CHAPTER XVI
ON THE WAY TO ST. VALENTINE'S
"By Jove, I like that fellow's coolness," said Lorry to Harry Anguish,after the meeting. "He's after my own heart. Why, he treats us as thoughwe were the suppliants, he the alms-giver. He is playing a game, I'lladmit, but he does it with an assurance that delights me."
"He is right about that darned old fort," said Anguish. "His knowledgeof such things proves conclusively that he is no ordinary person."
"Yetive had a bit of a talk with him just now," said Lorry, with areflective smile. "She asked him point blank if he knew who she was. Hedid not hesitate a second. 'I remember seeing you in the audiencechamber recently.' That was a facer for Yetive. 'I assure you that itwas no fault of mine that you saw me,' she replied. 'Then it must havebeen your friend who rustled the curtains?' said the confoundedbluffer. Yetive couldn't keep a straight face. She laughed and then helaughed. 'Some day you may learn more about me,' she said to him. 'Isincerely trust that I may, madam,' said he, and I'll bet my hat he wasenjoying it better than either of us. Of course, he knows Yetive is theprincess. It's his intention to serve Beverly Calhoun, and he couldn'tdo it if he were to confess that he knows the truth. He's no fool."
Baldos was not long in preparing plans for the changes in thefortress. They embodied a temporary readjustment of the armament andalterations in the ammunition house. The gate leading to the river wasclosed and the refuse from the fort was taken to the barges by way ofthe main entrance. There were other changes suggested for immediateconsideration, and then there was a general plan for the modernizing ofthe fortress at some more convenient time. Baldos laconically observedthat the equipment was years behind the times. To the amazement of theofficials, he was able to talk intelligently of forts in all parts ofthe world, revealing a wide and thorough knowledge and extensiveinspection. He had seen American as well as European fortifications. TheGraustark engineers went to work at once to perfect the simple changeshe advised, leaving no stone unturned to strengthen the place before anattack could be made.
Two, three weeks went by and the new guard was becoming an old story tothe castle and army folk. He rode with Beverly every fair day and helooked at her window by night from afar off in the sombre barracks. Shecould not dissipate the feeling that he knew her to be other than theprincess, although he betrayed himself by no word or sign. She wasenjoying the fun of it too intensely to expose it to the risk ofdestruction by revealing her true identity to him. Logically, that wouldmean the end of everything. No doubt he felt the same and kept hiscounsel. But the game could not last forever, that was certain. A monthor two more, and Beverly would have to think of the return toWashington.
His courage, his cool impudence, his subtle wit charmed her more thanshe could express. Now she was beginning to study him from a standpointpeculiarly and selfishly her own. Where recently she had sung hispraises to Yetive and others, she now was strangely reticent. She was tounderstand another day why this change had come over her. Stories of hiscleverness came to her ears from Lorry and Anguish and even fromDangloss. She was proud, vastly proud of him in these days. The IronCount alone discredited the ability and the conscientiousness of the"mountebank," as he named the man who had put his nose out ofjoint. Beverly, seeing much of Marlanx, made the mistake of chiding himfrankly and gaily about this aversion. She even argued the guard's casebefore the head of the army, imprudently pointing out many of hissuperior qualities in advocating his cause. The count was learningforbearance in his old age. He saw the wisdom of procrastination. Baldoswas in favor, but someday there would come a time for his undoing.
In the barracks he was acquiring fame. Reports went forth with unbiasedfreedom. He established himself as the best swordsman in the service, aswell as the most efficient marksman. With the foils and sabers he easilyvanquished the foremost fencers in high and low circles. He could ridelike a Cossack or like an American cowboy. Of them all, his warmestadmirer was Haddan, the man set to watch him for the secret service. Itmay be timely to state that Haddan watched in vain.
