She stood at bay, eying me, uncertain but defiant.
“Where are they?” I urged impatiently.
“He shall not fight that man!” she muttered. “If I am the cause of this quarrel I shall end it, too. What if he were killed by Walter Butler?”
“The pistols are beneath your mattress!” I said suddenly. “I must have them.”
Quick as thought she placed herself between me and the bed, blue eyes sparkling, arms wide.
“Will you go?” she whispered fiercely. “How dare you intrude here!”
Taken aback by the sudden fury that flashed out in my very face, I gave ground.
“You little wildcat,” I said, amazed, “give me the pistols! I know how to act. Give them, I say! Do you think me a poltroon to allow Sir Peter to face this rascal’s fire?”
She straightened with a sudden quiver.
“You! The pistols were for you!”
“For me and Walter Butler,” I said coolly. “Give them, Elsin. What has been done this night has set me free of my vow. Can you not understand? I tell you he stands in my light, throwing the shadow of the gallows over me! May a man not win back to life but a chit of a maid must snatch his chance away? Give them, or I swing at dawn upon the common!”
A flush of horror swept her cheeks, leaving her staring. Her wide-flung arms dropped nervelessly and hung beside her.
“Is it true,” she faltered— “what he came here to tell us on his way to that vile tavern? I gave him the lie, Carus. I gave him the lie there in the hall below.” She choked, laying her white hand on her throat. “Speak!” she said harshly; “do you fear to face this dreadful charge he flung in my teeth? I” — she almost sobbed— “I told him that he lied.”
“He did not lie. I am a spy these four years here,” I said wearily. “Will you give me those pistols now? — or I take them by force!”
“Carus,” called Sir Peter from the hall, “if Lady Coleville has my pistols, she must render them to you on the instant.”
His passionless voice rang through the still, dark house.
“She has gone to the Coq d’Or,” muttered Elsin Grey, motionless before me.
“To stop this duel?”
“To stop it. Oh, my God!”
There was a silence, broken by a quick tread on the stairs. The next moment Sir Peter appeared, staring at us there, candle flaring in his hand, his fingers striped with running wax.
“What does this mean?” he asked, confused. “Where is Lady Coleville?”
“She has gone to the Coq d’Or,” I said. “Your pistols are hidden, sir.”
He paled, gazing at Elsin Grey.
“She guessed that I meant to — to exchange a shot with Captain Butler?” he stammered.
“It appears,” said I, “that Mr. Butler, with that delicacy for which he is notorious, stopped here on his way to the tavern. You may imagine Lady Coleville could not let this matter proceed.”
He gazed miserably at Elsin, passing his hand over his haggard face. Then, slowly turning to me: “My honor is engaged, Carus. What is best now? I am in your hands.”
I laid my arm in his, quietly turning him and urging him to the stairs. “Leave it to me,” I whispered, taking the candle he held. “Go to the coach and wait there. I will be with you in a moment.”
The door of Elsin’s chamber closed behind us. He descended the black stairway, feeling his way by touch along the slim rail of the banisters, and I waited there, lighting him from above until the front doors clashed behind him. Then I turned back to the closed door of Elsin’s chamber and knocked loudly.
She flung it wide again, standing this time fully dressed, a gilt-edged tricorn on her head, and in her hands riding-whip and gloves.
“I know what need be done,” she said haughtily. “Through this meshed tangle of treachery and dishonor there leads but one clean path. That I shall tread, Mr. Renault!”
“Let the words go,” I said between tightening lips, “but give me that pair of pistols, now!”
“For Sir Peter’s use?”
“No, for mine.”
“I shall not!”
“Oh, you would rather see me hanged, like Captain Hale?”
She whitened where she stood, tugging at her gloves, teeth set in her lower lip.
“You shall neither fight nor hang,” she said, her blue eyes fixed on space, busy with her gloves the while — so busy that her whip dropped, and I picked it up.
There was a black loup-mask hanging from her girdle. When her gloves were fitted to suit her she jerked the mask from the string and set it over her eyes.
“My whip?” she asked curtly.
I gave it.
