THE WORKS OF 
 ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 CHARLES CURTIS BIGELOW 
 
 AND 
 
 TEMPLE SCOTT 
 
 VOLUME I
 
 r 
 
 THE WORKS OF | 
 
 ROBERT LOUIS 
 
 STEVENSON 
 
 'lam called Francis Villon" 
 
 Vol. I, Page 244 
 
 / 
 /.;• - ■ 
 
 ^ ARABIAN NIGHT^ 
 
 THE DYNA 
 
 
 W IW H I l i W Wi
 
 TE6llion 'DeTLuxe 
 
 THE WORKS OF 
 
 ROBERT LOUIS 
 STEVENSON 
 
 VOLUME 1 
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 'G\)Z '2)avos "press
 
 EDITION De luxe 
 
 Published by Subscribers only 
 Limited to one thousand sets 
 
 THIS SET IS NUMBER 
 
 Copyright. 1906, by 
 Charles Curtis Bigelow
 
 s.A^^^-----.^^ 
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 THE DYNAMITER
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS . . s . * * » * . 1 
 THE DYNAMITER ...*»**,.. 309
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
 
 EDITORIAL NOTE 
 
 The New Arabian Nights is a collection of stones pre- 
 viously printed in the following English periodicals: Lon- 
 don^ Cornhill Magazine and Temple Bar. The Suicide Club 
 and The Rajah's Diamond appeared in London in 1878 
 under the general title of Latter-Day Arabian NighU., and 
 Pro\4dence and the Guitar in the same in 1878 under the 
 title oiLe'on Berthelini's Guitar. The Pavilion on the Links 
 was first issued in the Cornhill Magazine in 1880 and A 
 Lodging for the Night, and The Sire de Maletroit's Door 
 in Temple Bar in 1877 and 1878 respectively. 
 
 The first appearance of these stories in book form was 
 the two volume edition issued by Messrs. Chatto and Windus 
 in August, 1882, followed by a second edition befoi-e the end 
 of the year. An American edition also appeared in 1882 
 and these two were the forerunners of many editions in Eng- 
 land and America.
 
 TO 
 
 ROBERT ALAN MOWBRAY STEVENSON 
 
 IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR YOUTH 
 AND THEIR ALREADY OLD AFFECTION
 
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 
 
 I MUST insert a word of thanks to the gentleman who con- 
 descended to borrow the gist of one of ray stories, and even 
 to honor it with the addition of his signature. This mark of 
 appreciation emboldened me to make the present collection. 
 
 R. L. S.
 
 #
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 TEE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 PACE 
 
 Story op the YotrNG Man with the Ceeam Tarts 1 
 
 Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk 39 
 
 The Adventure of the Hansom Cab 59 
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 Story of the Bandbox • • . . 83 
 
 Story of the Young Man in Holy Orders 108 
 
 Story of the House with the Green Blinds 124 
 
 The Adventure of Prince Florizel and a Detective .... 155 
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 chapter 
 I. Tells How I Camped in Ghaden Sea-wood and Beheld a 
 
 Light in the Pavilion 165 
 
 II. Tells of the Nocturnal Landing from the Yacht . . • 172 
 
 III. Tells How I Became Acquainted with My Wife . . . 179 
 
 IV. Tells in What a Startling Manner I Learned that I 
 
 Was Not Alone in Graden Sea-wood 188 
 
 v. Tells of an Interview Between Northmour, Clara, and 
 
 Myself 196 
 
 VI, Tells of My Introduction to the Tall Man .... 202 
 
 xvii
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 VII. Tells How a Word Was Cbied through the Paviliok 
 
 Window 208 
 
 VIII. Tells the Last of the Tall Man 215 
 
 IX Tells How Northmoub Carried Out His Threat . . . 222 
 
 A LODGING FOB THE NIGHT 239 
 
 THE SIRE DE MAL^TROITS DOOR 253 
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 27T 
 
 xvIU
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN WITH THE CREAM TARTS 
 
 DURING his residence in London, tlie accomplished 
 Prince Florizel of Bohemia gained the affection of all 
 classes by the seduction of his manner and by a well-con- 
 sidered generosity. He was a remarkable man even by what 
 was known of him; and that was but a small part of what 
 he actually did. Although of a placid temper in ordinary 
 circumstances, and accustomed to take the world with as 
 much philosophy as any ploughman, the Prince of Bohemia 
 was not without a taste for ways of life more adventurous 
 and eccentric than that to which he was destined by his 
 birth. Now and then, when he fell into a low humor, when 
 there was no laughable play to witness in any of the Lon- 
 don theatres, and when the season of the year was unsuitable 
 to those field sports in which he excelled all competitors, 
 he would summon his confidant and Master of the Horse, 
 Colonel Geraldine, and bid him prepare himself against 
 an evening ramble. The Master of the Horse was a young 
 officer of a brave and even temerarious disposition. He 
 greeted the news with delight, and hastened to make ready. 
 Long practice and a varied acquaintance of life had given 
 him a singular facility in disguise ; he could adapt not only 
 his face and bearing, but his voice and almost his thoughts, 
 to those of any rank, character, or nation ; and in this way 
 he diverted attention from the Prince, and sometimes gained 
 admission for the pair into strange societies. The civil 
 authorities were never taken into the secret of these ad- 
 ventures ; the imperturbable courage of the one and the ready 
 invention and chivalrous devotion of the other had brought 
 them through a score of dangerous passes ; and they grew 
 in confidence as time went on. 
 
 One evening in March they were driven by a sharp fall 
 
 1
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 of sleet into an Oyster Bar in the immediate neighborhood 
 of Leicester Square. Colonel Geraldine was dressed and 
 painted to represent a person connected with the Press in 
 reduced circumstances ; while the Prince had, as usual, 
 travestied his appearance by the addition of false whiskers 
 and a pair of large adhesive eyebrows. These lent him a 
 shaggy and weather-beaten air, which, for one of his 
 urbanity, formed the most impenetrable disguise. Thus 
 equipped, the commander and his satellite sipped their 
 brandy and soda in security. 
 
 The bar was full of guests, both male and female; but 
 though more than one of these offered to fall into talk with 
 our adventurers, none of them promised to grow interesting 
 upon a nearer acquaintance. There was nothing present 
 but the lees of London and the commonplace of disrespecta- 
 bility ; and the Prince had already fallen to yawning, and 
 was beginning to grow weary of the whole excursion, when 
 the swing doors were pushed violently open, and a young 
 man, followed by a couple of commissionaires, entered the 
 bar. Each of the commissionaires carried a large dish of 
 cream tarts under a cover, which they at once removed; 
 and the young man made the round of the company, and 
 pressed these confections upon everyone's acceptance with 
 an exaggerated courtesy. Sometimes his offer was laugh- 
 ingly accepted; sometimes it was firmly, or even harshly, 
 rejected. In these latter cases the newcomer always ate the 
 tart himself, with some more or less humorous commentary. 
 
 At last he accosted Prince Florizel. 
 
 " Sir," said he, with a profound obeisance, proffering the 
 tart at the same time between his thumb and forefinger, 
 " will you so far honor an entire stranger? I can answer 
 for the quality of the pastry, having eaten two dozen and 
 three of them myself since five o^clock." 
 
 " I am in the habit," replied the Prince, " of looking not 
 so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which 
 it is offered." 
 
 " The spirit, sir," returned the young man, with another 
 bow, " is one of mockery." 
 
 m
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 <( 
 
 Mockery?" repeated Florlzel. "And whom do you 
 propose to mock? " 
 
 " I am not here to expound my philosophy," replied the 
 other, " but to distribute these cream tarts. If I men- 
 tion that I heartily include myself in the ridicule of the 
 transaction, I hope you will consider honor satisfied and 
 condescend. If not, you will constrain me to eat my 
 twenty-eighth, and I own to being weary of the exercise.^' 
 
 " You touch me," said the Prince, " and I have all the 
 will in the world to rescue you from this dilemma, but upon 
 one condition. If my friend and I eat your cakes — for 
 which we have neither of us any natural inclination — ^we shall 
 expect you to join us at supper by way of recompense." 
 
 The young man seemed to reflect. 
 
 " I have still several dozen upon hand," he said at last ; 
 *' and that will make it necessary for me to visit several 
 more bars before my great affair is concluded. This will 
 take some time ; and if you are hungry " 
 
 The Prince interrupted him with a polite gesture. 
 
 " My friend and I will accompany you," he said : *' for 
 we have already a deep interest in your very agreeable mode 
 of passing an evening. And now that the preliminaries of 
 peace are settled, allow me to sign the treaty for both." 
 
 And the Prince swallowed the tart with the best grace 
 imaginable. 
 
 " It is delicious," said he. 
 
 " I perceive you are a connoisseur," replied the young 
 man. 
 
 Colonel Geraldine likewise did honor to the pastry; and 
 every one in that bar having now either accepted or refused 
 his delicacies, the young man with the cream tarts led the 
 way to another and similar establishment. The two com- 
 missionaires, who seemed to have grown accustomed to their 
 absurd employment, followed immediately after ; and the 
 Prince and the Colonel brought up the rear, arm in arm, 
 and smiling to each other as they went. In this order the 
 company visited two other taverns, where scenes were enacted 
 of a like nature to that already described — some refusing, 
 
 3
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 some accepting, the favors of this vagabond hospitality, 
 and the young man himself eating each rejected tart. 
 
 On leaving the third saloon the young man counted his 
 store. There were but nine remaining, three in one tray and 
 six in the other. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he, addressing himself to his two new 
 followers, " I am unwilling to delay your supper. I am 
 positively sure you must be hungry. I feel that I owe you 
 a special consideration. And on this great day for me, 
 when I am closing a career of folly by my most conspicu- 
 ously silly action, I wish to behave handsomely to all who 
 give me countenance. Gentlemen, you shall wait no longer. 
 Although my constitution is shattered by previous ex- 
 cesses, at the risk of my life I liquidate the suspensory 
 condition." 
 
 With these words he crushed the nine remaining tarts 
 into his mouth, and swallowed them at a single movement 
 each. Then, turning to the commissionaires, he gave them 
 a couple of sovereigns. 
 
 " I have to thank you," said he, " for your extraordinary 
 patience." 
 
 And he dismissed them with a bow apiece. For some 
 seconds he stood looking at the purse from which he had 
 just paid his assistants, then, with a laugh, he tossed it 
 into the middle of the street, and signified his readiness for 
 supper. 
 
 In a small French restaurant in Soho, which had enjoyed 
 an exaggerated reputation for some little while, but had 
 already begun to be forgotten, and in a private room up 
 two pair of stairs, the three companions made a very elegant 
 supper, and drank three or four bottles of champagne, talk- 
 ing the while upon indifferent subjects. The young man 
 was fluent and gay, but he laughed louder than was natural 
 in a person of polite breeding; his hands trembled violently, 
 and his voice took sudden and surprising inflections, which 
 seemed to be independent of his will. The dessert had been 
 cleared away, and all three had lighted their cigars, when 
 the Prince addressed him in these words: — 
 
 n
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 " You will, I am sure, pardon my curiosity. What I have 
 seen of you has greatly pleased but even more puzzled me. 
 And though I should be loath to seem indiscreet, I must tell 
 you that my friend and I are persons very well worthy to 
 be entrusted with a secret. We have many of our own, 
 which we are continually revealing to improper ears. And 
 if, as I suppose, your story is a silly one, you need have 
 no delicacy with us, who are two of the silliest men in Eng- 
 land. My name is Godall, Theophilus Godall; my friend 
 is Major Alfred Hammersmith — or at least, such is the 
 name by which he chooses to be known. We pass our lives 
 entirely in the search for extravagant adventures ; and there 
 is no extravagance with which we are not capable of sym- 
 pathy." 
 
 " I like you, Mr. Godall," returned the young man ; " you 
 inspire me with a natural confidence; and I have not the 
 slightest objection to your friend, the Major; whom I take 
 to be a nobleman in masquerade. At least, I am sure he is no 
 soldier." 
 
 The Colonel smiled at this compliment to the perfection 
 of his art; and the young man went on in a more animated 
 manner. 
 
 " There is every reason why I should not tell you my story. 
 Perhaps that is just the reason why I am going to do so. 
 At least, you seem so well prepared to hear a tale of silliness 
 that I cannot find it in my heart to disappoint you. My 
 name, in spite of your example, I shall keep to myself. My 
 age is not essential to the narrative. I am descended from 
 my ancestors by ordinary generation, and from them I in- 
 herited the very eligible human tenement which I still occupy 
 and a fortune of three hundred pounds a year. I suppose 
 they also handed on to me a hare-brain humor, which it has 
 been my chief delight to indulge. I received a good educa- 
 tion. I can play the violin nearly well enough to earn money 
 in the orchestra of a penny gaff, but not quite. The same 
 remark applies to the flute and the French horn. I learned 
 enough of whist to lose about a hundred a year at that 
 scientific game. My acquaintance with French was sufficient
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 to enable me to squander money in Paris with almost the 
 same facility as in London. In short, I am a person full of 
 manly accomplishments. I have had every sort of adventure, 
 including a duel about nothing. Only two months ago I met 
 a young ladj' exactly suited to my taste in mind and body; 
 I found my heart melt ; I saw that I had come upon my fate 
 at last, and was in the way to fall in love. But when I came 
 to reckon up what remained to me of my capital, I found 
 it amounted to something less than four hundred pounds ! 
 I ask you fairly — can a man who respects himself fall in 
 love on four hundred pounds? I concluded, certainly not; 
 left the presence of my charmer, and slightly accelerating 
 my usual rate of expenditure, came this morning to my last 
 eighty pounds. This I divided into two equal parts ; forty 
 I reserved for a particular purpose; the remaining forty I 
 was to dissipate before the night. I have passed a very 
 entertaining day, and played many farces besides that of 
 the cream tarts which procured me the advantage of your 
 acquaintance; for I was determined, as I told you, to bring 
 a foolish career to a still more foolish conclusion ; and when 
 you saw me throw ray purse into the street, the forty pounds 
 were at an end. Now you know me as well as I know myself: 
 a fool, but consistent in his folly; and, as I will ask you to 
 believe, neither a whimperer nor a coward." 
 
 From the whole tone of the young man's statement it was 
 plain that he harbored very bitter and contemptuous 
 thoughts about himself. His auditors were led to imagine 
 that his love affair was nearer his heart than he admitted, 
 and that he had a design on his own life. The farce of the 
 cream tarts began to have very much the air of a tragedy 
 in disguise. 
 
 " Why, is this not odd," broke out Geraldine, giving a 
 look to Prince Florizel, " that we three fellows should have 
 met by the merest accident in so large a wilderness as Lon- 
 don, and should be so nearly in the same condition? " 
 
 " How? " cried the young man. " Are you, too, ruined? 
 Is this supper a folly hke my cream tarts? Has the devil 
 brought three of his own together for a last carouse? "
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 *'The devil, depend upon it, can sometimes do a very gen- 
 tlemanly thing," returned Prince Florizel; "and I am so 
 much touched by this coincidence, that, although we are not 
 entirely in the same case, I am going to put an end to the 
 disparity. Let your heroic treatment of the last cream 
 tarts be my example. ' ' 
 
 So saying, the Prince drew out his purse and took from 
 it a small bundle of bank-notes. 
 
 "You see, I was a week or so behind you, but I mean 
 to catch you up and come neck and neck into the winning- 
 post," he continued. "This," laying one of the notes upon 
 
 the table, ' ' will suffice for the bill. As for the rest ' ' 
 
 He tossed them into the fire, and they went up the chimney 
 in a single blaze. 
 
 The young man tried to catch his arm, but as the table 
 was between them his interference came too late. 
 
 "Unhappy man," he cried, "3'ou should not have burned 
 them all ! You should have kept forty pounds. ' ' 
 
 "Forty pounds!" repeated the Prince. "Why, in 
 Heaven's name, forty pounds?" 
 
 "Why not eighty?" cried the Colonel; "for to my cer- 
 tain knowledge there must have been a hundred in the 
 bundle." 
 
 "It was only forty pounds he needed," said the young 
 man gloomily. "But without them there is no admission. 
 The rule is strict. Forty pounds for each. Accursed life, 
 where a man cannot even die without money ! ' ' 
 The Prince and the Colonel exchanged glances. 
 "Explain yourself," said the latter. "I have still a 
 pocket-book tolerably well lined, and I need not say how 
 readily I would share my wealth with Godall. But I must 
 know to what end: you must certainly tell us what you 
 mean. ' ' 
 
 The young man seemed to awaken ; he looked uneasily 
 from one to the other, and his face flushed deeply. 
 
 "You are not fooling me?" he asked. "You are indeed 
 ruined men like me?" 
 
 "Indeed, I am for my part," replied the Colonel.
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " And for mine," said the Prince, " I have given you 
 proof. Who but a ruined man would throw his notes into 
 the fire? The action speaks for itself." 
 
 " A ruined man — yes," returned the other suspiciously, 
 *' or else a millionaire." 
 
 " Enough, sir," said the Prince ; " I have said so, and I 
 am not accustomed to have my word remain in doubt." 
 
 "Ruined?" said the young man. "Are you ruined, like 
 me? Are you, after a life of indulgence, come to such a 
 pass that you can only indulge yourself in one thing more? 
 Are you " — he kept lowering his voice as he went on — " are 
 you going to give yourselves that last indulgence! Are 
 you going to avoid the consequences of your folly by the 
 one infallible and easy path? Are you going to give the 
 slip to the sheriff's officers of conscience by the one open 
 door? " 
 
 Suddenly he broke off and attempted to laugh. 
 
 " Here is your health ! " he cried, emptying his glass, 
 ** and good night to you, my merry ruined men." 
 
 Colonel Geraldine caught him by the arm as he was about 
 to rise. 
 
 " You lack confidence in us," he said, " and you are 
 wrong. To all your questions I make answer In the affirma- 
 tive. But I am not so timid, and can speak the Queen's 
 English plainly. We too, like yourself, have had enough 
 of life, and are determined to die. Sooner or later, alone 
 or together, we meant to seek out death and beard him 
 where he lies ready. Since we have met you, and your case 
 is more pressing, let it be to-night — and at once — and, if 
 you will, all three together. Such a penniless trio," he cried, 
 " should go arm in arm into the halls of Pluto, and give 
 each other some countenance among the shades ! " 
 
 Geraldine had hit exactly on the manners and intonations 
 that became the part he was playing. The Prince himself 
 was disturbed, and looked over at his confidant with a shade 
 of doubt. As for the young man, the flush came back 
 darkly Into his cheek, and his eyes threw out a spark of 
 light.
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 " You are the men for me ! " he cried, with an almost 
 terrible gayety. " Shake hands upon the bargain ! " (his 
 hand was cold and wet.) " You little know in what a com- 
 pany you will begin the march ! You little know in what a 
 happy moment for yourselves you partook of my cream 
 tarts ! I am only a unit, but I am a unit in an army. I know 
 Death's private door. I am one of his familiars, and can 
 show you into eternity without ceremony and yet without 
 scandal." 
 
 They called upon him eagerly to explain his meaning. 
 
 " Can you muster eighty pounds between you.'* " he de- 
 manded. 
 
 Geraldine ostentatiously consulted his pocket-book, and 
 replied in the affirmative. 
 
 " Fortunate beings ! " cried the young man. " Forty 
 pounds is the entry money of the Suicide Club." 
 
 " The Suicide Club," said the Prince, " why, what the 
 devil is that.? " 
 
 " Listen," said the young man ; " this is the age of con- 
 veniences, and I have to tell you of the last perfection of 
 the sort. We have affairs in different places ; and hence 
 railways were invented. Railways separated us infallibly 
 from our friends ; and so telegraphs were made that we might 
 communicate speedily at great distances. Even in hotels 
 we have hfts to spare us a climb of some hundred steps. 
 Now, we know that life is only a stage to play the fool upon 
 as long as the part amuses us. There was one more con- 
 venience lacking to modem comfort ; a decent, easy way to 
 quit that stage ; the back stairs to liberty ; or, as I said this 
 moment, Death's private door. This, my two fellow-rebels, 
 is supplied by the Suicide Club. Do not suppose that you 
 and I are alone, or even exceptional, in the highly reasonable 
 desire that we profess. A large number cf our fellow-men, 
 who have grown heartily sick of the performance in which 
 they are expected to join daily and all their lives long, are 
 only kept from flight by one or two considerations. Some 
 have families who would be shocked, or even blamed, if the 
 matter became public ; others have a weakness at heart and 
 
 9
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 recoil from the circumstances of death. That is, to some 
 extent, my own experience. I cannot put a pistol to my head 
 and draw the trigger; for something stronger than myself 
 withholds the act; and although I loathe life, I have not 
 strength enough in my body to take hold of death and be 
 done with it. For such as I, and for all who desire to be out 
 of the coil without posthumous scandal, the Suicide Club 
 has been inaugurated. How this has been managed, what is 
 its history, or what may be its ramifications in other lands, 
 I am myself uninformed ; and what I know of its constitu- 
 tion, I am not at liberty to communicate to you. To this 
 extent, however, I am at your service. If you are truly 
 tired of life, I will introduce you to-night to a meeting; 
 and if not to-night, at least some time within the week, you 
 wiU be easily relieved of your existences. It is now (con- 
 sulting his watch) eleven ; by half -past, at latest, we must 
 leave this place ; so that you have half an hour before you 
 to consider my proposal. It is more serious than a cream 
 tart," he added, with a smile ; " and I suspect more 
 palatable." 
 
 " More serious, certainly," returned Colonel Geraldine ; 
 " and as it is so much more so, will you allow me five minutes' 
 speech in private with my friend, Mr. GodalL? " 
 
 " It is only fair," answered the young man. " If you 
 will permit, I will retire." 
 
 " You will be very obliging," said the Colonel. 
 
 As soon as the two were alone — " What," said Prince 
 Florizel, "is the use of this confabulation, Geraldine? I 
 see you are flurried, whereas my mind is very tranquilly 
 made up. I will see the end of this." 
 
 " Your Highness," said the Colonel turning pale ; " let 
 me ask you to consider the importance of your life, not only 
 to your friends, but to the pubhc interest. ' If not to-night,' 
 said this madman; but supposing that to-night some irrep- 
 arable disaster were to overtake your Highness's person, 
 what, let me ask you, what would be my despair, and what 
 the concern and disaster of a great nation.'' " 
 
 " I will see the end of this," repeated the Prince in his 
 
 10
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 most deliberate tones ; " and have the kindness, Colonel 
 Geraldine, to remember and respect your word of honor 
 as a gentleman. Under no circumstances, recollect, nor 
 without my special authority, are you to betray the incognito 
 under which I choose to go abroad. These were my com- 
 mands, which I now reiterate. And now," he added, " let 
 me ask you to call for the bill." 
 
 Colonel Geraldine bowed in submission ; but he had a very 
 white face as he summoned the young man of the cream 
 tarts, and issued his directions to the waiter. The 
 Prince preserved his undisturbed demeanor, and described 
 a Palais Royal farce to the young suicide with great humor 
 and gusto. He avoided the Colonel's appealing looks with- 
 out ostentation, and selected another cheroot with more than 
 usual care. Indeed, he was now the only man of the party 
 who kept any command over his nerves. 
 
 The bill was discharged, the Prince giving the whole 
 change of the note to the astonished waiter; and the three 
 drove off in a four wheeler. They were not long upon 
 the way before the cab stopped at the entrance to a rathei 
 dark court. Here all descended. 
 
 After Geraldine had paid the fare, the young man 
 turned, and addressed Prince Florizel as follows : 
 
 " It is still time, Mr. Godall, to make good your escape 
 into thralldom. And for you too. Major Hammersmith. 
 Reflect well before you take another step ; and if your hearts 
 say no — here are the crossroads." 
 
 " Lead on, sir," said the Prince. " I am not the man 
 to go back from a thing once said." 
 
 " Your coolness does me good," replied their guide. " I 
 have never seen anyone so unmoved at this conjuncture; and 
 yet you are not the first whom I have escorted to this door. 
 More than one of my friends has preceded me, where I knew 
 I must shortly follow. But this is of no interest to you. 
 Wait me here for only a few moments; I shall return as 
 soon as I have arranged the preliminaries of your intro- 
 duction." 
 
 And with that the young man, waving his hand to his 
 
 11
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 companions, turned into the court, entered a doorway and 
 disappeared. 
 
 " Of all our follies," said Colonel Geraldine in a low 
 voice, " this is the wildest and most dangerous." 
 
 ** I perfectly believe so," returned the Prince. 
 
 " We have still," pursued the Colonel, " a moment to 
 ourselves. Let me beseech your Highness to profit by the 
 opportunity and retire. The consequences of this step are 
 so dark, and may be so grave, that I feel myself justified in 
 pushing a little farther than usual the liberty which your 
 Highness is so condescending as to allow me in private." 
 
 " Am I to understand that Colonel Geraldine is afraid? " 
 asked his Highness, taking his cheroot from his lips, and 
 looking keenly into the other's face. 
 
 " My fear is certainly not personal," replied the other 
 proudly ; " of that your Highness may rest well assured." 
 
 " I had supposed as much," returned the Prince, with! 
 undisturbed good humor ; " but I was unwilling to remind 
 you of the difference in our stations. No more — ^no more." 
 he added, seeing Geraldine about to apologize, *' you stand 
 excused." 
 
 And he smoked placidly, leaning against a railing, until 
 the young man returned. 
 
 " Well," he asked, " has our reception been arranged? " 
 
 " Follow me," was the reply. " The President will see 
 you in the cabinet. And let me warn you to be frank in 
 your answers. I have stood your guarantee; but the club 
 requires a searching inquiry before admission; for the in- 
 discretion of a single member would lead to the dispersion 
 of the whole society forever." 
 
 The Prince and Geraldine put their heads together for a 
 moment. " Bear me out in this," said the one ; and " bear 
 me out in that," said the other ; and by boldly taking up the 
 characters of men with whom both were acquainted, they had 
 come to an agreement In a twinkling, and were ready to fol- 
 low their guide into the President's cabinet. 
 
 There were no formidable obstacles to pass. The outer 
 door stood open; the door of the cabinet was ajar; and there, 
 
 12
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 in a small but very high apartment, the young man left them 
 once more. 
 
 " He will be here Immediately," he said with a nod, as he 
 disappeared. 
 
 Voices were audible In the cabinet through the folding 
 doors which formed one end ; and now and then the noise 
 of a champagne cork, followed by a burst of laughter, inter- 
 vened among the sounds of conversation. A single tall 
 window looked out upon the river and the embankment; and 
 by the disposition of the lights they judged themselves not 
 far from Charing Cross station. The furniture was scanty, 
 and the coverings worn to the thread; and there was noth- 
 ing movable except a hand-bell in the centre of a round 
 table, and the hats and coats of a considerable party hung 
 round the wall on pegs. 
 
 "What sort of a den Is this?" said Geraldine. 
 
 " That is Avhat I have come to see," replied the Prince. 
 *' If they keep live devils on the premises, the thing may 
 grow amusing." 
 
 K- Just then the folding door was opened no more than 
 necessary for the passage of a human body ; and there 
 entered at the same moment a louder buzz of talk, and the 
 redoubtable President of the Suicide Club. The President 
 was a man of fifty or upwards ; large and rambling In his 
 gait, with shaggy side-whiskers, a bald top to his head, and 
 a veiled gray eye, which now and then emitted a twinkle. 
 His mouth, which embraced a large cigar, he kept continu- 
 ally screwing round and round and from side to side, as he 
 looked sagaciously and coldly at the strangers. He was 
 dressed in light tweeds, with his neck very open, in a striped 
 shirt collar ; and carried a minute book under one arm. 
 ■ " Good evening," said he, after he had closed the door 
 behind him. " I am told you wish to speak with me." 
 
 "We have a desire, sir. to join the Suicide Club," replied 
 the Colonel. 
 
 The President rolled his cigar about In his mouth. 
 
 ," What Is that? " he said abruptly. 
 
 " Pardon me," returned the Colonel, " but I believe you 
 
 13
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 are the person best qualified to give us information on that 
 point." 
 
 "I?" cried the President. "A Suicide Club? Come, 
 come ! this is a frolic for All Fools' Day. I can make allow- 
 ances for gentlemen who get merry in their liquor; but let 
 there be an end to this." 
 
 " Call your Club what you will," said the Colonel, " you 
 have some company behind these doors, and we insist on 
 joining it." 
 
 " Sir," returned the President, curtly, " you have made 
 a mistake. This is a private house, and you must leave it 
 instantly." 
 
 The Prince had remained quietly in his seat throughout 
 this little colloquy ; but now, when the Colonel looked over 
 to him, as much as to say, " Take your answer and come 
 away, for God's sake ! " he drew his cheroot from his mouth, 
 and spoke — 
 
 " I have come here," said he, " upon the invitation of a 
 friend of yours. He has doubtless informed you of my 
 intention in thus intruding on your party. Let me remind 
 you that a person in my circumstances has exceedingly little 
 to bind him, and is not at all likely to tolerate much rude- 
 ness. I am a very quiet man, as a usual thing ; but, my dear 
 sir, you are either going to oblige me in the little matter 
 of which you are aware, or you shall very bitterly repent 
 that you ever admitted me to your ante-chamber." 
 
 The President laughed aloud. 
 
 " That is the way to speak," said he. " You are a man 
 who is a man. You know the way to my heart, and can do 
 what you like with me. Will you," he continued, addressing 
 Geraldine, " will you step aside for a few minutes ? I shall 
 finish first with your companion, and some of the club's 
 formalities require to be fulfilled in private." 
 
 With these words he opened the door of a small closet, 
 into which be shut the Colonel. 
 
 " I beheve in you," he said to Florizel, as soon as they 
 were alone ; " but are you sure of your friend ? " 
 
 *' Not so sure as I am of myself, though he has more 
 
 14
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 cogent reasons," answered Florizel, " but sure enough to 
 bring him here without alarm. He has had enough to cure 
 the most tenacious man of Hfe. He was cashiered the other 
 day for cheating at cards." 
 
 " A good reason, I daresay," replied the President ; " at 
 least, we have another in the same case, and I feel sure of 
 him. Have you also been in the Service, may I ask?" 
 
 " I have," was the reply ; " but I was too lazy, I left it 
 early." 
 
 " What is your reason for being tired of life.'' " pursued 
 the President. 
 
 " The same, as near as I can make out," answered the 
 Prince ; " unadulterated laziness." 
 
 The President started. " D ^n it," said he, " you 
 
 must have something better than that." 
 
 " I have no more money," added Florizel. " That is also 
 a vexation, without doubt. It brings my sense of idleness 
 to an acute point," 
 
 The President rolled his cigar round in his mouth for 
 some seconds, directing his gaze straight into the eyes of 
 this unusual neophyte ; but the Prince supported his scrutiny 
 with unabashed good temper. 
 
 " If I had not a deal of experience," said the President at 
 last, " I should turn you off. But I know the world ; and 
 this much any way, that the most frivolous excuses for a 
 suicide are often the toughest to stand by. And when I 
 downright like a man, as I do you, sir, I would rather strain 
 the regulation than deny him." 
 
 The Prince and the Colonel, one after the other, were sub- 
 jected to a long and particular interrogatory: the Prince 
 alone; but Geraldine in the presence of the Prince, so that 
 the President might observe the countenance of the one while 
 the other was being warmly cross-examined. The result was 
 satisfactory ; and the President, after having booked a few 
 details of each case, produced a form of oath to be accepted. 
 Nothing could be conceived more passive than the obedience 
 promised, or more stringent than the terms by which the 
 juror bound himself. The man who forfeited a pledge so
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 awful could scarcely have a Tag of honor or any of the 
 consolations of religion left to him. Florizel signed the 
 document, but not without a shudder; the Colonel followed 
 his example with an air of great depression. Then the 
 President received the entry money ; and without more ado, 
 introduced the two friends into the smoking-room of the 
 Suicide Club. 
 
 The smoking-room of the Suicide Club was the same 
 height as the cabinet into which it opened, but much larger, 
 and papered from top to bottom with an imitation of oak 
 wainscot. A large and cheerful fire and a number of gas- 
 jets illuminated the company. The Prince and his follower 
 made the number up to eighteen. Most of the party were 
 smoking, and drinking champagne; a feverish hilarity 
 reigned, with sudden and rather ghastly pauses. 
 
 " Is this a full meeting? " asked the Prince. 
 
 " Middling," said the President. " By the way," he 
 added, " If you have any money, it is usual to offer some 
 champagne. It keeps up a good spirit, and Is one of my 
 own httle perquisites." 
 
 " Hammersmith," said Florizel, " I may leave the cham- 
 pagne to you." 
 
 And with that he turned away and began to go round 
 among the guests. Accustomed to play the host In the 
 highest circles, he charmed and dominated all whom he ap- 
 proached ; there was something at once winning and authori- 
 tative In his address ; and his extraordinary coolness gave 
 him yet another distinction In this half maniacal society. As 
 he went from one to another he kept both his eyes and ears 
 open, and soon began to gain a general idea of the people 
 among whom he found himself. As In all other places of 
 resort, one type predominated: people In the prime of 
 youth, with every show of Intelligence and sensibility In their 
 appearance, but with little promise of strength or the quality 
 that makes success. Few were much above thirty, and not a 
 few were still In their teens. They stood, leaning on tables 
 and shifting on their feet; sometimes they smoked extraor- 
 dinarily fast, and sometimes they let their cigars go out; 
 
 16
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 some talked well, but the conversation of others was plainly 
 the result of nervous tension, and was equally without wit 
 or purport. As each new bottle of champagne was opened, 
 there was a manifest improvement in gaiety. Only two were 
 seated — one in a chair in the recess of the window, with his 
 head hanging and his hands plunged deep into his trouser 
 pockets, pale, visibly moist with perspiration, saying never 
 a word, a very wreck of soul and body ; the other sat on the 
 divan close by the chimney, and attracted notice by a trench- 
 ant dissimilarity from all the rest. He was probably 
 upwards of forty, but he looked fully ten years older; and 
 Florlzel thought he had never seen a man more naturally 
 hideous, nor one more ravaged by disease and ruinous ex- 
 citements. He was no more than skin and bone, was partly 
 paralyzed, and wore spectacles of such unusual power, that 
 his eyes appeared through the glasses greatly magnified and 
 distorted in shape. Except the Prince and the President, 
 he was the only person in the room who preserved the com- 
 posure of ordinary life. 
 
 There was little decency among the members of the club. 
 Some boasted of the disgraceful actions, the consequences 
 of which had reduced them to seek refuge in death ; and the 
 others listened without disapproval. There was a tacit un- 
 derstanding against moral judgments; and whoever passed 
 the club doors enjoyed already some of the immunities of 
 the tomb. They drank to each other's memories, and to 
 those of notable suicides In the past. They compared and 
 developed their different views of death — some declaring 
 that it was no more than blackness and cessation ; others full 
 of a hope that that very night they should be scaling the 
 stars and commercing with the mighty dead. 
 
 " To the eternal memory of Baron Trenck, the type of 
 suicides ! " cried one. " He went out of a small cell into a 
 smaller, that he might come forth again to freedom." 
 
 " For my part," said a second, " I wish no more than a 
 bandage for my eyes and cotton for my ears. Only they 
 have no cotton thick enough in this world." 
 
 A third was for reading the mysteries of life in a future 
 
 17
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 state; and a fourth professed that he would never have 
 joined the club, if he had not been induced to believe in 
 Mr. Darwin. 
 
 " I could not bear," said this remarkable suicide, " to be 
 descended from an ape.'* 
 
 Altogether, the Prince was disappointed by the bearing 
 and conversation of the members. 
 
 " It does not seem to me," he thought, " a matter for so 
 much disturbance. If a man has made up his mind to kill 
 himself, let him do it, in God's name, like a gentleman. This 
 flutter and big talk is out of place." 
 
 In the meanwhile Colonel Geraldine was a prey to the 
 blackest apprehensions ; the club and its rules were still a 
 mystery, and he looked round the room for some one who 
 should be able to set his mind at rest. In this survey his 
 eye lighted on the paralytic person with the strong spec- 
 tacles ; and seeing him so exceedingly tranquil, he besought 
 the President, who was going in and out of the room under 
 a pressure of business, to present him to the gentleman on 
 the divan. 
 
 The functionary explained the needlessness of all such 
 formalities within the club, but nevertheless presented Mr. 
 Hammersmith to Mr. Malthus. 
 
 Mr. Malthus looked at the Colonel curiously, and then 
 requested him to take a seat upon his right. 
 
 "You are a newcomer," he said, "and wish information? 
 You have come to the proper source. It is two years since 
 I first visited this charming club." 
 
 The Colonel breathed again. If Mr. Malthus had fre- 
 quented the place for two years there could be little danger 
 for the Prince in a single evening. But Geraldine was 
 none the less astonished, and began to suspect a mysti- 
 fication. 
 
 " What ! " cried he, " two years ! I thought — ^but indeed 
 I see I have been made the subject of a pleasantry." 
 
 *' By no means," replied Mr. Malthus mildly. " My case 
 is pecuHar. I am not, properly speaking, a suicide at all; 
 but, as it were, an honorary member. I rarely visit the 
 
 18
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 club twice In two months. My infirmity and the kindness 
 of the President have procured me these little immunities, 
 for which besides I pay at an advanced rate. Even as it is 
 my luck has been extraordinary." 
 
 " I am afraid," said the Colonel, " that I must ask you to 
 be more explicit. You must remember that I am still most 
 imperfectly acquainted with the rules of the club." 
 
 " An ordinary member who gomes here in search of death 
 like yourself," replied the paralytic, " returns every even- 
 ing until fortune favors him. He can, even if he is penni- 
 less, get board and lodging from the President: very fair, 
 I believe, and clean, although, of course, not luxurious ; that 
 could hardly be, considering the exiguity (if I may so ex- 
 press myself) of the subscription. And then the President's 
 company is a delicacy in itself." 
 
 " Indeed ! " cried Geraldine, " he had not greatly pre- 
 possessed me." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Mr. Malthus, " you do not know the man : 
 the drollest fellow ! What stories ! What cynicism ! He 
 knows hfe to admiration and, between ourselves, is prob- 
 ably the most corrupt rogue in Christendom." 
 
 " And he also," asked the Colonel, " is a permanency — 
 like yourself, if I may say so without offence.'* " 
 
 " Indeed, he is a permanency in a very different sense 
 from me," replied Mr. Malthus. " I have been graciously 
 spared, but I must go at last. Now he never plays. He 
 shuffles and deals for the club, and makes the necessary ar- 
 rangements. That man, my dear Mr. Hammersmith, is the 
 very soul of ingenuity. For three years he has pursued in 
 London his useful and, I think I may add, his artistic call- 
 ing; and not so much as a whisper of suspicion has been once 
 aroused. I believe him myself to be inspired. You doubt- 
 less remember the celebrated case, six months ago, of the 
 gentleman who was accidentally poisoned in a chemist's shop ? 
 That was one of the least rich, one of the least racy, of his 
 notions ; but then, how simple ! and how safe ! " 
 
 " You astound me," said the Colonel. " Was that unfor- 
 tunate gentleman one of the " He was about to say
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " victims " ; but bethinking himself in time, he substituted — - 
 *' members of the club ? " 
 
 In the same flash of thought, it occurred to him that Mr. 
 Malthus himself had not at all spoken in the tone of one 
 who is in love with death ; and he added hurriedly : 
 
 *' But I perceive I am still in the dark. You speak of 
 shuffling and dealing; pray for what end? And since you 
 seem rather unwilling to die than otherwise, I must own that 
 I cannot conceive what brings you here at all." 
 
 ** You say truly that you are in the dark," replied Mr. 
 Malthus with more animation. " Why, my dear sir, this 
 club is the temple of intoxication. If my enfeebled health 
 could support the excitement more often, you may depend 
 upon it I should be more often here. It requires all the sense 
 of duty engendered by a long habit of ill-health and careful 
 regimen, to keep me from excess in this, which is, I may say, 
 my last dissipation. I have tried them all, sir," he went on, 
 laying his hand on Geraldine's arm, " all without exception, 
 and I declare to you, upon my honor, there is not one of 
 them that has not been grossly and untruthfully overrated. 
 People trifle with love. Now, I deny that love is a strong 
 passion. Fear is the strong passion ; it is with fear that you 
 must trifle, if you wish to taste the intense joys of living. 
 Envy me — envy me, sir," he added with a chuckle, " I am a 
 coward ! " 
 
 Geraldine could scarcely repress a movement of repulsion 
 for this deplorable wretch; but he commanded himself with 
 an effort, and continued his inquiries. 
 
 " How, sir," he asked, " is the excitement so artfully pro- 
 longed.? and where is there any element of uncertainty.? " 
 
 *' I must tell you how the victim for every evening is 
 selected," returned Mr. Malthus ; " and not only the victim, 
 but another member, who is to be the instrument in the club's 
 hands, and death's liigh priest of that occasion." 
 
 " Good God ! " said the Colonel, " do they then kill each 
 other.? " 
 
 " The trouble of suicide is removed in that way," returned 
 Malthus with a nod. 
 
 20
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 "Merciful Heavens! " ejaculated the Colonel, " and may 
 you — may I — may the — ^my friend, I mean — may any of 
 us be pitched upon this evening as the slayer of another 
 man's body and immortal spirit? Can such things be 
 possible among men bom of women? Oh! infamy of 
 infamies ! " 
 
 He was about to rise in his horror, when he caught the 
 Prince's eye. It was fixed upon him from across the room 
 with a frowning and angry stare. And in a moment Ger- 
 aldine recovered his composure. 
 
 "After all," he added, "why not? And since you say 
 the game is interesting, vogue la galere — I follow the club ! " 
 
 Mr. Malthus had keenly enjoyed the Colonel's amazement 
 and disgust. He had the vanity of wickedness ; and it 
 pleased him to see another man give way to a generous 
 movement, while he felt himself, in his entire corruption, 
 superior to such em.otions. 
 
 " You now, after your first moment of surprise," said he, 
 " are in a position to appreciate the delights of our society. 
 You can see how it combines the excitement of a gaming- 
 table, a duel, and a Roman amphitheatre. The Pagans did 
 well enough; I cordially admire the refinement of their 
 minds ; but it has been reserved for a Christian country to 
 attain this extreme, this quintessence, this absolute of 
 poignancy. You will understand how vapid are all amuse- 
 ments to a man who has acquired a taste for this one. The 
 game we play," he continued, " is one of extreme simplicity. 
 A full pack — ^but I perceive you are about to see the tiling 
 in progress. Will you lend me the help of your arm? I 
 am unfortunately paralyzed." 
 
 Indeed, just as Mr. Malthus was beginning his descrip- 
 tion, another pair of folding-doors was thrown open, and 
 the whole club began to pass, not without some hurry, into 
 the adjoining room. It was similar in every respect to the 
 one from which it was entered, but somewhat differently 
 furnished. The centre was occupied by a long green table, 
 at which the President sat shuffling a pack of cards with 
 great particularity. Even with the stick and the Colonel's 
 
 21
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 arm, Mr. Malthus walked with so much difficulty that every- 
 one was seated before this pair and the Prince, who had 
 waited for them, entered the apartment ; and, in consequence, 
 the three took seats close together at the lower end of the 
 board. 
 
 " It is a pack of fifty-two," whispered Mr. Malthus. 
 " Watch for the ace of spades, which is the sign of death, 
 and the ace of clubs, which designates the official of the 
 night. Happy, happy young men ! " he added. " You have 
 good eyes, and can follow the game. Alas ! I cannot tell an 
 ace from a deuce across the table." 
 
 And he proceeded to equip himself with a second pair of 
 spectacles. 
 
 " I must at least watch the faces," he explained. 
 
 The Colonel rapidly informed his friend of all that he 
 had learned from the honorary member, and of the horrible 
 alternative that lay before them. The Prince was conscious 
 of a deadly chill and a contraction about his heart; he swal- 
 lowed with difficulty, and looked from side to side like a man 
 in a maze. 
 
 " One bold stroke," whispered the Colonel, " and we may 
 still escape." 
 
 But the suggestion recalled the Prince's spirits. 
 
 *' Silence ! " said he. " Let me see that you can play like 
 a gentleman for any stake, however serious." 
 
 And he looked about him, once more to all appearance at 
 his ease, although his heart beat thickly, and he was con- 
 scious of an unpleasant heat in his bosom. The members 
 were all very quiet and intent; everyone was pale, but none 
 so pale as Mr. Malthus. His eyes protruded; his head kept, 
 nodding involuntarily upon his spine; his hands found their 
 way, one after the other, to his mouth, where they made 
 clutches at his tremulous and ashen lips. It was plain that 
 the honorary member enjoyed his membership on very start- 
 ling terms. 
 
 " Attention, gentlemen ! " said the President. 
 
 And he began slowly dealing the cards about the table 
 in the reverse direction, pausing until each man had shown 
 
 22
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 his card. Nearly everyone hesitated; and sometimes you 
 would see a player's fingers stumble more than once before 
 he could turn over the momentous slip of pasteboard. As 
 the Prince's turn drew nearer, he was conscious of a grow- 
 ing and almost suffocating excitement ; but he had some- 
 what of the gambler's nature, and recognized almost with 
 astonishment that there was a degree of pleasure in his 
 sensations. The nine of clubs fell to his lot; the three of 
 spades was dealt to Geraldine; and the queen of hearts to 
 Mr. Malthus, who was unable to suppress a sob of relief. 
 The young man of the cream tarts almost immediately after- 
 wards turned over the ace of clubs, and remained frozen 
 with horror, the card still resting on his finger; he had not 
 come there to kill, but to be killed; and the Prince, in his 
 generous sympathy with his position, almost forgot the peril 
 that still hung over himself and his friend. 
 
 The deal was coming round again, and still Death's card 
 had not come out. The players held their respiration, and 
 only breathed by gasps. The Prince received another club ; 
 Geraldine had a diamond; but when Mr. Malthus turned up 
 his card a horrible noise, like that of something breaking, 
 issued from his mouth ; and he rose from his seat and sat 
 down again, with no sign of his paralysis. It was the ace 
 of spades. The honorary member had trifled once too often 
 with his terrors. 
 
 Conversation broke out again almost at once. The 
 players relaxed their rigid attitudes, and began to rise 
 from the table and stroll back by twos and threes into the 
 smoking-room. The President stretched his arms and 
 yawned, like a man who had finished his day's work. But 
 Mr. Malthus sat in his place, with his head in his hands, 
 and his hands upon the table, drunk and motionless — a 
 thing stricken down. 
 
 The Prince and Geraldine made their escape at once. In 
 the cold night air their horror of what they had witnessed 
 was redoubled. 
 
 " Alas ! " cried the Prince, " to be bound by an oath in 
 such a matter 1 to allow this wholesale trade in murder to be 
 
 23
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 continued with profit and impunity! If I but dared to 
 forfeit my pledge ! " 
 
 " That is impossible for your Highness," replied the 
 Colonel, whose honor is the honor of Bohemia. " But I 
 dare, and may with propriety, forfeit mine." 
 
 " Geraldine," said the Prince, " if your honor suffers in 
 any of the adventures into which you follow me, not only 
 will I never pardon you, but — what I believe will much more 
 sensibly affect you— I should never forgive myself." 
 
 " I receive your Highness's commands," replied the 
 Colonel. " Shall we go from this accursed spot.'' " 
 
 " Yes," said the Prince. " Call a cab in Heaven's name, 
 and let me try to forget in slumber the memory of this 
 night's disgrace." 
 
 But it was notable that he carefully read the name of the 
 court before he left it. 
 
 The next morning, as soon as the Prince was stirring, 
 Colonel Geraldine brought him a daily newspaper, with the 
 following paragraph marked: — 
 
 " Melancholy Accident. — This morning, about two 
 o'clock, Mr. Bartholomew Malthus, of 16 Chepstow Place, 
 Westbourne Grove, on his way home from a party at a 
 friend's house, fell over the upper parapet in Trafalgar 
 Square, fracturing his skull and breaking a leg and an 
 arm. Death was instantaneous. Mr. Malthus, accompanied 
 by a friend, was engaged in looking for a cab at the time 
 of the unfortunate occurrence. As Mr. Malthus was para- 
 lytic, it is thought that his fall may have been occasioned by 
 another seizure. The unhappy gentleman was well known 
 in the most respectable circles, and his loss will be widely 
 and deeply deplored." 
 
 " If ever a soul went straight to Hell," said Geraldine 
 solemnly, " it was that paralytic man's." 
 
 The Prince buried his face in his hands, and remained 
 silent. 
 
 " I am almost rejoiced," continued the Colonel, " to know 
 that he is dead. But for our young man of the cream tarts 
 I confess my heart bleeds." 
 
 24
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 " Geraldine," said the Prince, raising liis face, " that un- 
 happy lad was last night as innocent as you and I ; and this 
 morning the guilt of blood is on his soul. When I think of 
 the President, my heart grows sick within me. I do not 
 know how it shall be done, but I shall have that scoundrel 
 at my mercy as there is a God in Heaven. What an experi- 
 ence, what a lesson, was that game of cards ! " 
 
 " One," said the Colonel, " never to be repeated." 
 
 The Prince remained so long without replying, that Geral- 
 dine grew alarmed. 
 
 " You cannot mean to return," he said. " You have suf- 
 fered too much and seen too much horror already. Tht 
 duties of your high position forbid the repetition of the 
 hazard." 
 
 " There is much in what you say," replied Prince Florizel, 
 ** and I am not altogether pleased with my own determina- 
 tion. Alas ! in the clothes of the greatest potentate, what is 
 there but a man ? I never felt my weakness more acutely than 
 now, Geraldine, but it is stronger than I. Can I cease to 
 interest myself in the fortunes of the unhappy young man 
 who supped with us some hours ago.'' Can I leave the Pres- 
 ident to follow his nefarious career unwatched.f* Can I begin 
 an adventure so entrancing, and not follow it to an end.'' No, 
 Geraldine ; you ask of the Prince more than the man is able 
 to perform. To-night, once more, we take our places at the 
 table of the Suicide Club." 
 
 Colonel Geraldine fell upon his knees. 
 
 " Will your Highness take my life? " he cried. *' It is 
 his — his freely; but do not, Oh, do not! let him ask me to 
 countenance so terrible a risk." 
 
 " Colonel Geraldine," replied the Prince, with some 
 haughtiness of manner, " your life is absolutely your own. 
 I only looked for obedience; and when that is unwillingly 
 rendered, I shall look for that no longer. I add one word: 
 your importunity in this affair has been sufficient." 
 
 The Master of the Horse regained his feet at once. 
 " Your Highness," he said, " may I be excused in my attend- 
 ance this afternoon.'' I dare not, as an honorable man, ven- 
 
 25
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ture a second time into that fatal house until I have 
 perfectly ordered my affairs. Your Highness shall meet, I 
 promise him, with no more opposition from the most devoted 
 and grateful of his servants.^' 
 
 " My dear Geraldine," returned Prince Florizel, " I al- 
 ways regret when you oblige me to remember my rank. Dis- 
 pose of your day as you think fit, but be here before eleven 
 in the same disguise." 
 
 The club, on this second evening, was not so fully at- 
 tended; and when Geraldine and the Prince arrived, there 
 were not above half a dozen persons in the smoking-room. 
 His Highness took the President aside and congratulated 
 him warmly on the demise of Mr. Malthus. 
 
 " I like," he said, " to meet with capacity, and certainly 
 find much of it in you. Your profession is of a very delicate 
 nature, but I see you are well qualified to conduct it with 
 success and secrecy." 
 
 The President was somewhat affected by these compli- 
 ments from one of his Highness's superior bearing. He 
 acknowledged them almost with humility. 
 
 "Poor Malthy!" he added, "I shall hardly know the 
 club without him. The most of my patrons are boys, sir, 
 and poetical boys, who are not much company for me. Not 
 but what Malthy had some poetry, too ; but it was of a kind 
 that I could understand." 
 
 " I can readily imagine you should find yourself In sym- 
 pathy with Mr. Malthus," returned the Prince. " He struck 
 me as a man of a very original disposition." 
 
 The young man of the cream tarts was In the room, but 
 painfully depressed and silent. His late companions sought 
 in vain to lead him Into conversation. 
 
 " How bitterly I wish," he cried, " that I had never 
 brought you to this Infamous abode! Begone, while you 
 are clean-handed. If you could have heard the old man 
 scream as he fell, and the noise of his bones upon the pave- 
 ment! Wish me, if you have any kindness to so fallen a 
 being — wish the ace of spades for me to-night ! " 
 
 A few more members dropped In as the evening went oni
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 but the club did not muster more than the devil's dozen when 
 they took their places at the table. The Prince was again 
 conscious of a certain joy in his alarms; but he was aston- 
 ished to see Geraldine so much more self-possessed than on 
 the night before. 
 
 " It is extraordinary," thought the Prince, " that a will, 
 made or unmade, should so greatly influence a young man's 
 spirit." 
 
 " Attention, gentlemen ! " said the President, and he be- 
 gan to deal. 
 
 Three times the cards went all round the table, and 
 neither of the marked cards had yet fallen from his hand. 
 The excitement as he began the fourth distribution was over- 
 whelming. There were just cards enough to go once more 
 entirely round. The Prince, who sat second from the dealer's 
 left, would receive, in the reverse mode of dealing practiced 
 at the club, the second last card. The third player turned 
 up a black ace — it was the ace of clubs. The next received 
 a diamond, the next a heart, and so on ; but the ace of spades 
 was still undelivered. At last Geraldine, who sat upon the 
 Prince's left, turned his card; it was an ace, but the ace of 
 hearts. 
 
 When Prince Florizel saw his fate upon the table in front 
 of him, his heart stood still. He was a brave man, but the 
 sweat poured off his face. There were exactly fifty chances 
 out of a hundred that he was doomed. He reversed the card ; 
 it was the ace of spades. A loud roaring filled his brain, and 
 the table swam before his eyes. He heard the player on his 
 right break into a fit of laughter that sounded between mirth 
 and disappointment; he saw the company rapidly dispers- 
 ing, but his mind was full of other thoughts. He recognized 
 how foolish, how criminal, had been his conduct. In perfect 
 health, in the prime of his years, the heir to a throne, he had 
 gambled away his future and that of a brave and loyal 
 country. " God," he cried, " God forgive me ! " And with 
 that, the confusion of his senses passed away, and he re- 
 gained his self-possession in a moment. 
 
 To his surprise Geraldine had disappeared. There was 
 
 27
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 no one In the card-room but his destined butcher consulting 
 with the President, and the young man of the cream tarts, 
 who slipped up to the Prince and whispered In his ear: 
 
 " I would give a million, if I had it, for your luck." 
 
 His Highness could not help reflecting, as the young man 
 departed, that he would have sold his opportunity for a 
 much more moderate sum. 
 
 The whispered conference now came to an end. The 
 holder of the ace of clubs left the room with a look of In- 
 telligence, and the President, approaching the unfortunate 
 Prince, proffered him his hand. 
 
 *' I am pleased to have met you, sir," said he, " and pleased 
 to have been In a position to do you this trifling service. At 
 least, you cannot complain of delay. On the second even- 
 ing — what a stroke of luck ! " 
 
 The Prince endeavored in vain to articulate something In 
 response, but his mouth was dry and his tongue seemed 
 paralyzed. 
 
 "You feel a little sicklsh.? " asked the President, with 
 some show of solicitude. " Most gentlemen do. Will you 
 take a little brandy ? " 
 
 The Prince signified in the affirmative, and the other im- 
 mediately filled some of the spirit into a tumbler. 
 
 "Poor old Malthy!" ejaculated the President, as the 
 Prince drained the glass. " He drank near upon a pint, 
 and little enough good it seemed to do him ! " 
 
 *' I am more amenable to treatment," said the Prince, a 
 good deal revived. " I am my own man again at once, as 
 you perceive. And so, let me ask you, what are my 
 directions,? " 
 
 " You win proceed along the Strand In the direction of 
 the City, and on the left-hand pavement, until you meet the 
 gentleman who has just left the room. He will continue 
 your Instructions, and him you will have the kindness to 
 obey; the authority of the club Is vested in his person for 
 the night. And now," added the President, " I wish you a 
 pleasant walk." 
 
 Florizel acknowledged the salutation rather awkwardly, 
 
 28
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 and took his leave. He passed through the smoking-room, 
 where the bulk of the players were still consuming cham- 
 pagne, some of which he had himself ordered and paid for ; 
 and he was surprised to find himself cursing them in his 
 heart. He put on his hat and great coat in the cabinet, and 
 selected his umbrella from a comer. The familiarity of 
 these acts, and the thought that he was about them for the 
 last time, betrayed him into a fit of laughter which sounded 
 unpleasantly in his own ears. He conceived a reluctance to 
 leave the cabinet, and turned instead to the window. The 
 sight of the lamps and the darkness recalled him to himself. 
 
 " Come, come, I must be a man," he thought, " and tear 
 myself away." 
 
 At the corner of Box Court three men fell upon Prince 
 Florizel and he was unceremoniously thrust into a carriage, 
 which at once drove rapidly away. There was already an 
 occupant. 
 
 " Will your Highness pardon my zeal.? " said a well-known 
 voice. 
 
 The Prince threw himself upon the Colonel's neck in a 
 passion of relief. 
 
 " How can I ever thank you.? " he cried. " And how was 
 this effected.? " 
 
 Although he had been willing to march upon his doom, 
 he was overjoyed to yield to friendly violence, and return 
 once more to life and hope. 
 
 " You can thank me effectually enough," replied the 
 Colonel, " by avoiding all such dangers in the future. And 
 as for your second question, all has been managed by the 
 simplest means. I arranged this afternoon with a celebrated 
 detective. Secrecy has been promised and paid for. Your 
 own servants have been principally engaged in the affair. 
 The house in Box Court has been surrounded since nightfall, 
 and this, which is one of your own carriages, has been await- 
 ing you for nearly an hour." 
 
 " And the miserable creature who was to have slain me — 
 what of him? " inquired the Prince. 
 
 "He was pinioned as he left the club," replied the Colonel, 
 
 29
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " and now awaits your sentence at the Palace, where he will 
 soon be joined by his accomplices." 
 
 " Geraldine," said the Prince, " you have saved me against 
 my explicit orders, and you have done well. I owe you not 
 only my life, but a lesson ; and I should be unworthy of my 
 rank if I did not show myself grateful to my teacher. Let 
 it be yours to choose the manner." 
 
 There was a pause, during which the carriage continued 
 to speed through the streets, and the two men were each 
 buried in his own reflections. The silence was broken by 
 Colonel Geraldine. 
 
 " Your Highness," said he, " has by this time a consider- 
 able body of prisoners. There is at least one criminal among 
 the number to whom justice should be dealt. Our oath for- 
 bids us all recourse to law; and discretion would forbid it 
 equally if the oath were loosened. May I inquire your High- 
 ness's intention ? " 
 
 *' It is decided," answered Florizel ; " the President must 
 fall in duel. It only remains to choose his adversary." 
 
 " Your Highness has permitted me to name my own 
 recompense," said the Colonel. " Will he permit me to ask 
 the appointment of my brother.'' It is an honorable post, 
 but I dare assure your Highness that the lad will acquit 
 himself with credit." 
 
 *' You ask me an ungracious favor," said the Prince, " but 
 I must refuse you nothing." 
 
 The Colonel kissed his hand with the greatest affection ; 
 and at that moment the carriage rolled under the archway 
 of the Prince's splendid residence. 
 
 An hour after, Florizel In his official robes, and covered 
 with all the orders of Bohemia, received the members of the 
 Suicide Club. 
 
 " Foolish and wicked men," said he, " as many of you 
 as have been driven Into this strait by the lack of fortune 
 shall receive employment and remuneration from my oflScers. 
 Those who suffer under a sense of guilt must have recourse 
 to a higher and more generous Potentate than I. I feel pity 
 for all of you, deeper than you can imagine ; to-morrow you
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 shall tell me your stories ; and as you answer more frankly, 
 I shall be the more able to remedy your misfortunes. As 
 for you," he added, turning to the President, " I should only 
 offend a person of your parts by any offer of assistance; 
 but I have instead a piece of diversion to propose to you. 
 Here," laying his hand on the shoulder of Colonel Geral- 
 dine's young brother, " is an officer of mine who desires to 
 make a little tour upon the Continent ; and I ask you, as a 
 favor, to accompany him on this excursion. Do you," he 
 went on, changing his tone, " do you shoot well with the 
 pistol? Because you may have need of that accomplishment. 
 When two men go traveling together, it is best to be pre- 
 pared for all. Let me add that, if by any chance you should 
 lose young Mr. Geraldine upon the way, I shall always have 
 another member of my household to place at your disposal; 
 and I am known, Mr. President, to have long eyesight, and 
 as long an arm." 
 
 With these words, said with much sternness, the Prince 
 concluded his address. Next morning the members of the 
 club were suitably provided for by his munificence, and the 
 President set forth upon his travels, under the supervision 
 of Mr. Geraldine, and a pair of faithful and adroit lackeys, 
 well trained in the Prince's household. Not content with 
 this, discreet agents were put in possession of the house of 
 Box Court, and all letters of visitors for the Suicide Club or 
 its officials were to be examined by Prince Florizel in person. 
 
 Here (says my Arabian author) ends The Story of the 
 Young Man with the Cream Tarts, ivJio is now a com- 
 fortable householder in Wigmore Street, Cavendish Square. 
 The number, for obvious reasons, I suppress. Tlwse who 
 care to pursue the adventures of Prince Florizel and the 
 President of the Suicide Club, may read the History of the 
 Physician and the Saratoga Trunk. 
 
 81
 
 STORY OF THE PHYSICIAN AND THE SARATOGA TRUNK 
 
 MR. SILAS Q. SCUDDAMORE was a young Amer- 
 ican of a simple and harmless disposition, which was 
 the more to his credit as he came from New England — a 
 quarter of the New World not precisely famous for those 
 qualities. Although he was exceedingly rich, he kept a note 
 'of all his expenses in a little paper pocket-book; and he had 
 chosen to study the attractions of Paris from the seventh 
 story of what is called a furnished hotel, in the Latin Quar- 
 ter. There was a great deal of habit in his penuriousness ; 
 and his virtue, which was very remarkable among his asso- 
 ciates, was principally founded upon diffidence and youth. 
 
 The next room to his was inhabited by a lady, very at- 
 tractive in her air and very elegant in toilette, whom, on his 
 first arrival, he had taken for a Countess. In course of time 
 he had learned that she was knowr by the name of Madame 
 Zephyrine, and that whatever station she occupied in life it 
 was not that of a person of title. Madame Zephyrine, prob- 
 ably in the hope of enchanting the j^oung American, used to 
 flaunt by him on the stairs with a civil inclination, a word of 
 course, and a knock-down look out of her black eyes, and 
 disappear in a rustle of silk, and with the revelation of an 
 admirable foot and ankle. But these advances, so far from 
 encouraging Mr. Scuddamore, plunged him into the depths 
 of depression and bashfulness. She had come to him several 
 times for a light, or to apologize for the imaginary depreda- 
 tions of her poodle, but his mouth was closed in the presence 
 of so superior a being, his French promptly left him, and he 
 could only stare and stammer until she was gone. The slen- 
 derness of their intercourse did not prevent him from throw- 
 ing out insinuations of a very glorious order when he was 
 safely alone with a few males. 
 
 d2
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 The room on the other side of the American's — for there 
 were three rooms on a floor in the hotel — ^was tenanted by an 
 old English physician of rather doubtful reputation. Dr. 
 Noel, for that was his name, had been forced to leave Lon- 
 don, where he enjoyed a large and increasing practice; and 
 it was hinted that the police had been the instigators of this 
 change of scene. At least he, who had made something of a 
 figure in earlier life, now dwelt in the Latin Quarter in great 
 simplicity and solitude, and devoted much of his time to 
 study. Mr. Scuddamore had made his acquaintance, and the 
 pair would now and then dine together frugally in a restau- 
 rant across the street. 
 
 Silas Q. Scuddamore had many little vices of the more 
 respectable order, and was not restrained by delicacy from 
 indulging them in many rather doubtful ways. Chief among 
 his foibles stood curiosity. He was a bom gossip ; and life, 
 and especially those parts of it in which he had no experience, 
 interested him to the degree of passion. He was a pert, in- 
 \ancible questioner, pushing his inquiries with equal per- 
 tinacity and indiscretion ; he had been observed, when he 
 took a letter to the post, to weigh it in his hand, to turn it 
 over and over, and to study the address with care ; and when 
 he found a flaw in the partition between his room and 
 Madame Zephyrine's, instead of filling it up, he enlarged 
 and improved the opening, and made use of it as a spy-hole 
 on his neighbor's aff'airs. 
 
 One day, in the end of March, his curiosity grew as it 
 was indulged and he enlarged the hole a httle further, so 
 that he might command another corner of the room. That 
 evening, when he went as usual to inspect INIadame Zephy- 
 rine's movements, he was astonished to find the aperture 
 obscured in an odd manner on the other side, and stiU more 
 abashed when the obstacle was suddenly withdrawn and a 
 titter of laughter reached his ears. Some of the plaster 
 had evidently betrayed the secret of his spy-hole, and his 
 neighbor had been returning the comphment in kind. Mr. 
 Scuddamore was moved to a very acute feeling of annoy- 
 ance; he condemned Madame Zephyrine unmercifully; he 
 
 33
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 even blamed himself; but when he found, next day, that she 
 had taken no means to baulk him of his favorite pastime, 
 he continued to profit by her carelessness, and gratify his 
 idle curiosity. 
 
 That next day Madame Zephyrine received a long visit 
 from a tall, loosely-built man of fifty or upwards, whom 
 Silas had not hitherto seen. His tweed suit and colored 
 shirt, no less than his shaggy side-whiskers, identified him as 
 a Britisher, and his dull gray eye affected Silas with a sense 
 of cold. He kept screwing his mouth from side to side and 
 round and round during the whole colloquy, which was car- 
 ried on in whispers. More than once it seemed to the young 
 New Englander as if their gestures indicated his own apart- 
 ment ; but the only thing definite he could gather by the most 
 scrupulous attention was this remark made by the English- 
 man in a somewhat higher key, as if in answer to some 
 reluctance or opposition. 
 
 " I have studied his taste to a nicety, and I tell you again 
 and again you are the only woman of the sort that I can lay 
 my hands on." 
 
 In answer to this, Madame Zephyrine sighed, and ap- 
 peared by a gesture to resign herself, like one yielding to 
 unqualified authority. 
 
 That afternoon the observatory was finally blinded, a 
 wardrobe having been drawn in front of it upon the other 
 side, and while Silas was still lamenting over this misfortune, 
 which he attributed to the Britisher's malign suggestion, the 
 concierge brought him up a letter in a female handwriting. 
 It was conceived in French of no very rigorous orthography, 
 bore no signature, and in the most encouraging terms invited 
 the young American to be present in a certain part of the 
 BuUier Ball at eleven o'clock that night. Curiosity and 
 timidity fought a long battle in his heart ; sometimes he was 
 all virtue, sometimes all fire and daring; and the result of 
 it was that, long before ten, Mr. Silas Q. Scuddamore pre- 
 sented himself in unimpeachable attire at the door of the 
 BulUer Ball Rooms, and paid his entry money with a sense 
 of reckless deviltry that was not without its charm. 
 
 ^4
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 It was Carnival time, and the Ball was very full and noisy. 
 The lights and the crowd at first rather abashed our young 
 adventurer, and then, mounting to his brain with a sort of 
 intoxication, put him in possession of more than his own 
 share of manhood. He felt ready to face the devil, and 
 strutted in the ballroom with the swagger of a cavalier. 
 While he was thus parading, he became aware of Madame 
 Zephyrine and her Britisher in conference behind a pillar. 
 The cat-like spirit of eaves-dropping overcame him at once. 
 He stole nearer and nearer on the couple from behind, until 
 he was within earshot. 
 
 " That is the man," the Britisher was saying ; " there — 
 with the long blond hair — speaking to a girl in green." 
 
 Silas identified a very handsome young fellow of small 
 stature, who was plainly the object of this designation. 
 
 " It is well," said Madame Zephyrine. " I shall do my 
 utmost. But, remember, the best of us may fail in such a 
 matter." 
 
 " Tut ! " returned her companion ; " I answer for the 
 result. Have I not chosen you from thirty "? Go ; but be 
 wary of the Prince. I cannot think what cursed accident 
 has brought him here to-night. As if there were not a dozen 
 balls in Paris better worth his notice than this riot of 
 students and counter-jumpers ! See him where he sits, more 
 like a reigning Emperor at home than a Prince upon his 
 holidays ! " 
 
 Silas was again lucky. He observed a person of rather 
 a full build, strikingly handsome, and of a very stately and 
 courteous demeanor, seated at table with another handsome 
 young man, several years his junior, who addressed him with 
 conspicuous deference. The name of Prince struck grate- 
 fully on Silas's republican hearing, and the aspect of the 
 person to whom that name was applied exercised its usual 
 charm upon his mind. He left Madame Zephyrine and her 
 Englishman to take care of each other, and threading his 
 way through the assembly, approached the table which the 
 Prince and his confidant had honored with their choice. 
 
 " I teU you, Geraldine," the former was saying, " the 
 
 35
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 action is madness. Yourself (I am glad to remember it) 
 chose your brother for this perilous service, and you are 
 bound in duty to have a guard upon his conduct. He has 
 consented to delay so many days in Paris ; that was already 
 an imprudence, considering the character of the man he has 
 to deal with; but now, when he is within eight and forty 
 hours of his departure, when he is within two or three days 
 of the decisive trial, I ask you, is this a place for him to 
 spend his time? He should be in a gallery at practice; he 
 should be sleeping long hours and taking moderate exercise 
 on foot ; he should be on a rigorous diet, without white wines 
 or brandy. Does the dog imagine we are all playing comedy ? 
 The thing is deadly earnest, Geraldine." 
 
 " I know the lad too well to interfere," replied Colonel 
 Geraldine, " and well enough not to be alarmed. He is more 
 cautious than you fancy, and of an indomitable spirit. If 
 it had been a woman I should not say so much, but I trust 
 the President to him and the two valets without an in- 
 stant's apprehension." 
 
 " I am gratified to hear you say so," replied the Prince ; 
 *' but my mind is not at rest. These servants are well- 
 trained spies, and already has not this miscreant succeeded 
 three times in eluding their observation and spending several 
 hours on end in private, and most likely dangerous, affairs? 
 An amateur might have lost him by accident, but if Rudolph 
 and Jerome were thrown off the scent, it must have been done 
 on purpose, and by a man who had a cogent reason and 
 exceptional resources." 
 
 " I believe the question is now one between my brother 
 and myself," replied Geraldine, with a shade of offense in 
 his tone. 
 
 " I permit it to be so. Colonel Geraldine," returned Prince 
 Florizel. " Perhaps, for that very reason, you should be all 
 the more ready to accept my counsels. But enough. That 
 girl in yellow dances well." 
 
 And the talk veered into the ordinary topics of a Paris 
 ballroom in the Carnival. 
 
 Silas remembered where he was, and that the hour was
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 already near at hand when he ought to be upon the scene of 
 his assignation. The more he reflected the less he liked the 
 prospect, and as at that moment an eddy in the crowd began 
 to draw him in the direction of the door, he suffered it to 
 carry him away without resistance. The eddy stranded him 
 in a comer under the gallery, where his ear was immediately 
 struck with the voice of Madame Zephyrine. She was speak- 
 ing in French with the young man of the blond locks who 
 had been pointed out by the strange Britisher not half an 
 hour before. 
 
 " I have a character at stake," she said, " or I would put 
 no other condition than my heart recommends. But you 
 have only to say so much to the porter, and he will let you 
 go by without a word." 
 
 " But why this talk of debt? " objected her companion. 
 
 *' Heavens ! " said she, " do you think I do not understand 
 my own hotel,? " 
 
 And she went by, clinging affectionately to her com- 
 panion's arm. 
 
 This put Silas in mind of his billet. 
 
 " Ten minutes hence," thought he, " and I may be walk- 
 ing with as beautiful a woman as that, and even better 
 dressed — perhaps a real lady, possibly a woman of title." 
 
 And then he remembered the spelling, and was a little 
 downcast. 
 
 " But it may have been written by her maid," he imag- 
 ined. 
 
 The clock was only a few minutes from the hour, and this 
 immediate proximity set his heart beating at a curious and 
 rather disagreeable speed. He reflected with relief that he 
 was in no way bound to put in an appearance. Virtue and 
 cowardice were together, and he made once more for the 
 door, but this time of his own accord, and battling against 
 the stream of people which was now moving in a contrary 
 direction. Perhaps this prolonged resistance wearied him, 
 or perhaps he was in that frame of mind when merely to 
 continue in the same determination for a certain number of 
 minutes produces a reaction and a different purpose, Cer- 
 
 n
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 tainlj, at least, he wheeled about for a third time, and did 
 not stop until he had found a place of concealment within 
 a few yards of the appointed place. 
 
 Here he went through an agony of spirit, in which he 
 several times prayed to God for help, for Silas had been 
 devoutly educated. He had now not the least inclination for 
 the meeting; nothing kept him from flight but a silly fear 
 lest he should be thought unmanly ; but this was so powerful 
 that it kept head against all other motives ; and although it 
 could not decide him to advance, prevented him from defi- 
 nitely running away. At last the clock indicated ten minutes 
 past the hour. Young Scuddamore's spirit began to rise; 
 he peered round the corner and saw no one at the place of 
 meeting; doubtless his unknown correspondent had wearied 
 and gone away. He became as bold as he had formerly 
 been timid. It seemed to him that if he came at all to the 
 appointment, however late, he was clear from the charge of 
 cowardice. Nay, now he began to suspect a hoax, and actu- 
 ally complimented himself on his shrewdness in having sus- 
 pected and out-manoeuvred his mystifiers. So very idle a 
 thing is a boy's mind! 
 
 Armed with these reflections, he advanced boldly from his 
 corner; but he had not taken above a couple of steps before 
 a hand was laid upon his arm. He turned and beheld a lady 
 cast in a very large mould and with somewhat stately 
 features, but bearing no mark of severity in her looks, 
 
 " I see that you are a very self-confident lady-killer," 
 said she ; " for you make yourself expected. But I was 
 determined to meet you. When a woman has once so far 
 forgotten herself as to make the first advance, she has long 
 ago left behind her all considerations of petty pride." 
 
 Silas was overwhelmed by the size and attractions of his 
 correspondent and the suddenness with which she had fallen 
 upon liim. But she soon set him at his ease. She was very 
 towardly and lenient in her behavior ; she led him on to make 
 pleasantries, and then applauded him to the echo ; and in a 
 very short time, between blandishments and a liberal exhibi- 
 tion of warm brandy, she had not only induced him to fancy 
 
 88
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 himself in love, but to declare his passion with the greatest 
 vehemence. 
 
 " Alas ! " she said ; " I do not know whether I ought not 
 to deplore this moment, great as is the pleasure you give me 
 by your words. Hitherto I was alone to suffer; now, poor 
 boy, there will be two. I am not my own mistress. I dare 
 not ask you to visit me at my own house, for I am watched 
 by jealous eyes. Let me see," she added; " I am older than 
 you, although so much weaker; and while I trust in your 
 courage and determination, I must employ my own knowl- 
 edge of the world for our mutual benefit. Where do you 
 Hve?» 
 
 He told her that he lodged in a furnished hotel, and named 
 the street and number. 
 
 She seemed to reflect for some minutes, with an effort of 
 mind. 
 
 " I see," she said at last. " You will be faithful and 
 obedient, will you not.? " 
 
 Silas assured her eagerly of his fidelity. 
 
 *' To-morrow night, then," she continued, with an en- 
 couraging smile, " you must remain at home all the evening ; 
 and if any friends should visit you, dismiss them at once on 
 any pretext that most readily presents itself. Your door is 
 probably shut by ten.-* " she asked. 
 
 " By eleven," answered Silas. 
 
 " At a quarter past eleven," pursued the lady, " leave the 
 house. Merely cry for the door to be opened, and be sure 
 you fall into no talk with the porter, as that might ruin 
 everything. Go straight to the comer where the Luxem- 
 bourg Gardens join the Boulevard; there you will find me 
 waiting you. I trust you to follow my advice from point to 
 point: and remember, if you fail me in only one particular, 
 you will bring the sharpest trouble on a woman whose only 
 fault is to have seen and loved you." 
 
 " I cannot see the use of all these instructions," said 
 Silas. 
 
 " I believe you are already beginning to treat me as a 
 master," she cried, tapping him with her fan upon the arm. 
 
 39
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ** Patience, patience ! that should come in time. A woman 
 loves to be obeyed at first, although afterwards she finds her 
 pleasure in obeying. Do as I ask you, for Heaven's sake, 
 or I will answer for nothing. Indeed, now I think of it," she 
 added, with the manner of one who had just seen further 
 into a difficult}^, " I find a better plan of keeping impor- 
 tunate visitors away. Tell the porter to admit no one for 
 you, except a person who may come that night to claim 
 a debt; and speak with some feeling, as though you 
 feared the interview, so that he may take your words in 
 earnest." 
 
 " I think you may trust me to protect myself against in- 
 truders," he said, not without a little pique. 
 
 " That is how I should prefer the thing arranged," she 
 answered, coldly. " I know you men ; you think nothing of 
 a woman's reputation." 
 
 Silas blushed and somewhat hung his head; for the 
 scheme he had in view had involved a little vain-glorying 
 before his acquaintances. 
 
 " Above all," she added, " do not speak to the porter as 
 you come out." 
 
 "And why.?" said he. "Of all your instructions, that 
 seems to me the least important." 
 
 " You at first doubted the wisdom of some of the others, 
 which you now see to be very necessary," she replied. " Be- 
 lieve me, this also has its uses ; in time you will see them ; and 
 what am I to think of your affection, if you refuse me such 
 trifles at our first interview ? " 
 
 Silas confounded himself in explanations and apologies ; 
 in the middle of these she looked up at the clock and clapped 
 her hands together with a suppressed scream. 
 
 " Heavens ! " she cried, " is it so late ? I have not an 
 instant to lose. Alas, we poor women, what slaves we are! 
 What have I not risked for you already ? " 
 
 And after repeating her directions, which she artfully 
 combined with caresses and the most abandoned looks, she 
 bade him farewell and disappeared among the crowd. 
 
 The whole of the next day Silas was filled with a sense of 
 
 40
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 ^eat importance ; he was now sure she was a countess ; 
 and when evenmg came he minutely obeyed her orders and 
 was at the comer of the Luxembourg Gardens by the hour 
 appointed. No one was there. He waited nearly half an 
 hour, looking in the face of everyone who passed or loitered 
 near the spot ; he even visited the neighboring corners of the 
 Boulevard and made a complete circuit of the garden rail- 
 ings ; but there was no beautiful countess to throw herself 
 into his arms. At last, and most reluctantly, he began to 
 retrace his steps towards his hotel. On the way he remem- 
 bered the words he h^d heard pass between Madame Zephy- 
 rine and the blond young man, and they gave him an in- 
 definite uneasiness. 
 
 " It appears," he reflected, " that everyone has to tell lies 
 to our porter." 
 
 He rang the bell, the door opened before him, and the 
 porter in his bed-clothes came to offer him a light. 
 
 '' Has he gone.'' " inquired the porter. 
 
 "He.'' Whom do you mean?" asked Silas, somewhat 
 sharply, for he was irritated by his disappointment. 
 
 " I did not notice him go out," continued the porter, " but 
 I trust 3^ou paid him. We do not care, in this house, to have 
 lodgers who cannot meet their liabilities." 
 
 " What the devil do you mean ? " demanded Silas, rudely. 
 " I cannot understand a word of this farrago." 
 
 " The short, blond young man who came for his debt," 
 returned the other. " Him it is I mean. Who else should it 
 be, when I had your order's to admit no one else? " 
 
 " Why, good God, of course he never came,'* retorted 
 Silas. 
 
 " I believe what I believe," retorted the porter, putting 
 his tongue into his cheek with a most roguish air. 
 
 " You are an insolent scoundrel," cried Silas, and, feeling 
 that he had made a ridiculous exhibition of asperity, and at 
 the same time bewildered by a dozen alarms, he turned and 
 began to run up stairs. 
 
 " Do you not want a light then ? " cried the porter. 
 
 But Silas only hurried the faster, and did not pause untS 
 
 41
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 he had reached the seventh landing and stood in front of his 
 own door. There he waited a moment to recover his breath, 
 assailed by the worst forebodings and almost dreading to 
 enter the room. 
 
 When at last he did so he was relieved to find it dark, and 
 to all appearance, untenanted. He drew a long breath. 
 Here he was, home again in safety, and this should be his 
 last folly as certainly as it had been his first. The matches 
 stood on a little table by the bed, and he began to grope his 
 way in that direction. As he moved, his apprehensions grew 
 upon him once more, and he was pleased, when his foot en- 
 countered an obstacle, to find it nothing more alarming than 
 a chair. At last he touched curtains. From the position of 
 the window, which was faintly visible, he knew he must be 
 at the foot of the bed, and had only to feel his way along it 
 in order to reach the table in question. 
 
 He lowered his hand, but what he touched was not simply 
 a counterpane — it was a counterpane with something under- 
 neath it like the outline of a human leg. Silas withdrew his 
 arm and stood a moment petrified. 
 
 " What, what," he thought, " can this betoken ? " 
 
 He listened intently, but there was no sound of breathing. 
 Once more, with a great effort, he reached out the end of his 
 finger to the spot he had already touched; but this time he 
 leaped back half a yard, and stood shivering and fixed with 
 terror. There was something in his bed. What it was he 
 knew not, but there was something there. 
 
 It was some seconds before he could move. Then, guided 
 by an instinct, he fell straight upon the matches, and keep- 
 ing his back toward the bed, lighted a candle. As soon as 
 the flame had kindled, he turned slowly round and looked 
 for what he feared to see. Sure enough, there was the worst 
 of his imaginations realized. The coverlid was drawn care- 
 fully up over the pillow, but it moulded the outline of a 
 human body lying motionless ; and when he dashed forward 
 and flung aside the sheets, he beheld the blond young man 
 whom he had seen in the Bullier Ball the night before, his 
 eyes open and without speculation, his face swollen and 
 
 4,2
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 blackened, and a thin stream of blood trickling from his 
 nostrils. 
 
 Silas uttered a long, tremulous wail, dropped the candle, 
 and fell on his knees beside the bed. 
 
 Silas was awakened from the stupor into which his terrible 
 discovery had plunged him, by a prolonged but discreet 
 tapping at the door. It took him some seconds to remember 
 his position ; and when he hastened to prevent anyone from 
 entering it was already too late. Dr. Noel, in a tall night- 
 cap, carrying a lamp which lighted up his long white counte- 
 nance, sidling in his gait, and peering and cocking his head 
 hke some sort of bird, pushed the door slowly open, and 
 advanced into the middle of the room. 
 
