next there was a stain--anindelible stain--upon that hearth-stone, and my poor friend lay strickendown by the shock, and nearly died of the brain fever that ensued."
Richard Linnell looked at him with a curious feeling of horror--he knewnot why--troubling his breast.
"Do you want to know any more?" said the Colonel roughly.
"Yes; go on."
"I did not see either of them for two years: the young wife or thescoundrel I had introduced to the house as my friend. Then I had aletter from the lady--a piteous, appealing letter to me to help her.She told me she was starving in London, Dick, and that the villain whohad won her into leaving her home had forsaken her at the end of sixmonths, and that, since then, she had been striving to get a living byteaching, but that now she was prostrate on a sick bed, helpless andalone."
There was a few moments' pause, and then the Colonel went on:
"I went to see her, Dick--poor, little, weak woman. Her good looks weregone, and she lay sick unto death for want of medical help and ordinarynutriment."
The Colonel stopped again, for his mouth seemed dry, and he passed histongue over his fevered lips before he went on.
"I did what was necessary, and went straight to the man who had done allthis wrong. I told him everything, and that it was his duty to makesome reparation at least by providing for the lady's needs, and ensuringthat she should not want in the future."
"Well?" said Richard hoarsely.
"He laughed at me. He refused so utterly that I lost my temper andcalled him villain and scoundrel. He retorted by insulting me with avile charge as to the cause of my taking an interest in that poor woman,and he struck me, and then--"
"Well," said Richard, "and then?"
"I horsewhipped him, Dick, as you horsewhipped that man."
"And he challenged you, and you fought, and--"
"Yes, heaven forgive me," said Mellersh in a low voice, "I shot himdead!"
"You did this for the woman you did not love," said Richard Linnell, asif speaking to himself. "Yes, for the woman I did not love."
"What I did was for the woman I love with all my heart."
Volume Two, Chapter V.
A RETIRED SPOT FOR A BATHE.
It was a cold grey morning as Colonel Mellersh and Richard Linnell wentout on to the parade, quite unaware that a pair of dark eyes werewatching from behind an upper blind; but the fact that each man carrieda towel in his hand disarmed suspicion, and the owner of the eyes wentback to the couch in her room as the gentlemen passed out of sight.
"I was afraid," she said to herself softly. "Perhaps there was no truthin it after all."
Meanwhile, the Colonel and Richard Linnell went briskly on past thepier, with no one yet astir upon the parade; but farther on there wereboats putting out to sea, and fishermen carrying oars and baskets downto those lying on the shingle.
As they went on along the cliff, Fisherman Dick was down by his upturnedboat, trying the pitch, to find out whether it was hardened, and hearingthe voices, he looked up and saw the two men pass.
"Master Richard Linnell--the Colonel," he said to himself. "Bathing,eh? Well, it's lonesome enough out there."
The mist hung over the sea, and the waves came in with a mournful soundupon the shore, the pebbles rattling together as they were driven up androlled back with the retiring waters, sounding in the distance as ifthey were whispering together about the meeting that was about to takeplace a mile or so onward, beyond the chalk bluff, where the landtrended inward, and formed a little bay.
Fisherman Dick found the bottom of his boat rather sticky, but he didnot seem to be thinking about it, but to be putting that and thattogether.
"Master Richard Linnell give that Major Rockley an out and out goodwelting yonder in the cornfield, and if he'd been with him instead ofthat tother one, I should say there was going to be a fight withpistols; but I suppose it means a bit of a swim, and--"
Dick Miggles bent down over his boat, and seemed to be paying not theleast heed, for just then he saw four people coming down the cliff pathon to the beach, and as they passed he saw that they were Rockley, SirHarry Payne, a gentleman he did not know, and the Major's dragoonservant, James Bell, carrying something under his military cloak.
"It's a fight," said Dick Miggles, as they passed him, picking their waydown over the shingle to the firmer ground, close to the water's edge,where there were long stretches of sand, and it was better walking.
