Chapter 15
Helzephron was away for a considerable time. During his absence Vargus peeped in once and looked at me. I won't describe his face.
When the hawk-faced man returned, he dragged my chair to the far end of the room and pushed the writing table in front of it to form a barrier. There was a deliberation in all he did that was inexpressibly alarming. His lips were drawn in a tight smile, so that I could see the teeth.
He set a chair against the wall opposite, then went again through the curtained door. A moment afterwards he entered, followed by Connie.
She was, as I had never seen her, deadly pale, with large, dark rings under her eyes and all the joy of life ironed out of her sweet face. Yet she was not thinner and there were no lines. The colour had gone from her cheeks and the lustre from her hair, but I somehow thought that her physical health had not suffered alarmingly.
When she spoke, I knew her indomitable spirit remained. The sunny courage of the past had condensed within her soul and turned to unconquerable purpose. Her voice was so full of scorn that it cut even me like the lash of a whip. It was a marvel that the tall man could have borne it for a moment.
But his eyes had a red light in them, like the eyes of a hound -- mad.
"What new devilry is this?" the girl said, as her eyes fell on me, trussed up there behind the table. "Do you suppose I want any further evidence to tell me from where you come and whom you serve?"
"Look at this gentleman. Look at him well."
"Another of your unhappy prisoners! So you add torture to your crimes. And you dare to make me witness it!"
She turned in a fury of disgust and loathing, and made a step towards the door. But before she moved further -- God bless her -- she said: "You've fallen into the hands of a very horrid scoundrel, sir, but...."
At that I managed to cry out, "Connie, dearest, don't you know me?"
I ought not to have been so sudden. I cursed myself for it. It was just as if I had struck her down, for she reeled, and fell into the chair in a swoon.
I myself was near to it. There was a sensation of drowning. When I recovered, the maid, Wilson, was ministering to her mistress, though I could see nothing clearly, for Helzephron stood directly in front of me watching what went on.
"Look here, Helzephron," I said hoarsely, "this can't go on. For God's sake stop it! Get Constance away before she recovers, and do what you like to me." I thought desperately for something that would move him.
He turned round slowly. "Too late now," he said. "You've got to go through with it, both of you."
The malice had faded out of his eyes. He spoke dreamily. "There is no other way...."
He moved away and leant against the wall at the side, looking down moodily at Constance, who was coming to herself. Her eyes opened, and Helzephron made an impatient gesture with his arm. The maid, Wilson, vanished like a ghost. I could see that she, poor thing, went in terrible fear.
I spoke out as soon as I thought Connie could understand. I was desperately determined to have my say. It might be the last chance. To my surprise, though I soon understood the reason, Helzephron did not interrupt.
"I'm disguised, Constance. That's why you didn't know me. It's going to be all right. Be brave a little longer."
I saw comprehension dawn in her eyes, and then they blazed out into love. "John! You've come at last. It's been weary waiting. But you're tied up." Her voice changed. "You're in the power of this man, too!"
"For this moment I may be; but that is nothing. He's been tracked down to here and his hour has come. He knows it. I made a mistake and he captured me, but the forces are converging outside, and for him the whole world is now no wider than this little room."
Helzephron made no sign. From his great height he stared down at us like a stone figure. I doubt if he either saw or heard.
"Tell me quickly -- he's not ill-used you, he's not laid hands on you, hurt you...."
A bitter laugh burst from her. "He's stolen me away from life and kept me here a prisoner. But there's been food to eat, and the cage is gilded with the proceeds of his thefts. He knows well enough that if he dared touch me I'd kill myself. No power on earth and none of his cunning precautions could prevent it, and that also he knows. Thank God his time has come."
"Tell me everything, quickly. A lot depends on it." How could I explain that he was going to kill me, that he would do so long before there was any chance of help arriving?
"He has dared," she said, and I never knew that a woman's voice could be so hard, "dared to offer me what he calls love. The word is hideous in such a mouth. He's raved, threatened and implored me to -- to marry him -- to fly away with him and be his wife."
She sank back in the chair, as if exhausted. I racked my brains for words. What could I say or do? That she would kill herself rather than yield an inch I was certain. But he could still prolong her torture. The chances were that he would fly away with her in his marvellous ship for a time. On the other hand, it might well be that the searching airships were in such force by now that even the Pirate Ship could not escape. There would be a battle in the air. She would be shot to pieces by our cruisers' heavy guns. And Connie would be on board....
What could I say?
Helzephron stood up from the wall. With slow movements he lit a cigarette, but his hand was trembling. He spoke to Constance.
"You've already told me you love Sir John Custance," he said. "I heard that from your own lips two days ago. But 'love' means many things. And you may well have said it to keep me at arm's length. Sir John Custance is here now, and in my power. What of him and you?"
Connie looked at him for a moment without a word. There was not a trace of fear in her eyes. "I'll tell you," she said at length. "That man is my man, and I am his woman from now until the end of time and for all eternity. I know you can't understand, but if words have meaning, mine are plain enough."
Helzephron suddenly threw away his cigarette and gave what seemed to be a sigh of relief. The sound, the gesture, were startling.
"Well," he said, "that is another, and the last, illusion gone. My life has been a succession of lost illusions. I loved you, and I love you still, with all the force and power of a nature which, whatever else it may be, is stronger than that of most men in this feeble world. I would have given you a love so rich, abundant and wonderful that you would have forgotten your passion for this man. Mine would have consumed it utterly. And you would have responded. You think not, but I know better. It would have been flame and flame. Love! Now I see that it is indeed too late."
His tones were not raised. There was nothing particularly eloquent in the actual words he spoke. But to me they tolled like a great bell -- a bell that tolls while the iron gates of hell are opening slowly....
