Part 4 (1/2)

”Ye'll be the better of a s.n.a.t.c.h of sleep,” said he; and was turning to go, when Long Ede stirred a hand under the edge of his rugs.

”Seven . . . count . . .” he whispered.

”Lord have mercy upon us!” the Gaffer muttered to his beard as he moved away. ”Long Ede; gone crazed!”

And yet, though an hour or two ago this had been the worst that could befall, the Gaffer felt unusually cheerful. As for the others, they were like different men, all that day and through the three days that followed. Even Lashman ceased to complain, and, unless their eyes played them a trick, had taken a turn for the better. ”I declare, if I don't feel like pitching to sing!” the Snipe announced on the second evening, as much to his own wonder as to theirs. ”Then why in thunder don't you strike up?” answered Dan c.o.o.ney, and fetched his concertina.

The Snipe struck up, then and there--”Villikins and his Dinah”!

What is more, the Gaffer looked up from his ”Paradise Lost,” and joined in the chorus.

By the end of the second day, Long Ede was up and active again. He went about with a dazed look in his eyes. He was counting, counting to himself, always counting. The Gaffer watched him furtively.

Since his recovery, though his lips moved frequently, Long Ede had scarcely uttered a word. But towards noon on the fourth day he said an extraordinary thing.

”There's that sleeping-bag I took with me the other night. I wonder if 'tis on the roof still. It will be froze pretty stiff by this.

You might nip up and see, Snipe, and”--he paused--”if you find it, stow it up yonder on Bill's hammock.”

The Gaffer opened his mouth, but shut it again without speaking.

The Snipe went up the ladder.

A minute pa.s.sed; and then they heard a cry from the roof--a cry that fetched them all trembling, choking, weeping, cheering, to the foot of the ladder.

”Boys! boys!--the Sun!”

Months later--it was June, and even George Lashman had recovered his strength--the Snipe came running with news of the whaling fleet. And on the beach, as they watched the vessels come to anchor, Long Ede told the Gaffer his story. ”It was a hall--a hallu--what d'ye call it, I reckon.

I was crazed, eh?” The Gaffer's eyes wandered from a brambling hopping about the lichen-covered boulders, and away to the sea-fowl wheeling above the s.h.i.+ps: and then came into his mind a tale he had read once in ”The Turkish Spy.” ”I wouldn't say just that,” he answered slowly.

”Anyway,” said Long Ede, ”I believe the Lord sent a miracle to us to save us all.”

”I wouldn't say just that, either,” the Gaffer objected. ”I doubt it was meant just for you and me, and the rest were presairved, as you might say incidentally.”

THE ROOM OF MIRRORS

A late hansom came swinging round the corner into Lennox Gardens, cutting it so fine that the near wheel ground against the kerb and jolted the driver in his little seat. The jingle of bells might have warned me; but the horse's hoofs came noiselessly on the half-frozen snow, which lay just deep enough to hide where the pavement ended and the road began; and, moreover, I was listening to the violins behind the first-floor windows of the house opposite. They were playing the ”Wiener Blut.”

As it was, I had time enough and no more to skip back and get my toes out of the way. The cabby cursed me. I cursed him back so promptly and effectively that he had to turn in his seat for another shot.

The windows of the house opposite let fall their light across his red and astonished face. I laughed, and gave him another volley. My head was hot, though my feet and hands were cold; and I felt equal to cursing down any cabman within the four-mile radius. That second volley finished him. He turned to his reins again and was borne away defeated; the red eyes of his lamps peering back at me like an angry ferret's.

Up in the lighted room shadows of men and women crossed the blinds, and still the ”Wiener Blut” went forward.

The devil was in that waltz. He had hold of the violins and was weaving the air with scents and visions--visions of Ascot and Henley; green lawns, gay sunshades, midsummer heat, cool rivers flowing, muslins rippled by light breezes; running horses and silken jackets; white tables heaped with roses and set with silver and crystal, jewelled fingers moving in the soft candle-light, bare necks bending, diamonds, odours, bubbles in the wine; blue water and white foam beneath the leaning shadow of sails; hot air flickering over stretches of moorland; blue again--Mediterranean blue--long facades, the din of bands and King Carnival parading beneath showers of blossom:--and all this noise and warmth and scent and dazzle flung out into the frozen street for a beggar's portion. I had gone under.

The door of the house opposite had been free to me once--and not six months ago; freer to me perhaps than to any other. Did I long to pa.s.s behind it again? I thrust both hands into my pockets for warmth, and my right hand knocked against something hard. Yes . . . just once. . . .

Suddenly the door opened. A man stood on the threshold for a moment while the butler behind him arranged the collar of his fur overcoat.

The high light in the portico flung the shadows of both down the crimson carpet laid on the entrance-steps. Snow had fallen and covered the edges of the carpet, which divided it like a cascade of blood pouring from the hall into the street. And still overhead the ”Wiener Blut”

went forward.