The George Barr McCutcheon Megapack: 25 Classic Novels and Stories

by George Barr McCutcheon

  “She doesn’t look it, ’pon my word. I thought they were the scum of the earth.”

  “The kind you have in America are. But over here—oh, well, we never can tell.”

  “I don’t mind saying she interests me. She’s pretty—and I have an idea she’s clever. Baron, let me understand you. Do you mean that this is a polite way of commanding me to have nothing to do with her?”

  “You put it broadly. In the first place, I am quite sure she will have nothing to do with you. She loved the husband of the scrawny duchess. You, my good friend, handsome as you are, cannot interest her, believe me.”

  “I daresay you’re right,” glumly.

  “I am merely warning you. Young men of your age and temperament sometimes let their fancies lead them into desperate predicaments. I’ve no doubt you can take care of yourself, but—” he paused, as if very much in doubt.

  “I’m much obliged. And I’ll keep my eyes well opened. I suppose there’s no harm in my going to the shop to look at a lot of rings and knick-knacks he has for sale?”

  “Not in the least. Confine yourself to knick-knacks, that’s all.”

  “Isn’t Spantz above suspicion?”

  “No one is in my little world. By the way, I am very fond of your father. He is a most excellent gentleman and a splendid shot.”

  Truxton stared harder than ever. “What’s that?”

  “I know him quite well. Hunted wild boars with him five years ago in Germany. And your sister! She was a beautiful young girl. They were at Carlsbad at the time. Was she quite well when you last heard?”

  “She was,” was all that the wondering brother could say.

  “Well, come in and see me at the tower. I am there in the mornings. Come as a caller, not as a prisoner, that’s all.” The Baron cackled at his little jest. “Au revoir! Till we meet again.” They were shaking hands in the friendliest manner. “Oh, by the way, you were good enough to change your mind today about the personal attractiveness of our ladies. Permit me to observe, in return, that not a few of our most distinguished beauties were good enough to make inquiries as to your identity.”

  He left the American standing at the head of the steps, gazing after his retreating figure with a look of admiration in his eyes.

  Truxton fared forth into the streets that night with a greater zest in life than he had ever known before. Some thing whispered insistently to his fancy that dreariness was a thing of the past; he did not have to whistle to keep up his spirits. They were soaring of their own accord.

  He did not know, however, that a person from the secret service was watching his every movement. Nor, on the other hand, is it at all likely that the secret service operative was aware that he was not the only shadower of the blithe young stranger.

  A man with a limp cigarette between his lips was never far from the side of the American—a man who had stopped to pass the time of day with William Spantz, and who, from that hour was not to let the young man out of his sight until another relieved him of the task.

  CHAPTER IV

  TRUXTON TRESPASSES

  He went to bed that night, tired and happy. To his revived spirits and his new attitude toward life in its present state, the city had suddenly turned gay and vivacious. Twice during the evening he passed Spantz’s shop. It was dark, upstairs and down. He wondered if the unhappy Olga was looking at him from behind the darkened shutters. But even if she were not—la, la! He was having a good time! He was gay! He was seeing pretty women in the cafés and the gardens! Well, well, he would see her tomorrow—after that he would give proper heed to the Baron’s warning! An anarchist’s daughter!

  He slept well, too, with never a thought of the Saturday express which he had lain awake on other nights to lament and anathematise. Bright and early in the morning he was astir. Somehow he felt he had been sleeping too much of late.

  There was a sparkle in his eyes as he struck out across town after breakfast. He burst in upon Mr. Hobbs at Cook’s.

  “Say, Hobbs, how about the Castle today—in an hour, say? Can you take a party of one rubbernecking this A.M.? I like you, Hobbs. You are the best interpreter of English I’ve ever seen. I can’t help understanding you, no matter how hard I try not to. I want you to get me into the Castle grounds today and show me where the duchesses dawdle and the countesses cavort. I’m ashamed to say it, Hobbs, but since yesterday I’ve quite lost interest in the middle classes and the component parts thereof. I have suddenly acquired a thirst for champagne—in other words, I have a hankering for the nobility. Catch the idea? Good! Then you’ll guide me into the land of the fairies? At ten?”