"Now, what shall I do?" said Fisherman Dick; "go and tell theconstables? They'd be abed, and it would take me an hour to get backwith them, and the mischief would be done before then. Anyhow, I'll goand see what's going on."
By this time Mellersh and Linnell had passed out of sight along theshore, and the second party were a hundred yards away.
Fisherman Dick did not hesitate, but, going back up the cliff path, hereached the top, and walked swiftly along eastward for some distance.Then, throwing himself down, he crawled flat on the ground, taking offhis hat and leaving it behind him.
In a few seconds he was at the edge of the cliff, where the soft shoreturf ended, and the chalk was broken away, going sheer downperpendicularly to the shingle beach and rough rock debris that hadfallen from time to time after undermining by the sea. As he expected,the two little parties were below.
"They're going to fight, sure enough," muttered the fisherman. "I mayas well go and see fair. Where'll they do it?"
He lay still for a few moments thinking.
"Why, they'll make for the sand patch in Jollick's Cove," he said aloud."Don't know much about it, or they'd have took the path and the shortcut and gone down the chalk steps."
He smiled as some thought occurred to him, and, drawing back from theedge of the cliff, he crawled back to where the beaten path showedfaintly, and where at intervals the turf had been cut away down to thechalk, and a white patch made, as a guide for travellers in the dark,lest they should stray from the slight sheep-track and go over the cliffto certain death.
Along this path Fisherman Dick ran at a brisk trot for quite a mile,while the cliff rose slightly into a bold bluff, but the fisherman didnot climb this, but plunged down suddenly behind a clump of furze into aravine where a slight path showed that there was a way to the shore.
He went down this a few yards, and then turned, took two great strides,climbed up the face of the ravine a little way, stepped behind a hugemass of chalk, went in and out among some debris from the cliff, andthen stepped into what looked like a rain gully which led to an openingin the rock, forming a rough half hole, half cavern, with the lightcoming from the side through a large irregular opening, partly natural,partly reduced by the arrangement of blocks of chalk, so that there wasplenty of room for a dozen men to be in shelter, and where, unseen, theyhad full view of the open sea for miles on either side, and of thesmooth patch of sand in the little cove, fifty feet or so below.
"There, as long as they don't shute up this way," said the fisherman, "Ishall be all right and can see them all. I hope young Linnell won't behurt. Don't suppose he will, for pistols is mortal stupid tools to workwith."
Linnell and Mellersh came into sight soon after, and paused on reachingthe sandy cove, a place admirably suited for the purpose in hand, forthough from the rough look-out above, the shore could be commanded forsome distance either way, those who occupied the sandy patch were hiddenfrom either east or west.
"I'd have given something to have prevented this, Dick," said Mellershhuskily; "but you were bound to meet him."
"Yes," said Richard gravely. "It was unavoidable. Hush! don't talk tome. I'm firm now, and,"--he smiled as he spoke--"I want to do youjustice."
"Well," said Sir Harry Payne, in a low voice, as the second party cameupon the ground, "how do you feel now, Rockley? What do you mean todo?"
"To the man who struck me, and came between me and Claire Denville?"
"Yes."
"I shall shoot him like a dog."
Volume Two, Chapter VI.
JAM
ES BELL IS CONFIDENTIAL.
Sir Harry Payne looked at the stony face before him, and read fierce,implacable determination written plainly there. He felt that hiscompanion was a soldier who would face death without a moment'shesitation, and that there was not a tremor in any pulse.
He had but little time for thought, for there were salutations to make,everything being carried out in the most cold-blooded style; after whichSir Harry took an oblong box from the Major's servant.
"You can go now," he said.
"Not stay with my master, sir?"
"I said go, fellow," cried Sir Harry sharply; and, in spite of hisjaunty manner, he looked cold and pale.
"Back,
The Master of the Ceremonies Page 38
