CHAPTER XXX
THE PERSIAN ANGEL
The man called Abou suddenly leaped to his feet, and, with the cry of aneager animal, sprang to her side. His arms closed about her slenderfigure with the unmistakable lust of the victor. A piteous,heart-rending shriek left her lips as he raised her clear of the groundand started toward the dense shadows across the road. Herterror-stricken face was turned to the light; her cries for mercy weredirected to the brute's companions.
They did not respond, but another did. A hoarse, inarticulate cry ofrage burst from Deppingham's lips. His figure shot out through the airand down the short slope with the rush of an infuriated beast. Even asthe astonished Abou dropped his struggling burden to meet the attack ofthe unexpected deliverer, he was felled to the earth by a mighty blowfrom the rifle which his assailant swung swift and true. His skull wascrushed as if it were an eggshell.
Lady Agnes struggled to her feet, wild-eyed, half crazed by the doubleassault. The next instant she fell forward upon her face, dead to allthat was to follow in the next few minutes. Her glazed eyes caught afleeting glimpse of the figures that seemed to sweep down from the sky,and then all was blank.
There was no struggle. Chase and Selim were upon the stupefied islandersbefore they could move, covering them with their rifles. The wretchesfell upon their knees and howled for mercy. While Deppingham was holdinghis wife's limp form in his arms, calling out to her in the agony offear, utterly oblivious to all else that was happening about him, histwo friends were swiftly disarming the grovelling natives. Selim's knifesevered the cords that bound Bobby Browne's hands; he was staringblankly, dizzily before him, and many minutes passed before he was ableto comprehend that deliverance had come.
Ten minutes later Chase was addressing himself to the four islanders,who, bound and gagged, were tied by their own sashes to trees somedistance from the roadside.
"I've just thought of a little service you fellows can perform for me inreturn for what I've done for you. All the time you're doing it,however, there will be pistols quite close to your backs. I find thatLady Deppingham is much too weak to take the five miles' walk we've gotto do in the next two hours--or less. You are to have the honour ofcarrying her four miles and a half, and you will have to get along thebest you can with the gags in your mouths. I'm rather proud of theinspiration. We were up against it, hard, until I thought of you fellowswasting your time up here in the woods. Corking scheme, isn't it? Two ofyou form a basket with your hands--I'll show you how. You carry her forhalf a mile; then the other two may have the satisfaction of doingsomething just as handsome for the next half mile--and so on. Great,eh?"
And it was in just that fashion that the party started off without delayin the direction of the chateau. Two of the cowed but eager islanderswere carrying her ladyship between them, Deppingham striding closebehind in a position to catch her should she again lose consciousness.Her tense fingers clung to the straining shoulders of the carriers, and,although she swayed dizzily from time to time, she maintained her tryingposition with extreme courage and cool-headedness. Now and then shebreathed aloud the name of her husband, as if to assure herself that hewas near at hand. She kept her eyes closed tightly, apparently unitingevery vestige of force in the effort to hold herself together throughthe last stages of the frightful ordeal which had fallen to her thatnight.
With Selim in the lead, the little procession moved swiftly butcautiously through the black jungle, bent on reaching the gate ifpossible before the night lifted. Chase and Bobby Browne brought up therear with the two reserve carriers in hand. Browne, weak and sufferingfrom torture and exposure, struggled bravely along, determined not toretard their progress by a single movement of indecision. He had talkedvolubly for the first few minutes after their rescue, but now was silentand intent upon thoughts of his own. His head and face were bruised andcut; his body was stiff and sore from the effects of his valiant battlein the cavern and the subsequent hardships of the march.
In his heart Bobby Browne was now raging against the fate that hadplaced him in this humiliating, almost contemptible position. He, and healone, was responsible for the sufferings that Lady Agnes had endured:it was as gall and wormwood to him that other men had been ordained tosave her from the misery that he had created. He could almost havewelcomed death for himself and her rather than to have been saved byGeorge Deppingham. As he staggered along, propelled by the resistlessforce which he knew to be a desire to live in spite of it all, he waswondering how he could ever hold up his head again in the presence ofthose who damned him, even as they had prayed for him.
