Miranda of the Balcony

ghts r

ight,

ACMILLAN

ood

g & Co.--Ber

, Mass.

NT

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EPS BY WHICH HE ATTAINED HIS MAJORITY AND

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E ADVANTAGES WHICH EACH

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XIDERMIST FROM TANGIER MAKE

s were lost. For quit2e apart from its odd circumstances, a certain mystery lent importance to Ralph Warriner. It transpired that nearly two years before, when on service at Gibraltar, Captain Warriner of the Artillery had slipped out of harbour one dark night in his yacht, and had straightway

ghthouse men, and a third, a small rotund Belgian of a dark, shiny countenance which seemed always on the point of perspiring. He was swathed in a borrowed suit of oilskins much too large for him, and would have cut a comical figure had he not on that raw morning looked supremely unhappy a

downwards on the swell. He watched the relief men choose their time and spring on board, and just as Zeb

u to the Bish

n wondering what had brought the little

gingly, "and wi' that and a heavy ground sea we'll be b

. "For the sea, I am dévot;" but his

shook h

pon a tumbling wilderness of sea. "I'ld sooner have two gales lashed together than sail amongst

nes lugger was the first boat, so far as was known, to run the hazard of the sea. It is true that two days before one man had run in to the bar of Tregarthen's Hotel and told how he had stood upon the top of the Garrison and had looked suddenly down a lane

. Fournier was impervious, and

jumped. Isaacs caught and set him upon the floor of the boat, where he stood clutching the runners. He saw the landing-step

eat out on its first tack, across the Road. M. Fournier

dévot," he murmured

sail swung over M. Fournier's head like a canopy; and on the downward slope the heavy bows took the water with a thud. M. Fournier knelt up and clung to the stays. At all costs he must

ume his courage. He even smiled over his sh

on this day, ended in a shriek. For at that moment a great green wave hopped exultingly

ily summarised it, "he lay upon the thwarts and screeched like a rook

here and there in long corridors, driven this way and that, twirling in spires of smoke, shepherded by the winds; now again it hung close about them an impenetrable umber, while the crew in short quick tones and gestures of the arms mapped out the rocks and passages. About them they could hear the roar of the breaking waves and the rush of water up sl

h Crebawethan Neck, that M. Fournier, who had been staring pers

"There, there!" And as he spoke the mist drove b

s looked in t

ng towards a menacing column of bl

xcitedly gesticulated. He seemed at that mo

keeper of the lighthouse, an

ing," he sa

," replied Isaacs, who

I see it no more myself. But I have seen it, I t

to port. The boat came broadside to the wind, heeled over, and in a second the water was pouring in over the gunwale. Zebedee wrenched the main sheet off the pin, and let the big sail

ones expounded to the Belgian the enormity of his crime. Fournier was himself well-nigh frantic with excitement.

seen it. There may be men alive on that rock--starving, perishing, men of the sea like you. You will

tood up in the bows, a second knelt upon the thwarts, a third craned his body out beyond the stern, and all with one accord stared toward

an. As they passed along that narrow channel, no noise was heard but the bustle of the tide. For at the western end they saw the bows of a ship unst

to in a tiny creek, some

, and the lighthouse-keeper

fe and noise. So startling was the change that M. Fourn

and shearwaters whirled upwards from that nursery of sea-birds and circled above his head, their cries

Robinson Crusoe,"

cilly," said the lighthouse-keepe

ss, there a patch of mallows--mallows of a rusty green and whitened with salt of the sea. In the midst of one such patch they came upon the body of a man. He was dressed in

man knelt down and gently turned the man over upon his back; as he did so, or rather just before he did so, Fournier turned sharply away with a

had been watching, for this action. For he turned about immediately and stood by the lighthouse-keeper's side. Above the lonely islet th

upon the rocks and drew him down again and threw him up again until it got tired of the sport

stance between the mallows and the sea with some pe

nd as Fournier shifted restlessly at his side, he looked up

," replied Fournier, a

se-keeper no

among their chimneys and roof-tops--perhaps here a great Spanish galleon with its keel along the middle of a paved square and its poop overhanging the gables, and the fishes swimming in and out of the cabins through the broken windows; perhaps there a big three-decker like Sir Cloudesley Shovel

jacket. Then he felt in his pocket and drew out an oils

ond that they were headed "Yacht The Ten Brothers," and they were signed "Ralph Warriner," all of them except o

at about with him, and now it will be read out in court to make a sorry fun f

asily and seemed to wince. The lighthouse-keeper held the

oilskin case, and going back to the boat called for two of the crew to carry the body

, but overlooked them from a pinnacle of roc

ly to be expected, for "The Ten Brothers" had been a trader before Ralph Warriner bought her, and two years had elapsed be

izon a ball of red fire, and the lugger ferried the dead body back to St. Mary's over

ndalusian hills, a hundred miles from Algeciras and Gibraltar, and had lived there since her husband's disappearance. To Ronda the oilskin case was sent. She heard the news of her Ralp

PTE

N THE UNHEROIC ATTI

lged with the ardour and, indeed, the results of an amateur chemist. Her life was spent in mingling incompatible elements and producing explosions to which her enthusiasm kept her deaf, ev

ppearance and a wealth of experiences. He was a man of a sunburnt aquiline face, which was lean but not haggard, grey and very steady eyes, and a lithe, tall figure, and though he conveyed a

atter. "He has been surveying for a railway line there

know what

without diffidence, succ

eople?" asked L

But I believe his father wa

n in a man;" and in her memories she made a mark against Charnock's name. She heard of him again once or twice in unexpected quarters from the lips of the men who from East to West are responsible for t

e across a Mr. Ch

partner

knew his

said she, "but one never hears anything of

said the North-co

ied Lady Donnisthorpe, "and perhap

al of provoking amusement, "and, believe me, Lady

nock, and while still undecided, she chanced to pass one December through Nice.

ld are you doing

. I have been in Spain for the last two yea

Sp

w line between Ca

claimed Lady Donnisthorpe. "I think you will do,"

harnock, cheerfully. "

er ladyship. "Though, mind you

ll improve it,"

of different subjects. Lady

England for a year?"

ne," replied Charnock. "I shall have to see th

before you leave Spain. Promise!" said

town of Spain. Miranda was entreated, implored, and commanded to come to London in May. There was the season, there was Miranda's estate in Suffolk, which needed her attention. Miranda reluctantly consented, and so Lady Donnisth

ltar before he could embark for England. He did not, however, spend more than two of those four days at Gibraltar, but picking up a yellow handbill in the lounge of the ho

ry Jews screamed at him on the landing-stage, and then a Moorish boy with a brown roguish face who was dressed in a saf

s shown the incidentals of the Tangier variety entertainment: the Basha administering more or less justice for less or more money at his Palace gate; the wooden peep-hole of the prison where the prisoners' hands come through and clutch for alms; a dancing-room where a Moorish woman closely veiled leaned her back again

and then, as he passed a man better dressed th

He invariably add

nock, at length, "can't you s

enient question. He pointed to a number of venerable gentlemen in black robes who sat in wooden hutche

murmurous confusion of voices, from which occasionally a sharp cry would spirt up clear into the air like a jet of water. Only one voice was definite and incessant, and that voice came

kbar," sa

Beh!" the voice cried, and again "Allah Beh!" and again, u

hed by his years, and with every movement of his body the muscles beneath the tough skin of his bare legs worked like live things. He sat cross-legged in the dust wit

ess. He paid no heed whatever to Charnock and the boy as they halted beside him. "Allah Beh!" he cried, and his chest touch

rly, and though he owned a house worth three thousand dollars in Tangier, he did not dwell in it. But no concealments had availed him. Someone of his familiars had told, and no doubt had made his profit from the telling. The Basha had waite

here he stood he could see the laughing water of the Straits, and be

is not

blind man's lap, but Hassan did not

en in the morning to five at night. He never stops." And at that moment, upon the heels of Hamet's words, as though inte

d up a finger, and they both listened. Maybe the blind man was listening too, but Charnock could not be c

e, which sheltered them both from the view of anyone who came down the hill. He left the lane free, and into the open space there came a man who wore the dress of a Moor of wealth, serwal, ch

ed. "Peace be with you," he said, as Charnock, who had some knowledge of Arabic, understood. But the begg

ch man, sounded unpleasant and callous. Hamet shifted a foot at Charnock's side, and Charnock, whose interes

r, and in a little he began to hum between his teeth a tune--a queer, elusive tune of a sweet but rather mournful melody; and it

y laugh he turned to go down into Tangier. But as he turned he saw Charnock watching him. On the instant his hand went to his hood and drew it close

s he who told?

disa

of the rich Moor and the beggar remained in his thoughts, and he allowed his imagination lazily to fix a picture of it in his mind. Thus occupied, he w

er the tune th

Hamet, however, promptly whistled the melody from begin

rgotten it to-mo

ecollect it tomorrow," said

ed again as though some new per

ertainly before he spoke, Hassan Akbar stopped his prayer, which you say he never stops. He

he S?k," re

within view of the market-place. Charnock was puzzled by his unanswered question, and

her merchandise, a few skinny onions and vegetables; there two men forced a passage with blows of their sticks, and behind them a stately train of camels brought in from the uplands their loads of dates. A Riffian sauntered by with an indifferent air, his silver-mounted gun upon his back, a pair of pistols in his belt, and a great coarse tail of hair swinging between his shoulders. He needed no couriers to prepare his way. At one spot a serpent-charmer thrust out his to

abel Charno

f the highest part of the S?k. In the doorways of the tents a few men sat cobbling; one or two wood fires cr

ntinued Hamet. "Every evening he comes down to the S?k

ted Charnock. "And he was the

y and noiselessly, the blind gaunt beggar of the cemetery gate followed upon his trail. In and out amongst the shifting groups he threaded and wound, and never erred in his pursuit. The man in whose track he kept

llow relentlessly, unswervingly, one silent man amongst the noisy hundreds. Charnock walked for a few yards by Hassan Akbar's side, keeping pace with him.

ong a narrow, crooked alley between blank and yellow walls, which ended in a tunnel beneath over-arching houses. Almost within the mouth of this tunnel there was a shop, or so it seemed, for a stuffed jackal swung above the door as a sign. Before this shop Charnock halted with a

r of glasses, set them upon his nose, glanced up and down the street, closed the door behind him, and taking no heed what

, without any sign of expectation or excitement, rise slowly to his feet and move along the house wall towards the door.

lt again grate into its socket. The door was then onl

san. Hassan quietly and immediately murmured a request for alms and stretched out his left hand, a supple, corded hand, with long sinuous fingers, a hand

the secret movement shocked Charnock. It seemed to him

rning had its effect. There was a heavy blow upon the door, as though a man's shoulder lurched against it, and then the bolt grated into the s

, twice, thrice. But he got no answer. He leaned his ear to the panel. He could detect

ht have been no grounds at all for any excitement. Hassan Akbar might have been following through the S?k by mere accident. He might have tried the door in pursuit of nothing more than alms; and in a little the whole inc

PTE

N AGREEABLE COUNTENANCE, AND

ock with a manner of effusive jocularity to which Charnock did not respond. The Major was tall and about forty years of age. A thin crop of black hair was plastered upon his head; he wore a moustache which was turning grey; his eyebrows were so faultlessly regular that they s

y rebuffed, and he walked the deck by C

e Bay under a strong south-westerly wind. Off Ushant she picked up a brigantine which Charnock wat

nock old fellow!" sai

roller, lifted it, and shook the wat

wered Charnock, "except on a

iliar to me," spe

nock, "built for the fruit-trade, and so built for speed. Only they were sc

interest, and he leaned forward over th

Wilbraham raised them to his eyes while the P. and O. closed upon the saili

nd he shut up the binoculars. "Wh

hundred, I

advantage to alter her rig, supposing tha

d Charnock. "I rather understood t

eturned the binoculars. The steamer was now abreas

see more of you," resumed Major Wilbrah

a well-wor

card between his forefinger and his thumb. "Don't you," he

raham laug

take you. But a friend in this world, sir,

ce, the cards you give, Major Wilbraham, bear no address, the cards you receive, do."

gence of a rascally printer, and

ymouth for two days, and on the morning of the third day hired a hansom cab, and so met with the last of those incidents which w

eets of Plymouth. Spring was in the air; Charnock felt exceedingly light-hearted and cheerful. On the way he unconsciously worked his little finger into the eye of the brass brack

the bank a fair-haired gentleman of an agreeable countenance, who, quite

y, as he leaned out of the win

Charnock was sufficiently human and therefore sufficiently perverse to become at once convinced that although there we

yet farther o

shouted, "you who

so stood with his back towards Charnock while gently and thoughtfully he nodded his head. It

becoming exasperated, "my dear s

a very few moments a small crowd would have formed. The stranger thereupon came slowly back to the hansom, showing a fac

, with severity, "that my firs

s expressed by the other,

k me for so

se," Charnock affably corrected. "I expected

ect stranger," and here the blue eyes became very

my finger is fixed, as you can see, in this brass ring, and I cannot withdraw it. So if you would kindly cross over to the chemist and buy me

edulity showed upon

o tell me--" h

to be my good

ame suddenly vindictive

id Charnock, again

ly aside, and the penny flew into a gutter. He stood up on the step

hope your finger will petrify. I hope you'll just sit in that cab and rot away in your

a lady I don't think that I shoul

ood Samaritan, who was no Samaritan at all, had flun

just as well have driven across to the

ger free, cashed his draft,

ome counties, his face obtruded, and for a particular reason. The marks of fear are unmistakable. The man whom he had called, had been scared by the call, nor had his fear quite left h

g feet, was seized with an utter sense of loneliness, more poignant, more complete, than he had ever experienced in the waste places of the world. The lights of a the

lling me what this

a musica

t what is

our scratched his

he said, "for I saw the

r theatre, where he saw a good half of the tragedy of M

here the name of a brewery perpetually wrote itself in red brilliant letters which perpetually vanished. It was his habit to sleep not merely

d since the night was moonless and dark, this mirror, it should be remembered, reflected nothing of the room

and thus the abusive stranger was in his thoughts

stage, into a felucca. The crew of the felucca, it now appeared, was made up of Charnock, Lady Macbeth, and Hassan Akbar, and by casting lots with counters made of vaseline, Charnock was appointed to hold the tiller. This duty compelled extraordinary care, for the felucca would keep changing its rig and the bulk of its hull swelled and dwindled. At last, to Charnock's intense relief, the boat settled into a Salcombe

good," said Charnock,

n, and lifting the trap in the roof he showered packets of v

sly noticed that the cab

was in Moorish dress, but the face was the face of the abusive stranger of Plymouth--and all at once Charnock started up on his elbow, and in the smallest

urved lips which alone had any colour, the eyes, deep and troubled, which seemed to hint a prayer for help which they disdained to make--for five seconds pe

the darkness move. Nor could he hear any sound. Not even a board of the floor cracked, and outside the door there was no noise of a footstep on the stairs. Then from a great distance the jingle of a cab came throug

though it was a woman's face which had gleamed in the depths of his mirror--standing under the green shaded lamps in the big gambling-room. His attention, he now remembered, had been seized by the contrast between her amused indifference and the feverish haste of the gamblers about the table; bet

was thus vouchsafed to her, a stranger, to make her appeal to him in this way, which spared her the humiliation of making any appeal at all. Charnock fell asleep convinced that somehow, somewhere, he was destined to meet and know

