!" he +declared. "I'm in as great a hurry as you can be, sir. I'm more than +obliged to you for your courtesy. May I offer you my card?" + +Slyne glanced at the slip of pasteboard conferred upon him while the car +was being shifted out of the showroom into the street, where his +elaborate chauffeur was in waiting. And, "Jump in, Mr. Jobling," he +requested with unconcealed coldness as he himself took the wheel, +relegating the chauffeur to a back seat. It ruffled his self-satisfied +mood of the moment more than a little to learn that the fat man in the +fur coat was in fact a London solicitor. With the law in any shape or +form Jasper Slyne wanted nothing whatever to do, and especially at such +a juncture. He was already repenting his ill-timed politeness. + +However, he could not very well rid himself of his passenger then. All +he could do was to dash through the busy streets of Genoa in the dusk at +a pace calculated to make the hair of any respectable and +self-respecting solicitor stand on end. But, out of the corner of one +eye, he observed that Mr. Jobling was wearing a blandly contented smile. + +That gentleman did not seem so well pleased, however, as they turned +up-hill into the Via Roma, and Slyne, understanding, relented a little +again. "I have some baggage at the Isotta," he volunteered, and the +cloud at once lifted from Mr. Jobling's brow. + +Several assiduous porters stowed hastily in the tonneau, beside the +ornamental chauffeur, the travel-worn trunks and suit-cases which Slyne +had left there that morning, and stood at the salute till he drove away, +when they no doubt returned to their lairs to count the profits of such +politeness. He had, as usual, been very lavish with his small change. +And his passenger was also impressed by his liberality. + +Meanwhile the car was negotiating more carefully the lumpy patchwork +with which the old Via Carlo Alberto is paved, and Mr. Jobling's puffy +features spoke his discontent over its slow progress. But, once beyond +Sampierdarena, clear of close traffic, on the open road to Savona, Slyne +made more speed; and it was self-evident that he knew how to get the +most out of his horse-power. + +He looked, indeed,--if looks go for anything nowadays,--quite at home, +very much in his element, lying lazily back in the driver's seat of the +richly-appointed car which had been his companion's an hour before. It +was late on a winter afternoon, and what wind there was had a chill in +it, caught, no doubt, in crossing the Apennines. But Slyne also was +wearing a heavy fur coat and had pulled on a pair of gauntlets at the +hotel. + +As the car rocked and swayed on its rapid way through the last outskirts +of Savona, he was humming light-heartedly to himself the antique aria of +_The Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo_. + +"Been gambling a bit?" he presently asked his silent companion. And Mr. +Jobling admitted the soft impeachment. + +"And no luck," Slyne inferred amusedly. He could view with an equable +eye the misfortunes of others as well as his own; especially since the +stout solicitor's losses had brought his own way such a substantial +profit as could be readily realised by the re-sale of his car. + +"No luck at all," Mr. Jobling affirmed explosively, and the troubles +fermenting in his mind at length found outlet in speech. "I wouldn't +have believed anyone could have been so unlucky!" he declared with great +bitterness; "and at such a critical moment. I want so little, too; I've +no ambition to break the bank. It wasn't with any such foolish idea that +_I_ came to Monte Carlo. I wouldn't have had this happen for all the +bank holds." + +"Which isn't a great deal," commented Slyne. "I've broken the bank more +than once myself, and lost twice as much the next evening." + +"You play some system, perhaps?" his companion inquired, but Slyne shook +his head reminiscently. "I've tried several myself, but none seemed to +be of the slightest use. And now--It doesn't matter, of course. I didn't +come to Monaco to make money; I'm not such a fool! But it's most +infernally inconvenient ... may cost me my chance of a fortune ... +practically within my grasp." His voice had died away to a mere mutter. +Slyne was smiling in disdain. + +"But I can't go on losing at the tables for ever," he exploded again. +"My turn must come. I feel in better fettle this evening--as if my luck +had changed. It's no doubt since I met you; I must thank you again for +this lift. If I'd had to wait in Genoa for the slow train, I might have +got back too late to take the tide at the flood. I'm a great believer, +you know, in striking while the iron's hot." + +"So am I," said Slyne dryly, and much amused by his monologue. + +"I'm sure my luck's on the mend," Mr. Jobling went on, growing still +more communicative under encouragement, "and the mere matter of winning +a few thousand francs is nothing to what will follow--what _must_ +follow. I've made up my mind to win all along the line; and there's a +great deal in the theory that, if you apply sufficient will-power to any +project, its success is assured. I'm ab-so-lutely _determined_ to win +fifty thousand francs to-night, and then ... I fancy it was a mistake to +come here at all.... But, of course, a man who never makes a mistake +will never make anything.... I'll go straight back to London, and +surely, among the five or six million people there.... + +"_Look out!_ Good--God!" + +Between his two excited ejaculations Slyne had outwitted calamity. +Taking a rash curve at top speed, he had come to an unexpected rectangle +in the roadway running almost parallel there with the shore below, and, +rounding that corner safely with a quick wrench of the wheel, had almost +crashed into a heavy, high-built ox-wagon which was backing blindly out +from some steep, hidden side-lane. The hubs of the car's wheels had all +but grazed the parapet of the roadway at Mr. Jobling's side, and Slyne, +on the other, had barely escaped being brained by the timbers protruding +from the rear of the wagon. The ornamental chauffeur was fast asleep in +the tonneau behind. + +Mr. Jobling lay back and gasped while Slyne held on as if nothing had +happened, at the same breakneck pace. But neither spoke again for some +time. + +Through village after village they dashed, always at grave risk and yet +without accident. The moon rose just before they reached Alassio. Slyne +even managed to improve the pace a little then, and his passenger made +no protest, but sat with eyes downcast, his lips always moving mutely. + +"A slight overdraft on the future--it's no more than that," remarked Mr. +Jobling a little later, as if he had been alone, and Slyne looked round +at him for an instant, with nostrils curled in a faint, superior smile. + +Slyne thought he could guess some part at least of the troubles +afflicting his chance acquaintance, and was very little inclined to hear +more about them. He was too busy considering his own plan of campaign, +the blood in his own veins was running too briskly under the stimulus of +that wild flight through the keen night air, to waste any time or +thought on another man's worries. But--a fellow-feeling makes us +wondrous kind. "Cheer up!" said he suddenly. "Every one overdraws more +or less on his luck, at one time or another. If that's all you've done, +it's nothing to mope about." + +Mr. Jobling sat up with a start, and stared at him. "That's all," he +asserted, a little too hurried in his assurance. "I give you my word, +sir...." And then he recollected himself and laughed uncomfortably, +confused. + +"I've been thinking aloud," said he. "But you mustn't take any notice of +that. It's a bad habit of mine. And, as you say, we all overdraw on the +future, from time to time. As a man of the world, sir, you'll understand +what I mean to convey to you. And of course these little overdrafts are +always met when they're due. + +"What a fine night this is for a fast spin!" + +"What's the nature of your present overdraft?" Slyne inquired +perversely, safe in the certainty that the other could not resent that +rudeness, and was again amused by Mr. Jobling's cough of discomfiture. + +But, "Purely metaphorical," that gentleman countered cleverly. "We'll +soon be in San Remo at this rate. I wouldn't wonder if we've established +a record. It isn't every day there's such a car in the market." + +"No, it isn't," Slyne agreed. "Nor a buyer for it." And conversation +languished again. + +But Slyne's spirits, none the less, were steadily rising as he drew +nearer, mile by mile, to the chief temple of that goddess of chance to +whom he looked to befriend him now--since it was not on his own behalf +alone that he was seeking her shrine, since mischance must entail +consequences so dire to Sallie as well as to him. The personal risk he +was running lent added zest to the piquancy of his most unusual position +as a champion of maidenhood in distress. And what Sallie's fate would be +if his own luck failed him, he could picture in vivid detail from his +own experience of a world most men know nothing about. + +Within a few days the _Olive Branch_, with a supply of cheap coal and +some makeshift repairs, would be gone from Genoa, leaving behind no +trace but such bills as Captain Dove could escape without paying. She +would enter Port Said and leave Suez in some effective disguise and +under another assumed name which would last her through the Straits of +Bab-el-Mandeb; beyond which she would disappear, perhaps for good, into +whatever strange world she might raise over the mysterious sea-rim which +lies beyond "the Gate of the Place of Tears." + +Captain Dove was an old man already. And even he could not for ever go +on living such a life as he led. He had spoken of this trip East as his +last, and it was his avowed object in it to turn Sallie to some account. +Slyne, who, as you will perhaps suppose, was no squeamish moralist, +sickened at thought of what time might still have in store for the girl. + +"Just imagine _her_," said he to himself, "cooped up in some slat-eyed +Chinaman's filthy _yamen_ till she grows grey, or eating her heart out +in some coffee-coloured sultan's clay palace, with nothing to comfort +her but a crooked brass crown--and not even that by and by. It's +damnable to think--But what's the use of thinking about it! I'm going to +save her from all that--in spite of herself." And his selfishly +sentimental mood of the moment once more gave place to a philosophic +contentment with things as they were, and that in turn to an +exhilarating anticipation of pleasures to come. + +The lights of San Remo looked very alluring to him, who had for so long +spent his nights at sea with no more companionable illuminant than a +reeking kerosene lamp or the cold, aloof stars. He became jocular, in a +lofty way, with the always impatient Jobling, and at the frontier was so +patronisingly polite to the officials there that they let him pass +almost at once, under the apparent impression that he was some personage +of importance--a circumstance which lent him a little additional +self-confidence. + +From Menton Garavan in to Monte Carlo is only some seven miles. And for +that short distance he sat silent, once more mentally reviewing the +manifold chances of mischance ahead of him. While Mr. Jobling, beside +him, continued to mumble and mutter at intervals of misfortune--no fault +of his own--and fortune, that marvellous fortune which was to be his so +soon, since he had made up his mind that it must. + +"I'm absolutely _determined_," said Mr. Jobling, unconsciously raising +his voice again. "Eh? What? Oh, yes. I beg your pardon. I have a room at +the Metropole. Where are you going to put up?" + +"I always stay at the Paris," Slyne lied easily. He had no inclination +for any more of his companion's society, especially while he had no idea +how he himself might be received at any hotel in the Principality. + +"I'll walk on from here, then, if you'll allow me," suggested that +gentleman. "And--er--by the way, you won't be mentioning to anyone the +circumstances--er--about the car." + +"We'll let it be understood that I bought it in London--last month," +said Slyne, ready to be obliging since it would be for his own benefit; +and, cutting short with a curt "Good night" some further profuse +expressions of gratitude on the part of his passenger, glad, indeed, to +be so well quit of him, drove on in more state, his sleepy chauffeur in +the seat vacated by Mr. Jobling, to make his next move in that desperate +game in which he was going to stake life and liberty also on the +infinitesimal chance of returning triumphant to Genoa to claim Sallie +from Captain Dove. + +For, "If they spot me, I'll blow out my brains before they can lay hands +on me," said he to himself as he drew up with an imperative +_honk-honk-honk!_ before the Hotel de Paris. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE GODDESS OF CHANCE + + +If you have ever had to walk unconcernedly into the crowded vestibule of +a fashionable hotel, not knowing at what moment you might be identified +and arrested as a notorious criminal, you will no doubt understand, and, +perhaps, sympathise with Slyne's state of mind as he entered the Hotel +de Paris. If not, you can at least imagine how he felt as he made his +way through the throng toward the bureau, grimly conscious of every +inquisitive glance. + +There was little enough to shield him from immediate detection, beyond +the flight of time and the facts that he had been wearing a beard and +living under a French _alias_--or, as he would have preferred to put it, +incognito--when, only a season or two before, he had earned such +undesired and undesirable distinction throughout the Cote d'Azur. And he +knew very well what his fate would be if he were recognised. + +He was very devoutly thankful, therefore, when, having safely run the +gauntlet of all those argus eyes which had seemed to be searching his by +the way, he found himself installed in an ornate apartment vacated only +that morning by a grand duke. + +"I can't afford to do things by halves now!" he had reflected, shrugging +his shoulders, as he had agreed with the manager, who happened to be on +the spot, that the suite in question would probably serve his turn. And +even the manager had been impressed by his manner--and his fine car. + +"So far, so good, then," said Slyne to himself with a somewhat nervous +grimace, as he crossed to the window of his sitting-room and looked out +over the moonlit bay, after tossing his keys to a valet with a curt +order to lose no time. "And now--I must go on as I've begun. But--I +can't help wishing I were well through with it all. I didn't half like +the way that clerk watched me with his mouth wide open--and _I_ knew +_him_ all right!" + +No one could have appeared more care-free, however, than he when, an +hour later, he left his dressing-room, ready to face--and outface--the +detective talent he still must meet, and sauntered very much at his +leisure, a cigarette between his tight lips, in the direction of the +_table d'hote_. + +"Seems pretty dull here," he commented, after an indifferent inspection +of the elaborate company there. "I've a good mind to go on to +Ciro's--and find out if they have forgotten my face by now too. I won't +have any peace of mind till I've been all round the old place." In +pursuit of which bold policy he sent a page for his coat and hat, and +stood displaying himself to the general public till they arrived. + +He found Ciro's well filled, as usual, when he strolled in, taking with +perfect outward calm the risk that he might be remembered there. But no +hostile glance met his roving eye as he entered the restaurant. He was +obsequiously received by an observant head-waiter, and shown to a table +which suited his immediate needs to a nicety. + +Among the more ebullient gathering in that gay resort he could discover +no cause for alarm. And no one took any special notice of him until, +among some still later comers, he noticed a haggardly handsome woman, in +a gown so scant that she might well have been glad of the great bunch of +camellias she wore at her breast, who was pointing him out to one of the +two men in her company. + +Slyne's heart almost stopped beating at that, and one of his hands +involuntarily slipped round to where, in a padded pocket within the +arm-hole of his thin evening-coat, he had a little double-barrelled +pistol concealed. + +He caught the woman's eye again while she was whispering volubly to the +attentive listener at her elbow, a fashionably foolish-looking young man +of a stamp whose appearance is sometimes deceitful, and wondered sickly +what was coming as that individual, having looked him over quite openly +and with the aid of an eye-glass, rose and approached him across the +room. + +He glanced up in admirably assumed surprise, however, for all answer to +the other's gruffly casual, "Good evenin', sir. + +"Will you excuse my askin' whether you'd care to sell the car I saw you +drivin' past in, an hour ago?" inquired the stranger, quite unabashed. +"Because--I want it, don't y'know." + +Slyne's face remained an immobile mask, although in his heart he was +dully conscious of an almost overwhelming sense of relief. + +"It isn't for sale at the moment," he answered, suavely enough, but as +if a little offended. + +"But--I want it," reiterated the stranger, who did not seem to lack a +sufficient sense of his own importance. "And I'll give you practically +your own price for it. It's for a lady, don't y'know--and as a favour +to me, eh?" + +"I'd be very glad to oblige you," said Slyne, elated beyond expression +to find not only that his fears had been groundless, that his visitor +was really a fool and not a knave in disguise, but also that, if he +played his own cards properly, he might pocket a still fatter profit +upon his car than he had anticipated, "but--I can't at the moment. Are +you going to be here for a few days?" + +"I'm at the Cap Martin for a week. As soon as you change your mind you +can come over an' see me there. Ask for Lord Ingoldsby. Good evenin' to +you," answered his visitor with all the sulky insolence of a spoiled +child; and slouched back to his own table, where, Slyne had the +satisfaction of seeing, he had to endure a rating from his enchantress +for his ill-success on her errand. And Slyne almost smiled. + +For he knew the Marquis of Ingoldsby quite well, by repute at least, as +an English pigeon with feathers well worth the plucking, and set the +other two down for what they were, a pair of those hawks to be found +hovering wherever the simple pigeon would try its wings. He became +contemplatively interested in the trio, although he knew the ways of +that wicked world far too well to suppose for an instant that he would +be allowed to make a quartette of it. + +"But you shall have your car, madame," he soliloquised, "presently, when +I'm finished with it. And, in exchange, I'll take--" + +"If only I had Sallie here now--" he said to himself with sudden +self-pity, and then was seized with a hot contempt for all such as the +noble marquis. "But no one under a royalty need hope for an +introduction to her then," he finished, and so stifled an inconvenient +twinge of conscience. + +"In the meantime it looks to me as if _my_ little overdraft on the +future is going to pay me most handsomely," he reflected. And that happy +thought added zest to his appetite for the excellent dinner his waiter +had ordered for him, the first good dinner to which he had sat down in +endless months. + +He had given the man _carte blanche_ in the matter of viands, only +reserving the choice of what he should drink. So that when he ordered +Vichy the waiter was not unduly depressed. Slyne also would have +preferred to see a silver bucket beside the table, a pursy gold neck +protruding from it, but he wanted all his wits about him that evening, +while he was once more pitting himself, alone, against all comers in +Monte Carlo--and, incidentally, against the odds in favour of the bank, +on which he hoped to draw to the tune of at least a hundred thousand +dollars during the next few days. He knew, of expensive experience, that +the Widow Clicquot and her charming companions are safer society after a +dangerous campaign is over than just before it begins. + +He would not even venture upon an after-dinner cigar, contenting himself +with a cigarette from the plain gold case with a crest on it which he +purchased from the chauffeur he had so providentially picked up in Genoa +that afternoon. But he tipped the waiter with such profusion that the +man preceded him to the door bent almost double with gratitude, and even +the Marquis of Ingoldsby was staringly impressed by the magnificence of +his exit--as Slyne had intended he should be. + +His masterly impersonation of an unostentatious millionaire was not +without its effect on the flunkeys of the Casino also. These made as +much of his entrance as he in his assumed modesty would allow on his way +into the _salles de jeu_, where he attracted not a few appraising, +inquisitive glances while he once more dared discovery as he roamed from +table to table, gazing about him as though that had really been his +first visit there. The world and the half-world alike seemed to be +wondering who he might be; a circumstance which, otherwise, would have +caused him ecstatic pleasure. + +It has been stated already that he was more than passably good-looking, +with regular profile and straight, spare, elegant figure. In evening +clothes which fitted him to perfection, neither over-groomed nor untidy +in any detail, without a flaw for the most fastidious to pick in either +appearance or manner, he seemed to bear some stamp of distinction which +might very well have passed current in circles much more exclusive. + +The rooms were well filled, although the really fashionable world had +just begun to flock south for the winter. The usual motley went to make +up the highly-coloured mosaic of worshippers at the chief shrine of the +goddess of chance. It would be a waste of your time and mine, too, to +describe again the types to be observed there, and Slyne had seen them +all very often before. He sauntered about for a little and then slipped +quietly into the only seat which had been vacated since he had arrived, +much to the annoyance of a short, fat Frenchman who seemed disposed to +insist on his own prior claim to it, till Slyne glanced over one +shoulder into his eyes. + +"Good luck to you!" cried a jovial voice from the other side of the +table as he sat down, and Slyne nodded coldly to his companion of the +afternoon. + +He did not desire Mr. Jobling's further acquaintance, and would have +ignored his greeting entirely but that he had noticed in front of the +stout solicitor quite a noteworthy stack of winnings; and he did not +know whether he might not yet have occasion to draw on the other's +expressed ambition to repay him a favour done. In any case, he dismissed +all such ideas from his mind for the moment, and started to play, very +cautiously. + +A cautious player, who can keep his head, need seldom lose a great deal +at any game. Slyne had drunk nothing stronger than Vichy since the night +before. He was tensely on the alert. His luck came and went until he had +lost a couple of thousand francs, and then he began to win. + +He had been winning, slowly but surely, with only an occasional +set-back, for over an hour before he became aware that a growing group +of interested onlookers had gathered behind him, and that he had +accumulated within the space between his protective elbows a pile of +notes and gold which reached to his chin. And, thus convinced that he +was in the vein, spurred on by some sudden remembrance of Sallie caged +in her cabin on the _Olive Branch_, an ever-present temptation to play +to the gallery, to stake no less than the maximum on every turn of the +wheel, had almost vanquished all his discretion when he encountered the +quiet glance of a man who was contemplating him from behind the players +seated at the other side of the table, a man whom he knew only too well +as one of the cleverest of those _mouchards_ whose frequent comings and +goings attract so little attention there, and who knew him. + +The brilliant lights about him grew strangely blurred. He felt faint +and ill. But, by a desperate effort of will, he managed to maintain an +outward composure. He yawned openly, and then let his eyes fall to look +at his watch. The detective was carelessly moving round the table in his +direction. He shifted his rake to his left hand and, slipping his right +across his chest to within the lapel of his evening-coat, laid out some +small further stake, entirely at random. + +He lost that, and two or three more, before he yawned again, as if +fatigued by such trifling, and pushed a much larger amount into place, +as a blind man might, for a final venture. No hand had as yet fallen on +his shoulder, but the suspense of not knowing at what moment that would +happen was hard to bear. He felt like one in the grip of a hideous +nightmare as the croupier presently shovelled over toward him a large +and miscellaneous assortment of notes and gold and counters, which, none +the less, he collected indifferently and dully conscious of an envious +sigh from behind him. + +He hesitated a little before letting go his hold of the pistol about +whose butt the fingers of his right hand were still closely clasped, in +order to pocket his profits of the evening. He had laid down his rake. +It was at once seized by a woman who had been standing close at his +shoulder, and, as she pushed eagerly past him into his seat, the bunch +of camellias in her corsage brushed his face. It was the woman with whom +Lord Ingoldsby had been dining. Slyne noticed her husband among the +crowd in the rear as he himself made his way out into the open. He +noticed also, approaching him entirely as if by accident, the +inconspicuous spy whose appearance there had so alarmed him. + +Slyne had not even time to hesitate. Without the slightest change of +expression he stopped and confronted his enemy, addressing him by name, +in the execrable French of the average Englishman. + +"_Bon soir, M. Dubois. Comment ca va? Bien_, eh?" + +"Monsieur has the advantage of me," the detective returned in effortless +English, and over his features flitted the faintest shadow of +disappointment. + +"Oh, I scarcely supposed you would know me," said Slyne with a +deprecatory shrug. "This is my first trip so far afield, though I've +seen you several times in Paris, and we all know you quite well in +London, of course." + +The faintest shadow of what might have developed into a smile hovered +for an instant about the famous man-hunter's lips and eyes, and Slyne +made a mental note of the fact that he was not above being flattered. + +"I'm over here after a fat fellow called Jobling," continued Slyne, +ingratiatingly communicative. "I don't suppose you know anything about +him?" + +The other sniffed, disdainfully. + +"An embryo embezzler," said he, in a tone of such conscious superiority +that Slyne would surely have laughed in his face if he himself had felt +safe. "Give him rope enough and he'll do the rest. Don't disclose +yourself for a day or two, but watch him carefully. + +"Are you working for New Scotland Yard?" + +Slyne had expected some such question, and did not stammer over his +answer. + +"I've started a private agency on my own account. This is my first case. +A thousand thanks for your hint. If all my official friends were as +courteous, life would be much pleasanter for me." He spoke with a most +respectful inflection, but always in barbarous Anglo-French. "_Mille +remerciements encore, mon confrere. Et maintenant--a demain._" + +His new acquaintance nodded with most gracious condescension and moved +on in the direction of an obese German diplomatist who had just met amid +the throng and greeted with over-acted surprise a pretty Viennese +countess. And Slyne did not fail to observe, amid all his own agitation, +how promptly the two of them parted again at sight of M. Dubois. + +He was conscious that his own nostrils were nervously twitching, and +that there were tiny beads of cold perspiration about his forehead. + +"He thought he knew me," said he to himself, very tremulously. "And, +though I've put him off the scent to some extent, he'll root about +till--" For all his nerve of steel, he shivered and changed countenance. + +"I can't trust myself to play any more to-night--and just when I was +getting my hand in! But I suppose I may thank my stars that I'm no worse +off since I caught his eye--he'd have been down on me in an instant, if +I had so much as blinked. And now I must bluff him out--I'm _not_ going +to be scared off. + +"There's this about it, anyhow--if I've really got him hoodwinked, none +of the others need worry me!" With which conditional self-encouragement, +and having made sure that his enemy was no longer watching him, he +turned back on an impulse, to see how Mr. Jobling was getting on. But +Mr. Jobling had already gone off with his winnings. + +"I wonder if he'd take a hand at ecarte now?" thought Slyne. "His name +came in very useful just now--and I might as well have my own money back +out of him while he's got it. He'll probably be fancying himself at the +moment, too." + +And with that business-like ambition before him, he roamed the rooms +till he could be sure that his proposed victim was nowhere within the +Casino. Among the multitude there he could run across no one else who +seemed likely to prove easy prey. So he gave up the quest with a +philosophical shrug, got his coat and hat, and sauntered out on to the +terrace, a fragrant cigar between his thin lips. + +"And I'll stand myself a bottle of something at supper, to buck me up," +he promised himself. "I'll look into Ciro's again presently, and get the +good of the gold piece I had to waste on that scoundrelly waiter. If I +chance across Jobling there, I'll get a free meal as well; or, if I +should see that ass Ingoldsby, I'll tackle him while his precious +keepers are out of the way. They're evidently making _his_ feathers +fly!" + +The night was still, and even unusually mild for that season of the +year. The moon had disappeared. Slyne looked down at the sea, all dark +and mysterious, with a strong feeling of distaste; he had lately seen +more than enough of it to last him a lifetime. He turned his steps +toward the deserted gardens, to escape a party of chattering tourists +who had trespassed on his privacy. + +He was in no hurry at all for supper, and wanted a few minutes of peace +and quietness in which to compose his still troubled mind, and to +consider the situation as touching his lordship of Ingoldsby--who would +undoubtedly prove a far more profitable companion than Mr. Jobling, even +although the latter should have won the fifty thousand francs that had +been his ambition. + +"What a fool that fellow is, for a lawyer!" mused Slyne, having more or +less successfully combated an inclination to let his thoughts stray back +to the _Olive Branch_--and Sallie. And, _Click!_ something answered him +from behind a bush not very far from the verge of the path he was +meditatively pacing. + +He jumped aside at the sound, as any man would who has known what it is +to be ambushed, and then, recollecting himself, stood still, with a +mirthless, annoyed half-smile. He did not believe that Dubois would +adopt any such noisy means to get rid of him, but--none the less, he +felt impelled to find out who was in hiding behind that bush. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A FOOL AND HIS FORTUNE + + +Slyne skirted a flower-bed cautiously and, approaching the shadowy +background by a flank movement, found a stout individual in a voluminous +coat kneeling on the grass there, with some white, metallic object in +one trembling hand lifted in the direction of his own left eyelid. A +second _Click!_ startled Slyne disproportionately, and he spoke at that, +in a very querulous voice. "Hey! you fool," he said, "you're wasting +your time. Wait till I show you how. + +"Good Lord! is that _you_, Jobling?" + +Mr. Jobling suddenly cast a revolver from him, with a wailing +execration, and, attempting to rise, sank down beside it, blubbering, +entirely unstrung after the agonising strain of the past few seconds. +Slyne, eyeing him with exasperated contempt, picked the weapon up and +fingered it for an instant. + +"A damned rotten make!" he commented morosely. "But it'll do the job for +you all right now. You can't shoot it off, you know, with the safety +catch set." + +The miserable man on the grass held out his hand for it, humbly. But +Slyne was not at all prepared to take any risks on his account--for +suicide and murder are often very difficult to distinguish, in their +results--and made up his mind to keep it, in the meantime at any rate. + +"Get up," he ordered in his sharpest tone, "and come away out of this. +If you could only see yourself, you wouldn't want to sit there and +whimper." + +Under the spur of that insult Mr. Jobling seemed to recall some stray +shred of his forfeited self-respect. He got on to his knees, with an +effort, and thence by degrees to his feet. + +"I think you might show a little more decent feeling," he sobbed +brokenly, "when--" + +"And I think you might show a vast deal more sense," snapped Slyne. +"Button up your coat, and come away out of this. You can kill yourself +just as easily--a good deal more so, in fact, since I've shown you +how--in half an hour, after I'm in a safer position to prove an _alibi_ +if any inconvenient questions are asked about it afterwards. Come on, +now." + +His whilom acquaintance followed him meekly, muttering, to a secluded +corner where there was a seat. + +"What's the trouble?" demanded Slyne magisterially, sitting down at one +end of the bench and motioning him to the other. "But I suppose I need +scarcely ask. Trust funds mysteriously melted away--the usual childish +attempt to recover them by sheer chance, and with all the odds against +you!--the dread of exposure and disgrace--which never worry a dead man. +You've been a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, eh, my respectable +friend? And you'd rather die in the dark than face the world in broad +daylight without your immaculate fleece." + +Mr. Jobling groaned. + +"But why, after all, finish playing the knave by playing the fool? If +you were the man of the world you fancy yourself, you'd know that sheep +are very seldom successful in real life. It's all very well to pose in a +sheep-skin, but it isn't everything. A wolf undisguised can do very +well for himself, so long as his teeth are sufficiently sharp. And, when +he becomes a big millionaire, he can buy himself, among other things, a +nice new merino coat." + +His parable amused himself, but his auditor did not seem possessed of a +sufficient sense of humour to appreciate its personal application. + +"You're labouring under a misapprehension," said that gentleman, who had +meantime regained some grip on himself, in accents anything but properly +grateful. "I may, perhaps, have been unfortunate with--er--a few small +investments for clients, but your inference that I have--er--er--You're +positively insulting, sir!" + +Slyne laughed, in better humour. "Bah!" said he. "What's the use of +bluffing? You weren't going to blow out your brains--if any--because you +had been too honest, were you?" + +"I'm a desperate man," declared Mr. Jobling, thus rudely reminded of the +matter in hand. "Life isn't worth living, now that I've lost--" He +gulped and gasped, once more on the verge of tears, but a furtive glance +at Slyne's impassive features, dimly visible in the glow of a +half-smoked cigar, showed him he need not expect any excess of sympathy +from that quarter. It also seemed to suggest to him, in the midst of his +anguish of mind, an idea. He looked round at Slyne again. + +"You're a man of wealth," he said in a husky voice whose suddenly +inspired eagerness he could not conceal, and some spark of hope perhaps +sprang up in his fainting heart again since Slyne did not deny that +erroneous suggestion. Slyne was waiting to hear what more he might have +to say, though not with any intention of helping him. + +"I wonder--" the stout solicitor muttered. "It might interest you +to--Two heads are better than one, and--Some sort of partnership--" + +"I can only spare you five minutes more," said Slyne crisply. "As soon +as I've finished my cigar, I'm going across to Ciro's for supper. The +Marquis of Ingoldsby is expecting me." + +"Do you know his lordship?" breathed Mr. Jobling, his new-born hope no +doubt gaining strength and his respect for his chance companion +obviously increased. "Then you'll understand me when I tell you that +I've ruined myself--ab-so-lutely _ruined_ myself over the Jura +succession." + +"I haven't the least idea what the devil you're talking about," said +Slyne. + +Mr. Jobling groaned again. He was most grievously disappointed. + +"I thought every one had heard of the case," he went on. "A couple of +millions in cash--" + +"Millions of what?" demanded Slyne with a little more lively interest. + +"Pounds sterling," the London lawyer explained, rather testily. "A +couple of millions in cash and forty or fifty thousand a year going +a-begging may not seem a very important matter to a moneyed man like +you, but I've thought of nothing else, night and day, for the past five +years, and--" + +"I've been all over the world for the past five years," mentioned Slyne +loftily, but impatient now, "and the latest news of the parish pump has +probably failed to reach me. Get on with your story, anyhow. If there's +anything in it--I don't know but that I may be disposed to lend you a +hand--if there's anything in it." And, having lighted a fresh cigar, he +composed himself to listen. His time was his own. The chance of catching +Lord Ingoldsby alone at Ciro's was too remote to be worth more than the +passing thought. A story with so much money in it might prove at least +as entertaining as a solitary supper. + +Mr. Jobling gazed with glistening eyes at his providential acquaintance. +"I've told you what there is in it," said he in a tremulous tone. "A +couple of millions in cash and forty or fifty thousand a year that will +all ultimately fall to the Crown--unless I can find that girl, or--" + +"What girl?" Slyne demanded irritably. + +"The late Earl of Jura's daughter. You'll no doubt remember--But if +you've been abroad for so long, I'd better repeat--" And, having got +over his nervous prolixity, he became much more explicit. + +"The late earl's first wife, as you must recall, sir, was Lady Eulalie +Orlebarre. But she did not survive the birth of their only child, a son, +in 1876. + +"The earl married again, in '94. His second wife was Josceline +Beljambes, the famous dancer. A daughter was born to them. But they +separated, by mutual agreement, only a year or two later, and the +countess retained custody of her daughter. The earl was a good deal +older than she. + +"She was a very restless, erratic woman, and fond of travel. In '99 she +disappeared most mysteriously, somewhere abroad, and has never been +heard of since. + +"The following year, Lord St. Just, the earl's son by his first wife +and, of course, his heir, was found dead one day at the foot of the +cliffs near Loquhariot, the family seat in Scotland. He had grown up a +very headstrong, troublesome lad, I have heard. There was some suspicion +of foul play on the part of one of the gamekeepers on the estate--some +scandalous story about a girl in the village--but the coroner's jury +returned an open verdict. + +"The earl himself died in 1906, a little more than five years ago. The +estates fell into Chancery. And ever since I've been trying to trace his +second wife--or their child; for, failing an heir-male, the female line +of succession maintains in the family. + +"The Court of Chancery is quite prepared to presume the mother dead, and +I have evidence sufficient to prove that assumption a certainty. So that +now, you see, if I could only find--" + +He hesitated, to scrutinise his companion's inscrutable face. + +"I was a consummate fool, of course, ever to have come to Monte Carlo," +he went off at a tangent. "Though I had a good enough reason for +coming," he went on, defending himself to himself. "I didn't dare trust +anyone in London. And I--I thought that I might find here--" He balked +again. + +"It was merely to pass the time that I first tried my luck at the +tables--and look at me now! I haven't even money to pay my hotel bill. +For want of a few thousand francs I must lose my chance of the fortune +on which I've staked every penny I could scrape together and--and five +years of my good time, and--" He started to one side as Slyne cut him +short. + +"I'm not going to waste five seconds of _my_ good time," said Slyne with +concentrated bitterness, "in telling you how many different sorts of a +damned fool you are." His expensive cigar had gone out, unheeded. But +his keen, close-set eyes were aglow. He was finding it extremely +difficult to contain himself. + +"Are you _sure_ of your facts?" he demanded, in the same acid, +embittered voice. + +"From first to last," affirmed Mr. Jobling, so peevishly that Slyne was +satisfied. "Haven't I told you that I've spent five years of my life and +every penny I could--er--every penny I possessed, in sifting them out, +and that I'm a Chancery practitioner? I have most of the papers with me +at the Metropole. There's only the one link lacking to complete the long +chain I've forged. And--" He lowered his voice to a whisper after +looking about him furtively, and, at last, under the decent screen of +the darkness, completely demoralised by the events of the day, confided +in the Heaven-sent stranger beside him his chief ambition in coming to +Monte Carlo. "And even a good enough imitation might serve--" + +"No imitation would stand the strain," Slyne interrupted him hoarsely. +"And you'll very soon find yourself inside the four walls of a cell, my +friend, if you try any forgery of that sort. You can take my word for +that, because--_I'm_ the real rivet, and without me all the rest of your +precious chain isn't worth a snap of my fingers." + +Mr. Jobling subsided into a heap, and was staring at him, open-mouthed. +But Slyne said no more for a moment or two. Outwardly quite calm and +matter-of-fact, his mind was in a seething turmoil. If all the inept +rogue beside him had said were true--He could scarcely restrain an +impulse to get to his feet and shout for joy. + +The lawyer seemed to have nothing more to say, either. And Slyne, having +somewhat recovered command of himself, at length rose, tossing his cold +cigar away with an angry oath. "It makes my blood boil," said he, "to +think--But for the sheerest accident you'd be a dead man by now--and +where would _I_ have been then! You don't deserve such stupendous luck, +and, by the Lord Harry! if I find you playing the fool again--You're +going to put yourself into my hands from now on, d'ye hear? And, in the +first place, I must see those papers you spoke of; if they're in order, +I'll see the thing through. We can't work without each other, +unfortunately for me, or--" + +"You're going too fast," intervened Mr. Jobling, still seated, and with +some faint show of spirit. "You're taking too much for granted, sir. I +don't even know who you are, and--we must come to terms of some sort +before--" + +He shrank aside as Slyne stepped forward with twitching fingers and eyes +aflame. + +"You'll take whatever terms you get--and be precious thankful," hissed +Slyne, stooping over him. "You'll do exactly what you're told, no more, +and no less. And--you won't forget again, will you, that you've met your +master in me?" + +Mr. Jobling, gazing, aghast, into the muzzle of the cheap revolver which +had proved so ineffective in his own hands, at last regained voice +enough to subscribe solemnly to these stipulations, and from that moment +went uncomfortably, in fear for the life he himself had been trying to +take not an hour before. That was probably the first time he had ever +been threatened with personal violence, and a life spent chiefly in +Chancery Lane does not always foster an excess of that calculating +courage needed to deal with one of Slyne's dangerous sort. + +"Come on, then," said Slyne, and Mr. Jobling got shakily up from the +bench. "You needn't be afraid that I won't deal fair--generously with +you, but this is no time to be haggling here. We haven't a moment to +spare. I must see those papers at once. Step out!" + +The hall-porter at the Metropole raised his eyebrows over Mr. Jobling's +somewhat dishevelled appearance, but promptly lowered them again in +response to a look from Slyne. + +"Tell them to send up your bill," said Slyne to the lawyer. "If +everything's all right, I'll settle it and put you up at the Paris." + +And Mr. Jobling very meekly did as he was bidden. He could not well help +himself, just then. But his expression was not at all properly grateful +as he ushered Slyne into the room he himself had never expected to see +again, and there proceeded to display to that masterful adventurer the +mass of papers on which their further partnership was to depend. + +Slyne picked out the more important of these with an acumen which would +have done Mr. Jobling himself every credit; and for a busy hour they two +sat poring over one dog's-eared document after another, Slyne's mask of +indifference deserting him by degrees as he grasped point after point of +the case, till he threw the last down with a smile of triumph, and, +rising from the table, paced to and fro for a moment, rubbing his hands +in an ecstasy of exultation. + +"Everything's all right," he announced confidently. "My--our fortune's +as good as made; and I'll tell you what, Jobling,--you shall have ten +per cent. of the immediate cash for your share. How does that strike +you, eh? I don't say that you deserve any such consideration from me, +but--I'm ready to let bygones be bygones, and I want you to work for me +with a will." + +His self-assurance was contagious. Mr. Jobling, after the merest moment +of hesitation, rose in his turn, holding out a hand, which Slyne grasped +affectionately. And thus they came to an amicable understanding, without +more words. + +"Pack up now," commanded Slyne, pleasantly peremptory, "and we'll run +across to the Paris. I've any amount to do yet, before I can snatch a +sleep." + +"I'll be very thankful to get into _my_ bed," said Mr. Jobling, already +busy among his belongings, and more than a little dazed by the march of +events. "I've had a _most_ trying day." + +It did not take long to have his baggage transferred to the other hotel, +and there Slyne put him under confidential charge of the manager, with +very strict orders that he was not, on any pretext whatever, to be +allowed to decamp pending Slyne's return. Whereafter that active man of +affairs sent to the garage for his car, with word that his chauffeur +need not be disturbed and, having deposited his still uncounted winnings +with the cashier, started eastward again in such haste that he would not +even wait to change his thin evening clothes. + +Slyne was, in fact, fiercely excited. His particular Providence seemed +to be holding out to him such a chance in life as he could scarcely have +conceived himself in his wildest dreams. And he was in such frantic +haste to grasp that chance--which involved so much more than the mere +money--that he had quite forgotten his recent fear of M. Dubois. + +"I think I've got you this time, my girl!" said he to himself gleefully, +as he once more slowed down to stop at the Italian frontier. And that +was the burden of all his thoughts as he raced madly along the Corniche +Road in his high-powered car. In the darkness before the dawn, his eyes +intent on the long white ribbon of highway endlessly slipping toward his +head-lights, he saw only roseate visions of what the future now held for +him. As the sun rose to burnish the bare, brown mountains before him, he +nodded happily to himself, and his lips moved again to the glad refrain, +"I think I've got you quite safe this time, my girl!