 " I thought I heard a cry," began the Doctor, " and 
 fearing you might be unwell, I did not hesitate to offer this 
 intrusion." 
 
 Silas, with a flushed face and a fearful beating heart, kept 
 between the Doctor and the bed ; but he found no voice to 
 answer. 
 
 " You are in the dark," pursued the Doctor ; " and yet 
 you have not even begun to prepare for rest. You will not 
 easily persuade me against my own eyesight ; and your face 
 declares most eloquently that you require either a friend or 
 a physician — which is it to he? Let me feel your pulse, for 
 that is often a just reporter of the heart." 
 
 He advanced to Silas, who still retreated before him back- 
 wards, and sought to take him by the wrist; but the strain 
 on the young American's nerves had become too great for 
 endurance. He avoided the Doctor with a febrile movement, 
 and, throwing himself upon the floor, burst into a flood of 
 weeping. 
 
 As soon as Dr. Noel perceived the dead man In the bed his 
 face darkened; and hurrying back to the door which he had 
 left ajar, he hastily closed and double-locked it. 
 
 " Up ! " he cried, addressing Silas in strident tones. 
 " This is no time for weeping. What have you done.'' How 
 came this body in your room. Speak freely to one who 
 may be helpful. Do you imagine I would ruin you.'' Do 
 
 43
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 you think this piece of dead flesh on your pillow can alter 
 in any degree the S3^mpathy with which you have inspired 
 me? Credulous youth, the horror with which blind and un- 
 just law regards an action never attaches to the doer in the 
 eyes of those who love him ; and if I saw the friend of my 
 heart return to me out of seas of blood he would be in no 
 way changed in my affection. Raise yourself," he said ; 
 " good and ill are a chimera ; there is naught in life except 
 destiny, and however you may be circumstanced there is one 
 at your side who will help you to the last." 
 
 Thus encouraged, Silas gathered himself together, and 
 in a broken voice, and helped out by the Doctor's interroga- 
 tion, contrived at last to put him in possession of the facts. 
 But the conversation between the Prince and Geraldine he 
 altogether omitted, as he had understood little of its pur- 
 port, and had no idea that it was in any way related to his 
 own misadventure. 
 
 " Alas ! " cried Dr. Noel, " I am much abused, or you 
 have fallen innocently into the most dangerous hands in 
 Europe. Poor boy, what a pit has been dug for your sim- 
 phcity! into what a deadly peril have your unwary feet been 
 conducted! This man," he said, "this Englishman, whom 
 you twice saw, and whom I suspect to be the soul of tlie 
 contrivance, can you describe him? Was he young or old? 
 tall or short? " 
 
 But Silas, who, for all his curiosity, had not a seeing eye 
 in his head, was able to supply nothing but meagre generali- 
 ties, which it was impossible to recognize. 
 
 " I would have it a piece of education in all schools ! " 
 cried the Doctor angrily. " Where is the use of eyesight 
 and articulate speech if a man cannot observe and recollect 
 the features of his enemy? I, who know all the gangs of 
 Europe, might have identified him, and gained new weapons 
 for your defence. Cultivate this art in future, my poor 
 boy; you may find it of momentous service." 
 
 " The future ! " repeated Silas. " What future is there 
 left for me except the gallows ? " 
 
 "Youth is but a cowardly season," returned the Doctor; 
 
 44
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 " and a man's own troubles look blacker than tbej are. I 
 am old, and yet I never despair." 
 
 " Can I tell such a story to the police? " demanded Silas. 
 
 " Assuredly not," replied the Doctor. " From what I see 
 already of the machination in which you have been involved, 
 your case is desperate upon that side ; and for the narrow 
 eye of the authorities you are infallibly the guilty person. 
 And remember that we only know a portion of the plot ; and 
 the same infamous contrivers have doubtless arranged many 
 other circumstances which would be elicited by a police in- 
 quiry, and help to fix the guilt more certainly upon your 
 innocence." 
 
 " I am then lost, indeed ! " cried Silas. 
 
 " I have not said so," answered Dr. Noel, " for I am a 
 cautious man." 
 
 " But look at this! " objected Silas, pointing to the body. 
 " Here is this object in my bed: not to be explained, not to 
 be disposed of, not to be regarded without horror." 
 
 "Horror.''" replied the Doctor. "No. When this sort 
 of clock has run down, it is no more to me than an ingenious 
 piece of mechanism, to be investigated with the bistery. 
 When blood is once cold and stagnant, it is no longer human 
 blood ; when flesh is once dead, it is no longer that flesh which 
 we desire in our lovers and respect in our friends. The 
 grace, the attraction, the terror, have all gone from it with 
 the animating spirit. Accustom yourself to look upon it 
 with composure ; for if my scheme is practicable you will 
 have to live in constant proximity to that wliicli now so 
 greatly horrifies you." 
 
 "Your scheme.?" cried Silas. "What is that.? Tell me 
 speedily, Doctor; for I have scarcely courage enough to 
 continue to exist." 
 
 Without replying, Dr. Noel turned towards the bed, and 
 proceeded to examine the corpse. 
 
 " Quite dead," he murmured. " Yes, as I had supposed, 
 the pockets empty. Yes, and the name cut off the shiii;. 
 Their work has been done thoroughly and well. Fortunately 
 he is of small stature." 
 
 45
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 Silas followed these words with an extreme anxiety. At 
 last the Doctor, his autopsy completed, took a chair and 
 addressed the young American with a smile. 
 
 " Since I came into your room," said he, " although my 
 ears and my tongue have been so busy, I have not suffered 
 my eyes to remain idle. I noted a Httle while ago that you 
 have there, in the corner, one of those monstrous constructions 
 which your fellow-countrymen carry with them into all quar- 
 ters of the globe — in a word, a Saratoga trunk. Until this 
 moment I have never been able to conceive the utility of these 
 erections ; but then I began to have a glimmer. Whether it 
 was for convenience in the slave trade, or to obviate the re- 
 sults of too ready an employment of the bowie-knife, I 
 cannot bring myself to decide. But one thing I see plainly 
 — the object of such a box is to contain a human body." 
 
 " Surely," cried Silas, " surely this is not a time for 
 jesting." 
 
 " Although I may express myself with some degree of 
 pleasantry," replied the Doctor, " the purport of my words 
 is entirely serious. And the first thing we have to do, my 
 young friend, is to empty your coffer of all it contains." 
 
 Silas, obeying the authority of Doctor Noel, put himself 
 at his disposition. The Saratoga trunk was soon gutted 
 of its contents, which made a considerable litter on the floor; 
 and then — Silas taking the heels and the Doctor supporting 
 the shoulders — the body of the murdered man was carried 
 from the bed, and, after some difficulty, doubled up and 
 inserted whole into the empty box. With an effort on the 
 part of both, the lid was forced down upon this unusual bag- 
 gage, and the trunk was locked and corded by the Doctor's 
 own hand, while Silas disposed of what had been taken out 
 between the closet and a chest of drawers. 
 
 " Now," said the Doctor, " the first step has been taken 
 on the way to your deliverance. To-morrow, or rather to- 
 day, it must be your task to allay the suspicions of your 
 porter, paying him all that you owe ; while you may trust me 
 to make the arrangements necessary to a safe conclusion. 
 Meantime, follow me to my room, where I shall give you a 
 
 46
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 safe and powerful opiate; for, whatever jou do you must 
 have rest." 
 
 Tb«. next day was the longest in Silas's memory ; it seemed 
 as if it would never be done. He denied himself to his 
 friends, and sat in a corner with his eyes fixed upon the 
 Saratoga trunk in dismal contemplation. His own former 
 indiscretions were now returned upon him in kind ; for the 
 observatory had been once more opened, and he was conscious 
 of an almost continual study from Madame Zephyrine's 
 apartment. So distressing did this become, that he was at last 
 obliged to block up the spy-hole from his own side; and 
 when he was thus secured from observation he spent a con- 
 siderable portion of his time in contrite tears and prayer. 
 
 Late in the evening Dr. Noel entered the room carrying 
 in his hand a pair of sealed envelopes without address, one 
 somewhat bulky, and the other so slim as to seem without 
 enclosure. 
 
 " Silas," he said, seating himself at the table, " the time 
 has now come for me to explain my plan for your salvation. 
 To-morrow morning, at an early hour. Prince Florizel of 
 Bohemia returns to London, after having diverted himself 
 for a few days with the Parisian Carnival. It was my for- 
 tune, a good while ago, to do Colonel Geraldine, his Master 
 of the Horse, one of those services so common in my pro- 
 fession, which are never forgotten upon either side. I have 
 no need to explain to you the nature of the obligation under 
 which he was laid; suffice it to say that I knew him ready 
 to serve me in any practicable manner. Now, it was neces- 
 sary for you to gain London with your trunk unopened. 
 To this the Custom House seemed to oppose a fatal difficulty ; 
 but I bethought m.e that the baggage of so considerable a 
 person as the Prince is, as a matter of courtesy, passed with- 
 out examination by the officers of Custom. I applied to 
 Colonel Geraldine, and succeeded in obtaining a favorable 
 answer. To-morrow, if you go before six to the hotel where 
 the Prince lodges, your baggage will be passed over as a part 
 of his, and you yourself will make the journey as a member 
 of his suite." 
 
 47
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ** It seems to me, as you speak, that I have ah'eady seen 
 both the Prince and Colonel Geraldine ; I even overheard 
 some of their conversation the other evening at the Bullier 
 Ball." 
 
 " It is probable enough ; for the Prince loves to mix with 
 all societies," replied the Doctor. " Once arrived in Lon- 
 don,*' he pursued, " your task is nearly ended. In this more 
 bulky envelope I have given you a letter which I dare not 
 address ; but in the other you will find the designation of the 
 house to which you must carry it along with your box, which 
 will there be taken from you and not trouble you any more." 
 
 " Alas ! " said Silas, " I have every wish to believe you ; 
 but how is it possible.'' You open up to me a bright pros- 
 pect, but, I ask you, is my mind capable of receiving so un- 
 likely a solution.'' Be more generous, and let me farther 
 understand your meaning." 
 
 The Doctor seemed painfully impressed. 
 
 " Boy," he answered, " you do not know how hard a thing 
 you ask of me. But be it so. I am now inured to humilia- 
 tion ; and it would be strange if I refused you this, after 
 having granted you so much. Know, then, that although 
 I now make so quiet an appearance — ^frugal, solitary, ad- 
 dicted to study — when I was younger, my name was once 
 a rallying-cry among the most astute and dangerous spirits 
 of London; and while I was outwardly an object for respect 
 and consideration, my true power resided in the most secret, 
 terrible, and criminal relations. It is to one of the persons 
 who then obeyed me that I now address myself to deliver you 
 from your burden. They were men of many different 
 nations and dexterities, all bound together by a formidable 
 oath, and working to the same purposes ; the trade of the 
 association was in murder; and I who speak to you, innocent 
 as I appear, was the chieftain of this redoubtable crew." 
 
 "What?" cried Silas. "A murderer.? And one with 
 whom murder was a trade.'' Can I take your hand.'' Ought 
 I to so much as accept your services? Dark and criminal 
 old man, would you make an accomplice of my youth and 
 my distress? " 
 
 48
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 The Doctor bitterly laughed. 
 
 "You are difficult to please, Mr. Scuddamore," said he; 
 " but I now offer you your choice of company between the 
 murdered man and the murderer. If your conscience is too 
 nice to accept my aid, say so, and I will immediately leave 
 you. Thenceforward you can deal with your trunk and its 
 belongings as best suits your upright conscience." 
 
 " I own myself wrong," replied Silas. " I should have 
 remembered how generously you offered to shield me, even 
 before I had convinced you of my innocence, and I continue 
 to listen to your counsels with gratitude." 
 
 " That is well," returned the Doctor ; " and I perceive 
 you are beginning to learn some of the lessons of ex- 
 perience." 
 
 " At the same time," resumed the New Englander, " as 
 you confess yourself accustomed to this tragical business, 
 and the people to whom you recommend me are your own 
 former associates and friends, could you not yourself un- 
 dertake the transport of the box, and rid me at once of its 
 detested presence.'^ " 
 
 " Upon my word," replied the Doctor, " I admire you 
 cordially. If you do not think I have already meddled 
 sufficiently in your concerns, believe me, from my heart I 
 think the contrary. Take or leave my services as I offer 
 them ; and trouble me with no more words of gratitude, for 
 I value your consideration even more lightly than I do your 
 intellect. A time will come, if you should be spared to see 
 a number of years in health and mind, when you will think 
 differently of all this, and blush for your to-night's be- 
 havior." 
 
 So saying, the Doctor arose from his chair, repeated his 
 directions briefly and clearly, and departed from the room 
 without permitting Silas any time to answer. 
 
 Tiie next morning Silas presented himself at the hotel, 
 where he was politely received by Colonel Geraldine, and 
 relieved, from that moment, of all immediate alarm about his 
 trunk and its grisly contents. The journey passed over 
 without much incident, although the young man was horrified 
 
 49
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 to overhear the sailors and raihvay porters complaining 
 among themselves about the unusual weight of the Prince's 
 baggage. Silas traveled in a carriage with the valets, for 
 Prince Florizel chose to be alone with his Master of the 
 Horse. On board the steamer, however, Silas attracted his 
 Highness's attention by the melancholy of his air and atti- 
 tude as he stood gazing at the pile of baggage; for he was 
 still full of disquietude about the future. 
 
 " There is a young man," observed the Prince, " who must 
 have some cause for sorrow," 
 
 " That," replied Geraldine, " is the American for whom 
 I obtained permission to travel with your suite." 
 
 " You remind me that I have been remiss in cour- 
 tesy," said Prince Florizel, and advancing to Silas, he ad- 
 dressed him with the most exquisite condenscension in these 
 words ; 
 
 " I was charmed, young sir, to be able to gratify the 
 desire you made known to me through Colonel Geraldine. 
 Remember, if you please, that I shall be glad at any future 
 time to lay you under a more serious obligation." 
 
 And then he put some questions as to the political con- 
 dition of America, which Silas answered with sense and 
 propriety. 
 
 " You are still a young man," said the Prince ; " but I 
 observe you to be very serious for your years. Perhaps you 
 allow your attention to be too much occupied with grave 
 studies. But, perhaps, on the other hand, I am myself in- 
 discreet and touch upon a painful subject." 
 
 " I have certainly cause to be the most miserable of men," 
 said Silas ; " never has a more innocent person been more 
 dismally abused." 
 
 " I will not ask you for your confidence," returned Prince 
 Florizel. " But do not forget that Colonel Geraldine's 
 recommendation is an unfailing passport; and that I am 
 not only willing, but possibly more able than many othersj 
 to do you a service." 
 
 Silas was delighted with the amiability of this great per- 
 sonage; but his mind soon returned upon its gloomy pre- 
 
 50
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 occupations ; for not even the favor of a Prince to a 
 republican can discharge a brooding spirit of its cares. 
 
 The train arrived at Charing Cross, where the officers 
 of the Revenue respected the baggage of Prince Florizel in 
 the usual manner. The most elegant equipages were in wait- 
 ing ; and Silas was driven, along with the rest, to the Prince's 
 residence. There Colonel Geraldine sought him out, and ex- 
 pressed himself pleased to have been of any service to a 
 friend of the physician's, for whom he professed a great 
 consideration. 
 
 " I hope," he added, " that you will find none of your 
 porcelain injured. Special orders were given along the line 
 to deal tenderly with the Prince's effects." 
 
 And then, directing the servants to place one of the car- 
 riages at the young gentleman's disposal, and at once to 
 charge the Saratoga trunk upon the dickey, the Colonel 
 shook hands and excused himself on account of his occupa- 
 tions in the princely household. 
 
 Silas now broke the seal of the envelope containing the 
 address, and directed the stately footman to drive him to 
 Box Court, opening off the Strand. It seemed as if the 
 place were not at all unknown to the man, for he looked 
 startled and begged a repetition of the order. It was with 
 a heart full of alarms, that Silas mounted into the luxurious 
 vehicle, and was driven to his destination. The entrance to 
 Box Court was too narrow for the passage of a coach ; it 
 was a mere footway between railings, with a post at either 
 end. On one of these posts was seated a man, who at once 
 jumped down and exchanged a friendly sign with the driver, 
 while the footman opened the door and inquired of Silas 
 whether he should take down the Saratoga trunk, and to 
 what number it should be carried. 
 
 " If you please," said Silas. " To number three." 
 
 The footman and the man who had been sitting on the 
 post, even with the aid of Silas himself, had hard work to 
 carry in the trunk; and before it was deposited at the door 
 of the house in question, the young American was horrified 
 to find a score of loiterers looking on. But he knocked with 
 
 51
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 as good a countenance as he could muster up, and presented 
 the other envelope to him who opened. 
 
 " He is not at home," said he, " but if you will leave your 
 letter and return to-morrow early, I shall be able to inform 
 you whether and when he can receive your visit. Would you 
 like to leave your box? " he added. 
 
 " Dearly," cried Silas ; and the next moment he repented 
 his precipitation, and declared, with equal emphasis, that 
 he would rather carry the box along with him to the hotel. 
 
 The crowd jeered at his indecision and followed him to 
 the carriage with insulting remarks ; and Silas, covered with 
 shame and terror, implored the servants to conduct him to 
 some quiet and comfortable house of entertainment in the 
 immediate neighborhood. 
 
 The Prince's equipage deposited Silas at the Craven Hotel 
 in Craven Street, and immediately drove away, leaving him 
 alone with the servants of the inn. The only vacant room, 
 it appeared, was a little den up four pairs of stairs, and 
 looking towards the back. To this hermitage, with infinite 
 trouble and complaint, a pair of stout porters carried the 
 Saratoga trunk. It is needless to mention that Silas kept 
 closely at their heels throughout the ascent, and had his 
 heart in his mouth at every corner. A single false step, he 
 reflected, and the box might go over the banisters and land 
 its fatal contents, plainly discovered, on the pavement of 
 the hall. 
 
 Arrived in the room, he sat down on the edge of his bed 
 to recover from the agony that he had just endured; but he 
 had hardly taken his position when he was recalled to a sense 
 of his peril by the action of the boots, who had knelt beside 
 the trunk, and was proceeding officiously to undo its elab- 
 orate fastenings. 
 
 " Let it be ! " cried Silas. " I shall want nothing from 
 it while I stay here." 
 
 " You might have let it lie in the hall then," growled the 
 man ; " a thing as big and heavy as a church. What 3'ou 
 have inside, I cannot fancy. If it is all money, you are a 
 richer man than me." 
 
 52
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 "Money?" repeated Silas, in a sudden perturbation. 
 " What did you mean by money? I have no money, and 
 you are speaking hke a fool." 
 
 " All right. Captain," retorted the boots with a wink. 
 " There's nobody will touch your lordship's money. I'm as 
 safe as the bank," he added ; " but as the box is heavy, I 
 shouldn't mind drinking something to your lordship's 
 health." 
 
 Silas pressed two Napoleons upon his acceptance, apolo- 
 gizing, at the same time, for being obliged to trouble him 
 with foreign money, and pleading his recent arrival for 
 excuse. And the man, grumbling with even greater fervor, 
 and looking contemptuously from the money in his hand to 
 the Saratoga trunk and back again from the one to the other, 
 at last consented to withdraw. 
 
 For nearly two days the dead body had been packed into 
 Silas's box; and as soon as he was alone the unfortvmate 
 New Englander nosed all the cracks and openings Avith the 
 most passionate attention. But the weather was cool, and 
 the trunk still managed to contain his shocking secret. 
 
 He took a chair beside it, and buried his face in his hands, 
 and his mind in the most profound reflection. If he were 
 not speedily relieved, no question but he must be speedily dis- 
 covered. Alone in a strange city, without friends or ac- 
 complices, if the Doctor's introduction failed him, he was 
 indubitably a lost New Englander. He reflected pathetically 
 over his ambitious designs for the future; he should not 
 now become the hero and spokesman of his native place of 
 Bangor, Maine ; he should not, as he had fondly anticipated, 
 move on from office to office, from honor to honor; he might 
 as well divest himself at once of all hope of being acclaimed 
 President of the United States, and leaving behind him a 
 statue, in the worst possible style of art, to adorn the Capitol 
 at Washington. Here he was, chained to a dead Englishman 
 doubled up inside a Saratoga trunk; whom he must get rid 
 of, or perish from the rolls of national glory ! 
 
 I should be afraid to chronicle the language employed 
 by this young man to the Doctor, to the murdered man, to 
 
 53
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 Madame Zephyrlne, to the boots of the hotel, to the Prince's 
 servants, and, in a word, to all who had been ever so re- 
 motely connected with his horrible misfortune. 
 
 He slunk down to dinner about seven at night ; but the 
 yellow coffee-room appalled him, the eyes of the other diners 
 seemed to rest on his with suspicion, and his mind remained 
 upstairs with the Saratoga trunk. When the waiter came 
 to offer him cheese, his nerves were already so much on 
 edge that he leaped half-way out of his chair and upset 
 the remainder of a pint of ale upon the table-cloth. 
 
 The fellow offered to show him the smoking-room when 
 he had done ; and although he would have much preferred to 
 return at once to his perilous treasure, he had not the 
 courage to refuse, and was shown downstairs, to the black, 
 gas-lit cellar, which formed, and possibly still forms, the 
 divan of the Craven Hotel, 
 
 Two very sad betting men were playing billiards, attended 
 by a moist, consumptive marker; and for the moment Silas 
 imagined that these were the only occupants of the apart- 
 ment. But at the next glance his eye fell upon a person 
 smoking in the farthest corner, with lowered eyes and a most 
 respectable and modest aspect. He knew at once that he 
 had seen the face before; and in spite of the entire change 
 of clothes, recognized the man whom he had found seated 
 on a post at the entrance to Box Court, and who had helped 
 him to carry the trunk to and from the carriage. The 
 New Englander simply turned and ran, nor did he pause 
 until he had locked and bolted himself into his bedroom. 
 
 There, all night long, a prey to the most terrible imagina- 
 tions, he watched beside the fatal boxful of dead flesh. The 
 suggestion of the boots that his trunk was full of gold 
 inspired him with all manner of new terrors, if he so much 
 as dared to close an eye; and the presence in the smoking- 
 room, and under an obvious disguise, of the loiterer from 
 Box Court convinced him that he was once more the centre 
 of obscure machination. 
 
 Midnight had sounded some time, when, impelled by un- 
 easy suspicions, Silas opened his bedroom door and peered 
 
 54
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 into the passage. It was dimly illuminated by a single 
 jet of gas; and some distance off he perceived a man sleeping 
 on the floor in the costume of an hotel under-servant. Silas 
 drew near the man on tip-toe. He lay partly on his back, 
 partly on his side, and his right forearm concealed his face 
 from recognition. Suddenly, while the American was still 
 bending over him, the sleeper removed his arm and opened 
 his eyes, and Silas found himself once more face to face with 
 the loiterer of Box Court. 
 
 " Good night, sir," said the man, pleasantly. 
 
 But Silas was too profoundly moved to find an answer, and 
 regained his room in silence. 
 
 Towards morning, worn out by apprehension, he fell 
 asleep on his chair, with his head forward on the trunk. In 
 spite of so constrained an attitude and such a grisly pillow, 
 his slumber was sound and prolonged, and he was only 
 awakened at a late hour and by a sharp tapping at the 
 door. 
 
 He hurried to open, and found the boots without. 
 
 " You are the gentleman who called yesterday at Box 
 Court? " he asked. 
 
 Silas, with a quaver, admitted that he had done so. 
 
 " Then this note is for you," added the servant, proffering 
 a sealed envelope. 
 
 Silas tore it open, and found inside the words : " Twelve 
 o'clock." 
 
 He was punctual to the hour; the trunk was carried be- 
 fore him by several stout servants; and he was himself 
 ushered into a room, where a man sat warming himself be- 
 fore the fire with his back towards the door. The sound of 
 so many persons entering and leaving, and the scraping of 
 the trunk as it was deposited upon the bare boards, were 
 alike unable to attract the notice of the occupant ; and Silas 
 stood waiting, in an agony of fear, until he should deign to 
 recognize his presence. 
 
 Perhaps five minutes had elapsed before the man turned 
 leisurely about, and disclosed the features of Prince Florizel 
 of Bohemia. 
 
 55
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS * 
 
 ** So, sir," he said with great severity, " this is the man- 
 ner in which you abuse my politeness. You join yourself 
 to persons of condition, I perceive, for no other purpose 
 than to escape the consequences of your crimes ; and I can 
 readily understand your embarrassment when I addressed 
 myself to you yesterday." 
 
 " Indeed," cried Silas, " I am innocent of everything ex- 
 cept misfortune." 
 
 And in a hurried voice, and with the greatest ingenuous- 
 ness, he recounted to the Prince the whole history of his 
 calamity. 
 
 " I see I have been mistaken," said his Highness, when 
 he had heard him to an end. " You are no other than a vic- 
 tim, and since I am not to punish you, you may be sure I 
 shall do my utmost to help. And now," he continued, " to 
 business. Open your box at once, and let me see what it 
 contains." 
 
 Silas changed color. 
 
 " I almost fear to look upon it," he exclaimed. 
 
 " Nay," replied the Prince, " have you not looked at it 
 already? This is a form of sentimentality to be resisted. 
 The sight of a sick man, whom we can still help, should ap- 
 peal more directly to the feelings than that of a dead man 
 who is equally beyond help or harm, love or hatred. Nerve 
 yourself, Mr. Scuddamore," and then, seeing that Silas still 
 hesitated, " I do not desire to give another name to my 
 request," he added. 
 
 The young American awoke as If out of a dream, and with 
 a shiver of repugnance addressed himself to loose the straps 
 and open the lock of the Saratoga trunk. The Prince stood 
 by, watching with a composed countenance and his hands 
 behind his back. The body was quite stiff, and it cost Silas 
 a great effort, both moral and physical, to dislodge it from 
 its position, and discover the face. 
 
 Prince Florizel started back with an exclamation of pain- 
 ful surprise. 
 
 " Alas ! " he cried, *' you little know, Mr. Scuddamore, 
 what a cruel gift you have brought me. This is a young 
 
 5Q
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 man of my own suite, the brother of my trusted friend ; and 
 it was upon matters of my own service that he has thus 
 perished at the hands of violent and treacherous men. Poor 
 Geraldine," he went on, as if to himself, " in what words am 
 I to tell 3^ou of your brother's fate? How can I excuse 
 myself in your eyes, or in the e3^es of God, for the presump- 
 tuous schemes that led him to this bloody and unnatural 
 death? Ah, Florizel! Florizel! when will you learn the dis- 
 cretion that suits mortal life, and be no longer dazzled with 
 the image of power at your disposal? Power!" he cried; 
 " who is more powerless ? I look upon this young man whom 
 I have sacrificed, INlr. Scuddamore, and feel how small a 
 thing it is to be a Prince." 
 
 Silas was moved at the sight of his emotion. He tried to 
 murmur some consolatory words, and burst into tears. The 
 Prince, touched by his obvious intention, came up to him 
 and took him by the hand. 
 
 " Command yourself," said he. " We have both much to 
 learn and we shall both be better men for to-day's meeting." 
 
 Silas thanked liim in silence with an affectionate look. 
 
 " Write me the address of Doctor Noel on this piece of 
 paper," continued the Prince, leading him towards the table ; 
 *' and let me recommend you, when you are again in Paris, 
 to avoid the society of that dangerous man. He has acted in 
 this matter on a generous inspiration ; that I must believe ; 
 had he been privy to young Geraldine's death he would 
 never have despatched the body to the care of the actual 
 criminal." 
 
 " The actual criminal ! " repeated Silas in astonishment. 
 
 " Even so," returned the Prince. " This letter, which 
 the disposition of Almighty Providence has so strangely de- 
 livered into my hands, was addressed to no less a person 
 than the criminal himself, the infamous President of the 
 Suicide Club. Seek to pry no further in these perilous 
 affairs, but content yourself with your own miraculous ecape, 
 and leave this house at once. I have pressing affairs, and 
 must arrange at once about this poor clay, which was so 
 lately a gallant and handsome youth." 
 57
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 Silas took a grateful and submissive leave of Prince 
 Vlorizel, but he lingered in Box Court until he saw him 
 depart in a splendid carriage on a visit to Colonel Hen- 
 derson of the police. Republican as he was, the young 
 American took off his hat with almost a sentiment of de- 
 votion to the retreating carriage. And the same night he 
 started by rail on his return to Paris. 
 
 Here (observes my Arabian Author) Is the end of The 
 
 HiSTOEY OF THE PHYSICIAN AND THE SARATOGA TrUNK. 
 
 Omitting some reflections on the power of Providence, highly 
 pertinent in the original, hut little suited to our occidental 
 taste, I shall only add that Mr. Scuddamore has already he- 
 gun to mount the ladder of political fame, and hy last 
 advices was the Sheriff of his native towTio 
 
 58
 
 THE ADVENTURE OF THE HANSOM CAB 
 
 LIEUTENANT BRACKENBURY RICH had greatly dis- 
 Jtinguished himself in one of the lesser Indian hill wars. 
 He it was who took the chieftain prisoner with his own hand ; 
 his gallantry was universally applauded; and when he came 
 home, prostrated by an ugly sabre cut and a protracted 
 jungle fever, society was prepared to welcome the Lieutenant 
 as a celebrity of minor luster. But his was a character re- 
 markable for unaffected modesty; adventure was dear to 
 his heart, but he cared little for adulation ; and he waited at 
 foreign watering-places and in Algiers until the fame of his 
 exploits had run through its nine days' vitality and begun 
 to be forgotten. He arrived in London at last, in the early 
 season, with as little observation as he could desire ; and as 
 he was an orphan and had none but distant relatives who 
 lived in the provinces, it was almost as a foreigner that he 
 installed himself in the capital of the country for which 
 he had shed his blood. 
 
 On the day following his arrival he dined alone at a mili- 
 tary club. He shook hands with a few old comrades, and 
 received their congratulations ; but as one and all had some 
 engagement for the evening, he found himself left entirely 
 to his own resources. He was in dress, for he had enter- 
 tained the notion of visiting a theater. But the great city 
 was new to him; he had gone from a provincial school to a 
 military college, and thence direct to the Eastern Empire; 
 and he promised himself a variety of delights in this world 
 for exploration. Swinging his cane, he took his way west- 
 ward. It was a mild evening, already dark, and now and 
 then threatening rain. The succession of faces in the lamp- 
 light stirred the Lieutenant's imagination ; and it seemed to 
 him as if he could walk for ever in that stimulating city 
 
 59
 
 IS^EW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 atmosphere and surrounded by the m^^stery of four million 
 private lives. He glanced at the houses, and marvelled what 
 was passing behind those warmW-lighted windows ; he looked 
 into face after face, and saw them each intent upon some 
 unknown interest, criminal or kindly. 
 
 " They talk of war," he thought, " but this is the great 
 battlefield of mankind." 
 
 And then he began to wonder that he should walk so long 
 in this comphcated scene, and not chance upon so much as 
 the shadow of an adventure for himself. 
 
 " All in good time," he reflected. " I am still a stranger, 
 and perhaps wear a strange air. But I must be drawn into 
 the eddy before long." 
 
 The night was already well advanced, when a plump of 
 cold rain fell suddenly out of the darkness. Brackenbury 
 paused under some trees, and as he did so he caught sight 
 of a hansom cabman making him a sign that he was dis- 
 engaged. The circumstance fell in so happily to the occa- 
 sion that he at once raised his cane in answer, and had soon 
 ensconced himself in the London gondola. 
 
 " Where to, sir ? " asked the driver. 
 
 ** Where you please," said Brackenbury. 
 
 And immediately, at a pace of surprising swiftness, the 
 hansom drove off through the rain into a maze of villas. 
 One villa was so like another, each with its front garden, 
 and there was so little to distinguish the deserted lamp-lit 
 streets and crescents through which the flying hansom took 
 its way, that Brackenbury soon lost all idea of direction. 
 He would have been contented to believe that the cabman 
 was amusing himself by driving him round and round and in 
 and out about a small quarter, but there was something 
 businesslike in the speed vrhich convinced him of the contrary. 
 The man had an object in view, he was hastening towards a 
 definite end and Brackenbury was at once astonished at the 
 fellow's skill in picking a way through such labyrinth, and 
 a little concerned to imagine what was the occasion of his 
 hurry. He had heard tales of strangers falling ill in Lon- 
 don. Did the driver belong to some bloody and treacherous 
 
 60
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 association? and was he himself being -whirled to a mur- 
 derous death? 
 
 The thought had scarcely presented itself, when the cab 
 swung sharply round a corner and pulled up before the gar- 
 den gate of a villa in a long and wide road. The house was 
 brilliantly lighted up. Another hansom had just driven 
 away, and Brackenbury could see a gentleman being admitted 
 at the front door and received by several liveried servants. 
 He was surprised that the cabman should have stopped so 
 immediately in front of a house where a reception was being 
 held ; but he did not doubt it was the result of accident, and 
 sat placidly smoking where he was, until he heard the trap 
 thrown open over his head. 
 
 " Here we are, sir," said the driver. 
 
 " Here ! " repeated Brackenbury. " Where? " 
 
 " You told me to take you where I pleased, sir," returned 
 the man with a chuckle, " and here we are." 
 
 It struck Brackenbury that the voice was wonderfully 
 smooth and courteous for a man in so inferior a position ; he 
 remembered the speed at which he had been driven; and 
 now it occurred to him that the hansom was more luxuriously 
 appointed than the common run of public convej^ances. 
 
 " I must ask you to explain," said he. " Do you mean to 
 turn me out into the rain? My good man, I suspect the 
 choice is mine." 
 
 " The choice is certainly yours," replied the driver, " but 
 when I tell you all, I believe I know how a gentleman of your 
 figure will decide. There is a gentlemen's party in this 
 house. I do not know whether the master be a stranger to 
 London and without acquaintances of his own; or whether 
 he is a man of odd notions. But certainly I was hired to 
 kidnap single gentlemen in evening dress, as many as I 
 pleased, but military officers by preference. You have 
 simply to go in and say that Mr. Morris invited you." 
 
 " Are you Mr. Morris ? " inquired the Lieutenant. 
 
 " Oh, no," rephed the cabman. " Mr. Morris is the person 
 of the house." 
 
 " It is not a common way of collecting guests," said 
 
 61
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 Brackenbury ; " but an eccentric man might very well in- 
 dulge the whim without any intention to offend. And sup- 
 pose that I refuse Mr. Morris's invitation," he went on, 
 "what then?" 
 
 " My orders are to drive you back where I took you from," 
 replied the man, " and set out to look for others up to 
 midnight. Those who have no fancy for such an adventure, 
 Mr. Morris said, were not the guests for him." 
 
 These words decided the Lieutenant on the spot. 
 
 " After all," he reflected, as he descended from the han- 
 som, " I have not had long to wait for my adventure." 
 
 He had hardly found footing on the side-walk, and was 
 still feeling in his pocket for the fare, when the cab swung 
 about and drove off by the way it came at the former 
 break-neck velocity. Brackenbury shouted after the man, 
 who paid no heed, and continued to drive away; but the 
 sound of his voice was overheard in the house, the door 
 was again thrown open, emitting a flood of light upon the 
 garden, and a servant ran down to meet him holding an 
 umbrella. 
 
 " The cabman has been paid," observed the servant in a 
 very civil tone; and he proceeded to escort Brackenbury 
 along the path and up the steps. In the hall several other 
 attendants relieved him of his hat, cane, and paletot, gave 
 him a ticket with a number in return, and politely hurried 
 him up a stair adorned with tropical flowers, to the door of 
 an apartment on the first story. Here a grave butler in- 
 quired his name, and announcing " Lieutenant Brackenbury 
 Rich," ushered him into the drawing-room of the house. 
 
 A young man, slender and singularly handsome, came for- 
 ward and greeted him with an air at once courtly and affec- 
 tionate. Hundreds of candles, of the finest wax, lit up a 
 room perfumed, like the staircase, with a profusion of rare 
 and beautiful flowering shrubs. A side-table was loaded 
 with tempting viands. Several servants went to and fro with 
 fruits and goblets of champagne. The company was perhaps 
 sixteen in number, all men, few beyond the prime of life, and 
 with hardly an exception, of a dashing and capable exterior. 
 
 62
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 They were divided into two groups, one about a roulette 
 board, and the other surrounding a table at which one of 
 their number held a bank of baccarat. 
 
 " I see," thought Brackenbury, " I am in a private gam- 
 bling saloon, and the cabman was a tout." 
 
 His eye had embraced the details, and his mind formed 
 the conclusion, while his host was still holding him by the 
 hand; and to him his looks returned from this rapid survey. 
 At a second view Mr. Morris surprised him still more than 
 on the first. The easy elegance of his manners, the distinc- 
 tion, amiability, and courage that appeared upon his fea- 
 tures, fitted very ill with the Lieutenant's preconceptions on 
 the subject of the proprietor of a hell; and the tone of his 
 conversation seemed to mark him out for a man of position 
 and merit. Brackenbury found he had an instinctive liking 
 for his entertainer and though he chid himself for the weak- 
 ness he was unable to resist a sort of friendly attraction for 
 Mr. Morris's person and character. 
 
 " I have heard of you. Lieutenant Rich," said Mr. Mor- 
 ris, lowering his tone ; " and believe me I am gratified to 
 make your acquaintance. Your looks accord with the repu- 
 tation that has preceded you from India. And if you will 
 forget for a while the irregularity of your presentation in 
 my house, I shall feel it not only an honor, but genuine 
 pleasure besides. A man who makes a mouthful of barbarian 
 cavaliers," he added with a laugh, " should not be appalled 
 by a breach of etiquette, however serious." 
 
 And he led him towards the sideboard and pressed him 
 to partake of some refreshments. 
 
 " Upon my word," the Lieutenant reflected, " this is one 
 of the pleasantest fellows and, I do not doubt, one of the 
 most agreeable societies in London." 
 
 He partook of some champagne, which he found excellent ; 
 and observing that many of the company were already smok- 
 ing, he lit one of his own INIanilas, and strolled up to the 
 roulette board, where he sometimes made a stake ar»d some- 
 times looked on smilingly on the fortune of others. It was 
 wliile he was thus idling that he became aware of a sharp 
 
 63
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 scrutiny to which the whole of the guests were subjected. 
 ]Mr. INIorris went here and there, ostensibly busied on hos- 
 pitable concerns ; but he had ever a shrewd glance at disposal ; 
 not a man of the party escaped his sudden, searching looks ; 
 he took stock of the bearing of heavy losers, he valued the 
 amount of the stakes, he paused behind couples who were 
 deep in conversation ; and, in a word, there was hardly a 
 characteristic of anyone present but he seemed to catch and 
 make a note of it. Brackenbury began to wonder if this 
 were indeed a gambling hell: it had so much the air of a 
 private inquisition. He followed Mr. Morris in all his move- 
 ments ; and although the man had a ready smile, he seemed 
 to perceive, as it were under a mask, a haggard, careworn, 
 and preoccupied spirit. The fellows around him laughed 
 and made their game; but Brackenbury had lost interest in 
 the guests. 
 
 " This Morris," thought he, " is no idler in the room. 
 Some deep purpose inspires hira; let it be mine to 
 fathom it." 
 
 Now and then Mr. Morris would call one of his visitors 
 aside; and after a brief colloquy in an ante-room, he would 
 return alone, and the visitors in question reappeared no 
 more. After a certain number of repetitions, this perform- 
 ance excited Brackenbury's curiosity to a high degree. He 
 determined to be at the bottom of this minor mystery at 
 once; and strolling into the ante-room, found a deep window 
 recess concealed by curtains of the fashionable green. Here 
 he hurriedly ensconced himself; nor had he to wait long be- 
 fore the sound of steps and voices drew near him from the 
 principal apartment. Peering through the division, he saw 
 Mr. Morris escorting a fat and ruddy personage, with some- 
 what the look of a commercial traveler, whom Brackenbury 
 had already remarked for his coarse laugh and under-bred 
 behavior at the table. The pair halted immediately before 
 the window, so that Brackenbury lost not a word of the fol- 
 lowing discourse: — 
 
 " I beg you a thousand pardons ! " began Mr. Morris, 
 with the most conciliatory manner ; " and, if I appear rude, 
 
 64,
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 I am sure you will readily forgive me. In a place so great 
 as London accidents must continually happen ; and the best 
 that we can hope is to remed}^ them with as small delay as 
 possible. I will not deny that I fear you have made a mis- 
 take and honored my poor house by inadvertence ; for, to 
 speak openly, I cannot at all remember your appearance. 
 Let me put the question without unnecessary circumlocution 
 • — between gentlemen of honor a word will suffice — Under 
 whose roof do you suppose yourself to be.'* '* 
 
 " That of Mr. Morris," replied the other, with a pro- 
 digious display of confusion, which had been visibly growing 
 upon him throughout the last few words. 
 
 "Mr. John or Mr. James Morris?" inquired the host. 
 
 " I really cannot tell you," returned the unfortunate guest. 
 ** I am not personally acquainted with the gentleman, any 
 more than I am with yourself." 
 
 " I see," said Mr. Morris. " There is another person of 
 the same name farther down the street ; and I have no doubt 
 the policeman will be able to supply you with his number. 
 Believe me, I felicitate myself on the misunderstanding which 
 has procured me the pleasure of your company for so long; 
 and let me express a hope that we may meet again upon a 
 more regular footing. Meantime, I would not for the world 
 detain you longer from your friends. John," he added, 
 raising his voice, " will you see that the gentleman finds his 
 great-coat ? " 
 
 And with the most agreeable air Mr. Morris escorted his 
 visitor as far as the ante-room door, where he left him under 
 conduct of the butler. As he passed the window, on his 
 return to the drawing-room, Brackenbury could hear him 
 utter a profound sigh, as though his mind was loaded with 
 great anxiety, and his nerves already fatigued with the 
 task on which he was engaged. 
 
 For perhaps an hour the hansoms kept arriving with such 
 frequency, that ]Mr. JMorrls had to receive a new guest for 
 every old one that he sent away, and the company preserved 
 its nmnber undiminished. But towards the end of that time 
 the arrivals grew few and far between, and at length ceased 
 
 65
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 entirely, while the process of elimination was continued with 
 unimpaired activity. The drawing-room began to look 
 empty: the baccarat was discontinued for lack of a banker; 
 more than one person said good-night of his own accord, 
 and was suffered to depart without expostulation : and in 
 the meanwhile Mr. Morris redoubled in agreeable attentions 
 to those who stayed behind. He went from group to group 
 and from person to person with looks of the readiest sym- 
 pathy and the most pertinent and pleasing talk; he was not 
 so much like a host as like a hostess, and there was a 
 feminine coquetry and condescension in his manner which 
 charmed the hearts of all. 
 
 As the guests grew thinner, Lieutenant Rich strolled for 
 a moment out of the drawing-room into the hall in quest 
 of fresher air. But he had no sooner passed the threshold 
 of the ante-chamber than he was brought to a dead halt by 
 a discovery of the most surprising nature. The flowering 
 shrubs had disappeared from the staircase; three large fur- 
 niture wagons stood before the garden gate ; the servants 
 were busy dismantling the house upon all sides ; and some 
 of them had already donned their great-coats and were pre- 
 paring to depart. It was like the end of a country ball, 
 where everj^thing has been supplied by contract. Bracken- 
 bury had indeed some matter for reflection. First, the 
 guests, who were no real guests after all, had been dismissed : 
 and now the servants, who could hardly be genuine servants, 
 were actively dispersing. 
 
 " Was the whole establishment a sham .'' " be asked him- 
 self. " The mushroom of a single night which should dis- 
 appear before morning.'' " 
 
 Watching a favorable opportunity, Brackenbury dashed 
 upstairs to the higher regions of the house. It was as he 
 had expected. He ran from room to room, and saw not a 
 stick of furniture nor so much as a picture on the walls. 
 Although the house had been painted and papered, it was 
 not only uninhabited at present, but plainly had never been 
 inhabited at all. The young officer remembered with aston- 
 ishment its specious, settled, and hospitable air on his ar' 
 
 66
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 rival. It was only at a prodigious cost that the imposture 
 could have been carried out upon so great a scale. 
 
 Whoj then, was Mr. Morris? What was his intention in 
 thus playing the householder for a single night in the remote 
 west of London.'' And why did he collect his visitors at 
 hazard from the streets.? 
 
 Brackenbury remembered that he had already delayed 
 too long, and hastened to join the company. Many had 
 left during his absence; and counting the Lieutenant and his 
 host, there were not more than five persons in the drawing- 
 room — recently so thronged. Mr. Morris greeted him, as 
 he re-entered the apartment, with a smile, and immediately 
 rose to his feet. 
 
 " It is now time, gentlemen," said he, " to explain my 
 purpose in decoying you from your amusements. I trust 
 you did not find the evening hang very dully on your hands ; 
 but my object, I will confess it, was not to entertain your 
 leisure, but to help myself in an unfortunate necessity. You 
 are all gentlemen," he continued, " your appearance does you 
 that much justice, and I ask for no better security. Hence, 
 I speak it without concealment, I ask you to render me a 
 dangerous and delicate service ; dangerous because you may 
 run the hazard of your lives, and delicate because I must 
 ask an absolute discretion upon all that you shall see or 
 hear. From an utter stranger the request is almost comically 
 extravagant ; I am well aware of this ; and I would add at 
 once, if there be anyone present who has heard enough, if 
 there be one among the party who recoils from a dangerous 
 confidence and a piece of Quixotic devotion to he knows not 
 whom — here is my hand ready, and I shall wish him good- 
 night and Godspeed, with all the sincerity in the world." 
 
 A very tall, black man, with a heavy stoop, immediate re- 
 sponded to this appeal. 
 
 " I commend your frankness, sir," said he ; " and, for my 
 part, I go. I make no reflections ; but I cannot deny that 
 you fill me with suspicious thoughts. I go myself, as I say ; 
 and perhaps you will think I have no right to add words 
 to my example." 
 
 67
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " On the contrary," replied Mr. Morris, " I am obliged 
 to you for all you say. It would be impossible to exaggerate 
 the gravity of my proposal." 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, what do you say ? " said the tall man, 
 addressing the others. " We have had our evening's frolic ; 
 shall we go homeward peaceably in a body? You will think 
 well of my suggestion in the morning, when you see the sun 
 again in innocence and safety." 
 
 The speaker pronounced the last words with an intonation 
 which added to their force ; and his face wore a singular ex- 
 pression, full of gravity and significance. Another of the 
 company rose hastily, and, with some appearance of alarm, 
 prepared to take his leave. There were only two who held 
 their ground, Brackenbury and on old red-nosed cavalry 
 Major; but these two preserved a nonchalant demeanor, and, 
 beyond a look of intelligence which they rapidly exchanged, 
 appeared entirely foreign to the discussion that had just 
 been terminated. 
 
 Mr. Morris conducted the deserters as far as the door, 
 which he closed upon their heels ; then he turned round dis- 
 closing a countenance of mingled relief and animation, and 
 addressed the two officers as follows : 
 
 " I have chosen my men like Joshua in the Bible," said 
 Mr. Morris, " and I now believe I have the pick of London. 
 Your appearance pleased my hansom cabmen ; then it de- 
 lighted me ; I watched your behavior in a strange company, 
 and under the most unusual circumstances : I have studied 
 how you played and how you bore your losses ; lastly, I have 
 put you to the test of a staggering announcement, and you 
 received it like an invitation to dinner. It is not for noth- 
 ing," he cried, " that I have been for years the companion 
 and the pupil of the bravest and wisest potentate in Europe." 
 
 " At the affair of Bunderchang," observed the Major, " I 
 asked for twelve volunteers, and every trooper in the ranks 
 replied to my appeal. But a gaming party is not the same 
 thing as a regiment under fire. You may be pleased, I sup- 
 pose, to have found two, and two who will not fail you at a 
 push. As for the pair v/ho ran away, I count them among 
 
 68
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 the most pitiful hounds I ever met with. Lieutenant Ricli," 
 he added, addressing Brackenbury, " I have heard much of 
 you of late ; and I cannot doubt but you have also heard of 
 me. I am Major O'Rooke." 
 
 And the veteran tendered his hand, which was red and 
 tremulous, to the young Lieutenant. 
 
 " Who has not ? " answered Brackenbury. 
 
 " When this little matter is settled," said Mr. Morris, 
 " 3'ou will think I have sufficiently rewarded you ; for I could 
 offer neither a more valuable service than to make him ac- 
 quainted with the other." 
 
 " And now," said Major O'Rooke, " is it a duel.? " 
 
 " A duel after a fashion," replied Mr. Morris, " a duel 
 with unknown and dangerous enemies, and, as I gravely fear, 
 a duel to the death. I must ask you," he continued, " to 
 call me Morris no longer ; call me, if you please. Hammer- 
 smith; my real name, as well as that of another person to 
 whom I hope to present you before long, you will gratify 
 me by not asking and not seeking to discover for yourselves. 
 Three days ago the person of whom I speak disappeared 
 suddenly from home ; and, until this morning, I received no 
 hint of his situation. You will fancy my alarm when I tell 
 you that he is engaged upon a work of private justice. 
 Bound by an unhappy oath, too lightly sworn, he finds it 
 necessary, without the help of law, to rid the earth of an In- 
 sidious and bloody villain. Already two of our friends, and 
 one of them my own born brother, have perished in the 
 enterprise. He himself, or I am much deceived, is taken in 
 the same fatal toils. But at least he still lives and still 
 hopes, as this billet sufficiently proves." 
 
 And the speaker, no other than Colonel Geraldine, prof- 
 fered a letter, thus conceived: — 
 
 " Major Hammersmith, — On Wednesday, at 3 a. m., you 
 will be admitted by the small door to the gardens of Roches- 
 ter House, Regent's Park, by a man who is entirely in my 
 interest. I must request you not to fail me by a second. 
 Pray bring my case of swords, and, if you can find them, one 
 
 69
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 or two gentlemen of conduct and discretion to whom my 
 person is unknown. My name must not be used in this 
 affair. 
 
 «T. GODALL." 
 
 " From his wisdom alone, if he had no other title," pur- 
 sued Golonel Geraldine, when the others had each satisfied 
 his curiosity, " my friend is a man whose directions should 
 implicitly be followed. I need not tell you, therefore, that 
 I have not so much as visited the neighborhood of Rochester 
 House ; and that I am still as wholly in the dark as either 
 of yourselves as to the nature of my friend's dilemma. I 
 betook myself, as soon as I had received this order, to a 
 furnishing contractor, and, in a few hours, the house in 
 which we now are had assumed its late air of festival. My 
 scheme was at least original; and I am far from regretting 
 an action which has procured me the services of Major 
 O'Rooke and Lieutenant Brackenbury Rich. But the serv- 
 ants in the street will have a strange awakening. The house 
 which this evening was full of lights and visitors they will 
 find uninhabited and for sale to-morrow morning. Thus 
 even the most serious concerns," added the Colonel, " have a 
 merry side." 
 
 " And let us add a merry ending," said Brackenbury. 
 
 The Colonel consulted his watch. 
 
 " It is now hard on two," he said. " We have an hour 
 before us, and a swift cab is at the door. Tell me if I may 
 count upon your help." 
 
 "During a long life," replied Major O'Rooke, "I never 
 took back my hand from anything, nor so much as hedged 
 a bet." 
 
 Brackenbury signified his readiness in the most becoming 
 terms ; and after they had drunk a glass or two of wine, 
 the Colonel gave each of them a loaded revolver, and the 
 three mounted into the cab and drove off for the address in 
 question. 
 
 Rochester House was a magnificent residence on the banks 
 of the canal. The large extent of the garden isolated it in 
 
 70
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 an unusual degree from the annoyances of neigliborliood. It 
 seemed the pare aux cerfs of some great nobleman or mil- 
 lionaire. As far as could be seen from the street, there was 
 not a glimmer of light in any of the numerous windows of 
 the mansion ; and the place had a look of neglect, as though 
 the master had been long from home. 
 
 The cab was discharged, and the three gentlemen were not 
 long in discovering the small door, which was a sort of 
 postern in a lane between two garden walls. It still wanted 
 ten or fifteen minutes of the appointed time, the rain fell 
 heavily, and the adventurers sheltered themselves below some 
 pendent ivy, and spoke in low tones of the approaching trial. 
 
 Suddenly Geraldine raised his finger to command silence, 
 and all three bent their hearing to the utmost. Through the 
 continuous noise of the rain, the steps and voices of two 
 men became audible from the other side of the wall ; and, as 
 they drew nearerj Brackenbury, whose sense of hearing was 
 remarkably acute, could even distinguish some fragments of 
 their talk. 
 
 " Is the grave dug? " asked one. 
 
 "It is," replied the other; "behind the laurel hedge. 
 When the job is done, we can cover it with a pile of stakes." 
 
 The first speaker laughed, and the sound of his merriment 
 was shocking to the listeners on the other side. 
 
 " In an hour from now,'^ he said. 
 
 And by the sound of the steps it was obvious that the pair 
 had separated, and were proceeding in contrary directions. 
 
 Almost immediately after the postern door was cautiously 
 opened, a white face was protruded into the lane, and a hand 
 was seen beckoning to the watchers. In dead silence the 
 three passed the door, which was immediately locked behind 
 them, and followed their guide through several garden alleys 
 to the kitchen entrance of the house. A single candle burned 
 in the great paved kitchen, which was destitute of the cus- 
 tomary furniture ; and as the party proceeded to ascend from 
 thence by a flight of winding stairs, a prodigious noise of 
 rats testified stiU more plainly to the dilapidation of the 
 house. 
 
 71
 
 NEW AHABIAN XIGHTS 
 
 Their conductor preceded them, carrying the candle. He 
 was a lean man, much bent, but still agile ; and he turned 
 from time to time and admonished silence and caution by his 
 gestures. Colonel Geraldine followed on his heels, the case 
 of swords under one arm, and a pistol ready in the other. 
 Brackenbury's heart beat thickly. He perceived that they 
 were still in time ; but he j udged from the alacrity of the old 
 man that the hour of action must be near at hand ; the cir- 
 cumstances of this adventure were so obscure and menacing, 
 the place seemed so well chosen for the darkest acts, that 
 an older man than Brackenbury might have been pardoned a 
 measure of emotion as he closed the procession up the wind- 
 ing stair. 
 
 At the top the guide threw open a door and ushered the 
 three officers before him into a small apartment, lighted by 
 a smoky lamp and the glow of a modest fire. At the chimney 
 corner sat a man in the early prime of life, and of a stout 
 but courtly and commanding appearance. His attitude and 
 expression were those of the most unmoved composure ; he 
 was smoking a cheroot with much enjoyment and delibera- 
 tion, and on a table by his elbow stood a long glass of some 
 effervescing beverage which diffused an agreeable odor 
 through the room. 
 
 " Welcome," said he, extending his hand to Colonel Geral- 
 dine. " I knew I might count on your exactitude." 
 
 " On my devotion," replied the Colonel, with a bow. 
 
 " Present me to your friends," continued the first ; and, 
 when that ceremony had been performed, " I wish, gentle- 
 men," he added, with the most exquisite affability, " that I 
 could offer you a more cheerful programme ; it is ungracious 
 to inaugurate an acquaintance upon serious affairs ; but the 
 compulsion of events is stronger than the obligations of 
 good-fellowship. I hope and believe you will be able to for- 
 give me this unpleasant evening ; and for men of your stamp 
 it will be enough to know that you are conferi'ing a consid- 
 erable favor." 
 
 *' Your Highness," said the Major, " must pardon my 
 bluntness. I am unable to hide what I know. For some 
 
 72
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 time back I have suspected Major Haramersmltli, but Mr. 
 Godall is unmistakable. To seek two men in London unac- 
 quainted with Prince Florizel of Bohemia was to ask too 
 much at Fortune's hands." 
 
 "Prince Florizel!" cried Brackenbur}^ in amazement. 
 
 And he gazed with the deepest interest on the features of 
 the celebrated personage before him. 
 
 " I shall not lament the loss of my incognito," remarked 
 the Prince, " for it enables me to thank you with the more 
 authority. You would have done as much for Mr. Godall, 
 I feel sure, as for the Prince of Bohemia ; but the latter can 
 perhaps do more for j^ou. The gain is mine," he added, with 
 a courteous gesture. 
 
 And the next moment he was conversing with the two 
 officers about the Indian army and the native troops, a sub- 
 ject on which, as on all others, he had a remarkable fund 
 of infonnation and the soundest views. 
 
 There was something so striking in this man's attitude at 
 a moment of deadly peril that Brackenbury was overcome 
 with respectful admiration ; nor was he less sensible to the 
 charm of his conversation or the surprising amenity of his 
 address. Every gesture, every intonation, was not only noble 
 in itself, but seemed to ennoble the fortunate mortal for 
 whom it was intended ; and Brackenbury confessed to himself 
 with enthusiasm that this was a sovereign for whom a brave 
 man might thankfully lay down his life. 
 
 Many minutes had thus passed, when the person who had 
 introduced them into the house, and who had sat ever since in 
 a corner, and with his watch in his hand, arose and whispered 
 a word into the Prince's ear. 
 
 " It is well. Dr. Noel," replied Florizel, aloud ; and then 
 addressing the others, " You will excuse me, gentlemen,'^ he 
 added, " if I have to leave you in the dark. The moment 
 now approaches." 
 
 Dr. Noel extinguished the lamp. A faint, gray light, pre- 
 monitory to the dawn, illuminated the window, but was not 
 sufficient to illuminate the room; and when the Prince rose 
 to his feet, it was impossible to distinguish liis features or 
 
 73
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 to make a guess at the nature of the emotion which obviously 
 affected him as he spoke. He moved towards the door, and 
 placed himself at one side of it in an attitude of the wariest 
 attention. 
 
 " You will have the kindness," he said, " to maintain the 
 strictest silence, send to conceal yourselves in the densest of 
 the shadow." 
 
 The three officers and the physician hastened to obey, and 
 for nearly ten minutes the only sound in Rochester House 
 was occasioned by the excursions of the rats behind the wood- 
 work. At the end of that period, a loud creak of a hinge 
 broke in with surprising distinctness on the silence ; and 
 shortly after, the watchers could distinguish a slow and 
 cautious tread approaching up the kitchen stair. At every 
 second step the intruder seemed to pause and lend an ear, 
 and during these intervals, which seemed of an incalculable 
 duration, a profound disquiet possessed the spirit of the lis- 
 teners. Dr. Noel, accustomed as he was to dangerous emo- 
 tions, suffered an almost pitiful physical prostration ; his 
 breath whistled in his lungs, his teeth grated one upon an- 
 other, and his joints cracked aloud as he nervously shifted 
 his position. 
 
 At last a hand was laid upon the door, and the bolt shot 
 back with a slight report. There followed another pause, 
 during which Brackenbury could see the Prince draw himself 
 together noiselessly as if for some unusual exertion. Then 
 the door opened, letting in a little more of the light of the 
 morning; and the figure of a man appeared upon the thres- 
 hold and stood motionless. He was tall, and carried a knife 
 in his hand. Even in the twilight they could see his upper 
 teeth bare and glistening, for his mouth was open like that 
 of a hound about to leap. The man had evidently been over 
 the head in water but a minute or two before; and even while 
 he stood there the drops kept falling from his wet clothes 
 and pattered on the floor. 
 
 The next moment he crossed the threshold. There was 
 a leap, a stifled cry, an instantaneous struggle; and before 
 
 74
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 Colonel Geraldine could spring to his aid, the Prince held 
 the man, disarmed and helpless, by the shoulders. 
 
 " Dr. Noel," he said, " you will be so good as to relight 
 the lamp." 
 
 And relinquishing the charge of his prisoner tp Geraldine 
 and Brackenbury, he crossed the room and set his back 
 against the chimney-piece. As soon as the lamp had kindled, 
 the party beheld an unaccustomed sternness on the Prince's 
 features. It was no longer Florizel, the careless gentleman; 
 it was the Prince of Bohemia, justly Incensed and full of 
 deadly purpose, who now raised his head and addressed the 
 captive President of the Suicide Club. 
 
 " President," he said, " you have laid your last snare, and 
 your own feet are taken in it. The day is beginning; it is 
 your last morning. You have just swum the Regent's Canal ; 
 it is your last bath in this world. Your old accomplice, Dr. 
 Noel, so far from betra3'ing me, has delivered you into my 
 hands for judgment. And the grave you had dug for me 
 this afternoon shall serve, in God's almighty providence, to 
 hide your own just doom from the curiosity of mankind. 
 Kneel and pray, sir, if you have a mind that way ; for your 
 time is short, and God is weary of your iniquities." 
 
 The President made no answer either by word or sign ; 
 but continued to hang his head and gaze sullenly on the 
 floor, as though he were conscious of the Prince's prolonged 
 and unsparing regard. 
 
 " Gentlemen," continued Florizel, resuming the ordinary 
 tone of his conversation, " this is a fellow who has long 
 eluded me, but whom, thanks to Dr. Noel, I now have tightly 
 by the heels. To tell the story of his misdeeds would occupy 
 more time than we can now afford ; but If the canal had con- 
 tained nothing but the blood of his victims, I believe the 
 wretch would have been no drier than you see him. Even 
 in an affair of this sort I desire to preserve the forms of 
 honor. But I make you the judges, gentlemen — ^thls is more 
 an execution than a duel ; and to give the rogue his choice 
 of weapons would be to push too far a point of etiquette. I 
 
 75
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 cannot aiFord to lose my life in such a business," he con- 
 tinued, unlocking the case of swords, " and as a pistol-bullet 
 travels so often on the wings of chance, and skill and cour- 
 age may fall by the most trembling marksman, I have de- 
 cided, and I feel sure you will approve my determination, to 
 put this question to the touch of swords." 
 
 When Brackenbury and Major O'Rooke, to whom these 
 remarks were particularly addressed, had each intimated his 
 approval, " Quick, sir," added Prince Florizel to the Presi- 
 dent, " choose a blade and do not keep me waiting ; I have 
 an impatience to be done with you for ever." 
 
 For the first time since he was captured and disarmed the 
 President raised his head, and it was plain that he began 
 instantly to pluck up courage. 
 
 *' Is it to be stand up .'' " he asked eagerly, " and between 
 you and me? " 
 
 " I mean so far to honor you," replied the Prince. 
 
 *' Oh, come ; " cried the President. " With a fair field, 
 who knows how things may happen? I must add that I 
 consider it handsome behavior on your Highness's part; and 
 if the worst comes to the worst I shall die by one of the most 
 gallant gentlemen in Europe? 
 
 And the President, liberated by those who had detained 
 him, stepped up to the table and began, with minute atten- 
 tion, to select a sword. He was highly elated, and seemed 
 to feel no doubt that he should issue victorious from the 
 contest. The spectators grew alarmed in the face of so 
 entire a confidence, and adjured Prince Florizel to reconsider 
 his intention. 
 
 " It is but a farce," he answered ; " and I think I can prom- 
 ise you, gentlemen, that it will not be long a-playing." 
 
 " Your Highness will be careful not to overreach," said 
 Colonel Geraldine. 
 
 " Geraldine," returned the Prince, " did you ever know 
 me fail in a debt of honor? I owe you this man's death, and 
 you shall have it." 
 
 The President at last satisfied himself with one of the 
 rapiers, and signified liis readiness by a gesture that was 
 
 76
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 not devoid of a rude nobility. The nearness of peril, and 
 the sense of courage, even to this obnoxious villain, lent an 
 air of manhood and a certain grace. 
 
 The Prince helped himself at random to a sword. 
 
 " Colonel Geraldine and Doctor Noel," he said, " will have 
 the goodness to await me in this room. I wish no personal 
 friend of mine to be involved in this transaction. Major 
 O'Rooke, you are a man of some years and a settled reputa- 
 tion — let me recommend the President to your good graces. 
 Lieutenant Rich will be so good as to lend me his attentions : 
 a young man cannot have too much experience in such 
 affairs." 
 
 " Your Highness," replied Brackenbury, " it is an honor 
 I shall prize extremely." 
 
 " It is well," returned Prince Florizel ; *' I shall hope to 
 stand your friend in more important circumstances." 
 
 And so saying he led the way out of the apartment and 
 down the kitchen stairs. 
 
 The two men who were thus left alone threw open the win- 
 dow and leaned out, straining every sense to catch an indica- 
 tion of the tragical events that were about to follow. The 
 rain was now over; day had almost come, and the birds were 
 piping in the shrubbery and on the forest trees of the gar- 
 den. The Prince and his companions were visible for a 
 moment as they followed an alley between two flowering 
 thickets ; but at the first corner a clump of foliage inter- 
 vened, and they were again concealed from view. This was 
 all that the Colonel and the physician had an opportunity to 
 see, and the garden was so vast, and the place of combat 
 evidently so remote from the house that not even the noise of 
 sword-play reached their ears. 
 
 " He has taken him towards the grave," said Dr. Noel, 
 with a shudder. 
 
 " God," cried the Colonel, " God defend the right ! " 
 
 And they awaited the event in silence, the Doctor shaking 
 with fear, the Colonel in an agony of sweat. Many minutes 
 must have elapsed, the day was sensibly broader, and the 
 birds were singing more heartily in the garden before a sound 
 
 77
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 of returning footsteps recalled their glances towards the 
 door. It was the Prince and the two Indian officers who 
 entered. God had defended the right. 
 
 " I am ashamed of my emotion," said Prince Florizel ; 
 " I feel it a weakness unworthy of my station, but the con- 
 tinued existence of that hound of hell had begun to play 
 upon me like a disease, and his death has more refreshed 
 me than a night of slumber. Look, Geraldine," he continued, 
 throwing his sword upon the floor, " there is the blood of 
 the man who killed your brother. It should be a welcome 
 sight. And yet," he added, " see how strangely we men 
 are made ! my revenge is not yet five minutes old, and already 
 I am beginning to ask myself if even revenge be attainable 
 on this precarious stage of life. The ill he did, who can 
 undo it.'' The career in which he amassed a huge fortune 
 (for the house itself in which he stayed belonged to him) — 
 that career is now a part of the destiny of mankind forever ; 
 and I might weary myself making thrusts in carte until the 
 crack of judgment, and Geraldine's brother would be none 
 the less dead, and a thousand other innocent persons would 
 be none the less dishonored and debauched ! The existence of 
 a man is so small a thing to take, so mighty a thing to 
 employ ! Alas ! " he cried, " is there anything in life so 
 disenchanting as attainment? " 
 
 " God's justice has been done," replied the Doctor. " So 
 much I behold. The lesson, your Highness, has been a cruel 
 one for me ; and I await my own turn with deadly appre- 
 hension." 
 
 " What was I saying.? " cried the Prince. " I have pun- 
 ished, and here is the man beside us who can help me to undo. 
 Ah, Dr. Noel ! you and I have before us many a day of hard 
 and honorable toil; and perhaps, before we have done, you 
 may have more than redeemed your early errors." 
 
 " And in the meantime," said the Doctor, " let me go and 
 bury my oldest friend." 
 
 (And this, observes the erudite Arabian, is the fortunate 
 conclusion of the tale. The Prince, it is superfluous to men- 
 
 78
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 tion, forgot none of those who served him in this great ex- 
 ploit; and to this day his authority and influence help them 
 forward in their public career, while his condescending 
 friendship adds a charm to their private life. To collect, 
 continues the author, all the strange events in which this 
 Prince has played the part of Providence were to fill the 
 habitable globe with books. But the stories which relate to 
 the fortunes of The Rajah's Diamond are of too entertain- 
 ing a description, says he, to be omitted. Following pru/- 
 dently in the footsteps of this Oriental, we shall now begin 
 the series to which he refers with the Stoey of the Band- 
 box.) 
 
 79
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 STORY OF THE BANDBOX 
 
 UP to the age of sixteen, at a private school and after- 
 wards at one of those great institutions for which 
 England is justly famous, Mr. Harry Hartley had received 
 the ordinary education of a gentleman. At that period, he 
 manifested a remarkable distaste for study ; and his only 
 surviving parent being both weak and ignorant, he was per- 
 mitted thenceforward to spend his time in the attainment of 
 petty and purely elegant accomplishments. Two years later, 
 he was left an orphan and almost a beggar. For all active 
 and industrious pursuits, Harry was unfitted alike by nature 
 and training. He could sing romantic ditties, and accom- 
 pany himself with discretion on the piano ; he was a graceful 
 although a timid cavalier; he had a pronounced taste for 
 chess ; and nature had sent him into the world with one of 
 the most engaging exteriors that can well be fancied. Blond 
 and pink, with dove's eyes and a gentle smile, he had an air 
 of agreeable tenderness and melancholy, and the most sub- 
 missive and caressing manners. But when all is said, he 
 was not the man to lead armaments of war, or direct the 
 councils of a State. 
 
 A fortunate chance and some influence obtained for 
 Harry, at the time of his bereavement, the position of 
 private secretary to Major-General Sir Thomas Vandeleur, 
 C.B. Sir Thomas was a man of sixty, loud-spoken, boister- 
 ous, and domineering. For some reason, some service the 
 nature of which had been often whispered and repeated!}' 
 denied, the Rajah of Kashgar had presented this officer with 
 the sixth known diamond of the world. The gift trans- 
 formed General Vandeleur from a poor into a wealthy man, 
 
 83
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 from an obscure and unpopular soldier into one of the lions 
 of London society; the possessor of the Rajah's Diamond 
 was welcome in the most exclusive circles ; and he had found 
 a lady, young, beautiful, and well-born, who was willing to 
 call the diamond hers even at the price of marriage with 
 Sir Thomas Vandeleur. It was commonly said at the time 
 that, as like draws to like, one jewel had attracted another; 
 certainly Lady Vandeleur was not only a gem of the finest 
 water in her own person, but she showed herself to the world 
 In a very costly setting; and she was considered by many 
 respectable authorities, as one among the three or four best 
 dressed women in England. 
 
 Harry's duty as secretary was not particularly onerous ; 
 but he had a dislike for all prolonged work ; it gave him pain 
 to ink his fingers ; and the charms of Lady Vandeleur and 
 her toilettes drew him often from the library to the boudoir. 
 He had the prettiest ways among women, could talk fash- 
 ions with enjoyment, and was never more happy than when 
 criticising a shade of ribbon, or running on an errand to the 
 milliner's. In short. Sir Thomas's correspondence fell Into 
 pitiful arrears, and my Lady had another lady's maid. 
 
 At last the General, who was one of the least patient of 
 military commanders, arose from his place In a violent ex- 
 cess of passion, and Indicated to his secretary that he had 
 no further use for his services, with one of those explana- 
 tory gestures which are most rarely employed between gen- 
 tlemen. The door being unfortunately open, Mr. Hartley 
 fell downstairs head foremost. 
 
 He arose somewhat hurt and very deeply aggrieved. The 
 life in the General's house precisely suited him ; he moved, 
 on a more or less doubtful footing, in very genteel company, 
 he did little, he ate of the best, and he had a lukewarm satis- 
 faction in the presence of Lady Vandeleur, which, In hia 
 own heart, he dubbed by a more emphatic name. 
 
 Immediately after he had been outraged b}^ the military 
 foot, he hurried to the boudoir and recounted his sorrows. 
 
 " You know very well, my dear Harry," replied Lady 
 Vandeleur, for she called him hf' name like a child or a 
 
 84i
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 domestic servant, " that you never by any chance do what 
 the General tells you. No more do I, you may say. But 
 that is different. A woman can earn her pardon for a good 
 year of disobedience by a single adroit submission ; and, be- 
 sides, no one is married to his private secretary. I shall be 
 sorry to lose you, but since 3^ou cannot stay longer in a 
 house where you have been insulted, I shall wish you good- 
 bj^e, and I promise you to make the General smart for his 
 behavior." 
 
 Harry's countenance fell ; tears came into his eyes, and 
 he gazed on Lady Vandelcur with a tender reproach. 
 
 " My Lady," said he, " what is an insult ? I should think 
 little indeed of anyone who could not forgive them by the 
 score. But to leave one's friends ; to tear up the bonds of 
 affection " 
 
 He was unable to continue, for his emotion choked him, 
 and he began to weep. 
 
 Lady Vandeleur looked at him with a curious expression. 
 
 " This little fool," she thought, " imagines himself to be 
 in love with me. Why should he not become my servant 
 instead of the General's .^ He is good-natured, obliging, 
 and understands dress ; and besides it will keep him out of 
 mischief. He is positively too pretty to be unattached." 
 
 That night she talked over the General, who was already 
 somewhat ashamed of his vivacity ; and Harry was trans- 
 ferred to the feminine department, where his life was little 
 short of heavenly. He was alwa^'s dressed with uncommon 
 nicety, wore delicate flowers in his buttoiiliole, and could 
 entertain a Aasitor with tact and pleasantry. He took a 
 pride in servility to a beautiful woman ; received Lady Van- 
 deleur's commands as so many marks of favor ; and was 
 pleased to exhibit himself before other men, who derided and 
 despised him, in his character of male lady's-maid and man 
 milliner. Nor could he think enough of his existence from 
 a moral point of view. Wickedness seemed to him an essen- 
 tially male attribute, and to pass one's days with a delicate 
 woman, and principally occupied about trimmings, was to 
 inhabit an enchanted isle among the storms of life. 
 
 85
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 One fine morning he came into the drawing-room and 
 began to arrange some music on the top of the piano. Lady 
 Vandeleur, at the other end of the apartment, was speaking 
 somewhat eagerly with her brother, CharHe Pendragon, an 
 elderly young man, much broken with dissipation, and very 
 lame of one foot. The private secretary, to whose entrance 
 they paid no regard, could not avoid overhearing a part of 
 their conversation. 
 
 " To-day or never," said the lady. " Once and for all, it 
 shall be done to-day." 
 
 " To-day, if it must be," replied the brother, with a sigh. 
 " But it is a false step, a ruinous step, Clara ; and we shall 
 live to repent it dismally." 
 
 Lady Vandeleur looked her brother steadily and some- 
 what strangely in the face. 
 
 " You forget," she said ; " the man must die at last." 
 
 " Upon my word, Clara," said Pendragon, " I believe you 
 are the most heartless rascal in England." 
 
 " You men," she returned, " are so coarsely built, that 
 you can never appreciate a shade of meaning. You are your- 
 selves rapacious, violent, immodest, careless of distinction; 
 and yet the least thought for the future shocks you in a 
 woman. I have no patience with such stuff. You would 
 despise in a common banker the imbecility that you expect 
 to find in us." 
 
 " You are very likely right," replied her brother ; " you 
 were always cleverer than I. And, anyway, you know my 
 motto: the family before all." 
 
 " Yes, Charlie," she returned, taking his hand in hers, " I 
 know your motto better than you know it yourself. And 
 * Clara before the family ! ' Is not that the second part of 
 it? Indeed, you are the best of brothers, and I love you 
 dearly." 
 
 Mr. Pendragon got up, looking a little confused by these 
 family endearments. 
 
 " I had better not be seen," said he. ** I understand 
 my part to a miracle, and I'll keep an eye on the Tame 
 Cat." 
 
 86
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 " Do," she replied. " He Is an abject creature, and might 
 ruin all." 
 
 She kissed the tips of her fingers to him daintily ; and 
 the brother withdrew by the boudoir and the back stair. 
 
 " Harry," said Lady Vandeleur, turning towards the sec- 
 retary as soon as they were alone, " I have a commission 
 for you this morning. But you shall take a cab; I cannot 
 have my secretary freckled." 
 
 She spoke the last words with emphasis and a look of half- 
 motherly pride that caused great contentment to poor 
 Harry ; and he professed himself charmed to find an oppor- 
 tunity of serving her. 
 
 " It is another of our great secrets," she went on, archly, 
 " and no one must know of it but my secretary and me. Sir 
 Thomas would make the saddest disturbance ; and if you 
 only knew how weary I am of these scenes ! Oh, Harry, 
 Harry, can you explain to me what makes you men so vio- 
 lent and unjust.'* But, indeed, I know you cannot; you are 
 the only man in the world who knows nothing of these shame- 
 ful passions ; you are so good, Harry, and so kind ; you, at 
 least, can be a woman's friend; and, do you know.? I think 
 you make the others more ugly by comparison." 
 
 " It is you," said Harry, gallantly, " who are so kind to 
 me. You treat me like " 
 
 " Like a mother," interposed Lady Vandeleur, " I try to 
 be a mother to you. Or, at least," she corrected herself with 
 a smile, " almost a mother. I am afraid I am too young to 
 be your mother really. Let us say a friend — a dear friend." 
 
 She paused long enough to let her words take eff^ect in 
 Harry's sentimental quarters, but not long enough to allow 
 him a reply. 
 
 " But all this Is beside our purpose," she resumed. " You 
 will find a bandbox in the left-hand side of the oak wardrobe ; 
 it is underneath the pink slip that I wore on Wednesday with 
 my Mechlin. You will take it immediately to this address,'* 
 and she gave him a paper, " but do not, on any account, let 
 it out of your hands until you have received a receipt written 
 by myself. Do you understand.'' Answer, if you please — 
 
 SI
 
 NEW ARABIAl^^ NIGHTS 
 
 answer ! This Is extremely important, and I must aslc you 
 to pay some attention." 
 
 Harry pacified her by repeating her instructions per- 
 fectly; and she was just going to tell him more when General 
 Vandeleur flung into the apartment, scarlet with anger, and 
 holding a long and elaborate milliner's bill in his hand. 
 
 "Will you look at this, madam?" cried he. "Will you 
 have the goodness to look at this document.'^ I know well 
 enough you married me for my money, and I hope I can 
 make as great allowance as any other man in the service ; 
 but, as sure as God made me, I mean to put a period to this 
 disreputable prodigality." 
 
 " Mr. Hartley," said Lady Vandeleur, " I think you un- 
 derstand what you have to do. May I ask you to see to it 
 at once.f* " 
 
 " Stop," said the General, addressing Harry, " one word 
 before you go." And then, turning again to Lady Van- 
 deleur, "What is this precious fellow's errand.''" he de^ 
 manded. " I trust him no further than I do yourself, lei 
 me tell you. If he had as much as the rudiments of honesty, 
 he would scorn to stay in this house ; and what he does for 
 his wages is a mystery to all the world. What is his errand, 
 madam.'' and why are you hurrying him away? " 
 
 " I supposed you had something to say to me in private," 
 replied the lady. 
 
 " You spoke about an errand," insisted the General. 
 " Do not attempt to deceive me in my present state of 
 temper. You certainly spoke about an errand." 
 
 " If you insist on making your servants privy to our 
 humiliating dissensions," replied Lady Vandeleur, " perhaps 
 I had better ask Mr. Hartley to sit down. No? " she con- 
 tinued ; " then you may go, INIr. Hartley. I trust you may 
 remember all that you have heard in this room; it may be 
 useful to you.'^ 
 
 Harry at once made his escape from the drawing-room; 
 and as he ran upstairs he could hear the General's voico 
 upraised in declamation, and the thin tones of Lady Van- 
 deleur planting icy repartees at every opening. How cor- 
 
 8&
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 dially he admired the wife ! How skilfully she could evade 
 an awkward question ; with what secure effrontery she re- 
 peated her instructions under the very guns of the enemy! 
 and on the other hand, how he detested the husband! 
 
 There had been nothing unfamiliar in the morning's 
 events, for he was continually in the habit of serving Lady 
 Vandeleur on secret missions, principally connected with 
 millinery. There was a skeleton in the house, as he well 
 knew. The bottomless extravagance and the unknown liabil- 
 ities of the wife had long since swallowed her own fortune, 
 and threatened day by day to engulf that of the husband. 
 Once or twice in every year exposure and ruin seemed im- 
 minent, and Harry kept trotting round to all sorts of fur- 
 nishers' shops, telling small fibs, and paying small advances 
 on the gross amount, until another term was tided over, and 
 the lady and her faithful secretary breathed again. For 
 Harry, in a double capacity, was heart and soul upon that 
 side of the war: not only did he adore Lady Vandeleur and 
 fear and dislike her husband, but he naturally sympathized 
 with the love of finery, and his own single extravagance was 
 at the tailor's. 
 
 He found the bandbox where it had been described, ar- 
 ranged his toilet with care, and left the house. The sun 
 shone brightly ; the distance he had to travel was consider- 
 able, and he remembered with dismay that the General's sud- 
 den iri-uption had prevented Lady Vandeleur from giving 
 him money for a cab. On this sultry day there was every 
 chance that his complexion would suffer severely ; and to 
 walk through so much of London with a bandbox on his arm 
 was a humiliation almost insupportable to a youth of his 
 character. He paused, and took counsel with himself. The 
 Vandcleurs lived in Eaton Place ; his destination was near 
 Notting Hill; plainly, he might cross the Park by keep- 
 ing well in the open and avoiding populous alleys ; and he 
 thanked his stars when he reflected that it was still com- 
 paratively early in the da}-. 
 
 Anxious to be rid of his incubus, he walked somewhat 
 faster than his ordinary, and he was already some way 
 
 89
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 through Kensington Gardens when, in a solitary spot among 
 trees, he found himself confronted by the General. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Sir Thomas," observed Harry, 
 politely falling on one side; for the other stood directly in 
 his path. 
 
 "Where are you going, sir.^*" asked the General. 
 
 " I am taking a little walk among the trees," rephed the 
 lad. 
 
 The General struck the bandbox with his cane. 
 
 "With that thing.'*" he cried; "you lie, sir, and you 
 know you lie ! " 
 
 " Indeed, Sir Thomas," returned Harry, " I am not ac- 
 customed to be questioned in so high a key." 
 
 " You do not understand your position," said the General. 
 " You are my servant, and a servant of whom I have con- 
 ceived the most serious suspicions. How do I know but that 
 your box is full of teaspoons ? " 
 
 " It contains a silk hat belonging to a friend," said Harry. 
 
 *' Very well," replied General Vandeleur. " Then I want 
 to see your friend's silk hat. I have," he added, grimly, " a 
 singular curiosity for hats ; and I believe you know me to be 
 somewhat positive." 
 
 " I beg your pardon. Sir Thomas, I am exceedingly 
 grieved," Harry apologized ; " but indeed this is a private 
 affair." 
 
 The General caught him roughly by the shoulder with 
 one hand, while he raised his cane in the most menacing man- 
 ner with the other. Harry gave himself up for lost; but at 
 the same moment Heaven vouchsafed him an unexpected 
 defender in the person of Charhe Pendragon, who now strode 
 forward from behind the trees. 
 
 " Come, come. General, hold your hand," said he, " this 
 is neither courteous nor manly." 
 
 " Aha ! " cried the General, wheeling round upon his new 
 antagonist, " Mr. Pendragon ! And do you suppose, Mr. 
 Pendragon, that because I have had the misfortune to marry 
 your sister, I shall suffer myself to be dogged and thwarted 
 by a discredited and bankrupt libertine like you.'' My 
 
 90
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 acquaintance with Lady Vandeleur, sir, has taken away all 
 my appetite for the other members of her family." 
 