“Now,” she said, “your pistol-case lies hid beneath my bed-covers. Take it, Mr. Renault, but it shall serve a purpose that neither you nor Walter Butler dream of!”
I stared at her without a word. She opened the beaded purse at her girdle, took from it a heaping handful of golden guineas, and dropped them on her dresser, where they fell with a pleasant sound, rolling together in a shining heap. Then, looking through her mask at me, she fumbled at her throat, caught a thin golden chain, snapped it in two, and drew a tiny ivory miniature from her breast; and still looking straight into my eyes she dropped it face upward on the polished floor. It bore the likeness of Walter Butler. She set her spurred heel upon it and crushed it, grinding the fragments into splinters. Then she walked by me, slowly, her eyes still on mine, the hem of her foot-mantle slightly lifted; and so, turning her head to watch me, she passed the door, closed it behind her, and was gone.
What the strange maid meant to do I did not know, but I knew what lay before me now. First I flung aside the curtains of her bed, tore the fine linen from it, burrowing in downy depths, under pillow, quilt, and valance, until my hands encountered something hard; and I dragged out the pistol-case and snapped it open. The silver-chased weapons lay there in perfect order; under the drawer that held them was another drawer containing finest priming-powder, shaped wads, ball, and a case of flints.
So all was ready and in order. I closed the case and hurried up the stairway to my room, candle in hand. Ha! The wainscot cupboard I had so cunningly devised was swinging wide. In it had been concealed that blotted sheet rejected from the copy of my letter to his Excellency — nothing more; yet that alone was quite enough to hang me, and I knew it as I stood there, my candle lighting an empty cupboard.
Suddenly terror laid an icy hand upon me. I shook to my knees, listening. Why had he not denounced me, then? And in the same instant the answer came: He was to profit by my disgrace; he was to be aggrandized by my downfall. The drama he had prepared was to be set in scenery of his own choosing. His savant fingers grasped the tiller, steering me inexorably to my destruction.
Yet, as I stood there, teeth set, tearing my finery from me, flinging coat one way, waistcoat another, and dressing me with blind haste in riding-clothes and boots, I felt that just a single chance was left to me with honor; and I seized the passes that Sir Henry had handed me for Sir Peter and his lady, and stuffed them into my breast-pocket.
Gloved, booted, spurred, I caught up the case of pistols, ran down the stairs, flung open the door, and slammed it behind me.
Sir Peter stood waiting by the coach; and when he saw me with his pistol-case he said: “Well done, Carus! I had no mind to go hammering at a friend’s door to beg a brace of pistols at such an hour.”
I placed the case after he had entered the coach. Dr. Carmody made room for me, but I shook my head.
“I ride,” I said. “Wait but an instant more.”
“Why do you ride?” asked Sir Peter, surprised.
“You will understand later,” I said gaily. “Be patient, gentlemen;” and I ran for the stables. Sleepy hostlers in smalls and bare feet tumbled out in the glare of the coach-house lanthorn at my shout.
“The roan,” I said briefly. “Saddle for your lives!”
The stars were no paler in the heavens as I stood there on the grass
, waiting, yet dawn must be very near now; and, indeed, the birds’ chorus broke out as I set foot to stirrup, though still all was dark around me.
“Now, gentlemen,” I said, spurring up to the carriage-door. I nodded to the coachman, and we were off at last, I composed and keenly alert, cantering at Sir Peter’s coach-wheels, perfectly aware that I was riding for my liberty at last, or for a fall that meant the end of all for me.
There was a chaise standing full in the light of the tavern windows when we clattered up — a horse at the horse-block, too, and more horses tied to the hitching-ring at the side-door.
At the sound of our wheels Mr. Jessop appeared, hastening from the cherry grove, and we exchanged salutes very gravely, I asking pardon for the delay, he protesting at apology; saying that an encounter by starlight was, after all, irregular, and that his principal desired to wait for dawn if it did not inconvenience us too much.
Then, hat in hand, he asked Sir Peter’s indulgence for a private conference with me, and led me away by the arm into a sweet-smelling lane, all thick with honeysuckle and candleberry shrub.
“Carus,” he said, “this is painfully irregular. We are proceeding as passion dictates, not according to code. Mr. Butler has no choice but to accept, yet he is innocent of wrong intent, and has so informed me.”
