Part 40 (2/2)
”Mr. Erskine? You can corroborate that?-Come along. Did Mr. Crawford know nothing of the dispatch?.
''He .
”Will you speak up?.
”He denied it at first, but when we showed it to him-.
”Showed it to him? Where had you found it?.
”In his packroll..
”And did he continue to protest his ignorance even then? Well?.
”He admitted it?.
”I think it's unlikely he knew about it. He prevented the message from being delivered at great personal risk..
”Ah, yes,” said Henry Lauder. ”Ah, yes,” and stretched himself like a long, disjointed cat. ”We've all heard a great deal about the dramatic scenes at Hexham. How our friend escaped from his brother's thras.h.i.+ng; how he rejoined his ally Mr. Acheson and had the misfortune to be spurned by the English friends he was trying hard to conciliate. So, using a woman as his s.h.i.+eld-it has a familiar ring, hasn't it?-he chose the discreeter part; a positive act which would bring him at last under the cloak of the Scottish side at least. He shot the courier in full view of Mr. Erskine and relied on Mr. Erskine's notoriously kind heart to extract him from the muddle. Unfortunately, he himself was attacked in the process-undoubtedly not part of the plan..
Erskine said forcibly, ”He knew when he made the shot that he hadn't a chance..
”He knew that if he didn't shoot, he hadn't got a chance either,” said the Queen's Advocate placidly.
There was a brief silence. Bishop Reid said, ”Well, Mr. Crawford?.
Good. He was going to attempt it. Lymond said briefly, ”If I hadn't used the protection of an English lady, as Mr. Lauder so kindly mentions, the secret of the s.h.i.+ps' departure would be a secretno longer. I haven't any evidence that Acheson's message was unknown to me. I can only refer you to some probabilities..
Argyll said sharply, ”Go on!.
Lymond raised his eyes.
”Am I not an unlikely messenger? To anyone in English pay in Scotland I should be known as an enemy of Lord Grey and Lord Wharton and of the Earl of Lennox; and also the object of awell-publicized pursuit by my brother. And even if I were approached, would I risk it for a moment, my relations.h.i.+p with these three men being what it was.
”But the man Acheson was a carrier of dispatches by trade, and an unscrupulous one. We know from what Mr. Erskine has said that Mr. Acheson knew the contents of this message; knew that it was a matter of delivering more than two perfectly legitimate messages from Sir George.
”How did he know? There was no provision originally for Acheson to have a companion. The safe-conduct was widened by Sir George himself to admit me, in order to promote an exchange of prisoners. There is no question, naturally, of accusing Sir George of complicity in treason, therefore you have to believe either that, being provided with this innocent means of getting myself safely to England, I confided my dreadful secret to this perfect stranger; or that when I joined him Acheson was already carrying the dispatch, in which case he was unlikely, surely, to talk about it to me..
Plausible again. The Lord Advocate saw the eyebrows raised around the table and heard the muttered exchanges.
Reid leaned forward. ”What then was the object of going to England? Oh: I recall. The Stewart girl..
It was what Lauder was waiting for. He hurled his pen from him so far that it cracked on the oak, and flung up an arm like a semaph.o.r.e to flatten his hair.
”So-o, Mr. Crawford. Your sole reason for going to England, your lonely and chivalrous reason for giving yourself up, for flinging yourself on the mercy of these gentlemen who, as you have so laboriously proved, wished nothing better than to see you dead, was to arrange that the Lady Christian Stewart might go free?.
”Yes..
At last. Now, by G.o.d, you're hating it, thought Lauder. And I'm going to thrash you until you hate me as well. And then, my lad, you're going to lose that cool temper and the Bishop had betterlook out. ”Yes,” he repeated aloud. ”This is the girl, young, blind, wealthy, in close touch with the Court, whom you encouraged to obtain secret information for you-.
”That is untrue..
”-while posing as a mysterious and illicit lover?.
”Both these accusations are untrue. Confine your attacks to me, Mr. Lauder.” The controlled voice clashed with Buccleuch's:”Dammit, we can't have that, Lauder. The girl was no light o' love.” The Lord Advocate said sombrely, ”If you will listen, Sir Wat,you will hear that I am implying the reverse. I am saying that this was an honest, gentle and virtuous girl, a young girl of open and innocent years, betrothed to a fine man, who fell into the power of a practiced and powerful seducer, appearing to her in a guise both insinuating and irresistibly romantic..
Buccleuch growled. ”She knew who he was. I don't see what bearing this has on the thing..
