theplace, "while I go below with this man. We must hold the gate, lads,hold it with our lives! If the two yonder come back, be sure you closetheir mouths. You understand, Peter--close their mouths!"
"Aye, I understand, captain!" said he, very quietly. "They'll not singhymns when I've done with them!"
I followed the Italian down the stairs, and we made for the great hallagain. Many lights were burning there, and the figures of women passedin and out of the splendid rooms. At the far corner, opposite MissRuth's own apartment, the Italian came to a halt and began to gabbleagain.
"Excellency live here, sir," said he; "the gun-room--you go rightthrough to him; but Excellency, he have the key. Me only doorman. Ispeak true, sir!"
I opened the door of the room he indicated, and feeling upon the wallswitched on a lamp. It was the palace of a place, with great book-racksall round it, and arm-chairs as long as beds in every corner, andinstruments and tables and pretty ornaments enough to furnish amansion; but for none of these things had I eyes that night. Yonder, atthe end of the room, a curtain opened above a door of iron; and throughthat door I saw at a glance the way to the gun-room lay. Ah, how myhead tried to grapple with the trouble! The keys--where lay the keys?What chance or miracle would show me those? Was the key on Czerny'sperson or here in one of the drawers about? How much would I have paidto have been told that truly! But how to open it!
Now the Italian watched me with curious eyes as I went up to the doorand drew the curtain back from it. A quick glance round the room didnot show me what common sense was seeking--an iron safe in whichCzerny's keys might lie. That he would keep the key of the armoury inthe room, unless it were on his person, I had no doubt; and argumentbegan to tell me that, after all, a safe might not be necessary. Ifalarm came it would come from the sea; or from the lower doors, whichwere locked against his devil's crew. I began to say that the keyswould be in a drawer or bureau, and I was going to ransack every pieceof furniture, when--and this seemed beyond all reason--I saw somethingshining bright upon a little table in the corner, and crossing the roomI picked up the very thing for which a man might have offered the halfof his fortune.
"Heaven above!" said I, "if this is it--if this is it----"
And why should it not have been? News of the wreck had come to thehouse like a sudden alarm leaping up in the night; the keys, which Iheld with greedy fingers, might they not have been in Czerny's handswhen the bell clanged loudly through the startled corridors? I saw him,forgetful in his very greed, serving out rifles to his willing men,running up at hazard to be sure of the truth, leaving behind him thatwhich might open his house to the world forever. And in my hand thefruit of his alarm was lying.
Ah, Heaven! it was the truth, and the door opened at my touch, and armsfor a hundred men glittered in the dim light about me.
CHAPTER XX
THE FIRST ATTACK IS MADE BY CZERNY'S MEN
We carried the shot to the stairs' head, each man working as though hisown life were the price of willing labour. If Miss Ruth had tidings ofthe great good fortune the night had sent to us, she would neither stayour hands with questions nor wait for idle answers. For a moment I sawher, a figure to haunt a man, looking out from the door of her ownroom; but a long hour passed before I changed a word with her or knewif that which we had done would win her consent. Now, indeed, was RuthBellenden at the parting of the ways, and of all in Czerny's house herlot must have been the hardest to bear. She had blotted the page of herold life that night and it never would be rewritten. None the less, awoman's courage could show me a bright face and all that girlishgentleness which was her truest charm. Never once would she speak ofher own trouble, but always lightly of ours; so that we three--littleRuth, Dr. Gray, and Jasper Begg--might have been friends met upon anycommon adventure, and not at the crisis of that desperate endeavour.And so I think it will befall in all the perilous days, that what iswritten in the story-books about loud exclamations and pale faces andall the rest of it is the property of the story-teller, and that inplain truth you find none of these things, but just silent actors andsimple talk, and no more noise of the difficulty than the common daywill bring. This, at least, is my memory of that never-to-be-forgottennight. To-morrow might give us life or death--a grave beneath the seasor mastership of that house of mystery; though of this no word passedbetween us, but briefly we gave each other the news and asked it inreturn.
