by Ruskin Bond
Lady Mosenheim brought them into her room. It was not large; and drawn rose-coloured curtains dimmed the light. There were no chairs in it. Divans covered with cushions were against the walls, which were draped with hangings of a barbaric richness of colour matching the coverings of the divans and cushions. The scent of incense hung heavy on the air. Lady Mosenheim was the daughter of an Eastern banker; her girlhood had been passed in Smyrna and Stamboul.
Lady Northwold disliked the room, its barbaric colour, its dim, scented air.
'Will you sit down?' said Lady Mosenheim, and she sank on to a divan in a half-reclining posture.
Clarissa followed her example. Lady Northwold sat on the edge of a divan, upright.
Lady Mosenheim looked at them thoughtfully, then she said in her deep, soft voice: 'I have chosen you because you are the two strongest women I know. Also you are honourable women. If you do not join in it, you will not breathe a word of my plan to anyone? Is that not so?'
'We shall not,' said Lady Northwold, somewhat astonished at this opening.
'Not a word', said Clarissa.
'My law says: "Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth," ' said Lady Mosenheim slowly; and her voice was yet deeper. 'But the men will not avenge and punish. I have talked to them—to your men, politicians and generals—to my men, politicians and financiers. They will not avenge; they will not even punish. The men who have robbed me of my sons are to go scot-free.'
She paused; they looked at her earnestly, with intent eyes.
'Therefore the women must avenge and punish,' said Lady Mosenheim.
She paused again. Clarissa raised herself higher on her elbow; and a sudden fierce gleam shone in her eyes.
'I don't quite understand,' said Lady Northwold.
'The women whose sons and lovers have died must punish the traitors who betrayed them, the murderers who sent them to their death,' said Lady Mosenheim.
'Yes. But how?' said Clarissa a little breathlessly.
'There is only one punishment for traitors and murderers—death,' said Lady Mosenheim in a passionless tone.
'But we women?' said Lady Northwold.
'The women must kill. The men will not. They are busy and forget. How should they remember? Did they endure our travail? Did they rear the children? But we women, we do not forget. We shall never forget. We shall not forgive. We must avenge,' said Lady Mosenheim.
Her deep tones were as passionless as if she were discussing an abstract problem in physics.
'It is true. We do not forget—and as for forgiving—no,' said Clarissa between her set teeth.
'No. We do not forget,' said Lady Northwold.
'Then will you help to avenge?' said Lady Mosenheim.
'But what can we do?' said Lady Northwold.
'We can kill,' said Lady Mosenheim.
'Of course we can!' cried Clarissa; and her eyes were gleaming with a fierce light.
There was a faint flush on Lady Northwold's face; and she said softly: 'If we only could.'
'We can. There are many ways,' said Lady Mosenheim with quiet confidence. 'The question is: will you avenge your dead?'
'Show me how!' said Lady Northwold softly, but quickly.
Her face was changed; the apathy had vanished from it; it was flushed with eagerness.
'Yes. Show us how,' said Clarissa eagerly.
'Good. I will show you,' said Lady Mosenheim.
She half turned, pressed a spring in the wall behind her, pushed back a sliding panel, and drew from it an octavoledger bound in vellum.
'Here is a list of eighty traitors and their crimes. Most of them would have been set against a wall and shot months ago in France, Russia, or Germany. Let us choose the one we will execute first, for with different men, the method will be different,' said Lady Mosenheim.
They rose quickly and came to her side.
The ledger contained a list of names; and written against each name was the crime, or crimes, the traitors had committed. The first names were the names of politicians only.
'Of course, we cannot begin with this man,' said Lady Mosenheim, setting her finger on the first name, 'It would upset things too much at present. He must wait. But what about this one?'
She laid her finger on the sixth name.
'That's the man!' cried Lady Northwood and Clarissa with one voice.
'Yes. I've thought that he was the man to begin with. Every one will know why he was executed. If he hadn't sacrificed his country to his career, this horror would never have befallen the world. He'll make an excellent example. There are, too, a dozen political malefactors who will take warning by his fate. They'll shiver in their shoes. What is more they'll make an awful fuss.'
