"But if I undertake----" I cut him short:
"Sir, in this matter you are not in a position to undertake. By your ownshowing, you are simply bound to fulfill your trust and to restore thetreasure to the King, who will restore it to the Pope; or to restore itto the Pope direct." He answered quickly:
"But I can stipulate----" again I interrupted him for this was a uselessroad to travel;
"How can you stipulate? You would, or might, be told to simply fulfillthe duty that had been undertaken for you. Did you refuse, from whatevermotive, no matter how justly founded, on ground of right or honour, youwould not be holding to the simple terms of your trust. No! sir. This isno private affair to be settled by you or me, or by us both together. Itbelongs to politics! and international politics at that. The Governmentof Spain is desperately in want of money. How do you know to what shift,or to what specious argument it will condescend in its straits. I haveno doubt that, should anything be done contrary to your idea of fairplay, you would be grievously pained; but that is not to the point. YourGovernment would not take thought for any wish of yours, any more thanfor aught of mine. Your King is a minor; his regent is a woman, and hiscouncillors and governors are all men chosen to do what they can to savetheir country. Sir, but a few minutes ago you professed it your duty totake any step, even to crime and dishonour, to carry out your duty.Indeed, you drew a weapon upon me, a presumably unarmed man, in my ownhouse in which you are a self-invited guest. Suppose some of theGovernment of Spain hold ideas of their duty, equally strong and equallyunscrupulous; who then is to answer for what they do. Why, in such case,they would undertake anything, until they had got possession of thetreasure; and would then act entirely upon what they would call their'better judgment.'" His native pride awoke in an instant for he saidhotly:
"I would have you know, Senor, and remember always when you talk with aSpaniard, that our statesmen are not criminals, but men of honour." Ibowed instinctively as I answered him:
"Sir, I have no doubt whatever, and I speak in all sincerity, that youyourself are, under normal circumstances, a man of the highest honour.Your self-sacrificing offer has shewn me that; and I have added to thatknowledge by seeing the pain you have suffered at even the thought ofdishonour." Here he bowed low, and there was a look of gratitude in hiseyes which touched me to the quick. "And yet even you have openly toldme that all your belief in honour, all your life-long adherence to itsbehests, will not keep you from fulfilling a duty should these thingsclash. Nay more, you have already done things which I take it are atvariance with your principles. How then can you, or I, believe thatother men, of less lofty lineage and less delicate sense of honour,will forego an advantage for their country in distress, yielding to atheoretical point of right or wrong. No sir" I went on pitilessly, for Ifelt that it would be a kindness to him to shut absolutely this door ofhope, "We must take no step which will place in the hands of others theguardianship of that treasure, of which you have hitherto conceivedyourself trustee, and of which I now believe myself to be the owner."For fully several minutes we faced each other in silence. His face grewmore and more fixed and stern; at last he stood up with such a look ofresolution that instinctively my fingers tightened round the butt of myrevolver. I thought that he might be about to throw himself upon me, andattempt even at such odds as were against him, a struggle for presentmastery. Then, without moving from his place, he spoke:
"When I have done all I can to fulfill my trust in its completeness,and have failed, I shall ask the government of my country to makerepresentation to her friend England of a friendly claim, so that we mayget even a part of the treasure; and then I will devote myself to theavenging of my honour on those who have foiled me in my duty!" This wasa sort of speech which braced me up again. It was a promise of war, manto man, and I could understand it better than the subtleties which nowenmeshed us. I put my pistol back in my pocket, and bowed to my opponentas I answered:
"And when that time comes, Sir, you will find me at your service; howyou will; where you will; and when you will. In the meantime, when firstyou place the matter on the international plane, I shall take care thatthe American government, in which dear friends of mine are interested,shall make friendly demand of her friend, England, that she shall takeno step with regard to this particular treasure--if indeed it be the
n inher possession--which may be used to the detriment of the trans-Atlanticpower. Thus you see, sir, that time must in any case elapse before afinal settlement. Nothing can be done till the close of the present war,when I take it that immediate need of the sinews of war shall haveceased to exist. Be very careful, then, how you take any steps to bringupon the scene other powers than ourselves; powers vastly more strong,and vastly less scrupulous--perhaps." He answered nothing, but looked atme a long time in silent cold disdain. Then he said quietly:
"Have I your permission, Senor, to depart?" I bowed, and brought himto the door. When outside he turned, and, lifting his hat high in anold-fashioned, stately way, bowed. He passed up the laneway towardsWhinnyfold, without once glancing back.