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE PRICE OF FREEDOM + + +Slyne's nostrils curled as he observed the dirty and dishevelled aspect +of the _Olive Branch_, lying idle in Genoa harbour alongside the +coal-chutes where the day's work had not yet begun. He had grown +extremely fastidious again within the very short space of time which had +passed since he had last seen her. + +There was no one visible about her littered decks except the watchman on +duty, whose sole salute to him as he stepped carefully up the insecure +gangplank was a sullen scowl. + +But that might have been deemed quite a hearty welcome in contrast with +his reception by Captain Dove. + +Captain Dove was, in point of fact, furious when he opened his little, +red-rimmed eyes and became aware of his former friend's intrusion upon +his privacy. Sitting up in his frowsy bunk, with the blankets huddled +about him, looking ludicrously like an incensed gorilla, he raged and +swore at his gratuitous visitor until his voice gave out. + +Slyne, forgetful, in his new enthusiasm, of the terms on which they had +parted, was at first somewhat taken aback by that outburst; but only at +first. And his sanguine anticipations enabled him to endure it unmoved. +It also gave him time to collect his ideas. He could see that his errand +was not going to prove quite so easy as he had expected, and that he +must play his new cards with discrimination. As soon as the evil old man +in the bunk had exhausted himself in invective, Slyne spoke, smooth and +cuttingly. + +"I came back to do you a good turn. But--if that's how you're going to +take it, you foul-mouthed old rapparee! I'll save my breath and be off +again. What th' deuce d'ye mean by shouting at me as if I were a drunken +deck-hand! Speak to me above a whisper now--and you'll see what'll +happen to you. That's the police-boat pulling past." + +The opportune plash of oars had suggested to him that plausible threat. +Captain Dove, listening intently, crouched back against the bulkhead, +his blinking, hot, suspicious eyes on Slyne's. The boat passed on. But +he had found time to observe that Slyne was in evening dress, with an +expensive fur coat to keep the cold out. And Slyne's cool contempt for +his ill-temper would seem to have impressed him no less than Slyne's air +of solid prosperity. + +He himself, it appeared, had had care and adversity for his companions +ever since parting with his former friend. His chief aim in calling at +Genoa had been cheap coal and cheaper repairs, and he thought that he +was less likely to be recognised there than elsewhere in the +Mediterranean. But coal, he had found, had risen to a ruinous price in +consequence of a recent strike among the miners in England; and for even +the most trifling repairs he would have to wait at least a week, because +the dock-yard people were already working over-time to make way for a +man-of-war. Credit of any sort was not to be had. His portage-bill bade +fair to swamp his insufficient cash resources--even although three of +his now scanty crew had already deserted. And who could foretell what +might happen to him if they should get wagging their tongues too freely +in some wine-shop ashore! While, as if for climax, the Customs' +authorities had been displaying a most suspicious interest in him and +his ship. Under such circumstances, even a saint might have been +pardoned, as he pointed out, for showing a temper something short of +seraphic. + +"And you've been doing me good turns--by your way of it--for some time +past," he continued, in a stifled, vehement whisper lest his voice +should still reach the receding boat. "Though--" He waved a claw-like +hand about him, words again failing him to describe adequately his +sufferings in consequence, as who should say, "See the result for +yourself." + +Slyne sat down on the sofa opposite him, not even condescending to +glance, in response to that invitation, round the squalid, +poverty-stricken little cabin. "Never mind about some time past," he +advised, more pacifically. "You'll never get rich quick yesterday. +To-day's when _I'm_ going to make my pile. And I meant to let you in--" + +"To another hole," Captain Dove concluded sceptically. "I only wish +you'd show me some sure way out of the one I'm in." + +Slyne looked his annoyance at that further interruption, and made as if +to rise, but did no more than draw his gold cigarette-case from its +pocket. He knew that Captain Dove was merely trying to aggravate him, +and it would not have been politic to stray from the matter in hand. He +lighted a cigarette at his leisure and waited for what should come next. +He had changed his mind as to taking the old man fully into his +confidence. He thought he could see his way to get all he wanted for a +very great deal less than that might have cost him. + +"Want a drink?" Captain Dove demanded, no doubt with the idea that a +dose of spirit might serve to stir up his visitor's temper, and looked +surprised at Slyne's curt head-shake, still more surprised over his +response. + +"I can't afford to drink at all hours of the day and night now," said +Slyne austerely. "That sort of thing was all very well at sea, but--The +business I have in hand isn't of the sort that can be carried out on raw +brandy. And you'll have to taper off too, if you want to come in." + +"Strike--me--sky-blue!" exclaimed the old man, and Slyne held up a +reproving hand. + +"I can do with a good deal less of your bad language into the bargain," +he mentioned coldly, "if you don't mind. In short, I want you to +understand from the start that you've got to behave as if you were a +reasonable human being and not a dangerous lunatic, or--I'll leave you +to rot, in the hole you've got yourself into." + +Captain Dove, scarcely able to credit the evidence of his own ears but, +none the less, apparently, thinking hard, darted a very ugly glance at +him, and noticed the diamonds in his shirt-front. Under the strongest +temptation to call in a couple of deck-hands and have him thrown off the +ship, Captain Dove obviously paused to consider whether those could be +of any intrinsic value. He was, of course, satisfied that he knew +exactly how much--or, rather, how little money Slyne had had in his +pockets when he went ashore. And, if Slyne had already, within four and +twenty hours, been able to turn that over at a profit sufficient to +provide himself with a fur coat and diamonds, it might perhaps pay +Captain Dove to hear what he had to propose. Slyne, reading all the old +man's thoughts, could see that he had decided to temporise. + +"But, I can do with a damn sight less of _your_ back-chat!" rumbled +Captain Dove, not to be put down without protest. "If you've come back +on board to offer me a founder's share in any new gold-brick factory, +fire straight ahead--and be short about it. It'll save time, too, if +you'll take it from me again that I'd rather have your room than your +company." + +And at that, Slyne made his next considered move. + +"All right," he said in a tone of the most utter contempt. "That's +enough. I'm off. + +"I came back to do you a good turn--although few men, in my position, +would ever have looked near you again," he paused in the doorway to +remark acridly. "But I can see now what's the matter with you--and I +only wish I had noticed it in time to save myself all it has cost me. +It's senile decay you're suffering from. You're far too old to be of any +more use--even to yourself. You're in your dotage, and you'll soon be in +an asylum--for pauper lunatics!" + +He had evidently lost his own temper at last. And Captain Dove was +visibly pleased with that result of his tactics; as a rule he was better +able to cope with Slyne on a basis of mutual abuse, heated on both +sides; Slyne cool and collected had him at a disadvantage. + +"Now you're talking!" he retorted approvingly. "Say what's in your mind, +straightforwardly, and we'll soon come to an understanding. Sit down +again, you strutting peacock! and tell me what it is you want." + +Slyne did not sit down again, however; to do so would scarcely have been +dignified. He stayed in the doorway, silent, a thin stream of +cigarette-smoke slowly filtering from his nostrils. His cold, +calculating eyes were once more on Captain Dove's. And it was Captain +Dove's would-be mocking glance that at length gave way. + +"You offered to give me Sallie, if I paid you a hundred thousand +dollars," said Slyne, judicially. + +"To see you safely married to her," Captain Dove corrected him. + +Slyne nodded, in grave assent. + +"Well, I'm going to hold you to your offer," said he. "The money's ready +and waiting for you--just as soon as we can settle a few trifling +formalities. I have Sallie's promise to marry me--" + +"The devil you have!" said Captain Dove, not slow to seize opportunity +either. "I thought I heard her say--" + +Slyne's face darkened again. "And, if you'll come ashore with me now," +he went on, controlling his temper, "I'll prove to you that your money +is perfectly safe." + +Captain Dove lay back in his bunk and laughed, most discordantly. He +laughed till his red-rimmed eyes were adrip, while Slyne sat looking at +him. He was still laughing when Slyne rose and, flicking the +cigarette-end from between two nicotine-stained fingers, began to button +his coat. He stopped laughing then, by calculated degrees. + +"Sit down--sit down!" said he wheezily. "What's your hurry? You haven't +told me yet what those few 'trifling formalities' are. And how am I to +know whether--" + +But Slyne was already beyond the doorway, fumbling with a last button. + +"If you believe I've come here to talk simply for the sake of talking," +said he with sombre magnificence, "I needn't waste any more breath on +you. Good-bye." + +Captain Dove jumped out of his bunk. He was clearly impressed, in spite +of himself, by the other's indomitable assurance. + +"Come back, you fool!" he called angrily. "Come back. I want to know-- + +"I'll go ashore with you," he shouted, raising his voice, since Slyne +was already on his way to the gangway. But Slyne did not seem to hear. + +"I'll take your offer--for Sallie," cried Captain Dove, in a slightly +lower tone. + +Slyne hesitated in his stride, stopped, and turned back into the +alleyway which led to the saloon. + +"What was that you said?" he demanded of Captain Dove. + +"Come on inside," requested Captain Dove, more curtly. + +"I don't believe I will," Slyne declared, inwardly elated over the +winning of that somewhat risky move. "You don't deserve another chance. +And, if I do give you another, you needn't suppose--" + +"Come on inside," begged Captain Dove, shivering, in no case to listen +to any lecture. "Come on, and we'll talk sense. Don't waste any more +good time." + +Slyne followed him in again, congratulating himself on his firmness. He +felt that he had gained the whip-hand of the old man, and he meant to +keep it. He curtly refused again Captain Dove's more hospitable offer of +some refreshment, and, while his aggrieved host was clumsily getting +into some warmer clothing, talked to him from the saloon through the +open doorway of his cramped sleeping-quarters. It was easier to arrange +matters so than under Captain Dove's direct observation. + +"You'll pay me cash, of course," Captain Dove stipulated, as though he +had been bargaining about a charter-party. + +"I'll pay you cash," Slyne agreed, "the day Sallie marries me. And +meantime I'll give you my note of hand at thirty days for the money." He +listened intently, but Captain Dove, struggling fretfully with +refractory buttons, maintained an ominous silence. + +"I'll have it backed by a London lawyer, to keep you safe," said Slyne. +"And listen! I'm not asking you to risk anything, or even to take my +note at its face value. I want you to come ashore with me and find out +for yourself from my lawyer that you can depend on the money. If you +don't feel satisfied about that after you've seen him, you needn't go +any farther, we'll call the bargain off; you can get back on board your +ship at once and no harm done. + +"And, even as regards Sallie, I'm going out of my way to keep you right. +I'd give a great deal to get married at once, but--I'm willing to wait +till the day I can hand you your hundred thousand in cash. Everything's +fair, square, and above-board now. I'm not asking you to risk anything. + +"And where in the wide world can you expect to do better for yourself!" +he argued. "If you go East you'll get no more for the girl--and look at +the expense! You'll be sorry all the rest of your life, too, for I know +you'd far sooner see her decently settled than sell her to any dog-faced +son-of-a-gun of a mandarin! + +"You can say what you like," he concluded, although Captain Dove had +said never a word. "Clean money's pleasanter to spend than dirty, any +day. If I had been born wealthy, I'd never have needed to touch a marked +card. And now's your chance, too, to pull out of a rotten rut that'll +sooner or later land you among the chain-gang." + +Captain Dove came forth from his cabin, indifferently clad, and eyed +Slyne with a sarcastic interest which somewhat disconcerted that +homilist. + +"You don't _look_ just like a Band o' Hope!" said the old man, "but--" + +Slyne rose again, and bit his lip, in simulated impatience. "Oh, all +right," said he. "If you're not interested--" + +Captain Dove scowled at him. "I'm interested," he said grudgingly. "I'll +see this lawyer-fellow of yours whenever you like to bring him aboard, +and--if the money's there, you can count me in." + +"He isn't the sort of lawyer you've been accustomed to, Dove," said +Slyne. "You've got to go to him." + +Captain Dove did his best to out-stare him, but failed. + +"And what's more," said Slyne, playing a trump card with great outward +indifference, "you can make him pay you for your time instead of you +paying him. I told you I came back here to do you a good turn. There's +more than a hundred thousand dollars of easy money for you in this +deal--if you go the right way about it. + +"But--don't take my word for anything." + +Captain Dove had palpable difficulty in suppressing the obvious repartee +to that last bit of advice. But cupidity and cunning kept him quiet for +a space. + +"All right. I'll go with you," he agreed very gruffly at last. And Slyne +heaved a silent sigh of relief; he had feared more than once that the +contest of wills would after all go against him. + +"You're wise," he commented carelessly. "It will pay you. + +"You'd better see Sallie now, don't you think, and tell her--" + +"I'm not going to interfere between you and her--till I get my money +from you," declared the old man with a crafty grin. "You must tackle her +yourself. She'll be up by now, but breakfast won't be ready for half an +hour. If I were you I'd take that coat off and let her have a sight of +those diamonds of yours." + +Slyne did not wait to hear any more. He was already on his way aft, a +somewhat incongruous figure on the decks of the _Olive Branch_. When he +reached the companion-hatch on the poop he was smiling sardonically. + +"I do believe it was my 'diamonds' that finally fetched that old +ruffian," said he to himself. "If they have the same effect on Sallie, I +won't grudge the few francs I paid for them!" + +He tiptoed down the short stairway, and, having tapped very quietly at +the door of the after-saloon, entered without more ado. He judged that +he might have difficulty in gaining admission if he delayed to ask +leave. + +The saloon was empty. But from an adjoining cabin came the sound of +splashing, and from its neighbour the shuffle of heavy feet, a faint +suggestion of deft hands busy among crisp muslin and sibilant silk. + +Slyne hesitated; he wanted to be very tactful and yet was unwilling to +give up the advantage he had thus gained. He closed the door carefully +behind him. It creaked a little. + +From the room whence had come the rustle of feminine garments an +uncanny-looking figure appeared, and darted an angry, apprehensive +glance about the saloon. The sound of splashing had ceased. + +"'Morning, Ambrizette," said Slyne briskly and standing his ground. "Is +your mistress up yet? Tell her I have Captain Dove's leave to pay her a +call." + +The dumb black dwarf's scowl grew darker, but her hand fell away from +her breast and she halted as Sallie's voice sounded from within. + +"Is that you, Jasper!" it ejaculated. "What do you want? I thought--" + +"I've come back--with good news for you, Sallie--wonderful news!" said +Slyne. "And I'm in no end of a hurry to be off again. Call Ambrizette in +and get dressed, as quick as you can. Captain Dove's waiting breakfast +for me and I mustn't delay him. How long will you be?" + +"What sort of news is it?" asked Sallie, no less dubious than her maid +had been; and called her maid in, notwithstanding her well-founded +doubts as to the nature of any news he could bring. For Slyne had held +out to her the same lure that the serpent offered to Eve, and her +womanly curiosity would not allow her to order him at once from her +domain. + +Slyne smiled slightly as he sat down in a basket-chair, to look about +him while she was still busy within. The little after-saloon which had +been her home for so long was finely furnished; more so, perhaps, than +was apparent to Slyne, whose taste in that respect inclined to the +florid. But he could not help noticing how dainty and neat and feminine +was its entire effect, with its cushioned cosy corners, snow-white +curtains and draperies. Its purely fragrant atmosphere stirred even +Slyne's conscience a little. + +He lay back in his seat, and, gazing about him, recalled to mind all he +had been able to learn as to Sallie's strange past. It all fitted in so +perfectly with the fabric of his wonderful new plans that he could find +no possible flaw in them. And when Sallie herself at length came out to +him from her cabin, he was optimistically disposed to be very generous +in his dealings with her. + +Fresh from her bath and doubly bewitching in her clinging, intimate +draperies, she met Slyne's glad, eager glance with grave, doubtful eyes, +and ignored entirely the hand he held out to her as he sprang from his +chair. But he affected not to notice her attitude of distrust, and, +greeting her gaily, saved his face by laying his outstretched hand on +another chair, which he set a little nearer his own. + +"Won't you sit down?" he suggested with debonair courtesy. + +But she shook her head; she was evidently afraid to receive him on any +such friendly footing. She did not even care to ask him what he was +doing in evening dress at breakfast-time and on board the _Olive +Branch_. But in her troubled eyes he could read that unspoken inquiry. + +"I've been travelling all night to get back to you, Sallie," he told +her, in a low, eager tone, "and I hadn't time to change--I was in such a +hurry to tell you the news. I've come to take you away from the _Olive +Branch_,--and Captain Dove. I've come to set you free." + +She stared at him as though she had not heard aright, her lips parted, +her eyebrows arched, a faint, puzzled, questioning frown on her +forehead. + +"I've come to set you free," he said again. + +"At what price?" she asked suddenly, with disconcerting directness, and +his would-be straightforward glance wavered. + +"Don't put it that way!" he urged. "I ask no more than the fulfilment of +the promise you made me. And--listen, Sallie. I've found out who you +really are and where your home is. I'll take you there if only you-- + +"I'm not asking you to marry me right away, either, remember. All you +must do in the meantime is to sign without question some papers that +will be required. Then I'll make everything quite safe for you and take +you to your own home." + +The quick doubt in her eyes had given place to an expression of helpless +amazement and growing dismay. But he did not wait to hear anything she +might have to say. + +"It's like this, you see," he went on hurriedly. "Captain Dove's +absolutely at the end of his wits for money, and now--I can pay him his +price for you if you'll keep your promise to me by and by. Otherwise I +can't; no matter how willing I might be, I can't, I swear to you. + +"He feels, too, that you owe it to him to make up in one way or another +for some part at least of what he and I have lost through your--your +interfering so much lately in his affairs. And, if you don't back me up +now, he'll have to take the _Olive Branch_ East as best he can. He'll +take you too, and--you'll never come back. + +"You don't understand. I'm not really trying to force you to marry me, +but to save you from a fate far worse than the worst you could imagine. +You don't understand that it's really freedom I'm offering you, and that +your only option is slavery. + +"You'd rather have a white man--even me!--for your husband, wouldn't +you? than a yellow one--or brown--or maybe black!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A MASTERSTROKE + + +Sallie sat down quickly in a cushioned chair, and lay back, trembling +like a captured bird. + +Slyne was not beyond feeling somewhat ashamed of himself, but found easy +solace in the reflection that all he had said was for her good as well +as his own. He could see that his last brutal argument had struck home. +For Sallie could no longer doubt, now, in the lurid light of her recent +experiences, that Captain Dove looked upon her as a mere chattel, to be +turned into cash as soon as occasion should offer. + +In a little she looked up at him again out of pleading, desperate eyes. +Some most unusual impulse of pity stirred him. She was only a young girl +yet, and her helplessness spoke its own appeal, even to him. He made up +his mind again, quite apart from any question of policy, to deal with +her as generously as might be practicable. + +"Will Captain Dove let me go now if I promise to marry you, Jasper?" she +asked. And he nodded solemnly. + +"And not unless I do?" she insisted. "You _know_ I didn't--before, +although you say I did." + +"I swear to God, Sallie," he declared, "that I can't raise the money the +Old Man wants any other way. And--I won't say another word about what's +past and done with. + +"If you'll really promise to marry me," he said eagerly, "I'll prove to +you that all I have told you is true before you need even leave Captain +Dove; I won't ask you to go a step farther with me until you're +perfectly satisfied; I'll take you safely to your own home as soon as +you _are_ satisfied that you can trust me. And I won't ask you to keep +your promise till--" + +An irrepressible light of longing had leaped up behind the despair in +her eyes. + +"You say that all I must do in the meantime is to sign some papers," she +interrupted. "You say you won't ask me to marry you right away. Will you +wait--a year?" + +"A year! I couldn't, Sallie!" he cried, and her pale lips drooped +piteously again. + +"How long, then?" she asked in a whisper. "Six months?" + +He had made up his mind to be generous, and he felt that he had not +failed in his intention as he answered, "Three months, and not a day +longer, Sallie." + +She sat still and silent for a while, considering that, and then, "All +right, Jasper," she agreed. "Take me safe home, and I'll marry you three +months from the day we get there--if we're both alive when the time +comes." + +He turned away from her for a moment. He had won all he wanted in the +meantime, and he could scarcely contain himself. When he presently held +out a hand to her, she took it, to bind that bargain. + +"And you won't have any cause to regret it, Sallie," he assured her, his +voice somewhat hoarse in spite of his effort to speak quite naturally. + +"So now, as soon as you're ready, we'll all go ashore together, and--" + +"I'll be ready in twenty minutes," she told him, clasping her hands at +her heart, her eyes very eager. "And, Jasper--you must let me take +Ambrizette with me." + +"You're free now to do as you like," he answered, and left her. He felt +as if he were treading on air on his way back to the mid-ship saloon. + +Captain Dove, in the same _neglige_ costume, was busy at breakfast when +Slyne walked in upon him again, but looked up from his plate for long +enough to mumble a malicious question. + +"Yes, I've fixed it all up with her," Slyne answered with assumed +nonchalance. "You can always trust me to know how to handle a woman, +Dove." + +Captain Dove shot a derisive glance in his direction. "Is she willing to +marry you after all, then?" he demanded, feigning a surprise by no means +complimentary. + +"Not just at once, of course," returned his companion, and left the old +man to infer whatever he pleased. + +In response to a shouted order of Captain Dove's a slatternly +cook-steward brought Slyne a steaming platter of beans with a bit of +bacon-rind on top, and an enamelled mug containing a brew which might, +by courtesy, have been called coffee. There was a tray of broken ship's +biscuits, a tin containing some peculiarly rank substitute for butter, +upon the table, with the other equally uninviting concomitants of a +meagre meal. + +"_Tchk-tchk!_" commented Slyne, and sat down to satisfy his hunger as +best he might; while Captain Dove, having overheard that criticism, eyed +him inimically, and proceeded to puff a peculiarly rank cigar in his +face. + +"You might as well be getting dressed now," said Slyne indifferently. +"By the time I'm through here, Sallie will be ready to go ashore." + +Captain Dove looked very fiercely at him, but without effect. + +"Sallie won't stir a step from the ship," the old man affirmed, "till +you've handed over the cash." + +Slyne looked up, in mild surprise. + +"But, dear me! Dove," he remarked, "you don't expect that the London +lawyer's going to take my word for a girl he's never even seen? Until +he's satisfied on that point, he won't endorse my note to you. So we've +_got_ to take her along with us. I'm doing my best to give you a square +deal; and all I ask in return is a square deal from you." + +"You'd better not try any crooked games with me," growled Captain Dove, +and sat for a time sunk in obviously aggravating reflections. + +"If we get on his soft side," suggested Slyne insidiously, "there's no +saying how much more we might both make." + +Captain Dove rose and retired into his sleeping-cabin without further +words; while Slyne, picking out with a two-pronged fork the cleanest of +the beans on his plate, smiled sneeringly to himself. + +"What's the latest long-shore fashion, Slyne?" the old man asked after +an interval. Slyne knew by his tone that he had dismissed dull care from +his mind and was prepared to be quarrelsome again. + +"It wouldn't suit a figure like yours," he answered coolly, and was +gratified to hear another hoarse growl. For, strange though it may seem, +Captain Dove was not without vanity. "All you really need to worry about +is how to keep sober. And I want it to be understood from the start--" + +"Not so much of it now!" snarled Captain Dove from his cabin. "You +attend to your own business--and I'll attend to mine. I know how to +behave myself--among gentlemen. And, don't you forget, either, that I'm +going ashore to play my own hand. I've a card or two up my sleeve, +Mister Slyne, that will maybe euchre your game for you--if you try to +bluff too high." + +Slyne swore hotly, under his breath. He would have given a great deal to +know exactly what the old man meant by that mysterious threat, and only +knew that it would be useless to ask him. There was nothing for it but +to put up with his capricious humours, as patiently as might +be--although Slyne shivered in anticipation of the strain that might +entail--till he could be dispensed with or got rid of altogether. + +Nor, as it presently appeared, were his fears at all ill-founded. For +Captain Dove emerged from his cabin got up for shore-going in a guise at +sight of which Slyne could by no means suppress an involuntary groan. + +"I'm all ready now," Captain Dove announced. "Will you pay for a cab if +I call one?" + +"My car's waiting," Slyne returned, and, as the old man whistled +amazedly over that further and unexpected proof that his former +accomplice's fortunes had changed for the better, "You look like a fool +in that outfit," said Slyne. "The right rig-out for motoring is a tweed +suit and a soft cap." + +Captain Dove was very visibly annoyed. He had been at particular pains +to array himself properly. "You want to be the only swell in the party, +of course!" he grunted. "You're jealous, that's what's the matter with +you." And he fell to polishing his furry, old-fashioned top-hat with a +tail of the scanty, ill-fitting frock-coat he had donned along with a +noisome waistcoat in honour of the occasion. + +Slyne shrugged his shoulders, despairingly, and, having made an end of +his unappetising meal, prepared for the road. Then he lighted a cigar +very much at his leisure, while Captain Dove regarded him grimly, and +led the way on deck without further words. + +Sallie was ready and waiting at the companion-hatch on the poop, as +pretty as a picture in the sables Captain Dove had given her a year +before--after a very lucrative season of poaching on the Siberian coast. +As soon as she caught sight of them she came forward, followed by +Ambrizette, whose appearance, in cloak and turban, was even a worse +offence to Slyne's fastidious taste than Captain Dove's had been. + +"What a calamitous circus!" he muttered between set teeth. "I must get +rid of those two somehow--and soon. But till then-- + +"My car's at the back of those coal-wagons there," he told Captain Dove +with great dignity, and Captain Dove turned to the engine-room hatch. + +"Below there!" he called down. "Is that Mr. Brasse? I'm off now, Brasse. +You'll carry out all my instructions, eh? And--don't quarrel with Da +Costa, d'ye hear?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered a dreary voice from the depths below, and +Captain Dove faced about again to find Sallie, flushed and anxious, +waiting with Ambrizette at the gangway. + +"Come on," he ordered irascibly, and Sallie followed him down the +plank. Ambrizette shuffled fearfully after her, and Slyne came last, his +chin in the air, triumphant. + +He led the way to his car, and was gratified to observe its salutary +effect on Captain Dove's somewhat contemptuous demeanour. The little +policeman in charge of it pending its opulent owner's return, came +forward, touching his kepi, which further impressed Captain Dove, +uncomfortably. Slyne handed Sallie into the tonneau, and Ambrizette +after her, tossed the policeman a further tip which secured his +everlasting esteem, took his own seat at the wheel, and was hastily +followed by Captain Dove. + +"Where are we bound for?" asked Captain Dove, holding his top-hat on +with both hands, as Slyne took the road toward Sampierdarena at a round +pace. + +"Don't talk to the man at the wheel," answered Slyne, and laughed. +"We've a hundred miles or so ahead of us. Better chuck that old tile of +yours away and tie a handkerchief round your head; you'll find that less +uncomfortable." + +The old man, at a loss for any more effective retort, pulled his +antiquated beaver down almost to his ears, folded his long arms across +the chest of his flapping frock-coat, and sat silent, scowling at the +baggy umbrella between his knees. Nor did he open his mouth again during +the swift journey. + +But when they at length reached their destination and Slyne stopped the +car quietly before the imposing pile that forms the Hotel de Paris, +Captain Dove's jaw dropped and his mouth opened mechanically. + +A resplendent porter came hurrying forward and bowed most humbly to the +magnificent Slyne. + +"Take this lady and her maid straight up to the suite next mine," +ordered Slyne as Sallie alighted, while Captain Dove listened, all ears. +"And ask Mr. Jobling to join me in my sitting-room. He's still here, I +suppose?" + +He gave vent to a heartfelt sigh of relief as the man, already preceding +his charges indoors, paused to answer in the affirmative. + +"I needn't book a room for you," he told Captain Dove, with calculated +indifference. "But Sallie must have somewhere to leave Ambrizette. + +"Hey! you. Call my chauffeur to take the car round to the garage." + +Captain Dove followed him toward the bureau, attracting not a few +glances of mingled surprise and amusement from the elaborate idlers in +its neighbourhood. Slyne was furious. + +"I can't have him tagging about after me in that ghastly get-up!" he +told himself on the way to the elevator; and cuffed the elevator-boy's +ears at the sound of a mirthful sneeze with which that unfortunate youth +had become afflicted. "Though how the deuce I'm to help myself I don't +know." + +In the corridor at which they got out he caught sight of Mr. Jobling +approaching, and hurried Captain Dove into the sitting-room of his +suite. + +"Give me five minutes to change my clothes," he requested of the old +man. "And don't get straying about, or you'll lose yourself." + +Mr. Jobling met him on the threshold as he shut the door. That gentleman +had marvellously recovered from his over-night's nervous break-down. A +sound sleep, a visit from the barber, a bath and a liberal breakfast had +all helped to alter him outwardly and inwardly for the better. He was +once more the respectably prosperous, self-confident solicitor. + +"I believe you've been out all night," he observed in a jocular tone of +reproof, a waggish forefinger uplifted. + +"I've covered a couple of hundred miles in the car while you've been +asleep," answered Slyne, turning into his dressing-room. "I've brought +the girl back with me--and the old man, her guardian. We're going to +have trouble with him unless we're very careful. So listen, and I'll +tell you how things stand." + +Mr. Jobling composed his features into their most professional aspect, +but that gave place by degrees to a variety of other expressions, while +Slyne, busy changing his clothes, related all he himself knew as to +Sallie's past history. + +"And now the old man thinks he is entitled to put a price on her," Slyne +concluded. "She's promised to marry me, but he won't let her go till I +hand him a hundred thousand dollars." + +Mr. Jobling lay back limply in his chair. In all his career he had +never, he asserted, heard a more scandalous suggestion. + +"Never mind about that," Slyne cut him short. "The money's no object to +me. But you can understand what a difficult fellow he is to deal with. +And what I'm going to do, merely as a precaution against his playing us +false in the end, is to give him my note of hand for the amount he +demands, endorsed by you, and payable the day I marry his adopted +daughter." + +Mr. Jobling sank still lower in his seat. + +"In return for that," Slyne went on, "he must sign a clear deliverance +from any further claim on any of us, subject, of course, to due payment +of the note. + +"Then, I want a document drawn up to confirm my engagement to the girl +and granting me the fullest possible power of attorney on her behalf +both before and after our marriage. She's so simple and inexperienced +that I must do everything for her. + +"And, lastly, you'd better make out a brief private agreement between +yourself and me--just as a matter of form, you know--to the effect that +you are willing to act in my interests throughout, in return for a +commission of ten per cent. on the accumulated revenues of the Jura +estates at the date of my marriage." + +Mr. Jobling looked at him for a time as a man suddenly bereft of his +spine might. + +"There's no time to spare," Slyne mentioned. "I want all that sort of +thing settled right off the reel--before lunch. + +"If the old man makes any kick about anything, you must back me up in +all I say. Although if he tries to raise his price by a few thousand +dollars, we needn't stick at that. The great thing is to get him to sign +the deliverance in return for our note. The girl has already agreed--" + +"And what if _I_ refuse?" croaked his companion with the courage of +desperation. It was evident that Mr. Jobling saw through his daring +scheme. "What if I insist on my fair share? What if I--" + +Slyne silenced him with a contemptuous gesture. + +"Whatever you do will make no difference to anyone in the wide world but +yourself," said Slyne. "If you do what you're told you'll get a great +deal more than you deserve out of it. If you don't--D'ye think I'd have +taken you into the team if I didn't know how to drive you!" he asked, +his eyes beginning to blaze. "Why, my good fellow, if you refuse, if +you don't travel up to your collar, if you so much as shy at anything +you see or hear--I won't even hurt you; I'll just hand you over to the +police. + +"So make up your mind now, quick!" + +"You've nothing against me," quavered the lawyer. + +"No, I've nothing--not very much, at least, yet," Slyne agreed, knotting +his tie neatly before the glass. "But--that may be because you haven't +embezzled any of my money--yet." He had most opportunely recalled what +the detective Dubois had told him about his new friend. + +Mr. Jobling's face was almost green. He got up with an evident effort. + +"I was only joking," he declared with a most ghastly grin. "I'll be +quite satisfied with ten per cent. of the accumulated income--in fact, +we'll call it a couple of hundred thousand pounds, if you like." + +"All right," Slyne agreed imperturbably. "Make it that amount if you'd +rather. How long will it take you to get the papers drawn out? It's +nearly one o'clock. And--you won't be safe till they're signed." + +"An hour," said Mr. Jobling. "I'm a quick writer." + +"All right," Slyne repeated. "We'll lunch at two--after they're all +signed. So--off you go, and get busy." + +The stout solicitor hurried away, cowed and obedient again, and Slyne, +very smart in an almost new flannel suit, rejoined Captain Dove. + +"I'm _too_ fashionable, that's what's the matter with me!" declared +Captain Dove with sudden conviction at sight of him, and gazed very +bitterly at his own image in an inconvenient mirror. + +"Never mind about that," Slyne advised soothingly. "It's not as if you +were staying here, you know. You'll be back on board your ship by +supper-time. And now, I must tell you how we've got to handle this +lawyer-fellow when he fetches in the raft of papers he'll want us all to +sign." + +Captain Dove listened gloomily while he went on to explain, at +considerable length, and in his most convincing manner, that they must +match their combined wits against the lawyer's for their own profit. + +"It's not that I don't trust him," said Slyne, "but--I'll feel more +secure after everything's settled in writing and signed. He can't go +back on us then." + +"He'd better not!" Captain Dove commented. "I'll wring his neck for him +if he tries--" + +"And, as for Sallie," Slyne cut him short, "I've made things quite--" + +"Sallie will do whatever I tell her," growled Captain Dove. "And don't +you attempt to interfere between me and her--till you've paid me my +money, Slyne. Where is she? Fetch her in here." + +Slyne had no farther to go to do that than to the next room, where he +found Sallie at the window, gazing pensively out at the sea. But he +delayed there for some time to make it still more clear to her that her +only hope of helping herself lay in abetting him blindly. + +When he at length returned to his own sitting-room with her, he found +Captain Dove staring fixedly at another arrival there, an overwhelmingly +up-to-date if rather imbecile-looking young man, whose general +gorgeousness, combined with a very vacant, fish-like eye much magnified +by a monocle, had evidently reduced the would-be fashionable seaman to a +stricken silence. + +Slyne, who had at first shot a most malevolent glance at the intruder, +was stepping forward to greet him just as Mr. Jobling put in an +appearance with a sheaf of papers in one hand. + +"How d'ye do, Lord Ingoldsby?" said Slyne quite suavely to the young man +with the eye-glass. He had caught sight of Mr. Jobling in the doorway, +and turned to Sallie, his quick mind bent on a masterstroke. + +"May I introduce to you the Marquis of Ingoldsby," he remarked to her in +the monotone of convention; and, as she bowed slightly in response to +that very modern young gentleman's ingratiating wriggle and grin, Slyne, +one eye on Captain Dove's astonished countenance, completed the +formality. + +"This is Lady Josceline Justice," said he to his smirking lordship, and +breathed delicately into a somewhat extensive ear the further +information, "the late Earl of Jura's daughter, you know--and my +_fiancee_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +"SALLIE HARRIS" + + +Sallie's first startled impulse was to deny the new identity Slyne had +so glibly bestowed on her. It seemed too preposterous to be believable; +and she was very suspicious of him. A little flushed, more than a little +afraid, and yet in some sense convinced in spite of herself by the +outward and visible signs about her that all these strange happenings +must have at least some foundation of fact, she sought to read the +others' thoughts in their faces. + +The Marquis of Ingoldsby was gaping at her, in open wonder and +admiration. Slyne's features wore a subdued expression of triumph, and +Captain Dove's a dazed, incredulous frown. Mr. Jobling was beaming about +him, so apparently satisfied with her, so respectably prosperous-looking +himself that her doubts as to Slyne's good faith began to give way. When +the lawyer was in turn presented to her and also addressed her by that +new name, she could scarcely disclaim it. + +"You'll stay and have luncheon with us, Lord Ingoldsby?" Slyne remarked, +touching the bell; and his lordship left off gaping at Sallie to look +him over with all the solemn sagacity of a young owl in broad daylight. + +"Er--all right," his lordship at length agreed. "Don't mind if I do. + +"Though I have some--er--friends waitin' for me," he added as an +afterthought, "that I promised to take for a run in your car, if--" + +"You'll have time enough after lunch," Slyne suggested, and drew the +noble marquis toward the window. + +"The Marquis of Ingoldsby!" muttered Captain Dove. "A run in Slyne's +car! And--_Lady Josceline Justice!_" He dug his knuckles forcibly into +his blinking eyes, and, "I seem to be wide enough awake," said he in a +stage aside as several waiters arrived on the scene. + +While they were setting the table Sallie tried to collect her thoughts. +Slyne had told her nothing till then, but that he had found out who her +folk were. And she had come away from the _Olive Branch_ blindly, only a +little less distrustful of him than of Captain Dove's cruel intentions +toward her if she had remained on board. Even now, she scarcely dared to +believe-- + +In response to a sign from Slyne she took her place at the flower-decked +table. The Marquis of Ingoldsby immediately settled himself at her side; +he also was obviously a young man who knew what he wanted, and meant to +have that at all hazards and, while the others were seating themselves, +he ogled her killingly. + +Slyne had sat down at her other hand, leaving Mr. Jobling and Captain +Dove to keep one another company behind the great silver centre-piece +which adorned the circular table. The marquis, leaning on one elbow, had +turned his back on Mr. Jobling, and Slyne turned his on Captain Dove. + +"This is a little bit of all right!" his lordship remarked to Sallie, +with a confidential grin. "Only--I wish--How is it that we haven't met +before, Lady Josephine? But never mind that. Let's be pals now. Shall +we, eh?" + +"I don't know," Sallie answered at random and since he seemed to expect +some reply to that fatuity. She had met a good many men in her time, but +never one quite like this Lord Ingoldsby--who actually seemed anxious to +look and act like a cunning fool. + +A waiter intervened between them. But his lordship waved that +functionary away. + +"Do let's," he implored with child-like insistence. "It would be so +deevy to be pals with you. And I'm beastly dull here, all by myself, +don't y'know. So-- + +"Eh?" He glared at Slyne, who had bluntly interrupted his _tete-a-tete_. +"No, I _don't_ want any oysters--I told that waiter-chap so. And I +_don't_ know any 'lady of the camellias.' I can't imagine what you're +talkin' about at all, I'm sure." + +"I saw her again last night, at the Casino," said Slyne, imperturbably, +and went on to entertain Sallie with a long if not over-truthful account +of his own over-night's doings there. So that, for all his lordship's +lack of manners, it was some time before that spoiled youth again +succeeded in monopolising her attention. At every turn Slyne was ready +to balk him, and, but for his native self-conceit coupled with a certain +blind obstinacy, he must very soon have understood what was perfectly +plain to Sallie, that he was there merely on sufferance, to serve some +purpose of Slyne's. + +"Goin' to be here long, Lady Josephine?" he managed to break in at last. +Slyne had turned to give a departing waiter some order. + +"I don't know," Sallie answered again, since she could say nothing else. + +"Hope to goodness you are," declared his lordship. "Stay for a week or +two, anyhow: and,"--he lowered his voice to a husky whisper, leaning +toward her--"let _me_ trot you about a bit, eh? You'll maybe see more +than enough of _him_ by and by!" He indicated Slyne with an eloquent +elbow, and further expressed his sentiments by means of an ardent sigh. + +Beyond the blossom-laden epergne, Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove, almost +cut off from other intercourse by that barrier, were exchanging coldly +critical glances. Neither seemed to be quite at his ease with the other, +and both had, of course, a great many urgent questions to put to Slyne +as soon as the Marquis of Ingoldsby should be gone. So that the +luncheon-party must have proved a very dull affair to them, and they +were no doubt glad when it was over. + +Slyne signalled to Sallie as soon as coffee was served, and she rose to +leave the room. She was quite accustomed to being promptly dispensed +with whenever her company might have been inconvenient. + +"Oh, I say!" protested Lord Ingoldsby. "You're not goin' yet, Lady J. +Half a mo'. Won't you come for a spin with me now that the car's mine? +Just say the word and I'll drop my other engagement. And then we could +dine at--" + +"Lady Josceline will be engaged with her lawyer all afternoon," Slyne +cut him short with the utmost coolness, "and she's leaving Monte Carlo +again to-night." + +The Marquis of Ingoldsby glowered at him. + +"I'll see you in Paris, then, Lady J.," he went on, pointedly ignoring +Slyne, "or in London, at least, later on. Well, good-bye--if you must be +goin'." + +He bowed her out of the room, and then, snatching up his hat and cane +with very visible annoyance, included the others in a curt nod of +farewell and made off himself. + +He passed her before she had closed her own door--and would gladly have +paused there. + +"You won't forget me, will you?" she heard him ask eagerly from behind +her. But she did not delay to answer that question. + +A few minutes later, Slyne knocked at her door and entered, followed by +the other two men. He had brought with him the papers which Mr. Jobling +had prepared. Mr. Jobling carried an inkstand, and Captain Dove a +decanter of brandy. Slyne seated himself at the table and waved Sallie +back to her chair by the window. + +"We're going to talk business for a few minutes," he told her, "and then +get everything settled in writing--to keep you safe. + +"Fire ahead now, Dove. You want to know--" + +"Is Sallie really--" + +"_I_ don't know anyone of that name now. D'you mean Lady Josceline?" + +Captain Dove glared at him, and then at the lawyer, and then at Sallie +herself. + +"Is that really who I am now, Jasper?" she asked, a most wistful +inflection in her low voice. + +"You needn't believe _me_," he answered her. "Ask Mr. Jobling. He'll +tell you." + +Mr. Jobling coughed importantly. "I'll tell you all I know myself, Lady +Josceline," he promised her, and proceeded to repeat in part what he had +told Slyne on the terrace the night before concerning the Jura family, +but without a single word of the fortune awaiting the next of kin. +Captain Dove's face expressed the extreme of astonishment as he too sat +listening with the closest attention. + +"That's as far as my present knowledge goes," the lawyer finished +blandly. "And now--I understand that Captain Dove is prepared to supply +the proof required in conclusion. + +"How long have you known Lady Josceline, Captain Dove?" + +Captain Dove frowned as if in deep thought, and Slyne looked very +crossly at him. + +"About three quarters of an hour," the old man answered, and, glancing +at Slyne, chuckled hoarsely. "She's only been Lady Josceline for so +long." + +Mr. Jobling nodded understanding and the creases on his fleshy forehead +disappeared again. + +"And before that--?" he suggested, politely patient. + +"Before that she was--what she still is so far's I'm concerned--Saleh +Harez, my adopted daughter." + +"Sallie--_Harris!_" Mr. Jobling ejaculated. "Dear me! Did you say +Sallie--er--Harris?" + +"I said Saleh Harez," affirmed Captain Dove, and filled the glass at his +elbow again. "But all that concerns you, so far's I can see, is that +I've known her ever since she was knee-high to me. I've been a father to +her all those years, and she's my adopted daughter. So now, you can take +it from me, Mr. Jobling, that I'm the joker, and both bowers too, in +this merry little game." + +"Which makes it all the more unfortunate for you that you haven't a +single penny to stake on your hand," Slyne put in, while the lawyer +looked somewhat blankly from one to the other of them. "So--don't waste +any more time bluffing, but tell Jobling how you found Sal--Lady +Josceline." + +Captain Dove darted a very evil look at his friendly adviser. "And what +if I refuse?" he asked. + +Slyne almost smiled. "Why cut off your own nose to spite your face?" he +returned. "You won't refuse, because it would cost you a hundred +thousand dollars to do so." + +Captain Dove stroked his chin contemplatively, and his face slowly +cleared. + +"A hundred and fifty thousand, you mean," he said in a most malevolent +tone. + +Slyne got up from the table as if in anger, and for some time the two +wrangled over that point, the stout solicitor gazing at them with +evident dismay, while Sallie awaited the upshot of it all with bated +breath. She knew it was over the price to be paid for her that they were +disputing, but that knowledge had ceased to be any novelty. The wrathful +voices of the two disputants seemed to come from a great distance. She +felt as if the whole affair were a dream from which she might at any +moment awake on board the _Olive Branch_ again. + +"There isn't money enough in it to pay you so much for a mere +affidavit," she heard Slyne say, and Mr. Jobling, under his glance, +confirmed that statement emphatically. + +"A hundred and twenty-one thousand is the last limit--a thousand down, +to bind the bargain, and the balance the day of my wedding with Sallie," +Slyne declared. "If that doesn't satisfy you--there's nothing more to be +said. And I'll maybe find other means--" + +"Show me even the first thousand," requested Captain Dove, and Slyne +counted out on to the table, at a safe distance from the old man's +twitching fingers, five thousand francs of the amount Lord Ingoldsby had +paid him for his car. + +"All right," said Captain Dove gruffly, and snatched at the notes. But +Slyne picked them up again. + +"As soon as you've given Jobling your statement," he said, "and signed +whatever other documents he may think necessary, I'll hand you these and +my note of hand, endorsed by him, for the balance remaining due you." + +Mr. Jobling picked up a pen and Slyne pushed a sheet of foolscap toward +him. Captain Dove, with a grunt of disgust, sat back in his chair and, +while the lawyer wrote rapidly, related how he had found Sallie. + +When he had finished, Mr. Jobling read his statement over aloud, and +chuckled ecstatically. His own eyes were shining. + +"That settles it, Lady Josceline," said he triumphantly, turning to +Sallie. "I'll stake my professional reputation on your identity now. You +need have no further doubt--" + +"And just to clinch the matter," growled Captain Dove, "you'd better add +this to your affidavy:--The clothes the kid was wearing when I fetched +her off that dhow were all marked with the moniker 'J. J.' and some sort +of crest. But--they were all lost when the ship I commanded then +was--went down at sea." + +Mr. Jobling groaned. "How _very_ unfortunate!" he remarked before he +resumed his writing. And Slyne stared fixedly at the old man until the +lawyer had finished. + +"Now," said Mr. Jobling, adjusting his pince-nez and beaming about him +again, "we can call in a couple of witnesses and--" + +"We'll witness each other's signatures." Slyne disagreed. "Better not +bring in any outsiders." + +The stout solicitor frowned over that, but finally nodded concurrence. +And Captain Dove took the pen from him, only to hand it to Slyne. + +"Gimme my thousand dollars and your joint note for the balance first," +he requested unamiably. + +Slyne signed the new note Mr. Jobling pushed across the table, and Mr. +Jobling endorsed it. Captain Dove read it over carefully before he +pocketed it, and also counted with great caution the bills Slyne tossed +to him. Then he in his turn signed, without reading it, the statement +the lawyer had drawn up from his dictation, and the more lengthy +agreement between Sallie and Jasper Slyne. + +Slyne and Jobling added their names to that, and Slyne attached his +careful signature to a promise to pay the solicitor the percentage +agreed upon. Captain Dove witnessed it and then called Sallie from her +seat in the window-alcove, and she came forward with anxious eyes, to +fulfil the undertaking she had finally had to give Jasper Slyne as the +price of his help in her most unhappy predicament. + +She did not know--nor did she greatly care then--what was contained in +the contract he laid before her without a word. She took from him +without demur the pen he held out to her. She had promised to do all he +told her and give him whatever he asked--except, for the present, +herself. + +"Sign 'Josceline Justice' at the foot of each page," he said gently, and +she did so without a word. For she would not for all the world contained +have broken any promise she had given. Then Mr. Jobling desired her to +witness the two other men's signatures. + +As she handed him back the pen she had a final question to ask him. + +"You said my father and mother are both dead, and my step-brother too. +Is there no one else--" + +"No one you need worry about in the least," he assured her, +misunderstanding. "There was a beggarly American who lodged a claim to +the title and--to the title; his name was Carthew, I think--yes, Justin +Carthew. But even if I--if he hadn't gone and got lost while looking for +you, his claim would be quite ineffectual now. You're your father's +daughter, Lady Josceline. Justin Carthew was a dozen or more degrees +removed from the trunk of your family tree. He had only the faintest +tinge of blue blood in his veins. He was an absolute outsider. We'll +hear no more about _him_ now." + +"You mean that it's an absolutely sure thing for her," Captain Dove +suggested, and Mr. Jobling looked pained. + +"I can't afford to risk anything on uncertainties, sir," he answered +stiffly. "And I'll stake my professional reputation on--" + +"Oh, never mind about all that," Slyne broke in, folding his share of +the papers together and pocketing them. "The syndicate's safely floated. +And now--as to our next move. + +"You'd better get away back to Genoa by the five o'clock train, Dove. +And you must take Ambrizette with you; I'll get Sal--Lady Josceline +another maid in Paris--one who won't attract quite so much attention to +us as that damned dwarf would. + +"Jobling and I will go on there by the night-mail, on our way to London +with--Lady Josceline. You can take the _Olive Branch_ round to some safe +English port and lay her up there in the meantime. As soon as you land, +you can rejoin us--at Jobling's address. By that time we'll probably be +ready to redeem our note to you." + +"By that time," Captain Dove returned with concentrated bitterness, +"you'll have found some way to give me the slip altogether. D'ye take me +for a blind idiot, Slyne? D'ye think I'm going to let Sallie out of my +sight, with you?" + +Slyne was visibly disconcerted. "But--aren't you going to take your ship +round to England?" he asked, in genuine surprise. "You can't very well +leave her lying in Genoa!" + +"I'll attend to my own end of the business," said Captain Dove with +angry decision. "If you're going to London by train to-night, so am I. +If you like to come back on board with me, I'll sail you round. But I'm +not the only man on the _Olive Branch_ who can sail a ship. Why, I've +half a dozen broken captains--and most of 'em with extra masters' +certificates, too--among my crew. + +"I've left Brasse and Da Costa in charge, and they'll work her across +the Bay if I tell them to. I've only to send them a wire. And all you +have to do now is to say which way you want to travel--with me; for I'm +going to stick to you like a leech till the day you pay me off." + +Slyne walked to the window, humming a tune. But it was obviously costing +him all of his refreshed fortitude to refrain from expressing his real +sentiments toward Captain Dove. His face, as he stood glaring blindly +out at the beautiful scene before him, was like that of a wild beast +balked of its fair prey. But from between his bared, set teeth the +careless hum came unbroken. + +"I think you're foolish," was all he said when he turned again, +convinced that it would be a waste of time to argue the matter with the +old man, "but--suit yourself. Jobling and I _must_ get to London with +Sal--Lady Josceline at the earliest possible moment. If you insist on +travelling with us to-night--so be it. All I want you to understand is +that there's to be no more drinking, and that you must be advised by me +in every other particular. This isn't really the sort of game you're +liable to shine in. It would be far better for all of us if you'd stay +on board your ship." + +Captain Dove's weather-beaten countenance was turning slowly purple. He +was striving after speech. Slyne, outwardly cool and contemptuous of his +visible fury, stood gazing down at him, hands in pockets. Mr. Jobling +was wriggling restlessly in his chair, glancing from one to the other, +prepared to flee from the coming storm. + +Still without a word, Captain Dove reached again for the +brandy-decanter, directly defying Slyne. Slyne stepped forward and +snatched it out of his hand. + +Simultaneously, the old man and Mr. Jobling sprang from their seats, the +former making for Slyne and the latter for the door, which opened just +as he reached it, so that he all but fell over a boy in buttons who had +knocked and entered carrying a telegram on a tray. + +Slyne had not moved. Captain Dove, almost at his throat, spun round on +one heel. + +"For me?" Mr. Jobling exclaimed anxiously as he ripped the envelope +open. And a slow pallor overspread his puffy pink features while he was +perusing its contents. + +"From Mullins, my managing clerk," he mumbled as he passed the message +to Slyne, who looked it over indifferently, and then re-read it aloud in +a low but very ominous voice: "'_American claimant landed at Genoa +yesterday. Now on way to London. Court granted decree in his favour._' +Handed in at Chancery Lane, in London,"--he pulled out his watch--"fifty +minutes ago." + +The page-boy had disappeared. Slyne pushed suddenly past Mr. Jobling and +set his back against the door. Captain Dove was approaching the +terrified solicitor softly, on tiptoe, his fists clenched, all his +tobacco-stained fangs displayed in a grin of fury. One of his long arms +shot out just as the door opened behind Slyne's back and a voice +announced: + +"M. Dubois." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE LAW--AND THE PROFITS + + +Sallie saw how Jasper Slyne's face blanched at sight of that very +untimely intruder, whose keen eyes seemed to take in the situation there +at a glance. + +Mr. Jobling had fallen backward into a convenient armchair and, with +both hands clapped to his nose, was moaning most piteously. Captain Dove +was standing over him, with features inflamed, in a very bellicose +posture and glaring at the new-comer, toward whom Slyne had turned +inquiringly. + +"You're--looking for some one, M. Dubois?" Slyne asked, in a tone of +polite surprise, which, Sallie knew, was assumed. + +"A thousand pardons," returned that individual. "I am indeed looking for +some one--whom I thought to find here. I had no intention, however, of +intruding upon a lady--" He bowed profusely to Sallie. "It may be," he +suggested, "that I have mistaken the number. Is not this the suite 161?" + +"One hundred and sixty," Slyne told him, and evidently did not think it +worth while to add that the next suite was his own. + +"A thousand pardons," repeated M. Dubois, very penitently. "I am too +stupid! But mademoiselle will perhaps be so gracious as to forgive me +this time." + +He bowed to Sallie again and to Slyne, and disappeared, sharply scanning +the latter's face to the last. + +"Who's that son of a sea-cook?" snapped Captain Dove, and Mr. Jobling +looked wanly up out of one eye. + +"A French detective," Slyne answered reflectively. But Sallie felt sure +that he was afraid of M. Dubois, and wondered why. + +"Well, he has nothing against me that I'm aware of," the old man +declared. "And now--what about this wire? Does it mean that some other +fellow has scooped the pool--and that I've had all my trouble for +nothing, eh?" He clenched his fist again and shook it in the lawyer's +face. + +"No, no," gasped Mr. Jobling. "Don't be so hasty. It makes no difference +at all, now that we have Lady Josceline with us. I told you that the +American, Carthew, is of no account against her--and how he has ever +cropped up again I can't conceive. In any case--" + +"In any case, you'd better be off to your room and ring for a bit of +beefsteak to doctor that eye with," Slyne interposed in a tone of +intense annoyance. + +"And I wish to goodness, Dove!" he added savagely, "that you would +behave a little more like a reasonable human being and less--" + +"Less of your lip, now!" snarled the old man. "And _don't_ keep on +saying that. Just take it from me again, both of you, that you'd better +not be so slow again in telling me--" + +"You didn't give me time," Mr. Jobling protested. + +Slyne opened the door. "Come on," he urged. "You've got to get your kit +packed, Jobling. We'll be leaving before very long now." + +"Have you made up your mind to come with us, Dove?" + +Captain Dove nodded, most emphatically. "I'll send word to Brasse and Da +Costa at once," he remarked, "and then I'll be ready to start whenever +you are." + +He left the room after Mr. Jobling, and Slyne, in the doorway, looked +back at Sallie, the reassuring smile on his lips belied by his cold, +calculating eyes. + +"And how about you, Sallie?" he asked. "Have you made up your mind? Are +you satisfied--so far? Or--would you rather go back to the _Olive +Branch_? + +"If you would--I'll let you off your promise, even now! And don't forget +that this will be your last chance to recall it." + +"You know I can't go back to the _Olive Branch_, Jasper," she answered +slowly. "But--" + +He did not give her time to say more. "That's settled for good, then," +he asserted. "Your promise stands, and I know you'll keep it when the +time comes--after I've done my part. + +"I'm only sorry I haven't been able to get rid of Captain Dove right +away, but it won't be long now till--You needn't worry any more about +him. I'll see that he behaves better. + +"If there's anything else I can do for your comfort, you must let me +know. And now, I'll leave you to your own devices until it's time to +start on our travels. Better get a rest while you can, eh? We've a very +busy week ahead of us." + +She saw that he did not intend to tell her any more in the meantime, and +was glad to see him go. Then she called Ambrizette in for company, and +sat down by the window again, to try to sort out for herself the +bewildering tangle that life had once more become within a few hours. + +Gazing out across the familiar sea with wistful, far-away eyes, she +mused for a time over what Captain Dove had told Mr. Jobling of her +history, and strove to piece together with that all she herself could +recall of that dim and always more mysterious past out of which she had +come to be Captain Dove's property, bought and paid for, at a high +price, as he had repeated several times. + +Her own earliest vague, disconnected, ineffectual memories were all of +some dark, savage mountain-country; of endless days of travel; of +camp-fires in the cold, and hungry camels squealing for fodder; of the +fragrant cinnamon-smell of the steam that came from the cooking-pots. + +Before, or, it might have been, after that, she had surely lived on some +seashore, in a shimmering white village with narrow, crooked lanes for +streets and little flat-roofed houses huddled together among hot +sandhills where the _suddra_ grew and lean goats bleated always for +their kids. + +Then, as if in a very vexing dream, she could almost but never quite +see, through the thickening mist of the years, once-familiar +faces--white men, with swords, in ragged uniforms, and big brown ones +with wicked eyes and long, thin guns, glaring down at her over a high +wall, through smoke and fire, and fighting, and the acrid reek of +powder.... + +And there remembrance grew blank altogether, until it connected with +Captain Dove, on the deck of a slaving-dhow far out of sight of any +land. She had been only a little child when he had carried her up the +side of his own ship in his arms, while she laughed gleefully in his +face and pulled at his shaggy moustache, but she could still remember +some of the incidents of that day. + +She had lived on board his successive ships ever since. And ever since, +until recently, he had always been very good to her, in his own queer, +gruff way. He had always treated her as though she were a child of his +own, shielding her, in so far as he could, from even the knowledge of +all the evil which he had done up and down the world. She had grown up +in the belief that his despotic guardianship was altogether for her good +and not to be disputed. + +But now--she was no longer a child. And all her old, unquestioning faith +in his inherent good intentions, toward her at least, was finally +shattered. She knew now that he really looked upon her as a mere +chattel, with a cash value--just as if she had been one of the hapless +cargo of human cattle confined in the pestiferous hold of the dhow on +whose deck he had found her at play. She knew now that he had bought and +paid for them as well as her, and sold them again at a fat profit, far +across the seas--all but the dumb, deformed black woman whom he had +picked from among them to act as her nurse. + +And if it did not occur to her to question either his power or his +perfect right to dispose of her future also as he might see fit, had not +all her experience gone to prove that might is right everywhere, that +law and justice are merely additional pretexts devised by the strong for +oppressing the weak? She had had to choose between remaining on board +the _Olive Branch_, or paying Jasper Slyne his price for the chance of +escape he had offered her in pursuance of his own aims. + +She disliked and distrusted Slyne scarcely less than before. But she did +not see how she could have chosen otherwise. And, in any case,--it was +too late now to revoke the promise she had made him. + +She was still afraid to place any faith in the promises he had made +her. She had no idea how he had come at his alleged discovery of her +real identity. But Mr. Jobling's obvious belief in that recurred to her +mind, and she fell to wondering timidly what life would be like as Lady +Josceline Justice. + +Her impressions on that point were very hazy, however, and she had still +to puzzle out the problem added by Justin Carthew. But she finally gave +up the attempt to solve that at the moment, contenting herself with the +tremulous hope that she might soon be on her way toward that dear, +unknown, dream-home for which her hungry heart had so often ached. + +Of the exorbitant price so soon to be paid for the brief glimpse of +happiness Slyne had agreed to allow her, she took no further thought at +all. She had already made up her mind to meet that without complaint. + +An hour or more later, when Slyne looked in to tell her that it was time +to start, she was still seated at the window, gazing out over the +steel-grey sea with wistful, far-away eyes. + +At his instigation she veiled herself very closely. And he had brought +with him a hooded cloak for Ambrizette. No one took any particular +notice of the inconspicuous party which presently left the Hotel de +Paris in a hired car, as if for an excursion along the coast. + +At a station fifty miles away they left the car and caught the +night-mail for Paris. Slyne's baggage was on board it, in the care of a +sullen chauffeur, and there were also berths reserved for them all. + +"Did you see any more of Dubois?" Sallie heard Slyne ask the man, who +shook his head indifferently in reply. + +The long night-journey passed without other incident than a dispute +between Captain Dove and the sleeping-car attendant, which raged until +Slyne threatened to have the train stopped at the next station and send +for the police. And the sun was shining brightly when they reached +Paris. + +Mr. Jobling went straight on to London, but Slyne took Sallie and +Captain Dove to a quiet but expensive hotel, where they remained for a +few days, which passed in a perfect whirl of novelty and excitement for +her. And when they in their turn crossed the Channel, she had for +baggage at least a dozen new trunks containing the choicest spoils of +the Rue de la Paix. Slyne had pooh-poohed all her timid protests against +his lavish expenditure on her account, and had also provided for Captain +Dove and Ambrizette in their degree. He had evidently a fortune at his +disposal, and was bent on showing her how generous he could be. + +He was also unostentatiously displaying other good qualities which had +all gone to make those days pass very pleasantly for her. She could not +fail to appreciate the courtesy and consideration which he consistently +showed her now. His patience with Captain Dove, a trying companion at +the best of times and doubly troublesome idle, more than once made her +wonder whether he could be the same Jasper Slyne she had known on the +_Olive Branch_. Prosperity seemed to have improved him almost beyond +recognition. + +He had a cabin at her disposal on the Calais-Dover steamer but she +stayed on deck throughout the brief passage, glad to breathe the salt +sea-air again, while he entertained her with descriptions of London and +she watched the twinkling lights that were guiding her home. + +And then came London itself, at last, somewhat grey, and cold, and +disconsolate-looking on a wet winter morning. + +But after breakfast in a cosy suite at the Savoy, a blink of sunshine +along the Embankment helped to better that first hasty impression. And +then Slyne took Captain Dove and her in a taxicab along the thronged and +bustling Strand to Mr. Jobling's office in Chancery Lane. + +They got out in front of a dingy building not very far from Cursitor +Street. It was raining again, and Sallie, looking up and down the +narrow, turbid thoroughfare, felt glad that she did not need to live +there. + +Indoors, the atmosphere was scarcely less depressing. A dismal passage +led toward a dark stairway, up which they had to climb flight after +flight to reach at last a dusty, ill-smelling, gas-lighted room, +inhabited only by a shabby, shock-headed hobbledehoy of uncertain age +and unprepossessing appearance, perched on a preposterously high stool +at a still higher desk, behind a cage-like partition. + +"I want to see Mr. Jobling, at once," Slyne announced to him. And Mr. +Jobling's "managing clerk" looked slowly round, with a snake-like and +disconcerting effect due to a very long neck and a very low collar. + +"Show Mr. Slyne in immediately, Mullins," ordered a pompous voice from +within; and Mr. Jobling himself, a blackcoated, portly, important +personage there, came bustling out from his private office to welcome +his visitors. + +"How d'ye do, how d'ye do, Lady Josceline!" he exclaimed, and cocked an +arch eyebrow at Sallie's most becoming costume; although the effect he +intended was somewhat impaired by the fact that he was still suffering +from a black eye, painted over in haste--and by an incompetent artist. + +"I can see now what's been keeping _you_ in Paris!" he added +facetiously, and, having shaken hands with Slyne, who seemed to think +that superfluous, turned to receive Captain Dove with the same +politeness. + +"Phew!" whistled Mr. Jobling and drew back and stared at the old man. +"I'd _never_ have recognised you in that rig-out." + +Captain Dove pulled off a pair of smoked glasses he had been wearing, +the better to look him, with offensive intent, in his injured eye. For +Captain Dove was still enduring much mental as well as physical +discomfort in a disguise which he had only been induced to adopt a +couple of days before, and after an embittered quarrel with Slyne. The +stiff white collar round his corded neck was still threatening to choke +him and then cut his throat. He had been infinitely more at his ease in +his scanty, short-tailed frock-coat and furry top-hat than he was in the +somewhat baggy if more becoming black garb he had donned in its place, +with a soft wide-awake always flapping about his ears. + +"Come inside," Mr. Jobling begged hurriedly, and, looking round as he +followed them into his sanctum, "Mullins!" he snapped, "don't stand +there staring. Get on with your work, at once. + +"You're later than I expected," he remarked to Slyne as he closed the +door, "but just in time. The Court's closed, of course, for the +Christmas vacation, but I've filed an application for a hearing in +Chambers, and--" + +He paused as a telephone-bell rang shrilly outside, and a moment later +the shock head of his "managing clerk" protruded into the room, almost +as if it did not belong to a body at all. + +"Mr. Spettigrew says that our application in Chambers will be heard by +Mr. Justice Gaunt, in 57B, at eleven-thirty sharp this forenoon," +announced that youth and, with a final wriggle of his long neck, +withdrew. + +"Devil take him!" exclaimed Captain Dove, somewhat startled and much +incensed. "I wouldn't keep a crested cobra like that about me for--" + +"Let's see those accounts of yours, now," said Slyne, disregarding that +interruption, and Mr. Jobling, having first looked at his watch, +produced from another drawer a great sheaf of papers, all carefully +docketed. He slipped off the top one and somewhat reluctantly handed +that to his friend. + +Slyne took it from him eagerly, and sat for a time gloating over it with +eyes which presently began to glow. + +But when Captain Dove, growing restless, would have glanced over his +shoulder to see what was tickling his fancy so, he frowned and folded +that document up and returned it to Mr. Jobling. + +"Give it here, now!" growled Captain Dove, menacing Mr. Jobling with a +clenched fist; and the lawyer, after an appealing, impotent glance at +Slyne, had no recourse but to comply with that peremptory order. + +"Are you quite sure of your figures?" Slyne asked, with a scowl. He +seemed conscious that he, in his haste, had made a false step. And Mr. +Jobling nodded with nervous assurance. + +"I have inside sources of information as to the revenue of the estates," +he replied, "and a note of all the investments. I've allowed a wide +margin for all sorts of incidentals. I think you'll find, in fact, that +Lady Josceline's inheritance will amount to even more than I've +estimated." + +Slyne smiled again, more contentedly. Nor was his complaisance overcome +even when Mr. Jobling put to him a half-whispered petition for a +further small cash advance to account of expenses. + +"I wasn't even able to pay Mullins' wages with what you gave me in +Paris," said the stout solicitor vexedly. "Fees and so on swallowed it +all up, and--I'm actually short of cab-fares!" + +"Why don't you fire Mullins, then?" demanded Slyne with a shade of +impatience. "I've just got rid of my chauffeur because he was costing me +more than he was worth." + +"But I can't afford to get rid of Mullins. Just at the moment he's very +useful to me. It would create a bad impression if I had to run my own +errands. And--the fact is, he knows far too much. I'll pay him off and +shut his mouth by and by, when I have more time to attend to such +matters." + +"How much do you want?" Slyne inquired with a frown evidently meant to +warn his friend to be modest. + +"Can you spare twenty pounds--to go on with?" + +Slyne hesitated, but only for a few seconds. Then he pulled out a +pocket-book and surreptitiously passed that sum to the penniless man of +law, who accepted it with no more than a nod of thanks. + +"I'll pay Mullins now," he remarked, and immediately hurried out of the +room. Captain Dove was gasping for breath and showed every other symptom +of a forthcoming explosion. + +As soon as the door shut behind him, the old man gave open vent to his +wrath. And a most furious quarrel followed between Slyne and him. +Sallie, too, learned then, for the first time, of the vast inheritance +which would be hers, of Slyne's cunning plan to buy Captain Dove out for +a mere pittance, and how he himself expected to profit through marrying +her. + +But she was not overwhelmed with surprise by that belated discovery. She +had almost anticipated the final disclosure of some such latent motive +behind all Slyne's professions to her. The only difference it might make +would be to Captain Dove. Slyne and he were still snarling at each other +when Mr. Jobling walked jauntily in again. But at sight of him Captain +Dove began to subside. + +"We mustn't be late. Mr. Spettigrew will be expecting us now. I've sent +Mullins on ahead with my papers," observed Mr. Jobling breezily, and +went on to explain that Mr. Justice Gaunt, by nature a somewhat +cross-grained old limb of the law, had been very ill-pleased over being +bothered again, and at a moment when most of his colleagues were +enjoying a holiday, about any such apparently endless case as that of +the Jura succession, which had been cropping up before him, at more or +less lengthy intervals, for quite a number of years, and concerning +which he had, only a few days before, made an order of court in favour +of Justin Carthew. + +Captain Dove clapped his soft felt hat on his head with a very +devil-may-care expression. + +"Come on, then," said he grimly, and Mr. Jobling was not slow to lead +the way. So that they reached Mr. Justice Gaunt's chambers punctually at +the hour appointed, and were ushered into his lordship's presence by Mr. +Spettigrew, the learned counsel retained by Mr. Jobling on Sallie's +behalf, a long, lifeless-looking gentleman in a wig and gown and +spectacles. And his lordship smiled very pleasantly as Sallie raised her +heavy veil at counsel's crafty request. + +"Pray be seated, my dear young lady," his lordship begged with fatherly, +old-fashioned kindness, and indicated a chair meant for counsel, much +nearer his own than the rest. Nor did he often take his eyes from her +face throughout the course of a long and convincing dissertation by Mr. +Spettigrew, on her past history, present position in life, and claims on +the future, with some reference to the rival claims of Mr. Justin +Carthew. + +"And I have full proof to place before you, at once, if you wish it, +m'lud," concluded Mr. Spettigrew in his most professional drone, "in +support of the fact that the lady before you is the lawful daughter of +the late earl and the countess, his second wife, who died in the desert. +Mr. Justin Carthew, on the other hand, is related to the family in a +very different and distant degree, and there are, as y'r ludship has +been good enough to agree, no other survivors. + +"I beg leave now to request that y'r ludship will rescind the authority +granted to Mr. Justin Carthew, and admit my client's petition _ad +referendum_." + +"Produce your proofs," ordered his lordship, and Mr. Spettigrew +extracted from a capacious black bag a pile of papers at which Mr. +Justice Gaunt looked with no little disgust. + +"What are they, in chief?" asked Mr. Justice Gaunt, turning over page +after page of closely written law-script, as gingerly as if he believed +that one might perhaps explode and blow him to pieces. And Mr. +Spettigrew launched forth again into a long list of certificates, +records, researches, findings, orders of court, sworn statements and +affidavits, by Captain Dove--"Then trading in his own ship, m'lud, now +retired and devoting his time to mission-work among deep-sea sailors;" +by Mr. Jasper Slyne, gentleman; by Mr. Jobling, whom he did not pause +to describe; by a couple of dozen other people, living or dead, at home +or abroad; all in due legal form and not to be controverted. + +"I think you'll find them in perfect order, and absolutely conclusive, +m'lud," counsel came to a finish triumphantly, and sat down, greatly to +the relief of all present. + +"H'm!" said his lordship, still gravely regarding Sallie: whose eyes had +nothing to conceal from him. "And so this is the long-lost Lady +Josceline!" + +His searching glance travelled slowly to Captain Dove's face, and then +to Slyne's; both of whom met it without winking, although Captain Dove +was no doubt glad of the protection of his smoked glasses. + +"I'll have to go through the proofs, of course," said his lordship +reflectively and let his gaze rest on Sallie again. "But--if +everything's as you say, I don't think it will be long before Lady +Josceline finds herself in full enjoyment of all her rights and +privileges. If everything's as you say, I'll do whatever lies in my +power to expedite matters; I think I can promise you that the case will +be called immediately the vacation is over. Meanwhile, however, and till +I have looked through the proofs, I can make no further order." + +He rose, and they also got up from their chairs as he came round from +behind his desk and confronted Sallie, a tall, stooping old man with a +wrinkled face and tired but kindly eyes. + +She looked up into them frankly, and he laid a hand on her shoulder. + +"Yours has been a very sad history so far, my dear young lady," he said, +his head on one side, still studying her. "I hope it will be all the +brighter henceforth. I knew--the last Earl of Jura--when we were both +young men--before he married. You remind me of him, as he was then, in +many respects. Good day to you now; my time here is not my own, you +know. But some day, perhaps you will allow me to pay my respects to +you--at Justicehall, since we're to be neighbours; my own home isn't +very far from yours." + +Outside in the corridor, Mr. Jobling shook hands rapturously with every +one, even with Captain Dove. + +"We've turned the trick already," he declared. "You heard what his +lordship said. With him on our side, the whole thing's as good as +settled. All we have to do now is to wait until the Courts take up again +and confirm--" + +"How long will that be?" Slyne inquired. He, too, was smiling +ecstatically. + +"Not much more than a fortnight," the lawyer informed him. "It will soon +pass. We must just be patient." + +"We must keep very quiet, too," said Slyne, "unless we want to give the +whole show away to the enemy in advance. We must clear off out of London +till then. I'll tell you what, Jobling! Why shouldn't we all go down to +Scotland to-night?" + +Mr. Jobling nodded agreement. "An excellent idea," he declared. "There's +nothing to keep us here." + +"That's settled, then," Slyne asserted. "And we'll all dine together at +the Savoy before we start. I think we can afford to celebrate the +occasion, eh! And I want to show Lady Josceline a few of her future +friends." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"PLEASURES AND PALACES" + + +The Duchess of Dawn was dining a number of notabilities at the Savoy, on +her way to a command performance at the Gaiety; a fact of which the +fashionable world was well aware, because the young duchess is a great +lady in London as well as elsewhere, and all her doings are chronicled +in advance. The fashionable world had promptly decided to dine there +too, and telephoned in breathless haste for tables. It filled the +restaurant at an unusually early hour, and a disappointed overflow +displayed itself in the _foyer_. + +The Duchess of Dawn is one of the most beautiful women in England. The +eyes of the fashionable world were focussed on her and her guests, among +whom were a minor European prince and a famous field-marshal who had not +been on show in London for long, until there appeared from the crowded +_foyer_, upon the arm of an old-young man of distinguished appearance +and faultless _tenue_, a tall, slender girl, at whom, as she passed, +every one turned to gaze, with undisguised admiration or envy, according +to sex and temperament. + +She was gowned to distraction, and by an artist in women's wear. Her +beautiful bare arms and shoulders and bosom were free of superfluous +ornament. Her pure, proud, sensitive features were faintly flushed,--as +though, if that were conceivable, she was wearing evening dress for the +first time, and found it trying,--but her curved crimson lips were +slightly parted in a most bewitching smile, and, from under their +drooping lashes, her radiant eyes looked a demure, amused, impersonal +defiance at the frankly curious faces upturned toward her. The shaded +lights made most enchanting lights and shadows among her hair, red-gold +and heaped about her head in heavy coils, as she moved modestly through +the thronged room toward a corner where, about a beautifully decorated +table, four motionless waiters were standing guard over four empty +chairs. + +She sat down there, her back to the bulk of the company, and her escort +took the seat opposite. A portly, prosperous-looking, elderly man, with +something a little suspicious about one of his eyes, and a squat, +queerly-shaped old fellow in semi-clerical garb and wearing smoked +glasses, completed the party. Their waiters began to hover about them, +and the fashionable world went on with its dinner. + +"Who was that _lovely_ girl?" the Duchess of Dawn demanded of her +_vis-a-vis_, the veteran soldier, and he, reputed among women to have no +heart at all, recalled himself with an evident start from the reverie +into which he had fallen. He almost blushed, indeed, under the duchess's +blandly discerning smile. + +"I don't know, I'm sure, duchess," he returned, smiling also, in spite +of himself, and beckoned to a servant behind him, whom he despatched on +some errand. + +"She's registered as Miss Harris, your lordship," the man announced in +an undertone when he returned. + +"Miss Harris!" echoed the prince, who was also a soldier. He had +overheard. And, as he in turn caught the duchess's eyes, he lay back +laughing, a little ruefully. But the man opposite him, the master of +armies, was not amused. + +"I'd like to know who and what those three fellows with Miss Harris may +be," said he. + + * * * * * + +At their table in the corner, they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying +themselves. The three men were toasting Sallie and each other with equal +good-will. And even Sallie had dismissed from her mind the last of her +lingering doubts as to the reality and endurance of her part in that +most amazing new life, had put the past with all its horrors resolutely +behind her, was too much interested in the entertaining present to +trouble about the future at the moment. + +Captain Dove had seemingly forgotten, for the time being at any rate, +his grievance against Slyne, and was in his most lamb-like mood. While +Slyne did not even demur against the quantities of expensive wine the +old man consumed during dinner. Mr. Jobling, too, was displaying +symptoms of convivial hilarity when they at length left the restaurant. +But most of the other tables were empty by then. + +Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove, arm in arm, affectionately maintained each +other as far as their sitting-room, while Slyne accompanied Sallie to +her own door. He had been making himself most agreeable to her, and had +pointed out a number of the notorieties and one or two of the +celebrities present; although it had somewhat startled her to be told +that she would very soon be on familiar terms with them all. + +"Aren't you glad now that you agreed to the bargain we made on the +_Olive Branch_--and in Monte Carlo?" he asked by the way. He was smiling +gaily. + +She smiled back at him, and, "I'm not sorry--so far, Jasper," she +answered, looking deep into his eyes. + +He nodded, as if quite satisfied, and turned away to escape that +embarrassing scrutiny. + +"We'll be starting in half an hour or so," he informed her from a safe +distance, and, "I'll be all ready," she called cheerfully after him. + +A little before eleven he came in again and they all set out for the +station to catch their train. + +It was a cold, clear, frosty night, and the Strand was at its busiest as +Sallie looked out at it from the taxi into which Slyne and Ambrizette +had followed her at the hotel portico. Another, containing Captain Dove +and their legal adviser, still on the most amicable terms, although +Captain Dove as a rule could not stand anyone afflicted with hiccough, +crawled close behind them through the turmoil until, at the Gaiety +corner, a policeman delayed it to let the cross-traffic through. + +A crowd had gathered there to gaze at the royalties who would presently +be coming out of the theatre. Slyne drew Sallie back from the open +window at sight of two men, one of whom seemed all shirt-front, looking +down at the congested street from the empty steps of the principal +entrance. + +"That ass Ingoldsby!" he explained to Sallie, and was evidently a good +deal disturbed. "And--Dubois, as well," he added. "I thought I had +shaken him off in Paris. I'm sure he saw me, too." + +A little farther on he stopped the taxi and beckoned to one of those +street-arabs who make a living about the kerb. + +"Go to the gentleman with the beard, on the steps of the Gaiety," he +instructed that very alert messenger, "and say to him that a friend +wants a word with him here." + +Sallie observed the suppressed grimace of surprise on the face of the +individual who almost at once arrived in the wake of his ragged Mercury: +and Slyne, having tossed the latter a shilling, held out his hand to M. +Dubois. + +"Charmed to see you in London, _mon confrere_," said he. "Have you yet +discovered your man?" + +"I am hard at his heels," the detective answered, his eyes searching +Slyne's as if, Sallie thought, for some sign that that shaft had hit +home. + +But Slyne's expression was one of ingenuous simplicity. He bowed, as if +with deep respect. + +"I caught a glimpse of some one most amazingly like myself, one day on +the Faubourg St. Honore, as I was passing through Paris," he mentioned +reflectively. + +"Thanks," returned Dubois. "It was he, no doubt. And--he's in London +now." + +Slyne did not wince, even at that. + +"He was dining at the Savoy to-night," said Dubois indifferently. "How +does your own affair progress?" + +"_Assez bien_," Slyne answered in an even voice. "I have followed my +quarry home and am awaiting developments." + +"You will be in London for a little, then?" + +"For the next week or ten days, I expect," Slyne lied with perfect +aplomb. + +"We shall meet again, in that case," declared the detective, glancing at +Sallie; and, "_Au plaisir de vous revoir, monsieur_," Slyne returned +deferentially. + +"To Grosvenor Square now--and hurry along," he directed the driver in a +voice his enemy could not fail to hear. And the taxicab swung into Drury +Lane, on its way west. + +For a few minutes he sat silent, with bent head, biting at his +moustache. Then he looked round at Sallie. + +"That fellow takes me for another man," he told her querulously. "He's +been dogging me ever since he first saw me at Monte Carlo. You've no +idea, Sallie, what a dangerous risk I had to run there--for your sake." + +"You haven't told me much about--anything, Jasper," she reminded him. +And he proceeded to describe in lurid detail the fate which would +undoubtedly have befallen him had M. Dubois been able then to fasten on +him responsibility for the misdeeds of that criminal whom he so +unfortunately resembled. + +Sallie listened in silence. She had been wondering whether M. Dubois +could be in any way concerned with her affairs. She gathered that he was +interested only in Slyne. The latter's story of grave risk run for her +sake fell somewhat flat, since it seemed to rest on the mere possibility +of his having been mistaken for somebody else. She could scarcely +believe that his fear of M. Dubois had no other foundation. She even +ventured to suggest that he could easily have proved the detective in +the wrong. + +"He wouldn't have paid the slightest attention to anything I could say," +Slyne assured her tartly. "He wouldn't have asked any questions or +listened to any statement of mine. You don't know anything about the +outrages that are committed every day by fellows like that on men like +myself who have no fixed residence, Sallie; and no powerful friends to +whom to appeal against such infernal injustice. I can't tell you how +thankful I'll be, on your account as well as my own, when we're married +and safely settled down, with a home of our own to feel safe in! + +"Look, there's where we'll live when we're in London." + +Sallie looked out. They were whirling past one of the most imposing +houses in Grosvenor Square. "Is it an hotel?" she asked, and observed +that all but one or two of its topmost windows were dark. + +"It's the Earl of Jura's town house," said Slyne, apparently somewhat +piqued by her seeming indifference. "It's yours now--or will be as soon +as the Chancery Court wakes up again." + +Sallie glanced back and caught another glimpse of it as the taxicab +slowed again to take the corner of the square. Slyne had picked up the +speaking-tube. + +"Get us to the station now, as fast as you can," he told the driver: and +then, having glanced at his watch, lighted a cigarette. He seemed to +have no more to say at the moment, and Sallie was busy with thoughts of +her own. She was wondering whether Justin Carthew could be living in +that great house. She could not understand.... But she did not dare to +ask Jasper Slyne for any information, since he had shown her more than +once already that he did not intend to tell her any more than he thought +fit. + +When they finally reached the station they found Mr. Jobling awaiting +them there and very anxious over their late arrival. + +"We drove round by Grosvenor Square," Slyne told the lawyer +nonchalantly. "And--we're in lots of time." + +Mr. Jobling looked cross. "Five minutes more would have lost you the +train," he remarked somewhat sourly. "And where would Captain Dove and I +have been then!" + +As it was, however, they found Captain Dove in his berth, sound asleep, +although still fully dressed. And, as Slyne ushered Sallie into the +double compartment reserved for her and Ambrizette, "Don't go to bed +just yet," he begged. "I want to show you something by and by. You'll +have lots of time for a long sleep before we arrive." + +"All right, Jasper," she agreed. "I'll wait up till you come for me." + +When he at length knocked at her door again, Mr. Jobling was still with +her. She came out between them into the narrow corridor. Slyne rubbed +clear one steamy window to let her see the wintry landscape through +which they were travelling at express speed. And Sallie looked out +delighted, at the sleeping English countryside as its broad grass-lands +and bare brown acres, coverts and coppices, hedgerows and lanes, with +here and there a grange or a group of cottages, all still and silent, +flashed into sight and so disappeared; until, overlooking them all from +a knoll on the near bank of a broad, winding river, there loomed up a +most magnificent mansion, embedded, in lordly seclusion, among many +gnarled and age-old oaks, with gardens terrace on terrace about it, tall +fountains among their empty flower-beds, a moss-grown sun-dial at the +edge of a quiet, silver lake. + +The moon was shining full on its innumerable windows, so that it seemed +to be lighted up from within, although, in reality, all were shuttered +and dark. Aloof and very stately it stood on that windless night, an +empty palace which came and went in a few moments, wing after wing, with +its stabling and courtyards, and still more gardens, all within an +endless, ivy-clad encircling wall. + +"What place is that?" asked Sallie in an awed tone as soon as the train +had rumbled across the bridge. + +"That's Justicehall, Lady Josceline,--your English country seat, and one +of the finest properties in the Shires," Mr. Jobling informed her before +Slyne could speak. "You'll be living there within a few weeks--and +forgetting all your old friends!" + +Sallie did not sleep much that night. Her brain was far too busy. She +could scarcely believe that less than a week had elapsed since she had +stepped ashore from the _Olive Branch_. + +Nor could she yet reconcile herself to the fact that her new life must +lie amid such scenes as those to which Jasper Slyne had so far +introduced her. She had liked Monte Carlo, and Paris, and London as any +girl might. The great house in Grosvenor Square she had mistaken for an +hotel. But the calmly arrogant grandeur of Justicehall had merely +oppressed her. And the idea that she might have to live there did not +please her at all. For how could she, a creature of the free air, of +sunshine and wind and sea and the world's waste places, be happy immured +within that immense edifice, encircled by servants, hemmed in on every +side by unaccustomed conventionalities, all as distasteful as new to +her. She made up her mind, there and then, that, if she might have any +say on that subject, Justicehall should stay empty. + +But--would she have any say on that subject, or any other? She did not +know. Jasper Slyne had so far told her only so much as he thought fit of +what was before her. She lay quite still in her narrow berth, gazing out +at the window whose blind she had bidden Ambrizette loose from the +catch, a hundred puzzled, helpless questions thronging through her head, +till the moon failed her and all was darkness but for the flashes of red +or green or yellow light that swept past as the train sped through some +wayside station or sleeping town. + +Then she too fell asleep at last, and so forgot her difficulties till +she awoke again in a new and most wonderful world; a world of gaunt, +grey mountains and wide dark moors, white tumbling torrents on +hillsides, in deep ravines, forests of stately fir and pine that looked +like the masts of ships; a world, moreover, which seemed in some sense +familiar and friendly to her. + +Day was breaking and Ambrizette was already astir. She had come quietly +in and closed the curtains during the night, and was now once more +looping them back to let in the first of the sun. Sallie lay for a +little longer watching the sunrise warm those enchanted solitudes into a +golden semblance of fairy-land. + +There was snow on the near mountain-tops that turned from the tint of +pigeon-blood rubies to pink, from pink to amber, and so to the purest +white. The train was travelling through an extensive plantation of +silver birches, amid which a lordly stag, paralysed by its swift +approach, stood starkly at bay with a timid hind at its heels. A myriad +rabbits were diving madly into the bracken on every side. Above in the +blue a belated wild-goose was winging its hasty way to some warmer +clime; for there was something more than a hint of hard, black frost in +the morning air. + +Another station swept past, a trim little place with some picturesque +cottages perched on the high ground about it. A marvellous vista of +water, a long, winding lake in the midst of the mountains, was visible +for a few moments, and then Ambrizette brought in tea. + +Twenty minutes later, Sallie was up and dressed for the day, in a +short-skirted shooting-suit of Harris tweed, heather-proof stockings and +smart ankle-boots. When Slyne knocked and she went out to speak to him, +he stood for a moment gazing at her with unbounded gratification, and +then, "Gad! Sallie," said he, holding out his hand. "You're her ladyship +to the life now. You'll certainly look your part at Loquhariot." + +She smiled back at him. He was scarcely less trig than herself in his +knickerbockers and Norfolk jacket. + +"I hope--It isn't a place like Justicehall, is it, Jasper?" she asked +anxiously. + +He raised his eyebrows, and laughed, a little surprised. + +"Why, scarcely," said he, "from what Jobling tells me. But--didn't you +like the look of Justicehall? Well, I hope you won't actually despise +Loquhariot, Sallie. 'Be it never so humble,' you know--" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE MAN IN POSSESSION + + +"Is _that_ Loquhariot!" asked Sallie. + +The weatherly little steamer on which she had been travelling along that +wonderful coast since leaving the train had just rounded a high, bluff +headland and all at once opened out the wide waters of Loch Jura, +mirror-like in the still afternoon among the frowning mountains about +them. Mr. Jobling and Slyne were with her on the bridge. Captain Dove +strolled up at that moment, his hands in his pockets, his soft felt hat +on the back of his head, a cigar cocked between his teeth at an equally +rakish angle. Sallie was staring straight ahead, with wide, apprehensive +eyes. + +"Is _that_ Loquhariot!" she asked again, almost in a whisper, as she +gazed helplessly at the high battlements of the ancient stronghold which +looks from its lofty promontory down the whole length of the loch, +unchanged in its seaward face since the date of its building. Even +Captain Dove was impressed by the picture it made. + +"That's your Castle of Loquhariot, Lady Josceline," Mr. Jobling at +length replied, and went on to tell her its history, learned from the +guide-book and locally when he had been there before. + +The Castle of Loquhariot dates back to the sixteenth century. But for +long ere that, a squat, four-square fortalice had occupied its site. +Legend has it that the grim, grey keep which to-day covers the whole +surface of what was then a high rocky island but is now a mere peninsula +of the mainland, was first conceived in the mind of the then Lord Jura, +a plain Scots baron of piratical tendencies, who had brought back from +the Spanish Main--whither he had sailed in the company of another of the +same kidney as himself, one Francis Drake--a veritable shipload of +doubloons and pieces-of-eight; and that its ramparts had first been +armed and manned, in haste, when the remains of the Great Armada came +drifting southward from Cape Wrath on its hapless way home to Spain, +after that same Francis Drake had done with it. + +To-day, at any rate, may be seen in more than one of the embrasures on +those ramparts, some culverin or falconet salved from the wreck of a +great galleon which went to pieces on the Small Isles, at the mouth of +the loch. And in a little graveyard on the smallest of the Small Isles +stands a weather-beaten stone which says that round about it lie buried +the bones of a great mort of Spaniards there interred by their sworn +enemies in August, A. D. 1588. + +It must undoubtedly have cost at least a shipload of doubloons to build +the castle. But the then baron did not build it all, for there are +towers and wings and bastions added, on the landward side, during the +next two centuries; whose cost would seem to show that his piratical +lordship did not leave his descendants quite penniless. The circular +North Keep alone--where the billiard-room is nowadays--must undoubtedly +have cost its imaginative progenitor a small fortune. + +The whole edifice, as it now stands, is a monument, apparently +imperishable, to the greatness and grandeur, past, present, and to +come, of the Jura family. And Sallie, staring at it with wide, +apprehensive eyes, from the bridge of the busy little coaster, listening +to Mr. Jobling's descriptive quotations, with Captain Dove of the _Olive +Branch_, and Jasper Slyne for company, felt infinitely dispirited by the +knowledge that she and none other was the present representative of that +proud race. + +The steamer drew in toward the anchorage and a ferryboat put off from +the shore to meet it. The kilted Highlandmen therein looked askance at +Ambrizette and crossed themselves quite openly as she was handed down +into it from the gangway. Slyne followed and held out his arms to +Sallie, but she needed no such assistance. And the men in the boat +seemed better content after a glance or two at her as she sat down and +slipped a warm arm around Ambrizette, who was shivering in the winter +afternoon. + +The two remaining travellers jumped in, the baggage was transshipped, +and the steamer swung about on her way to the farther north. The captain +sounded his steam-whistle and waved his cap in parting salute as the +ferry made its slow way ashore to the further accompaniment of a +dirge-like chorus from the crew at its heavy sweeps; at which music +Captain Dove snorted his disgust very audibly. He had awoke with a +headache and had been in a bad temper all day. + +By the way Slyne held a low-toned conversation with Mr. Jobling. And +when the big boat was at length beached beside a rude pier, he paid the +ferryman liberally, distributed some small change among the oarsmen, and +bade them bring the baggage along to the little inn on the roadside at a +short distance. + +"Better send Ambrizette with me," he said to Sallie, and the black +dwarf trotted off after him in obedience to a few words from her +mistress, while Mr. Jobling turned the other way, toward the Castle. + +"We'll just have time to see over the old place before it's dark, Lady +Josceline," the lawyer explained, and Sallie followed him with Captain +Dove. + +Slyne rejoined them before they were half-way up the long hill on the +road which leads from the shore-level to the plateau. Sallie was still +staring with troubled eyes at the huge, picturesque, rambling pile which +seemed to grow always more immense as they drew nearer to it. It dwarfed +into proportions almost infinitesimal the cluster of white cottages +nestling cosily at the base of the great rock which formed its +foundation. It seemed to dominate the whole visible world, to challenge +even the mighty mountains which shut it in with the sea. + +"That's the water-gate," Mr. Jobling mentioned and pointed out a black, +oblong opening in the cliff-face at some height above even high-water +mark and protected against possible intrusion by a heavy iron grating +whose bars must have been as thick as a grown man's wrist. "I suppose +the sea would be right up to its sill when the place was built. + +"There's an underground passage connecting it with the interior of the +castle, and they'd no doubt use that a good deal in the old days. + +"And this is the North Keep, as it's called; newer, you'll maybe notice, +than the west frontage, although it looks just as ancient. We'll soon +have the Jura house-flag afloat again from the Warder's Tower, Lady +Josceline, and the beacon-fire alight after dark. It always burns at +night, you know, when the head of the family's in residence--a custom +dating back to the days when there were no other lights on the coast. + +"You'll see the moat now. Long ago it was always full, even at low tide. +But now it's as dry as--" + +"As I am!" grumbled Captain Dove, spitting down into the deep fosse +which had formerly cut the castle off from the mainland but is now no +more than an empty ravine spanned by an ornate drawbridge of modern +date. + +They crossed that, their footsteps producing an eerie clank on the +planking, and came to a halt before the main entrance, over whose heavy, +iron-studded oak doors still hung, a mute reminder of more stormy times, +a massive portcullis armed with _chevaux-de-frise_ of long, pointed +spikes. + +Slyne rang the electric door-bell. + +It was some time before that summons was answered, but no one of the +waiting group seemed to have anything to say to the others during the +interval. The mystery of time itself was in the atmosphere. Some +brooding spirit of the past might have been peering out at them from the +watchman's wicket in the bartizan above. They stood still and silent +until, at last, the postern in the big double-doorway was unlatched from +within and a grey-haired, elderly woman with a hard-featured face, much +lined and seamed, in the stiffly rustling garb of a superior servant, +appeared in the narrow opening and dropped them an old-fashioned curtsy +after a quick, shrewd glance at them. + +"If it isn't too late, we'd like to be allowed to look over the castle," +Slyne said politely raising his cap. + +The woman was gazing intently at Sallie. She started as Mr. Jobling +coughed, with intention, after they had waited a second or two for an +answer. + +"You will be very welcome, sirs," she said hastily. "I have authority to +admit visitors. Will you be pleased to step in." + +She looked long and very closely at Sallie again as the girl crossed the +threshold; and then at the others in turn as they entered, one at a +time, by the narrow postern. She closed it behind them, and led the way +through a low, arched passage into a dimly lighted but spacious hall. + +"We've just passed through the walls," Mr. Jobling informed them +patronisingly, of his superior knowledge. "They're twelve feet thick on +this front. Loquhariot would still be a hard nut to crack, eh?" + +"I'd sooner crack a bottle than a nut," commented Captain Dove aside to +Slyne, who frowned reprovingly at him. + +The great hall they entered next could almost have housed a regiment. +But it, like the guard-room through which they had come, was peopled +only in dusky corners by fearsomely lifelike suits of armour. Its empty +fireplaces made it seem still more desolate and deserted. War-worn flags +hung from the gallery overhead, to which a wide stairway with many +shallow steps gave access. Dead and gone Justices and St. Justs and +Juras looked coldly down, from out of dark, tarnished frames, at the +whispering intruders. + +"You're Mrs. M'Kissock, aren't you?" Mr. Jobling remarked with affable +condescension as they followed that hard-featured personage into a +seemingly endless passage lined and hung with heads and horns and other +trophies of the chase from all parts of the world. + +She glanced sharply round at him again and bowed in silent assent. + +"I've been here before, you know," he mentioned as she ushered the +little party into the first of an extensive suite of rooms at the far +end of the corridor they had traversed. Sallie could scarcely repress +the exclamation of pleasure that rose to her lips; for the rooms, all +opening into each other and with the doors wide, stretched across the +entire breadth of the building, so that their furthest windows looked +straight out to sea. There was nothing between them and the wide +Atlantic but a cluster of miniature islets, emerald-green, at the +distant mouth of the loch. + +"This was her late ladyship's favourite suite," said Mrs. M'Kissock +precisely. "The outermost room was her boudoir once. But his lordship +had that altered--afterwards." + +Sallie listened like one in a dream. She could scarcely believe that +these had once been her own mother's rooms, that this gaunt, austere +serving-woman was stating matters of fact in that dry, lifeless voice of +hers. She longed to get Mrs. M'Kissock alone and question her +about--everything. But she had been warned by both Mr. Jobling and +Jasper Slyne that she must contain every symptom of curiosity till they +could grant her permission to speak for herself. + +She passed, with a little, impatient sigh, from one range of rooms to +another, each with its own tag of story or history duly related by Mrs. +M'Kissock, until they reached the great hall again from a further +passage, and very glad of her expert guidance through such a maze. + +From there the housekeeper took them, by way of the central staircase +and gallery up a steep corkscrew stair in a turret to the top of what +had been the main tower before the North Keep had been built, and out on +to the battlements, where the Spanish guns still stand guard, among a +multitude of other obsolete pieces, including a carronade or two from +the ancient foundry at Falkirk, over the equally futile suits of mail in +the halls below. + +She offered to show them the dungeons and torture-chamber and oubliette, +on the way to the water-gate, but Mr. Jobling declared that it was too +late by then to go underground that day, and she led them instead along +the north corridor, through the late earl's private study and library +and smoking-room, through a dozen other equally superfluous apartments, +till they regained the corridor at the end where an open doorway led +through into the spacious circular hall at the base of the North Keep. + +"This part of the castle is private, sir," Mrs. M'Kissock informed Mr. +Jobling, who had already stepped in. + +"I'd like my friends to see the sunset from the Warder's Tower," he +returned, "if you don't mind. We won't disturb anyone on our way +upstairs." + +Mrs. M'Kissock still looked uncertain, but Slyne had already followed +the lawyer's lead and Captain Dove was calmly pushing past her. She +glanced at Sallie again, and then bowed her also in. And they all +proceeded quietly up the carpeted winding staircase, past several +landings, the doors of which were closed. + +But the door at the turret-top was wide, and Mrs. M'Kissock was +obviously a good deal disturbed in her mind as Mr. Jobling stepped to +one side and politely gave Sallie precedence out into the open air. + +Sallie smiled careless thanks for the courtesy and was still smiling +when she emerged from the low doorway and stopped just beyond its +threshold, so that Mr. Jobling and the others behind her had to wait +patiently where they were while she gazed, enraptured and forgetful of +all else, at the scene before her. + +The sun was setting, blood-red, over the far sea-rim, and there was no +least cloud in the radiant sky. The clear-cut mountains on either hand, +the still loch and the broad Atlantic beyond it were all aglow with a +marvellous, mystic light; the little cottages on the shore, three +hundred sheer feet below her, were crimson instead of white; the very +smoke which came from their chimneys seemed somehow ethereal and unreal. + +She stood alone for a moment or two in a world transformed, till the +quick, keen, exquisite pleasure of it brought a mist to her eyes that +blurred it all, and, as she raised a hand to brush that away, she +suddenly realized that she was not alone. There was a young man leaning +over an embrasure at one corner of the battlements, who had been gazing, +like her, at the sunset till she had come forth. + +He was gazing at her now, and with even more admiration, however +unconscious, than he had been bestowing on the beauties of nature +inanimate; for the waning light had transfigured her sweet, sensitive +features also, and into a semblance such as one might imagine an angel +would wear. + +Her eyes met his, and they two stood regarding each other so for the +space of five fateful seconds. She had recognised him at once, but it +was apparent that he did not yet know who she was. + +He came forward then, limping a little, and bowed, bareheaded, to her; a +sufficiently self-confident youth, straight and limber, good-looking +enough, with smiling grey eyes and a mobile mouth, somewhat wistful at +that moment in spite of his eyes. + +"I'm sorry if I'm in the way," he said pleasantly. "Won't you come out +and look round? The view all about is beyond any words of mine--and +you're only seeing part of it there." + +He hesitated slightly, regarding her with a very puzzled expression, +before plunging further, and then, "I'm Justin Carthew," he continued, +since she made no move at all, "although my lawyers would have me +believe that I'm the ninth Earl of Jura now!" He laughed aloud, as if +that idea were amusing. "In any case," he concluded naively, "the sunset +doesn't belong to me." + +She stepped out into the afterglow, still without a word, her mind full +of vague misgivings. And, as Mr. Jobling followed her from the doorway, +with Slyne and Captain Dove at his heels, and Mrs. M'Kissock, nervously +fumbling with her chatelaine, last of all, Justin Carthew drew back a +couple of paces. + +"Your lawyers have misinformed you, Mr. Carthew," said Mr. Jobling in +his most dogmatic manner. "You are no more the ninth Earl of Jura than I +am, because--Let me introduce you--more formally!