by Anthology
"I cannot say," replied the Captain in a low tone, and at his answer a roar swelled through the gathering and died away as the roar of a breaker on a stony beach.
"Again I ask you, where have you hidden them?" cried the old mandarin, striking the table in front of him angrily.
"I cannot say," returned Leslie steadily, though his face grew even whiter than before. And again the muffled roar swept through the throng, mingled with sharp exclamations of hate and defiance.
"For the last time I ask you, where have you concealed the papers?" said the old man in a terrible voice. "You are in our power and had best reply."
"I cannot say," answered Leslie, immovable as the stone pillars that supported the high roof-beams, though the perspiration stood in great drops upon his forehead. For a third time he heard the clamour surge about him and his eyes caught here and there the glitter of a knife half drawn from under gorgeous silken robes. But the mandarin made a sign to certain of his followers and while some skilfully pinioned the prisoner's arms, others brought curiously-shaped bits of wood which they fastened about his fingers. The unpitying circle leaned expectantly forward as the old man gave a signal and Leslie felt his knuckles crack under the vice-like pressure exerted upon them. He set his teeth grimly as the frightful pain shot through him, but though the sweat poured from his face in streams, he uttered no sound.
"Where have you hidden the papers?" came the old mandarin's voice through the blinding haze of his suffering, but he only ground his teeth the tighter and shook his head. He felt the pressure on his fingers increase until the warm blood spouted from the tips, but though he strained in agony at the bonds that held him, as often as the old man's question was repeated, so often did he rally his failing faculties and make a sign of refusal. At length the instruments of torture were removed from the shapeless, gory members that remained on his hands and his guards turned to their chief inquiringly. The old man rose and regarded the prisoner with a cruel smile.
"We will give you the remainder of the night to come to your senses," he said. "I think when we return in the morning you will better appreciate the wisdom of telling us what you know. Take him away."
They seized his arms again and hurried him unresisting from the hall across a dim courtyard, where the cold night air bathed him with its reviving breath. The door of a narrow, brick-walled cell stood open and in this they thrust him, fastening him with heavy chains to the stout wooden bench so that he was held immovable. Then the door banged and he was left alone.
From the whirling confusion into which the hurt from his crushed fingers had involved his senses, the vision of a face rose before his troubled eyes — a face whose sweet beauty was framed in masses of rich dark hair in which distracting lights and shadows played. So vivid was the illusion that he endeavoured to lean closer, but relaxed again as the chains cut into his flesh.
"God!" he groaned in his agony. "Will I ever see her again?"
Then a wave of terror swept over him and he wrestled vainly with his bonds, uttering savage, incoherent exclamations. With such a face waiting for him on the other side of the world, he cried out that he could not die, even though the ruins of humanity fell in fragments about his feet. At last he waited, weak and trembling, his limbs bathed in cold sweat, fighting for the possession of the senses that remained to him.
Suddenly a drop of cold water fell upon his bared shoulder. His nerves tightened to the new danger and for long minutes he sat tensely, straining to see his invisible enemy. Then he laughed hysterically in a vain effort to pull himself together. What menace could manifest itself in that close-walled tomb save through the door towards which he was peering? But his laughter was frozen on his lips as a second drop fell and struck with tingling impact on the same spot as the first. Again his fears arose and overwhelmed him. He had heard of the horrid torture of the water drop, which falling always in the same place, at length bursts open the flesh of the victim, whose mind it has already torn to shreds with its ceaseless monotony, and he sobbed aloud at his impotency against the fiendish ingenuity of his captors.
Through the long hours that followed the sweet, beautiful face of his love stayed with him as he battled for his wavering sanity. But when the grey, cold light of morning filtered through the door of his prison, he knew that he could not die.
They came for him as the first molten shafts of sunlight shot over the plain and guided his shaken and nerveless form back to the council hall, where his judges silently awaited him. And again as in a fearful dream he heard the insistent voice of the old mandarin repeating his eternal question and in vague surprise he felt his lips frame their former answer, "I cannot say."
The old man leaned forward in his chair and this time his words came clear and burned themselves into the Captain's brain.
"Hear me, you western devil. Our patience is not tireless and you have tried it beyond all reason. If you will answer our question you may from that moment go free, but if not" — he paused threateningly — "you will be cut with swords until you die. It will be a slow death and you will have ample time for reflection before your soul passes."
A deathly sickness gripped Leslie and he reeled in the hands that detained him, but he remained silent and gave no sign. At a motion from the chief he was stripped of his clothing and bound tightly to a heavy plank. His shuddering eyes saw the light ripple and glance along the shining blade poised over him and he moaned as the sharp steel sliced into his arm. Suddenly the face rose before him again, beautiful as ever, but paler and with beseeching grey eyes that tore at his very soul. Great God, how could he die with such a face waiting for him? What was death with honour — what was his oath and the glory of passing with a clean heart if he must leave that forever? What mattered black shame and the betrayal of his fellow men if he could only see her and hold her in his arms once again? And when the eager sword bit into his quivering flesh anew, he whispered with dry lips, "I will tell."
Impassive, they heard his broken sentences and in silence unbound him and thrust him bleeding from the hall. Then the old mandarin sent men swiftly to the inner court where the body of the Major had been carelessly hurled, but though they searched in every nook and crevice, though they ransacked the grounds and buildings of the old fu from end to end, they returned empty-handed. The corpse was gone.
Chapter VIII
Lieutenant Hooker Keeps His Promise
"ISN'T this just the most glorious Christmas weather you ever saw, Jimmy?" exclaimed Mabel Thornton ecstatically. "It makes me feel so good that it almost hurts."
Her companion smiled down on her eager, upturned face indulgently.
"Glorious I'll admit, but a trifle chilly for all that. Mabs, your adorable though turned-up nose is at this moment an undeniable Prussian blue at the tip and as for my feet, I believe you could skate over them without their being aware that anything out of the ordinary had occurred."
The girl laughed with the rippling note of a brown woodland stream and tossed back a heavy strand of hair that had fallen across her face. She was darker than her sister and possessed a vividness and sparkle that the more serious Evelyn lacked. Looking at her dimpling beauty, Jim Merriam caught himself wondering in what way sorrow would alter those bright eyes and that merry red mouth, whose whimsical curves seemed to imply that it was always ready to break into a smile or more likely a flow of bubbling laughter upon the slightest given provocation or no provocation at all.
"I'm not worried about my nose," she retorted. "That stopped having any feeling in it long ago. But I'll confess my feet might be warmer."
"Then suppose we go round once more and quit. There's no use freezing to death for the sake of enjoying ourselves, and besides something tells me that the hour for eating approacheth."
"Come along then, Professor. Goodness! I hate to waste a single minute of this splendid ice, for I just know it's going to snow tonight and spoil it all."
She pirouetted away, the sunlight flashing from the polished steel of her skates as from a h
eliograph, and the less expert Jimmy followed as rapidly as he was able.
"It's too bad you couldn't persuade Eve to come out," he remarked as he came up with his companion and took the furry-gloved hands she held out to him. "I think it would have done her a lot of good."
"Poor Eve!" said her sister commiseratingly, "I'm afraid she's a good deal worried about Leslie, though she won't say anything about it even to me."
"I don't suppose she's heard anything —?" hinted Merriam.
"Not a word since that note two months ago saying that he was starting out. You haven't any news that you're keeping to yourself, have you?" And she shot a quick glance at her friend.
"Not a whisper, Mabs. You know I'd tell her if I had. It wouldn't be any kindness to Eve to keep bad news from her. It'd have to come out sooner or later."
"No," replied the girl rather irrelevantly, "I don't think you have. Do you really believe anything could have happened?"
"There's no use speculating until we know more than we do now. Les isn't the man to take foolish risks and I'd trust his head to pull him through anything that came up in the ordinary course of events. There's a lot of funny business going on among the Powers that Be just now and I'm not at all surprised that he's been detailed for some job they want kept quiet until it's finished."
"That's what I tell sis, but you know there's no arguing with a woman when she's in love. Anyhow I wish he'd hurry up and appear before Eve frightens herself into nervous prostration as she's trying her best to do — take a shorter stroke on the turns, Jim. My legs aren't as long as yours."
"I wish I could do something to help her," said Merriam, lessening his stride obediently. "But there's nothing that can be done in a case of this kind except wait."
"I know you do, Jimmy dear," replied Mabel softly. "And I wish you had the right. But — well, I'm afraid it can't be helped. A woman doesn't fall in love because there's any reason for it. She just does, that's all."
"Then — then you know?" said Merriam a little huskily.
"I'm not blind," returned the girl, looking out across the dazzling lake. "And I want to tell you, Jimmy, that I think you've behaved splendidly and if it ever makes you feel any better to talk about it, why, you needn't be afraid you'll bore me."
"Mabs," said Jim earnestly, returning the friendly pressure of her little hand, "I believe you're the nearest approach to an angel that ever blessed an unsuspecting earth and if I ever have the chance to show you —"
"I'm glad some one appreciates my good qualities," she interrupted more lightly. "So few do. Now if you really want to show your gratitude, you can begin by taking my skates off for me. My hands are absolutely numb. Oh, look! I do believe our party's arriving."
She pointed across the level meadow, brown and desolate in the grip of the winter frost, to the big white house before which an automobile had just drawn up and was disgorging its fur-wrapped occupants amid a babel that reached them almost undiminished in the clear, freezing atmosphere.
"Who's coming?" asked Merriam as he swung the skates over his shoulder and, taking the girl's arm, hurried her over the crisp, dry grass.
"Connie Coleman — she's my room-mate you know — and her brother — you'll like him — he's an awfully nice fellow — and Mrs. McPherson and her husband — she used to be Dolly Hemingway, you remember? Her hubby's in business with dad and he met Dolly first at our house when she was visiting sis."
"Well, I hope there'll be enough dinner to go around," said Merriam as they ran up the steps.
"Piggy!" she retorted, holding up a slim finger at him. "Don't you ever think about anything but eating? Consider poor me — all my fussy clothes to get into and just twenty minutes to do it in."
