Count Bunker

by J. Storer Clouston

  CHAPTER XXXVI

  For a long time the Baron lay wide awake, every sense alert, listeningfor the creak of a footstep on the wooden stair that led up from theharness-room to his prison. What else could the strange words of Dugaldhave meant, save that some friend proposed to climb those stairsand gently open that stubborn door? And in this opinion he had beenconfirmed when he observed that on Dugald's departure the key turnedwith a silence suggesting a recently oiled lock. His bed lay along thewall, with the head so close to the door that any one opening it andstretching forth a hand could tweak him by the nose without an effort(supposing that were the object of their visit). Clearly, he thought, itwas not thus arranged without some very special purpose. Yet when hourafter hour passed and nothing happened, he began to sleep fitfully,and at last, worn out with fruitless waiting, dropped into a profoundslumber.

  He was in the midst of a harassing dream or drama, wherein Bunker andEva played an incoherent part and he himself passed wearily from perilto peril, when the stage suddenly was cleared, his eyes started open,and he became wakefully conscious of a little ray of light that fellupon his face. Before he could raise his head a soft voice whisperedurgently,

  "Don't move!"

  With admirable self-control he obeyed implicitly.

  "Who is zere?" he whispered back.

  The voice seemed for a moment to hesitate, and then answered--

  "Eleanor Maddison!"

  He started so audibly that again she breathed peremptorily--

  "Hush! Lie still till I come back. You--you don't deserve it, but I wantto save you from the disgrace of arrest."

  "Ach, zank you--mine better angel!" he murmured, with a fervor thatseemed not unpleasing to his rescuer.

  "You really are a nobleman in trouble?"

  "I swear I am!"

  "And didn't mean anything really wrong?"

  "Never--oh, never!"

  More kindly than before she murmured--

  "Well, I guess I'll take you out, then. I've bribed Dugald, so that'sall right. When my car's ready I'll send him up for you. You just liestill till he comes."

  From which it appears that Count Bunker's appreciation of the sex fellshort of their meed.

  Hardly daring to breathe for fear of awakening his fellow-prisoner,trembling with agitation, and consumed by a mad impatience for action,the Baron passed five of the longest minutes he had ever endured. Atthe end of that time he heard a stealthy step upon the stairs, and withinfinite precautions threw off his bedclothes and sat upright, readyfor instant departure. But how slowly and with what a superfluity ofprecaution his jailor moved! When the door at length opened he wonderedthat no ray of light fell this time.

  "Dugald!" he whispered eagerly.

  "Hush!" replied a softer voice than Dugald's; as soft, indeed, asEleanor's, yet clearly different.

  "Who is zat?" he gasped.

  "Eva Gallosh!" said the silken voice. "Oh, is that you?"

  "Yes--yes--it is me."

  "And are you really a Baron and an ambassador?"

  "Oh yes--yes--certainly I am."

  "Then--then I've come to help you to escape! I've bribed Dugald--andI've got a dog-cart here. Come quickly--but oh, be very quiet!"

  For a moment the Baron actually hesitated to flee from that loathedapartment. It seemed to him that if Fortune desired to provide him withopportunities of escape she might have had the sense to offer these oneat a time. For how could he tell which of these overtures to close with?A wrong decision might be fatal; yet time unquestionably pressed.

  "Mein Gott!" he muttered irresolutely, "vich shall I do?"

  At that moment the other bed creaked, and, to his infinite horror, heheard a suspicious voice demand--

  "Is that you talking, Rudolph?"

  Poor Eva, who was quite unaware of the presence of another prisoner,uttered a stifled shriek; with a cry of "Fly, quickly!" the Baron leapedfrom his bed, and headlong down the wooden stairs they clattered forfreedom.

  A dim vision of the thrice-bribed Dugald, screeching, "The car's readyfor ye, sir!" but increased their speed.

  Outside, a motor car stood panting by the door, and in the youthfuldriver, turning a pale face toward them in the lamp's radiance, theBaron had just time to recognize his first fair deliverer.

  "Good-bye!" he whispered to his second, and flung himself in.

  Some one followed him; the door was slammed, and with a mighty throbbingthey began to move.

  "Rudolph! Rudolph!" wailed a voice behind them.

  "Zank ze goodness SHE is not here!" exclaimed the Baron.

  "Whisht! whisht!" he could hear Dugald expostulate.

  With a violent start he turned to the fellow-passenger who had followedhim in.

  "Are you not Dugald?" he demanded hoarsely.

  "No--it's--it's me! I dursn't wait for my dog-cart!"

  "Eva!" he murmured. "Oh, Himmel! Vat shall I do?"

