Works of Robert W Chambers

by Robert W. Chambers

  ``Just half a dozen mountains, and half a dozen lakes, and half a hundred trout streams, with all the splendid forests belonging to them.’’

  ``Lucky duke! And is the game preserved in the whole region? Can’t one get a shot?’’

  ``One cannot even carry a gun without a permit.’’

  Rex groaned. ``And the trout — I suppose they are preserved, too?’’

  ``Yes, but the Herr Förster has the right to fish and so have his guests. There are, however, conditions. The fish you take are not yours. You must buy as many of them as you want to keep, afterward. And they must be brought home alive — or as nearly alive as is consistent with being shut up in a close, round, green tin box, full of water which becomes tepid as it is carried along by a peasant boy in the heat. They usually die of suffocation. But to the German mind that is all right. It is only not right when one kills them instantly and lays them in a cool creel, on fresh wet ferns and moss.’’

  ``Nevertheless, I think we will dispense with the boy and the green box, in favor of the ferns and moss, assisted by a five franc piece or two.’’

  ``It isn’t francs any more; you’re not in France. It’s marks here, you know.’’

  ``Well, I have the same faith in the corrupting power of marks as of francs, or lire, or shillings, or dollars.’’

  ``And I think you will find your confidence justified,’’ said Mrs Dene, smiling.

  ``Mamma trying to be cynical!’’ said Ruth, teasingly. ``Isn’t she funny, Rex!’’

  A thoughtful look stole over her mother’s face. ``I can be terrible, too, sometimes—’’ she said in her little, clear, high soprano voice; and she gazed musingly at the edge of a letter, which just appeared above the table, and then sank out of sight in her lap.

  ``A letter from papa! It came with the stage! What does he say?’’

  ``He says — several things; for one, he is coming back tomorrow instead of the next day.’’

  ``Delightful! But there is more?’’

  Mrs Dene’s face became a cheerful blank. ``Yes, there is more,’’ she said. A pause.

  ``Mamma,’’ began Ruth, ``do you think Griffins desirable as mothers?’’

  ``Very, for bad children!’’ Mrs Dene relapsed into a pleasant reverie. Ruth looked at her mother as a kitten does in a game of tag when the old cat has retired somewhere out of reach and sits up smiling through the barrier.

  ``You find her sadly changed!’’ she said to Gethryn, in that silvery, mocking tone which she had inherited from her mother.

  ``On the contrary, I find her the same adorable gossip she always was. Whatever is in that letter, she is simply dying to tell us all about it.’’

  ``Suppose we try not speaking, and see how long she can stand that?’’

  Rex laid his repeater on the table. Two pairs of laughing eyes watched the dear little old lady. At the end of three minutes she raised her own; blue, sweet, running over with fun and kindness.

  ``The colonel has a polite invitation from the duke for himself, and his party, to shoot on the Red Peak.’’

  Thirteen

  In July the sun is still an early riser, but long before he was up next day a succession of raps on the door woke Gethryn, and a voice outside inquired, ``Are you going fishing with me today, you lazy beggar?’’

  ``Colonel!’’ cried Rex, and springing up and throwing open the door, he threatened to mingle his pajamas with the natty tweeds waiting there in a loving embrace. The colonel backed away, twisting his white mustache. ``How do, Reggy! Same boy, eh? Yes. I drove from Schicksalsee this morning.’’

  ``This morning? Wasn’t it last night?’’ said Rex, looking at the shadows on the opposite mountain.

  ``And I am going to get some trout,’’ continued the colonel, ignoring the interruption. ``So’s Daisy. See my new waterproof rig?’’

  ``Beautiful! but — is it quite the thing to wear a flower in one’s fishing coat?’’

  ``I’m not aware—’’ began the other stiffly, but broke down, shook his seal ring at Rex, and walking over to the glass, rearranged the bit of wild hyacinth in his buttonhole with care.

  ``And now,’’ he said, ``Daisy and I will give you just three quarters of an hour.’’ Rex sent a shower from the water basin across the room.

  ``Look out for those new waterproof clothes, Colonel.’’

  ``I’ll take them out of harm’s way,’’ said the colonel, and disappeared.

