CHAPTER IX
CONCERNING THE OPENING OF A DOOR
"Anthony, give me the pistol!"
"Damme, no--ha' patience! Meantime take this--more useful if it comest' scrimmage!" And he twisted a stake from the flower bed we weretrampling and thrust it into my hand. "Enemy's country, Perry,--quivive! Hist! Attention and all the rest of it! Forward an' curse theconsequences!"
So we stole forward like the madmen we were, but very silent and verydetermined.
The house stood upon a noble terrace, a large house of many gables andwindows, most of these last being unlighted. Fortune seemed to favourus, for we met with none to oppose us, and mounting a broad flight ofstone steps, reached the terrace unmolested. But as I stood glancingabout for some door or likely window whereby we might force entrance,Anthony dragged me down suddenly into the shadow of the balustrade, asround a corner of the house two men appeared.
"Wot," growled one, pausing, the better to spit in passionate disgust,"put the 'orses to the phaeton, must I? And at this time o' night--an'all for a couple o' light country Molls as is afeard to foot it 'omein the dark, curse 'em!"
"She ain't no country Moll, Ben, leastways not 'er as I see--a reg'lar'igh-stepper--all the lady, Ben--such eyes, ecod--such a shape to 'er,Ben--"
"Well, dang 'er shape, I says! Why can't she go as she come?"
"Summat in the wood give 'er a turn, scared 'er like, an' back she runto the Guv'nor an' orders 'im to 'ave the phaeton round, which theGuv'nor does; an' there's 'im an' t' others a-toastin' of 'er this'ere werry minute. Oh, she's a lady, Ben, an' mighty 'igh an' 'aughty,by 'er looks."
"'Aughty!" sneered Ben, spitting again. "Lady! We know th' kind o'ladies as comes a visitin' th' Guv'nor or the Captain 'ere a-nights--"
"Shut your trap, Ben, an' get to your 'osses, lady or no."
"Lady--ha, fine doin's--fine doin's! Shameless 'ussies--"
"Close up, Ben, close up--mum's the word hereabouts! The Guv'nor's gota quick eye for a fine young woman--ah, an' so's you an' me, for thatmatter! An' I tell ye, this 'un's a fine lady, even if a bitfrolicsome. So git to your 'osses, Ben--an' sharp's the word."
The man Ben sniffed and, muttering evilly, slouched away, leaving hisfellow to sigh gustily and stare up at the moon; a square-shouldered,bullet-headed man who, leering up at Diana's chaste loveliness, beganto scrape and pick at his teeth with a thumb nail. And then Anthonysneezed violently. The man stood rigid, thumb at mouth, peering.
"'Oo's there?" he demanded gruffly, and began to advance, head bowedand arms squared in a posture of offence.
In one moment, as it seemed, Anthony was upon him; ensued a scrape offeet, a thudding of blows, a strangled cry, and they were down,rolling upon the gravel and with never a chance for me to get in astroke with my unwieldy hedge stake. At last Anthony arose, panting alittle and smiling grimly, looking from the man's inert form to hisown bleeding knuckles.
"This," he whispered breathlessly, "this is doing me--power o' good!Toughish customer--forced to give him--tap with pistol butt. How aboutthe fellow Ben?"
"No, no, Anthony! The door yonder--quick--this way!"
I remember a long, dim-lit passage, a narrow stair, and we foundourselves in a broad and spacious hall where shaded lamps burned andnude statues gleamed against rich hangings.
Borne to our ears came a jingle of glasses, the line of a song andboisterous laughter. A door opened suddenly and a man stepped into thehall, his bulky figure outlined against the lights of the room behindhim, but he paused upon the threshold to glance back and flourishsomething triumphantly.
"Treasure trove!" he laughed. "The memento of a delightful hour!"
With the words upon his lips he turned, and I recognised CaptainDanby. He was halfway across the hall when he espied us and stopped toglare in wide-eyed amazement; something fluttered to the floor and hebegan to retreat softly and slowly before us, but Anthony was pointingdown at a small bundle of lace with hand that shook and waveredstrangely.
"Look at it, Perry--look!" he muttered. "Look, man! Why--God's death,Perry--it's her lace scarf--belongs to my Loveliness, Perry--shouldknow it anywhere--it's--hers, man--and here! Oh, damnation!"
In a flash he had picked it up and, roaring like a madman, hurledhimself against the closing door. For moment was a desperate scufflingand frenzied straining and gasping, a creaking of stout panels, thenthe door swung violently open and we burst into the room.
A disordered supper table littered with bottles, three or fourbreathless gentlemen who panted and glared, and a curtained doorway inone corner; all this I was aware of, though my gaze never left theface of him who stood before this curtained door, a tall, slender manvery elegantly calm and wholly unperturbed, except for the slightfrown that puckered his thick brows,--a handsome face the paler bycontrast with its dark and glossy hair.