  “I’ll take you to the Castle grounds, Mr. King, all right enough, sir, and I’ll tell you all the things of interest, but I’ll be ’anged, sir, if I’ve got the blooming nerve to introduce you to the first ladies of the land. That’s more than I can ever ’ope to do, sir, and—”

  “Lord bless you, Hobbs, don’t look so depressed. I don’t ask you to present me at court. I just want to look at the lilacs and the gargoyles. That’s as far as I expect to carry my invasion of the dream world.”

  “Of course, sir, you understand there are certain parts of the Park not open to the public. The grotto and the playgrounds and the Basin of Venus—”

  “I’ll not trespass, so don’t fidget, Hobbs. I’ll be here for you at ten.”

  Mr. Hobbs looked after the vigorous, happy figure as it swung down the street, and shook his head mournfully. Turning to the solitary clerk who dawdled behind the cashier’s desk he remarked with more feeling than was his wont:

  “He’s just the kind of chap to get me into no end of trouble if I give ’im rope enough. Take it from me, Stokes, I’ll have my hands full of ’im up there this morning. He’s charged like a soda bottle; and you never know wot’s going to happen unless you handle a soda bottle very careful-like.”

  Truxton hurried to the square and across it to the shop of the armourer, not forgetting, however, to look about in some anxiety for the excellent Dangloss, who might, for all he knew, be snooping in the neighbourhood. Spantz was at the rear of the shop, talking to a customer. The girl was behind the counter, dressed for the street.

  She came quickly out to him, a disturbed expression in her face. As he doffed his hat, the smile left his lips; he saw that she had been weeping.

  “You must not come here, Mr. King,” she said hurriedly, in low tones. “Take your broadsword this morning and—please, for my sake, do not come again. I—I may not explain why I am asking you to do this, but I mean it for your good, more than for my own. My uncle will be out in a moment. He knows you are here. He is listening now to catch what I am saying to you. Smile, please, or he will suspect—”

  “See here,” demanded King, smiling, but very much in earnest, “what’s up? You’ve been crying. What’s he been doing or saying to you? I’ll give him a—”

  “No, no! Be sensible! It is nothing in which you could possibly take a hand. I don’t know you, Mr. King, but I am in earnest when I say that it is not safe for you to come here, ostensibly to buy. It is too easily seen through—it is—”

  “Just a minute, please,” he interrupted. “I’ve heard your story from Baron Dangloss. It has appealed to me. You are not happy. Are you in trouble? Do you need friends, Miss Platanova?”

  “It is because you would be a friend that I ask you to stay away. You cannot be my friend. Pray do not consider me bold for assuming so much. But I know—I know men, Mr. King. The Baron has told you all about me?” She smiled sadly. “Alas, he has only told you what he knows. But it should be sufficient. There is no place in my life for you or any one else. There never can be. So, you see, you may not develop your romance with me as the foundation. Oh, I’ve heard of your quest of adventure. I like you for it. I had an imagination myself, once on a time. I loved the fairy books and the love tales. But not now-not now. There is no romance for me. Nothing but grave reality. Do not question me! I can say no more. Now I must be gone. I—I have warned you.
Do not come again!”

  “Thanks, for the warning,” he said quietly. “But I expect to come in occasionally, just the same. You’ve taken the wrong tack by trying to frighten me off. You see, Miss Platanova, I’m actually looking for something dangerous—if that’s what you mean.”

  “That isn’t all, believe me,” she pleaded. “You can gain nothing by coming. You know who I am. I cannot be a friend—not even an acquaintance to you, Mr. King. Good-bye! Please do not come again!”

  She slipped into the street and was gone. King stood in the doorway, looking after her, a puzzled gleam in his eyes. Old Spantz was coming up from the rear, followed by his customer.

  “Queer,” thought the American. “She’s changed her tactics rather suddenly. Smiled at me in the beginning and now cries a bit because I’m trying to return the compliment. Well, by the Lord Harry, she shan’t scare me off like—Hello, Mr. Spantz! Good morning! I’m here for the sword.”

