Part 52 (1/2)

”'Idiot!' he roars, 'did I ask you to have anything to do with that? Do I suspect _you_ of enough pluck to crush a snake? No, you fool, I don't.

The man will be killed in battle. All I want of you is to hear his private business, so that you can post me up. If you want to make your fortune, say so.'

”Mademoiselle, my dearest wish has always been to make my fortune. _Ma foi!_ shall I refuse it when it comes begging at my door?

”'So be it. _Vive l'Amerique!_' I cry. 'Give me my instructions.'

”And monsieur does give me my instructions.

”I am to be hand and glove with Monsieur le Capitaine; I am to learn his history off by heart and write it down for my Mortlake to study; and when he falls in battle I am to win my reward, but not till then. I am encouraged by every inducement to be the a.s.sa.s.sin myself. I am a.s.sured that if Captain Brand does not die in the course of twelve months, Monsieur Mortlake can do nothing for me; and I laugh to myself, and say:

”'I shall watch my Mortlake.'

”'And what will monsieur do until I return to England?' I say.

”'I'll pigeon the green hands in the gambling saloons,' he tells me, 'and have a neat little sum to carry us through the plot.'

”So we make up our plans, and I follow Captain Brand to Liverpool.

”The last act of friends.h.i.+p which my princ.i.p.al does for me is to send after me a servant to attend me.

”'A trusty fellow,' writes M. Mortlake, 'who will help you with the captain. He is an unscrupulous chap, and might do that little job for you. Thoms is a cute fellow, and won't betray us.'

”Monsieur Mortlake has changed his mind at the last moment; he doubts the villainy of his accomplice; he comes himself, in Thoms' disguise, to watch how the game goes.

”He says to himself, 'Calembours may betray my plot to Captain Brand, or, not betraying it, may fail to see him killed, and he may turn up again when I am least prepared for him; then let _me_ accompany the pair as Thoms, the valet; and Thoms shall remind Calembours of his duty; and Calembours shall commission Thoms to deal the death-blow, if chance withholds it in battle, and Calembours shall ever after be tied hand and foot by that command of his to Thoms, and shall never dare to betray the cunning Mortlake. Then when Brand is dead, Thoms shall disappear; Calembours shall return to England with his report; Mortlake shall pay him much or little, as he likes, and Calembours shall be gagged for life with his share in the murder of Brand. Thus shall Mortlake cover up his traces, and win fortune without one fear of discovery. And if Calembours proves unfaithful in his compact, why then Thoms shall only have to use his dagger twice instead of once, and perhaps that would be the best way after all.'

”Was it not a wonderful plot, mademoiselle?

”So complete, so obscure, so complicated!

”And to think that I should not have been the first to conceive it!

”Bah! I told you that Monsieur Mortlake could cheat me at _rouge-et-noir_; he was my mental superior.

”Mine was the intellect quick, daring, creative; but his was the sure, silent, and wily brain that could view a scheme in all its bearings, and twist it as he willed.

”Enough; Monsieur Mortlake accompanied us to the seat of war as Thoms, and not once did I suspect the villain of being other than he seemed.

”Bah! to think of being served by such a worm!

”Mademoiselle, the soul of the knight of honor rises in wrath as he recalls these days of foolish deception, when the brother colonels, sitting by the camp-fire, laugh over poor old Thoms, and say, 'He's mad.' Mademoiselle, the blood of an honest man boils as he recalls the dastard pranks of his valet; when he rifles the pockets of brave Colonel Brand; and sitting behind us, mimics the gestures of my friend, rehearsing for his future character; and shoots at Brand and me from behind our tent, and missing fire, stabs the innocent Confederate envoy, who might betray him.

”When I forget my compact with Monsieur Mortlake, and show my affection for the great colonel, Thoms is there to menace me with meaning looks; and when I defy his hints and refuse to spy any longer upon my colonel's life, a letter comes from Mortlake quickening me by threats and promises. 'Tis penned, of course, by Thoms, and I never know it then.

”The history of those days you have discovered for yourself, mademoiselle, in that important note-book, which you seized with such high courage.

”Admirable woman! I bend the knee to you, for you rival in valor Joan of Arc. Without your heart of steel and hand of silk, the wary, lying fox might never have been lured from his hole and crushed; and the n.o.ble Colonel Brand might have lain forgotten and unavenged.

”Thus I come to the middle of the volume. The stories have met; I take up the ends of them; I twine them together, and, _voila!_ an _eclairciss.e.m.e.nt_! When I have run my little race in the ungrateful republic, I come home to England.