The Lock and Key Library: Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Modern English
behind his back, his nostrils white with passion.
"Ah! Cassilis!" he said, as I disclosed my face.
"That same," said I; for I was not at all put about.
"And so, Miss Huddlestone," he continued slowly, but savagely, "this is
how you keep your faith to your father and to me? This is the value you
set upon your father's life? And you are so infatuated with this young
gentleman that you must brave ruin, and decency, and common human
caution--"
"Miss Huddlestone--" I was beginning to interrupt him, when he, in his
turn, cut in brutally--
"You hold your tongue," said he; "I am speaking to that girl."
"That girl, as you call her, is my wife," said I; and my wife only leaned
a little nearer, so that I knew she had affirmed my words.
"Your what?" he cried. "You lie!"
"Northmour," I said, "we all know you have a bad temper, and I am the last
man to be irritated by words. For all that, I propose that you speak
lower, for I am convinced that we are not alone."
He looked round him, and it was plain my remark had in some degree sobered
his passion. "What do you mean?" he asked.
I only said one word: "Italians."
He swore a round oath, and looked at us, from one to the other.
"Mr. Cassilis knows all that I know," said my wife.
"What I want to know," he broke out, "is where the devil Mr. Cassilis
comes from, and what the devil Mr. Cassilis is doing here. You say you are
married; that I do not believe. If you were, Graden Floe would soon
divorce you; four minutes and a half, Cassilis. I keep my private cemetery
for my friends."
"It took somewhat longer," said I, "for that Italian."
He looked at me for a moment half daunted, and then, almost civilly, asked
me to tell my story. "You have too much the advantage of me, Cassilis," he
added. I complied of course; and he listened, with several ejaculations,
while I told him how I had come to Graden: that it was I whom he had tried
to murder on the night of landing; and what I had subsequently seen and
heard of the Italians.
"Well," said he, when I had done, "it is here at last; there is no mistake
about that. And what, may I ask, do you propose to do?"
"I propose to stay with you and lend a hand," said I.
"You are a brave man," he returned, with a peculiar intonation.
"I am not afraid," said I.
"And so," he continued, "I am to understand that you two are married? And
you stand up to it before my face, Miss Huddlestone?"
"We are not yet married," said Clara; "but we shall be as soon as we can."
"Bravo!" cried Northmour. "And the bargain? D----n it, you're not a fool,
young woman; I may call a spade a spade with you. How about the bargain?
You know as well as I do what your father's life depends upon. I have
only to put my hands under my coat tails and walk away, and his throat
would be cut before the evening."
"Yes, Mr. Northmour," returned Clara, with great spirit; "but that is what
you will never do. You made a bargain that was unworthy of a gentleman;
but you are a gentleman for all that, and you will never desert a man whom
you have begun to help."
"Aha!" said he. "You think I will give my yacht for nothing? You think I
will risk my life and liberty for love of the old gentleman; and then, I
suppose, be best man at the wedding, to wind up? Well," he added, with an
odd smile, "perhaps you are not altogether wrong. But ask Cassilis here.
_He_ knows me. Am I a man to trust? Am I safe and scrupulous? Am I kind?"
"I know you talk a great deal, and sometimes, I think, very foolishly,"
replied Clara, "but I know you are a gentleman, and I am not the least
afraid."
He looked at her with a peculiar approval and admiration; then, turning to
me, "Do you think I would give her up without a struggle, Frank?" said he.
"I tell you plainly, you look out. The next time we come to blows--"
"Will make the third," I interrupted, smiling.
"Aye, true; so it will," he said. "I had forgotten. Well, the third time's
lucky."
"The third time, you mean, you will have the crew of the 'Red Earl' to
help," I said.
"Do you hear him?" he asked, turning to my wife.
"I hear two men speaking like cowards," said she. "I should despise myself
either to think or speak like that. And neither of you believe one word
that you are saying, which makes it the more wicked and silly."
"She's a trump!" cried Northmour. "But she's not yet Mrs. Cassilis. I say
no more. The present is not for me."
Then my wife surprised me.
"I leave you here," she said suddenly. "My father has been too long alone.
But remember this: you are to be friends, for you are both good friends to
me."
She has since told me her reason for this step. As long as she remained,
she declares that we two would have continued to quarrel; and I suppose
that she was right, for when she was gone we fell at once into a sort of
confidentiality.
Northmour stared after her as she went away over the sand hill.
"She is the only woman in the world!" he exclaimed with an oath. "Look at
her action."
I, for my part, leaped at this opportunity for a little further light.
"See here, Northmour," said I; "we are all in a tight place, are we not?"
"I believe you, my boy," he answered, looking me in the eyes, and with
great emphasis. "We have all hell upon us, that's the truth. You may
believe me or not, but I'm afraid of my life."
"Tell me one thing," said I. "What are they after, these Italians? What do
they want with Mr. Huddlestone?"
"Don't you know?" he cried. "The black old scamp had _carbonari_ funds on
a deposit--two hundred and eighty thousand; and of course he gambled it
away on stocks. There was to have been a revolution in the Tridentino, or
Parma; but the revolution is off, and the whole wasp's nest is after
Huddlestone. We shall all be lucky if we can save our skins."