PTE

T MEETING BETWEEN

rom her position at the head of the stairs, and cat

you? I want to introduce you to a cousin of min

nda. I

nt air of indifference, "She is a widow,"

which Lady Donnisthorpe had dropped during the last few days, had not escaped the notice of Miranda, who was aware of her cousin's particular weakness. This was undoubtedly Mr

iner--Mr.

ctims would at once and publicly embrace. But at all events she had decked out her ball-room as the sacrificial altar, and had taken

the world did he not move or speak? Lady Donnisthorpe turned her eyes from Miranda to this awkward cavalier, and was restored to a radiant

urely have remarked an unmistakable look of disappointment which grew within Charnock's eyes and spread out over

rom the corner by the doorway he watched Miranda, he remarked an unaffected friendliness in her manner towards her partners. Candour was written upon her broad white forehead and looked out from her clear eyes. He had no doubt it was fragrant too in her hair. There were heavy masses of that hair, as he knew very well from his mirror, but now the mass

knowledge of her, but rather by what miracle of forgetfulness he had allowed her face, after he had seen it that one

imaginable step, and he was suddenly struck through and through with a chilling appre

Spanish women, he assured himself, and they had not objected. He was thus consoling himself when the time ca

ment, and that he was dolefully humorous concerning Major Wilbraham and his exchanges of cards, though why Major Wilbraham sho

the horror-stricken Charnock, a

da assured him with a l

o! Never, upon my word! I have danced with S

o," said

ends. Conversation came easily to their tongues, and underneath the surfac

rriner," said Charnock, as they seate

her face lost its look of enjoyment and darkened with some shadow

ice, "that we should meet first of all in a

hy

deur of open spaces, in the centre of the Sahara, and for the moment he forgot to calculate the effect of the sand upon Miranda's eyes. This f

ing in that way six years ago?" he

rriner. "Why is it wonderf

-he paused for a second or two--"unti

rplexity. Then she said with a demure smi

th a glance at the cunnin

hat," said she,

ror, you couldn't be. I was in bed,--I mean,--let me tell you!" He stopped, overwhelmed with embarrassment. Miranda, with an air of comp

ay," Charnock began again. "

r, as though the whole myst

s, "that I dined in the train and drank

r," Miranda blandly remarked,

wasn't that I had been thinking of you that evening, or indeed, that I had ever been at all in the habit of thinking--" Again

she said in a

e continued. "Only I take it you have no taste for compl

people I had seen, and incidents I had witnessed during the last week, at Tangier and at Plymouth. I dreamed

ou fa

that I saw--dream-faces are always elus

e like

cannot

Miranda, with a smile,

ooks, if not her lips, might give him some clue to the comprehension of his mysterio

ay: the recollection that you had seen me must have lain latent, so that when you woke

any theatre t

da, after counti

see Macbeth

N

y that afternoon. I drove from Paddington to my hotel; from the hotel I went t

e than curiosity. It was evident to her from his urgent tones, from the eagerness of his face, that he had some hidden reason for his desire to fathom the mystery. It

our dream,

it, ships, Lady Macbeth, the Major with his card-case, and the stranger who swore

phra

a fair red-hotter amongst other things," said Charnock, laughing at his recollections, "a

and opened and shut her fan. "He

ui

are s

ui

en him anywhere--

r a few seconds. "Never

fanned herself as she leaned back in the shadow of

air hair, bright blue eyes, an open, good-natured face, and I

was the only movement which she made, and from the sha

it, as though now that he had heard the expected words, he dared not after all reply to them. He did not look towards her. He stared at the dancers, but with vacant eyes. He saw nothing of their jewels, or their coloured robes, o

e, drew it off her wrist unconsciously, and

ing whether by any miracle, it might be true. And if there's an infinitesimal chance that it's true, I think that I ought to tell you it, even though it may seem merely ridiculous, even though it may offend you. But I

he should read the warning there; but from the tail of his eye, he could see the fan, the white glove lying idle upon the black satin of her dress. The skirt hung

the explanation which occurred to me?" His voice sank; he went on, slowly choosing every word with care, and speaking it with hesitation. "I imagined that out of all the millions of women in the world, here was one who needed help--my help, who was allowed to appeal to me for it, without, if you understand, making any appeal at all, and the explanation was not ... unp

led face than yours. You had been to Macbeth that evening; Lady Macbeth played a part in your drea

e used. And if her voice surprised him, he was shocked and startled by her looks. She was still leaning back in the

t have fainted, but that her eyes glittered out of the shadow straight and steadily into his. She

I do?" he

he face which he had seen in the polished darkness of his mirror. The sheen of the dark polished panels helped the illusion. His fancy had come true, was transmuted into fact. Somewhere, somehow, he was to meet that woman. He had met her here and in this way, and her eyes and her face uttered her distress as with a piercing cry. Her eyes! The resemblance was perfec

sitting near to the window had kept an alert eye upon the couple in the recess during the last three dances; and each time that her daughter--a pretty girl with hair of the palest possible gold, and light blue eyes that were dancing with a child's delight at all the wonders of a first season--returned to the shelter of her portly frame, the dowager drew moral lessons for her benefit from the text of the obliv

here's a coque

hind, and overheard t

e said politely, "it w

smile. He stooped and picked up the glove. Mrs. Warriner had indeed dropped the glove by accident; but since it fell in Charnock's way and since he pick

PTE

ANDA IMPROVE THEIR ACQUA

lear night of early June, odorous with messages of hedgerows along country lanes and uplands of young grass, and of bells ringing over meadows. In front of them the dark trees of the Park rippled and whispered to the stray br

the glove which he had pi

a; "thank you," and she st

e trifle of white kid; he smoothed it, and his hand had the light touch of a caress. "Miran

, and at the caressing movement of his hand which accompanied and perhaps interpreted the utterance, or perhaps it was only at a certain

silence so long as no questions were asked of her, and Charnock had rather the air of on

ock raised his head and listened to the twelve heavy strokes with a smile. His manner

nd she was suddenly sensible of a great interest in all

arnock, turnin

At one time I used to stay here

; it is not of those which you and your friends go up and down," he rep

his career, in his hurried migratory life, in the mystery which enveloped his youth, and all the more because of the contrast between her youth and his. He had lived for three years in some small back street of Westminster; very likely she had more than once rubbed shoulders with him in the streets on the occasions when sh

e the words were spoken. "Perhaps some day," she continued hurriedly, "you will tell me of those thr

, if you will, the history of my three years for the history of you

membrance of it since she had come out upon the balcony. She had, in a word, sought and found a compensation in the new friendship of this man, and a relief

id Miranda, quickly.

t the story I told you. At what point of it I do not know. I was not looking. Did I show you some misfortune you were unaware of, and might still be unaware of, if I had only held my tongue? In offering to shield you, did I only strike at you? I do not know, I am

ed Miranda, and her l

me; my headquarters now are at Algeciras;" a

not tell me tha

it best that Miranda should learn it from Charnock's lips, and be pleasantly surprised thereby. That Miranda was plea

s at the bottom, and there are a hundred m

rted Charnock, "a hund

into the room?"

d laughed with a fresh bright trill of amusement. It broke suddenly and spontaneously from her lips and surprised Cha

said hastily, "

shed to

-not for t

ay it. He held the means unwittingly in his hand, for he held Miranda's glove. It was that glove which provoked her amusement. Charnock, with a pertinacity which was only equalled by his absence of mind, was trying to force his h

tinacity, and it is true that our acqu

trievably destroy it," sai

finger in particular needed a deal of strenuous coaxing, and caused him to break up his words with intervals of physical effort. "Because--as I say--we shall be neighbours

terest in the durability of her glove. She leaned forward in a delight

r neighbours, though you are at Ronda and I am at Algeciras, than if you lived in this house and I at the house next door. Because after all ther

is side at the balustrade. "Yes," she answered, looking at the circling lights on the outer rim of the Park. "I think that is true. It spares one

id glove of which the kid was ripped across the palm. He felt in his pocket with his right hand and drew out both of his own

t up. I had forgotten even that I was holding

iranda, with a frank laugh, "but

e incredulity. "You mean to say tha

to mind," said she, look

t struck him. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "suppose it had belonged to anyone else, the dowager

," said Miranda, as she

wn quite serious. "If so," sa

her eyes shone upon his, with no longer a sp

es

t no man can offer a woman his friendship or he

but to say "yes," and there would be an end, now and forever, of his questions, of his help, of his friendship, of everything between them beyond the merest acquaintanceship. Perhaps some day t

believ

to be drawing the lots which one way or another would decide and limit all her years to come. Upon the tiny "yes" or "no" between which she had to make her choice, her whole life was de

, with his eyes, with his voice, with his ver

see why I should be asked to mean what I say, or whether I mean what I

she would have been compelled to answer one way or another; and she felt certain, too, that whatever answer she gave it would have been

rd, he moved back again and barred the way. "No, please," he said qui

a sigh, which was only half of it a jest; and she drew back as though she di

"That glove," he said, and pointed to it. Mirand

, whipping it behind her back; "there

ntrary, I would ask you to keep it if you will. There is

fully, "I could wish after all

he music streamed out into the night. Had he followed, she would have stepped into the room, amongst the dancers; she would have been claimed by a partner, and she woul

that one way or other she must do the irrevocable thing. It was a mere step to make across the sill of the window, from the stone of the balcony to the parquet of the ball-room floor,--a thing insignificant

n a whimsical complaint, and then very gently: "I wil

. And it seemed to me that there was something providential in my tearing that glove; for that torn glove can be the means, if ever you see fit to use it. You live at Ronda; for the next year I am to be found at Algeciras; you will only have to send that torn glove to me in an enve

kened her cheeks. Charnock saw her whole face soften and sweeten. "I understand," she said in a lo

rror sent me a message on that ni

am most grateful. What woman would not be? But I do not think that I shall ever send you the glove: not because I would not be glad to owe gratitude

lding the glove tight against her breast, and she had a feeling that

PTE

S CASTLES IN SPAIN,

m her seat by the window as Miranda stepped over the sill into the ball-room. She sat

that if ever you sit out with one man for half-an-hour on a cool balco

e under this instructional use of an evening party. "I w

r's side and spoke to her. Mrs. Warriner stopped within a couple of yards of

id the censorious

too?" asked Mu

id the dowager, who wa

indeed, no more than an interchange of "good-nights," but the dowa

bt," said she, as through her glas

much dignity," obj

ne astonishing thing about such women is not their capacity for playing tricks but their in

gly in his memory. The next moment the dowager swept past him. The daughter Muriel followed, and as she passed Charnock she looked at him with an inquisitive friendliness. But her ey

secured for her a chair and an ice, and stood by her side, conversational but incommunicative. She w

t on with my co

led foolishl

Donnisthorpe, and tapped with

said Charnock, draw

r voice and said with great

ely nodded hi

ably with the full intention of wringing

g and Miranda was no expert. How could she be? She lived at Glenham with only her father and a discontented relation, called Jane Holt, for her companions. Consequently she married Ralph Warriner, who got his step the day after the marriage, and the pair went immediately to Gibraltar. Ralph had overestimated Miranda's fortune, and it came out that he was already handsomely dipped; so that their married life began with more than the usual disadvantages. It lasted for three years, and for that time only because of Miranda's patience and endurance. She is very s

hurriedly, as though he had no h

ld not touch a farthing of the capital, and he was aggrieved. Miranda returned to Gibraltar, and matters went from worse to worse. The crash came a year later. The nature of it is neither here nor there, but Ralph had to go, and had to go pretty sharp. His schooner-yacht wa

trayed that evening, but he did not discover one. Another question forced itself into his mind. "Why does Mrs.

reach. But everyone knew that disgrace attached to it. His name was removed from the Army List. Miranda perhaps shrank from the disgrace. She shrank too, I think, from the cheap pity of which she would have had so much. At all events she did not return home, she sent for Jane Holt, her former companio

favourite sword." He composed other and no less irreproachable phrases, and in the midst of this exhilarating exercise was struck suddenly aghast at the temerity of his own conduct that night, at the remembrance of his persistency. However, he was not in a mood to be disheartened. The dawn took the sky by surprise while he was still upon his way.

quiet from the quiet of the lawns and trees; and every now and then she glanced across her shoulder to w

s surprised, for he remembered that Mrs. Warriner had expressed a doubt whether she would ever return to Ronda, and wondered what had occurred to change her min

PTE

EPS BY WHICH HE ATTAINED HIS MAJORITY, AN

he choir, Miranda was kneeling before a lighted altar. That altar she had erected, as an inscription showed, to the memory of

by an increased devoutness, but though her knees were bent, there was no prayer in her mind or upon her

ot move, but she knelt there with a sinking expectation, in the light of the altar candles, and felt intensely helples

ing of a chair upon the stone flags beyond the choir, and a priest droning a litany

turned. At once a man stepped forward, and her heart gave

did not look at it, for immediately the stranger continued to speak, in

tar," he said. "In fact I may say

ed for an answer, and then excused h

I have used all despatch to inform you of it,

ment Miranda hea

red it a month

s the mere telling of it, the putting of it in words, to quote the stranger's phrase, had overwhelmed her. Memories of afternoons during which she had walked out with her misery to Europa Point, of evenings when she had sat with her misery upon the flat house-top watching the riding lights in Algeciras Bay, and listening to the jingle of tambourines from the houses on the hillside below--all the

f the consequences of her return, and for reasons which she was afterwards to explai

the door of the Cathe

I frankly own that I expected a scene of sorts. I was quite taken aback--a compliment, I assure you, upon my puff," and he bowed with his hand on hi

s was entirely due to the fact that the news

nd who is still alive, to pray devoutly before it, is highly ingenious and--may I say?--brave. Religion is a trump-card, Mrs. Warriner,

it, and yet in the insincerity there had been also something sincere. The truth is, Miranda could bring herself to wish neither that her husband was dead if he was alive, nor that he should come to life again if he was dead; she made a compromise--she daily pra

d at Gibraltar," sh

fraid, Mrs. Warriner. I have not come from Scotland Yard. I have had, I admit

otland Yard, whereas nothing was further from my thoughts. Only you say

come from him, though most certainly I did know him at Gib

ow, "I can do no more than thank you for th

step by her side. "Clever," said he, "clever!" Miranda

you hold my car

l, unaware that she held it. She now raised it

had spoken to her of a Major Wilbraham, had described him, and undoubtedly this was the man. "As to my bu

ha

the new Daventry quick-firing gun to a foreign power; who slipped out of Gibraltar just a night before his arrest was determined

card. "Major Ambrose Wilbraham," she said

me by a barman in Shaftesbury Avenue, and I suffered it, because the title after all gives me the entrance to the chambers of many young men who have, or most often have not, just taken their deg

d Miranda, with a contemptuous droop

es whom we regretfully impress to supply our needs upon the march. Our enemies are the rozzers--again I beg your pa

foot, and they walked slowly. They made a strange pair in the old, quaint streets, the woman walking with a royal carriage, delicate in her beauty and her dres

theatrical companies in 'the smalls,'" he said, "a billiard-marker at Trieste, a racing tipster, a vender of--photographs, and I once carried a sandwich-board down Bond Street, and saw the women I had danced with not so long before draw their delicate skirts from the defilement of my rags. However, I rose to a bett

a gentleman, and with something of a gentleman's good humour; so that Miranda, moved partly by his recital and perhaps partly because her own misfortunes had touched her to an universal sympathy, began to be i

a face suddenly illuminated. "The garrets and the first floors, the stale billiard rooms, the desperate scouting for food like a damned sea-gull--I beg your pardon, Mrs. Warriner. Upon my word, I do! But imagine a poor beggar of a bankrupt painter who, after fifteen years, suddenly finds himself with a meal upon the table and his bills paid! I am that man. Fifteen years of what I have described to you! It might have been less, no do

res

th; for 'tis n

ng, unlovely

s. Warriner. Wha

led the sympathy in her; Major Wilbraham would not spare either Ra

. Before a pair of heavy walnut doors curiously encrusted with bright copper nails Wilbraham cam

he, "to hear what you hav

ne with a soda and I'm so frisky, but I recognise th

ped, leaned over the parapet and looked downwards. Wilbraham followed her example. For three hundred feet the walls of the gorge fell sheer, at the bot

randa, drily. "The prison is unde

oked across the road towards a guardia. Wilbraham lazily followed the direction of her glance; for all the emotion which he showed blackmail

m, "would compensate in some

t add to the

asant," Wilbraham

pted defeat in this little encoun

at barrow, Mrs. Warriner," Wi

sh quarter of the town, ascended the hill, and came to the bull r

there on ne

ms a lo

Alameda is close to the railway station.

der at your choice. You were wise to take a Moorish house, I fancy--the patio with the tamarisks in the middle and the fountain and the red and green tiles--very pleasant,

e house, then?" e

e not? A profound sentimentalist, I should fancy; I noticed she was reading Henrietta Temple. She complained of being much alone; she nurses grievances, no doubt. Sentimentalists have th

d in that posture for some seconds. From the foot of that precipice the plain of the Vega stretched out level as a South-sea lagoon. The gardens of a few cottages were marked out upon the green like the squares of a chess-board; upon the hedges there was here and there the flutter of white linen. Orchards of apples, cherries, peaches

th the scenery, for when he turned back

me to the Alameda

to you in my own, house,"

reason, but he watched her wa

husband is living. I have your bare word for it, and out of your li

ery well. In the Cathedral you corroborated

you kn

savvy always can," replied Wilbraham. "Indeed, by adding t

ndful of dollars and pesetas. "This is what is left of two hundred and thirty pounds, which I won at Monte Carlo in the beginning of May. There's a chance for philosophy, Mrs. Warriner. If I hadn't won that money I sho

s discovery. Instantly Wilbraham paused. Miranda made an effort to look entirely uncon

ooked her over from head to foot. Miranda kept silence, and he resumed his story, thou

er owner could have gained no possible advantage by altering her rig from a schooner's into a brigantine's. Then my interest began to rise, for he had altered the rig. Why, if the change was to his disadvantage? I can't say that I had any answer ready; I can't say that I expected to find an answer. But since I landed at Plymouth, from which Salcombe is a bare twenty miles, I thought that I might as well run over. One never knows--such small accidents mean everything for us--and, as a matter of fact, I spent a very pleasant half-hour in the back parlour of the Commercial Inn, watching the yachts at anchor and the little sailing boats spinning about the river, and listening to an ol

aid Mrs.

sts and I proved beyond a shadow of doubt, from their dates of sailing and arrival at various ports, that not one of those eight schooners could have been the brig

de a sign

wrong; the Tarifa might never have been anything but the Tarifa and a brigantine; but the inference and the guess-work all pointed the one way, and I own that my interest was rapidly changing to excitement. My suspicions were strengthened by the behaviour of the Tarifa herself. No news of her approach was recorded in the papers. She didn't make any unnecessary noise about the port she was bound for, nor had she the manners to pass the time of day with any of Lloyd's signal-stations. The Tarifa's business began to provoke my curiosity. Here was (shall we say?) a needless lack of ceremony to begin with. It didn't seem as if the Tarifa had many

felt herself enmeshed in the net of this m

ing News and assimilated information about the inquest at St. Mary's. The faceless mariner chucked up on Rosevear struck one as interesting. I noticed too that there had been a good many wrecks in the Channel during the heavy weather and the fog just about that time. But before I had come to any con

Ralph Warriner was not at that time in Falmouth.

riner might have been put ashore; but it seemed to me impossible to obtain

she was not in a mood of sufficient calmness to enable her to realise that Wilbraham would

as sailing back to Tarifa with a cargo of alkali, and I saw that cargo stowed away in her hold. Mrs. Warriner, my spirits began to revive. That cargo of alkali was most uncommon small; the profit on it wouldn't have paid the dec

d Miranda, with an indifference

t-officers," retorted Wilbraham. "The Tarifa's papers were all quite recen

ded Miranda, with an a

? A most uncommon careless captain, Mrs. Warriner? For a boat to lose her papers--well, its pretty much the same as when a girl loses her marriage lines in the melodramas. A most uncommon careless captain! Or a most ast

e my husband," said

answered his question. "Becaus

o the ground," exclaimed Mira

a grizzled seafaring man of fifty; but he was always snug in his cabin, and a mate did the show business with the cargo. I grew curious about John Wilson; I wanted to see John Wilson. Accordingly I located the chart-room from the wharf, then I put on a black thumb tie and a dirty collar so as to look like a cl

ant?' says he,

on to Valencia?' says I, and I

d he, and out I went and shook hands wit

iranda, with almost a despairing

first mate of the schooner-yacht the Ten Brothers, of which Captain Ralph Warriner was the certifica

rs before," argued Miranda. "His presence on the

y and waited for the evening ebb. I passed that day in an altogether unenviable state of anxiety, Mrs. Warriner; for if by any chance I was wrong, if she did not mean to take up another cargo of a more profitable kind by dark, if she were to sail clean away for Ushant on the evening ebb, why, the boat might be

interrupted, "seems nautic

harbour the Tarifa passed a steam launch pottering around the St. Anthony Light?

she exc

just in view. That first half-hour or so was a wearing time for me, Mrs. Warriner, I assure you," and he took off his hat and wiped his forehead, as though the anxiety came back upon him now. He laboured his breath and bro

m launch buzzing in her wake. The evening was hazy, by a stroke of luck, but the wind was light and the sea smooth, and my propeller throbbed out over the water until I thought it must reverberate across the world, and the Esquimaux on Franz Josef Land and the Kanaka in the Pacific would hear it plain as the pulsing of a battleship. However, I slowed the launch down to less than half-speed, and the crew of the Tarifa made no account of me. The brigantine was doing only a leisurely five knots--she was waiting for the dark, I conjectured. Conjectured? I came near to praying it. And as if in answer to my prayer--it sounds pretty much l

questions; there was a look of discouragement upon her face; she began bitterl

ite to it, on the Falmouth side, is the coast-guard station; nearer to the mouth, and still on the Falmouth side, a tiny dingle shelters a school-house and half-a-dozen cottages, and still nearer, the road from Falmouth comes over the brow of the hill and dips down along the hill-side. At one point the steep hill-side is broken, there's an easy incline of sand and bushes and soil between the water and the road. The incline is out of sight of the coast-guard. Besides, it is only just round the point and close to the sea. And for that reason I was in no particular hurry to follow the Tarifa. I edged the launch close in under the point, waded ashore, and scrambled along in the dark until I reached the break in the hill-side. Then I lay down among the bushes and waited. All lights were out on the Tarifa, but I could see her hull dimly, a blot of solid black against the night's unsubstantial blackness. I waited for centur

peech. She was strung to a high pitch or exc

ed with unremitting diligence and caution, carrying first longish packing-cases of some weight, as I could gather from the conduct of the men who stumbled with them down the incline. And after the packing-cases, squa

the cargo?"

hing. Then on board the brigantine men gathered at the windlass, a chain clinked musically as the anchor was hove short, the gaff of her mainsail creaked up the mast, and the festoons of her canvas were unfolded. The Tarifa was outward bound and I had discovered nothing. I was like a man tied hand and foot and a treasure within his reach. I had had my fingers on the treasure. Again the chain rattled on the windlass; she broke out her foresail and her jib; I saw the water sparkle under her foot and stream out a creaming p

ibed the growth and extinction of his hopes, that Miranda almost forgot their object, almost found herself sympathising with his endeavours, al

a hard voice, "you

ked before, began to take an air of importance. The old man Fournier, for instance; it seemed sort of queer that a taxidermist of Tangier should come all the way to Scilly for a month's holiday. Eh, what? What was old man Fournier doing at Scilly? Scilly's a likely place for wrecks. Was old man Fournier a hanger-on upon chance, a nautical Mr. Micawber waiting for a wreck to turn up which would suit his purpose? Or had he stage-managed by some means or other the coup de theater on Rosevear? It seemed funny that the short-sighted man should spot the wreck on Rosevear before the St. Agnes men, eh? Suppose M. Fournier and Ralph Warriner were partners in that pretty cargo! I walked straight out of that library, feeling quite certain that I held the right end of the skein. I had made a mistake in following up Warriner. I ought to have followed up the taxidermist. I walked about Falmouth all that day puzzling the business out; and I came to the conclusion that the sooner I crossed to the Scillies the better. I was by this t

"Please finish what

med his seat and at th

TER

YSTERY OF THE

called at once upon the doctor.

in alcohol,' said I. 'I had once a very dear

onsiderable indignation. "There

tor. 'And what was he dismissed the service for?' I winked very slowly, with intense cunning; 'I understand,' said the doctor, with a leer, though Heaven

old man Fournier. Old man Fournier was a desperate coward on the sea, yet he had put out to the Bishop on a most unpleasing day. It was old man Fournier who insisted that they should run through the Neck and examine Rosevear, and when Zebedee Isaacs declined the risk, old man Fournier flung himself in a passion on the tiller and nearly swamped the boat. All very queer, eh? M. Fournier must have had some fairly strong motive to nerve him to that pitch of audacity. And what that motive was I should discover when I discovered the nature of the Tarifa's cargo. I thought perpetually about that

nier no doubt made the arrangements, and provided the capital; Ralph worked the cargo across from England to Morocco. And to make it safe for himself

law. I fairly hugged myself. 'Ambrose,' said I, 'never in all your puff have you struck anything like this. Fouché you shall trample under foot and Sherlock Holmes shall be your washpot; you are the best in the world. The faceless mariner was a fraud, a freak from Barnum's. Here at last is Eldorado, and there's no fly

workmen. I had no doubt that Warriner had followed this course. So I hired the custom-house officials to tell me the truth, and out it came. The Tarifa had landed its cargo in the bay a mile and a half from Tangier a couple of days before I arrived, and M. Fournier had supervised the unloading, and the captain of the Tarifa was no longer the grizzled sea-dog, Mr. Thomas Discipline, b

on Rosevear?' said I, 'and how's

and sick. He babbled expostulations

her lip. Wilbraham gazed at her with admiration. "Well, you

timonials," said Miranda

coward.' Would you believe it, the little worm turned? He flew into a violent passion; I suppose it was in just such a passion that he flung himself on Zebedee Isaacs

nd with a polite "You will pe

er lips. "Having failed to blackmail M. Fournier and

laugh away the slur; but removing his cigarette from his mouth, he turned deliberately his full face to her and in a deliberate voice said: "I do not take the

rmly into her cheeks, and her eyes softened and brightened and she smiled. A sudden glory seemed to illuminate her face. Wilbraham wondered why. He could not know that the brutal shock of his speech h

I should have got a lump sum now and again from them, and as I say, I have learnt my lesson. If I had a lump sum, it would be

ked up, an evidence that succour was very near--a hundred miles only down the winding valley which faced her--and she had

refuse you even a shi

ore the proper authorities, that Ralph Warriner

hat Mr. Warriner committed no cri

r. Warriner sold the mechanism of the

so sure

his a

u are also hi

forward to turnin

ly more than academic, for she knew both that her husband

she asked, and she s

. He took a pocket-book from his co

and's handwriting. This passage," and he folded the letter to show Miranda a line or two, "enjoins me to be very carefu

nder Miranda's eyes and w

of evidence, but a

natched it up quickly. Then he replaced it in his p

ch at it?" he exclai

me to snatch at

towards a woman, and I wanted you to look mean at all events; it would have made my business easier to handle. Well, let's have done wi

he felt. Miranda, in spite of herself, was touched by Wilbraham's manne

ive for the future in some more or less quiet hole, where none of my acquaintances are likely to crop up. Tarifa occurred to me; for one thing I can reach you from Tarifa; for another I can do the royal act at Tarifa on a moderate

her in just this way, with just these marks of diffidence, this fear that the troubles would bore her. She had been called upon to play the guardian-angel at times

and he was confiding in her. But the words tumbled from his lips and he did not think of the relationship in which he stood to her. He was only aware that for fifteen years he had not shared a single one of his

ation. Perhaps they aren't--I don't know--perhaps they are too wonderfully perfect. Probably I should make an awful hash of the job; but I think I should like to have a shot. I began years and years ago when I was an attaché at Paris, and--and I have always kept the book with me; but one has had no time." As he spoke he drew from

margined by paper brown with age and sullied with the rims of tumblers and the stains of

o add. "All I have written on the margin is purely tentative; probably it's no good at all." Miranda turned over a page and came upon one ode completely translated. "I did that," explained Wilbraham, "one season when I shipped as a hand on a Yarmouth smack. We got bad weather on the Dogger Bank, out in the North Sea at Christmas. We

n to read the ode.

y for the involuntary signs of approval or censure. But her face betrayed neithe

combing up above the bows and roaring along the deck. You had to keep your eyes open for them and scuttle down the companion before they came on board. Otherwise, if the weight of the water took you, it was a case of

ck sea flecked with white, at Christmas time, and a man on the watch, who had been an attaché at Paris, and was, even wi

in a low voice, and since Wilbraham was in t

ce of passion, and made the episode infinitely mean. Menelaus was an attaché at Paris: Helen lived at Knightsbridge, and the pair of them were engaged to be married. Helen was faithless merely through a cheap vanity, and a cheaper pose of wilfulness, and even so she was faithless merely in a low and despicable way. It was an infidelity of innumerable flirtations. She passed from arm to arm without intermission, and almost allowed those who fondled her

hrust her from his mind, but let his thoughts play sensuously with his

e-bowl. At that time I reckon I would rather have been the wreck I am now, and believed it was all my fault, for, you see, I might then have imagined that if I had done all right, I should have won the desirable woman.... Anyway, after I got back to Paris, a little while after, there was trouble." Wilbraham examined his cane and drew diagrams upon the ground. "The woman blabbed, in a moment of confidence ... to her husband. There was a sort of a scandal.... I had to go. I didn't blame the woman who blabbed; no, Mrs. Warriner, I bl

y was so utterly sordid; the characters in it so utterly puny. Before he told it he had acquired in her eyes even a sort of dignity, the dignity of a man battered and defeated in a battle wherein his wits were unequally matched against the solid forces of order; but in the telling he had destroyed that impression.

id his pocket-book on the seat with the pencil to mark the place, and without any noise, stood up. Miranda reached the railings at the edge of the gardens and leaned her arms upon it. The next moment sh

rom his grasp. Wilbraham's next movement answered her question. For he s

once before; I'll take care the robbery is not repeated." He l

ow how much I want; I shan't ruin you. I made a mistake that way once; I had the best secret conceivable, and ran my man down across two continents.

a growing horror in her eyes. "Yo

ver words," said Wi

lain Wilbraham's misconception of her movement. She was only

" he returned. "Of that I take i

rthing since the Ten Brothers slipped out of Gibralta

Wilbraham. "I might feel i

you shall not

one side. "You are very loyal," said he, with

e his compliment. She stood over against him with a

he said briefly. "I will cal

it to you," s

ch. "You will not leave Ronda even for a week without giving me due notice of your destination. I w

here, I will bri

on the bench with his Horace in his hand. He put down the book awkwardly, and rose. He had the

ue. Then he said suddenly: "I can't imagine what a woman like you sees in Ralph Warriner to trouble

away--for ten yards. Then he returned, for he had left his copy of Horace lying upon the bench. He picked it up with a curious and almost timo

he cried irritably. Then this jack-in-t

PTE

BLIND MAN MAY MAKE O

a pale light over a circle of the trampled grass, but outside the circle all was black. There was no glimmer in the tents of the shoemakers at the upper corner of the S?k

ndows a yellow flood of light streamed out, and besides the light, the music of a single violin and th

ole clothing wore a sack, but a dark cloak lay on the ground beside him. With his hands he continually tested a

out?" ask

woman," ans

e the ma

, fa

is e

ed again and again. There was a continual sound of leave-taking in different languages, mostly German and French, and between the man an

ll gone," s

commande

utting out

the lig

light is

ai

d two men in evening dres

said the boy, "but

be him

thin, but I cannot se

look

hat. Wait! He is smoking. He strikes a match

hat colour

His face is round,

e sat still in the darkness until a voice from the little garden cried out with a French accent: "I cannot

in the garden," said he. "Hush!" whispered the man, laying his hand upon t

ans against the door, and smokes and waits, wh

find th

ving the mule in front of him. He drove it through the wicket of the garden. A few words passed between the littl

say to thee?"

f I had stolen

u didst

hat I had found the mule loose in the S?k, an

have waited in the darkness outside the villa of the Room. Forget, so th

. The man was left alone. He remained squatting on the grou

head, mounted his mule, and passed out of the wicket gate. Jeremy passed within ten yards of the ma

he mule's hooves rang upon it. Then he picked up the dark cloak by his side and ran swiftly and noiselessly

ghrebbin dialect. "I have the

e stop, and ran

in the same tongue, as he

ing at the point from which the voice

e and flung him on to the ground. Bentham, half-throttled, half-stunned, lay for a moment or two upon his back, limp and unresisting. When he came to himself, it was no longer within his power to resist, for Hassan knelt straddled across his body, pinning him to the ground with the weight of his st

which, when it had penetrated the cloak, was no more than a sigh. He waited for the moment when the knee would be removed, and waited motion

ath his neck, and lifted him from the ground as though he was a child. Bentham was now less able to sho

kness of the night, the lateness of the hour, the silence of the S?k, and from the manner of Hassan's walk, he knew that he was being carried up the hill and away fro

ent, no doubt. What if Hassan had lost his way and stumbled among the tents of the shoemakers? But Hassan loosened the grip of the arm

about his mouth. Bentham could now see, and the flap of the tent was open. The tent was indeed one of the low, tiny gunny-bag tents of the shoemakers, but it was set far apart from t

something moving. Bentham sat up and

rward and tightened the knot which fastened the cloak at the back of his head. Then he c

me wherein to free his hands. It would have been sheer waste of time to free his mouth from the cloak. For none was within earshot of that tent who

d out and dropped between his knees. One of the two things he meant to do was done. Hassan had bound his hands not palm to palm, but wrist across wrist; and raising his hands he was able with the tips of his right-hand

rouched back against the wall of the tent. Now that the flap was closed, it was pitch-dark; that, howe

opped on my knees at the gate of the cemetery, I bought this tent and set it up he

is heart leaped at the words. He was not then to be killed.

awn knees, and reaching his face untied the cloak from his mouth. "Now the dog of a Christian will speak," he repeated softly, in a low gentl

lution of the doubt, to defer it, if it might be, till the morning came. This was summer--July--the morning

d in a wheedling voice, which daunted and chilled the man he spoke to. "Let us see!" And again h

himself. His only chance lay in Hassan's doubt, which lived upon his silence. Again Hassan's fingers returned to his face. Bentham closed his eyes; the thumbs touched and retouched them, now pressing gently upon the eyeballs, now worki

of twigs; what was to follow? One instant he dreaded, the next he burned to know, and all the while he shivered with terror. Hassan

creased. He saw that he held something in each hand, something that flashed bright, like a disk of iron. Hassan

ely, surely. As he watched the hobbles growing hot and the sparks dance upon the iron,

t stick, and brought them over to Bentham. "No

eached out his hands, and drew his legs from under him, and fitted the hobbl

n upon his back, and pinned his shoulders to the ground. Bentham could do no more than vainly writhe in convulsive movements of his limbs. The hot iron rings clung to his ankles; the smoke from

without thought to obey,--low, voluble, earnest prayers for mercy, and then again voluble curses, and again voluble appeals for pity

ing. "Now I will tell you what I have planned for you," continued Hassan. "I thought at first to kill you, but it is so small a thing. Then I remembered words you once told me, that you had trouble with your own people, and could not ask them for protection. So friends of mine from Beni Hassan, who go upon their way to-night, wil

ater a hand fumbled at the flap of the tent, opened it

to take out of my path. He will fetch a price, and besides I

e too, Hassan,

t

s, and wrapped himself in the dark cloak. In the place of that cloak he tied over Bentham's mouth a thick rag. Then he thrust him out of the tent, an

lk, he shall ride the mule this night," said the

mule, and tied him there with leathern thon

ist, or as yet even the impulse to cry out; but it restored to him the power to hear and to understand. What he heard was

PTE

E ADVANTAGES WHICH EACH

of his ruin; that she saw in imagination the wretched victim he had run to earth across two continents, closing the door and slipping the pistol-barrel between his teeth; that she loathed the knowled

d great experience of the tortuous conduct of men. Were men trustworthy at all? If so, were there any means by which a woman could test their t

though incapable of passion herself, she had in her youth possessed the trick of inspiring it, but without the power, perhaps through her own incapacity, of keeping it alive, and no doubt too because upon a moderate acquaintance she conveyed an impression of inherent falsity. For, being a sentimentalist, she lived in a false world, on the borders of a lie, never quite telling it perhaps, and certainly never quite not telling it. She was by nature exigent, for she was in her own eyes the pivot of her little world, and for the wider world beyond, she had no eyes whate

the elegance of her figure, and would have still retained the good looks of her fac

you must play the coquette; you must enlist their vanity. Th

lt had had much experience of men wherein she herself was wofully deficient. Jane Holt embroidered her theme; a pretty display of petulance, the seemingly accidental disclosur

a friend, perhaps," sugg

your marriage was a failure. Men pretend friendship

wondered, until she would rise of a sudden and take refuge in her own parlour, of which the window looked out across the valley to the hills, where she w

ame into the little parlour--a cool, dark-panelled, low-roofed room of w

onth this is?" Miss

tob

eat emphasis was l

sorry, but I was compelled to stay. I did not know what might occur, and," she anxiously turned over the letters and papers on her writing-table in the wi

Miranda began hurriedly to open and shut the drawers of her writing-t

round the room. "There was

threw

Holt with a look of complete dismay. "Yo

it was torn ac

k, yesterday, after you and I had been ta

here. It was torn, so

o be made for the glove. It could not be found

red. Miranda sat down, and showed to Jane Holt

ed Jane. "The glove was torn;

I never meant to use it. The glove was only a symbol; it was no more than that, it represe

e you talking about?"

o anyone. She had merely uttered her thoughts, for she had come to look upon that glove, which, under no circumstances, would she use, as none the less a safeguard, and of late, in partic

r arms across her breast and tapped with her fingers upon her elbows. "I suppose I may think it strange; and if anyone took the trouble to give me a thought, perhaps anyone might believe that I had a right to feel hurt. B

of a passage which led to the outer door; and upon that outer door just at this moment someone rapped heavily, as t

difficult to leave any subject alone when it was evide

ld never have used it;" and a servant entered the room and handed

d to him to be silent, and opening a second door on the same side of the patio as the door of her parlour, but farther to the right, she led the way into a tiny garden rich with deep colours. Jonq

ved outwards until it reached the wing. Over this wall the eye looked through air to the olive-planted slope of a mountain. For the house was built on the brink of the precipice, it was in a line with the Alameda, though divided from it by the great chasm, and if one

he end and the other side of the wing, and so commanded the valley without commanding this enclosure. A little flagged causeway o

ier, however, took no heed of the invitation. He had eyes only for Miranda's face. He held his hat in one h

m my husband?

e lightened. "Ah,

ive? Yes. You

no; on his

ney, of course," she said drily. "How much do you want

ed pride. "We do not need money, neither he nor I

had been torn from a small pocketbook. It was so crumpled and soiled that a few words scribbled with a pencil on the outside in Arabic were barely visible.

J. B. mean?

initials of the

s from my husband? I do

te s

ring. Here the pencil had paused, yet even when pausing, its point had trembled on the paper, as the blurred dots showed. Miranda imagined that so it had paused and trembled, while someone walked by the writer's back and had but to glance over his shoulder to discover the business he was engaged upon. Then again the pencil had raced on, running the words one into the other, fevered to get t

ery ill somewh

hought and thought and thought--Tenez, look!" He drew a piece of blank paper from one pocket, a pencil from a

en them t

er face grew very white.

r be

m her waist and strapped F

id he, "tight

long strokes and tails straggling. She seized the copy almost before he had finished, and held it side by side with the original. There was a difference, of course, the difference which stamped one ma

in?" asked Fournier, as Mi

come to you?

I give a dinner in my house to a few friends and we dance afterwards. Perhaps ten or eleven of us and Bentham. Bentham he came and danced and he was the last to go away. He did not stay in my house--it was better for our little business that we should not be thought more than mere friends. He had a lodging in the tow

ou how and where he

o, in the morning, when six men passed him at a distance. They were going up into the country; they had a mule with them. He watched them pass and noticed that one of them would now an

d her hands to

rt, and her voice had sunk to

g on the brown soil in the line of their march. He went forward and picked it up. It was this piece of paper. He read the writing on it, these marks." M. Fournier turned over the sheet, and pointed to the indecipherable Arabic. "They mean, 'Take this to Fournier at Tangi

itted brows, gazing out to the dark mountains. Fournier would not interrupt her; he fancied she was

re was set before her eyes the picture of a man riding down the hill of Tangier at night in the civilisation of evening dress, and, as she looked, it melted into another in which the same man, clad in vile rags, with his hands bound, was flogged forwards under a burning sun into the barbaric inlands of Morocco. She saw that brutal party, the five gaolers, the one captive, straggle past the tent village. She guessed at Ralph's despairing glance as though it was

more astonishing and intricate in his apologies. "He take your money, oh yes, I know very well, while he is with you; but then you get his company in exchange. That make you both quits, eh? But once he has gone away, he would not come back to you for money or help at all. He has so much pride. Oh no! He just take it from the first pers

N

er him. He would not have believed that so gentle a face could have taken on so vigorous an express

e valley and down the cliff's side where one road was cut in steep zigzags, and winding down to the plain

d boldly counted, because Warriner had so surely attracted his own. M. Fournier would have been at a loss to explain his friendship for Warriner,

, however much it might appear so to M. Fournier. She was acting upon the same motive which had induced her, the moment she was aware of Ralph Warriner's existence, to return to Ronda, the one s

ame wary and cunning. "I hoped that you mig

then she said: "We must appeal to

hing we must do. For what should we say? That Mr. Ralph Warriner,

Bentham has," sh

Jeremy Bentham! The Minister goes to the Sultan of Morocco, and after many months, perhaps Mr. Bentham is found, perhaps he is not. Suppose that he is found and brought down to Tangier,--what next, I beg you? There will be talk about Mr. Bentham, there will be gentlem

escape the p

an hide his business, once an inquiry is set on foot, in that country? He might pass as a tourist, you think perhaps, hein? And any one man has only got to give a few dollars to some officer in the custom-house, an

om Wilbraham to confirm M. Fournier

out his hand. "It is a red-hot cert, as he would say. His identity would be established, and he had better,

of a--" Miranda's lips refused to sp

uld have killed that night, then and there, in the S?k of Tang

s," she exclaimed, and the colour came back to

sed measures," said he, with some emphasis upon the word, at which Miranda shivered; "sure measures to get the names, and Warriner would have g

tion towards him, though he did not understand the reason of her look. To him it

s of his own race. I do not wonder at it," he explained impartially. "He treats me, yes, even me, who am his one friend, as though--well, his own phrase is the bes

hy

of all unpleasant to him, for he is particular. Of course you know that, Mrs. Warriner. He likes his linen very clea

brought home to her most convincingly his present plight. "But what enemies?"

hair nearer. His voice be

o an Englishman

our counter and he said, 'How did you work that little aff

ried Fournier, spring

and she briefly explained to the Belgian the reason and the consequence of Wilbraham's visit. Fournier's face fell as he listened. He had ho

this man you speak of--only once?" he

the

e year? He was not there in May

he replied. "He travelled by train from Monte Carlo to Marseill

his hands together. "Now listen! There was another Englishman who came in May.

?" asked Mr

nnot

what he w

ce, that is all. And a voice? There is no clue more deceptive. The one

was it tha

tion, within a certain period. The period was short; Warriner's boat, the Ten Brothers, was waiting at Tarifa. I leave him to change his dress and shave his beard, while I go down to the harbour and hire a felucca to put him over to Tarifa. But Warriner forgot to lock the door behind me. In a minute or two he hear a hand scrape softly, oh so softly, up the door towards the latch. For a second he st

ore naturally be a warni

cannot pick him out because you have not seen his face! That frightens me, Madame Warriner. I am a coward, and it is no wonder that it frightens me." The perspiration broke out on Fournier's forehead as he made his frank confession. "But it frightens Warriner too, who is no coward. Often and often have I seen him lift up a finger, so," he suited the action to the word, "when a new voice speak wit

is chair. Miranda rose too, and they stood fa

ly through Morocco until he is found and bought, and such a search seems hopeless; or the unknown man who shouted through the door must be discovered. That is the simplest way. For this I do believe"--and he expressed his

or." The words were flung at Fournier in a passion of impotence. "You

t easier to speak the matter of his thoughts when he saw h

often has frie

ce grow rosy

perplexed M. Fournier, the blood rushed back into her cheeks. "I mean," she stammered,

have they

t affect to mis

illies, and I would gladly lose it for him now, if I could only lose it without foreknowledge. But what can I do? A little fat Belgian bourgeois, of middle age, who speaks no language correctly but his own, and has only a few poor words of Arabic, a man of no st

r pardon,"

encouraged to co

privilege of women!" He added timidly, "Of women who have youth and beauty," but in a voice so low t

ng myself to--I mean I cannot tell whether he could go; he has duties. It is asking much to ask any man to set out into

quickly: "He knows noth

es my husb

a sly cunning. "It is Mr. Jeremy Bentham he goes out to find,--a friend of yours--a

intention was b

ed Miranda

be more

t under

as cold and

ensations for the man in that his friend will serve him for friendship's sake. B

came over Miranda's face, and he could not understand it. She looked at him fixedly and, as it seeme

ed along the flagged pathway, turned at the end and came slow

rnier

an be made

rnier

t need

his shoulders and s

needs

nier ma

has put the tri

ger with herself for her perplexity, anger even against Charnock, because he did not magically appear in the garden and answer the question and dissolve her perplexity. But M. Fournier alone was in the garden with her, and the full force of her anger broke upon

rnly; and he continued without any sarcasm: "Your sentiments, Madame

hed. "I was never treated with such absolute disregard in all

do as I propose

re he goes who it is I ask him to bring back. I must think what can be done. You will go back

he could not dissuade her. He took the hand which she held out t

PTE

W LINE OF CONDUCT AND THE MA

in. Somehow, somewhither, help must be sent to Ralph; and if Charn

lved as she was, she turned eagerly for rest to its commonplaces. She read an anecdote about an unknown politician, and a summary of Don Carlos's prospect

d herself consequently to the first paragraph which met her eye, and read it over with great

hout a word why I have come. There will be no need for me to speak at all,

would ask no questions; he had indeed hit upon that device of the glove to spare her; she could send the glove, and she cou

then; he would be leaving Algeciras. Even at that moment her first feeling was one of approaching loneliness, so closely had the man crept into her thoughts. She took a step towards her parlour, stopped, stood for a moment irresolute, ran up the w

patio while Miranda was

that?" s

randa, in a queer, unsteady voi

utting on her hat hurried to the post-office. As she crossed the bridge over the Tajo a man barred h

to speak

she, "in the Alameda. I

r can wait

er be posted," said she,

ght figure, which a white muslin dress with a touch of colour at the waist so well set off, and for the pose

sted at once, or it will never be posted at all?"

