The Man on the Box

by Harold MacGrath

  XXIII

  SOMETHING ABOUT HEROES

  Tick-lock, tick-tock went the voice of the little friend of eternity onthe mantel-piece; the waxen sheets (to which so much care and labor hadbeen given) writhed and unfolded, curled and crackled, and blackened onthe logs; the cold wind and rain blew in through the opened window; thelamp flared and flickered inside its green shade; a legion of heroespeered out from the book-cases, no doubt much astonished at the sightof this ordinary hero of mine and his mean, ordinary clothes. I have inmy mind's eye the picture of good D'Artagnan's frank contempt, Athos'magnificent disdain, the righteous (I had almost said honest!) horrorof the ultra-fashionable Aramis, and the supercilious indignation ofthe bourgeois Porthos. What! this a hero? Where, then, was his rapier,his glittering baldric, his laces, his dancing plumes, his fine air?

  Several times in the course of this narrative I have expressed myregret in not being an active witness of this or that scene, a regretwhich, as I am drawing most of these pictures from hearsay, isperfectly natural. What must have been the varying expressions on eachface! Warburton, who, though there was tumult in his breast, coollywaited for Karloff to make the next move; Annesley, who saw histerrible secret in the possession of a man whom he supposed to be astable-man; Karloff, who saw his house of cards vanish in the dartlingtongues of flame, and recognized the futility of his villainy; thegirl... Ah, who shall describe the dozen shadowy emotions which crossedand recrossed her face?

  From Warburton's dramatic entrance upon the scene to Karloff's firstmovement, scarce a minute had passed, though to the girl and her fatheran eternity seemed to come and go. Karloff was a brave man. Upon theinstant of his recovery, he sprang toward Warburton, silently and withpredetermination: he must regain some fragment of those plans. He wouldnot, could not, suffer total defeat before this girl's eyes; his bloodrebelled against the thought. He expected the groom to strike him, butJames simply caught him by the arms and thrust him back.

  "No, Count; no, no; they shall burn to the veriest crisp!"

  "Stand aside, lackey!" cried Karloff, a sob of rage strangling him.Again he rushed upon Warburton, his clenched hand uplifted. Warburtondid not even raise his hands this time. So they stood, their faceswithin a hand's span of each other, the one smiling coldly, the otherin the attitude of striking a blow. Karloff's hand fell unexpectedly,but not on the man in front of him. "Good God, no! a gentleman does notstrike a lackey! Stand aside, stand aside!"

  "They shall burn, Count,"--quietly; "they shall burn, because I amphysically the stronger." Warburton turned quickly and with the toe ofhis boot shifted the glowing packet and renewed the flames. "I neverrealized till to-night that I loved my country half so well. Lackey?Yes, for the present."

  He had not yet looked at the girl.

  "Ah!" Karloff cried, intelligence lighting his face. "You are nolackey!"--subduing his voice.

  James smiled. "You are quite remarkable."

  "Who are you? I demand to know!"

  "First and foremost, I am a citizen of the United States; I have been asoldier besides. It was my common right to destroy these plans, whichindirectly menaced my country's safety. These,"--pointing to thebank-notes, "are yours, I believe. Nothing further requires yourpresence here."

  "Yes, yes; I remember now! Fool that I have been!" Karloff struck hisforehead in helpless rage. "I never observed you closely till now. Irecall. The secret service: Europe, New York, Washington; you haveknown it all along. Spy!"

  "That is an epithet which easily rebounds. Spy? Why, yes; I do for mycountry what you do for yours."

  "The name, the name! I can not recollect the name! The beard is gone,but that does not matter,"--excitedly.

  Warburton breathed easier. While he did not want the girl to know whohe was just then, he was glad that Karloffs memory had taken histhought away from the grate and its valuable but rapidly disappearingfuel.

  "Father! Father, what is it?" cried the girl, her voice keyed to agony."Father!"

  The two men turned about. Annesley had fainted in his chair. BothWarburton and Karloff mechanically started forward to offer aid, butshe repelled their approach.

  "Do not come near me; you have done enough. Father, dear!" She slappedthe colonel's wrists and unloosed his collar.

  The antagonists, forgetting their own battle, stood silently watchinghers. Warburton's mind was first to clear, and without a moment'shesitation he darted from the room and immediately returned with aglass of water. He held it out to the girl. Their glances clashed; athousand mute, angry questions in her eyes, a thousand mute, humbleanswers in his. She accepted the glass, and her hand trembled as shedipped her fingers into the cool depths and flecked the drops into theunconscious man's face.

  Meanwhile Karloff stood with folded arms, staring melancholically intothe grate, where his dreams had disappeared in smoke. By and by thecolonel sighed and opened his eyes. For a time he did not know where hewas, and his gaze wandered mistily from face to face. Then recollectioncame back to him, recollection bristling with thorns. He struggled tohis feet and faced Warburton. The girl put her arms around him tosteady him, but he gently disengaged himself.

  "Are you from the secret service, sir? If so, I am ready to accompanyyou wherever you say. I, who have left my blood on many a battleground,was about to commit a treasonable act. Allow me first to straighten upmy affairs, then you may do with me as you please. I am guilty of acrime; I have the courage to pay the penalty." His calm wasextraordinary, and even Karloff looked at him with a sparkle ofadmiration.

  As a plummet plunges into the sea, so the girl's look plunged intoWarburton's soul; and had he been an officer of the law, he knew thathe would have utterly disregarded his duty.

  "I am not a secret service man, sir," he replied unevenly. "If Iwere,"--pointing to the grate, "your plans would not have fed the fire."