 " And do you fancy, General Vandeleur," retorted Charlie, 
 " that because my sister has had the misfortune to marry 
 you, she there and then forfeited her rights and privileges 
 as a lady? I own, sir, that by that action she did as much 
 as anybody could to derogate from her position ; but to me 
 she is still a Pendragon. I make it my business to protect 
 her from ungentlemanly outrage, and if you were ten times 
 her husband I would not permit her liberty to be restrained, 
 nor her private messenger to be violently arrested." 
 
 " How is that, Mr. Hartley ? " interrogated the General. 
 " Mr. Pendragon is of my opinion, it appears. He too 
 suspects that Lady Vandeleur has something to do with your 
 friend's silk hat." 
 
 Charlie saw that he had committed an unpardonable 
 blunder, which he hastened to repair. 
 
 "How, sir.?" he cried; "I suspect, do you say? I sus- 
 pect nothing. Only where I find strength abused and a man 
 brutahzing his inferiors, I take the liberty to interfere." 
 
 As he said these words he made a sign to Harry, which 
 the latter was too dull or too much troubled to understand. 
 
 " In what way am I to construe your attitude, sir? '* 
 demanded Vandeleur. 
 
 " Why, sir, as you please," returned Pendragon. 
 
 The General once more raised his cane, and made a cut 
 for Charlie's head ; but the latter, lame foot and all, evaded 
 the blow with his umbrella, ran in, and immediately closed 
 with his formidable adversary. 
 
 " Run, Harry, run ! " he cried ; " run, you dolt ! " 
 
 Harry stood petrified for a moment, watching the two 
 men sway together in this fierce embrace ; then he turned and 
 took to his heels. When he cast a glance over his shoulder 
 he saw the General prostrate under Charlie's knee, but still 
 making desperate efforts to reverse the situation; and the 
 Gardens seemed to have filled with people, who were running 
 from all directions towards the scene of fight. This spec- 
 tacle lent the secretary wings ; and he did not relax his pace 
 
 PI
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 until he had gained the Bayswater road, and plunged at ran^ 
 dom into an unfrequented by-street. 
 
 To see two gentlemen of his acquaintance thus brutally 
 mauling each other was deeply shocking to Harry. He 
 desired to forget the sight; he desired, above all, to put as 
 great a distance as possible between himself and General 
 Vandeleur; and in his eagerness for this he forgot every- 
 thing about his destination, and hurried before him head- 
 long and trembling. When he remembered that Lady Van- 
 deleur was the wife of one and sister of the other of these 
 gladiators, his heart was touched with sympathy for a 
 woman so distressingly misplaced in life. Even his own sit- 
 uation In the General's house looked hardly so pleasing as 
 usual in the light of these violent transactions. 
 
 He had walked some little distance, busied with these 
 meditations, before a slight collision with another passenger 
 reminded him of the bandbox on his arm. 
 
 " Heavens ! " cried he, " where was my head.^* and whither 
 have I wandered? " 
 
 Thereupon he consulted the envelope which liady Van- 
 deleur had given him. The address was there, but without 
 a name. Harry was simply directed to ask for " the gentle- 
 man who expected a parcel from Lady Vandeleur," and if 
 he were not at home to await his return. The gentleman, 
 added the note, should present a receipt In the handwriting 
 of the lady herself. All this seemed mighty mysterious, and 
 Harry was above all astonished at the omission of the name 
 and the formalit}'' of the receipt. He had thought little of 
 this last when he heard it dropped In conversation ; but read- 
 ing It In cold blood, and taking it in connection with the 
 other strange particulars, he became convinced that he was 
 engaged in perilous affairs. For half a moment he had a 
 doubt of Lady Vandeleur herself ; for he found these obscure 
 proceedings somewhat unworthy of so high a lady, and be- 
 came more critical when her secrets were preserved against 
 himself. But her empii'e over his spirit was too complete, 
 he dismissed his suspicions, and blamed himself roundly for 
 having so much as entertained them. 
 
 92
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 In one thing, however, his duty and interest, his generosity 
 and his terrors, coincided — to get rid of the bandbox with 
 the greatest possible despatch. 
 
 He accosted the first policeman and courteously inquired 
 his way. It turned out that he was already not far from 
 his destination, and a walk of a fev/ minutes brought him to 
 a small house in a lane, freshly painted, and kept with the 
 most scrupulous attention. The knocker and bell-pull were 
 highly polished; flowering pot-herbs garnished the sills of 
 the different windows ; and curtains of some rich material 
 concealed the interior from the eyes of curious passengers. 
 The place had an air of repose and secrecy ; and Harry was 
 so far caught with this spirit that he knocked with more 
 than usual discretion, and was more than usually careful to 
 remove all impurity from his boots. 
 
 A servant-maid of some personal attractions immediately 
 opened the door, and seemed to regard the secretary with no 
 unkind eyes. 
 
 " This is the parcel from Lady Vandeleur," said Harry. 
 
 " I know," replied the maid, with a nod. " But the gen- 
 tleman is from home. Will you leave it with me? " 
 
 *' I cannot," answered Harry. " I am directed not to part 
 with it but upon a certain condition, and I must ask you, I 
 am afraid, to let me wait." 
 
 " Well," said she, " I suppose I may let you wait. I am 
 lonely enough, I can tell you, and you do not look as 
 though you would eat a girl. But be sure and do not ask the 
 gentleman's name, for that I am not to tell you." 
 
 "Do you say so?" cried Harry. "Why, how strange; 
 But indeed for some time back I walk among surprises. One 
 question I think I may surely ask without indiscretion: Is 
 he the master of this house? " 
 
 " He is a lodger, and not eight days old at that," returned 
 the maid. " And now a question for a question : Do you 
 know Lady Vandeleur? " 
 
 " I am her private secretary," replied Harrj^, with a glow 
 of modest pride. 
 
 " She is pretty, is she not? " pursued the servant. 
 
 93
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " Oh, beautiful ! " cried Harry ; " wonderfully lovely, and 
 not less good and kind ! " 
 
 " You look kind enough yourself," she retorted ; " and I 
 wager you are worth a dozen Lady Vandeleurs." 
 
 Harry was properly scandalized. 
 
 *' I ! " he cried. " I am only a secretary ! " 
 
 " Do you mean that for me ? " said the girl. " Because 
 I am only a housemaid, if you please." And then, relenting 
 at the sight of Harry's obvious confusion, " I know you 
 mean nothing of the sort," she added ; " and I like your 
 looks ; but I think nothing of your Lady Vandeleur. Oh, 
 these mistresses ! " she cried. " To send out a real gentle- 
 man like you — with a bandbox — in broad day ! " 
 
 During this talk they had remained in their original posi- 
 tions — she on the doorstep, he on the sidewalk, bareheaded 
 for the sake of coolness, and with the bandbox on his arm. 
 But upon this last speech Harry, who was unable to support 
 such point-blank compliments to his appearance, nor the en- 
 couraging look with which they were accompanied, began 
 to change his attitude, and glance from left to right in per- 
 turbation. In so doing he turned his face towards the lower 
 end of the lane, and there, to his indescribable dismay, his 
 eyes encountered those of General Vandeleur. The General, 
 in a prodigious fluster of heat, hurry, and indignation, had 
 been scouring the streets in chase of his brother-in-law; but 
 so soon as he caught a glimpse of the delinquent secretary 
 his purpose changed, his anger flowed into a new channel, 
 and he turned on his heel and came tearing up the lane with 
 truculent gestures and vociferations. 
 
 Harry made but one bolt of it into the house, driving the 
 maid before him; and the door was slammed in his pursuer's 
 countenance. 
 
 "Is there a bar? Will it lock?" asked Harry, while a 
 salvo on the knocker made the house echo from wall to 
 wall. 
 
 " Why, what is wrong with you ? " asked the maid. *' Is it 
 this old gentleman? " 
 
 " If he gets hold of me," whispered Harry, " I am as good 
 
 94
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 as dead. He has been pursuing' me all day, carries a sword- 
 stick, and is an Indian military officer." 
 
 " These are fine manners." cried the maid. " And what, 
 if 3'ou please, may be his name? " 
 
 " Is is the General, my master," answered Harry. " He is 
 after this bandbox." 
 
 " Did not I tell you.'' " cried the maid in triumph. " I 
 told you I thought worse than nothing of your Lady Van- 
 deleur; and if you had an eye in your head you might see 
 what she is for 3-ourself. An ungrateful minx, I will be 
 bound for that ! " 
 
 The General renewed his attack upon the knocker, and 
 his passion growing with delay, began to kick and beat upon 
 the panels of the door. 
 
 " It is lucky," observed the girl, " that I am alone In the 
 house; your General may hammer until he is weary, and 
 there is none to open for him. Follow me ! " 
 
 So saying she led Harry into the kitchen, where she made 
 him sit down, and stood by him herself in an affectionate 
 attitude, with a hand upon his shoulder. The din at the 
 door, so far from abating, continued to increase in volume, 
 and at each blow the unhappy secretary was shaken to the 
 heart. 
 
 " AVhat is your name? " asked the girl. 
 
 ** Harry Hartley," he replied. 
 
 " Mine," she went on, " is Prudence. Do you like it.^ " 
 
 ** Very much," said Harry. " But hear for a moment 
 how the General beats upon the door. He will certainly 
 break it in, and then, in Heaven's name, what have I to look 
 for but death? " 
 
 " You put yourself very much about with no occasion," 
 answered Prudence. *' Let your General knock, he will do 
 no more than blister his hands. Do you think I would keep 
 you here if I were not sure to save you? Oh, no, I am a good 
 friend to those that please me ! and we have a back door upon 
 another lane. But," she added, checking him, for he had got 
 upon his feet immediately on this welcome news, " but I will 
 not show where it is unless you kiss me. Will you, Harry? " 
 
 95
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " That I will," he cried, remembering his gallantry, " not 
 for your back door, but because you are good and pretty." 
 
 And he administered two or three cordial salutes, which 
 were returned to him in kind. 
 
 Then Prudence led him to the back gate, and put her 
 hand upon the key. 
 
 " Will you come and see me ? " she asked. 
 
 " I will indeed," said Harry. " Do not I owe you my 
 life.?" 
 
 " And now," she added, opening the door, " run as hard 
 as you can, for I shall let in the General." 
 
 Harry scarcely required this advice ; fear had him by the 
 forelock; and he addressed himself diligently to flight. A 
 few steps, and he believed he would return to Lady Van- 
 deleur in honor and safety. But these few steps had not 
 been taken before he heard a man's voice, hailing him by 
 name with many execrations, and, looking over his shoulder, 
 he beheld Charlie Pendragon waving him with both arms to 
 return. The shock of this new incident was so sudden and 
 profound, and Harry was already worked into so high a 
 state of nervous tension, that he could think of nothing bet- 
 ter than to accelerate his pace, and continue running. He 
 should certainly have remembered the scene in Kensington 
 Gardens ; he should certainly have concluded that, where the 
 General was his enemy, Charlie Pendragon could be no other 
 than a friend. But such was the fever and perturbation of 
 his mind that he was struck by none of these considerations, 
 and only continued to run the faster up the lane. 
 
 Charlie, by the sound of his voice and the vile terms that 
 he hurled after the secretary, was obviously beside himself 
 with rage. He, too, ran his very best ; but, try as he might, 
 the physical advantages were not upon his side, and his out- 
 cries and the fall of his lame foot on the macadam began to 
 fall farther and farther into the wake. 
 
 Harry's hopes began once more to arise. The lane was 
 both steep and narrow, but it was exceedingly solitary, bor- 
 dered on either hand by garden walls, overhung with foliage; 
 and, for as far as the fugitive could see in front of him, 
 
 96
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 there was neither a creature moving nor an open door. 
 Providence, weary of persecution, was now offering him an 
 open field for his escape. 
 
 Alas ! as he came abreast of a garden door under a tuft 
 of chestnuts, it was suddenly drawn back, and he could see 
 inside, upon a garden path, the figure of a butcher's boy 
 with his tray upon his arm. He had hardly recognized the 
 fact before he was some steps beyond upon the other side. 
 But the fellow had had time to observe him ; he was evidently 
 much surprised to see a gentleman go by at so unusual a 
 pace; and he came out into the lane and began to call after 
 Harry with shouts of ironical encouragement. 
 
 His appearance gave a new idea to Charlie Pendragon, 
 who, although he was now sadly out of breath, once more 
 upraised his voice. 
 
 "Stop thief!" he cried. 
 
 And immediately the butcher's boy had taken up the cry 
 and joined in the pursuit. 
 
 This was a bitter moment for the hunted secretary. It 
 is true that his terror enabled him once more to improve his 
 pace, and gain with every step on his pursuers ; but he was 
 well aware that he was near the end of his resources, and 
 should he meet anyone coming the other way, his predica- 
 ment in the narrow lane would be desperate indeed. 
 
 " I must find a place of concealment," he thought, " and 
 that within the next few seconds, or all is over with me in 
 this world." 
 
 Scarcely had the thought crossed his mind than the lane 
 took a sudden turning ; and he found himself hidden from 
 his enemies. There are circumstances in which even the least 
 energetic of mankind learn to behave with vigor and decision ; 
 and the more cautious forget their prudence and embrace 
 foolhardy resolutions. This was one of those occasions for 
 Harry Hartley ; and those who knew him best would have 
 been the most astonished at the lad's audacity. He stopped 
 dead, flung the bandbox over a garden wall, and leaping up- 
 ward with incredible agility and seizing the copestone with 
 his hands, he tumbled headlong after it into the garden. 
 
 97
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 He came to himself a moment afterwards, seated in a bor- 
 der of small rosebushes. His hands and knees were cut and 
 bleeding, for the wall had been protected against such an 
 escalade by a liberal provision of old bottles ; and he was con- 
 scious of a general dislocation and a painful swimming in the 
 head. Facing him across the garden, which was in admirable 
 order, and set with flowers of the most delicious perfume, he 
 beheld the back of a house. It was of considerable extent, 
 and plainly habitable ; but, in odd contrast to the grounds, it 
 was crazy, ill-kept, and of a mean appearance. On all other 
 sides the circuit of the garden wall appeared unbroken. 
 
 He took in these features of the scene with mechanical 
 glances, but his mind was still unable to piece together or 
 draw a rational conclusion from what he saw. And when 
 he heard footsteps advancing on the gravel, although he 
 turned his eyes in that direction, it was with no thought 
 either for defense or flight. 
 
 The newcomer was a large, coarse, and very sordid per- 
 sonage, in gardening clothes, and with a watering-pot in 
 his left hand. One less confused would have been aff'ected 
 with some alarm at the sight of this man's huge proportions 
 and black and lowering eyes. But Harry was too gravely 
 shaken by his fall to be so much as terrified; and if he was 
 unable to divert his glances from the gardener, he remained 
 absolutely passive, and suff'ered him to draw near, to take 
 him by the shoulder, and to plant him roughly on his feet, 
 without a motion of resistance. 
 
 For a moment the two stared into each other's eye, 
 Harry fascinated, the man filled with wrath and a cruel, 
 sneering humor. 
 
 "Who are you.'"' he demanded at last. "Who are you 
 to come flying over my wall and break my Gloire de Dijons? 
 What is your name?" he added, shaking him; "and what 
 may be your business here.? " 
 
 Harry could not as much as proflper a word in explana- 
 tion. 
 
 But just at that moment Pendragon and the butcher's 
 boy went clumping past, and the sound of their feet and 
 
 9^
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 their hoarse cries echoed loudly in the narrow lane. The 
 gardener had received his answer; and he looked down into 
 Harry's face with an obnoxious smile. 
 
 " A thief ! " he said. " Upon my word, and a very good 
 thing you must make of it ; for I see you dressed like a gen- 
 tleman from top to toe. Are you not ashamed to go about 
 the world in such a trim, with honest folk, I dare say, glad 
 to buy your cast-off finery second-hand? Speak up, you 
 dog," the man went on ; " you can understand English, I 
 suppose ; and I mean to have a bit of talk with you before 
 I march you to the station." 
 
 " Indeed, sir," said Harry, " this is all a dreadful mis- 
 conception ; and if you will go with me to Sir Thomas Van- 
 deleur's in Eaton Place, I can promise that all will be made 
 plain. The most upright person, as I now perceive, can be 
 led into suspicious positions." 
 
 " My little man," replied the gardener, ** I will go with 
 you no farther than the station-house in the next street. 
 The inspector, no doubt, will be glad to take a stroll with 
 you as far as Eaton Place, and have a bit of afternoon tea 
 with your great acquaintances. Or would you prefer to go 
 direct to the Home Secretary.? Sir Thomas Vandeleur, in- 
 deed! Perhaps you think I don't know a gentleman when I 
 see one, from a common run-the-hedge like you.'' Clothes 
 or no clothes, I can read you like a book. Here is a shirt 
 that maybe cost as much as my Sunday hat; and that coat, 
 I take it, has never seen the inside of Rag-fair, and then 
 your boots " 
 
 The man, whose eyes had fallen upon the ground, stopped 
 short in his insulting commentary, and remained for a mo- 
 ment looking intently upon something at his feet. When 
 he spoke his voice was strangely altered. 
 
 " What, in God's name," said he, " is all this? " 
 
 Harry, following the direction of the man's eyes, beheld 
 a spectacle that struck him dumb with terror and amaze- 
 ment. In his fall he had descended vertically upon the band- 
 box and burst it open from end to end ; thence a great treas- 
 ure of diamonds had poured forth, and now lay abroad, part 
 
 99
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 trodden In ths soil, part scattered on the surface In regal and 
 glittering profusion. There was a magnificent coronet which 
 he had often admired on Lady Vandeleur; there were rings 
 and brooches, ear-drops and bracelets, and even unset bril- 
 liants rolling here and there among the rosebushes like drops 
 of morning dew. A princely fortune lay between the two 
 men upon the ground — a fortune in the most Inviting, solid, 
 and durable fonn, capable of being carried In an apron, 
 beautiful in Itself, and scattering the sunlight in a million 
 rainbow flashes. 
 
 " Good God! " said Harry, " I am lost!" 
 
 His mind raced backward Into the past with the incalcu- 
 lable velocity of thought, and he began to comprehend his 
 day's adventures, to conceive them as a whole, and to recog- 
 nize the sad imbroglio in which his own character and for- 
 tunes had become involved. He looked round him, as if for 
 help, but he was alone In the garden, with his scattered dia- 
 monds and his redoubtable interlocutor; and when he gave 
 ear, there was no sound but the rustle of the leaves and the 
 hurried pulsation of his heart. It was little wonder If the 
 young man felt himself a iittle deserted by his spirits, and 
 with a broken voice repeated his last ejaculation — 
 
 " I am lost ! " 
 
 The gardener peered In all ctlrectlons with an air of guilt ; 
 but there was no face at any of the windows, and he seemed 
 to breathe again. 
 
 " Pick up a heart,'* he said, " you fool ! The worst of It 
 is done. Why could you not say at first there was enough 
 for two.^* Two!" he repeated, " a3"e, and for two hundred! 
 But come away from here, where we may be observed ; and, 
 for the love of wisdom, straighten out your hat and brush 
 your clothes. You could not travel two steps the figure of 
 fun you look just now." 
 
 While Harry mechanically adopted these suggestions, the 
 gardener, getting Upon his knees, hastily drew together the 
 scattered jewels and returned them to the bandbox. The 
 touch of these costly crystals sent a shiver of emotion 
 through the man's stalwart frame ; his face was transfigured, 
 
 100
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 and his eyes shone with concupiscence ; indeed it seemed as if 
 he luxuriously prolonged his occupation, and dallied with 
 every diamond that he handled. At last, however, it was 
 done ; and, concealing the bandbox in his smock, the gar- 
 dener beckoned to Harry and preceded him in the direction 
 of the house. 
 
 Near the door they were met by a joung man evidently 
 in holy orders, dark and strikingly handsome, with a look of 
 mingled weakness and resolution, and very neatly attired 
 after the manner of his caste. The gardener was plainly 
 annoyed by this encounter; but he put as good a face upon 
 it as he could, and accosted the clergyman with an obsequious 
 and smiling air. 
 
 "Here is a fine afternoon, Mr. Rolles," said he: "a fine 
 afternoon, as sure as God made it ! And here is a young 
 friend of mine who had a fancy to look at my roses. I 
 took the liberty to bring him in, for I thought none of the 
 lodgers would object." 
 
 " Speaking for myself," replied the Reverend Mr. Rolles, 
 " I do not ; nor do I fancy any of the rest of us would be 
 more difficult upon so small a matter. The garden is your 
 own, Mr. Raeburn ; we must none of us forget that ; and 
 because you give us liberty to walk there we should be indeed 
 ungracious if we so far presumed upon your politeness as 
 to interfere with the convenience of your friends. But, on 
 second thoughts," he added, " I believe that this gentleman 
 and I have met before. Mr. Hartley, I think. I regret to 
 observe that you have had a fall." 
 
 And he offered his hand. 
 
 A sort of maiden dignity and a desire to delay as long 
 as possible the necessity for explanation moved Harry to 
 refuse this chance of help, and to deny his own identity. He 
 chose the tender mercies of the gardener, who was at least 
 unknown to him, rather than the curiosity and perhaps the 
 doubts of an acquaintance. 
 
 " I fear there is some mistake," said he. " My name is 
 Thomlinson and I am a friend of Mr. Raebum's." 
 
 " Indeed.'' " said Mr. Rolles. " The likeness is amazing." 
 
 101 
 
 UNIVEFSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE LIBRARY
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 Mr. Raebum, who had been upon thorns throughout this 
 colloquy, now felt it high time to bring it to a period. 
 
 " I wish you a pleasant saunter, sir," said he. 
 
 And with that he dragged Harry after him into the 
 house, and then into a chamber on the garden. His first 
 care was to draw down the blind, for Mr. Rolles still re- 
 mained where they had left him, in an attitude of perplexity 
 and thought. Then he emptied the broken bandbox on the 
 table, and stood before the treasure, thus fully displayed, 
 with an expression of rapturous greed, and rubbing his 
 hands upon his thighs. For Harry, the sight of the man's 
 face under the influence of this base emotion, added another 
 pang to those he was already suffering. It seemed incred- 
 ible that, from his life of pure and delicate trifling, he should 
 be plunged in a breath among sordid and criminal relations. 
 He could reproach his conscience with no sinful act; and yet 
 he was now suffering the punishment of sin in its most acute 
 and cruel forms — the dread of punishment, the suspicions 
 of the good, and the companionship and contamination of 
 vile and brutal natures. He felt he could lay his life down 
 with gladness to escape from the room and the society of 
 Mr. Raeburn. 
 
 " And now," said the latter, after he had separated the 
 jewels into two nearly equal parts, and drawn one of them 
 nearer to himself; " and now," said he, " everything in this 
 world has to be paid for, and some things sweetly. You 
 must know, Mr. Hartley, if such be your name, that I am 
 a man of a very easy temper, and good nature has been my 
 stumbling block from first to last. I could pocket the whole 
 of these pretty pebbles, if I chose, and I should like to see 
 you dare to say a word; but I think I must have taken a 
 liking to you; for I declare I have not the heart to shave 
 you so close. So, do you see, in pure kind feeling, I propose 
 that we divide ; and these," indicating the two heaps, " are 
 the proportions that seem to me just and friendly. Do you 
 see any objection, Mr. Hartley, may I ask? I am not the 
 man to stick upon a brooch." 
 
 " But, sir," cried Harry, " what you propose to me is 
 
 102
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 impossible. The jewels are not mine, and I cannot share 
 what is another's, no matter with whom, nor in what propor- 
 tions." 
 
 "They are not yours, are they not? " returned Raebum. 
 " And you could not share them with anybody, couldn't you? 
 Well now, that is what I call a pity ; for here I am obliged 
 to take you to the station. The police — think of that," he 
 continued ; " think of the disgrace for your respectable par- 
 ents; think," he went on, taking Harry by the wrist; think 
 of the Colonies and the Day of Judgment." 
 
 " I cannot help it," wailed Harry. " It is not my fault. 
 You will not come with me to Eaton Place." 
 
 " No," replied the man, " I will not, that is certain. And 
 I mean to divide these playthings with you here." 
 
 And so saying he applied a sudden and severe torsion to 
 the lad's wrist. 
 
 Harry could not suppress a scream, and the perspiration 
 burst forth upon his face. Perhaps pain and terror quick- 
 ened his intelligence, but certainly at that moment the whole 
 business flashed across him in another light ; and he saw that 
 there was nothing for it but to accede to the ruffian's pro- 
 posal, and trust to find the house and force him to disgorge, 
 under more favorable circumstances, and when he himself 
 was clear from all suspicion. 
 
 " I agree," he said. 
 
 " There is a lamb," sneered the gardener. " I thought 
 you would recognize your interests at last. This bandbox," 
 he continued, " I shall burn with my rubbish ; it is a thing 
 that curious folk might recognize ; and as for you, scrape up 
 your gaieties and put them in your pocket." 
 
 Harry proceeded to obey, Raebum watching him, and 
 every now and again, his greed rekindled by some bright 
 scintillation, abstracting another jewel from the secretary's 
 share, and adding it to his own. 
 
 When this was finished, both proceeded to the front door, 
 which Raebum cautiously opened to observe the street. This 
 was apparently clear of passengers ; for he suddenly seized 
 Harry by the nape of the neck, and holding his face down- 
 
 lOS
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ward so that he could see nothing but the roadway and the 
 doorsteps of the houses, pushed him violently before him 
 down one street and up another for the space of perhaps a 
 minute and a half. Harry had counted three corners before 
 the bully relaxed his grasp, and crying, " Now be off with 
 you ! " sent the lad flying headforemost with a well-directed 
 and athletic kick. 
 
 When Harry gathered himself up, half-stunned and 
 bleeding freely at the nose, Mr. Raebum had entirely dis- 
 appeared. For the first time, anger and pain so completely 
 overcame the lad's spirits that he burst into a fit of tears 
 and remained sobbing in the middle of the road. 
 
 After he had thus somewhat assuaged his emotion, he 
 began to look about him and read the names of the streets 
 at whose intersection he had been deserted by the gardener. 
 He was still in an unfrequented portion of West London, 
 among villas and large gardens ; but he could see some per- 
 sons at a window who had evidently witnessed his misfor- 
 tune; and almost immediately after a servant came running 
 from the house and offered him a glass of water. At the 
 same time, a dirty rogue, who had been slouching somewhere 
 in the neighborhood, drew near him from the other side. 
 
 *' Poor fellow," said the maid, " how vilely you have been 
 handled, to be sure ! Why, your knees are all cut, and your 
 clothes ruined ! Do you know the wretch who used you so ? " 
 
 " That I do ! " cried Harry, who was somewhat refreshed 
 by the water ; " and shall run him home in spite of his pre- 
 cautions. He shall pay dearly for this day's work, I promise 
 you." 
 
 " You had better come into the house and have yourself 
 washed and brushed," continued the maid. " My mistress 
 will make you welcome, never fear. And see, I will pick up 
 your hat. WTiy, love of mercy ! " she screamed, " if you 
 have not dropped diamonds all over the street t " 
 
 Such was the case; a good half of what remained to him 
 after the depredations of Mr. Raeburn, had been shaken out 
 of his pockets by the summersault, and once more lay glitter- 
 ing on the ground. He blessed his fortune that the maid 
 
 104
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 had been so quick of eye ; " there is nothing so bad but it 
 might be worse," thought he; and the recovery of these few 
 seemed to him almost as great an affair as the loss of all the 
 rest. But, alas ! as he stooped to pick up his treasures the 
 loiterer made a rapid onslaught, overset both Harry and 
 the maid with a movement of his arms, swept up a double 
 handful of the diamonds, and made off along the street with 
 an amazing swiftness. 
 
 Harry, as soon as he could get upon his feet, gave chase 
 to the miscreant with many cries, but the latter was too fleet 
 of foot, and probably too well acquainted with the locality; 
 for turn where the pursuer would he could find no traces of 
 the fugitive. 
 
 In the deepest despondency Harry revisited the scene of 
 his mishap, where the maid, who was still waiting, very 
 honestly returned him his hat and the remainder of the fallen 
 diamonds. Harry thanked her from his heart, and being 
 now in no humor for economy, made his way to the nearest 
 cabstand and set off for Eaton Place by coach. 
 
 The house, on his arrival, seemed in some confusion, as 
 if a catastrophe had happened in the family; and the serv- 
 ants clustered together in the hall, and were unable, or 
 perhaps not altogether anxious, to suppress their merriment 
 at the tatterdemalion figure of the secretary. He passed 
 them with as good an air of dignity as he could assume, and 
 made directly for the boudoir. When he opened the door an 
 astonishing and even menacing spectacle presented itself to 
 his eyes ; for he beheld the General and his wife and, of all 
 people, Charlie Pendragon, closeted together and speaking 
 with earnestness and gravity on some important subject. 
 Harry saw at once that there was little left for him to ex- 
 plain — plenary confession had plainly been made to the 
 General of the intended fraud upon his pocket, and the un- 
 fortunate miscarriage of the scheme; and they had all made 
 common cause against a common danger. 
 
 " Thank Heaven ! " cried Lady Vandeleur, " here he is ! 
 The bandbox, Harry — ^thc bandbox ! " 
 
 But Harry stood before them silent and downcast. 
 
 105
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " Speak ! " she cried. " Speak ! Where is the band- 
 box?" 
 
 And the men, with threatening gestures, repeated the 
 demand. 
 
 Harry drew a handful of j ewels from his pocket. He was 
 very white. 
 
 " This is all that remains," said he. " I declare before 
 Heaven it was through no fault of mine; and if you will 
 have patience, although some are lost, I am afraid, for ever, 
 others, I am sure, may be still recovered ! " 
 
 " Alas ! " cried Lady Vandeleur, " aU our diamonds are 
 gone, and I owe ninety thousand pounds for dress ! " 
 
 " Madam," said the General, " you might have paved the 
 gutter with your own trash; you might have made debts to 
 fifty times the sum you mention ; you might have robbed me 
 of my mother's coronet and rings ; and Nature might have 
 still so far prevailed that I could have forgiven you at last. 
 But, madam, you have taken the Rajah's Diamond — the Eye 
 of Light, as the Orientals poetically termed it — the Pride of 
 Kashgar! You have taken from me the Rajah's Diamond," 
 he cried, raising his hands, " and all, madam, all is at an 
 end between us ! " 
 
 " Believe me, General Vandeleur," she replied, " that is 
 one of the most agreeable speeches that ever I heard from 
 your lips ; and since we are to be ruined I could almost wel- 
 come the change, if it delivers me from you. You have told 
 me often enough that I married you for your money ; let me 
 tell you now that I always bitterly repented the bargain ; 
 and if you were still marriageable, and had a diamond bigger 
 than your head, I should counsel even my maid against a 
 union so uninviting and disastrous. As for you, Mr. Hart- 
 ley," she continued, turning on the secretary, " you have 
 sufficiently exhibited your valuable qualities in this house; 
 we are now persuaded that you equally lack manhood, sense 
 and self-respect; and I can see only one course open for 
 you — to withdraw instanter, and, if possible, return no 
 more. For your wages you may rank as a creditor in my 
 late husband's bankruptcy." 
 
 lOd
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 Harry had scarcely comprehended this insulting address 
 before the General was down upon him with another. 
 
 " And in the meantime," said that personage, " follow 
 me before the nearest Inspector of Police. You may impose 
 upon a simple-minded soldier, sir, but the eye of the law 
 will read your disreputable secret. If I must spend my old 
 age in poverty through your underhand intriguing with my 
 wife, I mean at least that you shall not remain unpunished 
 for your pains ; and God, sir, will deny me a very consider- 
 able satisfaction if you do not pick oakum from now until 
 your dying day." 
 
 With that the General dragged Harry from the apart- 
 ment, and hurried him downstairs and along the street to 
 the police station of the district. 
 
 {Here, says my Arabian author, ended this deplorable bus- 
 iness of the bandbox. But to the unfortunate Secretary the 
 whole affair was the beginning of a new and manlier life. 
 The police were easily persuaded of his innocence; and, after 
 he had given what help he could in the subsequent investiga- 
 tions, he was even complimented by one of the chiefs of the 
 detective department on the probity and simplicity of his 
 behavior. Several persons interested themselves in one so 
 unfortunate; and soon after he inherited a sum of money 
 from a maiden aunt in Worcestershire. With this he married 
 Prudence, and set sail for Bendigo, or according to another 
 account, for Trincomalee, exceedingly content, and with the 
 best of prospects.) 
 
 107
 
 STOEY OF THE YOUNG MAN IN HOLY ORDERS 
 
 THE Reverend Mr. Simon Rolles had distinguished him- 
 self in the IMoral Sciences, and was more than usually 
 proficient in the study of Divinity. His essay " On the 
 Christian Doctrine of the Social Obligations " obtained for 
 him at the moment of its production, a certain celebrity in 
 the University of Oxford; and it was understood in clerical 
 and learned circles that young Mr. Rolles had in contempla- 
 tion a considerable work — a folio, it was said — on the au- 
 thority of the Fathers of the Church. These attainments, 
 these ambitious designs, however, were far from helping him 
 to any preferment; and still he was in quest of his first 
 curacy when a chance ramble in that part of London, the 
 peaceful and rich aspect of the garden, a desire for sohtude 
 and study, and the cheapness of the lodging, led him to take 
 up his abode with Mr. Raeburn, the nurseryman of Stock- 
 dove Lane. 
 
 It was his habit every afternoon, after he had worked 
 seven or eight hours on St. Ambrose or St. Chrysostom, to 
 walk for a while in meditation among the roses. And this 
 was usually one of the most productive moments of his day. 
 But even a sincere appetite for thought, and the excitement 
 of grave problems awaiting solution, are not always sufficient 
 to preserve the mind of the philosopher against the petty 
 shocks and contacts of the world. And when Mr. Rolles 
 found General Yandeleur's secretary, ragged and bleeding, in 
 the company of the landlord ; when he saw both change color 
 and seek to avoid his questions ; and, above all, when the 
 former denied his own Identity with the most unmoved assur- 
 ance, he speedily forgot the Saints and Fathers In the vul- 
 gar interest of curiosity. 
 
 " I cannot be mistaken," thought he. " That is Mr. 
 Hartley beyond a doubt. How comes he in such a pickle.'^ 
 
 108
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 why does he deny his name? and what can be his business 
 with that black-looking ruffian, my landlord ? " 
 
 As he was thus reflecting, another peculiar circumstance 
 attracted his attention. The face of Mr. Raeburn appeared 
 at a low window next the door ; and, as chance directed, his 
 eyes met those of Mr. Rolles. The nurseryman seemed dis- 
 concerted, and even alarmed ; and immediately after the 
 blind of the apartment was pulled sharply down. 
 
 " This may all be very well," reflected Mr. Rolles ; " it 
 may be all excellently well ; but I confess freely that I do not 
 think so. Suspicious, underhand, untruthful, fearful of 
 observation — I beheve upon my soul," he thought, " the pair 
 are plotting some disgraceful action." 
 
 The detective that there is in all of us awoke and became 
 clamant in the bosom of IVIr. Rolles ; and with a brisk, eager 
 step, that bore no resemblance to his usual gait, he proceeded 
 to make the circuit of the garden. When he came to the 
 scene of Harry's escalade, his eye was at once arrested by a 
 broken rosebud and marks of trampling on the mole. He 
 looked up, and saw scratches on the brick, and a rag of 
 trouser floating from a broken bottle. This, then, was the 
 mode of entrance chosen by ]Mr. Raeburn's particular friend ! 
 It was thus that General Vandeleur's secretary came to ad- 
 mire a flower garden ! The young clergyman whistled softly 
 to himself as he stooped to examine the ground. He could 
 make out where Harry had landed from his perilous leap ; he 
 recognized the flat foot of Mr. Raeburn where it had sunk 
 deeply in the soil as he pulled up the Secretary by the collar; 
 nay, on a closer inspection, he seemed to distinguish the 
 marks of groping fingers, as though something had been 
 spilt abroad and eagerly collected. 
 
 " Upon my word," he thought, " the thing grows vastly 
 interesting." 
 
 And just then he caught sight of something almost en- 
 tirely buried in the earth. In an instant he had disinterred 
 a dainty morocco case, ornamented and clasped in gilt. It 
 had been trodden heavily under foot, and thus escaped the 
 hurried search of Mr. Raeburn. Mr. Rolles opened the case, 
 
 109
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 and drew a long breath of almost horrified astonishment ; for 
 there lay before him, in a cradle of green velvet, a diamond 
 of prodigious magnitude and of the finest water. It was of 
 the bigness of a duck's egg ; beautifully shaped, and without 
 a flaw; and as the sun shone upon it, it gave forth a lustre 
 like that of electricity, and seemed to burn in his hand with 
 a thousand internal fires. 
 
 He knew little of precious stones; but the Rajah's Dia- 
 mond was a wonder that explained itself; a village child, if 
 he found it, would run screaming for the nearest cottage ; 
 and a savage would prostrate himself in adoration before so 
 imposing a fetish. The beauty of the stone flattered the 
 young clergyman's eyes ; the thought of its incalculable 
 value overpowered his intellect. He knew that what he held 
 in his hand was worth more than many years' purchase of an 
 archiepiscopal see; that it would build cathedrals more 
 stately than Ely or Cologne; that he who possessed it was 
 set free for ever from the primal curse, and might follow his 
 own inclinations without concern or hurry, without let or 
 hindrance. And as he suddenly turned it, the rays leaped 
 forth again with renewed brilliancy, and seemed to pierce his 
 very heart. 
 
 Decisive actions are often taken in a moment and without 
 any conscious deliverance from the rational parts of man. 
 So it was now with Mr. Rolles. He glanced hurriedly round ; 
 beheld, like Mr. Raeburn before him, nothing but the sunlit 
 flower garden, the tall tree-tops, and the house with bhnded 
 windows ; and in a trice he had shut the case, thrust it into 
 his pocket, and was hastening to his study with the speed 
 of guilt. 
 
 The Reverend Simon Rolles had stolen the Rajah's 
 Diamond. 
 
 Early in the afternoon the police arrived with Harry 
 Hartley. The nurseryman, who was beside himself with 
 terror, readily discovered his hoard; and the jewels were 
 identified and inventoried in the presence of the Secretary. 
 As for Mr. Rolles, he showed himself in a most obliging tem- 
 per, communicated what he knew with freedom, and pro- 
 
 110
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIA3I0ND 
 
 fessed regret that he could do no more to help the officers 
 in their duty. 
 
 " Still," he added, " I suppose jour business is nearly at 
 an end." 
 
 "By no means," replied the man from Scotland Yard; 
 and he narrated the second robbery of which Harry had 
 been the immediate victim, and gave the young clergyman 
 a description of the more important jewels that were still not 
 found, dilating particularly on the Rajah's Diamond. 
 
 " It must be worth a fortune," observed Mr. Rolles. 
 
 *' Ten fortunes — twenty fortunes," cried the officer. 
 
 " The more it is worth," remarked Simon shrewdly, " the 
 more difficult it must be to sell. Such a thing has a physiog- 
 nomy not to be disguised, and I should fancy a man might 
 as easily negotiate St. Paul's Cathedral." ■ 
 
 " Oh, truly ! " said the officer ; " but if the thief be a man 
 of any intelligence, he will cut it into three or four, and 
 there will be still enough to make him rich." 
 
 " Thank you," said the clergyman. " You cannot im- 
 agine how much your conversation interests me." 
 
 Whereupon the functionary admitted that they knew many 
 strange things in his profession, and immediately after took 
 his leave. 
 
 Mr. Rolles regained his apartm.ent. It seemed smaller 
 and barer than usual; the materials for his great work had 
 never presented so little interest; and he looked upon his 
 library with the eye of scorn. He took down, volume by 
 volume, several Fathers of the Church, and glanced them 
 through; but they contained nothing to his purpose. 
 
 " These old gentlemen," thought he, " are no doubt very 
 valuable writers, but they seem to me conspicuously ignorant 
 of Hfe. Here am I, with learning enough to be a Bishop, 
 and I positively do not know how to dispose of a stolen 
 diamond. I glean a hint from a common policeman, and, 
 with all my folios, I cannot so much as put it into execution. 
 This inspires me with very low ideas of University training." 
 
 Herewith he kicked over his book-shelf and, putting on his 
 hat, hastened from the house to the club of wliich he was a 
 
 111
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 membero In such a place of mundane resort he hoped to 
 find some man of good counsel and a shrewd experience in 
 life. In the reading-room he saw many of the country clergy 
 and an Archdeacon; there were three journalists and a writer 
 upon the Higher INIetaphysics, playing pool; and at dinner 
 only the raff of ordinary club frequenters showed their com- 
 monplace and obhterated countenances. None of these, 
 thought Mr. Rolles, would know more on dangerous topics 
 than he knew himself; none of them were fit to give him 
 guidance in his present strait. At length, in the smoking- 
 room, up many weary stairs, he hit upon a gentleman of 
 somewhat portly build and dressed with conspicuous plain- 
 ness. He was smoking a cigar and reading the Fortnightly 
 Review; his face was singularly free from all sign of pre- 
 occupation or fatigue; and there was something in his air 
 which seemed to invite confidence and to expect submission. 
 The more the young clergyman scrutinized his features, the 
 more he was convinced that he had fallen on one capable of 
 giving pertinent advice. 
 
 " Sir," said he, " you will excuse my abruptness ; but I 
 judge you from your appearance to be preeminently a man 
 of the world." 
 
 *' I have indeed considerable claims to that distinction," 
 replied the stranger, laying aside his magazine with a look 
 of mingled amusement and surprise. 
 
 " I, sir," continued the Curate, " am a recluse, a student, 
 a creature of ink-bottles and patristic folios. A recent event 
 has brought my folly vividly before my eyes, and I desire to 
 instruct myself in life. By life," he added, " I do not mean 
 Thackeray's novels ; but the crimes and secret possibilities 
 of our society, and the principles of wise conduct among 
 exceptional events. I am a patient reader; can the thing 
 be learnt in books? " 
 
 " You put me in a difficulty," said the stranger. *' I con- 
 fess I have no great notion of the use of books, except to 
 amuse a railway journey; although, I beheve, there are some 
 very exact treatises on astronomy, the use of the globes, 
 agriculture, and the art of making paper flowers. Upon 
 
 112
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAIMOND 
 
 the less apparent provinces of life I fear you will find noth- 
 ing truthful. Yet stay," he added, " have you read 
 Gaboriau ? " 
 
 Mr. Rolles admitted he had never even heard the name. 
 
 " You may gather some notions from Gaboriau," resumed 
 the stranger. " He is at least suggestive; and as he is an 
 author much studied by Prince Bismarck, you will, at the 
 worst, lose your time in good society." 
 
 " Sir," said the Curate, " I am infinitely obliged by your 
 politeness." 
 
 " You have already more than repaid me," returned the 
 other. 
 
 " How ? " inquired Simon. 
 
 " By the novelty of your request," replied the gentleman ; 
 and with a polite gesture, as though to ask permission, he 
 resumed the study of the Fortnightly Reviezc. 
 
 On his way home Mr. Rolles purchased a work on precious 
 stones and several of Gaboriau's novels. These last he 
 eagerly skimmed until an advanced hour in the morning; but 
 although they introduced him to many new ideas, he could 
 nowhere discover what to do with a stolen diamond. He was 
 annoyed, moreover, to find the information scattered amongst 
 romantic story-telling, instead of soberly set forth after the 
 manner of a manual ; and he concluded that, even if the writer 
 had thought much upon these subjects, he was totally lack- 
 ing in educational method. For the character and attain- 
 ments of Lecoq, however, he was unable to contain his ad- 
 miration. 
 
 " He was truly a great creature," ruminated Mr. Rolles. 
 " He knew the world as I know Paley's Evidences. There 
 was nothing that he could not carry to a termination with 
 his own hand, and against the largest odds. Heavens ! " he 
 broke out suddenly, "is not this the lesson.'' Must I not 
 learn to cut diamonds for myself ! " 
 
 It seemed to him as if he had sailed at once out of his 
 perplexities; he remembered that he knew a jeweller, one B. 
 Macculloch, in Edinburgh, who would be glad to put him 
 in the way of the necessary training ; a few months, perhaps 
 
 113
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 a few years, of sordid toil, and he would be sufficiently 
 expert to divide and sufficiently cunning to dispose with ad- 
 vantage of the Rajah's Diamond. That done, he might 
 return to pursue his researches at leisure, a wealthy and 
 luxurious student, envied and respected by all. Golden 
 visions attended him through his slumber, and he awoke re- 
 freshed and light-hearted with the morning sun. 
 
 Mr. Raeburn's house was on that day to be closed by the 
 police, and this afforded a pretext for his departure. He 
 cheerfully prepared his baggage, transported it to King's 
 Cross, where he left it in the cloak-room, and returned to 
 the club to while away the afternoon and dine. 
 
 " If you dine here to-day, Rolles," observed an acquaint- 
 ance, " you may see two of the most remarkable men in 
 England — Prince Florizel of Bohemia, and old Jack Van- 
 deleur." 
 
 " I have heard of the Prince," replied Mr. Rolles ; " and 
 General Vandeleur I have even met in society." 
 
 ** General Vandeleur is an ass ! " returned the other. 
 " This Is his brother John, the biggest adventurer, the best 
 judge of precious stones, and one of the most acute diplo- 
 matists in Europe. Have you never heard of his duel with 
 the Due de Val d'Orge? of his exploits and atrocities when 
 he was Dictator of Paraguay? of his dexterity in recovering 
 Sir Samuel Levy's jewelry.? nor of his services in the Indian 
 Mutiny — services by which the Government profited, but 
 which the Government dared not recognize.'' You make me 
 wonder what we mean by fame, or even by infamy ; for Jack 
 Vandeleur has prodigious claims to both. Run down stairs," 
 he continued, " take a table near them, and keep your ears 
 open. You will hear some strange talk, or I am much 
 misled." 
 
 " But how shall I know them? " Inquired the clergyman. 
 
 " Know them ! " cried his friend ; " why, the Prince is the 
 finest gentleman in Europe, the only living creature who 
 looks like a thing; and as for Jack Vandeleur, if you can 
 imagine Ulysses at seventy years of age, and with a sabre- 
 cut across his face, you have the man before you! Know
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 them, indeed ! Why, you could pick either of them out of a 
 Derby day!" 
 
 Rolks eagerly hurried to the dining-room. It was as his 
 friend had asserted ; it was impossible to mistake the pair in 
 question. Old John Vandeleur was of remarkable force of 
 body, and obviously broken to the most difficult exercises. 
 He had neither the carriage of a swordsman, nor of a sailor, 
 nor yet of one much inured to the saddle; but something 
 made up of all these, and the result and expression of many 
 different habits and dexterities. His features were bold and 
 aquiline ; his expression arrogant and predatory ; his whole 
 appearance that of a swift, violent, unscrupulous man of 
 action; and his copious white hair and the deep sabre-cut 
 that traversed his nose and temple added a note of savagery 
 to a head already remarkable and menacing in itself. 
 
 In his companion, the Prince of Bohemia, Mr. Rolles was 
 astonished to recognize the gentleman who had recommended 
 him the study of Oaboriau. Doubtless Prince Florizel, who 
 rarely visited the club, of which, as of most others, he was an 
 honorary member, had been waiting for John Vandeleur when 
 Simon accosted liim on the previous evening. 
 
 The other diners had modestly retired into the angles of 
 the room, and left the distinguished pair in a certain isola- 
 tion, but the young clergyman was unrestrained by any 
 sentiment of awe, and, marching up, took his place at the 
 nearest table. 
 
 The conversation was, indeed, new to the student's ears. 
 The ex-Dictator of Paraguay stattd many extraordinary 
 experiences in different quarters of the world ; and the Prince 
 supplied a commentary which, to a man of thought, was 
 even more interestina; than the events themselves. Two forms 
 of experience were thus brought together and laid before the 
 young clergyman ; and he did not know which to admire the 
 most — the desperate actor or the skilled expert in life; the 
 man who spoke boldly of his own deeds and perils, or the man 
 who seemed, like a god, to know all things and to have suf- 
 fered nothing. The manner of each aptly fitted with his 
 part in the discourse. The Dictator indulged in brutalities 
 
 115
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 alike of speech and gesture; his hand opened and shirt and 
 fell roughly on the table; and his voice was loud and heady. 
 The Prince, on the other hand, seemed the very type of 
 urbane docility and quiet; the least movement, the least in- 
 flection, had with him a weightier significance than all the 
 shouts and pantomime of his companion ; and if ever, as must 
 frequently have been the case, he described some experience 
 personal to himself, it was so aptly dissimulated as to pass 
 unnoticed with the rest. 
 
 At length the talk wandered on to the late robberies and 
 the Rajah's Diamond. 
 
 " That diamond would be better in the sea," observed 
 Prince Florizel. 
 
 " As a Vandeleur," replied the Dictator, " your Highness 
 may imagine my dissent." 
 
 " I speak on grounds of public policy," pursued the 
 Prince. " Jewels so valuable should be reserved for the 
 collection of a Prince or the treasury of a great nation. To 
 hand them about among the common sort of men is to set a 
 price on Virtue's head; and if the Rajah of Kashgar — a 
 Prince, I understand, of great enlightenment — desired ven- 
 geance upon the men of Europe, he could hardly have gone 
 more efficaciously about his purpose than by sending us this 
 apple of discord. There Is no honesty too robust for such 
 a trial. I myself, who have many duties and privileges of 
 my own — I m^^self, Mr. Vandeleur, could scarcely handle 
 the intoxicating crystal and be safe. As for you, who are 
 a diamond-hunter by taste and profession, I do not believe 
 there is a crime in the calendar you would not perpetrate — 
 I do not believe you have a friend In the world whom you 
 would not eagerly betray — I do not know If you have a fam- 
 ily, but if you have I declare you would sacrifice your 
 children — and all this for what.^* Not to be richer, nor to 
 have more comforts or more respect, but simply to call this 
 diamond yours for a year or two until you die, and now and 
 again to open a safe and look at it as one looks at a picture." 
 
 " It is true," replied Vandeleur. " I have hunted most 
 things, from men and women down to mosquitoes ; I have 
 
 116
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAJNIOND 
 
 dived for coral ; I have followed both whales and tigers ; and 
 a diamond is the tallest quarry of the lot. It has beauty 
 and worth; it alone can properly reward the ardors of the 
 chase. At this moment, as your Highness may fancy, I am 
 upon the trail; I have a sure knack, a wide experience; 1 
 know every stone of price in my brother's collection as n 
 shepherd knows his sheep ; and I wish I may die if I do not 
 recover them every one ! " 
 
 " Sir Thomas Vandeleur will have great cause to thank 
 you," said the Prince. 
 
 " I am not so sure," returned the Dictator, with a laugh. 
 " One of the Vandeleurs will. Thomas or John — Peter or 
 Paul — we are all apostles." 
 
 " I did not catch your observation," said the Prince with 
 some disgust. 
 
 And at the same moment the waiter Informed Mr. Van- 
 deleur that his cab was at the door. 
 
 Mr. Rolles glanced at the clock, and saw that he also 
 must be moving; and the coincidence struck him shai-ply 
 and unpleasantly, for he desired to see no more of the dia- 
 mond hunter. 
 
 Much study having somewhat shaken the young man's 
 nerves, he was in the habit of traveling in the most luxurious 
 manner; and for the present journey he had taken a sofa in 
 the sleeping carriage. 
 
 " You will be very comfortable," said the guard : " there 
 is no one in your compartment, and only one old gentleman 
 in the other end." 
 
 It was close upon the hour, and the tickets were being 
 examined, when Mr. Rolles beheld this other fellow-passenger 
 ushered by several porters into his place ; certainly, there was 
 not another man in the world whom he would not have pre- 
 ferred — for it was old John Vandeleur, the ex -Dictator. 
 
 The sleeping carriages on the Great Northern line were 
 divided into three compartments — one at each end for travel- 
 ers, and one in the centre fitted with the conveniences of a 
 lavatory. A door running in grooves separated each of 
 the others from the lavatory ; but as there were neither 
 
 117
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 bolts nor locks, the whole suite was practically common 
 ground. 
 
 When Mr. Rolles had studied his position, he perceived 
 himself without defence. If the Dictator chose to pay him 
 a visit In the course of the night, he could do no less than 
 receive it ; he had no means of fortification, and lay open to 
 attack as If he had been lying in the fields. This situation 
 caused him some agony of mind. He recalled with alarm 
 the boastful statements of his fellow-traveler acros's the 
 dinlng-table, and the professions of Immorality which he 
 had heard him offering to the disgusted Prince. Some per- 
 sons, he remembered to have read, are endowed with a singu- 
 lar quickness of perception for the neighborhood of precious 
 metals ; through walls and even at considerable distances they 
 are said to divine the presence of gold. Might it not be 
 the same wjth diamonds? he wondered; and if so, who was 
 more likely to enjoy this transcendental sense than the per- 
 son who gloried in the appellation of the Diamond Hunter.'' 
 From such a man he recognized that he had everything to 
 fear, and longed eagerly for the arrival of the day. 
 
 In the meantime he neglected no precaution, concealed 
 his diamond in the most internal pocket of a system of great 
 coats, and devoutly recommended himself to the care of 
 Providence. 
 
 The train pursued Its usual even and rapid course; and 
 nearly half the journey had been accomplished before slum- 
 ber began to triumph over uneasiness in the breast of 
 Mr. Rolles. For some time he resisted Its influence ; but it 
 grew upon him more and more, and a little before York he 
 was fain to stretch himself upon one of the couches and suffer 
 his eyes to close; and almost at the same instant conscious- 
 ness deserted the young clergyman. His last thought was 
 of his terrifying neighbor. 
 
 When he awoke It was still pitch dark, except for the 
 flicker of the veiled lamp ; and the continual roaring and 
 oscillation testified to the unrelaxed velocity of the train. 
 He sat upright in a panic, for he had been tormented by the 
 most uneasy dreams ; it was some seconds before he recovered 
 
 118
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMO]S^D 
 
 his self-command ; and even after he had resumed a recum- 
 bent attitude sleep continued to flee him ; and he lay awake 
 with his brain in a state of violent agitation, and his eyes 
 fixed upon the lavatory door. He pulled his clerical felt 
 hat over his brow still farther to shield him from the light ; 
 and he adopted the usual expedients, such as counting a 
 thousand or banishing thought, by which experienced in- 
 valids are accustomed to woo the approach of sleep. In the 
 case of Mr. Rolles they proved one and all vain ; he was 
 harassed by a dozen different anxieties — the old man in 
 the other end of the carriage haunted him in the most alarm- 
 ing shapes ; and in whatever attitude he chose to lie the 
 diamond in his pocket occasioned him a sensible physical dis- 
 tress. It burned, it was too large. It bruised his ribs ; and 
 there were Infinitesimal fractions of a second in which he had 
 half a mind to throw It from the window. 
 
 While he was thus lying, a strange incident took place. 
 
 The sliding-door Into the lavatory stirred a little, and then 
 a little more, and was finally drawn back for the space of 
 about twenty inches. The lamp In the lavatory was un- 
 shaded, and In the lighted aperture thus disclosed, Mr, Rolles 
 could see the head of Mr. Vandeleur in an attitude of deep 
 attention. He was conscious that the gaze of the Dictator 
 rested intently on his own face; and the instinct of self- 
 preservation moved him to hold his breath, to refrain from 
 the least movement, and keeping his eyes lowered, to watch 
 his visitor from underneath the lashes. After about a mo- 
 ment, the head was withdrawn and the door of the lavatory 
 replaced. 
 
 The Dictator had not come to attack, but to observe ; his 
 action was not that of a man threatening another, but that 
 of a man who was himself threatened; If Mr. Rolles was 
 afraid of him, it appeared that he, in his turn, was not quite 
 easy on the score of Mr. Rolles. He had come. It would 
 seem, to make sure that his only fellow-traveler was asleep; 
 and, when satisfied on that point, he had at once withdrawn. 
 
 The clergyman leaped to his feet. The extreme of terror 
 had given place to a reaction of foolhardy daring. He re- 
 
 119
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 fleeted that the rattle of the flying train concealed all other 
 sounds, and determined, come what might, to return the visit 
 he had just received. Divesting himself of his cloak, which 
 might have interfered with the freedom of his action, he 
 entered the lavatory and paused to listen. As he had ex- 
 pected, there was nothing to be heard above the roar of the 
 train's progress ; and laying his hand on the door at the 
 farther side, he proceeded cautiously to draw it back for 
 about six inches. Then he stopped, and could not contain 
 an ejaculation of surprise. 
 
 John Vandeleur wore a fur traveling cap with lappets 
 to protect his ears ; and this may have combined with the 
 sound of the express to keep him in ignorance of what was 
 going forward. It Is certain, at least, that he did not raise 
 his head, but continued without interruption to pursue his 
 strange emploj^ment. Between his feet stood an open hat- 
 box ; in one hand he held the sleeve of his sealskin greatcoat ; 
 in the other a formidable knife, with which he had just slit 
 up the lining of the sleeve. Mr. Rolles had read of persons 
 carrying money in a belt; and as he had no acquaintance 
 with any but cricket -belts, he had never been able rightly to 
 conceive how this was managed. But here was a stranger 
 thing before his eyes ; for John Vandeleur, it appeared, car- 
 ried diam.onds in the lining of his sleeve ; and even as the 
 young clergyman gazed, he could see one glittering brilliant 
 drop after another Into the hat-box. 
 
 He stood riveted to the spot, following this unusual busi- 
 ness with his eyes. The diamonds were, for the most part, 
 small, and not easily distinguishable either in shape or fire. 
 Suddenly the Dictator appeared to find a difficulty ; he em- 
 ployed both hands and stooped over his task ; but It was not 
 until after considerable manoeuvring that he extricated a 
 large tiara of diamonds from the lining, and held It up for 
 some seconds' examination before he placed it with the others 
 in the hat-box. The tiara was a ray of light to Mr. Rolles ; 
 he immediately recognized it for a part of the treasure stolen 
 from Harry Hartley by the loiterer. There was no room for 
 mistake; it was exactly as the detective had described it; 
 
 ISO
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 there v,^re the ruby stars, with a great emerald in the centre; 
 there were the interlacing crescents ; and there were the 
 pear-shaped pendants, each a single stone, which gave a spe- 
 cial value to Lady Vandeleur's tiara. 
 
 Mr. Rolles was hugely relieved. The Dictator was as 
 deeply in the affair as he was ; neither could tell tales upon 
 the other. In the first glow of happiness, the clergyman 
 suffered a deep sigh to escape him ; and as his bosom had 
 become choked and his throat dry during his previous sus- 
 pense, the sigh was followed by a cough. 
 
 Mr. Vandeleur looked up; his face contracted with the 
 blackest and most deadly passion ; his eyes opened widely, 
 and his under jaw dropped in an astonishment that was 
 upon the brink of fury. By an instinctive movement he had 
 covered the hat-box with the coat. For half a minute the 
 two men stared upon each other in silence. It was not a long 
 interval, but it sufficed for Mr. Rolles ; he was one of those 
 who think swiftly on dangerous occasions ; he decided on a 
 course of action of a singularly daring nature ; and although 
 he felt he was setting his life upon the hazard, he was the 
 first to break silence. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said he. 
 
 The Dictator shivered slightly, and when he spoke his 
 voice was hoarse. 
 
 *' What do you want here ? " he asked. 
 
 " I take a particular Interest In diamonds," replied Mr. 
 Rolles, with an air of perfect self-possession. " Two con- 
 noisseurs should be acquainted. I have here a trifle of my 
 own which may perhaps serve for an Introduction." 
 
 And so saying, he quietly took the case from his pocket, 
 showed the Rajah's Diamond to the Dictator for an instant, 
 and replaced it in security. 
 
 " It was once your brother's," he added. 
 
 John Vandeleur continued to regard him with a look of 
 almost painful amazement ; but he neither spoke nor moved. 
 
 " I was pleased to observe," resumed the young man, 
 ** that we have gems from the same collection." 
 
 The Dictator's surprise overpowered him. 
 
 121
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " I beg jour pardon," he said ; " I begin to perceive that 
 I am growing old ! I am positively not prepared for little 
 incidents like this. But set my mind at rest upon one point : 
 do my eyes deceive me, or are you indeed a parson? " 
 
 " I am in holy orders," answered Mr. Rolles. 
 
 *' Well," cried the other, " as long as I live I will never 
 hear another word against the cloth ! " 
 
 " You flatter me," said Mr. Rolles. 
 
 " Pardon me," replied Vandeleur ; ** pardon me, young 
 man. You are no coward, but it still remains to be seen 
 whether you are not the worst of fools. Perhaps," he con- 
 tinued, leaning back upon his seat, " perhaps you would 
 oblige me with a few particulars. I must suppose you had 
 some object in the stupefying impudence of your proceed- 
 ings, and I confess I have a curiosity to know it." 
 
 " It is very simple," replied the clergyman ; " it proceeds 
 from my gfeat inexperience of life." 
 
 " I shall be glad to be persuaded," answered Vandeleur. ■ 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Rolles told him the whole story of his 
 connection with the Rajah's Diamond, from the time he 
 found it in Raeburn's garden to the time when he left Lon- 
 don in the Flying Scotchman. He added a brief sketch of 
 his feelings and thoughts during the journey, and concluded 
 in these words: — 
 
 " When I recognized the tiara I knew we were in the same 
 attitude towards Society, and this inspired me with a hope, 
 which I trust you will say was not ill-founded, that you 
 might become in some sense my partner in the difficulties and, 
 of course, the profits of my situation. To one of your 
 special knowledge and obviously great experience the nego- 
 tiation of the diamond would give but little trouble, while 
 to me it was a matter of impossibility. On the other part, 
 I judged that I might lose nearly as much by cutting the 
 diamond, and that not improbably with an unskilful hand, 
 as might enable me to pay you with proper generosity for 
 your assistance. The subject was a delicate one to broach; 
 and perhaps I fell short in delicacy. But I must ask you to 
 remember that for me the situation was a new one, and I 
 
 122
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 was entirely unacquainted with the etiquette in use. I be- 
 lieve without vanity that I could have married or baptized 
 you in a very acceptable manner ; but every man has his own 
 aptitudes, and this sort of bargain was not among the list 
 of my accomplishments." 
 
 " I do not wish to flatter you," replied Vandeleur ; " but 
 upon my word, you have an unusual disposition for a life 
 of crime. You have more accomplishments than you 
 imagine; and though I have encountered a number of rogues 
 in different quarters of the world, I never met with one so 
 unblushing as yourself. Cheer up, Mr. Rolles, you are in 
 the right profession at last ! As for helping you, you may 
 command me as you will. I have only a day's business in 
 Edinburgh on a little matter for my brother ; and once that 
 is concluded, I return to Paris, where I usually reside. If 
 you please, you may accompany me thither. And before the 
 end of a month I believe I shall have brought your little 
 business to a satisfactory conclusion." 
 
 (At this 'point, contrary to all the canons of his art, our 
 Arabian Author breaks off the Story of the Young Man 
 IN HbLY Orders. / regret and condemn such practices; but 
 I must follow my original, and refer the reader for the con- 
 clusion of Mr. Rolles^s adventures to the next number of the 
 cycle t the Story of the House with the Green Blinds.) 
 
 1281
 
 THE STOET OF THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN BLINDS 
 
 FRANCIS SCRYMGEOUR, a clerk in the Bank of Scot- 
 land at Edinburgh, had attained the age of twenty- 
 five in a sphere of quiet, creditable, and domestic life. His 
 mother died while he was young; but his father, a man of 
 sense and probity, had given him an excellent education at 
 school, and brought him up at home to orderly and frugal 
 habits. Francis, who was of a docile and affectionate dis- 
 position, profited by these advantages with zeal, and devoted 
 himself heart and soul to his employment. A walk upon 
 Saturday afternoon, an occasional dinner with members of 
 his family, and a yearly tour of a fortnight in the Highlands 
 or even on the continent of Europe, were his principal dis- 
 tractions, and he grew rapidly in favor with his superiors, 
 and enjoyed already a salary of nearly two hundreds pounds 
 a year, with the prospect of an ultimate advance to almost 
 double that amount. Few young men were more contented, 
 few more willing and laborious than Francis Scrymgeour. 
 Sometimes at night, when he had read the daily paper, he 
 would play upon the flute to amuse his father, for whose 
 qualities he entertained a great respect. 
 
 One day he received a note from a well-known firm of 
 Writers to the Signet, requesting the favor of an immediate 
 interview with him. The latter was marked " Private and 
 Confidential," and had been addressed to him at the bank, 
 instead of at home — two unusual circumstances which made 
 him obey the summons with the more alacrity. The senior 
 member of the firm, a man of much austerity of manner, 
 made him gravely welcome, requested him to take a seat, and 
 proceeded to explain the matter in hand in the picked ex- 
 pressions of a veteran man of business. A person, who 
 
 124
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 must remain nameless, but of whom the lawyer had every 
 reason to think well — a man, in short, of some station in the 
 country — desired to make Francis an annual allowance of 
 five hundred pounds. The capital was to be placed under 
 the control of the lawyer's firm and two trustees who must 
 also remain anonymous. There were conditions annexed to 
 this hberality, but he was of opinion that his new client 
 would find nothing either excessive or dishonorable in the 
 terms; and he repeated these two words v/ith emphasis, as 
 though he desired to commit himself to nothing more. 
 
 Francis asked their nature. 
 
 " The conditions," said the Writer to the Signet, " are, 
 as I have twice remarked, neither dishonorable nor excessive. 
 At the same time I cannot conceal from you that they are 
 most unusual. Indeed, the whole case is very much out of 
 our way ; and I should certainly have refused it had it not 
 been for the reputation of the gentleman who entrusted it 
 to my care, and, let me add, Mr. Scrymgeour, the interest I 
 have been led to take in yourself by many complimentary 
 and, I have no doubt, well-deserved reports." 
 
 Francis entreated him to be more specific. 
 
 " You cannot picture my uneasiness as to these condi- 
 tions," he said. 
 
 " They are two," replied the lawyer, " only two ; and the 
 sum, as you will remember, is five hundred a year — and 
 unburthened, I forgot to add, unburdened." 
 
 And the lawyer raised his eyebrows at him with solemn 
 gusto. 
 
 " The first," he resumed, " is of remarkable simplicity. 
 You must be in Paris by the afternoon of Sunday, the 15th; 
 there you will find, at the box-office of the Comedic Fran9aise, 
 a ticket for admission taken in your name and waiting you. 
 You are requested to sit out the whole perfomiance in the 
 seat provided, and that is all." 
 
 *' I should certainly have preferred a week-day," rephed 
 Francis. " But, after all, once in a way " 
 
 " And in Paris, my dear sir," added the lawyer, sooth- 
 ingly. " I believe I am something of a precisian myself, but 
 
 125
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 upon such a consideration, and in Paris, I should not hesi- 
 tate an instant." 
 
 And the pair laughed pleasantly together. 
 
 *' The other is of more importance," continued the Writer 
 to the Signet. " It regards your marriage. My client, 
 taking a deep interest in your welfare, desires to advise you 
 absolutely in the choice of a wife. Absolutely, you under- 
 stand," he repeated. 
 
 " Let us be more explicit, if you please," returned Francis. 
 " Am I to marry anyone, maid or widow, black or white, 
 whom this invisible person chooses to propose.'' " 
 
 " I was to assure you that suitability of age and posi- 
 tion should be a principle with your benefactor," replied the 
 lawyer. " As to race, I confess the difficulty had not oc- 
 curred to me, and I failed to inquire; but if you like I will 
 make a note of it at once, and advise you on the earliest 
 opportunity." 
 
 " Sir," said Francis, " it remains to be seen whether this 
 whole affair is not a most unworthy fraud. The circum- 
 stances are inexplicable — I had almost said incredible ; and 
 until I see a little more daylight, and some plausible motive, 
 I confess I should be very sorry to put a hand to the trans- 
 action. I appeal to you in this difficulty for information. 
 I must learn what is at the bottom of it all. If you do not 
 know, cannot guess, or are not at liberty to tell me, I shall 
 take my hat and go back to my bank as I came." 
 
 " I do not know," answered the lawyer, " but I have an ex- 
 cellent guess. Your father, and no one else, is at the root of 
 this apparently unnatural business." 
 
 " My father ! " cried Francis, in extreme disdain. 
 " Worthy man, I know every thought of his mind, every 
 penny of his fortune ! " 
 
 " You misinterpret my words," said the lawyer. " I do not 
 refer to Mr. Scrymgeour, senior; for he is not your father. 
 When he and his wife came to Edinburgh, you were already 
 nearly one year old, and you had not yet been three months 
 in their care. The secret has been well kept ; but such is the 
 fact. Your father is unknown, and I say again that I be- 
 
 126
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 Heve him to be the original of the offers I am charged at 
 present to transmit to you." 
 
 It would be impossible to exaggerate the astonishment of 
 Francis Scrymgeour at this unexpected information. Pie 
 pleaded this confusion to the lawyer. 
 
 " Sir," said he, " after a piece of news so startling, j'ou 
 must grant me some hours for thought. You shall know this 
 evening what conclusion I have reached." 
 
 The lawyer commended his prudence; and Francis, ex- 
 cusing himself upon some pretext at the bank, took a long 
 walk into the country, and fully considered the different steps 
 and aspects of the case, A pleasant sense of his own im- 
 portance rendered him the more deliberate ; but the issue was 
 from the first not doubtful. His whole carnal man leaned 
 irresistibly towards the five hundred a year, and the strange 
 conditions with which it was burdened; he discovered in his 
 heart an invincible repugnance to the name of Scrymgeour, 
 which he had never hitherto disliked ; he began to despise the 
 narrow and unromantic Interest of his former life ; and when 
 once his mind was fairly made up, he walked with a new feel- 
 ing of strength and freedom, and nourished himself with the 
 gayest anticipations. 
 
 He said but a word to the lawyer, and immediately re- 
 ceived a check for two quarters' arrears ; for the allowance 
 was antedated from the first of January. With this In his 
 pocket, he walked home. The flat in Scotland Street looked 
 mean in his eyes ; his nostrils, for the first time, rebelled 
 against the odor of broth; and he observed little defects of 
 manner in his adoptive father which filled him with sur- 
 prise and almost with disgust. The next day, he determined, 
 should see him on his way to Paris. 
 
 In that city, where he arrived long before the appointed 
 date, he put up at a modest hotel frequented by English and 
 Italians, and devoted himself to improvement in the French 
 tongue ; for this purpose he had a master twice a week, en- 
 tered Into conversation with loiterers In the Champs Elysees, 
 and nightly frequented the theatre. He had his whole 
 toilette fashionably renewed; and was shaved and had his 
 
 127
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 liair dressed every morning by a barber in a neighboring 
 street. This gave him something of" a foreign aifj and 
 seemed to wipe off the reproach of his past years. 
 
 At length, on the Saturday afternoon, he betook himself 
 to the box-office of the theatre in the Rue Richelieu. No 
 sooner had he mentioned his name than the clerk produced 
 the order in an envelope of which the address was scarcely 
 dry. 
 
 " It has been taken this moment," said the clerk. 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Francis. " May I ask what the gentle- 
 man was like.'' " 
 
 " Your friend is easy to describe," replied the official, 
 *' He is old and strong and beautiful, with white hair and 
 a sabre-cut across his face. You cannot fail to recognize 
 so marked a person." 
 
 " No, indeed," returned Francis ; " and I thank you for 
 your poHteness." 
 
 " He cannot yet be far distant," added the clerk. " If you 
 make haste you might still overtake him." 
 
 Francis did not wait to be twice told ; he ran precipitately 
 from the theatre into the middle of the street and looked in 
 all directions. More than one white-haired man was within 
 sight; but though he overtook each of them in succession, 
 all wanted the sabre-cut. For nearly half-an-hour he tried 
 one street after another in the neighborhood, until at length, 
 recognizing the folly of continued search, he started on a 
 walk to compose his agitated feelings ; for this proximity of 
 an encounter with him to whom he could not doubt he owed 
 the day had profoundly moved the young man. 
 
 It chanced that his way lay up the Rue Drouot and 
 thence up the Rue des Martyrs ; and chance, in this case, 
 served him better than all the forethought in the world. For 
 on the outer boulevard he saw two men in earnest colloquy 
 upon a seat. One was dark, young, and handsome, secularly 
 dressed, but with an indelible clerical stamp; the other an- 
 swered in every particular to the description given him by 
 the clerk. Francis felt his heart beat high in his bosom; he 
 knew he was now about to hear the voice of his father ; and 
 
 128
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 mating a wide circuit, he noiselessly took his place behind 
 the couple in question, who were too much interested in their 
 talk to observe much else. As Francis had expected, the 
 conversation was conducted in the English language, 
 
 " Your suspicions begin to annoy me, Rolles," said the 
 older man. " I tell you I am doing my utmost ; a man can- 
 not lay his hand on millions in a moment. Have I not taken 
 you up, a mere stranger, out of pure good will.'* Are you not 
 living largely on my bounty? " 
 
 " On your advances, Mr. Vandeleur," corrected the other. 
 
 "Advances, if you choose; and interest instead of good- 
 will, if you prefer it," returned Vandeleur, angrily. " I 
 am not here to pick expressions. Business is business ; and 
 your business, let me remind you, is too muddy for such 
 airs. Trust me, or leave me alone and find someone else; 
 but let us have an end, for God's sake, of your jere- 
 miads." 
 
 " I am beginning to learn the world," replied the other, 
 *' and I see that j^ou have every reason to play me false, 
 and not one to deal honestly. I am not here to pick expres- 
 sions either; you wish the diamond for yourself: you know 
 you do — you dare not deny it. Have you not already forged 
 my name, and searched my lodging in my absence? I under- 
 stand the cause of your delays ; you are lying in wait ; you 
 are the diamond-hunter, forsooth; and sooner or later, by 
 fair means or foul, you'll lay your hands upon it. I tell you, 
 it must stop; push me much further and I promise you a 
 surprise." 
 
 " It does not become you to use threats," returned Van- 
 deleur. " Two can play at that. My brother is here in 
 Paris; the police are on the alert; and if you persist in 
 wearj'ing me with your caterwauling, I will arrange a little 
 astonishment for you, Mr. Rolles. But mine shall be once 
 and for all. Do you understand, or would you prefer me to 
 tell it 3^ou in Hebrew? There is an end to all things, and 
 you have come to the end of my patience. Tuesdaj^ at 
 seven; not a day, not an hour sooner, not the least part of 
 a second, if it were to save your life. And if you do not 
 
 129
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 choose to wait, you may go to the bottomless pit for me, and 
 welcome." 
 
 And so saying, the Dictator arose from the bench, and 
 marched off in the direction of Montmartre, shaking his 
 head and swinging his cane with a most furious air ; while 
 his companion remained where he was, in an attitude of great 
 dejection. 
 
 Francis was at the pitch of surprise and horror ; his senti- 
 ments had been shocked to the last degree ; the hopeful ten- 
 derness with which he had taken his place upon the bench 
 was transformed into repulsion and despair; old Mr. Scrym- 
 geour, he reflected, was a far more kindly and creditable 
 parent than this dangerous and violent intriguer; but he 
 retained his presence of mind, and suffered not a moment 
 to elapse before he was on the trail of the Dictator. 
 
 That gentleman's fury carried him forward at a brisk 
 pace, and he was so completely occupied in his angry 
 thoughts that he never so much as cast a look behind him 
 till he reached his own door. 
 
 His house stood high up in the Rue Lepic, commanding a 
 view of all Paris and enjoying the pure air of the heights. 
 It was two stories high, with green blinds and shutters ; and 
 all the windows looking on the street were hermetically 
 closed. Tops of trees showed over the high garden wall, and 
 the wall was protected by chevaux-de-frise. The Dictator 
 paused a moment while he searched his pocket for a key ; 
 and then, opening a gate, disappeared within the enclosure. 
 
 Francis looked about him ; the neighborhood was very 
 lonely ; the house isolated in its garden. It seemed as if his 
 observation must here come to an abrupt end. A second 
 glance, however, showed him a tall house next door present- 
 ing a gable to the garden, and in this gable a single window. 
 He passed to the front and saw a ticket offering unfurnished 
 lodgings by the month, and, on inquiry, the room which 
 commanded the Dictator's garden proved to be one of those 
 to let. Francis did not hesitate a moment ; he took the room, 
 paid an advance upon the rent, and returned to his hotel to 
 seek his baggage. 
 
 ISO
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 The old man with the sabre-cut might or might not be his 
 father; he might or he might not be on the true scent; but 
 he was certainly on the edge of an exciting mystery, and he 
 promised himself that he would not relax his observation until 
 he had got to the bottom of the secret. 
 
 From the window of his new apartment Francis Scrym- 
 geour commanded a complete view into the garden of the 
 house with the green blinds. Immediately below him a very 
 comely chestnut with wide boughs sheltered a pair of rustic 
 tables where people might dine in the height of summer. On 
 all sides save one a dense vegetation concealed the soil: but 
 there, between the tables and the house, he saw a patch of 
 gravel walk leading from the veranda to the garden gate. 
 Studying the places from between the boards of the Venetian 
 shutter, which he durst not open for fear of attracting atten- 
 tion, Francis observed but little to indicate the manners of 
 the inhabitants, and that little argued no more than a close 
 reserve and a taste for solitude. The garden was conven- 
 tual, the house had the air of a prison. The green blinds 
 were all drawn down upon the outside ; the door into the 
 veranda was closed; the garden, as far as he could see it, 
 was left entirely to itself in the evening sunshine. A modest 
 curl of smoke from a single chimney alone testified to the 
 presence of living people. 
 
 In order that he might not be entirely idle, and to give a 
 certain color to his way of life, Francis had purchased 
 Euclid's Geometry in French, which he set himself to copy 
 and translate on the top of his portmanteau and seated on 
 the floor against the wall; for he was equally without chair 
 or table. From time to time he would rise and cast a glance 
 into the enclosure of the house with the green blinds ; but the 
 windows remained obstinately closed and the garden empty. 
 
 Only late in the evening did anything occur to reward 
 his continued attention. Between nine and ten the sharp 
 tinkle of a bell aroused him from a fit of dozing; and he 
 sprang to his observatory in time to hear an important 
 noise of locks being opened and bars removed, and to see 
 Mr. Vandeleur, carrying a lantern and clothed in a flowing 
 
 131
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 robe of black velvet with a skull-cap to match, issue from 
 under the veranda and proceed leisurely toward the garden 
 gate. The sound of bolts and bars was then repeated; and 
 a moment after Francis perceived the Dictator escorting 
 into the house, in the mobile light of the lantern, an individual 
 of the lowest and most despicable appearance. 
 
 Half-an-hour afterward the visitor was reconducted to 
 the street; and Mr. Vandeleur, setting his light upon one 
 of the rustic tables, finished a cigar with great deliberation 
 under the foliage of the chestnut. Francis, peering through 
 a clear space among the leaves, was able to follow his ges- 
 tures as he threw away the ash or enjoyed a copious inhala- 
 tion; and beheld a cloud upon the old man's brow and a 
 forcible action of the lips, which testified to some deep and 
 probably painful train of thought. The cigar was already 
 almost at an end, when the voice of a young girl was heard 
 suddenly crying the hour from the interior of the housCo 
 
 *' In a moment," replied John Vandeleur. 
 
 And, with that, he threw away the stump and, taking up 
 the lantern, sailed away under the veranda for the night. 
 As soon as the door was closed, absolute darkness fell upon 
 the house ; Francis might try his eyesight as much as he 
 pleased, he could not detect so much as a single chink of light 
 below a blind ; and he concluded, with great good sense, that 
 the bed chambers were all upon the other side. 
 
 Early the next morning (for he was early awake after 
 an uncomfortable night upon the floor), he saw cause to 
 adopt a different explanation. The blinds rose, one after 
 another, by means of a spring in the interior, and disclosed 
 steel shutters such as we see on the front of shops ; these in 
 their turn were rolled up by a similar contrivance; and for 
 the space of about an hour, the chambers were left open to 
 the morning air. At the end of that time Mr. Vandeleur, 
 with his own hand, once more closed the shutters and replaced 
 the blinds from within. 
 
 VV^hile Francis was still marvelling at these precautions, 
 the door opened and a young girl came forth to look about 
 her in the garden. It was not two minutes before she re- 
 
 132
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 entered the house, but even in that short time he saw enough 
 to convince him that she possessed the most unusual attrac- 
 tions. His curiosity was not only highly excited by this 
 incident, but his spirits were improved to a still more notable 
 degree. The alarming manners and more than equivocal 
 life of his father ceased from that moment to prey upon his 
 mind; from that moment he embraced his new family with 
 ardor; and whether the young lady should prove his sister 
 or his wife, he felt convinced she was an angel in disguise. 
 So much was this the case that he was seized with a sudden 
 horror when he reflected how little he really knew, and how 
 possible it was that he followed the wrong person when he 
 followed Mr. Vandeleur. 
 
 The porter, whom he consulted, could afford him little in- 
 formation ; but, such as it was, it had a mysterious and 
 questionable sound. The person next door was an English 
 gentleman of extraordinary wealth, and proportionately ec- 
 centric in his tastes and habits. He possessed great collec- 
 tions, which he kept in the house beside him; and it was to 
 protect these that he had fitted the place with steel shutters, 
 elaborate fastenings and chevaux-de-frise along the garden 
 wall. He lived much alone, in spite of some strange visitors 
 with whom, it seemed, he had business to transact; and there 
 was no one in the house except Mademoiselle and an old 
 woman servant. 
 
 " Is Mademoiselle his daughter .^ " inquired Francis. 
 
 " Certainly," replied the porter. " Mademoiselle is the 
 daughter of the house ; and strange it is to see how she is 
 made to work. For all his riches, it is she who goes to 
 market ; and every day in the week you may see her going 
 by with a basket on her arm." 
 
 " And the collections ? " asked the other. 
 
 " Sir," said the man, " they are immensely valuable. ]\Iore 
 I cannot tell you. Since M. de Vandeleur's arrival no one 
 in the quarter has so much as passed the door." 
 
 " Suppose not," returned Francis, " you must surely have 
 some notion what these famous galleries contain. Is it pic- 
 tures, silks, statues, jewels, or what.'' " 
 
 133
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ** My faith, sir," said the fellow with a shrug, " it might 
 be carrots, and still I could not tell you. How should I 
 know? The house is kept like a garrison, as you perceive." 
 
 And then as Francis was returning disappointed to his 
 room, the porter called him back. 
 
 *' I have just remembered, sir," said he. " M. de Vande- 
 leur has been in all parts of the world, and I once heard the 
 old woman declare that he had brought many diamonds back 
 with him. If that be the truth, there must be a fine show 
 behind those shutters." 
 
