The Web of the Golden Spider

by Frederick Orin Bartlett

  CHAPTER XXIX

  _The Open Door Closes_

  It was an excited but happy group of people who sat down that night inthe cozy cabin of the yacht after a good day's rest. Each of them hadmore than he could tell, for no one would allow the other to omit anydetails of these last adventurous weeks. Each had been held in theclutch of a widely differing set of circumstances and each had beenforced to make something of a lone fight of it. Here in the calm andluxury of this cabin their lives, by the grace of God, had come to afocus. First Danbury, as the host, was forced to begin from the timehe was lost at the gate to the palace.

  He told of how he awoke in a certain house and found himself under thecare of the best nurse in the world. But that didn't last long, forthe next thing he knew he was on board his yacht and fifty miles outat sea with a mutinous captain--a captain who refused to put back toport when ordered to do so at once. Instead of that, the fellow ranhim into a strange port, took on board a surgeon (shanghaied him, infact) and refused to obey orders until three weeks later Danbury washimself again plus a limp. Then he had come back to Bogova only to berefused permission to anchor in the harbor. He had come ashore onenight in a dory, been arrested and carried before Otaballo who refusedto recognize him and gave him the alternative of going to jail orleaving the coast at once. It had all been an incomprehensible mysteryto him; the only explanation he could think of being that the Queenwas seized by the General who had usurped the throne. He tried oncemore to land and this time learned of the movement afoot by theRepublican party. He had made a dash for the palace, forced his waythrough the guards, and reached the Queen. Now he'd like anexplanation from her Majesty of the unfair advantage she had taken ofa wounded prisoner.

  Her Majesty with an excited, happy laugh said that if boys would getexcited and act foolishly, the only thing to do was to keep them outof trouble by force. It was true that she had conspired to have himtransported and kept safe aboard his ship, because she knew that ifhe came back, he would resent a great many things she was forced tobear as a matter of diplomacy, and would end by getting stabbed inthe back. She thought it was better to have a live lover, even thoughhe were a hundred miles away, than a dead soldier. He scowled indisgust, but she reached his hand under the table. She had givenorders to Otaballo and then she had lain awake all night cryingbecause he had carried them out. Her plan had been to get thekingdom all straightened out and at peace, and then to abdicate.But things had gone wrong and she told them a story of plots andcounterplots, of strange men arrested at her very door with knivesin their hands, of a bomb found in the palace, that held thembreathless. Danbury fairly boiled over with excitement.

  "And you had me tied up while those things were going on? Trix--I'llnever forgive you. I might have been a regular story-book hero."

  "Not in Carlina; you'd have been killed before night."

  "Rot! Don't you think I'm old enough to take care of myself?"

  "No," she answered. "And that's why I've come with you."

  "I'd have cleared up that trouble in a week," he exploded. "And as forthose beggars of mine--do you know I risked my life to get their payto them through an agent? And then they turned against us."

  "Still for pay," she said.

  "Well, their life will be a short one and a merry in that crowd. Oncethe darned republic is running again, they will be got rid of."

  If Danbury squirmed at having missed the excitement at Bogova, hefairly writhed with envy of Stubbs and Wilson. As he listened hehitched back and forth in his chair, leaned over the table until hethreatened to sprawl among the glasses, and groaned jealously at everycrisis. Wilson told his story as simply as possible from itsbeginning; the scenes at the house, his finding the map, hisadventures in Bogova, the long trip to the cave, his danger there, andtheir dash back with the treasure, omitting, however, the story of thePriest's relation to the girl as of too personal a nature. At thispoint the black coffee was brought on, the steward dismissed, and as aclimax to the narrative the contents of the twenty bags of jewelspoured out upon the table. They made a living, sparkling heap thatheld everyone of them in silent wonder. Beneath the electric lights,they took on their brightest hues, darting rays in all directions, adazzling collection which in value and beauty was greater than anywhich has ever been gathered at one time. To-day they are scatteredall over the world. There is not a collection in Europe which is notthe richer for one or more of them. They flash upon the fingers ofroyalty, they sparkle upon the bosom of our own richest, they arelocked tight in the heavy safes of London Jews, and at least four ofthem the Rajah of Lamar ranks among the choicest of what is called themost magnificent collection in the world. But the two finest of themall, neither the money of Jews nor the influence of royalty waspowerful enough to secure; one came as a wedding gift to Mrs. Danbury,and the other was a gift from Stubbs to Jo.