  Before the time had expired Rex stood under the beech tree with his rod case and his creel. The colonel sat reading a novel. Mrs Dene was pouring out coffee. Ruth was coming down a path which led from a low shed, the door of which stood wide open, suffering the early sunshine to fall on something that lay stretched along the floor. It was a stag, whose noble head and branching antlers would never toss in the sunshine again.

  ``Only think!’’ cried Ruth breathlessly, ``Federl shot a stag of ten this morning at daybreak on the Red Peak, and he’s frightened out of his wits, for only the duke has a right to do that. Federl mistook it for a stag of eight. And they’re in the velvet, besides!’’ she added rather incoherently. `` What luck! Poor Federl! I asked him if that meant strafen, and he said he guessed not, only zanken.’’

  ``What’s `strafen’ and what’s `zanken,’ Daisy?’’ asked the Colonel, pronouncing the latter like ``z’’ in buzz.

  Ruth went up to her father and took his face between her hands, dropping a light kiss on his eyebrow.

  `` Strafen is when one whips bad boys and t — s — zanken is when one only scolds them. Which shall we do to you, dear? Both?’’

  ``We’ll take coffee first, and then we’ll see which there’s time for before we leave you hemming a pocket handkerchief while Rex and I go trout fishing.’’

  ``Such parents!’’ sighed Ruth, nestling down beside her father and looking over her cup at Rex, who gravely nodded sympathy.

  After breakfast, as Ruth stood waiting by the table where the fishing tackle lay, perfectly composed in manner, but unable to keep the color from her cheek and the sparkle of impatience from her eye, Gethryn thought he had seldom seen anything more charming.

  A soft gray Tam crowned her pretty hair. A caped coat, fastened to the throat, hung over the short kilt skirt, and rough gaiters buttoned down over a wonderful little pair of hobnailed boots.

  ``I say! Ruth! what a stunner you are!’’ cried he with enthusiasm. She turned to the rod case and began lifting and arranging the rods.

  ``Rex,’’ she said, looking up brightly, ``I feel about sixteen today.’’

  ``Or less, judging from your costume,’’ said her mother. ``Schicksalsee isn’t Rangely, you know. I only hope the good people in the little ducal court won’t call you theatrical.’’

  ``A theatrical stunner!’’ mused Ruth, in her clearest tones. ``It is good to know how one strikes one’s friends.’’

  ``The disciplining of this young person is to be left to me,’’ said the colonel. ``Daisy, everything else about you is all wrong, but your frock is all right.’’

  ``That is simple and comprehensive and reassuring,’’ murmured Ruth absently, as she bent over the fly-book with Gethryn.

  After much consultation and many thoughtful glances at the bit of water which glittered and dashed through the narrow meadow in front of the house, they arranged the various colored lures and leaders, and standing up, looked at Colonel Dene, reading his novel.

  ``What? Oh! Come along, then!’’ said he, on being made aware that he was waited for, and standing up also, he dropped the volume into his creel and lighted a cigar.

  ``Are you going to take that trash along, dear?’’ asked his daughter.

  ``What trash? The work of fiction? That’s literature, as the gentleman said about Dante.’’

  ``Rex,’’ said Mrs Dene, buttoning the colonel’s coat over his snowy collar, ``I put this expedition into your hands. Take care of these two children.’’

  She stood and watched them until they passed the turn beyond th
e bridge. Mr Blumenthal watched them too, from behind the curtains in his room. His leer went from one to the other, but always returned and rested on Rex. Then, as there was a mountain chill in the morning air, he crawled back into bed, hauling his night cap over his generous ears and rolling himself in a cocoon of featherbeds, until he should emerge about noon, like some sleek, fat moth.

  The anglers walked briskly up the wooded road, chatting and laughing, with now and then a sage and critical glance at the water, of which they caught many glimpses through the trees. Gethryn and Ruth were soon far ahead. The colonel sauntered along, switching leaves with his rod and indulging in bursts of Parisian melody.

  ``Papa,’’ called Ruth, looking back, ``does your hip trouble you today, or are you only lazy?’’

