Part 11 (2/2)

So make your choice.”

He said it in English, and few of those who heard him could understand.

And after a moment Saint Aubyn, who was a very courteous gentleman for all his hot temper, made answer in the same tongue.

”If I cannot take your word, Pengersick,” said he, ”be sure no searching will satisfy me. But that some of your men have made off with the goods, with or without your knowledge, I am convinced.”

”If they have--” my Master was beginning, when G.o.dolphin's sneering laugh broke in on his words from the other side of the gate.

”'_If!_' '_If!_' There are too many _if's_ in this parley for my stomach. Look ye, Pengersick, will you give up the goods or no?”

Upon this my Master changed his tone. ”As for Mr. G.o.dolphin, I have this only to say: the goods are neither his nor mine; they are not in my keeping, nor do I believe them stolen by any of my men. For the words that have pa.s.sed between us to-day, he knows me well enough to be sure I shall hold him to account, and that soon: and to that a.s.surance commending him, I wish you both a very good day.”

So having said, he strolled off towards the stables, leaving me to listen at the gate, where by-and-by, after some disputing, I had the pleasure to hear our besiegers draw off and trot away towards G.o.dolphin.

Happening to take a glance upwards at the house-front, I caught sight of the strange lady at the window of the guest-chamber, which faced towards the south-east. She was leaning forth and gazing after them: but, hearing my Master's footsteps as he came from the stables, she withdrew her eyes from the road and nodded down at him gaily.

But as he went indoors to join her at breakfast I ran after, and catching him in the porch, besought him to have his wound seen to.

”And after that,” said I, ”there is another wounded man who needs your attention. Unless you take his deposition quickly, I fear, sir, it may be too late.”

His eyebrows went up at this, but contracted again upon the twinge of his wound. ”I will attend to him first,” said he shortly, and led the way to the strong room. ”Hullo!” was his next word, as he came to the door--for in my perturbation and hurry I had forgotten to lock it.

”He is too weak to move,” I stammered, as my poor excuse.

”Nevertheless it was not well done,” he replied, pus.h.i.+ng past me.

The prisoner lay on his pallet, gasping, with his eyes wide open in a rigor. ”Take her away!” he panted. ”Take her away! She has been here!”

”Hey?” I cried: but my Master turned on me sharply. To this day I know not how much of evil he suspected.

”I will summon you if I need you. For the present you will leave us here alone.”

Nor can I tell what pa.s.sed between them for the next half-an-hour.

Only that when he came forth my Master's face was white and set beneath its dry smear of blood. Pa.s.sing me, who waited at the end of the corridor, he said, but without meeting my eyes:

”Go to him. The end is near.”

I went to him. He lay pretty much as I had left him, in a kind of stupor; out of which, within the hour, he started suddenly and began to rave. Soon I had to send for a couple of our stablemen; and not too soon. For by this he was foaming at the mouth and gnas.h.i.+ng, the man in him turned to beast and trying to bite, so that we were forced to strap him to his bed. I shall say no more of this, the most horrible sight of my life. The end came quietly, about six in the evening: and we buried the poor wretch that night in the orchard under the chapel wall.

All that day, as you may guess, I saw nothing of the strange lady.

And on the morrow until dinner-time I had but a glimpse of her.

This was in the forenoon. She stood, with her hound beside her, in an embrasure of the wall, looking over the sea: to the eye a figure so maidenly and innocent and (in a sense) forlorn that I recalled Gil Perez' tale as the merest frenzy, and wondered how I had come to listen to it with any belief. Her seaward gaze would be pa.s.sing over the very spot where we had laid him: only a low wall hiding the freshly turned earth. My Master had ridden off early: I could guess upon what errand.

He returned shortly after noon, unhurt and looking like a man satisfied with his morning's work. And at dinner, watching his demeanour narrowly, I was satisfied that either he had not heard the prisoner's tale or had rejected it utterly. For he took his seat in the gayest spirits, and laughed and talked with the stranger throughout the meal.

And afterwards, having fetched an old lute which had been his mother's, he sat and watched her fit new strings to it, rallying her over her tangle. But when she had it tuned and, touching it softly, began the first of those murmuring heathenish songs to which I have since listened so often, pausing in my work, but never without a kind of terror at beauty so far above my comprehending--why, then my Master laughed no more.

He had met G.o.dolphin that morning and run him through the thigh.

And that bitterest enemy of ours still wore a crutch a month later, when we faced Master Porson before the Commissioner in Saint Aubyn's house at Clowance. At that conference (not to linger over the time between) the Commissioner showed himself pardonably suspicious of us all. He was a dry, foxy-faced man, who spoke little and at times seemed scarce to be listening; but rather turning over some deeper matters in his brain behind his grey-coloured eyes. But at length, Mr. Saint Aubyn having twice or thrice made mention of the Lady Alicia and her presence on the beach, this Sir Nicholas looked up at me sharply, and said he--”By all accounts this lady was a pa.s.senger s.h.i.+pped by the master at Dunquerque.

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