  For a few minutes they lay there together, as for so long they hadlain in the cave--a coruscating fortune of many millions.

  "Well," gasped Danbury, "you fellows certainly got all the fun and agood share of the profit out of this trip. But--did you say you left apile behind?"

  "In gold. Twenty times what these are worth," said Wilson.

  "And you could locate it again?"

  "It's buried under a mountain now, but you're welcome to the map ifyou wish to dig for it. I don't want any more of it. I found what Iwas after."

  He looked at Jo who had become as silent as ever the wife of Floreswas. She had learned the same trick of the eyes--a sort of sheep-likecontent.

  "But, Stubbs," broke out Danbury, "will _you_ go back with me? We'lltake dynamite and men enough to blow out the whole mountain. Say, itwill be bully and----"

  He felt warm fingers close over his own. It sent a thrill the lengthof him, but also it told him that things were different now--that hemust not plan for himself alone.

  "Well," he added slowly, "perhaps some day we can go--say ten yearsfrom now. Are you with me, Stubbs?"

  "It's good enough to stow erway ter dream about," smiled Stubbs,catching a warning glance from Beatrice, "but as fer me, I h'ain't gutth' taste of rope outer my mouth yet."

  They swept back the jewels into the bags and locked them up inDanbury's safe. The latter agreed to take them to New York and seethat they were properly appraised so that a fair division could bemade. Stubbs protested that it wasn't worth while.

  "Jus' give me one bag of 'em an' I guess thet will last me out."

  But Wilson insisted on the literal carrying out of their bargain,share and share alike.

  The remainder of the trip was a sort of extra honeymoon for Danburyand Wilson, while Stubbs was content to act as chaperone and bask inthe reflected happiness about him. The climax came with the doublewedding held on board the ship in Boston Harbor just as soon as theycould get a parson on board. The little cabin was a bower of flowersand what the two girls lacked in gowns (both Danbury and Wilsoninsisting that to prepare a trousseau was a wholly unnecessary wasteof time) they made up in jewels. The dinner which followed was worthyof the Astoria, for Togo, the Japanese steward, was given carteblanche.

  Stubbs was to go on to New York with Danbury, but as to where heshould go from there, he was mysterious.

  "There's a widder at Lisbon----" he hinted to Wilson.

  "If you don't find her, come back to us."

  "Maybe so; maybe so. It's God bless ye both, anyhow, an' perhaps we'llmeet in the end at the Home port."

  * * * * *

  From the dark of their unlighted room in the hotel Wilson and his wifestood side by side staring down at the interminable procession ofshuffling feet in which, so short a time ago, they had been two units.It had been just such a dusk time as this when she had first got aglimpse of this man by her side. The world had seemed very big andformidable to her then and yet she had felt something of the tinglingromance of it. Now as she gazed down through the misting rain at theglazed streets and the shadows moving through the paths of yellowlights from t
he windows, she felt a yearning to be a part of them oncemore.

  Once again she felt the gypsy call of things beyond; once again shevibrated attune to the mystic song of the dark. She felt stifled inhere with her love. For the moment she was even rebellious. After thesweep of sky-piercing summits, after the unmeasured miles of the sea,there was not room here for a heart so big as hers. Somehow this roomseemed to shut out the sky. She wanted to go down into the crowd for alittle and brush shoulders with these restless people. It would seem alittle less as though she had been imprisoned.

  It seemed to her as though she would then be more completely alonewith him--alone as they were those first few hours when they had feltthe press of the world against them. For this night of nights, shecraved the isolation which had once been thrust upon them. They weresuch guarded creatures here. An hundred servants hedged themabout,--hedged them in as zealously as jailers. The law--that oldenemy--patroled the streets now to keep them safe where once it hadthrust them out into the larger universe. Outside still lay the broadavenues of dark where one heard strange passings; where one was intouch with the ungoverned. The rain sifted gently from the unchartedregions above. It was there lovers should be--there where one couldswing the shoulders and breathe deeply.

  The girl snuggled uneasily closer to his side. The two pressed to thewindow as though to get as far away as possible from all the man-madefurnishings about them.

  "Jo," he whispered, "we oughtn't to be shut in."

  She found his hand and grasped it with the strength of one who thrillswith the deeper understanding. She trembled in the grip of that lovewhich, at least once in a woman's life, lifts her to a higher planethan can be reached outside a madhouse. She felt a majestic scorn ofcircumstance. She was one with Nature herself,--she and her man. Shelaid her hot cheek against his heart. She had not yet been kissed,withdrawing from his lips half afraid of the dizzy heights to whichthey beckoned.