”She claimed to know, finally, when she thought it would save him. Did you reveal your ident.i.ty to her when you met, Mr. Crawford?.
”No,” said Lymond, and his hands closed.
”Why not?.
There was a pause. ”It relieved her of what I felt to be . . . too cruel a quandary. I didn't expect to see her again..
”No quandary for a girl as upright as we know this one was, surely. Or do you mean she was already in love with you?.
”I mean nothing of the sort. We had been childhood neighbours, and she was a-kindly person..
”I see. And having all these scruples, no doubt you went out of your way to avoid further meetings. Or did you see her again?” added Lauder suddenly.
There was another pause. Then the Master said evenly, ”Several times. Shall we save some tedious questions and answers?-After the first and second, the meetings were not unavoidable. I allowed her to help me with my private affairs although I knew that by doing so I should make her virtue suspect, at least, if it became known. It was through pursuing my affairs that she was captured at Dalkeith. It was directly because of that that she came into the power of the Countess of Lennox. These were unprincipled and unpardonable acts, and you can't possibly blame me as much as I blame myself.
”But in all of them, Lady Christian was the innocent and deceived party. She did nothing dishonest, even in her efforts to help me; and, 22 unpleasing as it may seem to Mr. Lauder's active imagination, there was nothing but friends.h.i.+p between us. Under the circ.u.mstances no doubt you will find it ludicrous that I should cast myself into Lord Grey's lap simply to free her; but that was what I did..
The Lord Advocate might have been annoyed at having his effects spoiled, but he gave not the slightest sign. ”It certainly has its ~ suspicious side. Particularly when linked with the fact that Lady Christian died suddenly and violently immediately after you traced I her to England..
Erskine's voice said harshly, ”Wait a moment. Lady Christian died from a fail from her horse..
Lauder said simply, ”How do you know?.
There was real anger in Erskine's brusque voice. ”I knew Chris better than any of you-I was to have married her-and if we weren't in a court of law I would shove down your d.a.m.ned throat the implication you've just been making. I saw Crawford of Lymond immediately after her death and heard what he said and saw how he acted. If I'd thought for a moment that he'd killed her, I wouldn't have let Culter have the pleasure of fighting him..
The Lord Advocate let this poignantly confident reb.u.t.tal wreak its own doom; and then said gently, ”What then are you suggesting? That Mr. Crawford went to her rescue after all in a fit of erratic gallantry?” and was much surprised to hear Sir George Douglas's smooth voice.
”Suppose, since they worry you, we dismiss the romantic gestures in favour of another fact? Mr. Crawford had been disappointed in his efforts to exculpate himself, as he thought, from the older crimes we have not yet discussed: he had just heard from me that the man who might do so was dead. He had already disbanded his force in expectation of a satisfactory meeting with this man and had suffered the considerable shock of being handed over to us by his own prot~g& He might well, under the circ.u.mstances, have decided on a course of despair such as this..
The Lord Advocate bowed without the least shade of irony. ”A point well made. Particularly as it puts before us another fact. Mr. Crawford, it appears, had just been cheated of his hopes of reinstating himself in our midst-by whatever means-as an honest, loyal and worthy servant of the Crown.
”What then remained, one might ask, but to fly to England; to get rid of this awkward girl, who was in England and who knew so much of his activities, and at the same time to present information which he might hope at least would buy him a little leniency from Lord Grey? If not, how was he worse off?” Lauder let his gaze rove over the twelve diverse faces, s.h.i.+ning with warmth and concentration; shrewd; pa.s.sive; perceptive; wary.
”You are not dealing with a simple man. The accusations against him are astonis.h.i.+ng in their variety. We have dealt with all but the most serious, and it would take a bold man to say 'This is true' and 'This is untrue.' His past connections with Lord Wharton were deliberate and innocent, he claims. There is no proof either way. His actions at Annan may have sprung from well-intentioned, if obscure motives. That again we shall never know.
”Whether for his own benefit or not, he appears to have given a certain amount of aid to the Crown during the famous cattle raid on the western march. In the same way he rendered us all a service at Hume-this time entirely for his own benefit. At Heriot he played a dangerous game-again for his own ends-in which his own brother and the Buccleuch family were p.a.w.ns though it appears, generous ones, in the way they have spoken for him. His connection with the Earl of Lennox again is a matter unproven either way-guilty or innocent-but again material reward enters the picture, and it seems likely that what was done was done for this reason.
”We are left with Hexham, and what happened immediately before. So complex is the picture this time, so various the possibilities, that we can isolate the truth, it seems to me, in one way only.
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