'What does that matter?' said Lady Northwold contemptuously.
'Then shall we deal with Blagden first?' said Lady Mosenheim.
'Yes,' they said with one voice.
'Then the first thing to do is to get him into our hands. You know him of course?'
'I knew him. But of course he hasn't been in my house since we learnt his treachery. But I haven't actually broken with him. I haven't seen him to cut him. He doesn't give people the chance,' said Lady Northwold.
'If you were to invite him to your house on the river, would he come?'
'He would. He's a snob of the worst,' said Clarissa.
'That's excellent,' said Lady Mosenheim. 'Once we get him there, we can take our time about dealing with him. But I'm afraid we shall have to have the help of a man. We three would not be a match for him physically. We can't afford to bungle. There are eighty names of traitors in this list; we must execute at least forty of them before anyone begins to suspect us.'
'We mightn't be a match for him physically, though he does lead an inactive life. But it seems wrong to have to call in a man,' said Clarissa.
'It does; but——' said Lady Mosenheim; and she shrugged her shoulders.
'We needn't. There's Williams,' said Lady Northwold quickly. She turned to Lady Mosenheim and added: 'She's my cook—a Welshwoman. Her only son was killed in the retreat from Mons. He was one of those who had to fall out because they had been given tight boots; and the Germans murdered him. We lost scores of men through one consignment of boots.'
'I know. The name of the contractor and the name of the man who got them through after they had been rejected are here,' said Lady Mosenheim; and she tapped the ledger. 'They come quite early on the list.'
'If Dinah knew them, she'd murder them, or try to. She was always a fierce creature; and she has been brooding. She'll join us—joyfully. And she's six feet tall, broad in proportion, and stronger than three men out of five. She'd be more than a match for Blagden,' said Lady Northwold. 'Also she has already been fined for asaulting a Labour leader.'
'I expect that he's on the list,' said Lady Mosenheim. 'But is she safe? She can be trusted to hold her tongue?'
'I can answer for her,' said Lady Northwold.
Lady Mosenheim laughed a slow, somewhat chilling laugh and said: 'Good. Things are shaping—things are shaping. I knew that if you two came into my scheme, difficulties would vanish. It looked as if I should have to be content with poisoning off these vermin quietly. But now we can execute them in such a way that the lot of them will be shaking in their shoes before the month is out. I think that we shall hang some of them.'
'We will begin with a hanging. We will hang this man Blagden—at River Court,' said Clarissa. 'Why I know the very tree. Dinah Williams and I will hang him on it. It's an ideal place.'
'Good. I thought you would be an enthusiast,' said Lady Mosenheim smiling at her.
'Why we could almost try him first,' said Clarissa.
'There is no need. The dog will know why we hang him,' said Lady Mosenheim.
'The thing to do is to make a beginning,' said Lady Northwold. 'I will write to him at once inviting him down to River Court and asking him to fix the day. If he accepts, we can make definite arrangements. If he refuses, we must find some other way of getti
ng him into our hands.'
'That's the way to work—no waste of time. Meanwhile I will go on getting information about the boot contractor. We know all about Blagden. But the boot man is another matter,' said Lady Mosenheim.
She came down with them to the door of the house; and they shook hands with her with the friendliest warmth. They went down the steps to Lady Northwold's car changed women: they carried their heads high; their faces were bright with new purpose; the listlessness had gone from their carriage and gait.
Lady Mosenheim did not miss the change in them; a smile of satisfaction wreathed her lips.
After lunch Clarissa went to her canteen work in a munition factory in South London. As soon as Lord Northwold had set out for the Admiralty Lady Northwold sent for Dinah Williams.
She came, a big-boned, broad, thick, tall woman, with reddish hair, green-eyed and freckled. Her lips were set in a gloomy repression; and she wore a somewhat truculent air.
'You half-murdered that Labour man, Bill Tripp, because you thought he was hindering the men who were trying to avenge Bob; and I raised your wages for doing it,' said Lady Northwold gently.
'It's little use wages are to me, m'lady. I've no one to spend them on now Bob's gone; and I'll never have any grandchildren now, so it's no use saving up,' said Dinah in a deep, harsh voice.