  "Let's get back into the dark, Jo," he whispered again, drawing hertowards him; "back where I found you, Jo. I want to get outside oncemore--with you. I want to be all alone with you once more."

  "David! David!" she cried joyously, "I know."

  "I don't want to start life with you from here. I want to start fromwhere we stood before the fire all wet. It was there I found you."

  "Yes! Yes!" she answered, scarcely able to get her breath.

  "It was meant for us to begin there. We were turned aside for a littleinto strange paths, but we'll go back now. Shall we?"

  "Now," she panted. "Let us start now."

  "Come," he said.

  They hurried out of the room and down the broad marble stairs to thehotel foyer as though fearing something was behind them to seize andhold them prisoner. The smug, well-dressed men and women who werelounging there staring listlessly at the rain, glanced up with aquicker interest in life at sight of their flushed cheeks and eagereyes. They caught in them the living fire which in their own breastswas ash-covered by the years.

  The man at the swinging doors straightened at their approach.

  "Shall I get you an umbrella, sir?"

  "No," answered Wilson, with a smile.

  "It is raining hard, sir?"

  "Yes, it is raining, thank God."

  They moved out upon the steps and the carriage porter put his whistleto his lips. Wilson shook his head and gripped the arm of the excitedgirl by his side.

  "But, sir----" gasped the porter.

  "I'm afraid you don't belong to the night," said Wilson.

  "Lord!" muttered the porter as he saw them step into the wet. "Lord!they're mad--mad as hatters."

  They swung into the damp stream of men and women with a fresh influxof strength. They felt the action of the world--the vibrating pulse ofthe engines. The Law still stood on the outside like an umpire, butthere were still many forces at work which the Law could not detect,many opportunities for Chance to work, for the quick hand to movestealthily. It was something of this they felt, as they brushedalong.

  But they wished freer play even than this,--they wished to get wherethe Law alone stood between them and their ego--and then once moreface down the Law. They turned into the big, dripping park with itsprimeval furnishings of earth and grass and trees and deep shadows. Itwas amid such surroundings alone that their own big, fundamentalemotions found adequate breathing space. They plunged into the silentby-paths as a sun-baked man dives to the sandy bottom of a crystallake. And into it all they blended as one--each feeling the glory of aperfected whole. Each saw with his own eyes and the eyes of the other,too. It was as though each were given five new senses.

  Near one of the large trees a shadow detached itself and steppedtowards them. It was a man in a rubber coat and a helmet.

  "See," she whispered to him, "it is one of them!"

  He saw and the old fighting instinct returned--the old rebellion. Butwith it came a new responsibility. It was no longer just himselfagainst this thing--no longer the same wild freedom that took noaccount of consequences.

  "See," she trembled. "Shall we run?"

  Then she clutched his arm more tightly. There was no need of runningnow. He was there to face things--to stand firm and batter off.

  "Oh, David!" she broke out, "we--we can't run any more."

  "No," he answered steadily, "we must go straight ahead and pass him."

  So they did, and as the policeman stooped a little the better to seetheir faces, they each lifted their eyes to him and laughed. He tippedhis helmet.

  "A bad night, sir," he said genially.

  "A bully night," answered Wilson.

  They went on more slowly after this, across the park and toward thebroad avenue. They came to where the brownstone houses blinked theiryellow eyes at them. The boards were all down now and the street alla-twinkle with fairy lights.

  "Do you remember how they did that before?" he asked.

  "And how warm it looked inside? David--David--they can't make me feellonesome any more."

  "No, but we can't laugh at them; we must laugh with them."

  She made up a little face at a big French window which seemed to stareinsolently at them.

  "We don't need you any more," she said to it.

  They came to the only house on the street which was still boardedagainst the heat of the summer. Here they paused. She seized his arm.

  "That is it," she exclaimed. "That is where we began!"

  "Yes, but--it looks different, doesn't it?"

  "It has grown older--more sober."

  "Shall we go in?"

  She looked up and down the street.

  "If only we could get chased--_once_ more!"

  "We can pretend."

  "And go in the back way as we did before?"

  "Yes."

  "That is good. Come."

  She placed her hand within his and they turned down the alley whichled to the back street facing the water front. The lights stillblinked in the mist--the waves still pounded against the stone wallsthrowing up salt spray, but they no longer came from out anunfathomable distance. They seemed like very petty waves and the twoknew the boundaries, before and back of them, as they had not before.

