A Modern Mercenary

by K. Prichard and Hesketh Vernon Hesketh Prichard

  CHAPTER XV.

  COLENDORP.

  As the night deepened the wind again rose, its many voices howled aboutthe Castle and compelled the ear to listen. It volleyed yelling throughthe ravines, it roared among the lean pine-trees like the surf on anopen coast, it swept round the Castle walls in long-drawn infuriatedscreaming that seemed charged with echoes of wild pain and remotenessand fear. The narrow moon had long since sunk behind the rack ofstorm-driven clouds, and left the mountains steeped in a tumultuousmilk-coloured darkness of snow and wind.

  Within the massive walls the reception rooms were closed and empty atlast; the guests had separated and night had taken possession, but notrest.

  Valerie, alone in her room and oppressed by the vague infection ofwakefulness and fear, moved from window to window listening to the wildnoises that were abroad, and trying to reason herself out of theconviction of coming danger, which held her from sleep.

  She had thrown back the curtains from the windows. Her room occupied anexposed corner of the Castle tower, which stood on the edge of thegorge through which the Kofn chafed its way to the plains below theFord. A narrow strip of ground scarcely six feet in width aloneseparated the wall of the tower from the precipice that fell sheer awayto the foaming water far below.

  She tried to read but could not fix her attention. Her heart seemed inher ears and answered to every sound.

  And all the while in the scattered rooms and shadowy passages the dramawhich involved her life was being slowly played out. Below on the groundfloor of the tower Elmur and Sagan sat together.

  'By the way, my dear Count, have you ever thought of the possibility ofCaptain Colendorp's refusal to see things in our light?' Elmur wasasking, after an interval filled in by the noises of wind and waterwhich could not be shut out of the Castle on such a night.

  The Count looked up and scowled.

  'Leave the management of the affair to me,' he said. 'Unless I were sureof my man, I should not be such a fool as to bring him here to listen towhat I shall say to him to-night;' then he added as an afterthought,'When once we have begun, Baron von Elmur, there can be no going back.Remember that! The game must now be played to the end, whatever that endis.'

  Elmur pondered. Sagan was a bad tool, at once stubborn and secretive,cunning enough to recognise and to resent handling, thickheaded and vainenough to blunder ruinously. And Elmur found at the last and mostimportant moment that for some unexplained reason he had lost thewhip-hand of Count Simon.

  Up to this interview, by alternate effrontery and flattery, he had kepthis place in the Count's confidence, and exerted a guiding andrestraining influence over him. Now Sagan held him at arm's length, andwas plainly determined to act according to his own judgment withoutconsulting the German. The mischief had, of course, been done by thenews of Elmur's engagement to Selpdorf's daughter, for Sagan, likeothers of his limited mental development, was sensitively suspicious.Hence the bond between the two men was weak, inasmuch as neither likednor trusted the other, but it was strong, since both were tenacious andboth had staked all the future on the chance of forcing a new _regime_upon Maasau the Free. At this crisis, however, Elmur would gladly havehedged or masked his position, for he knew himself to be overmuch at themercy of the equivocal tact and discretion of his ungovernablecoadjutor.

  'I cannot help thinking that my presence at the outset will make CaptainColendorp shy at any proposition whatever,' said Elmur again.

  'Do you want to draw back? You don't wish to appear in the matter--isthat it? By St. Anthony, von Elmur, you showed me the road that hasbrought me to this pass and you will have to stand by me now! Also youare wrong about Colendorp. When he sees for himself that I have Germanybehind me, it will decide his doubts--if he has any, which I don'texpect. I have read the man. He is soured and ill-conditioned, thereadiest stuff to make a rebel and a traitor of!'

  What more Elmur might have urged was cut short by the entrance ofColendorp. He had left his sword outside.

  He saluted Sagan in his stiff punctilious way, his dark and sallow faceimpenetrable.

  'I am glad to see you, Captain Colendorp,' said Sagan with someconstraint. Even he felt the check of the man's iron impassiveness.

  'You sent for me, my lord,' returned Colendorp, as one who hints thattime is short and he would be through with business.

  'Take a cigar,' said the Count, pushing a box across the table, and alsopouring out a generous glass of the liqueur, for the manufacture ofwhich Maasau is famous--the golden glittering poison known as _bizutte_.

