Storm Music (1934)

by Dornford Yates

  Almost I decided to go and seek some servant and commit to him the honour of setting his mistress free. But that would have seemed an insult which would have been hard to explain.

  As I stepped to the curtain I heard the whine of a dog and then the scratch of claws on the door that led to the ramparts— not that I was proposing to use. In a moment I had it open, and there to my joy was Sabre, still, of course, very wet, but safe and sound.

  I afterwards learned that, perceiving the bustle above him, the dog had declared, by barking, that he was down in the moat. His rescue effected, he had, as Pharaoh had conjectured, at once been impressed and taken into the meadows and encouraged to scour the woods: but, knowing better than his betters, he had presently given them the slip and had made his way back to the castle and up to his mistress' door.

  The great dog seemed pleased to see me, but none too pleased to see that I was alone. At once his nose fell to the floor and he moved to the bed. I watched him curiously. At the bed he paused, and I heard him let out a growl. Then he found his way to the wardrobe ... As he stood with his nose to its sill, I saw the hair rise upon his chine.

  I picked up a box of matches and turned to the private door.

  "Come and find her, Sabre," I said. "I know where she is."

  The Alsatian started and stared. Then he bounded towards me, put his great paws on my shoulders, and licked my face.

  One minute later we stood in the little hall.

  With the master key in my hand I turned to the turret door. For a moment I hesitated. Then I took a deep breath, fitted the key to the lock, and pushed open the oak.

  "Helena," I said.

  She made no answer, and I took the box from my pocket to strike a match. Here the door returned upon me, and in some impatience I pushed it roughly away. As I struck the match, the door swung back to the wall and stayed where it was.

  Helena was not to be seen. Neither, for that matter, was Sabre. He had gone to join his mistress at the head of the turret stair.

  I was wondering whether to follow or whether to wait where I was, when I suddenly saw that my duty to the lady was done.

  The appearance of Sabre would show her that she was released. The way to her bedroom was open, and she had no need of escort, because the terror was laid.

  With trembling fingers I whipped the key from the lock of the turret door. Then I opened the door which gave to the winding staircase, passed through and locked it behind me with all dispatch. Five minutes later I crossed the moat by the footbridge and entered the tunnel which would bring me into the woods

  I have till now said little of how I had been affected by Helena's words and demeanour when she was in Pharaoh's power. Until I was clear of the castle I had no time to consider what she had said and done; but the blazing honour she had shown me had made, as it were, a background to every thought I had had.

  As I walked to Plumage I remembered those terrible moments— how in her pride she had flung my puny efforts in Pharaoh's face and how in her fear and trembling she had sought to buy my safety by committing a breach of trust. No queen could have done more for the king she loved. And Helena had done this for me—who had broken off our engagement and told her I did not love her six hours before.

  I walked to Plumage, found the farm silent but open and the men of the house abroad. No one saw me enter, find a change of clothing, and take my leave. I made my way to the foot-bridge that spanned the stream, and when I had put off my corruption I hid my foul clothes in the bushes and set out for Annabel.

  As I went, the dawn came up ...

  All the way three scenes continually presented themselves not separately and in order, but confounded and intermingled beyond belief. Helena commanded them all. The first was laid in her bedroom, lit by a flickering fire; the second lay in a valley, where the cool of the day had come in and the air was sweetness itself: and the third was a cold, white circle of merciless light. Yet, as I say, I could not keep them apart. While I thought of her words in the valley, I saw her broken and trembling at Pharaoh's threat: and when I saw the scene in her bedroom, the words that she spoke to Pharaoh kept thrusting into my mind. But at last, out of all this welter, I came to four conclusions— and they were these:

  That her "love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women," a thing too rare to be committed to pen and ink: that my severe reception of her deceit was inspired by a just resentment at being addressed as a lover, but used as a child: that for me no other woman would ever so much as exist: that I was stopped from seeking to repair what had happened, because she had told me plainly that after what I had said she never could be my wife.

