CHAPTER VI. HOW I CAME TO BE ENLISTED AS ONE OF THE GARRISON OF CLOOMBER
"To your room, girl!" he cried in a hoarse, harsh voice, stepping inbetween us and pointing authoritatively towards the house.
He waited until Gabriel, with a last frightened glance at me, hadpassed through the gap, and then he turned upon me with an expression somurderous that I stepped back a pace or two, and tightened my grasp uponmy oak stick.
"You-you--" he spluttered, with his hand twitching at his throat, asthough his fury were choking him. "You have dared to intrude upon myprivacy! Do you think I built this fence that all the vermin in thecountry might congregate round it? Oh, you have been very near yourdeath, my fine fellow! You will never be nearer until your time comes.Look at this!" He pulled a squat, thick pistol out of his bosom. "Ifyou had passed through that gap and set foot on my land I'd have letdaylight into you. I'll have no vagabonds here. I know how to treatgentry of that sort, whether their faces are black or white."
"Sir," said I, "I meant no harm by coming here, and I do not know how Ihave deserved this extraordinary outburst. Allow me to observe, however,that you are still covering me with your pistol, and that, as your handis rather tremulous, it is more than possible that it may go off. Ifyou don't turn the muzzle down I shall be compelled in self-defence tostrike you over the wrist with my stick."
"What the deuce brought you here, then?" he asked, in a more composedvoice, putting his weapon back into his bosom. "Can't a gentleman livequietly without your coming to peep and pry? Have you no businessof your own to look after, eh? And my daughter? how came you to knowanything of her? and what have you been trying to squeeze out of her? Itwasn't chance that brought you here."
"No," said I boldly, "it was not chance which brought me here. I havehad several opportunities of seeing your daughter and of appreciatingher many noble qualities. We are engaged to be married to each other,and I came up with the express intention of seeing her."
Instead of blazing into a fury, as I had expected, the general gave along whistle of astonishment, and then leant up against the railings,laughing softly to himself.
"English terriers are fond of nosing worms," he remarked at last. "Whenwe brought them out to India they used to trot off into the jungle andbegin sniffing at what they imagined to be worms there. But the wormturned out to be a venomous snake, and so poor doggy played no more. Ithink you'll find yourself in a somewhat analogous position if you don'tlook out."
"You surely don't mean to cast an aspersion upon your own daughter?" Isaid, flushing with indignation.
"Oh, Gabriel is all right," he answered carelessly. "Our family is notexactly one, however, which I should recommend a young fellow to marryinto. And pray how is it that I was not informed of this snug littlearrangement of yours?"
"We were afraid, sir, that you might separate us," I replied, feelingthat perfect candour was the best policy under the circumstances. "It ispossible that we were mistaken. Before coming to any final decision, Iimplore you to remember that the happiness of both of us is at stake. Itis in your power to divide our bodies, but our souls shall be for everunited."
"My good fellow," said the general, in a not unkindly tone, "you don'tknow what you are asking for. There is a gulf between you and any one ofthe blood of Heatherstone which can never be bridged over."
All trace of anger had vanished now from his manner, and given place toan air of somewhat contemptuous amusement.
My family pride took fire at his words. "The gulf may be less than youimagine," I said coldly. "We are not clodhoppers because we live in thisout-of-the-way place. I am of noble descent on one side, and my motherwas a Buchan of Buchan. I assure you that there is no such disparitybetween us as you seem to imagine."
"You misunderstand me," the general answered. "It is on our side thatthe disparity lies. There are reasons why my daughter Gabriel shouldlive and die single. It would not be to your advantage to marry her."
"But surely, sir," I persisted, "I am the best judge of my own interestsand advantages. Since you take this ground all becomes easy, for I doassure you that the one interest which overrides all others is that Ishould have the woman I love for my wife. If this is your only objectionto our match you may surely give us your consent, for any danger ortrial which I may incur in marrying Gabriel will not weigh with me onefeatherweight."
"Here's a young bantam!" exclaimed the old soldier, smiling at mywarmth. "It's easy to defy danger when you don't know what the dangeris."
"What is it, then?" I asked, hotly. "There is no earthly peril whichwill drive me from Gabriel's side. Let me know what it is and test me."
"No, no. That would never do," he answered with a sigh, and then,thoughtfully, as if speaking his mind aloud: "He has plenty of pluck andis a well-grown lad, too. We might do worse than make use of him."
He went on mumbling to himself with a vacant stare in his eyes as if hehad forgotten my presence.
"Look here, West," he said presently. "You'll excuse me if I spokehastily a little time ago. It is the second time that I have hadoccasion to apologise to you for the same offence. It shan't occuragain. I am rather over-particular, no doubt, in my desire for completeisolation, but I have good reasons for insisting on the point. Rightlyor wrongly, I have got it into my head that some day there might be anorganised raid upon my grounds. If anything of the sort should occur Isuppose I might reckon upon your assistance?"
"With all my heart."
"So that if ever you got a message such as 'Come up,' or even'Cloomber,' you would know that it was an appeal for help, and wouldhurry up immediately, even if it were in the dead of the night?"
"Most certainly I should," I answered. "But might I ask you what thenature of the danger is which you apprehend?"
"There would be nothing gained by your knowing. Indeed, you would hardlyunderstand it if I told you. I must bid you good day now, for I havestayed with you too long. Remember, I count upon you as one of theCloomber garrison now."
"One other thing, sir," I said hurriedly, for he was turning away, "Ihope that you will not be angry with your daughter for anything which Ihave told you. It was for my sake that she kept it all secret from you."
"All right," he said, with his cold, inscrutable smile. "I am not suchan ogre in the bosom of my family as you seem to think. As to thismarriage question, I should advise you as a friend to let it dropaltogether, but if that is impossible I must insist that it stand overcompletely for the present. It is impossible to say what unexpected turnevents may take. Good-bye."
He plunged into the wood and was quickly out of sight among the denseplantation.
Thus ended this extraordinary interview, in which this strange manhad begun by pointing a loaded pistol at my breast and had ended,by partially acknowledging the possibility of my becoming his futureson-in-law. I hardly knew whether to be cast down or elated over it.
On the one hand he was likely, by keeping a closer watch over hisdaughter, to prevent us from communicating as freely as we had donehitherto. Against this there was the advantage of having obtained animplied consent to the renewal of my suit at some future date. On thewhole, I came to the conclusion as I walked thoughtfully home that I hadimproved my position by the incident.
But this danger--this shadowy, unspeakable danger--which appeared torise up at every turn, and to hang day and night over the towers ofCloomber! Rack my brain as I would, I could not conjure up any solutionto the problem which was not puerile and inadequate.
One fact struck me as being significant. Both the father and the son hadassured me, independently of each other, that if I were told what theperil was, I would hardly realise its significance. How strange andbizarre must the fear be which can scarcely be expressed in intelligiblelanguage!
I held up my hand in the darkness before I turned to sleep that night,and I swore that no power of man or devil should ever weaken my love forthe woman whose pure heart I had had the good fortune to win.
The Mystery of Cloomber Page 6