  ``Trot along, little girl; I’ll be there before you are,’’ said the colonel airily, and stopped to replace the wild hyacinth in his coat by a prim little pink and white daisy. Then he lighted a fresh cigar and started on, but their voices were already growing faint in the distance. Observing this, he stopped and looked up and down the road. No one was in sight. He sat down on the bank with his hand on his hip. His face changed from a frown to an expression of sharp pain. In five minutes he had grown from a fresh elderly man into an old man, his face drawn and gray, but he only muttered ``the devil!’’ and sat still. A big bronze-winged beetle whizzed past him, z — z — ip! ``like a bullet,’’ he thought, and pressed both hands now on his hip. ``Twenty-five years ago — pshaw! I’m not so old as that!’’ But it was twenty-five years ago when the blue-capped troopers, bursting in to the rescue, found the dandy `` — th,’’ scorched and rent and blackened, still reeling beneath a rag crowned with a gilt eagle. The exquisite befeathered and gold laced `` — th.’’ But the shells have rained for hours among the ``Dandies’’ — and some are dead, and some are wishing for death, like that youngster lying there with the shattered hip.

  Colonel Dene rose up presently and relighted his cigar; then he flicked some dust from the new tweeds, picked a stem of wild hyacinth, and began to whistle. ``Pshaw! I’m not so old as all that!’’ he murmured, sauntering along the pleasant wood-road. Before long he came in sight of Ruth and Gethryn, who were waiting. But he only waved them on, laughing.

  ``Papa always says that old wound of his does not hurt him, but it does. I know it does,’’ said Ruth.

  Rex noted what tones of tenderness there were in her cool, clear voice. He did not answer, for he could only agree with her, and what could be the use of that?

  They strolled on in silence, up the fragrant forest road. Great glittering dragonflies drifted along the river bank, or hung quivering above pools. Clouds of lazy sulphur butterflies swarmed and floated, eddying up from the road in front of them and settling down again in their wake like golden dust. A fox stole across the path, but Gethryn did not see him. The mesh of his landing net was caught just then in a little gold clasp that he wore on his breast.

  ``How quaint!’’ cried Ruth; ``let me help you; there! One would think you were a French legitimist, with your fleur-de-lis.’’

  ``Thank you’’ — was all he answered, and turned away, as he felt the blood burn his face. But Ruth was walking lightly on and had not noticed. The fleur-de-lis, however, reminded her of something she had to say, and she began again, presently —

  ``You left Paris rather suddenly, did you not, Rex?’’

  This time he colored furiously, and Ruth, turning to him, saw it. She flushed too, fearing to have made she knew not what blunder, but she went on seriously, not pausing for his answer:

  ``The year before, that is three years ago now, we waited in Italy, as we had promised to do, for you to join us. But you never even wrote to say why you did not come. And you haven’t explained it yet, Rex.’’

  Gethryn grew pale. This was what he had been expecting. He knew it would have to come; in fact he had wished for nothing more than an opportunity for making all the amends that were possible under the circumstances. But the possible amends were very, very inadequate at best, and now that the opportunity was here, his courage failed, and he would have shirked it if he could. Besides, for the last five minutes, Ruth had been innocently stirring memories that made his heart beat heavily.

  And now she was waiting for her answer. He glanced at the clear profile as she walked beside him. Her eyes were raised a little; they seemed to be idly following the windings of a path that went up the opposite mountainside; her lips rested one upon the other in quiet curves. He thought he had never seen such a pure, proud looking girl. All the chivalry of a generous and imaginative man brought him to her feet.

  ``I cannot explain. But I ask your forgiveness. Will you grant it? I won’t forgive myself!’’

  She turned instantly and gave him her hand, not smiling, but her eyes were very gentle. They walked on a while in silence, then Rex said:

  ``Ever since I came, I have been trying to find courage to ask pardon for that unpardonable conduct, but when I looked in your dear mother’s face, I felt myself such a brute that I was only fit to hold my tongue. And I believed,’’ he added, after a pause, ``that she would forgive me too. She was always better to me than I deserved.’’

  ``Yes,’’ said Ruth.

  ``And you also are too good to me,’’ he continued, ``in giving me this chance to ask your pardon.’’ His voice took on the old caressing tone in which he used to make peace after their boy and girl tiffs. ``I knew very well that with you I should have a stricter account to settle than with your mother,’’ he said, smiling.

  ``Yes,’’ said Ruth again. And then with a little effort and a slight flush she added:

  ``I don’t think it is good for men when too many excuses are made for them. Do you?’’