The princess, humoring her own fancy as well as Beverly's foibles, tookto riding with her high-spirited young guest on many a little jaunt tothe hills. She usually rode with Lorry or Anguish, cheerfully assumingthe subdued position befitting a lady-in-waiting apparently restored tofavor on probation. She enjoyed Beverly's unique position. In order tomaintain her attitude as princess, the fair young deceiver was obligedto pose in the extremely delectable attitude of being Lorry's wife.
"How can you expect the paragon to make love to you, dear, if he thinksyou are another man's wife?" Yetive asked, her blue eyes beaming withthe fun of it all.
"Pooh!" sniffed Beverly. "You have only to consult history to find theexcuse. It's the dear old habit of men to make love to queens and getbeheaded for it. Besides, he is not expected to make love to me. How inthe world did you get that into your head?"
On a day soon after the return of Lorry and Anguish from a trip to thefrontier, Beverly expressed a desire to visit the monastery ofSt. Valentine, high on the mountain top. It was a long ride over thecircuitous route by which the steep incline was avoided and it wasnecessary for the party to make an early start. Yetive rode with HarryAnguish and his wife the countess, while Beverly's companion was thegallant Colonel Quinnox. Baldos, relegated to the background, brought upthe rear with Haddan.
For a week or more Beverly had been behaving toward Baldos in the mostcavalier fashion. Her friends had been teasing her; and, to her ownintense amazement, she resented it. The fact that she felt the sting oftheir sly taunts was sufficient to arouse in her the distressingconviction that he had become important enough to proveembarrassing. While confessing to herself that it was a bit treacherousand weak, she proceeded to ignore Baldos with astonishingpersistency. Apart from the teasing, it seemed to her of late that hewas growing a shade too confident.
He occasionally forgot his differential air, and relaxed into a verypleasing but highly reprehensible state of friendliness. A touch of theold jauntiness cropped out here and there, a tinge of the old ironymarred his otherwise perfect mien as a soldier. His laugh was freer, hiseyes less under subjugation, his entire personality more arrogant. Itwas time, thought she resentfully, that his temerity should meet somesort of check.
And, moreover, she had dreamed of him two nights in succession.
How well her plan succeeded may best be illustrated by saying that shenow was in a most uncomfortable frame of mind. Baldos refused to beproperly depressed by his misfortune. He retired to the oblivion sheprovided and seemed disagreeably content. Apparently, it made verylittle difference to him whether he was in or out of favor. Beverly wasin high dudgeon and low spirits.
The party rode forth at an early hour in the morning. It was hot in thecity, but it looked cold and bleak on the heights. Comfortable wrapswere taken along, and provision was made for luncheon at an inn half wayup the slope. Quinnox regaled Beverly with stories in which GrenfallLorry was the hero and Yetive the heroine. He told her of the days whenLorry, a fugitive with a price upon his head, charged with theassassination of Prince Lorenz, then betrothed to the princess, layhidden in the monastery while Yetive's own soldiers hunted high and lowfor him. The narrator dwelt glowingly upon the trip from the monasteryto the city walls one dark night when Lorry came down to surrenderhimself in order to shield the woman he loved, and Quinnox himselfpiloted him through the underground passage into the very heart of thecastle. Then came the exciting scene in which Lorry presented himself asa prisoner, with the denouement that saved the princess and won for thegallant American the desire of his heart.
"What a brave fellow he was!" cried Beverly, who never tired of hearingthe romantic story.
"Ah, he was wonderful, Miss Calhoun. I fought him to keep him fromsurrendering. He beat me, and I was virtually his prisoner when weappeared before the tribunal."
"It's no wonder she loved him and--married him."
"He deserved the best that life could give, Miss Calhoun."
/> "You had better not call me Miss Calhoun, Colonel Quinnox," said she,looking back apprehensively. "I am a highness once in a while, don't youknow?"
"I implore your highness's pardon!" said he gaily.
The riders ahead had come to a standstill and were pointing off into thepass to their right. They were eight or ten miles from the city gatesand more than half way up the winding road that ended at the monasterygates. Beverly and Quinnox came up with them and found all eyes centeredon a small company of men encamped in the rocky defile a hundred yardsfrom the main road.