"Captain," says the doctor, he being the first to speak, "they tell meyou've struck a gun-store. Is it true or false?"
I told him that it was true, and making light of it--for I did not wishMiss Ruth to be upset before there was good reason--I named anotherthing.
"Yes," said I, "we shall defend ourselves if there's need, and give agood account, I hope. For the rest, we'll take it as we find it. I amtrusting that Mister Czerny will listen to common sense and not riskbloodshed. If he does, the blame be on his own head, for I shall do mybest to make it easy for him."
"I know you will--I know you will, Jasper," says little Ruth, closingher hand upon mine, and not caring much what the doctor thought of it,I'll be bound; "we can do no more than our duty, each of us. Mine isvery hard, but I shall not turn from it--never, while I know that dutysays, 'Go on!'"
"That I'm sure you won't, Miss Ruth," was my answer to her; "if everduty justified man or woman it justifies you and I this night. Let usbegin with that and all the rest is easy. What we are doing is done asmuch for the sake of our fellow-men as for ourselves. We work for agood end--to let the world know what Ken's Island harbours and to keepour fellow-men from such a place. Accomplish that much, and right andhumanity owe us something, though it's not for me to speak of it, noris this the time. My business is to hold this house against the devilswho are pillaging the ship yonder. The sea-gate I can take care of,Miss Ruth. It's what's below in the pit that I fear."
She listened with a curiosity which drank in every word and yet was notsatiated. Nevertheless, I believe but half of my story was plain toher. And who blames her for that? Was not it enough for such a bit of agirl to say, "My friends are with me. I trust them. They will win myliberty." The arguments were for the men--for Mister Gray and me, whosought a road in the darkness, but could not find one.
"Two doors to this house, captain," says the doctor, after a littlewhile, "and one of them shut. So much I understand. Are you sure thatthe cavern below is empty, or do you still count men in it?"
"'Tis just neither way," said I, "and that's the worst of it, doctor.The sea's to be held while the shell lasts and perhaps afterwards; butif there are men down below, why, then it's another matter. I'm stakingall on a throw. What more can I do?"
He leaned back upon the sofa and appeared to think of it. Presently hesaid:
"Captain, a man doesn't shoot with his foot, does he?"
And then, not waiting for me to answer, he goes on:
"Why, no; he shoots with his hand. Just you plant me in the passage andgive me a gun. I'll keep the door for you--by Jove, I will!"
Now, I saw that this promise frightened Miss Ruth more than she wouldsay, for it was the first time that it occurred to her that men mightcome out of the pit. But she was just the one to turn it with a laugh,and crying, "What folly! what folly!" she called out at the same timefor little Rosamunda, and began to think of that which I had cleanforgotten.
"Jasper," says she, "you will never make a general--never, never! Why,where's your commissariat? Would you starve your crew and think nothingof it? Oh, we shall feed Mister Bligh, and then it will be easy," saysshe, prettily.
I made no objection to this, for it was evident that she wished toconceal her fears from us; but I knew that the doctor was wise, andbefore I left him there was a rifle at his side and twenty rounds to gowith it.
"If there is any sound at the door, fire that gun."]
"If there's any sound at the door of the corridor--as much as ascratch," said I, "fire that gun. I shall be with you before thesmoke's lifted, and you will need me, doctor--indeed, you will!"
I left
him upon this and went up, more anxious than I would haveconfessed, to my shipmates at the gate. I found them standing togetherin the moonlight, which shone clear and golden upon a gentle sea, andgave points of fire to the rocky headlands of Ken's Island. So still itwas, such a scene of wonder and of beauty, that but for the words whichgreeted me, and the dark figures peering across the water, andsomething very terrible on the distant reef, I might have believedmyself keeping a lonely watch in the glory of a summer's night. Thatdelusion the East denied. I knew the truth even before Mister Blighnamed it.
"They've fired the ship, captain--fired the ship!" says he, with justanger.