His wife! He could never be the same to her. He had forfeited the trustand confidence of the one loyal believer among them all.... And now,Lady Deppingham loathed him because his weakness had been greater thanhers!
When he would have slain the four helpless islanders with his own hands,Hollingsworth Chase had stayed his rage with the single, causticadjuration:
"Keep out of this, Browne! You've been enough of a damned bounderwithout trying that sort of thing."
Tears were in Bobby Browne's eyes as, mile after mile, he blunderedalong at the side of his fellow-countryman, his heart bleeding itselfdry through the wound those words had made.
It was still pitch dark when they came to the ridge above the park.Through the trees the lights in the chateau could be seen. Lady Agnesopened her eyes and cried out in tremulous joy. A great wave ofexaltation swept over Hollingsworth Chase. _She_ was watching andwaiting there with the others!
"Dame Fortune is good to us," he said, quite irrelevantly. Selimmuttered the sacred word "Allah." Chase's trend of thought, whatever itmay have been, was ruthlessly checked. "That reminds me," he saidbriskly, "we can't waste Allah's time in dawdling here. Luck has beenwith us--and Allah, too--great is Allah! But we'll have to do someskilful sneaking on our own hook, just the same. If the upper gate isbeing watched--and I doubt it very much--we'll have a hard time gettinginside the walls, signal or no signal. The first thing for us to do isto make everything nice and snug for our four friends here. You'velaboured well and faithfully," he said to the panting islanders, "andI'm going to reward you. I'm going to set you free. But not yet. Don'trejoice. First, we shall tie you securely to four stout trees just offthe road. Then we'll leave you to take a brief, much-needed rest. LadyDeppingham, I fancy, can walk the rest of the way through the woods.Just as soon as we are inside the walls, I'll find some way to let yourfriends know that you are here. You can explain the situation to thembetter than I can. Tell 'em that it might have been worse."
He and Selim promptly marched the bewildered islanders into the wood.Bobby Browne, utterly exhausted, had thrown himself to the soft earth.Lady Deppingham was standing, swaying but resolute, her gaze upon thedistant, friendly windows.
At last she turned to look at her husband, timorously, an appeal in hereyes that the darkness hid. He was staring at her, a stark figure in thenight. After a long, tense moment of indecision, she held out her handsand he sprang forward in time to catch her as she swayed toward him. Shewas sobbing in his arms. Bobby Browne's heavy breathing ceased in thatinstant, and he closed his ears against the sound that came to them.
Deppingham gently implored her to sit down with him and rest. Togetherthey walked a few paces farther away from their companion and sat downby the roadside. For many minutes no word was spoken; neither couldwhisper the words that were so hard in finding their way up from thedepths. At last she said:
"I've made you unhappy. I've been so foolish. It has not been fun,either, my husband. God knows it hasn't. You do not love me now."
He did not answer her at once and she shivered fearfully in his arms.Then he kissed her brow gently.
"I _do_ love you, Agnes," he said intensely. "I will answer for my ownlove if you can answer for yours. Are you the same Agnes that you were?My Agnes?"
"Will you believe me?"
"Yes."
"I could lie to you--God knows I would lie to you."
"I--I would rather you
lied to me than to---"
"I know. Don't say it. George," as she put her hands to his face andwhispered in all the fierceness of a desperate longing to convince him,"I am the same Agnes. I am _your_ Agnes. I am! You _do_ believe me?"
He crushed her close to his breast and then patted her shoulder as afather might have touched an erring child.
"That's all I ask of you," he said. She lay still and almost breathlessfor a long time.
At last she spoke: "It is not wholly his fault, George. I was to blame.I led him on. You understand?"
"Poor devil!" said he drily. "It's a way you have, dear."
The object of this gentle commiseration was staring with gloomy eyes atthe lights below. He was saying to himself, over and over again: "If Ican only make Drusie understand!"
Chase and Selim came down upon this little low-toned picture. The formerpaused an instant and smiled joyously in the darkness.