  ``No, I do not,’’ answered Rex, and thought, if all women were like this one, how much easier it would be for men to lead a good life! His heart stopped its heavy beating. The memories which he had been fighting for two years faded away once more; his spirits rose, and he felt like a boy as he kept step with Ruth along the path which had now turned and ran close beside the stream.

  ``Now tell me something of your travels,’’ said Ruth. ``You have been in the East.’’

  ``Yes, in Japan. But first I stopped a while in India with some British officers, nice fellows. There was some pheasant shooting.’’

  ``Pheasants! No tigers?’’

  ``One tiger.’’

  ``You shot him! Oh! tell me about it!’’

  ``No, I only saw him.’’

  ``Where?’’

  ``In a jungle.’’

  ``Did you fire?’’

  ``No, for he was already dead, and the odor which pervaded his resting place made me hurry away as fast as if he had been alive.’’

  ``You are a provoking boy!’’

  Rex laughed. ``I did shoot a cheetah in China.’’

  ``A dead one?’’

  ``No, he was snarling over a dead buck.’’

  ``Then you do deserve some respect.’’

  ``If you like. But it was very easy. One bullet settled him. I was fined afterward.’’

  ``Fined! for what?’’

  ``For shooting the Emperor’s trained cheetah. After that I always looked to see if the game wore a silver collar before I fired.’’

  Ruth would not look as if she heard.

  Rex went on teasingly: ``I assure you it was embarrassing, when the pheasants were bursting cover, to be under the necessity of inquiring at the nearest house if those were really pheasants or only Chinese hens.’’

  ``Rex,’’ exclaimed Ruth, indignantly, ``I hope you don’t think I believe a word you are saying.’’

  They had stopped to rest beside the stream, and now the colonel sauntered into view, his hands full of wild flowers, his single eyeglass gleaming beside his delicate straight nose.

  ``Do you know,’’ he asked, strolling up to Ruth and tucking a cluster of bluebells under her chin, ``do you know what old Hugh Montgomery would say if he were
here?’’

  ``He’d say,’’ she replied promptly, ``that `we couldn’t take no traout with the pesky sun a shinin’ and a brilin’ the hull crick.’’’

  ``Yes,’’ said Rex. ``Rise at four, east wind, cloudy morning, that was Hugh. But he could cast a fly.’’

  ``Couldn’t he!’’ said the colonel. ```I cal’late ter chuck a bug ez fur ez enny o’ them city fellers, ‘n I kin,’ says Hugh. Going to begin here, Rex?’’

  ``What does Ruth think?’’

  ``She thinks she isn’t in command of this party,’’ Ruth replied.

  ``It will take us until late in the afternoon to whip the stream from here to the lowest bridge.’’ Rex smiled down at her and pushed back his cap with a boyish gesture.

  She had forgotten it until that moment. Now it brought a perfect flood of pleasant associations. She had seen him look that way a hundred times when, in their teens, they two had lingered by the Northern Lakes. Her whole face changed and softened, but she turned away, nodding assent, and went and stood by her father, looking down at him with the bantering air which was a family trait. The lively colonel had found a sunny log on the bank, where he was sitting, leisurely joining his rod.

  ``Hello!’’ he cried, glancing up, ``what are you two amateurs about? As usual, I’m ready to begin before Rex is awake!’’ and stepping to the edge he landed his flies with a flourish in a young birch tree. Rex came and disengaged them, and he received the assistance with perfect self-possession.

  ``Now see the new waterproof rig wade!’’ said Ruth, saucily.

  ``Go and wade yourself and don’t bully your old father!’’ cried the colonel.

  ``Old! this child old!’’

  ``Oh! come along, Ruth!’’ called Rex, waiting on the shore and falling unconsciously into the tone of sixteen speaking to twelve.

  For answer she slipped the cover from her slender rod and dexterously fitted the delicate tip to the second joint.

  ``Hasn’t forgotten how to put a rod together! Wonderful girl!’’

  ``Oh, I knew you were waiting to see me place the second joint in the butt first!’’ She deftly ran the silk through the guides, and then scientifically knotting the leader, slipped on a cast of three flies and picked her way daintily to the river bank. As she waded in the sudden cold made her gasp a little to herself, but she kept straight on without turning her head, and presently stepped on a broad, flat rock over which the water was slipping smoothly.