  Only a screen of glass separated his two rescuers, and the one hadbut to turn her head and look inside, or the other to study with anyattention the roll of hair beneath their driver's cap, in order to leadto most embarrassing consequences. Not that it was his fault he shouldreceive such universal sympathy: but would these charming ladies admithis innocence?

  "How thoughtful of Dugald to have this car----" began Eva.

  "Hush!" he muttered hoarsely. "Yes, it was thoughtful, but you most notspeak too loudly."

  "For fear----?" she smiled, and turned her eyes instinctively towardtheir driver.

  "Excuse me," he muttered, sweeping her as gently as possible from herseat and placing her upon the floor.

  "It vill not do for zem to see you," he explained in a whisper.

  "How awful a position," he reflected. "Oh, I hope it may still be darkven we get to ze station."

  But with rising concern he presently perceived that the telegraph postsalong the roadside were certainly grown plainer already; he could evensee the two thin wires against a paling sky; the road behind was visiblefor half a mile; the hill-tops might no longer be confounded with theclouds-day indubitably was breaking. Also he recollected that to gofrom Lincoln Lodge to Torrydhulish Station one had to make a vast detourround half the loch; and, further, began to suspect that though MissMaddison's driving was beyond reproach her knowledge of topography wasscarcely so dependable. In point of fact she increased the distance byat least a third, and all the while day was breaking more fatally clear.

  To discourage Miss Gallosh's efforts at conversation, yet keep hersitting contentedly upon the floor; to appear asleep whenever MissMaddison turned her head and threw a glance inside, and to devise someadequate explanation against the inevitable discovery at the end oftheir drive, provided him with employment worthy of a diplomatist'ssteel. But now, at last, they were within sight of railway signals anda long embankment; and over a pine wood a stream of smoke moved with aswelling roar. Then into plain view broke the engine and carriage aftercarriage racing behind. Regardless of risk, he leaped from his seat andflung up the window, crying--

  "Ach, look! Ve shall be late!"

  "That train is going north," said Eleanor. "Guess we've half an hourgood before yours comes in."

  So little can mortals read the stars that he heaved a sigh of relief,and even murmured--

  "Ve have timed him very luckily!"

  Ten minutes later they descended the hill to Torrydhulish Station. Thenorth-going train had paid its brief call and vanished nearly from sightagain; no one seemed to be moving about the station, and the Baron toldhimself that nothing worse remained than the exercise of a little tactin parting with his deliverers.

  "Ach! I shall carry it off gaily," he thought, and leaping lightly tothe ground, exclaimed with a genial air, as he gave his hand to Eva.

  "Vell! Now have I a leetle surprise for you, ladies!"

  Nor did he at all exaggerate their sensation.

  "Miss Maddison!"

  Alas, that it should be so far beyond the power of mere inky words toexpress all that was
implied in Eva's accents!

  "Miss Gallosh!"

  Nor is it less impossible to supply the significance of Eleanor'sintonation.

  "Ladies, ladies!" he implored, "do not, I pray you, misunderstand! I vasnot responsible--I could not help it. You both VOULD come mit me! No,no, do not look so at me! I mean not zat--I mean I could not do vizoutboth of you. Ach, Himmel! Vat do I say? I should say zat--zat----"

  He broke off with a start of apprehension.

  "Look! Zere comes a man mit a bicycle! Zis is too public! Come mit meinto ze station and I shall eggsplain! He waves his fist! Come! youvould not be seen here?"

  He offered one arm to Eva, the other to Eleanor; and so alarming werethe gesticulations of the approaching cyclist, and so beseeching theBaron's tones, that without more ado they clung to him and hurried on tothe platform.

  "Come to ze vaiting-room!" he whispered. "Zere shall ve be safe!"

  Alack for the luck of the Baron von Blitzenberg! Out of the very doorthey were approaching stepped a solitary lady, sole passenger from thesouth train, and at the sight of those three, linked arm in arm, shestaggered back and uttered a cry more piercing than the engine's distantwhistle.

  "Rudolph!" cried this lady.

  "Alicia!" gasped the Baron.

  His rescuers said nothing, but clung to him the more tightly, while inthe Baroness's startled eyes a harder light began to blaze.

  "Who are these, Rudolph?"

  He cleared his throat, but the process seemed to take some time, and inthe meanwhile he felt the grip of his deliverers relax.

  "Who is that lady?" demanded Eleanor.

  "His wife," replied the Baroness.

  The Baron felt his arms freed now; but still his Alicia waited ananswer. It came at last, but not from the Baron's lips.

  "Well, here you all are!" said a cheerful voice behind them.