--to Lady Josceline +Justice, the late earl's daughter, on whose property you are trespassing +here." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LOSER + + +Justin Carthew was standing as if thunderstruck by these extraordinary +statements. His incredulous glance shifted from the stout stranger of +the tinted eye and the inimical stare to the others of the little group +regarding him, until it met Sallie's again, and they two looked blankly +into each other's eyes while Mr. Jobling proceeded to introduce himself +as her ladyship's legal adviser, and stated briefly the grounds on which +his dogmatic assertion was based. + +To Carthew, the lawyer's voice seemed to come from very far away, but +none the less intelligibly, as he himself stood gazing at the girl to +whom he owed his life, whom he had last seen late at night among the +shadows on the deck of the _Olive Branch_ in Genoa harbour. At first +sight it had seemed so utterly impossible that it could be she who had +stepped out on to the Warder's Tower of Loquhariot that he had supposed +the sun in his eyes and a striking resemblance must have combined to +delude him. + +But--he knew now that it was really she. And as Mr. Jobling, concluding +his homily, mentioned again who she claimed to be, he was dazedly +thankful that he had not at once contradicted her lawyer; as he might +have done--since he knew as a matter of fact that the real Lady +Josceline Justice was dead. + +Mr. Jobling had also repeated that Mr. Carthew was trespassing there. +But at that Sallie turned on her legal adviser in generous indignation, +and he shrank into the background again as she spoke. + +"If this is _my_ property, as you say it is," she flashed, "what right +have _you_ to tell any visitor that he is trespassing here! And if Mr. +Carthew has been misinformed--" + +"He isn't a visitor, Sallie. He's the man in possession at present," +whispered the smartly-dressed young-old man who had been studying +Carthew with a most supercilious expression, "and you'd better leave Mr. +Jobling to deal with him." He was obviously not at all pleased with her, +and his whisper was perfectly audible. + +The girl had stopped to listen to him. "We're evidently the trespassers, +then," she finished. "_We_ have no business here at all while he remains +in possession." + +The other man of the party, a white-haired old fellow in clerical garb +and wearing a pair of smoked glasses, also turned angrily toward her. +But at that moment Mrs. M'Kissock came stumbling forward between them, +with a little broken cry, all her habitual self-restraint vanished, her +harsh features working, very near tears; and, lifting a hand of the +girl's in both of her own to her lips, fondled it foolishly, muttering +disconnected phrases. + +"I knew--_I_ knew it from the first," she mumbled, "and yet--I did not +dare believe my own eyes. But now--God bless your bonny ladyship! And +God be thanked for that you have at last come back to your own! +Loquhariot has waited very long for this late day, and-- + +"Say ye now there's a _man_ in possession!" she spoke up, glancing +defiance at the individual in the Norfolk suit and then, though with +less of disfavour, at Justin Carthew. "Say ye so?--and to me, who have +kept the keys of the empty Castle of Loquhariot for her ladyship here, +ever since the Red Earl her father laid that trust on me from his +death-bed! + +"You have been ill-informed. There is _no_ man in possession here." + +Carthew was staring at her as if he were altogether at his wits' end. He +almost doubted the evidence of his own ears. Had he not known as a +matter of fact that Lady Josceline Justice was _dead_, old Janet +M'Kissock's spontaneous championship of this pretender would almost have +convinced him to the contrary. He could feel sure of only one further +fact, which was that Sallie herself had been tricked into her impostor's +part. + +However, he had no time just then to come to any further conclusion. He +had to decide at once what he should do to safeguard her, and did so, +recalling only the debt he owed her. + +"There _has_ evidently been some mistake," said he, looking levelly into +her troubled eyes. "I hope you won't hold me to blame for that. And, +believe me, I'm very glad that you have come to Loquhariot." + +He could say no more than that at the moment. He bowed to her, and, +turning into the turret doorway, limped off downstairs. He wanted to be +alone for a little. He wanted time to think. He felt absolutely stunned. + +Mrs. M'Kissock, no less perturbed, her cap all awry, followed him down +the winding stairway as far as the door of the rooms he had only +occupied for a day or two. + +"I'm going to remove to the inn," he said, in answer to her agitated +excuses and explanations. "It will be better so in the meantime. Will +you tell one of the men to take my baggage there for me, please?" + +He did not deem it advisable just then to ask her any question or make +any comment at all. And within another minute or two he had passed out +of the postern, surrendering the Castle of Loquhariot, for the time +being, to one who had no claim or title to it. + +But, as he stopped beyond the drawbridge to light the pipe he had +mechanically pulled out, he pursed up his lips as though to whistle. +And, "What proof can _I_ produce!" he exclaimed, moving on again with +the cold pipe between his teeth, his head bent, perplexed to the last +degree. + +The walk through the darkling woods to the village and the cold, clean +air cleared his wits a little. He found Ambrizette huddled over the fire +in the best room at the Jura Arms, and, having bespoken supper and a bed +for himself, went on along the shore road to think things out, if he +could. + +Only half an hour before, he had been congratulating himself on the fact +that his troubles were nearing an end. And now-- + +"It's been nothing but trouble ever since I first saw that damned +advertisement," he remarked to himself, recalling step after painful +step of the way he had travelled to where he was. + +A few months before he had seen and answered an anxious advertisement in +an American paper for any surviving relative, no matter how distant, of +the Jura family, he had invested all of his scarce capital in a +cattle-run in Texas which seemed to promise to pay quick profits. And, +in spite of all that the English lawyers who had replied to his letter +could say to tempt him, he had remained quite firm in his wise +resolution to stay there and reap those profits before crossing the +Atlantic in pursuit of his further fortune; until a smart junior partner +of theirs had paid him a flying visit at the ranch, and proved to him +how foolishly he was acting against his own interests. + +For it seemed, after due investigation and proof positive of his distant +kinship with the family, that there could be only one life between him +and the title of Earl of Jura, with all that pertained thereto--a life +which even the very conservative English Court of Chancery was by then +disposed to presume extinct. + +The astute young lawyer had told Carthew all the facts which his firm +had managed to ferret out concerning the late countess's disappearance +and death. It seemed, humanly speaking, impossible that her child could +have survived her. Justin Carthew had thought it all over and an +accident had settled the question for him. His pony came down with him +one day and he was badly trampled by the steers he had been heading. His +doctor sentenced him to six months' rest--out of the saddle. As soon as +he was able to move he raised a mortgage on the ranch and made for +London. That mortgage was almost due by now, and his expected profit on +the run had faded into a stiff loss during his absence. + +Messrs. Bolder & Bolder, the lawyers aforesaid, had made it clear to him +from the first that, while they had the utmost faith in the outcome of +their exertions on his behalf, they could not see their way to place +their services and special knowledge at his disposal except on a +spot-cash basis; that, in short, he must provide in advance the money to +foot their bill. He had done so, and they, in return, had not failed to +implement all their promises. Even now he could not feel that they had +dealt unfairly by him. + +And the balance of his bank account had been eaten up by his expedition +to Africa in search of more authentic record of the ex-dancer countess's +death and as to the fate of her child. He had taken that somewhat rash +step, too, of his own free will and for his own personal satisfaction. +He was personally aware now that both the countess and her daughter were +dead; but--he could bring forward no proof at all of that fact, and, as +Bolder & Bolder had politely pointed out to him, his personal testimony +alone was that of an interested party and worthless to them or anyone +else. + +He had suffered sorely, both body and mind, since he and his party had +been betrayed into El Farish's hands by an Arab guide. And now-- + +He was a penniless peer of the United Kingdom, with every prospect of +being unable to maintain those rights which he knew were his, an +impecunious citizen of the United States, with a foreclosure threatening +him there. The result of all his own efforts so far was failure. + +And yet, he felt that he ought to be thankful that he had come through +alive. "A living dog is better than a dead lion," he told himself. +"And--I owe that girl my life. But for her, I'd be--" He shrugged his +shoulders. It was not pleasant, there in the dark, to recall that hole +in the sand on the African coast which he had only escaped by a +hairbreadth, thanks to her. + +"I wouldn't be here at all," he reflected. "And that fat lawyer of hers +would see her settled into my place without any fuss. He said, in fact, +that the Chancery Court had practically admitted her claim to it +already. + +"And now--_how_ am I to get up and swear she's a fraud! How am I to +repay all I owe her--by fighting her for another man's leavings!" + +He halted, to fill his pipe, and found it full. He lighted it, and +turned back toward the inn. It had just recurred to him that, even if he +were disposed to fight her for his inheritance, there were very strong +financial reasons as well as merely sentimental ones against that +course. He was already in Bolder & Bolder's debt. He had had to apply to +them by wire for his fare to London from Genoa. They had further +defrayed the Court costs of that order of access to the archives of +Loquhariot which Mr. Justice Gaunt had recently made in his favour, and +had furnished him with a few pounds for subsequent expenses. + +But they had taken the opportunity to mention, always politely, that +they could go no farther than that beyond the terms of their original +bargain: and that the next advance of cash must come from him to them. + +In a word, he could not afford to fight either her or anyone else just +then. And he had a very strong impression that the fat lawyer who had +interposed between him and the girl would put up a protracted, expensive +battle on her behalf. + +"But some day I'll have a couple of rounds with _him_," Carthew promised +himself. "Just at the moment--my hands are tied. And, what's more, the +Courts are closed." + +He sighed. + +"I can't hurt her, in any case," he declared conclusively to the night. +"I'm not much of a judge of girls, but--she's-- + +"I must just wait and see," he said to himself. "I'm helpless. And--I'm +hers, anyhow, as I told her in Genoa. A promise is a promise, no matter +what its keeping costs." + +He looked up at the black bulk of the castle in the distance. Its +numberless narrow windows were all aglow, and in a cresset on one tower +a fire was burning brightly. + +"She's taken possession all right," he cogitated. "But probably she +doesn't even know that the beacon's been kindled." + +As he limped through the village again, he could not but notice the +unusual stir in its long single street. At every cottage door there was +a whispering group staring up at the Warder's Tower. The sound of oars +in haste reached his ears from across the loch. And he was aware of many +inquisitive glances directed at him as he passed. + +His simple supper was awaiting him in the best room of the little inn. +The black dwarf had been sent for from the castle, the outwardly stolid +and incurious maid-of-all-work informed him. He sat down by the fire, +content for the moment as he recalled the glamour of the afterglow from +the west and Sallie's grave glance. + +He thought of nothing else throughout his meal, and afterwards, puffing +at a cigar in the lamp-lit porch with a plaid about him to keep the cold +out, could scarcely bring himself to consider his own precarious +situation again. When he at last applied his mind to that he was +somewhat dispirited. + +He had only a few shillings left in his purse, and could not afford to +stay where he was for more than a day or two. He was a stranger in a +strange land, a land in which, as he had learned already, men in their +prime had to compete keenly for work which might bring them in no more +than four or five dollars a week: a very unpromising land in which to be +left with empty pockets. + +"Perhaps old Herries will give me a week or two's work at something or +other about the estate," he communed with himself. "But, then,--that +bloated lawyer would probably interfere; and, while I lie low, Herries +will be under his thumb to a great extent. He's under the weather too, +poor old chap!" + +He was still shaking his head disconsolately when his cogitations were +cut short by the sound of clattering hoofs and the hurried arrival of +one on horseback, who galloped up to the Jura Arms and slipped like a +sack from his saddle, and swayed and staggered while his blown steed +looked inquiringly round at him, till Justin Carthew slipped an arm +about him and would have led him indoors. + +"What are _you_ doing here, Mr. Herries?" Carthew demanded, amazed. "You +should be at home in bed, and--" + +"The beacon?" gasped the new-comer, a haggard, sick-looking old man with +a long white beard, almost spent, but none the less resolute not to +enter the inn. + +"It seems that Lady Josceline Justice has just arrived at the castle," +Carthew informed him concisely, after a moment of hesitation. + +"Lady--Josceline--Justice!" the other repeated dazedly, but with evident +disbelief. "Did you say--Lady Josceline Justice! You're surely joking, +Mr. Carthew--although it would be no joke for you if her ladyship had +come back to life." + +"I'm not joking," Carthew assured him. + +"But--how can it be!" the other demanded. "I can't conceive--Have you +seen her yourself?" + +"Yes, I've seen her," declared Carthew. He could not have answered +otherwise without betraying Sallie. + +"But come away in. You must get between the blankets again at once," he +insisted firmly. "A five-mile gallop on a night like this is quite +enough to finish you. And there will be time enough in the morning--to +pay her ladyship a call." + +"I've been factor of Loquhariot these five and thirty years--and it +would ill become me to be abed at such a moment. I'm going up now," the +sick man asserted stubbornly. "I'm responsible for all that goes on +here, as you know very well, Mr. Carthew--and I've had no news at all of +this. I can't understand--And yet--it must indeed be her ladyship, as +you say, since Janet M'Kissock--" + +He caught at his horse's bridle again and tried to clamber into the +saddle. + +A group of whispering villagers had gathered about the inn door, and +they joined Carthew in his well-meant remonstrances. But the anxious +steward of the estate was not to be gainsaid by anyone. + +"If the Lady Josceline Justice has come back to her own at last," he +declared, shivering, "it is my undoubted duty to be on hand. And what +matters else? Get the pipes out, lads, and gather together. Shall it be +said of us that her ladyship lacked a true Highland welcome home?" + +Carthew, seeing him so set in his purpose and not knowing how to prevent +him except, perhaps, at Sallie's expense, saw nothing for it but to let +events shape themselves. He brought the old man a little brandy, which +served to steady him somewhat, so that he sat in his saddle none so limp +at the head of the muster formed at his bidding. And Carthew walked up +the hill by his side, partly to help him, and partly in hope of another +glimpse of the girl who had surely bewitched himself. + +At his heels tramped three stalwart pipers, and the still, star-lit +night rang again to the shrill strains of the march they struck up; +while close behind, keeping step to its lilt, came a couple of hundred +or so of the villagers and their visitors from mountain and glen and +shore. Blazing pine-knots served for torches and lighted the way well, +until they at length reached the landward front of the castle, where the +sick man marshalled them in a wide, crimson half-moon about the +drawbridge, while Carthew held his horse for him at one side. + +The postern-door opened noiselessly and Janet M'Kissock looked out from +within. Herries crossed the drawbridge toward her, and, "Eh, Janet, +woman!" said he, "what's all this I hear so late? They tell me that the +Lady Josceline Justice has come to Loquhariot, and--" + +"It was because you were so ill that I didn't send word at once, Mr. +Herries," the housekeeper put in defensively as he paused. "The beacon +was fired without her ladyship's knowledge by one of her friends. I +don't--" + +"It _is_ her ladyship, then?" the factor demanded, searching her face +with his keen, anxious, fevered eyes. "Whence came she so suddenly, +Janet?" + +"It is indeed her ladyship," the old woman answered solemnly. "But--more +than that I do not know. I have had all to see to since the sun set, +and--" + +The other checked her plaint with an uplifted hand. + +"I'll hear about everything else by and by. And meantime--I've brought +some of her own folk up to offer her welcome--since it _is_ she," he +said, all his doubts evidently dispelled by Janet M'Kissock's emphatic +assurance. "Will she come out to us for a few minutes, think ye?" + +"That will she, I'm sure," answered Mrs. M'Kissock. "Her ladyship has a +heart of gold, as it were, and a very kindly way with her. I'll send in +word that her folk are here--she'll have finished dinner by now." + +She turned and left him, closing the postern behind her so that only the +red torch-light illumined the high portcullis and level drawbridge +until, presently, the massive main-doors of the castle swung slowly back +on their well-oiled hinges and in the heart of the glow from within +appeared Sallie, with that young-old man whom Justin Carthew so disliked +at her side in very correct evening clothes. But he stayed a little +behind as she stepped forward and stopped under the portcullis, the +flare of the torches full on her face, a very dazzling vision indeed. +For she also was dressed for the evening, and in a creation from Paris. + +Carthew's heart was thumping as he drew farther aside into the shadows. +She had not noticed him in his plaid, holding the old man's horse. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE WINNER + + +Even during the bewildering whirl of those days which had passed so +swiftly since she had escaped from the _Olive Branch_, Sallie had +thought very often of Justin Carthew and the strange situation in which +circumstances had all conspired to place them toward each other. + +Since she had found out what her rehabilitation, as Lady Josceline +Justice, was going to cost him, she had been very anxious to see him +again and make everything clear between him and her. But she could +scarcely disclose to the others that she had met him before. Neither +Captain Dove nor Jasper Slyne knew anything about him beyond what they +had heard from Mr. Jobling. And Mr. Jobling could or would tell her +nothing, in reply to a timid question or two she had put to him, beyond +the bare fact that she had nothing to fear from the young American's +ill-founded claim to her rightful place in the world. + +She had been very anxious to see him again. But it had startled and +confused her at first to find him, so evidently at home, on the Warder's +Tower of Loquhariot. For she could not then, before the others, say +anything at all of what was in her mind; and she was afraid that he +might unguardedly, on the spur of the moment, reveal their unavoidable +joint secret. + +She could see that he had recognised her at last and that he was no +less at a loss than herself. Mr. Jobling's gratuitous rudeness to him +vexed her very much. The old housekeeper's half-hysterical outbreak +surprised her beyond expression. And then he was gone, before she could +make up her mind that it was her own proper part to have bidden him stay +till something could have been settled. + +But when she suggested that to Slyne he pooh-poohed the idea as absurd, +and told her she ought to be very glad to have got rid of her rival so +easily. + +He himself was in high glee over that unexpected outcome of Mr. +Jobling's brusquely peremptory method with the interloper, and Captain +Dove's face wore a triumphant grin. Mr. Jobling himself seemed inclined +to be sulky with her, but the other two only laughed at his petulance. + +"We've got possession!" said Slyne exultantly, "and that's nine points +of the law, as _you_ ought to know. If she hadn't taken the fellow's +part he might have been more inclined to stand his ground. But now--up +drawbridge and down portcullis! We'll hold the fort here, till that old +Chancery Court of yours comes away with its final decision." + +Captain Dove poked the portly lawyer in the short ribs. "Buck up, old +rarebit!" he begged. "Don't look so glum. This is home, sweet home now. +Come on down below and I'll get you some sort of a bracer from that +sour-faced old Scotch hag with the keys. My mouth feels just as if it +were made of blotting-paper, too." + +"But you must go very slow yet, Dove," Slyne cautioned the elated seaman +as he turned toward the stairway. "Don't go too fast. We aren't safely +enough settled yet to--" + +Captain Dove paused to look him between the eyes with a mirthless, +meaning laugh. + +"This is my adopted daughter's castle now, Mister Slyne," said he. "When +we want any advice from you about how we're to behave in it--or anything +else--we'll let you know. D'ye see?" + +Slyne's lips parted and closed again. He had evidently thought better of +giving voice to any retort, however effective. + +"After you," he remarked politely, since Captain Dove still stood +blocking the stairway and grinning fixedly back at him. "I must send +down to the inn for Ambrizette and our baggage at once. It will soon be +quite dark." + +Sallie followed them slowly, like one in a dream, and Mr. Jobling came +last. As they reached the circular hall below, Mrs. M'Kissock, still +much perturbed, came hurrying in from the corridor. + +"Mr. Carthew has gone, my lady," she said, dropping Sallie another deep +curtsey, "and if your ladyship will be pleased to rest here for a +little, it will not be long till the West Wing is all in order. I have +only two maids to help me, with the castle empty so long, but I have +sent down to the village for more, and maybe your ladyship will +excuse--" + +Sallie went up to her and took hold of the two trembling hands clasped +tightly together against a jingling silver chatelaine. + +"Janet," she said softly, and the agitated old woman looked gratefully +up into her grave, wistful eyes, "I think you and I are going to be good +friends, Janet," she said, "because--we have both been so lonely. And I +want you not to worry yourself about anything. There's no hurry, and +we'll be quite content here till you have everything arranged as you +wish." + +"I thank you kindly, my lady," answered Mrs. M'Kissock, and curtsied +again, and was going off about her business, when Slyne signed to her to +wait a moment and drew Sallie toward the door. + +"I'll have to go into a number of matters with you," said he +condescendingly to the old housekeeper. "To save Lady Josceline trouble, +you'll get all your instructions from me." + +Mrs. M'Kissock looked mutely to her new mistress for refutation or +confirmation of his right to claim her services so; and Sallie could not +but nod as she recalled with a strange, new pang the promise she had +made in Genoa, and the lengthy document she had signed in the Hotel de +Paris. + +"This is Mr. Jasper Slyne, Janet," said she, "and--" + +"Her ladyship's future--" Slyne was about to explain the importance of +his position there when Captain Dove interposed. + +"Slyne!" he called across the hall. "If there's nothing to drink in the +house, whoever goes down to the inn for our baggage had better bring +up--" + +But Slyne had already got Mrs. M'Kissock out into the corridor. + +"I'll send something in at once. Try to keep him quiet for a little," he +said to Sallie, and she, having carefully closed the door, went back +toward the fireplace to pacify the old man. + +A few minutes later a pink-complexioned, flaxen-haired maid came +tripping demurely in, with a great silver salver on which was set such +an array of decanters that Captain Dove at once became most amiable +again. + +"And I will bring tea for your ladyship now," said the maid in her +quaint Highland accent. "It was the other gentleman that told me to +bring this first." + +"That was quite right," Sallie reassured her, and asked her name. + +"It is Mairi, my lady," the girl answered with a shy, gratified smile, +and was very soon back with a beautiful service of Sevres and a steaming +urn. + +Mr. Jobling virtuously declined Captain Dove's cordial invitation to +help himself to a decanter, and asked Sallie for a cup of weak tea. At +which the old man was still cackling discordantly when Slyne came in +again a few minutes later. + +"That's an obstinate old baggage!" said he, obviously incensed. "You +must tell her, Sal--Lady Josceline, that she's to attend to my orders +without any more back-talk." + +Captain Dove turned in his armchair before the fire. + +"That woman's my adopted daughter's housekeeper now, Mister Slyne," said +he, frowning darkly. "And I'll trouble you not to interfere in what's no +concern of yours. You're only a visitor here, you know." + +Slyne darted a black glance at him, but did not answer him otherwise. "I +told her to get your mother's rooms ready for you," he mentioned to +Sallie. "And Ambrizette will be there by the time you'll want her. + +"That fellow Carthew has gone off to the inn," he remarked to Mr. +Jobling. "I expect he'll be busy by now wiring Bolder & Bolder the +news." + +"That won't do him any good," Mr. Jobling returned. "And, even if he had +any case to go on with, there's nothing more they could do for him until +the Hilary Sittings come on--very nearly a fortnight yet. As it is, he +hasn't a leg left to stand on. You heard what old Gaunt said to her +ladyship." + +"There's no fear of anything getting into the newspapers prematurely, is +there?" asked Slyne. + +"I told Spettigrew to keep everything quiet," the lawyer answered +complacently. "And, besides, they're all full to overflowing about the +election that's coming on." + +"I wonder if anyone ever wades through all the lurid twaddle they print +at such times?" said Slyne, apparently pleased. And they two maintained +a desultory conversation, to which Sallie only listened when it now and +then veered back to matters which might affect Carthew or herself, until +a sonorous gong began to sound in the corridor. + +As its increasing thunder suddenly disturbed the cloistral quiet, +Captain Dove, comfortably settled in his armchair beside the fire with a +black clay pipe, started up in alarm and spilled the contents of the +glass in his hand. + +"What the devil are they about out there!" he ejaculated irascibly. +"I'll blow a hole through that infernal tom-tom if they don't drop it." + +"Time to dress for dinner," Slyne explained with a tolerant smile, and, +rising, rang the bell. "Our rooms will be ready by now, I expect. But +there's no hurry. All you need to change is your waistcoat." + +"Damn nonsense!" snorted Captain Dove, and reaching for a decanter, was +liberally refilling his glass when the girl Mairi answered the bell. + +"Show her ladyship to her own rooms," Slyne directed. And Sallie +followed the demure, flaxen-haired maid very eagerly. + +On her way to the West Wing she could not but notice the change which +had come over the place. A pleasant atmosphere of ordered activity +seemed to pervade the vast building. There were men as well as +women-servants busy everywhere. Light and warmth and life had put to +flight the darkness and desolation which had come down with the dusk on +its emptiness. She gave herself up for the moment to a delicious, +childish sensation of snugness and safety there. And when she at length +reached the open door of the splendid suite which, Mrs. M'Kissock had +told her, had once been her mother's, she felt that she could not, after +all, grudge the price she must pay by and by for her glimpse of home. + +Ambrizette, with rolling eyes and open mouth, had everything in +readiness for her in her dressing-room, for the hideous dwarf was indeed +a very efficient _femme de chambre_. Within half an hour Sallie had had +her bath and was dressed again, in the same frock that she had worn at +the Savoy. She patted the dumb black creature on the head before turning +away from the glass, and paused on the threshold to glance back into the +cosy, fire-lit room with eyes which had grown unaccountably dim. + +She found Mairi in the main hall, demurely flirting with one of the +footmen whom Mrs. M'Kissock had conjured up, and Mairi showed her into a +luxurious drawing-room where Slyne was standing, hands in pockets, +before a cavernous, marble-faced fireplace in which a veritable bonfire +of logs was cheerily crackling. + +His eyes lighted up as she entered. The mirrors about the walls seemed +to frame innumerable pictures of her as she crossed the slippery, +age-blackened floor toward the big bearskin rug which made an oasis +before the fire. He held out his hands to her, dumbly. And just at that +moment Mr. Jobling appeared in the doorway, trumpeting into his +handkerchief. + +Captain Dove arrived shortly after him, under convoy of a scared +housemaid who, it seemed, had found him astray in some far corner of the +castle and whom he had impressed into his service as guide. The gongs +resounded again, just in time to drown his added denunciation of the oak +floor, on which he had all but come to grief as soon as he set foot on +it. The folding-doors at one end of the long room were pulled apart and +a resonant voice announced ceremoniously that dinner was served. Slyne +offered Sallie an arm a second or two in advance of the slower Jobling, +and, as she laid a light hand on his sleeve, led her into the +banquet-hall. + +"I told them we'd dine here to-night, although there are lots of more +modern rooms," he mentioned to her, and frowned in helpless annoyance as +Captain Dove, following, gave vent to a very audible whistle. + +A butler and four tall footmen, all in tartan kilts and full-dress +doublets, were at their places about a table resplendent with silver +displayed with old-fashioned profusion. Rare crystal and fine foreign +glassware flashed and sparkled under the shaded lights standing on +damask like snow, to which hot-house fruit and flowers added an +exquisite note of colour. In the dim background, barely visible in the +faint firelight, hung faded tapestries with, here and there, some +portrait or pair of horns. There seemed to be a small gallery at the +farther end of the hall. The unceiled rafters overhead were also almost +in darkness. + +Sallie, glancing about her with eager, delighted eyes, paused on the way +to the table to peer through a pane of plate-glass let into the +panelling over one mantel. + +"That's the famous Fairy Horn, Lady Josceline," said Mr. Jobling +officiously. "But--you haven't heard the old Jura legend yet, I +suppose?" He coughed in his most important manner. + +"Well,--the Fairy Horn is said to have been presented to one of your +ancestors a very long time ago by the White Lady--the family ghost; +every real old Scots family, you know, has a private ghost of its own. +And the horn carried with it the privilege, to him or any succeeding +chief of the clan, of summoning the White Lady, on three occasions, to +fulfil any wish so urgent as to be worth the price of her help. For, +every time she does show up, the head of the family dies. So that--the +Fairy Horn has only been sounded twice, I've been told, during the +centuries which have passed since then; and--on each occasion the wish +expressed has been duly fulfilled, at the price of the chieftain's +life." + +Captain Dove turned restlessly in the chair on which he had scarcely sat +down. Sallie knew that he was intensely superstitious, as so many seamen +are, and that that shadowed hall would be the last place in which he +would be willing to hear ghost-stories. + +"Huh!" said he, irritably. "I don't believe a word of it, anyhow. What +are we waiting for now? Gimme some soup, or something, you!" + +He was still scowling over his shoulder at a surprised servant when, in +an instant, there rose from behind the tapestry in a dark corner a low, +moaning wail which swelled and sank and swelled again to a bitter, +blood-curdling shriek. Captain Dove's face blanched as he pushed his +chair from under him and sprang to his feet, armed with the nearest +available weapon, a table-knife. The servant behind him had stepped +back, in obvious alarm. + +A man came striding out of the dusk in the distant corner, and, as he +marched proudly up the room, the blare of the bagpipes over his shoulder +seemed to make the very rafters ring. Twice he encircled the table, and +then passed out of sight by the farther door. + +Captain Dove had sat down again, grinding his teeth audibly. To cover +his confusion, Sallie turned to the butler behind her chair, and, "What +tune was that?" she asked, pleasantly. + +Her face flushed as the Highlandman answered, in careful English, "It +will be none other than the _Welcome to Jura_ that your ladyship's +head-piper would play this night." + +She would have been even happier in her wonderful new home if she had +not thought of Justin Carthew again at that moment, and of the +difference her coming had made to him. She wished that she had been able +to tell him at once, on the Warder's Tower, what was once more in her +mind as she looked lovingly round the banquet-hall of Loquhariot--from +which she had ousted him. She could not forget how gallantly he had +faced fate at every turn, always making little of his own share in the +tragic happenings which had involved them both. + +She felt that she could not rest until she had set herself right with +him, and made up her mind that as soon as dinner was over, she would ask +Mairi or Mrs. M'Kissock to send a message down to the inn for her. + +But dinner, under such conditions, was a long business. And, although +both Mr. Jobling and Jasper Slyne did their best to make the time pass +pleasantly for her, she was very glad when a message the butler brought +her gave her an excuse for leaving the table a little before she would +otherwise have got away. + +She had hoped to escape alone, but Slyne had overheard what the man had +said and accompanied her to the hall, where the old housekeeper was +awaiting her. + +"What's all this, Mrs. M'Kissock?" he asked, somewhat sharply. +"And--who's Mr. Herries?" + +"Mr. Herries is the factor in charge of the estates, sir," she answered, +"and some of her ladyship's tenantry have come up from the village with +him to offer her welcome. It was not my place to turn them away from the +door without word from her ladyship's self." + +"Oh, no," said Sallie, her eyes aglow and a sudden lump in her throat to +think that her own folk were making her welcome. "I must see them, +Janet. I must thank them--" + +Slyne frowned, but made no further demur as Mrs. M'Kissock gave orders +to open the doors. + +The glare of the torches half-blinded Sallie as she stepped out; and she +halted beneath the portcullis. But she saw an old man alone on the +drawbridge and went on alone toward him. He doffed his Highland bonnet +to her and bowed with old-fashioned deference. Then he looked her in the +face for a moment or two, very keenly, while she returned his searching +glance with happily smiling eyes which had nothing to hide from him. And +all the time the pipers in the background were blowing their best. + +He held up a trembling hand to them, and the shrill music ceased. The +sputter of the torches was the only sound that broke the stillness until +he spoke. + +"Lady Josceline Justice?" he asked, and, as Sallie nodded, still +smiling, "I am Ian Herries," he told her, "factor of Loquhariot and your +ladyship's humble servant. I had no news of your ladyship's coming or I +would have been here in time to say welcome home on behalf of your +ladyship's tenantry and myself." + +"Oh, thank you, Mr. Herries," said Sallie, in a shy and very tremulous +voice whose tone changed suddenly to one of urgent alarm. "But--you're +ill. You must come in and rest. + +"Oh, Jasper--" + +The old man had almost collapsed, but Slyne hurried forward in time to +save him from falling. + +"I'll see to Mr. Herries," said he, with a great air of sympathy, and +helped the sick man indoors. + +Sallie looked a little uncertainly after him, and then faced the +flickering torches alone again. The silent scrutiny of all the eyes +regarding her was something of an ordeal, but she went bravely on across +the drawbridge. + +She did not notice the nip in the air, but some one among the assemblage +had wrapped her about in a heavy plaid and drawn back before she could +see who it was. + +"Your ladyship will find the Jura tartan as warm as the welcome we all +wish your ladyship," said a stalwart, bearded mountaineer, who had +stepped to the front to speak for his fellows; and, as she smiled shy +but very contentedly up into his scarlet face, he bent his head above +the hand she had held out to him. + +One after another the hill-men and fisherfolk of the village filed past +her then, each with some stammered salutation, in difficult English or +guttural Gaelic. And for each she had a shy, grateful smile and a word +of thanks, until at the last came Justin Carthew and had also stooped +and kissed her hand before she could prevent him. + +He would have passed on like the others but that she, blushing hotly, +begged him to wait. For Janet M'Kissock had come to her shoulder to say +that at the Jura Arms in the village would be provided a loving-cup in +which all might drink her ladyship's health, as was proper on such an +occasion, and had brought out the big, silver-mounted hunting-quaich in +which every new Earl of Jura had pledged his people on his accession. + +The butts of the torches had been flung in a heap on the ground before +the girl, and formed a fiery pyramid between her and the waiting throng. + +She lifted up the drinking-horn, her eyes very bright, and cried at the +pitch of her clear, sweet voice a single, strangely-sounding word in the +Gaelic, that Janet M'Kissock had whispered to her once or twice. And the +sudden, thunderous roar of response that rang out in answer, as if from +a single throat, awoke wild echoes among the surrounding hills. + +"Your ladyship will come inbye now," begged Mrs. M'Kissock, as the pipes +struck up again at the head of the gathering on its way back to the +village. + +But, "Just in a minute, Janet," said Sallie, "I'm quite warm. And--you +needn't wait." + +The bonfire before her was burning low in spite of the wind which had +just begun to blow and promised to freshen. She stayed beside it, +watching, until all but Carthew were gone. And then she turned to him, +the tears very near her eyes and her starved heart almost satisfied. + +"Oh, Mr. Carthew," she said timidly, "I wanted to tell you at once how +sorry I am about--everything. I had no idea at all, when you told me on +the _Olive Branch_--" + +"Of course not," said Justin Carthew concisely. + +"And Mr. Jobling was so--abrupt; and--I didn't know what to do. Won't +you please forgive me; I had no idea--" + +"I was pretty much taken aback myself," said Justin Carthew, and laughed +a little, though not very merrily. "But--I'm all right again now. And +you mustn't worry about me, please. I'm all right, again, and--" + +"You'll wait for a little?" she interrupted, she was so eager to +reassure him. "I can't help being who I am, but--if you will only wait +for a little, everything will turn out all right for you, too." + +She could see that he was puzzled. + +"I can't explain," she went on hurriedly, afraid that he would demand +explanation. "But I want you to give me a little time, if you will. I +want you not to go away. If you will just wait--for only three +months--everything will turn out all right for you in the end." + +"But--how--" he was beginning, when she cut him short again. + +"I can't explain," she repeated. "Only--you once promised that I might +ask you to do anything I wanted. Will you not just wait here, and trust +me--for only three months? And then you'll understand." + +He looked helplessly about him. + +"I'll wait here--and trust you--all the rest of my life," he said, "if +you say so. And then I'll still be in your debt." + +"All I ask is my three months," she told him gravely. "And then--" + +He looked his utter perplexity. + +"You don't mean that you're Lady Josceline Justice only for the time +being?" he asked, his forehead wrinkled. + +"Oh, no," she answered assuredly. "I'll be Lady Josceline Justice all +my life. And--you'll keep your promise?" + +"I'll keep my promise," he affirmed. "I'll wait here and trust you for +three months--and for the rest of my life, if you say so." + +She smiled at him, very contentedly. "I'm going to be very happy here +now," she said, and looked round. She had heard Slyne's voice, calling +her. She could see him beyond the drawbridge gazing blindly out into the +darkness. + +"Good night," she said to Carthew. But she did not go in until he had +swung himself into the saddle and ridden away, always looking back. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR + + +The wind that rose during the night brought with it a change in the +weather. When the day broke and a round red sun rose from among the +mountains, it showed the whole world white--the land deep under snow and +the sea all foam. + +Slyne's first sensation when he woke and saw the storm, from behind the +double windows of his comfortable rooms in the Warder's Tower, was one +of relief, since it would surely serve to stave off inconvenient +visitors. He had been afraid that the news the beacon had blazoned the +night before would travel altogether too fast and too far to suit his +plans; it would have been awkward in the extreme to be inundated with +curious callers in a position practically carried by assault, only +tenable by stealth and while no one in active authority should challenge +it. + +The coming of Herries, the factor, had opened his eyes to that. For the +old fellow, ill as he was, had shown a most annoying inclination to +cross-question Slyne about various dry legal details; and Slyne had only +been able to put him off temporarily by promising that her ladyship's +own man of law would go into all such matters with him in the morning. + +Now, fortunately for Slyne and his friends, the factor need not be +further considered for some little time to come, if indeed at all. The +fever in him had refused to yield to any of Mrs. M'Kissock's simple +medicaments, and he was delirious. He seemed very likely, indeed, to die +unless he were very lucky. Slyne did not fail to congratulate himself on +that score also, as he sat up in bed to reach for a cigarette after his +late breakfast and contemplate the cuffs of his expensive pink silk +pajamas. + +The rest of the company in the castle he thought he could find means to +control, for the present, at any rate, although he did not +under-estimate the chances of trouble with his two disaffected +associates, who had already displayed such a lamentable tendency toward +open mutiny. But, on the whole, he felt satisfied that, if he could only +keep matters running smoothly during the days that must still elapse +before the Court of Chancery should resume its usual routine and finally +settle the Jura succession on Sallie, he would by then have managed to +make his own footing there absolutely secure. + +He snuggled back between the blankets again, with an inexpressible +sensation of comfort, and, watching the blue spirals of smoke curl +upwards from under his moustache, forgot all the anxious uncertainties +and the ever more painful pinch of the present in contemplative +anticipations of that fair future which he had so carefully planned for +himself. Not even the fact that he had almost exhausted his cash +resources could worry him when he thought of the wealth that was to be +his as soon as he should be safely married to Sallie; and until then he +could command unlimited local credit, on her behalf. + +She was Lady Josceline Justice already. She would be Countess of Jura in +her own right as soon as the Court of Chancery should admit her +identity. She would have ten millions of dollars in ready money for him +to spend and a quarter of a million for annual income. He had been a +poor man all his life, but now--he looked luxuriously out at the snow +and the storm. + +"Mr. Jasper Slyne and the Countess of Jura," he said aloud, and smiled +and curled his moustache. + +He rose by and by and betook himself to his dressing-room, whistling a +cheery tune. "And although I don't want to rush things," said he to +himself as he stepped briskly into his bath, "if either Dove or that fat +suicide makes any more fuss, I'll have to show 'em my teeth. They must +both keep to the bargains we struck. And I think I've made things pretty +safe for myself by now." + +When he at length strolled downstairs, infinitely refreshed after his +long rest, he found Mr. Jobling and Captain Dove in close conclave in +the library. And he did not like their looks in the least or their +sudden silence at sight of him. He felt certain that they had been +conspiring against him, and did not delay in commencing a +counter-attack. + +"'Morning, Dove. 