My Friend the Chauffeur
"How can you? You were saying at lunch that so far as you'd been able to
fog it out, there wasn't more than the ghost of a road after Castelnuovo
on to Cattaro; and it's to Cattaro one must go for the ancestral ruin."
"If there's a ghost of a road, it will do for me and this motor," I
said. "What does it matter if we're both smashed, if only we get there
first?"
"Men and motors don't get far when they're smashed. You'll have to wait
till to-morrow morning, when we can all go flying down by the Austrian
Lloyd, if the truants don't turn up in the meantime."
"Wait till to-morrow morning? My name isn't Terence Barrymore if I do
that, or if I wait one minute longer than it will take me to go back
where I came, and load up with petrol enough to see me through this job
for good or evil."
"You'll start off at once, without finding out any more--and road or no
road?"
"There's no more to find out this side of Cattaro, unless I'm far out of
my reckoning; and if there's no road after Castelnuovo, I'll--I'll get
through somehow, never fear."
"I don't fear much, when you set your jaw that way, my son. I suppose
you'll just give me time to make my will, and--er--say good-bye to Miss
Beechy?"
"You're not going, Ralph. I must travel light, for speed; I don't want
an unnecessary ounce of weight on board that car to-day, for she's got
to show her paces as she never did before. You must stop behind, and
instead of saying good-bye, try to cheer Miss Beechy."
"Well, needs must, when _somebody_ drives," mumbled Ralph. But he did
not look very dismal.
I made no preparations, save to fill up with petrol and put all the
spare _bidons_ sent by the Austrian Lloyd in the tonneau. I was in
flannels, as the day was not to be a motoring day, and I wouldn't have
delayed even long enough to fetch my big coat, if I hadn't suddenly
thought that I might be glad of it for Her. Ralph saw me off, making me
promise to wire from Cattaro--if I ever got there!--as soon as there was
news for Beechy of her mother and cousin.
Once out on the open road I gave the old car her head, and she bounded
along like an India rubber ball, curtseying to undulations, spinning
round curves along the sea coast, and past quaint old towns which I
thought of only as obstacles.
Often when you wish your car to show what she can do, she puts on the
air of a spoiled child and shames you. But to-day it was as if the motor
knew what I wanted, and was straining every nerve to help me get it. In
a time that was short even to my impatience, she and I did the
thirty-odd miles to Castelnuovo. A few questions there as to the
feasibility of trying to reach Cattaro by road, brought no information
definite enough to make the experiment worth the risk of failure. At
best there would be many rough miles to cover, in rounding the numerous
arms of that great starfish, the Bocche di Cattaro, and no boat of the
Austrian Lloyd or Hungarian Croatian lines was available to-day, even if
shipping the motor in that way wouldn't have involved endless red tape,
delay and bother. Nevertheless, with a simmering inspiration in my mind,
I steered the car down a narrow road that led to the harbour, a crowd
pattering after me which, no doubt, was very picturesque if I had been
in the mood to observe it. But my eyes were open for one thing only, and
at the port under the high walls of the fortresses that leap to the
sky, I knew that I had found it.
A good-sized fishing boat with a painted sail aflap against the mast,
lay alongside the quay. Beside it stood gossiping two fine sailor-men,
heroically tall, with features cut in bronze. At the thrum of the motor
and clatter of the crowd they turned to stare, and I drove straight at
them, but in order not to give them a fright stopped short a good five
yards away.
The proud men of these parts are not easily scared, and all that these
two did was to take their black pipes out of their mouths. Not a word of
Slavic have I to bless myself with, but I tumbled out Italian sentences,
and they understood, as I was pretty sure they would. What I asked was,
would they take me and my motor in their boat, immediately, on the
instant, to Cattaro? One grinned; the other shook his head; but he
hadn't wagged it from left to right before I pulled a handful of
Austrian gold and silver out of my pockets, which were luckily
well-filled with the hard-earned money of my chauffeurhood.
The man who had grinned, grinned wider; the man who had shaken his head
did not shake it again. I bargained just enough to please them with the
notion that they were plucking me; and five minutes later we three were
hauling a few planks scattered on the quay, to form a gangway to the
boat.
As for the fascinated crowd, not a man Jack of them but was at my
service, after the display of coin which no bright eye had missed. In no
time we had our gangway laid on to the gunwale, and a couple of sloping
planks to roll the motor on board. The next thing was for me to jump
into the car and begin to drive gently ahead, directing the sailors with
nods and becks to steady her by grasping the spokes of her wheels. Thus
we got her into the boat, none the worse for the ordeal; then, picking
up a rope, I was about to make her fast when professional spirit woke in
my two hosts, and taking the rope from me they lashed the car as none
but seamen can.
While one stalwart fellow poled the boat off from the quay, his mate
hoisted the yard that carried the triangular sail. A following wind,
which had been detestable on the dusty road, gave us good speed on our
errand; the broad-bowed old boat made creaking progress, a shower of
silver foam hissing from her cutwater.
My furious energy had been contagious, and perhaps, seeing my desire for
haste, the fishers hoped to earn something further from the madman's
gratitude. All they could do to urge their craft they did.