  Colendorp accepted both in silence, but took a seat with a certain slowunwillingness that was suggestive. Colendorp was at the best unpliable.His manner put an edge on Sagan's temper. He plunged into his subject.

  'Yes, I sent for you, Captain Colendorp, because I believe you to be afaithful Maasaun. You are not one of those blind optimists who saybecause Maasau has been swinging so long between ruin and extravagancethat she must swing on so for ever. It is not possible!'

  'I am sorry to hear that, my lord.'

  'No, I say it is not possible. Changes must be made. In these days ofbig armaments and growing kingdoms, Maasau can no longer stand alone.She must secure an ally, a friend powerful enough to back her up againstall comers--a great nation who will make the cause of Maasau's freedomher own, and help us to preserve the traditions of our country.'

  Elmur half expected the soldier to point this speech for himself by aglance towards the representative of Germany, but Colendorp satunresponsive and black-browed, and gave no sign.

  'There is a party among us who advise us to wait until we are forcedinto a corner, and then to make choice of such an ally. But reasonablemen know that a bargain one is driven to make must inevitably be a badbargain. The only hope for Maasau is to move at once and to move boldlybefore it is too late, and while we are still in a position to choosefor ourselves under the conditions which suit us best and will bestconduce to the preservation of our freedom.'

  Colendorp listened without any change of expression.

  'What is your opinion, Captain Colendorp?' asked Sagan at last.

  'The only difficulty would be to find a nation sufficientlydisinterested for our purpose, my lord,' replied Colendorp deliberately.

  'I have found one.' Sagan indicated Elmur, but the Guardsman still kepthis gaze on the Count. 'Only one small obstacle stands in the way ofcarrying out our plans--the plans, recollect, of the wisest and mostpatriotic of our countrymen. I need not name it.'

  Colendorp apparently thought for a moment.

  'M. Selpdorf?' he said.

  'But not at all! Selpdorf is one of the foremost of my advisers.'

  Colendorp shook his head as if no other name occurred to him; Sagan bentacross the table, the knotted hand on which he leaned twitchingslightly.

  'You do not speak, but you know the truth. And you know the--the Duke.'

  Colendorp's silence was telling on Sagan's self-control.

  'Yes, the Duke!' he reiterated. 'He has never given a thought to thewelfare of Maasau. Its revenues are his necessity, that is all! If theruler will not take the interests of the country into consideration, hispeople must supply his place. Do not misunderstand my words!' for atlength a blacker frown passed over the iron face of the listener. 'Mymeaning is not to hurt the Duke at all; our one wish is to urge upon himthe only course left for the safety of the country. To that end we mustall combine. So long as his Highness believes he can depend on hisGuard to back him, he will hold out against even the most reasonabledemands. Therefore the Guard must be with us.'

  'I am not the colonel of the Guard,' said Colendorp quietly. Sagan tookthis in some form as an agreement with his views, some surrender on thepart of the Guardsman, and he broke out into a flood of speech.

  'No, but Wallenloup! A pig-headed old fool, who would never be broughtto see an inch either side of his oath of allegiance, but would rushblindly on before the Duke to his death, and to the destruction ofMaasau--to anywhere! Colendorp, Ulm being away, yo
u are the seniorofficer, failing Wallenloup. It is not outside the possibilities of thegame that you would find yourself in command of the Guard when all wassaid and done. The highest ambition of a Maasaun is yours if you willpromise us your help in this struggle! A struggle, mind you, not ofselfish motives nor for self-aggrandisement, but for Maasau the Free!'He stuttered in his eagerness and then stood waiting for the reply.

  'And if the Duke does not consent to--any--changes?' asked Colendorpcoldly.

  At this juncture Elmur interposed.

  'The Count will ex----'

  But Sagan was rushing his fences now like a vicious horse. Having oncegiven voice to his ambitions he had no longer the power to rein in hisspeech.