  I have set down these things precisely as though they were counting-house matters instead of the selfsame stuff as that from which poets have wrung everlasting rhymes. But that is because, since all is wheat to me, I cannot sift the grain from the chaff. Or that day and the days that followed I think my heart found itself, working out its own salvation by studying the scenes and conclusions which I have set forth, and scourging itself with the phrases of that gentle indictment which a girl had preferred against me in a valley that knew no sun.

  Although I had once postponed and had come to regard with increasing apprehension the opening of Helena's eyes— to the truth, of course, that it was

  I and not Bugle that had stood in the secret chamber and had listened to all she said—it had never occurred to me that, if only I held my tongue, neither she nor anyone else need ever suspect that I had entered the castle that Friday night. Yet before my cousin had spoken a dozen words I saw that if I was careful, my secret would keep itself.

  He found me finishing breakfast in his room at The Reaping Hook.

  "Well, you have missed something," he said. "Let that be your punishment for deceiving three simple souls. Not that I blame you— this time. My lady had no right to treat you like that. I told her as much in the coupe. But she wouldn't listen to me. But that's by the way. You've missed— in a way we've all of us missed the most astounding show that ever was seen. Lady Helena saw a good bit— more than enough, I'm afraid." He threw himself into a chair. "Upon my soul, I don't know where to begin."

  I moistened my lips.

  "What about at the beginning?" I said. "Oh, and don't leave anything out. This show's bung full of detail, and details count."

  Geoffrey fingered his chin.

  "No, they don't," he said. "Now isn't that funny? Details don't count any more. Never mind. You shall have your wish. Ask what you like, my dear John. I'm in a holiday humour, and like enough to consent.' "

  "What do you know?" I said.

  "I feel sure," said my cousin, "that you will be glad to hear that your failure to arrive at the castle knocked the three of us flat. We couldn't assimilate the fact that simple, honest John Spencer had laid himself out to deceive us—and done it so devilishly well. You certainly got your own back. Lady Helena was wild. 'I'd never have believed it of him,' she raged. And when she saw my lip twitch. 'I suppose you mean I taught him,' she said.

  "Well, now that she was safe in the castle, I was only too glad of an excuse to get out, and so I announced that Barley and I would seek you without delay. She insisted that we would take Sabre and gave the dog his orders before we left. It's right that you should know that she was extremely worried, not to say deeply distressed. 'Pharaoh hates him.' she kept on saying. 'His fingers were itching last night to take his life. That's why he made Dewdrop cover him—because he knew that he couldn't trust himself.' "

  My cousin paused, to frown on his fingertips.

  "I hope, in the merciful course of time, to forget the way we employed the next two hours. We used Sabre exactly according to the instructions on the box. 'Should the dog display emotion, release him at once. Remain exactly where you were when he left you, until he returns. Then take hold of his collar and he will lead you to John.' "

  I began to shake with laughter.

  "Quite so," said Geoffrey. "Quite so. After about an hour the dog dis
played emotion and was released. After another hour Barley and I displayed much more emotion and withdrew to survey the mouth of the entrance drive ...

  "We hadn't been there ten minutes when we heard the Carlotta coming— coming from the castle all out. By the use of our torches we stopped her, to find that she was manned by a flying squad. Watchmen, porters, grooms—all of them armed to the teeth. They were going to compass Yorick, travelling east: and the coupe was coming after, to travel west. The Countess Helena had been kidnapped. Yorick was plunged into darkness and my lady was gone. Let down in a sheet from the ramparts. Her handkerchief had been found on the drawbridge and Sabre had been found in the moat."

  I felt that it was time to say something.

  "But how," I began.

  "Don't interrupt," said my cousin. "Listen to me. Well, I let the Carlotta go, deciding that Barley and I would do better on foot. I sent him east and ran west—yes, ran, with my heart in my mouth. The idea was to find the Rolls ... if the Rolls had not gone.

  "I found her at a quarter to one up a little track— and very near cried with relief. You see, that meant that my lady was yet in the park.