In other circumstances--say with Her by my side--I should have been
filled with enthusiasm for the Bocche di Cattaro and its scenery, for
never had I seen anything quite like it; but now I grudged each screen
of rock that stopped the breeze, each winding of the water.
From the narrow opening where the Adriatic rushes into Cattaro at the
hidden end of the great sheet of lakes, can't be more than fifteen miles
as the crow flies; but so does the course twist that it is much longer
for mere wingless things, going by water. How I wished for a motor-boat!
But we did not do badly in the big fishing smack. I feared at last that
in the straits the wind might die, but instead it blew as through a
funnel. We were swept finely up the narrow channel, and so into the last
lake with Cattaro and its high fort at the end of it; and my heart gave
a bound as I saw "Arethusa" lying anchored at the quay.
We had more trouble in landing the motor than in getting her aboard, but
the thing was done at last; more coins changed hands, and there was the
car on shore with another crowd round her. I engaged one of my bronzed
fishermen to stand guard lest mischief should be done, and stalked off
to the yacht; but before I reached her I was met by Corramini himself,
all smiles and graciousness.
"I heard your motor," said he, "and guessed your mission. You have come,
of course, to see the ladies?"
"Yes," said I, not troubling to waste words on him. "Miss Kidder is
anxious."
"Ah, then did they not leave word? I suppose there wasn't time, as I
understand the excursion was planned in a hurry. I don't know the
details. It has only been my duty, as my pleasure, to act as host.
Dalmar-Kalm desired to show the ladies Schloss Hrvoya, and brought his
automobile on board for that purpose. He started almost as soon as we
arrived here, well before five o'clock, and should have been back some
time ago, according to his calculation. But I suppose it was a
temptation to linger, or else there has been trouble with the motor.
Unfortunately the chauffeur was left at Ragusa, as my friend is inclined
to be a little vain of his driving. But I doubt his powers as an
engineer, and have been somewhat anxious for the past half hour."
"It is after seven o'clock," I said.
"Yes. I was dining when I heard your motor. I would ask you on board to
have something, but I see by your face that you have it in mind to run
to the rescue; and perhaps it would be kind as well as wise. Do you know
how to reach Schloss Hrvoya?"
"I have seen it on the map," I replied, "and can easily find it, no
doubt, by inquiries."
"Or you may meet the other automobile _en route_. Well, your coming is a
relief to my mind. I shall be glad to hear on your return that all is
well."
"Thanks," said I rather stiffly, for the man's personality was repellent
to me, and in Venice I'd heard some stories, not very nice ones,
concerning his career. He is of good family, is tolerated by society for
his dead father's sake and his wife's, but once or twice a crash has
nearly come, so the whisper runs about the clubs.
Not trusting his fluent affability, I hesitated whether to believe him
and start, or to say I would accept his suggestion to go on board, in
order that I might have a look round "Arethusa" before committing myself
to anything. As I stood in doubt I was hailed from the deck of the
yacht, and there, to my surprise, stood our Countess, showing
dishevelment even in the distance and twilight.
"Oh, Mr. Terrymore, is that _you_?" she cried to me.
I gave the Corramini a look, as I shouted in reply, but he shrugged his
shoulders. "I had no time to mention yet that the Countess was not of
the party for Schloss Hrvoya," said he, "for thereby hangs a tale, as
your great poet says, and it would have taken too long to tell; but now
I suppose she must delay you. It is a pity."
I had no answer for him. It was clear that, whatever had occurred, it
had been his object to deceive me, and hustle me quickly away from the
dangerous neighbourhood of the yacht before I could find out that the
Countess, at all events, was still on board. But chance had thwarted
him, and he was making the best of it with characteristic cleverness,
saving his own skin.
Bareheaded, her wondrous auburn hair disordered, her face blurred with
half-dried tears, the poor woman met me half-way, skipping across the
gangway on to the now almost deserted quay.
"Something awful's happened," she gasped.
"What?" I asked, a sudden tightness in my throat.
"That's the worst of it. I don't know. And the County doesn't know."
"Tell me as well as you can."
"Why, we came here on purpose for the Prince to take me to Slosh Hrvoya.
He wanted it so much. Maida had to be along, because it would have made
talk if he and I'd come alone; but her being with us wasn't of any
importance to _him_, he told me so himself. Well, when his automobile
was landed just where we're standing now, I told Maida to get ready and
went to my cabin to get ready myself, but my things were all gone--my
hat and coat, and motor-mask and everything. I thought, I could have
left them in the sallong, though I was sure I hadn't; but I hurried to
look. They weren't there, and I ran back to Maida's door, thinking it
just possible, to play me a trick--as she was cross--she might have
hidden my things while I was on deck. But she'd gone off and the things
were nowhere. At that minute I heard a noise like a motor, and looked
out of my porthole, but already it was out of sight from there, and I
got up on deck again only in time to catch sight of the Prince's
automobile flashing away at about a mile a minute."
"Miss Destrey was in the car?"
"Of course. She was sitting in the tonneau; and it looked as if there
was some one beside the Prince; but Maida was in the way, so I couldn't
make sure, and while I was dodging my head about, trying to see, the