“Does he deny his marriage?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, most solemnly. The lady was his mistress, since discarded. He is quite guiltless of this affront to Sir Peter Coleville, and desires nothing better than to say so.”
“That concerns us all,” I said seriously. “I am acting for Sir Peter, and I assume the responsibility without consulting him. Where is Mr. Butler?”
“In the tap-room parlor.”
“Say to him that Sir Peter will receive him in the coffee-room,” I said quietly.
Jessop impulsively laid his honest hand upon my shoulder as we turned toward the tavern.
“Thank you, Carus,” he said. “I am happy that I have to deal with you instead of some fire-eating, suspicious bullhead sniffing for secret mischief where none lies hid.”
“I hear that Lady Coleville is come to stop the duel at any cost,” I observed, halting at the door. “May we not hope to avoid a distressing scene, Jessop?”
“We must,” he answered, as I left him in the hallway and entered the coffee-room where Sir Peter waited, seated alone, his feet to the empty fireplace.
“Where is Lady Coleville?” he asked, as I stepped up. “She must not remain here, Carus.”
“You are not to fight,” I said, smiling.
“Not to fight!” he repeated, slowly rising, eyes ablaze.
“Pray trust me with your honor,” I replied impatiently, opening the door to a servant’s knock. And to the wide-eyed fellow I said: “Go and say to Lady Coleville that Sir Peter is not to fight. Say to her — —”
I stopped short. Lady Coleville appeared in an open doorway across the hall, her gaze passing my shoulder straight to Sir Peter, who stood facing her behind me.
“What pleasantry is this?” she asked, advancing, a pale smile stamped on her lovely face.
I made way. She stepped before me, walking straight to Sir Peter. I followed, closing the door behind me.
“Have I ever, ever in all these years, counseled you to dishonor?” she asked. “Then listen now. There is no honor in this thing you seek to do, but in it there lies a dreadful wrong to me.”
“He offered insult to our kin — our guest. I can not choose but ask the only reparation he can give,” said Sir Peter steadily.
“And leave me to the chance of widowhood?”
Sir Peter whitened to a deathly hue; his distressed eyes traveled from her to me; he made to speak, but no sound came.
“This is all useless,” I said quietly, as a knock came at the door. I stepped back and opened it to Walter Butler.
When he saw me his dark eyes lit up with that yellow glare I knew already. Then he turned, bowing to Lady Coleville and to Sir Peter, who, pale and astounded, stared at the man as though the fiend himself stood there before him.
“Sir Peter,” began his enemy, “I have thought — —”
But I cut him short with a contemptuous laugh.
“Sir Peter,” I said, “Mr. Butler is here to say that he is not wedded to his Tryon County mistress — that is all; and as he therefore has not offended you, there is no reason for you to challenge him. Now, sir, I pray you take Lady Coleville and return. Go, in God’s name, Sir Peter, for time spurs me, and I have business here to keep me!”
“Let Sir Peter remain,” said Butler coldly. “My quarrel is not with him, nor his with me.”
“No,” said I gaily, “it is with me, I think.”
“Carus,” cried Lady Coleville, “I forbid you! What senseless thing is this you seek?”
“Pray calm yourself, madam,” said Mr. Butler; “he stands in more danger of the gallows than of me.”
Sir Peter pushed forward. I caught his arm, forcing him aside, but he struggled, saying: “Did you not hear the man? Let me go, Carus; do you think such an insult to you can pass me like a puff of sea-wind?”
“It strikes me first,” I said. “It is to me that Mr. Butler answers.”
“No, gentlemen, to me!” said a low voice behind us — the voice of Elsin Grey.
Amazed, we turned, passion still marring our white faces. Calm, bright-eyed, a smile that I had never seen imprinted on her closed lips, she walked to the table, unlocked the case of pistols, lifted them, and laid them there in the yellow lamplight.
“Elsin! Elsin!” stammered Lady Coleville; “have you, too, gone mad?”