  'By your leave, Baron von Elmur, I will speak! Colendorp, you are a manto whom the world may yet give much. Your one chance is being offered toyou--here--to-night. The men will follow you if you give the word, andWallenloup, well, Wallenloup must upon that occasion absent himself. Useyour influence with the other officers. They are not to be bribed, ofcourse, but in the cause of the country each man would find his serviceswell rewarded. Think before you answer me, man! Duke Gustave is sunk inpleasure and has sold the country over and over again to the highestbidder, and only got out of his share of the bargain by Selpdorf'sinfernal cleverness. This time we will play an open game. With Germanyto stand by us, we have nothing to fear!'

  'And if His Highness will not consent to these changes?' again demandedColendorp.

  'Then'--Elmur laid a hand on the old man's shoulder, but Sagan shook itoff--'then, Captain Colendorp, he must go--to make room for another whocan better fill his place! Just as Wallenloup must go to give room toanother and less obstructive chief.'

  Colendorp's dark eyes glared straight in front of him. Had it beenAdiron--Adiron, as true a man, would have feigned agreement and blownthe plot afterwards. But never Colendorp! He was narrow-minded, poor,embittered, scenting insult in every careless word, proud, loyal,desperate. Mentally his vision was limited; he could see but one thingat a time, but he saw it very large.

  Sagan's treachery passed by him in that moment of mad feeling. He feltand felt only the deadly affront offered to him of all the officers ofthe Guard--the coarse bribe of the colonelcy dangled before his starvingnose, for he alone of all the Guard had been deemed corruptible! Thethought held more than the bitterness of death.

  He looked from wall to wall, and knew himself an unarmed man, so he madeready to die as a soldier and a gentleman. But first he must clear histarnished honour--tarnished with the foul proposal made to him by CountSimon of Sagan. He had passed through life a cold and, in his own senseof the word, an honourable man, disliked, feared and avoided outside hisown most intimate circle. He had been driven by the irresistible destinyof character to live a lonely man, and now the strength of a lonely manwas his--the strength that can make an unknown death a glory for thesake of honour, not honours. So he spoke.

  'You were very good, Count Sagan, to make choice of me before all theGuard for--this!' he said in his cold voice; 'may I ask why you sofavoured me?'

  'Because I can read a man.'

  'And you read me so? Then hear me. I take the place you have given me. Itake my place as the least staunch of all the Guard. You have told meso much, unmasked so clearly what you intend to do, that, unless I fallin with your wishes, I can never hope to leave this room except feetforemost. I say this. Now see me act as the least staunch of the Guard!'

  Without warning he leaped upon Sagan, hurling him backwards with theforce of the sudden impact, and buried his fingers in the grey bristlingbeard. He had but his bare hands with which to slay the enemy of theDuke, and used them with the strength of envenomed pride. Sagan, underthe iron throttling fingers snatched at his hunting-knife and stabbedfiercely upwards between the bent arms at the Guardsman's throat.

  Inside the room the heavy breathing and struggling of the men on thefloor seemed to Elmur loud enough to alarm the whole Castle, in spite ofthe furious screaming of the gale. He sprang to the writhing heap andtried to pinion Colendorp, but as he touched him the wounded man fellback. In a moment Sagan was on his feet calling on Elmur to bring thelamp. He seized Colendorp under the arm and shoved him roughly towardsthe wall, where throwing back a curtain he opened a door and thrust thetottering figure before him down a short flight of steps. Then anotherdoor was opened and the _tsa_ swept in with a wild yell, for a momentholding upright the failing man who staggered out on to the snowyterrace, making a tragic centre to the flickering path of light cast bythe lamp in Elmur's hand.

  For an instant Colendorp stood swaying on the yielding snow by the edgeof the precipice, and as he swayed his voice climbed through his brokenthroat--

  'Maasau the Free! Long live the Duke! The Duke's man ... I ... Colendorpof ...'

  The wind had lulled for a second. Again the mad blast caught andwrenched Colendorp's figure, the snow gave between his feet, and heplunged forward heavily into the gorge of the Kofn river. The brokensnow, whirled up in a great cloud by the eddying gusts, shone in thelamplight for a second like a wild toss of spray, then settled againupon the narrow terrace, obliterating all marks there. A window overheadwas pushed open, but already the band of light upon the snow was gone,and nothing remained for Valerie's eyes but a chaos of gloom. Yet shehad seen something. Dimly through the double glass she had discerned thegreen and gold of the Guard on the swaying figure before it dropped awayfor ever into the night.