  The old man glared at him in unmistakable displeasure. Truxton began counting out his money. The customer, a swarthy fellow, passed out of the door, turning to glance intently at the young man. A meaning look and a sly nod passed between him and Spantz. The man halted at the corner below and, later on, followed King to Cook’s office, afterward to the Castle gates, outside of which he waited until his quarry reappeared. Until King went to bed late that night this swarthy fellow was close at his heels, always keeping well out of sight himself.

  “I’ll come in soon to look at those rings,” said King, placing the notes on the counter. Spantz merely nodded, raked in the bills without counting them, and passed the sword over to the purchaser.

  “Very good, sir,” he growled after a moment.

  “I hate to carry this awful thing through the streets,” said King, looking at the huge weapon with despairing eye. Inwardly, he was cursing himself for his extravagance and cupidity.

  “It belongs to you, my friend. Take it or leave it.”

  “I’ll take it,” said Truxton, smiling indulgently. With that he picked up the weapon and stalked away.

  A few minutes later he was on his way to the Castle grounds, accompanied by the short-legged Mr. Hobbs, who, from time to time, was forced to remove his tight-fitting cap to mop a hot, exasperated brow, so swift was the pace set by long-legs. The broadsword reposed calmly on a desk under the nose of a properly impressed young person named Stokes, cashier.

  Hobbs led him through the great Park gates and up to the lodge of Jacob Fraasch, the venerable high steward of the grounds. Here, to King’s utter disgust, he was booked as a plain Cook’s tourist and mechanically advised to pay strict attention to the rules which would be explained to him by the guide.

  “Cook’s tourist, eh?” muttered King wrathfully as they ambled down the shady path together. He looked with disparaging eye upon the plain little chap beside him.

  “It’s no disgrace,” growled Hobbs, redder than ever. “You’re inside the grounds and you’ve got to obey the rules, same as any tourist. Right this way, sir; we’ll take a turn just inside the wall. Now, on your left, ladies and—ahem!—I should say—ahem!—sir, you may see the first turret ever built on the wall. It is over four hundred years old. On the right, we have—”

  “See here, Hobbs,” said King, stopping short, “I’m damned if I’ll let you lecture me as if I were a gang of hayseeds from Oklahoma.”

  “Very good, sir. No offence. I quite forgot, sir.”

  “Just tell me—don’t lecture.”

  For three-quarters of an hour they wandered through the spacious grounds, never drawing closer to the Castle than permitted by the restrictions; always coming up to the broad driveway which marked the border line, never passing it. The gorgeous beauty of this historic old park, so full of traditions and the lore of centuries, wrought strange fancies and bold inclinations in the head of the audacious visitor. He felt the bonds of restraint; he resented the irksome chains of convention; he murmured against the laws that said he should not step across the granite road into the cool forbidden world beyond—the world of kings. Hobbs knew he was doomed to have rebellion on his hands before long; he could see it coming.

  “When we’ve seen the royal stables, we’ll have seen everything of any consequence,” he hastened to say. “Then we’ll leave by the upper gates and—”

  “Hobbs, this is all very beautiful and very grand and very slow,” said King, stopping to lean against the moss-covered wall that encircled the park within a park: the grounds adjoining the grotto. “Can’t I hop over this wall and take a peep into the grotto?”

  “By no means,” cried Hobbs, horrified. “That, sir, is the most proscribed spot, next to the Castle itself. You can’t go in there.”

  King looked over the low wall. The prospect was alluring. The pool, the trickling rivulets, the mossy banks, the dense shadows: it was maddening to think he could not enter!

  “I wouldn’t be in there a minute,” he argued. “And I might catch a glimpse of a dream-lady. Now, I say, Hobbs, here’s a low place. I could jump—”

  “Mr. King, if you do that I am ruined forever. I am trusted by the steward. He would cut off all my privileges—”Hobbs could go no further. He was prematurely aghast. Something told him that Mr. King would hop over the wall.

  “Just this once, Hobbs,” pleaded his charge. “No one will know.”

  “For the love of Moses, sir, I—” Hobbs began to wail. Then he groaned in dismal horror. King had lightly vaulted the wall and was grinning back at him from the sacred precincts—from the playground of princesses.