 By an early hour on Sunday Francis was in his place at 
 the theatre. The seat which had been taken for him was 
 only two or three numbers from the left hand side, and 
 directly opposite one of the lower boxes. As the seat had 
 been specially chosen there was doubtless something to be 
 learned from its position; and he judged by instinct that 
 the box upon his right was, in some way or other, to be 
 connected with the drama in which he ignorantly played a 
 part. Indeed it was so situated that its occupants could 
 safely observe him from beginning to end of the piece, if 
 they were so minded ; while, profiting by the depth, they 
 could screen themselves sufficiently well from any counter- 
 examination on his side. He promised himself not to leave 
 it for a moment out of sight; and whilst he scanned the rest 
 of the theatre, or made a show of attending to the business 
 of the stage, he always kept a corner of an eye upon the 
 empty box. 
 
 The second act had been some time in progress, and was 
 even drawing towards a close, when the door opened and 
 two persons entered and ensconced themselves in the darkest 
 of the shade. Francis could hardly control his emotion. It 
 was Mr. Vandeleur and his daughter. The blood came and 
 went in his arteries and veins with stunning activity; his 
 ears sang ; his head turned. He dared not look lest he should 
 awake suspicion ; his play-bill, which he kept reading from 
 end to end and over and over again, turned from white 
 to red before his eyes; and when he cast a glance upon the 
 stage, it seemed incalculably far away, and he found the 
 
 134
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 voices and gestures of the actors to the last degree imperti- 
 nent and absurd. 
 
 From time to time he risked a momentary look in the 
 direction which principally arrested him ; and once at least 
 he felt certain that his eyes encountered those of the young 
 girl, A shock passed over his body, and he saw all the 
 colors of the rainbow. What would he not have given to 
 overhear what passed between the Vandeleurs? What would 
 he not have given for the courage to take up his opera-glass 
 and steadily inspect their attitude and expression.^ There, 
 for aught he knew, his whole life was being decided — and he 
 not able to interfere, not able even to follow the debate, but 
 condemned to sit and suffer where he was, in impotent 
 anxiety. 
 
 At last the act came to an end. The curtain fell, and the 
 people around him began to leave their places for the inter- 
 val. It was only natural that he should follow their example ; 
 and if he did so, it was not only natural but necessary that 
 he should pass immediately in front of the box in question. 
 Summoning all his courage, but keeping his ej'es lowered, 
 Francis drew near the spot. His progress was slow, for the 
 old gentleman before him moved with incredible deliberation, 
 wheezing as he went. What was he to do.'' Should he ad- 
 dress the Vandeleurs by name as he went by.'' Should he 
 take the flower from his buttonhole and throw it into the 
 box.'' Should he raise his face and direct one long and 
 aff^ectionate look upon the lady who was either his sister or 
 his betrothed.'' As he found himself thus struggling among 
 so many alternatives, he had a vision of his old equable exist- 
 ence in the bank, and was assailed by a thought of regret 
 for the past. 
 
 By this time he had arrived directly opposite the box ; 
 and although he was still undetermined what to do or 
 whether to do anything, he turned his head and lifted his 
 eyes. No sooner had he done so than he uttered a cry of 
 disappointment and remained rooted to the spot. The box 
 was empty. During his slow advance Mr. Vandeleur and his 
 daughter had quietly slipped away. 
 
 135
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 A polite person in his rear reminded him that he was stop- 
 ping the path ; and he moved on again with mechanical foot- 
 steps, and suffered the crowd to carry him unresisting out of 
 the theatre. Once in the street, the pressure ceasing, he came 
 to a halt, and the cool night air speedily restored him to the 
 possession of his faculties. He was surprised to find that 
 his head ached violently, and that he remembered not one 
 word of the two acts which he had witnessed. As the excite- 
 ment wore away, it was succeeded by an overweening appe- 
 tite for sleep, and he hailed a cab and drove to his lodging 
 in a state of extreme exhaustion and some disgust of life. 
 
 Next morning he lay in wait for Miss Vandeleur on her 
 road to market, and by eight o'clock beheld her stepping 
 down a lane. She was simply, and even poorly, attired ; but 
 in the carriage of her head and body there was something 
 flexible and noble that would have lent distinction to the 
 meanest toilette. Even her basket, so aptly did she carry it, 
 became her like an ornament. It seemed to Francis, as he 
 slipped into a doorway, that the sunshine followed and the 
 shadows fled before her as she walked ; and he was conscious, 
 for the first time, of a bird singing in a cage above the lane. 
 
 He suffered her to pass the doorway, and then, coming 
 forth once more, addressed her by name from behind. 
 
 " Miss Vandeleur," said he. 
 
 She turned and, when she saw who he was, became deadly 
 pale. 
 
 " Pardon me," he continued ; " Heaven knows I had no will 
 to startle you ; and, indeed, there should be nothing startling 
 in the presence of one who wishes you so well as I do. And, 
 believe me, I am acting rather from necessity than choice. 
 \Ve have many things in common, and I am sadly in the 
 dark. There is much that I should be doing, and my hands 
 are tied. I do not know even what to feel, nor who are my 
 friends and enemies." 
 
 She found her voice with an effort. 
 
 " I do not know who you are," she said. 
 
 " All, yes ! Miss Vandeleur, you do," returned Francis ; 
 " better than I do myself. Indeed it is on that, above all, 
 
 136
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 that I seek light. Tell me what you know," he pleaded. 
 " Tell me who I am, who you are, and how our destinies are 
 intermixed. Give me a little help with my life, Miss Vande- 
 leur — only a word or two to guide me, only the name of my 
 father, if you will — and I shall be grateful and content." 
 
 " I will not attempt to deceive you," she rcpHed. " I 
 know who you are, but I am not at liberty to say." 
 
 " Tell me, at least, that you have forgiven my presump- 
 tion, and I shall wait with all the patience I have," he said. 
 *' If I am not to know, I must do without. It is cruel, but I 
 can bear more upon a push. Only do not add to my troubles 
 the thought that I have made an enemy of you." 
 
 " You did only what was natural," she said, " and I have 
 nothing to forgive you. Farewell." 
 
 " Is it to be farewell? " he asked. 
 
 " Nay, that I do not know myself," she answered. " Fare- 
 vvell for the present, if you like." 
 ^ And with these words she was gone. 
 
 Francis returned to his lodging in a state of considerable 
 commotion of mind. He made the most trifling progress 
 with his Euclid for that forenoon, and was more often at the 
 window than at his improvised writing-table. But beyond 
 seeing the return of Miss Vandeleur, and the meeting be- 
 tween her and her father, who was smoking a Trichinopoli 
 cigar in the verandah, there was nothing notable in the neigh- 
 borhood of the house with the green blinds before the time 
 of the midday meal. The young man hastily allayed his 
 appetite in a neighboring restaurant, and returned with the 
 speed of unallayed curiosity to the house in the Rue Lepic. 
 A mounted servant was leading a saddle-horse to and fro 
 before the garden wall; and the porter of Francis's lodging 
 was smoking a pipe, against the doorpost, absorbed in con- 
 templation of the livery and the steeds. 
 
 " Look ! " he cried to the young man, " what fine cattle ! 
 what an elegant costume ! They btlong to the brother of 
 M. de Vandeleur, who is now within upon a visit. He is a 
 great man, a general, in your country ; and you doubtless 
 know him well by reputation." 
 
 137
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " I confess," returned Francis, " that I have never 
 heard of General Vandeleur before. We have many offi- 
 cers of that grade, and my pursuits have been exclusively 
 civil." 
 
 " It is he," replied the porter, " who lost the great dia- 
 mond of the Indies. Of that at least you must have read 
 often In the papers." 
 
 As soon as Francis could disengage himself from the por- 
 ter, he ran upstairs and hurried to the window. Immediately 
 below the clear space In the chestnut leaves, the two gentle- 
 men were seated In conversation over a cigar. The Gen- 
 eral, a red, military-looking man, offered some traces of a 
 family resemblance to his brother ; he had something of the 
 same features, something, although very little, of the same 
 free and powerful carriage ; but he was older, smaller, and 
 more common In air ; his likeness was that of a caricature, 
 and he seemed altogether a poor and deblle being by the side 
 of the Dictator. 
 
 They spoke in tones so low, leaning over the table with 
 every appearance of Interest, that Francis could catch no 
 more than a word or two on an occasion. For as little as he 
 heard, he was convinced that the conversation turned upon 
 himself and his own career ; several times the name of Scrym- 
 geour reached his ear, for it was easy to distinguish, and 
 still more frequently he fancied he could distinguish the 
 name Francis. 
 
 At length the General, as If In a hot anger, broke forth 
 into several violent exclamations. 
 
 " Francis Vandeleur ! " he cried, accentuating the last 
 word. " Francis Vandeleur, I tell you." 
 
 The Dictator made a movement of his whole body, half 
 affirmative, half contemptuous, but his answer was inaudible 
 to the young man. 
 
 Was he the Francis Vandeleur In question? he wondered. 
 Were they discussing the name under which he was to be 
 married .f' Or was the whole affair a dream and a delusion of 
 his own conceit and self-absorption? 
 
 After another interval of Inaudible talk, dissension seemed 
 
 138
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 again to arise between the couple underneath the chestnut, 
 and again the General raised his voice angrily so as to be 
 audible to Francis. 
 
 "My wife?" he cried. "I have done with my wife for 
 good. I will not hear her name. I am sick of her very 
 name." 
 
 And he swore aloud and beat the table with his fist. 
 
 The Dictator appeared, by his gestures, to pacify him 
 after a paternal fashion ; and a little after he conducted him 
 to the garden gate. The pair shook hands affectionately 
 enough ; but as soon as the door had closed behind his visitor, 
 John Vandeleur fell into a fit of laughter which sounded 
 unkindly and even devilish in the ears of Francis Scrj^m- 
 geour. 
 
 So another day had passed, and little more learnt. But 
 the young man remembered that the morrow was Tuesday, 
 and promised himself some curious discoveries ; all might be 
 well, or all might be ill ; he was sure, at least, to glean some 
 curious information, and, perhaps, by good luck, get at the 
 heart of the mystery which surrounded his father and his 
 family. 
 
 As the hour of the dinner drew near many preparations 
 were made in the garden of the house with the green blinds. 
 The table which was partly visible to Francis through the 
 chestnut leaves was destined to serve as a sideboard, and car- 
 ried relays of plates and the materials for salad: the other, 
 which was almost entirely concealed, had been set apart for 
 the diners, and Francis could catch glimpses of white cloth 
 and silver plate. 
 
 Mr. RoUes arrived, punctual to the minute ; he looked like 
 a man upon his guard, and spoke low and sparingly. The 
 Dictator, on the other hand, appeared to enjoy an unusual 
 flow of spirits ; his laugh, which was youthful and pleasant 
 to hear, sounded frequently from the garden; by the modu- 
 lation and the changes of his voice it was obvious that he 
 told many droll stories and imitated the accents of a variety 
 of different nations ; and before he and the young clergyman 
 had finished their vermouth all feeling of distrust was at an 
 
 139
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 end, and they were talking together like a pair of school 
 companions. 
 
 At length Miss Vandeleur made her appearancej carrying 
 the soup-tureen. Mr. Rolles ran to offer her assistance, 
 which she laughingly refused; and there was an interchange 
 of pleasantries among the trio which seemed to have refer- 
 ence to this primitive manner of waiting by one of the 
 company. 
 
 " One is more at one's ease," Mr. Vandeleur was heard to 
 declare. 
 
 Next moment they were all three in their places, and 
 Francis could see as little as he could hear of what passed ; 
 but the dinner seemed to go merrily ; there was a perpetual 
 babble of voices and sound of knives and forks below the 
 chestnut ; and Francis, who had no more than a roll to gnaw, 
 was affected with envy by the comfort and deliberation of 
 the meal. The party lingered over one dish after another, 
 and then over a delicate dessert, with a bottle of old wine 
 carefully uncorked by the hand of the Dictator himself. As 
 it began to grow dark a lamp was set upon the table and a 
 couple of candles on the sideboard ; for the night was per- 
 fectly pure, starry, and windless. Light overflowed besides 
 from the door and window in the verandah, so that the gar- 
 den was fairly illuminated and the leaves twinkled in the 
 darkness. 
 
 For perhaps the tenth time Miss Vandeleur entered the 
 house ; and on this occasion she returned with the coffee tray, 
 which she placed upon the sideboard. At the same moment 
 her father rose from his seat. 
 
 " The coffee is my province," Francis heard him say. 
 
 And next moment he saw his supposed father standing bj? 
 the sideboard in the light of the candles. 
 
 Talking over his shoulder all the while, Mr. Vandeleur 
 poured out two cups of the brown stimulant, and then, by a 
 rapid act of prestidigitation, emptied the contents of a tiny 
 phial into the smaller one of the two. The thing was so 
 swiftly done that even Francis, who looked straight into his 
 face, had hardly time to perceive the movement before it was 
 
 14Q
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 completed. And next instant, and still laughing, Mr. Van- 
 deleur had turned again towards the table with a cup in 
 either hand. 
 
 " We have done with this," said he, " we may expect our 
 famous Hebrew." 
 
 It would be impossible to depict the confusion and dis- 
 tress of Francis Scrymgeour. He saw foul play going for- 
 ward before his eyes, and he felt bound to interfere, but 
 knew not how. It might be a mere pleasantry, and then how 
 should he look if he were to offer an unnecessary warning.'' 
 Or again, if it were serious, the criminal might be his own 
 father, and then how should he not lament if he were to 
 bring ruin on the author of his days? For the first time he 
 became conscious of his own position as a spy. To wait 
 inactive at such a juncture and with such a conflict of senti- 
 ments in his bosom was to suffer the most acute torture; he 
 clung to the bars of the shutters, his heart beat fast and 
 with irregularity, and he felt a strong sweat break forth 
 upon his body. 
 
 Several minutes passed. 
 
 He seemed to perceive the conversation die away and 
 grow less and less in vivacity and volume; but still no sign 
 of any alarming or even notable event. 
 
 Suddenly the ring of a glass breaking was followed by 
 a faint and dull sound, as of a person who should have 
 fallen forward with his head upon the table. At the same 
 moment a piercing scream rose from the garden. 
 
 " What have you done ? " cried Miss Vandeleur. " He Is 
 dead ! " 
 
 The Dictator replied in, a violent whisper, so strong and 
 sibilant that every word was audible to the watcher at the 
 window. 
 
 " Silence ! " said Mr. Vandeleur ; " the man Is as well as 
 I am. Take him by the heels whilst I carry him by the 
 shoulders." 
 
 Francis heard Miss Vandeleur break forth into a passion 
 of tears. 
 
 " Do you hear what I say ? " resumed the Dictator, In the 
 
 141,
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 same tones. "Or do you wish to quarrel with me? I give 
 you your choice, Miss Vandeleur." 
 
 There was another pause, and the Dictator spoke again. 
 
 " Take that man by the heels," he said. " I must have 
 him brought into the house. If I were a little younger, I 
 could help myself against the world. But now that years 
 and dangers are upon me and my hands are weakened, I 
 must turn to you for aid." 
 
 " It is a crime," replied the girl. 
 
 " I am your father," said Mr. Vandeleur. 
 
 This appeal seemed to produce its effect. A scuffling 
 noise followed upon the gravel, a chair was overset, and 
 then Francis saw the father and daughter stagger across 
 the walk and disappear under the verandah, bearing the 
 inanimate body of Mr. Rolles embraced about the knees and 
 shoulders. The young clergyman was limp and pallid, and 
 his head rolled upon his shoulders at every step. 
 
 Was he alive or dead.'' Francis, in spite of the Dictator's 
 declaration, inclined to the latter view. A great crime had 
 been committed ; a great calamity had fallen upon the in- 
 habitants of the house with the green blinds. To his sur- 
 prise, Francis found all horror for the deed swallowed up 
 in sorrow for a girl and an old man whom he judged to be 
 in the height of peril. A tide of generous feeling swept into 
 his heart; he, too, would help his father against man and 
 mankind, against fate and justice; and casting open the 
 shutters he closed his eyes and threw himself with out- 
 stretched arms into the foliage of the chestnut. 
 
 Branch after branch slipped from his grasp or broke un- 
 der his weight; then he caught a stalwart bough under his 
 armpit, and hung suspended for a second ; and then he let 
 himself drop and fell heavily against the table. A cry of 
 alarm from the house warned him that his entrance had not 
 been effected unobserved. He recovered himself with a stag- 
 ger, and in three bounds crossed the intervening space and 
 stood before the door in the verandah. 
 
 In a small apartment, carpeted with matting and sur- 
 rounded by glared cabinets full of rare and costly curios, 
 
 142
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 Mr. Vandeleur was stooping over the body of Mr. Rolles. 
 He raised himself as Francis entered, and there was an in- 
 stantaneous passage of hands. It was the business of a 
 second ; as fast as an eye can wink the thing was done ; the 
 young man had not the time to be sure, but it seemed to him 
 as if the Dictator had taken something from the curate's 
 breast, looked at it for the least fraction of time as it lay in 
 his hand, and then suddenly and swiftly passed it to his 
 daughter. 
 
 All this was over while Francis had still one foot upon 
 the threshold, and the other raised in air. The next instant 
 he was on his knees to Mr. Vandeleur. 
 
 " Father ! " he cried. " Let me too help you. I will do 
 what you wish and ask no questions ; I will obey you with 
 my life; treat me as a son, and you will find I have a son's 
 devotion." 
 
 A deplorable explosion of oaths was the Dictator's first 
 reply. 
 
 " Son and Father? " he cried. " Father and son? What 
 
 d d unnatural comedy is all this? How do you come in 
 
 my garden? What do you want? And who, in God's name, 
 are you? " 
 
 Francis, with a stunned and shamefaced aspect, got upon 
 his feet again, and stood in silence. 
 
 Then a light seemed to break upon Mr. Vandeleur, and 
 he laughed aloud. 
 
 " I see," cried he. " It is the Scrymgeour. Very well, 
 Mr. Scrymgeour. Let me tell you in a few words how 3'ou 
 stand. You have entered my private residence by force, or 
 perhaps by fraud, but certainly with no encouragement from 
 me; and you come at a moment of some annoyance, a guest 
 having fainted at my table, to besiege me with your pro- 
 testations. You are no son of mine. You are my brother's 
 bastard by a fishwife, if you want to knoAV. I regard you 
 with an indiiference closely bordering on aversion ; and from 
 what I now see of your conduct, I judge your mind to be 
 exactly suitable to your exterior. I recommend you these 
 mortifying reflections for your leisure ; and, in the meantime, 
 
 143
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 let me beseech you to rid us of your presence. If I were not 
 occupied," added the Dictator, with a terrifying oath, " I 
 should give you the unholiest drubbing ere you went ! " 
 
 Francis hstened in profound humihation. He would have 
 fled had it been possible; but as he had no means of leaving 
 the residence into which he had so unfortunately penetrated, 
 he could do no more than stand foolishly where he was. 
 
 It was Miss Vandeleur who broke the silence. 
 
 " Father," she said, " you speak in anger. Mr. Scrym- 
 geour may have been mistaken, but he meant well and 
 kindly." 
 
 " Thank you for speaking," returned the Dictator. " You 
 remind me of some other observations which I hold it a point 
 of honor to make to Mr. Scrymgeour. My brother," he 
 continued, addressing the young man, " has been foolish 
 enough to give you an allowance ; he was foolish enough and 
 presumptuous enough to propose a match between you and 
 this jroung lady. You were exhibited to her two nights ago ; 
 and I rejoice to tell you that she rejected the Idea with dis- 
 gust. Let me add that I have considerable Influence with 
 your father ; and it shall not be my fault if you are not beg- 
 gared of your allowance and sent back to your scrivening 
 ere the week be out." 
 
 The tones of the old man's voice were, if possible, more 
 wounding than his language; Francis felt himself exposed 
 to the most cruel, blighting, and unbearable contempt; his 
 head turned, and he covered his face with his hands, uttering 
 at the same time a tearless sob of agony. But Miss Vande- 
 leur once again Interfered in his behalf. 
 
 " Mr. Scrymgeour," she said, speaking in clear and even 
 tones, " you must not be concerned at my father's harsh ex- 
 pressions. I felt no disgust for you ; on the contrary, I 
 asked an opportunity to make your better acquaintance. As 
 for what has passed to-night, believe me, it has filled my 
 mind with both pity and esteem." 
 
 Just then Mr. Rolles made a convulsive movement with 
 his arm, which convinced Francis that he was only drugged, 
 and was beginning to throw off' the influence of the opiate, 
 
 14i
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 Mr. Vandeleur stooped over him and examined his face for 
 an Instant. 
 
 " Come, come ! " cried he, raising his head. " Let there be 
 an end of this. And, since you are so pleased with his con- 
 duct. Miss Vandeleur, take a candle and show the bastard 
 out." 
 
 The young lady hastened to obey. 
 
 " Thank you," said Francis, as soon as he was alone with 
 her in the garden. " I thank you from my soul. This has 
 been the bitterest evening of my life, but it will have always 
 one pleasant recollection." 
 
 " I spoke as I felt," she replied, " and In justice to you. 
 It made my heart sorry that you should be so unkindly 
 used." 
 
 By this time they had reached the garden gate; and Miss 
 Vandeleur, having set the candle on the ground, was already 
 unfastening the bolts. 
 
 " One word more," said Francis. *' This Is not for the 
 last time— I shall see you again, shall I not? " 
 
 " Alas ! " she answered. " You have heard my father. 
 What can I do but obey ? " 
 
 " Tell me at least that it Is not with your consent," re- 
 turned Francis ; " tell me that you have no wish to see the 
 last of jne." 
 
 " Indeed," replied she, " I have none. You seem to me 
 both brave and honest." 
 
 " Then," said Francis, " give me a keepsake." 
 
 She paused for a moment, with her hand upon the key; 
 for the various bars and bolts were all undone, and there 
 was nothing left but to open the lock. 
 
 " If I agree," she said, " will you promise to do as I tell 
 you from point to point? " 
 
 "Can you ask?" replied Francis. "I would do so will- 
 ingly on your bare word." 
 
 She turned the key and threw open the door. 
 
 " Be it so," said she. " You do not know what you ask, 
 but be It so. Whatever you hear," she continued, " whatever 
 happens, do not return to this house; hurry fast until you 
 
 145
 
 ]\^EW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 reach the lighted and populous quarters of the city ; even 
 there be upon your guard. You are in a greater danger than 
 you fancy. Promise me you will not so much as look at my 
 keepsake until you are in a place of safety." 
 
 " I promise," replied Francis. 
 
 She put something loosely wrapped in a handkerchief Into 
 the young man's hand; and at the same time, with more 
 strength than he could have anticipated, she pushed him into 
 the street. 
 
 " Now, run ! " she cried. 
 
 He heard the door closed behind him, and the noise of 
 the bolts being replaced. 
 
 " My faith," said he, " since I have promised ! " 
 
 And he tool^ to his heels down the lane that leads Into the 
 Rue Ravignan. 
 
 He was not fifty paces from the house with the green 
 blinds when the most diabolical outcry suddenly arose out 
 of the stillness of the night. Mechanically he stood still; 
 another passenger followed his example ; in the neighboring 
 floors he saw people crowding to the windows ; a conflagra- 
 tion could not have produced more disturbance in this empty 
 quarter. And yet it seemed to be all the work of a single 
 man, roaring between grief and rage, like a lioness robbed 
 of her whelps ; and Francis was surprised and alarmed to 
 hear his own name shouted with EngHsh imprecations to 
 the wind. 
 
 His first movement was to return to the house ; his second, 
 as he remembered Miss Vandeleur's advice, to continue his 
 flight with greater expedition than before; and he was in 
 the act of turning to put his thought in action, when the 
 Dictator, bareheaded, bawling aloud, his white hair blowing 
 about his head, shot past him like a ball out of the cannon's 
 mouth, and went careering down the street. 
 
 *' That was a close shave," thought Francis to himself. 
 " What he wants with me, and why he should be so disturbed, 
 I cannot think; but he is plainly not good company for the 
 moment, and I cannot do better than follow Miss Vandeleur's 
 advice." 
 
 146
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAINIOND 
 
 So saying, he turned to retrace his steps, thinking to 
 double and descend by the Rue Lepic itself while his pursuer 
 should continue to follow after him on the other line of 
 street. The plan was ill-advised: as a matter of fact, he 
 should have taken his seat in the nearest cafe, and waited 
 there until the first heat of the pursuit was over. But be- 
 sides that Francis had no experience and little natural apti- 
 tude for the small war of private life, he was so unconscious 
 of any evil on his part, that he saw nothing to fear beyond 
 a disagreeable interview. And to disagreeable interviews he 
 felt he had already served his apprenticeship that evening; 
 nor could he suppose that Miss Vandeleur had left anything 
 unsaid. Indeed, the young man was sore both in body and 
 mind — the one was all bruised, the other was full of smart- 
 ing arrows ; and he owned to himself that Mr. Vandeleur was 
 master of a very deadly tongue. 
 
 The thought of his bruises reminded him that he had not 
 only come without a hat, but that his clothes had consider- 
 ably suffered in his descent through the chestnut. At the 
 first magazine he purchased a cheap wideawake, and had the 
 disorder of his toilet summarily repaired. The keepsake, 
 still rolled in the handkerchief, he thrust in the meanwhile 
 into his trousers pocket. 
 
 Not many steps beyond the shop he was conscious of a 
 sudden shock, a hand upon his throat, an infuriated face 
 close to his own, and an open mouth bawling curses in his 
 ear. The Dictator, having found no trace of his quarry, 
 was returning by the other way. Francis was a stalwart 
 young fellow ; but he was no match for his adversary 
 whether in strength or skill; and after a few ineffectual 
 struggles he resigned himself entirely to his captor. 
 
 " What do you want with me ? " 
 
 " We will talk of that at home," returned the Dictator, 
 grimly. 
 
 And he continued to march the young man up hill in the 
 direction of the house with the screen blinds. 
 
 But Francis, although he no longer struggled, was only 
 waiting an opportunity to make a bold push for freedom. 
 
 147
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 With a sudden jerk he left the collar of his coat In the hands 
 of Mr. Vandeleur, and once more made off at his best speed 
 in the direction of the Boulevards. 
 
 The tables were now turned. If the Dictator was the 
 stronger, Francis, in the top of his youth, was the more 
 fleet of foot, and he had soon effected his escape among the 
 crowds. Relieved for a moment, but with a growing senti- 
 ment of alarm and wonder in his mind, he walked briskly 
 until he debouched upon the Place de I'Opera, lit up like day 
 with electric lamps. 
 
 " This, at least," thought he, " should satisfy Miss 
 Vandeleur." 
 
 And turning to his right along the Boulevards, he entered 
 the Cafe Americain and ordered some beer. It was both late 
 and early for the majority of the frequenters of the estab- 
 lishment. Only two or three persons, all men, were dotted 
 here and there at separate tables in the hall ; and Francis was 
 too much occupied by his own thoughts to observe their 
 presence. 
 
 He drew the handkerchief from his pocket. The object 
 wrapped in It proved to be a morocco case, clasped and 
 ornamented in gilt, which opened by means of a spring, and 
 disclosed to the horrified young man a diamond of monstrous 
 bigness and extraordinary brilliancy. The circumstance was 
 so inexplicable, the value of the stone was plainly so enor- 
 mous, that Francis sat staring into the open casket without 
 movement, without conscious thought, like a man stricken 
 suddenly with idiocy. 
 
 A hand was laid upon his shoulder, lightly but firmly, and 
 a quiet voice, which yet had in it the ring of command, ut- 
 tered these words in his ear: — 
 
 " Close the casket, and compose your face." 
 
 Looking up, he beheld a man, still young, of an urbane 
 and tranquil presence, and dressed with rich simplicity. This 
 personage had risen from a neighboring table, and bringing 
 his glass with him, had taken a seat beside Francis. 
 
 " Close the casket," replied the stranger, " and put It 
 quietly back into your pocket, where I feel persuaded it 
 
 148 
 
 I
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 should never have been. Try, if you please, to throw off 
 your bewildered air, and act as though I were one of your 
 acquaintances whom you had met by chance. So ! Touch 
 glasses with me. That is better. I fear, sir, you must be 
 an amateur." 
 
 And the stranger pronounced these last words with a 
 smile of peculiar meaning, leaned back in his seat and en- 
 joyed a deep inhalation of tobacco. 
 
 " For God's sake," said Francis, " tell me who you are 
 and what this means? Why I should obey your most un- 
 usual suggestions I am sure I know not; but the truth is, I 
 have fallen this evening into so many perplexing adventures, 
 and all I meet conduct themselves so strangely, that I think 
 I must either have gone mad or wandered into another planet. 
 Your face inspires me with confidence; you seem wise, good, 
 and experienced; tell mc, for Heaven's sake, why you accost 
 me in so odd a fashion? " 
 
 " All in due time," replied the stranger. " But I have 
 the first hand, and you must begin by telling me how the 
 Rajah's Diamond is in your possession." 
 
 " The Rajah's Diamond! " 
 
 *' I would not speak so loud, if I were you," returned the 
 other. " But most certainly you have the Rajah's Diamond 
 in your pocket. I have seen and handled it a score of times 
 in Sir Thomas Vandeleur's collection." 
 
 " Sir Thomas Vandeleur ! The General ! My father ! " 
 
 *' Your father?" repeated the stranger. "I was not 
 aware the General had any family." 
 
 " I am illegitimate, sir," replied Francis with a flush. 
 
 The other bowed with gravity. It was a respectful bow, 
 as of a man silently apologizing to his equal; and Francis 
 felt relieved and comforted, he scarce knew why. The 
 society of this person did him good ; he seemed to touch firm 
 ground; a strong feeling of respect grew up in his bosom, 
 and mechanically he removed his wide-awake as though in 
 the presence of a superior. 
 
 " I perceive," said the stranger, " that your adventures 
 have not all been peaceful. Your collar is torn, your face 
 
 149
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 is scratched, you have a cut upon your temple; you will, 
 perhaps, pardon my curiosity when I ask you to explain 
 how you came by these injuries and how you happen 
 to have stolen property to an enormous value in your 
 pocket." 
 
 " I must differ from you ! " returned Francis, hotly. " I 
 possess no stolen property. And if you refer to the dia- 
 mond, it was given to me not an hour ago by Miss Vandeleur 
 in the Rue Lepic." 
 
 " By Miss Vandeleur of the Rue Lepic ! " repeated the 
 other. " You interest me more than you suppose. Pray 
 continue." 
 
 " Heavens ! " cried Francis. 
 
 His memory had made a sudden bound. He had seen Mr. 
 Vandeleur take an article from the breast of his drugged 
 visitor, and that article, he was now persuaded, was a mo- 
 rocco case. 
 
 " You have a light.? " inquired the stranger. 
 
 " Listen," said Francis. " I know not who you are, but 
 I believe you to be worthy of confidence and helpful; I find 
 myself in strange waters ; I must have counsel and support, 
 and since you invite me I shall tell you all." 
 
 And he briefly recounted his experiences since the day 
 when he was summoned from the bank by his lawyer. 
 
 " Yours is indeed a remarkable history," said the stranger, 
 after the young man had made an end of his narrative ; 
 " and your position is full of difficulty and peril. Many 
 would counsel you to seek out your father, and give the 
 diamond to him ; but I have other views. Waiter ! " he cried. 
 
 The waiter drew near. 
 
 " Will you ask the manager to speak with me a moment.? " 
 said he; and Francis observed once more, both in his tone 
 and manner, the evidence of a habit of command. 
 
 The waiter withdrew, and returned in a moment with the 
 manager, who bowed with obsequious respect. 
 
 "What,'* said he, " can I do to serve you.? " 
 
 " Have the goodness," replied the stranger, indicating 
 Francis, '* to tell this gentleman my name.'*' 
 
 150
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 •• You have the honor, sir," said the functionary, address- 
 ing young Scrymgeour, " to occupy the same table with His 
 Highness Prince Florizel of Bohemia." 
 
 Francis rose with precipitation, and made a grateful 
 reverence to the Prince, who bade him resume his seat. 
 
 " I thank you," said Florizel, once more addressing the 
 functionary ; " I am sorry to have deranged you for so 
 small a matter." 
 
 And he dismissed him with a movement of his hand. 
 
 " And now," added the Prince, turning to Francis, " give 
 me the diamond." 
 
 Without a word the casket was handed over. 
 
 " You have done right," said Florizel ; " your sentiments 
 have properly inspired you, and you will live to be grateful 
 for the misfortunes of to-night. A man, Mr. Scrymgeour, 
 may fall into a thousand perplexities, but if his heart be 
 upright and his intelligence unclouded, he will issue from 
 them all without dishonor. Let your mind be at rest ; your 
 affairs are in my hands ; and with the aid of Heaven I am 
 strong enough to bring them to a good end. Follow me, if 
 you please, to my carriage." 
 
 So saying the Prince arose and, having left a piece of 
 gold for the waiter, conducted the young man from the 
 cafe and along the Boulevard to where an unpretentious 
 brougham and a couple of servants cut of livery awaited his 
 arrival. 
 
 " This carriage," said he, " is at your disposal ; collect 
 your baggage as rapidly as you can make it convenient, and 
 my servants will conduct you to a villa in the neighborhood 
 of Paris where you can wait in some degree of comfort until 
 I have had time to arrange your situation. You will find 
 there a pleasant garden, a library of good authors, a cook, 
 a cellar, and some good cigars, which I recommend to your 
 attention. Jerome," he added, turning to one of the serv- 
 ants, " you have heard what I say ; I leave ]\Ir. Scrymgeour 
 in your charge ; you will, I know, be careful of my friend." 
 
 Francis uttered some broken phrases of gratitude. 
 
 " It will be time eaough to thank me," said the Prlace, 
 
 151
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ** when you are acknowledged by your father and married 
 to Miss Vandeleur." 
 
 And with that the Prince turned away and strolled 
 leisurely in the direction of Montmartre. He hailed the first 
 passing cab, gave an address, and a quarter of an hour 
 afterwards, having discharged the driver some distance 
 lower, he was knocking a/t Mr. Vandeleur's garden gate. 
 
 It was opened with singular precautions by the Dictator 
 in person. 
 
 " Who are you ? " he demanded. 
 
 " You must pardon me this late visit, Mr. Vandeleur," 
 replied the Prince. 
 
 " Your Highness is always welcome," returned Mr. Van- 
 deleur, stepping back. 
 
 The Prince profited by the open space, and without wait- 
 ing for his host walked right into the house and opened the 
 door of the salon. Two people were seated there ; one was 
 Miss Vandeleur, who bore the marks of weeping about her 
 eyes, and was still shaken from time to time by a sob ; in the 
 other the Prince recognized the young man who had con- 
 sulted him on literary matters about a month before, in a 
 club smoking-room. 
 
 " Good evening. Miss Vandeleur," said Florizel ; " you 
 look fatigued. Mr. Rolles, I believe? I hope you have 
 profited by the study of Gaboriau, Mr. Rolles." 
 
 But the young clergyman's temper was too much em- 
 bittered for speech; and he contented himself with bowing 
 stiffly, and continued to gnaw his lip. 
 
 " To what good wind," said Mr. Vandeleur, following his 
 guest, " am I to attribute the honor of your Highness's 
 presence? " 
 
 " I am come on business," returned the Prince ; " on bus- 
 iness with you ; as soon as that is settled I shall request Mr. 
 Rolles to accompany me for a walk. Mr. Rolles," he added, 
 with severity, " let me remind you that I have not yet sat 
 down." 
 
 The clergyman sprang to his feet with an apology; 
 whereupon the Prince took an armchair beside the table, 
 
 152
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIA]\IOND 
 
 handed his hat to Mr. Vandeleur, his cane to Mr. RoUes, and, 
 leaving them standing and thus menially employed upon his 
 service, spoke as follows : — 
 
 " I have come here, as I said, upon business ; but, had I 
 come looking for pleasure, I could not have been more dis- 
 pleased with my reception nor more dissatisfied with my com- 
 pany. You, sir," addressing Mr. Rolles, " you have treated 
 your superior in station with discourtesy ; you, Vandeleur, 
 receive me with a smile, but you know right well that your 
 hands are not yet cleansed from misconduct. I do not desire 
 to be interrupted, sir," he added, imperiously ; " I am here 
 to speak, and not to listen ; and I have to ask you to hear 
 me with respect, and to obey punctiKously. At the earhest 
 possible date your daughter shall be married at the Embassy 
 to my friend, Francis Scrymgeour, your brother's acknowl- 
 edged son. You will oblige me by offering not less than ten 
 thousand pounds dowry. For yourself, I will indicate to 
 you in writing a mission of some importance in Siam which 
 I destine to your care. And now, sir, you will answer me in 
 two words whether or not you agree to these conditions." 
 
 " Your Highness will pardon me," said Mr. Vandeleur, 
 *' and permit me, with aU respect, to submit to liim two 
 queries ? " 
 
 *' The permission is granted," replied the Prince. 
 
 " Your Highness," resumed the Dictator, " has called 
 Mr. Scrymgeour his friend. Believe me, had I known that 
 he was thus honored, I should have treated him with propor- 
 tional respect." 
 
 " You interrogate adroitly," said the Prince ; " but it will 
 not serve your turn. You have my commands ; if I had never 
 seen that gentleman before to-night, it would not render 
 them less absolute." 
 
 " Your Highness interprets my meaning with his usual 
 subtlety," returned Vandeleur. " Once more ; I have, unfor- 
 tunately, put the police upon the track of Mr. Scrymgeour 
 on a charge of theft; am I to withdraw or to uphold the 
 accusation? " 
 
 " You will please yourself," replied Florizel. " The ques- 
 
 15S
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 tlon is one between your conscience and the laws of this 
 land. Give me my hat; and you, Mr. Rolles, give me my 
 cane and follow me. Miss Vandeleur, I wish you good even- 
 ing. I judge," he added to Vandeleur, " that your silence 
 means unqualified assent." 
 
 " If I can do no better," replied the old man, " I shall 
 submit; but I warn you openly it shall not be without a 
 struggle." 
 
 " You are old," said the Prince ; " but years are disgrace- 
 ful to the wicked. Your age is more unwise than the youth 
 of others. Do not provoke me, or you may find me harder 
 than you dream. This is the first time that I have fallen 
 across your path in anger ; take care that it be the last." 
 
 With these words, motioning the clergyman to follow, 
 Florizel left the apartment and directed his steps towards 
 the garden gate; and fhe Dictator, following with a candle, 
 gave them light, and once more undid the elaborate fasten- 
 ings with which he sought to protect himself from intrusion. 
 
 " Your daughter is no longer present," said the Prince, 
 turning on the threshold. " Let me tell you that I under- 
 stand your threats ; and you nave only to lift your hand to 
 bring upon yourself sudden and irremediable ruin." 
 
 The Dictator made no reply ; but as the Prince turned 
 his back upon him in the lamplight he made a gesture full 
 of menace and insane fury ; and the next moment, slipping 
 round a corner, he was running at full speed for the nearest 
 cab-stand. 
 
 {Here, says my Arabian, the thread of events is fmally 
 diverted from The House with the Green Blinds. One 
 more adventure, he adds, and we have done with The 
 Rajah's Diamond. That last link in the chain is known 
 amiong the inhabitants of Bagdad by the n^me of Thb 
 Adventuee of Fbikce Florizel and a Detective.) 
 
 154
 
 ADVENTUEE 01* PRINCE FLOEIZEL AND THE DETECTIVB 
 
 PRINCE FLORIZEL walked with Mr. Rolles to the door 
 of a small hotel where the latter resided. They spoke 
 much together, and the clergyman was more than once 
 affected to tears by the mingled severity and tenderness of 
 Florizel's reproaches. 
 
 " I have made ruin of my life," he said at last. " Help 
 me ; tell me what I am to do ; I have, alas ! neither the virtues 
 of a priest nor the dexterity of a rogue." 
 
 " Now that you are humbled," said the Prince, " I com- 
 mand no longer; the repentant have to do with God and not 
 with princes. But if you will let me advise you, go to 
 Australia as a colonist, seek menial labor in the open air, and 
 try to forget that you have ever been a clergyman, or that 
 you ever set eyes on that accursed stone." 
 
 " Accurst indeed ! " replied Mr. Rolles. *' Where is it 
 now .'' What further hurt is it not working for mankind .'' " 
 
 " It will do no more evil," returned the Prince. " It is 
 here in my pocket. And this," he added, kindly, " will show 
 that I place some faith in your penitence, young as it is." 
 
 " Suffer me to touch your hand," -pleaded Mr. Rolles. 
 
 " No," rephed Prince Florizel, " not yet." 
 
 The tone in which he uttered these last words was eloquent 
 in the ears of the young clergyman; and for some minutes 
 after the Prince had turned away he stood on the threshold 
 following with his eyes the retreating figure and invoking 
 the blessing of Heaven upon a man so excellent in counsel. 
 
 For several hours the Prince walked alone in unfrequented 
 streets. His mind was full of concern ; what to do with the 
 diamond, whether to return it to its owner, whom he judged 
 unworthy of this rare possession, or to take some sweeping 
 and courageous measure and put it out of the reach of all 
 
 155
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 mankind at once and for ever was a problem too grave to 
 be decided in a moment. The manner in which it had come 
 into his hands appeared manifestly providential; and as he 
 took out the jewel and looked at it under the street lamps, 
 its size and surprising brilliancy inclined him more and more 
 to think of it as an unmixed and dangerous evil for the 
 world. 
 
 " God help me ! *' he thought ; " if I look at it much of tener 
 I shall begin to grow covetous myself." 
 
 At last, though still uncertain in his mind, he turned his 
 steps towards the small but elegant mansion on the riverside, 
 which had belonged for centuries to his royal family. The 
 arms of Bohemia are deeply graved over the door and upon 
 the tall chimneys ; passengers have a look into a green court 
 set with the most costly flowers, and a stork, the only one in 
 Paris, perches on the gable all day long and keeps a crowd 
 before the house. Grave servants are seen passing to and 
 fro within ; and from time to time the great gate is throv,^n 
 open and a carriage rolls below the arch. For many reasons 
 this residence was especially dear to the heart of Prince 
 Florizel; he never drew near to it without enjoying that 
 sentiment of home-coming so rare in the lives of the great; 
 and on the present evening he beheld its tall roof and mildly 
 illuminated windows with unfeigned relief and satisfaction. 
 
 As he was approaching the postern door by which he 
 always entered when alone, a man stepped forth from the 
 shadow and presented himself with an obeisance in the 
 Prince's path. 
 
 " I have the honor of addressing Prince Florizel of 
 Bohemia? " said he. 
 
 " Such is my title," replied the Prince. " What do you 
 want with me ? " 
 
 " I am," said the man, " a detective, and I have to present 
 your Highness with this billet from the Prefect of Police." 
 
 The Prince took the letter and glanced it through by the 
 light of the street lamp. It was highly apologetic, but re- 
 quested him to follow the bearer to the Prefecture without 
 delay. 
 
 156
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 " In short," said Florizel, " I am arrested." 
 
 " Your Highness," replied the officer, " nothing, I am 
 certain, could be further from the intention of the Prefect. 
 You will observe that he has not granted a warrant. It is 
 mere formality, or call it, if you prefer, an obligation that 
 your Highness lays on the authorities." 
 
 " At the same time," asked the Prince, " if I were to re- 
 fuse to follow you? " 
 
 " I will not conceal from your Highness that a consider- 
 able discretion has been granted me," replied the detective 
 with a bow. 
 
 " Upon my word," cried Florizel, " your effrontery con- 
 founds me ! Yourself, as an agent, I must pardon ; but your 
 superiors shall dearly smart for their misconduct. What, 
 have you any idea, is the cause of this impolitic and uncon- 
 stitutional act.? You will observe that I have as yet neither 
 refused nor consented and much may depend on your prompt 
 and ingenuous answer. Let me remind you, officer, that this 
 is an affair of some gravity." 
 
 " Your Highness," said the detective humbly, " General 
 Vandeleur and his brother have had the incredible presump- 
 tion to accuse you of theft. The famous diamond, they 
 declare, is in your hands. A word from you in denial will 
 most amply satisfy the Prefect; nay, I go farther: if your 
 Highness would so far honor a subaltern as to declare his 
 ignorance of the matter even to myself, I should ask per- 
 mission to retire upon the spot." 
 
 Florizel, up to the last moment, had regarded his adven- 
 ture in the light of a trifle, only serious upon international 
 considerations. At the name of Vandeleur the horrible truth 
 broke upon him in a moment; he was not only arrested, but 
 he was guilty. This was not only an annoying incident — it 
 was a peril to his honor. What was he to say.f* What was he 
 to do.f* The Rajah's Diamond was indeed an accursed stone; 
 and it seemed as if he were to be the last victim to its 
 influence. 
 
 One thing was certain. He could not give the required 
 assurance to the detective. He must gain time. 
 
 157
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 His hesitation had not lasted a second. 
 
 " Be it so," said he, " let us walk together to the l*re- 
 fecture." 
 
 The man once more bowed, and proceeded to follow Flor- 
 izel at a respectful distance in the rear. 
 
 " Approach," said the Prince. " I am in a humor to 
 talk, and, if I mistake not, now I look at you again, this is 
 not the first time that we have met." 
 
 " I count it an honor," replied the officer, " that your 
 Highness should recollect my face. It is eight years since 
 I had the pleasure of an interview." 
 
 " To remember faces," returned Florlzel, " is as much a 
 part of my profession as it is of yours. Indeed, rightly 
 looked upon, a Prince and a detective serve in the same corps. 
 We are both combatants against crime ; only mine is the 
 more lucrative and yours the more dangerous rank, and there 
 is a sense in which both may be made equally honorable to a 
 good man. I had rather, strange as you may think it, be a 
 detective of character and parts than a weak and ignoble 
 sovereign." 
 
 The officer was overwhelmed. 
 
 " Your Highness returns good for evil," said he. ** To 
 an act of presumption he replies by the most amiable con- 
 descension." 
 
 " How do you know," replied Florizel, " that I am not 
 seeking to corrupt you? " 
 
 " Heaven preserve me from the temptation ! " cried the 
 detective. 
 
 " I applaud your answer," returned the Prince. " It is 
 that of a wise and honest man. The world is a great place, 
 and stocked with wealth and beauty, and there is no limit to 
 the rewards that may be offered. Such an one who would 
 refuse a million of money may sell his honor for an empire 
 or the love of a woman ; and I myself, who speak to you, 
 have seen occasions so tempting, provocations so irresistible 
 to the strength of human virtue, that I have been glad to 
 tread in your steps and recommend myself to the grace of 
 God. It is thus, thanks to that modest and becoming habit 
 
 158
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAJSIOND 
 
 alone," he added, " that you and I can walk this town to- 
 gether with untarnished hearts." 
 
 " I had always heard that you were brave," replied the 
 officer, " but I was not aware that you were wise and pious. 
 You speak the truth, and you speak it with an accent that 
 moves me to the heart. This world is indeed a place of 
 trial." 
 
 " We are now," said Florizel, " in the middle of the 
 bridge. Lean your elbows on the parapet and look over. 
 As the water rushing below, so the passions and complica- 
 tions of life carry away the honesty of weak men. Let me 
 tell you a story." 
 
 " I receive your Highness's commands," replied the man. 
 
 And, imitating the Prince, he leaned against the parapet, 
 and disposed himself to listen. The city was already' sunk 
 in slumber ; had it not been for the infinity of lights and the 
 outline of buildings on the starry sky, they might have been 
 alone beside some country river. 
 
 " An officer," began Prince Florizel, " a man of courage 
 and conduct, who had already risen by merit to an eminent 
 rank, and won not only admiration but respect, visited, in an 
 unfortunate hour for his peace of mind, the collections of 
 an Indian Prince. Here he beheld a diamond so extraordi- 
 nary for size and beauty that from that instant he had only 
 one desire in life: honor, reputation, friendship, the love of 
 country, he was ready to sacrifice all for this lump of 
 sparkling crystal. For three years he served this semi-bar- 
 barian potentate as Jacob served Laban ; he falsified fron- 
 tiers, he connived at murders, he unjustly condemned and 
 executed a brother officer who had the misfortune to dis- 
 please the Raj ah by some honest freedoms ; lastly, at a time 
 of great danger to his native land, he betrayed a body of his 
 fellow-soldiers and suffered them to be defeated and mas- 
 sacred by thousands. In the end, he had amassed a mag^ 
 nificent fortune, and brought home with him the coveted 
 diamond. 
 
 " Years passed," continued the Prince, " and at length 
 the diamond is accidentally lost. It falls into the hands of 
 
 15Q
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 a simple and laborious youth, a student, a minister of God, 
 just entering on a career of usefulness and even distinction. 
 Upon him also the spell is cast; he deserts everything', his 
 holy calling, his studies, and flees with the gem into a for- 
 eign country. The officer has a brother, an astute, daring, 
 unscrupulous man, who learns the clergyman's secrete What 
 does he do.'' Tell his brother, inform the police? No; upon 
 this man also the Satanic charm has fallen; he must have 
 the stone for himself. At the risk of murder, he drugs the 
 young priest and seizes the prey. And now, by an accident 
 which is not important to my moral, the jewel passes out of 
 his custody into that of another, who, terrified at what he 
 sees, gives it into the keeping of a man in high station and 
 above reproach. 
 
 " The officer's name is Thomas Vandeleur," continued 
 Florizel. " The stone is called the Rajah's Diamond. 
 And " — suddenly opening his hand — " you behold it here 
 before your eyes." 
 
 The officer started back with a cry. 
 
 " We have spoken of corruption," said the Prince. " To 
 me this nugget of bright crystal is as loathsome as though 
 it were crawling with the worms of death; it is as shocking 
 as though it were compacted out of innocent blood. I see it 
 here in my hand, and I know it is shining with hell-fire. I 
 have told you but a hundredth part of its story ; what passed 
 in former ages, to what crimes and treacheries it incited men 
 of yore, the imagination trembles to conceive; for years and 
 years it has faithfully served the powers of hell ; enough, I 
 say, of blood, enough of disgrace, enough of broken lives 
 and friendships ; all things come to an end, the evil like the 
 good ; pestilence as well as beautiful music ; and as for this 
 diamond, God forgive me if I do wrong, but its empire ends 
 to-night." 
 
 The Prince made a sudden movement with his hand, and 
 the jewel, describing an arc of light, dived with a splash into 
 the flowing river. 
 
 " Amen," said Florizel, with gravity. " I have slain a 
 cockatrice ! " 
 
 160
 
 THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND 
 
 " God pardon me ! " cried the detective. " What have 
 you done? I am a ruined man." 
 
 " I tliink," returned the Prince, with a smile, "that many 
 Tvell-to-do people in this city might envy j'ou your ruin." 
 
 " Alas ! your Highness ! " said the officer, " and you cor- 
 inipt me after all.? " 
 
 " It seems there was no help for it," replied Florizel. 
 " And now let us go forward to the Prefecture." 
 
 Not long after, the marriage of Francis Scrymgeour and 
 Miss Vandeleur was celebrated in great privacy ; and the 
 Prince acted on that occasion as groom's man. The two 
 Vandeleurs surprised some rumor of what had happened to 
 the diamond; and their vast diving operations on the River 
 Seine are the wonder and amusement of the idle. It is true 
 that thi'ough some miscalculation they have chosen the wrong 
 branch of the river. As for the Prince, that sublime person, 
 having now served his turn, may go, along with the Arabian 
 Author, topsy-turvy into space. But if the reader insists 
 on more specific information, I am happy to say that a recent 
 revolution hurled him from the throne of Bohemia, in con- 
 sequence of his continued absence and edifying neglect of 
 public business ; and that his Highness now keeps a cigar 
 store in Rupert Street, much frequented by other foreign 
 refugees. 
 
 I go there from time to time to smoke and have a chat, and 
 find him as great a creature as in the days of his prosperity ; 
 he has an Olympian air behind the counter; and although a 
 sedentary life is beginning to tell upon his waistcoat, he is 
 probably, take him for all in all, the handsomest tobacconist 
 in London. 
 
 1@I
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 INSCRIBED TO 
 
 D. A. S. 
 
 IN MEMORY OF DAYS NEAR FIDRA
 
 THE PAVILION" OK THE LINKS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TELLS HOW I CAMPED IN GRADEN SEA-WOOD, AND BEHELD A 
 LIGHT IN THE PAVILION 
 
 I WAS a great solitary when I was young. I made it my 
 pride to keep aloof and suffice for my own entertain- 
 ment; and I may say that I had neither friends nor ac- 
 quaintances until I met that friend Vtho became my wife and 
 the mother of my children. With one man only was I on 
 private terms; this was R. Northmour, Esquire, of Graden 
 Easter, in Scotland. We had met at college; and though 
 there was not much liking between us, nor even much in- 
 timacy, we were so nearly of a humor that we could associate 
 with ease to both. Misanthropes, we believed ourselves to 
 be ; but I have thought since that we were only sulky fellows. 
 It was scarcely a companionship, but a coexistence in un- 
 sociability. Northmour's exceptional violence of temper 
 made it no easy aiEFalr for him to keep the peace with anyone 
 but me ; and as he respected my silent ways, and let me come 
 and go as I pleased, I could tolerate his presence without 
 concern. I think we called each other friends. 
 
 When Northmour took his degree and I decided to leave 
 the university without one, he invited me on a long visit to 
 Graden Easter; and it was thus that I first became ac- 
 quainted with the scene of my adventures. The mansion 
 house of Graden stood in a bleak stretch of country some 
 three miles from the shore of the German Ocean. It was as 
 la-rge as a barrack ; and as it had been built of a soft stone, 
 liable to consume in the eager air of the seaside, it was damp 
 and draughty withm and half ruinous without. It was im- 
 
 165
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 possible for two young men to lodge with comfort in such a 
 dwelling. But there stood in the northern part of the estate, 
 in a wilderness of links and blowing sandhills, and between 
 a plantation and the sea, a small Pavilion or Belvedere, of 
 modem design, which was exactly suited to our wants ; and 
 in this hermitage, speaking httle, reading much, and rarely 
 associating except at meals, Northmour and I spent four 
 tempestuous winter months. I might have stayed longer; 
 but one March night there sprang up between us a dispute, 
 which rendered my departure necessary. Northmour spoke 
 hotly, I remember, and I suppose I must have made some tart 
 rejoinder. He leaped from his chair and grappled me; I 
 had to fight, without exaggeration, for my life; and it was 
 only with a great effort that I mastered him, for he was near 
 as strong in body as myself, and seemed filled with the devil. 
 The next morning, we met on our usual terms ; but I judged 
 it more delicate to withdraw ; nor did he attempt to dissuade 
 me. 
 
 It was nine years before I revisited the neighborhood. I 
 traveled at that time with a tilt cart, a tent, and a cooking- 
 stove, tramping all day beside the wagon, and at night, 
 whenever it was possible, gipsying in a cove of the hills, or 
 by the side of a wood. I believe I visited in this manner 
 most of the wild and desolate regions both in England and 
 Scotland ; and, as I had neither friends nor relations, I was 
 troubled with no correspondence, and had nothing in the 
 nature of headquarters, unless it was the office of my so- 
 licitors, from whom I drew my income twice a year. It was 
 a life in which I delighted; and I fully thought to have 
 gro\^Ti old upon the march, and at last died in a ditch. 
 
 It was my whole business to find desolate corners, where 
 I could camp without the fear of interruption ; and hence 
 being in another part of the same shire, I bethought me sud- 
 denly of the Pavilion on the Links. No thoroughfare passed 
 within three miles of it. The nearest town, and that was 
 but a fisher village, was at a distance of six or seven. For 
 ten miles of length, and from a depth varying from three 
 miles to half a mile, this belt of barren country lay along 
 
 166
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 the sea. The beach, which was the natural approach, was 
 full of quicksands. Indeed I may say there is hardly a bet- 
 ter place of concealment in the United Kingdom. I deter- 
 mined to pass a week in the Sea-Wood of Graden Easter, 
 and making a long stage, reached it about sundown on a 
 wild September day. 
 
 The country, I have said, was mixed sand-hill and links ; 
 links being a Scottish name for sand which has ceased drift- 
 ing and become more or less solidly covered with turf. The 
 pavilion stood on an even space, a little behind it the 
 wood began in a hedge of elders huddled together by the 
 wind; in front, a few tumbled sand-hills stood between it and 
 the sea. An outcropping of rock had formed a bastion for 
 the sand, so that there was here a promontory in the coast- 
 hne between two shallow bays; and just beyond the tides, the 
 rock again cropped out and formed an islet of small dimen- 
 sions but strikingly designed. The quicksands were of great 
 extent at low water, and had an infamous reputation in the 
 country. Close in shore, between the islet and the promon- 
 tory, it was said that they would swallow a man in four 
 minutes and a half; but there may have been little ground 
 for this precision. The district was alive with rabbits, and 
 haunted by gulls which made a continual piping about the 
 pavilion. On summer days the outlook was bright and even 
 gladsome ; but at sundown in September, with a high wind, 
 and a heavy surf rolling in close along the links, the place 
 told of nothing but dead mariners and sea disasters. A ship 
 beating to windward on the horizon, and a huge truncheon 
 of wreck half buried in the sands at my feet, completed the 
 innuendo of the scene. 
 
 The pavilion — it had been built by the last proprietor, 
 Northmour's uncle, a silly and prodigal virtuoso — presented 
 little signs of age. It was two stories in height, Italian in 
 design, surrounded by a patch of garden in which nothing 
 had prospered but a few coarse flowers ; and looked, with its 
 shuttered windows, not like a house that had been deserted, 
 but like one that had never been tenanted by man. North- 
 mourwas plainly from home; whether, as usual, sulking in 
 
 167
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 the cabin of his yacht, or in one of his fitful and extravagant 
 appearances in the world of society, I had, of course, no 
 means of guessing. The place had an air of solitude that 
 daunted even a solitary like myself; the wind cried in the 
 chimneys with a strange and wailing note; and it was with a 
 sense of escape, as if I were going indoors, that I turned 
 away and driving my cart before me entered the skirts of 
 the wood. 
 
 The Sea-Wood of Graden had been planted to shelter the 
 cultivated fields behind, and check the encroachments of the 
 blowing sand. As you advanced into it from coastward, 
 ciders were succeeded by other hardy shrubs ; but the timber 
 was all stunted and bushy ; it led a life of conflict ; the trees 
 were accustomed to swing there all night long in fierce win- 
 ter tempests ; and even in early spring, the leaves were al- 
 ready flying, and autumn was beginning, in this exposed 
 plantation. Inland the ground rose into a little hill, which, 
 along with the islet, served as a sailing mark for seamen. 
 When the hill was open of the islet to the north, vessels must 
 bear well to the eastward to clear Graden Ness and the 
 Graden Bullers. In the lower ground, a streamlet ran 
 among the trees, and, being dammed with dead leaves and 
 clay of its own carrying, spread out every here and there, 
 and lay in stagnant pools. One or two ruined cottages were 
 dotted about the wood ; and, according to Northmour, these 
 were ecclesiastical foundations, and in their time had shel- 
 tered pious hermits. 
 
 I found a den, or small hollow, where there was a spring 
 of pure water; and there, clearing away the brambles, I 
 pitched the tent, and made a fire to cook my supper. My 
 horse I picketed farther in the wood where there was a patch 
 of sward. The banks of the den not only concealed the light 
 of my fire, but sheltered me from the wind, which was cold 
 as well as high. 
 
 The life I was leading made me both hardy and frugal. 
 I never drank but water, and rarely ate anything more 
 costly than oatmeal; and I required so little sleep, that, 
 although I rose with the peep of day, I would often lie long
 
 THE PxiVILION ON THE LIXKS 
 
 awake in the dark or starry watches of the night. Thus in 
 Graden Sea-Wood, although I fell thankfully asleep by 
 eight in the evening^ I was awake again before eleven with a 
 full possession of my faculties, and no sense of drowsiness 
 or fatigue. I rose and sat by the fire, watching the trees 
 and clouds tumultuously tossing and fleeing overhead, and 
 hearkening to the Mind and rollers along the shore ; till at 
 length, growing weary of inaction, I quitted the den, and 
 strolled towards the borders of the wood. A young moon, 
 buried in mist, gave a faint illumination to my steps ; and 
 the light grew brighter as I walked forth into the links. At 
 the same moment, the wind, smelling salt of the open ocean 
 and carrying particles of sand, struck me with its full force, 
 so that I had to bow my head. 
 
 When I raised it again to look about me, I was aware of 
 a light in the pavilion. It was not stationary ; but passed 
 from one window to another, as though someone were re- 
 viewing the different apartments with a lamp or candle. I 
 watched it for some seconds in great surprise. When I had 
 arrived in the afternoon the house had been plainly desei-ted; 
 now it was as plainly occupied. It was my first idea that a 
 gang of thieves might have broken in and be now ransacking 
 Northmour's cupboards, which were many and not ill sup- 
 plied. But what should bring thieves to Graden Easter? 
 And, again, all the shutters had been thrown open, and it 
 would have been more in the character of such gentry to 
 close them. I dismissed the notion, and fell back upon an- 
 other. Northmour himself must have arrived, and was now 
 airing and inspecting the pavilion. 
 
 I have said that there was no real affection between this 
 man and me ; but, had I loved him like a brother, I was then 
 so much in love with solitude that I should none the less have 
 shunned his company. As it was, I turned and ran for it; 
 and it was with genuine satisfaction that I found myself 
 safely back beside the fire. I had escaped an acquaintance ; 
 I should have one more night in comfort. In the morning, 
 I might either slip away before Northmour was abroad, or 
 pay liim as short a visit as I chose. 
 
 1G9
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 But when morning came, I thought the situation so divert- 
 ing that I forgot my shyness. Northmour was at my mercy ; 
 I arranged a good practical jest, though I knew well that 
 my neighbor was not the man to jest with in security; and, 
 chuckling beforehand over its success, took my place among 
 the elders at the edge of the wood, whence I could command 
 the door of the pavilion. The shutters were all once more 
 closed, which I remember thinking odd; and the house, with 
 its white walls and green Venetians, looked spruce and habit- 
 able in the morning light. Hour after hour passed, and still 
 no sign of Northmour. I knew him for a sluggard in the 
 morning ; but, as it drew on towards noon, I lost my patience. 
 To say the truth, I had promised myself to break my fast in 
 the pavilion, and hunger began to prick me sharply. It was 
 a pity to let the opportunity ga by without some cause for 
 mirth ; but the grosser appetite prevailed, and I relinquished 
 my jest with regret, and sallied from the wood. 
 
 The appearance of the house aflTected me, as I drew near, 
 with disquietude. It seemed unchanged since last evening; 
 and I had expected it, I scarce knew why, to wear some ex- 
 ternal signs of habitation. But no: the windows were all 
 closely shuttered, the chimneys breathed no smoke, and the 
 front door itself was closely padlocked. Northmour, there- 
 fore, had entered by the back; this was the natural, and, in- 
 deed, the necessary conclusion; and you may judge of my 
 surprise when, on turning the house, I found the back door 
 similarly secured. 
 
 My mind at once reverted to the original theory of thieves ; 
 and I blamed myself sharply for my last night's inaction. I 
 examined all the windows on the lower story, but none of 
 them had been tampered with ; I tried the padlocks, but they 
 were both secure. It thus became a problem how the thieves, 
 if thieves they were, had managed to enter the house. They 
 must have got, I reasoned, upon the roof of the outhouse 
 where Northmour used to keep his photographic battery ; 
 and from thence, either by the window of the study or that 
 of my old bedroom, completed their burglarious entry. 
 
 I followed what I supposed was their example; and, get* 
 
 170
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 ting on the roof, tried the shutters of each room. Both 
 were secure ; but I was not to be beaten ; and, with a little 
 force, one of them flew open, grazing, as it did so, the back 
 of my hand. I remember, I put the wound to my mouth, 
 and stood for perhaps half a minute licking it like a dog, 
 and mechanically gazing behind me over the waste links and 
 the sea ; and, in that space of time, my eye made note of a 
 large schooner yacht some miles to the northeast. Then I 
 threw up the window and climbed in. 
 
 I went over the house, and nothing can express my mys- 
 tification. There was no sign of disorder, but, on the con- 
 trary, the rooms were unusually clean and pleasant. I found 
 fires laid, ready for lighting; three bedrooms prepared with 
 a luxury quite foreign to Northmour's habits, and with 
 water in the ewers and the beds turned down ; a table set for 
 three in the dining-room ; and an ample supply of cold meats, 
 game and vegetables on the pantry shelves. There were 
 guests expected, that was plain; but why guests, when 
 Northmour hated society? And, above all, why was the 
 house thus stealthily prepared at dead of night.'' and why 
 were the shutters closed and the doors padlocked.'' 
 
 I effaced all traces of my visit, and came forth from the 
 window feeling sobered and concerned. 
 
 The schooner yacht was still in the same place; and it 
 flashed for a moment through my mind that this might be 
 the Red Earl bringing the owner of the pavilion and his 
 guests. But the vessel's head was set the other way. 
 
 171
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 TELLS OF THE NOCTURNAL LANDING FEOM THE YACHT 
 
 I RETURNED to the den to cook myself a meal, of which 
 I stood in great need, as well as to care for my horse, 
 whom I had somewhat neglected in the morning. From time 
 to time I went down to the edge of the wood ; but there was 
 no change in the pavilion, and not a human creature was 
 seen all day upon the links. The schooner in the offing was 
 the one touch of life within my range of vision. She, appar- 
 ently with no set object, stood off and on or lay to, hour 
 after hour; but as the evening deepened, she drew steadily 
 nearer. I became more convinced that she carried North- 
 mour and his friends, and that they would probably come 
 ashore after dark ; not only because that was of a piece with 
 the secrecy of the preparations, but because the tide would 
 not have flowed sufficiently before eleven to cover Graden 
 Floe and the other sea quags that fortified the shore against 
 invaders. 
 
 All day the wind had been going down, and the sea along 
 with it; but there was a return towards sunset of the heavy 
 weather of the day before. The night set in pitch dark. 
 The wind came off the sea in squalls, like the firing of a bat- 
 tery of cannon ; now and then there was a flaw of rain, and 
 the surf rolled heavier with the rising tide. I was down at 
 my observatory among the elders, when a light was run up 
 to the masthead of the schooner, and showed she was closer 
 in than when I had last seen her by the dying daylight. I 
 concluded that this must be a signal to Northmour's asso- 
 ciates on shore; and, stepping forth into the links, looked 
 around me for something in response. 
 
 A small footpath ran along the margin of the wood, and 
 formed the most direct comraunication between the pavilion 
 
 17«
 
 THE PAVILION OX THE LIXKS 
 
 and the mansion house ; and, as I cast my eyes to that side, I 
 saw a spark of light, not a quarter of a mile away, and 
 rapidly approaching. From its uneven course it appeared 
 to be the light of a lantern carried by a person who followed 
 the windings of the path, and was often staggered and taken 
 aback by the more violent squalls. I concealed myself once 
 more among the elders, and waited eagerly for the new- 
 comer's advance. It proved to be a Woman ; and, as she 
 passed within half a rod of my ambush, I was able to recog- 
 nize the features. The deaf and silent old dame, who had 
 nursed Northmour in his childhood, was his associate in this 
 underhand affair. 
 
 I followed her at a little distance, taking advantage of the 
 innumerable heights F.nd hollows, concealed by the darkness, 
 and favored not only by the nurse's deafness, but the uproar 
 of the wind and surf. She entered the pavilion, and, going 
 at once to the upper story, opened and set a light In one 
 of the windows that looked towards the sea. Immediately 
 afterwards the light at the schooner's masthead was run 
 down and extinguished. Its purpose had been attained, and 
 those on board were sure that they were expected. The old 
 woman resumed her preparations ; although the other shut- 
 ters remained closed, I could see a glimmer going to and fro 
 about the house ; and a gush of sparks from one chimney 
 after another soon told me that the fires were being kindled. 
 
 Northmour and his guests, I was now persuaded, would 
 come ashore as soon as there was water on the floe. It was 
 a wild night for boat service; and I felt some alarm mingle 
 with my curiosity as I reflected on the danger of the landing. 
 My old acquaintance, it was true, was the most eccentric of 
 men ; but the present eccentricity was both disquieting and 
 lugubrious to consider. A variety of feelings thus led me 
 towards the beach, where I lay flat on my face in a hollow 
 within six feet of the track that led to the pavilion. Thence, 
 I should have the satisfaction of recognizing the arrivals, 
 and, if they should prove to be acquaintances, greeting them 
 as soon as the}^ had landed. 
 
 Some time before eleven, while the tide was still danger- 
 
 173
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ously low, a boat's lantern appeared close in shore; and, my 
 attention being thus awakened, I could perceive another still 
 far to seaward, violently tossed, and sometimes hidden by 
 the billows. The weather, which was getting dirtier as the 
 night went on, and the perilous situation of the yacht upon 
 a lee-shore, had probably driven them to attempt a landing 
 at the earliest possible moment. 
 
 A little afterwards, four yachtsmen carrying a very heavy 
 chest, and guided by a fifth with a lantern, passed close in 
 front of me as I lay, and were admitted to the pavilion by 
 the nurse. They returned to the beach, and passed me a 
 third time with another chest, larger but apparently not so 
 heavy as the first. A third time they made the transit ; and 
 on this occasion one of the yachtsmen carried a leather port- 
 manteau, and the others a lady's trunk and carriage bag. 
 My curiosity was sharply excited. If a woman were among 
 the guests of Northmour, it would show a change in his 
 habits and an apostasy from his pet theories of life, well 
 calculated to fill me with surprise. When he and I dwelt 
 there together, the pavilion had been a temple of misogyny. 
 And now, one of the detested sex was to be installed under 
 its roof. I remembered one or two particulars, a few notes 
 of daintiness and almost of coquetry which had struck me 
 the day before as I surveyed the preparations in the house; 
 their purpose was now clear, and I thought myself dull not 
 to have perceived it from the first. 
 
 While I was thus reflecting a second lantern drew near me 
 from the beach. It was carried by a yachtsman whom I 
 had not yet seen, and who was conducting two other persons 
 to the pavilion. These two persons were unquestionably the 
 guests for whom the house was made ready ; and, straining 
 eye and ear, I set myself to watch them as they passed. One 
 was an unusually tall man, in a traveling hat slouched over 
 his eyes, and a highland cape closely buttoned and turned up 
 so as to conceal his face. You could make out no more of 
 him than that he was, as I have said, unusually tall, and 
 walked feebly with a heavy stoop. By his side, and either 
 clinging to him or giving him support — I could not make 
 
 .174
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 out which — was a young, tall, and slender figure of a woman. 
 She was extremely pale; but in the light of the lantern her 
 face was so marred by strong and changing shadows, that 
 she might equally well have been as ugly as sin or as beauti- 
 ful as I afterwards found her to be. 
 
 When they were just abreast of me, the girl made some 
 remark which was drowned by the noise of the wind. 
 
 " Hush ! " said her companion ; and there was something 
 in the tone with which the word was uttered that thrilled and 
 rather shook my spirits. It seemed to breathe from a bosom 
 laboring under the deadliest terror; I have never heard an- 
 other syllable so expressive; and I still hear it again when I 
 am feverish at night, and my mind runs upon old times. 
 The man turned towards the girl as he spoke; I had a 
 glimpse of much red beard and a nose which seemed to have 
 been broken in youth; and his light eyes seemed shining in 
 his face with some strong and unpleasant emotion. 
 
 But these two passed on and were admitted in their turn 
 to the pavilion. 
 
 One by one, or in groups, the seamen returned to the 
 beach. The wind brought me the sound of a rough voice 
 crying, " Shove off ! " Then, after a pause, another lantern 
 drew near. It was Northmour alone. 
 
 My wife and I, a man and a woman, have often agreed 
 to wonder how a person could be, at the same time, so hand- 
 some and so repulsive as Northmour. He had the appear- 
 ance of a finished gentleman ; his face bore every mark of 
 intelligence and courage, but you had only to look at him, 
 even in his most amiable moment, to see that he had the 
 temper of a slave captain. I never knew a character tJiat 
 was both explosive and revengeful to the same degree ; he 
 combined the vivacity of the south with the sustained and 
 deadly hatreds of the north ; and both traits were plainly 
 written on his face, which was a sort of danger signal. In 
 person he was tall, strong, and active ; his hair and com- 
 plexion very dark; his features handsomely designed, but 
 spoiled by a menacing expression. 
 
 At that moment he was somewhat paler than by nature ; 
 
 175
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 he wore a heavy frown ; and his lips worked, and he looked 
 sharply round as he walked, like a man besieged with appre- 
 hensions. And yet I thought he had a look of triumph un- 
 derlying all, as though he had already done much, and was 
 near the end of an achievement. 
 
 Partly from a scruple of delicacy — which I dare say came 
 too late — partly from the pleasure of startling an acquaint- 
 ance, I desired to make my presence known to him without 
 delay. 
 
 I got suddenly to my feet, and stepped forward. 
 
 " Northmour ! " said I. 
 
 I have never had so shocking a surprise in all my days. 
 He leaped on me without a word; something shone in his 
 hand; and he struck for my heart with a dagger. At the 
 same moment I knocked him head over heels. Whether* it 
 was my quickness, or his own uncertainty, I know not; but 
 the blade only grazed my shoulder while the hilt and his fist 
 struck me violently on the mouth. 
 
 I fled, but not far. I had often and often observed the 
 capabilities of the sand-hills for protracted ambush or 
 stealthy advances and retreats ; and, not ten yards from the 
 scene of the scuffle, plumped down again upon the grass. 
 The lantern had fallen and gone out. But what was my 
 astonishment to see Northmour slip at a bound into the pavil- 
 ion, and hear him bar the door behind him with a clang of 
 
 iron 
 
 He had not pursued me. He had run away. Northmour, 
 whom I knew for the most implacable and daring of men, had 
 run away ! I could scarce believe my reason ; and yet in this 
 strange business, where all was incredible, there was nothing 
 to make a work about in an incredibility more or less. For 
 why was the pavihon secretly prepared? Why had North- 
 mour landed with his guests at dead of night, in half a gale 
 of wind, and with the floe scarce covered .^ Why had he 
 sought to kill me? Had he not recognized my voice? I won- 
 dered., And, above all, how had he come to have a dagger 
 ready in his hand? A dagger, or even a sharp knife, seemed 
 out of keeping with the age in which we lived ; and a gentle- 
 
 17<?
 
 THE PAVILIOX ON THE LINKS 
 
 man landing from his yaclit on the shore of his own estate, 
 even although it was at night and with some mysterious cir- 
 cumstances, does not usuall}^ as a matter of fact, walk thus 
 prepared for deadly onslaught. The more I reflected, the 
 further I felt at sea. I recapitulated the elements of mys- 
 tery, counting them on my fingers: the pavilion secretly 
 prepared for guests ; the guests landed at the risk of their 
 lives and to the imminent peril of the yacht ; the guests, or 
 at least one of them, in undisguised and seemingly causeless 
 terror ; Northmour with a naked weapon ; Northmour stab- 
 bing his most intimate acquaintance at a word; last, and not 
 least strange, Northmour fleeing from the man whom he had 
 sought to murder, and barricading himself, like a hunted 
 creature, behind the door of the pavilion. Here were at 
 least six separate causes for extreme surprise ; each part 
 and parcel with the others, and forming all together one 
 consistent story. I felt almost ashamed to believe my own 
 senses. 
 
 As I thus stood transfixed with wonder, I began to grow 
 painfully conscious of the injuries I had received in the 
 scuffle ; skulked round among the sand-hills ; and, by a devious 
 path, regained the shelter of the wood. On the way, the old 
 nurse passed again within several yards of me, still carrying 
 her lantern, on the return journey to the mansion-house of 
 GradeUo This made a seventh suspicious feature in the 
 case. Northmour and his guests, it appeared, were to cook 
 and do the cleaning for themselves, while the old woman con- 
 tinued to inhabit the big empty barrack among the policies. 
 There must surely be great cause for secrecy, when so many 
 inconveniences were confronted to preserve it. 
 
 So thinking I m.ade my way to the den. For greater 
 security, I trod out the embers of the fire, and lit m}' lantern 
 to examine the wound upon my shoulder. It was a trifling 
 hurt, although it bled somewhat freely, and I dressed it as 
 well as I could (for its position made it difficult to reach) 
 with some rag and cold water from the spring. While I was 
 thus busied, I mentally declared war again Northmour and 
 his mystery. I am not an angry man by nature, and I bc- 
 
 177
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 lieve there was more curiosity than resentment in my heart. 
 But war I certainly declared; and, by way of preparation, 
 I got out my revolver, and, having drawn the charges, 
 cleaned and reloaded it with scrupulous care. Next I became 
 preoccupied about my horse. It might break loose, or fall 
 to neighing, and so betray my camp in the Sea-Wood. I 
 determined to rid myself of its neighborhood; and long be- 
 fore dawn I was leading it over the links in the direction of 
 the fisher village. 
 
 %78
 
 CHAPTER m 
 
 TELLS HOW I BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH MY WIFE 
 
 FOR two days I skulked round the pavilion, profiting by 
 the uneven surface of the links. I became an adept In 
 the necessary tactics. These low hillocks and shallow dells, 
 running one Into another, became a kind of cloak of dark- 
 ness for my enthralling, but perhaps dishonorable, pursuit. 
 Yet, In spite of this advantage, I could learn but little of 
 Northmour or his guests. 
 
 Fresh provisions were brought under cover of darkness 
 by the old woman from the mansion-house. Northmour, and 
 the young lady, sometimes together, but more often singly, 
 would walk for an hour or two at a time on the beach beside 
 the quicksand. I could not but conclude that this prome- 
 nade was chosen with an eye to secrecy ; for the spot was open 
 only to the seaward. But It suited me not less excellently; 
 the highest and most accldented of the sand-hills immediately 
 adjoined; and from these, lying flat In a hollow, I could over- 
 look Northmour or the young lady as they walked. 
 
 The tall man seemed to have disappeared. Not only did 
 he never cross the threshold, but he never so much as showed 
 face at a window ; or, at least, not so far as I could see ; for I 
 dared not creep forward beyond a certain distance In the 
 day, since the upper floor commanded the bottoms of the 
 links ; and at night, when I could venture farther, the lower 
 windows were barricaded as if to stand a siege. Sometimes 
 I thought the tall man must be confined to bed, for I remem- 
 bered the feebleness of his gait ; and sometimes I thought he 
 must have gone clear away, and that Northmour and the 
 young lady remained alone together in the pavilion. The 
 idea, even then, displeased me. 
 
 Whether or not this pair were man and wife, I had seen 
 
 179
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 abundant reason to doubt the friendliness of their relation. 
 Although I could hear nothing of what they said, and rarely 
 so much as glean a decided expression on the face of either, 
 there was a distance, ahnost a stiffness, in their bearing 
 which showed them to be either unfamiliar or at enmity. The 
 girl walked faster when she was with Northmour than when 
 she was alone; and I conceived that any inclination between 
 a man and a woman would rather delay than accelerate the 
 step. Moreover, she kept a good yard free of him, and 
 trailed her umbrella, as if it were a barrier, on the side be- 
 tween them. Northmour kept sidling closer; and, as the girl 
 retired from his advance, their course lay at a sort of diago- 
 nal across the beach, and would have landed them in the surf 
 had it been long enough continued. But, when it was im- 
 minent, the girl would unostentatiously change sides and 
 put Northmour between her and the sea. I watched these 
 manoeuvres, for my part, with high enjoyment and approval, 
 and chuckled to myself at every move. 
 
 On the morning of the third day, she walked alone for 
 some time, and I perceived, to my great concern, that she 
 was more than once in tears. You will see that my heart 
 was already interested more than I supposed. She had a 
 firm yet airy motion of the body, and carried her head with 
 unimaginable grace ; every step was a thing to look at, and 
 she seemed in my eyes to breathe sweetness and distinction. 
 
 The day was so agreeable, being calm and sunshiny, with 
 a tranquil sea, and yet with a healthful piquancy and vigor 
 in the air, that, contrary to custom, she was tempted forth 
 a second time to walk. On this occasion she was accom- 
 panied by Northmour, and they had been but a short while 
 on the beach, when I saw him take forcible possession of her 
 hand. She struggled, and uttered a cry that was almost a 
 scream. I sprang to my feet, unmindful of my strange posi- 
 tion ; but, ere I had taken a step, I saw Northmour bare- 
 headed and bowing very low, as if to apologize ; and dropped 
 again at once into my ambush. A few words were inter- 
 changed; and then, with another bow, he left the beach to 
 return to the pavilion. He passed not far from me, and 
 
 180
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 I could see him, flushed and lowering, and cutting savagely 
 with his cane among the grass. It was not without satisfac- 
 tion that I recognized my own handiwork in a great cut 
 under his right eye^ and a considerable discoloration round 
 the socket. 
 
 For some time the girl remained where he had left her, 
 looking out past the islet and over the bright sea. Then 
 with a start, as one who throws off preoccupation and puts 
 energy again upon its mettle, she broke into a rapid and 
 decisive walk. She also was much incensed by what had 
 passed. She had forgotten where she was. And I beheld her 
 walk straight into the borders of the quicksand where it is 
 most abrupt and dangerous. Two or three steps farther 
 and her life would have been in serious jeopardy, when I slid 
 down the face of the sand-hill, which is there precipitous, 
 and, running half-Avay forward, called to her to stop. 
 
 She did so, and turned round. There was not a tremor 
 of fear in her behavior, and she marched directly up to me 
 like a queen. I was barefoot, and clad like a common 
 sailor, save for an Egyptian scarf round my waist ; and 
 she probably took me at first for some one from the fisher 
 village, straying after bait. As for her, when I thus saw her 
 face to face, her eyes set steadily and imperiously upon 
 mine, I was filled with admiration and astonishment, and 
 thought her even more beautiful than I had looked to find 
 her. Nor could I think enough of one who, acting with so 
 much boldness, yet preserved a maidenly air that was both 
 quaint and engaging; for my M'ife kept an old-fashioned 
 precision of manner through all her admirable life — an ex- 
 cellent thing in woman, since it sets another value on her 
 sweet familiarities. 
 
 " What does this mean ? " she asked. 
 
 " You were walking," I told her, " directly into Graden 
 Floe." 
 
 " You do not belong to these parts," she said again. 
 " You speak like an educated man." 
 
 " I believe I have a right to that name," said I, " al- 
 though in this disguise." 
 
 181
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 But her woman's eye had already detected the sash. 
 
 ** Oh ! " she said ; " your sash betrays you." 
 
 "You have said the word hetray," I resumed. "May 
 I ask you not to betray me? I was obliged to disclose myself 
 in your interest; but if Northmour learned my presence it 
 might be worse than disagreeable for me." 
 
 " Do you know," she asked, " to whom you are speak- 
 
 ing 
 
 ? " 
 
 "Not to Mr. Northmour's wife.''" I asked, by way of 
 answer. 
 