For a tense moment there was silence but for Anthony's loud andirregular breathing; when at last he spoke his voice sounded whollyunfamiliar:
"Damned scoundrels--look at this! My wife's scarf--is she here? ByGod, if she is, I'll find her if I have to kill you one by one andwreck this hellish place--"
"Fellow's drunk!" suggested some one, whereupon Anthony cursed themone and all, and I heard the sharp click of the pistol as he cockedit, but I restrained him with a gesture:
"Mr. Trenchard," said I, "Mr. Haredale--Devereux or whatever name youhappen to be using, I have forced myself upon you to-night to informyou that, knowing you at last for the foul and loathsome thing youare, I am very earnest that you should pollute the world no longer.Two years ago you struck me in the yard behind the Chequers Inn, atTonbridge; I call upon you to account for that blow to-night--here andnow!"
"Let any man stir and I shoot to kill!" said Anthony between shutteeth; his heavy tread shook the floor behind me, then he had swung measide and fronted Devereux the pistol in his hand, face convulsed andmurder glaring in his eyes.
"Trenchard," said he in strange, hissing whisper, "there is acurtained door behind you--whom are you hiding in there? Trenchard, Iam yearning to kill you and kill you I will, so help me God, unlessyou draw that curtain and open that door--d'ye hear me?"
Trenchard's tall form seemed to stiffen, his mocking smile vanished,but his eyes never wavered.
Anthony levelled the pistol.
"Trenchard," said he softly, "I'll count three!"
Then Trenchard laughed lightly.
"Egad, sir," said he with a flourish, "drunk or no, you have adevilish persuading air about you. Behold then, and judge of myfelicity!"
Thus speaking, he drew aside the curtain and reached white handtowards the door behind, but at this moment and before he could touchit, the door swung open and Diana stepped forth.
"Mr. Vere-Manville," said she, her soft voice calm and even, "praygive me my scarf, your wife made me a present of it days ago!" And shereached out her hand with the old, imperious gesture that I rememberedso well. So Anthony gave her the handful of lace and turned his backupon us.
"O Perry!" he exclaimed with a groan, "O Perry, dear friend--what haveI done! God forgive me--"
"Heavens, Anthony!" quoth I. "Pray why distress yourself upon a matterso trivial--besides, I knew already. And now, Mr. Trenchard orHaredale or Devereux, if this lady will be so obliging as to retire,we can settle our small concern very comfortably here across thetable."
"No, Peregrine!" said Diana in the same even tone.
"Mr. Trenchard--" I began.
"I say you shall not, Peregrine!" said she softly.
"Mr. Haredale--" quoth I.
"O Peregrine," she sighed, "suspicion has poisoned your mind againstme or you would never stoop to doubt me--even here--"
"Mr. Devereux," said I, "will you pray have the courtesy to desireyour charming friend to leave us awhile--"
"O Peregrine!" she gasped, and though I never so much as glanced inher direction, I knew she had shrunk farther from me. "Some day, oh,some day, Peregrine, you will regret this bitterly--bitterly--" Hervoice broke
, and in its place came Devereux's hateful tones:
"'My charming friend' is well aware that her society is my joy anddelight, nor shall I cheat myself of one moment on your account, sir,whoever you chance to be."
"Why, then," said I, laying my card on the table, "the lady's presenceneed not deter us, I think. Let us be done with the affair at once."
"Absolutely and utterly impossible, sir!" he answered, taking up mycard. "Since you desire me to kill you, I will do so with a perfectpleasure, but at my own time and place and--" Here he paused as heread my name, and stood a moment staring down at the pasteboard withthat same faint pucker of the brow; then he laughed suddenly andtossed my card to Captain Danby. "Odd, Tom!" said he; then turning tome, "Mr. Vereker, I will meet you at the very earliest moment--shallwe say five o'clock to-morrow morning? There is a small tavern called'The Anchor' a few miles along the Maidstone road, a remote spot verysuitable for a little shooting. And now, sir, pray begone. I amoccupied, as you see--while my friends pour libations to Bacchus, Iworship at the shrine of Venus."
Here, turning very ostentatiously, he bowed to Diana, viewing her withlook so evil that I clenched my fists and made to spring at him, butAnthony's powerful hand arrested me:
"Come away, Perry," he whispered, "you can do no more to-night. Don'tshow 'em your pain--pride, man, pride! Come away, old fellow."
So I suffered him to lead me whither he would, following the impulseof his guiding arm like a blind man, for the shadow had closed inblacker than ever, to engulf me at last, and it seemed that my onlyescape from this horror was to grasp the kindly hand of Death.
Once clear of this accursed house I was seized of a great disgust, anausea that was both mental and physical, and I groaned aloud in myextremity.
"O God, Anthony! Oh, my God!"
At this he clasped me in his arms and I stood awhile, shivering, myface hidden in his bosom.
"Dear fellow!" he muttered. "Women are the devil. I know--I'm married,d'ye see!"
Faint and far away a church clock struck the hour.
"What time was that?" I enquired.
"Eleven o'clock, Perry."
"Six weary hours to wait!" I groaned.
"B'gad, yes--only six hours!"
"Thank God!" quoth I fervently, and so we went on again, arm in arm.
"You mean to kill that damned fellow, Peregrine?"
"If they place us near enough."
"You are good for twelve paces, I suppose?"
"I don't know."
"But you--you shoot reasonably well, of course?"
"Very badly! This was why I was so anxious to do my shooting across atable--"
"But you--you--O Lord, Perry--you are familiar with theweapon--practised at the galleries occasionally?"
"I have shot once or twice at a target to please my uncle Jervas, butnever succeeded in hitting it that I remember."
"Oh, damnation!"
"That is what my uncle Jervas said, I remember."
"But then--why how--oh, man!" stammered Anthony, viewing me inwide-eyed dismay, "how in the fiend's name d' you expect to hit yourman?"
"I don't know, Anthony--except, as I say, across a table or ahandkerchief. But what matter? After all, perhaps it is--yes--just aswell--"
"Why, then 't will be rank murder! Ha, by heaven, Perry, you--you meanto let the fellow murder you--is this it?"
"I mean to shoot as straight as I can."
"It will be murder!" he cried wildly, and then tossing up his longarms in a helpless, distracted manner, he cried, "By God, Perry, youare as good as dead already!"
"Why, then," said I, grasping him by the arm, "listen to the voice ofa dying man and one who has never accomplished anything asyet--indeed, I have been a failure all my life--"
"You, Perry? A failure--how, man, how?"
"Well, I yearned to be a poet--and failed. I tried to be apainter--and failed again. I endeavoured to become a man and haveachieved nothing. I am a sentient futility! But to-night--ah, to-nightkind fortune sent me--you. And you were drunk again!"
"I'm sober enough now, b'gad!"
"Drunkenness, Anthony, as you know, is the refuge for cowards andweaklings, and all unworthy such a man as Anthony Vere-Manville--"
"Egad, will you preach at me, Perry?"
"Call it so if you will, but to-night is something of an occasion andhere is a setting excellently adapted to the sermon of a dying man."
And indeed it was a night to wonder at, very still and silent andfilled with the splendour of a great moon whose peaceful radiance fellupon the sleeping countryside like a benediction.
"Look," said I, "look round you, Anthony, upon this wonder of earthand heaven! Does it not wake in you some consciousness of divinity,some assured hope that we in our nobler selves are one with theInfinite Good?"
"Why, to be sure, now you mention it," he answered easily, glancingfrom me to the radiant heaven and back again, "it is a very gloriousnight!"
"Yes!" said I. "'In such a night stood Dido with a willow in her handupon the wide sea banks and wafted her love to come again toCarthage!'"
"Eh?" exclaimed Anthony, peering at me anxiously.
"'In such a night Medea gathered the enchanted herbs,'--and in such anight your friend, who may never see another--takes occasion to ask apromise of you."
"What is it, Perry?"
"That henceforth you will be drunk no more. Give me your word forthis, Anthony, and come what will, I shall not have lived in vain."
"Why, Peregrine," he mumbled, "dear fellow--not quite yourself--verynatural--quite understand--"
"On the contrary, I have never been so truly myself as now, Anthony.Grant me this and--if death find me to-morrow morning, I shall indeedhave accomplished something worthy at last. So, Anthony--promise me!"
For a moment he stood very still, gazing up at the moon, then, all ina moment, had caught my hand to wring it hard; but the pain of hisgrip was a joy and the look on his face a comfort beyond words.
"I--I Swear it!" said he between quivering lips. "God's love, man, I'dpromise you anything to-night! And now--laugh, man, laugh--oh,dammit!" Here he choked and was silent awhile.
"Where are you taking me, Anthony? I cannot return to the 'SoaringLark.'"
"Of course not. You're coming with me to 'The Bear' at Hadlow. I havea room there. And you'll promise to be guided by me until this--thiscursed affair is over--place yourself and the affair in my hands,Perry?"
"Most thankfully."
"Then I stipulate for supper and bed as soon as possible."
"Very well, Anthony--though I ought to draw up some sort of a willfirst, oughtn't I?"
"Yes, it is customary, dear fellow."
"There's my Wildfire, I'll leave him to you--if you'll have him."
"Of course--and thank you, Perry."
"You'll soon grow to love the rascal in spite of his mischievoustricks--"
"I hope to heaven I never have the chance--oh, curse and confoundit--don't be so devilish calm and assured. You--you talk as if youwere going out to your execution!"
"No, no, Anthony," I answered, slipping my hand within his arm, "letus rather say--to my triumph."
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