  "Now," she said, "run--run for all you're worth!"

  She led the pace, he falling back to keep with her instead of draggingher on. So they ran until they were breathless. Then as before theymoved a-tiptoe.

  They knew the little door when they reached it.

  "I must break it in again," he said.

  So she stood back while he threw his weight against it, meeting itwith his shoulders. She watched him with a thrill--her heart leapingwith every thud of his body against the wood. It was her man forcing apath for her,--her man beating down a barrier. She felt the sting ofthe wind-driven spray against her cheek, but the depths from which itcame no longer called to her. Rather they drove her in. She wascontent to be here with her man. Life opened big to her from justwhere she stood.

  The door gave finally, as she knew it must, and hand in hand theyentered
the paved yard. He fastened the door behind them and yet as heput the joist in place, it was not as it was before. There was no onein pursuit now. She found herself, however, as anxious to see his faceand learn what this meant to him as she had been the first time. Forafter all, even if it were different, it was just as new and unpatheda world they were entering as the other. She took his hand.

  "Stoop nearer to me, David."

  She saw that his lips were less tense, that there was less of a strainto his shoulders, but that his eyes burned no less brightly.

  "Come," she said.

  He went in through the window and opened the door for her. The housesmelled just as musty as before, but there was less thrill to thedark. They lighted a bit of candle and made their way along the lowerhall, up the broad stairs and so into the very room where they hadstood a few months before. There were no strange creakings now, nohalf-guessed movements among the curtains, no swift-gliding shadowsmore felt than seen. There were no such vast spaces above, and nouncertain alleys of dark. They were among the known things, thecertain, the sure.

  He found kindling and lighted the fire. It flared up briskly and threwflickering rays into the big room. The two pressed close to it,for their clothes were wet. Not a thing was altered in the room andyet it was a different room. The room was now a part of this house,the house was part of the street, the street was part of the city,the city part of the man-made world. For a moment the walls pressedin upon them as the hotel walls had done, and the ceilings shut outthe stars. Then he turned and met her eyes. They were clearnow--unshadowed by doubt, fear, or question. He knew what itmeant,--at length she was altogether out of the web. It was oddbut he had never kissed her lips. He had waited for this.

  She looked up at him and as she looked, she seemed to sink deeper thanever into the golden, misty region which lay below the outer dark ofhis eyes. She felt a tingling warmth suffuse her whole body; she feltthe room about her quicken to new life; and above her head she knewthe stars were shining again. She came into his arms putting her handsupon his shoulder, throwing back her head with half-closed eyes. Hestooped, his lips brushed her lips; then met firmly in a clinging kisswhich set the world about them into a mad riot.

  * * * * *

  Transcriber's note:

  Archaic and variable spelling, as well as inconsistency in hyphenation, has been preserved as printed in the original book except for the following changes.

  Page 3: "distintly" changed to "distinctly" (This was distinctly a novel viewpoint)

  Page 75: "turbently" changed to "turbulently" (The river which had raged so turbulently)

  Page 164: "forard" changed to "for'ard" (Every yeller dog of ye can look for'ard to a prison sentence)

  Page 168: "Capn" changed to "Cap'n" ("See here, Cap'n,")

  Page 186: "hoard" changed to "horde" (yelling and screaming like a horde of maniacs)

  Page 237: "furthr" changed to "further" (I don't know as I would trust him any further than you)

  Page 240: "torquoise" changed to "turquoise" (It was like a turquoise set in stone.)

  Page 245: "reachd" changed to "reached" (Before they reached a position)

  Page 245: "befor" changed to "before" (The quest loomed larger and more real than ever before.)

  Page 271: "reconnaisance" changed to "reconnaissance" (A reconnaissance of the rocks around the hut)

  Page 291: "builded" changed to "built" (He built a shelter for her)

  Page 333: "match" changed to "march" (His stubborn thoughts refused to march into the present.)

  Page 346: "Japaneses" changed to "Japanese" (for Togo, the Japanese steward)

  Page 347: "atune" changed to "attune" (once again she vibrated attune to the mystic song of the dark.)

  Page 350: "trembed" changed to "trembled" ("See," she trembled.)

  Missing quotation marks and minor punctuation inconsistencies were silently corrected. However, punctuation has not been changed to comply with modern standards. A deviation in paragraph-ending punctuation in the original publication should be noted for paragraphs in which dialogue immediately followed. Both a comma and a colon were used and have been retained in this book.

  Illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph.