CHAPTER XIV. IN THE GARDEN
It so happened that I met nobody at all; but I must confess that myluck was better than my management. As I came upon the beck, a new soundreached me with the swirl. It was the jingle of bit and bridle; the beatof hoofs came after; and I had barely time to fling myself flat, whentwo horsemen emerged from the plantation, riding straight towards me inthe moonlight. If they continued on that course they could not failto see me as they passed along the opposite bank. However, to myunspeakable relief, they were scarce clear of the trees when they turnedtheir horses' heads, rode them through the water a good seventy yardsfrom where I lay, and so away at a canter across country towards theroad. On my hands and knees I had a good look at them as they bobbed upand down under the moon; and my fears subsided in astonished curiosity.For I have already boasted of my eyesight, and I could have sworn thatneither Rattray nor any one of his guests was of the horsemen; yet theback and shoulders of one of these seemed somehow familiar to me. Notthat I wasted many moments over the coincidence, for I had other thingsto think about as I ran on to the hall.
I found the rear of the building in darkness unrelieved from within; onthe other hand, the climbing moon beat so full upon the garden wall, itwas as though a lantern pinned me as I crept beneath it. In passing Ithought I might as well try the gate; but Eva was right; it was locked;and that made me half inclined to distrust my eyes in the matter of thetwo horsemen, for whence could they have come, if not from the hall?In any case I was well rid of them. I now followed the wall some littledistance, and then, to see over it, walked backwards until I was all butin the beck; and there, sure enough, shone my darling's candle, close asclose against the diamond panes of her narrow, lofty window! It broughtthose ready tears back to my foolish, fevered eyes. But for sentimentthere was no time, and every other emotion was either futile orpremature. So I mastered my full heart, I steeled, my wretched nerves,and braced my limp muscles for the task that lay before them.
I had a garden wall to scale, nearly twice my own height, and withoutnotch or cranny in the ancient, solid masonry. I stood against it on mytoes, and I touched it with my finger-tips as high up as possible. Somefour feet severed them from the coping that left only half a sky abovemy upturned eyes.
I do not know whether I have made it plain that the house was notsurrounded by four walls, but merely filled a breach in one of thefour, which nipped it (as it were) at either end. The back entrance wasapproachable enough, but barred or watched, I might be very sure. It isever the vulnerable points which are most securely guarded, and it wasmy one comfort that the difficult way must also be the safe way, if onlythe difficulty could be overcome. How to overcome it was the problem.I followed the wall right round to the point at which it abutted on thetower that immured my love; the height never varied; nor could my handsor eyes discover a single foot-hole, ledge, or other means of mountingto the top.
Yet my hot head was full of ideas; and I wasted some minutes in tryingto lift from its hinges a solid, six-barred, outlying gate, that myweak arms could hardly stir. More time went in pulling branches from theoak-trees about the beck, where the latter ran nearest to the moonlitwall. I had an insane dream of throwing a long forked branch overthe coping, and so swarming up hand-over-hand. But even to me theimpracticability of this plan came home at last. And there I stood in abreathless lather, much time and strength thrown away together; and thecandle burning down for nothing in that little lofty window; and therunning water swirling noisily over its stones at my back.
This was the only sound; the wind had died away; the moonlit valleylay as still as the dread old house in its midst but for the splash andgurgle of the beck. I fancied this grew louder as I paused and listenedin my helplessness. All at once--was it the tongue of Nature telling methe way, or common gumption returning at the eleventh hour? I ran downto the water's edge, and could have shouted for joy. Great stones lay inequal profusion on bed and banks. I lifted one of the heaviest in bothhands. I staggered with it to the wall. I came back for another; forsome twenty minutes I was so employed; my ultimate reward a fine heap ofboulders against the wall.
Then I began to build; then mounted my pile, clawing the wall to keepmy balance. My fingers were still many inches from the coping. I jumpeddown and gave another ten minutes to the back-breaking work of carryingmore boulders from the water to the wall. Then I widened my cairn below,so that I could stand firmly before springing upon the pinnacle withwhich I completed it. I knew well that this would collapse under me ifI allowed my weight to rest more than an instant upon it. And so at lastit did; but my fingers had clutched the coping in time; had grabbed iteven as the insecure pyramid crumbled and left me dangling.
Instantly exerting what muscle I had left, and the occasion gave me,I succeeded in pulling myself up until my chin was on a level with myhands, when I flung an arm over and caught the inner coping. The otherarm followed; then a leg; and at last I sat astride the wall, pantingand palpitating, and hardly able to credit my own achievement. One greatdifficulty had been my huge revolver. I had been terribly frightened itmight go off, and had finally used my cravat to sling it at the backof my neck. It had shifted a little, and I was working it round again,preparatory to my drop, when I saw the light suddenly taken from thewindow in the tower, and a kerchief waving for one instant in its place.So she had been waiting and watching for me all these hours! I droppedinto the garden in a very ecstasy of grief and rapture, to think that Ihad been so long in coming to my love, but that I had come at last. AndI picked myself up in a very frenzy of fear lest, after all, I shouldfail to spirit her from this horrible place.
Doubly desolate it looked in the rays of that bright October moon.Skulking in the shadow of the wall which had so long baffled me, Ilooked across a sharp border of shade upon a chaos, the more strikingfor its lingering trim design. The long, straight paths were barnacledwith weeds; the dense, fine hedges, once prim and angular, had fattenedout of all shape or form; and on the velvet sward of other days youmight have waded waist high in rotten hay. Towards the garden end thisrank jungle merged into a worse wilderness of rhododendrons, the tallestI have ever seen. On all this the white moon smiled, and the grim houseglowered, to the eternal swirl and rattle of the beck beyond its walls.
Long enough I stood where I had dropped, listening with all my beingfor some other sound; but at last that great studded door creakedand shivered on its ancient hinges, and I heard voices arguing in thePortuguese tongue. It was poor Eva wheedling that black rascal Jose.I saw her in the lighted porch; the nigger I saw also, shrugging andgesticulating for all the world like his hateful master; yet giving in,I felt certain, though I could not understand a word that reached me.
And indeed my little mistress very soon sailed calmly out, followed byfinal warnings and expostulations hurled from the step: for the blackstood watching her as she came steadily my way, now raising her head tosniff the air, now stooping to pluck up a weed, the very picture of aprisoner seeking the open air for its own sake solely. I had a keen eyeapiece for them as I cowered closer to the wall, revolver in hand. Butere my love was very near me (for she would stand long moments gazingever so innocently at the moon), her jailer had held a bottle to thelight, and had beaten a retreat so sudden and so hasty that I expectedhim back every moment, and so durst not stir. Eva saw me, however,and contrived to tell me so without interrupting the air that she washumming as she walked.
"Follow me," she sang, "only keep as you are, keep as you are, close tothe wall, close to the wall."
And on she strolled to her own tune, and came abreast of me withoutturning her head; so I crept in the shadow (my ugly weapon tucked out ofsight), and she sauntered in the shine, until we came to the end ofthe garden, where the path turned at right angles, running behind therhododendrons; once in their shelter, she halted and beckoned me, andnext instant I had her hands in mine.
"At last!" was all that I could say for many a moment, as I stood theregazing into her dear eyes, no hero in my heroic hour, but the
biggerlove-sick fool than ever. "But quick--quick--quick!" I added, as shebrought me to my senses by withdrawing her hands. "We've no time tolose." And I looked wildly from wall to wall, only to find them asbarren and inaccessible on this side as on the other.
"We have more time than you think," were Eva's first words. "We can donothing for half-an-hour."
"Why not?"
"I'll tell you in a minute. How did you manage to get over?"
"Brought boulders from the beck, and piled 'em up till I could reach thetop."
I thought her eyes glistened.
"What patience!" she cried softly. "We must find a simpler way ofgetting out--and I think I have. They've all gone, you know, but Jose."
"All three?"
"The captain has been gone all day."
Then the other two must have been my horse-men, very probably in somedisguise; and my head swam with the thought of the risk that I had runat the very moment when I thought myself safest. Well, I would havefinished them both! But I did not say so to Eva. I did not mentionthe incident, I was so fearful of destroying her confidence in me.Apologizing, therefore, for my interruption, without explaining it, Ibegged her to let me hear her plan.