'Morning, Jobling," said he casually, as he stopped to +select a cigar from the box on the table. "Change of weather, eh! You'll +have a cold journey back to London, Jobling." + +Mr. Jobling looked very coldly across at him. "I do not propose to +return to London at present, Mr. Slyne," he replied. "Mr. Spettigrew +will look after everything there." + +"You're no more use to me here," said Slyne bluntly, "and you _may_ be +of some service in London." + +"You are no longer a client of mine, Mr. Slyne," the lawyer retorted, no +doubt emboldened by the promise of Captain Dove's unswerving support. "I +can no longer act for you with any feeling of confidence--since I have +found out how unfairly you have attempted to treat Captain Dove." + +Slyne understood that open war was declared. "I won't be a client of +yours for long, if you're going to be troublesome," he affirmed. "I +think you've got a little out of your depth again, my friend. I don't +think you'll find it will pay you to take that tone." + +Mr. Jobling began to splutter, and Captain Dove evidently felt impelled +to come to his aid. + +"You take too much on yourself, Slyne," said he, eyeing that gentleman +with extreme disfavour. "You seem to think you're the whole show here, +though you're nothing but a hanger-on, as I've told you before. Let's +have a good deal less of it, or--We can get on just as well, or even +better--without you, you know." + +Slyne turned a contemptuous stare on him. "So that's the idea now, is +it!" he remarked, without any sign of heat. "You two think it's a case +of dog eat dog now, do you! And--after you've got rid of me, who picked +you both up out of the gutter, you'll be at each other's throats. You're +a great pair!" + +His nonchalance incensed the old man, as he had intended it should. + +"I want none of your damned lip," declared Captain Dove, glaring at him, +"you precious upstart! You're nothing but a beggar on horseback +yourself, for all your grand airs. Me and this other gentleman are both +sick-tired of them. You're one too many--" + +"I'm one too many for you two, at any rate; and you may both stake your +last cent on that," Slyne told him with a composure admirable under the +circumstances. "You surely don't imagine, do you, that I'm here on any +such unsafe footing as you are! I thought you knew me well enough, Dove, +to be sure that I'd leave you no opportunity to go back on your bargain +with me." + +"To hell with you and your bargains!" cried Captain Dove: and then, +restraining his rage, lowered his voice again. "The mistake you've +always made with me, Slyne, has been to take me for an old fool--as +you've very often called me to my face. You think I'm in my dotage. +But--I'm not too old to show _you_ a trick or two yet, if you and I come +to grips. And, as for being such a fool as you seem to think me--you +wait and see! I've a card or two up my sleeve, Mr. Slyne, that'll maybe +euchre your game for you, if you try to bluff too high!" + +Slyne sat back and studied the old man's face. Captain Dove had made +that same mysterious threat on board the _Olive Branch_ in Genoa, before +they had started out on their present adventure. It had disconcerted +Slyne then. It disconcerted him still more now. + +"Don't you think that you're a little inclined to overrate your +importance and--er--capacity, Mr. Slyne?" put in Mr. Jobling acidly +during the pause, involuntary on Slyne's part. "All your ideas are no +doubt based on the documents we mutually signed in Monte Carlo; and you +are probably not aware, as I am--now that I have a clearer insight into +your motives--that they amount to neither more nor less than a +conspiracy to defraud. You would be well advised, believe me, to put +them all in the fire." + +Slyne turned on him in an instant. "Now, see here, my friend! I want you +to understand, once and for all, that I've got _you_ safe where I want +you, and that, if I hear much more from you, you'll find yourself in a +very unpleasant fix. You wouldn't look well at all in a striped +suit--or I believe it's the broad-arrow pattern they supply in the +prisons here. And that's what you'll come to, believe me, unless you +walk the line I've laid down for you. You can't embezzle trust funds, +you know, and pay the interest with promises to be met as soon as you +lay your hands on some of the plunder here, without running a very +dangerous risk indeed. Why, even the car you sold me in Genoa was +another man's property--and I hold your receipt for the price I paid you +for it. + +"So shut up," he concluded sharply, and proceeded to deal with Captain +Dove as if the lawyer had not been there. + +Mr. Jobling's flaccid face had become of the colour of mottled clay. He +was respiring stertorously, through his mouth. His eyes had grown +blood-shot. His back-bone seemed to have given way. He sat huddled up, +silent, staring at Slyne with eyes full of impotent fear. + +"You talk to me about bluffing!" Slyne was saying to Captain Dove, who +also seemed to have grown suddenly apprehensive of some unforeseen +mischance. "You talk to me about bluffing, although I've played a +straight game with you from the start and stuck to our bargain even +against my own interests. Wait a minute. Listen to me--and then you can +talk till you're tired. + +"Do you want to keep your clever new friend there company in his cell? +How long do you think you'd be left at liberty if I mentioned to the +authorities that you're the same man who--" + +"Stop, now, curse you!" roared Captain Dove and so drowned the +disclosures which Slyne seemed minded to make. "And don't go too far +with me, or--" + +Slyne looked without winking into the muzzle of the revolver which the +old man had produced in an instant and levelled at him. "You talk to me +about bluffing!" he said again, and laughed, without mirth. "You'd be +better occupied, Dove, in making sure that your own bluff isn't called. +You've done your best for a week past to give yourself away to the +police, and--if you manage that in the end, you won't have me to blame, +remember. _I'm_ not the sort of yellow dog you seem to want to make +yourself out." + +He paused, to let that vitriolic criticism sink in, and to consider just +how far he might safely go. Captain Dove had laid his revolver down but +kept a hand on its butt. He was watching Slyne intently. + +"I wish you could get it into your head," the latter resumed a little +more peaceably, "that beggar-my-neighbour isn't the easiest game to play +with me. And that I've got brains enough to take care of myself. + +"If you and your cute new friend there were to be put away to-morrow, +I'd stay here safe and sound. I've nothing to fear. + +"I've kept my bargain with you both so far, and I'm quite willing to +complete it. I'm going to see, at the same time, that you keep yours +with me. You'll each get your promised share of the profits here, no +more and no less; and then--I'll be done with you. Till then--don't go +_too_ far with me," he finished warningly. + +"To hear you talk, any one would think you owned Loquhariot already!" +remarked Captain Dove. "I'd like to hear what Sallie has to say about it +all now." + +"I'll get her to tell you at once, if you like," Slyne answered evenly +and, rising, rang the bell. + +"Ask her ladyship to favour us with her company for a few minutes," he +instructed the footman who answered that summons, "or if she'd prefer to +receive us in her own room." Then he lay back in his chair again, his +wits busily at work. He could not feel quite sure himself what Sallie +would have to say about it all now; but--he meant to master her also. + +The servant, however, came back with word that her ladyship had gone +out. And at that Slyne scowled. It was at a most inopportune moment for +him that Sallie had taken a liberty of which she would not have dreamed +a few days before; and, furthermore, it did not fit in with his plans at +all to have her making such use of her new-found freedom; there was no +telling whom she might meet--there was that fellow Carthew, for +instance! + +"Which way did her ladyship go, do you know?" he called after the +footman, as casually as he could. + +"To the village, I think, sir," the man replied, and he rose, yawning, +to look discontentedly out at the wintry landscape. It was very +beautiful in the brisk morning sunshine, but also very wet underfoot. + +"I'll stroll down the road after her," he announced, "and fetch her +back. You can be packing up in the meantime, Jobling. The steamer south +sails early in the afternoon." + +He did not hesitate to leave the two conspirators alone together again; +he judged that he had succeeded in cowing them both. He even smiled to +himself on his way outdoors. + +"I thought I was done for when I met Dubois," he reflected, perfectly +self-satisfied, "but--I was really in luck. And that was a most +opportune chat I had with Mullins in London, too. I've got Jobling +fairly fixed. If I can't manage the old man--I'm a bigger fool than I +take myself for. And I've made things all right for myself with Sallie, +or I'm mistaken." + +He paused in the main hall to look appreciatively about him while a +servant was fetching his coat and cap from the cloak-room. The sun was +streaming in through the stained glass of a lofty, mullioned window, the +heart of each of whose panels showed in vivid scarlet against the light +a clenched hand holding a dagger, the Jura crest. + +"_They_ won it all that way," said Slyne to himself, and drew a deep +breath of contentment as he looked round the noble hall again. He felt +very proud of the place already, and only wished that some of his former +friends could have seen him there. + +Outside, beyond the drawbridge, he halted to look admiringly up at the +massive, ivy-clad frontage of the Main Keep, with its crenellated +ramparts and narrow fighting-windows and bartizan. Then he turned with a +high heart toward the road that runs between hazel thickets and clumps +of alder or silver birch down the long hill to the village and the +seashore. He was humming a contented tune to himself as he tramped +through the melting snow. + +He had not far to seek Sallie. Within the open doorway of the first +cottage he came to, he caught sight of her beside the peat-fire with a +laughing child on her lap and its proud mother smiling beside her. + +He walked in on them, and she looked up at him very happily as he +entered. The mother curtsied, which pleased him. So that he made himself +most agreeable to them both, and did not take Sallie away at once as he +had intended. He was quite gratified to see how graciously she filled +the part of Lady Bountiful. He wanted her to be popular among the +villagers, and meant to make himself popular as well. He was only afraid +that her ignorance of the conventions might lead her into making herself +too cheap. + +She was only a young girl yet, and he knew that her innate purity of +mind had never been sullied nor her sweet, loyal, lovable nature in any +way warped amid the strange surroundings and circumstances in which she +had lived till then. She was as happy playing with the cottager's child +as she would have been in a palace. But--the daughter of Torquil Fitz-J. +Justice, Earl of Jura and Baron St. Just of Justicehall and Loquhariot, +must not make herself too cheap, thought Slyne. And presently he +suggested to her that it was time to be going. + +She rose, a little reluctantly, and followed him; while he bowed +patronisingly to the fisherman's wife--just as he imagined a grand +gentleman would do. + +He did not demur when Sallie turned down the village street instead of +up-hill again. He was quite pleased to show himself there at her +side--and touch his cap condescendingly in response to the salutations +of all who passed. He only omitted that very casual courtesy to Justin +Carthew, standing at the door of the Inn. + +"I suppose there's no doubt that Mr. Carthew was wrongly informed by his +lawyers, Jasper?" Sallie asked him a few minutes later. + +"No doubt in the world," Slyne answered her. "He's of no account at all +now. The best thing he can do now for himself is to clear off back to +America, where he belongs. + +"And--there's another thing, my dear. Captain Dove and that fat ass +Jobling have got to go too. We'll never have any peace while they're +hanging about. But they're both inclined to be troublesome, and I want +you to back me up against them. + +"It was Captain Dove who ordered the beacon to be lighted last night. +And--Lord only knows how much annoyance that may cause us yet! In fact, +they're a pretty difficult pair to handle. So, when we get back to the +castle, I want you to tell them that you intend to keep your promise to +me; I'll be better able to manage them then, you see. + +"You haven't forgotten just what you promised me, have you?" + +"No, Jasper," answered the girl, and gazed across the wind-swept loch +with fond, despairing eyes, "I haven't forgotten. And--I'll keep my +promise, if--when the time comes." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE JURA SUCCESSION + + +Captain Dove, sucking at his black cutty-pipe in the library of +Loquhariot, looked very contemptuously at Mr. Jobling. It was +self-evident that Mr. Jobling was afraid of Slyne and feeling very sorry +for himself. + +But Captain Dove was in no such disconsolate mood. Glancing at the +despondent lawyer out of his little red-rimmed eyes, he even grinned, +still more contemptuously. _He_ was not afraid of Slyne, he told +himself, and it made no material difference to him that his recent +attempt to brow-beat that grasping scoundrel had failed, even with the +London lawyer for ally. For Captain Dove did not intend that either of +the other two should eventually get the better of him. He was playing a +waiting game, in which he meant to come out winner at any cost. + +So far as Captain Dove was concerned there were only two persons really +concerned in the question of the Jura succession. One was Sallie, the +other himself--her adopted father! + +He looked upon Mr. Jobling as a mere mechanical instrument, such as +could be replaced at a moment's notice if that were needful, now that +the legal details of the case had been carried so far toward final +success. Slyne was absolutely superfluous there and had outlived his +usefulness, in so far, at least, as Captain Dove was concerned. More +than that, he was in Captain Dove's way. So, to some extent, was Justin +Carthew, since it seemed that Sallie felt called upon to make a fool of +herself for his benefit; but Captain Dove did not anticipate any great +difficulty in dealing with him. And so was Herries, the factor, who had +so many inconvenient questions to ask--although he need scarcely be +taken into account at present while he was abed and likely to be there +for some time to come. + +With all of these, in any case, he felt quite capable of coping--except +with Jasper Slyne, who had threatened, a few moments before and in the +hearing of an attentive witness ... Slyne was undoubtedly dangerous now; +and it must be his first care to free himself for all time from the risk +of Slyne's telling.... + +"I have it," said Captain Dove, his furrowed forehead suddenly cleared +and his face contorted into a smile at sight of which Mr. Jobling was +seized with a sickly, sinking sensation. "I have it. We must keep quiet +of course, until the _Olive Branch_ turns up, but she shouldn't be very +long now, and then-- + +"I'll send for Brasse. I warned that fool Slyne to play fair with +me--but he won't. And so--since it's beggar-my-neighbour we're at, _he_ +won't be my neighbour for long." + +Mr. Jobling rose, coughing irritably. The reek from Captain Dove's foul +pipe was too much for him. + +"I'll go and pack now," he announced. "I'd never have come here at all +if I had thought--" + +"You leave things here to me, old cock," Captain Dove encouraged him. +"And go and jag your friend Spettigrew along till he gets judgment for +us. That's the most important part of the game at present. Leave things +here to me, and you'll find, when the time comes, that Slyne will have +to take a back seat." + +But the stout solicitor did not seem grateful at all for that crumb of +comfort. He merely looked at Captain Dove with equal dislike and +disbelief as he left the room. + +He left the castle immediately after lunch, to catch the steamer south, +a little less depressed, perhaps, after a few further words with Captain +Dove, who thought it only politic to inspirit him in his efforts on +Sallie's behalf. And he had not been gone very long before Captain Dove +began to miss him--as a boon-companion, a part which Slyne refused to +play any longer. So that the old man soon began to find the time hang +very heavy on his hands, and his grudge against Slyne always grew. + +Under any circumstances, he could not have been happy for long on land. +Nor could he feel altogether safe there, even in the distasteful +disguise he had adopted at Slyne's advice; and for discrediting which he +had been so repeatedly called to account by Slyne. He could scarcely but +repent having sacrificed his undisputed autocracy on the _Olive Branch_ +in order to figure as a mere puppet in Slyne's company, as he had +undoubtedly become since he had left his ship. He grew very angry indeed +with Slyne when he thought of that, as he often did during those endless +days of waiting. + +It was all Slyne's fault, he assured himself, that he was thus stranded +there; that he had not fifty cents left to bless himself with, since one +expensive evening in Paris; and that, even if he had had such a sum in +his pockets, it might have worn a hole in them before he could spend it, +in such a forsaken spot! + +Of what use to him, he inquired of himself, going off at another +tangent, could a huge, ghost-haunted pile like the Castle of Loquhariot +be? Or a great empty barrack like Justicehall?--which reminded him +unpleasantly of the Law Courts in London. How could he ever hope to +spend such an excess of wealth as was soon to be Sallie's, and, +therefore, at his disposal? A perfect nausea of money possessed Captain +Dove at such moments. He would almost have preferred the prospect of +poverty again, if only for the sake of the interest in life the struggle +to live might restore to him. + +"Enough is as good as a feast!" said he to himself every now and then +while he gazed, with gloom in his soul, at the cut-crystal decanters on +a salver of solid silver which was never far from his elbow; and, with +that wise saw on his lips, he would continue to drown his contradictory +sorrows as deeply as possible. + +But there was luckily room and to spare in the castle for all its +inmates. Slyne and he kept as much as possible out of each other's way, +although they had resumed a spasmodic outward semblance of amity, a +steadfast inward determination to get the better of one another, whether +by fair means or foul. He could scarcely seek Sallie's company now that +she knew his treacherous intentions toward her. The sick man, Herries, +was still in bed, in a sufficiently precarious state. So that he lived +very much alone with his various grievances, since his walks abroad, as +far as the Jura Arms,--where he soon became almost popular among the +occasional profligates of the village,--were not so frequent as they +would probably have been in better weather. + +A bitter east wind, bringing always more snow, had blown almost +ceaselessly for the best part of a fortnight before any change came in +the wildest weather that had befallen Loquhariot in long years. + +The mountain roads for miles in all directions were quite impassable. +The mail-cart, with its driver and horses, and also the hastily +improvised snow-plough which had attempted their rescue, lay buried deep +below the ever deepening drift into which it had plunged on its last +outward journey. The single telegraph-line that served the locality had +broken down at a dozen points which were quite unapproachable. Stress of +weather had prevented the weekly steamer from making its usual call. +Loquhariot was absolutely cut off from the outer world. + +And then, with a wet westerly wind which soon grew into a gale, the snow +on the mountains began to melt and floods made matters still worse, +swelling every unconsidered stream into a destructive torrent, cutting +wide chasms across the precipitous main-road over the Pass, under-mining +its bridges and even washing some of them away bodily. In several of the +more outlying districts sheer famine began to grow imminent. The flocks +and herds of the countryside were in still worse case than the wild deer +which had escaped from their forest sanctuaries before the first of the +snow and had been huddling about the village while it endured. + +No word had come through from Mr. Jobling in all that time. And Captain +Dove was almost beyond the end of his outworn patience before, scowling +blackly out of the library window one day when the westerly gale had all +but blown itself out, he caught sight of a shabby, sea-going, +cargo-tramp, flying the Norwegian flag, which seemed to be seeking an +anchorage behind the Small Isles at the mouth of the loch. + +It was the _Olive Branch_. He would have known her in the dark, disguise +or no disguise. + +"Uh-hum!" he exclaimed, in an ecstasy of relief. "_Now_ I can make +things move a little at last. Now we'll soon see who's who here." + +He dashed off a peremptory note to his chief engineer, put that in his +pocket, clapped his smoked spectacles on his nose and his soft felt hat +on his head, and made for the village, where he hoped to find, in the +Jura Arms, a local poacher who would undertake an errand out to the +steamer. + +He found his man at the inn, and his credit there enabled him to drive a +speedy bargain. It also helped him to pass the time contentedly enough +till the fishing-boat returned from its wet trip with word for the +public that the strange steamer had put into the loch on account of an +accident in her engine-room which would delay her there for a little, +although she would need no help from the village; and with a hasty +private note from the chief engineer for Captain Dove--to the effect +that Mr. Brasse refused to come ashore. + +"Curse him!" snarled Captain Dove as his messenger retired to the bar +again. "I suppose he's afraid of the police--though there isn't a +policeman within thirty miles, and, even if there were, it wouldn't +matter very much." And he sat down to compose another and still more +peremptory note, bidding Brasse obey his lawful commands or take the +consequences of disobedience. + +He would have put off to the steamer himself but for the obvious reasons +against that course. And, to induce his messenger to make the trip again +after dark, he had to promise the man twice as much as for the first +run, still outstanding. + +When he finally emerged from the inn, in no very pleasant temper, he +caught sight, first, of the weekly steamer already half way up the loch, +inward bound, and then of Sallie at a bend of the road in the distance, +on her way back to the castle from the village. There was some one with +her. It was Carthew. + +Captain Dove became still more incensed, and, his mind a good deal +inflamed by his recent potations, set off up the hill in pursuit of +them, breathing noisily, not even pausing to scowl at the children who +scurried indoors as he passed with the skirts of his long black coat +streaming out behind him. + +He had heard from Slyne that Herries, the factor, had formally appointed +the young American his deputy until he should be able to undertake his +own duties again. And, in spite of all Slyne and he could say to Sallie, +she had obstinately refused to assist in getting rid of Carthew. He had +heard from Slyne that Carthew was making far too many occasions for +seeing her, and when he had cautioned Sallie on that score she had shown +no disposition at all to take his advice. + +"I've warned her often enough," he muttered with steadily rising wrath, +"to quit monkeying with that fellow. And she'll get right out of hand +now, unless I let her see, once and for all, who's going to be master +here. Where would I come in if _he_ managed to get married to her! He's +got to go. That's all there is to it. I can't afford to have him hanging +about here any longer." + +The couple in front seemed to be in no hurry, however. He had almost +overtaken them before he paused at a hazel-clump to cut himself a stout +cudgel. By the time he had got that trimmed to his taste, they had +almost reached the castle. + +"I'll wait till she's gone in," said Captain Dove to himself. He had +noticed that Carthew was carrying what looked like a woodman's axe. But +that did not daunt him at all in his purpose. He lingered along the edge +of an alder-thicket until at length Sallie shook hands in very friendly +fashion with the young American and went her own way, while Carthew took +to a trail through the woods and made off at a round pace, +notwithstanding his limp, axe on shoulder, whistling blithely. + +The path he was following wound in and out among plantations of pine and +great groves of grey, leafless birches, until, at a distance of half a +mile, it found the clear edge of the cliffs overlooking the circular +inlet which forms the head of the loch, and finally faded away at the +marge of a smooth plateau of bare rock enclosed on three sides by a +thick tangle of woodland and rank undergrowth. + +Captain Dove stalked him with all precaution, stepping from stone to +stone among the wet snow which was rapidly melting, so that he might +leave no traceable footprints on the soft, spongy soil or damp, dead +leaves. And once, when Carthew halted to light a pipe, the old man, with +murder in his mind, dropped into cover behind a moss-grown boulder at +one side of the path--because that would have been a most unadvisable +spot at which to attack a man armed with an axe. Then, as Carthew moved +on, he once more took up the pursuit, through the clumps of bramble and +bracken between the dark trunks of the firs about him. + +Carthew stepped unconcernedly out of the dusk of the woods into the open +space at the end of the path, and stopped there, axe on shoulder, to +look about him. But Captain Dove did not immediately spring upon him as +he had been minded to do, for he had just observed, at a corner of the +convenient plateau, a round hut, stone-built and roofed with heather, +which might or might not be inhabited. Captain Dove wormed his way round +toward it, within the thicket. + +The windows of the hut were shuttered and its door pad-locked on the +outside. Captain Dove was delighted. He turned to squint across at +Carthew from behind a bush and judge his distance, but still delayed his +attack. + +Carthew seemed to have seen something of interest in the dark wood +behind Captain Dove, and Captain Dove looked round in instant alarm. It +would have been most unpleasant to find that he himself was being spied +upon. There was some one or some thing, a tall white shadow, very dimly +discernible, moving among the gloom. + +A sudden and most unusual sensation of panic seized Captain Dove. The +inexplicable shape was flitting soundlessly toward him. He felt thankful +that Carthew was there behind him, alive and well, for company. But when +he rose upright and glanced swiftly over one shoulder the plateau was +empty. Carthew had gone. + +The evening was drawing in, and even the pathway by which they had come +there was growing dim as the light slowly failed. Captain Dove made a +blind dash for it across the open space, and so fled headlong, in fear. + +He only once looked back, and then he saw the shadow again. It was +following him. And he did not stop running till he reached the +drawbridge of the castle. But there he halted, panting, to swear at +himself for a superstitious old fool, and stare back into the woods with +eyes in which terror was mingled with rage. + +"Some stray cow--or maybe a stag!" he declared to himself. "If I had +had a shot-gun handy--or even my revolver--" + +But, stare as he would, he could see nothing more of the creature. And +he went in through the postern, still swearing under his breath. + +He had never felt quite at his ease in the great main hall of the +castle, which, with its empty suits of mail in all sorts of unexpected +corners, the flags overhead flapping soundlessly in every draught, the +pale faces peering down from their dark frames in the gallery, possessed +an uncanny atmosphere of its own, especially in the dusk. + +However, the two big fires blazing on their cavernous hearths at either +side of its wide expanse made it a good deal more homelike, less eerie +than it had seemed when he had first seen it. And he crossed it almost +without concern on his way toward his own quarters in the North Keep. + +But by the way some obscure movement among the shadows beyond the nearer +fire brought his heart to his mouth again in an instant, and a hand +slipped mechanically toward the empty hip-pocket beneath the skirt of +his coat. He had halted. He moved on, into the dim recess whence some +one was watching him, and presently emerged again, dragging after him +into the firelight a shock-headed, pasty-faced lad, whose long neck was +writhing in anguish as Captain Dove gave the long ear between his finger +and thumb another fierce tweak. + +"What the devil are _you_ doing here!" the old man demanded, peering +into the features of Mr. Jobling's managing clerk. + +"Nothing," answered Mullins with legal exactitude. But he quickly became +more discursive under Captain Dove's threatening glance. "Mr. Jobling +brought me here with him," he explained. "We arrived by the steamer an +hour ago, after a most terrible passage. I never saw such--" + +Captain Dove silenced him with a scowl. "Where's your master?" he +demanded. + +"In there," replied Mullins promptly, pointing to the door of the +gun-room, which opened off the main hall; and Captain Dove, casting him +loose without more words, marched in upon Mr. Jobling and Slyne in +excited conference. + +They looked round as the door opened, and the lawyer, seeing who the +unceremonious intruder was, waved a fat hand in gleeful welcome. "We're +safe now," he vociferated. "The Jura succession is settled at last. +Where's Lady Josceline? She'll be Countess of Jura in her own right as +soon as--" + +"Not so much of your noise," Captain Dove commanded, and, suddenly, +reopening the door, all but overset himself in accomplishing a hasty +kick, which elicited a loud yelp from without. + +"Was that Mullins!" Mr. Jobling exclaimed. "I don't know _what_ I'm to +do with him. He's really becoming a dangerous nuisance. I had to bring +him away from London with me to prevent him--" + +"He'll keep clear of keyholes for a while," Captain Dove put in +confidently. "Now let's hear your news." + +Mr. Jobling's clouded face cleared again. "You've heard it already," he +said. "I've won our case. The Chancery Court has admitted my proofs. We +are to attend again, all of us, the day after to-morrow if possible, +when Mr. Justice Gaunt will give us decree. And Lady Josceline will be +the Countess of Jura as soon as--" + +"When will she get any money?" asked Captain Dove bluntly, and Mr. +Jobling looked pained. + +"By Friday, I should think," he stated, "I'll have everything in such +shape that she can draw a cheque for a mill--" + +"She'll draw no cheques," Slyne interrupted decisively. "You know very +well that I have her formal authority to attend to all such matters for +her. Whatever small sums she may require _I'll_ procure for her, and any +payments to be made on her behalf _I'll_ make." + +He met with perfect tranquillity the glances of his associates. "I'll go +and tell her the news now," he remarked, and left the room. + +As soon as the door had closed behind him, the lawyer turned toward +Captain Dove, and, "Well?" he asked eagerly. "Was that your ship I saw +at the mouth of the loch? How are you going to get rid of that +domineering upstart? There isn't much time left to--" + +Captain Dove held up a protesting hand, but Mr. Jobling would not be put +down in that manner. He was evidently determined now to stand up for +himself and those hard-earned rights out of which Slyne had undoubtedly +jockeyed him in the most bare-faced, contemptuous manner. + +"I really must insist on knowing what you mean to do," he declared +irascibly. "I have far too much at stake to leave anything to chance at +this late moment. Once Mr. Slyne reaches London, it will be too late +to--" + +"Hold your row!" ordered Captain Dove, so fiercely that Mr. Jobling +jumped. "And--don't interfere in what doesn't concern you. All you need +to know is that--Slyne will never see London again. Does that satisfy +you?" + +"It would--if I could believe it," observed Mr. Jobling, valiantly. +"But--" + +"And neither will you, if you worry me," added Captain Dove in a voice +which seemed to affect his neighbour's nerve very adversely. "So help +yourself to another peg and pass the bottle. I can scarcely hear myself +think for your chatter, and I've got a good deal to think about." + +Mr. Jobling did his very best to meet the old man's irate glance +resolutely, but his own irresolute, blinking eyes soon fell before the +cold menace in Captain Dove's. He replenished his glass, and having +sulkily shoved the decanter across the table, lay back in his chair. + +"You said that she could draw her money on Friday, didn't you?" asked +Captain Dove, and he nodded, with very ill grace. + +"And Slyne has her power of attorney to sign any cheques he likes to +write," the old man went on musingly. "But--that doesn't matter. Brasse +will be ashore to-night. And we'll be off to London to-morrow, me an' +you, Jobling, d'ye hear?" + +Mr. Jobling could not deny that he heard, and did not seem inclined to +ask any more questions. But Captain Dove had a great many more to ask +him, and when Slyne looked into the room, some time later, he found the +two of them chatting quite amicably. They both fell silent, however, at +sight of him. + +"Lady Josceline is entertaining visitors," he announced: "the Duchess of +Dawn--and that unlicked cub Ingoldsby." + +"Lord Ingoldsby's her grace's nephew, of course," Mr. Jobling mentioned +reverentially. "And one of the wealthiest peers in England--or anywhere +else. But--how did they get here? Dawn's on the other side of the +mountains, and--" + +"They rode across," said Slyne, "to find out who was here. If Dove +hadn't ordered the beacon to be lighted the night we arrived, they'd +never have heard--But maybe, after all, it will help-- + +"They're going to dine and stay the night, anyhow. It's come on to snow +again. + +"There's a great hullabaloo below-stairs," he said in a somewhat +querulous tone as he crossed toward the fireplace and helped himself to +a cigarette from the silver box on the mantel. "One of the gamekeepers +sent in word that he had seen the 'white lady' about in the woods this +afternoon. And now an hysterical housemaid is having fits in the +servants' hall, on the insufficient ground that she had met the same +mysterious personage in one of the passages a little ago. The whole +outfit, in fact, are in the very devil of a fluster." + +"How unfortunate!" exclaimed Mr. Jobling, while Captain Dove was still +regarding Slyne with an expression of mingled doubt and dismay. "Nothing +could have been more ill-timed, too--since her grace is going to honour +us with her company. Every one about the place believes implicitly in +that old superstition--and they say, you know, that the head of the +family _has_ died whenever the so-called 'white lady' has made her +appearance." + +Slyne laughed, and blew a cloud of smoke from his nostrils. + +"Lady Josceline will outlast most of us," he declared with the utmost +nonchalance. "And, in any case, I've dared anyone to breathe a word +about it to her. We don't want our dinner spoiled with any nonsense of +that sort." + +Mr. Jobling got up to go, alleging that he was tired after his long +journey and wanted a rest before dinner. + +"Of course, it's all nonsense," he agreed, if with no great conviction. +"But it won't be before to-morrow that you'll get the Highlanders here +to believe that." + +Slyne laughed again, contemptuously, as the lawyer left the room, and +then turned toward Captain Dove. + +"You don't believe in ghosts, do you, Dove?" he demanded, quite well +aware of the old man's weakness in that respect. + +"I've seen one or two in my time," answered that superstitious seaman in +a low growl. + +"You're luckier than I've ever been, then," said Slyne mockingly. "And I +only believe in what I can see for myself. But, all the same, I'm not +going to take any losing chances. And, you must admit, it would be most +damnably awkward for us if Sallie should, by any chance, fall under the +fatal spell of the family spectre." + +Captain Dove gave voice to another growl, unintelligible, and moved +restlessly in his chair. It had not, as a matter of fact, occurred to +him that any immediate mischance to Sallie must mean ruin to himself. +And Slyne's sneering insensibility was difficult to endure when he +recalled what he himself had also seen in the woods. + +"I think it would be as well in any case to make sure that we won't be +left lamenting her and absolutely penniless," Slyne went on, his +features suddenly set and serious. "And I'm going to make things safe +for us all to-night," he affirmed. "Are you listening, Dove? + +"It might be dangerous now to delay even until to-morrow. You and I have +too much at stake to run any avoidable risk. And remember that, if you +fail me again, it isn't only a matter of the money you'll lose by your +folly. I know very well that Jobling and you have been plotting together +against me, but--I don't believe you've forgotten what I told you both +the day before he left for London. It would scarcely be worth your while +to go back on me now and spend the rest of your life in prison, or, much +more probably,--hang." + +Captain Dove nodded perfectly civil assent to that self-evident +proposition. He was inwardly wondering at what hour Brasse would be +ashore. + +"Very well," Slyne concluded. "You've got to stand by me, for your own +sake. I'm going to clinch matters with Sallie now. I'll announce our +engagement at dinner. And immediately after dinner, she and I will go +through the simple formality of a Scotch marriage--the worthy Mrs. +M'Kissock has told me exactly how that can be done. The duchess will +serve as one witness and I'll find another trust-worthy one. So that, +all going well, the future Countess of Jura will be my lawful wife +before any harm can come to her even from the 'white lady.' How does +that strike you, eh?" + +Captain Dove once more nodded polite agreement, and then looked very +slowly round over one shoulder behind him. Slyne darted an involuntary +glance in the same direction, and the fag-end of his cigarette fell from +between nerveless fingers. A sudden pallor had overspread his tanned +features, and something very like fear looked out of his eyes at the dim +white form standing motionless just beyond the range of the lamplight. + +[Illustration: Something very like fear looked out of his eyes.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE PARTY OF THE FIRST PART + + +The shadow which had followed Captain Dove throughout his headlong +flight from the hut on the cliffs had halted behind a bush at the edge +of the wood while he lingered on the drawbridge to look back. As soon as +he disappeared through the postern it flitted in the dusk across the +gravel sweep in front of the castle, down into the dry moat and up again +on the other side to a dark window: through which it gained easy +ingress. And from that point, moving stealthily and with extreme +precaution along the servants' passageways, it finally reached the +housekeeper's quarters: where it stood listening intently for a few +seconds before stepping in on Mrs. M'Kissock. + +She was seated at her early supper, alone, and looked round in surprise, +which quickly deepened into dire bewilderment and dread. + +"Farish!" she whispered with pale lips, as he cast off the soiled and +travel-worn white Arab cloak which had covered him, showing himself a +big, bent, white-bearded, fierce-looking, haggard-faced fellow, +barefooted, almost in rags. He was glancing about him with the +expression of a wild beast in a cage while the old housekeeper gazed at +him, breathing over-quickly, her hands at her heart. + +"Ay, it's Farish, Janet," said he at length, in a very bitter voice, and +threw himself wearily into a chair. "None other than your ne'er-do-well +brother, Farish, come home to die on your hands. I've been hiding in the +woods all day, waiting a chance to creep in. I'm starving, too." + +She turned, trembling sickly, to a full cupboard and set more food on +the table in haste. He fell upon it like a famished wolf, and while he +was devouring it they talked, in broken sentences. + +"Where have you come from--in such a state?" the old woman asked, +watching him with woe in her face. + +"From hell," he mumbled hoarsely, his mouth full, "to square accounts +with another devil who seems to have made the Castle of Loquhariot his +home too. What's Dove, as he calls himself, doing here, Janet?" + +"He came with the Lady Josceline Justice," Mrs. M'Kissock made difficult +answer. + +"He came with the Lady Josceline Justice!" repeated her brother +mechanically, and ceased eating for an instant to stare at her out of +blank, disbelieving eyes. Then he went on with his ravenous feast and +his questioning. "Who else is here?" + +"Mr. Slyne," his sister told him meekly, "and Mr. Jobling, her +ladyship's London lawyer. The Duchess of Dawn and Lord Ingoldsby came +across the Pass to call on her ladyship this afternoon. And there's Mr. +Herries, too, ill in bed, as he's been since the night of her ladyship's +coming." + +"I know the man Slyne," muttered Farish M'Kissock. "But--what's Lady +Josceline Justice like?" + +He listened attentively to his sister's brief, fond description, and +then pushed the plates from before him. + +"Can you give me something to drink now?" he asked, in a strained, +unsteady voice. She brought him a bottle of wine from the cupboard and +he swallowed some, very sparingly. It brought a little colour back into +his ashen face. + +"I'll eat some more in a minute or two," he muttered, and sank back into +his chair, and sighed. And there he sat, still and silent, while the big +grandfather's clock in its corner ticked away an eternity of suspense. + +"And so it's--_her_!" he whispered to himself, and looked up at his +sister again as if he had been unaware of her company. + +"Listen, Janet," said he then, in a stronger voice, "and I'll tell you +something of what I owe Dove. + +"When I had to flee this country, at the time of Lord St. Just's death, +I took to the sea for a while, and, knocking about the world, I chanced +across Dove and his ship--the old _Fer de Lance_ it was then. And I +signed on with him--it was in San Thome--for reasons that don't matter +now. But he and I soon fell foul of each other--for reasons that don't +matter either--and what d'ye think he did to get rid of me! He set me +ashore, on the African coast, alone--to die in the desert there." + +A dangerous light was beginning to burn in his sunken eyes. He had set +his two twitching hands on the table, was leaning forward. + +"But--I didn't die, after all, you see," he said. "I didn't die then, +Janet. I'm not dead yet. + +"It would only weary you to hear all that happened to me before I came +into my kingdom. For I was as good as a king there, Janet, and-- + +"No, I'm not mad, though I might well be after all I've suffered +through--him. It _was_ a kingdom I'd made for myself before he came my +way again. From Tripoli to the Susa, my word was all but law, and there +was scarcely a tribe but paid me tribute. The Sultan of Morocco himself +would send me presents when I passed by. I've fought and beaten the +French, time and again, in country they claim for their own. _They_ knew +the Emir El Farish, Janet, although you think that it's raving I am. + +"But never mind that. What you'll understand better is that I had come +to be a very rich man there. I had horses and camels by hundreds, and +gold and jewels almost more than I had time to count, and an army of +fine fighting men to keep them all safe. I had wealth as well as power, +all but as much as I wanted of both, when Dove came slinking into my +camp on the coast one dark night, like some dirty jackal. + +"His ship was lying in the bight, and--I had business on board with him. +I went off in a boat, with no more than two of my men, blind fool that I +was! + +"I might have known better," he mused very bitterly, "but-- + +"He struck me down from behind. He turned me and my men adrift, +insensible, in an open boat. + +"It blew out to sea. I lived, without food or water, for nearly a week +before I was picked up by a passing steamer that took me to Spain, but +the other two died. + +"I was as good as a king in Africa, and--Look at me now! I've lost +all--all but these rags, and I'm spent, as the Spaniards say. I can't go +back to reclaim what was mine. And what will have happened among my +people without me, I can scarcely bear to think. For I was fond of them, +Janet, in my own way. + +"But, after all, it's enough for me now that I've found him again--and +in time. I could scarcely believe that it was really him I saw by the +hut." + +He was speaking in a strange, far-away voice, almost contemplatively; +and, while he spoke, he was fingering the hilt of the long sheath-knife +at his frayed black belt. + +"Would you do murder here again, Farish!" whispered his sister, her +clasped hands still tight at her heart. She had heard him out in tense +silence, without a word. "Was not once enough! Must I be the one to +betray you now--lest you do murder here again!" + +Her brother's gaunt features twisted slowly into a horrible grin, and +relaxed again into an expression of some concern as he observed her +evident stress of mind. + +"It was no murder, but justice, that I did on Torquil St. Just," said +he. "He would have killed me if he could. But I suppose they will always +blame me for his death, Janet; and it would no doubt go hard with me, +even after all these years, if any but you knew my whereabouts. + +"But--I'm safe with you, Janet. And I'll do no murder, I give you my +word. I have other means-- + +"I'm safe with you, Janet," he repeated, glancing about the quiet, +lamp-lit room. + +"None will enter without my leave," she hastened to reassure him. "You +can stay safe here, Farish, till we can come at some plan to help each +other, for I cannot bide in the castle for long either, now you've come +back. + +"But--you must work no more harm in the house whose bread I have eaten +so long. Whatever hurt Torquil St. Just did you, he has long gone to his +account, and you have surely no ill will to her ladyship. She has +suffered sorely too, poor thing! in her time, or I'm much mistaken." + +"When did she come to Loquhariot?" Farish demanded. + +"Not much more than a fortnight ago--and just in time. For before her +had come, from America, a far cousin, one Mr. Justin Carthew, to claim +the rights that are hers, thinking, as I did indeed, that she must be +dead." + +"You _can't_ mean yon whistling, limber fellow that walks with a limp? I +saw him too at the hut," said the wreck in the chair at the table with a +sudden, fierce, eager light in his lack-lustre eyes. "But--I took him +for a ghost. How came _he_ here? My men told me--" + +His sister had nodded silently. She sat staring at him in abject +suspense, hope and despair alternately flitting across her wrinkled +face. + +But he said nothing more for some time. That last unaccountable twist of +fate had almost stupefied him. + +A telephone bell rang behind his sister, and startled him out of his +reverie. + +"Mr. Slyne says her ladyship wishes rooms prepared for the duchess and +Lord Ingoldsby," she told him as she turned back from the instrument. +"And dinner's to be served in the banquet-hall. I must be off about my +business now, Farish. Will you wait here till I come again--and promise +to work no more harm?" + +"I'll find a quieter corner to hide in," he answered indifferently. And, +in response to her harassed glance, "You must just trust me to take care +of myself and not trouble you more than need be," he told her. "I know +this old vulture's-nest well enough not to be discovered in it. +And--I'll do Dove no violence, Janet; you have my pledged word for +that." + +She lingered still, almost distracted, not knowing what to do for the +best. But she did know, of old and sad experience, how little heed he +was likely to pay to any advice or direction of hers, and at last had to +hurry away to her duties leaving him, safe enough there, to his own +devices till she could return. + +As soon as she had gone, he swallowed a little more of the food and wine +on the table, put on his dirty white robe again, pulling its baggy hood +well over his features, and, having assured himself that the long +passage down which she had disappeared was empty, set out with soundless +but steadier steps to secrete himself in some more remote recess of the +spacious castle. + +He knew his way about every turn of the back-corridors intimately. He +was passing the gun-room pantry when he heard from within a voice that +he recognised at once, shouting, "Hold your row!" He paused. Distant +footfalls in the passage prompted him to a swift decision. The pantry +door was ajar. He pushed it a little further open, stepped inside, and +closed it behind him. + +The place was practically in darkness, but he soon found the +service-wicket, and, having first made sure that he would not be +intruded upon, slipped the blade of his knife under its wooden shutter, +raised it, without sound, sufficiently to hear and see all that was +going on in the gun-room. + +His eyes began to gleam balefully as he looked through at its +unsuspecting inmates. The old man Dove and the London lawyer were +evidently at loggerheads, but presently calmed down again, and grew +almost confidential together. And afterwards Slyne came in to them with +his contemptuous story of the White Lady--at which the lurking listener +frowned anxiously, since it went to show that he must have been seen +notwithstanding all his precautions. And then the lawyer got up to go. + +To Slyne's subsequent conversation with Captain Dove the ex-Emir +listened no less greedily, licking his lips. And after that he pushed +noiselessly past the swing-door of the pantry, into their company. He +thought he could see his way quite clearly by then. + +Slyne drew back in speechless alarm at sight of the gaunt, hooded figure +coming forward on soundless feet. Captain Dove had made an attempt to +rise, but apparently could not; he sat still, staring over one shoulder, +aghast, at that grey ghost of a man he had never expected to see again. + +Farish M'Kissock threw back his hood and mutely held out his two empty +hands. Slyne let one of his own fall from a hip-pocket. Captain Dove was +evidently striving to speak. The silent intruder stood waiting to hear +whatever he might have to say. + +"How can it be!" Captain Dove said at length, in the difficult voice of +one amazed almost beyond words, and got to his feet with an effort, to +scan the intruder still more searchingly, to stare transfixed at the +tangled grey locks which had formerly been of a flaming red. + +"It _is_--Farish!" he whispered fearfully, as if at last convinced in +spite of himself. And the man before him nodded slowly, three times. + +"None but me, Captain Brown--or Captain Dove--or whatever you care to +call yourself," said Farish M'Kissock, and tried to moisten his dry lips +with a dry tongue. "None but the man you have twice betrayed and turned +adrift to die like a dog; once in the desert and yet again in a boat on +the open sea." + +"Didn't you get ashore?" Slyne asked softly, as if he thought that the +mysterious new-comer must be mad, and did not desire to anger him. + +"Sit down, both of you," said Farish M'Kissock, "and we'll talk +together. 