As I stood looking at him, I saw in the dusk Gormala's head now andagain showing above the low green bank which guarded the edge of thecliff. She was bent double, and was in secret following the Spaniard.
I went back to the house to think over matters. Altogether, we weregetting so complicated that there did not seem any straight road totake. In the back of my mind I had a firm idea that the best thingI could do would be to hand over the treasure to the custody of thepolice; inform the Sheriff; and get my solicitor to enter a formal claimof ownership, wherever the claim should be made. Then I should getMarjory to come upon our honeymoon. I could see that her mind wasalmost, if not quite, made up to accept this step; and for a while Ilost myself in a day dream.
I came back to the reality of things by dimly and gradually realisingthat it had grown dark. So I made preparation for the night, bearing inmind that I had a vast treasure in my possession, and that a desperateman who claimed to represent its ownership was aware that I had it inthe house. It was not till I had seen to the fastenings of every windowand door, that I began to prepare a meal.
By this time I was exceedingly hungry; when I had eaten I seated myselfbefore a rousing fire of pine logs, lit my pipe, and began to think.Without, the wind was rising. I could hear it whistle along the roof,and now and again it roared and boomed down the chimney; the leapingfire seemed to answer its call. I could not think definitely; mythoughts kept whirling in a circle from the Spaniard to the treasure,from the treasure to Gormala, from Gormala to Marjory, and from Marjoryback to the Spaniard again. Every time the cycle became complete and mythoughts came back to Marjory, my rapture as I thought of her and ofour future, became clouded by a vague uneasiness. It was out of thisthat the thought of Don Bernardino came to commence the next round ofthought. In all my mental wanderings he became a dominant character;his pride, his sense of duty which subordinated even honour, hisdesperation, his grief, all seemed to be with me and around me. Now andagain I trembled, when I thought that such self-sacrificing forces mightbe turned against Marjory.
Little by little, despite all my anxiety, stole over me the dispositionof sleep. I was indeed almost worn out. The events of the past few dayshad crowded together so quickly that I had had no time for pause. Eventhe long sleep which had crowned the vigil in the water cave had notenabled me to lay in, so to speak, a provision of sleep; it had been thepayment of a debt to nature rather than the putting by of capital. Ihad the consoling thought that Marjory had promised me she would notleave Crom Castle till I came. Safe in this thought I rolled myself inrugs--choosing those that she had used--and fell asleep.
I think that even in sleep I did not lose the sense of my surroundings,for in dreams my thoughts ran in their waking channel. Here again, allthe disturbing elements of my life of late became jumbled together; anda sort of anxiety regarding something unknown seemed to brood over me.So far as I remember, I slept fitfully; waking often in a sort of agonyof indefinite apprehension. A couple of times I made up the fire whichwas falling low, for there was a sort of companionship in it. Without,the wind howled more loudly, and each time as I sank back to rest Ipulled the rugs more closely around me.
Once, I started broad awake. I thought I heard a cry, and naturally, inmy present frame of mind, my thoughts flew to Marjory in some danger;she was calling me. Whatever the cause was, it reached my brain througha thick veil of sleep; my body answered, and before I had time to thinkof why or wherefore, I was standing on the floor broad awake, alert andpanting. Again there came a sharp cry outside, which threw me in aninstant into a cold sweat. Marjory was in danger and was calling me!Instinctively I ran to the window, and pulling open the shutters, threwup the sash. All was dark outside, with just that cold line on the farEastern horizon which told of coming dawn. The wind had risen high, andswept past me into the room, rustling papers and making the flamesdance. Every now and again a bird swept by me on the wings of thewind, screaming as it flew; for the house was so close to the sea thatthe birds took no note of it as they would ordinarily do of a humanhabitation. One of them came so close that its scream seemed to soundloudly in my ears; it was doubtless just such a cry as this which hadtorn me from my sleep. For a while I hesitated whether I should go rightaway to Crom; but second thoughts prevailed. I could not get into thehouse at such an hour, without creating alarm and causing comment. So Iwent back to the chimney corner, and, piling on fresh logs and snugglinginto my nest of rugs, soon found sleep again descending on me. Theserenity of thought which comes with the day was using its force....