It was simple enough. There was no fear of the others returning beforemidnight; the chances were that they would be very much later; andnow it was barely eleven, and Eva had promised not to stay out abovehalf-an-hour. When it was up Jose would come and call her.
"It is horrid to have to be so cunning!" cried little Eva, with an angryshudder; "but it's no use thinking of that," she was quick enough toadd, "when you have such dreadful men to deal with, such fiends! And Ihave had all day to prepare, and have suffered till I am so desperate Iwould rather die to-night than spend another in that house. No; let mefinish! Jose will come round here to look for me. But you and I willbe hiding on the other side of these rhododendrons. And when we hear himhere we'll make a dash for it across the long grass. Once let us get thedoor shut and locked in his face, and he'll be in a trap. It will takehim some time to break in; time enough to give us a start; what's more,when he finds us gone, he'll do what they all used to do in any doubt."
"What's that?"
"Say nothing till it's found out; then lie for their lives; and it wastheir lives, poor creatures on the Zambesi!" She was silent a moment,her determined little face hard--set upon some unforgotten horror."Once we get away, I shall be surprised if it's found out till morning,"concluded Eva, without a word as to what I was to do with her; neither,indeed, had I myself given that question a moment's consideration.
"Then let's make a dash for it now!" was all I said or thought.
"No; they can't come yet, and Jose is strong and brutal, and Ihave heard how ill you are. That you should have come to menotwithstanding--" and she broke off with her little hands lyingso gratefully on my shoulders, that I know not how I refrained fromcatching her then and there to my heart. Instead, I laughed and saidthat my illness was a pure and deliberate sharp, and my presence thereits direct result. And such was the virtue in my beloved's voice, themagic of her eyes, the healing of her touch, that I was scarce consciousof deceit, but felt a whole man once more as we two stood together inthe moonlight.
In a trance I stood there gazing into her brave young eyes. In atrance I suffered her to lead me by the hand through the rank, denserhododendrons. And still entranced I crouched by her side near thefurther side, with only unkempt grass-plot and a weedy path between usand that ponderous door, wide open still, and replaced by a section ofthe lighted hail within. On this we fixed our attention with mingleddread and impatience, those contending elements of suspense; but theblack was slow to reappear; and my eyes stole home to my sweet girl'sface, with its glory of moonlit curls, and the eager, resolute,embittered look that put the world back two whole months, and EvaDenison upon the Lady Jermyn's poop, in the ship's last hours. But itwas not her look alone; she had on her cloak, as the night before,but with me (God bless her!) she found no need to clasp herself in itsfolds; and underneath she wore the very dress in which she had sung atour last concert, and been rescued in the gig. It looked as though shehad worn it ever since. The roses were crushed and soiled, the tulle alltorn, and tarnished some strings of beads that had been gold: a tatterof Chantilly lace hung by a thread: it is another of the relics that Ihave unearthed in the writing of this narrative.
"I thought men never noticed dresses?" my love said suddenly, a pleasedlight in her eyes (I thought) in spite of all. "Do you really rememberit?"
"I remember every one of them," I said indignantly; and so I did.
"You will wonder why I wear it," said Eva, quickly. "It was the firstthat came that terrible night. They have given me many since. But Iwon't wear one of them--not one!"
How her eyes flashed! I forgot all about Jose.
"I suppose you know why they hadn't room for you in the gig?" she wenton.
"No, I don't know, and I don't care. They had room for you," said I;"that's all I care about." And to think she could not see I loved her!
"But do you mean to say you don't know that these--murderers--set fireto the ship?"
"No--yes! I heard you say so last night."
"And you don't want to know what for?"
Out of politeness I protested that I did; but, as I live, all I wantedto know just then was whether my love loved me--whether she evercould--whether such happiness was possible under heaven!
"You remember all that mystery about the cargo?" she continued eagerly,her pretty lips so divinely parted!
"It turned out to be gunpowder," said I, still thinking only of her.
"No--gold!"
"But it was gunpowder," I insisted; for it was my incorrigible passionfor accuracy which had led up to half our arguments on the voyage; butthis time Eva let me off.
"It was also gold: twelve thousand ounces from the diggings. That wasthe real mystery. Do you mean to say you never guessed?"
"No, by Jove I didn't!" said I. She had diverted my interest at last. Iasked her if she had known on board.