"The _carbonari_!" I exclaimed; "God help him indeed!"
"Amen!" said Northmour. "And now, look here: I have said that we are in a
fix; and, frankly, I shall be glad of your help. If I can't save
Huddlestone, I want at least to save the girl. Come and stay in the
pavilion; and, there's my hand on it, I shall act as your friend until the
old man is either clear or dead. But," he added, "once that is settled,
you become my rival once again, and I warn you--mind yourself."
"Done!" said I; and we shook hands.
"And now let us go directly to the fort," said Northmour; and he began to
lead the way through the rain.
VI
We were admitted to the pavilion by Clara, and I was surprised by the
completeness and security of the defenses. A barricade of great strength,
and yet easy to displace, supported the door against any violence from
without; and the shutters of the dining-room, into which I was led
directly, and which was feebly illuminated by a lamp, were even more
elaborately fortified. The panels were strengthened by bars and crossbars;
and these, in their turn, were kept in position by a system of braces and
struts, some abutting on the floor, some on the roof, and others, in fine,
against the opposite wall of the apartment. It was at once a solid and
well-designed piece of carpentry; and I did not seek to conceal my
admiration.
"I am the engineer," said Northmour. "You remember the planks in the
garden? Behold them?"
"I did not know you had so many talents," said I.
"Are you armed?" he continued, pointing to an array of guns and pistols,
all in admirable order, which stood in line against the wall or were
displayed upon the sideboard.
"Thank you," I returned; "I have gone armed since our last encounter. But,
to tell you the truth, I have had nothing to eat since early yesterday
evening."
Northmour produced some cold meat, to which I eagerly set myself, and a
bottle of good Burgundy, by which, wet as I was, I did not scruple to
profit. I have always been an extreme temperance man on principle; but it
is useless to push principle to excess, and on this occasion I believe
that I finished three quarters of the bottle. As I eat, I still continued
to admire the preparations for defense.
"We could stand a siege," I said at length.
"Ye--es," drawled Northmour; "a very little one, per--haps. It is not so
much the strength of the pavilion I misdoubt; it is the double danger that
kills me. If we get to shooting, wild as the country is, some one is sure
to hear it, and then--why then it's the same thing, only different, as
they say: caged by law, or killed by _carbonari_. There's the choice. It
is a devilish bad thing to have the law against you in this world, and so
I tell the old gentleman upstairs. He is quite of my way of thinking."
"Speaking of that," said I, "what kind of person is he?"
"Oh, he!" cried the other; "he's a rancid fellow, as far as he goes. I
should like to have his neck wrung to-morrow by all the devils in Italy. I
am not in this affair for him. You take me? I made a bargain for missy's
hand, and I mean to have it too."
"That, by the way," said I. "I understand. But how will Mr. Huddlestone
take my intrusion?"
"Leave that to Clara," returned Northmour.
I could have struck him in the face for his coarse familiarity; but I
respected the truce, as, I am bound to say, did Northmour, and so long as
the danger continued not a cloud arose in our relation. I bear him this
testimony with the most unfeigned satisfaction; nor am I without pride
when I look back upon my own behavior. For surely no two men were ever
left in a position so invidious and irritating.
As soon as I had done eating, we proceeded to inspect the lower floor.
Window by window we tried the different supports, now and then making an
inconsiderable change; and the strokes of the hammer sounded with
startling loudness through the house. I proposed, I remember, to make
loop-holes; but he told me they were already made in the windows of the
upper story. It was an anxious business, this inspection, and left me
down-hearted. There were two doors and five windows to protect, and,
counting Clara, only four of us to defend them against an unknown number
of foes. I communicated my doubts to Northmour, who assured me, with
unmoved composure, that he entirely shared them.
"Before morning," said he, "we shall all be butchered and buried in Graden
Floe. For me, that is written."
I could not help shuddering at the mention of the quicksand, but reminded
Northmour that our enemies had spared me in the wood.
"Do not flatter yourself," said he. "Then you were not in the same boat
with the old gentleman; now you are. It's the floe for all of us, mark my
words."
I trembled for Clara; and just then her dear voice was heard calling us to
come upstairs. Northmour showed me the way, and, when he had reached the
landing, knocked at the door of what used to be called My Uncle's Bedroom,
as the founder of the pavilion had designed it especially for himself.
"Come in, Northmour; come in, dear Mr. Cassilis," said a voice from
within.
Pushing open the door, Northmour admitted me before him into the
apartment. As I came in I could see the daughter slipping out by the side
door into the study, which had been prepared as her bedroom. In the bed,
which was drawn back against the wall, instead of standing, as I had last
seen it, boldly across the window, sat Bernard Huddlestone, the defaulting
banker. Little as I had seen of him by the shifting light of the lantern
on the links, I had no difficulty in recognizing him for the same. He had
a long and sallow countenance, surrounded by a long red beard and
side-whiskers. His broken nose and high cheek-bones gave him somewhat the
air of a Kalmuck, and his light eyes shone with the excitement of a high
fever. He wore a skull-cap of black silk; a huge Bible lay open before him
on the bed, with a pair of gold spectacles in the place, and a pile of