CHAPTER XXXI
THE PAYMENT
What man seeks in love is woman; what woman seeks in man is love.--_Houssaye_.
When I reached Washington it was indeed spring, warm, sweet spring. Inthe wide avenues the straggling trees were doing their best to dignifythe city, and flowers were blooming everywhere. Wonderful enough did allthis seem to me after thousands of miles of rude scenery of bare valleysand rocky hills, wild landscapes, seen often through cold and blindingstorms amid peaks and gorges, or on the drear, forbidding Plains.
Used more, of late, to these wilder scenes, I felt awkward and stillhalf savage. I did not at once seek out my own friends. My first wishwas to get in touch with Mr. Calhoun, for I knew that so I would mostquickly arrive at the heart of events.
He was away when I called at his residence on Georgetown Heights, but atlast I heard the wheels of his old omnibus, and presently he enteredwith his usual companion, Doctor Samuel Ward. When they saw me there,then indeed I received a greeting which repaid me for many things! Thisover, we all three broke out in laughter at my uncouth appearance. I wasclad still in such clothing as I could pick up in western towns as Ihurried on from the Missouri eastward; and I had as yet found no timefor barbers.
"We have had no word from you, Nicholas," said Mr. Calhoun presently,"since that from Laramie, in the fall of eighteen forty-four. This is inthe spring of eighteen forty-six! Meantime, we might all have been deadand buried and none of us the wiser. What a country! 'Tis more enormousthan the mind of any of us can grasp."
"You should travel across it to learn that," I grinned.
"Many things have happened since you left. You know that I am back inthe Senate once more?"
I nodded. "And about Texas?" I began.
"Texas is ours," said he, smiling grimly. "You have heard how? It was ahard fight enough--a bitter, selfish, sectional fight among politicians.But there is going to be war. Our troops crossed the Sabine more than ayear ago. They will cross the Rio Grande before this year is done. TheMexican minister has asked for his passports. The administration hasordered General Taylor to advance. Mr. Polk is carrying out annexationwith a vengeance. Seeing a chance for more territory, now that Texas issafe from England, he plans war on helpless and deserted Mexico! We mayhear of a battle now at any time. But this war with Mexico may yet meanwar with England. That, of course, endangers our chance to gain all orany of that great Oregon country. Tell me, what have you learned?"
I hurried on now with my own news, briefly as I might. I told them ofthe ships of England's Navy waiting in Oregon waters; of the growingsuspicion of the Hudson Bay people; of the changes in the management atFort Vancouver; of the change also from a conciliatory policy to one ofhalf hostility. I told them of our wagon trains going west, and of thestrength of our frontiersmen; but offset this, justly as I might, bygiving facts also regarding the opposition these might meet.
"Precisely," said Calhoun, walking up and down, his head bent. "Englandis prepared for war! How much are we prepared? It would cost us therevenues of a quarter of a century to go to war with her to-day. Itwould cost us fifty thousand lives. We would need an army of two hundredand fifty thousand men. Where is all that to come from? Can we transportour army there in time? But had all this bluster ceased, then we couldhave deferred this war with Mexico; could have bought with coin what nowwill cost us blood; and we could also have bought Oregon without thecost of either coin or blood. _Delay_ was what we needed! _All_ ofOregon should have been ours!"
"But, surely, this is not all news to you?" I began. "Have you not seenthe Baroness von Ritz? Has she not made her report?"
"The baroness?" queried Calhoun. "That stormy petrel--that advance agentof events! Did she indeed sail with the British ships from Montreal?_Did_ you find her there--in Oregon?"
"Yes, and lost her there! She started east last summer, and beat mefairly in the race. Has she not made known her presence here? She toldme she was going to Washington."
He shook his head in surprise. "Trouble now, I fear! Pakenham has backhis best ally, our worst antagonist."
"That certainly is strange," said I. "She had five months the start ofme, and in that time there is no telling what she has done or undone.Surely, she is somewhere here, in Washington! She held Texas in hershoes. I tell you she holds Oregon in her gloves to-day!"
I started up, my story half untold.
"Where are you going?" asked Mr. Calhoun of me. Doctor Ward looked atme, smiling. "He does not inquire of a certain young lady--"
"I am going to find the Baroness von Ritz!" said I. I flushed red undermy tan, I doubt not; but I would not ask a word regarding Elisabeth.