 She shook her head. All this while she was studying my 
 face with an embarrassing intentness. Then she broke 
 out — 
 
 " You have an honest face. Be honest hke your face, 
 sir, and tell me what you want and what you are afraid of. 
 Do you think I could hurt you? I believe you have far 
 more power to injure me! And yet you do not look unkind. 
 What do you mean — you, a gentleman — ^by skulking like a 
 spy about this desolate place? Tell me," she said, "who is 
 it you hate ? " 
 
 " I hate no one," I answered ; " and I fear no one face to 
 face. My name is Cassilis — Frank Cassilis. I lead the life 
 of a vagabond for my own good pleasure. I am one of 
 Northmour's oldest friends ; and three nights ago, when I 
 addressed him on these links, he stabbed me in the shoulder 
 with a knife." 
 
 " It was you ! " she said. 
 
 " Why he did so," I continued, disregarding the interrup- 
 tion, " is more than I can guess, and more than I care to 
 know. I have not many friends, nor am I very susceptible to 
 friendship ; but no man shall drive me from a place by terror. 
 I had camped in Graden Sea-Wood ere he came; I camp in 
 it still. If you think I mean harm to you or yours, madam, 
 the remedy is in your hand. Tell him that my camp is in 
 the Hemlock Den, and to-night he can stab me in safety 
 while I sleep." 
 
 With this I doffed my cap to her, and scrambled up once 
 more among the sand-hills. I do not know why, but I felt 
 
 182
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 a prodigious sense of injustice, and felt like a hero and a 
 martyr; while, as a matter of fact, I had not a word to say 
 in my defence, nor so much as one plausible reason to offer 
 for my conduct. I had stayed at Graden out of a curiosity 
 natural enough, but undignified; and though there was an- 
 other motive growing in along with the first, it was not one 
 which, at that period, I could have properly explained to the 
 lady of my heart. 
 
 Certainly that night, I thought of no one else; and, 
 though her whole conduct and position seemed suspicious, 
 I could not find it in my heart to entertain a doubt of her 
 integrity. I could have staked my life that she was clear 
 of blame, and, though all was dark at the present, that the 
 explanation of the mystery would show her part in these 
 events to be both right and needful. It was true, let me 
 cudgel my imagination as I pleased, that I could invent 
 no theory of her relations to Northmour ; but I felt none the 
 less sure of my conclusion because it was founded on instinct 
 in place of reason, and, as I may say, went to sleep that 
 night with the thought of her under my pillow. 
 
 Next day she came out about the same hour alone, and, 
 as soon as the sand-hills concealed her from the pavilion, 
 drew nearer to the edge, and called me by name in guarded 
 tones. I was astonished to observe that she was deadly pale, 
 and seemingly under the influence of strong emotion. 
 
 " Mr. Cassilis ! " she cried ; " Mr. Cassilis ! " 
 
 I appeared at once, and leaped down upon the beach. A 
 remarkable air of relief overspread her countenance as soon 
 as she saw me. 
 
 " Oh ! " she cried, with a hoarse sound, like one whose 
 bosom has been lightened of weight. And then, " Thank God, 
 you are still safe ! " she added ; " I knew, if you were, you 
 would be here." (Was not this strange? So swiftly and 
 wisely does Nature prepare our hearts for these great life- 
 long intimacies, that both my wife and I had been given a 
 presentiment on this the second day of our acquaintance. I 
 had even then hoped that she would seek me; she had felt 
 sure that she would find rae.) " Do not," she went on swiftly, 
 
 183
 
 NEW AIlABIA:Nr NIGHTS 
 
 " do not stay in this place. Promise me that you will sleep 
 no longer in that wood. You do not know how I suffer; all 
 last night I could not sleep for thinking of your peril." 
 
 " Peril ? " I repeated. " Peril from whom ? From North- 
 mour? " 
 
 " Not so," she said. " Did you think I would tell him 
 after what you said?" 
 
 "Not from Northmour.?" I repeated. "Then how.^* 
 From whom? I see none to be afraid of." 
 
 " You must not ask me," was her reply, " for I am not 
 free to tell you. Only believe me, and go hence — believe me, 
 an^l go away quickly, quickly, for your life ! " 
 
 An appeal to his alarm is never a good plan to rid oneself 
 of a spirited young man. My obstinacy was but increased 
 by what she said, and I made it a point of honor to remain. 
 And her solicitude for my safety still more confirmed me 
 in the resolve. 
 
 " You must not think me inquisitive, madam," I replied ; 
 " but, if Graden is so dangerous a place, you yourself per- 
 haps remain here at some risk." 
 
 She only looked at me reproachfully. 
 
 " You and your father ," I resumed ; but she inter- 
 rupted me almost with a gasp. 
 
 " My father ! How do you know that ? " she cried. 
 
 " I saw 3'ou together when you landed," was my answer; 
 and I do not know why, but it seemed satisfactory to both 
 of us, as indeed it was the truth. " But," I continued, " you 
 need have no fear from me. I see you have some reason to 
 be secret, and, you may believe me, your secret is as safe 
 with me as if I were in Graden Floe. I have scarce spoken 
 to anyone for years ; my horse is my only companion, and 
 even he, poor beast, is not beside me. You see, then, you 
 may count on me for silence. So tell me the truth, my dear 
 young lady, are you not in danger? " 
 
 " Mr. Northmour says you are an honorable man," she 
 returned, " and I believe it when I see you. I will tell you 
 so much ; you are right ; we are in dreadful, dreadful danger, 
 and you share it by remaining where you are." 
 
 184^
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 " Ah! " said I; " you have heard of me from Northmour? 
 And he gives me a good character? " 
 
 " I asked him about you last night," was her reply. " I 
 pretended," she hesitated, " I pretended to have met you 
 long ago, and spoken to you of him. It was not true ; 
 but I could not help myself without betraying you, and you 
 had put me in a difficulty. He praised you highly." 
 
 " And — you may permit me one question — does this dan- 
 ger come from Northmour ? " I asked. 
 
 "From Mr. Northmour.?" she cried. "Oh, no; he stays 
 with us to share it." 
 
 "While you propose that I should run away.?" I said. 
 '* You do not rate me very high." 
 
 " Why should you stay? " she asked. " You are no friend 
 of ours." 
 
 I know not what came over me, for I had not been con- 
 scious of a similar weakness since I was a child, but I was 
 so mortified by this retort that my eyes pricked and filled with 
 tears, as I continued to gaze upon her face. 
 
 " No, no," she said, in a changed voice ; " I did not mean 
 the words unkindly." 
 
 " It was I who offended," I said ; and I held out my hand 
 with a look of appeal that somehow touched her, for she 
 gave me hers at once, and even eagerly. I held it for awhile 
 in mine, and gazed into her eyes. It was she who first tore 
 her hand away, and, forgetting all about her request and 
 the promise she had sought to extort, ran at the top of her 
 speed, and without turning, till she was out of sight. And 
 then I knew that I loved her, and thought In my glad heart 
 that she — she herself — was not indifferent to my suit. ISIany 
 a time she has denied it in after days, but it was with a 
 smiling and not a serious denial. For my part, I am sure 
 our hands would not have lain so closely in each other if 
 she had not begun to melt to me already. And, when all 
 is said, it is no great contention, since, by her own avowal, 
 she began to love me on the morrow. 
 
 And yet on the morrow very little took place. She came 
 and called me down as on the day before, upbraided me for 
 
 185
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 lingering at Graden, and, when she found I was still obdu- 
 rate, began to ask me more particularly as to my arrival. 
 I told her by what series of accidents I had come to witness 
 their disembarkation, and how I had determined to remain, 
 partly from the interest which had been wakened in me by 
 Northmour's guests, and partly because of his own mur- 
 derous attack. As to the former, I fear I was disingenuous, 
 and led her to regard herself as having been an attrac- 
 tion to me from the first moment that I saw her on the 
 links. 
 
 It relieves my heart to make this confession even now, when 
 my wife is with God, and already knows all things, and the 
 honesty of my purpose even in this ; for while she lived, al- 
 though it often pricked my conscience, I had never the hardi- 
 hood to undeceive her. Even a little secret, in such a mar- 
 ried life as ours, is like the rose-leaf which kept the Princess 
 from her sleep. 
 
 From this the talk branched into other subjects, and I 
 told her much about my lonely and wandering existence ; she, 
 for her part, giving ear, and saying little. Although we 
 spoke very naturally, and latterly on topics that might seem 
 indifferent, we were both sweetly agitated. Too soon it was 
 time for her to go ; and we separated, as if by mutual con- 
 sent, without shaking hands, for both knew that, between us, 
 it was no idle ceremony. 
 
 The next, and that was the fourth day of our acquaint- 
 ance, we met in the same spot, but early in the morning, with 
 much familiarity and yet much timidity on either side. 
 When she had once more spoken about my danger — and 
 that, I understood, was her excuse for coming — I, who had 
 prepared a great deal of talk during the night, began to tell 
 her how highly I valued her kind interest, and how no one had 
 ever cared to hear about my life, nor had I ever cared to 
 relate it, before yesterday. Suddenly she interrupted me, 
 saying with vehemence — 
 
 " And yet, if you knew who I was, you would not so much 
 as speak to me ! " 
 
 I told her such a thought was madness, and, little as we 
 
 186
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 had met, I counted her already a dear friend; but my pro- 
 testations seemed only to make her more desperate. 
 
 " My father is in hiding ! " she cried. 
 
 " My dear," I said, forgetting for the first time to add 
 "young lady," "what do I care? If he were in hiding 
 twenty times over, would it make one thought of change 
 in you .'' " 
 
 " Ah, but the cause ! " she cried, " the cause ! It is ^ 
 
 she faltered for a second — " it is disgraceful to us I " 
 
 187
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 TELLS IN WHAT A STARTLING MANNER I LEARNED THAT I WAS 
 NOT ALONE IN GRADEN SEA-WOOD 
 
 THIS was my wife's story, as I drew it from her among 
 tears and sobs. Her name was Clara Huddlestone: it 
 sounded very truthful in my ears ; but not so beautiful as 
 that other name of Clara Cassilis, which she wore during 
 the longer and, I thank God, the happier portion of her life. 
 Her father, Bernard Huddlestone, had been a private banker 
 in a very large way of business. Many years before, his 
 affairs becoming disordered, he had been led to try dan- 
 gerous, and at last criminal, expedients to retrieve himself 
 from ruin. All was in vain ; he became more and more 
 cruelly involved, and found his honor lost at the same mo- 
 ment with his fortune. About this period, Northmour had 
 been courting his daughter with great assiduity, though 
 with small encouragement; and to him, knowing him thus 
 disposed in his favor, Bernard Huddlestone turned for help 
 in his extremity. It was not merely ruin and dishonor, nor 
 merely a legal condemnation, that the unhappy man had 
 brought on his head. It seems he could have gone to prison 
 with a light heart. What he feared, what kept him awake 
 at night or recalled him from slumber into frenzy, was some 
 secret, sudden, and unlawful attempt upon his life. Hence, 
 he desired to bury his existence and escape to one of the 
 islands in the South Pacific, and it was in Northmour's 
 yacht, the Red Earl, that he designed to go. The yacht 
 picked them up clandestinely upon the coast of Wales, and 
 had once more deposited them at Graden, till she could be 
 refitted and provisioned for the longer voyage. Nor could 
 Clara doubt that her hand had been stipulated as the price 
 
 ISS
 
 THE PAVILIO]^ ON THE LINKS 
 
 of passage. For, although Northmour was neither unkind 
 or discourteous, he had shown himself in several instances 
 somewhat overbold in speech and manner. 
 
 I listened, I need not say, with fixed attention, and put 
 many questions as to the more mysterious part. It was in 
 vain. She had no clear idea of what the blow was, nor of 
 how it was expected to fall. Her father's alarm was un- 
 feigned and physically prostrating, and he had thought 
 more than once of making an unconditional surrender to the 
 police. But the scheme was finally abandoned, for he was 
 convinced that not even the strength of our English prisons 
 could shelter him from his pursuers. He had had many 
 affairs with Italy, and with Italians resident in London, in 
 the later years of his business ; and these last, as Clara fan- 
 cied, were somehow connected with the doom that threat- 
 ened him. He had shown great terror at the presence of an 
 Italian seaman on board the Red Earl, and had bitterly and 
 repeatedly accused Northmour in consequence. The latter 
 had protested that Beppo (that was the seaman's name) was 
 a capital fellow, and could be trusted to the death ; but Mr. 
 Huddlestone had continued ever since to declare that all was 
 lost, that it was only a question of days, and that Beppo 
 would be the ruin of him yet. 
 
 I regarded the whole story as the hallucination of a mind 
 shaken by C£ilamity. He had suffered heavy loss by his Ital- 
 ian transactions ; and hence the sight of an Italian was 
 hateful to him, and the principal part of his nightmare 
 would naturally enough be played by one of that nation. 
 
 " What your father wants," I said, " is a good doctor 
 and some calming medicine." 
 
 " But Mr. Northm.our.'^ " objected your mother. " He 
 is untroubled by losses, and yet he shares in this terror." 
 
 I could not help laughing at what I considered her sim- 
 plicity. 
 
 " My dear," said I, " you have told me yourself what re- 
 ward he has to look for. All is fair in love, you must 
 remember; and if Northmour foments your father's terrors, 
 it is not at all because he is afraid of any Italian man, but 
 
 189
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 simply because he is infatuated with a charming English 
 woman." 
 
 She reminded me of his attack upon myself on the night 
 of the disembarkation, and this I was unable to explain. In 
 short, and from one thing to another, it was agreed between 
 us, that I should set out at once for the fisher village, Graden 
 Wester, as it was called, look up all the newspapers I could 
 find, and see for myself if there seemed any basis of fact 
 for these continued alarms. The next morning, at the same 
 hour and place, I was to make my report to Clara. She 
 said no more on that occasion about my departure; nor in- 
 deed, did she make it a secret that she clung to the thought 
 of my proximity as something helpful and pleasant ; and, 
 for my part, I could not have left her, if she had gone upon 
 her knees to ask it. 
 
 I reached Graden Wester before ten in the forenoon; for 
 in those days I was an excellent pedestrian, and the distance, 
 as I think I have said, was little over seven miles ; fine walk- 
 ing all the way upon the springy turf. The village is one 
 of the bleakest on that coast, which is saying much : there is 
 a church in a hollow, a miserable haven in the rocks, where 
 many boats have been lost as they returned from fishing; 
 two or three score of stone houses arranged along the beach 
 and in two streets, one leading from the harbor, and an- 
 other striking out from it at right angles ; and, at the cor- 
 ner of these two, a very dark and cheerless tavern, by way 
 of principal hotel. 
 
 I had dressed myself somewhat more suitably to my sta- 
 tion in life, and at once called upon the minister in his little 
 manse beside the graveyard. He knew me, although it was 
 more than nine years since we had met; and when I told 
 him that I had been long upon a walking tour, and was be- 
 hind with the news, readily lent m,e an armful of newspapers, 
 dating from a month back to the day before. With these I 
 sought the tavern, and, ordering some breakfast, sat down 
 to study the " Huddlestone Failure." 
 
 It had been, it appeared, a very flagrant case. Thou- 
 sands of persons were reduced to poverty; and one in par- 
 
 190
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 cicular Had l/Iowu out ms Drams as soon as payment was 
 suspended. It was strange to myself that, while I read these 
 details, I continued rather to sympathize with Mr. Huddle- 
 stone than with his victims ; so complete already was the 
 empire of my love for my wife. A price was naturally set 
 upon the banker's head ; and, as the case was inexcusable and 
 the public indignation thoroughly aroused, the unusual 
 figure of £750 was offered for his capture. He was re- 
 ported to have large sums of money in his possession. One 
 day, he had been heard of in Spain ; the next, there was sure 
 intelligence that he was still lurking between Manchester 
 and Liverpool, or along the border of Wales ; and the day 
 after, a telegram would announce his arrival in Cuba or 
 Yucatan. But in all this there was no word of an Italian, 
 nor any sign of mystery. 
 
 In the very last paper, however, there was one item not 
 so clear. The accountants who were charged to verify the 
 failure had, it seemed, come upon the traces of a very large 
 number of thousands, which figured for some time in the 
 transactions of the house of Huddlestone ; but which came 
 from nowhere, and disappeared in the same mysterious 
 fashion. It was only once referred to by name, and then 
 under the initials " X. X." ; but it had plainly been floated 
 for the first time into the business at a period of great de- 
 pression some six years ago. The name of a distinguished 
 Royal personage had been mentioned by rumor in connection 
 with this sum. " The cowardly desperado " — such, I re- 
 member, was the editorial expression — was supposed to have 
 escaped with a large part of this mysterious fund still in 
 his possession. 
 
 I was still brooding over the fact, and trying to torture 
 it into some connection with Mr. Huddlestone's danger, when 
 a man entered the tavern and asked for some bread and 
 cheese with a decided foreign accent. 
 
 " Siete Italia/no? " said I. 
 
 *' Si, signor" was his reply. 
 
 I said it was unusually far north to find one of his com- 
 patriots ; at which he shrugged his shoulders, and replied 
 
 191
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 that a man would go anywhere to find work. What work 
 he could hope to find at Graden Wester, I was totally unable 
 to conceive; and the incident struck so unpleasantly upon 
 my mind, that I asked the landlord, while he was counting 
 me some change, whether he had ever before seen an Italian 
 in the village. He said he had once seen some Norwegians, 
 who had been shipwrecked on the other side of Graden Ness 
 and rescued by the lifeboat from Cauld-haven. 
 
 " No ! " said I; " but an Italian, hke the man who has just 
 had bread and cheese." 
 
 "What?" cried he, "yon black-avised fellow wi' the 
 teeth? Was he an I-talian? Weel, yon's the first that ever 
 I saw, an' I dare say he's like to be the last." 
 
 Even as he was speaking, I raised my eyes, and, casting 
 a glance into the street, beheld three men in earnest conver- 
 sation together, and not thirty yards away. One of them 
 was my recent companion in the tavern parlor; the other 
 two, by their handsome, sallow features and soft hats, should 
 evidently belong to the same race. A crowd of village chil- 
 dren stood around them, gesticulating and talking gibber- 
 ish in imitation. The trio looked singularly foreign to the 
 bleak dirty street in which they were standing, and the dark 
 gray heaven that overspread them ; and I confess my in- 
 credulity received at that moment a shock from which it 
 never recovered. I might reason with myself as I pleased, 
 but I could not argue down the effect of what I had seen, 
 and I began to share in the Italian terror. 
 
 It was already drawing towards the close of the day be- 
 fore I had returned the newspapers at the manse, and got 
 Avell forward on to the links on my way home. I shall never 
 forget that walk. It grew very cold and boisterous ; the 
 wind sang In the short grass about my feet ; thin rain 
 showers came running on the gusts ; and an immense moun- 
 tain range of clouds began to arise out of the bosom of the 
 sea. It would be hard to Imagine a more dismal evening ; 
 and whether it was from these external Influences, or because 
 my nerves were already affected by what I had heard and 
 seen^ my thoughts were as gloomy as the weather. 
 
 192
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 The upper windows of the pavilion commanded a consid- 
 erable spread of links in the direction of Graden Wester. 
 To avoid observation, it was necessary to hug the beach 
 until I had gained cover from the higher sand-hills on the 
 little headland, when I might strike across, through the hol- 
 lows, for the margin of the wood. The sun was about set- 
 ting; the tide was low, and all the quicksands uncovered; 
 and I was moving along, lost in unpleasant thought, when 
 I was suddenly thunderstruck to perceive the prints of 
 human feet. They ran parallel to my own course, but low 
 down upon the beach instead of along the border of the 
 turf; and, when I examined them, I saw at once, by the size 
 and coarseness of the impression, that it was a stranger to 
 me and to those in the pavilion who had recently passed that 
 way. Not only so ; but from the recklessness of the course 
 which he had followed, steering near to the most formidable 
 portions of the sand, he was as evidently a stranger to the 
 country and to the ill-repute of Graden beach. 
 
 Step by step I followed the prints ; until, a quarter of a 
 mile further, I beheld them die away into the south-eastern 
 boundary of Graden Floe. There, whoever he was, the miser- 
 able man had perished. One or two gulls, who had, per- 
 haps, seen him disappear, wheeled over his sepulchre with 
 their usual melancholy piping. The sun had broken through 
 the clouds by a last effort, and colored the wide level of 
 quicksands with a dusky purple. I stood for some time gaz- 
 ing at the spot, chilled and disheartened by my own reflec- 
 tions, and with a strong and commanding consciousness of 
 death. I remember wondering how long the tragedy had 
 taken, and whether his screams had been audible at the 
 pavilion. And then, making a strong resolution, I was about 
 to tear myself away, when a gust fiercer than usual fell upon 
 this quarter of the beach, and I saw now, whirling high in 
 air, now skimming lightly across the surface of the sands, a 
 soft, black, felt hat, somewhat conical in shape, such as I 
 had remarked already on the heads of the Italians. 
 
 I believe, but I am not sure, that I uttered a cry. The 
 wind was driving the hat shoreward, and I ran round the 
 
 193
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 border of the floe to be ready against its arrival. The gust 
 fell, dropping the hat for a while upon the quicksand, and 
 then, once more freshening, landed it a few yards from 
 where I stood. I seized it with the interest you may imagine. 
 It had seen some service; indeed, it was rustier than either 
 of those I had seen that day upon the street. The lining 
 was red, stamped with the name of the maker, which I have 
 forgotten, and that of the place of manufacture, Venedig. 
 This (it is not yet forgotten) was the name given by the 
 Austrians to the beautiful city of Venice, then, and for long 
 after, a part of their dominions. 
 
 The shock was complete. I saw Imaginary Italians upon 
 every side; and for the first, and, I may say, for the last 
 time in my experience, became overpowered by what is called 
 panic terror. I knew nothing, that is, to be afraid of, and 
 yet I admit that I was heartily afraid; and it was with 
 a sensible reluctance that I returned to my exposed and 
 solitarj' camp in the Sea-Wood. 
 
 There I ate some cold porridge which had been left over 
 from the night before, for I was disinclined to make a fire; 
 and, feeling strengthened and reassured, dismissed all these 
 fanciful terrors from my mind, and lay down to sleep with 
 composure. 
 
 How long I may have slept it is impossible for me to 
 guess ; but I was awakened at last by a sudden, blinding flash 
 of light into my face. It woke me like a blow. In an in- 
 stant I was upon my knees. But the light had gone as 
 suddenly as it came. The darkness was intense. And, as 
 it was blowing great guns from the sea and pouring with 
 rain, the noises of the storm eff^ectually concealed all 
 others. 
 
 It was, I dare say, half a minute before I regained my 
 self-possession. But for two circumstances, I should have 
 thought I had been awakened by some new and vivid form 
 of nightmare. First, the flap of my tent, which I had shut 
 carefully when I retired, was now unfastened; and, second, 
 I could still perceive, with a sharpness that excluded any 
 theory of hallucination, the smell of hot metal and of bum- 
 
 194t
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 tng oil. The conclusion was obvious. I had been awakened 
 by some one flashing a bull's-eye lantern in my face. It had 
 been but a flash, and away. He had seen my face, and then 
 gone. I asked myself the object of so strange a proceeding, 
 and the answer came pat. The man, whoever he was, had 
 thought to recognize me, and he had not. There was also 
 another question unsolved; and to this, I may say, I feared 
 to give an answer; if he had recognized me, what would he 
 have done.'' 
 
 My fears were immediately diverted from myself, for I 
 saw that I had been visited in a mistake ; and I became per- 
 suaded that some dreadful danger threatened the pavilion. 
 It required some nerve to issue forth into the black and 
 intricate thicket which surrounded and overhung the den; 
 but I groped my way to the links, drenched with rain, beaten 
 upon and deafened by the gusts, and fearing at every step 
 to lay my hand upon some lurking adversary. The darkness 
 was so complete that I might have been surrounded by an 
 army and yet none the wiser, and the uproar of the gale so 
 loud that my hearing was as useless as my sight. 
 
 For the rest of the night, which seemed interminably long, 
 I patroled the vicinity of the pavilion, without seeing a 
 living creature or hearing any noise but the concert of the 
 wind, the sea, and the rain. A light in the upper story 
 filtered through a cranny in the shutter, and kept me com- 
 pany till the approach of dawn. 
 
 195
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 TELLS OF AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN NORTHMOUR, CLARA AND 
 
 MYSELF 
 
 WITH the first peep of day, I retired from the open to 
 my old lair among the sandhills, there to await the 
 coming of my wife. The morning was gray, wild, and melan- 
 choly ; the wind moderated before sunrise, and then went 
 about, and blew in puffs from the shore ; the sea began to go 
 down, but the rain still fell without mercy. Over all the wil- 
 derness of links there was not a creature to be seen. Yet I 
 felt sure the neighborhood was alive with skulking foes. The 
 light had been so suddenly and surprisingly flashed upon my 
 face as I lay sleeping, and the hat that had been blown 
 ashore by the wind from over Graden Floe, were two speak- 
 ing signals of the peril that environed Clara and the party 
 in the pavilion. 
 
 It was, perhaps, half-past seven, or nearer eight, before 
 I saw the door open, and that dear figure come towards me 
 in the rain. I was waiting for her on the beach before she 
 had crossed the sand-hills. 
 
 " I have had such trouble to come ! " she cried. " They 
 did not wish me to go walking in the rain." 
 
 " Clara," I said, " you are not frightened ! " 
 
 " No," said she, with a simplicity that filled my heart with 
 confidence. For my wife was the bravest as well as the best 
 of women; in my experience, I have not found the two go 
 always together, but with her they did; and she combined 
 the extreme of fortitude with the most endearing and beau- 
 tiful virtues. 
 
 I told her what had happened ; and, though her cheek grew 
 visibly paler, she retained perfect control over her senses. 
 
 196
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 "You see now that I am safe," said I in conclusion. 
 " They do not moan to harm me ; for, had they chosen, I 
 was a dead man last night." 
 
 She laid her hand upon my arm. 
 
 " And I had no presentiment ! " she cried. 
 
 Her accent thrilled me with delight. I put my arm about 
 her, and strained her to my side; and, before either of 
 us was aware, her hands were on my shoulders and my lips 
 upon her mouth. Yet up to that moment no word of love 
 had passed between us. To this time I remember the touch 
 of her cheek, which was wet and cold with the rain ; and 
 many a time since, when she has been washing her face, I 
 have kissed it again for the sake of that morning on the 
 beach. Now that she is taken from me, and I finish my 
 pilgrimage alone, I recall our old loving kindness and the 
 deep honesty and affection which united us, and my present 
 loss seems but a trifle in comparison. 
 
 We may have thus stood for some seconds — for time 
 passes quickly with lovers — ^before we were startled by a 
 peal of laughter close at hand. It was not natural mirth, 
 but seemed to be affected in order to conceal an angrier feel- 
 ing. We both turned, though I still kept my left arm 
 about Clara's waist; nor did she seek to withdraw herself; 
 and there, a few paces off upon the beach, stood North- 
 mour, his head lowered, his hands behind his back, his 
 nostrils white with passion. 
 
 " Ah ! Cassilis ! " he said, as I disclosed my face. 
 
 *' That same," said I ; for I was not at all put about. 
 
 *' And so, Miss Huddlestone," he continued slowly but 
 savagely, " this is how you keep j^our faith to your fathe?: 
 and to me.'' This is the value you set upon 3'our father'^ 
 life? And you are so infatuated with this young gentleman 
 that you must brave ruin, and decency, and common human 
 caution " 
 
 " Miss Huddlestone " I was beginning to interrupt 
 
 him, when he, in his turn, cut in brutally — 
 
 " You hold your tongue," said he ; "I am speaking to 
 that girl." 
 
 197
 
 ]S^EW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " That girl, as you call her, is my wife," said I : and my 
 wife only leaned a little nearer, so that I knew she had 
 affirmed my words. 
 
 " Your what? " he cried. " You lie ! " 
 
 " Northmour," I said, " we all know you have a bad tem- 
 per, and I am the last man to be irritated by words. For 
 all that, I propose that you speak lower, for I am convinced 
 that we are not alone." 
 
 He looked round him, and it was plain my remark had in 
 some degree sobered his passion. " What do you mean? " 
 he asked. 
 
 I only said one word : " Italians." 
 
 He swore a round oath, and looked at us, from one to 
 the other. 
 
 " Mr. Cassilis knows all that I know," said my wife. 
 
 " What I want to know," he broke out, " is where the 
 devil Mr. Cassilis comes from, and what the devil Mr. Cas- 
 silis is doing here. You say you are married: that I do not 
 believe. If you were, Graden Floe would soon divorce you ; 
 four minutes and a half, Cassihs, I keep my private cemetery 
 for my friends." 
 
 " It took somewhat longer," said I, " for that Italian." 
 
 He looked at me for a moment half daunted, and then, 
 almost civilly, asked me to tell my story. " You have too 
 much the advantage of me, Cassilis," he added. I complied, 
 of course; and he listened, with several ejaculations, while 
 I told him how I had come to Graden; that it was I whom 
 he had tried to murder on the night of landing; and what 
 I had subsequently seen and heard of the Italians. 
 
 " Well," said he, when I had done, " it is here at last ; 
 there is no mistake about that. And what, may I ask, do 
 you propose to do?" 
 
 " I propose to stay with you and lend a hand," said I. 
 
 *' You are a brave man," he returned, with a peculiar 
 intonation. 
 
 " I am not afraid," said I. 
 
 " And so," he continued, " I am to understand that you 
 
 19s
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 two are married ? And you stand up to it before my f ac« j 
 Miss Huddlestone? " 
 
 " We are not yet married," said Clara ; *' but we shall be 
 as soon as we can." 
 
 *' Bravo ! " cried Northmour. *' And the bargain ? D — n 
 it, you're not a fool, young woman ; I may call a spade a 
 spade with you. How about the bargain? You know as 
 well as I do what your father's life depends upon. I have 
 only to put my hands under my coat-tails and walk away, 
 and his throat would be cut before the evening." 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Northmour," returned Clara, with great spirit; 
 *' but that is what you will never do. You made a bargain 
 that was unworthy of a gentleman ; but you are a gentle- 
 man for all that, and you will never desert a man whom you 
 have begun to help." 
 
 " Aha ! " said he. " You think I will give my yacht for 
 nothing.'' You think I will risk my life and liberty for love 
 of the old gentleman ; and then, I suppose, be best man at 
 the wedding, to wind up.'' Well," he added, with an odd 
 smile, " perhaps you are not altogether wrong. But ask 
 Cassilis here. He knows me. Am I a man to trust.'' Am 
 I safe and scrupulous? Am I kind? " 
 
 " I know you talk a great deal, and sometimes, I think, 
 very foolishly," replied Clara, " but I know you are a gen- 
 tleman, and I am not in the least afraid." 
 
 He looked at her with a peculiar approval and admira- 
 tion ; then, turning to me, " Do you think I would give her 
 up without a struggle, Frank?" said he. "I tell you 
 plainly, you look out. The next time we come to blows " 
 
 " Will make the third," I interrupted, smiling. 
 
 " Aye, true ; so it will," he said. " I had forgotten. Well, 
 the third time's lucky." 
 
 " The third time, you mean, you will have the crew of the 
 Red Earl to help," I said. 
 
 " Do you hear him? " he asked, turning to my wife. 
 
 " I hear two men speaking like cowards," said she. " I 
 should despise myself either to think or speak like that. And 
 
 199
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 neither of you believe one word that you are saying, which 
 makes it the more wicked and silly." 
 
 " She's a trump ! " cried Northmour. " But she's not yet 
 Mrs. Cassilis. I say no more. The present is not for me." 
 
 Then my wife surprised me. 
 
 " I leave you here," she said suddenly. *' My father has 
 been too long alone. But remember this: you are to be 
 friends, for you are both good friends to me." 
 
 She has since told me her reason for this step. As long 
 as she remained, she declares that we two would have con- 
 tinued to quarrel ; and I suppose that she was right, for when 
 she was gone we fell at once into a sort of confidentiality. 
 
 Northmour stared after her as she went away over the 
 sand-hill. 
 
 " She is the only woman in the world ! " he exclaimed with 
 an oath. " Look at her action." 
 
 I, for my part, leaped at this opportunity for a little 
 further hght. 
 
 " See here, Northmour," said I ; "we are all in a tight 
 place, are we not.'' " 
 
 *' I believe you, my boy," he answered, looking me in the 
 eyes, and with great emphasis. " We have all hell upon us, 
 that's the truth. You may believe me or not, but I'm afraid 
 of my life." 
 
 " Tell me one thing," said I. " What are they after, 
 these Italians ? What do they want with Mr. Huddlestone "^ " 
 
 " Don't you know.? " he cried. " The black old scamp 
 had carhonaro funds on a deposit — two hundred and eighty 
 thousand ; and of course he gambled it away on stocks. 
 There was to have been a revolution in the Tridentino, or 
 Parma ; but the revolution is off, and the whole wasp's nest 
 is after Huddlestone. We shall all be lucky if we can save 
 our skins." 
 
 " The carbonari! '* I exclaimed; " God help him indeed! " 
 
 " Amen ! " said Northmour. " And now, look here ; I 
 have said that we are in a fix ; and, frankly, I shall be glad 
 of your help. If I can't save Huddlestone, I want at least 
 to save the girl. Come and stay in the pavilion ; and, there's 
 
 200
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 mj hand on It, I shall act as your friend until the old man 
 is either clear or dead. But," he added, " once that is set- 
 tled, you become my rival once again, and I warn you — • 
 mind yourself." 
 
 " Done ! " said I ; and we shook hands. 
 
 " And now let us go directly to the fort,'' said North- 
 mour; and he began to lead the way through the rain* 
 
 201
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 TELLS OF MY INTRODUCTION TO THE TALL MAN 
 
 WE were admitted to the pavilion by Clara, and I was 
 surprised by the completeness and security of the 
 defences. A barricade of great strength, and yet easy to 
 displace, supported the door against any violence from 
 without; and the shutters of the dining-room, into which I 
 was led directly, and which was feebly illuminated by a 
 lamp, were even more elaborately fortified. The panels were 
 strengthened by bars and cross-bars ; and these, in their 
 turn, were kept in position by a system of braces and struts, 
 some abutting on the floor, some on the roof, and others, in 
 fine, against the opposite wall of the apartment. It was at 
 once a solid and well-designed piece of carpentry; and I 
 did not seek to conceal my admiration. 
 
 " I am the engineer," said Northmour. " You remember 
 the planks in the garden ? Behold them ? " 
 
 " I did not know you had so many talents," said I. 
 
 "Are you armed.''" he continued, pointing to an array 
 of guns and pistols, all in admirable order, which stood in 
 line against the wall or were displaj^ed upon the sideboard. 
 
 " Thank you," I returned ; " I have gone armed since our 
 last encounter. But, to tell you the truth, I have had noth- 
 ing to eat since early yesterday evening." 
 
 Northmour produced some cold meat, to which I eagerly 
 set myself, and a bottle of good Burgundy, by which, wet 
 as I was, I did not scruple to profit. I have always been an 
 extreme temperance man on principle; but it is useless to 
 push principle to excess, and on this occasion I believe that 
 I finished three-quarters of the bottle. As I ate, I still con- 
 tinued to admire the preparations for defence. 
 
 20^
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 " We could stand a siege," I said at length. 
 
 *' Ye — es," drawled Northmour ; " a very little one, 
 per — haps. It is not so much the strength of the pavilion I 
 misdoubt ; it is the double danger that kills me. If we get to 
 shooting, wild as the country is some one is sure to hear it, 
 and then — why then it's the same thing, only different, as 
 they say, caged by law, or killed by carbonari. There's the 
 choice. It is a devilish bad thing to have the law against 
 you in this world, and so I tell the old gentleman up stairs. 
 He is quite of my way of thinking." 
 
 " Speaking of that," said I, " what kind of person is he." 
 
 "Oh, he?" cried the other; "he's a rancid fellow as far 
 as he goes. I should like to have his neck wrung to-morrow 
 by all the devils in Italy. I am not in this affair for him. 
 You take me.? I made a bargain for Missy's hand and I 
 mean to have it, too." 
 
 " That, by the way," said I, " I understand. But how 
 will Mr. Huddlestone take my intrusion? " 
 
 " Leave that to Clara," returned Northmour. 
 
 I could have struck him in the face for this coarse famil- 
 iarity ; but I respected the truce, as, I am bound to say, did 
 Northmour, and so long as the danger continued not a cloud 
 arose in our relation. I bear him this testimony with the 
 most unfeigned satisfaction ; nor am I without pride when I 
 look back upon my own behavior. For surely no two men 
 were ever left in a position so invidious and irritating. 
 
 As soon as I had done eating, we proceeded to inspect the 
 lower floor. Window by window we tried the different sup- 
 ports, now and then making an inconsiderable change ; and 
 the strokes of the hammer sounded with startling loudness 
 through the house. I proposed, I remember, to make loop- 
 holes ; but he told me they were already made in the windows 
 of the upper story. It was an anxious business, this inspec- 
 tion, and left me down-hearted. There were two doors and 
 five windows to protect, and, counting Clara, only four of 
 us to defend them against an unknown number of foes. I 
 communicated my doubts to Northmour, who assured me, 
 with unmoved composure, that he entirely shared them. 
 
 203
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ** Before morning," said he, " we shall all be butchered 
 and buried in Graden Floe. For me, that is written.'* 
 
 I could not help shuddering at the mention of the quick- 
 sand, but reminded Northmour that our enemies had spared 
 me in the wood. 
 
 " Do not flatter yourself," said he. " Then you were not 
 in the same boat with the old gentleman ; now you are. It's 
 the floe for all of us, mark my words." 
 
 I trembled for Clara; and just then her dear voice was 
 neard calling us to come upstairs. Northmour showed me 
 the way, and, when he had reached the landing, knocked at 
 the door of what used to be called My Uncle's Bedroom, as 
 the founder of the pavilion had designed it especially for 
 himself. 
 
 "Come in, Northmour; come in, dear Mr. Cassilis," said 
 a voice from within. 
 
 Pushing open the door, Northmour admitted me before 
 him into the apartment. As I came in I could see the daugh- 
 ter slipping out by the side door into the study, which had 
 been prepared as her bedroom. In the bed, which was drawn 
 back against the wall, instead of standing, as I had last 
 seen it, boldly across the window, sat Bernard Huddlestone, 
 the defaulting banker. Little as I had seen of him by the 
 shifting light of the lantern on the links, I had no difficulty 
 in recognizing him for the same. He had a long and sallow 
 countenance, surrounded by a long red beard and side- 
 whiskers. His broken nose and high cheek-bones gave him 
 somewhat the air of a Kalmuck, and his light eyes shone with 
 the excitement of a high fever. He wore a skull-cap of 
 black silk ; a huge Bible lay open before him on the bed, with 
 a pair of gold spectacles in the place, and a pile of other 
 books lay on the stand by his side. The green curtains lent 
 a cadaverous shade to his cheek ; and, as he sat propped on 
 pillows, his great stature was painfully hunched, and his 
 head protruded till it overhung his knees. I believe if he 
 had not died otherwise, he must have fallen a victim to con- 
 sumption in the course of but a very few weeks. 
 
 . 204i
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 He held out to me a hand, long, thin, and disagreeably 
 hairy. 
 
 " Come in, come in, Mr. Cassilis," said he. " Another 
 protector — ahem ! — another protector. Always welcome as 
 a friend of my daughter's, Mr. Cassilis. How they have 
 rallied about me, my daughter's friends ! May God in 
 heaven bless and reward them for it ! " 
 
 I gave him my hand, of course, because I could not help 
 it; but the sympathy I had been prepared to feel for Clara's 
 father was immediately soured by his appearance, and the 
 wheedling, unreal tones in which he spoke. 
 
 " Cassilis is a good man," said Northmour; "worth ten." 
 
 " So I hear," cried Mr. Huddlestone eagerly ; " so my 
 girl tells me. Ah, Mr. Cassilis, my sin has found me out, 
 you see ! I am very low, very low ; but I hope equally pen- 
 itent. We must all come to the throne of grace at last, Mr. 
 Cassilis. For my part, I come late indeed; but with un- 
 feigned humility, I trust." 
 
 " Fiddle-de-dee ! " said Northmour roughly. 
 
 " No, no, dear Northmour ! " cried the banker. " You 
 must not say that ; you must not try to shake me. You for- 
 get, my dear, good boy, you forget I may be called this very 
 night before my Maker." 
 
 His excitement was pitiful to behold; and I felt myself 
 grow indignant with Northmour, whose infidel opinions I 
 well knew, and heartily derided, as he continued to taunt the 
 poor sinner out of his humor of repentance. 
 
 " Pooh, my dear Huddlestone! " said he. " You do your- 
 self injustice. You are a man of the world Inside and out, 
 and were up to all kinds of mischief before I was bom. 
 Your conscience is tanned like South American leather — 
 only you forgot to tan your liver, and that, if you will be- 
 lieve me, is the seat of the annoyance." 
 
 " Rogue, rogue ! bad boy ! " said Mr. Huddlestone, shak- 
 ing his finger. " I am no precisian, if you come to that ; I 
 always hated a precisian ; but I never lost hold of something 
 better through it all. I have been a bad boy, Mr. Cassilis; 
 
 205 .
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 I do not seek to deny that ; but It was after my wife's death, 
 and you know, with a widower, it's a different thing: Sin- 
 ful — I won't say no, but there is a gradation, we shall hope. 
 
 And talking of that Hark ! " he broke out suddenly, his 
 
 hand raised, his fingers spread, his face racked with interest 
 and terror. " Only the rain, bless God ! " he added, after a 
 pause, and with indescribable relief. 
 
 For some seconds he lay back among the pillows like 
 a man near to fainting; then he gathered himself together, 
 and, in somewhat tremulous tones, began once more to thank 
 me for the share I was prepared to take in his defence. 
 
 " One question, sir," said I, when he had paused. " Is it 
 true that you have money with you? " 
 
 He seemed annoyed by the question, but admitted with 
 reluctance that he had a little. 
 
 " Well," I continued, " It Is their money they are after, 
 is it not? Why not give It up to them? " 
 
 " Ah ! " replied he, shaking his head, " I have tried that 
 already, Mr. Cassilis ; and alas ! that it should be so, but it 
 is blood they want." 
 
 " Huddlestone, that's a little less than fair," said North- 
 mour. " You should mention that what you offered them 
 was upwards of two hundred thousand short. The deficit 
 is worth a reference; it Is for what they call a cool sum, 
 Frank. Then, you see, the fellows reason In their clear 
 Italian way; and It seems to them, as Indeed It seems to me, 
 that they may just as well have both while they are about 
 it — money and blood together, by George, and no more 
 trouble for the extra pleasure." 
 " Is it in the pavilion? " I asked. 
 
 " It is ; and I wish It was in the bottom of the sea instead," 
 said Northmour ; and then suddenly — " What are vou mak- 
 ing faces at me for? " he cried to Mr. Huddlestone, on whom 
 I had unconsciously turned my back. " Do you think Cas- 
 silis would sell you ? " 
 
 Mr. Huddlestone protested that nothing had been further 
 from his mind. 
 
 " It is a good thing," retorted Northmour in his ugliest 
 
 20(5
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 manner. " You might end by wearying us. What were you 
 going to say? " he added, turning to me. 
 
 " I was going to propose an occupation for the after- 
 noon," said I. " Let us carry that money out, piece by 
 piece, and lay it down before the pavilion door. If the car- 
 bonari come, why, it's theirs at any rate." 
 
 " No, no," cried Mr. Huddlestone ; " it does not, it can- 
 not belong to them! It should be distributed pro rata 
 among all my creditors." 
 
 " Come, now, Huddlestone," said Northmour, " none of 
 that." 
 
 " Well, but my daughter," moaned the wretched man. 
 
 ** Your daughter will do well enough. Here are two 
 suitors, Cassilis and I, neither of us beggars, between whom 
 she has to choose. And as for yourself, to make an end of 
 arguments, you have no right to a farthing, and, unless I'm 
 much mistaken, you are going to die." 
 
 It was certainly very cruelly said; but Mr. Huddlestone 
 was a man who attracted little sympathy ; and, although I 
 saw him wince and shudder, I mentally endorsed the rebuke ; 
 nay, I added a contribution of my own. 
 
 " Northmour and I," I said, " are willing enough to help 
 you to save your life, but not to escape with stolen prop- 
 erty." 
 
 He struggled for a while with himself, as though he were 
 on the point of giving way to anger, but prudence had the 
 best of the controversy. 
 
 " My dear boys," he said, " do with me or my money what 
 you will. I leave all in your hands. Let me compose 
 myself." 
 
 And so we left him, gladly enough I am sure. The last 
 that I saw, he had once more taken up his great Bible, and 
 with tremulous hands was adjusting his spectacles to read. 
 
 207
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 TEliLS HOW A WORD WAS CRIED THROUGH THE PAVILION 
 WINDOW 
 
 THE recollection of that afternoon will always be graven 
 on my mind. Northmour and I were persuaded that 
 an attack was imminent ; and if it had been in our power to 
 alter in any way the order of events, that power would have 
 been used to precipitate rather than delay the critical mo- 
 ment. The worst was to be anticipated ; yet we could con- 
 ceive no extremity so miserable as the suspense we were now 
 suffering. I have never been an eager, though always a 
 great, reader ; but I never knew books so insipid as those 
 which I took up and cast aside that afternoon in the pavilion. 
 Even talk became impossible, as the hours went on. One or 
 other was always listening for some sound, or peering from 
 an upstairs window over the links. And yet not a sign in- 
 dicated the presence of our foes. 
 
 We debated over and over again my proposal with regard 
 to the money; and had we been in complete possession of 
 our faculties, I am sure we should have condemned it as un- 
 wise ; but we were flustered with alarm, grasped at a straw, 
 and determined, although it was as much as advertising Mr. 
 Huddlestone's presence in the pavilion, to carry my proposal 
 into eifect. 
 
 The sum was part in specie, part in bank paper, and part 
 In circular notes, payable to the name of James Gregory. 
 We took it out, counted it, enclosed it once more in a 
 despatch-box belonging to Northmour, and prepared a let- 
 ter in Italian which he tied to the handle. It was signed by 
 both of us under oath, and declared that this was all the 
 money which had escaped the failure of the house of Huddle- 
 stone. This was, perhaps, the maddest action ever per- 
 
 208
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 petrated by two persons professing to be sane. Had the 
 despatch-box fallen into other hands than those for which 
 it was intended, we stood criminally convicted on our own 
 "written testimony ; but, as I have said, we were neither of 
 us in a condition to judge soberly, and had a thirst for 
 action that drove us to do something, right or wrong, rather 
 than endure the agony of waiting. Moreover, as we were 
 both convinced that the hollows of the links were alive with 
 hidden spies upon our movements, we hoped that our appear- 
 ance with the box might lead to a parley, and, perhaps, a 
 compromise. 
 
 It was nearly three when we issued from the pavilion. 
 The rain had taken off; the sun shone quite cheerfully. I 
 have never seen the gulls fly so close about the house or ap- 
 proach so fearlessly to human beings. On the very doorstep 
 one flapped heavily past our heads, and uttered its wild cry 
 in my very ear. 
 
 " There is an omen for you," said Northmour, who like 
 all freethinkers was much under the influence of superstition. 
 " They think we are already dead." 
 
 I made some light rejoinder, but it was with half my 
 heart ; for the circumstance had impressed me. 
 
 A yard or two before the gate, on a patch of smooth 
 turf, we set down the despatch box; and Northmour waved 
 a white handkerchief over his head. Nothing replied. We 
 raised our voices, and cried aloud in Italian that we were 
 ihere as ambassadors to arrange the quarrel; but the still- 
 ness remained unbroken save by the sea-gulls and the surf. 
 I had a weight at my heart when we desisted; and I saw 
 that even Northmour was unusually pale. He looked over 
 his shoulder nervously, as though he feared that some one 
 had crept between him and the pavilion door. 
 
 " By God," he said in a whisper, " this is too much 
 for me ! " 
 
 I replied in the same key ; " Suppose there should be 
 none, after all ! " 
 
 " Look there," he returned, nodding with his head, as 
 though he had been afraid to point. 
 
 209
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 I glanced in the direction indicated; and there, from the 
 northern corner of the Sea-Wood, beheld a thin column of 
 smoke rising steadily against the now cloudless sky. 
 
 " Northmour," I said (we still continued to talk in 
 whispers), "it is not possible to endure this suspense. I 
 prefer death fifty times over. Stay you here to watch the 
 pavilion ; I will go forward and make sure, if I have to walk 
 right into their camp." 
 
 He looked once again all around him with puckered eyes. 
 and then nodded assentingly to my proposal. 
 
 My heart beat like a sledge-hammer as I set out walking 
 rapidly in the direction of the smoke ; and though up to that 
 moment I had felt chill and shivering, I was suddenly con- 
 scious of a glow of heat over all my body. The ground in 
 this direction was very uneven ; a hundred men might have 
 lain hidden in as many square yards about my path. But I 
 had not practiced the business in vain, chose such routes as 
 cut at the very root of concealment, and, by keeping along 
 the most convenient ridges, commanded several hollows at a 
 time. It was not long before I was rewarded for my caution. 
 Coming suddenly on to a mound somewhat more elevated 
 than the surrounding hummocks I saw, not thirty yards 
 away, a man bent almost double, and running as fast as his 
 attitude permitted, along the bottom of a. gully. I had dis- 
 lodged one of the spies from his ambush. As soon as I 
 sighted him, I called loudly both in English and Italian ; and 
 he, seeing concealment was no longer possible, straightened 
 himself out, leaped from the gully, and made off as straight 
 as an arrow for the borders of the wood. 
 
 It was none of my business to pursue ; I had learned what 
 I wanted — that we were beleaguered and watched in the 
 pavilion; and I returned at once, and walking as nearly as 
 possible in my old footsteps, to where Northmour awaited 
 me beside the despatch-box. He was even paler than when 
 I had left him and his voice shook a little. 
 
 " Could you see what he was like ? " he asked. 
 
 ** He kept his back turned," I replied.
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 " Let us go into the house, Frant. I don't think I'm a 
 coward, but I can stand no more of this," he whispered. 
 
 All was still and sunshiny about the pavilion as we turned 
 to re-enter it ; even the gulls had flown in a wider circuit, 
 and were seen flickering along the beach and sand-hills ; and 
 this loneliness terrified me more than a regiment under arms. 
 It was not until the door was barricaded that I could draw 
 a full inspiration and relieve the weight that lay upon my 
 bosom. Northmour and I exchanged a steady glance; and 
 I suppose each made his own reflections on the white and 
 startled aspect of the other. 
 
 " You were right," I said. " All is over. Shake hands, 
 old man, for the last time." 
 
 " Yes," replied he, " I will shake hands ; for, as sure as 
 I am here, I bear no malice. But, remember, if, by some 
 impossible accident, we should give the slip to these black- 
 guards, I'll take the upper hand of you by fair or foul." 
 
 " Oh," said I, " you weary me." 
 
 He seemed hurt, and walked away in silence to the foot of 
 the stairs, where he paused. 
 
 " You do not understand me," said he, " I am not a 
 swindler, and I guard m^^self ; that is all. It may weary you 
 or not, Mr. Cassilis, I do not care a rush; I speak for my 
 own satisfaction, and not for your amusement. You had 
 better go upstairs and court the girl; for my part, I stay 
 here." 
 
 " And I stay with you," I returned. " Do you think I 
 would steal a march, even with your permission.'"' 
 
 " Frank," he said, smiling, " it's a pity you are an ass, 
 for you have the makings of a man. I think I must be fey 
 to-day ; you cannot irritate me, even when you try. Do you 
 know," he continued softly, " I think we are the two most 
 miserable men in England, you and I.'' we have got on to 
 thirty without wife or child, or so much as a shop to look 
 after — ^poor, pitiful, lost devils, both! And now we clash 
 about a girl ! As if there were not several millions in the 
 United Kingdom! Ah, Frank, Frank, the one who loses his 
 
 211
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 throw, be it you or me, he has my pity ! It were better for 
 him — ^how does the Bible say? — that a millstone were hanged 
 about his neck and he were cast into the depth of the sea. 
 Let us take a drink." he concluded suddenly, but without 
 any levity of tone. 
 
 I was touched by his words, and consented. He sat down 
 on the table in the dining-room, and held up the glass of 
 sherry to his eye. 
 
 " If you beat me, Frank," he said, " I shall take to drink. 
 What will you do, if it goes the other way? " 
 
 " God knows," I returned. 
 
 " Well," said he, *' here is a toast in the meantime : 
 * Italia irredenta! ' " 
 
 The remainder of the day was passed in the same dread- 
 ful tedium and suspense. I laid the table for dinner, while 
 Northmour and Clara prepared the meal together in the 
 kitchen. I could hear their talk as I went to and fro, and 
 was surprised to find it ran all the time upon myself. North- 
 mour again bracketed us together, and rallied Clara on a 
 choice of husbands ; but he continued to speak of me with 
 some feeling, and uttered nothing to my prejudice unless 
 he included himself in the condemnation. This awakened a 
 sense of gratitude in my heart, which combined with the 
 immediateness of our peril to fill my eyes with tears. After 
 all, I thought — and perhaps the thought was laughably 
 vain — we were here three very noble human beings to perish 
 in defense of a thieving banker. 
 
 Before we sat down to table, I looked forth from an 
 upstairs window. The day was beginning to decline; the 
 links were utterly deserted; the despatch-box still lay un- 
 touched where we had left it hours before. 
 
 Mr. Huddlestone, in a long yellow dressing-gown, took 
 one end of the table, Clara the other; while Northmour and 
 I faced each other from the sides. The lamp was brightly 
 trimmed ; the wine was good ; the viands, although mostly 
 cold, excellent of their sort. We seemed to have agreed 
 tacitly ; all reference to the impending catastrophe was care- 
 fully avoided; and, considering our tragic circumstances, 
 
 212
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 we made a merrier party than could have been expected. 
 From time to time, it is true, Northmour or I would rise 
 from the table and make a round of the defences ; and, on 
 each of these occasions Mr. Huddlestone was recalled to a 
 sense of his tragic predicament, glanced up with ghastly 
 eyes, and bore for an instant on his countenance the stamp 
 of terror. But he hastened to empty his glass, wiped his 
 forehead with his handkerchief, and joined again in the 
 conversation. 
 
 I was astonished at the wit and information he displayed. 
 Mr. Huddlestone's was certainly no ordinary character ; he 
 had read and observed for himself; his gifts were sound; 
 and, though I could never have learned to love the man, 1 
 began to understand his success in business, and the great 
 respect in which he had been held before his failure. He had, 
 above all, the talent of society ; and though I never heard 
 him speak but on this one and most unfavorable occasion, I 
 set him down among the most brilliant conversationalists I 
 ever met. 
 
 He was relating with great gusto, and seemingly no feel- 
 ing of shame, the manoeuvres of a scoundrelly commission 
 merchant whom he had known and studied in his youth, and 
 we were all listening with an odd mixture of mirth and em- 
 barrassment, when our little party was brought abruptly 
 to an end in the most startling manner. 
 
 A noise like that of a wet finger on the window-pane in- 
 terrupted Mr. Huddlestone's tale ; and in an instant we were 
 all four as white as paper, and sat tongue-tied and motion- 
 less round the table. 
 
 " A snail," I said at last ; for I had heard that these 
 animals make a noise somewhat similar in character. 
 
 " Snail be d d ! " said Northmour. " Hush ! " 
 
 The same sound was repeated twice at regular intervals; 
 and then a formidable voice shouted through the shutters 
 the Italian word " Traditore! " 
 
 Mr. Huddlestone threw his head in the air ; his eye- 
 lids quivered; next moment he fell insensible below the 
 table. Northmour and I had each run to the armory and 
 
 213
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 seized a gun. Clara was on her feet with her hand at her 
 throat. 
 
 So we stood waiting, for we thought the hour of attack 
 was certainly come; but second passed after second, and all 
 but the surf remained silent in the neighborhood of the 
 pavilion. 
 
 " Quick," said Northmour; " upstairs with him before 
 they come." 
 
 tl4
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 TELLS THE LAST OF THE TALL MAN 
 
 SOMEHOW or other, by hook and crook, and between 
 the three of us, we got Bernard Huddlestone bundled 
 upstairs and laid upon the bed in My Uncle's Room. Dur- 
 ing the whole process, which was rough enough, he gave no 
 sign of consciousness, and he remained, as we had thrown 
 him, without changing the position of a finger. His daugh- 
 ter opened his shirt and began to wet his head and bosom ; 
 while Northmour and I ran to the window. The weather 
 continued clear; the moon, which was now about full, had 
 risen and shed a very clear light upon the links ; yet, strain 
 our eyes as we might, we could distinguish nothing moving. 
 A few dark spots, more or less, on the uneven expanse were 
 not to be identified; they might be crouching men, they 
 might be shadows ; it was impossible to be sure. 
 
 " Thank God," said Northmour, " Aggie is not coming 
 to-night." 
 
 Aggie was the name of the old nurse ; he had not thought 
 of her till now ; but that he should think of her at all, was a 
 trait that surprised me in the man. 
 
 We were again reduced to waiting. Northmour went to 
 the fireplace and spread his hands before the red embers, as 
 if he were cold. I followed him mechanically with my eyes, 
 and in so doing turned my back upon the window. At that 
 moment a very faint report was audible from without, and a 
 ball shivered a pane of glass, and buried itself in the shutter 
 two inches from my head. I heard Clara scream; and 
 though I whipped instantly out of range and into a corner, 
 she was there, so to speak, before me, beseeching to know if 
 I were hurt. I felt that I could stand to be shot at every 
 day and all day long, with such marks of solicitude for a 
 
 215
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 reward ; and I continued to reassure her, with the tenderest 
 caresses and in complete forgetfulness of our situation, till 
 the voice of Northmour recalled me to myself. 
 
 " An air-gun," he said. " They wish to make no noise." 
 
 I put Clara aside, and looked at him. He was standing 
 with his back to the fire and his hands clasped behind him ; 
 and I knew by the black look on his face, that passion was 
 boiling within. I had seen just such a look before he at- 
 tacked me, that March night, in the adjoining chamber; 
 and, though I could make every allowance for his anger, I 
 confess I trembled for the consequences. He gazed straight 
 before him ; but he could see us with the tail of his eye, and 
 his temper kept rising like a gale of wind. With regular 
 battle awaiting us outside, this prospect of an internecine 
 strife within the walls began to daunt me. 
 
 Suddenly, as I was thus closely watching his expression 
 and prepared against the worst, I saw a change, a flash, a 
 look of relief, upon his face. He took up the lamp which 
 stood beside him on the table, and turned to us with an air 
 of some excitement. 
 
 " There is one point that we must know," said he. " Are 
 they going to butcher the lot of us, or only Huddlestone .? 
 Did they take you for him, or fire at you for your own 
 beaux ycaux? " 
 
 " They took me for him, for certain," I replied. " I am 
 near as tall, and my head is fair." 
 
 " I am going to make sure," returned Northmour ; and he 
 stepped up to the window, holding the lamp above his head, 
 and stood there, quietly affronting death, for half a minute. 
 
 Clara sought to rush forward and pull him from the place 
 of danger; but I had the pardonable selfishness to hold her 
 back by force. 
 
 " Yes," said Northmour, turning coolly from the window ; 
 " it's only Huddlestone they want." 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Northmour ! " cried Clara ; but found no more 
 to add; the temerity she had just witnessed seeming beyond 
 the reach of words. 
 
 He, on his part, looked at me, cocking his head, with a 
 
 216
 
 THE PAVILIOX ON THE LIXKS 
 
 fire of triumph In his ej-es ; and I understood at once that 
 he had thus hazarded his life, merely to attract Clara's 
 notice, and depose me from my position as the hero of the 
 hour. He snapped his fingers. 
 
 " The fire is only beginning," he said. " When they warm 
 up to their work, they won't be so particular." 
 
 A voice was now heard hailing us from the entrance. 
 From the window we could see the figure of a man in the 
 moonlight; he stood motionless, his face uplifted to ours, 
 and a rag of something white on his extended arm ; and as 
 we looked right down upon him, though he was a good many 
 yards distant on the links, we could see the moonlight ghtter 
 on his eyes. 
 
 He opened his lips again, and spoke for some minutes on 
 end, in a key so loud that he might have been heard In every 
 corner of the pavilion, and as far away as the borders of 
 the wood. It was the same voice that had already shouted 
 *' Traditore! " through the shutters of the dining-room ; 
 this time it made a complete and clear statement. If the 
 traitor " Oddlestone " were given up, all others should be 
 spared; if not, no one should escape to tell the tale. 
 
 "Well, Huddlestone, what do you say to that.?" asked 
 Northmour, turning to the bed. 
 
 Up to that moment the banker had given no sign of life, 
 and I, at least, had supposed him to be still lying in a faint ; 
 but he replied at once, and in such tones as I have never 
 heard elsewhere, save from a delirious patient, adjured and 
 besought us not to desert him. It was the most hideous and 
 abject performance that my imagination can conceive. 
 
 " Enough," cried Northmour ; and then he threw opeil 
 the window, leaned out Into the night, and in a tone of 
 exultation, and with a total forgetfulness of what was due 
 to the presence of a lady, poured out upon the ambassador 
 a string of the most abominable railler3" both in English and 
 Italian, and bade him be gone where he had come from. I 
 believe that nothing so delighted Northmour at that moment 
 as the thought that we must all infallibly perish before the 
 night was out. 
 
 S17
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 Meantime the Italian put his flag of truce into his pocket, 
 and disappeared, at a leisurely pace, among the sand-hills. 
 
 " They make honorable war," said Northmour. " They 
 are all gentlemen and soldiers. For the credit of the thing, 
 I wish we could change sides — you and I, Frank, and you 
 too, Missy my darling — and leave that being on the bed to 
 some one else. Tut ! Don't look shocked ! We are all going 
 post to what they call eternity, and may as well be above- 
 board while there's time. As far as I'm concerned, if I could 
 first strangle Huddlestone and then get Clara in my arms, 
 I could die with some pride and satisfaction. And as it is, 
 by God, I'll have a kiss ! " 
 
 Before I could do anything to interfere, he had rudely 
 embraced and repeatedly kissed the resisting girl. Next 
 moment I had pulled him away with fury, and flung him 
 heavily against the wall. He laughed loud and long, and I 
 feared his wits had given way under the strain ; for even in 
 the best of days he had been a sparing and a quiet laugher. 
 
 " Now, Frank," said he, when his mirth was somewhat 
 appeased, " it's your turn. Here's my hand. Good-bye ; 
 farewell ! " Then, seeing me stand rigid and indignant, 
 and holding Clara to my side — " Man ! " he broke out, " are 
 you angry? Did you think we were going to die with all 
 the airs and graces of society .^^ I took a kiss; I'm glad I 
 had it ; and now you can take another if you like, and square 
 accounts." 
 
 I turned from him with a feeling of contempt which I 
 did not seek to dissemble. 
 
 " As you please," said he. " You've been a prig in life ; 
 a prig you'll die." 
 
 And with that he sat down in a chair, a rifle over the knee, 
 and amused himself with snapping the lock; but I could see 
 that his ebullition of light spirits (the only one I ever knew 
 him to display) had already come to an end, and was suc- 
 ceeded by a sullen, scowling humor. 
 
 All this time our assailants might have been entering the 
 house, and we been none the wiser; we had in truth almost 
 forgotten the danger that so imminently overhung our days. 
 
 21S
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 But just then Mr. Huddlestone uttered a cry, and leaped 
 from the bed. 
 
 I asked him what was wrong. 
 
 " Fire ! " he cried. " They have set the house on fire! " 
 
 Northmour was on his feet in an instant, and he and I 
 ran through the door of communication with the study. The 
 room was illuminated by a red and angry light. Almost at 
 the moment of our entrance, a tower of flame arose in front 
 of the window, and, with a tingling report, a pane fell in- 
 wards on the carpet. They had set fire to the lean-to out- 
 house, where Northmour used to nurse his negatives. 
 
 " Hot work," said Northmour. " Let us try in your old 
 room." 
 
 We ran thither in a breath, threw up the casement, and 
 looked forth. Along the whole back wall of the pavilion 
 piles of fuel had been arranged and kindled ; and it is prob- 
 able they had been drenched with mineral oil, for, in spite of 
 the morning's rain, they all burned bravely. The fire had 
 taken a firm hold already on the outhouse, which blazed 
 higher and higher every moment; the back door was in the 
 centre of a red-hot bonfire; the eaves we could see, as we 
 looked upward, were already smouldering, for the roof over- 
 hung, and was supported by considerable beams of wood. 
 At the same time, hot, pungent, and choking volumes of 
 smoke began to fiU the house. There was not a human being 
 to be seen to right or left. 
 
 " Ah, well ! " said Northmour, " here's the end, thank 
 God." 
 
 And we returned to My Uncle's Room. IMr. Huddlestone 
 was putting on his boots, still violently trembling, but with 
 an air of determination such as I had not hitherto observed. 
 Clara stood close by him, with her cloak in both hands ready 
 to throw about her shoulders, and a strange look in her eyes, 
 as if she were half hopeful, half doubtful of her father. 
 
 " Well, boys and girls," said Northmour, " how about a 
 sally.'' The oven is heating; it is not good to stay here and 
 be baked; and, for my part, I want to come to my hands 
 with them, and be done." 
 
 219
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ** There is nothing else left," I replied. 
 
 And both Clara and Mr. Huddlestone, though with a very 
 different intonation, added, " Nothing." 
 
 As we went downstairs the heat was excessive, and the 
 roaring of the fire filled our ears ; and we had scarce reached 
 the passage before the stairs window fell in, a branch of 
 flame shot brandishing through the aperture, and the in- 
 terior of the pavilion became lit up with that dreadful and 
 fluctuating glare. At the same moment we heard the fall of 
 something heavy and inelastic in the upper story. The 
 whole pavilion, it was plain, had gone alight like a box of 
 matches, and now not only flamed sky-high to land and sea, 
 but threatened with every moment to crumble and fall in 
 about our ears. 
 
 Northmour and I cocked our revolvers. Mr. Huddlestone, 
 who had already refused a firearm, put us behind him with 
 a manner of command. 
 
 ** Let Clara open the door," said he. " So, if they fire a 
 volley, she will be protected. And in the meantime stand 
 behind me. I am the scapegoat; my sins have found me 
 out." 
 
 I heard him, as I stood breathless by his shoulder, with my 
 pistol ready, pattering off prayers in a tremulous, rapid 
 whisper ; and I confess, horrid as the thought may seem, I 
 despised him for thinking of supplications in a moment so 
 critical and thrilling. In the meantime, Clara, who was dead 
 white but still possessed her faculties, had displaced the 
 barricade from the front door. Another moment, and she 
 had pulled it open. Firelight and moonlight illuminated 
 the links with confused and changeful lustre, and far 
 away against the sky we could see a long trail of glowing 
 smoke. 
 
 Mr. Huddlestone, filled for the moment with a strength 
 greater than his own, struck Northmour and myself a back- 
 hander in the chest; and while we were thus for the moment 
 incapacitated from action, lifting his arms above his head 
 like one about to dive, he ran straight forward out of the 
 paviliono
 
 THE PAVILION OX THE LINKS 
 
 "Here am I!" he cried — " Huddlestone ! Kill me, and 
 spare the others ! " 
 
 His sudden appearance daunted, I suppose, our hidden 
 enemies ; for Northmour and I had time to recover, to seize 
 Clara between us, one by each arm, and to rush forth to his 
 assistance, ere anything further had taken place. But 
 scarce had we passed the threshold when there came near a 
 dozen reports and flashes from every direction among the 
 hollows of the links. Mr. Huddlestone staggered, uttered a 
 weird and freezing cry, threw up his arms over his head, and 
 fell backward on the turf. 
 
 " Traditore! Traditorc! " cried the invisible avengers. 
 
 And just then, a part of the roof of the pavilion fell in, 
 so rapid was the progress of the fire. A loud, vague, and 
 horrible noise accompanied the collapse, and a vast volume 
 of flame went soaring up to heaven. It must have been 
 visible at that moment from twenty miles out at sea, from 
 the shore at Graden Wester, and far inland from the peak 
 of Graystiel, the most eastern summit of the Caulder Hills. 
 Bernard Huddlestone, although God knows what were his 
 obsequies, had a fine pyre at the moment of his death. 
 
 331i
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 TELIiS HOW NORTHMOTJR CARRIED OUT HIS THREAT 
 
 I SHOULD have the greatest difficulty to tell you what 
 followed next after this tragic circumstance. It is all 
 to me, as I look back upon it, mixed, strenuous, and ineffect- 
 ual, like the struggles of a sleeper in a nightmare. Clara, 
 I remember, uttered a broken sigh and would have fallen for- 
 ward to earth, had not Northmour and I supported her in- 
 sensible body. I do not think we were attacked; I do not 
 remember even to have seen an assailant ; and I believe we 
 deserted Mr. Huddlestone without a glance. I only remem- 
 ber running like a man in a panic, now carrying Clara alto- 
 gether in my own arms, now sharing her weight with North- 
 mour, now scuffling confusedly for the possession of that 
 dear burden. Why we should have made for my camp in the 
 Hemlock Den, or how we reached it, are points lost forever to 
 my recollection. The first moment at which I became definitely 
 sure, Clara had been suffered to fall against the outside of 
 my little tent, Northmour and I were tumbling together on 
 the ground, and he, with contained ferocity, was striking 
 for my head with the butt of his revolver. He had already 
 twice wounded me on the scalp ; and it is to the consequent 
 loss of blood that I am tempted to attribute the sudden 
 clearness of my mind. 
 
 I caught him by the wrist. 
 
 " Northmour," I remember saying, *' you can kill me 
 afterwards. Let us first attend to Clara." 
 
 He was at that moment uppermost. Scarcely had the 
 words passed my lips, when he had leaped to his feet and 
 ran towards the tent; and the next moment, he was strain- 
 ing Clara to his heart and covering her unconscious hands 
 and face with his caresses. 
 
 22a
 
 THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS 
 
 "Shame!" I cried. "Shame to you, Northmour!" 
 
 And, giddy though I still was, I struck him repeatedly 
 upon the head and shoulders. 
 
 He relinquished his grasp, and faced me in the broken 
 moonlight. 
 
 " I had you under, and let you go," said he ; " and now 
 you strike me! Coward!" 
 
 " You are the coward," I retorted. " Did she wish your 
 kisses while she was still sensible of what she wanted? Not 
 she! And now she may be dying; and you waste this pre- 
 cious time, and abuse her helplessness. Stand aside, and 
 let me help her." 
 
 He confronted me for a moment, white and menacing; 
 then suddenly he stepped aside. 
 
 " Help her then," said he. 
 
 I threw myself on my knees beside her, and loosened, as 
 well as I was able, her dress and corset ; but while I was 
 thus engaged, a grasp descended on my shoulder. 
 
 " Keep your hands off her," said Northmour fiercely. 
 " Do you think I have no blood in my veins ? " 
 
 " Northmour," I cried, " if you will neither help her your- 
 self, nor let me do so, do you know that I shall have to 
 kill you?" 
 
 " That is better ! " he cried. " Let her die also, where's 
 the harm? Step aside from that girl! and stand up to 
 fight." 
 
 " You will observe," said I, half-rising, " that I have not 
 kissed her yet." 
 
 " I dare you to," he cried. 
 
 I do not know what possessed me ; it was one of the things 
 I am most ashamed of in my life, though, as my wife used 
 to say, I knew that my kisses would be always welcome were 
 she dead or living ; down I fell again upon my knees, parted 
 the hair from her forehead, and, with the dearest respect, 
 laid my lips for a moment on that cold brow. It was such 
 a caress as a father might have given ; it was such a one as 
 was not unbecoming from a man soon to die to a woman 
 already dead. 
 
 223
 
 NEW AKABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " And now," said I, " I am at your service, Mr. North- 
 mour." 
 
 But I saw, to my surprise, that he had turned his back 
 upon me. 
 
 " Do you hear? " I asked. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " I do. If you wish to fight, I am ready. 
 If not, go on and save Clara. All is one to me." 
 
 1 did not wait to be twice bidden ; but, stooping again 
 over Clara, continued my efforts to revive her. She still 
 lay white and lifeless ; I began to fear that her sweet spirit 
 had indeed fled beyond recall, and horror and a sense of 
 utter desolation seized upon my heart. I called her by name 
 with the most endearing inflections ; I chafed and beat her 
 hands ; now I laid her head low, now supported it against my 
 knee; but all seemed to be in vain, and the lids still lay 
 heavy on her eyes. 
 
 " Northmour," I said, " there is my hat. For God's sake 
 bring some water from the spring." 
 
 Almost in a moment he was by my side with the water. 
 
 " I have brought it in my own," he said. " You do not 
 grudge me the privilege ? " 
 
 " Northmour," I was beginning to say, as I laved her 
 head and breast ; but he interrupted me savagely. 
 
 " Oh, you hush up ! " he said. " The best thing you coi^ 
 do is to say nothing." 
 
 I had certainly no desire to talk, my mind being swal- 
 lowed up in concern for my dear love and her condition; so 
 I continued in silence to do my best towards her recovery, 
 and, when the hat was empty, returned it to him, with one 
 word—" More." He had, perhaps, gone several times upon 
 this errand, when Clara reopened her eyes. 
 
 " Now," said he, " since she is better, you can spare me, 
 can you not? I wish you a good night, Mr. Cassilis." 
 
 And with that he was gone among the thicket. I made 
 a fire, for I had now no fear of the Italians, who had even 
 spared all the little possessions left in my encampment; and, 
 broken as she was by the excitement and the hideous catas- 
 trophe of the evening, I managed, in one way or another — 
 
 224)
 
 THE PAVILIOX OX THE LIXKS 
 
 by persuasion, encouragement, warmth, and such simple 
 remedies as I could lay hands on — to bring her back to some 
 composure of mind and strength of body. 
 
 Day had already come, "vrhen a sharp " Hist ! " sounded 
 from the thicket. I started from the ground ; but the voice 
 of Northmour was heard adding, in the most tranquil tones i 
 " Come here, Cassilis, and alone ; I want to show you some- 
 thing." 
 
 I consulted Clara with ray eyes, and, receiving her tacit 
 permission, left her alone, and clambered out of the den. 
 At some distance off I saw Northmour leaning against an 
 elder; and, as soon as he perceived me, he began walking 
 seaward. I had almost overtaken him as he reached the out- 
 skirts of the wood. 
 
 " Look," said he, pausing. 
 
 A couple of steps more brought me out of the foliage. 
 The light of the morning lay cold and clear over that well- 
 known scene. The pavilion was but a blackened wreck ; the 
 roof had fallen in, one of the gables had fallen out; and, 
 far and near, the face of the links was cicatrized with little 
 patches of burnt furze. Thick smoke still went straight up- 
 wards in the windless air of the morning, and a great pile of 
 ardent cmders filled the bare walls of the house, like coals in 
 an open grate. Close by the islet a schooner yacht lay to, and 
 a well-manned boat was pulling vigorously for the shore. 
 
 " The Red Earl! " I cried. " The Red Earl twelve hours 
 too late ! " 
 
 "Feel in your pocket, Frank. Are you armed.''" asked 
 Northmour. 
 
 I obeyed him, and I think I must have become deadly 
 pale. My revolver had been taken from me. 
 
 " You see I have you in my power," he continued. " I 
 disarmed you last night while you were nursing Clara; but 
 this morning — here — take 3'our pistol. No thanks ! " he 
 cried, holding up his hand. " I do not like them ; that is 
 the only way you can annoy me now." 
 
 He began* to walk forward across the links to meet the 
 boat, and I followed a step or two behind. In front of the 
 
 225
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 pavilion I paused to see where Mr. Huddlestone had fallen ; 
 but there was no sign of him, nor so much as a trace of 
 blood. 
 
 " Graden Floe," said Northmour. 
 
 He continued to advance till we had come to the head of 
 the beach. 
 
 " No farther, please," said he. " Would jou like to take 
 her to Graden House.'' " 
 
 " Thank you," replied I ; " I shall try to get her to the 
 minister's at Graden Wester." 
 
 The prow of the boat here grated on the beach, and a 
 sailor jumped ashore with a line in his hand. 
 
 " Wait a minute, lads ! " cried Northmour ; and then 
 lower and to my private ear : " You had better say nothing 
 of all this to her," he added. 
 
 " On the contrary ! " I broke out, " she shall know every- 
 thing that I can tell." 
 
 " You do not understand," he returned, with an air of 
 great dignity. " It will be nothing to her ; she expects it 
 of me. Good-bye ! " he added, with a nod. 
 
 I offered him my hand. 
 
 " Excuse me," said he. *' It's small, I know ; but I can't 
 push things quite so far as that. I don't wish any senti- 
 mental business, to sit by your hearth a white-haired wan- 
 derer, and all that. Quite the contrary: I hope to God I 
 shall never again clap eyes on either one of you." 
 
 " Well, God bless you, Northmour ! " I said heartily. 
 
 " Oh, yes," he returned. 
 
 He walked down the beach; and the man who was ashore 
 gave him an arm on board, and then shoved off and leaped 
 into the bows himself. Northmour took the tiller; the boat 
 rose to the waves, and the oars between the thole-pins sounded 
 crisp and measured in the air. 
 
 They were not yet half way to the Red Earl, and I was 
 still watching their progress, when the sun rose out of the 
 sea. 
 
 One word more, and my story is done. Years after, North- 
 mour was killed fighting under the colors of Garibaldi for 
 the liberation of Tyrol. 226
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 A STORY OF FRANCIS VILLON
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT, 
 
 IT was late in November, 1456. The snow fell over Paris 
 with rigorous, relentless persistence; sometimes the wind 
 made a sally and scattered it in flying vortices ; sometimes 
 there was a lull, and flake after flake descended out of the 
 black night air, silent, circuitous, interminable. To poor 
 people, looking up under moist eyebrows, it seemed a wonder 
 where it all came from. Master Francis Villon had pro- 
 pounded an alternative that afternoon, at a tavern window: 
 was it only Pagan Jupiter plucking geese upon Olympus? 
 or were the holy angels moulting? He was only a poor Mas- 
 ter of Arts, he went on ; and as the question somewhat 
 touched upon divinity, he durst not venture to conclude. A 
 silly old priest from Montargis, who was among the com- 
 pany, treated the young rascal to a bottle of wine in honor 
 of the jest and grimaces with which it was accompanied, 
 and swore on his own white beard that he had been just such 
 another irreverent dog when he was Villon's age. 
 
 The air was raw and pointed, but not far below freezing; 
 and the flakes were large, damp, and adhesive. The whole 
 city was sheeted up. An army might have marched from 
 end to end and not a footfall given the alarm. If there were 
 any belated birds in heaven, they saw the island like a large 
 white patch, and the bridges like slim white spars, on the 
 black ground of the river. High up overhead the snow set- 
 tled among the tracery of the cathedral towers. Many a 
 niche was drifted full; many a statue wore a long white 
 bonnet on its grotesque or sainted head. The gargoyles had 
 been transformed into great false noses, drooping towards 
 the point. The crockets were like upright pillows swollen on 
 one side. In the intervals of the wind, there was a dull 
 sound of dripping fvbout the precincts of the church. 
 
 229
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 The cemetery of St. John had taken Its own share of the 
 snow. All the graves were decently covered ; tall white house- 
 tops stood around in grave array; worthy burghers were 
 long ago in bed, be-nightcapped like their domiciles ; there 
 was no light in all the neighborhood but a little peep from 
 a lamp that hung swinging in the church choir, and tossed 
 the shadows to and fro in time to its oscillations. The clock 
 was hard on ten when the patrol went by with halberds and 
 a lantern, beating their hands ; and they saw nothing sus- 
 picious about the cemetery of St. John. 
 
 Yet there was a small house, backed up against the ceme- 
 tery wall, which was still awake, and awake to evil purpose, 
 in that snoring district. There was not much to betray it 
 from without; only a stream o*f warm vapor from the chim- 
 ney-top, a patch where the snow melted on the roof, and a 
 few half-obliterated footprints at the door. But within, 
 behind the shuttered windows. Master Francis ViUon the 
 poet, and some of the thievish crew with whom he consorted, 
 were keeping the night alive and passing round the bottle. 
 
 A great pile of living embers diffused a strong and ruddy 
 glow from the arched chimney. Before this straddled Dom 
 Nicolas, the Picardy monk, with his skirts picked up and 
 his fat legs bared to the comfortable warmth. His dilated 
 shadow cut the room In half; and the firelight only escaped 
 on either side of his broad person, and in a little pool be- 
 tween his outspread feet. His face had the beery, bruised 
 appearance of the continual drinker's; it was covered with 
 a network of congested veins, purple in ordinary circum- 
 stances, but now pale violet, for even with his back to the 
 fire the cold pinched him on the other side. His cowl had 
 half fallen back, and made a strange excrescence on either 
 side of his bull neck. So he straddled, grumbling, and cut 
 the room in half with the shadow of his portly frame. 
 
 On the right, Villon and Guy Tabary were huddled to- 
 gether over a scrap of parchment; Villon making a ballade 
 which he was to call the " Ballade of Roast Fish," and 
 Tabary spluttering admiration at his shoulder. The poet 
 was a rag of a man, dark, little, and lean, with hollow cheeks 
 
 230
 
 A LODGING FOK THE NIGHT 
 
 and thin black locks. He carried his four-and-twenty years 
 with feverish animation. Greed had made folds about his 
 eyes, evil smiles had puckered his mouth. The wolf and 
 pig struggled together in his face. It was an eloquent, 
 sharp, ugly, earthly countenance. His hands were small and 
 prehensile, with fingers knotted like a cord; and they were 
 continually flickering in front of him in violent and expres- 
 sive pantomime. As for Tabary, a broad, complacent, 
 admiring imbecility breathed from his squash nose and slob- 
 bering lips: he had become a thief, just as he might have 
 become the most decent of burgesses, by the imperious chance 
 that rules the lives of human geese and human donkeys. 
 
 At the monk's other hand, Montigny and Thevenin Pensete 
 played a game of chance. About the first there clung some 
 flavor of good birth and training, as about a fallen angel; 
 something long, lithe, and courtly in the person ; something 
 aquiline and darkling in the face. Thevenin, poor soul, was 
 in great feather: he had done a good stroke of knavery that 
 afternoon in the Faubourg St. Jaques, and all night he had 
 been gaining from Montigny. A flat smile illuminated his 
 face; his bald head shone rosily in a garland of red curls; 
 his Httle protuberant stomach shook with silent chucklings 
 as he swept in his gains. 
 
 " Doubles or quits.'' " said Thevenin. 
 
 Montigny nodded grimly. 
 
 ** Some may prefer to dine in state,"" wrote Villon, " On 
 tread and cheese on silver plate. Or, or — help me out, 
 Guido!" 
 
 Tabary giggled. 
 
 " Or parsley on a golden dish" scribbled the poet. 
 
 The wind was freshening without; it drove the snow be- 
 fore it, and sometimes raised its voice in a victorious whoop, 
 and made sepulchral grumblings in the chimney. The cold 
 was growing sharper as the night went on. Villon, pro- 
 truding his lips, imitated the gust with something between 
 a whistle and a groan. It was an eerie, uncomfortable talent 
 of the poet's, much detested by the Picardy monk. 
 
 " Can't you hear it rattle in the gibbet.'' " said Villon. 
 
 231
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ** They are all dancing the devil's jig on nothing, up there. 
 You may dance, my gallants, you'll be none the warmer! 
 Whew! what a gust! Dov/n went somebody just now! A 
 medlar the fewer on the three-legged medlar-tree! — I say, 
 Dom Nicolas, it'll be cold to-night on the St. Denis Road? " 
 he asked. 
 
 Dom Nicolas winked both his big eyes, and seemed to choke 
 upon his Adam's apple. Montfaucon, the great grisly Paris 
 gibbet, stood hard by the St. Denis Road, and the pleasantry 
 touched him on the raw. As for Tabary, he laughed im- 
 moderately over the medlars ; he had never heard anything 
 more light-hearted ; and he held his sides and crowed. Villon 
 fetched him a fillip on the nose, which turned his mirth into 
 an attack of coughing. 
 
 " Oh, stop that now," said Villon, ** and think of rhymes 
 to * fish.' " 
 
 " Doubles or quits," said Montigny doggedly. 
 
 ** With all my heart," quoth Thevenin. ♦ 
 
 " Is there any more in that bottle? " asked the monk. 
 
 " Open another," said Villon. " How do you ever hope 
 to fill that big hogshead, your body, with httle things like 
 bottles? And how do you expect to get to Heaven? How 
 many angels, do you fancy, can be spared to carry up a 
 single monk from Picardy? Or do you think yourself an- 
 other Elias— and they'll send the coach for you? " 
 
 " Hominibu^ impossibile," replied the monk as he filled his 
 glass. 
 
 Tabary was in ecstasies. 
 
 Villon filliped his nose again. 
 
 "Laugh at my jokes, if you like," he said. 
 
 " It was very good," objected Tabary. 
 
 Villon made a face at him. " Think of rhymes to * fish,' " 
 he said. "What have you to do with Latin? You'll wish 
 you knew none of it at the great assizes, when the devil 
 calls for Guido Tabary, clericus — the devil with the hump- 
 back and red-hot finger-nails. Talking of the devil," he 
 added in a whisper, " look at Montigny ! " 
 
 AH three peered covertly at the gamester. He did not
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 seem to be enjoying his luc'k. His moutli was a little to a 
 side; one nostril nearly shut, and the other much inflated. 
 The black dog was on his back, as people say, in terrifying 
 nursery metaphor ; and he breathed hard under the gruesome 
 burden. 
 
 " He looks as If he could knife him," whispered Tabary, 
 with round eyes. 
 
 The monk shuddered, and turned his face and spread 
 his open hands to the red embers. It was the cold that thus 
 affected Dom Nicolas, and not any excess of moral sensi- 
 bility. 
 
 " Come now,'' said Villon — " about this ballade. How 
 does it run so far,? '* And beating time with his hand, he 
 read it aloud to Tabary. 
 
 They were interrupted at the fourth rhyme by a brief 
 and fatal movement among the gamesters. The round was 
 completed, and Thevenin was just opening his mouth to 
 claim another victory, when Montigny leaped up, swift as 
 an adder, and stabbed him to the heart. The blow took 
 effect before he had time to utter a cry, before he had time 
 to move. A tremor or two convulsed his frame; his hands 
 opened and shut, his heels rattled on the floor ; then his head 
 rolled backward over one shoulder with the eyes wide open ; 
 and Thevenin Pensete's spirit had returned to Him who 
 made it. 
 
 Everyone sprang to his feet; but the business was over 
 in two twos. The four living fellows looked at each other 
 in rather a ghastly fashion, the dead man contemplating a 
 corner of the roof with a singular and ugly leer. 
 
 " My God ! " said Tabary ; and he began to pray In Latin. 
 
 Villon broke out into hysterical laughter. He came a step 
 forward and ducked a ridiculous bow at Thevenin, and 
 laughed still louder. Then he sat down suddenly, all of a 
 heap, upon a stool, and continued laughing bitterly as 
 though he would shake himself to pieces. 
 
 Montigny recovered his composure first. 
 
 " Let's see what he has about him," he remarked, and he 
 picked the dead man's pockets with a practiced hand, and 
 233
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 divided the money into four equal portions on the table. 
 " There's for you," he said. 
 
 The monk received his share with a deep sigh, and a single 
 stealthy glance at the dead Thevenin, who was beginning to 
 sink into himself and topple sideways off the chair. 
 
 " We're all in for it," cried Villon, swallowing his mirth. 
 " It's a hanging job for every man jack of us that's here 
 — not to speak of those who aren't." He made a shocking 
 gesture in the air with his raised right hand, and put out his 
 tongue and threw his head on one side, so as to counterfeit 
 the appearance of one who has been hanged. Then he 
 pocketed his share of the spoil, and executed a shuffle with 
 his feet as if to restore the circulation. 
 
 Tabary was the last to help himself; he made a dash at 
 the money, and retired to the other end of the apartment. 
 
 Montigny stuck Thevenin upright in the chair, and drew 
 out the dagger, which was followed by a jet of blood. 
 
 " You fellows had better be moving," he said, as he wiped 
 the blade on his victim's doublet. 
 
 " I think we had," returned Villon, with a gulp. " Damn 
 his fat head ! " he broke out. " It sticks in my throat like 
 phlegm. What right has a man to have red hair when he is 
 dead.'' " And he fell all of a heap again upon the stool, and 
 fairly covered his face with his hands. 
 
 Montigny and Dom Nicolas laughed aloud, even Tabary 
 feebly chiming in. 
 
 " Cry baby," said the monk. 
 
 " I always said he was a woman," added Montigny, with 
 a sneer. " Sit up, can't you ? " he went on, giving another 
 shake to the murdered body. " Tread . out that fire, 
 Nick!" 
 
 But Nick was better employed; he was quietly taking 
 Villon's purse, as the poet sat, limp and trembling, on the 
 stool where he had been making a ballade not three minutes 
 before. Montigny and Tabary dumbly demanded a share 
 of the booty, which the monk silently promised as he passed 
 the little bag into the bosom of his gown. In many ways an 
 artistic nature unfits a man for practical existence. 
 
 Z34,
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 No sooner had the theft been accomplished than Villon 
 shook himself, jumped to his feet, and began helping to 
 scatter and extinguish the embers. Meanwhile Montigny 
 opened the door and cautiously peered into the street. The 
 coast was clear; there was no meddlesome patrol in sight. 
 Still it was judged wiser to slip out severally; and as Villon 
 was himself in a hurry to escape from the neighborhood of 
 the dead Thevenin, and the rest were in a still greater hurry 
 to get rid of him before he should discover the loss of his 
 money, he was the first by general consent to issue forth into 
 the street. 
 
 The wind had triumphed and swept all the clouds from 
 heaven. Only a few vapors, as thin as moonlight, fleeted 
 rapidly across the stars. It was bitter cold ; and by a com- 
 mon optical effect, things seemed almost more definite than 
 in the broadest daylight. The sleeping city was absolutely 
 still; a company of white hoods, a field full of little alps, 
 below the twinkling stars. Villon cursed his fortune. 
 Would it were still snowing ! Now, wherever he went, he 
 left an indelible trail behind him on the glittering streets; 
 wherever he went he was still tethered to the house by the 
 cemetery of St. John ; wherever he went he must weave, with 
 his own plodding feet, the rope that bound him to the crime 
 and would bind him to the gallows. The leer of the dead 
 man came back to him with a new significance. He snapped 
 his fingers as if to pluck up his own spirits, and choosing 
 a street at random, stepped boldly forward in the snow. 
 
 Two things preoccupied him as he went: the aspect of 
 the gallows at Montf aucon in this bright, windy phase of the 
 night's existence, for one ; and for another, the look of the 
 dead man with his bald head and garland of red curls. Both 
 struck cold upon his heart, and he kept quickening his pace 
 as if, he could escape from unpleasant thoughts by mere 
 fleetness of foot. Sometimes he looked back over his shoul- 
 der with a sudden nervous jerk; but he was the only moving 
 thing in the white streets, except when the wind swooped 
 round a corner and threw up the snow, which was beginning 
 to freeze, in spouts of glittering dust. 
 
 235
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 Suddenly he saw, a long way before him, a black clump 
 and a couple of lanterns. The clump was in motion, and 
 the lanterns swung as though carried by men walking. It 
 was a patrol. And though it was merely crossing his line 
 of march he judged it wiser to get out of eyeshot as speedily 
 as he could. He was not in the humor to be challenged, and 
 he was conscious of making a very conspicuous mark upon 
 the snow. Just on his left hand there stood a great hotel, 
 with some turrets and a large porch before the door; it was 
 half-ruinous, he remembered, and had long stood empty; 
 and so he made three steps of it, and jumped into the shel- 
 ter of the porch. It was pretty dark inside, after the glim- 
 mer of the snowy streets, and he was groping forward with 
 outspread hands, when he stumbled over some substance 
 which offered an indescribable mixture of resistances, hard 
 and soft, firm and loose. His heart gave a leap, and he 
 sprang two steps back and stared dreadfully at the obstacle. 
 Then he gave a little laugh of relief. It was only a woman, 
 and she dead. He knelt beside her to make sure upon this 
 latter point. She was freezing cold, and rigid like a stick. 
 A little ragged finery fluttered in the wind about her hair, 
 and her cheeks had been heavily rouged that same afternoon. 
 Her pockets were quite empty; but in her stocking, under- 
 neath the garter, Villon found two of the small coins that 
 went by the name of whites. It was little enough; but it 
 was always something; and the poet was moved with a deep 
 sense of pathos that she should have died before she had 
 spent her money. That seemed to him a dark and pitiable 
 mystery ; and he looked from the coins in his hand to the 
 dead woman, and back again to the coins, shaking his head 
 over the riddle of man's life. Henry V. of England, dying 
 at Vincennes just after he had conquered France, and this 
 poor jade cut off by a cold draught in a great man's door- 
 way, before she had time to spend her couple of whites — it 
 seemed a cruel way to carry on the world. Two whites would 
 have taken such a little while to squander ; and yet it would 
 have been one more good taste in the mouth, one more smack 
 of the lips, before the devil got the soul, and the body was 
 
 236
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 left to birds and vermin. He would like to use all his tallow 
 before the light was blown out and the lantern broken. 
 
 While these thoughts were passing through his mind, he 
 was feeling, half mechanically, for his purse. Suddenly his 
 heart stopped beating ; a feeling of cold scales passed up the 
 back of his legs, and a cold blow seemed to fall upon his 
 scalp. He stood petrified for a moment; then he felt again 
 with one feverish movement; and then his loss burst upon 
 him, and he was covered at once with perspiration. To 
 spendthrifts money is so living and actual — it is such a thin 
 veil between them and their pleasures ! There is only one 
 limit to their fortune — that of time; and a spendthrift with 
 only a few crowns is the Emperor of Rome until they are 
 spent. For such a person to lose his money is to suffer the 
 most shocking reverse, and fall from heaven to hell, from all 
 to nothing, in a breath. And all the more if he has put his 
 head in the halter for it ; if he may be hanged to-morrow for 
 that same purpose, so dearly earned, so foolishly departed! 
 Villon stood and cursed; he threw the two whites into the 
 street; he shook his fist at heaven; he stamped, and was not 
 horrified to find himself trampling the poor corpse. Then 
 he began rapidly to retrace his steps towards the house 
 beside the cemetery. He had forgotten all fear of the patrol, 
 which was long gone by at any rate, and had no idea but 
 that of his lost purse. It was in vain that he looked right 
 and left upon the snow : nothing was to be seen. He had not 
 dropped it in the streets. Had it fallen in the house.-* He 
 would have liked dearly to go in and see ; but the idea of the 
 grisly occupant unmanned him. And he saw besides, as he 
 drew near, that their efforts to put out the fire had been un- 
 successful ; on the contrary, it had broken into a blaze, and 
 a changeful light played in the chinks of door and win- 
 dow, and revived his terror for the authorities and Paris 
 gibbet. 
 
 He returned to the hotel with the porch, and groped about 
 upon the snow for the money he had thrown away in his 
 childish passion. But he could only find one white ; the other 
 had probably struck sideways and sunk deeply in. With a 
 
 237
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 jingle white in his pocket, all his projects for a rousing 
 night in some wild tavern vanished utterly away. And 
 it was not only pleasure that fled laughing from his grasp ; 
 positive discomfort, positive pain, attacked him as he stood 
 ruefully before the porch. His perspiration had dried upon 
 him ; and although the wind had now fallen, a binding frost 
 was setting in stronger with every hour, and he felt be- 
 numbed and sick at heart. What was to be done? Late as 
 was the hour, improbable as was success, he would try the 
 house of his adopted father, the chaplain of St, Benoit. 
 
 He ran there all the way, and knocked timidly. There 
 was no answer. He knocked again and again, taking heart 
 with every stroke; and at last steps were heard approaching 
 from within. A barred wicket fell open in the iron-studded 
 door, and emitted a gush of yellow light. 
 
 " Hold up your face to the wicket," said the chaplain 
 from within. 
 
 *' It's only me," whimpered Villon. 
 
 " Oh, it's only you, is it.? " returned the chaplain; and he 
 cursed him with foul unpriestly oaths for disturbing him 
 at such an hour, and bade him be off to hell, where he came 
 from. 
 
 " My hands are blue to the wrist," pleaded Villon ; " my 
 feet are dead and full of twinges ; my nose aches with the 
 sharp air; the cold lies at my heart. I may be dead before 
 morning. Only this once, father, and before God, I will 
 never ask again ! " 
 
 " You should have come earlier," said the ecclesiastic 
 coolly. " Young men require a lesson now and then." He 
 shut the wicket and retired deliberately into the interior 
 of the house. 
 
 Villon was beside himself; he beat upon the door with his 
 hands and feet, and shouted hoarsely after the chaplain. 
 
 " Wormy old fox ! " he cried. " If I had my hand under 
 your twist, I would send you flying headlong into the bot- 
 tomless pit," 
 
 A door shut in the interior, faintly audible to the poet 
 down long passages. He passed his hand over his mouth 
 
 238 
 
 J
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 mth an oath. And then the humor of the situation struck 
 him, and he laughed and looked lightly up to heaven, where 
 the stars seemed to be winking over his discomfiture. 
 
 What was to be done? It looked very like a night in the 
 frosty streets. The idea of the dead woman popped inrto 
 his imagination, and gave him a hearty fright ; what had 
 happened to her in the early night might very well happen 
 to him before morning. And he so young! and with such 
 immense possibilities of disorderly amusement before him! 
 He felt quite pathetic over the notion of his own fate, as if 
 it had been some one else's, and made a little imaginative 
 vignette of the scene in the morning when they should find 
 his body. 
 
 He passed all his chances under review, turning the white 
 between his thumb and forefinger. Unfortunately he was 
 on bad terms with some old friends who would once have 
 taken pity on him in such a plight. He had lampooned them 
 in verses ; he had beaten and cheated them ; and yet now, 
 when he was in so close a pinch, he thought there was at least 
 one who might perhaps relent. It was a chance. It was 
 worth trying at least, and he would go and see. 
 
 On the way, two little accidents happened to him which 
 colored his musings in a very diff^erent manner. For, first, 
 he fell in with the track of a patrol, and walked in it for 
 some hundred yards, although it lay out of his direction. 
 And this spirited him up ; at least he had confused his trail ; 
 for he was still possessed with the idea of people tracking 
 him all about Paris over the snow, and collaring him next 
 morning before he was awake. The other matter affected 
 him quite differently. He passed a street comer, where, not 
 so long before, a woman and her child had been devoured by 
 wolves. This was just the kind of weather, he reflected, 
 when wolves might take it Into their heads to enter Paris 
 again; and a lone man in these deserted streets would run 
 the chance of something worse than a mere scare. Pie 
 stopped and looked upon the place with an unpleasant in- 
 terest — it was a centre where several lanes intersected each 
 other; and he looked down them all, one after another, and 
 
 239
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 held his breath to listen, lest he should detect some galloping 
 black things on the snow or hear the sound of howling be- 
 tween him and the river. He remembered his mother telling 
 him the story and pointing out the spot, while he was yet 
 a child. His mother! If he only knew where she lived, he 
 might make sure at least of shelter. He determined he 
 would inquire upon the morrow; nay, he would go and see 
 her too, poor old girl ! So thinking, he arrived at his destina- 
 tion — his last hope for the night. 
 
 The house was quite dark, like its neighbors; and yet 
 after a few taps, he heard a movement overhead, a door 
 opening", and a cautious voice asking who was there. The 
 poet named himself in a loud whisper, and waited, not with- 
 out some trepidation, the result. Nor had he to wait long. 
 !A window was suddenly opened, and a pailful of slops 
 splashed down upon the doorstep. Villon had not been un- 
 prepared for something of the sort, and had put himself 
 as much in shelter as the nature of the porch admitted; but 
 for all that, he was deplorably drenched below the waist. 
 His hose began to freeze almost at once. Death from cold 
 and exposure stared him in the face; he remembered he was 
 of phthisical tendency, and began coughing tentatively. But 
 the gravity of the danger steadied his nerves. He stopped 
 a few hundred yards from the door where he had been so 
 rudely used, and reflected with his finger to his nose. He 
 could only see one way of getting a lodging, and that was 
 to take it. He had noticed a house not far away, which 
 looked as if it might be easily broken into, and thither he 
 betook himself promptly, entertaining himself on the way 
 with the idea of a room still hot, with a table still loaded 
 with the remains of supper, where he might pass the rest of 
 the black hours and whence he should issue, on the morrow, 
 with an armful of valuable plate. He even considered on 
 what viands and what wines he should prefer; and as he 
 was calling the roll of his favorite dainties, roast fish pre- 
 sented itself to his mind with an odd mixture of amusement 
 and horror. 
 
 " I shall never finish that ballade," he thought to himself ; 
 
 240
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 and then, with another shudder at the recollection, " Ohj 
 damn his fat head ! " he repeated fervently, and spat upon 
 the snow. 
 
 The house in question looked dark at first sight; but as 
 Villon made a preliminary inspection in search of the han- 
 diest point of attack, a little twinkle of light caught his eye 
 from behind a curtained window. 
 
 " The devil ! " he thought. " People awake ! Sonie stu- 
 dent or some saint, confound the crew ! Can't they get drunk 
 and lie in bed snoring like their neighbors ! What's the good 
 of curfew, and poor devils of bell-ringers jumping at a 
 rope's end in bell-towers? What's the use of day, if people 
 Bit up all night? The gripes to them! " He grinned as he 
 saw Avhere his logic was leading him. " Every man to his 
 business, after all," added he, *' and if they're awake, by the 
 Lord, I may come by a supper honestly for once, and cheat 
 the devil." 
 
 He went boldly to the door and knocked with an assured 
 hand. On both previous occasions, he had knocked timidly 
 and with some dread of attracting notice; but now when he 
 had just discarded the thought of a burglarious entry, 
 knocking at a door seemed a mighty simple and innocent 
 proceeding. The sound af his blows echoed through the 
 house with thin, phantasmal reverberations, as though it 
 were quite empty ; but these had scarcely died away before 
 a measured tread drew near, a couple of bolts were with- 
 drawn, and one wing was opened broadly, as thougll no guile 
 or fear of guile were known to those within, A tall figure 
 of a man, muscular and spare, but a little bent, confronted 
 Villon. The head was massive in bulk, but finely sculptured ; 
 the nose blunt at the bottom, but refining upward to where it 
 joined a pair of strong and honest eyebrows; the mouth and 
 eyes surrounded with delicate markings, and the whole face 
 based upon a thick white beard, boldly and squarely trimmed. 
 Seen as it was by the light of a flickering hand-lamp, it 
 looked perhaps nobler than it had a right to do ; but it was 
 a fine face, honorable rather than intelligent, strong, simple, 
 and righteous. 
 
 241
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 "You knock late, sir," said the old man in resonant, 
 courteous tones. 
 
 Villon cringed, and brought up many servile words of 
 apology ; at a crisis of this sort, the beggar was upper- 
 most in him, and the man of genius hid his head with con- 
 fusion. 
 
 " You are cold,'* repeated the old man, " and hungry ? 
 Well, step in." And he ordered him into the house with a 
 noble enough gesture. 
 
 " Some great seigneur," thought Villon, as his host, set- 
 ting down the lamp on the flagged pavement of the entryi 
 shot the bolts once more into their places. 
 
 " You will pardon me if I go in front," he said, when 
 this was done ; and he preceded the poet upstairs into a large 
 apartment, warmed with a pan of charcoal and lit by a great 
 lamp hanging from the roof. It was very bare of furniture: 
 only some gold plate on a sideboard ; some folios ; and a 
 stand of armor between the windows. Some smart tapestry 
 hung upon the walls, representing the crucifixion of our 
 Lord in one piece, and in another a scene of shepherds and 
 shepherdesses by a running stream. Over the chimney was 
 a shield of arms. 
 
 " Will you seat yourself," said the old man, " and forgive 
 me if I leave you.^* I am alone in my house to-night, and if 
 you are to eat I must forage for you myself." 
 
 No sooner was his host gone than Villon leaped from the 
 chair on which he had just seated himself, and began exam- 
 ining the room, with the stealth and passion of a cat. He 
 weighed the gold flagons in his hand, opened all the folios, 
 and investigated the arms upon the shield, and the stuff 
 with which the seats were lined. He raised the window cur- 
 tains, and saw that the windows were set with rich stained 
 glass in figures, so far as he could see, of martial import. 
 Then he stood in the middle of the room, drew a long breath, 
 and retaining it with puffed cheeks, looked round and round 
 him, turning on his heels, as if to impress every feature of 
 the apartment on his memory. 
 
 " Seven pieces of plate," he said. " If there had been 
 
 242 
 
 I
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 ten, I would have risked it. A fine house, and a fine old 
 master, so help me all the saints ! " 
 
 And just then, hearing the old man's tread returning 
 along the corridor, he stole back to his chair, and began 
 humbly toasting his wet legs before the charcoal pan. 
 
 His entertainer had a plate of meat in one hand and a 
 jug of wine in the other. He sat down the plate upon the 
 table, motioning Villon to draw in his chair, and going to 
 the sideboard, brought back two goblets, which he filled. 
 
 " I drink your better fortune," he said, gravely touching 
 Villon's cup with his own. 
 
 " To our better acquaintance," said the poet, growing 
 bold. A mere man of the people would have been awed by 
 the courtesy of the old seigneur, but Villon was hardened in 
 that matter; he had made mirth for great lords before now, 
 and found them as black rascals as himself. And so he 
 devoted himself to the viands with a ravenous gusto, while 
 the old man, leaning backward, watched him with steady, 
 curious eyes. 
 
 *' You have blood on your shoulder, my man," he said. 
 
 Montigny must have laid his wet right hand upon him as 
 he left the house. He cursed Montigny in his heart. 
 
 " It was none of my shedding," he stammered. 
 
 " I had not supposed so," returned his host quietly. " A 
 brawl?" 
 
 " Well, something of that sort," Villon admitted with a 
 quaver. 
 
 " Perhaps a fellow murdered ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, not murdered," said the poet, more and more 
 confused. " It was all fair play — murdered by accident. I 
 had no hand in it, God strike me dead ! " he added fer- 
 vently. 
 
 " One rogue the fewer, I dare say," observed the master 
 of the house. 
 
 " You may dare to say that," agreed Villon, Infinitely re- 
 lieved. " As big a rogue as there is between here and 
 Jerusalem. He turned up his toes like a lamb. But it was 
 a nasty thing to look at. I dare say you've seen dead 
 
 243
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 men in your time, my lord? " he added, glancing at the 
 armor. 
 
 " Many," said the old man. " I have followed the wars, 
 as you imagine. "^ 
 
 Villon laid down his knife and fork, which he had just 
 taken up again. 
 
 " Were any of them bald ? " he asked. 
 
 ** Oh yes, and with hair as white as mine." 
 
 " I don't think I should mind the white so much," said 
 Villon. " His was red." And he had a return of his shud- 
 dering and tendency to laughter, which he drowned with a 
 great draught of wine. " I'm a little put out when I 
 think of it," he went on. " I knew him — damn him ! And 
 then the cold gives a man fancies — or the fancies give a man 
 cold, I don't know which." 
 
 " Have you any money ? " asked the old man. 
 
 *' I have one white," returned the poet, laughing. *' I 
 got it out of a dead jade's stocking in a porch. She was as 
 dead as Caesar, poor wench, and as cold as a church, with 
 bits of ribbon sticking in her hair. This is a hard world in 
 winter for wolves and wenches and poor rogues like me." 
 
 " I," said the old man, " am Enguerrand de la Feuillee, 
 seigneur de Brisetout, bailly du Patatrac. VV^ho and what 
 may you he? " 
 
 Villon rose and made a suitable reverence. " I am called 
 Francis Villon," he said, " a poor Master of Arts of this uni- 
 versity. I know some Latin, and a deal of vice. I can make 
 chansons, ballades, lais, virelais, and roundels, and I am 
 very fond of wine. I was born in a garret, and I shall not 
 improbably die upon the gallows. I may add, my lord, that 
 from this night forward I am your lordship's very obse- 
 quious servant to command." 
 
 " No servant of mine," said the knight, " my guest for 
 this evening, and no more," 
 
 " A very grateful guest," said Villon politely, and he 
 drank in dumb show to his entertainer. 
 
 " You are shrewd," began the old man, tapping his f ore- 
 ^ad, " very shrewd ; you have learning ; you are a clerk ;
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 and yet you take a small piece of money off a dead woman in 
 the street. Is it not a kind of theft? " 
 
 " It is a kind of theft much practised in the wars, my 
 lord." 
 
 " The wars are the field of honor," returned the old man 
 proudly. " There a man plays his life upon the cast ; he 
 fights in the name of his lord the king, his Lord God, and all 
 their lordships the holy saints and angels." 
 
 " Put it," said Villon, " that were I really a thief, should 
 I not play my life also, and against heavier odds.-* " 
 
 " For gain but not for honor." 
 
 " Gain ? " repeated Villon with a shrug. " Gain ! The 
 poor fellow wants supper, and takes it. So does the soldier 
 in a campaign. VV^hy, what are all these requisitions we hear 
 so much about .?• If they are not gain to those who take 
 them, they are loss enough to the others. The men-at-arms 
 drink by a good fire, while the burgher bites his nails to buy 
 them wine and wood. I have seen a good many ploughmen 
 swinging on trees about the country ; a}^, I have seen thirty 
 on one elm, and a very poor figure they made; and when I 
 asked someone how all these came to be hanged, I was told 
 it was because they could not scrape together enough crowns 
 to satisfy the men-at-arms." 
 
 " These things are a necessity of war, which the low- 
 bom must endure with constancy. It is true that some cap- 
 tains drive overhard; there are spirits in every rank not 
 easily moved by pity; and indeed many follow arms who 
 are no better than brigands." 
 
 " You see," said the poet, " you cannot separate the sol- 
 dier from the brigand ; and what is a thief but an isolated 
 brigand with circumspect manners.'' I steal a couple of mut- 
 ton chops, without so much as disturbing people's sleep ; the 
 farmer grumbles a bit, but sups none the less wholesomely on 
 what remains. You come up blowing gloriously on a 
 tinimpet, take away the whole sheep, and beat the farmer piti- 
 fully into the bargain. I have no trumpet.'' I am only Tom, 
 Dick, or Harry ; I am a rogue and a dog, and hanging's 
 too good for me — with all my heart; but just ask the far- 
 
 245
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 mer which of us he prefers, just find out which of us he Hes 
 awake to curse on cold nights." 
 
 " Look at us two," said his lordship, " I am old, strong, 
 and honored. If I were turned from my house to-morrow, 
 hundreds would be proud to shelter me. Poor people would 
 go out and pass the night In the streets with their children, 
 if I merely hinted that I wished to be alone. And I find 
 you up, wandering homeless, and picking farthings off dead 
 women by the wayside ! I fear no man and nothing ; I have 
 seen you tremble and lose countenance at a word. I wait 
 God's summons contentedly in my own house, or, if it please 
 the king to call me out again, upon the field of battle. You 
 look for the gallows ; a rough, swift death, without hope 
 or honor. Is there no difference between these two ? " 
 
 " As far as to the moon," Villon acquiesced. " But If I 
 had been bom lord of Brisetout, and you had been the poor 
 scholar Francis, would the difference have been any the less.'' 
 Should not I have been warming my knees at this charcoal 
 pan, and would not you have been groping for farthings in 
 the snow.? Should not I have been the soldier, and you the 
 thief.? " 
 
 " A thief.? " cried the old man. "la thief! If you un- 
 derstood your words, you would repent them." 
 
 Villon turned out his hands with a gesture of inimitable 
 impudence. " If your lordship had done me the honor to 
 follow my argument ! " he said. 
 
 " I do you too much honor In submitting to your pres- 
 ence," said the knight. " Learn to curb 3'our tongue when 
 you speak with old and honorable men, or some one hastier 
 than I may reprove you in a sharper fashion." And he rose 
 and paced the lower end of the apartment, struggling with 
 anger and antipathy. Villon surreptitiously refilled his cup, 
 and settled himself more comfortably in the chair, crossing 
 his knees and leaning his head upon one hand and the elbow 
 against the back of the chair. He was now replete and 
 warm ; and he was In nowise frightened for his host, ha\'ing 
 gauged him as justly as was possible between two such dif- 
 ferent characters. The night was far spent, and In a very 
 
 246
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 comfortable fashion after all ; and he felt morally certain 
 of a safe departure on the morrow. 
 
 " Tell me one thing," said the old man, pausing in his 
 walk. " Are you really a thief.? " 
 
 " I claim the sacred rights of hospitality," returned the 
 poet. " My lord, I am." 
 
 " You are very young," the knight continued. 
 
 " I should never have been so old," replied Villon, show- 
 ing his fingers, " if I had not helped myself with these ten 
 talents. They have been my nursing mothers and my nursing 
 fathers." 
 
 " You may still repent and change." 
 
 " I repent daily," said the poet. " There are few people 
 more given to repentance than poor Francis. As for change, 
 let somebody change my circumstances. A man must 
 continue to eat, if it were only that he may continue to 
 repent." 
 
 " The change must begin in the heart," returned the old 
 man solemnly. 
 
 " My dear lord," answered Villon, " do you really fancy 
 that I steal for pleasure.'* I hate stealing, like any other 
 piece of work or of danger. My teeth chatter when I see 
 a gallows. But I must eat, I must drink, I must mix in 
 society of some sort. What the devil ! Man is not a solitary 
 animal — Cui Deus foeminam tradit. Make me king's pantler 
 — make me abbot of St. Denis ; make me bailly of the 
 Patatrac ; and then I shall be changed indeed. But as long 
 as you leave me the poor scholar Francis Villon, without a 
 farthing, why, of course, I remain the same." 
 
 " The grace of God is all-powerful." 
 
 " I should be a heretic to question it," said Francis. " It 
 has made you lord of Brisetout and bailly of the Patatrac ; 
 it has given me nothing but the quick wits under my hat 
 and these ten toes upon my hands. May I help myself to 
 wine.? I thank you respectfully. By God's grace, you have 
 a very superior vintage." 
 
 The lord of Brisetout walked to and fro with his hands 
 behind his back. Perhaps he was not yet quite settled in 
 
 247
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 his mind about the parallel between thieves and soldiers ; 
 perhaps Villon had interested him by some cross-thread of 
 sympathy ; perhaps his wits were simply muddled by so much 
 unfamiliar reasoning ; but whatever the cause, he somehow 
 yearned to convert the young man to a better way of think- 
 ing, and could not make up his mind to drive him forth again 
 into the street. 
 
 " There is something more than I can understand in this," 
 he said at length. " Your mouth is full of subtleties, and the 
 devil has led you very far astray ; but the devil is only a 
 very weak spirit before God's truth, and all his subtleties 
 vanish at a word of true honor, like darkness at morning. 
 Listen to me once more. I learned long ago that a gentleman 
 should live chivalrously and lovingly to God, and the king, 
 and his lady ; and though I have seen many strange things 
 done, I have still striven to command my ways upon that 
 rule. It is not only written in all noble histories, but in 
 every man's heart, if he will take care to read. You speak 
 of food and wine, and I know very well that hunger is a diffi- 
 cult trial to endure ; but you do not speak of other wants ; 
 you say nothing of honor, of faith to God and other men, 
 of courtesy, of love without reproach. It may be that I am 
 not very wise — and yet I think I am — ^but you seem to me 
 like one who has lost his way and made a great error in life. 
 You are attending to the little wants, and you have totally 
 forgotten the great and only real ones, like a man who 
 should be doctoring toothache on the Judgment Day. For 
 such things as honor and love and faith are not only nobler 
 than food and drink, but indeed I think we desire them more, 
 and suffer more sharply for their absence. I speak to you 
 as I think you will most easily understand me. Are you 
 not, while careful to fill your belly, disregarding another ap- 
 petite in your heart, which spoils the pleasure of your life 
 and keeps you continually wretched? " 
 
 Villon was sensibly nettled under all this sermonizing. 
 " You thi^<: I have no sense of honor ! " he cried. " I'm poor 
 enough, God knows ! It's hard to see rich people with their 
 gloves, and you blowing in your hands. An empty belly is 
 
 2'i8
 
 A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 
 
 a bitter thing, although you speak so lightly of it. If you 
 had had as many as I, perhaps 3'ou would change your tune. 
 Any v,ay I'm a thief — make the most of that — but I'm not 
 a devil from hell, God strike me dead. I would have you to 
 know I've an honor of my own, as good as yours, though I 
 don't prate about it all day long, as if it was a God's 
 miracle to have any. It seems quite natural to me ; I keep 
 it in its box till it's wanted. Why now, look you here, how 
 long have I been in this room with you.'' Did you not tell 
 me you were alone in the house? Look at your gold plate! 
 You're strong, if you like, but you're old and unarmed, 9-nd 
 I have my knife. What did I want but a jerk of the elbow 
 and here would have been you with the cold steel in your 
 bowels, and there would have been me, linking in the streets, 
 with an armful of golden cups ! Did you suppose I hadn't 
 wit enough to see that.? And I scorned the action. There 
 are your damned goblets, as safe as in a church ; there are 
 you, with your heart ticking as good as new; and here am I, 
 ready to go out again as poor as I came in, with ni}'^ one 
 white that you threw in my teeth ! And j^ou think I have no 
 sense of honor — God strike me dead ! " 
 
 The old man stretched out his right arm. " I will tell you 
 what you are," he said. " You are a rogue, my man, an 
 impudent and black-hearted rogue and vagabond. I have 
 passed an hour with you. Oh ! believe me, I feel m^^sclf dis- 
 graced! And you have eaten and drunk at my table. But 
 now I am sick at your presence ; the day has come, and the 
 night-bird should be ofr to his roost. Will you go before, 
 or after.? " 
 
 " Which you please," returned the poet, rising. " I be- 
 lieve you to be strictly honorable." He thoughtfully emp- 
 tied his cup. " I wish I could add you were intelligent," he 
 went on, knocking on his head with his laiuckles. "Age! 
 age! the brains stilF and rheumatic." 
 
 The old man preceded him from a point of self- 
 respect ; Villon followed, wliistling, with his thumbs in his 
 girdle. 
 
 " God pity you," said the lord of Brisctout at the door. 
 
 249
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 ** Good-bye, papa," returned Villon with a yawn. " Many 
 thanks for the cold mutton." 
 
 The door closed behind him. The dawn was breaking over 
 the white roofs. A chill, uncomfortable morning ushered in 
 the day. Villon stood and heartily stretched himself in the 
 middle of the road. 
 
 " A very dull old gentleman," he thought. " I wonder 
 what his goblets may be worth." 
 
 250
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 DENIS DE BEAULIEU was not yet two-and-twenty, 
 but he counted himself a grown man, and a very ac- 
 complished cavalier into the bargain. Lads were early 
 formed in that rough, warfaring epoch; and when one has 
 been in a pitched battle and a dozen raids, has killed one's 
 man in an honorable fashion, and knows a thing or two of 
 strategy and mankind, a certain swagger in the gait is 
 surely to be pardoned. He had put up his horse with due 
 care, and supped with due deliberation; and then, in a very 
 agreeable frame of mind, went out to pay a visit in the gray 
 of the evening. It was not a very wise proceeding on the 
 young man's part. He would have done better to remain be- 
 side the fire or go decently to bed. For the town was full of 
 the troops of Burgundy and England under a mixed com- 
 mand ; and though Denis was there on safe-conduct, his 
 safe-conduct was like to serve him little on a chance en- 
 counter. 
 
 It was September, 1429; the weather had fallen sharp; 
 a flighty piping wind, laden with showers, beat about the 
 township ; and the dead leaves ran riot along the streets. 
 Here and there a window was already lighted up ; and the 
 noise of men-at-arms making merry over supper within, 
 came forth in fits and was swallowed up and carried away 
 by the wind. The night fell swiftly; the flag of England, 
 fluttering on the spire-top, grew ever fainter and fainter 
 against the flying clouds — a black speck like a swallow in the 
 tumultuous, leaden chaos of the sky. As the night fell the 
 wind rose, and began to hoot under archways and roar amid 
 the tree-tops in the valley below the town. 
 
 Denis de Beaulieu walked fast and was soon knocking at 
 his friend's door; but though he promised himself to stay 
 
 253
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 only a little while and make an early return, his welcome 
 was so pleasant, and he found so much to delay him, that it 
 was already long past midnight before he said good-bye 
 upon the threshold. The wind had fallen again in the mean- 
 while; the night was as black as the grave; not a star, nor 
 a glimmer of moonshine, slipped through the canopy of 
 cloud. Denis was ill-acquainted with the intricate lanes of 
 Chateau Landon ; even by daylight he had found some trouble 
 in picking his way ; and in this absolute darkness he soon lost 
 it altogether. He was certain of one thing only — to keep 
 mounting the hill; for his friend's house lay at the lower 
 end, or tail, of Chateau Landon, while the inn was up at the 
 head, under the great church spire. With this clue to go 
 upon he stumbled and groped forward, now breathing more 
 freely in open places where there was a good slice of sky 
 overhead, now feeling along the wall in stifling closes. It is 
 an eerie and mysterious position to be thus submerged in 
 opaque blackness in an almost unknown town. The silence 
 is terrifying in its possibilities. The touch of cold window 
 bars to the exploring hand startles the man like the touch of 
 a toad ; the inequalities of the pavement shake his heart into 
 his mouth; a piece of denser darkness threatens an ambus- 
 cade or a chasm in the pathway; and where the air is 
 brighter, the houses put on strange and bewildering appear- 
 ances, as if to lead him farther from his way. For Denis, 
 who had to regain his inn without attracting notice, there 
 was real danger as well as mere discomfort in the walk; and 
 he went warily and boldly at once, and at every corner 
 paused to make an observation. 
 
 He had been for some time threading a lane so narrow 
 that he could touch a wall with either hand when it began 
 to open out and go sharply downward. Plainly this lay no 
 longer in the direction of his inn ; but the hope of a little 
 more light tempted him forward to reconnoitre. The lane 
 ended in a terrace with a bartizan wall, which gave an out- 
 look between high houses, as out of an embrasure, into the 
 valley lying dark and formless several hundred feet below. 
 Denis looked down, and could discern a few tree-tops waving 
 
 254* 
 
 I
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 and a single speck of brightness where the river ran across 
 a weir. The weather was clearing up, and the sky had 
 lightened, so as to show the outline of the heavier clouds and 
 the dark margin of the hills. By the uncertain glimmer, 
 the house on his left hand should be a place of some preten- 
 sions ; it was surmounted by several pinnacles and turret- 
 tops ; the round stern of a chapel, with a fringe of flying 
 buttresses, projected boldly from the main block; and the 
 door was sheltered under a deep porch carved with figures 
 and overhung by two long gargoyles. The windows of the 
 chapel gleamed through their intricate tracery with a light 
 as of many tapers, and threw out the buttresses and the 
 peaked roof in a more intense blackness against the sky. 
 It was plainly the hotel of some great family of the neigh- 
 borhood ; and as it reminded Denis of a town house of his 
 own at Bourges, he stood for some time gazing up at it and 
 mentally gauging the skill of the architects and the con- 
 sideration of the two families. 
 
 There seemed to be no issue to the terrace but the lane 
 by which he had reached it ; he could only retrace his steps, 
 but he gained some notion of his whereabouts, and hoped 
 by this means to hit the main thoroughfare and speedily re- 
 gain the inn. He was reckoning without that chapter of 
 accidents which was to make this night memorable above 
 all others in his career; for he had not gone back above a 
 hundred yards before he saw a light coming to meet him, 
 and heard loud voices speaking together in the echoing nar- 
 rows of the lane. It was a party of men-at-arms going the 
 night round with torches. Denis assured himself that they 
 had all been making free with the wine-bowl, and were in no 
 mood to be particular about safe-conducts or the niceties 
 of chivalrous war. It was as like as not that they would 
 kill him like a dog and leave him where he fell. The situa- 
 tion was inspiriting but nervous. Their own torches would 
 conceal him from sight, he reflected ; and he hoped that they 
 would drown the noise of his footsteps with their own empty 
 voices. If he were but fleet and silent, he might evade their 
 notice altogether. 
 
 255
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 Unfortunate!}^, as he turaed to beat a retreat, his foot 
 rolled npon a pebble; he fell against the wall with an ejacu- 
 lation, and his sword rang loudly on the stones. Two or 
 three voices demanded who went there — some in French, some 
 in English; but Denis made no reply, and ran the faster 
 down the lane. Once upon the terrace, he paused to look 
 back. They still kept calling after him, and just then began 
 to double the pace in pursuit, with a considerable clank of 
 armor, and great tossing of the torchlight to and fro in the 
 narrow jaws of the passage. 
 
 Denis cast a look around and darted into the porch. 
 There he might escape observation, or — if that were too 
 much to expect — was in a capital posture whether for parley 
 or defence. So thinking, he drew his sword and tried to set 
 his back against the door. To his surprise, it yielded behind 
 his weight ; and though he turned in a moment, continued to 
 swing back on oiled and noiseless hinges, until it stood wide 
 open on a black interior. When things fall out opportunely 
 for the person concerned, he is not apt to be critical about 
 the how or why, his own immediate personal convenience 
 seeming a sufficient reason for the strangest oddities and 
 revolutions in our sublunary things ; and so Denis, without 
 a moment's hesitation, stepped within and partly closed the 
 door behind him to conceal his place of refuge. Nothing 
 was further from his thoughts than to close it altogether; 
 but for some inexplicable reason — perhaps by a spring or 
 a weight — the ponderous mass of oak whipped itself out of 
 his fingers and clanked to, with a formidable rumble and 
 a noise like the falling of an automatic bar. 
 
 The round, at that very moment, debouched upon the ter- 
 race and proceeded to summon him with shouts and curses. 
 He heard them ferreting in the dark corners ; the stock of 
 a lance even rattled along the outer surface of the door 
 behind which he stood ; but these gentlemen were in too high 
 a humor to be long delayed, and soon made oif down a cork- 
 screw pathway which had escaped Denis's observation, and 
 passed out of sight and hearing along the battlements of 
 the town. 
 
 256 
 
 A
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 Denis breathed again. He gave them a few minutes' grace 
 for fear of accidents, and then groped about for some means 
 of opening the door and slipping forth again. The inner 
 surface was quite smooth, not a handle, not a moulding, not 
 a projection of any sort. He got his finger-nails round the 
 edges and pulled, but the mass was immovable. He shook it, 
 it was as firm as a rock. Denis de Beaulieu frowned and 
 gave vent to a little noiseless whistle. What ailed the door.f* 
 he wondered. Why was it open? How came it to shut so 
 easily and so effectually after him.'' There was something 
 obscure and underhand about all this, that was little to the 
 young man's fancy. It looked like a snare, and yet who 
 could suppose a snare in' such a quiet by-street, and in a 
 house of so prosperous and even noble an exterior.'' And yet 
 — snare or no snare, intentionally or unintentionally — here 
 he was, prettily trapped; and for the life of hira he could 
 see no way out of it again. The darkness began to weigh 
 upon him. He gave ear; all was silent without, but within 
 and close by he seemed to catch a faint sighing, a faint sob- 
 bing rustle, a little stealthy creak — as though many persons 
 were at his side, holding themselves quite still, and govern- 
 ing even their respiration with the extreme of slyness. The 
 idea went to his vitals with a shock, and he faced about sud- 
 denly as if to defend his life. Then, for the first time, he 
 became aware of a light about the level of his eyes and at 
 some distance in the interior of the house — a vertical thread 
 .of light, widening towards the bottom, such as might escape 
 between two wings of arras over a doorway. To see any- 
 thing was a relief to Denis ; it was like a piece of solid ground 
 to a man laboinng in a morass ; his mind seized upon it with 
 avidity; and he stood staring at it and trying to piece 
 together some logical conception of his surroundings. 
 Plainly there was a flight of steps ascending from his own 
 level to that of this illuminated doorway ; and indeed he 
 thought he could make out another thread of light, as fine 
 as a needle, and as faint as phosphorescence, which might 
 very well be reflected along the polished wood of a hand- 
 rail. Since he had begun to suspect that he was not alone, 
 
 257
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 his heart had continued to beat with smothering violence, 
 and an intolerable desire for action of any sort had pos- 
 sessed itself of his spirit. He was in deadly peril, he believed. 
 What could be more natural than to mount the staircase, 
 lift the curtain, and confront his difficulty at once? At 
 least he would be dealing with something tangible; at least 
 he would be no longer in the dark. He stepped slowly for- 
 ward with outstretched hands, until his foot struck the bot- 
 tom step; then he rapidly scaled the stairs, stood for a 
 moment to compose his expression, lifted the arras and 
 went in. 
 
 He found himself in a large apartment of polished stone. 
 There were three doors ; one on each of three sides ; all 
 similarly curtained with tapestryo The fourth side was 
 occupied by two large windows and a great stone chimney- 
 piece, carved with the arms of the Maletroits. Denis recog- 
 nized the bearings, and was gratified to find himself in such 
 good hands. The room was strongly illuminated; but it 
 contained little furniture except a heavy table and a chair 
 or two, the hearth was innocent of fire, and the pavement 
 was but sparsely strewn with rushes clearly many days old. 
 
 On a high chair beside the chimney, and directly facing 
 Denis as he entered, sat a little old gentleman in a fur tippet. 
 He sat with his legs crossed and his hands folded, and a cup 
 of spiced wine stood by his elbow on a bracket on the wall. 
 His countenance had a strongly masculine cast ; not properly 
 human, but such as we see in the bull, the goat, or the 
 domestic boar; something equivocal and wheedling, some- 
 thing greedys brutal, and dangerous. The upper lip was 
 inordinately full, as though swollen by a blow or a tooth- 
 ache; and the smile, the peaked eyebrows, and the small, 
 strong eyes were quaintly and almost comically evil in ex- 
 pression. Beautiful white hair hung straight all round his 
 head, like a saint's, and fell in a single curl upon the tippet. 
 His beard and moustache were the pink of venerable sweet- 
 ness. Age, probably in consequence of inordinate precau- 
 tions, had left no mark upon his hands ; and the Maletroit 
 band was famous. It would be difficult to imagine anything 
 
 259
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 at once so fleshy and so delicate In design ; the taper, sensual 
 fingers, were like those of one of Leonardo's women ; the 
 fork of the thumb made a dimpled protuberance when 
 closed; the nails were perfectly shaped, and of a dead, sur- 
 prising whiteness. It rendered his aspect tenfold more re- 
 doubtable, that a man with hands like these should keep them 
 devoutly folded like a virgin martyr — that a man with so 
 intent and startling an expression of face should sit pa- 
 tiently on his seat and contemplate people with an unwink- 
 ing stare, like a god> or a god's statue. His quiescence 
 seemed ironical and treacherous, it fitted so poorly with his 
 looks. 
 
 Such was Alain, Sire de Maletrolt. 
 
 Denis and he looked silently at each other for a second or 
 two. 
 
 " Pray step In," said the Sire de Maletrolt. " I have 
 been expecting you all the evening." 
 
 He had not risen but he accompanied his words with a 
 smile and a slight but courteous inclination of the head. 
 Partly from the smile, partly from the strange musical mur- 
 mur with which the Sire prefaced his observation, Denis felt 
 a strong shudder of disgust go through his marrow. And 
 what with disgust and honest confusion of mind, he could 
 scarcely get words together in reply. 
 
 " I fear," he said, " that this is a double accident. I am 
 not the person you suppose me. It seems you were looking 
 for a visit ; but for my part, nothing was further from my 
 thoughts — nothing could be more contrary to my wishes — 
 than this intrusion." 
 
 " Well, well," replied the old gentleman indulgently, " here 
 you are. which is the main point. Seat yourself, my friend, 
 and put yourself entirely at your ease. We shall arrange 
 our little affairs presently." 
 
 Denis perceived that the matter was still complicated with 
 some misconception, and he hastened to continue his 
 explanations. 
 
 " Your door . . . ." he began. 
 
 " About my door? " asked the other raising liis peaked 
 
 259
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 eyebrows. " A little piece of ingenuity." And he shrugged 
 his shoulders. " A hospitable fancy ! By your own account, 
 you were not desirous of mating my acquaintance. We old 
 people look for such reluctance now and then; when it 
 touches our honor, we cast about until we find some way of 
 overcoming it. You arrive uninvited, but believe me, very 
 welcome." 
 
 " You persist in error, sir," said Denis. " There can be 
 no question between you and me. I am a stranger in this 
 countryside. My name is Denis, damoiseau de Beauliea. If 
 you see me In your house, it is only " 
 
 " My young friend," interrupted the other, " you will 
 permit me to have my own ideas on that subject. They 
 probably differ from yours at the present moment," he 
 added with a leer, " but time will show which of us is in 
 the right." 
 
 Denis was convinced he had to do with a lunatic. He 
 seated himself with a shrugj content to wait the upshot ; and 
 a pause ensued, during which he thought he could distin- 
 guish a hurried gabbling as of prayer from behind the arras 
 immediately opposite him. Sometimes there seemed to be 
 but one person engaged, sometimes two; and the vehemence 
 of the voice, low as it was, seemed to indicate either great 
 haste or an agony of spirit. It occurred to him that this 
 piece of tapestry covered the entrance to the chapel he had 
 noticed from without. 
 
 The old gentleman meanwhile surveyed Denis from head 
 to foot with a smile, and from time to time emitted little 
 noises like a bird or a mouse, which seemed to indicate a high 
 degree of satisfaction. This state of matters became rap- 
 idly insupportable ; and Denis, to put an end to it, remarked 
 politely that the wind had gone down. 
 
 The old gentleman fell into a fit of silent laughter, so pro- 
 longed and violent that he became quite red in the face. 
 Denis got upon his feet at once, and put on his hat with a 
 flourish. 
 
 " Sir," he said, " If you are in your wits, you have af- 
 fronted me grossly. If you are out of them, I flatter myself 
 
 260,
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 I can find better employment for my brains than to talk with 
 lunatics. My conscience is clear; you have made a fool of 
 me from the first moment; you have refused to hear my 
 explanations ; and now there is no power under God will make 
 me stay here any longer; and if I cannot make my way out 
 in a more decent fashion, I will hack your door in pieces with 
 my sword." 
 
 The Sire de Maletroit raised his right hand and wagged 
 it at Denis with the fore and little fingers extended. 
 
 " My dear nephew," he said, " sit down." 
 
 " Nephew ! " retorted Denis, " you He in your throat ;" 
 and he snapped his fingers in his face. 
 
 " Sit down, you rogue 1 " cried the old gentleman, in a 
 sudden, harsh voice, like the barking of a dog. " Do you 
 fancy," he went on, " that when I had made my little con- 
 trivance for the door I had stopped short with that? If 
 you prefer to b6 bound hand and foot till your bones ache, 
 rise and try to go away. If you choose to remain a free 
 young buck, agreeably conversing with an old gentleman — 
 why, sit where you are in peace, and God be with you." 
 
 " Do you mean I am a prisoner? " demanded Denis. 
 
 " I state the facts," replied the other. " I would rather 
 leave the conclusion to yourself." 
 
 Denis sat down again. Externally he managed to keep 
 pretty calm, but within, he was now boiling with anger, 
 now chilled with apprehension. He no longer felt convinced 
 that he was dealing with a madman. And if the old gentle- 
 man was sane, what, in God's name, had he to look for? 
 What absurd or tragical adventure had befallen him? What 
 countenance was he to assume? 
 
 While he was thus unpleasantly reflecting, the arras that 
 overhung the chapel door was raised, and a tall priest in his 
 robes came forth and, giving a long, keen stare at Denis 
 said something in an undertone to Sire de Maletroit. 
 
 " She is in a better frame of spirit? " asked the latter. 
 
 " She is more resigned, messire," replied the priest. 
 
 " Now the Lord help her, she is hard to please ! " sneered 
 the old gentleman. " A likely stripling — ^not ill-bom — and 
 
 261
 
 ]^EW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 of her own choosing, too? Why, what more would the jade 
 have? " 
 
 *' The situation is not usual for a young damsel," said 
 the other, " and somewhat trying to her blushes." 
 
 " She should have thought of that before she began the 
 dance. It was none of my choosing, God knows that: but 
 since she is in it, by our lady, she shall carry it to the end." 
 And then addressing Denis, " Monsieur de Beaulieu," he 
 asked, " may I present you to my niece? She has been wait- 
 ing your arrival, I may say, with even greater impatience 
 than myself." 
 
 Denis had resigned himself with a good grace — all he 
 desired was to know the worst of it as speedily as possible; 
 so he rose at once, and bowed in acquiescence. The Sire de 
 Maletroit followed his example and limped, with the assist- 
 ance of the chaplain's arm, towards the chapel-door. The 
 priest pulled aside the arras, and all three entered. The 
 building had considerable architectural pretensions. A light 
 groining sprang from six stout columns, and hung down in 
 two rich pendants from the centre of the vault. The place 
 terminated behind the altar in a round end, embossed and 
 honeycombed with a superfluity of ornament in relief, and 
 pierced by many little windows shaped like stars, trefoils, or 
 wheels. These windows were imperfectly glazed, so that 
 the night air circulated freely in the chapel. The tapers, 
 of which there must have been half a hundred burning on the 
 altar, were unmercifully blown about ; and the light went 
 through many different phases of brilliancy and semi-eclipse. 
 On the steps in front of the altar knelt a young girl richly 
 attired as a bride. A chill settled over Denis as he observed 
 her costume; he fought with desperate energy against the 
 conclusion that was being thrust upon his mind; it could 
 not — it should not — ^be as he feared. 
 
 " Blanche," said the Sire, in his most flute-like tones, " I 
 have brought a friend to see you, my little girl ; turn round 
 and give him your pretty hand. It is good to be devout; 
 but it is necessary to be polite, my niece." 
 
 The girl rose to her feet and turned toward the new 
 
 262
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 comers. She moved all of a piece ; and shame and exhaustion 
 were expressed in every line of her fresh young body ; and 
 she held her head down and kept her eyes upon the pave- 
 ment, as she came slowly forward. In the course of her 
 advance, her eyes fell upon Denis de Beaulieu's feet — feet 
 of which he was justly vain, be it remarked, and wore in 
 the most elegant accoutrement even while traveling. She 
 paused — started, as if his yellow boots had conveyed some 
 shocking meaning — and glanced suddenly up into the 
 wearer's countenance. Their eyes met ; shame gave place 
 to horror and terror in her looks ; the blood left her lips ; 
 with a piercing scream she covered her face with her hands 
 and sank upon the chapel floor. 
 
 " That is not the man ! " she cried. " My uncle, that is 
 not the man ! " 
 
 The Sire de Maletroit chirped agreeably. " Of course 
 not," he said, " I expected as much. It was so unfortunate 
 you could not remember his name." 
 
 " Indeed," she cried, " indeed, I have never seen this per- 
 son till this moment — I have never so much as set eyes upon 
 him — I never wish to see him again. Sir," she said, turning 
 to Denis, " if you are a gentleman, you will bear me out. 
 Have I ever seen you — have you ever seen me — ^before this 
 accursed hour? " 
 
 " To speak for myself, I have never had that pleasure," 
 answered the young man. " This is the first time, messire, 
 that I have met with your engaging niece." 
 
 The old gentleman shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " I am distressed to hear it," he said. " But it is never 
 too late to begin. I had little more acquaintance with my 
 own late lady ere I married her ; which proves," he added, 
 with a grimace, " that these impromptu marriages may 
 often produce an excellent understanding in the long run. 
 As the bridegroom is to have a voice in the matter, I will 
 give him two hours to make up for lost time before we pro- 
 ceed with the ceremony." And he turned toward the door, 
 followed by the clergyman. 
 
 The girl was on her feet In a moment. " ]My uncle, you 
 
 \2Q2
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 cannot be in earnest," she said. " I declare before God I 
 will stab myself rather than be forced on that young man-. 
 The heart rises at it ; God forbids such marriages ; you dis- 
 honor your white hair. Oh, my uncle, pity me ! There is 
 not a woman in all the world but would prefer death to such 
 a nuptial. Is it possible," she added, faltering — " is it pos- 
 sible that you do not believe me — that you still think this " 
 • — and she pointed at Denis with a tremor of anger and con- 
 tempt — " that you still think this to be the man ? " 
 
 " Frankl}^," said the old gentleman, pausing on the 
 threshold, " I do. But let me explain to you once for all, 
 Blanche de Maletroit, my way of thinking about this affair. 
 When you took it into your head to dishonor my family and 
 the name that I have borne, in peace and war, for more than 
 three-score years, you forfeited, not only the right to ques- 
 tion my designs, but that of looking me in the face. If your 
 father had been alive, he would have spat on you and turned 
 you out of doors. His was the hand of iron. You may 
 bless your God you have only to deal with the hand of velvet, 
 mademoiselle. It was my duty to get you married without 
 delay. Out of pure good-will, I have tried to find your own 
 gallant for you. And I believe I have succeeded. But be- 
 fore God and all the holy angels, Blanche de Maletroit, if 
 I have not, I care not one jack-straw. So let me recom- 
 mend you to be polite to our young friend ; for upon my 
 word, your next groom may be less appetizing." 
 
 And with that he went out, with the chaplain at his heels ; 
 and the arras fell behind the pair. 
 
 The girl turned upon Denis with flashing eyes. 
 
 " And what, sir," she demanded, " may be the meaning 
 of all this.?" 
 
 " God knows," returned Denis, gloomily. " I am a 
 prisoner in this house, which seems full of mad people. 
 More I know not ; and nothing do I understand." 
 
 " And pray how came you here," she asked. 
 
 He told her as briefly as he could. " For the rest," he 
 added, " perhaps you will follow my example, and tell me 
 
 264.
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOK 
 
 the answer to all these riddles, and Avhat, in God's name, Is 
 like to be the end of it." 
 
 She stood silent for a little, and he could see her lips 
 tremble and her tearless eyes burn with a feverish lustre. 
 Then she pressed her forehead in both hands. 
 
 " Alas, how my head aches ! " she said wearily — " to say 
 nothing of my poor heart ! But it is due to you to know my 
 story, unmaidenly as it must seem. I am called Blanche de 
 Maletroit; I have been without father or mother for — oh! 
 for as long as I can recollect, and indeed I have been most 
 unhappy all my life. Three months ago a young captain 
 began to stand near me every day in church. I could see 
 that I pleased him ; I am much to blame, but I was so glad 
 that anyone should love me ; and when he passed me a letter, 
 I took it home with me and read it with great pleasure. 
 Since that time he has written many. He was so anxious 
 to speak with me, poor fellow! and kept asking me to leave 
 the door open some evening that we might have two words 
 upon the stair. For he knew how much my uncle trusted 
 me." She gave something like a sob at that, and it was a 
 moment before she could go on. " My uncle Is a hard man, 
 but he is very shrewd," she said at last. " He has per- 
 formed many feats in war, and was a great person at court, 
 and much trusted by Queen Isabeau in old days. How he 
 came to suspect me I cannot tell ; but it is hard to keep any- 
 thing from his knowledge; and this morning, as we came 
 from mass, he took my hand into his, forced it open, and 
 read my little billet, walking by my side all the while. When 
 he finished, he gave it back to me with great politeness. It 
 contained another request to have the door left open ; and 
 this has been the ruin of us all. My uncle kept me strictly 
 in my room until evening, and then ordered me to dress my- 
 self as you see me — a hard mockery for a young girl, do 
 ycu not think so? I suppose, when he could not prevail with 
 me to tell Iiim the young captain's name, he must have laid 
 a trap for him : into which, alas ! you have fallen in the anger 
 of God. I looked for much confusion ; for how could I tell 
 whether he was willing to take me for his wife on these sharp 
 
 265.
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 terms? He might have been trifling with me from the first; 
 or I might have made myself too cheap in his eyes. But 
 truly I had not looked for such a shameful punishment as 
 this ! I could not think that God would let a girl be so dis- 
 graced before a young man. And now I tell you all ; and I 
 can scarcely hope that you will not despise me." 
 
 Denis made her a respectful inclination. 
 
 *' Madam," he said, *' you have honored me by your con- 
 fidence. It remains for me to prove that I am not unworthy 
 of the honor. Is Messire de Maletroit at hand? " 
 
 *' I believe he is writing in the salle without," she answered. 
 
 " May I lead you thither, madam ? " asked Denis, offer- 
 ing his hand with his most courtly bearing. 
 
 She accepted it ; and the pair passed out of the chapel, 
 Blanche in a very drooping and shamefaced condition, but 
 Denis strutting and ruffling in the consciousness of a mis- 
 sion, and the boyish certainty of accomplishing it with 
 honor. 
 
 The Sire de Maletroit rose to meet them with an ironical 
 obeisance. 
 
 " Sir," said Denis, with the grandest possible air, " I be- 
 lieve I am to have some say in the matter of this marriage; 
 and let me tell you at once, I will be no party to forcing the 
 inclination of this young lady. Had it been freely offered 
 to me, I should have been proud to accept her hand, for I 
 perceive she is as good as she is beautiful; but as things are, 
 I have now the honor, messire, of refusing." 
 
 Blanche looked at him with gratitude in her eyes ; but the 
 old gentleman only smiled and smiled, until his smile grew 
 positively sickening to Denis. 
 
 " I am afraid," he said, " Monsieur de Beaulieu, that you 
 do not perfectly understand the choice I have offered you. 
 Follow me, I beseech you, to this window." And he led the 
 way to one of the large windows which stood open on the 
 night. " You observe," he went on, " there is an iron ring 
 in the upper masonry, and reeved through that, a very 
 efficacious rope. Now, mark my words : if you should find 
 your disinclination to my niece's person insurmountable, I 
 
 266
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 shall have you hanged out of this window before sunrise. I 
 shall only proceed to such an extremity with the greatest 
 regret, you may believe me. For it is not at all your death 
 that I desire, but my niece's establishment in life. At the 
 same time, it must come to that if you prove obstinate. 
 Your family, Monsieur de Beaulieu, is very well in its way ; 
 but if you sprang from Charlemagne, you should not refuse 
 the hand of a Maletroit with impunity — not if she had been 
 as common as the Paris road — not if she were as hideous as 
 the gargoyle over my door. Neither my niece nor you, nor 
 my own private feelings, move me at all in this matter. The 
 honor of my house has been compromised; I believe you to 
 be the guilty person, at least you are now in the secret ; and 
 you can hardly wonder if I request you to wipe out the 
 stain. If you will not, your blood be on your own head ! It 
 will be no great satisfaction to me to have your interesting 
 relics kicking their heels in the breeze below my windows, 
 but half a loaf is better than no bread, and if I cannot cure 
 the dishonor, I shall at least stop the scandal." 
 
 There was a pause. 
 
 " I believe there are other ways of settling such imbroglios 
 among gentlemen," said Denis. " You wear a sword, and I 
 hear you have used it with distinction." 
 
 The Sire de Maletroit made a signal to the chaplain, who 
 crossed the room with long silent strides and raised the arras 
 over the third of the three doors. It was only a moment 
 before he let it fall again ; but Denis had time to see a dusky 
 passage full of armed men. 
 
 " When I was a little younger, I should have been de- 
 lighted to honor you, Monsieur de Beaulieu," said Sire 
 Alain ; " but I am now too old. Faithful retainers are the 
 sinews of age, and I must employ the strength I have. This 
 is one of the hardest things to swallow as a man grows up in 
 years ; but with a little patience, even this becomes habitual. 
 You and the lady seem to prefer the salle for what remains 
 of your two hours ; and as I have no desire to cross your 
 preference, I shall resign it to your use with all the pleasure 
 in the world. No haste ! " he added, holding up his hand, 
 
 267
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 as He saw a dangerous loolc come into Denis de Beaulieu's 
 face. " If your- mind revolt against hanging, it will be time 
 enough two hours hence to throw yoursodf out of the window 
 or upon the pikes of my retainers. Two hours of life are 
 always two hours. A great many things may turn up in 
 even as little a while as that. And, besides, if I understand 
 her appearance, my niece has something to say to you. You 
 will not disfigure your last hours by a want of politeness to 
 a lady?" 
 
 Denis looked at Blanche, and she made him an imploring 
 gesture. 
 
 It is likely that the old gentleman was hugely pleased at 
 this symptom of an understanding; for he smiled on both, 
 and added sweetly : " If you will give me your word of 
 honor. Monsieur de Beaulieu, to await my return at the end 
 of the two hours before attempting anything desperate, I 
 shall withdraw my retainers, and let you speak in greater 
 privacy with mademoiselle." 
 
 Denis again glanced at the girl, who seemed to beseech 
 him to agree. 
 
 " I give you my word of honor," he said. 
 
 Messire de Maletroit bowed, and proceeded to limp about 
 the apartment, clearing his throat the while with that odd 
 musical chirp which had already grown so irritating in the 
 ears of Denis de Beaulieu. He first possessed himself of 
 some papers which lay upon the table; then he went to the 
 mouth of the passage and appeared to give an order to the 
 men behind the arras ; and lastly he hobbled out through the 
 door by which Denis had come in, turning upon the threshold 
 to address a last smiling bow to the young couple, and fol- 
 lowed by the chaplain with a hand-lamp. 
 
 No sooner were they alone than Blanche advanced towards 
 Denis with her hands extended. Her face was flushed and 
 excited, and her eyes shone with tears. 
 
 ** You shall not die ! " she cried, " you shall marry me 
 after all." 
 
 ** You seem to think, madam," replied Denis, " that I 
 stand much in fear of death." 
 
 269
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 " Oh, no, no," she said, " I see you are no poltroon. It is 
 for my ovm sake — I could not bear to have you slain for 
 such a scruple.'* 
 
 " I am afraid," returned Denis, " that you underrate the 
 difficulty, madam. What you may be too generous to refuse, 
 I may be too proud to accept. In a moment of noble feeling 
 towards me, you forget what you perhaps owe to others." 
 
 He had the decency to keep his eyes on the floor as he 
 said this, and after he had finished, so as not to spy upon 
 her confusion. She stood silent for a moment, then walked 
 suddenly away, and falling on her uncle's chair, fairly burst 
 out sobbing. Denis was in the acme of embarrassment. He 
 looked round, as if to seek for inspiration, and seeing a 
 stool, plumped down upon it for something to do. There 
 he sat playing with the guard of his rapier, and wishing 
 himself dead a thousand times over, and buried in the 
 nastiest kitchen-heap in France. His eyes wandered round 
 the apartment, but found nothing to arrest them. There 
 were such wide spaces between the furniture, the light fell 
 so badly and cheerlessly over all, the dark outside air looked 
 in so coldly through the windows, that he thought he had 
 never seen a church so vast, nor a tomb so melancholy. The 
 regular sobs of Blanche de Maletroit measured out the time 
 like the ticking of a clock. He read the device upon the 
 shield over and over again, until his eyes became obscured; 
 he stared into shadowy comers until he imagined they were 
 swarming with horrible animals ; and every now and again 
 he awoke with a start, to remember that his last two hours 
 were mnning, and death was on the march. 
 
 Oftener and oftener, as the time went on, did his glance 
 settle on the girl herself. Her face was bowed forward and 
 covered with her hands, and she was shaken at intervals by 
 the convulsive hiccup of grief. Even thus she was not an 
 unpleasant object to dwell upon, so plump and yet so fine, 
 with a warm brown skin, and the most beautiful hair, Denis 
 thought, in the whole world of womankind. Her hands were 
 like her uncle's : but they were more in place at the end of 
 her young arms, and looked infinitely soft and caressing. 
 
 269
 
 NEW AHABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 He remembered how her blue eyes had shone upon him, full 
 of anger, pity, and innocence. And the more he dwelt on 
 her perfections, the uglier death looked, and the more deeply 
 was he smitten with penitence at her continued tears. Now 
 he felt that no man could have the courage to leave a world 
 which contained so beautiful a creature; and now he would 
 have given forty minutes of his last hour to have unsaid his 
 cruel speech. 
 
 Suddenly a hoarse and ragged peal of cockcrow rose to 
 their ears from the dark valley below the windows. And this 
 shattering noise in the silence of all around was like a light 
 in a dark place, and shook them both out of their reflections. 
 
 " Alas, can I do nothing to help you .'' " she said, look- 
 ing up. 
 
 " Madam," replied Denis, with a fine Irrelevancy, " if I 
 have said anything to wound you, beheve me, it was for your 
 own sake and not for mine." 
 
 She thanked him with a tearful look. 
 
 " I feel your position cruelly," he went on. " The world 
 has been bitter hard on you. Your uncle is a disgrace to 
 mankind. Believe me, madam, there is no young gentleman 
 in all France but would be glad of my opportunity, to die 
 in doing you a momentary service." 
 
 " I know already that you can be very brave and gener- 
 ous," she answered. " What I want to know is whether I 
 can serve you — now or afterwards," she added, with a 
 quaver. 
 
 " Most certainly," he answered with a smile. *' Let me 
 sit beside you as if I were a friend, instead of a foolish in- 
 truder ; try to forget how awkwardly we are placed to one 
 another ; make my last moments go pleasantly ; and you will 
 do me the chief service possible." 
 
 " You are very gallant," she added, with a yet deeper sad- 
 ness ..." very gallant . . . and it somehow pains 
 me. But draw nearer, if you please; and if you find any- 
 thing to say to me, you will at least make certain of a very 
 friendly listener. Ah! Monsieur de Beaulieu," she broke 
 forth — " ah ! Monsieur de Beaulieu, how can I look you in 
 
 270
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 the face? " And she fell to weeping again with a renewed 
 effusion, 
 
 " Madam," said Denis, taking her hand in both of his, 
 " reflect on the little time I have before me, and the great 
 bitterness into which I am cast by the sight of your distress. 
 Spare me, in my last moments, the spectacle of what I can- 
 not cure even with the sacrifice of my life." 
 
 " I am very selfish," answered Blanche. " I will be braver, 
 Monsieur de Beaulieu, for your sake. But think if I can do 
 you no kindness in the future — if you have no friends to 
 whom I could carry your adieux. Charge me as heavily as 
 you can ; every burden will lighten, by so little, the invalu- 
 able gratitude I owe you. Put it in my power to do some- 
 thing more for you than weep." 
 
 " My mother is married again, and has a young family 
 to care for. My brother Guichard will inherit my fiefs ; and 
 if I am not in error, that will content him amply for my 
 death. Life is a little vapor that passeth away, as we are 
 told by those in holy orders. When a man is in a fair way 
 and sees all life open in front of him, he seems to himself to 
 make a very important figure in the world. His horse whin-= 
 nies to him ; the trumpets blow and the girls look out of win- 
 dow as he rides into town before his company ; he receives 
 many assurances of trust and regard — sometimes by ex- 
 press in a letter — sometimes face to face, with persons of 
 great consequence falling on his neck. It is not wonderful 
 if his head is turned for a time. But once he is dead, were he 
 as brave as Hercules or as wise as Solomon, he is soon for- 
 gotten. It is not ten years since my father fell, with many 
 other knights around him, in a very fierce encounter, and I 
 do not think that any one of them, nor so much as the name 
 of the fight, is now remembered. No, no, madam, the nearer 
 you come to it, you see that death is a dark and dusty cor- 
 ner, where a man gets into his tomb and has the door shut 
 after him till the judgment day. I have few friends just 
 now, and once I am dead I shall have none," 
 
 " Ah, Monsieur de Beaulieu I " she exclaimed, " you for- 
 get Blanche de Maletroit." 
 
 271
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " You have a sweet nature, madam, and you are pleased 
 to estimate a little service far beyond its worth." 
 
 " It is not that," she answered. " You mistake me if you 
 think I am easily touched by my own concerns. I say so, 
 because you are the noblest man I have ever met; because I 
 recognize in you a spirit that would have made even a com- 
 mon person famous in the land." 
 
 " And yet here I die in a mousetrap — with no more noise 
 about it than my own squeaking," answered he. 
 
 A look of pain crossed her face, and she was silent for a 
 little while. Then a light came into her eyes, and with a 
 smile she spoke again. 
 
 " I cannot have my champion think meanly of himself. 
 Anyone who gives his life for another will be met in Paradise 
 by all the heralds and angels of the Lord God. And you 
 have no such cause to hang your head. For . . . Pray, 
 do you think me beautiful.'^ " she asked, with a deep flush. 
 
 *' Indeed, madam, I do," he said. 
 
 " I am glad of that," she answered heartil3\ " Do you 
 think there are many men in France who have been asked in 
 marriage by a beautiful maiden — with her own lips — and 
 who have refused her to her face.'* I know you men would 
 half despise such a triumph ; but believe me, Ave women know 
 more of what is precious in love. There is nothing that 
 should set a person higher in his own esteem ; and we women 
 would prize nothing more dearly." 
 
 " You are very good," he said ; " but you cannot make 
 me forget that I was asked in pity and not for love." 
 
 " I am not so sure of that," she replied, holding down her 
 head. " Hear me to an end, Monsieur de Beaulieu. I know 
 how you must despise me ; I feel you are right to do so ; I 
 am too poor a creature to occupy one thought of your mind, 
 although, alas ! you must die for me this morning. But 
 when I asked you to marry me, indeed, and indeed, it was 
 because I respected and admired you, and loved you with my 
 whole soul, from the very moment that you took my part 
 against my uncle. If you had seen yourself, and how noble 
 you looked, you would pity rather than despise me. And 
 
 272 
 
 I
 
 THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR 
 
 now," she went on, hurriedly chocking hhn with her hand, 
 *' although I have laid aside all reserve and told you so much, 
 remember that I know your sentiments towards me already. 
 I would not, believe me, being nobly born, weary you with 
 importunities into consent. I too have a pride of my own ; 
 and I declare before the holy mother of God, if you should 
 now go back from your word already given, I would no more 
 marry j'ou than I would marry my uncle's groom." 
 
 Denis smiled a little bitterly. 
 
 " It is a small love," he said, " that shies at a little pride." 
 
 She mads no answer, although she probably had her own 
 thoughts. 
 
 " Come hither to the window," he said with a sigh. 
 ** Here is the dawn." 
 
 And indeed the dawn was already beginning. The hollow 
 of the sky was full of essential daylight, colorless and clean ; 
 and the valley underneath was flooded with a gray reflection. 
 A few thin vapors clung in the coves of the forest or lay 
 along the winding course of the river. The scene disengaged 
 a surprising effect of stillness, which was hardly interrupted 
 when the cocks began once more to crow am.ong the stead- 
 ings. Perhaps the same fellow who had made so horrid a 
 clangor in the darkness not half an hour before, now sent up 
 the merriest cheer to greet the coming day. A little wind 
 went bustling and eddying among the tree-tops underneath 
 the windows. And still the daylight kept flooding insensibly 
 out cf the east, which was soon to grow incandescent and 
 cast up that red-hot cannon-ball, the rising sun. 
 
 Denis looked out over all this with a bit of a shiver. He 
 had taken her hand, and retained it in his almost uncon- 
 sciously. 
 
 " Has the day begun already ? " she said ; and then, 
 illogically enough : " the night has been so long ! Alas ! 
 what shall we say to my uncle when he returns ? " 
 
 " What you will," said Denis, and he pressed her fingers 
 in his. 
 
 She was silent. 
 
 " Blanche," he said, with a swift, uncertain, passionate 
 
 273
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 utterance, " you have seen whether I fear death. You must 
 know well enough that I would as gladly leap out of that 
 window into the empty air as to lay a finger on you with- 
 out your free and full consent. But if you care for me at 
 all do not let me lose my life in a misapprehension ; for I love 
 you better than the whole world; and though I will die for 
 you blithely, it would be like all the joys of Paradise to live 
 on and spend my life in your service." 
 
 As he stopped speaking, a bell began to ring loudly in 
 the interior of the house ; and a clatter of armor in the cor- 
 ridor showed that the retainers were returning to their post, 
 and the two hours were at an end. 
 
 " After all that you have heard ? " she whispered, leaning 
 towards him with her lips and eyes. 
 
 " I have heard nothing," he replied. 
 
 " The captain's name was Florimond de Champdivers," 
 she said in his ear. 
 
 " I did not hear it," he answered, taking her supple body 
 in his arms, and covered her wet face with kisses. 
 
 A melodious chirping was audible behind, followed by a 
 beautiful chuckle, and the voice of Messire de Maletroit 
 wished his new nephew a good morning. 
 
 274
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MONSIEUR LEON BERTHELINI had a great care 
 of his appearance, and sedulously suited his deport- 
 ment to the costume of the hour. He affected something 
 Spanish in his air, and something of the bandit, with a flavor 
 of Rembrandt at home. In person he was decidedly small 
 and inclined to be stout; his face was the picture of good 
 humor; his dark eyes, which were very expressive, told of a 
 kind heart, a brisk, merry nature, and the most indefatigable 
 spirits. If he had worn the clothes of the period you would 
 have set him down for a hitherto undiscovered hybrid be- 
 tween the barber, the innkeeper, and the affable dispensing 
 chemist. But in the outrageous bravery of velvet jacket 
 and flapped hat, with trousers that were more accurately 
 described as fleshings, a white handkerchief cavalierly 
 knotted at his neck, a shock of Olympian curls upon his 
 brow, and his feet shod through all weathers in the slenderest 
 of Moliere shoes — you had but to look at him and you knew 
 you were in the presence of a Great Creature. When he 
 wore an overcoat he scorned to pass the sleeves ; a single 
 button held it round his shoulders ; it was tossed backwards 
 after the manner of a cloak, and carried with the gait and 
 presence of an Almaviva. I am of opinion that M. Ber- 
 thelini was nearing forty. But he had a boy's heart, 
 gloried in his finery, and walked through life like a child in 
 a perpetual dramatic performance. If he were not Alma- 
 viva after all, it was not for lack of making believe. And 
 he enjoyed the artist's compensation. If he were not really 
 Almaviva, he was sometimes just as happy as though he 
 were. 
 
 I have seen him, at moments when he has fancied himself 
 
 277
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 alone with his Maker, adopt so gay and chivalrous a bearing, 
 and represent his own part with so much warmth and con- 
 science, that the illusion became catching, and I believed im- 
 plicity in the Great Creature's pose. 
 
 But, alas ! life cannot be entirely conducted on these prin- 
 ciples ; man cannot live by Almavivery alone ; and the Great 
 Creature, having failed upon several theatres, was obliged 
 to step down every evening from his heights, and sing from 
 half-a-dozen to a dozen comic songs, twang a guitar, keep a 
 country audience in good humor, and preside finally over the 
 mysteries of a tombola. 
 
 Madame Berthelini, who was art and part with him in 
 these undignified labors, had perhaps a higher position in 
 the scale of beings, and enjoyed a natural dignity of her 
 own. But her heart was not any more rightly placed, for 
 that would have been impossible; and she had acquired a 
 little air of melancholy, attractive enough in its way, but 
 not good to see like the wholesome, sky-scraping, boyish 
 spirits of her lord. 
 
 He, indeed, swam like a kite on a fair wind, high above 
 earthly troubles. Detonations of temper were not unfre- 
 quent in the zones he traveled; but sulky fogs and tearful 
 depressions were there alike unknown. A well-delivered blow 
 upon a table, or a noble attitude, imitated from Melingue or 
 Frederic, relieved his irritation like a vengeance. Though 
 the heaven had fallen, if he had played his part with pro- 
 priety, Berthelini had been content! And the man's atmos- 
 phere, if not his example, reacted on his wife ; for the couple 
 doted on each other, and although you would have thought 
 they walked in different worlds, yet continued to walk hand 
 in hand. 
 
 It chanced one day that Monsieur and Madame Berthelini 
 descended with two boxes and a guitar in a fat case at the 
 station of the little town of Castel-le-Gachis, and the omnibus 
 carried them with their effects to the Hotel of the Black 
 Head. This was a dismal, conventual building in a narrow 
 street, capable of standing siege when once the gates were 
 shut, and smelling strangely in the interior of straw and 
 
 27a
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 chocolate and old feminine apparel. Berthelini paused upon 
 the threshold with a painful premonition. In some former 
 state, it seemed to him, he had visited a hostelry that smelt 
 not otherwise, and been ill received. 
 
 The landlord, a tragic person in a large felt hat, rose 
 from a business table under the key-rack, and came forward, 
 removing his hat with both hands as he did so. 
 
 " Sir, I salute you. May I inquire what is your charge 
 for artists.'' " inquired Berthelini, with a courtesy at once 
 splendid and insinuating. 
 
 "For artists.''" said the landlord. His countenance fell 
 and the smile of welcome disappeared. " Oh, artists ! " he 
 added, brutally ; " four francs a day." And he turned his 
 back upon these inconsiderable customers. 
 
 A commercial traveler is received, he also, upon a reduc- 
 tion — yet is he welcome, yet can he command the fatted 
 calf ; but an artist, had he the manners of an Almaviva, were 
 he dressed like Solomon in all his glory, is received like a 
 dog and served like a timid lady traveling alone. 
 
 Accustomed as he was to the rubs of his profession, 
 Berthelini was unpleasantly affected by the landlord's 
 manner. 
 
 " Elvira," said he to his wife, " mark my words : Castel- 
 le-Gachis is a tragic folly." 
 
 " Wait till we see what we take," replied Elvira. 
 
 " We shall take nothing," returned Berthelini ; " we shall 
 feed upon insults. I have an eye, Elvira ; I have a spirit of 
 divination ; and this place is accursed. The landlord has 
 been discourteous, the Commissary will be brutal, the audi- 
 ence will be sordid and uproarious, and you will take a cold 
 upon your throat. We have been besotted enough to come ; 
 the die is cast — it will be a second Sedan." 
 
 Sedan was a town hateful to the Berthelinis, not only 
 from patriotism (for they were French, and answered after 
 the flesh to the somewhat homely name of Duval), but be- 
 .cause it had been the scene of their most sad reverses. In 
 that place they had lain three weeks in pawn for their hotel 
 bill, and had it not been for a surprising stroke of fortune 
 
 27a
 
 new: ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 they might have been lying there in pawn until this day. 
 To mention the name of Sedan was for the Behthelinis to 
 dip the brush in earthquake and eclipse. Count Almaviva 
 slouched his hat with a gesture expressive of despair, and 
 even Elvira felt as if ill-fortune had been personally invoked. 
 
 " Let us ask for breakfast," said she, with a woman's tact. 
 
 The Commissary of Police of Castel-le-Gachis was a large 
 red Commissary, pimpled, and subject to a strong cutaneous 
 transpiration. I have repeated the name of his office because 
 he was so very much more a Commissary than a man. The 
 spirit of his dignity had entered into him. He carried his 
 corporation as if it were something official. Whenever he 
 insulted a common citizen it seemed to him as if he were 
 adroitly flattering the Government by a side wind ; In default 
 of dignity he was brutal from an over-weening sense of duty. 
 His office was a den, whence passers-by could hear rude ac- 
 cents laying down, not the law, but the good pleasure of 
 the Commissary. 
 
 Six several times in the course of the day did M. BerthelinI 
 hurry thither in quest of the requisite permission for his 
 evening's entertainment; six several times he found the of- 
 ficial was abroad. Leon BerthelinI began to grow quite a 
 familiar figure in the streets of Castel-le-Gachls ; he became 
 a local celebrity, and was pointed out as " the man who was 
 looking for the Commissary." Idle children attached them- 
 selves to his footsteps, and trotted after him back and for- 
 ward between the hotel and the office. Leon might try as 
 he liked ; he might roll cigarettes, he might straddle, he might 
 cock his hat at a dozen different jaunty inclinations — the 
 part of Ahnavlva was, under the circumstances, difficult to 
 play. 
 
 As he passed the market-place upon the seventh excursion 
 the Commissary was pointed out to him, where he stood, 
 with his waistcoat unbuttoned and his hands behind his back, 
 to superintend the sale and measurement of butter. Berthe- 
 linI threaded his way through the market stalls and baskets, 
 and accosted the dignitary with a bow which was a triumph 
 of the histrionic art. 
 
 28Q
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 " I have the honor," he asked, " of meeting M. le Com- 
 missaire? " 
 
 The Commissary was affected by the nobihty of his ad- 
 dress. He excelled Leon in the depth if not in the airy grace 
 of his salutation. 
 
 " The honor," said he, " is mine! " 
 
 " I am," continued the strolling-pla3^er, " I am, sir, an 
 artist, and I have permitted myself to interrupt you on an 
 affair of business. To-night I give a trifling musical enter- 
 tainment at the Cafe of the Triumphs of the Plough — permit 
 me to offer you this little programme — and I have come to 
 ask you for the necessary authorization." 
 
 At the word " artist," the Commissary had replaced his 
 hat with the air of a person who, having condescended too 
 far, should suddenly remember the duties of his rank. 
 
 " Go, go," said he, " I am busy — I am measuring butter." 
 
 " Heathen Jew ! " thought Leon. " Permit me, sir," he 
 resumed, aloud. " I have gone six times already " 
 
 " Put up your bills if you choose," interrupted the Com- 
 missary. " In an hour or so I will examine your papers at 
 the office. But now go ; I am busy." 
 
 "Measuring butter.? " thought Berthelinl. " Oh, France, 
 and it is for this that we made '93 ! " 
 
 The preparations were soon made ; the bills posted, pro- 
 grammes laid on the dinner-table of every hotel in the town, 
 and a stage erected at one end of the Cafe of the Triumphs 
 of the Plough; but when Leon returned to the office, the 
 Commissary was once more abroad. 
 
 " He is like Madame Benoiton," thought Leon, " Fichu 
 Commlssaire ! " 
 
 And just then he met the man face to face. 
 
 " Here, sir," said he, " are my papers. Will you be 
 pleased to verify ? " 
 
 But the Commissary was now intent upon dinner. 
 
 "No use," he replied, "no use; I am busy ;_I_am quite 
 satisfied. Give your entertainment." 
 
 And he hurried on., 
 
 " Fichu^ Commissaire !." thought Leon. 
 
 581
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE audience was pretty large; and the proprietor of 
 the cafe made a good thing of it in beer. But the 
 Berthehnis exerted themselves in vain. 
 
 Leon was radiant in velveteen ; he had a rakish way of 
 smoking a cigarette between his songs that was worth money 
 in itself; he underhned his comic points, so that the dullest 
 numskull in Castel-le-Gachis had a notion when to laugh ; 
 and he handled his guitar in a manner worthy of himself. 
 Indeed his play with that instrument was as good as a whole 
 romantic drama ; it was so dashing, so florid, and so cavalier. 
 
 Elvira, on the other hand, sang her patriotic and romantic 
 songs with more than usual expression ; her voice had charm 
 and plangency ; and as Leon looked at her, in her low-bodied 
 maroon dress, with her arms bare to the shoulder, and a red 
 flower set provocatively in her corset, he repeated to himself 
 for the many hundredth time that she was one of the loveliest 
 creatures in the world of women. 
 
 Alas ! when she went round with the tambourine, the 
 golden youth of Castel-le-Gachis turned from her coldly. 
 Here and there a single halfpenny was forthcoming; the net 
 result of a collection never exceeded half a franc ; and the 
 Maire himself, after seven different applications, had con- 
 tributed exactly twopence. A certain chill began to settle 
 upon the artists themselves ; it seemed as if they were sing- 
 ing to slugs ; Apollo himself might have lost heart with such 
 an audience. The Berthellnis struggled against the impres- 
 sion; they put their back into their work, they sang loud 
 and louder, the guitar twanged like a living thing; and at 
 last Leon arose in his might, and burst with inimitable convic- 
 tion into his great song, " Y a des honnetes gens partout! " 
 Never had he given more proof of his artistic mastery; it 
 
 282
 
 PROVIDEISCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 was his intimate, indefeasible conviction that Castel-le- 
 Gachis formed an exception to the law he was now lyrically 
 proclaiming, and was peopled exclusively by thieves and 
 bullies ; and yet, as I say, he flung It down like a challenge, 
 he trolled it forth like an article of faith; and his face so 
 beamed the while that you would have thought he must make 
 converts of the benches. 
 
 He was at the top of his register, with his head thrown 
 back and his mouth open, when the door was thrown violently 
 open, and a pair of new comers marched noisily into the 
 cafe. It was the Commissary, followed by the Garde 
 Champetre. 
 
 The undaunted Berthelini still continued to proclaim " Y 
 a des honnetes gens partout ! " But now the sentiment pro- 
 duced an audible titter among the audience. Berthelini won- 
 dered why ; he did not know the antecedents of the Garde 
 Champetre; he had never heard of a little story about post- 
 age stamps. But the public knew all about the postage 
 stamps, and enjoyed the coincidence hugely. 
 
 The Commissary planted himself upon a vacant chair 
 with somewhat the air of Cromwell visiting the Rump, and 
 spoke In occasional whispers to the Garde Champetre, who 
 remained respectfully standing at his back. The eyes of 
 both were directed upon Berthelini, who persisted in his 
 statement. 
 
 " Y a des honnetes gens partout," he was just chanting 
 for the twentieth time ; when up got the Commissary upon 
 his feet and waved brutally to the singer with his cane. 
 
 "Is it me you want?" inquired Leon, stopping in his 
 song. 
 
 " It is you," replied the potentate. 
 
 " Fichu Commlssaire ! " thought Leon, and he descended 
 from the stage and made his way to the functionary. 
 
 " How does It happen, sir," said the Commissary, swelling 
 In person, " that I find you mountebanking in a public cafe 
 without my permission?" 
 
 " Without ? " cried the indignant Leon. " Permit me to 
 remind j'ou " 
 
 283
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " Come, come, sir ! " said the Commissary, " I desire no 
 explanations." 
 
 " I care nothing about what you desire," returned the 
 singer. " I choose to give them, and I will not be gagged. 
 I am an artist, sirj a distinction that you cannot compre- 
 hend. I received your permission and stand here upon the 
 strength of it ; interfere with me who dare." 
 
 " You have not got my signature, I tell you,"" cried the 
 Commissary. *' Show me my signature I Where is my 
 signature? " 
 
 That was just the question; where was his signature? 
 Leon recognized that he was in a hole; but his spirit rose 
 with the occasion, and he blustered nobly, tossing back his 
 curls. The Commissary played up to him in the character 
 of tyrant; and as the one leaned farther forward, the other 
 leaned farther back — majesty confronting fury. The audi- 
 ence had transferred their attention to this new perform- 
 ance, and listened with that silent gravity common to all 
 Frenchmen in the neighborhood of the police. Elvira had 
 sat down, she was used to these distractions, and it was rather 
 melancholy than fear that now oppressed her. 
 
 " Another word," cried the Commissary, ** and I arrest 
 you." 
 
 " Arrest me ! " shouted Leon. " I defy you ! " 
 
 " I am the Commissary of Police," said the official. 
 
 Leon commanded his feelings., and replied, with great 
 delicacy of innuendo — 
 
 " So it would appear." 
 
 The point was too refined for Castel-le-Gachis ; it did not 
 raise a smile ; and as for the Commissary, he simply bade the 
 singer follow him to liis office, and directed his proud foot- 
 steps towards the door. There was nothing for it but to 
 obey. Leon did so with a proper pantomime of indifference, 
 but it was a leek to eat, and there was no denying it. 
 
 The Maire had slipped out and was already waiting at 
 the Commissary's door. Now the Maire, in France, is the 
 refuge of the oppressed. He stands between his people and 
 the boisterous rigors of the Police. He can sometimes un- 
 
 284 
 
 I
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAK 
 
 derstand what is said to him ; he is not always puffed up 
 beyond measure by his dignity. 'Tis a thing worth the 
 knowledge of travelers. When all seems over, and a man 
 has made up his mind to Injustice, he has still, like the heroes 
 of romance, a little bugle at his belt whereon to blow; and 
 the Maire, a comfortable deus ex machina, may still descend 
 to deliver him from the minions of the law. The Maire of 
 Castel-le-Gachis, although inaccessible to the charms of 
 music as retailed by the Berthelinis, had no hesitation what- 
 ever as to the rights of the matter. He instantly fell foul 
 of the Commissary in very high terms, and the Commissary, 
 pricked by this humiliation, accepted battle on the point of 
 fact. The argument lasted some little while with varying 
 success, until at length victory inclined so plainly to the 
 Commissary's side that the Maire was fain to re-assert him- 
 self by an exercise of authority. He had been out-argued, 
 but he was still the Maire. And so, turning from his inter- 
 locutor, he briefly but kindly recommended Leon to go back 
 instanter to his concert. 
 
 " It is already growing late," he added. 
 
 Leon did not wait to be told twice. He returned to the 
 Cafe of the Triumphs of the Plough with all expedition. 
 Alas ! the audience had melted away during his absence ; 
 Elvira was sitting in a very disconsolate attitude on the 
 guitar-box ; she had watched the company dispersing by 
 twos and threes, and the prolonged spectacle had somewhat 
 overwhelmed her spirits. Each man, she reflected, retired 
 with a certain proportion of her earnings in his pockets, and 
 she saw to-night's board and to-morrow's railway expenses, 
 and finally even to-morrow's dinner, walk one after another 
 out of the cafe door and disappear into the night. 
 
 " What was it ? '' she asked, languidly. 
 
 But Leon did not answer. He was looking round him on 
 the scene of defeat. Scarce a score of listeners remained, 
 and these of the least promising sort. The minute hand of 
 the clock was already climbing upward towards eleven. 
 
 " It's a lost battle," said he, and then taking up the 
 money-box, he turned it out. " Three francs seventy-five ! " 
 
 286
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 he cried, " as against four of board and six of railway fares ; 
 and no time for the tombola! Elvira, this is Waterloo." 
 And he sat down and passed both hands desperately among 
 his curls. " O Fichu Commissaire ! " he cried, " Fichu 
 Commissaire ! " 
 
 " Let us get the things together and be off," returned 
 Elvira. " We might try another song, but there is not six 
 halfpence in the room." 
 
 "Six halfpence.?" cried Leon, "six hundred thousand 
 devils ! There is not a human creature in the town — nothing 
 but pigs and dogs and commissaires ! Pray heaven, we get 
 safe to bed." 
 
 " Don't imagine things ! " exclaimed Elvira, with a 
 shudder. 
 
 And with that they set to work on their preparations. 
 The tobacco- jar, the cigarette-holder, the three papers of 
 shirt-studs, which were to have been the prizes of the tom- 
 bola had the tombola come oiF, were made into a bundle with 
 the music; the guitar was stowed into the fat guitar-case; 
 and Elvira having thrown a thin shawl about her neck and 
 shoulders, the pair issued from the cafe and set off for the 
 Black Head. 
 
 As they crossed the market-place the church bell rang 
 out eleven. It was a dark, mild night, and there was no one 
 in the streets. 
 
 " It is all very fine," said Leon : " but I have a presenti- 
 ment. The night is not yet done." 
 
 ^86
 
 CHAPTER in 
 
 THE Black Head presented not a single chink of light 
 upon the street, and the carriage gate was closed. 
 
 " This is unprecedented," observed Leon. " An inn closed 
 by five minutes after eleven! And there were several com- 
 mercial travelers in the cafe up to a late hour, Elvira, my 
 heart misgives me. Let us ring the bell." 
 
 The bell had a potent note ; and being swung under the 
 arch it filled the house from top to bottom with surly, clang- 
 ing reverberations. The sound accentuated the conventual 
 appearance of the building ; a wintry sentiment, a thought 
 of prayer and mortification, took hold upon Elvira's mind ; 
 and as for Leon, he seemed to be reading the stage directions 
 for a lugubrious fifth act. 
 
 " This is your fault," said Elvira : " this is what comes of 
 fancying things ! " 
 
 Again Leon pulled the bell-rope ; again the solemn tocsin 
 awoke the echoes of the inn; and ere they had died away, a 
 light glimmered in the carriage entrance, and a powerful 
 voice was heard upraised and tremulous with wrath. 
 
 " What's all this .'' " cried the tragic host through the 
 spars of the gate. " Hard upon twelve, and you come 
 clamoring like Prussians at the door of a respectable hotel? 
 Oh ! " he cried, " I know you now ! Common singers ! Peo- 
 ple in trouble with the police ! And you present yourselves 
 at midnight like lords and ladies .'' Be off with you ! " 
 
 " You will permit me to remind you," said Leon, in 
 thrilling tones, " that I am a guest in your house, that I am 
 properly inscribed, and that I have deposited baggage to 
 the value of four hundred francs." 
 
 " You cannot get in at this hour," returned the man. 
 " This is no thieves' tavern, for raohocks and night rakes 
 and organ-grinders.'* 
 
 287
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " Brute ! " cried Elvira, for the organ-grinders touched 
 her home. 
 
 " Then I demand my baggage,*' said Leon, with unabated 
 dignity. 
 
 " I know nothing of your baggage," repHed the landlord. 
 
 "You detain my baggage.'' You dare to detain my bag- 
 gage.'' " cried the singer. 
 
 " Who are you.^ " returned the landlord. " It is dark — I 
 cannot recognize you." 
 
 " Very well, then — you detain my baggage," concluded 
 Leon. " You shall smart for this. I will weary out your 
 life with persecutions ; I will drag you from court to court ; 
 if there is justice to be had in France, it shall be rendered 
 between you and me. And I will make you a by-word — I 
 will put you in a song — a scurrilous song — an indecent song 
 - — a popular song — which the boys shall sing to you in the 
 street, and come and howl through these spars at mid- 
 night ! " 
 
 He had gone on raising his voice at every phrase, for all 
 the while the landlord was very placidly retiring; and now, 
 when the last glimmer of light had vanished from the arch, 
 and the last footstep died away in the interior, Leon turned 
 to his wife with a heroic countenance. 
 
 " Elvira," said he, " I have now a duty in life. I shall 
 destroy that man as Eugene Sue destroyed the concierge. 
 Let us come at once to the Gendarmerie and begin our 
 vengeance." 
 
 He picked up the guitar-case, which had been propped 
 against the wall, and they set forth through the silent and 
 ill-lighted town with burning hearts. 
 
 The Gendarmerie was concealed beside the telegraph office 
 at the bottom of a vast court, which was partly laid out in 
 gardens ; and here all the shepherds of the public lay locked 
 in grateful sleep. It took a deal of knocking to waken one ; 
 and he, when he came at last to the door, could find no other 
 remark but that " it was none of his business." Leon rea- 
 soned with him, threatened him, besought him ; *' here," he 
 said, " was Madame Berthelini in evening dress — a delicate 
 
 288
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 TPoman — in an interesting condition " — the last was thrown 
 in, I fancy, for effect; and to all this the man-at-arms made 
 the same answer: 
 
 " It Is none of my business," said he. 
 
 " Very well," said Leon, " then we shall go to the Com- 
 missary." Thither they went ; the office was closed and 
 dark ; but the house was close by, and Leon was soon swing- 
 ing the bell like a madman. The Commissary's wife ap- 
 peared at a window. She was a thread-paper creature, and 
 informed them that the Commissary had not yet come 
 home. 
 
 " Is he at the Malre's ? " demanded Leon. 
 
 She thought that was not unlikely. 
 
 " Where is the Maire's house? " he asked. 
 
 And she gave him some rather vague information on that 
 point. 
 
 " Stay you here, Elvira," said Leon, " lest I should miss 
 him by the way. If, when I return, I find you here no longer, 
 I shall follow at once to the Black Head." 
 
 And he set out to find the Maire's. It took him some ten 
 minutes' wandering among the blind lanes, and when he ar- 
 rived it was already half an hour past midnight. A long 
 white garden wall overhung by some thick chestnuts, a door 
 with a letter-box, and an iron bell-pull, that was all that 
 could be seen of the Maire's domicile. Leon took the bell- 
 pull in both hands, and danced furiously upon the side-walk. 
 The bell itself was just upon the other side of the wall, it 
 responded to his activity, and scattered an alarming clangor 
 far and wide into the night. 
 
 A window was thrown open In a house across the street, 
 and a voice Inquired the cause of this untimely uproar. 
 
 " I wish the Maire," said Leon. 
 
 " He has been in bed this hour," returned the voice. 
 
 " He must get up again," retorted Leon, and he was for 
 tackling the bell-pull once more. 
 
 " You will never make him hear," responded the voice. 
 " The garden Is of great extent, the house is at the farther 
 end, and both the Maire and his housekeeper are deaf." 
 
 289
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 "Aha!" said Leon, pausing. "The Maire is deaf, is 
 he? That explains." And he thought of the evening's con- 
 cert with a momentary feeling of relief. " Ah ! " he con- 
 tinued, " and so the Maire is deaf, and the garden vast, and 
 the house at the far end? " 
 
 " And you might ring all night," added the voice, " and 
 be none the better for it. You would only keep me awake." 
 
 " Thank you, neighbor," replied the singer. " You shall 
 sleep." 
 
 And he made off again at his best pace for the Commis- 
 sary's. Elvira was still walking to and fro before the door. 
 
 " He has not come? " asked Leon. 
 
 ** Not he," she replied. 
 
 " Good," returned Leon. " I am sure our man's inside. 
 Let me see the guitar-case. I shall lay this siege in form, 
 Elvira ; I am angry ; I am indignant ; I am truculently in- 
 clined; but I thank my Maker I have still a sense of fun. 
 The unjust judge shall be importuned in a serenade, Elvira. 
 Set him up — and set him up." 
 
 He had the case opened by this time, struck a few chords, 
 and fell into an attitude which was irresistibly Spanish. 
 
 " Now," he continued, " feel your voice. Are you ready.'' 
 Follow me!" 
 
 The guitar twanged, and the two voices upraised, in har- 
 mony and with a startling loudness, the chorus of a song of 
 old Beranger's: — 
 
 " Commissaire I Commissaire I 
 Colin bat sa menagere." 
 
 The stones of Castel-le-Gachis thrilled at this audacious 
 innovation. Hitherto had the night been sacred to repose 
 and nightcaps ; and now what was this ? Window after 
 window was opened; matches scratched, and candles began 
 to flicker; swollen sleepy faces peered forth into the star- 
 light. There were two figures before the Commissary's 
 house, each bolt upright, with head thrown back and eyes 
 interrogating the starry heavens ; the guitar wailed, shouted, 
 
 290
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 and reverberated like half an orchestra ; and the voices, with 
 a crisp and spirited delivery, hurled the appropriate burden 
 at the Commissary's window. All the echoes repeated the 
 functionary's name. It was more like an entr'acte in a 
 farce of Moh^re's than a passage of real life in Castel-le- 
 Gachis. 
 
 The Commissary, if he was not the first, was not the last 
 of the neighbors to yield to the influence of music, and 
 furiously throw open the window of his bedroom. He was 
 beside himself with rage. He leaned far over the window- 
 sill, raving and gesticulating; the tassel of his white night- 
 cap danced like a thing of hfe: he opened his mouth to 
 dimensions hitherto unprecedented, and yet his voice, instead 
 of escaping from it in a roar, came forth shrill and choked 
 and tottering. A little more serenading, and it was clear 
 he would be better acquainted with the apoplexy. 
 
 I scorn to reproduce his language ; he touched upon too 
 many serious topics by the way for a quiet story-teller. 
 Although he was known for a man who was prompt with his 
 tongue, and had a power of strong expression at command, 
 he excelled himself so remarkably this night, that one maiden 
 lady, who had got out of bed like the rest to hear the sere- 
 nade, was obliged to shut her window at the second clause. 
 Even what she had heard disquieted her conscience ; and next 
 day she said she scarcely reckoned as a maiden lady any 
 longer. 
 
 Leon tried to explain his predicament, but he received 
 nothing but threats of arrest by way of answer. 
 
 " If I come down to j'ou ! " cried the Commissary. 
 
 « Aye," said Leon, " do ! " 
 
 " I will not ! " cried the Commissary. 
 
 ** You dare not ! " answered Leon. 
 
 At that the Commissary closed his window. 
 
 *' All is over," said the singer. " The serenade was per- 
 haps ill-judged. These boors have no sense of humor." 
 
 " Let us get away from here," said Elvira, with a shiver. 
 " All these people looking — it is so rude and so brutal." 
 And then giving way once more to passion — " Brutes ! " 
 
 291
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 she cried aloud to the candle-lit spectators — " brutes ! 
 
 brutes ! brutes." 
 
 " Sauve qui pent," said Leon. " You have done it now ! " 
 And taking the guitar in one hand and the case in the 
 
 other, he led the way with something too precipitate to be 
 
 merely called precipitation from the scene of this absurd 
 
 adventure. 
 
 292
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 TO the west of Castel-le-Gachis four rows of venerable 
 lime-trees formed, in this starry night, a twilit avenue 
 with two side aisles of pitch darkness. Here and there stone 
 benches were disposed between trunks. There was not a 
 breath of wind; a heavy atmosphere of perfume hung about 
 the alleys; and every leaf stood stock-still upon its twig. 
 Hither, after vainly knocking at an inn or two, the Berthe- 
 linis came at length to pass the night. After an amiable 
 contention, Leon insisted on giving his coat to Elvira, and 
 they sat dcwn together on the first bench in silence, Leon 
 made a cigarette, which he smoked to an end, looking up 
 into the trees, and, beyond them, at the constellations, of 
 which he tried vainly to recall the names. The silence was 
 broken by the church bell; it rang the four quarters on a 
 light and tinkling measure; then followed a single deep 
 stroke that died slowly away with a thriU; and stillness 
 resumed its empire. 
 
 " One," said Leon. " Four hours till daylight. It is 
 warm ; it is starry ; I have matches and tobacco. Do not let 
 us exaggerate, Elvira — the experience is positively charm- 
 ing. I feel a glow within me; I am born again. This is the 
 poetry of life. Think of Cooper's novels, my dear." 
 
 " Leon," she said, fiercely, " how can you talk sucK 
 wicked, infamous nonsense.'' To pass all night out of doors 
 —it is like a nightmare! We shall die." 
 
 " You suffer yourself to be led away," he rephed, sooth- 
 ingly. " It is not unpleasant here ; only you brood. Come, 
 now, let us repeat a scene. Shall we try Alceste and 
 Celimene.? No.? Or a passage from the 'Two Orphans.?' 
 Come, now, it will occupy your mind; I will play up to you 
 as I never have played before; I feel ax*t moving in my 
 bones." 
 
 293
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " Hold your tongue," she cried, " or you will drive me 
 mad! Will nothing solemnize you — ^not even this hideous 
 situation ? " 
 
 "Oh, hideous!" objected Leon. "Hideous is not the 
 word. Why, where would you be ? * Dites, la jeune helle, 
 ou voulez-vouz allerf ' " he carolled. " Well, now," he went 
 on, opening the guitar-case, " there's another Idea for you 
 — sing. Sing ' Dites, la jeune belle! * It will compose your 
 spirits, Elvira, I am sure." 
 
 And without waiting an answer he began to strum the 
 symphony. The first chords awoke a young man who was 
 lying asleep upon a neighboring bench. 
 
 " Hullo ! " cried the. young man, " who are you? " 
 
 " Under which king, Bezonlan .'' " declaimed the artist. 
 "Speak or die!" 
 
 Or if it was not exactly that, It was something to much 
 the same purpose from a French tragedy. 
 
 The young man drew near in the twilight. He was a tall, 
 powerful, gentlemanly fellow, with a somewhat puffy face, 
 dressed in a gray tweed suit, with a deerstalker hat of the 
 same material; and as he now came forward he carried a 
 knapsack slung upon one arm. 
 
 "Are you camping out here, too?" he asked, with a 
 strong English accent. " I'm not sorry for company." 
 
 Leon explained their misadventure; and the other told 
 them that he was a Cambridge undergraduate on a walking 
 tour, that he had run short of money, could no longer pay 
 for his night's lodging, had already been camping out for 
 two nights, and feared he should require to continue the 
 same manoeuvre for at least two nights more. 
 
 "Luckily, it's jolly weather," he concluded. 
 
 " You hear that, Elvira," said Leon. " Madame Berthe- 
 Hni," he went on, " is ridiculously affected by this trifling 
 occurrence. For my part, I find it romantic and far from 
 uncomfortable; or at least," he added, shifting on the stone 
 bench, " not quite so uncomfortable as might have been 
 expected. But pray be seated." 
 
 " Yes," returned the undergraduate, sitting down, " it's 
 
 29*
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 rather nice than otherwise when once you're used to it ; only 
 it's devilish difficult to get washed. I like the fresh air and 
 these stars and things." 
 
 " Aha ! " said Leon, " Monsieur is an artist." 
 
 " An artist ^ " returned the other, with a blank stare. 
 « Not if I know it ! " 
 
 " Pardon me," said the actor. " What you said this 
 moment about the orbs of heaven " 
 
 " Oh, nonsense ! " cried the Englishman. " A fellow may 
 admire the stars and be anything he likes." 
 
 " You have an artist's nature, however, Mr. I beg 
 
 your pardon ; may I, without indiscretion, inquire your 
 name.'* " asked Leon. 
 
 " My name is Stubbs," replied the Englishman. 
 
 " I thank you," returned Leon. " Mine is Berthelini — 
 Leon Berthelini, ex-artist of the theatres of Montrouge, 
 Belleville, and Montmartre. Humble as you see me, I have 
 created with applause more than one important role. The 
 Press were unanimous in praise of my Howling Devil of the 
 Mountains, in the piece of the same name. Madame, whom 
 I now present to you, is herself an artist, and I must not 
 omit to state, a better artist than her husband. She also is 
 a creator; she created nearly twenty successful songs at one 
 of the principal Parisian music-halls. But, to continue, I 
 was saying you had an artist's nature. Monsieur Stubbs, 
 and you must permit me to be a judge in such a question. I 
 trust you will not falsify your instincts ; let me beseech you 
 to follow the career of an artist." 
 
 " Thank you," returned Stubbs, with a chuckle. " I'm 
 going to be a banker." 
 
 " No," said Leon, " do not say so. Not that. A man 
 with such a nature as yours should not derogate so far. 
 What are a few privations here and there, so long as you 
 are working for a high and noble goal.'' " 
 
 " This fellow's mad," thought Stubbs ; " but the woman's 
 rather pretty, and he's not bad fun for himself, if you 
 come to that." What he said was different. " I thought 
 you said you were an actor? " 
 
 295
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 " I certainly did so," replied Leon. *' I am one, or, alas ! 
 I was." 
 
 " And so you want mc to bo an actor, do you? " continued 
 the undergraduate. " Why, man, I could never so much as 
 learn the stuff; my memory's like a sieve; and as for acting, 
 I've no more idea than a cat." 
 
 " The stage is not the only course," said Leon. " Be a 
 sculptor, be a dancer, be a poet or a novelist; follow your 
 heart, in short, and do some thorough work before you die." 
 
 " And do you call these things art? " inquired Stubbs. 
 
 " Why, certainly ! " returned Leon. " Are they not all 
 branches ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I didn't know," replied the Englishman. " I 
 thought an artist meant a fellow who painted." 
 
 The singer stared at him in some surprise. 
 
 " It is the difference of language," he said at last. 
 " This Tower of Babel, when shall we have paid for it ? If 
 I could speak English you would follow me more readily." 
 
 " Between you and me, I don't believe I should," replied 
 the other. " You seem to have thought a devil of a lot 
 about this business. For my part, I admire the stars, and 
 like to have them shining — it's so cheery — ^but hang me if I 
 had an idea it had anything to do with art! It's not in my 
 line, you see. I'm not intellectual ; I have no end of trouble 
 to scrape through my exams., I can tell you ! But I'm not a 
 bad sort at bottom," he added, seeing his interlocutor looked 
 distressed even in the dim starshine, " and I rather like the 
 play, and music, and guitars, and things." 
 
 Leon had a perception that the understanding was incom- 
 plete. He changed the subject. 
 
 " And so you travel on foot? " he continued. ** How 
 romantic ! How courageous ! And how are you pleased 
 with my land ? How does the scenery affect you among these 
 wild hills of ours? " 
 
 "Well, the fact is," began Stubbs — ^he was about to say 
 that he didn't care for scenery, which was not at all true, 
 being, on the contrary, only an athletic undergraduate pre- 
 tension ; but he had begun to suspect that Berthelini liked 
 
 2SlQ
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 different sort of meat, and substituted something else — - 
 " The fact is, I think it jolly. They told me it was no good 
 up here; even the guide-book said so; but I don't know what 
 they meant. I think it is deuced pretty — upon my word, 
 I do." 
 
 At this moment, in the most unexpected manner, Elvira 
 burst into tears. 
 
 " My voice ! " she cried. " Leon, if I stay here longer I 
 shall lose my voice ! " 
 
 " You shall not stay another moment," cried the actor. 
 " If I have to beat in a door, if I have to burn the town, I 
 shall find you shelter." 
 
 With that, he replaced the guitar, and comforting her 
 with some caresses, drew her arm through his. 
 
 " Monsieur Stubbs," said he, taking off his hat, " the 
 reception I offer you is rather problematical ; but let me 
 beseech you to. give us the pleasure of your society. You 
 are a little embarrassed for the moment; you must, indeed, 
 permit me to advance what may be necessary. I ask it as a 
 favor; we must not part so soon after having met so 
 strangely." 
 
 " Oh, come, you know," said Stubbs," " I can't let a fel- 
 low like you " And there he paused, feeling somehow 
 
 or other on a wrong tack. 
 
 " I do not wish to employ menaces," continued Leon, with 
 a smile ; " but if you refuse, indeed I shall not take it 
 kindly." • 
 
 " I don't quite see my way out of it," thought the under- 
 graduate; and then, after a pause, he said, aloud and un- 
 graciously enough, " All right. I — I'm very much obliged, 
 of course." And he proceeded to follow them, thinking in 
 his heart, " But it's bad form, all the same, to force an 
 obligation oa a fellow.** 
 
 397
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 LEON strode ahead as if he knew exactly where he was 
 J going; the sobs of Madame were still faintly audible, 
 and no one uttered a word. A dog barked furiously in a 
 court-yard as they went by ; then the church clock struck 
 two, and many domestic clocks followed or preceded it in 
 piping tones. And just then BerthelinI spied a light. It 
 burned in a small house on the outskirts of the town, and 
 thither the party now directed their steps. 
 
 " It is always a chance," said Leon. 
 
 The house in question stood back from the street behind 
 an open space, part garden, part turnip field; and several 
 outhouses stood forward from either wing at right angles 
 to the front. One of these had recently undergone some 
 change. An enormous window, looking towards the north, 
 had been effected in the wall and roof, and Leon began to 
 hope it was a studio. 
 
 " If it's only a painter," he said, with a chuckle, " ten 
 to one we get as good a welcome as we want." 
 
 " I thought painters were principally poor," said Stubbs. 
 
 " Ah," cried Leon, " you do not know the world as I do. 
 The poorer the better for us." 
 
 And the trio advanced into the turnip field. 
 
 The light was in the ground floor ; as one window was 
 brightly illuminated and two others more faintly, it might 
 be supposed that there was a single lamp in one corner of a 
 large apartment; and a certain tremulousness and tempo- 
 rary dwindling showed that a live fire contributed to the 
 effect. The sound of a voice now became audible ; and the 
 trespassers paused to listen. It was pitched in a high, angry 
 key, but had still a good, full, and masculine note in it. The 
 utterance was voluble, too voluble even to be quite distinct; 
 a stream of words, rising and falling, with ever and again 
 
 298
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 a phrase thrown out by itself, as if the speaker reckoned on 
 its virtue. 
 
 Suddenly another voice joined in. This time it was a 
 woman's ; and if the man were angry, the woman was in- 
 censed to the degree of fury. There was that absolutely 
 blank composure known to suffering males ; that colorless 
 unnatural speech which shows a spirit accurately balanced 
 between homicide and hysterics ; the tone in which the best of 
 women sometimes utter words worse than death to those most 
 dear to them. If Abstract Bones-and-Sepulchre were to be 
 endowed with the gift of speech, thus, and not otherwise, 
 would it discourse. Leon was a brave man, and I fear he 
 was somewhat sceptically given (he had been educated in a 
 Papistical country), but the habit of childhood prevailed, 
 and he crossed himself devoutly. He had met several women 
 in his career. It was obvious that his instinct had not de- 
 ceived him, for the male voice broke forth instantly in a 
 towering passion. 
 
 The undergraduate, who had not understood the sig- 
 nificance of the woman's contribution, pricked up his ears 
 at the change upon the man. 
 
 " There's going to be a free fight," he opined. 
 
 There was another retort from the woman, still calm but 
 a little higher. 
 
 "Hysterics.?" asked Leon of his wife. "Is that the 
 stage direction .f^ " 
 
 " How should I know? " returned Elvira, somewhat tartly. 
 
 " Oh, woman, woman ! " said Leon, beginning to open the 
 guitar-case. " It is one of the burdens of my life. Monsieur 
 Stubbs ; they support each other ; they always pretend there 
 is no system; they say it's nature. Even Madame Berthe- 
 lini, who is a dramatic artist ! " 
 
 " You are heartless, Leon," said Elvira : " that woman 
 is in trouble." 
 
 "And the man, my angel?" inquired Berthelini, passing 
 the ribbon of his guitar. " And the man, rn amour? " 
 
 " He is a man," she answered. 
 
 " i^'ou hear that? " said Leon to Stubbs. " It is not too 
 
 299
 
 KEW AHABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 late for you. ]\Iark the intonation. And now," he con- 
 tinued, " what are we to give them ? " 
 
 ** Are you going to sing ? " asked Stubbs. 
 
 " I am a troubadour," replied Leon. " I claim a welcome 
 by and for my art. If I Avere a banker could I do as much,^ " 
 
 " Well, you wouldn't need, you know," answered the 
 undergraduate. 
 
 " Egad," said Leon, " but that's true. Elvira, that is 
 true." 
 
 " Of course it is," she replied. " Did you not know it? " 
 
 *' My dear," answered Leon, impressively, " I know noth- 
 ing but what is agreeable. Even my knowledge of life is a 
 work of art superiorly composed. But what are we to give 
 them? It should be something appropriate." 
 
 Visions of " Let dogs delight " passed through the under- 
 graduate's mind ; but it occurred to him that the poetry was 
 English and that he did not know the air. Hence he con- 
 tributed no suggestion. 
 
 " Something about our houselessness," said Elvira. 
 
 " I have it," cried Leon. And he broke forth into a song 
 of Pierre Dupont's: — 
 
 Savez-vous ou gite 
 Mai, ce joli mois? 
 
 Elvira joined in ; so did Stubbs, with a good ear and voice, 
 but an imperfect acquaintance with the music. Leon and 
 the guitar were equal to the situation. The actor dispensed 
 his throat -notes with prodigality and enthusiasm ; and, as 
 he looked up to heaven in his heroic way, tossing the black 
 ringlets, it seemed to him that the very stars contributed a 
 dumb applause to his efforts, and the universe lent him its 
 silence for a chorus. That is one of the best feature*^ of the 
 heavenly bodies, that they belong to everybody in particu- 
 lar ; and a man like Leon, a chronic Endymion who managed 
 to get along without encouragement, is always the world's 
 centre for himself. 
 
 He alone — and it is to be noted, he was the worst singer 
 
 SOO
 
 PROVIDEl^^CE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 of the three — took the music seriously to heart, and judged 
 the serenade from a high artistic point of view. Elvira, on 
 the other hand, was preoccupied about their reception ; and, 
 as for Stubbs, he considered the whole affair in the light of 
 a broad joke. 
 
 "Know you the lair of May, the lovely month?" went 
 the three voices in the turnip-field. 
 
 The inhabitants were plainly fluttered; the light moved to 
 and fro, strengthening in one window, paling in another; 
 and then the door was thrown open, and a man in a blouse 
 appeared on the threshold carrying a lamp. He was a 
 powerful young fellow, with bewildered hair and beard, 
 wearing his neck open ; his blouse was stained with oil-colors 
 in a harlequinesque disorder; and there was something rural 
 in the droop and bagginess of his belted trousers. 
 
 From immediately behind him, and indeed over his 
 shoulder, a woman's face looked out into the darkness; it 
 was pale and a Httle weary, although still young: it wore a 
 dwindling, disappearing prettiness, soon to be quite gone, 
 and the expression was both gentle and sour, and reminded 
 one faintly of the taste of certain drugs. For all that, it 
 was not a face to dislike; when the prettiness had vanished, 
 it seemed as if a certain pale beauty might step in to take 
 its place; and as both the mildness and the asperity were 
 characters of youth, it might be hoped that, with years, 
 both would merge into a constant, brave, and not unkindly 
 temj)er. 
 
 " What is all this? " cried the man. 
 
 301
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 LEON had his hat in his hand at once. He came forward 
 J with his customary grace ; it was a moment which would 
 have earned him a round of cheering on the stage. Elvira 
 and Stubbs advanced behind him, like a couple of Admetus's 
 sheep following the god Apollo. 
 
 " Sir," said Leon, " the hour is unpardonably late, and 
 our little serenade has the air of an impertinence. Believe 
 me, sir, it is an appeal. Monsieur is an artist, I perceive. 
 We are here three artists benighted and without shelter, one 
 a woman — a delicate woman — in evening dress — in an in- 
 teresting situation. This will not fail to touch the woman's 
 heart of Madame, whom I perceive indistinctly behind 
 Monsieur her husband, and whose face speaks eloquently of 
 a well-regulated mind. Ah! Monsieur, Madame — one gener- 
 ous movement, and you make three people happy ! Two or 
 three hours beside your fire — I ask it of Monsieur in the 
 name of Art — I ask it of Madame by the sanctity of woman- 
 hood." 
 
 The two, as by a tacit consent, drew back from the door. 
 
 *' Come in," said the man. 
 
 " Entrez, Madame," said the woman. 
 
 The door opened directly upon the kitchen of the house, 
 which was to all appearance the only sitting-room. The 
 furniture was both plain and scanty; but there were one or 
 two landscapes on the wall handsomely framed, as if they 
 had already visited the committee-rooms of an exhibition and 
 been thence extruded. Leon walked up to the pictures and 
 represented the part of a connoisseur before each in turn, 
 with his usual dramatic insight and force. The master of 
 the house, as if irresistibly attracted, followed him from 
 canvas to canvas with the lamp. Elvira was led directly to 
 the fire, where she proceeded to warm herself, while Stubbs 
 
 S02
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 stood in the middle of the floor and followed the proceedings 
 of Leon with mild astonishment in his eyes. 
 
 " You should see them by daylight," said the artist. 
 
 " I promise myself that pleasure," said Leon. " You 
 possess, sir, if you will permit me an observation, the art of 
 composition to a T." 
 
 " You are very good," returned the other. ** But should 
 you not draw nearer to the fire.'' " 
 
 " With all my heart," said Leon. 
 
 And the whole party soon gathered at the table over a 
 hasty and not an elegant cold supper, washed down with the 
 least of small wines. Nobody liked the meal, but nobody 
 complained; they put a good face upon it, one and all, and 
 made a great clattering of knives and forks. To see Leon 
 eating a single cold sausage was to see a triumph; by the 
 time he had done he had got through as much pantomime 
 as would have sufficed for a baron of beef, and he had the 
 relaxed expression of the over-eaten. 
 
 As Elvira had naturally taken a place by the side of 
 Leon, and Stubbs as naturally, although I believe uncon- 
 sciously, by the side of Elvira, the host and hostess were left 
 together. Yet it was to be noted that they never addressed 
 a word to each other, nor so much as suff^ered their eyes to 
 meet. The interrupted skirmish still survived in ill feeling; 
 and the instant the guests departed it would break forth 
 again as bitterly as ever. The talk wandered from this to 
 that subject — for with one accord the party had declared 
 it was too late to go to bed; but those two never relaxed 
 towards each other ; Goneril and Regan in a sisterly tiff were 
 not more bent on enmity. 
 
 It chanced that Elvira was so much tired by all the little 
 excitements of the night, that for once she laid aside her 
 company manners, which were both easy and correct, and in 
 the most natural manner in the world leaned her head on 
 Leon's shoulder. At the same time, fatigue suggesting ten- 
 derness, she locked the fingers of her right hand into those 
 of her husband's left; and, half -closing her e^-^es, dozed off 
 into a golden borderland between sleep and waking. But 
 
 303
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 all the time she was not unaware of what was passing, and 
 saw the painters wife studying her with looks between con- 
 tempt and envy. 
 
 It occurred to Leon that his constitution demanded the 
 use of some tobacco ; and he undid his fingers from Elvira's 
 in order to roll a cigarette. It was gently done, and he took 
 care that his indulgence should in no other way disturb his 
 wife's position. But it seemed to catch the eye of the 
 painter's wife with a special significancy. She looked 
 straight before her for an instant, and then, with a swift 
 and stealthy movement, took hold of her husband's hand 
 below the table. Alas ! she might have spared herself the 
 dexterity. For the poor fellow was so overcome by this 
 caress that he stopped with his mouth open in the middle of 
 a word, and by the expression of his face plainly declared 
 to all the company that his thoughts had been diverted into 
 softer channels. 
 
 If it had not been rather amiable, it would have been 
 absurdly droll. His wife at once withdrew her touch; but 
 it was plain she had to exert some force. Thereupon the 
 young man colored and looked for a moment beautiful. 
 
 Leon and Elvira both observed the by-play, and a shock 
 passed from one to the other ; for they were inveterate match- 
 makers, especially between those who were already married. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Leon, suddenly. " I see no 
 use in pretending. Before we came in here we heard sounds 
 indicating — if I may so express myself — an imperfect 
 harmony." 
 
 " Sir " began the man. 
 
 But the woman was beforehand. 
 
 " It is quite true," she said. " I see no cause to be 
 ashamed. If my husband is mad I shall at least do my 
 utmost to prevent the consequences. Picture to yourself. 
 Monsieur and Madame," she went on, for she passed Stubbs 
 over, " that this wretched person — a dauber, an incom- 
 petent, not fit to be a sign-painter — receives this morning 
 an admirable offer from an uncle — an uncle of my own, my 
 mother's brother, and tenderly beloved — of a clerkship with 
 
 S04>
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAK 
 
 nearly a hundred and fifty pounds a year, and that he — 
 picture to yourself ! — ^lie refuses it ! Why ? For the sake of 
 Art, he says. Look at his art, I say — look at it! Is it fit 
 to be seen? Ask him — -is it fit to be sold? And it is for this. 
 Monsieur and Madame, that he condemns me to the most 
 deplorable existence, without luxuries, without comforts, in 
 a vile suburb of a country town. O non! " she cried, " non 
 — je ne me tairai pas — c'est plus fort que moi! I take these 
 gentlemen and this lady for judges — is this kind? is it de- 
 cent r is it manly ? Do I not deserve better at his hands after 
 having married him and " — (a visible hitch) — " done every- 
 thing in the world to please him ? " 
 
 I doubt if there were ever a more embarrassed company 
 at a table ; everyone looked like a fool ; and the husband like 
 the biggest. 
 
 " The art of Monsieur, however," said Elvira, breaking 
 the silence, " is not wanting in distinction." 
 
 " It has this distinction," said the wife, " that nobody will 
 buy it." 
 
 " I should have supposed a clerkship " began Stubbs. 
 
 *' Art is Art," swept in Leon. " I salute Art. It is the 
 beautiful, the divine; it is the spirit of the world, and the 
 pride of life. But " And the actor paused. 
 
 " A clerkship " began Stubbs. 
 
 " I'll tell you what it is," said the painter. ** I am an 
 artist, and as this gentleman says. Art is this and the other; 
 but of course, if my wife is going to make my life a piece of 
 perdition all day long, I prefer to go and drown myself out 
 of hand." 
 
 " Go ! " said his wife. ** I should like to see you ! " 
 
 *' I was going to say," resumed Stubbs, " that a fellow 
 may be a clerk and paint almost as much as he likes. I know 
 a fellow in a bank who makes capital water-color sketches; 
 he even sold one for seven-and-slx." 
 
 To both the women this seemed a plank of safety; each 
 hopefully interrogated the countenance of her lord; even 
 Elvira, an artist herself! — but indeed there must be some- 
 thing permanently mercantile in the female nature. The 
 
 305
 
 NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS 
 
 two men exchanged a glance ; it was tragic ; not otherwise 
 might two philosophers salute, as at the end of a laborious 
 life each recognized that he was still a mystery to his 
 disciples. 
 
 Leon arose. 
 
 " Art is Art," he repeated, sadly. " It is not water-color 
 sketches, nor practising on a piano. It is a life to be lived." 
 
 " And in the meantime people starve ! " observed the 
 woman of the house. " If that's a life, it is not one for me." 
 
 " I'll tell you what," burst forth Leon ; " you, Madame, 
 go into another room and talk it over with my wife ; and 
 I'll stay here and talk it over with your husband. It may 
 come to nothing, but let's try." 
 
 " I am very willing," replied the young woman ; and she 
 proceeded to light a candle. " This way, if you please." 
 And she led Elvira upstairs into a bedroom. " The fact is," 
 said she, sitting down, " that my husband cannot paint." 
 
 " No more can mine act," replied Elvira. 
 
 " I should have thought he could," returned the other ; 
 " he seems clever." 
 
 " He is so, and the best of men besides," said Elvira ; " but 
 he cannot act." 
 
 " At least he is not a sheer humbug like mine ; he can at 
 least sing." 
 
 " You mistake Leon," returned his wife, warmly. " He 
 does not even pretend to sing; he has too fine a taste; he 
 does so for a living. And, believe me, neither of the men are 
 humbugs. They are people with a mission — ^which they 
 cannot carry out." 
 
 " Humbug or not," replied the other, " you came very 
 near passing the night in the fields ; and, for my part, I 
 live in terror of starvation. I should think it was a man's 
 mission to think twice about his wife. But it appears not. 
 Nothing is their mission but to play the fool. Oh ! " she 
 broke out, " is it not something dreary to think of that man 
 of mine.? If he could only do it, who would care.'* But no — • 
 not he — ^no more than I can ! " 
 
 *' Have you any children.'' " asked Elvira. 
 
 S06
 
 PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 
 
 " No ; but then I may." 
 
 " Children change so much," said Elvira, with a sigh. 
 
 And just then from the room below there flew up a sud- 
 den snapping cord on the guitar; one followed after an- 
 other; then the voice of Leon joined in; and there was an 
 air being played and sung that stopped the speech of the 
 two women. The wife of the painter stood like a person 
 transfixed; Elvira, looking into her eyes, could see all man- 
 ner of beautiful memories and kind thoughts that were pass- 
 ing in and out of her soul with every note ; it was a piece of 
 her youth that went before her; a green French plain, the 
 smell of apple-flowers, the far and shining ringlets of a 
 river, and the words and presence of love. 
 
 " Leon has hit the nail," thought Elvira to herself, " I 
 wonder how." 
 
 The how was plain enough. Leon had asked the painter 
 if there were no air connected with courtship and pleasant 
 times; and having learned what he wished, and allowed an 
 interval to pass, he had soared forth into 
 
 O mon amante, 
 
 O mon desir 
 
 Sachons cueillir 
 L'heure charmante ! 
 
 " Pardon me, Madame," said the painter's wife, " your 
 husband sings admirably well." 
 
 " He sings that with some feeling," replied Elvira, 
 critically, although she was a little moved herself, for the 
 song cut both ways in the upper chamber ; " but it is as an 
 actor and not as a musician." 
 
 "Life is very sad," said the other; "it so wastes away 
 under one's fingers." 
 
 " I have not found it so," replied Elvira. " I think the 
 good parts of it last and grow greater every day." 
 
 "Frankly, how would you advise me? " 
 
 " Frankly, I would let my husband do what he wished. He 
 is obviously a very loving painter; you have not yet tried 
 him as a clerk. And you know — if it were only as the pos- 
 
 307
 
 l^^EW ARABIAlSr NIGHTS 
 
 sible father of your children — it is as well to keep him at his 
 best." 
 
 " He is an excellent fellow," said the wife. 
 
 They kept it up till sunrise with music and all manner of 
 good-fellowship; and at sunrise, while the sky was still tem- 
 perate and clear, they separated on the threshold with a 
 thousand excellent wishes for each other's welfare. Castel- 
 le-Gachis was beginning to send up its smoke against the 
 golden east; and the church bell was ringing six. 
 
 " My guitar is a familiar spirit," said Leon, as he and 
 Elvira took the nearest way toward the inn ; " it resuscitated 
 a Commissary, created an English tourist, and reconciled a 
 man and wife." 
 
 Stubbs, on his part, went off into the morning with reflec- 
 tions of his own. 
 
 " They are all mad," thought he, " all mad — ^but wonder- 
 fully decent." 
 
 308
 
 THE DYNAIVIITEII
 
 EDITORIAL NOTE 
 
 The Dynamiter was first published in April, 1885, by 
 Longmans, Green & Co., and its success was immediate, 
 being reprinted in May and in July. An American edition 
 also appeared in May of that same year. The stories in 
 The Dynamiter or More New Arabian Nights consist chiefly 
 of those composed by Mrs. Stevenson at Hyeres in 1883-84! 
 to while away the hours of Stevenson's illness and confine- 
 ment in a darkened room. Upon his recovery he collabo- 
 rated with his wife to get the material into shape, wrote the 
 passages relatmg to Prince Florizel and also one complete 
 story of his o^\^l invention. Zeroes Tale of the Explosive 
 Bomb. Mrs. Stevenson was entirely responsible for the 
 stories The Destroying Angel and The Fair Cuban.
 
 TO 
 
 ROBERT ALAN MOWBRAY STEVENSON 
 
 IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR YOUTH 
 AND THEIR ALREADY OLD AFFECTION
 
 TO 
 
 MESSRS. COLE AND COX, 
 
 POLICE OFFICERS. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, — In the volume now in your hands, the 
 authors have touched upon the ugly devil of crime, with which it 
 is your glory to have contended. It were a waste of ink to do so 
 in a serious spirit. Let us dedicate our horror to acts of a more 
 mingled strain, where crime preserves some features of nobility, 
 and where reason and humanity can still relish the temptation. 
 Horror, in this ca^e, is due to Mr. Parnell: he sits before pos' 
 terity silent, Mr. Foster's appeal echoing down the ages. Horror 
 is due to ourselves, in that we have so long coquetted with political 
 crime; not seriously weighing, not acutely following it from cause 
 to consequence; but with a generous, unfounded heat of sentiment, 
 like the schoolboy with the penny tale, applauding what was spe- 
 cious. When it touched ourselves (truly in a vile shape) we 
 proved false to these imaginations; discovered, in a clap, that 
 crime mas no less cruel and no less ugly under sounding names: 
 and recoiled from our false deities. 
 
 But seriousness comes most in place when we are to speak of our 
 defenders. Whoever be in the right in this great and confused 
 war of politics; whatever elements of greed, whatever traits of 
 the bully, dishonor both parties in this inhuman contest; — your 
 side, your part, is at lea^t pure of doubt. Yours is the side of the 
 child, of the breeding woman, of individual pity and public trust. 
 If our society were the mere kingdom of the devil {as indeed it 
 wears some of its colors) it yet embraces many preciou-9 elements 
 315
 
 DEDICATIOlSr 
 
 arid many Innocent persons whom it is a glory to defend. Cour- 
 age and devotion, so common in the ranks of the police, so little 
 recognized, so meagrely rervarded, have at length found their 
 commemoration in an historical act. History, which will repre- 
 sent Mr. Parnell sitting silent under the appeal of Mr. Foster, 
 and Gordon setting forth upon his tragic enterprise, will not 
 forget Mr. Cole carrying the dynamite in Aw defenceless hands, 
 nor Mr. Cox coming coolly to his aid. 
 
 ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. 
 
 FANNY VAN DE GRIFT STEVENSON.
 
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 
 
 It Is within the bounds of possibility that you may take 
 up this volume, and yet be unacquainted with its predeces- 
 sor ; the first series of New Arabian Nights. The loss is 
 yours — and mine ; or to be more exact, my publisher's. But 
 if you are thus unlucky, the least I can do is to pass you a 
 hint. When you shall find a reference in the following pages 
 to one Theophilus Godall of the Bohemian Cigar Divan in 
 Rupert Street, Soho, you must be prepared to recognize, 
 under his features, no less a person than Prince Florizel of 
 Bohemia, formerly one of the magnates of Europe, now 
 dethroned, exiled, impoverished, and embarked in the tobacco 
 trade. 
 
 R. L. S.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prologue of the Cigar Divan 321 
 
 Challoneu's Adventure: The Squire of Dames 329 
 
 Story of the Destroying Angel 338 
 
 The SauiRE of Daivies {concluded) 370 
 
 Somerset's Adventure: The Superfluous Mansion .... 386 
 
 Narrative of the Spirited Old Lady 391 
 
 The Superfluous Mansion {continued) 417 
 
 Zero's Tale of the Explosive Bomb 443 
 
 The Superfluous Mansion {continued) 451 
 
 Desborough's Adventure: The Brown Box 461 
 
 Story of the Fair Cuban 468 
 
 The Brown Box {concluded) 503 
 
 The Superfluous Mansion {concluded) 514 
 
 Epilogue of the Cigar Divan 523
 
 THE DYNAJMITER 
 
 PROLOGUE OF THE CIGAB, DIVAN 
 
 IN the city of encounters, the Bagdad of the West, and, 
 to be more precise, on the broad northern pavement of 
 Leicester Square, two young men of five- or six-and-tvrenty 
 met after years of separation. The first, who was of a very 
 smooth address and clothed in the best fashion, hesitated to 
 recognize the pinched and shabby air of his companion. 
 
 " What ! " he cried, " Paul Somerset? " 
 
 " I am indeed Paul Somerset," returned the other, " or 
 what remains of him after a well-deserved experience of 
 poverty and law. But in you, Challoner, I can perceive no 
 change; and time may be said, without hyperbole, to write 
 no wrinkle on your azure brow." 
 
 " All," replied Challoner, " is not gold that glitters. But 
 we are here in an ill posture for confidences, and interrupt 
 the movement of these ladies. Let us, if you please, find a 
 more private corner." 
 
 " If you will allow me to guide you," replied Somerset, 
 " I will off'er you the best cigar in London." 
 
 And taking the arm of his companion, he led him in silence 
 and at a brisk pace to the door of a quiet establishment in 
 Rupert Street, Soho. The entrance was adorned with one 
 of those gigantic Highlanders of wood which have almost 
 risen to the standing of antiquities ; and across the window- 
 glass, which sheltered the usual display of pipes, tobacco, 
 and cigars, there ran the gilded legend : " Bohemian Cigar 
 Divan, by T. Godall." The interior of the shop was small, 
 but commodious and ornate: the salesman grave, smiling, 
 and urbane ; and the two young men, each puffing a select 
 
 S21
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 regalia, had soon taken their places on a sofa of mouse- 
 colored plush and proceeded to exchange their stories. 
 
 " I am now," said Somerset, " a barrister ; but Providence 
 and the attorneys have hitherto denied me the opportunity to 
 shine. A select society at the Cheshire Cheese engaged my 
 evenings ; my afternoons, as Mr. Godall could testify, have 
 been generally passed in this divan; and my mornings, I 
 have taken the precaution to abbreviate by not rising before 
 twelve. At this rate, my little patrimony was very rapidly, 
 and I am proud to remember, most agreeably expended. 
 Since then a gentleman, who has really nothing else to rec- 
 ommend him beyond the fact of being my maternal uncle, 
 deals me the small sum of ten shillings a week; and if you 
 behold me once more revisiting the glimpses of the street 
 lamps in my favorite quarter, you will readily divine that I 
 have come into a fortune." 
 
 " I should not have supposed so," replied Challoner. 
 " But doubtless I met you on the way to your tailor's." 
 
 " It is a visit I purpose to delay," returned Somerset, 
 with a smile. " My fortune has definite limits. It consists, 
 or rather this morning it consisted, of one hundred pounds." 
 
 " That is certainly odd," said Challoner ; " yes, certainly 
 the coincidence is strange. I am myself reduced to the same 
 margin." 
 
 " You ! " cried Somerset. " And yet Solomon in all his 
 glory " 
 
 " Such is the fact. I am, dear boy, on my last legs," 
 said Challoner. " Besides the clothes in which you see me, 
 I have scarcely a decent trouser in my wardrobe; and if I 
 knew how, I would this instant set about some sort of work 
 or commerce. With a hundred pounds for capital, a man 
 should push his way." 
 
 " It may be," returned Somerset ; *' but what to do with 
 mine is more than I can fancy. Mr. Godall," he added, ad- 
 dressing the salesman, " you are a man who knows the 
 world: what can a young fellow of reasonable education do 
 with a hundred pounds? " 
 
 " It depends," replied the salesman, withdrawing his 
 
 322
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 cheroot. " The power of money is an article of faith in 
 which I profess myself a skeptic. A hundred pounds will 
 with difficulty support you for a year; with somewhat more 
 difficulty you may spend it in a night ; and without any dif- 
 ficulty at all you may lose it in five minutes on the Stock 
 Exchange. If you are of that stamp of man that rises, a 
 penny would be as useful; if you belong to those that fall, 
 a penny would be no more useless. When I was myself 
 thrown unexpectedly upon the world, it was my fortune to 
 possess an art : I knew a good cigar. Do you know nothing, 
 Mr. Somerset.? " 
 
 " Not even law," was the reply. 
 
 " The answer is worthy of a sage," returned Mr. Godall. 
 " And you, sir," he continued, turning to Challoner, " as 
 the friend of Mr. Somerset, may I be allowed to address you 
 the same question ? " 
 
 " Well," replied Challoner, " I play a fair hand at whist." 
 
 *' How many persons are there in London," returned the 
 salesman, " who have two-and-thirty teeth ? Believe me, 
 young gentleman, there are more still who play a fair hand 
 at whist. Whist, sir, is wide as the world; 'tis an accom- 
 plishment Hke breathing. I once knew a youth who an- 
 nounced, that he was studying to be Chancelloi of England; 
 the design was certainly ambitious ; but I find it less exces- 
 sive than that of the man who aspires to make a livelihood 
 by whist." 
 
 " Dear me," said Challoner, " I am afraid I shall have to 
 fall to be a working man." 
 
 " Fall to be a working man? " echoed Mr. Godall. " Sup- 
 pose a rural dean to be unfrocked, does he fall to be a major? 
 Suppose a captain were cashiered, would he fall to be a 
 puisne judge? The ignorance of your middle class surprises 
 me. Outside itself, it thinks the world to lie quite ignorant 
 and equal, sunk in a common degradation ; but to the eye 
 of the observer, all ranks are seen to stand in ordered 
 hierarchies, and each adorned with its particular aptitudes 
 and knowledge. By the defects of your education you are 
 more disqualified to be a working man than to be the ruler 
 
 S23
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 of an empire. The gulf, sir, is below; and the true learned 
 arts — those which alone are safe from the competition of 
 insurgent laymen — are those which give his title to the 
 artisan." 
 
 *' This is a very pompous fellow," said Challoner in the 
 ear of his companion. 
 
 " He is immense," said Somerset. 
 
 Just then the door of the divan opened, and a third 
 young fellow made his appearance, and rather bashfully 
 requested some tobacco. He was younger than the others; 
 and, in a somewhat meaningless and altogether English way, 
 he was a handsome lad. When he had been served, and had 
 lighted his pipe and taken his place upon the sofa, he re- 
 called himself to Challoner by the name of Desborough. 
 
 ** Desborough, to be sure," cried Challoner. ** Well, 
 Desborough, and what do you do?" 
 
 " The fact is," said Desborough, ** that I am doing 
 nothing." 
 
 ** A private fortune possibly? " inquired the other. 
 
 ** Well, no," replied Desborough, rather sulkily. " The 
 fact is that I am waiting for something to turn up." 
 
 " All in the same boat ! " cried Somerset. " And have 
 you, too, one hundred pounds? " 
 
 " Worse luck," said Mr. Desborough. 
 
 " This is a very pathetic sight, Mr. Godall," said Somer- 
 set : " Three futiles." 
 
 " A character of this crowded age,"" returned the sales- 
 man, 
 
 " Sir," said Somerset, " I deny that the age is crowded ; 
 I will admit one fact, and that one fact only: that I am 
 futile, that he is futile, and that we are all three as futile as 
 the devil. What am I? I have smattered law, smattered 
 letters, smattered geography, smattered mathematics ; I 
 have even a working knowledge of judicial astrology; and 
 here I stand, all London roaring by at the street's end, as 
 impotent as any baby. I have a prodigious contempt for 
 my matt^rnal uncle ; but without him, it is idle to deny it, 1 
 should simply resolve into my elements like an unstable mix-
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 ture. T begin to perceive tliat it is necessary to Itnow some 
 one thing to the bottom — were it only literature. And yet. 
 sir, the man of the world is a great feature of this age ; he 
 is possessed of an extraordinary mass and variety of knowl- 
 edge ; he is everywhere at home ; he has seen life in all its 
 phases ; and it is impossible but that this great habit of 
 existence should bear fruit. I count myself a man of the 
 world, accomplished, cap-a-pie. So do you, Challoner. 
 And you, Mr. Desborough.'^ " 
 
 " Oh, yes," returned the young man. 
 
 " Well, then, Mr. Godall, here we stand, three men of the 
 world, without a trade to cover us, but planted at the 
 strategic centre of the universe (for so you will allow me 
 to call Rupert Street), in the midst of the chief mass of 
 people, and within ear-shot of the most continuous chink of 
 money on the surface of the globe. Sir, as civilized men, 
 what do we do.? I will show you. You take in a paper?" 
 
 " I take,'* said Mr. Godall, solemnly, " the best paper in 
 the world, the Standard" 
 
 " Good," resumed Somerset. " I now hold it in my hand, 
 the voice of the world, a telephone repeating all men's wants. 
 I open it, and where my eye first falls — well, no, not Mor- 
 rison's Pills — but here, sure enough, and but a little above, 
 I find the joint that I was seeking; here is the weak spot in 
 the armor of society. Here is a want, a plaint, an offer of 
 substantial gratitude: 'Two Hundred Pounds Reward. — 
 The above reward will be paid to any person giving informa- 
 tion as to the identity and whereabouts of a man observed 
 yesterday in the neighborhood of the Green Park. He was 
 over six feet in height, with shoulders disproportionately 
 broad, close shaved, with black mustaches, and wearing a 
 sealskin great coat.' There, gentlemen, our fortune, if not 
 made, is founded." 
 
 " Do you then propose, dear boy, that we should turn 
 detectives ? " inquired Challoner. 
 
 " Do I propose it.?^ No, sir," cried Somerset. " It is 
 reason, destiny, the plain face of the world, that commands 
 and imposes it. Here all our merits tell ; our manners, habit 
 
 S25
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 of the world, powers of conversation, vast stores of un- 
 connected knowledge, all that we are and have builds up the 
 character of the complete detective. It is, in short, the only 
 profession for a gentleman." 
 
 " The proposition is perhaps excessive," said Challoner ; 
 ** for hitherto I own I have regarded it as of all dirty, 
 sneaking and ungentlemanly trades, the least and lowest." 
 
 "To defend society?" asked Somerset; "to stake one's 
 life for others? to deracinate occult and powerful evil? I 
 appeal to Mr. Godall. He, at least, as a philosophic looker- 
 on at life, will spit upon such philistine opinions. He knows 
 that the policeman, as he is called upon continually to face 
 greater odds, and that both worse equipped and for a better 
 cause, is in form and essence a more noble hero than the 
 soldier. Do you, by any chance, deceive yourself, by sup- 
 posing that a general would either ask or expect, from the 
 best army ever marshalled, and on the most momentous battle- 
 field, the conduct of a common constable at Peckham Rye." ^ 
 
 " I did not understand we were to join the force," said 
 Challoner. 
 
 " Nor shall we. These are the hands ; but here — ^here, 
 sir, is the head," cried Somerset. "Enough; it is decreed. 
 We shall hunt down this miscreant in the sealskin coat." 
 
 " Suppose that we agreed," retorted Challoner, " you 
 have no plan, no knowledge; you know not where to seek 
 for a beginning." 
 
 " Challoner ! " cried Somerset, " is it possible that you 
 hold the doctrine of Free Will? And are you devoid of any 
 tincture of philosophy, that you should harp on such ex- 
 ploded fallacies? Chance, the blind Madonna of the pagan, 
 rules this terrestrial bustle; and in Chance I place my sole 
 
 1 Hereupon the Arabian author enters on one of his digressions. 
 Fearing, apparently, that the somewhat eccentric views of Mr. Somer- 
 set should throw discredit on a part of truth, he calls upon the English 
 People to remember with more gratitude the services of the police; 
 to what unobserved and solitary acts of heroism they are called; 
 against what odds of niunbers and of arms, and for how small a 
 reward, either in fame or money; matter, it has appeared to the trans- 
 lators, too serious for this place.
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 reliance. Chance has brought us three together; when we 
 next separate and go forth our several ways, Chance will 
 continually drag before our careless eyes a thousand eloquent 
 clues, not to this mystery only, but to the countless mysteries 
 by which we live surrounded. Then comes the part of the 
 man of the world, of the detective born and bred. This 
 clue, which the whole town beholds without comprehension, 
 swift as a cat, he leaps upon it, makes it his, follows it with 
 craft and passion, and from one trifling circumstance divines 
 a world." 
 
 " Just so," said Challoner ; " and I am delighted that you 
 should recognize these virtues in yourself. But in the mean- 
 while, dear boy, I own myself incapable of joining. I was 
 neither bom nor bred as a detective, but as a placable and 
 very thirsty gentleman ; and, for my part, I begin to weary 
 for a drink. As for clues and adventures, the only adven- 
 ture that is ever likely to occur to me will be an adventure 
 with a bailiff." 
 
 " Now there is the fallacy," cried Somerset. " There I 
 catch the secret of your futihty in life. The world teems 
 and bubbles with adventure; it besieges you along the street: 
 hands waving out of windows, swindlers coming up and 
 swearing they knew you when you were abroad, affable and 
 doubtful people of all sorts and conditions begging and 
 truckling for your notice. But not you: you turn away, 
 you walk your seedy mill round, you must go the dullest 
 way. Now here, I beg of youj the next adventure that offers 
 itself, embrace it in with both your arms ; whatever it looks, 
 grimy or romantic, grasp it. I will do the like ; the devil is 
 in it, but at least we shall have fun ; and each in turn we 
 shall narrate the story of our fortunes to my philosophic 
 friend of the divan, the great Godall, now hearing me with 
 inward joy. Come, is it a bargain.? Will you, indeed, both 
 promise to welcome every chance that offers, to plunge boldly 
 into every opening, and, keeping the eye wary and the head 
 composed, to study and piece together all that happens? 
 Come, promise: let me open to you the doors of the great 
 profession of intrigue." 
 
 S27
 
 THE DYNAJVIITER 
 
 " It is not mucli in my way," said Challoner, " but, since 
 you make a point of it, amen." 
 
 *' I don't mind promising," said Desborough, " but noth- 
 ing will happen to me." 
 
 " O faithless ones ! " cried Somerset. " But at least I 
 have your promises ; and Godall, I perceive, is transported 
 with delight." 
 
 *' I promise myself at least much pleasure from your 
 various narratives," said the salesman, with the customary 
 calm polish of his manner. 
 
 " And now, gentleman," concluded Somerset, " let us 
 separate. I hasten to put myself in fortune's way. Hark 
 how, in this quiet corner, London roars hke the noise of bat- 
 tle; four million destinies are here concentered; and in the 
 strong panoply of one hundred pounds, payable to the 
 bearer, I am about to plunge into that web." 
 
 S28
 
 CHALLONER S ADVENTURE ! THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 MR. EDWARD CHALLONER had set up lodgings in 
 the suburb of Putney, where he enjoyed a parlor and 
 bed-room and the sincere esteem of the people of the house. 
 To this remote home he found himself at a very early hour 
 in the morning of the next day, condemned to set forth on 
 foot. He was a young man of portly habit ; no lover of the 
 exercises of the body; bland, sedentary, patient of delay, a 
 prop of omnibuses. In happier days he would have char- 
 tered a cab; but these luxuries were now denied him; and 
 with what courage he could muster he addressed himself to 
 walk. 
 
 It was then the height of the season and the summer; the 
 weather was serene and cloudless ; and as he paced under the 
 blinded houses and along the vacant streets, the chill of 
 the dawn had fled, and some of the warmth and all the bright- 
 ness of the July day already shone upon the city. He 
 walked at first in a profound abstraction, bitterly reviewing 
 and repenting his performance at whist ; but as he advanced 
 into the labyrinth of the south-west, his ear was gradually 
 mastered by the silence. Street after street looked down 
 upon his solitary figure, house after house echoed upon his 
 passage with a ghostly jar, shop after shop displayed its 
 shuttered front and its commercial legend; and meanwhile 
 he steered his course, under day's effulgent dome and 
 through this encampment of diurnal sleepers, lonely as a 
 ship. 
 
 " Here," he reflected, " if I were like my scatter-brained 
 companion, here were indeed the scene where I might look 
 for an adventure. Here, in broad day, the streets are secret 
 as in the blackest night of January, and in the midst of some 
 four million sleepers, solitary as the woods of Yucatan. If 
 X but raise my voice I could summon up the number of an 
 
 829
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 army, and yet the grave is not more silent than this city of 
 sleep." 
 
 He was still following these quaint and serious musings 
 when he came into a street of more mingled ingredients than 
 was common in the quarter. Here, on the one hand, framed 
 in the walls and the green tops of trees, were several of those 
 discreet, bijou residences on which propriety is apt to look 
 askance. Here, too, were many of the brick-fronted bar- 
 racks of the poor ; a plaster cow, perhaps, serving as ensign 
 to a dairy, or a ticket announcing the business of the 
 mangier. Before one such house, that stood a little separate 
 among walled gardens, a cat was playing with a straw, and 
 Challoner paused a moment, looking on this sleek and sol- 
 itary creature, who seemed an emblem of the neighboring 
 peace. With the cessation of the sound of his own steps the 
 silence fell dead ; the house stood smokeless : the blinds down, 
 the whole machinery of life arrested; and it seemed to Chal- 
 loner that he should hear the breathing of the sleepers. 
 
 As he so stood, he was startled by a dull and jarring 
 detonation from within. This was followed by a monstrous 
 hissing and simmering as from a kettle of the bigness of St. 
 Paul's ; and at the same time from every chink of door and 
 window spirted an ill-smelling vapor. The cat disappeared 
 with a cry. Within the lodging house feet pounded on the 
 stairs; the door flew back emitting clouds of smoke; and 
 two men and an elegantly dressed young lady tumbled forth 
 into the street and fled without a word. The hissing had 
 already ceased, the smoke was melting in the air, the whole 
 event had come and gone as in a dream, and still Challoner 
 was rooted to the spot. At last his reason and his fear awoke 
 together, and with the most unwonted energy he fell to 
 running. 
 
 Little by little this first dash relaxed, and presently he 
 had resumed his sober gait and begun to piece together, out 
 of the confused report of his senses, some theory of the 
 occurrence. But the occasion of the sounds and stench that 
 had so suddenly assailed him, and the strange conjunction 
 of fugitives whom he had seen to issue from the house, wer€ 
 
 3B0
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 mysteries beyond his plummet. With an obscure awe he 
 considered them in his mind, continuing, meanwhile, to 
 thread the web of streets, and once more alone in morning 
 sunshine. 
 
 In his first retreat he had entirely wandered; and now, 
 steering- vaguely west, it was his luck to light upon an unpre- 
 tending street, which presently widened so as to admit a 
 strip of gardens in the midst. Here was quite a stir of 
 birds ; even at that hour, the shadow of the leaves was grate- 
 ful ; instead of the burned atmosphere of cities, there was 
 something brisk and rural in the air; and Challoner paced 
 forward, his eyes upon the pavement and his mind running 
 upon distant scenes, till he was recalled, upon a sudden, by 
 a wall that blocked his further progress. This street, whose 
 name I have forgotten, is no thoroughfare. 
 
 He was not the first who had wandered there that morn- 
 ing; for as he raised his eyes with an agreeable delibera- 
 tion, they alighted on the figure of a girl, in whom he was 
 struck to recognize the third of the incongruous fugitives. 
 She had run there, seemingly, blindfold ; the wall had 
 checked her career, and being entirely wearied, she had sunk 
 upon the ground beside the garden railings, soiling her dress 
 among the summer dust. Each saw the other in the same 
 instant of time; and she, with one wild look, sprang to her 
 feet and began to hurry from the scene. 
 
 Challoner was doubly startled to meet once more the 
 heroine of his adventure and to observe the fear with which 
 she shunned him. Pity and alarm, in nearly equal forces, 
 contested the possession of his mind, and yet, in spite of 
 both, he saw himself condemned to follow In the lady's wake. 
 He did so gingerly, as fearing to Increase her terrors ; but 
 tread as lightly as he might his footfalls eloquently echoed 
 in the empty street. Their sound appeared to strike In her 
 some strong emotion, for scarce had he begun to follow ere 
 she paused. A second time she addressed herself to flight, 
 find a second time she paused. Then she turned about, and 
 with doubtful steps and the most attractive appearance of 
 timidity, drew near to the young man. He on his side con- 
 
 331
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 tinued to advance with similar signals of distress and bash- 
 fulness. At length, when they were but some steps apart, 
 he saw her eyes brim over, and she reached out both her 
 hands in eloquent appeal. 
 
 "Are you an English gentleman?" she cried. 
 
 The unhappy Challoner regarded her with consternation. 
 He was the spirit of fine courtesy, and would have blushed 
 to fail in his devoirs to any lady ; but, in the other scale, he 
 was a man averse from amorous adventures. He looked east 
 and west, but the houses that looked down upon this interview 
 remained inexorably shut, and he saw himself, though in the 
 full glare of the day's eye, cut off from any human interven- 
 tion. His looks returned at last upon the suppliant. He 
 remarked with irritation that she was charming both in face 
 and figure, elegantly dressed and gloved : a lady undeniable ; 
 the picture of distress and innocence; weeping and lost in 
 the city of diurnal sleep. 
 
 " Madam,"* he said, " I protest you have no cause to fear 
 intrusion, and if I have appeared to follow you, the fault is 
 in this street, which has deceived us both." 
 
 An unmistakable relief appeared upon the lady's face. 
 " I might have guessed it ! " she exclaimed. " Thank you a 
 thousand times ! But at this hour, in this appalling silence, 
 and among all these staring windows, I am lost in terrors — - 
 oh, lost in them ; " she cried, her face blanching at the 
 words. " I beg you to lend me your arm," she added with 
 the loveliest, suppliant inflection. " I dare not go alone ; 
 my nerve is gone — I had a shock, oh, what a shock! I beg 
 of you to be my escort." 
 
 " My dear madam," responded Challoner, heavily, " my 
 arm is at your service." 
 
 She took it and clung to it for a moment, struggling with 
 her sobs, and the" next, with feverish hurry, began to lead 
 him in the direction of the city. One thing was plain, 
 among so much that was obscure: it was plain her fears 
 were genuine. Still, as she went, she spied around as if for 
 dangers, and now she would shiver like a person in a chill 
 and now clutch his arm in hers. To Challoner her terror 
 
 SS2
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 was at once repugnant and Infectious ; it gained and mas- 
 tered, while it still offended him, and he wailed in spirit and 
 longed for release. 
 
 " Madam," he said at last, " I am, of course, charmed 
 to be of use to any lady, but I confess I was bound in a 
 direction opposite to that you follow, and a word of ex- 
 planation — ' — ^" 
 
 " Hush ! " she sobbed, " not here — not here." 
 
 The blood of Challoncr ran cold. He might have thought 
 the lady mad, but his memory was charged with more 
 perilous stuff, and In view of the detonation, the smoke and 
 the flight of the ill assorted trio, his mind was lost among 
 mysteries. So they continued to thread the maze of streets 
 in silence M'lth the speed of a guilty flight, and both thrill- 
 ing with incommunicable terrors. In time, however, and 
 above all by their quick pace of walking, the pair began to 
 rise to firmer spirits ; the lady ceased to peer about the 
 corners ; and Challoner, emboldened by the resonant tread 
 and distant figure of a constable, returned to the charge 
 with more of spirit and directness. 
 
 " I thought," said he, in the tone of conversation, " that 
 I had indistinctly perceived you leaving a villa in the com- 
 pany of two gentlemen." 
 
 " Oh ! " she said, " you need not fear to wound me by 
 the truth. You saw me flee from a common lodging-house, 
 and my companions were not gentlemen. In such a case, the 
 best of compliments is to be frank." 
 
 " I thought," resumed Challoner, encouraged as much 
 as he was surprised by the spirit of her reply, " to have 
 perceived, besides, a certain odor. A noise, too — I do not 
 know to what I should compare it ^" 
 
 " Silence ! " she cried. " You do not know the danger 
 you Invoke. Wait, only wait ; and as soon as we have left 
 these streets and got beyond the reach of listeners, all shall 
 be explained. Meanwhile, avoid the topic. What a sight is 
 this sleeping city ! " she exclaimed ; and then, with a most 
 thrilling voice, " ' Dear God,' she quoted, " * the very houses 
 seem asleep. And all that mighty heart is lying still.' " 
 
 333
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 *' I perceive, madam," said he, " you are a reader." 
 
 *' I am more than that," she answered, with a sigh. ** I 
 am a girl condemned to thoughts beyond her age ; and so 
 untoward is my fate, that this walk upon the arm of a 
 stranger is like an interlude of peace." 
 
 They had come by this time to the neighborhood of the 
 Victoria Station ; and here, at a street corner, the young 
 lady paused, withdrew her arm from Challoner's and looked 
 up and down as though in pain or indecision. Then, with a 
 lovely change of countenance, anl laying her gloved hand 
 upon his arm: 
 
 " What you already think of me," she said, " I tremble 
 to conceive; yet I must here condemn myself still further. 
 Here I must leave you, and here I beseech you to wait for 
 my return. Do not attempt to follow me or spy upon my 
 actions. Suspend yet awhile your judgment of a girl as 
 innocent as your own sister ; and do not above all, desert me. 
 Stranger as you are, I have none else to look to. You see 
 me in sorrow and great fear ; you are a gentleman, courteous 
 and kind ; and when I beg for a few minutes' patience, I 
 make sure beforehand you will not deny me." 
 
 Challoner grudgingly promised ; and the young lady, 
 with a grateful eye-shot, vanished round the comer. But 
 the force of her appeal had been a httle blunted; for the 
 young man was not only destitute of sisters, but of any 
 female relative nearer than a great-aunt in Wales. Now 
 he was alone; besides, the spell that he had hitherto obeyed 
 began to weaken ; he considered his behavior with a sneer ; and 
 plucking up the spirit of revolt, he started in pursuit. The 
 reader, if he has ever plied the fascinating trade of the 
 noctambulist, will not be unaware that, in the neighborhood 
 of the great railway centres, certain early taverns inaugu- 
 rate the business of the day. It was into one of these Chal- 
 loner, coming round the comer of the block, beheld his 
 charming companion disappear. To say he was surprised 
 were inexact, for he had long since left that sentiment behind 
 him. Acute disgust and disappointment seized upon his 
 Boul; and with silent oaths, he damned this commonplace 
 
 334
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 enchantress. She had scarce been gone a second, ere the 
 swing-doors reopened, and she appeared again in company 
 with a young man of mean and slouching attire. For some 
 five or six exchanges they conversed together with an ani- 
 mated air : then the fellow shouldered again into the tap ; 
 and the young lady, with something swifter than a walk, 
 retraced her steps towards Challoner. He saw her coming, 
 a miracle of grace ; her ankle, as she hurried, flashing from 
 her dress ; her movements eloquent of speed and youth ; and 
 though he still entertained some thoughts of flight, they 
 grew miserably fainter as the distance lessened. Against 
 mere beauty he was proof: it was her unmistakable gentility 
 that now robbed him of the courage of his cowardice. With 
 a proved adventuress he had acted strictly on his right ; 
 with one who, in spite of all, he could not quite deny to be 
 a lady, he found himself disarmed. At the very corner from 
 whence he had spied upon her interview, she came upon him, 
 still transfixed, and — " Ah ! " she cried, with a bright flush 
 of color. " Ah ! Ungenerous ! " 
 
 The sharpness of the attack somewhat restored the Squire 
 of Dames to the possession of himself. 
 
 " Madam," he returned, with a fair show of stoutness, 
 " I do not think that hitherto you can complain of any lack 
 of generosity ; I have suff^ered myself to be led over a con- 
 siderable portion of the metropolis ; and if I now request you 
 to discharge me of my office of protector, you have friends 
 at hand who will be glad of the succession." 
 
 She stood .a moment dumb. 
 
 " It is well," she said. " Go ! go, and may God help me ! 
 You have seen me — me, an innocent girl ! fleeing from a dire 
 catastrophe and haunted by sinister men ; and neither pity, 
 curiosity, nor honor move you to await my explanation or 
 to help me in my distress. Go ! " she repeated. " I am lost 
 indeed." And with a passionate gesture she turned and fled 
 along the street. 
 
