Part 15 (1/2)

”I can try, Derek. But the festival is planned for an hour or two from now.”

”Where is the king?”

”In his palace, near the festival gardens.”

She gestured to the south. My mind went back to New York City. This hillock, where we were standing in the starlight beside a tree, was in my world about Fifth Avenue and Sixteenth Street. The king's palace-the festival gardens-stood down at the Battery, where the rivers met in the broad water of the harbor.

Derek was saying, ”We haven't much time: can you get us to the palace?”

”Yes. I have a cart down there on the road.”

”And the cloaks for Charlie and me?”

”Yes.”

”Good!” said Derek. ”We'll go with you. It's a long chance; he probably won't postpone it. If he does not, we'll be among the audience. And when he chooses the Red Sensua-”

She shuddered, ”Oh, Derek-” And I thought I heard her whisper, ”Oh, Alexandre-” and I saw his finger go to his lips.

His arm went around her. She huddled, small as a child against his tall, muscular body.

He said gently, ”Don't be afraid, little Hope.”

His face was grim, his eyes were gleaming. I saw him suddenly as an instinctive military adventurer. An anachronism in our modern New York City. Born in a wrong age. But here in this primitive realm he was at home.

I plucked at him. ”How can you-how can we dare plunge into this thing? Hidden with cloaks, yes. But you talk of leading these toilers.”

He cast Hope away and confronted me. ”I can do it! You'll see, Charlie.” He was very strangely smiling. ”You'll see. But I don't want to come into the open right away. Not to-night. But if we can only postpone this accursed festival.”

We had been talking perhaps five minutes. We were ready now to start away. Derek said:

”Whatever comes, Charlie, I want you to take care of Hope. Guard her for me, will you?”

I said, ”Yes, I will try to.”

Hope smiled as she held out her hand to me. ”I will not be afraid, with Derek's friend.”

Her English was of different intonation from our own, but it was her native language, I could not doubt.

I took her cold, slightly trembling hand. ”Thank you, Hope.”

Her eyes were misty with starlight. Tender eyes, but the tenderness was not for me.

”Yes,” I repeated. ”You can depend upon me, Derek.”

We left the hillock. A food-laden cart came along the road. The driver, a boy vivid in jacket and wide trousers of red and blue, bravely worn but tattered, ran alongside guiding the oxen. When they had pa.s.sed we followed, and presently we came to the cloaks Hope had hidden. Derek and I donned them. They were long crimson cloaks with hoods.

Hope said, ”Many are gathering for the festival shrouded like that. You will not be noticed now.”

Further along the road we reached a little eminence. I saw the river ahead of us, and a river behind us. And a few miles to the south, an open spread of water where the rivers joined. Familiar contours! The Hudson River! The East River. And down at the end of the island, New York Harbor.