'Tis no more than meet that you should both know the why and +the wherefore of what's to come. I will not seek to harm you," he said, +and so sat down himself. + +Slyne seated himself on the table and Captain Dove was content with an +arm of the chair in which he had been ensconced; both were obviously +prepared to spring up again instantly. And Farish M'Kissock looked at +his leisure from one to the other of them before he said anything more. +Captain Dove's unusual attire seemed to hold his attention. + +"You've changed your coat since you saw me last," he at length remarked +in an even, almost indifferent voice. "And you've come to a very snug +anchorage. You're both going to settle down here and be gentlemen now, I +suppose." + +Captain Dove glared at him, but could not overmaster his steady glance +and at last was compelled to seek shelter behind his smoked glasses, at +which added disguise his enemy gazed with no less offensive interest. + +"You have both done very well for yourselves," said Farish M'Kissock, +and turned toward Slyne. + +"You're going to marry the Lady Josceline Justice," said he. "And +so--you'll be master here--of her and her millions. You'll be a rich man +then--but not so rich, surely, as I'd have been if you two had kept your +bargain with me; for I was not bankrupt when Captain Dove promised her +to me--though I'm bankrupt now." + +His slow speech stung, but they both heard him out in hang-dog silence. + +"I'm bankrupt now," he repeated, looking over at Captain Dove. "All I +won for myself in this world I've lost, thanks to you. And so--I've +made my way home, to die. They told me in the hospital that I hadn't +long to live then, and I reckon my tramp across the mountains will help +to finish me. But--first, there's our account to be squared; all I have +lost." + +"I'll make that up to you, Farish," said Captain Dove, finding his +tongue again, and evidently anxious to be very diplomatic since he could +by no means outface his former accomplice. "I'll do the right thing by +you now. I hadn't any idea, you know, but that you'd get safely ashore +and back to your camp--" + +"It was a long chance you took, with the wind offshore," the other broke +in, without raising his voice, in the same implacable monotone. "It was +almost too long. But the boat you set me adrift in was picked up far out +at sea, with two dead men in it, and one who was minded to live long +enough to repay what he owes you. + +"What has happened among my folks there, God alone knows. But they would +fare ill without me, I fear, and--I had some liking for them." + +"You've always been far too soft-hearted, Farish. That's your only +fault," said Captain Dove encouragingly. "Forget them--and I'll make all +the rest up to you." + +"But how did you come here?" Slyne demanded with more spirit than he had +at first shown. + +He had to wait some time for an answer, but Captain Dove did not +interrupt again, and presently the other proceeded to make that also +more clear. + +"You don't know yet who I am now," he muttered. "I had forgotten-- + +"I'm Farish M'Kissock, own brother to old Janet, the housekeeper here. +And I was born at Loquhariot, after my father came from Kilmarnock to +be head-keeper to the old earl. That's why I call it home, though it's +no home of mine. + +"I left the last half of my name behind me when I fled the country, long +years ago, at the time of Lord St. Just's death. I had a hand in that, +although I did not murder him as some said. He had done me a foul wrong, +the foulest one man may do another. It cost him his life, but--I did not +murder him. That would have been but a poor revenge in my eyes. I would +fain he had lived till this day." + +"And what do you propose to do now?" Slyne asked, somewhat impatiently. +He had evidently got over his first confusion. + +The ex-Emir regarded him meditatively for a moment or two, and then +broke into a low, mirthless laugh. + +"You're going to marry the Lady Josceline Justice," said he, "and you're +in a hurry. You've no time to waste on me--or on my memories of old +wrongs. Well, I don't blame you. I once had a fancy for her myself, +and--I was in just such a hurry; when my wife died in my arms as we +carried her out from my camp, to suit your convenience, Captain Dove, +and I hadn't even the time to bury my own dead wife decently before I +put off to your ship in search of--the other. If I had been in less +haste about it, I'd maybe have made better speed. + +"But you've managed very well for yourself, so far, Mr. Slyne. Though +you've robbed me of one who should have been mine, just as did Torquil +St. Just. + +"And now--if you'll wait for a minute more--I'll even matters among us; +and you'll understand the drift of my story better. You've managed very +well for yourself, so far, and you've very nearly won all you wanted. +But--here I am, just in time. + +"Did it ever come out how the Countess of Jura, the dancer that was, met +her death?" + +Slyne, listening with strained attention now, nodded swift assent. +Captain Dove, crouched low on his perch, was gazing at Farish M'Kissock +as if fascinated. + +"She shot herself," said the ex-Emir, with the calm certainty of one who +can vouch for his facts, "rather than fall into the hands of my men. We +had raided a camp of fool tourists who had come too far afield, to find +out what the real desert was like, and she was among them. She saw me +before she pulled trigger, and knew me, and cried on me to save her +child. + +"All the rest were--wiped out. But--I spared the child, because--it had +the Jura blood in its veins. It was the Lady Josceline Justice, and she +grew up among our tents until she died in my arms the same night I made +my unlucky bargain with you, Captain Dove; and I hadn't even the time to +bury her ladyship, my dead wife, decently before I put off to your +ship!" + +He drew a skeleton-like hand across his sunken eyes and blinked at the +blazing logs on the hearth before him. + +"And now you know where the real Lady Josceline Justice is," said he. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A NEW IDEA + + +"And now you know where the real Lady Josceline Justice is," said Farish +M'Kissock drearily, almost as if the savour of his overwhelming revenge +on all who had wronged him had cloyed already. "The girl you have +here--" + +"Never mind about her," Captain Dove interrupted hoarsely, and darted a +quick, furtive glance at Slyne, who looked very much as if he had just +been struck on the back of the head with a hammer. "What are you going +to do about it? That's all we want to hear from you." + +He had been scarcely less overcome by that most calamitous disclosure +than was his unhappy accomplice. And he did not doubt for a moment that +Farish M'Kissock was speaking the truth; although until then he himself +had been almost convinced that Sallie must indeed be the dead Earl of +Jura's daughter. That possibility had been proven so perfectly probable +that even the Court of Chancery had accepted it for a fact. But now-- + +The sudden and cataclysmic collapse of all his own prospects along with +hers had spurred Captain Dove's momentarily stunned faculties into a +perfect frenzy. + +"What are you going to do about it?" he demanded again, imperatively, +since the other was slow to answer. + +"I need do nothing more--to thwart your fine schemes," said Farish +M'Kissock quietly: "for--they will fail. Although it matters little to +me now who may rule here, since the last of the old brood lies dead and +unburied in Africa; and she was fond of me, too, as I was of her. 'Twas +a notable revenge that I took on _them_-all! And I think ye'll allow +that I've settled old scores handsomely with the both of you two as +well. + +"You might maybe murder me yet, to still my tongue, as you're thinking, +but that would end as ill for yourselves, and I'm not here for long +anyhow. There's nothing in this world or the next that will avail you +against me now, and--" + +His voice died away, wearily. He was gazing into the flickering flames, +brooding over his own desperate memories. + +"I might murder you, as you say, and in self-defence at that, Farish," +replied Captain Dove, in a tone that he was striving to make more +friendly. "But--how would it be if we went partners instead? What's the +use of cutting your nose off to spite your face? There's surely enough +here for all of us. And your share would more than make up to you for--" + +The gaunt wreck in the armchair beside the fire broke into a low, +mocking laugh. + +"It's to close my account with you that I'm here, Captain Dove," said he +implacably, "and not to open a new one." + +Captain Dove, his face distorted with impotent fury, darted another +devilish look at Slyne, but Slyne was still sitting motionless, staring +at the ex-Emir, like one in a trance. Captain Dove glanced again at the +stooping figure on the other side of the fireplace, set one foot firm on +the floor, and leaped at his enemy like a wild beast. + +Farish M'Kissock fought fiercely, with a strength surprising in one of +his enfeebled appearance, had almost succeeded, indeed, in freeing +himself from the old man's vice-like grip before Slyne at last awoke +from his lethargy and, of mechanical instinct, came to Captain Dove's +assistance. The two of them soon got him down, and then Captain Dove +lashed his wrists and ankles securely with a strong fishing-line +snatched from a rack on the wall. + +"This way with him now," he panted, and, drawing aside a blind panel in +the wainscot of the near wall, disclosed a low, wide opening, toward +which he pulled their prostrate prisoner by the heels. And together they +bundled the groaning body down a steep flight of dry stone steps, into +an unlighted cell at one side of the dark tunnel below. + +"He'll be safe enough in there," said Captain Dove vindictively, as he +held up the match he had struck while Slyne, with fumbling fingers, drew +its rusty iron outside bolt across the door of the cell. "And it will be +easy to get him down the tunnel to the water-gate, too." + +"Can anyone get in by the water-gate?" asked Slyne in a breathless +whisper. + +"I have the key in my pocket," Captain Dove answered shortly, and drew +the blind panel back into place as they regained the gun-room together. + +There, he made at once for the half-empty decanter upon the table. But +Slyne sat down before the fire again, with bent head, as if utterly +crushed. + +It was self-evident that he had come to believe implicitly in Sallie's +right to the new identity he had bestowed upon her, had never doubted +that the proofs on which that belief had been based were anything but +genuine. He could scarcely doubt now that Captain Dove had hoodwinked +him from first to last, that Farish M'Kissock's story was the real truth +of the matter. And, thus in a moment confronted with the ruinous outcome +of his credulity, he could not yet bring his mind to bear on anything +but the utter eclipse of all his own golden dreams. + +"And so--that fellow Carthew will be Earl of Jura," he said suddenly, +and looked up at Captain Dove with a hell of hate aflame behind his dull +eyes. "And you've been lying to me all along," he said, in a still, +dispassionate voice. + +Captain Dove, back in his own chair, better pleased with himself, paused +to consider before replying. He had been investigating the pantry and +found out how Farish M'Kissock had come there. + +"You're wrong, both times," he at length remarked. "I've told you +nothing that wasn't the truth. All I've said about Sallie, I can prove +up to the hilt. And, anyhow, you've been managing the whole business. +You've told me often enough not to butt in! You can't blame _me_ for any +mistake that's been made. + +"And, what's more," he went on, marshalling his ideas, "it remains to be +proved that there _has_ been any mistake. You're surely not going to +take the mere word of a fellow like Farish for that--a mutinous second +mate I had to maroon to get rid of him. Anyhow, if you're going to lie +down and die at his orders, I'm not. D'ye see?" + +Slyne drew a shaky hand across a damp forehead. He was obviously all +unstrung. + +"You didn't cast any doubt on his story," he muttered. + +"There was no need," declared Captain Dove. "Let him disprove yours +first. It was you who discovered who Sallie should be. I had no idea +whose daughter she was--and neither had she. You and Jobling it was who +put two and two together and made out four. I don't believe +Farish--M'Kissock, as he calls himself now--could better that." + +"Don't you believe what he said?" asked Slyne. + +"Not me," lied Captain Dove. "The man's mad, that's what's the matter +with him. He's probably made the whole thing up, just to get even with +us, and knowing that we could do little more than contradict it. But--he +didn't know that we have the Chancery Court behind us now. And that +makes all the difference. We've won--and he's lost. D'ye see? + +"I was scared at first, I'll admit--when he walked in. It was that +infernal 'white lady' tale of yours that upset me. But--_you_ don't +believe in ghosts! What's wrong with you is sheer funk." + +But even that insult seemed to have no immediate effect on Slyne, and +Captain Dove got up, growling. + +"Here," said he. "Drink this down--and try if you can't muster even a +little Dutch courage." + +Slyne swallowed, still without a word in retort, the dose of spirit +which the old man had poured out for him; and that seemed to restore a +little his crippled self-confidence. Some faint spark of hope that all +might not yet be lost seemed to have sprung up in his heavy heart. His +benumbed brain was apparently beginning to work again. He sat up, with +an effort. + +"But--how are we to carry on here?" he asked, in a tone which told how +very feeble his faith was. "If any such story gets to the ears of--" + +"It will get no farther than it has gone," declared Captain Dove with +assured emphasis. "If Farish hasn't told that old hag of a sister of his +yet, it stays between you and me. We'll make sure of her silence--and +his. That will be easy enough." + +Slyne sank back into his chair again, and scowled. He did not affect to +misunderstand his companion's sinister promptings. + +"Will you undertake to look after them, then?" he stipulated, with dire +distaste, after further consideration. + +Captain Dove in his turn took time to cogitate over that selfish +suggestion. He had no intention whatever of helping Slyne at his own +hazard. On the contrary, he had already made up his mind to get rid of +Slyne at the same time as the other two. But, of course, it was only +politic to pretend a little reluctance. + +"All right," he agreed at length. "I'll look after them. But you must +lend me a hand, if it's necessary. There's no one else I can trust, and +we're both in the same boat now. You must lend me a hand, if it's +necessary." + +"And what about Carthew?" Slyne demanded, recovering himself by degrees +under the old man's most matter of fact example. "If he should get any +inkling--" + +"Oh, don't _make_ difficulties!" growled Captain Dove. + +"What's to hinder our settling his hash the same way as the others? +There are only the three of them in our way. We'll make a clean sweep. +We'll get him up here--we'll send him word that Sallie would like to see +him, and--the rest will be easy." + +"But, good God!" cried Slyne, "how are you going to account for their +disappearance? It's madness--" + +"Farish is mad, all right," said Captain Dove reflectively. "Which will +account for whatever happens to him and his precious sister. If they +were both found with broken necks at the foot of this infernal rock, +who's going to make us responsible? And, as for that fellow Carthew, if +we can't explain away his disappearance we'll deserve to lose +everything, Slyne. + +"Damn it, man! What are you afraid of! Are you going to throw up the +sponge just before the fight's won!" + +"If we _were_ once clear of the three of them, that would leave us +perfectly safe," said Slyne, in a voice that was not very steady. "But +what if Mrs. M'Kissock knows already--" + +"We'll ring for her now and find out," answered Captain Dove with savage +decision. "If she seems to know more than she should--she can keep her +infernal brother company until Brasse comes ashore." + +He rose, and had almost reached the bell-push beside the mantel when the +door opened and the Marquis of Ingoldsby walked into the room, looking +much less imbecile and more of a man in his splashed breeches and boots +and spurs. + +Captain Dove glared at him. + +"Howdy do, Captain Dubb," said his lordship, politely, after peering +through his eye-glass at Slyne. "Glad to see you again. Lady Josceline +told me I would probably find you here, and--I want to talk to +you--about her." + +He let his eye-glass drop and helped himself to a brandy and soda. Slyne +was staring at him. Captain Dove was dumb. + +"I've just been askin' her to marry me," his lordship remarked, after +slaking his thirst. And, as he paused to light a cigarette, "The devil +you have!" exclaimed Captain Dove, considering that idea. + +"She said she couldn't," Lord Ingoldsby mentioned, straddling across the +hearth-rug, his hands on his hips, disregarding Slyne's presence +entirely now. "But--she wouldn't tell me why. And I thought I'd ask you, +don't y'know. So far as I can understand, you're her nearest livin' +relative--her stepfather, or godfather, or somethin' of that sort, what? +And I thought that maybe you wouldn't mind talkin' over the matter with +me." + +Captain Dove scratched his head. He could see that Slyne was watching +him very closely. It had no doubt flashed through Slyne's mind as +through his own that here was a providential by-path of escape, for him +at least, from his present predicament; that, if all else went askew, +Sallie might prove profitable enough, to him at least, as the +Marchioness of Ingoldsby. For had not Mr. Jobling stated that the young +man before the fire was one of the wealthiest peers in England or +elsewhere. + +"I don't want to over-hurry her, y'know," said the noble marquis, "and, +maybe, I've been a bit sudden. But I've been huntin' high and low for +her ever since I last saw her, and--here I am, don't y'know. So I +thought I'd ask her." + +"Didn't you hear me tell you in Monte Carlo that Lady Josceline is +engaged to marry me?" Slyne broke in, with a sudden access of anger, +since Captain Dove still seemed to have nothing to say. + +"That's so," said Captain Dove slowly. "She's engaged to this +gentleman--on conditions." + +Lord Ingoldsby screwed his eye-glass into his face and gravely regarded +Slyne again. + +"But she's not married to him yet," said he. "And--it's a woman's +privilege to change her mind. Besides, if her engagement is only +conditional--" + +"We needn't discuss it just now," Captain Dove put in with unusual +diplomacy. He could see that Slyne was liable to explode dangerously at +any moment. + +"All right, then," said Lord Ingoldsby in a tone of great determination. +"I'll just have to do the best I can for myself." And, having finished +his light refreshment, he strolled off again, taking not the slightest +notice of Slyne's very obvious indignation. + +As soon as he was safely out of earshot, Slyne fell foul of Captain +Dove, who listened patiently enough to all he had to say. + +"But I'm _not_ interfering," said the old man. "All that sort of thing +lies between you and her, Slyne. If you can get her to marry you right +away--" + +"Of course I can--if you back me up," Slyne declared wrathfully. "And +you've got to do that now, Dove--for your own sake. We're both in the +same boat, remember,--and if it upsets, we'll both drown. I'll make +quite sure of that. + +"So--we'll get hold of Sallie now before the thing goes any further--and +settle that question for good." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +BY RIGHT OF PURCHASE + + +Sallie had been far too happily occupied since she had come to +Loquhariot to have been conscious of the wheels within wheels revolving +about her there. + +She could scarcely at once accustom herself to look upon the great, +grey, age-old castle as her home; but there was Janet M'Kissock always +eager to help her in that respect, with endless stories of bygone days +which made the place seem always more familiar and friendly to her. She +grew, by degrees, to know and love it almost as if she had lived there +all her life. + +It was much more difficult to grasp the idea that the whole of the +beautiful white world beyond its windows was also hers, and hers alone; +from the rugged, snow-clad mountains towering behind and on either hand, +even to the Small Isles, like bergs in the sun amid the smoking seas in +that turbulent weather. But Slyne missed no opportunity to impress that +important fact upon her. And she was finding it always easier to forget +her unhappy past, to enjoy the marvellous present and the most +inspiriting part in it, to leave the over-difficult future to evolve +itself. + +The men and women about the place were all devoted to her. She had very +soon won the staunch good-will of the cottagers at the cliff-foot. And +her soft sway was everywhere undisputed, although Slyne had at first +been inclined to contest it himself. But he soon seemed to realise that +it would be best, in the meantime, to order events from the background +and in her voice. + +He had shown some disposition, too, to question the extent of the +liberty she might now assume to herself. But he had not pressed that +point unduly either, and they continued on that footing of pleasant +comradeship which he had been at such ceaseless pains to promote. His +debonair courtesy to her, his easy deference to most of her wishes, were +very different indeed from his off-hand manner of former days. And she +could not but be grateful to him, in the meantime, for the almost +over-ample fulfilment of his original promise. + +Regarding her pledge to him, he had said nothing more, although she +spent long afternoons and evenings in his company when the weather was +at its worst, while Mr. Jobling was away. Captain Dove left the two of +them very much to themselves, and Slyne had offered to teach her to play +billiards, to pass the time. + +She would have been entirely content, indeed, but for the hardship her +coming had entailed on Justin Carthew. She had met him more than once +out of doors, and he had always seemed pleased to see her, but--it was +of common report that he was a poor man, and she could not help feeling +that he had shown himself very much more generous to her than she to +him. She found comfort, however, in the conclusion that circumstances +were quite beyond her control, and that he would understand better by +and by the complications through which she had had to find her way as +best she could. + +She had gone down to the village on the afternoon when the _Olive +Branch_ arrived in the loch, and she walked back as far as the castle +with Carthew. The reappearance of that ill-omened craft had alarmed her +more than a little, and she could see that Carthew was becoming always +more sorely puzzled. But he had promised her to await events without +question for three short months; and he was keeping his promise loyally. +She could have told him nothing, in any case. + +She met Slyne in the hall, on her way indoors, and he reassured her as +to her perfect safety from any further risk of evil-doing by Captain +Dove. He pointed out, too, that the steamer's crew was too scanty now to +cope with the force he could call to her aid from the village in case +the old man should attempt to make any mischief, which was most +unlikely. And she went on to her own cosy quarters, quite content again. + +She was changing her outdoor dress for one of her pretty Parisian +tea-gowns, when word was brought her that the Duchess of Dawn and Lord +Ingoldsby had come across the mountains to pay her a call. + +She remembered Lord Ingoldsby, and wondered what could have brought him +to Loquhariot. The idea of entertaining a duchess dismayed her a little; +she had no notion at all what the conventions called for under +circumstances so unusual in her own experience--although Slyne had been +at some pains to explain a number of other conventions to her. But she +went along to the blue drawing-room at once, and was relieved to find +Slyne there before her, unconcernedly chatting with a very beautiful +young woman in a sadly splashed habit, her back to the fire, booted feet +a little apart, hunting-crop in clasped hands, laughter in her clear +eyes; while Lord Ingoldsby, looking much less imbecile and more of a +man in his travel-soiled riding-kit, stood listening gloomily. + +His face cleared at sight of Sallie, however. "Here's Lady Josceline, +Aunt Jane," he cried, and the duchess, after a single swift, appraising +glance at her, came forward with outstretched hands and kissed her +without any more ado. + +"Oh! my dear," said the duchess impulsively, "you can't imagine what a +relief you are. Ingoldsby has been simply raving about you, and--I was +so anxious, don't you know. But I don't blame him now. + +"I've seen you before, too--one night at the Savoy. If I had only known +then who you were--But some one said you were a Miss Harris! You've kept +it all such a close secret! We wouldn't have known even now if we hadn't +heard, quite by chance, that the beacon had been lighted one night. And +we've been wondering ever since--So you must tell me all about +everything now, if you will." And she drew Sallie down beside her on a +low couch at one side of the white marble fireplace, leaving the two men +to their own devices while she went on to explain herself no less +volubly. + +"It was madness, of course, to cross the Pass in weather like this, +but--Ingoldsby would give me no peace; and I've been so curious myself +to find out who could be here. I'm your nearest neighbour, you know, +although Castle Dawn is ten miles away; those are worse than twenty +anywhere else. So, when the rain stopped this forenoon we set out--and +here we are, covered with mud! The road's in a dreadful state, but you +must come over and stay with me as soon as the bridges are mended. We're +going to be great friends. I knew your father--although I'm not quite so +old as you might imagine from that, for I wasn't out of short +petticoats the last time he spoke to me. And, as for being the aunt of +that scapegrace there, he's five years older than I am in years--and +fifty in--" + +"Don't be too rough on a fellah, Aunt Jane!" interrupted her noble +nephew, who had been regarding Sallie with fixed vacuity through his +eye-glass. "An' don't you believe all you hear about me, Lady Josceline: +I'm not so black as I'm painted, at any rate." + +"He's been simply raving about you," the duchess declared again, in a +laughing whisper. "I couldn't imagine what had brought him down to Dawn +in midwinter, until he confided in me that he had been searching the +wide world for you ever since he met you first: and he imagined that you +might, after all, be here, at home." + +She had a great many questions to ask Sallie then, questions which +Sallie, in such a situation, might have found it very difficult to +answer but for Jasper Slyne's sharp ears and tactful tongue. And the +duchess was not slow to understand. + +"Of course you can't confide in me yet," she declared laughingly. "But +some day you must tell me all your adventures. Your home-coming after +all these years will make a nine days' wonder once the papers get to +hear of it." + +A servant came in to light the lamps, and Slyne sauntered to a window +before the curtains were drawn. + +"It's snowing again, Ingoldsby," said he. "You won't get back to Dawn +to-night." + +The duchess looked a little alarmed, but was soon laughing again. + +"All right," she agreed, in response to Sallie's prompt proffer of +hospitality. "I'll be most happy to stay over-night--and so will +Ingoldsby, I'm sure." + +"I'll go and let Mrs. M'Kissock know," Slyne volunteered. "Will you look +into the gun-room when you pass, Lady Josceline?" + +"Is old Janet still here?" the duchess asked as he left the room. "I +must have a chat with her. She and I used to be great friends +before--when Torquil St. Just was still alive and my mother would bring +me over to Loquhariot when she came to call on yours. I was Jane +Gairloch in those days." + +Lord Ingoldsby sat listening very patiently for a time while they talked +to each other, and then he became possessed by a strangled cough--to +which the duchess paid no attention. + +"You might give a fellah a chance, Aunt Jane," he at length suggested +desperately, and she rose from the couch with a most penitent +expression. + +"Bless my heart, child!" she said. "I had almost forgotten--But--I'll go +and talk to old Janet now." And she disappeared without other apology. + +Sallie looked surprised. But Lord Ingoldsby, having cleared his throat +again, claimed her attention. + +"You've no idea, Lady Josceline," he said hurriedly, "what a deuce of a +bat I've been in for nearly a fortnight. I was afraid I'd never find you +again. And, now that I've found you, don't y'know, what I want to say to +you is--It's very difficult to express--But I mean--What I'm trying to +tell you is that I thought we might maybe make a match of it. Will you +marry me, Lady Josceline?" + +Sallie looked still more surprised. But she was not slow in answering +such a preposterous question. + +"I can't," she said, concisely. + +"But why not?" he cried. "For heaven's sake! don't go so fast. Give me +time to--" + +"Time couldn't make any difference," she said, seeing that he was very +much in earnest. "I can't--" + +"But--why not?" he insisted. "Is--is there some one else already? It's +not that fellah I met in Monte Carlo with you, I'm sure; he's such a +rank outsider--you _couldn't_ care for him, I'm sure. And why not give +me just a chance to show you-- + +"There's nothing I wouldn't do for you, Lady Josceline. Give me just a +chance." + +"I can't," she repeated for the third time, and he stared at her as if +in abject despair. + +"Why can't you?" he demanded in a difficult, husky voice. + +She could scarcely answer that question, a question which he had no +right to ask. But--she felt sorry for him in his very obvious +disappointment. + +"If you care to ask Captain Dove, perhaps he will tell you," she said, +unable to think of any other safe way out of that difficulty, and not +caring very much what Captain Dove might say. + +But Lord Ingoldsby was not so easily to be got rid of. He stayed where +he was, arguing and imploring by turns until his youthful aunt appeared +again, looking somewhat serious; she seemed to take in the situation +between them at a shrewd glance. + +He left the room then for a little, and when he returned Sallie and the +duchess were on the point of retiring. + +"I'm going to have a hot bath and a rest before dinner, Ingoldsby," his +aunt informed him. + +"Your rooms will be ready now, too," Sallie added, unwilling to be left +alone there with him again. And he went off, very glumly, under convoy +of a servant, toward the bachelor apartments in the Warder's Tower. + +Sallie saw the duchess settled in the suite which had been prepared for +her, and having provided her with a plentiful choice of evening frocks, +went on to the gun-room, to see what Slyne wanted with her. + +Captain Dove and he were seated on either side of the fireplace, and +looked round rather uncertainly as she came into the room. + +"I've made the duchess quite comfortable, Jasper," she said with a +smile, "and she's been exceedingly nice to me. I hope you'll look as +well after Lord Ingoldsby." + +"I've told them to give him the run of my wardrobe," Slyne answered +indifferently. "So he'll be all right. + +"And--what I wanted to say to you, Sallie, is that--I've just heard--All +my hard work for you has been successful at last," he stammered, in a +changed voice. "The claim I made for you has been allowed by the law. +We're all going up to London to-morrow to get matters finally settled, +and then--you'll be Countess of Jura in your own right." + +He paused, effectively. Captain Dove was glancing from one to the other +of them with judicial gravity. + +"So that you can keep your promise to me now, without any further +delay," said Slyne. "I want you to tell the others at dinner +to-night--that you've chosen me for your husband." + +The happy light in her eyes died out instantly. A faint frown furrowed +her smooth white forehead. Her curved lips trembled a little. The old +unhappiness and dread were plucking at her heart again. But she did not +shirk the issue. + +"But you agreed to wait--for three months, Jasper," she said in a low, +pleading voice. + +"That was only in case it took so long to fix things up for you," he +lied easily. "Our signed agreement makes that quite clear, and it's +absolutely binding, you know. Mr. Jobling will tell you that--and he's a +lawyer." + +She was gazing at him with something very like horror in her wide eyes. + +"Was that in the paper I signed?" she asked breathlessly. But her lips +had grown set and resolute. "I thought--" + +"You must have misunderstood me, then," Slyne interrupted with assumed +impatience. "But--you signed it of your own free will, before +responsible witnesses. I've kept my part of our bargain; and now--you +must keep yours, or the law will make you." + +Her heart was beating almost painfully. To her, in her ignorance, the +law was merely an instrument of injustice. She believed herself to be +bound without hope of release by the document she had signed, and that +the same inexorable law which had, only the other day, ruined Justin +Carthew to raise her up in his place, would now force her to abide by +whatever was written above her disastrous signature. The whole fair +fabric of that wonderful new world to which she had so recently gained +admittance had in these minutes come tumbling about her ears. And the +crash of its falling palaces left her helpless and stupefied. She looked +dizzily round at Captain Dove. But his features were quite unreadable. + +"There's another point, Sallie," said Slyne, all his quick wits at work +again as he saw the impression his words had made, determined to hammer +home every argument that might weigh with her in her ignorance, +"another point that I'd never have mentioned if you had been prepared to +deal fairly with me after all I've done for you." + +She shivered at that further thrust; she, who had never dealt unfairly +with either friend or enemy. + +"Even without your promise, you're mine--by right of purchase. You were +Captain Dove's property before, as you know very well. He bought you and +paid for you. And he sold you to me, to save you from a worse master. + +"You can't say now that you didn't know what was ahead of you, for I +told you, in Genoa. And I gave you a last chance, too, before we left +Monte Carlo, to draw back and go your own way with him. Now you're +doubly mine. Ask him, if you don't believe me." + +The girl glanced in agonised appeal at the old man sitting motionless in +his chair, his eyes on the ground. But Captain Dove merely nodded, like +some mechanical figure. + +Slyne scowled, as if at an end of his patience, and, striding across to +the door, locked it, pocketing the key. + +"However," said he, "I'm not going to argue with you. I've evidently +wasted my time in treating you reasonably. Now, there are only two +courses open to you. You can come my way, with me, or--" + +He crossed the room again and pulled back the loose panel in the +wainscot, pointed to the dark cavity it had concealed. + +"There's a boat from the _Olive Branch_ at the water-gate at the end of +this passage. You're perfectly free to go back on board with Captain +Dove, and--if you do, I wish you joy of your choice. I'm maybe not much +of a catch as a husband, but--" He left the inference unspoken, +significantly, daring her to go back to that dreadful fate by hinting +at which he had once before forced her to change her mind. + +Captain Dove got on to his feet with a puzzled scowl. Slyne had turned +aside, to light a couple of candles, as if in preparation for a descent +underground. + +Captain Dove slowly drew the back of one hand across his mouth and from +behind it whispered a few words to Sallie. "Humour him just now," he +advised with suppressed vehemence. "I'll see you safe." + +"Well?" Slyne demanded and came toward her. "Which is it to be? Time's +up." + +His hands hung open but tense at his sides. His teeth were set between +parted lips, his knees bent a little as he braced himself to spring at +her wrists before she could make any movement in self-defence. Captain +Dove had stepped up behind her and she did not doubt that, unless she +fell in with their wishes, they meant now to overpower her and carry her +off. + +She did not move for a moment, but her clouded eyes slowly cleared, and +Slyne, studying her features intently, relaxed his own strained attitude +a little as if in fore-knowledge of final success. + +Sallie's expression of utter despair had given place to one of +resignation, almost of peace. She had made up her mind to have done with +the seemingly endless, unequal struggle. + +"Very well, Jasper," she said slowly at last, in a very hurtful voice. +"You may tell the others--whatever you like--at dinner to-night, if +you'll wait till then." + +Captain Dove drew back and returned to his chair, as if satisfied for +the moment. Slyne's dogged glance had dropped before the tragedy in her +eyes. + +"You can surely trust me, Sallie," he said, "after all I've done for +you. And, listen! I'm not trying to rush you, either. If you'll tell the +others at dinner to-night just that you take me for your husband--I'll +wait till the end of the three months for our real wedding in church." + +She could not quite understand what he really wanted, and looked her +perplexity. But her mind was made up. She meant to keep any promise she +might have made him, whether in writing or otherwise, and even +mistakenly. + +"Will you let me go now?" she begged brokenly, and he went to open the +door for her. + +"You'll say nothing about it to anyone till--the time comes," he +stipulated before he would turn the key, and to that also she agreed +with a nod, not trusting herself to speak. + +She was very thankful that she met no one on her way to her own rooms, +for her eyes were wet. She had never felt so utterly forlorn and +friendless as now. There was no one in whom she might safely confide, no +one who could help her safely past the promise into which she had been +tricked, that promise to which, she did not doubt, the law would hold +her firmly. And, in any case, she could not have gone back on board the +_Olive Branch_--to a fate even worse. + +Ambrizette was awaiting her, to dress her for dinner, but, on a sudden +impulse, she sat down at the escritoire in her boudoir to write a few +hurried lines to Carthew. She thought she would like to see him again, +before-- + +Her letter ready, she bade Ambrizette ring the bell. It was the maid +Mairi who answered it, and, when Sallie looked up again, she saw that +the girl was silently crying. + +"What's the matter, Mairi?" she asked in her gentle voice, forgetting +her own cruel cares for the moment, and at that the half-hysterical +maid broke into a storm of unintelligible explanations in Gaelic, with +here and there a broken sentence that Sallie could understand. + +Her heavy-hearted mistress rose and put a protecting arm about her. + +"You must tell me what the trouble is," said Sallie softly, "and I'll +try to help you. What is it that has gone wrong?" + +"_Ochon--ochon--ochanorie!_" the girl sobbed. "It is for your +ladyship--not for me--and I was not to tell you, whatever. But--it is +not right at all that I must not speak. Your ladyship should be told in +time--it is that the White Lady has come to the castle again--and--there +will be doom to follow before daylight. _Ochon, ochon!_" + +Sallie shivered in spite of herself, as she recalled the uncanny legend +which Mr. Jobling had related on the evening of their arrival. She had +scarcely thought of it since, but now-- + +"Who has seen the White Lady, Mairi?" she asked patiently, and the girl +grew a little calmer. + +"I, with my own eyes, your ladyship," she declared. "It was at a turn of +the passage not far from Mistress M'Kissock's room. And I did not run +from it, moreover. I stood and watched till it disappeared, for I was +afraid to move. And Mistress M'Kissock will say that it is all havers +and nonsense, but I am sure. For it was seen in the woods as well, on +the way to the hut that was Lord St. Just's, and Donuil Mohr, the +forester, it was who saw it there." + +Sallie sighed. She did not know what to think of it all, she who had so +much else to think about. But she comforted the distressed Mairi, and +presently sent her off on her errand, dry-eyed at last, and with word +for the other servants that her ladyship was not in the least afraid of +any such shadow seen in the dusk. + +Sallie had almost forgotten the matter, indeed, before Ambrizette--much +exercised in her mind by her beloved mistress's very evident and unusual +preoccupation--had finished brushing out her beautiful hair and heaped +it about her bent head in a heavy red-gold crown. When her toilette was +quite complete, she looked wistfully round the luxurious rooms in which +she had dreamed such happy dreams, and then went quietly through, a +tall, slender, white-robed figure herself in the firelight, to one of +the windows that look down Loch Jura and out to sea. She stopped there, +and stayed for a time gazing out at the silver sheen of the ripple among +which the Small Isles were set. The snow had ceased for the moment, but +it looked as if there were more to come. + +She looked directly downward, at the quiet village below. There was only +a single light visible, and that at the inn. It was suddenly +extinguished and Sallie turned away from the window. + +"I wonder--I think he will come," she told herself, if a little +doubtfully, as she passed through her boudoir again on her way to rejoin +her guests; she paused for an instant to throw two warm, white arms +about Ambrizette watching her as she went, out of dog-like eyes with a +world of dumb devotion in them. + +"I think he will come," she encouraged herself as she entered the +distant drawing-room. "He promised-- + +"Oh, Mr. Herries!" + +She had stopped, a little startled, at sight of the solitary figure +before the fire. But it was none other than the old factor, a very +cadaverous spectacle in evening clothes much too ample for one so +emaciated, who came forward with a hasty apology for his intrusion. + +"I'm quite well again now," he assured her, in reply to her anxious +questions, "and--I thought I would risk taking the liberty--if you will +grant me permission to sit at table with you to-night. I always had that +privilege with the earl." + +Sallie thought she knew his real reason for being there, and it touched +her sore heart to think that he was so eager to be at her side, sick or +well, while the strange portent of which Mairi had told her was still +impending. + +"Do you really believe in the White Lady, Mr. Herries?" she asked with a +little laugh that was half a sigh, as she put her hands into his and so +set him down on a chair. + +"I couldn't exactly say either yes or no," the old man answered with +native caution. "But, at any rate, I've never seen--any such nonsense +myself." + +"I don't," declared Sallie, with simple conviction, and, turning as some +one else entered the room, "He _will_ come," said she to herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE WHITE LADY + + +As Carthew, at the brink of the smooth plateau before the hut on the +cliffs looked round instinctively, he caught sight of a tall white +shadow that seemed to be moving toward him through the gloom among the +tree-trunks. The evening was drawing in. He had thought he was quite +alone there. He went round outside the hut to see what that stealthy +shape might be. + +He heard a sudden rustling not far away, and saw Captain Dove spring up +from behind a bush to gaze about apprehensively. It flashed across his +mind that Captain Dove must have been dogging him. He stayed where he +was, watching the old man's precipitate flight followed by the figure in +cloak and hood, which had darted a horrified, disbelieving glance of +recognition at himself as it passed but was evidently too intent on its +pursuit to pause. + +Carthew had recognised it too, although it passed his understanding +altogether to conceive how his own old enemy could have come to +Loquhariot. He was, indeed, so taken aback at sight of the Emir El +Farish there, and in such a state, that it was some minutes later before +he had recovered his wits sufficiently to follow the trail of the +strange chase he had witnessed. + +He was too late then, and it was already dark. But he ranged the woods +for some time before he would give up his anxious quest. He felt very +much inclined to call at the castle and come to some understanding with +Captain Dove. But--his promise to Sallie prevented him. He must keep +that at all costs. Until the three months' grace she had begged should +be up, he must continue to possess his soul in patience--or otherwise. + +But now--that would be even more difficult than it had lately become. +For, until now, he had quietly acquiesced in all that had happened +because he could not help either her or himself. But now--the proof he +had lacked could be obtained--from El Farish; proof that Sallie was +usurping a dead woman's name and place. + +He walked down the hill to the inn with his chin on his chest, wondering +what the upshot would be if he should take Sallie herself into his +confidence. But he was afraid to do that. He felt almost sure that, if +she found out from him how she herself had been imposed upon, he might +forthwith give up his dearest hope. + +On the little green board in the hallway of the Jura Arms, he found two +letters awaiting him. The steamer which had arrived that afternoon had +evidently brought a belated mail. He noticed incuriously that his two +correspondents were Messrs. Bolder & Bolder, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, +London, W.C., and the Western lawyer who had arranged the mortgage of +his ranch. Then he laid the letters aside and sat down on the edge of +his truckle-bed with a pipe. + +A little later the maid-of-all-work knocked at his door with a note from +the castle. He opened it and read it at once. Then he called after her +to order a conveyance for him, and began to hunt out his evening clothes +in a hurry. He had only half an hour in which to change and get to the +castle again. He was going to dine there, with Sallie--who signed her +name as Josceline Justice. + +All the previous timid invitations which she had extended to him when he +had chanced to meet her out of doors he had refused. But to-night he +felt that it might be unwise to absent himself--some premonition of +trouble impending caused him to frown at himself in his glass as he +hastily patted a white tie into its place. + +He paused to open his mail before leaving his room. The first letter +briefly begged to inform him that the mortgage on his ranch had not been +met on the due date and, failing an immediate remittance, must be called +in with all costs. The second told him no less concisely that Sallie's +claim to his title and inheritance had, to all intents and purposes, +been recognised and admitted as valid by the Court of Chancery, +expressed Messrs. Bolder & Bolder's polite regrets over the +disappointment which that could not but occasion him, and served to +enclose a small account of theirs against him, still outstanding. He put +them both in the fire and hurried downstairs. + +He was a little late in reaching the castle, but found the company still +in the drawing-room; and, as Sallie came forward to greet him, a little +look of belated contentment crept into her tired eyes. + +"I'm glad you were able to come," was all she said in answer to his +apologies, and turned to present him to the Duchess of Dawn, with whom +Slyne was chatting, two very aristocratic figures, the young duchess a +ravishing picture in one of Sallie's Parisian gowns, Slyne elegant as +always in evening clothes. + +Lord Ingoldsby, less perfectly fitted and with more than one crease in +his white waistcoat, nodded indifferently to Carthew and intercepted +Sallie as she introduced the young American to him. So Carthew turned to +congratulate Mr. Herries on his recovery. Captain Dove and Mr. Jobling +had carefully avoided his eyes. That had been a somewhat awkward moment +for all of them, and Carthew, although his own conscience was clear as +regarded the other men, was glad that dinner was promptly announced. + +That was the first time he had seen the banquet-hall under such +conditions, and he blinked at the vista displayed as the big double +doors were drawn apart. + +The dinner-table in the distance was ablaze under its branching +candelabra, in each of which were burning numberless wicks under silken +shades. The silver girandoles above the butler's buffet beyond it were +no less dazzling, while everywhere else a warm dusk deepened into almost +absolute darkness wherever the glow from the still log-fires could not +penetrate. + +The table appointments seemed to be the most splendid the castle could +boast. Carthew could catch the dull glint of gold plate on the buffet. +Eight heavy, high-backed chairs of black carved oak were set about the +white oasis that the table made on the dark floor. Behind each stood a +silent footman, tartan-kilted, tanned of face above a spacious white +shirt-front which showed off an old-fashioned doublet handsomely. + +Slyne was leading the Duchess of Dawn to her seat. Lord Ingoldsby had +Sallie upon his arm: and Mr. Jobling hovered close at her other +shoulder. She sat down between them, with his sullen lordship on her +right facing the effusive lawyer. And Carthew, following, noticed that +she looked round once or twice in his own direction. Captain Dove, a +queer-looking figure, had seated himself at Slyne's side, opposite the +duchess, and Herries took the chair between him and Lord Ingoldsby, +leaving Carthew next the duchess. + +The piper made his appearance according to the time-honoured tradition, +and marched twice round the table while the oaken rafters overhead rang +to the dirl of the dance he drew from his chanter. It was undoubtedly a +picturesque if somewhat deafening preliminary to dinner, thought +Carthew, looking on much interested at the ceremonial which should have +been his prerogative instead of Sallie's. And, as the man withdrew to +the inner corridor, Carthew encountered Captain Dove's furtive glance. + +But it fell instantly, and the old man went on contemplatively crumbling +the roll before him. He seemed to be in a somewhat somnolent mood. It +occurred to Carthew that he must have been drinking a good deal before +dinner. + +A brisk conversation had been begun at Sallie's end of the table, where +Mr. Jobling and Lord Ingoldsby were both talking to her at once. Slyne +was entertaining the duchess. Carthew exchanged a casual remark or two +across the table with Herries and then was drawn into a laughing +discussion with the duchess, in which Slyne also took part, suave but by +no means friendly toward Carthew. And so course of the stately dinner +succeeded course. + +More than once, Carthew wished that it were well over. There seemed to +be something in the air that affected his nerves unpleasantly. His eyes +were always meeting Sallie's--and it seemed to him that it was costing +her also no little effort to maintain any interest in the trivialities +of the table. + +He felt sure that both Captain Dove and Slyne had some secret on their +minds. But whether that affected her and him he had no means of finding +out. The coming of El Farish had further complicated a situation already +complicated almost beyond his mental powers. He felt quite impotent to +cope with it, under the added handicap of his promise to Sallie. He felt +as though his promise in some sense made him a party to the unspeakably +cruel deception which must have been practised on her, and that she +might perhaps be justified in blaming him when she should find out--as +she surely must--that her presence there was no more than part of a +fraudulent masquerade. He was afraid to think how she might deal with +him on that score when he should offer her, as he intended to do +whenever he should find himself free to