It needed but a glance to tell her who comprised the unusualcompany. The very raggedness of their garments, the unforgetabledisregard for consequences, the impudent ease with which they facedpoverty and wealth alike, belonged to but one set of men--the vagabondsof the Hawk and Raven. Beverly went a shade whiter; her interest ineverything else flagged, and she was lost in bewilderment. What freak offortune had sent these men out of the fastnesses into this dangerouslyopen place?
She recognized the ascetic Ravone, with his student's face and beggar'sgarb. Old Franz was there, and so were others whose faces andheterogeneous garments had become so familiar to her in another day. Thetall leader with the red feather, the rakish hat and the black patchalone was missing; from the picture.
"It's the strangest-looking crew I've ever seen," said Anguish. "Theylook like pirates."
"Or gypsies" suggested Yetive. "Who are they, Colonel Quinnox? What arethey doing here?" Quinnox was surveying the vagabonds with a critical,suspicious eye.
"They are not robbers or they would be off like rabbits" he saidreflectively. "Your highness, there are many roving bands in the hills,but I confess that these men are unlike any I have heard about. Withyour permission, I will ride down and question them."
"Do, Quinnox. I am most curious."
Beverly sat very still and tense. She was afraid to look at Baldos, whorode up as Quinnox started into the narrow defile, calling to the escortto follow. The keen eyes of the guard caught the situation at once. MissCalhoun shot a quick glance at him as he rode up beside her. His facewas impassive, but she could see his hand clench the bridle-rein, andthere was an air of restraint in his whole bearing.
"Remember your promise," he whispered hoarsely. "No harm must come tothem." Then he was off into the defile. Anguish was not to be leftbehind. He followed, and then Beverly, more venturesome and vastly moreinterested than the others, rode recklessly after. Quinnox wasquestioning the laconic Ravone when she drew rein. The vagabonds seemedto evince but little interest in the proceedings. They stood away indisdainful aloofness. No sign of recognition passed between them andBaldos.
In broken, jerky sentences, Ravone explained to the colonel that theywere a party of actors on their way to Edelweiss, but that they had beenadvised to give the place a wide berth. Now they were making the best ofa hard journey to Serros, where they expected but little bettersuccess. He produced certain papers of identification which Quinnoxexamined and approved, much to Beverly's secret amazement. The princessand the colonel exchanged glances and afterwards a few words in subduedtones. Yetive looked furtively at Beverly and then at Baldos as if toenquire whether these men were the goat-hunters she had come to know byword of mouth. The two faces were hopelessly non-committal.
Suddenly Baldos's horse reared and began to plunge as if in terror, sothat the rider kept his seat only by means of adept horsemanship. Ravoneleaped forward and at the risk of injury clutched the plunging steed bythe bit. Together they partially subdued the animal and Baldos swung tothe ground at Ravone's side. Miss Calhoun's horse in the meantime hadcaught the fever. He pranced off to the roadside before she could gethim under control.
She was thus in a position to observe the two men on theground. Shielded from view by the body of the horse, they were able toput the finishing touches to the trick Baldos had cleverlyworked. Beverly distinctly saw the guard and the beggar exchange bits ofpaper, with glances that meant more than the words they were unable toutter.
Baldos pressed into Ravone's hand a note of some bulk and received inexchange a mere slip of paper. The papers disappeared as if by magic,and the guard was remounting his horse before he saw that the act hadbeen detected. The expression of pain and despair in Beverly's face senta cold chill over him from head to foot.
She turned sick with apprehension. Her faith had received a stunningblow. Mutely she watched the vagabonds withdraw in peace, free to gowhere they pleased. The excursionists turned to the main road. Baldosfell back to his accustomed place, his imploring look wasted. She wasstrangely, inexplicably depressed for the rest of the day.
Beverly of Graustark Page 17