  "I rushed off and stopped the coupe, which was lapping for the twentieth time, told the chauffeur to go on patrolling, but to send me reinforcements and tell everybody he met. Then I went back to lay my ambush. I soon had plenty of men and I did the job well. Pharaoh simply hadn't an earthly. Though he didn't know it, that track had become the scaffold on which he and his little friends were going to die.

  "At a quarter to two a wallah comes pelting with a message— we very nearly killed him, of course. But by the time he'd said his piece he was nearer death than before. The Countess Helena's compliments, and will Mr. Bohun come back to the castle at once."

  My cousin covered his face.

  "I don't think I've ever felt such a blasted fool. But blasted ...

  "Well, I took the Rolls and drove back— to hear Lady Helena's tale.

  "She was lying, dressed, on her bed when a gag was clapped over her mouth. Pharaoh, of course; but alone. She put up a fight, but he very soon had his way. He bound her wrists, and ankles and took her master key. Then he carried her down her private staircase and into a secret room— the ante-chamber, in fact, to the cellar where lies the gold. And there he left her, while he went to do in the switchboard, throw a red herring to Florin and let his confederates in. He told her as much. Sure enough, before he returned the lights of the room went out, and five minutes later she was alone with the four.

  "What then took place I don't know. I'm afraid there's no doubt that she suffered; but, except that Pharaoh put it across her, she simply leaves that bit out. But he must have been pretty ruthless, for in the end she opened the secret panel concealing the cellar steps.

  "Well, Pharaoh and Dewdrop went down to view the gold; but Rush and Bugle remained in the chamber on guard. I ought to have said that her hands and her feet had been freed.

  "Still, she hadn't much chance, for they kept a torch on her face.

  "I shall never understand why Pharaoh employed two such wash-outs as Bugle and Rush. The first thing those two bright lads did was, between them, to drop the torch. By the time they'd found it again their prisoner was gone. The door to the secret room is a secret door. It cannot be opened from within. It was, therefore, standing open. In a flash my lady was out and had shut the door.

  "Well, though she was safe, she wasn't clear of the wood. She was locked in a staircase-turret, and Rush had her master key. She called from the embrasures, but, as the castle was empty, there weren't any ears to hear. Then after a while she found Sabre standing beside her, licking her hand."

  I felt that such a statement demanded some sort of expression of disbelief.

  "But you said—"

  "You shut your face," said Geoffrey. "Truth is stranger than fiction—every time. The door to the turret was open and so were the doors to her room. But her room had been used. The thieves had escaped by the chimney, entered her room by the fireplace, cleaned themselves up in her bathroom and disappeared."

  "But that's fantastic," said I.

  "The very word I used," said Geoffrey. "I also employed 'grotesque.' I used the phrase 'out of all reason.' That they had escaped was clear. But why release my lady and make themselves scarce?

  "The obvious thing to do was to search the castle forthwith. I ought to have said that long before I got back the switchboard had been repaired and the lights had come on, and while my lady was talking the staff which had been scattered was trickling back. Florin and I induced some sort of order before beginning the search.

  "We began with my lady's bedroom. One look at the hearth was enough. There was soot all over the place. But nothing and nobody else. We left the watchmen there and my lady and Florin and I went down to the secret room. It was empty now, we knew, for Pharaoh and Co. were gone; but the door to the cellar was open and my lady wanted it shut."

  He took a deep breath.

  "I'll tell you what we found. We found Pharaoh, Dewdrop and Rush— all three of them dead."

  "Go on," said I incredulously.

  "Fact," said my cousin shortly. "I'm glad you weren't there to see it. It was a dreadful sight. Bugle had done the three in and then cleared out. I fancy there'd been some scrap. Pharaoh's back was broken; he had no wound.

  "And here's my interpretation of this astounding find.

