The Prisoner of Zenda

by Anthony Hope

  CHAPTER 13

  An Improvement on Jacob's Ladder

  In the morning of the day after that on which I swore my oath againstthe Six, I gave certain orders, and then rested in greater contentmentthan I had known for some time. I was at work; and work, though itcannot cure love, is yet a narcotic to it; so that Sapt, who grewfeverish, marvelled to see me sprawling in an armchair in the sunshine,listening to one of my friends who sang me amorous songs in a mellowvoice and induced in me a pleasing melancholy. Thus was I engaged whenyoung Rupert Hentzau, who feared neither man nor devil, and rode throughthe demesne--where every tree might hide a marksman, for all he knew--asthough it had been the park at Strelsau, cantered up to where I lay,bowing with burlesque deference, and craving private speech with mein order to deliver a message from the Duke of Strelsau. I made allwithdraw, and then he said, seating himself by me:

  "The King is in love, it seems?"

  "Not with life, my lord," said I, smiling.

  "It is well," he rejoined. "Come, we are alone, Rassendyll--"

  I rose to a sitting posture.

  "What's the matter?" he asked.

  "I was about to call one of my gentlemen to bring your horse, my lord.If you do not know how to address the King, my brother must find anothermessenger."

  "Why keep up the farce?" he asked, negligently dusting his boot with hisglove.

  "Because it is not finished yet; and meanwhile I'll choose my own name."

  "Oh, so be it! Yet I spoke in love for you; for indeed you are a manafter my own heart."

  "Saving my poor honesty," said I, "maybe I am. But that I keep faithwith men, and honour with women, maybe I am, my lord."

  He darted a glance at me--a glance of anger.

  "Is your mother dead?" said I.

  "Ay, she's dead."

  "She may thank God," said I, and I heard him curse me softly. "Well,what's the message?" I continued.

  I had touched him on the raw, for all the world knew he had broken hismother's heart and flaunted his mistresses in her house; and his airymanner was gone for the moment.

  "The duke offers you more than I would," he growled. "A halter foryou, sire, was my suggestion. But he offers you safe-conduct across thefrontier and a million crowns."

  "I prefer your offer, my lord, if I am bound to one."

  "You refuse?"

  "Of course."

  "I told Michael you would;" and the villain, his temper restored,gave me the sunniest of smiles. "The fact is, between ourselves," hecontinued, "Michael doesn't understand a gentleman."

  I began to laugh.

  "And you?" I asked.

  "I do," he said. "Well, well, the halter be it."

  "I'm sorry you won't live to see it," I observed.

  "Has his Majesty done me the honour to fasten a particular quarrel onme?"

  "I would you were a few years older, though."

  "Oh, God gives years, but the devil gives increase," laughed he. "I canhold my own."

  "How is your prisoner?" I asked.

  "The K--?"

  "Your prisoner."

  "I forgot your wishes, sire. Well, he is alive."

  He rose to his feet; I imitated him. Then, with a smile, he said:

  "And the pretty princess? Faith, I'll wager the next Elphberg will bered enough, for all that Black Michael will be called his father."

  I sprang a step towards him, clenching my hand. He did not move an inch,and his lip curled in insolent amusement.

  "Go, while your skin's whole!" I muttered. He had repaid me withinterest my hit about his mother.

  Then came the most audacious thing I have known in my life. My friendswere some thirty yards away. Rupert called to a groom to bring him hishorse, and dismissed the fellow with a crown. The horse stood near. Istood still, suspecting nothing. Rupert made as though to mount; thenhe suddenly turned to me: his left hand resting in his belt, his rightoutstretched: "Shake hands," he said.

  I bowed, and did as he had foreseen--I put my hands behind me. Quickerthan thought, his left hand darted out at me, and a small dagger flashedin the air; he struck me in the left shoulder--had I not swerved, ithad been my heart. With a cry, I staggered back. Without touching thestirrup, he leapt upon his horse and was off like an arrow, pursued bycries and revolver shots--the last as useless as the first--and Isank into my chair, bleeding profusely, as I watched the devil's bratdisappear down the long avenue. My friends surrounded me, and then Ifainted.