In the Alameda, at the bench before the railings, Mir

t is not quarter-day. We made our

rgain for me. I underrated my necessities

cornfully. "One of the few th

m flushe

them?--intervals of relaxation." He spoke uneasily; he looked even more worn and tired than when

ave kept your self-respect by means of it. It has set you apart from your companions. And now, when the opportunity comes, you find that you

d without reproach or accusation, but in the tone of

Horace, of course,

a moment full in the face, not angrily, but with a queer sort of intere

ut before he could come up wi

p," she said, "and I call th

in Miranda's mind, since she had been confronted with the actual positive disaster which had befallen Ralph Warriner. Wilbraham, however, was not in a position to trace Miranda's sudden audacity to its true source. He fell therefore, and not unnaturally, into

all the seven hundred per annum was not so absolutely assured. He came to the

PTE

LL HEROES, FINDS

uple of corded trunks stood ready for the porters, while the manager of the line sat in the window overlookin

suddenly ros

ay," he said. "Man, but you have very l

portmanteau, and so wasted a few secon

continued the manager, sagely. "Though what charms you can

anager's supposition. He continued to pack,

Macdonald?" he said. "Yo

portmanteau and

ng that comes--everything

donald, "I will forward nothing at all.

ought in a letter. The letter lay upon its face, and

said Charnock, as he fastened th

," said the manager, gravely, and Charnock, turning about, sa

ed up and sna

's," said the

returned Charnock,

cdonald. "And I'll point out to y

he glove, wrapped it in its envelope, took it out again, and smoothed its creases. Then he folded it once more, hel

" remarked Macdonald, "and I'

Ronda pretty soon?"

ular to mind your address, and forward everything that co

he foresters were at work stripping the trunks of their bark, and Charnock was in a mood to make parables of the world, so long as they fitted in with and exemplified his own particular purposes and plans.

elicate kid between his strong fingers, pleased him beyond measure. For it seemed appropriate and expressive of her, and he hoped that the strength of his fingers was expressive of himself. But

Charnock fell to marvelling at the apt moment of the summons. Just when his work was done, when his mind and his body were free, the glove had come to him.

rom some quarter, and at some time, would fall. She had allowed him on the balcony in St. James's Park to understand that she herself expected it. He knew, too, that it must be some quite unusual misfortune. For had she not herself said,

nd over all was a blue arch of sky, brilliant and cloudless. At that distance and in that clear light, Ronda seemed one piece of ivory, exquisitely carved and tinted, and then exquisitely mounted on a black pedestal. Ch

o the hotel in the square near the bull-ring, lunched, and asked his way to Mrs. Warriner's house. He stood

heir involutions that the eyes were continually baffled and continually provoked. Charnock was thus absently searching for the key to their inter-twistings when he walked across the road and knocked. He was conducted through the patio. He was shown into the small dark-panelled parlour which overlooked the valley. The door was closed upon him; the room was empty. A book lay open upon the table before the window. Charnock stood in front of this table looking

ss, on the other side of that shut door; and that woman, no doubt, was Miranda. Charnock was puzzled; he, too, stood silent and motionless, looking towards the door and wondering why she paused there

l the signs of amazement when she saw Charnock. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "why didn't they tell me?" She cast backwards over her shoulder that glance of the startled

unknown woman wore the semblance of Miranda. She was dressed in a white frock very elaborate with lace, he noticed; there was a shimmer of satin at her throat and waist, and to him who had not

come to Ron

cour

h she could not help herself, and then hastily drew her hand away, as if she was ashamed and alarmed at her forwar

irst visit to R

es

arch glance of provocation. "Sure you have not come up onc

have be

rugged her

th great interest, and suddenly withdrew it with much circumstance of modesty. Then with an involuntary gesture of repugnance

s, on the balcony, to tell me about yourself, about those years you spent

stand,"

ha

e replie

all--liking for her," and she spoke the word "liking" with extreme shyness as though the

ok. She uttered a startled exclamation, threw a quick glance

; "and you shall talk to me of those

She stood in peril, she needed help, and very likely help of a kind which implied resource, which involved danger. She knew nothing of him, nothing of his capacity. It was

r in which M. Fournier

d. He had nothing but the living, which was poor--the village schoolmaster, what with capitation grants, was a good deal better off--so that when he died, he died penniless. I was adopted by a maiden

d Miranda,

e truly said, the house was not yet in order. The furniture, partly unpacked, with wisps of straw about the legs of the chairs, was piled up in the uncarpeted rooms. Fo

ants do nothing?"

ently of course we made our meals of tinned meat and bottled stout, which we ate standing up by the kit

to laugh and Charno

fe," said he, "but rather g

went to

rrace, and since we went to bed as soon as it grew dark to save the gas, I could hear through the wall the sounds of people laughing and talking, sometimes too the voices of boys of my own age playing while I lay in bed. I used to like th

n the woman who was listening, the woman he had talked with on the balcony o

and the great whispering elms of the Park, and I never knew." She spoke almost in a

rnock. "We dug potatoes in the garden, and some

l and Sn

dark house by the back door, and go to bed without a light. Imagine that if you can, Mrs. Warriner. The clatter, the noise, the flowers, the lights, of the restaurant, men and women in evening dress, and just about the time when they were driving up to their theatres, these people, in whose company we had din

ran a

ne way and another. It doesn't cost much to live when

oard?" exclaimed Miranda, eage

to sleep in an empty house in one of the small streets at the back of Westminster Abbey. There weren't any carpets either in that house, but I was independent, you see, and I saved my lodging. I wasn't unhappy during those three years. I underst

ft London,"

g didn't satisfy. I always had a hankering after machinery, and I used to teach myself dra

ou do?" ask

locomotives. Sir John Martin is the head partner, and I had seen him once or twice a

youth so entirely strange, and apart from her own up-bringing, just as he on his part had been from the first attracted to her by the secure traditi

ffered me for three weeks is still a mystery, for of course I couldn't draw at all. At the end of three weeks I was discharged. I asked to be taken on as anything at thirteen shillings a week. I saw Sir Joh

nner time, and he was shown straight into the dining-room, where I was sitting, if you please, at the head of the table, in my shirtsleeves, carving for all I was worth. He leaned against the door and shook with laughter. 'You are certain to get on,' he said; 'but I would like a few minutes with you alone.' I put on my coat, and went out with him into the street. 'Is your name Charnock?' he asked, and I answered that it was. 'I thought I knew your face,' said he, 'and that's why I took you into my office, though I couldn't put a name to you. So if you are proud enough to think that I t

the glove. She knew why he had come. Miranda, however, took a turn along the flagged pathway, and leaned over the breast-high wall and pointed out a vulture above the valley, and t

ow?" he asked, and she ral

better to do," and she examined a flower with intense absorption, and then looked at him pathetically over her shoulder, as he moved away.

ad she stood so long outside the door before she hurried in with her simulated surprise? How had she looked as she paused there, silent and motionless? That question in parti

long table. He was therefore surprised when, as he stood in the stone hall, lighting his c

little job at Algeciras, I saw

nock, as he faced the irre

ave no secrets. Now confidence for confidence, eh, dear friend?" and

at I must leave

not very soc

aid Charnock, and he walked between the

er him without the s

lad," he said to himself, and sau

be seen that evening, but in Ronda instead of Tangier, and Charnock was unable to compare it with its companion picture, since, in this case, he was the tracked. The two men passed down the hill to the bridge. Charnock stopped for a little and stood looking over the parapet to the water two hundred and fifty feet below, which was just visible through the gathering darkness like a ridge of snow on black soil. Wilbraham halted at the end of the bridge.

tune under his breath. Charnock walked on, stopped again, looked back to the house, as though he searched for a glimpse o

f a house as though he was about to knock, before Charnock passed him. Charnock had no

stance walked Wilbraham. It was now falling dark, but the night was still, so that Wilbraham was compelled to drop yet farther and farther behind, lest the sound of his footsteps upon the hard, dry ground should betray his pursuit. He

as no

was Ch

he presence of

her angle of the road hid him. Then he climbed on to the top of the bank, which was high,

right above his head, on the rim of the precipice, an open window glowed u

above them the window seemed very small; its brightness exaggerated the darkness which surrounded it; and bo

n's head and hair, growing and diminishing as the unseen woman moved away or to the candles. A second shadow, and this too the shadow o

hen he returned, but not immediately to the hotel. On reaching the Plaza he walked, indeed, precisely in the op

rs of walnut-wood and the geometrical figure

dents," said he, "a brigantine sighted off Ushant; a man going out for a walk! If only one has patien

in the hall, "Pleasant ni

seven hundred per annum into a thou. I am not sure, but I think so. Good-night, sleep well,

again on the ben

Wilbraham's clothes were dusty: it was Wilbraham who kicked his toes into the grass on the top of the bank while I sat at the bottom. Have I to

TER

ERO'S PERPLEX

e to him for assistance. She said no word about the glove, nor did he; it was part of the compact that he should be silent. He came the next day, and it seemed that there was something amiss with Miranda's hairpins, for the coils of her hair were continually threatening to tumble about h

" said she, with the utmost innocence. "Will you ride with me

would ride out together, alone, and she would tell him of the dragon he was required to slay, and no doubt explain why, for these last two days, she had been marketing her charms. That certainly neede

f the doorway. He took off his hat. Charnock nodded in reply and turned towards Miranda, remembering his suspicions as to whether Wilbraham was concerned in

mmended her man?uvre. "A little overdone, perhaps; the bow a trifle

"How long have you kno

er head, and smiled as it

ed. "A long while," she repeated softly. Charno

returned sharply, almost roughly, "you will fail, Mrs. Warriner. I

d him. He was almost prepared to be sent curtly to the right about, whereas she made no answer whatever. She coloured hotly, and rode forward ahead of him until they w

?" he

think, how you are disposed." She spoke with some irritation

to habit, Mrs. Warriner. I was brought up in a hard school,

ut very likely her doubt was in this instance preferable to his wisdom. Some word of surprise at the change in her, perhaps one simple gesture of impatience,

d his inexpressive composure of these few last days, might have revealed to her at this moment what he thought, and how he was disposed, had she brought a cooler mind to conside

oss the great level plain of olive trees, and poplars, and white villages gleaming in the sunlight. Here was a fitting moment for the story to be told, Charnock thought, and expected its telling. But h

she asked as they parted th

ed a quick little sigh of pleasure, which made Charnock turn his horse wi

serving a woman whom in the bottom of his heart he despised. The message of his mirror became a fable; he recalled what Miranda herself had suggested, that the look of distress which he had seen upon the face was due to his chance vis

ck's appearance. Charnock was well content with her inattention. For in the quiet grace of her movements, as she walked amongst her flowers, he caught a glimpse of the Miranda whom he knew, the Miranda of the balcony. The October sunlight was golden about them, a light wind tempered its

ed when she saw Charnock

owers for?" she asked with an intolerab

epped over

said he, "will

im with a whims

ch which she held--but she spoke with a great repugnance, and the pl

her face as she had culled them. "For whom in Gibraltar? For who

hough the words she tried to speak were choking her. But her emotion lasted for no more than a moment, though for t

ll you be very grateful?" Charnock neither answered nor moved. He stood in front of her with a face singularly stolid. Bu

them, and her hands gripped his shoulders as they stood face to face and tightened upon them in a p

he cried incoherent

d his arms went about her waist. She uttered a cr

and she heard the latch of the d

h his hat upon his heart bowed, with great elegance, upon the threshold. Miran

f your friends,

my friends?" she asked, and

he had had the effrontery to push his way into the house, but from his ma

same time, eh, Mrs. Warriner? So pleasant, I meet Charnock everywhere. Destiny will have us friends. That dear Destiny!" And as Charnock with an ill-conceale

ched, and her eyelids closed, her face utterly weary and asha

Major stepped

would tell Charnock of her husband; but it would not suit his purpose at all for her actually to tell him on an impu

ent towards the stool on

t of those!" and she snatched

she saw Charnock watching them, and she snapped off some flowers from their stems with her

returned the Major, with a sly gallantry, as he fixed th

n the face of the cliff the whole bunch of flowers from which Wilbraham had chosen one. As she lifted her eyes, however, she saw Charnock watching her, and at once and for the rest of the time during which her guests remained, she made her

first to break

g," he said cur

you were displeased with

, coldly. "I do not claim th

aw that Miranda was unmistakably bowing good-bye to himself. He took the hint at once. The Major was in a very good hum

against the real man. A little overdone perhaps, but clever

ham was in no particular hurry to settle his business; he was quite satisfied for that afternoo

Charnock followed a few steps behind them; and just after Miss Holt with her companion h

ecause that now stood wide open, whereas he remembered he had closed it behind him; and the only other door in that side of the house was th

rs tingled again upon his breast. Again he saw her drop the flowers she had culled for Wilbraham down the cliff. Amongst his doubts and perplexities those two recollections shone. They were accurate, indisputable. Her feverish vivacity, her coquetries, her f

rners of the earth, he who had foreseen his life as a struggle with the brutality of inanimate things was, after all, here in the stil

PTE

ES REGRET FOR A

he lay in a swoon, but for one movement that she made. Her outstretched hands were clasped together and her fingers perpetually worked, twisting and intertwisting. There was no sound whatever in the room beyond the ticking of a clock, and Charnock leaned against the door and found the silence horrible. He would h

s just the same tenderness in his voice, as when he had fir

e did not in truth know at that moment who was speaking to her. She was on

ent lower

" he said, "

e and stared at him wit

you," he

r hands which he still hel

," he said

y, she stretched out her arms, she thrust him

w, at once. Say there's no truth in your words. Say that pity prompted them and only pity," and her voice ros

of speaking--as I did. But I saw you--I watched your hands," and he caught h

she

" he repeat

sides. She nodded her head, submitted t

n. You told me in the garden, and though I

hear it, so that when her lips moved, he would have had them still, and when they ceased to move, he was conscious of a g

thing itself, of no account, surely not durable," and at once her calmness forsook her; she was caught up in a whi