  "In Pharaoh's absence Bugle and Rush between them let Lady Helena go. Warrantably fearful of the consequences of what they had done, Rush and Bugle quarrelled, and Bugle killed Rush. Afraid to face Pharaoh— such a dereliction of duty meant almost certain death— Bugle decided to kill him and Dewdrop, too. And so he did. Then he escaped by the chimney, with Lady Helena's master key. This let him out of the castle by the way by which he came in. Why he waited to let her out I cannot conceive. Possibly some twinge of conscience— you never know. That's one of the points which we shall never clear up."

  "Then everything's over," said I.

  "The terror is laid."

  "The terror is laid," said Geoffrey. "Bugle remains, of course. But I very much doubt if we shall see Bugle again."

  Thoughtfully I regarded my napkin. Was it five or six days before a corpse rose to the surface of the water in which it lay?

  "Then everything's over," I repeated. "Except the interment," said Geoffrey; "which is fixed for tomorrow evening, as soon as it's decently dark. As you seem to have had a night off, I think you might help with that."

  Chapter 22

  SIX days had gone by, and my precious secret was safe.

  This was hardly surprising. Only two beings knew that I had approached the castle that terrible night; and of these the one was a dog and the other was dead. I had not used Barley's pistol; I had cleaned my cousin's knife; my filthy garments lay hid in the Plumage woods. Nobody knew that in my notecase was Helena's master key.

  But another secret was safe.

  On the Sunday night Pharaoh, Dewdrop and Rush had been laid in a common grave, not far from the mouth of the tunnel that ran from the moat. Barley and I were the sextons, and Barley and Florin together brought out the dead. This, of course, by dark, by the secret way. And so, outside "the big five," as my cousin saw fit to call us, not a soul in the world was aware that the rogues were dead. Indeed, the belief was still held that they had escaped, for Helena, Geoffrey and Florin had kept to themselves what they found in the secret room. It was very much better so. The "attempted abduction" of its mistress was quite as much as Yorick could well digest.

  Though nobody knew it but I, Bugle had yet to appear. For some unaccountable reason the moat still withheld its dead. I wondered what would happen when the body was seen. Not that I feared for my secret. No one could say at what hour the man had been drowned.

  My cousin was painting Plumage. Twice a day he visited Yorick; but I was not invited and would not go up unasked. Neither would I go to Plumage—although I longed to see her because I was sure that Helena sat
with my cousin and watched him at work.

  And now six days had dragged by, and I was about to be gone.

  The truth was this. Morning, noon and night Helena Yorick commanded me, heart and soul. Against my will I was her obedient servant, her obedient, humble servant and no longer master of myself. My memory was her mirror, reflecting nothing but the beauty of flesh and spirit with which I had been familiar a week ago. When I rose, I remembered the mornings when I had done what I could to turn a pool in the forest into my lady's bath; when I went to my bed, I remembered my pallet in the kitchen and the smile she threw over her shoulder as she mounted the breakneck stairs; when I drove the Rolls, the seat beside me was empty, or else profaned; when I walked alone in the greenwood, I found no health in Nature, but only in the thought of the footfalls that once had lisped by my side. And since the estate of neighbour followed the estate of lover with a very ill grace, I had made up my mind to leave it and to go and stay at Innsbruck, which was a city I knew. My cousin was to follow with Barley in four days' time.

  And so I was sitting at Annabel, cursing life and regarding my half packed trunks with a listless stare, when the host of the inn came bustling with a note in his hand.

  Dear John.—Your cousin tells me that you are leaving tonight. Before you go, will you be so good as to show me where young Florin lies? I would not ask you this favour, but I was fond of young Florin, and you are the only being who knows the site of his grave. I cannot believe you will refuse me, and so, if it will suit you, I will call for you today at a quarter to three. Please will you tell the bearer "Yes" or "No "—Helena.

  I went down to the door of The Reaping Hook to speak to the groom.

  "Tell her ladyship 'Yes,' " I said.

  As the coupe stole into the forecourt I descended the steps of the inn.

  Helena smiled and nodded and I took off my hat.

  "Will you drive please?"

  With a pounding heart I took my seat by her side, perceived the glow of her presence, discovered her faint perfume.