  “Go and report me, Hobbs, there’s a good fellow. Tell the guards I wouldn’t obey. That will let you out, my boy, and I’ll do the rest. For Heaven’s sake, Hobbs, don’t burst! You’ll explode sure if you hold in like that much longer. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  He strode off across the bright green turf toward the source of all this enchantment, leaving poor Mr. Hobbs braced against the wall, weak-kneed and helpless. If he heard the frantic, though subdued, whistles and the agonized “hi!” of the man from Cook’s a minute or two later, he gave no heed to the warning. A glimpse behind might have shown him the error of his ways, reflected in the disappearance of Hobbs’s head below the top of the wall. But he was looking ahead, drinking in the forbidden beauties of this fascinating little nook of nature.

  Never in all his wanderings had he looked upon a more inviting spot than this. He came to the edge of the deep blue pool, above which could be seen the entrance to the Grotto. Little rivulets danced down through the crannies in the rocks and leaped joyously into the tree-shaded pool. Below and to the right were the famed Basins of Venus, shimmering in the sunlight, flanked by trees and banks of the softest green. On their surface swam the great black swans he had heard so much about. Through a wide rift in the trees he could see the great, grey Castle, half a mile away, towering against the dense greens of the nearby mountain. The picture took his breath away. He forgot Hobbs. He forgot that he was; trespassing. Here, at last, was the Graustark he had seen in his dreams, had come to feel in his imagination.

  Regardless of surroundings or consequences, he sat down upon the nearest stone bench, and removed his hat. He was hot and tired and the air was cool. He would drink it in as if it were an ambrosial nectar in—and, moreover, he would also enjoy a cigarette. Carefully he refrained from throwing the burnt-out match into the pool below: even such as he could feel that it might be desecration. As he leaned back with a sigh of exquisite ease and a splendid exhalation of Turkish smoke, a small, imperious voice from somewhere behind broke in upon his primary reflections.

  “What are you doing in here?” demanded the voice.

  Truxton, conscious of guilt, whirled with as much consternation as if he had been accosted by a voice of thunder. He beheld a very small boy standing at the top of the knoll above him, not thirty feet away. His face was quite as dirty as any small boy’s should be at that time of day, and his curly brown hair looked as if it had not been combed since the
day before. His firm little legs, in half hose and presumably white knickers, were spread apart and his hands were in his pockets.

  King recognised him at once, and looked about uneasily for the attendants whom he knew should be near. It is safe to say that he came to his feet and bowed deeply, even in humility.

  “I am resting, your Highness,” he said meekly.

  “Don’t you know any better than to come in here?” demanded the Prince. Truxton turned very red.

  “I am sorry. I’ll go at once.”

  “Oh, I’m not going to put you out,” hastily exclaimed the Prince, coming down the slope. “But you are old enough to know better. The guards might shoot you if they caught you here.” He came quite close to the trespasser. King saw the scratch on his nose. “Oh, I know you now. You are the gentleman who picked up my crop yesterday. You are an American.” A friendly smile illumined his face.

  “Yes, a lonely American,” with an attempt at the pathetic.

  “Where’s your home at?”

  “New York. Quite a distance from here.”

  “You ever been in Central Park?”

  “A thousand times. It isn’t as nice as this one.”

  “It’s got amilies—no, I don’t mean that,” supplemented the Prince, flushing painfully. “I mean—an-i-muls,” very deliberately. “Our park has no elephunts or taggers. When I get big I’m going to set out a few in the park. They’ll grow, all right.”

  “I’ve shot elephants and tigers in the jungle,” said Truxton. “I tell you they’re no fun when they get after you, wild. If I were you I’d set ’em out in cages.”

  “P’raps I will.” The Prince seemed very thoughtful.

  “Won’t you sit down, your Highness?”

  The youngster looked cautiously about. “Say, do you ever go fishing?” he demanded eagerly.

  “Occasionally.”

  “You won’t give me away, will you?” with a warning frown. “Don’t you tell Jacob Fraasch. He’s the steward. I—I know a fine place to fish. Would you mind coming along? Look out, please! You’re awful big and they’ll see you. I don’t know what they’d do to us if they ketched us. It would be dreadful. Would you mind sneaking, mister? Make yourself little. Right up this way.”