'I suppose not,' said Lady Northwold sadly. 'But would you like to help to punish the men who are to blame for Bob's death?'
Dinah looked at her, gasped, and cried: 'Would I like it! Give me the chance, m'lady; and I'll bless your name every day I live!'
'I mean really punish them—kill them—execute them as traitors,' said Lady Northwold in the same quiet voice.
'I'm ready to choke any one of them here and now!' cried Dinah; and she held out her big hands with the fingers working.
'Yes. But we want to hang people, not hang for them,' said Lady Northwold grimly. 'It would spoil our usefulness.'
'Yes, m'lady,' said Dinah more quietly.
'So you see I don't only want you help because you're stronger than most men. I must be able to rely on you. A word to any one about what we do, or are going to do, would make us quite helpless again. And the women have to do this work; the men won't.'
'They're a poor lot,' said Dinah with conviction. 'Not a word will ever come from me, m'lady.'
'I'm sure it won't,' said Lady Northwold.
Dinah rubbed her big hands together and said in an anxious tone: 'An' when do we begin, m'lady?'
'Very soon—next week, perhaps.'
'It'll be something to look forward to, m'lady. I'm thinking I shall sleep better o' nights. It's doin' nothing an' bein' able to do nothing that's so wearing.' She paused and added in a faintly hopeful tone: 'Is there any chance of punishing the man as sold them tight boots to the Government?'
'A very good chance. In fact, I think I can promise you that he will be punished soon, and the man who helped him to sell them, too.'
Dinah laughed a mirthless, bitter laugh, and said in a low, very harsh voice: 'I'd go to hell for that, m'lady, cheerfully!'
'Hush! You mustn't say dreadful things like that,' said Lady Northwold, in a horrified tone. 'Besides, the hangman doesn't go to hell for hanging murderers; he just performs a duty. And we're only going to perform a duty which the men are too slack and timid to perform. But, of course, they don't remember as women do.'
'An' that's true, m'lady. An' how should they? A boy is his mother's ever so much more than he is his father's—all children are, if it comes to that,' said Dinah.
'Yes. That's just it. If our boys were as much to their fathers as they are to us, these scoundrels would have been hanged a year ago,' said Lady Northwold, with a sudden heat.
'Well, we're going to make up for their slackness, m'lady. An' I'm sure you'll see as we make up for it proper when we do start,' said Dinah, in an almost cheerful tone.
'I think we can trust ourselves to make a thorough job of it,' said Lady Northwold, with quiet confidence.
'Yes, m'lady,' said Dinah; and she left the room on brisk feet, smiling.
Lady Northwold went to her writing-table and wrote her invitation to Mr Blagden. Then she went out and posted it herself. She would have liked to register it.
At dinner she told Lord Northwold about it.
'What? Blagden? You've invited Blagden down to River Court?' he cried, in a tone of stupefaction.
'Yes. I thought I would,' she said carelessly. 'Blagden and Lady Mosenheim.'
He stared at her blankly.
'My hat!' he said softly and no more.
Mr Blagden was somewhat surprised and much pleased by Lady Northwold's invitation. As a public man he was well aware that the disfavour of the public is nearly as fleeting as its favour; and he was bearing the disfavor into which he had fallen without great impatience. That disfavour would die down; his disastrous concealment of the unpalatable truth would presently be forgotten; and he could trust his colleagues, the most important of them partners in his secrecy, to help him to return, after a few years, to public life. In the meantime he had his pension and his friends who understood his position.
He was so much pleased with this invitation because it was a sign, a striking sign, that his unpopularity was beginning to wane. Lady Northwold was not only on the opposite side in politics, but she had lost her two sons in the war. If she could forget, who could not? He felt it to be a tribute also to his personal qualities: he had been a figure in society before his resignation; society wanted him back. His large, flabby face was wreathed with a smile almost triumphant as he wrote the answer to the invitation. He wrote it with thoughtful care: he must not show how much he was pleased; he must not show himself too eager; but he must show a cordial readiness to accept the proffered olive branch. He did.