. With a hand upon the table he leaned

the one I have had to create the other. To possess the friend I have had to make the lover," and she suddenly threw herself back and stood erect. "Well, then," and sh

ppeal. Only he made no appeal; he drew his hand across his forehead a

en, and men," he said regretfully. "I

ouched her as no protestations would hav

to the chair and covered her face with her hands. But she heard Charnock move round the table towards her, and she dared not risk the touch of his hand, or so much as the brushing of

all events, I understand and know. Go! Go away! I do not want you!" and the

though it sang from the blow. Mirand

ew words of his question how much he had built upon the belief that she needed him; and consequently the reply she made

velope a glove. "Yet this was sent to me." He laid the glove upon the tab

t out upon her knees. "Does it?" she asked, wi

ent it

do

ned me by

rel

e purpos

smile was still upon her face, and seemed to Charnock unfriendly as even her v

" he answered in a dull, tired voice. He had built more u

d Miranda. "You have talked

es

g faith in men. Perhap

N

It would be--amusing to know whether she w

ether I should ke

said

ur amusement

was the wor

h any suspicion. His thoughts and feelings were muffled. He seemed to be standing somewhere a long way outside himself and contemplating the two people here in

to the glove. "Even the glove was a s

le, sat down, and examined the glove. Miranda hitched her chair closer to the

the glove is f

d Charnock. "The fingers ha

n minutes in this room th

ked with a momentary

ore

e one you wore that night--the one I tore upon the balcony over St.

marked his other questions, and on her side she answered it simply as she had answere

e, drumming with his fingers on the table. Once he looked up and towards the w

iranda, gently, and the next mome

s not looking at her, and so noticed nothing of the spasm of pain which for a second convulsed her fac

you nee

on

amusing yourself then. Why, too, did you--this afternoon in the garden, perhaps you remember

n to slip it over her hand, and then becoming aware of what she did, and of cert

to press you," he said; "

ase, "when we rode out to Ronda La Viega, I asked you why you never expressed what you felt? I was then beginning to be afraid that you would take my--my trick too much to heart--that you would really think I needed you. My fear became certain this afternoon, when I--I was putting the flower in your coat. I was sorry th

xplanation, accepted it an

uickly. "All this time you have been just playing w

way," she returned

s flower down the cliff

rs had already falle

cion died out of his face. "And t

s had begun, Miranda did flinch. She had a great dif

ficulty increased. "To whom a

all events," she managed to whisper hoarsely, "not to a woman," and thereupon she laughed most mirthlessly,

and he rose from his chair. She rose too. "I am glad," he continued with a f

is hands, and with his eyes he was searching her face, silently interrogating her for the truth. Once before, upon the bal

wit to say, and instantly C

urned. "Tell me," he said abruptly, "you dropped your glove--not that one

red, and wondere

at an a

d back and low

everything,"

an acc

re uns

an acc

N

k, a sham like

he rest," said M

id Charnock

room and closed t

n one corner there was a shadow climbing the wall, where there had been no shadow when he entered the room. He vaguely wondered wh

he gathered from her reply that h

he said. "Do you bel

rejoine

he stairs as sh

your hand on your throat, breathing hard and q

ther the details were true

that lounge chair. You were shown into the parlour. You did not notice me. N

t. She stopped for

in that precise attitude, with her hand to her throat, br

lt saw it brighten extraordinarily. Miranda, had she been there, w

"What you tell me is true? She

es

er own showing it cannot account, since the remorse was only felt this afternoon. There is something more." He was talking enigmas to Miss Holt, who went into the parlour and left him in the patio to talk to himself if he would. She was not greatly interested in his relationship towards

It seemed to her that the doors swung to from the east and from the west, clean across the world, shutting Charnock upon the one

ossibly we always find it out too late; I only found it out this afternoon." The clock struck the

PTE

R LOSES HIS TEMPE

iness of which she had never had experience. And when she woke up in the morning from a troubled sleep, it was only to picture some stately mail steamer marching out from Algeciras Bay. She was conscious to the full of the irony of the situation.

it was his habit, as often as possible, to look over the letters which came for the different visitors. The mere postmark he had known upon occasion to give him quite valuable hints. There was only, however, a

ld friend?" a

s," replied Charnock,

," said the Major, as he saw Charnock pu

nda had gone in. He observed that Charnock was hesitating upon the other side of the road. Charnock was in fact debating his plan of action; the Major's was already prepared. The door stood open. Wilbraham put ce

the Major. "Nice horse; I

u want?" as

ve an uncompromising reply. I want one thousand j

said M

s. You see, there is my excellent

conversation?" she suggested, but

e tired, and so you do not follow me. Charnock is my God of the machine, a blind unconscious God--shall we say a Cupid, but a Cupid in the machine?

said Miranda, contemptuously, as she t

guess? Can't you tell?" He hummed with unabashed impertinence. "He walked down a certain road which winds down the precipice under your windows. Ah!"--he uttered the exc

rossed to the window. The window was open, and the Major looked out. The window was in the outer wall of

es he sat him down." Mrs. Warriner leaned out of the window with something of a smile parting

e returned to the patio and took her former position by the w

ineer. He sighed, and what a sigh, and yet how typical! So hoarse it seemed the whistle of an engine; so deep, it surely came

sed with his flowery description, might have noticed something ominous in the still depth

see

n the

r of g

a pair o

! A ridi

you had not not

u, while you, on the other hand, have been obliging enough to favour me with some hint of your own towards him, not merely this morning, when you asked me to point out the precise point of the road from which he worshipped your window, but yesterday when, in order to give an impetus to his bashful

d. If anything, he leaned a little towards her. His eyebrows

u, Mrs. Warriner. I have dealt with you gently, though you

plied Miranda, who still held the whip, "to p

st into a laugh. "I will never deny that you a

nts," said she. "For your threats I can answer with

difference in the threats. You cannot put yours into pract

iranda, with a su

your house and tell Luke Charnock," and he banged his han

. Charnock is at Gibraltar, if

ing the ornaments of your door at this ve

ell quickly; but she was pleasurably startled, as her face showed. For it cleared of its weariness with a magical swiftness,

er reception of his n

but envies Circe her enchantments, and imitates them to the best of her ability. Circes--Circes in laced petticoats and open-worked stockings--to help you in the dainty work of making a man a beast." The Major's vindictiveness had fairly got hold of him. "But in the original story, if you remem

aid Mirand

to the servant; he dropped his own to a whisper. "Then what if I t

ll," sai

s secret is only of value so long as he never tells it, his threats only of use so long as they are never enforced; and here he was in imminent danger of being compelled to tell his secret and execute his threat. If Charnock knew the truth, he would certainly lose his extra three hundred per annum. Moreover, s

he truth about Ralph Warriner, and to help you to tell it him c

He stood still for a second in amazement. Wilbraham had reeled back from the table against the wall, with his coat-sleeve pressed upon his smart

lounge chair, "Major Wilbraham,"--she seated herself in the chair as though she was to b

for a certain thing, either by Mrs. Warriner or himself, and since the slash of

n's husban

he was silent for some seconds. Then he said, "Well?" and said it in a quite commonp

bfoundered. His blow had seemingly failed t

ssion? Well, very likely. But this husband is a peculiar sort of a husband. He slipped out of Gibraltar one

aid Charn

know wher

the third time, and with a

, and stopped to consider how that supposition affected himself. His hopes immediately revived. "Why, then, you are both equally interested in keeping it dark! I can't say but what I am glad, for I can point out to you precisely what I have pointed out to Mrs. Warriner. I have merely to present myself at Scotl

hat concern me?

ill be known, for instance, that Mr

urious interest. Then he spoke to Miranda, but without

" sai

common gratitude,"

the claim?" asked C

uite restored. Since his affairs progressed so swimmingly towards prosperity, he was prepared to

received?" continued Charnock, in t

two hundre

ive Mrs. Warriner an I O U for that

nsion. "Is it bluff?" said he. "Where's the us

ed Charnock, "I hold a

ajor eyed it with suspicion. "Is that the tel

metaphor, you dealt me m

od temper so complete. Still, he might be merely playing the game; bes

alk very airily, Major, of dropping in upon Scotland Yard. Would it surprise you to hear that Scotlan

grieved. "I expected something more subtle, I did indeed.

why have you been living for four months at an out

s upon Mrs. Warriner. An occasional tweak of the fingers, dea

the only

a. "He wanted quiet; he

even proofs of infamy, he could accept without a stir of the muscles; but to be cha

Miranda. "You will agree with me wh

to explain, to wonder whether you were causing any trouble to Mrs. Warriner. That night, too, if you remember, when I went for a stroll"--here Charnock faltered for a second, and Miranda looked quickly up--"you followed me, Major. When I sat down at the foot of the bank, you crouched upon the top. You ma

it through and glanced anxiously towards the door,

, too," sai

telegram say?

nything of Major Ambrose Wilbraham. He wires me: 'Yes. Is he at Ronda?' and prepays the reply. If there's

wer it?" ask

very much. The one point which does interest me is this. You are hardly in a position to enter into com

untiness had vanished, and his face had grown v

nothing

reciated Spa

ened, his eyes widened, he became at once a creature scared and hunted. The door was opened; the t

t get out of Ronda. My God, I have to begin it a

re drawn back from his teeth, his eyes furtive and mur

venge by insulting Miranda, on account of her disposition towards Charno

he soldiers of fortune. I have had my furlough--four months' furlough.

e," said

s implacab

men the softer se

otice of his remark. "Mr. Wilbraham has a le

red the Major; "it

y it," sai

thous

answer this prepaid tel

our n

my n

w out his pocket-book. He handed the letter to Charnock, look

my life! O s

Will you play Caponsacchi to his Guido? You might; very like

e habit, it seems," said Mira

t out of the patio Miranda flushed and felt ashamed. Then the flush faded from her cheeks

PTE

OCK SAW MIRANDA'S

ran, and thither Charnock followed her. She stood up rather quickly in the farthest corner of the room as soon as he entered, drew a pattern with her foot upon the floor, and tried to

it all the more because she knew she deserved nothing less than sternness. "Did

ly, "No, teacher," and was at once aware that levity was not in the best of

own that your husband

ths," she

told

ou

's foot described more figures on t

d Charnock. "It is very

to evade you, to deceive you, I should have answered

have disbe

ou would have had not a single word to say." She

e her head like one waking from sleep. "But I have had my fill of deceptions. I am surfeited. Ask what you will, I'll answer you, a

ou? On th

uoted his phrases. You had seen him that very morning. He was

ing himself at the table, beat upon his forehead with his clenched fists. "A message of appeal! A call for help! Was there ever such a fool in all the world? Here's one woman out of all the millions who needs my help, I was vain enough to think, and the first thing, the only thing that I did, was to tell her that her outcast bully of a husband was still alive to bully her. A fine way to help! But I guessed correctly even that night. Ye

that i

om someone else?" he said, and h

mised to speak nothing but the trut

o, I told you nothing else but just my m

hat dream vivid in your mind, you saw my face vivid in your mirror. You yourself were at a loss to account for it, you had never so much as thought of me during the seven years since--since our eyes met at Monte Carlo. You could not imagine why on that particular night, af

had never seen him with you; I had never seen him at all befo

hat night at Monte Carlo seven years ago. We were on o

oung face, and compared it with the tired woman's fa

ever seen him, but none the less, the memory was latent in you, and recalled me

s I saw you then at Monte Carlo, as though you were standing there, now, in the room and I in the room was watching you. You were a little apart from t

he glow of light upon the green table beneath the lamps. I can see the red diamond, the yellow lines upon the cloth, the three columns of numbers in the middle, the crowd about the table, some seated, others leaning over their chairs. But

she, "I was

cture of you as you stood alone, distinct from the flowers in your hat to the tip of your shoe, before you moved to the table, before you laid your hand on Ralph Warriner's shoulder, before he turned to answer you and so showed me his face. I remember, indeed. I saw his hand first of all. It was reached out holding hi

stood staring out through the window, while his finge

jor Wilbraham told me too, and only a month later; he came to me in the

rue. How did he find out? Who told Wilbrah

stion, and she tried to evade it. "He found out. He used his

ry. I understand that; but ho

ter?" cried Miranda. "

, her effort to evade his quest

e repeated. She sat down in the same chair in which Charnock had sat. "What does it

ou," said he, who, the more she hesitated, was the more resol

drew her hands from her face,--"my poo

e was something even of horror in his eyes as he leaned

smile, "if only you would have allowed me to; but you would not.

the Ta

rs, Ralph's yacht which was suppose

one of the Salcombe--oh yes, that's true too. I suggested to Wilbraham--to Wilbraham who said he was f

her. That was why the look of the Tarifa was familiar to him. When you told him the Tarifa was a Salco

ed you!" conti

spaper. For a while he was silent; then he said slowly, "Do you remember what you said to me o

y," interrup

truly, for her

nly. "It was a mere idle fancy which came int

ied Charnock. "It was mor

s not looking at her; she found it possible to proceed--"than a

other

. "That no man would serve a woman w

spoke the word. "And you believed that?" he asked. In a movement of surprise he h

d miserable days," and she checked herself suddenly, for she saw that Charno

turned towards her, with a face quite illumined. He did not, however, l

l you do need

hands across the table towards him. "Indeed, indeed I need it

glove wa

ay, but not by me. I searched for it, it was not to be

" he added, "whether the one reason h

, for I knew you would keep your word. I knew you would say nothing, bu

ty, "yesterday, here in this room, I gave you the assurance which you looked for. You believed a man would only help you for the one reason. Well, I to

my belief was wrong. I understood the shame,

k he added in a voice of comprehension, "At last! You puzzled me yesterd

is who asks your help. I sat down to trick you into caring for me if by any means I could. I did it deliberately, how deliberately you will see if you only open the book you hold.

e leaves of the book, whilst Miranda watched him, holding her breath. He was not angry y

uide to the girl's provincial inexperience. There was much sage instruction as to the best methods of handling men, "ces animaux effroyables, dont nous ne pouvons ni ne voudrons

ent diriger la conversation qu'

ich I gave you in your garden," said Charnoc

, seriously; "but t

'on peut bien disposer d'un autre. Celui que tu aimes, t'aimera aussi si tu fais la cour a un deuxi

raham, and the basket o

ham, yes,"

carelessly exhibited and carefully withdrawn, the young lady in the country was informed, might kick a hole in any male heart, so long as the foot was

he said, "and this book

da. But I chose the worse part, and if you say that you will not help me, why, I must abide by it, and Ralph must abide by it too. But there shall be nothing but truth now between you and me. I was not content with friendship, I had the time I knew to try to

you for the first time at Ronda, I should have taken the first train back to Alg

aimed Miranda, and her d

tricks! I almost hated you for them." He b

st confusion, and as Charnock laughed, in a lit

cause, however much you tried, you could not but reveal to me, now and then, some fleeting glimpse of the woman who once stood beside me in

d Miranda uttered a long trembling sigh of g

you?" he asked, and Mir

TER

ONE MAY CONVINCE W

a; how that he had been kidnapped between M. Fournier's villa and the town-gate; how that he was not held to ransom, since no demand for ransom had come to the little Belgian; and finall

I could go to Morocco. I went there once, but only to Tangie

which lay beneath her eyes upon the table, and saw again the picture of Ralph being beaten inland under the sun. She began to recall his acts and words, that she might make the best of them; she fell to considering whether she had not herself been in a measure to blame for the shipwreck of

his head thrust forward from his shoulders, his face very strained. It seemed that

tune?" he asked in

rprise at the question; "at l

er with eyes which seemed suddenly deep-sunk in a face suddenly grown white. And slowly, gradually, it broke in upon Mir

erday! What if you had gone! Only to think of it! You know! That tune has giv

in fallen on his breast, and his eyes fixedly staring at her. Miranda's enthusiasm was chilled by his silence; it w

he note or change his p

e, he left you to stand alone,

of that," she cried.