speak, himself--and his earldom, +for what that was worth. + +It suddenly occurred to him that he might find out something concerning +El Farish from Captain Dove. All the others but Herries and he were +busy. Carthew spoke to Herries across the table. + +"I had a queer adventure this afternoon," he said, "at the hut on the +cliffs near the head of the loch." + +The old factor nodded. "That was Lord St. Just's workshop, Mr. Carthew," +he mentioned. + +"Well, I went up there to see how the timber had stood the storm, as you +told me. And, just before turning into the woods, I took a notion to see +what was over the edge--it seemed to me that a good stout railing was +badly wanted there." + +Herries nodded again. "That's so," he assented, lowering his voice. +"It's a very dangerous spot. That was where Lord St. Just lost his life. +But now--no one ever goes near the hut." + +Carthew glanced at Captain Dove. But the old man's eyes were quite +unreadable behind his smoked glasses. He was listening indifferently. + +"I can't imagine," Carthew went on, "what it was that suddenly made me +look round, but I did. And I caught a glimpse of a most uncanny figure +watching me from among the undergrowth about the trees behind. It was +all in white, with a hood pulled over its head." + +A lull in the conversation elsewhere left only his voice audible. The +attention of the others had been attracted, and even the soft-footed +servants seemed to be hanging upon his words. Sallie looked surprised, +puzzled, even a little afraid. Captain Dove's features spoke a gnawing +anxiety now. Slyne's close-set, unfriendly eyes were fixed intently upon +him. + +"That gave me a cold scare," Carthew continued, almost inclined to wish +that he had not mentioned the matter at all. "I'm not quite acclimatised +yet to such apparitions. So I dodged behind the hut for shelter and to +get a better look at it. But it made off again, almost immediately, in +the direction of the castle. + +"I chased after it in a minute or two--but I was too late. It had +disappeared. And I've been wondering ever since, who and what it could +have been," he finished, his eyes, meeting Captain Dove's, expressing +only innocent inquiry. + +The footman behind him dropped a plate, and the crash that produced +startled every one more than it need have. An atmosphere of strained +expectancy and unrest seemed to pervade the shadowy banquet-hall. Even +Lord Ingoldsby, who had been regarding Carthew with sulky ill-will, +could not but notice it. + +"Isn't there a tame ghost of some sort about Loquhariot?" he asked +Sallie, and, catching the duchess's eye, shrank into himself again under +the glance she darted at him. + +"Not another word about wraiths and spectres!" his youthful aunt ordered +briskly. "We don't want our dinner spoiled with any such nonsense. The +White Lady isn't a subject for table-talk, Ingoldsby. We've a skeleton +in the cupboard at Dawn, too, you know, as every respectable Highland +family has. But I fancy that what Mr. Carthew really saw to-day was +simply some snow-laden bush." + +"Dawn must be a very beautiful old place," Slyne remarked to the +duchess, and Lord Ingoldsby turned toward Sallie again; as did Mr. +Jobling after a glance of extreme disfavour at Carthew, on his other +hand. And Carthew could not at all understand the general gravity, until +Herries whispered over to him, under cover of the renewed conversation, +"You haven't heard of our White Lady here, yet, Mr. Carthew. But she +brings dule to the house, and--they say it was her that was seen in the +woods this afternoon." + +Carthew nodded. He had heard nothing of any such superstition, but knew +enough already of the natives of those wilds to understand how they +would cling to it. He thought for a moment of telling Herries that it +was a man and no woman whom he had seen, but that would perhaps have +disclosed too much to Captain Dove, and he decided to keep his own +counsel until he could obtain some safer clue to all those mysteries. + +Some movement in the little gallery above the buffet caught his +attention, and he thought he could see the old housekeeper, Mrs. +M'Kissock, at the balustrade with Ambrizette, Sallie's black maid, all +eyes, looking down at the gathering. And the smile Sallie flashed at +him as he looked at her told him she also knew that they were there. + +Slyne grew somewhat distrait and restless as the long dinner ran its +course, and Carthew had to devote more attention to the duchess. Among +the rest of the company all seemed to be going well. Mr. Jobling and +Lord Ingoldsby were both growing always more garrulous, and even Captain +Dove had brightened up under the sunny influence of the rare vintages +dispensed by the butler; he had got to the length of discussing the +lights on that coast with Herries, the factor, before the pop of a cork +at the buffet served to announce that the champagne was coming next. + +Slyne was obviously about to claim the attention of the table. Carthew +supposed he must be going to propose some toast, and wondered whether he +did not know any better than that. But he waited till every glass was +filled before he made any move, and when Sallie would have refused the +wine he sent the butler back to her with a whispered message. At which, +Carthew observed, a sudden pallor overspread her face; he was watching +her very closely. + +The rest of the company and the servants also looked round at Slyne in +surprise as he rose, but Carthew did not. He had seen Sallie lift a +filmy, lace-edged handkerchief from her lap--and caught sight of +something that it was meant to conceal. She raised a clenched hand above +the wine-glass before her, and Carthew could have sworn that he saw some +colourless drops splash down on the bubbling champagne. Then she slipped +her handkerchief out of sight again, and sat with bent head, idly +twirling the stem of the wine-glass between her fingers, watching the +white froth break at its brim. + +And still Slyne said nothing. Carthew scarcely dared to glance up at him +till he saw that Sallie was gazing that way with wonder and fear in her +eyes. + +Slyne was standing rigid. The glass he had lifted was tilting over, its +contents dripping out on the table-cloth. His mouth was open, as if to +speak, and his lips were moving but emitted no sound. He was staring +fixedly into an obscure corner under the musicians' gallery, where was +the service-doorway from which the piper always appeared. + +The others had turned their eyes in the same direction. The very +servants seemed to have lost all self-control, stood stricken, gasping, +helpless. And no one even breathed as a shadowy figure came slowly +shambling out of the dusk into the crimson light of the fire. + +It halted, irresolute, a lean, stooping, bald-headed figure, with a +haggard, foolish face contorted to hold a single eye-glass in place. On +its forehead was a red smudge, as of iron-rust. It was wearing a +disreputable, greasy blue uniform with not a few ragged rents in it. Its +boots were equally shapeless and one was burst. There was snow on them. + +Captain Dove was the first among the company to recover the power of +speech. + +"What the devil do _you_ want here, Brasse!" he cried, in a choking +voice, which yet was charged with relief as if from some paralysing +fear. + +But before the engineer could answer a word, Herries, the old factor, +had risen shakily from his seat and shuffled across the floor toward +him, was peering stupidly into his face, looking him up and down with +eyes that were almost blind. The duchess had got up too. Slyne had sunk +into his chair again, scowling blackly, pulling at his moustache. Lord +Ingoldsby and Carthew and Mr. Jobling were still gazing blankly at the +intruder. Sallie sat motionless, with one hand always at the stem of her +wine-glass. + +The duchess lifted the shade off one of the lights on the candelabra and +looked still more searchingly at the engineer. + +"Torquil St. Just!" she whispered at length, and "Lord St. Just!" cried +Herries at the same moment. + +The scarecrow with the eye-glass held out a slack hand to the old +factor. "Hullo, Herries," he remarked, in a husky voice, "I didn't +recognise you at first. You've aged a lot." And, glancing across at the +duchess, "Isn't that Lady Jane Gairloch, Herries?" he asked in an +audible aside. "She was only a slip of a girl, you know, old chap, +when--I left home." + +"She's the--Duchess--of Dawn, now,--my lord," answered Herries, the +factor, helplessly. "And--you're Earl of Jura--now." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH + + +When the chief engineer of the _Olive Branch_ at last put off from the +ship for the shore in response to Captain Dove's second and still more +peremptory message, he took the tiller of the boat himself, and steered +straight for the water-gate of the castle. In one of his pockets he had +a rusty key which presently served to turn its creaking lock. + +He had left his coat in the boat and ordered the boat's crew to await +his return. And he made his way with accustomed steps, almost +noiselessly in his rubber-soled shoes, up the sloping underground +passage which leads from the long-disused water-gate toward the gun-room +which long ago was the armoury of the castle. + +Once he halted to strike a match. Its feeble light showed him the rough +rock walls and roof of the tunnel, the uneven slope underfoot worn +almost smooth by nefarious traffic long since at an end. + +He advanced again, cautiously, till he came to the brink of a broad, +gaping chasm, which, but for a couple of carelessly carpentered +fir-trunks stretching across it, would have closed that pathway +effectually against him or anyone attempting to enter the castle by +stealth, as he was doing. + +He tested that makeshift bridge as well as he might before crossing it. +Half-way over, a cold, damp breath from the depths beneath blew out +another match he had struck as he started. A muted gurgle and squatter +that came uncannily to his ears told of the subterranean tide crawling +in to cleanse again the far floor of the pit below which had so often in +the past served for a charnel-house. Creeping over the tree-trunks, he +shrugged his shoulders as that thought passed through his mind, and drew +a breath of relief as he stepped on to the solid rock on the other side. + +From there, the way to the steps at the gun-room entrance was clear and +the old iron gates above and below were both wide, as he discovered by +sense of touch. He set an ear to the panel beyond, to find out whether +the gun-room was occupied, and heard only a long-drawn groan. That +seemed to come from somewhere behind him. He descended the steps again, +listening intently. + +Another safety-match sputtered and broke into a blue light in his +tremulous fingers. He saw that the bolt on the outside of the cell door +at the foot of the steps was shot and judged that there must be some one +within. For a moment, he hesitated; and then he pulled the bolt free. + +"Who's there?" he asked of the darkness that gave him back only another +low groan for answer. + +The heavy hinges of the door creaked as he thrust it open and entered. +His last match showed him a huddled white heap in one corner, two hands +tied behind it, a grey-haired and bleeding head. He turned back and +pushed up into the gun-room without more ado. It was empty. + +He looked dazedly about him in the bright lamplight, and his eyes fell +on a couple of candlesticks. He picked one up and found a full box of +matches beside it. From the decanter on the table before the fire he +partly filled a glass, and disappeared down the steps again with his +candle to show him the way, drawing the panel back into place behind +him. + +Within the cell door he set down the glass he was carrying and, pulling +out a pocket-knife, cut through the cord which secured the wrists of the +prone figure in the corner. Its hands fell limply apart and lay palms +upward. He did not at once release its ankles, but, stooping over it, +pulled it round on to its back--and sprang away from it in such frantic +haste that the candle jumped from its holder and left him in darkness +again. + +He all but brained himself as he rushed for the door, but he got outside +and, stunned as he was, set his shoulder to it. It closed with a clang +and, as he shot the bolt home, he sank to his knees, breathing brokenly, +his forehead on its rusty iron. He righted himself with an effort, but +stayed where he was, sitting huddled together against the rock wall, his +face damp with cold perspiration. He was blind in the blackness about +him and could hear nothing but the trip-hammer beat of his own strained +heart. + +Its turbulence began to die down by degrees and in time he regained some +command of his stupefied faculties. + +"It couldn't possibly be," he kept on assuring himself. "I must have +been mistaken. It couldn't possibly--" + +He pulled his slack limbs up under him, and rose, slowly, forcing them +to obey him. + +"But I must make sure," he muttered, and still let himself linger +outside the cell door, to listen for any sound from within. + +A groan, fainter than the first he had heard, encouraged him. + +"Pretty far through, whoever he is," said he to himself, and with +another effort of will-power once more pulled back the bolt. + +The fresh match he struck, before going further, showed him that the man +inside had not moved, and he found his candle where it had fallen, in +time to light it before his match burned out. With it in one hand he +went forward on tiptoe, to study the other's features intently, his own +expressing fear, absolute disbelief, doubt, a growing conviction in +turn. + +"It is M'Kissock!" he cried finally, and at the words unconsciously +uttered, the other's eyelids began to flicker in the candle-light until +at length they opened and remained open at their widest. And for a long +time they two stayed thus, regarding each other as if bereft of power of +movement or speech. + +Then Farish M'Kissock's slack jaws took to twitching convulsively. A low +moaning broke from his mouth. A film came over his dreadfully staring +eyes. He would have fallen unconscious again had not the engineer +snatched up the glass at one side and poured down his throat a few drops +of the spirit it held. His teeth closed with a snap and he groaned +again, heartrendingly; but, in a little, he had so far benefited by that +hurtful remedy as to recover the use of his voice. His lips moved and +his rescuer leaned forward to catch the hoarse, agonised whisper that +came from them. + +"You were always--a cruel devil, Lord St. Just," gasped Farish +M'Kissock, "even when you were alive. It should be my right--to torment +_you_ now, and not--you me!" + +The engineer drew back a little. He knew then that he had not been +mistaken. + +"You're not dead yet, M'Kissock," said he soothingly, in his voice of a +gentleman, "although--I'll be damned if I can understand how that is!" +And then, suddenly realising a little of all it must mean to him that +his old enemy was still living, "If I had only known--" he murmured with +exceeding bitterness. "Oh, my God! Think of all those awful years!" + +Farish M'Kissock attempted to laugh, with a very horrid effect. He +raised a trembling hand to his head, and looked at its fingers, all +smeared with red. His rolling eyes tried to pierce the obscurity of the +vault in which he was lying. Remembrance of the more immediate past +began to stir in his mind. He drew a long, deep, painful breath. + +"I thought--I thought--" he mumbled brokenly, and his eyes closed. He +was once more insensible. + +The engineer of the _Olive Branch_ looked round for the candlestick he +had dropped, and, finding that, made his light safe. Then he kneeled +down beside the other and raised his head and lifted him so that his +shoulders should rest on the rock behind. Another teaspoonful of the +stimulant in the glass flogged his patient's flagging heart into further +effort, and Farish M'Kissock opened his eyes again. + +"Loose my feet," he begged brokenly, and the engineer did so: but he lay +still where he was, too weak to move. For a time, the only sound to be +heard was his hurtful, irregular breathing. Then he glanced curiously, +for the first time, at his rescuer's threadbare blue uniform. + +"You're just in time, Lord St. Just," said he, his voice clearer and his +ideas beginning to gain some coherent shape. "Though that's not the name +I should be calling you now, since you're still living in spite of me, +and Earl of Jura by all the laws of the land. + +"But--where have you come from so late-along? Where have you been +since--They hold it against me here to this day that I murdered your +lordship; and--there was your body found later on at the foot of the +cliffs in front of your hut." + +The other sat down by the doorway, with a limp shrug of the shoulders +that spoke a weariness beyond words. + +"I didn't fall very far, M'Kissock," he answered presently. "And--I +thought you must have slipped over too as we fought there--for I saw a +body sunk among the rocks in the water below; it was a still day, you +remember. But--where were you?" + +"I took to my heels through the woods, thinking it would go ill with me +when what I believed had happened to you came out; for it was known that +I had gone to your hut to seek you, and why." His voice grew very hard, +and he shot a glance of unquenchable hatred at his companion. "So I lay +hid in the hills till nightfall, and then fled the countryside. I heard +afterwards that they had found your body, although it was scarcely more +than a rickle of bare bones by then, and of course they put the blame of +it all on me without more ado." + +The engineer of the _Olive Branch_ who was also the Earl of Jura sighed +drearily. The best years of his life had gone to pay the penalty fate +had exacted, through that mistake, for a fault he had almost forgotten. +And now, desire had failed him; his spirit was utterly broken. + +"I was just such another fool as yourself, M'Kissock!" said he in a +hopeless tone. "I was afraid they would lay your death at my door, +and--I bolted too; without a word to a living soul. I've been afraid +ever since, because--I've been told that the police were always looking +for me." + +M'Kissock's jaw dropped. He looked again at the other's torn uniform. + +"Who was it told you that?" he asked, almost in a whisper. + +"The Old Man on the _Olive Branch_. I've been chief engineer on his ship +for five or six years, and before that--I shipped as a stoker at first, +M'Kissock, at Yedo, in Japan. I was starving there. And I've worked for +him all that time like a slave--on the strength of a groundless lie!" + +"Had he any idea who you were?" the other demanded. + +"I thought he must know; but I can see now that he was simply making a +fool of me for his own ends. If he had known, he surely wouldn't have +sent for me to come ashore here." + +"He certainly would not," agreed his companion with grim assurance, and +they both fell silent again, each engrossed in his own overwhelming, +embittered reflections. + +"Dove knows nothing at all about you," said Farish M'Kissock presently, +and Lord Jura looked up as if astonished at the sound of his voice. + +"But--how do you know that, M'Kissock?" the latter inquired in a +querulous tone, pulling nervously at his under-lip. "What are you doing +here, in that queer rig-out? I don't understand. Where have you--" + +"I've been just such another fool as yourself, my lord," said Farish +M'Kissock, his voice vibrant with impotent, irrepressible anger. "It's +worse than damnable to think--You'll scarcely believe that I've served +under Dove in my time, but it's true enough. I was second mate on the +_Fer de Lance_, long ago, when he called himself Captain Brown. And--I +owe him a score as heavy as yours, ay, and heavier; a score I came here +to pay. But I was too hasty, and--he got the better of me at the start; +I was no match for the two of them--he had the man Slyne on his side." +His breath almost failed him and he fell to coughing convulsively. + +"And--what has brought them to Loquhariot?" the other asked in utter +amazement as soon as he could make himself heard. But Farish M'Kissock +sat wheezing and gasping for some little time before answering that. + +"They have come with one whom they call the Lady Josceline Justice," +said he at length, glancing askance at his companion. "Slyne's minded to +marry her now--and so lay hands on all that is yours." + +The Earl of Jura gazed blankly at his burst boots. His mind was all in a +muddle. The stokehold of the _Olive Branch_, and then its engine-room, +seemed to have sapped whatever intelligence he might once have +possessed. His belated release from slavery had left him with his wits +benumbed and torpid. + +"But, of course, they don't know that I--" he began, his face +brightening, and then broke off. "Where did they get hold of her, +M'Kissock?" + +"Dove's had her on board his ship for years," said Farish M'Kissock +brusquely. + +"Is it Sallie you're talking about!" he exclaimed. "Good God! Can it be +possible that--But never mind now. I must--" He made as if to rise. + +"Wait a minute, my lord," requested Farish M'Kissock in a tone which +compelled his attention. "You've got two desperate men to deal with +above-stairs. You've seen how they've handled me, and they would think +nothing of throwing the two of us, neck and crop, into the drowning-hole +in the tunnel behind you. You will be very ill-advised to beard them +alone. I can help you--" + +"How?" + +"You'll see when the time comes." + +"But I can't stay squatting here like a rat in a drain while they--I'm a +free man--now that I know you're alive after all," declared the ragged +scarecrow with the eye-glass, as if to encourage himself. "And I'm Earl +of Jura; there's no getting out of that. I must put a stop to Slyne's +villainous scheme at once, M'Kissock. He's a rotten bad egg; _I_ know +him. It would never do to let him get--her into his infernal clutches." + +Farish M'Kissock eyed him with no good will. + +"Ay," he agreed reluctantly. "Your lordship's a belted earl now, by all +the laws of the land. And Farish M'Kissock that was a king is fated to +die a beggar. + +"But, first,--and it's hard, dooms hard!--I must help you--so far at +least. It's the two of us against those other two, for the moment. +Afterwards, we will talk of--yon old matter between us; for, mind you! +Lord Jura, I neither forget nor forgive." + +The Earl of Jura shrugged his shoulders again. He had almost forgotten +the cause of his old quarrel on the cliffs with the gamekeeper's son. He +had more than enough to think about in its seemingly endless outcome. +And his apparent indifference seemed to inflame the hatred the other +still bore him. + +"I will help you--but only because I _must_," said Farish M'Kissock +harshly. "And you must help me to help you--to your own hurt." + +He leaned forward, panting, as if enraged over his own weakness of body. +The engineer rose, regarding him as if not very sure of his sanity, +and, having picked up the candle, assisted him to his feet. He stood for +a moment supporting himself by the wall, his knees giving and recovering +under him, and then the giddiness passed. He took a tentative step or +two and presently was able to follow his rescuer from the cell. + +"Is there anyone in the gun-room?" he asked in an anxious whisper at the +foot of the steps. Lord Jura listened closely for a moment or two at the +panel above, drew it open a little, and looking down again, shook his +head. He pulled the panel wide and then held out a hand to his follower; +who took it very reluctantly and, with its aid, reached the room above, +step by slow, uncertain step. + +"Sit down and rest for a minute or two," suggested the engineer. + +"Not here," he demurred. "It wouldn't be safe--too near the tunnel. We +must have help at hand when we meet them. What time is it? They'll be at +dinner now. Take me along the servants' passage and by the terrace to +the Pipers' Port: we should meet no one that way." + +But the other, a hand at his tremulous lips, was looking with mazed eyes +about the remembered room that he had so often seen in his dreams during +the age-long time of torment he had endured. His rods lay ready for use +in the long rack where he had left them. A pair of guns his father had +given him stood in their usual place at one end of the full stand +adorning one wall. The head of his first stag still hung above the +mantel, and the big wild-cat he had killed in the wood behind his hut on +the cliffs glared at him out of its glass eyes from over the door +leading to the pantry. That corner at least of the castle was quite +unchanged. + +He caught sight of his own reflection in the plate-glass casing which +covered another full stand of guns, and turned away from it with a +grimace of distaste. He had certainly changed, and very much for the +worse, himself, since he had last seen Loquhariot. He glanced at Farish +M'Kissock, the gamekeeper's son with whom he had fought, as he almost +blushed to remember, about a girl, and was still more shocked to see the +skeleton-like, decrepit-looking old man regarding him with hot, inimical +eyes from under shaggy down-drawn white eyebrows above which hung long +matted locks of grey hair darkly discoloured with drying blood; for they +two had been headstrong lads together, friends in some sort, companions +at least in many a scapegrace prank. + +"Ay," said Farish M'Kissock unpleasantly, as though reading the thought +that ran through his mind. "I'm far worse-looking than you are, my lord. +And something of that I am owing your lordship. But never mind now; we +have other matters before us first, and it will be well to attend to +them before it may be too late." + +The engineer started at that. His head was not very clear and he had for +the moment almost forgotten-- + +"Come on, then, M'Kissock," said he, and blew out the candle he was +still unconsciously carrying and led the way through the little pantry +behind. + +The two of them emerged from that into a dimly lighted passage along +which they proceeded without a sound as far as another door which opened +outward on to the lower battlements at the seaward front of the castle. + +"Let me through first," requested Farish M'Kissock, after his companion +had made sure that there was no one beyond it, "and mind that the wind +doesn't drive it shut with a clash." He was firmer upon his feet now and +seemed to have gained some measure of strength from the stimulus of his +stubborn purpose. Bare-foot as he was, he took no notice of the driving +snow on the terrace outside, although his companion shivered as they +turned along the wall in the teeth of the blast that was blowing. + +"Get inside, for God's sake!" Lord Jura begged of the ghostly figure in +front of him as it stooped to set an ear to the keyhole in the portico +at the other end of the terrace, and his teeth were chattering when he +entered the dark, empty closet behind it. + +He had to set his shoulder to it to shut it against the storm. As soon +as he had accomplished that, he shook the snow from his ragged coat and +struck a match and glanced stupidly about him. + +"Put that out," ordered Farish M'Kissock in a suppressed, angry whisper. +"They'll maybe see some glimmer--they're all inside." + +The other obeyed him meekly, and for a space the two of them stood there +in the darkness, on the alert, drawing quick, restricted breaths. They +could hear the echo of voices from the banquet-hall. These gradually +died away, all but one which seemed to be telling some story. A distant +crash, as of a dish dropped on the floor, alarmed the two listeners, but +after that the conversation and laughter within went on again. The +engineer crossed the closet noiselessly on his rubber soles, and, "What +next, M'Kissock?" he whispered, as if content to resign himself to the +guidance of the more masterful will. + +"You will go in to them," the other instructed him. "Hear what you can +before you declare yourself, and--you must judge for yourself what to +say and do. I'll wait behind for a bit--Dove and Slyne believe that I'm +safely out of the way--but, as soon as it's needful, I'll face them +too. Till then, never mention my name nor any word of what I have told +you. + +"Pluck up some heart!" he hissed savagely. "This is the Castle of +Loquhariot--and you're the Earl of Jura. But they'll out-match you yet +unless you stand your ground against them." + +The engineer humbly attempted to square his shoulders, and, fumbling, +found the latch of the door. He opened it very quietly, enough and no +more to see through into the banquet-hall: and stood there for a time +studying the scene at the table. Farish M'Kissock, at his elbow, was +staring out at it too, with fierce, eager eyes. He pulled the door +slowly back, and Lord Jura passed through, unnoticed among the shadows +in that obscure corner. + +A cork popped explosively, and the butler came forward from the buffet +with a big, golden-necked bottle. The engineer paused. He had recognised +Captain Dove in the distance and notwithstanding the old man's unusual +garb and black glasses. + +He caught sight of Sallie, bewilderingly beautiful in a costume such as +he had not set eyes upon since--he had last dined there himself. He +squared his stooping shoulders again, and saw Slyne rise from his seat, +the wine-glass the butler had just filled for him in one hand. + +The talk and laughter gradually subsided and silence ensued. Lord Jura +took a tentative step toward the table, and stopped again as Slyne's +careless, smiling glance suddenly met his and changed to a rigid scowl. +Then Captain Dove looked round, and, after a breathless interval, "What +the devil do _you_ want here, Brasse!" he cried explosively. + +At the sound of that harsh, hated voice, all the uncertain presence of +mind the intruder could boast deserted him. He stood as if rooted +there, a shrinking, irresolute figure, until the old factor came +shuffling across the floor toward him and some one else lifted the shade +off one of the lights on the candelabra so that it shone full on his +drawn, haggard face. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +DEBIT AND CREDIT + + +"And you're--Earl of Jura--now," stammered Herries, helplessly, as +though that undeniable fact altogether staggered belief. + +The ragged scarecrow with the eye-glass nodded, somewhat shamefacedly, +and once more made a pitiful effort to straighten his stooping +shoulders. Herries looked away, wretchedly, and then, as if +understanding something of what must be in his mind, took it upon +himself to dismiss the servants, but bidding them remain within call and +also to see to it that no word went elsewhere of what they had seen and +heard in the banquet-hall. + +The rest of the company were regarding the ex-engineer of the _Olive +Branch_ with very varied expressions. A sickly pallor had overspread +Slyne's rigid features as he heard the title by which Herries had +addressed that untimeous intruder. Captain Dove, his hands still on the +table before him, and crouching as if to spring, was breathing jerkily +from between set teeth, like one with a seizure. The Marquis of +Ingoldsby's narrow forehead was corrugated by a fixed and splenetic +frown which kept his eyes and mouth at their very widest. Behind +Sallie's questioning, compassionate, clouded glance lurked hope, and +fear, and a steadfast determination; she was still holding fast the stem +of her wine-glass. Justin Carthew looked as if he did not know in the +least who or where he was. Mr. Jobling's purple visage and pendulous +jowl spoke plainly the apoplectic and painful nature of his emotions. Of +them all, only the Duchess of Dawn seemed to have preserved any measure +of self-possession. + +While Herries was giving the butler his orders, she crossed toward the +fireplace with a little characteristic, impulsive gesture. + +"I hope you haven't forgotten me, Torquil?" said she, almost timidly. It +could not but hurt her to see what the years had made of the man who, +when she had met him last, had been little more than a teasing, +mischievous school-boy. + +"I knew you at once," he replied, and blinked back at her and cleared +his throat uncomfortably. The pinch of his present decayed estate before +her once more quickened his numb sense of the grievous injury done him +by Captain Dove. He glanced again in Captain Dove's direction, but the +old man's gaze met his absolutely mystified; and his heavy heart began +to grow hot again as he recalled how often his cunning taskmaster had +cowed him by dint of threats to disclose his unknown identity to the +police. + +"We all believed you were dead," said the duchess, and he answered her +stupidly, at random. His sullen eyes had encountered Slyne's, in which +he read aright dismay unspeakable and a stunned seeking after some +elusive scheme to turn the tables upon him yet. She saw how distrait he +was. "But you'll tell me by and by something of your adventures," said +she. "I just wanted to say how glad I am--that you're safe and sound +after all. And now I'll be off to the drawing-room with Ingoldsby. We're +only in the way here. I know you must have a great deal to say to your +sister." + +He started at hearing Sallie so styled. His restless regard had reached +her, at the end of the table next him, and he wondered what it could be +that had brought such an uncontrollable gleam of relief into her still +bewildered eyes. + +"I wish you would wait for a little, if you don't mind," he answered the +duchess. "I'd like you to stay beside her until--I get rid of some of +those others, if you don't mind." + +She nodded, if rather reluctantly, and turned aside toward Herries as +Sallie approached, holding out to the shabby prodigal whose belated +return had brought about such a stupefying change in the situation there +a tremulous, eager hand. + +"You're just in time," Sallie said to him in such a glad, warm, grateful +voice that even he, who knew very well her generous nature, was almost +surprised by her evident pleasure in thus admitting his prior right to +the high rank and vast heritage which he believed should have been hers +but for him. He was infinitely embarrassed when, before them all, she +stooped and touched with her lips the back of the claw-like, +toil-stained hand, he had tried hard to withhold from her. + +[Illustration: She touched with her lips the back of the toil-stained +hand.] + +And she, having sealed her abdication in such wise, looked up into his +flushed face with a swift, shy smile, the flutter of the fledgling hope +in her heart stirring softly the priceless lace that outlined her bosom, +and the little golden locket that lay therein. + +"You're my brother--my step-brother, now, aren't you, Mr. Brasse?" she +asked, almost in a whisper. + +"It seems so, Sallie," he answered mechanically, his wandering wits +almost beyond his control. Her unconscious use of the name by which she +had always known him had brought to his mental vision a blurred +picture of her on the bridge of the _Olive Branch_ in a stiff breeze, +himself at the fiddley-hatch. + +"And everything that might have been mine is yours now?" + +"Ours," he corrected, without any interest, as if that was of no +consequence. "There should be enough for us both; and, in any case, I +need very little--now." + +"But it's all yours by law, isn't it?" she urged. "I must make sure, +because--" She looked back, over her shoulder. Mr. Jobling had joined +Slyne and Captain Dove; the three of them were engaged, with bated +breaths, in a sibilant argument, their heads very close together. Lord +Ingoldsby had just risen and was slouching over to the other ingle-nook, +where the duchess had made Herries sit down. Only Justin Carthew +remained motionless, half turned in his high-backed chair, leaning +heavily on one of its arms while he still stared, almost unseeingly, at +Sallie and her companion. + +"How does that fellow come to be here?" asked the ex-engineer, +indicating Carthew with a puzzled nod, and, as Sallie told him what had +occurred since she herself had arrived at Loquhariot, his expression +grew always more blank again. But when she went on to explain how Slyne +had tried to entrap her for his own profit, his dull eyes brightened and +began to burn. + +"And now," she said at last, "perhaps he won't want to marry me--when +there's nothing to be gained by it. I can't tell you how thankful I am +that you've come home in time." + +Carthew got up from the table then and came limping forward to greet the +man whose belated home-coming had made such a difference to him. And +Mr. Jobling, evidently fired by his example, followed, to beg an +introduction from her ladyship to his lordship. + +"I've been acting for Lady Josceline, my lord," he explained very +volubly, having thus secured his lordship's by no means favourable +attention, "just as I would have been most happy to act for your +lordship if I had known--" He came to a sudden stop, except for a +stifled, explosive hiccough, as Captain Dove shouldered him aside and +confronted the ex-engineer of the _Olive Branch_ with his most sleek, +benevolent expression. + +Slyne was close behind Captain Dove. The pallor had passed from his +face. Mr. Jobling apparently did not deem it politic to push in again +just then. He choked down his not unnatural indignation and stayed +hovering about, very ill at ease, in the background. The others, all but +Sallie, had also moved a little away. + +But it did not seem to be Captain Dove's idea to exchange any quiet +confidences with his late chief-engineer. What he had to say was for all +ears. Without witnesses he would, no doubt, have conducted himself very +differently. Handicapped as he was by their company, he had no recourse +but to enlist their sympathies on his side. + +"Well, if this doesn't beat all for luck!" said he in a tone of the +extremest gratification, his visible features wreathed in an unctuous +smile. "I don't suppose you're sorry _now_ that you came ashore when I +sent for you, eh! You must admit that I've managed a very pleasant +little surprise for you--" + +"You've managed nothing--except to put your own neck into a noose at +last," retorted Lord Jura. He was standing very erect although he could +not control the nervous tremor at the back of his neck. He saw no need +now to mince matters with the old man, whose callous effrontery was +stirring his sluggish pulses to such a pitch that he could scarcely +resist the dire temptation to spring at his throat and choke the evil +life out of him there and then. But a light hand laid on his arm +diverted him for a moment from any such insane idea, and his unreasoning +rage died down a little as he looked round into Sallie's appealing eyes. + +"How long will it take to get the police here, Herries?" he asked +abruptly over one shoulder. And, at that, the arras in the dark corner +beside the Pipers' Port swayed slightly, as though there were some one +behind it about to come forth. + +"The telegraph-wire is down, my lord," the old factor answered +doubtfully, "and--it would maybe be wasting a life to send anyone to +attempt the Pass with a message in weather like this. But--till we can +safely get word to the police, there are lots of stout lads in +Loquhariot that will do your lordship's bidding." + +"And more on board the _Olive Branch_ that will do mine," Captain Dove +interrupted, with a smooth assurance which could not but add to the +listeners' perturbation. "Da Costa has his orders, too. It will be a bad +look out for Loquhariot if ever he and his lambs have to come ashore +here to look for me. You've seen them crack far harder nuts than this +ramshackle old castle of yours! You know very well-- + +"But what's the use of arguing about it? You owe me far too much to talk +in that style. If you could fetch the police here at this moment, you +couldn't afford to face them. You've surely forgotten--" + +"I have forgotten nothing," Lord Jura assured him, in a steady, ominous +voice. + +"That's just as well," declared Captain Dove, who seemed determined to +stand his ground, "because it will save me reminding you, before your +fashionable friends, how much I've done for you, first and last, since I +picked you up derelict on the beach at Yedo. You'd have been very badly +off without me then, eh! And, but for me, you'd maybe have come to a +worse end than starving, since. I've brought you back to your own, when +all's said and done. It doesn't say much for you, Lord Jura, that you'd +turn round on _me_ now!" + +He spoke pathetically, as one disappointed in the return made him for +favours lavished with a free hand. And such of the others as did not +know the real facts of the matter looked somewhat doubtfully at Lord +Jura. Captain Dove was obviously pleased with the impression he had +produced. + +"Everything you have done has been done entirely to serve your own +ends," the ex-engineer answered him in few words. "I owe you no +favour--not the very slightest. You owe me God knows how many years of +my life that you've tricked me out of. And, what's more--" + +"And what's more," Captain Dove interrupted, "you think you owe me only +a grudge. You've no more use for me now that I've served your turn. I've +asked nothing of you, you'll notice. It's only because you've thought +fit to threaten me that I've reminded you--" + +"There was no need," Lord Jura asserted. "I have forgotten nothing. You +can tell your side of the story to the judge at the next assizes--and +I'll tell mine." + +Mr. Jobling's puffy face blanched at that, but Captain Dove did not even +change countenance. + +"So much for yourself," said he patiently. "You think you can best +whiten your own record by trying to blacken mine. I'll say no more about +that--except that it isn't always true that dead men tell no tales. And +you'll have to tell the judge at the next assizes the real reason why +you ran away from home." + +He was watching the other's face narrowly, to see what effect that stray +shot might have, and was clearly encouraged at seeing Lord Jura wince. + +"But there's another point to be settled," he went on with slow +insistence, "before we go any further. I've brought you back to your +own, as I said, and, more than that, I've brought you back--your sister. +I wouldn't have made any song-an'-dance about such a small matter +either, but--since it's to be debit and credit between us, I'd like to +know how you think that affects the account. + +"You say you've forgotten nothing. Have you remembered that I've brought +her up, so to speak, since she was knee-high to me? Have you ever +thought where she'd be to-day if I hadn't--But, of course, you don't +know where I came across _her_. And I'm not going to tell you just +now. All I _will_ say is that it rests absolutely in my hands +whether--whether she stays safe here with you or--You may believe me or +not, as you like, but--Better talk it over with her before you go any +further,--my lord!" + +He frowned, as if warningly, at Sallie, and turned on his heel and, +swaggering back to the table, grotesquely aggressive, sat down again +with his back to them all, leaving them to make whatever they liked of +his veiled threat and half-spoken hints as to his mysterious power over +her. Slyne followed him. But Mr. Jobling pushed forward again, eager to +establish himself on a safer footing of service to the other side. + +"If your lordship will allow me," said he, his head on one side, +shoulders bent and hands clasped, "I think I can undertake to arrange +matters for you with Captain Dove. Some small money payment, perhaps, +would save further unpleasantness--for her ladyship as well. We can +scarcely contest his claim for at least the amount of--" + +"I don't know what you're talking about--or what business it is of +yours!" said Lord Jura sharply and turned to give Herries some order. +But, before he could speak, Sallie claimed his attention again. + +"Let them go," she implored of him vehemently. "Oh, please let them go. +Don't send for the police. I couldn't bear to think that they had come +to any harm through helping me--even for their own purposes. And some of +what Captain Dove says is true enough: he's looked after me for longer +than I can remember, almost--and but for him I wouldn't be here now. The +past has sometimes been very hard for us both. It would spoil the future +entirely for me if I felt that I had been the means of betraying him to +the police. If they'll only promise to leave us alone now, won't you let +them go?--for my sake." + +Lord Jura pulled at his under-lip in helpless indecision. He knew that +he could not for long deny the girl anything she asked of him thus. + +"You don't understand, Sallie," he said at length, very vexedly. "You'd +better go off to your own room now,--and take Lady Jane--the +duchess--with you. Leave me to deal with the Old Man and Slyne; it isn't +only on my own account--" + +"Will you set them on board the _Olive Branch_ safe, if they promise to +leave us alone now?" she urged, not to be denied in her purpose. + +"But,--what are they to you?" he demanded. "Surely--it can't be--You +don't--care for Jasper Slyne, do you, Sallie? I'll let _him_ go, if you +like--though he doesn't deserve it." + +She shuddered. "If you hadn't come to-night," she told him tremulously, +"you wouldn't have found me here--alive. I had made up my mind--" Her +voice died away, but he understood. + +"But I can't treat them as they would me," she reminded him, her anxious +eyes holding his till he looked away, with an effort of will. "I could +never be happy here, or anywhere else, if I left any of my old shipmates +in the power of the law. Chance has brought us both here--and in time. +Will you not wipe the past out of your mind entirely, as I have done, +and--You won't refuse me the first favour I have asked of you, here in +your home? And I won't ever forget how good you have always been to me." + +He looked into her eyes again, and was lost. "Have it your own way, +then," he said, as if with a grudge. "But--" His face fell. He looked +furtively behind him. He had just remembered his pact with Farish +M'Kissock. "You must get rid of them both at once, and very quietly," he +whispered. "I won't answer for what may happen yet unless--" + +Sallie did not even wait to thank him for his weak-willed complaisance. +She crossed swiftly to the table where Jasper Slyne and Mr. Jobling were +once more in low-voiced conclave with Captain Dove. + +The three conspirators, sitting with heads together, in angry, +undertoned argument, glanced up as she approached them. Their lowering +faces lightened a little at sight of her, but fell again into black, +rebellious masks while they listened sullenly to what she had to say. As +she finished, Captain Dove brought a heavy fist down upon the table like +a sledge-hammer, and, while the glasses still rang to its impact on the +solid oak, "I'll be damned if I budge from here by one step," he cried +at the top of his voice, and sprang from his chair, "till it suits me." +He pulled his smoked glasses from off his nose, flung them on the floor, +and trod viciously upon them as he advanced on Lord Jura again, ignoring +all his companions' attempts to restrain him. + +"Now, see here, my friend!" said he with another fierce imprecation, and +thrust his face up close to the ex-engineer's while Carthew stepped +hastily forward beside Lord Jura. "Now, see here, my friend! I've had +about enough of you and your nonsense. Say whatever you've got to say to +me now yourself and be done with it. Then I'll tell _you_ what you're +going to do--for me and my adopted daughter. There's no need for any +more humming and hawing about it. Speak up!" + +But his former slave did not shrink from before his withering glance. +The banquet-hall of Loquhariot was not the bridge of the _Olive Branch_: +and Lord Jura was even glad that his one-time tyrant did not seem +disposed to avail himself of that last chance of escape at which Sallie +had beguiled him into conniving. + +"For my sister's sake," he said quietly, and not without dignity, "I was +willing to--" + +"You'll do whatever I tell you--for your own sake as well as your +sister's," broke in Captain Dove, and looked him up and down with a +virtuous frown. "Why, but for me, you'd have no sister!" He lowered his +voice to a threatening whisper. "And you'd have hung long ago yourself, +for the murder that you did here!" he hissed. + +Lord Jura regarded him gravely for a moment or two, in silence; and +then, turning toward the Pipers' Port, "Are you there, M'Kissock?" he +called, in the tone of one entitled to prompt attention. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +ISHMAEL'S HERITAGE + + +There was something very dreadful about Farish M'Kissock's appearance as +he came shuffling forward from the corner under the gallery. His torn +and travel-stained white robe gave him a ghostly aspect which was +heightened by the cold and clammy pallor of his face, his sunken eyes, +the matted, blood-stained tangle of grey hair that merged into a long, +unkempt beard and moustache. He moved like an automaton, with all his +limbs and joints loose. The stamp of death was on him. + +The Duchess of Dawn shrank into the ingle behind her as he approached, +and her noble nephew backed after her, one elbow uplifted, fists +clenched, with the apparent idea of protecting her from that +spectre-like apparition; at whom Herries also was gazing, aghast but +motionless, while Mr. Jobling, with bulging eyes and open mouth, felt +about him as if for some friendly hand to clutch at and, finding none, +laid hold of Slyne by the coat--who struck his fingers away with a +muttered oath. Slyne and Captain Dove and Justin Carthew were all +regarding him with blank dismay. Sallie uttered a little, low, pitiful +cry as she recognised in the worn-out wreck who had halted mutely a few +paces away the man she had seen only a month or two before in the prime +of life and the plenitude of his power, the Emir El Farish. + +His burning eyes met and held Captain Dove's cowed, murderous, questing +glance for a moment; and then he laughed, in a most grisly manner. + +"I'm dying now, Captain Dove," said he, in a strong, deep voice that +contrasted strangely with his obvious bodily exhaustion, "a day or two +sooner than need have been--but for you. _You're_ hale and strong yet. +You'll fight hard--when the hangman and his mates come quietly into your +cell at daybreak to pinion you. And, when you're standing on the trap, +with your head in a bag and the knot in a new rope rasping under one +ear, you'll think of me that's waiting for you in the pit below the +scaffold. + +"But that's for by and by; and there's to-day to be done with first." He +laughed again, in such a fashion that the listeners shuddered. "I told +you there was nothing at all that would avail you against me," said he. +"Maybe you'll believe me now!" + +Captain Dove looked furtively round at the others' faces, and spoke, +with obvious difficulty. "I've no idea what you're talking about--" + +"I found M'Kissock--where you left him," interrupted Lord Jura, as if to +say that it was needless now to deny anything. + +"You'd better send him back there, then," Captain Dove retorted +rancorously. "The man's mad--and dangerous. That's why I had him shut +up. He thinks he has some grudge against you, too. Take care he +doesn't--" + +"I'm not mad. I'm not even dangerous enough to save the hangman his job +with you," said Farish M'Kissock quietly, and turned to Lord Jura again. +"But _you'll_ see to it, my lord, that the cruel wrongs this old Judas +has wrought you and me--ay, and even the innocent girl beside you +there--are avenged to the uttermost. I can trust you for that at least." + +Lord Jura looked forlornly at Sallie. He could not now recall his +promise to her if Captain Dove still chose to take advantage of that. + +"Sal--My sister has begged me to let him go free, M'Kissock," he said at +length, almost apologetically, "and--I've agreed." + +Farish M'Kissock's head had begun to shake as if with palsy. He tried to +speak, but could not articulate. The veins about his clammy, yellow +temples were swelling darkly out, like cords. Carthew limped across to +the table and brought him over a glass of water. He swallowed some with +difficulty, and, finding his voice again, "You fool!" he cried, with +inexpressible bitterness. "Oh, you blind fool! Will you let him serve +you as he served me with her to help him!" + +Lord Jura's face flushed. + +"I want to hear no more from you in that strain," he said haughtily, as +if the old spirit of place and power were stirring within him again. "It +is sufficient that my sister's wishes--" + +"If Sallie _were_ your sister, it would make no difference," the dying +man declared with fierce impatience. "This is no time to humour whim of +hers. In any case--she is no kin of yours, Lord Jura, as Captain Dove +well knows. He could have told you--_Keep him off!