"Yes, too late!" Connie said quickly. "And you see it now. It could never have been. And now you will let us go. Oh, be quick. Untie John, please do; it must be hurting him so."
For the first and last time that night two tears rolled down my cheeks.
I suppose that for a brief space there had been some lingering nobility in Helzephron's mind, some flicker of life in that dark soul. The man had not always been under the dominion of evil.
But now I saw, without possibility of mistake, the final eclipse of good. It was a visible thing, the last awful act in the terrible drama of his life, and it took place before my eyes like crystals dissolving in a glass.
He looked steadfastly at Constance.
"Sir John can go," he said, "for all the debt of ill will I owe him. He can go from here unharmed. My dear girl, it rests entirely with you!"
She did not understand.
"Oh, then let him go now, at once."
"That man," he answered, "lives, or dies a peculiarly unpleasant death; goes free, or is nothing but a heap of clothes in half an hour, as you will decide, Constance."
By the slow dilation of her eyes, I think she knew what he would say.
"It's like this," he went on. "If I cannot h
ave Love, the real thing, at least Fate has put it in my power to demand -- and have -- the second best of it. The moment you give me your solemn promise to marry me, Sir John walks out onto the moor."
I gave Constance one swift, warning look. Would the man believe that another was as base as he himself? Everything depended on that.
"You cannot do it, Constance," I said, with a careful tremor in my voice, trying to suggest a slight dawn of hope, and again I sent her a signal of caution.
Helzephron gave an almost imperceptible start, and a faint smile began to play about his cruel lips.
The fish was rising.
"It would be a martyrdom," I went on. "What is my life worth, even to the State" -- I thought that was a clever touch -- "in exchange for such a sacrifice?"
Praise God for her quick wits. She saw that I was acting, and fell into her part with supreme naturalness. A wail of pain came from her, and she covered her face with her hands. "I cannot let you die," she cried. "Do I not love you? Is not your life of supreme value?"
I spoke in a tone of hardly veiled eagerness. "But your own happiness, what of that?"
Connie made a passionate gesture of renunciation. She turned to our torturer. "Sir," she said, "have you no mercy, no compassion?"
"I have nothing but one overmastering need."
"Then leave us. Let me be alone with Sir John for a few minutes." She beckoned to him and he came, leaning his head low.
"Go," she whispered. "I cannot persuade him while you are here. Leave us alone and I will do my best."
The fool was wax in her hands. That one confidential whisper seemed to have transformed him.
"Yes, I'll go," he said. "I don't think our friend will take much persuading. You may be glad to marry a man, after all!"
He was halfway to the door when suspicion took hold of him. "How do I know you won't be up to some trick?" he snarled. "Try to loose him or something? Not that there would be any chance of escape if you did."
"I give you my word of honour," Connie answered. "Or you can tie me up, too. That would be the best way. Fasten me in this chair so I can't move."
Helzephron shook his head impatiently. Then the door banged and we were alone.
I began to speak at once. There was no time to waste. "Dearest love of my heart, it's goodbye. We've managed to snatch these few moments for farewell."
Her face shone with love and courage as she smiled at me. "Is there no way, darling?"
"None. This is the end. We've fooled that devil for a minute. When he returns and finds out the end will come quickly. Now, listen...."
In a few sentences I told her exactly how matters stood, and of my certainty that Helzephron's course was almost run. Nor did I disguise from her that in any attack on the Pirate Ship once it left here, her own fate was sure.
"What does it matter? I'd kill myself, anyhow, rather than submit to one touch from him. I have the means ready. Oh, my love, I' prouder of you at this moment than I ever was!"
How I rejoiced in her. Never for a single instant had she believed that I would let her do this thing. It was not even spoken of between us. It was worthwhile dying for love and trust like this.
"And you see, dear love," she went on, "it won't be long. We'll be together again in a few hours, never to part anymore...."
Very solemnly and quietly we said farewell. Neither of us was unhappy. A great exaltation and peace consoled us, but the moment is too sacred for description here.
I gave one last look at her serene and radiant face, striving to image it on my brain, so that it would be the last thing I saw, and then I called for Helzephron with a strong voice.
From the first instant that he stepped into the room and saw our faces, he knew the truth.
He was quiet, but his eyes shone again with the dull red light that you may sometimes see in a dog's eyes. I could almost have pitied him, for he was as one who desired even one drop of living water to cool his tongue and was tormented in a flame.
I was praying hard for one good thing -- that Constance would not see me die. It seemed my prayer was answered, for Helzephron led her roughly to the curtained door and pushed her through.
He whistled, and Vargus came in through the other door. The movements of both men were detached and business-like. I had the odd fancy that this was exactly how the paid executioner goes about his work in the prisons.
Once more the cloth was tied over my head, the chair was lifted, and I was carried away. The swinging motion lasted a long time. I must have been taken a considerable distance from the room of my agony when the chair was finally set down.
I heard the mournful beating of waves and felt cool air. I was in the central cavern once more, and near to the mouth of it. So that was it. They were going to throw me to the whirlpools and the rocks below.
I felt strong and slender fingers about my neck -- Vargus the pianist -- and shuddered at the contact. The cloth was removed. It was as I thought: all around was the cathedral-like cave, but now dozens of lights were turned on, including a great blue arc lamp suspended from the roof, and all the shadows and mystery were gone.
Not far away, resting on rubber-covered wheels, which were dropped below the floats by an adaptation of the Raynor-Wallis patent, was the great Pirate Ship, towering up under the domed roof, spreading her great wings from side to side, lovely in her lines, an awful instrument of power. Even at that supreme moment I longed to examine her, to go aboard and make acquaintance with the wonders she held.
The ruling passion of a man's life dies hard!