CHAPTER VTELLS OF AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN NORTHMOUR, CLARA, AND MYSELF
WITH the first peep of day, I retired from the open to my old lair amongthe sand-hills, there to await the coming of my wife. The morning wasgrey, wild, and melancholy; the wind moderated before sunrise, and thenwent about, and blew in puffs from the shore; the sea began to go down,but the rain still fell without mercy. Over all the wilderness of linksthere was not a creature to be seen. Yet I felt sure the neighbourhoodwas alive with skulking foes. The light that had been so suddenly andsurprisingly flashed upon my face as I lay sleeping, and the hat that hadbeen blown ashore by the wind from over Graden Floe, were two speakingsignals of the peril that environed Clara and the party in the pavilion.
It was, perhaps, half-past seven, or nearer eight, before I saw the dooropen, and that dear figure come towards me in the rain. I was waitingfor her on the beach before she had crossed the sand-hills.
“I have had such trouble to come!” she cried. “They did not wish me togo walking in the rain.”
“Clara,” I said, “you are not frightened!”
“No,” said she, with a simplicity that filled my heart with confidence.For my wife was the bravest as well as the best of women; in myexperience, I have not found the two go always together, but with herthey did; and she combined the extreme of fortitude with the mostendearing and beautiful virtues.
I told her what had happened; and, though her cheek grew visibly paler,she retained perfect control over her senses.
“You see now that I am safe,” said I, in conclusion. “They do not meanto harm me; for, had they chosen, I was a dead man last night.”
She laid her hand upon my arm.
“And I had no presentiment!” she cried.
Her accent thrilled me with delight. I put my arm about her, andstrained her to my side; and, before either of us was aware, her handswere on my shoulders and my lips upon her mouth. Yet up to that momentno word of love had passed between us. To this day I remember the touchof her cheek, which was wet and cold with the rain; and many a timesince, when she has been washing her face, I have kissed it again for thesake of that morning on the beach. Now that she is taken from me, and Ifinish my pilgrimage alone, I recall our old lovingkindnesses and thedeep honesty and affection which united us, and my present loss seems buta trifle in comparison.
We may have thus stood for some seconds—for time passes quickly withlovers—before we were startled by a peal of laughter close at hand. Itwas not natural mirth, but seemed to be affected in order to conceal anangrier feeling. We both turned, though I still kept my left arm aboutClara’s waist; nor did she seek to withdraw herself; and there, a fewpaces off upon the beach, stood Northmour, his head lowered, his handsbehind 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 ishow you keep your faith to your father and to me? This is the value youset upon your father’s life? And you are so infatuated with this younggentleman that you must brave ruin, and decency, and common humancaution—”
“Miss Huddlestone—” I was beginning to interrupt him, when he, in histurn, 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 leaneda 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 thelast man to be irritated by words. For all that, I propose that youspeak lower, for I am convinced that we are not alone.”
He looked round him, and it was plain my remark had in some degreesobered 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. Cassiliscomes from, and what the devil Mr. Cassilis is doing here. You say youare married; that I do not believe. If you were, Graden Floe would soondivorce you; four minutes and a half, Cassilis. I keep my privatecemetery 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 severalejaculations, while I told him how I had come to Graden: that it was Iwhom he had tried to murder on the night of landing; and what I hadsubsequently seen and heard of the Italians.
“Well,” said he, when I had done, “it is here at last; there is nomistake 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 wecan.”
“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 haveonly to put my hands under my coat-tails and walk away, and his throatwould he cut before the evening.”
“Yes, Mr. Northmour,” returned Clara, with great spirit; “but that iswhat you will never do. You made a bargain that was unworthy of agentleman; but you are a gentleman for all that, and you will neverdesert a man whom you have begun to help.”
“Aha!” said he. “You think I will give my yacht for nothing? You thinkI 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, withan odd smile, “perhaps you are not altogether wrong. But ask Cassilishere. _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 leastafraid.”
He looked at her with a peculiar approval and admiration; then, turningto me, “Do you think I would give her up without a struggle, Frank?” saidhe. “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 thirdtime’s lucky.”
“The third time, you mean, you will have the crew of the _Red Earl_ tohelp,” I said.
“Do you hear him?” he asked, turning to my wife.
“I hear two men speaking like cowards,” said she. “I should despisemyself either to think or speak like that. And neither of you believeone 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. Isay 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 longalone. But remember this: you are to be friends, for you are both goodfriends 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 supposethat she was right, for when she was gone we fell at once into a sort ofconfidentiality.
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. “Lookat 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 withgreat emphasis. “We have all hell upon us, that’s the truth. You maybelieve me or not, but I’m afraid of my life.”
“Tell me one thing,” said I. “What are they after, these Italians? Whatdo they want with Mr. Huddlestone?”
“Don’t you know?” he cried. “The black old scamp had_ carbonaro_ fundson a deposit—two hundred and eighty thousand; and of course he gambled itaway 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 afterHuddlestone. 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 ina fix; and, frankly, I shall be glad of your help. If I can’t saveHuddlestone, I want at least to save the girl. Come and stay in thepavilion; and, there’s my hand on it, I shall act as your friend untilthe old man is either clear or dead. But,” he added, “once that issettled, 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 tolead the way through the rain.