"Come," was all he said. Without a word the three arose and started offdown the road. A few hundred feet farther on, Selim abruptly turned offamong the trees. They made their way slowly, cautiously to a pointscarcely a hundred feet from the wall and somewhat to the right of thesmall gate. Here he left them and crept stealthily away. A few minuteslater he crept back to them, a soft hiss on his lips.
"Five men are near the gate," he whispered. "They watch so closely thatno one may go to rescue those who have disappeared. Friends are hiddeninside the wall, ready to open the gate at a signal. They have waitedwith Neenah all night. And day is near, sahib."
"We must attack at once," said Chase. "We can take them by surprise. Nokilling, mind you. They're not looking for anything to happen outsidethe walls. It will be easy if we are careful. No shooting unlessnecessary. If we should fail to surprise them, Selim and I will dash offinto the forest and they will follow us, Then, Deppingham, you andBrowne get Lady Deppingham inside the gate. We'll look out forourselves. Quiet now!"
Five shadowy figures soon were distinguished huddled close to the wallbelow the gate. The sense of sight had become keen during those tryinghours in the darkness.
The islanders were conversing in low tones, a word or two now and thenreaching the ears of the others. It was evident from what was beingsaid, that, earlier in the evening, messengers had carried the news fromRasula to the town; the entire population was now aware of theastounding capture of the two heirs. There had been rejoicing; it waseasy to picture the populace lying in wait for the expected relief partyfrom the chateau.
Suddenly a blinding, mysterious light flashed upon the muttering group.As they fell back, a voice, low and firm, called out to them:
"Not a sound or you die!"
Four unwavering rifles were bearing upon the surprised islanders andfour very material men were advancing from the ghostly darkness. Anelectric lantern shot a ray of light athwart the scene.
"Drop your guns--quick!" commanded Chase. "Don't make a row!"
Paralysed with fear and amazement, the men obeyed. They could not havedone otherwise. The odds were against them; they were bewildered; theyknew not how to combat what seemed to them an absolutely supernaturalforce.
While the three white men kept them covered with their rifles, Selim ranto the gate, uttering the shrill cry of a night bird. There was a rushof feet inside the walls, subdued exclamations, and then a glad cry.
"Quick!" called Selim. The keys rattled in the locks, the bolts werethrown down, and an instant later, Lady Deppingham was flying across thespace which intervened between her and the gate, where five or sixfigures were huddled and calling out eagerly for haste.
The men were beside her a moment later, possessed of the weapons of thehelpless sentinels. With a crash the gates were closed and a joyouslaugh rang out from the exultant throat of Hollingsworth Chase.
"By the Lord Harry, this is worth while!" he shouted. Outside, themaddened guards were sounding the tardy alarm. Chase called out to themand told them where they could find the four men in the forest. Then heturned to follow the group that had scurried off toward the chateau. Thefirst grey shade of day was coming into the night.
He saw Neenah ahead of him, standing still in the centre of thegravelled path. Beyond her was the tall figure of a man.
"You are a trump, Neenah," cried Chase, hurrying up to her. "A Persianangel!"
It was not Neenah's laugh that replied. Chase gasped in amazement andthen uttered a cry of joy.
The Princess Genevra, slim and erect, was standing before him, her handtouching her turban in true military salute, soft laughter rippling fromher lips.
In the exuberance of joy, he clasped that little hand and crushed itagainst his lips.
"You!" he exclaimed.
"Sh!" she warned, "I have retained my guard of honour."
He looked beyond her and beheld the tall, soldierly figure of aRapp-Thorberg guardsman.
"The devil!" fell involuntarily from his lips.
"Not at all. He is here to keep me from going to the devil," she criedso merrily that he laughed aloud with her in the spirit of unboundedjoy. "Come! Let us run after the others. I want to run and dance andsing."
He still held her hand as they ran swiftly down the drive, followedclosely by the faithful sergeant.
"You are an angel," he said in her ear. She laughed as she looked upinto his face.
"Yes--a Persian angel," she cried. "It's so much easier to run well in aPersian angel's costume," she added.