CHAPTER XXX.
It was impossible to disassociate Lord Blackadder from LadyHenriette's mysterious disappearance, and yet we could hardly believethat he could have so quickly accomplished his purpose. We doubted themore when the man turned up in person at the Atlas Hotel and had theeffrontery to ask for her.
Basil went out to him in the outer hall, and, as I listened fromwithin, I immediately heard high words. It was like a spark applied totinder; a fierce quarrel blazed up instantly between them.
"How dare you show yourself here?" began Basil Annesley.
"Who are you to prevent me? I come to demand the restoration of thatwhich belongs to me. Take my message to those two ladies and say Iwill have my boy," replied my lord.
"Do not try to impose on me, Lord Blackadder. It is the most impudentpretence; you know perfectly well he is not here."
"I will not bandy words with you. Go in, you men, both of you, Tilerand Falfani, and seize the child. Force your way in, push thatblackguard aside!" he roared in a perfect paroxysm of passion.
I could not possibly hold aloof, but called for help from the hotelpeople, and, with them at my back, rushed out to add my protestagainst this intemperate conduct.
A free fight had already begun. The three assailants, Ralph Blackadderbehind egging them on, had thrown themselves upon Basil, who stoodsturdily at bay with his back to the wall, daring them to come on, andprepared to strike out at the first man who touched him.
"At him! Give it him! Throw him out!" cried Ralph passionately. Buteven as he spoke his voice weakened, he halted abruptly; his handswent up into the air, his body swayed to and fro, his strength lefthim completely, and he fell to the ground in sudden and completecollapse. When they picked him up, there was froth mixed with bloodupon his lips, he breathed once or twice heavily, stertorously, andthen with one long-drawn gasp died in the arms of his two men.
It was an apoplectic seizure, the doctors told us later, brought on byexcessive nervous irritation of the brain.
Here was a sudden and unexpected _denouement_, a terribly dramatic endto our troubles if we could but clear up the horrible uncertaintyremaining.
What had become of my sister and little Ralph?
While the servants of the hotel attended to the stricken man, BasilAnnesley plied the detectives with eager questions. He urged them totell all they knew; it should be made worth their while; they nolonger owed allegiance to their late employer. He entreated them towithhold nothing. Where and how had Lord Blackadder met Henriette?What had he done with her? Where was she now?
We could get nothing out of these men; they refused to answer ourquestions from sheer mulish obstinacy, as we thought at first, but wesaw at length that they did not understand us. What were we drivingat? They assured us they had seen no lady, nor had the unfortunatepeer accosted any one, or interfered with any one on his way betweenthe two hotels. He had come straight from the Villa Shereef to theHotel Atlas, racing down at a run, pausing nowhere, addressing no oneon the road.
If not Lord Blackadder, what then? What could have happened toHenriette? Tangier was a wild place enough, but who would interferewith an English woman in broad daylight accompanied by her servant, byan escort, her attendant Moorish guide? Full of anxiety, Basil calledfor a horse, and was about to ride off to institute a hue and cry,when my sister appeared in person upon the scene.
"Getting anxious about me?" she asked, with careless, almost childishgaiety. "I am awfully late, but I have had such an extraordinaryadventure. Why, how serious you look! Not on my account, surely?"
I took her aside, and in a few words told her of the terriblecatastrophe that had just occurred, and for a time she was silent andseemed quite overcome.
"It's too shocking, of course, to happen in this awful way. Butreally, I cannot be very sorry except for one thing--that now he willnever know."
"Know what, Henriette? Have you taken leave of your senses?"
"Know that I have discovered the whole plot of which I was thevictim. My dear, I have found Susan Bruel, and she has made a fullconfession. They were bribed to go away, and they have been herehiding in Tangier."
"Go on, go on. Tell me, please, all about it."
"You must know we went out, the three of us, on our donkeys, and thefancy seized me to explore some of the dark, narrow streets where thehouses all but join overhead. I got quite frightened at last. I wasnearly suffocated for want of air. I could not even see the sky, andat last desired Achmet to get me out into the open, anywhere. Afterone or two sharp turns, we emerged upon a sort of plateau or terracehigh above the sea, and in full view of it.
"There was a small hotel in front of it, and above the door was thename of the proprietor, would you believe it, Domenico Bruel!
"It was the name of Susan's husband, and no doubt Susan was there. Icould not quite make up my mind how I should act. I thought of sendingAchmet back for you or the Colonel, but I could not bear parting withhim. Then, while I was still hesitating, Susan herself came out andrushed across to where I was, with her hands outstretched and fairlybeside herself, laughing and crying by turns.
"'Oh, my lady! It _is_ you, then? What shall I say to you? How can Itell you?' she began, quite hysterically. 'We behaved mostdisgracefully, most wickedly, but indeed it was Domenico's doing. Heinsisted they offered us such a large sum, enough to make us rich forlife, and so we consented to come away here. I have never had onehappy moment since. Can you forgive me?'
"All this she poured forth, and much more of the same sort. I couldsee she was truly sorry, and that it had not been entirely her fault.Besides, I began to hope already that, how we had found her, we mightget the case reopened, and that wicked order reversed. It will be putright now, now that Ralph can no longer oppose it."
I bowed my head silently, thankful and deeply impressed with thestrange turn taken by events and the sudden light let in upon thedarkness that had surrounded us.
The rest of the adventures that began in the sleeping-car betweenCalais and Basle, and came abruptly to an end on the North Africanshore, may soon be told. Our first act was to return to England atthe very earliest opportunity, and we embarked that evening on aForwood steamer direct for London, which port we reached in less thanfive days.
Town was empty, and we did not linger there. Nothing could be done inthe Courts, as it was the legal vacation, but Henriette's solicitorsarranged to send out a commission to take the Bruels' evidence atTangier, and to bring the matter before The President at the earliestopportunity.
As for ourselves, I persuaded Henriette to take a cottage at Marlow onthe Upper Thames, where Colonel Annesley was a constant guest, andCharlie Forrester. We four passed many idle halcyon days on the quietriver, far from the noise of trains, and content to leave Bradshaw inthe bottom of the travelling-bag, where it had been thrown at the endof our feverish wanderings.
Once again we had recourse to it, however, when we started on ourhoneymoon, Basil and I. Once more we found ourselves at Calais withPhilpotts, but no encumbrances, bound on a second, a far happier, andmuch less eventful journey by the Engadine express.
THE END.