_ He'll make an end of +me before my time if he can, to silence me. And you must hear, before I +go,--" He staggered backward, coughing, and almost choked for want of +breath. Captain Dove had made a wild lunge at him, but Justin Carthew +had sprung forward in time to save him from the old man's frenzied +attempt: and Herries and Lord Ingoldsby also stepped in between him and +his would-be murderer. + +"All right, then," panted Captain Dove. "Leave me alone, and I'll do him +no harm. I quite forgot that he was off his head, his lies provoke me +so." + +Lord Jura had put Sallie behind him to shield her in the struggle that +promised. He looked round at her then with dazed, doubtful eyes and read +in hers pain and horror and disbelief equally dreadful. He drew a deep, +sobbing breath and confronted Farish M'Kissock again. + +"What in God's name are you driving at!" he demanded, in a tone which +told the stress of mind he was suffering. And Farish M'Kissock regarded +him very evilly for a little before replying. Slyne and Captain Dove and +Carthew were waiting, as if on barbed tenter-hooks. The others, and +Sallie also, seemed to be stricken speechless and still. + +"I am here to seek my revenge, my lord, as you know," said Farish +M'Kissock slowly at length, and licked his bloodless lips. "There is +still a small matter betwixt your lordship and me that remains to be +settled--an old wrong done, which your lordship has almost forgotten, it +seems. _I_ neither forget nor forgive. + +"I may not have time left to tell all I owe Captain Dove there--for that +goes back through long years to what I owe you. But, before I am done +with, I think I can settle with you as well as with him. + +"Sallie is no sister of yours, as Captain Dove knows--though she herself +has been beguiled as easily as your lordship. Your lordship's sister, +the Lady Josceline Justice, died in my arms eight or nine weeks ago: and +she was my wife. Sallie there, knowing nothing, saw her a few hours +before--" + +He blinked and hung his head for a moment, as if recalling all that had +come to pass since he had laid the light, wasted body aside on the sand, +and set a guard over it until--until he could spare time to see to a +decent grave. + +"She was my wife," he said again, looking up at the last of the haughty +Juras with hate unquenchable in his glance. "And that's the revenge I +have taken on you and yours, my lord, for the ill your lordship lightly +wrought--the other, that should have been." + +A woman's voice came wailingly from the musicians' gallery and Mr. +Jobling uttered a low moan of abject fear. His nerves had evidently +failed him altogether. Hasty steps were descending the short stone +stairway which led to the gallery, and then Janet M'Kissock came +tottering forth across the floor from the foot of it. + +"Oh, Farish!" the old woman cried to her brother. "Have you no heart at +all! Are there not enough lives ruined already that you would wreck her +ladyship's here as well?" And she turned toward Sallie with a poor, +pitiful gesture as of protection. "It _cannot_ be as you say," she +whimpered. "For how could _I_ be mistaken, that knew her father far +better than you--ay, and the countess her mother too; whose locket she +was wearing at her neck the day she first came to Loquhariot. I'll swear +to it, at any rate! I had it for a time in my own keeping, before the +countess--went away. + +"Ask her ladyship where she got the locket, your grace. And then my +poor, distracted brother will maybe admit that he's been deceived about +her." + +The duchess's anxious, encouraging look seemed to beg an answer of +Sallie. But the girl was gazing, with dumb dismay in her wide, wounded +eyes, at Farish M'Kissock, recalling as well as she could amid such a +maze the incidents of the hours she had spent in his camp on the African +coast. + +Under the spell of his piercing glance the shadowy banquet-hall of +Loquhariot seemed to fade away from her, and in its place she saw again +the spacious rose-pink pavilion behind the carved chair on which he was +seated in state among his staring councillors, under a great green flag +with a golden harp on its heavy folds. Behind her, from about the +picket-lines where she had noticed the negro slaves at their work, she +seemed to hear the whinnying of the horses, the vicious squeals of the +restless camels. In the dim crimson glow of the dying fires she was +gazing again at the horsehair tents in the background, and the multitude +of men and women and children all busy about them in the open air. + +She saw, as if in a vision, the Emir spring from his seat and come +hastily forward to where she stood shrinkingly at Captain Dove's +shoulder. He was tall and stalwart on foot, a fine figure of a man even +in his loose, shapeless garments, with a bronzed, hook-nosed, handsome +face of his own, a heavy moustache, the brooding, patient, predatory +eyes of a desert vulture. And, as he confronted Captain Dove, over whom +he seemed to tower threateningly, the hood of his _selham_ slipped back, +disclosing a flaming shock of red hair. + +Her own veil had slipped to her chin, but she had been unconscious of +that until his blazing eyes had shifted from Captain Dove's unconcerned +face to hers. She pulled it hurriedly back into place, and he, turning +to the curious onlookers, rid himself of their company before he called, +in a caressing voice, on some one within the big, white tent that was +the heart of his stronghold. And there came forth a woman, veiled as she +herself had been, but clad in silk instead of cotton, who bowed +submissively to what he had to say, and then held out a slender, +bloodless, burning hand to her.... + +It all came back to her memory, as if in a lightning-flash that left her +stunned and helpless to face the appalling present again. She knew now +who the Emir's wife had been--a girl of her own age, but grown old +before her time and weary of the little life that had been left in her +then. She knew that Farish M'Kissock was speaking the truth now, and +that she must bear witness to it at whatever cost to herself. It made no +difference that Captain Dove's expression was a mute and none the less +dreadful threat of what she might look for at his hands if she dared to +do so. The helpless horror of the position in which his cunning intrigue +had left her broke on her mind like a thunderbolt. She covered her +shamed, white face with both hands, and turned, swaying on her feet, and +would have fallen had not the duchess thrown both arms about her and +held her there in a close, warm clasp, while Justin Carthew and Lord +Ingoldsby, who had both darted forward to help her, glared at each other +vindictively. + +"It _can't_ be true!" said the duchess, half to herself, but Sallie +heard, and stood upright again, dizzily, letting her hands fall, +prepared to do public penance for her innocent and unwitting part in the +shameless fraud that had been perpetrated. She did not give a thought to +the fact that all her own fair dreams of the future were finally +shattered and past repair. But she wondered what the poor folk she had +befriended about the village would have to say when they heard that she +was no better than a common impostor, and the duchess, who had +befriended her, and Justin Carthew, whom Mr. Jobling had treated as a +trespasser there! + +"It _is_ true," she asserted, desperately, in a tone which might have +touched even Captain Dove, "though I didn't know till now--" She almost +broke down under the dire humiliation she was enduring, but the duchess +would not let her go when she would have drawn away from the arm at her +waist, and she forced herself to go on with her unspeakably hurtful +confession. + +"The locket was given me by the girl who died in the desert--who was +that man's wife," she said so that all might hear, her face aflame now +under the others' blankly believing glances. "I didn't want to take it +at all--but she believed she would not live long, and I felt that it +would be unkind to refuse." + +Farish M'Kissock looked round, in baleful triumph, at Captain Dove, +whose hopes he had thus thwarted and brought to nought. But Captain +Dove's evil eyes were fixed on Lord Jura. + +"Did she tell you nothing at all of herself--or her history?" the +duchess asked very gently. + +"Not a word," Sallie answered with transparent honesty. + +"But there's another here that knew who she was," said Farish M'Kissock, +and pointed to Justin Carthew, who could only nod most unhappily, +avoiding Sallie's sudden, incredulous glance. + +And, at that, Lord Jura seemed to start from the stupor into which he +had gradually lapsed. His haggard face grew dark with insane and +uncontrollable passion as he began to realise the fiendish ingenuity of +the revenge exacted by the man whom he had, in the first place, wronged +so cruelly. No other torture, bodily or mental, could have caused him +such anguish as the thought of all his sister must have suffered ere she +died. He lifted two twitching hands and suddenly leaped, as a tiger +might, at Farish M'Kissock's throat. + +So swift and unforeseen was the movement that no one could interfere. +But he overshot his mark and slipped and fell on the polished oaken +floor as Farish M'Kissock stumbled aside, just in time to escape his +clutch. He came down with a crash, and his eye-glass dropped and +splashed about him in fragments as his forehead struck. But, stunned as +he was, he turned on one shoulder and thrust an arm out, and was trying +to rise when something seemed to snap in the coat-pocket underneath him, +and he uttered a scream of agony as his arm collapsed at the elbow, so +that he fell face forward again, struggling like a swimmer with cramp. + +"_Keep back!_" shouted Slyne. And Justin Carthew, in the act of stooping +to try to help the ex-engineer, sprang to one side in time and no more +to escape the touch of a wriggling thing, black and slimy, like a live +shoe-string, which had come slithering out from under the hand with +which the fallen man was clawing at the floor. It was almost at +Carthew's ankles. He leaped convulsively again, and came down on it with +both feet. Its little venomous head writhed round and struck more than +once at the patent leather of his low shoes, and then fell limply back +and lay still. He set his heel on it, to make sure that it would work no +more harm, and turned hastily toward Lord Jura again. + +Herries was before him, however, and had already lifted the stricken +man's head and shoulders a little. Carthew would have helped to raise +him to a sitting posture, but all his limbs curled in a dreadful +convulsion and straightened rigidly and curled again in a last awful +spasm, and so relaxed, lifeless, while his rolling eyeballs also grew +fixed and still. He had ceased to breathe. + +"He's dead," said Captain Dove, and started, as if alarmed by the sound +of his own voice. And for a space no one else spoke, and no one moved at +all. The only undertones that broke the silence were the subdued, +helpless weeping of the three women, the muted moaning of the wind on +the terrace without. Carthew and Herries were still on their knees, one +on either side of the dead man, from one of whose pockets protruded a +broken, empty cigar-box. The others stood staring down at him as if they +could scarcely yet understand what it was that had made such an instant +difference in him. + +Carthew got stiffly to his feet. "We must get the women away out of this +at once," he whispered to Herries, and held out a hand to help the old +factor up. + +Herries gazed at him, out of lack-lustre eyes into which a slow return +of intelligence crept as he too rose. + +"Yes,--my lord," he answered in a low voice, that yet was audible to all +but the unhearing ears of him who had been the ninth Earl of Jura, whose +heritage was now no more than a quiet niche in the lonely graveyard on +the most seaward of the Small Isles, and a young girl's ignorant prayers +that he might there find rest and peace. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +PRIDE'S PRICE + + +Carthew whispered some further hasty instructions to Herries, and, "Yes, +my lord," the old factor answered again so that all could hear, and all +understood that the tenth Earl of Jura and Baron St. Just had thus +succeeded the ninth--who lay there dead on the floor before them. + +The duchess was gently leading Sallie away. Herries followed them, on +his own errands, while Captain Dove and his accomplices remained looking +on with sullen, suspicious eyes, straining their ears in a vain attempt +to hear what was to be their fate. + +Carthew turned to them. "I'll bid you good night now," he said, in a +tone not without a new tinge of authority in it, and at which they +looked anything but well pleased. "You'll be more comfortable in your +own quarters than anywhere else in the meantime." And, with that +sufficiently broad hint, he stood waiting for them to go. + +Captain Dove had opened his mouth as if to speak, but said nothing. +Slyne, very pinched and white about the nostrils, drew Mr. Jobling +toward the door, as if he would not trust the shifty lawyer with +Carthew, and answered for them all, with a most sarcastic inflection, +"Good night,--my lord!" Now that the worst had come to the worst he was +his old cool, careless, calculating self again. + +Captain Dove paused at the buffet in passing, and went on with both +hands full. Both he and Slyne, on their way toward the North Keep with +Mr. Jobling shambling along between them, not unlike a condemned +criminal, noticed the unusual number of able-bodied men-servants who +seemed to have found aimless occupation of some sort about the corridor, +and drew their own discomforting conclusions therefrom. + +Slyne even hesitated for a moment on the threshold of the cosy +living-hall which occupies the base of the North Keep, and then, with a +grimace of disdain, followed the other two, closing the heavy door +behind him. Almost immediately he heard the key turned quietly in the +lock outside--and knew that his suspicions had been only too well +founded. Carthew intended to keep him and his associates prisoners +there. He bit his lip and pulled at his moustache as he watched Captain +Dove drawing the cork of one of the two bottles of champagne that +strategist had brought from the banquet-hall. + +"We're cornered at last," he said suddenly, as the old man set the +bottle down after having imbibed the best half of its contents. "They've +locked us in here." + +Captain Dove turned to glare disbelievingly at him, and then, darting +across to the door, tugged furiously at its wrought-iron handle. He set +a foot against the wall and tried again, with no better results. He +bounced about, almost frantic, blaspheming as if bereft of all +self-control. Mr. Jobling stood wringing his hands helplessly, his +flaccid features expressive of abject despair. But Slyne continued to +eye the old man with a strained, disconcerting composure. + +"We haven't so much time to spare, Dove," said he bitingly, "that we +can afford to waste any more watching you play the fool. I expect that +fellow Carthew will have your whole history out of Farish M'Kissock +within--" + +"If you had only kept _your_ damned mouth shut when Brasse was kicking +the bucket," cried Captain Dove, very venomously, "Carthew would be +keeping _him_ company now. The snake would have got him too. And we'd +have won out after all." + +Slyne ground his teeth. But that was no moment for futile recrimination, +and self-interest served to stay the acrid retort on the tip of his +tongue. + +"'If this and if that' doesn't make any difference now," he declared +evenly. "I'm not going to argue with you. I want to get out of this +before worse comes my way." + +"But how--" moaned Mr. Jobling, across whose mental vision also were no +doubt flashing pictures of Wandsworth Common and Wormwood Scrubbs. + +Slyne silenced him with a glance. "I'd very gladly leave you here to +your fate, you fat bungler!" said he, with irrepressible bitterness, "if +it weren't that you'd turn informer on us. So come on, both of you. +We've only one chance left among us. And, but for me, neither of you +would have even that." Wherewith, and only pausing to take a long pull +at Captain Dove's open bottle, he turned up the staircase, leaving them +to follow him or stay where they were, as they chose. + +Captain Dove did follow him, curiously, but not forgetting to pocket the +other bottle. The shivering lawyer came close at his heels, no less +eager to snatch at any possibility of escape. + +"Get into a change of clothes," ordered Slyne, as he opened the door of +his own room. "And I wouldn't be slow about it, if I were you--for _I'm_ +going as soon as I'm ready." + +Captain Dove's change did not unduly detain him, since he merely pulled +on a pair of serge trousers and a pilot-jacket on top of his other +attire. And Mr. Jobling was back in Slyne's room no less promptly. They +found it in darkness and Captain Dove uttered a stifled imprecation. But +almost immediately, they heard hasty footsteps on the stair without and +Slyne reappeared with a coil of thin strong cord in one hand. + +"The flagpole-halliards," he explained breathlessly as he shut the door +behind him again. "My window looks out on the battlements. We must +clamber down. Make the rope secure at this end, Dove, but so that we can +pull it after us once we're all down--it's long enough to go +double--while I get some things together." + +Captain Dove did as he was bidden, so deftly that Slyne had not quite +completed his own preparations when the old man called on him to go +first. + +"Send Jobling down," said Slyne, pulling on an overcoat to cover his +evening clothes, and the stout solicitor gave voice to a very +heartrending groan as he glared blankly out into the black gulf beyond +the window. + +"I won't go--" he was beginning when Captain Dove ran furiously at him, +clutched him round the waist in a gorilla-like grip, and thrust him, +feet foremost, struggling insanely, over the sill. + +"Catch hold of the cord--both strands--or I'll drop you!" snarled the +old man. "Down you go, now. You'll find a knot every foot or so. You +needn't slip unless you force me to start you with a slam on the head." +And he stood watching, grimly amused, while his moaning victim sank out +of sight, very gradually. + +In a few moments the weight on the rope relaxed. + +"Are you there?" he demanded, and had to shout the question again at the +top of his voice, so strong was the wind. + +"Yes, all right," the answer came back, very faint but palpably +freighted with helpless wrath. + +"Come on, then, Slyne," ordered Captain Dove, and himself prepared to +follow the injured lawyer. "What's that for?" he called in through the +window. Slyne was busy securing a bundle about his own shoulders. + +"Some spare wraps," Slyne shouted back from between set teeth. "We're +going to take Sallie away with us. On you go--I'll be right after you." + +Nor had the other two long to wait till he came scrambling down in his +turn. And, as soon as they had retrieved their rope, they followed his +lead through the darkness. + +The three fugitives made their way in the teeth of the wind along the +battlements to a point overlooking the terrace that lies at the back of +the banquet-hall. And there again their rope stood them in good stead. +Slyne thanked his stars that he had studied all the intricacies of the +castle so thoroughly, as he led the way, with infinite precaution, from +the terrace into the empty passage down which they crept as far as the +service-pantry behind the gun-room. + +The gun-room was empty also. As he entered it, he gave vent to a long +sigh of heartfelt relief. + +"We're safe now," he told Captain Dove in a guarded tone, and, pulling +off his overcoat, smoothed down his crumpled shirt-front. "But you'd +better hurry down to the water-gate and make sure that the boat there +doesn't go off without us. As soon as Sallie comes along, we'll--" + +"But what if she won't come?" asked Captain Dove, becoming recalcitrant +again. "And how do you know there's a boat below?" + +"You don't suppose Brasse swam ashore, do you!" Slyne retorted +impatiently. "The boat that brought him from the _Olive Branch_ was +still there a few minutes ago--while I was at the top of the tower. I +suppose he told them to wait for him, in case he struck trouble here. +But they may not wait much longer, if you waste any more time. + +"And, as to Sallie, leave me to manage. If you trip me up again now with +any of your damned nonsense," he finished with sudden fury, "I'll go to +gaol quite contentedly--and make sure there that you hang." + +"I might still make terms with that fellow Carthew," Captain Dove +suggested provokingly and with a great air of cunning. + +"All right," returned Slyne. "That's enough." And, crossing toward the +fireplace, he pressed the bell-push beside the mantel. + +Captain Dove snatched up a candle and, with that, made a dart for the +panel in the wainscot. It would not move despite his most desperate +efforts. Slyne pulled a bunch of keys from one pocket and promptly +released the powerful spring-lock. At a sign from him, Mr. Jobling +descended the steps below in Captain Dove's wake. Slyne pulled the panel +back into place and was seated quietly writing at the table in one +corner when a sleepy-looking footman entered the room. + +"I want you to take this note along to her ladyship's rooms," said +Slyne, and yawned. "Give it to her maid. You needn't wait for an +answer." + +"Very well, sir," the man returned with all the respect due to Slyne's +recent standing there and evidently still without suspicion of any +change. Slyne yawned again, as if ready for bed, re-reading what he had +written. And then, watching his messenger go off with the missive, +breathed a thanksgiving that was, at the same time, a prayer to the +goddess of chance who was his deity. For he was taking risks now that +were recklessly dangerous and might, at any moment, prove deadly to him. + +"It would be pretty fatal, for instance, if Carthew chanced to be with +the duchess and her when Ambrizette takes my note in," he told himself. +"But--there are a dozen other chances of accident, and what's the use of +worrying? The wind doesn't always blow from the same quarter. I'd feel +safe enough if I only knew where Carthew is at this precise moment." + +He crossed to the fireplace, picking up a cigarette by the way, and, +having lighted it with trembling fingers, stood staring down into the +dull glow of the dying logs on the hearth. He was wondering whether +_all_ was really lost, and listening most impatiently to every slightest +sound. But he had not long to wait before Sallie, pale of face and with +a world of woe in her wet eyes, came very quietly into the room. + +He held out both his hands to her, but she stopped at a little distance. + +"You mustn't blame me, Sallie," he said in a voice meant to carry +conviction with it. "I didn't know--I had no idea--I believed honestly +from the first that you were--" + +"It makes no difference now," she interrupted, "and--I--I--Oh! I'm _so_ +ashamed. What can Mr. Carthew think of me! And he _knew_ all the time +that I had no right to be here!" + +"It wasn't your fault either," he assured her soothingly. "You were +misled--no less than I was. How could we ever have foreseen--But there's +no time to talk of that just now. We must be off. Captain Dove has gone +on ahead. He left me to show you the way to the boat." + +She lifted a hand dazedly to her forehead. + +"I don't know what to do," she murmured. "But--of course, I can't stay +here now." + +Slyne was watching her tensely. "Most assuredly not," he agreed in haste +and trying hard to hide his elation. "You can't possibly stay +here--after what has happened. You've far too much proper pride." + +"And my promise to you is no longer binding," she said, "since I'm +not--It was Lady Josceline Justice with whom you made that bargain--and +not with me." + +He saw that it was no moment to argue that point. All he wanted at once +was to get her safely on board the _Olive Branch_. And he did not +contradict her. + +"Ambrizette must come with me, Jasper," she said brokenly. "I won't +leave her behind." + +He set his teeth to stifle an angry refusal of that difficult condition. + +"All right, Sallie," he answered smoothly. "I'll risk that too, since +you say so. Slip on this coat--it will be bitter cold in the boat. And +I'll send for Ambrizette." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE TENTH EARL + + +Carthew was feeling anything but fit to cope with all the cares and +responsibilities which had devolved upon him again, under circumstances +so shocking, no less suddenly than he had been relieved of them +all--along with that place in life to which they pertained--by the man +now lying dead on the floor before him. As he watched the Duchess of +Dawn leading Sallie gently out of the banquet-hall, he would have given +a very great deal to have been free to follow them, for Sallie had +looked back at him out of tear-dimmed eyes as she went, with an +expression he could not quite understand. And, now that she too knew the +very worst there was to be told, he was desperately anxious to find out +how she was going to deal with him, under such changed conditions. + +But there were matters even more urgent to be disposed of, for her sake +too, before he could set himself right with her. He pulled himself +together, with a great effort. + +It was clear that he must not permit Captain Dove and his two +confederates to decamp. He had heard enough already to justify him in +taking the law into his own hands for the nonce and detaining them +there. It was equally clear that he must not delay for a moment in +finding out as much more as he might from Farish M'Kissock, who looked +as if he could scarcely live for another hour. + +He whispered to Herries to take such steps as would ensure that no one +whosoever should be allowed to leave the castle, and to shut the three +accomplices up together in the North Keep if that could be done quietly, +without any scandal. Then, having got rid of Captain Dove and the other +two, he was left in the banquet-hall with only the Marquis of Ingoldsby, +in a state of apparent coma, old Janet M'Kissock, grief-stricken to the +very verge of endurance, and her unfortunate brother, still standing +motionless, with bent head and hands clasped, staring down at the dead +man--so near in semblance and yet so far beyond reach of his animosity. + +The grey-haired housekeeper was pleading with Farish M'Kissock to come +away, but he resisted all her attempts to get him to leave that spot. + +"Let me bide where I am," he answered her querulously. "In a very +little, Janet, I'll be away off after his foolish lordship there, that +thinks he has slipped through my feckless fingers again--as he did once +before. But I'll soon be on his track again, for they'll have to streek +me on the same stretching-board that serves him. Let me bide beside him +till then." + +Carthew looked anxiously across at the Marquis of Ingoldsby. There was +nobody who might better serve as a witness to whatever M'Kissock might +still be induced to tell concerning that nightmare past in which the +poor corpse on the floor and the girl who had gone away weeping and he +himself had all been involved. + +"There's somethin' doosid fishy about all these goin's-on," Lord +Ingoldsby commented with a good deal more candour than tact, when +Carthew made that suggestion to him. "And I'm for Lady Josceline, right +through from start to finish. I don't believe a word of that +goat-bearded fellow's yarn. He's been and caught sunstroke +somewhere--that's what's the matter with him, eh? He's mad as a hatter. + +"But, all the same, I'm willin' to listen to anything more he has to +say--and take a mental note of it, so to speak. I want to know who's who +and what's what myself." + +Carthew turned to Farish M'Kissock then, and the latter looked him over +with a frown as of dim remembrance which gradually changed to a scowl of +hate. + +"And so," said the ex-Emir in a rancorous voice, "_you_ have come to +your own at last amid it all. Is there no end to your ill race? My men +told me that you were safely buried and dead--they showed me the mound +that they said covered you. How--" + +"Come away from here," said Carthew steadily, "and I'll tell you how I +escaped." And Farish M'Kissock, leaning heavily on his sister's +shoulder, at last allowed her to lead him to her own room. + +Carthew told him then, in few words, while Lord Ingoldsby, listening +gloomily, scowled over it, the story of Sallie's daring and his own +escape from death, on the African coast. + +The ex-Emir's heavy eyes lighted up a little. + +"Ay," said Farish M'Kissock, musingly. "And so it was--her--that helped +you past your dug grave! I knew her for a mettlesome filly the first +time I ever clapped eyes on her. And now--to think that but for you and +me she'd be cosily settled, knowing nothing, in this old nest--that +should by rights have been my wife's and mine! It's a damned upside-down +world this, my fine doctor! But--you'll make it up to her, maybe, in +another way?" + +He was gazing at Carthew with something of his old imperious, +indomitable spirit. "You owe--her--your very coronet, my new Lord Jura," +said he. + +"I'll pay all I owe," said Carthew, to humour him, "if she'll take any +payment from me." And at that the Marquis of Ingoldsby scowled still +more blackly. + +The ex-Emir made a gruesome effort to laugh sardonically. + +"She'll take it," said he, "if you're man enough, if you're man enough +to master her," said he and sank back on his couch. + +"And now--about Captain Dove," Carthew suggested as he brought paper and +ink to the table from the desk in one corner. And the dying man sat up +again as if spurred to a final effort. + +He looked round at his stricken sister. "Leave us for a little, Janet, +woman," said he in a more kindly tone. "There is that to be told now +which you would like ill to hear, and his lordship will call you back +when I'm through with it." + +Carthew nodded hastily to the old housekeeper. "We'll be as quick as we +can," he promised: "and you can stay within call." + +She went, however unwillingly, and then her brother began the story of +all his dealings with Captain Dove, speaking slowly, in a low voice, +husbanding his strength, while Carthew wrote down every word of it. + +In his eagerness to ensure the downfall of his surviving enemy, he had +no hesitation in incriminating himself. Lord Ingoldsby listened as if +stricken dumb and Carthew had hard work to contain himself as he heard, +among other infamies, of the bargain the ex-Emir had driven with +Captain Dove over Sallie. He would have thrown down his pen during +M'Kissock's laboured, self-compassionate account of how Captain Dove had +outwitted him, had not the man on the couch at the other side of the +table been almost across death's threshold already. M'Kissock's rabid +thirst for revenge, his obvious impenitence for all his own crimes and +misdeeds, excited repugnance in place of the pity his plight might +otherwise have inspired. Carthew was devoutly thankful when that most +distasteful task was at length completed, and Farish M'Kissock's feeble, +straggling signature attached to the document he had drawn up. Lord +Ingoldsby and he both added their names as witnesses, and then he called +the housekeeper in again. Her brother, having thus accomplished his +final object in life, was evidently sinking fast. + +In the corridor outside, Lord Ingoldsby called a halt as Carthew would +have turned to leave him with a few hurried words of thanks for the +jealous service he had just rendered. + +"Half a mo'," interposed his lordship, very morosely. "We might just as +well come to an understandin' now as later on. I want to tell you that, +whoever Lady Josceline is or is not, I've asked her to marry me--and, if +you're goin' to see her now--I don't know what your ideas are, but--we +might just as well start fair." + +Carthew contemplated him for a moment in surprised silence, and then +nodded curtly. He was going to see Sallie at once, if he could, as his +rival had divined. + +"All right," he assented. "Come on." + +He looked into the banquet-hall in passing. Herries was there, with the +butler and all his assistants. The dinner-table had been cleared and +draped with a great black mort-cloth. And on it lay, recumbent, with +clasped hands, in the clear, mellow light of the tall, white tapers at +its head and feet, the unheeding shape of Carthew's predecessor in the +earldom of Jura, still dressed in its disreputable, greasy blue uniform +and burst boots, with a red smudge, as of iron-rust, on its forehead. + +The fires had both been raked out and their hearth-stones strewn with +the ashes, not to be rekindled before that night on which the dead earl +should be carried away by the water-gate from his catafalque to the +great black burial-barge, with the pipes wailing a wild lament for the +mountains to echo, and the waves or the still sea-surface, as might +befall, crimson under the twinkling torches of those who would follow, +with muffled oars. + +Herries came forward to speak to Carthew. "I'm seeing to everything here +now, my lord, and we'll soon have all as it should be," said he. +"Captain Dove and his friends are fast, in the North Keep. And your +other orders have all been observed." + +"I'll see you again in a little, then," Carthew returned, and went on +his way, by no means inspirited. + +It was the Duchess of Dawn, her blue eyes still blurred and showing +traces of tears, who came to the door of the boudoir in Sallie's suite +in the distant West Wing, in response to Carthew's knock. + +"Have you not brought her back with you?" she asked, and looked +surprisedly past him at Lord Ingoldsby. + +"Where is she?" Carthew asked, in sudden alarm. "I haven't seen her." + +"She went along to the gun-room a little ago--a note came to say she was +wanted there. And--I supposed it would be from you." + +"I'll find her there, then," declared Carthew, and turned and retraced +his steps very hurriedly. An instant dread of some unforeseen mischance +among his over-rapid plans for her welfare had filled his mind; and his +face grew dark as he hobbled back along that endless corridor and across +the deserted main hall again, with Lord Ingoldsby at his elbow. + +Of the sleepy servants they passed by the way he asked no questions, for +only the butler and his immediate underlings knew anything as yet of +what had happened. It had been Carthew's own idea to prevent any garbled +report being spread about till he should have devised some means to save +Sallie from pain and scandal. + +He found the gun-room empty, and stared about it in dire distress. Then +he sniffed the air, frowning. And then he noticed a half-smoked +cigarette smouldering in the fireplace. He picked it up hastily and saw +Jasper Slyne's monogram upon it. + +"Must have been a long time burning," he thought, and a concrete +suspicion flashed through his mind. But that seemed so far-fetched at +first that he shook his head impatiently over it. + +"They could scarcely escape from the North Keep," said he to himself. +"But--I may as well make sure that everything's safe here while I'm +about it," he muttered, and limped across to the panel that covered the +passage to the water-gate. + +It was unlocked. + +He pulled it open and looked down into the darkness, listening intently. +Then he swung round and, snatching up the lighted lamp on the table +beside the fire, made off down the steps, leaving Lord Ingoldsby in the +dark. + +But his gaping lordship was not to be left behind. He followed hot-foot, +uttering foolish oaths as he barked an elbow on the rock wall. + +Carthew stopped suddenly. He could hear voices not very far ahead and +the movement of some heavy weight. The tunnel curved a little there, and +he knew he must be near the bridge that crosses the oubliette. He went +on again, very cautiously, keeping close to one wall and shading the +lamp as well as he could, till he came to a point where further +precaution was idle. For, fifty yards away, straight ahead, he could see +Slyne holding a candle beside Captain Dove, who was stooping over the +roughly carpentered tree-trunk which still stretched from lip to lip of +the intervening chasm. Its former neighbour had disappeared. + +Captain Dove looked up and caught sight of Carthew in his turn. He had +got his hands under the heavy trunk, and staggered sideways, straddling +it, till its butt-end was close to the brink. Carthew had all but +reached the opposite edge of the pit between them when he let it go with +a breathless grunt and it fell almost soundlessly into the void below. + +Slyne blew out his candle then, with a bitter, mocking laugh, but not +before Carthew had observed Mr. Jobling and Ambrizette in the +background, with a drooping figure between them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +"AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE" + + +Captain Dove looked across at Carthew with a hoarse chuckle, no less +malicious. He was evidently in that mordant, capricious humour most +common with him at moments when his potations had merely begun their +evil work on his wits. + +"Light that candle again, Slyne, confound you!" he ordered sharply. "His +noble lordship, our American friend, can scarcely see us--to say +good-bye." + +"Oh, come on," Slyne urged, obviously almost at the end of his patience. +"We've no more than time to get safely away before we'll have the hue +and cry after us in the fishermen's boats--and they're faster than you +imagine." + +"_You_ can't teach _me_ anything about boats!" Captain Dove retorted +with crapulous dignity. "So just light--Or, here--gimme the candle, +quick! And don't address any more of--of your in--invidious conversation +to me." + +"I'll see Sallie safely afloat, then," suggested Slyne. "We'll have to +send her down in a whip, I expect. The sea's always rising." + +"She's a better seaman than you are, Slyne," the old man returned with a +sneer. "And she'll go down hand under hand, same as I will--when I'm +quite ready. Till then, she'll stay here with me, so that his loving +lordship there can have a last, long look at her." He chuckled again, +most discordantly. "But--you can see that fat stiff, Jobling, safely +afloat, if you like. It will probably take a whip to tempt _him_ to run +the risk of a wetting on his way aboard." + +The wretched object of his derision gave vent to a very audible groan, +hearing which, Captain Dove laughed aloud, with malevolent relish. And, +having at length succeeded in striking a match, he turned again toward +Carthew, standing still and silent on the other side of the apparently +bottomless chasm which cut the pathway apart. + +"Are there only the two of you there?" he asked, darting a contemptuous +glance at Lord Ingoldsby. + +"That's all," Carthew answered tersely. He was absolutely at his wits' +end, but thought he could not do better than detain the old man there as +long as he might. + +"But you've raised the alarm up above?" Captain Dove suggested, with all +the fatuous cunning of one half-fuddled. "And we'll have a pack of your +cut-throats in petticoats down on us in a minute or two?" + +He looked savagely round at Slyne. "I thought I told you to see that +bloated Jonah into the boat!" he blurted explosively. And Slyne, with an +exasperated shrug of the shoulders, sauntered away, with Mr. Jobling in +very uncertain attendance. + +"I want to talk to you on my own account for five seconds or so, +young-fellow-my-lad," Captain Dove continued, as if in confidence, to +Carthew. "But--is it safe, eh? You haven't answered my questions yet. +And--you've turned the key on us once already!" + +"You're safe from pursuit in the meantime," Carthew reassured him. + +"I'll take your word for it, sir," Captain Dove declared, and, bowing +very graciously, all but over-balanced himself. "And now let me ask you +whether you have been listening to any more lies from Farish M'Kissock; +because, if you have, we must part brass-rags right away." + +Carthew was most sorely tempted to spare the truth, and made haste to +answer honestly while he might. "I've heard all he had to tell," said +he, "and--" + +"And you believe it all!" Captain Dove interposed, with maudlin pathos, +his evident intention to see whether he could not even yet make terms of +some sort for himself with the young American knocked on the head. +"Well, well! We must be jogging now, Sallie." + +The girl stepped forward beside him at that, and Carthew was thankful to +see Ambrizette clinging to her skirts, for she had told him more than +once how often the dumb, black dwarf had stood betwixt her and imminent +harm. + +Her sweet, sensitive features were very pale, but placid, as if, after +the sore stress she had suffered, she had found some sort of peace. And +all the pride seemed to have died out of her downcast eyes as she faced +him across the dark, impassable gulf that stretched between them. + +"I don't want you to think that I have gone away unwillingly, Mr. +Carthew," she said, and his heart almost failed him as he heard that. It +had never occurred to him that she might have taken such a sheerly +suicidal step of her own free will. + +"But why--" he cried, and the hurt in his voice perhaps helped to salve +a little the sore wounds in her own heart. + +"I couldn't possibly have stayed here, you see--after what has happened. +And,--I'm not afraid of the future now. You don't understand, perhaps, +but--you will remember--I wasn't afraid." + +"Come away now, Sallie," said Captain Dove. An irascible voice in the +distance was calling upon him insistently. + +"Good-bye," she said, submissively, to Carthew, and, looking up, her +eyes met his for an instant. + +"Wait a minute--only a minute more, for God's sake!" Carthew implored +the old man. "It won't do any of you any harm to stand by till I've said +my say. It won't help you in the least, Captain Dove, to carry Sallie +away--and you'll be far safer, believe me, if you leave her here. I've +only been waiting my chance to ask her to marry me, and--" + +"I've asked her already," interrupted Lord Ingoldsby, in a tone no doubt +meant to be most impressive but strongly resembling a squeal. No one, +however, paid him any more attention than if he had been the shadow he +seemed. + +"And if you carry her off just now," Carthew continued hurriedly, +encouraged by the benevolent smile with which Captain Dove was regarding +him, "you'll have good cause to regret it. For I'll hunt you down till I +find you, and then--" + +"Now you're talking," the old man commented approvingly, quite +undismayed by that threat. "And then we'll make terms, if you come in +time and bring enough money with you. + +"I'd even have waited here and fixed it all up, but--" He wagged his +shameless white head sorrowfully. "It wouldn't be wise," said he. +"You've been prejudiced against me--by Farish M'Kissock. It's too late +to think of that now. So I must be off, for my own sake. + +"But maybe we'll meet again," he concluded with cheerful complacence, +"in some safer spot for me. And, if Sallie's still on my hands when you +show up--" + +"So be it, then," Carthew agreed, seeing clearly that further appeal +would be futile, all eagerness to get above-ground again and begin the +chase. He could have the whole fishing-fleet of the village armed and +afloat within half an hour, and might even yet succeed in boarding the +_Olive Branch_ at her anchorage. But, manlike, he had counted without +the woman in the case. + +"I'm going away of my own free will, Mr. Carthew," said Sallie suddenly, +with the same strange expression of face that he had observed when she +had looked back at him in the banquet-hall. "And--I don't want you to +follow me. You have been far more than generous, but--I couldn't marry +you--in any case." + +"Don't say that, Sallie," he beseeched, and, "Dove!" cried a very +wrathful voice in the distance. "We'll be off without you if you don't +come down at once." + +The old man's smug, blinking smile instantaneously changed to a furious +scowl. He pulled a big, golden-necked bottle from one of his pockets, +removed the cork, and, having poured its remaining contents hastily down +his throat, tiptoed off down the tunnel with it in one hand, making +motions as if to hurl it with accurate aim, leaving Sallie alone there. + +Carthew glared across the black gulf at his feet, his free hand +clenched, in helpless despair. He would gladly have given his earldom +then in exchange for a pair of wings. + +"I'll bolt up and get a ladder brought down," groaned Lord Ingoldsby. +And he would have made off without more ado but that Carthew had seized +him by the sleeve. + +"Here! Hold this," commanded Carthew, and thrust the smoking lamp into +his hands. Sallie had turned to follow Captain Dove, with dragging +steps. He could not believe that she meant what she had said. He would +not let her go without making sure. Farish M'Kissock's contemptuous +words had recurred to his mind--"if you're man enough to master her!" +Instinct told him that she would not turn back now, and--a man's last +stake was all he had left to venture. + +"Stop, stop! It's sheer suicide," the marquis cried shrilly, as Carthew +ran limping up the tunnel as far as the straight extended, and faced +about, throwing off his coat, and balanced there for a breathless +instant and then came racing down past him to launch himself bodily into +space. + +No human being could have leaped the distance, and Carthew had been +further handicapped by his lameness. He shot, as if from a catapult, +nearly as high as the arched rock-roof, his elbows close, chin on chest, +head between his shoulders, knees at his temples and heels tucked back, +and, on the downward curve, reached the lower lip of the chasm, landing +on one shoulder, to hang there for the space of a couple of heart-beats, +as if poised for the inevitable rebound. + +Lord Ingoldsby heard the dull thud of his fall and Sallie's stifled, +heart-broken cry. He opened his eyes and saw the girl desperately +striving to pull a hunched-up, relaxing body back from the brink over +which, but for her, it would already have toppled. He thought they must +both have slipped over before, at the finish, Sallie succeeded in +drawing Carthew into safety, and sat down beside him, swaying from side +to side, as if her own back were broken. + +But, presently, Carthew looked up and then he scrambled on to his knees +with a suppressed grunt of agony. For a time the whole world swam redly +about him, but he clenched his teeth, not to be overcome. And when +Sallie in turn got on to her feet again, white and shaking, he had +recovered the use of his voice. + +"I won't let you go--dear," he said dazedly, and started, in renewed +alarm for her, as they heard Captain Dove calling her harshly from +below. + +"Coming," she called back, since she could not help herself. + +"You must stay here, or--he'll kill you!" she whispered in an agony of +entreaty. "I'll go now; it will be best so. And if, by and by, you still +care to follow--" + +"You go on," he said gently. "I'm going to follow you now." + +She had no option but to obey him, since to have remained there would +merely have meant that Captain Dove, coming back for her, would have him +at a greater disadvantage. And as she led the way in the dark, with slow +steps, he followed quietly; while Lord Ingoldsby, left to his own +devices as they disappeared, was brilliantly inspired to bolt back for +help. + +A little further on a thick twilight made progress more easily possible, +and they could feel the salt breath of the sea on their fevered faces. +Then, at last, they drew near the oblong opening in the cliff-face at +which Captain Dove had for several minutes been busy abusing the men in +the boat below. But he was in no better temper by then, since the empty +bottle he had hurled at Slyne had knocked the steersman insensible. + +"Is that you, Sallie?" he snapped, looking round. + +"Below there, you lubbers! Stand in again. We're coming down now. + +"Hurry up, girl!" he barked, impatiently. "It's high time we were +away." + +He was leaning out over the ledge, clinging with one hand to a bar of +the great water-gate, so thick, that his stubby fingers did not meet +round it. Carthew, creeping after Sallie set her suddenly aside, and ran +at him. + +Captain Dove heard him coming, but too late to save himself. He felt as +if a bullock had kicked him in the small of the back, and, as his hold +broke, he fell headlong, howling like an evil spirit, into the +smothering, yeasty surge through which his boat was already hastily +backing to pick him up. + +Carthew set his back to the heavy gate, and it swung slowly shut. But +Slyne had not left behind the key he had for its modern lock, and its +old-fashioned draw-bolts were rusted fast. He could only hope that Lord +Ingoldsby would bring back some means of bridging the drowning-hole +before Captain Dove and his helpers could storm the position again. + +He laughed, a little light-headed by then, as he stumbled up the long, +dark slope, with Sallie close at his shoulder. + +"I told you I wouldn't let you go,--dear," he declared triumphantly, and +his laugh changed to a low, choked groan as she would have taken his arm +to help him; for he was walking unsteadily. + +"Don't touch that one," he begged. "It's a bit sore; I came down on it +when I jumped." + +"Do you think it's broken?" she whispered, and her eyes grew dim as she +thought of all he had suffered through her. She had stopped. There were +lights coming down the tunnel, and hurrying feet, on the further side of +the drowning-hole. + +He slipped his sound arm about her. "There's nothing broken that can't +be mended now," he murmured contentedly. "Unless you're really +determined to break my heart." + +THE END + + * * * * * + +_A Story of Charm and Cheeriness_ + +ALL THE WORLD TO NOTHING + +_By_ WYNDHAM MARTYN + +Illustrated by H. H. Leonard. + + +A few years ago Wyndham Martyn's first book, "The Man Outside," was one +of the "best sellers" of its season. His new novel shows a distinct +advance in the art of the story-teller, and will make many new friends +for its author. Richard Chester, a young American of family, with a +care-free disposition and a dashing outlook on life, goes through all +his money, and has the choice of appealing to his older brother for +assistance or working to avoid starvation. + +Choosing the latter alternative, and the odds against him, he pursues +his unfaltering way through many trials and vicissitudes, not afraid to +try labor of the meanest sort; and throughout his struggle for existence +his hopes are sustained through love of a true-hearted woman. No man +fights more gallantly than he for what is dear to him; neither hardship +nor ill-success has power to stay his impetuous course. + +The reader must learn for himself the place that a curious will and a +chance meeting have in the unusual plot, and the reader may be sure of +finding in "All the World to Nothing" a story of charm and cheeriness +and unusual appeal. + + * * * * * + +_By the author of "The Haunted Pajamas"_ + +THE GIFT OF ABOU HASSAN + +_By_ FRANCIS PERRY ELLIOTT + +Illustrated by Hanson Booth. + + +This is absolutely the cleverest, catchiest book of the season, the +Arabian Nights up-to-date in modern New York, a rapid, rollicking +romance of love and laughter, fun and absurdity, all told in the most +delightfully whimsical manner imaginable. A young club-man, whose +distinguishing characteristic is the possession of unblushing audacity +and nerve, sees a pretty girl outside the antique-shop of a Persian +dealer, to which the girl's aunt has come in quest of a wonderful +rug--and then the fun begins and never stops. + +For Abou Hassan's shop holds a rug more wonderful than the world has +known in many centuries: a magic rug--put foot upon it and one can't be +seen or heard. And the hero's love-making, his masquerade as another +man, the complications for which the magic rug is responsible, these +make a steady stream of comedy that brings laughter to your lips and +tears to your eyes while you are held entranced by the mirthful medley +of mysterious events that follow. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Blackbird, by Hudson Douglas + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE BLACKBIRD *** + +***** This file should be named 39066.txt or 39066.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/6/39066/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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