Doctor Ward came and laid a hand on my shoulder. "Republics forget,"said he, "but men from South Carolina do not. Neither do girls fromMaryland. Do you think so?"
"That is what I am going to find out."
"How then? Are you going to Elmhurst as you look now?"
"No. I shall find out many things by first finding the Baroness vonRitz." And before they could make further protests, I was out and away.
I hurried now to a certain side street, of which I have made mention,and knocked confidently at a door I knew. The neighborhood was asleep inthe warm sun. I knocked a second time, and began to doubt, but at lastheard slow footsteps.
There appeared at the crack of the door the wrinkled visage of the oldserving-woman, Threlka. I knew that she would be there in precisely thisway, because there was every reason in the world why it should not havebeen. She paused, scanning me closely, then quickly opened the door andallowed me to step inside, vanishing as was her wont. I heard anotherstep in a half-hidden hallway beyond, but this was not the step which Iawaited; it was that of a man, slow, feeble, hesitating. I startedforward as a face appeared at the parted curtains. A glad cry welcomedme in turn. A tall, bent form approached me, and an arm was thrown aboutmy shoulder. It was my whilom friend, our ancient scientist, VonRittenhofen! I did not pause to ask how he happened to be there. It wasquite natural, since it was wholly impossible. I made no wonder at theChinese dog Chow, or the little Indian maid, who both came, stared, andsilently vanished. Seeing these, I knew that their strange protectormust also have won through safe.
"_Ach, Gott! Gesegneter Gott!_ I see you again, my friend!" Thus the oldDoctor.
"But tell me," I interrupted, "where is the mistress of this house, theBaroness von Ritz?"
He looked at me in his mild way. "You mean my daughter Helena?"
Now at last I smiled. His daughter! This at least was too incredible! Heturned and reached behind him to a little table. He held up before myeyes my little blanket clasp of shell. Then I knew that this last andmost impossible thing also was true, and that in some way these two hadfound each other! But _why_? What could he now mean?
"Listen now," he began, "and I shall tell you. I wass in the street oneday. When I walk alone, I do not much notice. But now, as I walk, beforemy eyes on the street, I see what? This--this, the Tah Gook! At first, Isee nothing but it. Then I look up. Before me iss a woman, young andbeautiful. Ach! what should I do but take her in my arms!"
"It was she; it was--"
"My daughter! Yess, my daughter. It iss _Helena_! I haf not seen her formany years, long, cruel years. I suppose her dead. But now there wewere, standing, looking in each other's eyes! We see there--Ach, Gott!what do we not see? Yet in spite of all, it wass Helena. But she shalltell you." He tottered from the room.
I heard his footsteps pass down the hall. Then softly, almost silently,Helena von Ritz again stood before me. The light from a side window fellupon her face. Yes, it was she! Her face was thinner now, browner eventhan was its wont. Her hair was still faintly sunburned at itsextremities by the western winds. Yet hers was still imperishable youthand beauty.
I held out my hands to her. "Ah," I cried, "you played me false! You ranaway! By what miracle did you come through? I confess my defeat. Youbeat me by almost half a year."
"But now you have come," said she
simply.
"Yes, to remind you that you have friends. You have been here in secretall the winter. Mr. Calhoun did not know you had come. Why did you notgo to him?"
"I was waiting for you to come. Do you not remember our bargain? Eachday I expected you. In some way, I scarce knew how, the weeks wore on."
"And now I find you both here--you and your father--where I would expectto find neither. Continually you violate all law of likelihood. But now,you have seen Elisabeth?"
"Yes, I have seen her," she said, still simply.
I could think of no word suited to that moment. I stood only looking ather. She would have spoken, but on the instant raised a hand as thoughto demand my silence. I heard a loud knock at the door, peremptory,commanding, as though the owner came.
"You must go into another room," said Helena von Ritz to me hurriedly.
"Who is it? Who is it at the door?" I asked.
She looked at me calmly. "It is Sir Richard Pakenham," said she. "Thisis his usual hour. I will send him away. Go now--quick!"
I rapidly passed behind the screening curtains into the hall, even as Iheard a heavy foot stumbling at the threshold and a somewhat husky voiceoffer some sort of salutation.
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