l," added Char

r eyes she had played the sedulous coquette, she had been prepared to acknowledge. But that he would refuse to help, out

be done, unless you do it. Oh, think of him--driven, his hands tied, beaten with sticks, sold for a slave to trudge with loads upon his back, barefooted, through Morocco! You will go," and her voice broke and was very tender as she appe

picture of Ralph's misfortunes, and he hardened hi

questions about Ralph Warriner. I lis

. Those three things--they are most natural. But that coming to you, I should come to the one man who can help, who already knows the way to help. Don't you understand? It is very clear to me. You were meant to help, to help me in this one troub

You told me that not only to-day, but at Lad

e I came to Engl

you witnessed just before you met her gives you, and you alone in all the world, the opportunity to help her. Don't you remember, when you first were introduced at Lady Donnisthorpe's, what was your first feeling--one of disappointment, because I did not seem to stand in any need?

in Tangier

a d

ed a cry. "May, that was the month. M. Fournier said May. You were the man," and leaning forward she laid a clutching hand upon Charno

urnier knew nothing of the blind beggar at the cemetery gate where Charnock had first heard the comic opera tune and regi

admitted.

peak a word to save. You spoke a word then, very likely you saved him then. Well, do just as much now. I ask no more of you. Only spe

a flew to the door and le

r, we should lay our hands upon the means to rescue Ralph. Think how truly he spoke, in a truer sense than he intended. You know why he d

him?" asked Charnock,

t to frenzy, drummed upon the

loved him heart and soul, you would go upon this errand, straight as an arrow, for my sake. But I promised there should be n

cannot harm you. What if I was mea

no greater service than by rescuing Ralph, by b

lmly, and she ros

proved i

can

wil

ed at th

ras. Will you meet me on the platform? I had thought to spare myself--this. But you shall h

upon the means to persuade. She was convinced

id he. "The 6.1

th to bruise her. Charnock respected her silence, and kept pace with her unobtrusively. They passed into the square with Government House upon the one side and the mess-rooms upon the other. Charnock sketched a picture of her in his fancies, the picture of a young girl newly-come from the brown solitudes of Suffolk into this crowded and picturesque fortress with the wonder of a new world in her eyes, and contrasted it with the woman who walked beside him, and inferred the increasing mi

T WAR

2 Y

of his birt

fancy; a boy, in whose face Charnock could trace a likeness to Mi

ert was born, it seemed to me that here was a blossom on the thorn bush of the world. But you see the blosso

ers!" he sa

raniums, roses, pinks, camellias--all the

packing them, that after

hrank from look

confessed i

as coming; he was remembering the use to which she had put thos

agine it. I actually believed that you were cutting those flowers so that you migh

tterly hateful! How could I have done it? I wanted to hide that from you, but it was right y

h from the cliff," said Charnock, "afte

s you remember that after I met you at Lady Donnisthorpe's I came back at once to Ronda. I had half determined not to return at all, and when you first told me Ralph was alive, my first absorbing thought was, where should I hide myself? But it occurred to me that he

nock, and they turned and

you speak?

, "but I will go

who now that she had gained her end, began at once to r

take the risk,"

s Europa Point, and tu

ur search will cost money. Every farthing of

es

ll supply you. There is one thing more.

day that town whirred in the hollow below. I could see it from my bedroom window, and all night the lights blazed in the factories; and when I went down into its streets there were always grimed men speeding upon their business. There was a certain grandeur about it which impressed me,--

it true," cr

are better things than g

in a voice which left him in no doubt as to

relicts, you and I," and s

Alameda. But they talked no more in this strain. They were just a man and a woman, and the flaming sword kept t

in the bay; away to the left the lighthouse on Europa Point shot out its yellow c

," said Charnock. "I w

ich he held out to her and

nce," she said, "when you bring Ralph back

they came back to him now, and he felt himself linked through them in a community of feeling with the generations which had gone before. Men had gone out upon such errands as he was now privileged to do, and would do so again when he was dust, with just the same pride which he felt as he walked homewards on t

TER

MIST AND A BASHA PRE

shop. M. Fournier expected him, but

shouted through your door six mont

aid them on the counter of the shop. "I have muc

arnock, and he told Fournier of what he had se

ated his cry "Allah Ben!" as on that day when, clothed as a Moor, Ralph Warriner had come down the hill. It was the tune

as he stood beside the Moor, and the

e Christian who hummed that tune and dropp

e anxiety had been lest Warriner should have

Christian who betrayed thy wealth? Give h

cried Hassan.

Fournier. "But the Basha will ask him, and in time

He went back into the town, and that evening M. Fournier re

ed to Warriner some time before he put it into

fortune was discovered. It is very likely that our friend told the Basha of Hassan's wealth. If he knew, he would certainly have told," said M. Fournier, with a lenient smile, "for there was money in it. Anyway, he had some money then, I had some, I could get more, and I like him very much. I say yes. He tells me of his ship. We want a ship to carry over the guns. I telegraph to the Argentine and stop the sale. Warriner sent orders to change her rig, as he call it, and her name, and she comes back to us as the Tarifa. The only t

world did he call himself Je

d. So he packed up a few letters--one from his wife before he was married to her--that was clever, hein? A love-letter from his fiancée which he has carried about next to his heart for six years! So sweet! So convincing to

come ashore. But it was dangerous! I can tell you it was very dangerous and very wet. However, we come to Rosevear, and there was the remnant of a ship, and no sailor anywhere. We landed on Rosevear, and just as I was about to place the oilskin case among the rocks where it would be naturally found, we came upon one dead sailor, lying near to the sea just as if asleep. I slipped the oilskin case into h

at day I shouted through the do

red that morning a felucca to

emem

Tarifa. He set

or the P. and O. at Gibraltar, we passed the Tarifa off Ushant, an

, with a lenient smile. "If he knew, he would have been sure to ha

asha delivering justice at the gates. The suitors w

er hear the end of it. Besides, we do not wish it." And upon that money changed hands. "But if the Englishman told your nobility that Hassan Akb

troked his

ity of his Majesty, whom Allah preserve, for such small t

ched from the cemetery gates,

e, and truly the Room told me of it; and since t

nd and helpless

aster and my master, the Sultan, was served in this," said the Basha, with great dignit

answered ne

him conveyed to an inner room, where he talked to him with rods of various length and thickness. At the end of the third day

the room; stools were brought forward for his visitors; and M. Fournier and the Basha exchanged lofty compliments, and drank much weak sweet

d Charnock; "what ha

" returned M. Fournier, imperturbably.

ck the story which Hassan told as he grovel

s told me which are my eyes. It was an infidel in the dress of the faithful. It may be that if I had seen with my eyes, I should never have known; but my ears are sharpened, and I heard. When he passed me he gave me greeting, and then I knew it was the Room. He dropped a dollar into my hands and whistled a tune which he had often whistled after he had eaten of my kouss-kouss, and so went on his way. I rose up and followed him, thinking that my time had come. Across the S?k I followed him, hearing always the shuffle of the slippers amidst the din of voices and the hurrying of many feet. He did not see me, for he never turned or stopped, but went straight on under the gate of the town, and then turned through the horse-market, and came t

I," said

a long while I talked to them, showing that there was no danger, for the Room was without friends amongst his own people, and moreover that he would fetch a price, every okesa of which was theirs. And at the last they agreed with me that I should deliver him to them at night outside the walls of Tan

e with him?" said

and comings. With the dollar which he had given me I bought a little old tent of p

ted M. Fournier,

sed him and followed the mule down the hill to the S?k, which was very quiet. Then I ran after him and called, and he stopped his mule till I came up with him. 'What is it?' he asked, and I threw a cloth over his head and dragged him from the mule. We both fell to the ground, but I had one arm about his neck pressing the cloth to his mouth so that he could not cry out. I pressed him into the mud of the S?k and put my knee upon his chest and bound his arms together. Then I carried him to my tent and took the cloth from his head, for I wished to hear him speak and be su

se Arabs? Give me his

zeed," rep

d to the soldiers and H

eikh of Beni Hassan, and he will discover the Room, if he is

towns with which M. Fournier was able to provide him; he hired the boy Hamet who had acted as his guide on his first visit, and getting togethe

PTE

NDERINGS IN MOROCCO AN

omptitude. It was true; they had taken the Christian from Tangier, but they had sold him on the way. They had chanced to arrive at the great houseless and treeless plain of Seguedla, a day's march from Alkasar, on a Wednesday; and since every Wednesday an open market is held

kesch, at Tarudant, and to supply him with money. Then came a long interval, until a Jew of the Waddoon stopped Fournier in the S?k of Tangier, handed him a letter, and told him that many months ago, as he rode at nightfall down a desolate pass of the Upper Atlas mountains, he came to an inhospitable wilderness of stones, where one in Moorish dr

l in. They grew wary and shut their lips, distrusting him, distrusting his business; and since he could speak Arabic before, he had picked up sufficient of the Moghrebbin dialect, what with his dark face and Hamet to come to his aid, to pass muster as a native. M. Fournier sent the letter on to Mrs. Warriner at Ronda, who read it and re-read it and blamed her selfishness in sending any man upon such an errand, and wonde

rake on the wheel going up hill, a whip in the driver's hand going down." It was true! It was true

half-way up the patio, to Miranda's bedroom, only to find it empty. She would descend the staircase, and coming into the li

robes crawling, creeping, towards them, crouching behind boulders, or writhing their bodies across fields of flowers. She saw him too in the n

d sat and gazed at this window from which she leaned. He could not be dead! And carried away by a feverish revulsion, she would at times come to fancy that he had returned, that he was even now seated on the bank by the roadside, that but fo

ame. Miranda began to wonder whether she had only sent Charnock out to meet Ralph's disaster, to beco

n Miranda's bearing. Her cheeks grew thin, her manner feverish. The mere slamming of a door would fling

*

ed now for the night under a sinister sky on a dark plain, which stretched to the horizon level as the sea; he would skirt a hill and come unawares upon some white town of vast, gaunt, crumbling walls, that ran out for no reason into the surrounding country, and for no reason

ither the face of the country nor the ways of those who lived on it had changed. He had waited as he turned his back upon a town in the violet sunset, to see the white flags break out upon the tops of the minarets, and the Mueddins appear. He had waited fo

in became nothing, but the cry echoed down the years. And just that same answer had risen and trembled out in just the same plaintiv

that one prayer, that the Atlantic carried away the sound of it upon its receding waves, and that the Nile floated it down from village to village through the Soudan. He

stening at night to the cries of the jackals, and yielding to the witchery of a monotonous Arab flute into which one servant blew a few ya

t roofs stretching away into the distance, green and grey with the whipping of rains, tower overtopping tower, crumbling crenellations of wall,

through the streets beneath the walls of the palaces, neither inquiring for the merchant nor scanning the faces of the passers-by, but wrapped in

sinister light, the wall towered up before his eyes, and reached out to the right and to the left. And at the foot of the wall was the door--a d

drew nearer, moved towards him, first slowly, then quickly, then in a rush. Ronda! Ronda! The town, as it were, swept over him. He seemed to wake; he seemed to stand again in the street. To his right was the chasm of the Tajo, and the bridge, and the boiling torrent; behin

nda herself would step out; but only a Moor came forth from an interview with the Basha, and a ragged, decrepit greybeard of a servant attended on the Moor and made his path. C

oorish conqueror had taken these slabs of walnut wood in Spain, and brought them back upon the shoulders of his slaves and made his door from them and set it in his wall at Mequinez; just that Charnock coming to this spot c

h the open doors of the mosques, from the white walls glimmering in the dimness within those doors, fr

and to-night, his search would end. Surely to-night! For the hou

prominent and visible, inviting whosoever had wares to sell; he took the first seat which offered--c

turn. They examined their teeth, their arms, their feet. The Moorish girl was bought; the others passed on, each with the owner. They were followed by the Moor whom Charn

es the narrow entrance to the market might darken, and Ralph Warrine

h a gesture. He lent an ear to the rustling whispering traffic of the streets outside. He listened patiently, confidently, for the sound of a shuffling footstep to emerge, and grow distinct and more distinct. The

he greybeard's eyes--and they were the blue eyes which had stared into his--once, how many centuries ago?--through the window of a hansom cab in a noisy street of Plymouth. Charnock had no doubt. Other Moors had blue eyes, and in no other feature of this wizened, haggard creature but his eyes could he trace a resemblance to Ralph Warriner; but he had no doubt. All the intuitions of the last half-hour came to hi

n to fear at once that another purchaser might step in, while the Moor was still exaggerating his goods. Yet he must not interrupt; he mus

ars," the Mo

his sleeves to prevent them reaching out and clasping the man. The merchant walked slowly for a few yards. At the entrance of the market there was a sudden obscu

e merchant turned slowly; Warriner turned obediently behind him, and the obedience went to Charnock's heart. I

ve dollars

ttle need he had of him. He heard the newcomer across the market haggling over the negro from Timbuctoo. And at last,--at last the

llow me," he said to Warriner in Moghrebbin; and one behind the other, Miranda's lover and Miranda's

PTE

IST, FINDS WARRINER ANYTHIN

Charnock passed through the gate. He dreaded to remain in the town lest by some misfortune he might lose his slave; and, besides, a nausea for its smells and its dirt began to gain upon him. He walked down the slope of the hill to the olive trees and the mossy turf. Lepers, of an unimaginable aspect, dragged by the side of the beaten track and begged

h for Hamet's coming. He turned a trifle suddenly and his slave instinctively shrank away and stood submissive and mute, stilled by a l

ffered!" cried Charnock, and

ted face. "Say that again," he sa

you must ha

rds sawing the air. "Yes," he answered, and this time in English; but his mouth was awk

he used awoke in his dim mind faint associations and a glimmer of memories, of a sudden he dropped u

e beaten way from the town-gates. Then he bent down and touched Warrine

he looked round between the withered olives at that grey cruel ruin of a city looming through the falling desolate light, an

es

darted this way and that, while his eyes searched the trees. "Mind, you bough

e da

he counted them o

plucked off his rags and put on the dress. Then the three men rode out between

camp?" sai

. Mequinez was still visible, a greyer b

the marigolds paled beneath their mules' feet; the gentians became any flower

eep. Hamet gathered a bundle of leaves from a dwarf palm tree and a few sticks, lit a fire, and cooked their supper. Charnock woke Warr

s evening, from the shoulder of a hill they looked down upon the vast plain of the Sebou. Level as

asked no questions of Charnock, but ate his supper and so slept

two men had just bathed in a little stream which ran tinkling through the grass beside their camp. Warriner was kneeling upon the bank

our e

ot strang

Plymouth. You expressed an amiable wish that I should sit i

ad got a warrant in your pocket. By the way," and he lifted his head

bro

en did you co

ackmailing

o him that he had a wife. He turned his head and looked curiously to Charnock

es

agging his grey beard, "and shake hands with the Governor of Gibraltar and no one be a penny the wiser." Then he paused. "

d. His back was losing its timid differential curve; there was less of a slink in his walk; he no longer shrank when a loud

irst visit to Tangier and of Hassan Akbar. "So when I came again," he said with perhaps a little

rriner. "That's the second time a cry of yours has fairly scared me. S

et flowers, under a burning sun, they journeyed drowsily, with no conversation and no sound at all but the humming of the insects in the air and the whistle of b

es upturned to the throbbing stars and the rich violet sky. Warriner squatted cross-legged beside

you been search

," replied

hy

s position; he lay resting on that vast plain under the fresh night sky and the kindly st

untry. The next morning they rode on towards Alkasar with few words between them. Only Charnock noticed that Warriner was continually glancing at him with

e clouds over the top of the Atlas. Towards evening they saw far ahead o

to-night," said Charnoc

riner, fervently. "No towns f

and that, speculated upon news of Europe, and Charnock heard something of Warriner's comings and goings, his sufferings and adventure

enly. "You are in love

. "What the devil has that got t

ng flames of the fire. "Well, you have a righ

y glad that there were only five more days during which he and Warriner must trav

ad terrors for Warriner. His eyes turned ever towards it, scared and frig

s a Jew I stayed with coming up; yo

eath here," replied Warrine

h he packed upon the mule, and so returned to where Warriner crouched and hid amongst the orange trees. Beyond Alkasar they passed through a long stretch of stub

eful for his rescue; but he was brooding over the motives which had induced Charnock to come in search of him, and which had persuaded Miranda to send him in search. Warriner had never cared for

ment the busy shadow of Hamet upon the tent-wall and heard the light crackle of the breakfast fire, he roused Charnock with a

has to do with me, Charnock," he s

lackguard!" c

er, with a chuckle. "

blankets and took refuge in subterfuges. "If what you say were true, is it l

ave all sorts of underground scruples which it's difficult for a man to get upside with, and I can imagine a

e got up and walked to the door of the tent,

t as though someone played symphonies to you all day when you hankered after music of the music-hall type. But somehow

hing more: you had better let me find when I get back to Ronda that you have run straight with me." He saw Charnock suddenly look round the angle of the tent and then shade his eyes with his hand. It seemed impossible to provoke him in any way. "Mind, I don't say that I shall take it much to heart, if t

ooped over Warriner and roughly plucked him up

rriner, rather feebly; "you

sh I

e convulsed with passion; hatred looked out from

and taking Warriner by the shoulder,

and he pointed an

s a ca

to me outside the walls of Mequinez. You belong to me, you reme

e sand towards Algiers, over the hills to the Sus country; he heard again the whistle of a stick through the air, heard its thud as it fell upon his body, and felt the blo

a dozen copper fl

man, see? I am sorry; you hear that, don't

es and died down again to whimpering. All the while Charnock stood over him silent and contemptuous. There was no doubt possible he meant to carry out his threat. Warriner burst out in a flood