“This is my quarrel,” she said, turning on me so fiercely that I stepped back. “If any shot is fired in deference to me, I fire it; if any bullet is sped to defend my honor, I speed it, gentlemen. Why” — and she turned like a flash upon Sir Peter— “why do you assume to interfere in this? Is not an honest man’s duty to his own wife first? Small honor you do yourself or her! — scant love must you bear her to risk your life to chance in a quarrel that concerns not you!”
Astounded and dumb, we stood there as though rooted to the floor.
She looked at Butler and laughed; picked up a pistol, loaded it with incredible deftness, laid it on the table, and began loading the other.
“Elsin! Elsin!” cried Lady Coleville, catching her by the waist, “what is this wild freak of yours? Have you all gone mad to-night?”
“You shake my hand and spill the powder,” said the Hon. Miss Grey, smiling.
“Elsin,” murmured Walter Butler, “has this fellow Renault poisoned you against me?”
“Why, no, sir. You are married to a wife and dare to court me! There lies the poison, Mr. Butler!”
“Hush, Elsin!” murmured Lady Coleville. “It was a mistake, dear. Mr. Butler is not married to the — the lady — to anybody. He swears it!”
“Not wedded?” She stared, then turned scarlet to her hair. And Walter Butler, I think, mistook the cause and meaning of that crimson shame, for he smiled, and drawing a paper from his coat, spread it to Sir Peter’s eyes.
“I spoke of the gallows, Sir Peter, and you felt yourself once more affronted. Yet, if you will glance at this — —”
“What is it?” asked Sir Peter, looking him in the eye.
“Treason, Sir Peter — a letter — part of one — to the rebel Washington, written by a spy!”
“A lie! I wrote it!” said the Hon. Miss Grey.
Walter Butler turned to her, amazed, doubting his ears.
“A jest,” she continued carelessly, “to amuse Mr. Renault.”
“Amuse him! It is in his own hand!” stammered Butler.
“Apparently. But I wrote it, imitating his hand to plague him. It is indifferently done,” she added, with a shrug. “I hid it in the cupboard he uses for his love-letters. How came it in your fingers, Mr. Butler?”
In blank astonishment he stood there, the letter half extended, his eyes almost starting f
rom his face. Slowly she moved forward, confronting him, insolent eyes meeting his; and, ere he could guess what she purposed, she had snatched the blotted fragment from him and crushed it in her hand, always eying him until he crimsoned in the focus of her white contempt.
“Go!” she said. Her low voice was passionless.
He turned his burning eyes from her to Lady Coleville, to Sir Peter, then bent his gaze on me. What he divined in my face I know not, but the flame leaped in his eyes, and that ghastly smile stretched the muscles of his visage.
“My zeal, it seems, has placed me at a sorry disadvantage,” he said. “Error piled on error growing from a most unhappy misconstruction of my purposes has changed faith to suspicion, amity to coldness. I know not what to say to clear myself—” He turned his melancholy face to Elsin; all anger had faded from it, and only deepest sadness shadowed the pale brow. “I ventured to believe, in days gone by, that my devotion was not utterly displeasing — that perhaps the excesses of a stormy and impetuous youth might be condoned in the humble devotion of an honest passion — —”
The silence was intense. He turned dramatically to Sir Peter, his well-shaped hand opening in graceful salute as he bowed.
“I ask you, sir, to lend a gentle judgment till I clear myself. And of your lady, I humbly beg that mercy also.” Again he bowed profoundly, hand on hilt, a perfect figure of faultless courtesy, graceful, composed, proudly enduring, proudly subduing pride.
Then he slowly raised his dark head and looked at me. “Mr. Renault,” he said, “it is my misfortune that our paths have crossed three times. I trust they cross no more, but may run hereafter in pleasant parallel. I was hasty, I was wrong to judge you by what you said concerning the Oneidas. I am impatient, over-sensitive, quick to fire at what I deem an insult to my King. I serve him as my hot blood dictates — and, burning with resentment that you should dare imperil my design, I searched your chamber to destroy the letter you had threatened warning the Oneidas of their coming punishment. How can you blame me if I took this lady’s playful jest for something else?”
“I do not blame you, Captain Butler,” I said disdainfully.
Works of Robert W Chambers Page 234
