CHAPTER XV. FIRST BLOOD
So I bound myself to a guilty secrecy for Eva's sake, to save her fromthese wretches, or if you will, to win her for myself. Nor did itstrike me as very strange, after a moment's reflection, that she shouldintercede thus earnestly for a band headed by her own mother's widower,prime scoundrel of them all though she knew him to be. The onlysurprise was that she had not interceded in his name; that I should haveforgotten, and she should have allowed me to forget, the very existenceof so indisputable a claim upon her loyalty. This, however, made it alittle difficult to understand the hysterical gratitude with which myunwilling promise was received. Poor darling! she was beside herselfwith sheer relief. She wept as I had never seen her weep before. Sheseized and even kissed my hands, as one who neither knew nor cared whatshe did, surprising me so much by her emotion that this expression of itpassed unheeded. I was the best friend she had ever had. I was her onegood friend in all the world; she would trust herself to me; and if Iwould but take her to the convent where she had been brought up, shewould pray for me there until her death, but that would not be verylong.
All of which confused me utterly; it seemed an inexplicable breakdownin one who had shown such nerve and courage hitherto, and so hearty aloathing for that damnable Santos. So completely had her presence ofmind forsaken her that she looked no longer where she had been gazinghitherto. And thus it was that neither of us saw Jose until we heardhim calling, "Senhora Evah! Senhora Evah!" with some rapid sentences inPortuguese.
"Now is our time," I whispered, crouching lower and clasping a smallhand gone suddenly cold. "Think of nothing now but getting out of this.I'll keep my word once we are out; and here's the toy that's going toget us out." And I produced my Deane and Adams with no small relish.
A little trustful pressure was my answer and my reward; meanwhile theblack was singing out lustily in evident suspicion and alarm.
"He says they are coming back," whispered Eva; "but that's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because if they were he couldn't see them, and if he heard them hewould be frightened of their hearing him. But here he comes!"
A shuffling quick step on the path; a running grumble of unmistakablethreats; a shambling moonlit figure seen in glimpses through the leaves,very near us for an instant, then hidden by the shrubbery as he passedwithin a few yards of our hiding-place. A diminuendo of theshuffling steps; then a cursing, frightened savage at one end of therhododendrons, and we two stealing out at the other, hand in hand, andbent quite double, into the long neglected grass.
"Can you run for it?" I whispered.
"Yes, but not too fast, for fear we trip.'
"Come on, then!"
The lighted open doorway grew greater at every stride.
"He hasn't seen us yet--"
"No, I hear him threatening me still."
"Now he has, though!"
A wild whoop proclaimed the fact, and upright we tore at top speedthrough the last ten yards of grass, while the black rushed down one ofthe side paths, gaining audibly on us over the better ground. But ourstart had saved us, and we flew up the steps as his feet ceased toclatter on the path; he had plunged into the grass to cut off thecorner.
"Thank God!" cried Eva. "Now shut it quick."
The great door swung home with a mighty clatter, and Eva seized the keyin both hands.
"I can't turn it!"
To lose a second was to take a life, and unconsciously I was stickingat that, perhaps from no higher instinct than distrust of my aim. Ourpursuer, however, was on the steps when I clapped my free hand on top ofthose little white straining ones, and by a timely effort bent both themand the key round together; the ward shot home as Jose hurled himselfagainst the door. Eva bolted it. But the thud was not repeated, and Igathered myself together between the door and the nearest window, for bynow I saw there was but one thing for us. The nigger must be disabled,if I could manage such a nicety; if not, the devil take his own.
Well, I was not one tick too soon for him. My pistol was not cockedbefore the crash came that I was counting on, and with it a shower ofsmall glass driving across the six-foot sill and tinkling on the flags.Next came a black and bloody face, at which I could not fire. I hadto wait till I saw his legs, when I promptly shattered one of them atdisgracefully short range. The report was as deafening as one upon thestage; the hall filled with white smoke, and remained hideous with thebellowing of my victim. I searched him without a qualm, but threatsof annihilation instead, and found him unarmed but for that very knifewhich Rattray had induced me to hand over to him in town. I had a grimsatisfaction in depriving him of this, and but small compunction inturning my back upon his pain.
"Come," I said to poor Eva, "don't pity him, though I daresay he's themost pitiable of the lot; show me the way through, and I'll follow withthis lamp."
One was burning on the old oak table. I carried it along a narrowpassage, through a great low kitchen where I bumped my head against theblack oak beams; and I held it on high at a door almost as massive asthe one which we had succeeded in shutting in the nigger's face.
"I was afraid of it!" cried Eva, with a sudden sob.
"What is it?"
"They've taken away the key!"
Yes, the keen air came through an empty keyhole; and my lamp, heldclose, not only showed that the door was locked, but that the lock wasone with which an unskilled hand might tamper for hours without result.I dealt it a hearty kick by way of a test. The heavy timber did notbudge; there was no play at all at either lock or hinges; nor did I seehow I could spend one of my four remaining bullets upon the former, withany chance of a return.
"Is this the only other door?"
"Then it must be a window."
"All the back ones are barred."
"Securely?"
"Yes."
"Then we've no choice in the matter."
And I led the way back to the hall, where the poor black devil layblubbering in his blood. In the kitchen I found the bottle of wine(Rattray's best port, that they were trying to make her take for herhealth) with which Eva had bribed him, and I gave it to him beforelaying hands on a couple of chairs.
"What are you going to do?"'
"Go out the way we came."
"But the wall?"
"Pile up these chairs, and as many more as we may need, if we can't openthe gate."
But Eva was not paying attention any longer, either to me or to Jose;his white teeth were showing in a grin for all his pain; her eyes werefixed in horror on the floor.