  "Who are you, then, and what do you in my house in thisguise?"--proudly.

  "I am your head stable-man--for the present. It was all by chance. Icame into this room yesterday to get a book on veterinary surgery. Iaccidentally saw a plan. I have been a soldier. I knew that such athing had no rightful place in this house.... I was coming across thelawn, when I looked into the window. ... It is not for me to judge you,sir. My duty lay in destroying those plans before they harmed any one."

  "No, it is not for you to judge me," said the colonel. "I have gambledaway my daughter's fortune. To keep her in ignorance of the fact and toreturn to her the amount I had wrongfully used, I consented to sell toRussia the coast fortification plans of my country, such as I coulddraw from memory. No, it is not for you to judge me; only God has theright to do that."

  "I am only a groom," said Warburton, simply. "What I have heard I shallforget."

  Ah, had he but looked at the girl's face then!

  A change came over Karloff's countenance; his shoulders drooped; themelancholy fire died out of his face and eyes. With an air ofresignation and a clear sense of the proportion of things, he reachedout and took up the note upon which Annesley had scrawled his signature.

  Warburton, always alert, seized the count's wrist. He saw the name of abank and the sum of five figures.

  "What is this?" he demanded.

  "It is mine," replied the count, haughtily.

  Warburton released him.

  "He speaks truly," said the colonel. "It is his."

  "The hour of madness is past," the Russian began, slowly and musically.The tone was musing. He seemed oblivious of his surroundings and thatthree pairs of curious eyes were leveled in his direction. He studiedthe note, creased it, drew it through his fingers, smoothed it andcaressed it. "And I should have done exactly as I threatened. There is,then, a Providence which watches jealously over the innocent? And I wasa skeptic!... Two hundred thousand dollars,"--picking up the packet ofbanknotes and balancing it on his hand. "Well, it is a sum large enoughto tempt any man. How the plans and schemes of men crumble to thetouch! Ambition is but the pursuit of mirages.... Mademoiselle, youwill never kn
ow what the ignominy of this moment has cost me--nor howwell I love you. I come of a race of men who pursue their heart'sdesire through fire and water. Obstacles are nothing; the end iseverything. In Europe I should have won, in honor or in dishonor. Butthis American people, I do not quite understand them; and that is why Ihave played the villain to no purpose."

  He paused, and a sad, bitter smile played over his face.

  "Mademoiselle," he continued, "henceforth, wherever I may go, your faceand the sound of your voice shall abide with me. I do not ask you toforget, but I ask you to forgive." Again he paused.

  She uttered no sound.

  "Well, one does not forget nor forgive these things in so short a time.And, after all, it was your own father's folly. Fate threw him acrossmy path at a critical moment--but I had reckoned without you. Yourfather is a brave man, for he had the courage to offer himself to thelaw; I have the courage to give you up. I, too, am a soldier; Irecognize the value of retreat." To Warburton he said: "A groom, ahostler, to upset such plans as these! I do not know who you are, sir,nor how to account for your timely and peculiar appearance. But I fullyrecognize the falseness of your presence here. Eh, well, this is whatcomes of race prejudice, the senseless battle which has always been andalways will be waged between the noble and the peasant. Had I observedyou at the proper time, our positions might relatively have beenchanged. Useless retrospection!" To Annesley: "Sir, we are equallyculpable. Here is this note of yours. I might, as a small contributiontoward righting the comparative wrong which I have done you, I mightcast it into the fire. But between gentlemen, situated as we are, theact would be as useless as it would be impossible. I might destroy thenote, but you would refuse to accept such generosity at myhands,--which is well."

  "What you say is perfectly true." The colonel drew his daughter closerto him.

  "So," went on the count, putting the note in his pocket, "to-morrow Ishall have my ducats."

  "My bank will discount the note," said the colonel, with a proud look;"my indebtedness shall be paid in full."

  "As I have not the slightest doubt. Mademoiselle, fortune ignores youbut temporarily; misfortune has brushed only the hem of your garment,as it were. Do not let the fear of poverty alarm you,"--lightly. "Iprophesy a great public future for you. And when you play that _Largo_of Handel's, to a breathless audience, who knows that I may not behidden behind the curtain of some stall, drinking in the heavenly soundmade by that loving bow?.... Romance enters every human being's life;like love and hate, it is primitive. But to every book fate writes_finis_."

  He thrust the bank-notes carelessly into his coat pocket, and walkedslowly toward the hallway. At the threshold he stopped and looked back.The girl could not resist the magnetism of his dark eyes. She wasmomentarily fascinated, and her heart beat painfully.

  "If only I might go with the memory of your forgiveness," he said.

  "I forgive you."

  "Thank you." Then Karloff resolutely proceeded; the portiere fellbehind him. Shortly after she heard the sound of closing doors, therattle of a carriage, and then all became still. Thus the handsomebarbarian passed from the scene.

  The colonel resumed his chair, his arm propped on a knee and his headbowed in his hand. Quickly the girl fell to her knees, hid her face onhis breast, and regardless of the groom's presence, silently wept.

  "My poor child!" faltered the colonel. "God could not have intended togive you so wretched a father. Poverty and dishonor, poverty anddishonor; I who love you so well have brought you these!"

  Warburton, biting his trembling lips, tiptoed cautiously to the window,opened it and stepped outside. He raised his fevered face gratefully tothe icy rain. A great and noble plan had come to him.

  As Mrs. Chadwick said, love is magnificent only when it gives allwithout question.