This time I woke more slowly. The knocking was continuous andimperative; but it was not a terrifying sound. We are all more or lessused to such sounds. I listened; and gradually consciousness of mysurroundings came back to me. The knocking was certainly persistent....I put on my shoes and went to the door.
Outside was Mrs. Jack, looking troubled and hot in spite of the cold ofthe wind which seemed to sing around the house. As I opened the door,she slipped past me and closed it behind her. Her first words made myheart sink, and my blood run cold with vague terror:
"Is Marjory here?"
CHAPTER XLIII
THE HONOUR OF A SPANIARD
Mrs. Jack saw the answer in my eyes before speech came, and staggeredback against the wall.
"No," I said "Why do you ask?"
"She is not here! Then there is something wrong; she was not in her roomthis morning!"
This morning! The words set my thoughts working. I looked at my watch;it was past ten o'clock. In a dazed kind of way I heard Mrs. Jack go on.
"I did not say a word to any of the servants at first, for I didn't wantto set them talking. I went all over the house myself. Her bed had notbeen slept in; I pulled the clothes off it and threw them on againroughly so that the maid might not suspect. Then I asked quietly if anyof the maids had seen her; but none had. So I said as quietly as I couldthat she must have gone out for an early walk; and I took my breakfast.Then I had the cart got ready, and drove over here myself. What can itbe? She told me last night that she was not going out until you came;and she is always so exact when she says a thing, that there must besomething wrong. Come back with me at once! I am so anxious that I don'tknow what to do."
Two minutes sufficed for my toilet; then shutting the door behind us,we got into the cart and drove to Crom. At the first and at the last wewent quietly, so as not to arouse attention by our speed; but in themiddle space we flew. During the journey Mrs. Jack had told me thatlast night she had gone to bed as usual, leaving in the drawing roomMarjory, who had told her that she was going presently into the libraryto write as she had a lot of letters to get through, and that no one wasto wait up for her. This was her usual habit when she sat late; ittherefore excited no extra attention. Mrs. Jack who was an early riser,had been dressed for an hour before she went to Marjory's room. Inthe course of her enquiries amongst the servants, one of them, whosebusiness it was to open the hall door, told her that she had found itlocked and chained as usual.
Within the house at Crom we found all quiet. I went at once into thelibrary, as that was presumably the last place where Marjory had been.As we went, I asked Mrs. Jack if any letters had been left out to post.She said no! that the usual habit was to put such in the box on the halltable, but she had herself, looked, when she came down to put in aletter for America. I went over at once to the table near the fire whereMarjory usually sat at night. There were plenty of writing materialsand blank paper and envelopes; but not a sign of a letter or anythingwritten. I looked all round the room but could see nothing to attractmy attention. Once more I asked Mrs. Jack what Marjory had said to herabout her intention of not leaving the castle till I had come. With somehesitation at first, as though she were fearful of breaking confidence,but afterwards more freely as if glad to be able to speak, she told meall:
"The dear child took to heart what I said yesterday about her livingwith her husband. After you had gone she came to me and laid her head onmy breast, as she used to do as a little child, and began to cry; andtold me that I had been very good to her. The darling! And that her mindwas made up. She realised now her duty to her husband; and that as hewished her to stay in the house, nothing in the world would induce herto leave it till he came. That was the first act of her new duty! And,oh my dear! that is why I was so concerned when I found that after allshe was not in the house. I don't understand it; there must be somethingon foot that I don't know; and I am full of fear!" Here the old ladyquite broke down. I felt that any self control now was precious. Itwould not do to leave Mrs. Jack in ignorance of the danger, so I toldher in as few words as I could of the blackmailing going on and ofthe watch set by the United States Secret Service. At first she wasoverwhelmed; but her early apprenticeship to dangers of all kinds stoodher in good stead. Very soon her agitation took practical shape. I toldher I was off to seek for help, and that she must keep the house till Ireturned. I would have tried the secret tunnel, but from what Mrs. Jackhad said I was convinced that Marjory had never left the house of herown accord. If she had been captured she was doubtless far away by thistime. It was possible that the blackmailers had found the secret passageinto the Castle by which Don Bernardino had come. Here the thought cameto me in full force; that was how they had discovered it. They hadseen and watched the Don!... I felt that another debt for our day ofreckoning had been piled up against him.