She vanished up the broad, old-fashioned staircase with a laugh, while Jim was immediately engulfed in the throng of new arrivals.
"Well, Mrs. McPherson," he exclaimed, greeting a fashionably-gowned, golden-haired young woman with friendly blue eyes, "it's awfully nice to see you again. Marriage seems to have agreed with you," he added, glancing appreciatively at her happy, smiling face.
"It agrees with me so well that I'm recommending it to all my friends," she replied. "You'd better try it yourself, Professor Merriam."
"'Fraid I haven't the time," he laughed. "A university department requires more attention than a wife. I can't afford both."
"You poor man! They must keep you frightfully busy. We've been hearing something of the wonderful record you've been making since you took charge."
"Please don't turn my head any more than it is already. As it is, I'm thinking seriously of asking the president of the university to retire in my favour."
"Then you'll be so exalted we won't any of us dare speak to you, so I'd better fulfil my obligations while you're still approachable. Connie, this is Professor Merriam of whom you have doubtless heard Mabel speak many a time and oft."
"I'm delighted to meet you, Miss Coleman," said Merriam heartily, taking the hand the tall girl rather timidly extended. "But I must warn you that, as a friend of Mabel Thornton's, I shall absolutely refuse to consider you as a mere acquaintance."
"In that case," she returned, smiling, "I intend to monopolise you as soon as dinner is over and make you talk shop. My chemistry is the bete noir of my existence and I'm sure you could aid my faltering steps if you'd only be so kind."
"I'm yours to command," bowed Jim gallantly. "We will hold a special class as soon as I have satisfied my ravenous hunger."
He would have added more, but at that moment the Thorntons' butler touched him on the arm.
"Beg your pardon, Mr. James, sir," he said in a low tone, "but there's a military man at the door asking for Miss Evelyn, an' Miss Evelyn not bein' ready an' Mrs. Thornton bein' particularly engaged —"
"Oh, all right, Harris, I'll see to your friend directly. You'll pardon me, Miss Coleman?"
"Only on condition that you remember after dinner," she replied archly.
"I won't forget. After dinner it is, in the southwest cosy corner near the big fireplace."
He made his escape and hastened through the hall, asking himself as he went if it could be news of Leslie and if so, what news. For a brief minute he debated whether or not it could be the Captain himself, but his reason told him that it was not like Leslie to suddenly appear from nowhere at the risk of startling his ladylove into hysterics. At the door he stopped in some surprise, for instead of the expected grey-clad police orderly, he was confronted by a short, stocky young man, dressed in a rough, dark blue overcoat, the sleeves of which were ornamented with three stripes of gold lace and a foul anchor flanked by three gold bars, who was discussing a tough-looking cheroot with every indication of perfect satisfaction. This unlooked-for individual quickly removed both his cap and cheroot as the door opened, but beholding a fellow male, replaced both as swiftly and regarded Merriam with something of suspicion.
"I was told you wished to see Miss Thornton," began the Professor, "but as she isn't quite ready to receive callers, perhaps I can take the message."
Then, as the other hesitated with a dubious expression on his tanned countenance, Merriam added, "Is it anything about Captain Gardiner? Perhaps I had better explain that I am an intimate friend of both the Captain and Miss Thornton, and if it's bad news —"
"Well," interrupted the sailor, apparently satisfied, "there's no use denying that it is and I guess it's just as well to explain it to a friend of the family — and a man — to start with. I'm Lieutenant Hooker, commanding the first-class dirigible Ariadne, Naval Division, Mr. —"
"Merriam," said Jim impatiently.
"Merriam?" repeated the Lieutenant, "glad to make your acquaintance. I carried the Captain on the first leg of his trip and just before we landed in London he said to me: 'Hooker, I have a feeling that this mission I've been sent on is going to be a dangerous one. If I don't come back within a certain time' — two months it was — 'it'll be because I've been killed in the performance of my duty and I want you to take
this packet to a girl at home and tell her that I died thinking of her to the end.' Well, the two months are up and here I am."
It seemed to the bewildered Professor as if a black cloud had suddenly settled down over the clear winter landscape, blotting out the bright sunshine and turning the smiling earth into an emptiness and desolation. He had never realised until that moment how firmly he had believed in his friend's ability to surmount all dangers and difficulties and come back at last, safe and triumphant, to those who loved him. And dominating his own grief, was the thought that came to him with a sinking of the heart of what the brutal message would mean to that other, far dearer than a friend to him, for whom he would gladly have given his life, but whom he was powerless to spare this crushing blow.
"Say," said the sympathetic naval officer, "it's too damned bad, that's what it is. I only saw the Captain for a short time, but I feel almost as cut up over it as though I'd known him all my life. He was too fine a man to be wiped out like that, when there were plenty of blunder-headed fools who could be spared just as well as not. Good Lord! Who's this?"
His hand instinctively went to his cap again, as Merriam, turning quickly at the sound of a light step behind him, confronted Mabel Thornton.
"Hello, Jimmy," she exclaimed joyously. "Didn't I do well? It only took me fifteen minutes — Why, what's the matter?"