Miranda," he said smoothly, "when you ge

id not need to look at Charnock to be assured that at this moment he was the master. He stuck his legs apart and rested his hands

itious passion for his wife, for whom he had never cared, and of whom he certainly would very quickly tire, was kindled by his jealousy; and he left no word unspoken wh

id with relief, as they sa

arnock?" said Warr

moon sailed the sky, and the interior of the tent was bright. Warriner lay motionless, a foot or two away, wrapped in his dark coverings, and Charnock was conscious of a fierce thrill of joy when he remembered Miranda's confession that she had no love left for her husband. He did not attempt to repress it; he hugged the recollection to his heart. All at once Warr

had charged Hamet to repeat it, and that so he had fixed it in h

oothly, "did Miranda show you the graveyard in Gib? Th

and straightened his muscles out through all his

nd Miranda's." Perhaps some deep breath drawn with a hiss through the teeth assured Warri

a slave; and out of the wifehood of Miranda, when but for Miranda Charnock would never have come in search of him. Rupert Warriner, aged two. The gravestone, the boy looking out between the lattices, was very visible to Charnock at that moment. He was in t

mself. Charnock watched his fantastic movements and took them together with the man's fantastic words, and it occurred to him then for the first time to ask whether Warriner's mind had suffered with his body. He had come to this point of his reflections when Warriner, stooping over a bundle, found whatever it was for which he sea

otect me. This is the last night, so I

once more towards Charnock, while Charnock lay with the open knife in his h

the cobblestones of Tangier an

PTE

RNEYINGS OF THIS

atted him, and wept over him for joy at his return and for grief at his aged and altered look

leasantly; "ce bon Char

travellers were shaved and

know me?" as

nswered Fournier, and Warriner seeme

lly and properly dine, at a ho

, and all through that dinner Warriner's face darkened and

ur plans?" a

is to walk up to the cemetery and

thought it wise to keep him safe

He had no friends. Then he is dead?" For the Moorish

rgive it, my friend? After all he had no great reason to like you,--I sent him foo

d. "It is a small thin

may go

will not ca

ace brightened

he exclaimed; "my friend, you are ma

at crosses to Algeciras to-morrow. I shall go up

with you," s

d Warriner, with a smi

er hurried to interpose.

N

ided and made a conflict in his mind; one was his jealousy of Charnock, his unreal hot-house affection for Miranda; the other had been represented by his

ew item to the bill. The scullion! Imagine it, Fournier. He blackmailed my wife; blackmailed Miranda! Do you understand?" he cried feverishly. "Miranda! You know her, Charnock. F

alph had spoken to him of Miranda; but it had not been w

nued Warriner, "after I have seen Miranda. Did you know

exclaime

Gib. I had borrowed money and renewed; I borrowed again, and again renewed. You see," he argued in e

a," Charnock could not r

quarrel," exclaimed Warriner, banging his fist violently upon the

"Here! have one or two fine champagne, eh? Now go on; we are all of us good friends

ts to pay, debts to my brother officers, and I agreed. He lent me the money; I gave him the plans, and he went off to Paris and sold them. I received a hint one afternoon that the mechanism of the gun was known, and I ran out of Gibraltar that evening. So, you see, I have an account with him; and it gr

and they exchanged glances, so M. Fournier, who was engaged in assiduously soothing Warriner, shared the conjecture. Indeed, as M. Fournier took his leave, he sai

ting his candle a

wife, there is Wilbraham, there is him

estion, what was to be the end, he heard the latch of the door click, he saw the door open slowly, he saw a head come cautiously through the opening; and then, as he lay still, Warriner came hopping ac

rossed together to Algeciras, thr

e bay. "Wilbraham, Wilbraham," he muttered in a voice of anticipation. Then he turned to Charnock. "Mind, we go up to Ronda tog

ave done, but Miranda had asked to see him "once when he broug

, and Warriner was already hammering upon it with his stick. The moment it

riner gazed about the patio into which for the first time he entered, Charnock ra

d past Charnock into the room. From the balcony above them Jan

d to hear of you, and thought she would hear more quick

xclaimed

iss Holt, glancing acr

al

out Miss Holt

us

into the room, and Ch

?" he asked. "I

s very secret. A little unkind, perhaps," and then her voice went up al

o pull out the drawers. "Where's Miranda? Does she know her lovin' husband's here? Why don't she come? Tell me that, Jane Holt!" He made a quick, and to Charnock an unintelligible, movement at the writing table, shut up a drawer with a bang, and the next moment he had a hand tight upon Jane Holt's wrist. "Where's Miranda? Quick!" and he shook her arm fiercel

Holt, quite alarmed by the man's ext

he patio. Charnock followed him immediately. "He must not go alone," he cried over his shoulder to Miss Holt,

and ward upon each other. Together they walked to the hotel, they lunched at the same table, they returned side by side to the station, and seated themselves side by side in the same carriage of the train. The train which takes four hours to climb to Ronda runs down that long slope of a hundred miles in two hours. Charnock and Wa

oded out from a hillside upon the left, a white town far away upon a green slope like a flock of sheep herded together, and finall

ciras was closed. It was impossible to make the passage to Gibraltar--and Miranda was ill. She had needed doctors, Jane Holt had said. Charnock's fears exaggera

ire," added Warr

the line. The manager greeted him with warmth. "But,

d Charnock. "I must get into Gibraltar to-night. If I can ha

s of that fortress are closed for the night at gunfire,

said the manager. "The

month?" cr

ed the manager

e day o

fif

fifth of July the gun goes off at eight--from t

e up-line. Meanwhile Charnock telegraphed to the station-master at San Roque, to have a carriage in

ngst fields and thickets of trees, but nowhere was there a house visible, and worst of all, there was no carriage in t

latform of San Roque. Then at last a crazy, battered, creaking diligence, drawn by six broken-kneed, sore-backed mules, cantere

the box, the driver turned his mules, and the diligence we

s unmade track across the fields. The two men urged on the driver with open-handed promises; the driver screamed and shouted at his mules: "Hi! mules, here's a bull after you!" He

ard by the summer suns. The mules stumbled amongst them, the diligence tossed and pitched and rolled like a boat in a heavy sea; Charnock and Warriner clung to their seats, while the driver continually looked round to see whethe

infernal," c

he driver, and Charnock groaned in his distres

round, that flat neck of land between the Mediterranean and the Bay. They saw the Spanish frontier town of Linea; but to Linea the sand stretched in a broad golden curve, soft and dry, and through that curve of sand the wheels of the dilig

ped from their seats, and ran over the soft clogging sand to Linea. They reached Linea. They passed the

across the level; but the gun was fired from the Rock, while they were still

w?" said

et in," sai

here would be questions asked; it would not be safe. I might slip in when the gates ar

anda's sake Charnock could not risk Warriner's detection. They must remain out

at Linea?" s

ouses." The two men made their supper at one of these latter, and

tilessly cold across that unprotected neck of land between sea and sea. With their numbed hands in their pockets, and their coats buttoned to the throat, Char

ithin reach of, almost within sight of, Miranda Warriner, they both began to hesitate. What was to be the end? They looked at one another across the table with that question speaking from their eyes. They walked down to the hotel and face

er repli

n amiss with her the waiter would have told them; b

TER

OCK ASTONISHES

and as yet no word was spoken by anyone of them. Charnock had time to note, and grieve for, the pallor of her face and the purple hollows about her eyes. Then she moved forward for a step or

g. We have killed her," and then he stopped. For Charnock was standing by the si

will be glad when you have time to think over it a

r as something horrible. "Man, can't you see?" he whispered hoa

omehow Warriner was frightened by that glance; he felt a chill creep down his spine; he was more frightened than even on

his head down began to whisper to her exhortations, gentle reproaches at her

ak, not be like this--pretending." He reached over her and took her hand, cherished it in his own, and entwined his fing

sily. "Charnock, I

r body and crouched over it, glaring a

lips. "Dead?" and he broke out into a laugh. "Is she? I'll show you. Come! Come!" He forced his disengaged arm underneath her waist, and putting all his strength into the swing lifted himself on

a wild triumph. "Perhaps you are b

tand? Tell me that!" He held her so that she had the posture, the semblance, of one who stands, though all her weight was upon his arm. His laughter rose without any gradation to the pitch of a scream, sank without gradation to a hoarse cry. "Why, she can walk! Can a dead woman walk? See! See!" And suddenly he dropped his arm from her waist, and stood aside from her, holding her hand in his. Instantly her figure curved and broke. She swung round towards him upon the pivot of his hand, and as she swung she stumbled and fell. Charnock caught her before s

dazed expression like one who comes out of the dark into a lighted room. Warriner also was in the room. Charnock caught a word he

pon her cheeks, where all had been white before. "But you said she was dead," he said stupidly to Warriner, and as the doctor bent over her, it broke i

he doctor, "

rriner." The doctor looked up sharply. Warriner simply nodded his head. "Yes, y

viction that Miranda was dead had come with equal force to both of these two men, and the knowledge that she w

walked down to the landing-stage at the Mole. The Levanter had spent its force during the night; the sea had gone down; a steamer was dropping its anchor in the bay. Charnock was in two minds whether or no to cross the harbour to Algeciras, where Warriner and himself had left their traps the day before, gather together his belonging

mounted the stairs. There was no sign of Warriner within the sitting-room. Miranda was alone, and from the frank unembar

TER

MEETING BETWEEN C

thanks," she said; "and thanks are t

ere needs

ing; but your return overcame me, I

h turned instinctively to the window, they saw the last late boat-load reach t

h?" asked

. Already the white fan of wat

as sa

"his crime was hushed up, but it is of course known here to a few, and all know that there is

gone to

ediately. He promised to write to m

kept locked within her secret memories. At this time indeed such questions did not at all occur to Charnock. As he watched the great steamer heading out of the bay, and understood that he must be taking the same path, he was filled with a great pity for the lonely woman at his

own place, to your own people?"

hink too that I shall. At first, there was the disgrace, there was the pity--I c

o, to know that you had made up your mind to that. I should

a little surprised

uld have liked myself to have been born of the soil on which I lived, to have lived where my fathers and grandfathers lived and walked and laughed and suffered, in the same rooms, und

to show you my home." She had said much the same on that first evening of t

busy man." Miranda coloured at the conventional excuse, as Charnock saw

t to his first excuse. "As it is, you have

could not give two years to you. Believe me, Mrs. Warriner, when my time comes, and I turn my face to the wall, whatever

she said in a low voice: "I hope that's true; I hope you mean it; I believe you do. I have been much troubled by an

her always within his vision, has always worked for her, for a long while, and has at last come surely, against his will, to know that she was ... despica

y is true. I once met a man who found a woman to b

ritten to Miranda during these two years, and whose last letter she

TER

ANNEL ENDS, AS I

e cruise westwards in the company of a young gentleman from Oxford who owned a competence and a yacht. The Major would be back at Dartmouth in some six weeks' time and hoped, fo

ngaged one hand, by whose testimony the history of Ralph's pursuit came to be known, and sailed out of Dartmouth to the west. He sailed out in the morning, and coming to Salcombe ran over the bar on the tail of the flood, but did not find his quarry there, and so beat out again on the first of the ebb and reached past Bolt Head and Bolt Tail, across Bigbury Bay with its low red rocks, to Plymouth. Wilbraham had anchored in th

that night he swung up and down some four miles out to sea within view of Plymouth lights, but towards morning, a fitful wind sprang up, drove the cutter as far as Polperro, and left it becalmed on a sea of glass, in front of the little white village in the wooded cliff-hollow, while the su

ht in Morocco now bore its fruit; perhaps too he had acquired something of the passive fatalism of the Moorish race. During this Sunday afternoon, his last Sunday as it proved, he quietly sculled the dinghy of his cutter, when the tide was low, through the mud flats of the Fowey river to Lostwithiel; and coming down again when the river was full, lay for a long time upon his oars opposite a certain church that lifts above a clump of

quarter, made Falmouth betimes. At Falmouth he learned that the Monitor had put out

asional flaw of wind, he worked his cutter round the Lizard Point and laid her head for Penzance across the bay; and it was then tha

e ago abreast of them, sounded now quite faintly astern. The boat swung with the tide and would not steer; yet Warriner betrayed no alarm and no impatience at the check. He sat on the deck with a lantern by his side and drew, said the fisherman, a little flute or pipe from his pocket, on which he played tunes that were no tunes, and

ing his music. "It's a rock. I know this coast well.

de of the lantern, and played shrilly upon his pipe while the

ard the Lizard-horn a

ree o'clock in the morning, as he knows, since Warriner just at three o'clock took his watch from his pocket and looked at the dial by the lantern-light. He mentions too, as a detail which struck him at the time, that the door of the lantern was open, and so still was the heavy air that the candle burnt steadily as in a room. At three o'clock in the morning he suddenly saw a glimmering flash of white upon the cutter's beam. For a fraction of a second he was dazed. Then he lifted the horn to his mouth, and he was still liftin

there to survey the line of a projected railway. The railway was never more than projected, and after a year the survey was abandoned. Charnock returned to London and heard the story of Warriner's death from Lady Donnisthorpe's lips at her last reception at

l with very pale gold hair. Lady Donnisthorpe rose from her chair. "Perha

," replie

She led Charnock across the room, introduced him, and left him with a manne

een you here befo

ember. It was some while sin

dually. The girl with the gold hair smiled at his per

ooked roun

said

the window, and th

said th

d Miranda upo

E