"They've come back," she gasped. "The underground passage! Hark--hark!"
There was a muffled rush of feet beneath our own, then a dull but verydistinguishable clatter on some invisible stair.
"Underground passage!" I exclaimed, and in my sheer disgust I forgotwhat was due to my darling. "Why on earth didn't you tell me of itbefore?"
"There was so much to tell you! It leads to the sea. Oh, what shall wedo? You must hide--upstairs--anywhere!" cried Eva, wildly. "Leave themto me--leave them to me."
"I like that," said I; and I did; but I detested myself for the tears mywords had drawn, and I prepared to die for them.
"They'll kill you, Mr. Cole!"
"It would serve me right; but we'll see about it."
And I stood with my revolver very ready in my right hand, while withthe other I caught poor Eva to my side, even as a door flew open,and Rattray himself burst upon us, a lantern in his hand, and theperspiration shining on his handsome face in its light.
I can see him now as he stood dumfounded on the threshold of the hall;and yet, at the time, my eyes sped past him into the room beyond.
It was the one I have described as being lined with books; there wasa long rent in this lining, where the books had opened with a door,through which Captain Harris, Joaquin Santos, and Jane Braithwaitefollowed Rattray in quick succession, the men all with lanterns, thewoman scarlet and dishevelled even for her. It was over the squire'sshoulders I saw their faces; he kept
them from passing him in thedoorway by a free use of his elbows; and when I looked at him again, hisblack eyes were blazing from a face white with passion, and they werefixed upon me.
"What the devil brings you here?" he thundered at last.
"Don't ask idle questions," was my reply to that.
"So you were shamming to-day!"
"I was taking a leaf out of your book."
"You'll gain nothing by being clever!" sneered the squire, takinga threatening step forward. For at the last moment I had tucked myrevolver behind my back, not only for the pleasure, but for the obviousadvantage of getting them all in front of me and off their guard. Ihad no idea that such eyes as Rattray's could be so fierce: they weredancing from me to my companion, whom their glitter frightened into anattempt to disengage herself from me; but my arm only tightened abouther drooping figure.
"I shall gain no more than I expect," said I, carelessly. "And I knowwhat to expect from brave gentlemen like you! It will be better thanyour own fate, at all events; anything's better than being taken henceto the place of execution, and hanged by the neck until you're dead, allthree of you in a row, and your bodies buried within the precincts ofthe prison!"
"The very thing for him," murmured Santos. "The--very--theeng!"
"But I'm so soft-hearted," I went insanely on, "that I should be sorryto see that happen to such fine fellows as you are. Come out of that,you little fraud behind there!" It was my betrayer skulking in theroom. "Come out and line up with the rest! No, I'm not going to see youfellows dance on nothing; I've another kind of ball apiece for you, andone between 'em for the Braithwaites!"
Well, I suppose I always had a nasty tongue in me, and rather enjoyedmaking play with it on provocation; but, if so, I met with my desertsthat night. For the nigger of the Lady Jermyn lay all but hid behind Evaand me; if they saw him at all, they may have thought him drunk; but, asfor myself, I had fairly forgotten his existence until the very momentcame for showing my revolver, when it was twisted out of my graspinstead, and a ball sang under my arm as the brute fell back exhaustedand the weapon clattered beside him. Before I could stoop for it therewas a dead weight on my left arm, and Squire Rattray was over the tableat a bound, with his arms jostling mine beneath Eva Denison's senselessform.
"Leave her to me," he cried fiercely. "You fool," he added in a lowerkey, "do you think I'd let any harm come to her?"
I looked him in the bright and honest eyes that had made me trust himin the beginning. And I did not utterly distrust him yet. Rather was theguile on my side as I drew back and watched Rattray lift the young girltenderly, and slowly carry her to the door by which she had entered andleft the hall just twenty-four hours before. I could not take my eyesoff them till they were gone. And when I looked for my revolver, it alsohad disappeared.
Jose had not got it--he lay insensible. Santos was whispering to Harris.Neither of them seemed armed. I made sure that Rattray had picked it upand carried it off with Eva. I looked wildly for some other weapon. Twounarmed men and a woman were all I had to deal with, for Braithwaitehad long since vanished. Could I but knock the worthless life out of themen, I should have but the squire and his servants to deal with; and inthat quarter I still had my hopes of a bloodless battle and a treaty ofwar.
A log fire was smouldering in the open grate. I darted to it, and had aheavy, half-burned brand whirling round my head next instant. Harris wasthe first within my reach. He came gamely at me with his fists. I sprangupon him, and struck him to the ground with one blow, the sparks flyingfar and wide as my smoking brand met the seaman's skull. Santos was uponme next instant, and him, by sheer luck, I managed to serve the same;but I doubt whether either man was stunned; and I was standing ready forthem to rise, when I felt myself seized round the neck from behind, anda mass of fluffy hair tickling my cheek, while a shrill voice set up alusty scream for the squire.
I have said that the woman Braithwaite was of a sinister strength; but Ihad little dreamt how strong she really was. First it was her armsthat wound themselves about my neck, long, sinuous, and supple as thetentacles of some vile monster; then, as I struggled, her thumbs were onmy windpipe like pads of steel. Tighter she pressed, and tighter yet. Myeyeballs started; my tongue lolled; I heard my brand drop, and througha mist I saw it picked up instantly. It crashed upon my skull as I stillstruggled vainly; again and again it came down mercilessly in the sameplace; until I felt as though a sponge of warm water had been squeezedover my head, and saw a hundred withered masks grinning suddenexultation into mine; but still the lean arm whirled, and the splintersflew, till I was blind with my blood and the seven senses were beatenout of me.