  I suppose that I was put to bed, and there lay, unconscious, or halfconscious, for many hours; for it was night when I awoke to my fullmind, and found Fritz beside me. I was weak and weary, but he bade me beof good cheer, saying that my wound would soon heal, and that meanwhileall had gone well, for Johann, the keeper, had fallen into the snare wehad laid for him, and was even now in the house.

  "And the queer thing is," pursued Fritz, "that I fancy he's notaltogether sorry to find himself here. He seems to think that whenBlack Michael has brought off his coup, witnesses of how it waseffected--saving, of course, the Six themselves--will not be at apremium."

  This idea argued a shrewdness in our captive which led me to buildhopes on his assistance. I ordered him to be brought in at once. Saptconducted him, and set him in a chair by my bedside. He was sullen, andafraid; but, to say truth, after young Rupert's exploit, we also hadour fears, and, if he got as far as possible from Sapt's formidablesix-shooter, Sapt kept him as far as he could from me. Moreover, when hecame in his hands were bound, but that I would not suffer.

  I need not stay to recount the safeguards and rewards we promised thefellow--all of which were honourably observed and paid, so that he livesnow in prosperity (though where I may not mention); and we were the morefree inasmuch as we soon learnt that he was rather a weak man than awicked, and had acted throughout this matter more from fear of the dukeand of his own brother Max than for any love of what was done. Buthe had persuaded all of his loyalty; and though not in their secretcounsels, was yet, by his knowledge of their dispositions within theCastle, able to lay bare before us the very heart of their devices. Andhere, in brief, is his story:

  Below the level of the ground in the Castle, approached by a flight ofstone steps which abutted on the end of the drawbridge, were situatedtwo small rooms, cut out of the rock itself. The outer of the two had nowindows, but was always lighted with candles; the inner had one squarewindow, which gave upon the moat. In the outer room there lay always,day and night, three of the Six; and the instructions of Duke Michaelwere, that on any attack being made on the outer room, the three were todefend the door of it so long as they could without risk to themselves.But, so soon as the door should be in danger of being forced, thenRupert Hentzau or Detchard (for one of these two was always there)should leave the others to hold it as long as they could, and himselfpass into the inner room, and, without more ado, kill the King wholay there, well-treated indeed, but without weapons, and with his armsconfined in fine steel chains, which did not allow him to move his elbowmore than three inches from his side. Thus, before the outer door werestormed, the King would be dead. And his body? For his body would beevidence as damning as himself.

  "Nay, sir," said Johann, "his Highness has thought of that. While thetwo hold the outer room, the one who has killed the King unlocks thebars in the square window (they turn on a hinge). The window now givesno light, for its mouth is choked by a great pipe of earthenware; andthis pipe, which is large enough to let pass through it the body ofa man, passes into the moat, coming to an end immediately above thesurface of the water, so that there is no perceptible interval betweenwater and pipe. The King being dead, his murderer swiftly ties a weightto the body, and, dragging it to the window, raises it by a pulley (for,lest the weight should prove too great, Detchard has provided one) tillit is level with the mouth of the pipe. He inserts the feet in the pipe,and pushes the body down. Silently, without splash or sound, it fallsinto the water and thence to the bottom of the moat, which is twentyfeet deep thereabouts. This done, the m
urderer cries loudly, 'All'swell!' and himself slides down the pipe; and the others, if they can andthe attack is not too hot, run to the inner room and, seeking a moment'sdelay, bar the door, and in their turn slide down. And though the Kingrises not from the bottom, they rise and swim round to the other side,where the orders are for men to wait them with ropes, to haul them out,and horses. And here, if things go ill, the duke will join them and seeksafety by riding; but if all goes well, they will return to the Castle,and have their enemies in a trap. That, sir, is the plan of his Highnessfor the disposal of the King in case of need. But it is not to be usedtill the last; for, as we all know, he is not minded to kill the Kingunless he can, before or soon after, kill you also, sir. Now, sir, Ihave spoken the truth, as God is my witness, and I pray you to shield mefrom the vengeance of Duke Michael; for if, after he knows what I havedone, I fall into his hands, I shall pray for one thing out of all theworld--a speedy death, and that I shall not obtain from him!"