"Not until the last moment. I found out during the fire. Do you rememberwhen we said good-by? I was nearly telling you then."
Did I remember! The very letter of that last interview was cut deep inmy heart; not a sleepless night had I passed without rehearsing it wordfor word and look for look; and sometimes, when sorrow had spent itself,and the heart could bleed no more, vain grief had given place to vainerspeculation, and I had cudgelled my wakeful brains for the meaning ofthe new and subtle horror which I had read in my darling's eyes at thelast. Now I understood; and the one explanation brought such a tribein its train, that even the perilous ecstasy of the present moment wastemporarily forgotten in the horrible past.
"Now I know why they wouldn't have me in the gig!" I cried softly.
"She carried four heavy men's weight in gold."
"When on earth did they get it aboard?"
"In provision boxes at the last; but they had been filling the boxes forweeks."
"Why, I saw them doing it!" I cried. "But what about the gig? Who pickedyou up?"
She was watching that open door once more, and she answered with notableindifference, "Mr. Rattray."
"So that's the connection!" said I; and I think its very simplicity waswhat surprised me most.
"Yes; he was waiting for us at Ascension."
"Then it was all arranged?"
"Every detail."
"And this young blackguard is as bad as any of them!"
"Worse," said she, with bitter brevity. Nor had I ever seen her look sohard but once, and that was the night before in the old justice hall,when she told Rattray her opinion of him to his face. She had now thesame angry flush, the same set mouth and scornful voice; and I tookit finally into my head that she was unjust to the poor devil, villainthough he was. With all his villainy I declined to believe him as badas the others. I told her so in as many words. And in a moment we werearguing as though we were back on the Lady Jermyn with nothing else todo.
"You may admire wholesale murderers and thieves," said Eva. "I do not."
"Nor I. My point is simply that this one is not as bad as the rest. Ibelieve he was really glad for my sake when he discovered that I knewnothing of the villainy. Come now, has he ever offered you any personalviolence?"
"Me? Mr. Rattray? I should hope not, indeed!"
"Has he never saved you from any?"
"I--I don't know."
"Then I do. When you left them last night there was some talk ofbringing you back by force. You can guess who suggested that--and whoset his face against it and got his way. You would think the better ofRattray had you heard what passed."
"Should I?" she asked half eagerly, as she looked quickly round at me;and suddenly I saw her eyes fill. "Oh, why will you speak about him?"she burst out. "Why must you defend him, unless it's to go against me,as you always did and always will! I never knew anybody like you--never!I want you to take me away from these wretches, and all you do is todefend them!"
"Not all," said I, clasping her hand warmly in mine. "Not all--not all!I will take you away from them, never fear; in another hour God grantyou may be out of their reach for ever!"
"But where are we to go?" she whispered wildly. "What are you to do withme? All my friends think me dead, and if they knew I was not it wouldall come out."
"So it shall," said I; "the sooner the better; if I'd had my way itwould all be out already."
I see her yet, my passionate darling, as she turned upon me, whiter thanthe full white moon.
"Mr. Cole," said she, "you must give me your sacred promise that so faras you are concerned, it shall never come out at all!"
"This monstrous conspiracy? This cold blooded massacre?"
And I crouched aghast.
"Yes; it could do no good; and, at any rate, unless you promise I remainwhere I am."
"In their hands?"
"Decidedly--to warn them in time. Leave them I would, but betraythem--never!"
What could I say? What choice had I in the face of an alternative soheadstrong and so unreasonable? To rescue Eva from these miscreants Iwould have let every malefactor in the country go unscathed: yet thecondition was a hard one; and, as I hesitated, my love went on her kneesto me, there in the moonlight among the rhododendrons.
"Promise--promise--or you will kill me!" she gasped. "They may deserveit richly, but I would rather be torn in little pieces than--than havethem--hanged!"
"It is too good for most of them."
"Promise!"
"To hold my tongue about them all?"
"Yes--promise!"
"Promise!"
"When a hundred lives were sacrificed--"
"Promise!"
"I can't," I said. "It's wrong."
"Then good-by!" she cried, starting to her feet.
"No--no--" and I caught her hand.
"Well, then?"
"I--promise."
Dead Men Tell No Tales Page 14