Graustark

by George Barr McCutcheon

  XXVI. THE GUESSING OF ANGUISH

  The startling assertion created a fresh sensation. Sensations had comeso thick and so fast, however, that they seemed component parts of onegrand bewildering climax. The new actor in the drama held the center ofthe stage undisputed.

  "Harry!" cried Lorry.

  "Prince Gabriel, why do you shake like a leaf? Is it because youknow what I am going to say?" exclaimed Anguish, pointing his fingeraccusingly at the astonished Prince of Dawsbergen.

  Gabriel's lips parted, but nothing more than a gasp escaped them.Involuntarily his eyes sought the door, then the windows, the peculiaruncontrollable look of the hunted coming into them. Bolaroz allowed hisgaze to leap instantly to that pallid face and every eye in the roomfollowed. Yetive was standing again, her face glowing.

  "An accomplice has confessed all. I have the word of the man who sawthe crime committed. I charge Prince Gabriel with the murder of HisHighness, Prince Lorenz."

  With a groan, Gabriel threw his hands to his heart and tottered forward,glaring at the merciless face of the accuser.

  "Confessed! Betrayed!" he faltered. Then he whirled like a maniac uponhis little coterie of followers. "Vile traitor!" he shrieked, "I willdrink your heart's blood!"

  With a howl he leaped toward one of the men, a darkfaced nobleman namedBerrowag. The latter evaded him and rushed toward the door, crying:

  "It is a lie! a lie! He has tricked you! I did not confess!"

  The Prince was seized by his friends, struggling and cursing. A peculiarsmile lit up the face of Harry Anguish.

  "I repeat, he is the assassin!"

  Gabriel broke from the detaining hands and drawing a revolver, rushedfor the door.

  "Out of the way! I will not be taken alive!"

  Allode met him at the curtains and grasped him in his powerful arms,Baron Dangloss and others tearing the weapon from his hand. The utmostconfusion reigned--women screaming, men shouting--and above all could beheard the howls of the accused Prince.

  "Let me go! Curse you! Curse you! I will not surrender! Let me kill thattraitor! Let me at him!" Berrowag had been seized by willing hands,and the two men glared at each other, one crazy with rage, the othershrinking with fear.

  Dangloss and Allode half carried, half dragged the Prince forward. Ashe neared Bolaroz and the Princess he collapsed and became a trembling,moaning suppliant for mercy. Anguish's accusation had struck home.

  "Prince Bolaroz, I trust you will not object if the Princess Yetivesubstitutes the true assassin for the man named in your promise toGraustark," said Anguish, dramatically. Bolaroz, as if coming from adream, turned and knelt before the throne.

  "Most adorable Yetive," he said; "I sue for pardon. I bow low and laymy open heart before the truest woman in the world." He kissed the blacklace hem of her gown and arose. "I am your friend and ally; Axphain andGraustark will live no more with hatred in their hearts. From you I havelearned a lesson in justice and constancy."

  Prince Gabriel was raving like a madman as the officers hurried him andBerrowag from the room. A shout went up from those assembled. Itsecho, reaching the halls, then the gardens, was finally taken up bythe waiting masses beyond the gates. The news flew like wild-fire.Rejoicing, such as had never been known, shook Edelweiss until the monkson the mountain looked down in wonder.

  After the dazed and happy throng about the throne had heaped itsexpressions of love and devotion upon the radiant Princess a singlefigure knelt in subjection, just as she was preparing to depart. It wasthe Duke of Mizrox.

  "Your Royal Highness, Mizrox is ready to pay his forfeit. My life isyours," he said, calmly. She did not comprehend until her uncle remindedher of the oath Mizrox had taken the morning after the murder.

  "He swore, on his life, that you killed Lorenz," she said, turning toLorry.

  "I was wrong, but I am willing to pay the penalty. My love for Lorenzwas greater than my discretion. That is my only excuse, but it is oneyou should not accept," said Mizrox, as coolly as if announcing the timeof day. Lorry looked first at him and then at the Princess, bewilderedand uncertain.

  "I have no ill will against you, my Lord Duke. Release him from his bondyour Highness."

  "Gladly, since you refuse to hold him to his oath," she said.

  "I am under an eternal obligation to you, sir, for your leniency, andI shall ever revere the Princess who pardons so graciously the gravesterror."

  Yetive begged Bolaroz to continue to make the Court his home while inGraustark, and the old Prince responded with the declaration that hewould remain long enough to sign and approve the new covenant, at least.Before stepping from the throne, Yetive called in low tones to Lorry, apretty flush mantling her cheek:

  "Will you come to me in half an hour?"

  "For my reward?" he asked, eagerly.

  "Ach?" she cried, softly, reprovingly. Count Halfont's face took on atroubled expression as he caught the swift communication in their eyes.After all, she was a Princess.

  She passed from the room beside Halfont, proud and happy in the victoryover despair, glorying in the exposure of her heart to the world, herblood tingling and dancing with the joys of anticipation. Lorry andAnguish, the wonder and admiration of all, were given a short butconvincing levee in the hallway. Lords and ladies praised and laudedthem, overwhelming them with the homage that comes to the brave. ButGaspon uttered one wish that struck Lorry's warm, leaping heart like apiece of ice.