Lady Northwold had asked him to choose the day on which he would come; and out of his desire not to show himself too eager he chose the following Wednesday week.
It seemed a long while to wait to Lady Northwold and Clarissa and Dinah Williams; Lady Mosenheim came of a more patient race. Lord Northwold did not fail to perceive the change in his wife, and he told her that during the last few days she had grown seven years younger.
'It must be this beautiful summer weather after all the rain we've been having,' she said, smiling at him.
It might be. But he wondered. He wondered yet more when she went out of the drawing-room humming 'Tipperary.'
On the morning of the Wednesday chosen by Mr Blagden for his visit, the Northwolds' butler wondered at the cheerfulness of Dinah Williams. She who had been so gloomy and savage for months went so far as to joke with the two maids she was taking with her about the prospect of their findings sweethearts at River Court.
Lady Northwold was motoring down with Lady Mosenheim and Clarissa, who was to drive the car. Clarissa came to the house glowing. In the course of the past week her cheeks had filled out almost to their old contours; they had recovered their old warm colouring. They drove round to Park Lane to fetch Lady Mosenheim. She came down the steps of her house with a lithe eagerness astonishing in one so bulky; and her eyes, usually dull, were shining. They reached River Court an hour before Mr Blagden.
It is a large house, in the middle of beautiful gardens, tended now only by boys and old men. The front is towards the river; and a broad lawn runs from it down to the river's edge. Two cedars stand, twenty yards apart, fifty feet from the house; a shrubbery of tall deodars runs down the left side of the lawn, a shrubbery of taller Wellingtonias down the right side of it. At the bottom of it, on the left, about fifteen yards from the river a group of three great chestnut trees tower above the deodar shrubbery. Their branches reach to the edge of it.
As soon as the three women had washed off the dust of the journey they walked down the lawn to the chestnut trees.
'That's the bough I was thinking of,' said Clarissa, pointing to a great limb which ran out at right angles to the trunk about sixteen feet from the ground. 'It would bear twe
nty men.'
'Yes. It is an excellent bough,' said Lady Mosenheim, gazing at it with approving eyes. 'And you have the rope?'
'It's at the bottom of Dinah Williams' trunk,' said Lady Northwold. 'She bought it in Birmingham on Friday. I sent her down there on purpose to buy it. It seemed safe. She bought two dozen clothes-pegs, too. It would never have done for one of us to buy the rope, for if there is a great fuss, as there will be, our photographs will very likely be in the papers, especially if we have to give evidence at the inquest.'
'That was an excellent idea. I knew that you and Miss Leggat were the people to work with. I have brought a card with 'For Treachery' typed on it. It is part of an ordinary post-card; and I typed it myself. There'll be no tracing that.' said Lady Mosenheim.
'Dinah is going to cut two lengths off the rope to tie his hands and feet with,' said Clarissa. 'Of course, we'll gag him with his own handkerchief.'
'You think of everything,' said Lady Mosenheim, smiling at her.
'It will give us plenty of time to try him, if he can't shout for help,' said lady Northwold.
'Try him?' cried Lady Mosenheim, in a tone of sharp surprise.
'I should much prefer to try him, if it can be done,' said Lady Northwold.
Lady Mosenheim looked at her with a pondering frown.
'The facts and his guilt are clear enough,' said Clarissa. 'We only want to hear any defence he has to make.'
'Oh, that will be easy enough,' said Lady Mosenheim quickly. 'We can try him without his knowing that he is being tried, for he will make that defence whenever we choose to question him—at lunch—at dinner. He has it ready—always.'
'Why, of course,' said Lady Northwold in a tone of relief.
Mr Blagden arrived at a quarter to five; and at five they had tea under the right-hand cedar at the upper end of the lawn. The politician was in great feather, for he was resolved to make it clearto them how much they had lost by not enjoying more of his society. Moreover, he was stimulated by finding himself among such agreeable people in such delightful surroundings. He talked excellently about people, books, plays, and places. He was far too tactful to breathe a word about the war. No suspicion crossed his mind that not one of his three listeners was really interested in anything else.