  The fellow's story was rudely told, but our questions supplementedhis narrative. What he had told us applied to an armed attack; but ifsuspicions were aroused, and there came overwhelming force--such, forinstance, as I, the King, could bring--the idea of resistance would beabandoned; the King would be quietly murdered and slid down the pipe.And--here comes an ingenious touch--one of the Six would take hisplace in the cell, and, on the entrance of the searchers, loudly demandrelease and redress; and Michael, being summoned, would confess to hastyaction, but he would say the man had angered him by seeking the favourof a lady in the Castle (this was Antoinette de Mauban) and he hadconfined him there, as he conceived he, as Lord of Zenda, had right todo. But he was now, on receiving his apology, content to let him go,and so end the gossip which, to his Highness's annoyance, had arisenconcerning a prisoner in Zenda, and had given his visitors the troubleof this enquiry. The visitors, baffled, would retire, and Michael could,at his leisure, dispose of the body of the King.

  Sapt, Fritz, and I in my bed, looked round on one another in horror andbewilderment at the cruelty and cunning of the plan. Whether I wentin peace or in war, openly at the head of a corps, or secretly by astealthy assault, the King would be dead before I could come near him.If Michael were stronger and overcame my party, there would be an end.But if I were stronger, I should have no way to punish him, no means ofproving any guilt in him without proving my own guilt also. On the otherhand, I should be left as King (ah! for a moment my pulse quickened) andit would be for the future to witness the final struggle between him andme. He seemed to have made triumph possible and ruin impossible. Atthe worst, he would stand as well as he had stood before I crossedhis path--with but one man between him and the throne, and that man animpostor; at best, there would be none left to stand against him. I hadbegun to think that Black Michael was over fond of leaving the fightingto his friends; but now I acknowledged that the brains, if not the arms,of the conspiracy were his.

  "Does the King know this?" I asked.

  "I and my brother," answered Johann, "put up the pipe, under the ordersof my Lord of Hentzau. He was on guard that day, and the King asked mylord what it meant. 'Faith,' he answered, with his airy laugh, 'it's anew improvement on the ladder of Jacob, whereby, as you have read, sire,men pass from the earth to heaven. We thought it not meet that yourMajesty should go, in case, sire, you must go, by the common route. Sowe have made you a pretty private passage where the vulgar cannot stareat you or incommode your passage. That, sire, is the meaning ofthat pipe.' And he laughed and bowed, and prayed the King's leave toreplenish the King's glass--for the King was at supper. And the King,though he is a brave man, as are all of his House, grew red and thenwhite as he looked on the pipe and at the merry devil who mocked him.Ah, sir" (and the fellow shuddered), "it is not easy to sleep quiet inthe Castle of Zenda, for all of them would as soon cut a man's throatas play a game at cards; and my Lord Rupert would choose it sooner fora pastime than any other--ay, sooner than he would ruin a woman, thoughthat he loves also."

  The man ceased, and I bade Fritz take him away and have him carefullyguarded; and, turning to him, I added:

  "If anyone asks you if there is a prisoner in Zenda, you may answer'Yes.' But if any asks who the prisoner is, do not answer. For all mypromises will not save you if any man here learns from you the truth asto the prisoner of Zenda. I'll kill you like a dog if the thing be somuch as breathed within the house!"

  Then, when he was gone, I looked at Sapt.

  "It's a hard nut!" said I.

  "So hard," said he, shaking his grizzled head, "that as I think, thistime next year is like to find you still King of Ruritania!" and hebroke out into curses on Michael's cunning.

  I lay back on my pillows.

  "There seems to me," I observed, "to be two ways by which the King cancome out of Zenda alive. One is by treachery in the duke's followers."

  "You can leave that out," said Sapt.

  "I hope not," I rejoined, "because the other I was about to mentionis--by a miracle from heaven!"