  "Would to God that you were a Prince of the realm," said the minister offinance, a look of regret and longing in his eyes. That wish of Gaspon'ssent Lorry away with the sharp steel of desolation, torturing intenselyas it drove deeper and deeper the reawakened pangs of uncertainty. Therestill remained the fatal distance between him and the object of hisheart's desire.

  He accompanied Captain Quinnox to his quarters, where he made himselfpresentable before starting for the enchanted apartment in the far endof the castle. Eager, burning passion throbbed side by side withthe cold pulsing of fear, a trembling race between two unconquerableemotions. Passion longed for the voice, the eyes, the caresses; fearcried aloud in every troubled throb: "You will see her and kiss her andthen you will be banished."

  The two emotions thus thrown together, clashing fiercely for supremacy,at last wove themselves into a single, solid, uncompromising whole. Outof the two grew an aggressive determination not to be thwarted. Loveand fear combined to give him strength; from his eyes fled the hopelesslook, from his brain the doubt, from his blood the chill.

  "Quinnox, give me your hand--don't mind the blood! You have been myfriend, and you have served her almost to the death. I injured and wouldhave killed you in that cell, but it was not in anger. Will you be myfriend in all that is to follow?"

  "She has said that she loves you," said the captain, returning the handclasp. "I am at your service as well as hers."

  A few moments later Lorry was in her presence. What was said or doneduring the half hour that passed between his entrance and the momentthat brought them side by side from the room need not be told. That theinterview had had its serious side was plain. The troubled, anxious eyesof the girl and the rebellious, dogged air of the man told of a conflictnow only in abeyance.

  "I will never give you up," he said, as they came from the door. Awistful gleam flickered in her eyes, but she did not respond in words.

  Near the head of the stairway an animated group of persons lingered.Harry Anguish was in the center and the Countess Dagmar was directly infront of him, looking up with sparkling eyes and parted lips. The Countand Countess Halfont, Gaspon, the Baron Dangloss, the Duke of Mizrox,with other ladies and gentlemen, were being entertained by thegay-spirited stranger.

  "Here he comes," cried the latter, as he caught sight of the approachingcouple.

  "I am delighted to see you, Harry. You were the friend in need, oldman," said Lorry, wringing the other's hand. Yetive gave him her hand,her blue eyes overflowing.

  "Mr. Anguish had just begun to tell us how he--how he--" began
Dagmar,but paused helplessly, looking to him for relief.

  "Go ahead, Countess; it isn't very elegant, but it's the way I saidit. How I 'got next' to Gabriel is what she wants to say. Perhapsyour Highness would like to know all about the affair that ended sotragically. It's very quickly told," said Anguish.

  "I am deeply interested," said the Princess, eagerly.

  "Well, in the first place, it was all a bluff," said he, coolly.

  "A what!" demanded Dagmar.

  "Bluff," responded Harry, briefly; "American patois, dear Countess."

  "In what respect," asked Lorry, beginning to understand.

  "In all respects. I didn't have the slightest sign of proof against thefestive Prince."

  "And you--you did all that 'on a bluff'?" gasped the other.

  "Do I understand you to say that you have no evidence against Gabriel?"asked Halfont, dumbfounded.

  "Not a particle."

  "But you said his confederate had confessed," protested Dangloss.

  "I didn't know that he had a confederate, and I wasn't sure that hewas guilty of the crime," boasted Anguish, complacently enjoying thestupefaction.

  "Then why did you say so?" demanded Dangloss, excited beyond measure.

  "Oh, I just guessed at it!"

  "God save us!" gasped Baron Dangloss, Chief of Police.

  "Guessed at it?" cried Mizrox.

  "That's it. It was a bold stroke, but it won. Now, I'll tell you thismuch. I was morally certain that Gabriel killed the Prince. There wasno way on earth to prove it, however, and I'll admit it was intuitionor something of that sort which convinced me. He had tried to abduct thePrincess, and he was madly jealous of Lorenz. Although he knew there wasto be a duel, he was not certain that Lorenz would lose, so he adopteda clever plan to get rid of two rivals by killing one and castingsuspicion on the other. These deductions I made soon after the murder,but, of course, could secure no proof. Early this morning, at the hotel,I made up my mind to denounce him suddenly if I had the chance, riskingfailure but hoping for such an exhibition as that which you saw. It wasclear to me that he had an accomplice to stand guard while he did thestabbing, but I did not dream it was Berrowag. Lorry's sensationalappearance, when I believed him to be far away from here, disturbed megreatly but it made it all the more necessary that I should take therisk with Gabriel. As I watched him I became absolutely convinced of hisguilt. The only way to accuse him was to do it boldly and thoroughly, soI rang in the accomplice and the witness features. You all know how the'bluff' worked."

  "And you had no more proof than this?" asked Dangloss, weakly.

  "That's all," laughed the delighted strategist.

  Dangloss stared at him for a moment, then threw up his hands andwalked away, shaking his head, whether in stupefied admiration or utterdisbelief, no one knew. The others covered Anguish with compliments, andhe was more than ever the hero of the day. Such confidence paralyzedthe people. The only one who was not overcome with astonishment was hiscountryman.

  "You did it well," he said in an undertone to Anguish; "devilish well."

  "You might at least say I did it to the queen's taste," growled Anguish,meaningly.

  "Well, then, you did," laughed Lorry.