 Challoner observed her retreat and disappear, an almost 
 intolerable sense of guilt contending with the profound sense 
 that he was being gulled. She was no sooner gone than the 
 
 335
 
 THE DYNA31ITER 
 
 first of these feelings took the upper hand; he felt, if he 
 had done her less than justice, that his conduct was a per- 
 fect model of the ungracious ; the cultured tone of her voice, 
 her choice of language, and the elegant decorum of her 
 movements cried out aloud against a harsh construction; 
 and between penitence and curiosity he began slowly to fol- 
 low in her wake. At the corner he had her once more full 
 in view. Her speed was failing like a stricken bird's. Even 
 as he looked, she threw her arm out gropingly, and fell 
 and leaned against the wall. At the spectacle, Challoner's 
 fortitude gave way. In a few strides he overtook her and, 
 for the first time removing his hat, assured her in the most 
 moving terms of his entire respect and firm desire to help 
 her. He spoke at first unheeded ; but gradually it appeared 
 that she began to comprehend his words ; she moved a little, 
 and drew herself upright ; and finally, as with a sudden 
 movement of forgiveness, turned on the young man a coun- 
 tenance in which reproach and gratitude were mingled. 
 " Ah, madam," he cried, " use me as you will ! " And once 
 more, but now with a great air of deference, he offered her 
 the conduct of his arm. She took it with a sigh that struck 
 him to the heart; and they began once more to trace the 
 deserted streets. But now her steps, as though exhausted 
 by emotion, began to linger on the way ; she leaned the more 
 heavily upon his arm ; and he, like the parent bi^rd, stooped 
 fondly above his drooping convoy. Her physical distress 
 was not accompanied by any failing of her spirits; and 
 hearing her strike so soon into a playful and charming vein 
 of talk, Challoner could not sufficiently admire the elasticity 
 of his companion's nature. " Let me forget," she had said, 
 " for one half hour, let me forget ; " and sure enough, with 
 the very word, her sorrows appeared to be forgotten. Be- 
 fore every house she paused, invented a name for the pro- 
 prietor, and sketched his character: here lived the old 
 general whom she was to marry on the fifth of the next 
 month, there was the mansion of the rich widow who had set 
 her heart on Challoner; and though she still hung wearily 
 on the young man's arm, her laughter sounded low and
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 pleasant in his ears. " Ah," she sighed, by way of com- 
 mentary, " in such a life as mine I must seize tight told of 
 any happiness that I can find." 
 
 When they arrived, in this leisurely manner, at the head 
 of Grosvenor Place, the gates of the park were opening and 
 the bedraggled company of night walkers were being at last 
 admitted into that paradise of lawns. Challoner and his 
 companion followed the movement, and walked for awhile 
 in silence in that tatterdemalion crowd ; but as one after 
 another, weary with the night's patrolling of the city pave- 
 ment, sank upon the benches or wandered into separate 
 paths, the vast extent of the park had soon utterly swallowed 
 up the last of these intruders ; and the pair proceeded on 
 their way alone in the grateful quiet of the morning. 
 
 Presently they came in sight of a bench, standing very 
 open on a mound of turf. The young lady looked about 
 her with relief. 
 
 " Here," she said, " here at last we are secure from lis- 
 teners. Here, then, you shall learn and judge my history. 
 I could not bear that we should part, and that you should 
 still suppose your kindness squandered upon one who was 
 unworthy." 
 
 Thereupon she sat down upon the bench, and motioning 
 Challoner to take a place immediately beside her, began in 
 the following words, and with the greatest appearance of 
 enjoyment, to narrate the story of her life. 
 
 ssr
 
 STOUT OF THE DESTROYING AKGEL 
 
 MY father was a native of England, son of a cadet of a 
 great, ancient but untitled family ; and by some event, 
 fault, or misfortune he was driven to flee from the land of 
 his birth and to lay aside the name of his ancestors. He 
 sought the States ; and instead of lingering in effeminate 
 cities, pushed at once into the Far West with an exploring 
 party of frontiersmen. He was no ordinary traveler ; for 
 he was not only brave and impetuous by character, but 
 learned in many sciences, and above all in botany, which he 
 particularly loved. Thus it fell that, before many months, 
 Fremont himself, the nominal leader of the troop, courted 
 and bowed to his opinion. 
 
 They had pushed, as I have said, into the still unknown 
 regions of the West. For some time they followed the track 
 of Mormon caravans, guiding themselves in that vast and 
 melancholy desert by the skeletons of men and animals. 
 Then they inclined their route a little to the north and, los- 
 ing even these dire memorials, came into a country of for- 
 bidding stillness. I have often heard my father dwell upon 
 the features of that ride: rock, cliff', and barren moor 
 alternated; the streams were very far between; and neither 
 beast nor bird disturbed the solitude. On the fortieth day 
 they had already run so short of food that it was judged 
 advisable to call a halt and scatter upon all sides to hunt. 
 A great fire was built, that its smoke might serve to rally 
 them; and each man of the party mounted and struck off 
 at a venture into the surrounding desert. 
 
 My father rode for many hours with a steep range of 
 cliffs upon the one hand, very black and horrible; and upon 
 the other an unwatered vale dotted with boulders like the 
 site of some subverted city. At length he found the slot of 
 a great animal, and from the claw-marks and the hair among 
 
 338
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 the brush, judged that he was on the track of a cinnamon 
 bear of most unusual size. He quickened the pace of his steed, 
 and still following the quarry, came at last to the division of 
 two watersheds. On the far side the country was exceed- 
 ingly intricate and difficult, heaped with boulders, and 
 dotted here and there with a few pines, which seemed to 
 indicate the neighborhood of water. Here, then, he picketed 
 his horse, and relying on his trusty rifle, advanced alone into 
 that wilderness. 
 
 Presently, in the great silence that reigned, he was «iware 
 of the sound of running water to his right; and leaning in 
 that direction, was rewarded by a scene of natural wonder 
 and human pathos strangely intermixed. The stream ran 
 at the bottom of a narrow and winding passage, whose wall- 
 like sides of rock were sometimes for miles together unscal- 
 able by man. The water, when the stream was swelled with 
 rains, must have filled it from side to side; the sun's rays 
 only plumbed it in the hour of noon ; the wind, in that nar- 
 row and damp funnel, blew tempestuously. And yet, in the 
 bottom of this den, immediately below my father's eyes as 
 he leaned over the margin of the cliff, a party of some half 
 a hundred men, women and children lay scattered uneasily 
 among the rocks. They lay some upon their backs, some 
 prone, and not one stirring; their upturned faces seemed 
 all of an extraordinary paleness and emaciation; and from 
 time to time, above the washing of the stream, a faint sound 
 of moaning mounted to my father's ears. 
 
 While he thus looked, an old man got staggering to his 
 feet, unwound his blanket, and laid it, with great gentle- 
 ness, on a young girl who sat hard by propped against a 
 rock. The girl did not seem to be conscious of the act; 
 and the old man, after having looked upon her with the most 
 engaging pity, returned to his former bed and lay down 
 again uncovered on the turf. But the scene had not passed 
 without observation even in that starving camp. From the 
 very outskirts of the party, a man with a white beard and 
 seemingly of venerable years, rose upon his knees and came 
 crawling stealthily among the sleepers toward the girl; and 
 
 339
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 judge of my father's indignation, when he beheld this cow- 
 ardly miscreant strip from her both the coverings and return 
 with them to his original position. Here he lay down for a 
 while below his spoils, and, as my father imagined, feigned 
 to be asleep ; but presently he had raised himself again upon 
 one elbow, looked with sharp scrutiny at his companions, 
 and then swiftly carried his hand into his bosom and thence 
 to his mouth. By the movement of his jaws he must be 
 eating; in that camp of famine he had reserved a store of 
 nourishment; and while his companions lay in the stupor of 
 approaching death, secretly restored his powers. 
 
 My father was so incensed at what he saw that he raised 
 his rifle; and but for an accident, he has often declared, he 
 would have shot the fellow dead upon the spot. How differ- 
 ent would then have been my history! But it was not to 
 be: even as he raised the barrel his eye lighted on the bear, 
 as it crawled along a ledge some way below him ; and ceding 
 to the hunter's instinct, it was at the brute, not at the man, 
 that he discharged his piece. The bear leaped and fell into 
 a pool of the river ; the canyon re-echoed the report ; and in 
 a moment the camp was afoot. With cries that were scarce 
 human, stumbling, falling and throwing each other down, 
 these starving people rushed upon the quarry ; and before 
 my father, climbing down by the ledge, had time to reach 
 the level of the stream, many were already satisfying their 
 hunger on the raw flesh, and a fire was being built by the 
 more dainty. 
 
 His arrival was for some time unremarked. He stood 
 in the midst of these tottering and clay-faced marionettes ; 
 he was surrounded by their cries ; but their whole soul was 
 fixed on the dead carcass ; even those who were too weak to 
 move, lay, half-turned over, with their eyes riveted uppn 
 the bear ; and my father, seeing himself stand as though in- 
 visible in the thick of this dreary hubbub, was seized with a 
 desire to weep. A touch upon the arm restrained him. 
 Turning about he found himself face to face with the old 
 man he had so nearly killed ; and yet, at the second glance, 
 recognized him for no old man at all, but one in the full 
 
 340
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 strength of his years, and of a strong, speaking and intel- 
 lectual countenance, stigmatized by weariness and famine. 
 He beckoned my father near the cliff, and there, in the most 
 private whisper, begged for brandy. My father looked at 
 him with scorn : " You remind me," he said, " of a neglected 
 duty. Here is my flask; it contains enough, I trust, to re- 
 vive the women of your party ; and I will begin with her 
 whom I saw you robbing of her blankets." And with that, 
 not heeding his appeals, my father turned his back upon 
 the egoist. 
 
 The girl still lay reclined against the rock; she lay too 
 far sunk in the first stage of death to have observed the 
 bustle round her couch; but when my father had raised her 
 head, put the flask to her lips, and forced or aided her to 
 swallow some drops of the restorative, she opened her lan- 
 guid eyes and smiled upon him faintly. Never was there a 
 smile of more touching sweetness ; never were eyes more 
 deeply violet, more honestly eloquent of the soul! I speak 
 with knowledge, for these were the same eyes that smiled 
 upon me in the cradle. From her who was to be his wife, 
 my father, still jealously watched and followed by the man 
 with the gray beard, carried his attentions to all the women 
 of the party, and gave the last drainings of his flask to those 
 among the men who seemed in the most need. 
 
 " Is there none left.'' not a drop for me.'' " said the man 
 with the beard. 
 
 " Not one drop," replied my father ; " and If j'ou find 
 yourself In want, let me counsel you to put your hand into 
 the pocket of your coat." 
 
 "All!" cried the other, "you misjudge me. You think 
 me one who clings to life for selfish and commonplace con- 
 siderations. But let me tell you, that were all this caravan 
 to perish, the world would but bo lightened of a weight. 
 These are but human Insects, pullulating, thick as may-flies, 
 in the slums of European cities, whom I myself have plucked 
 from degradation and misery, from the dung-heap and gin- 
 palace door. And you compare their lives with mine ! " 
 
 " You are then a Mormon missionary ? " asked my father. 
 
 S41
 
 tTHE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Oh ! " cried the man, with a strange smile, " a Mormon 
 missionary if you will! I value not the title. Were I no 
 more than that, I could have died without a murmur. But 
 with my life as a physician is bound up the knowledge of 
 great secrets and the future of man. This it was, when we 
 missed the caravan, tried for a short cut and wandered to 
 this desolate ravine, that ate into my soul and, in five days, 
 has changed my beard from ebony to silver." 
 
 " And you are a physician," mused my father, looking on 
 his face, " bound by oath to succor man in his distresses." 
 
 " Sir," returned the Mormon, " my name is Grierson : you 
 will hear that name again; and you will then understand 
 that my duty was not to this caravan of paupers, but to 
 mankind at large." 
 
 My father turned to the remainder of the party, who were 
 now sufficiently revived to hear; told them that he would set 
 off at once to bring help from his own party ; " and," he 
 added, " if you be again reduced to such extremities, look 
 round you, and you will see the earth strewn with assistance. 
 Here, for instance, growing on the under-side of fissures in 
 this cliff, you will perceive a yellow moss. Trust me, it is 
 both edible and excellent." 
 
 " Ha ! " said Doctor Grierson, " you know botany ! " 
 
 *' Not I alone," returned my father, lowering his voice ; 
 *' for see where these have been scraped away. Am I right ; 
 Was that your secret store? " 
 
 My father's comrades, he found, when he returned to 
 the signal-fire, had made a good day's hunting. They were 
 thus the more easily persuaded to extend assistance to the 
 Mormon caravan ; and the next day beheld both parties on 
 the march for the frontiers of Utah. The distance to be 
 traversed was not great; but the nature of the country and 
 the difficulty of procuring food, extended the time to nearly 
 three weeks ; and my father had thus ample leisure to know 
 and appreciate the girl whom he had succored. I will call 
 my mother Lucy. Her family name I am not at liberty to 
 mention; it is one you would know well. By what series of 
 undeserved calamities this innocent flower of maidenhood, 
 
 343
 
 THE DESTROYING AXGEL 
 
 lovely, refined by education, ennobled by the finest taste, was 
 thus cast among the horrors of a Mormon caravan, I must 
 not stay to tell you. Let it suffice, that even in these un- 
 toward circumstances, she found a heart worthy of her own. 
 The ardor of attachment which united my father and mother 
 was perhaps partly due to the strange manner of their meet- 
 ing; it knew, at least, no bounds either divine or human; 
 my father, for her sake, determined to renounce his ambi- 
 tions and abjure his faith; and a week had not yet passed 
 upon the march before he had resigned from his party, ac- 
 cepted the Mormon doctrine, and received the promise of my 
 mother's hand on the arrival of the party at Salt Lake. 
 
 The marriage took place, and I was its only offspring. 
 My father prospered exceedingly in his affairs, remained 
 faithful to my mother; and though you may wonder to hear 
 it, I believe there were few happier homes in any country 
 than that in which I saw the light and grew to girlhood. 
 We were, indeed, and in spite of all our wealth, avoided as 
 heretics and half-believers by the more precise and pious of 
 the faithful: Young himself, that formidable tyrant, was 
 known to look askance upon my father's riches ; but of this 
 I had no guess. I dwelt, indeed, under the Mormon system, 
 with perfect innocence and faith. Some of our friends had 
 many wives ; but such was the custom ; and why should it 
 surprise me more than marriage itself.? ^rom time to time 
 one of our rich acquaintances would disappear, his family 
 be broken up, his wives and houses shared among the elders 
 of the church, and his memory only recalled with bated 
 breath and dreadful headshakings. When I had been very 
 still and my presence perhaps was forgotten, some such 
 topic would arise among my elders by the evening fire; I 
 would see them draw the closer together and look behind 
 them with scared eyes ; and I might gather from their whis- 
 perings how some one, rich, honored, healthy and in the 
 prime of his days, some one, perhaps, who had taken me on 
 his knees a week before, had in one hour been spirited from 
 home and family, and vanished like an image from a mirror, 
 leaving not a print behind. It was terrible, indeed; but so 
 
 343
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 was death, the universal law. And even If the talt sliould 
 wax still bolder, full of ominous silences and nods, and I 
 should hear named in a wnisper the Destroying Angels, how 
 was a child to understand these mysteries? I heard of a 
 Destroying Angel as some more happy child might hear in 
 England of a bishop or a rural dean, with vague respect and 
 without the wish for further information. Life anywhere, 
 in society as in nature, rests upon dread foundations ; I be- 
 held safe roads, a garden blooming in the desert, pious 
 people crowding to worship ; I was aware of my parents' 
 tenderness and all the harmless luxuries of my existence ; and 
 why should I pry beneath this honest seeming surface for 
 the mysteries on which it stood? 
 
 We dwelt originally in the city; but at an early date we 
 moved to a beautiful house in a green dingle, musical with 
 splashing water, and surrounded on almost every side by 
 twenty miles of poisonous and rocky desert. The city was 
 thirty miles away; there was but one road, which went no 
 further than my father's door; the rest were bridle-tracks 
 impassable in winter ; and we thus dwelt in a solitude incon- 
 ceivable to the European. Our only neighbor was Dr. Grier- 
 son. To my young eyes, after the hair-oiled, chin-bearded 
 elders of the city, and the ill-faVored and mentally stunted 
 women of their harems, there was something agreeable in the 
 correct manner, the fine bearing, the thin white hair and 
 beard, and the piercing looks of the old doctor. Yet, though 
 he was almost our only visitor, I never whoUy overcame a 
 sense of fear in his presence ; and this disquietude was rather 
 fed by the awful solitude in which he lived and the obscurity 
 that hung about his occupations. His house was but a mile 
 or two from ours, but very differently placed. It stood 
 overlooking the road on the summit of a steep slope, and 
 planted close against a range of overhanging bluffs. Na- 
 ture, you would say, had here desired to imitate the works 
 of man ; for the slope was even like the glacis of a fort, and 
 the cliffs of a constant height, like the ramparts of a city. 
 Not even spring could change one feature of that desolate 
 scene; and the windows looked down across a plain, snowy 
 
 34.4
 
 THE DESTEOYIISTG ANGEL 
 
 with altali, to ranges of cold stone sierras on the north. 
 Twice or thrice I remember passing within view of this for- 
 bidding residence; and seeing it always shuttered, smokeless 
 and desei'ted, I remarked to my parents that some day it 
 would certainly be robbed. 
 
 " Ah, no," said my father, " never robbed ! " and I ob- 
 served a strange conviction in his tone. 
 
 At last, and not long before the blow fell on my unhappy 
 family, I chanced to see the doctor's house in a new hght. 
 My father was ill ; my mother confined to his bedside ; and I 
 was suffered to go, under the charge of our driver, to the 
 lonely house some twenty miles away, where our packages 
 were left for us. The horse cast a shoe ; night overtook us 
 halfway home ; and it vas well on for three in the morning 
 when the driver and I, alone in a light wagon, came to that 
 part of the road syhich ran below the doctor's house. The 
 moon swam ejear.; the cliffs and mountains in this strong 
 light lay utterly deserted; but the house, from its station 
 on tlie top of the long slope and close under the bluff, not 
 only shone abroad from every window like a pla,ce of festival, 
 but from the great chimney at the west end poured forth a 
 coil of smoke so thick and so voluminous, that it hung for 
 miles along the winxiless night air, and its shadow lay far 
 abroad in the moonlight upon the glittering alkali. As we 
 continued to draw near, besides, a regular and panting throb 
 began to djyide the silence. First it seenjed to me Like the 
 beating of a heart ; and next jt put into niy mind the thought 
 of some giant sn?othered under mountains and still, with 
 jnealculable effort, fetching breath. I had heard of the 
 railway, though I had not seen it, and I turned to ask the 
 driver if this resembled it. But some look in his eye, some 
 pallor, ^whethe^ of fear or ntj-oonlight on his face, caused the 
 words to die upon my lips. We continued, therefore, to 
 advance in silen.ce, till we were close below the lighted house ; 
 when suddenly, without one premonitory rystle, there burst 
 forth a report of such a bign.ess that it shook the earth and 
 set the echoes of the mountains thundering from .cliff to cliff. 
 A pillar of amber flame leaped from the chimney-top and 
 
 S45
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 fell in multitudes of sparks ; and at the same time the lights 
 in the windows turned for one instant ruby red and then 
 expired. The driver had checked his horse instinctively, and 
 the echoes were still rumbling further off among the moun- 
 tains, when there broke from the now darkened interior a 
 series of yells — whether of man or woman it was impossible 
 to guess — the door flew open, and there ran forth into the 
 moonhght, at the top of the long slope, a figure clad in white, 
 which began to dance and leap and throw itself down, and 
 roll as if in agony, before the house. I could no more re- 
 strain my cries ; the driver laid his lash about the horse's 
 flank, and we fled up the rough track at the peril of our 
 lives ; and did not draw rein till, turning the corner of the 
 mountain, we beheld my father's ranch and deep, green 
 groves and gardens, sleeping in the tranquil night. 
 
 This was the one adventure of my life, until my father had 
 climbed to the very topmost point of material prosperity, 
 and I myself had reached the age of seventeen. I was still 
 innocent and merry like a child ; tended my garden or ran 
 upon the hills in glad simplicity; gave not a thought to co- 
 quetry or to material cares ; and if my eye rested on my 
 own image In a mirror or some sylvan spring, it was to seek 
 and recognize the features of my parents. But the fears 
 which had long pressed on others were now to be laid on my 
 youth. I had thrown myself, one sultry, cloudy afternoon, 
 on a divan; the windows stood open on the veranda, where 
 my mother sat with her embroidery ; and when my father 
 joined her from the garden, their conversation, clearly 
 audible to me, was of so startling a nature that it held me 
 enthralled where I lay. 
 
 " The blow has come," my father said, after a long pause. 
 
 I could hear my mother start and turn, but in words she 
 made no reply. 
 
 " Yes," continued my father, " I have received to-day a 
 list of all that I possess ; of all, I say ; of what I have lent 
 privately to men whose lips are sealed with terror ; of what I 
 have buried with my own hand on the bare mountain, when 
 there was not a bird in heaven. Does the air, then, carry 
 
 SAG
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 secrets? Are the hills of glass? Do the stones we tread 
 upon preserve the footprint to betray us? Oh, Lucy, Lucy, 
 that we should have come to such a country ! " 
 
 " But this," returned my mother, " is no very new or 
 very threatening event. You are accused of some conceal- 
 ment. You will pay more taxes in the future, and be mulcted 
 in a fine. It is disquieting, indeed, to find our acts so spied 
 upon, and the most private known. But is this new? Have 
 we not long feared and suspected every blade of grass? " 
 
 " Ay, and our shadows ! " cried my father. " But all this 
 is nothing. Here is the letter that accompanied the list." 
 
 I heard my mother turn the pages ; and she was some time 
 silent. 
 
 " I see," she said at last ; and then with the tone of one 
 reading: " ' From a believer so largely blessed by Providence 
 with this world's goods,' " ahe continued, " * the Church 
 awaits in confidence some signal mark of piety.' There lies 
 the sting. Am I not right? These are the words you 
 fear? " 
 
 " These are the words," replied my father. " Lucy, you 
 remember Priestley? Two days before he disappeared, he 
 carried me to the summit of an isolated butte; we could see 
 around us for ten miles ; sure, if in any quarter of this land 
 a man were safe from spies, it were in such a station ; but it 
 was in the very ague fit of terror that he told me, and that 
 I heard, his story. He had received a letter such as this; 
 and he submitted to my approval an answer in which he 
 offered to resign a third of his possessions. I conjured 
 him, as he valued his life, to raise his offering ; and, before 
 we parted, he had doubled the amount. Well, two days later 
 he was gone — gone from the chief street of the city in the 
 hour of noon — and gone forever. O God ! " cried my father, 
 " by what art do they thus spirit out of life the solid body ? 
 What death do they command that leaves no traces? that 
 this material structure, these strong arms, this skeleton that 
 can resist the grave for centuries, should be thus reft in a 
 moment from the world of sense? A horror dwells in that 
 thought more awful than mere death." 
 
 347
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 •* Is there no hope in Grierson ? " asked my mother. 
 
 " Dismiss the thought," repHed my father. " He now 
 knows all that I can teach, and will do naught to save me. 
 His power, besides, is small, his own danger not improbably 
 more imminent than mine ; for he, too, lives apart ; he leaves 
 his wives neglected and unwatched; he is openly cited for an 
 unbeliever ; and unless he buys security at a more awful price 
 — ^but no ; I will not beheve it ; I have no love for him, but 
 I will not believe it." 
 
 "Believe what.?*' asks my mother; and then, with a 
 change of note, "But oh, what matters it.?*" she cried. 
 *' Abimelech, there is but one way open : we must fly ! '* 
 
 " It is in vain," returned my father. " I should but in- 
 volve you in my fate. To leave this land is hopeless : we are 
 closed in it as men are closed in life; and there is no issue 
 but the grave." 
 
 " We can but die then," replied my mother. " Let us 
 at least die together. Let not Asenath ^ and myself sur- 
 vive you. Think to what a fate we should be doomed ! " 
 
 My father was unable to resist her tender violence; and 
 though I could see he nourished not one spark of hope, he 
 consented to desert his whole estate, beyond some hundreds of 
 dollars that he had by him at the moment, and to flee that 
 night, which promised to be dark and cloudy. As soon as 
 the servants Avere asleep, he was to load two mules with pro- 
 visions ; two others were to carry my mother and myself ; 
 and, striking through the mountains by an unfrequented 
 trail, we were to make a fair stroke for liberty and life. As 
 soon as they had thus decided, I showed myself at the win- 
 dow, and, owning that I had heard all, assured them that 
 they could rely on my prudence and devotion. I had no 
 fear, indeed, but to show myself unworthy of my birth; I 
 held my life in mj-^ hand without alarm ; and when my father, 
 weeping upon my neck, had blessed Heaven for the courage 
 of his child, it was with a sentiment of pride and some of the 
 joy that warriors take in war, that I began to look forward 
 to the perils of our flight. 
 
 ilii this name the accent falls upon the e; the s is sibilant. 
 
 348
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 Before midnight, under an obscure and starless heaven, 
 we had left far behind us the plantations of the valley, and 
 were mounting a certain canyon in the hills, narrow, en- 
 cumbered with great rocks, and echoing with the roar of a 
 tumultuous torrent. Cascade after cascade thundered and 
 hung up its flag of whiteness in the night, or fanned our 
 faces with the wet wind of its descent. The trail was break- 
 neck, and led to famine-guarded deserts ; it had been long 
 since deserted for more practicable routes ; and it was now a 
 part of the world untrod from year to year by human footing. 
 Judge of our dismay, when turning suddenly an angle of 
 the cliffs, we found a bright bonfire blazing by itself under 
 an impending rock; and on the face of the rock, drawn very 
 rudely with chained wood, the great Open Eye which is the 
 emblem of the Mormon faith. We looked upon each otltfer 
 in the firelight ; my mother broke into a passion of tears ; 
 but not a word was said. The mules were turned about ; 
 and leaving that great eye to guard the lonely canyon, we 
 retraced our steps in silence. Day had not yet broken ere 
 we were once more at home, condemned beyond reprieve. 
 
 What answer my father sent I was not told ; but two days 
 later, a little before sundown, I saw a plain, honest-looking 
 man ride slowly up the road in a great pother of dust. He 
 was clad in homespun, with a broad straw hat; wore a 
 patriarchal beard ; and had an air of a simple rustic farmer, 
 that was, in my eyes, very reassuring. He was, indeed, a 
 very honest man and pious Mormon ; with no liking for his 
 errand, though neither he nor any one in Utah dared to dis- 
 obey ; and it was with every mark of diffidence that he had 
 himself announced as Mr. Aspinwall, and entered the room 
 where our unhappy familv was gathered. IMy mother and 
 me he awkwardly enough dismissed; and as spon as he was 
 alone with my father laid before him ft blank signature of 
 President Young's, and offered liim a choice of services ; 
 either to set out as a missionary to the tribes about the 
 White Sea, or to join the next day, with a party of Destroy- 
 ing Angels, in the massacre of sixty German immigrants. 
 The last, of course, my father could not entertain, and the 
 
 34>9
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 first he regarded as a pretext : even if he could consent to 
 leave his wife defenseless, and to collect fresh victims for the 
 tyranny under which he was himself oppressed, he felt sure 
 he would never be suffered to return. He refused both; and 
 Aspinwall, he said, betrayed sincere emotion, part religious, 
 at the spectacle of such disobedience, but part human, in 
 pity for my father and his family. He besought him to re- 
 consider his decision ; and at length, finding he could not 
 prevail, gave him till the moon rose to settle his affairs, and 
 say farewell to wife and daughter. " For," said he, " then, 
 at the latest, you must ride with me." 
 
 I dare not dwell upon the hours that followed: they fled 
 all too fast; and presently the moon out-topped the eastern 
 range, and my father and Mr. Aspinwall set forth, side by 
 side, on their i?.">cturnal journey. My mother, though still 
 bearing a heroic countenance, had hastened to shut herself 
 in her apartment, thenceforward solitary ; and I, alone in the 
 dark house, and consumed by grief and apprehension, made 
 haste to saddle my Indian pony, to ride up to the corner of 
 the mountain, and to enjoy one farewell sight of my depart- 
 ing father. The two men had set forth at a deliberate pace ; 
 nor was I long behind them, when I reached the point of view. 
 I was the more amazed to see no moving creature in the land- 
 scape. The moon, as the saying is, shone bright as day ; 
 and nowhere, under the whole arch of night, was there a 
 growing tree, a bush, a farm, a patch of tillage, or any 
 evidence of man, but one. From the corner where I stood, 
 a rugged bastion of the line of bluffs concealed the doctor's 
 house; and across the top of that projection the soft night 
 wind carried and unwound about the hills a coil of sable 
 smoke. What fuel could produce a vapor so sluggish to dis- 
 sipate in that dry air, or what furnace pour it forth so 
 copiously, I was unable to conceive; but I knew well enough 
 that it came from the doctor's chimney ; I saw well enough 
 that my father had already disappeared; and in despite of 
 reason, I connected in my mind the loss of that dear pro- 
 tector with the ribbon of foul smoke that trailed along the 
 mountains. 
 
 850
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 Days passed, and still my mother and I waited In vain 
 for news ; a week went by, a second followed, but we heard 
 no word of the father and husband. As smoke dissipates, 
 as the image glides from the mirror, so in the ten or twenty 
 minutes that I had spent In getting my horse and following 
 upon his trail, had that strong and brave man vanished out 
 of life. Hope, if any hope we had, fled with every hour ; 
 the worst was now certain for my father, the worst was to 
 be dreaded for his defenseless family. Without weakness, 
 with a desperate calm at which I marvel when I look back 
 upon it, the widow and the orphan awaited the event. On the 
 last day of the third week we rose in the morning to find oui*- 
 selves alone in the house, alone, so far as we searched, on the 
 estate; all our attendants, with one accord, had fled; and as 
 we knew them to be gratefully devoted, we drew the darkest 
 intimations from their flight. The day passed, indeed, with- 
 out event; but in the fall of the evening we were called at 
 last into the veranda by the approaching clink of horse's 
 hoofs. 
 
 The doctor, mounted on an Indian pony, rode into the 
 garden, dismounted, and saluted us. He seemed much more 
 bent, and his hair more silvery than ever; but his demeanor 
 was composed, serious, and not unkind. 
 
 " Madam," said he, " I am come upon a weighty errand ; 
 and I would have you recognize it as an eff'ect of kindness 
 in the President, that he should send as his ambassador your 
 only neighbor and your husband's oldest friend in Utah." 
 
 " Sir," said my mother, " I have but one concern, one 
 thought. You know well what it Is. Speak: my husband? " 
 " Madam," returned the doctor, taking a chair on the 
 veranda, " if you were a silly child, my position would now 
 be painfully embarrassing. You are, on the other hand, a 
 woman of great intelligence and fortitude ; you have, by my 
 forethought, been allowed three weeks to draw your own con- 
 clusions and to accept the Inevitable. Further words from 
 me are, I conceive, superfluous." 
 
 My mother was as pale as death, and trembled like a 
 reed; I gave her my hand, and she kept it in the folds of, 
 
 351
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 her dress and wrung It till I could have cried aloud. " Tlien^ 
 sir," said she at last, " you speak to deaf ears. If this be 
 indeed so, wliat have I to do with errands .^ what do I ask 
 of Heaven but to die? *^ 
 
 " Come," said the doctor, " command yourself. I bid you 
 dismiss all thoughts of your late husband, and bring a clear 
 mind to bear upon your own future and the fate of that 
 young girl." 
 
 " You bid me dismiss " began my mother. " Then 
 
 you know ! " she cried. 
 
 *' I know," replied the doctor. 
 
 "You know.P " broke out the poor woman. "Then It 
 was you who did the deed! I tear oif the mask, and with 
 dread and loathing see you as you are — you, whom the poor 
 fugitive beholds in nightmares, and awakes raving — you, 
 the Destroying Angel ! " 
 
 " Well, madam, and what then .'' '* returned the doctor, 
 " Have not my fate and yours been similar .'' Are we not 
 both immured in this strong prison of Utah? Have you not 
 tried to flee, and did not the Open Eye confront you In the 
 canyon? Who can escape the watch of that unsleeping eye 
 of Utah? Not I, at least. Horrible tasks have, indeed, been 
 laid upon me ; and the most ungrateful was the last ; but had 
 I refused my offices, would that have spared your husband? 
 You know well it would not. I, too, had perished along with 
 him ; nor would I have been able to alleviate his last mo- 
 ments, nor could I to-day have stood between his family and 
 the hand of Brigham Young." 
 
 " Ah," cried I, " and could you purchase life by such 
 concessions ? " 
 
 " Young lady," answered the doctor, " I both could and 
 did; and you will live to thank me for that baseness. You 
 had a spirit, Asenath, that it pleases me to recognize. But 
 we waste time. Mr. Fonblanque's estate reverts, as you 
 doubtless imagine, to the church; but some part of it has 
 been reserved for him who is to marry the family ; and that 
 person, I should perhaps tell j'ou without delay, is no other 
 than myself." 
 
 S52
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 At this odious proposal my mother and I cried out alou(5, 
 and clung together like lost souls. 
 
 " It is as I supposed," resumed the doctor, with the same 
 measured utterance. " You recoil from this arrangement. 
 Do you expect me to convince you.'* You know very well 
 that I have never held the Monnon view of women. Ab- 
 sorbed in the most arduous studies, I have left the slatterns 
 whom they call my wives to scratch and quarrel among them- 
 selves ; of me, they have nothing but my purse ; such was 
 not the union I desired, even if I had the leisure to pursue 
 it. No ; you need not, madam, and my old friend — " and 
 here the doctor rose and bowed with something of gallantry 
 — " you need not apprehend my importunities. On the con- 
 trary, I am rejoiced to read in you a Roman spirit; and if 
 I am obliged to bid you follow me at once, and that in 
 the name, not of ra}' wish, but of my orders, I hope it will be 
 found that we are of a common mind." 
 
 So, bidding us dress for the road, he took a lamp (for 
 the night had now fallen) and set off to the stable to prepare 
 our horses. 
 
 " What does it mean ? — what will become of us ? " I cried. 
 
 " Not that, at least," replied my mother, shuddering. 
 " So far we can trust him. I seem to read among his words 
 a certain tragic promise. Asenath, if I leave you, if I die, 
 you will not forget 3^our miserable parents ? " 
 
 Thereupon we fell to cross-purposes: I beseeching her to 
 explain her words ; she putting me b}', and continuing to 
 recommend the doctor for a friend. " The doctor ! " I cried 
 at last; *' the man who killed my father.'^" 
 
 *' Nay," said she, " let us be just. I do believe, before 
 Heaven, he played the friendliest part. And he alone, 
 Asenath, can protect 3'ou in this land of death." 
 
 At this the doctor returned, leading cur two horses ; and 
 when, we were all in the saddle, he bade me ride on before, as 
 he had matter to discuss with Mrs. Fonblanque. They came 
 at a foot's pace, eagerly conversing in a whisper; and pres- 
 ently after the moon rose and showed them looking eagerly 
 into each other's faces as they went, my mother laying her 
 
 S53
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 hand upon the doctor's arm, and the doctor himself, against 
 his usual custom, making vigorous gestures of protest or 
 asseveration. 
 
 At tlie foot of the track which ascended the talus of the 
 mountain to his door, the doctor overtook me at a trot. 
 
 " Here," he said, " we shall dismount ; and as your 
 mother prefers to be alone, you and I shall walk together 
 to my house." 
 
 " Shall I see her again ? " I asked. 
 
 " I give you my word," he said, and helped me to alight. 
 " We leave the horses here," he added. " There are no 
 thieves in this stone wilderness."" 
 
 The track mounted gradually, keeping the house in view. 
 The windows were once more bright; the chimney once more 
 vomited smoke; but the most absolute silence reigned, and, 
 but for the figure of my mother very slowly following in our 
 wake, I felt convinced that there was no human soul within 
 a range of miles. At the thought, I looked upon the doctor, 
 gravely walking by my side, with bowed shoulders, and then 
 once more at his house, lit up and pouring smoke like some 
 industrious factory. And then my curiosity broke forth. 
 " In heaven's name," I cried, " what do you make in this 
 inhuman desert.? " 
 
 He looked at me with a peculiar smile, and answered 
 with an evasion: 
 
 " This is not the first time," said he, " that you have seen 
 my furnaces alight. One morning, in the small hours, I 
 saw you driving past; a delicate experiment miscarried; 
 and I can not acquit myself of having startled either your 
 driver or the horse that drew you." 
 
 " What ! " cried I, beholding again in fancy the antics of 
 the figure, " could that be you? " 
 
 " It was I," he replied ; " but do not fancy that I was 
 mad. I was in agony. I had been scalded cruelly." 
 
 We were now near the house, which, unlike the ordinary 
 houses of the country, was built of hewn stone and very 
 solid. Stone, too, was its foundation, stone its background. 
 Not a, blade of grass sprouted among the broken mineral 
 
 354
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 about the walls, not a flower adorned the windows. Over the 
 door, by way of sole adornment, the Mormon Eye was rudely 
 sculptured ; I had been brought up to view that emblem from 
 my childhood; but since the night of our escape, it had 
 acquired a new significance, and set me shrinking. The 
 smoke rolled voluminously from the chimney top, its edges 
 ruddy with the fire ; and from the far corner of the building, 
 near the ground, angry puffs of steam shone snow-white in 
 the moon and vanished. 
 
 The doctor opened the door and paused upon the thres- 
 hold. " You ask me what I make here," he observed : " Two 
 things: Life and Death." And he motioned me to enter. 
 
 " I shall await my mother," said I. 
 
 " Child," he replied, " look at me : am I not old and 
 broken,? Of us two, which is the stronger, the young maiden 
 or the withered man? " 
 
 I bowed, and passing by him, entered a vestibule or 
 kitchen, lighted by a good fire and a shaded reading-lamp. 
 It was furnished only with a dresser, a rude table, and some 
 wooden benches ; and on one of these the doctor motioned me 
 to take a seat ; and passing by another door into the interior 
 of the house, he left me to myself. Presently I heard the 
 jar of iron from the far end of the building; and this was 
 followed by the same throbbing noise that had startled me 
 in the valley, but now so near at hand as to be menacing by 
 loudness, and even to shake the house with every recurrence 
 of the stroke. I had scarce time to master my alarm when 
 the doctor returned, and almost in the same moment my 
 mother appeared upon the threshold: But how am I to de- 
 scribe to you the peace and ravishment of that face.? Years 
 seemed to have passed over her head during that brief ride, 
 and left her younger and fairer; her eyes shone, her smile 
 went to my heart ; she seemed no more a woman, but the angel 
 of ecstatic tenderness. I ran to her in a kind of terror; but 
 she shrank a little back and laid her finger on her lips, with 
 something arch and yet unearthly. To the doctor, on the 
 contrary, she reached out her hand as to a friend and helper ; 
 and so strange was the scene that I forgot to be offended.
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Lucy," said the doctor, " all is prepared. Will you go 
 alone, or shall your daughter follow us ? " 
 
 " Let Asenath come," she answered, " dear Asenath ! At 
 this hour, when I am purified of fear and sorrow, and al- 
 ready survive myself and my affections, it is for your sake, 
 and not for mine, that I desire her presence. Wex'e she shut 
 out, dear friend, it is to be feared she might misjudge your 
 kindness." 
 
 "Mother," I cried wildly, "mother, what is this.? " 
 
 But my mother, with her radiant smile, said only 
 " Hush ! " as though I were a child again, and tossing in 
 some fever-fit; and the doctor bade me be silent and trouble 
 her no more. " You have made a choice," he continued, 
 addressing my mother, " that has often strangely tempted 
 me. The two extremes : all, or else nothing ; never, or this 
 very hour upon the clock — these have been my incongruous 
 desires. But to accept the middle term, to be content with a 
 half-gift, to flicker awhile and to burn out — never for an 
 hour, never since I was born, has satisfied the appetite of 
 my ambition." He looked upon my mother fixedly, much 
 of admiration and some touch of envy in his eyes ; then, with 
 a profound sigh, he led the way into the inner room. 
 
 It was very long. From end to end it was lit up by many 
 lamps, which by the changeful color of their light, and by 
 the incessant snapping sounds with which they burned, X 
 have since divined to be electric. At the extreme end an 
 open door gave us a glimpse into what must have been a 
 lean-to shed beside the chimney: and this, in strong contrast 
 to the room, was painted with a red reverberation, as from 
 furnace-doors. The walls were lined with books and glazed 
 cases, the tables crowded with the implements of chemical 
 research ; great glass accumulators glittered in the light ; 
 and through a hole in the gable near the shed door, a heavy 
 driving belt entered the apartment and ran overhead upon 
 steel pulleys, with clumsy activity and many ghostly and 
 fluttering sounds. In one corner I perceived a chair rest- 
 ing upon crystal feet, and curiously wreathed with wire. To 
 this my mother advanced with a decisive swiftness, 
 
 35(i 
 
 i
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 «Is tins it?" she asked. 
 
 The doctor bowed in silence. 
 
 " Asenath," said my mother, " in this sad end of my life 
 I have found one helper. Look upon him : it is Doctor Grier- 
 son. Be not, O my daughter, be not ungrateful to that 
 friend!" 
 
 She sat upon the chair, and took in her hands the globes 
 that terminated the arms. 
 
 " Am I right? " she asked, and looked upon the doctor 
 with such a radiancy of face that I trembled for her reason. 
 Once more the doctor bowed, but tliis time leaning hard 
 against the wall. He must have touched a spring. The least 
 shock agitated my mother where she sat ; the least passing 
 jar appeared to cross her features; and she sank back in the 
 chair like one resigned to weariness. I was at her knees that 
 moment ; but her hands fell loosely in ray grasp ; her face, 
 still beatified with the same touching smile, sank forward 
 on her bosom ; her spirit had forever fled. 
 
 I do not know how long may have elapsed before, raising 
 for a moment my tearful face, I met the doctor's eyes. 
 They rested upon mine with such a depth of scrutiny, pity, 
 and interest, that even from the freshness of my sorrow, I 
 was startled into attention. 
 
 " Enough," he said, " to lamentation. Your mother went 
 to death as to a bridal, dying where her husband died. It 
 is time, Asenath, to think of the survivors. Follow me to 
 the next room." 
 
 I followed him, like a person in a dream; he made me sit 
 by the fire, he gave me wine to drink ; and then, pacing the 
 stone floor, he thus began to address me: 
 
 " You are now, my child, alone in the world, and under 
 the immediate watch of Brigham Young. It would be your 
 lot, in ordinary circumstances, to become the fiftieth bride 
 of some ignoble elder, or by particular fortune, as fortune is 
 counted in this land, to find favor in the eyes of the presi- 
 dent himself. Such a fate for a girl like you were worse 
 than death; better to die as your mother died than to sink 
 daily deeper in the mire of this pit of woman's degradation. 
 
 357
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 But is escape conceivable? Your father tried; and you be- 
 held yourself with what security his jailers acted, and how 
 a dumb drawing on a rock was counted a sufficient sentry 
 over the avenues of freedom. Where your father failed, will 
 you be wiser or more fortunate? or are you, too, helpless in 
 the toils?" 
 
 I had followed his words with changing emotion, but now 
 I believed I understood. 
 
 "I see," I cried; "you judge me rightly. I must fol- 
 low where my parents led; and oh! I am not only willing, 
 I am eager ! " 
 
 " No," replied the doctor, " not death for you. The 
 flawed vessel we may break, but not the perfect. No, your 
 mother cherished a different hope, and so do I. I see," he 
 cried, " the girl develop to the completed woman, the plan 
 reach fulfillment, the promise — ay, outdone ! I could not 
 bear to arrest so lively, so comely a process. It was your 
 mother's thought," he added, with a change of tone, " that 
 I should marry you myself." I fear I must have shown a 
 perfect horror of aversion from this fate, for he made haste 
 to quiet me. " Reassure yourself, Asenath," he resumed. 
 " Old as I am, I have not forgotten the tumultuous fancies 
 of youth. I have passed my days, indeed, in laboratories; 
 but in all my vigils I have not forgotten the tune of a 
 young pulse. Age asks with timidity to be spared intoler- 
 able pain; youth, taking fortune by the beard, demands joy 
 like a right. These things I have not forgotten ; none, 
 rather, has more keenly felt, none more jealously considered 
 them ; I have but postponed them to their day. See, then ; 
 you stand without support; the only friend left to you, 
 this old investigator, old in cunning, young in sympathy. 
 Answer me but one question. Are you free from the en- 
 tanglement of what the world calls love? Do you still com- 
 mand your heart and purposes? or are you fallen in some 
 bond-slavery of the eye and ear? " 
 
 I answered him in broken words ; my heart, I think I must 
 have told him, lay with my dead parents. 
 
 " It is enough," he said. " It has been my fate to be 
 
 358
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 called on often, too often, for those services of which we 
 spoke to-night ; none in Utah could carry them so well to a 
 conclusion ; hence there has fallen into my hands a certain 
 share of influence which I now lay at your service, partly 
 for the sake of my dead friends, your parents ; partly for 
 the interest I bear you in your own right. I shall send you 
 to England, to the great city of London, there to await the 
 bridegroom I have selected. He shall be a son of mine, a 
 3'oung man suitable in age and not grossly deficient in that 
 quality of beauty that your years demand. Since your 
 heart is free, you may well pledge me the sole promise that 
 I ask in return for much expense and still more danger ; 
 to await the arrival of that bridegroom with the delicacy of 
 a wife." 
 
 I sat awhile stunned. The doctor's marriages, I remem- 
 bered to have heard, had been unfruitful ; and this added 
 perplexity to my distress. But I was alone, as he had said, 
 alone in that dark land ; the thought of escape, of any equal 
 marriage, was already enough to revive in me some dawn 
 of hope; and in what words I know not, I accepted the 
 proposal. 
 
 He seemed more moved by ray consent than I could rea- 
 sonably have looked for. "You shall see," he cried; "you 
 shall judge for yourself." And hurrying to the next room 
 he returned with a small portrait somewhat coarsely done 
 in oils. It showed a man in the dress of nearly forty years 
 before, young indeed, but still recognizable to be the doctor. 
 " Do you like it.'' " he asked. " That is myself when I was 
 young. My — my boy will be like that, like but nobler; with 
 such health as angels might condescend to envy ; and a man 
 of mind, Asenath, of commanding mind. That should be a 
 man, I think, that should be one among ten thousand. A 
 man hke that — one to combine the passions of youth with 
 the restraint, the force, the dignity of age — one to fill all 
 the parts and faculties, one to be man's epitome — say, will 
 that not satisfy the needs of an ambitious girl.'' Say, is 
 not that enough.'' " And as he held the picture close before 
 mj eyes, his hands shook. 
 
 359
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 I told hira briefly I would aslc no better, for I was trans- 
 pierced with this display of fatherly emotion; but even as 
 I said the words, the most insolent revolt surged through 
 my arteries. I held him m horror, him, his portrait, and his 
 son ; and had there been any choice but death or a Mormon 
 marriage, I declare before heaven I had embraced it. 
 
 " It is well," he replied, *' and I had rightly counted on 
 your spirit. Eat, then, for you have far to go." S(0 saying, 
 he set meat before me; and while I was endeavoring to obey, 
 he left the room and returned with an armful of coarse 
 raiment. " There," said he, " is your disguise. I leave you 
 to your toilet." 
 
 The clothes had probably belonged to a somewhat lub- 
 berly boy of fifteen ; and they hung about me like a sack, 
 and cruelly hampered my moyement;S. But what filled me 
 with uncontrollable shudderings, was the problem of their 
 origin and the fate of the lad to whom they had belonged. I 
 had scarcely effected the exchange when the doctor returned, 
 opened a back window, helped jne out jnto the narrow space 
 between the house and the overhanging bluffs, and showed 
 me a ladder of iron footholds mortised in the rock. 
 " Mount," he said, swiftly. " Wlien you ^re ait tjie summit, 
 walk so far as j^ou are able, in tlie shadow of the smoke. 
 The smoke will bring you, sooner or later, to a canyon ; 
 follow that down, and you will find a man with two horses. 
 Him you will implicitly obey. And remember, silence! That 
 machinery which I now put in motioij for your service, may 
 by one word be turned against you. Go; heaven prosper 
 you ! " 
 
 The ascent was easy. Arrived at the top «f th<e ^liff, I 
 saw before me on the other side a vast and gradual declivity 
 of stone, lying bare to the moon ^ud the surrounding moun- 
 tains. Nowhere was any vantage or coneeajm-ent ; and know- 
 ing how these deserts were beset with spies, I made haste to 
 veil my movements under the blowing trail of smoke. Some- 
 times it swam high, rising on the night wind, and I had no 
 more substantial curtain than its moon-thrown shadow ; some- 
 times again it crawled upon the earth, and I would walk in 
 
 S60
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 it, no higher than to my shoulders, like some mountain fog. 
 But one way or another, the smoke of that ill-omened fur- 
 nace protected the first step of my escape, and led me unob- 
 served to the canyon. 
 
 There, sure enough, I found a taciturn and somber man 
 beside a pair of saddle-horses ; and thenceforward, all night 
 long, we wandered in silence by the most occult and dan- 
 gerous paths among the mountains. A little before the day- 
 spring we took refuge in a wet and gusty cavern at the 
 bottom of a gorge ; lay there all day concealed ; and the next 
 night, before the glow had faded out of the west, resumed 
 our wanderings. About noon we stopped again, in a lawn 
 upon a little river, where was a screen of bushes ; and here 
 my guide, handing me a bundle from his pack, bade me 
 change my dress once more. The bundle contained clothing 
 of my own, taken from our house, with such necessaries as a 
 comb and soap. I made my toilet by the mirror of a quiet 
 pool; and as I was so doing and smiling with some compla- 
 cency to see myself restored to my own image, the mountains 
 rang with a scream of far more than human piercingness ; 
 and while I still stood astonished, there sprang up and 
 swiftly increased a storm of the most awful and eaiih-rend- 
 ing sounds. Shall I own to you that I fell upon my face 
 and shrieked? And yet this was but the overland train 
 winding among the near mountains : the very means of my 
 salvation: the strong wings that were to carry me from 
 Utah! 
 
 When I was dressed, the guide gave me a bag, which con- 
 tained, he said, both money and papers ; and telling me that 
 I was already over the borders in the territory of Wyoming, 
 bade me follow the stream until I reached the railway station, 
 half a mile below. " Here." he added, " is your ticket as far 
 as Council Bluffs. The East express will pass in a few 
 hours." With that, he took both horses and, without further 
 words or any salutation, rode off by the waj^ that we had 
 come. 
 
 Three hours afterwards, I was seated on the end plat- 
 form of the train as it swept eastward through the gorges 
 
 361
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 and thundered in tunnels of the mountain. The change of 
 scene, the sense of escape, the still throbbing terror of pur- 
 suit — above all, the astounding magic of my new convey- 
 ance, kept me from any logical or melancholy thought. I 
 had gone to the doctor's house two nights before prepared 
 to die, prepared for worse than death; what had passed, 
 terrible although it was, looked almost bright compared to 
 my anticipations ; and it was not till I had slept a full night 
 in the flying palace car, that I awoke to the .sense of my ir- 
 reparable loss and to some reasonable alarm about the future. 
 In this mood, I examined the contents of the bag. It was 
 well supplied with gold; it contained tickets and complete 
 directions for my journey as far as Liverpool, and a long 
 letter from the doctor, supplying me with a fictitious name 
 and story, recommending the most guarded silence, and 
 bidding me to await faithfully the coming of his son. All 
 then had been arranged beforehand: he had counted upon 
 my consent, and what was tenfold worse, upon my mother's 
 voluntary death. My horror of my only friend, my aver- 
 sion for this son who was to marry me, my revolt against the 
 whole current and conditions of my life, were now complete. 
 I was sitting stupefied by my distress and helplessness, when 
 to my joy, a very pleasant lady offered me her conversation. 
 I clutched at the relief; and I was soon glibly telling her 
 the story in the doctor's letter: how I was a Miss Gould, of 
 Nevada City, going to England to an uncle, what money I 
 had, what family, my age, and so forth, until I had ex- 
 hausted my instructions, and as the lady still continued to 
 ply me with questions, began to embroider on my own ac- 
 count. This soon carried one of my inexperience beyond her 
 depth; and I had already remarked a shadow on the lady's 
 face, when a gentleman drew near and very civilly addressed 
 me: 
 
 "Miss Gould, I believe?" said he; and then, excusing 
 himself to the lady by the authority of my guardian, drew 
 me to the fore platform of the Pullman car. " Miss Gould," 
 he said in my ear, " is it possible that you suppose yourself 
 in safety? Let me completely undeceive you. One more
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 such indiscretion and 3'ou return to Utah. And, in the 
 meanwhile, if this woman should again address you, you 
 are to reply with these words : ' Madam, I do not like you, 
 and I will be obliged if you will suffer me to choose my own 
 associates.' " 
 
 Alas, I had to do as I was bid ; this lady, to whom I 
 already felt myself drawn with the strongest cords of sym- 
 pathy, I dismissed with insult ; and thenceforward, through 
 all that day I sat in silence, gazing on the bare plains and 
 swallowing my tears. Let that suffice: it was the pattern 
 of my journey. Whether on the train, at the hotels, or on 
 board the ocean steamer, I never exchanged a friendly word 
 with any fellow-traveler but I was certain to be interrupted. 
 In every place, on every side, the most unlikely persons, man 
 or woman, rich or poor, became protectors to forward me 
 upon my journey or spies to observe and regulate my con- 
 duct. Thus I crossed the States, thus passed the ocean, the 
 Mormon Eye still following my movements ; and when at 
 length a cab had set me down before that London lodging- 
 house from which you saw me fleeing this morning, I had 
 already ceased to struggle and ceased to hope. 
 
 The landlady, like every one else through all that journey, 
 was expecting my arrival. A fire was lighted in my room, 
 which looked upon the garden ; there were books on the 
 table, clothes in the drawers; and there (I had almost said 
 with contentment, and certainly with resignation) I saw 
 month follow month over my head. At times my landlady 
 took me for a walk or an excursion, but she would never 
 suffer me to leave the house alone; and I, seeing that she 
 also lived under the shadow of that widespread Mormon 
 terror, felt too much pity to resist. To the child born on 
 Mormon soil, as to the man who accepts the engagements of 
 a secret order, no escape is possible ; so I had clearly read, 
 and I was thankful even for this respite. Meanwhile, I 
 tried honestly to prepare my mind for my approaching 
 nuptials. The day drew near when my bridegroom was to 
 visit me, and gratitude and fear alike obliged me to consent. 
 A son of Doctor Grierson's, be he what he pleased, must 
 
 363
 
 THE DYNA]\IITER 
 
 still be young, and it was even probable he should be hand- 
 some ; on more than that, I felt I dared not reckon ; and in 
 molding my mind toward consent I dwelt the more carefully 
 on these physical attractions which I felt I might expect, 
 and averted my eyes from moral or intellectual considera- 
 tions. 
 
 We have a great power upon our spirits ; and as time 
 passed I worked mj'self into a frame of acquiescence, nay, 
 and I began to grow impatient for the hour. At night 
 sleep forsook me ; I sat all day by the fire, absorbed in 
 dre«,ms, conjuring up the features of m}"^ husband, and 
 anticipating in fancy the touch of his hand and the sound 
 of his voice. In the dead level and solitude of my existence, 
 this was the one eastern window and the one door of hope. 
 At last, I had so cultivated and prepared my will, that I 
 began to be besieged with fears upon the other side. Hov/ 
 if it was I that did not please? How if this imseen lover 
 should turn from me with disaffection? And now I spent 
 hours before the glass, studying and judging my attrac- 
 tions, and was never weary of changing my dress or ordering 
 my hair. 
 
 When the day came I was long about my toilet; but at 
 last, with a sort of hopeful desperation, I had to own that 
 I could do no more, and must now stand or fall by nature. 
 My occupation ended, I fell a prey to the most sickening 
 impatience, mingled with alarms ; giving ear to the swelling 
 rumor of the streets, and at each change of sound or silence, 
 starting, shrinking, and coloring to the brow. Love is not 
 to be prepared, I know, without some knowledge of the 
 object; and yet, when the cab at last rattled to the door 
 and I heard my visitor mount the stairs, such was the 
 tumult of hopes in my poor bosom that love itself might 
 have been proud to own their parentage. The door opened, 
 and it was Doctor Grierson that appeared. I believe I must 
 have screamed aloud, and I know, at least, that I fell faint- 
 ing to the floor. 
 
 A^Hien I came to myself he was standing over me, count- 
 ing my pulse. " I have startled you," he said. " A dif-
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 ficulty unforeseen — the impossibility of obtaining a certain 
 drug in its full purity — has forced me to resort to London 
 unprepared. I regret that I should have shown myself once 
 more without those poor attractions which are much, per- 
 haps, to you, but to me are no more considerable than rain 
 that falls into the sea. Youth is but a state, as passing as 
 that syncope from which you are but just awakened, and, 
 if there be truth in science, as easy to recall ; for I find, 
 Asenath, that I must now take you for my confidant. Since 
 my first years, I have devoted every hour and act of life to 
 one ambitious task; and the time of my success is at hand. 
 In these new countries, where I was so long content to stay, 
 I collected indispensable ingredients ; I have fortified myself 
 on every side from the possibility of error; what was a 
 dream now takes the substance of reality ; and when I offered 
 you a son of mine I did so in a figure. That son — that hus- 
 band, Asenath, is myself — not as you now behold me, but 
 restored to the first energy of youth. You think me mad.'' 
 It is the customary attitude of ignorance. I will not argue; 
 I will leave facts to speak. When you behold me purified, 
 invigorated, renewed, restamped in the original image — 
 when you recognize in me (what I shall be) the first perfect 
 expression of the powers of mankind — I shall be able to 
 laugh with a better grace at your passing and natural in- 
 credulity. To what can you aspire — fame, riches, power, 
 the charm of youth, the dear-bought wisdom of age — that 
 I shall not be able to afford you in perfection? Do not de- 
 ceive yourself. I already excel you in every human gift 
 but one : when that gift also has been restored to me you 
 will recognize your master." 
 
 Hereupon, consulting his watch, he told me he must now 
 leave me to myself; and bidding me consult reason, and not 
 girlish fancies, he withdrew. I had not the courage to move ; 
 the night fell and found me still where he had laid me during 
 my faint, my face buried in my hands, my soul drowned in 
 the darkest apprehensions. Late in the evening he returned, 
 carr^^ing a candle, and, with a certain irritable tremor, 
 bade me rise and sup. " Is it possible," he added, *' that I 
 
 S65
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 have been deceived in your courage? A cowardly girl is no 
 fit mate for me." 
 
 I flung myself before him on my knees, and with floods 
 of tears besought him to release me from this engagement, 
 assuring him that my cowardice was abject, and that in 
 every point of intellect and character I was his hopeless and 
 derisible inferior. 
 
 " Why, certainly," he replied. " I know you better than 
 yourself; and I am well enough acquainted with human 
 nature to understand this scene. It is addressed to me," he 
 added with a smile, " in my character of the still untrans- 
 formed. But do not alarm yourself about the future. Let 
 me but attain my end, and not you only, Asenath, but every 
 woman on the face of the earth becomes my willing slave." 
 
 Thereupon he obliged me to rise and eat ; sat down with 
 me to table ; helped and entertained me with the attentions 
 of a fashionable host ; and it was not till a late hour, that, 
 bidding me courteously good-night, he once more left me 
 alone to my misery. 
 
 In all this talk of an elixir and the restoration of his 
 youth, I scarce knew from which hypothesis I should the 
 more eagerly recoil. If his hopes reposed on any base of 
 fact, if indeed, by some abhorrent miracle, he should discard 
 his age, death were my only refuge from that most un- 
 natural, that most ungodly union. If, on the other hand, 
 these dreams were merely lunatic, the madness of a life 
 waxed suddenly acute, my pity would become a load almost 
 as heavy to bear as my revolt against the marriage. So 
 passed the night, in alternations of rebellion and despair, 
 of hate and pity ; and with the next morning I was only to 
 comprehend more fully my enslaved position. For though 
 he appeared with a very tranquil countenance, he had no 
 sooner observed the marks of grief upon my brow than an 
 answering darkness gathered on his own. " Asenath," he 
 said, " you owe me much already ; with one finger I still 
 hold you suspended over death; my life is full of labor and 
 anxiety ; and I choose," said he, with a remarkable accent 
 of command, " that you shall greet me with a pleasant face." 
 
 366
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 He never needed to repeat the recommendation ; from that 
 day forward I was always ready to receive him with appar- 
 ent cheerfulness ; and he rewarded me with a good deal of 
 his company, and almost more than I could bear of his con- 
 fidence. He had set up a laboratory in the back part of the 
 house, where he toiled day and night at his elixir, and he 
 would come thence to visit me in my parlor; now with pass- 
 ing humors of discouragement; now, and far more often, 
 radiant with hope. It was impossible to see so much of him, 
 and not to recognize that the sands of his life were running 
 low ; and yet all the time he would be laying out vast fields 
 of future, and planning, with all the confidence of youth, 
 the most unbounded schemes of pleasure and ambition. How 
 I replied I know not ; but I found a voice and words to 
 answer, even while I wept and raged to hear him. 
 
 A week ago the doctor entered my room with the marks 
 of great exhilaration contending with pitiful bodily weak- 
 ness. " Asenath," said he, " I have now obtained the last 
 ingredient. In one week from now the perilous moment of 
 the last projection will draw nigh. You have once before 
 assisted, although unconsciously, at the failure of a similar 
 experiment. It was the elixir which so terribly exploded 
 one night when you were passing my house ; and it is idle 
 to deny that the conduct of so delicate a process, among the 
 million jars and trepidations of so great a city, presents a 
 certain element of danger. From this point of view, I can 
 not but regret the perfect stillness of my house among the 
 deserts; but on the other hand, I have succeeded in proving 
 that the singularly unstable equilibrium of the elixir, at the 
 moment of projection, is due rather to the impurity than to 
 the nature of the ingredients ; and as all are now of an equal 
 and exquisite nicety, I have little fear for the result. In a 
 week then from to-day, my dear Asenath, this period of trial 
 will be ended." And he smiled upon me in a manner 
 unusually paternal. 
 
 I smiled back with my lips, but at my heart there raged 
 the blackest and most unbridled terror. What if he failed? 
 And oh, tenfold worse! what if he succeeded.'' What detested 
 
 567
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 and unnatural changeling would appear to claim my hand? 
 And could there, I asked myself with a dreadful sinking, be 
 any truth in his boasts of an assured victory over my reluc- 
 tance? I knew him, indeed, to be masterful, to lead my life 
 at a sign. Suppose, then, this experiment to succeed; sup- 
 pose him to return to me, hideously restored, like a vampire 
 in a legend; and suppose that, by some devilish fascination. 
 . . . My head turned; all former fears deserted me; and I 
 felt I could embrace the worst in preference to this. 
 
 My mind was instantly made up. The doctor's presence 
 in London was justified by the affairs of the Mormon polity. 
 Often in our conversation, he would gloat over the details of 
 that great organization, which he feared even while yet he 
 wielded it; and would remind me, that even in the humming 
 labyrinth of London, we were still visible to that unsleeping 
 eye in Utah. His visitors, indeed, who were of every sort, 
 from the missionary to the destroying angel, and seemed to 
 belong to every rank of life, had, up to that moment, filled 
 me with unmixed repulsion and alarm. I knew that if my 
 secret were to reach the ear of any leader my fate were 
 sealed beyond redemption ; and yet in my present pass of 
 horror and despair, it was to these very men that I turned 
 for help. I waylaid upon the stair one of the Mormon mis- 
 sionaries, a man of a low class, but not inaccessible to pity ; 
 told him I scarce remember what elaborate fable to explain 
 my application; and by his intermediacy entered into corre- 
 spondence with my father's family. They recognized my 
 claim for help, and on this very day I was to begin my 
 escape. 
 
 Last night I sat up fully dressed, awaiting the result of 
 the doctor's labors, and prepared against the worst. The 
 nights at this season and in this northern latitude are short ; 
 and I had soon the company of the returning daylight. 
 The silence in and around the house was only broken by 
 the movements of the doctor in the laboratory; to these I 
 listened, watch in hand, awaiting the hour of my escape, 
 and yet consumed by anxiety about the strange experiment 
 that was going forward overhead. Indeed, now that I was 
 
 368
 
 THE DESTROYING ANGEL 
 
 conscious of some protection for myself, my sympathies had 
 turned more directly to the doctor's side ; I caught myself 
 even praying for his success ; and when some hours ago a 
 low, peculiar cry reached my ears from the laboratory, I 
 could no longer control my impatience, but mounted the 
 stairs and opened the door. 
 
 The doctor was standing in the middle of the room ; in 
 his hand a large, round-bellied, crystal flask, some three 
 parts full of a bright amber-colored liquid; on his face a 
 rapture of gratitude and joy unspeakable. As he saw me he 
 raised the flask at ami's length. " Victory ! " he cried. 
 " Victory, Asenath ! " And then — whether the flask escaped 
 his trembling fingers, or whether the explosion was spon- 
 taneous, I can not tell — enough that we were thrown, I 
 against the door-post, the doctor into the comer of the 
 room; enough that we were shaken to the soul by the same 
 explosion that must have startled you upon the street; and 
 that, in the brief space of an indistinguishable instant, there 
 remained nothing of the labors of the doctor's lifetime but 
 a few shards of broken crystal and those voluminous and 
 ill-smelhng vapors that pursued rne in my flight.
 
 THE sauiRE OF DAMES (concluded). 
 
 WHAT with the lady's animated manner and dramatic 
 conduct of her voice, Challoner had thrilled to every 
 incident with genuine emotion. His fancy, which was not 
 perhaps of a very hvely character, applauded both the mat- 
 ter and the style; but the more judicial functions of his mind 
 refused assent. It was an excellent story ; and it might be 
 true, but he believed it was not. Miss Fonblanque was a 
 lady, and it was doubtless possible for a lady to wander 
 from the truth; but how was a gentleman to tell her so.'' 
 His spirits for some time had been sinking, but they now 
 fell to zero ; and long after her voice had died away he still 
 sat with a troubled and averted countenance, and could find 
 no form of words to thank her for her narrative. His mind, 
 indeed, was empty of every thing beyond a dull longing for 
 escape. From this pause, which grew more embarrassing 
 with every second, he was roused by the sudden laughter of 
 the lady. His vanity was alarmed ; he turned and faced 
 her; their eyes met; and he caught from hers a spark of 
 such frank merriment as put him instantly at ease. 
 
 " You certainly," he said, " appear to bear your calam- 
 ities with excellent spirit." 
 
 " Do I not.'' " she cried, and fell once more into delicious 
 laughter. But from this access she more speedily recovered. 
 " This is all very well," said she, nodding at him gravely, 
 " but I am still in a most distressing situation, from which, 
 if you deny me your help, I shall find it difficult indeed to 
 free myself." 
 
 At this mention of help Challoner fell back to his original 
 gloom. 
 
 " My sympathies are much engaged with you," he said, 
 " and I should be delighted, I am sure. But our position is 
 most unusual; and circumstances over which I have, I can 
 
 370
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 assure you, no control, deprive me of the power — the pleas- 
 ure — unless, indeed," he added, somewhat brightening at the 
 thought, " I were to recommend you to the care of the 
 pohce? " 
 
 She laid her hand upon his arm and looked hard into his 
 eyes ; and he saw with wonder that, for the first time since 
 the moment of their meeting, every trace of color had faded 
 from her cheek. 
 
 " Do so," she said, " and — weigh my words well — you 
 kill me as certainly as with a knife." 
 
 " God bless me ! " exclaimed Challoner. 
 
 " Oh," she cried, " I can see you disbelieve my story and 
 make light of the perils that surround me ; but Avho are you 
 to judge? My family share my apprehensions; they help 
 me in secret ; and you saw yourself by what an emissary, 
 and in what a place, ihey have chosen to supply me with the 
 funds for my escape. I admit that you are brave and clever 
 and hpve impressed me most favorably ; but how are you to 
 prefer 3'our opinion before that of ni}^ uncle, an ex-minister 
 of state, a man with the ear of the Queen, and of a long 
 political experience.'' If I am mad, is he.'' And you must 
 allow me, besides, a special claim upon your help. Strange 
 as you may think my story, you know that much of it is true; 
 and if you who heard the explosion and saw the Mormon at 
 Victoria, refuse to credit and assist me, to whom am I to 
 turn.?" 
 
 " He gave 3'ou money then? " asked Challoner, who had 
 been dwelling singly on that fact. 
 
 " I begin to interest you," she cried. " But, frankly, 
 you are condemned to help me. If the service I had to ask 
 of you were serious, were suspicious, were even unusual, I 
 should say no more. But what is it? To take a pleasure 
 trip (for which, if you will suffer me, I propose to pay) 
 and to carry from one lady to another a sum of money! 
 What can be more simple? " 
 
 " Is the sum," asked Challoner, " considerable? " 
 
 She produced a packet from her bosom; and observing 
 that she had not yet found time to make the count, tore 
 
 371
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 open the cover and spread upon her knees a considerable 
 number of Bank of England notes. It took some time to 
 make the reckoning, for the notes were of every degree of 
 value ; but at last, and counting a few loose sovereigns, she 
 made out the sum to be a little under 710Z. sterling. The 
 sight of so much money worked an immediate revolution in 
 the mind of Challoner. 
 
 " And 3^ou propose, madam," he cried, " to intrust that 
 money to a perfect stranger.'' " 
 
 " Ah ! " said she with a charming smile, " but I no longer 
 regard you as a stranger." 
 
 *' Madam," said Challoner, " I perceive I must make you 
 a confession. Although of a very good family — through 
 my mother, indeed, a lineal descendant of the patriot Bruce 
 — I dare not conceal from you that my affairs are deeply, 
 very deeply involved. I am in debt, my pockets are prac- 
 tically empty; and, in short, I am fallen to that state when 
 a considerable sum of money would prove to many men an 
 irresistible temptation." 
 
 " Do you not see," returned the young lady, " that by 
 these words you have removed my last hesitation.'' Take 
 them." And she thrust the notes into the young man's 
 hand. 
 
 He sat so long, holding them, like a baby at the font, 
 that Miss Fonblanque once more bubbled into laughter. 
 
 " Pray," she said, " hesitate no further ; put them in your 
 pocket; and to relieve our position of a shadow of embar- 
 rassment, tell me by what name I am to address my knight- 
 errant, for I find myself reduced to the awkwardness of the 
 pronoun." 
 
 Had borrowing been in question, the wisdom of our 
 ancestors had come lightly to the young man's aid; but, 
 upon what pretext could he refuse so generous a trust? 
 Upon none, he saw, that was not unpardonably wounding; 
 and the bright eyes and the high spirits of his companion 
 had already made a breach in the rampart of Challoner's 
 caution. The whole thing, he reasoned, might be a mere 
 mystification, which it were the height of solemn folly to 
 
 372 
 
 I
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 resent. On the other hand the explosion, the interview at 
 the public-house, and the very money in his hands, seemed 
 to prove beyond denial the existence of some serious danger; 
 and if that were so, could he desert her? There was a choice 
 of risks : the risk of behaving with extraordinary incivility 
 and unhandsomeness to a lady, and the risk of going on a 
 fool's errand. The story seemed false; but then the money 
 was undeniable. The whole circumstances were questionable 
 and obscure; but the lady vvas charming, and had the speech 
 and manners of society. While he still hung in the wind, 
 a recollection returned upon his mind with some of the dig- 
 nity of prophecy. Had he not promised Somerset to break 
 with the traditions of the commonplace, and to accept the 
 first adventure offered? Well, here was the adventure. 
 
 He thrust the money into his pocket. 
 
 " My name is Challoner," said he. 
 
 " Mr. Challoner," she replied, " you have come very gen- 
 erously to my aid when all was against me. Though I am 
 myself a very humble person, my family commands great 
 interest; and I do not think you will repent this handsome 
 action." 
 
 Challoner flushed with pleasure. 
 
 " I imagine that, perhaps, a consulship," she added, her 
 eyes dwelling on him with a judicial admiration, " a consul- 
 ship in some great town or capital — or else But we 
 
 waste time ; let us set about the work of my delivery." 
 
 She took his arm with a frank confidence that went to 
 his heart ; and once more laying by all serious thoughts, 
 she entertained him, as they crossed the park, with her 
 agreeable gayety of mind. Near the IMarble Arch they 
 found a hansom, which rapidly conveyed them to the 
 terminus at Eustoh Square ; and here, in the hotel, they sat 
 down to an excellent breakfast. The young lad3'''s first step 
 v/as to call for writing materials and write, upon one corner 
 of the table, a hasty note; still, as she did so, glancing with 
 smiles at her companion. " Here," said she, " here is the 
 letter which will introduce you to my cousin." She began 
 to fold the paper. " My cousin, although I have never seen 
 
 37S
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 her, has the character of a very charming woman and a rec- 
 ognized beauty ; of that I know nothing, but at least she 
 has been very kind to me ; so has my lord her father ; so 
 have you — kinder than all — kinder than I can bear to think 
 of." She said this with unusual emotion ; and, at the same 
 time, sealed the envelope. " Ah ! " she cried, " I have shut 
 my letter ! It is not quite courteous : and yet, as between 
 friends, it is perhaps better so. I introduce you, after all, 
 into a family secret ; and though you and I are already old 
 comrades, you are still unknown to my uncle. You go, then, 
 to this address, Richard Street, Glasgow ; go, please, as soon 
 as you arrive; and give this letter with your own hands into 
 those of Miss Fonblanque, for that is the name by which she 
 is to pass. When we next meet, you will tell me what 
 you think of her," she added, with a touch of the provo- 
 cative. 
 
 " Ah," said Challoner, almost tenderly, " she can be 
 nothing to me." 
 
 " You do not know," replied the young lady with a sigh. 
 " By the by, I had forgotten — it is very childish, and I am 
 almost ashamed to mention it — ^but when you see Miss Fon- 
 blanque, you will have to make yourself a little ridiculous ; 
 and I am sure the part in no way suits you. We had agreed 
 upon a watchword. You will have to address an earl's 
 daughter in these words: ^Nigger, nigger, never die;' but 
 reassure yourself," she added, laughing, " for the fair 
 patrician will at once finish the quotation. Come now, say 
 your lesson." 
 
 " ' Nigger, nigger, never die,' " repeated Challoner, with 
 undisguised reluctance. 
 
 Miss Fonblanque went into fits of laughter. " Excellent," 
 said she, " it will be the most humorous scene." And she 
 laughed again. 
 
 "And what will be the counterword.? " asked Challoner, 
 stiffly. 
 
 " I will not tell you till the last moment," said she ; " for 
 I perceive you are growing too imperious." 
 
 Breakfast over, she accompanied the young man to the 
 
 .374j 
 
 I
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 platform, bought him the " Graphic," the " Athon;Eum," 
 and a paper-cutter, and stood on the step conversing till the 
 whistle sounded. Then she put her head into the carriage. 
 " Black face and shining eye! " she whispered, and instantly 
 leaped down upon the platform, with a trill of gay and 
 musical laughter. As the train steamed out of the great 
 arch of glass, the sound of that laughter still rang in the 
 young man's ears. 
 
 Challoner's position was too unusual to be long welcome 
 to his mind. He found himself projected the whole length 
 of England, on a mission beset with obscure and ridiculous 
 circumstances, and yet, by the trust he had accepted, ir- 
 revocably bound to persevere. How easy it appeared, in 
 the retrospect, to have refused the whole proposal, returned 
 the money, and gone forth again upon his own affairs, a 
 free and happy man! And it was now impossible: the en- 
 chantress who had held him with her eye had now disap- 
 peared, taking his honor In pledge; and as she had failed 
 to leave him an address, he was denied even the inglorious 
 safety of retreat. To use the paper-knife, or even to read 
 the periodicals with which she had presented him, was to 
 renew the bitterness of his remorse; and as he was alone in 
 the compartment, he passed the day staring at the landscape 
 in impotent repentance, and long before he was landed on 
 the platform of St. Enoch's, had fallen to the lowest and 
 coldest zones of self-contempt. 
 
 As he was hungry, and elegant in his habits, he would 
 have preferred to dine and to remove the stains of travel; 
 but the words of the young lady, and his own impatient 
 eagerness, would suffer no delay. In the late, luminous and 
 lamp-starred dusk of the summer evening, he accordingly 
 set forward with brisk steps. 
 
 The street to which he was directed had first seen the day 
 in the character of a row of small suburban villas on a hill- 
 side; but the extension of the city had, long since and on 
 every hand, surrounded it with miles of streets. From the 
 top of the hill a range of very tall buildings, densely in- 
 habited by the very poorest classes of the population and 
 
 S75,
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 variegated by drying-poles from every second window, over- 
 plumbed the villas and their little gardens like a seaboard 
 cliff. But still, under the grime of years of city smoke, 
 these antiquated cottages, with their Venetian blinds and 
 rural porticos, retained a somewhat melancholy savor of 
 the past. 
 
 The street, when Challoner entered it, was perfectly de- 
 serted. From hard by, indeed, the sound of a thousand 
 footfalls filled the ear; but in Richard Street itself there 
 was neither light nor sound of human habitation. The ap- 
 pearance of the neighborhood weighed heavily on the mind 
 of the young man ; once more, as in the streets of London, 
 he was impressed with the sense of city deserts ; and as he 
 approached the number indicated, and somewhat falteringly 
 rang the bell, his heart sank within him. 
 
 The bell was ancient, like the house; it had a thin and 
 garrulous note ; and it was some time before it ceased to 
 sound from the rear quarters of the building. Following 
 upon this an inner door was stealthily opened, and careful 
 and catlike steps drew near along the hall. Challoner, sup- 
 posing he was to be instantly admitted, produced his letter 
 and, as well as he was able, prepared a smiling face. To 
 his indescribable surprise, however, the footsteps ceased, and 
 then, after a pause and with the like stealthiness, withdrew 
 once more, and died away in the interior of the house. A 
 second time the young man rang violently at the bell ; a 
 second time, to his keen hearkening, a certain bustle of dis- 
 creet footing moved upon the hollow boards of the old villa ; 
 and again the faint-hearted garrison only drew near to 
 retreat. The cup of the visitor's endurance was now full 
 to overflowing ; and, committing the whole family of Fon- 
 blanque to every mood and shade of condemnation, he turned 
 upon his heel and redescended the steps. Perhaps the mover 
 in the house was watching from a window, and plucked up 
 courage at the sight of this desistance; or perhaps, where 
 he lurked trembling in the back part of the villa, reason in 
 its own right had conquered his alarms. Challoner, at least, 
 had scarce set foot upon the pavement when he was arrested 
 
 376 
 
 I
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 by the sound of the withdrawal of an inner bolt ; one fol- 
 lowed another, rattling in their sockets ; the key turned 
 harshly in the lock; the door opened; and there appeared 
 upon the threshold a man of a very stalwart figure in his 
 shirt sleeves. He was a person neither of great manly beauty 
 nor of a refined exterior; he was not the man in ordinary 
 moods, to attract the eyes of the observer ; but as he now 
 stood in the doorway, he was marked so legibly with the 
 extreme passion of terror that Challoner stood wonder- 
 struck. For a fraction of a minute they gazed upon each 
 other in silence ; and then, the man of the house, with ashen 
 lips and gasping voice, inquired the business of his visitor. 
 Challoner replied, in tones from which he strove to banish 
 his surprise, that he was the bearer of a letter to a certain 
 Miss Fonblanque. At this name, as at a talisman, the man 
 fell back and impatiently invited him to enter ; and no sooner 
 had the adventurer crossed the threshold, than the door was 
 closed behind him and his retreat cut off. 
 
 It was already long past eight at night ; and though the 
 late twilight of the north still lingered in the streets, in the 
 passage it was already groping dark. The man led Chal- 
 loner directly to a parlor looking on the garden to the back. 
 Here he had apparently been supping; for by the light of 
 a tallow dip, the table was seen to be covered with a napkin, 
 and set out with a quart of bottled ale and the heel of a 
 Gouda cheese. The room, on the other hand, was furnished 
 with faded solidity, and the walls were lined with scholarly 
 and costly volumes in glazed cases. The house must have 
 been taken furnished ; for it had no congruity with this man 
 of the shirt sleeves and the mean supper. As for the earl's 
 daughter, the earl and the visionary consulships in foreign 
 cities, they had long ago begun to fade in Challoner's 
 imagination. Like Doctor Grierson and the Mormon angels, 
 they were plainly woven of the stuff of dreams. Not an 
 illusion remained to the knight-errant ; not a hope was left 
 him, but to be speedily relieved from this disreputable 
 business. 
 
 The man had continued to regard his visitor with undis- 
 
 S77
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 guised anxiety, and began once more to press him for his 
 errand. 
 
 " I am here," said Challoner, " simply to do a service 
 between two ladies ; and I must ask you, without further de- 
 lay, to summon Miss Fonblanque, into whose hands alone I 
 am authorized to deliver the letter that I bear." 
 
 A growing wonder began to mingle on the man's face 
 with the lines of solicitude. " I am Miss Fonblanque," he 
 said; and then, perceiving the effect of this communication, 
 *' Good God!" he cried, "what are you staring at.^* I tell 
 you, I am Miss Fonblanque." 
 
 Seeing the speaker wore a chin-beard of considerable 
 length, and the remainder of his face was blue with shaving, 
 Challoner could only suppose himself the subject of a jest. 
 He was no longer under the spell of the young lady's pres- 
 ence; and with men, and above all with his inferiors, he was 
 capable of some display of spirit. 
 
 " Sir," said he, pretty roundly, " I have put myself to 
 great inconvenience for persons of whom I know too little, 
 and I begin to be weary of the business. Either you shall 
 immediately summon Miss Fonblanque, or I leave this house 
 and put myself under the direction of the police." 
 
 " This is horrible ! " exclaimed the man. " I declare be- 
 fore Heaven I am the person meant, but how shall I convince 
 you.'' It must have been Clara, I perceive, that sent you on 
 this errand — a mad woman, who jests with the most deadly 
 interests ; and here we are incapable, perhaps, of an agree- 
 ment, and Heaven knows what may depend on our 
 delay ! " 
 
 He spoke with a really startling earnestness ; and at the 
 same time there flashed upon the mind of Challoner the 
 ridiculous jingle which was to serve as a pass-word. " This 
 may, perhaps, assist you," he said; and then, with some 
 embarrassment : " ' Nigger, nigger, never die.' " 
 
 A light of relief broke upon the troubled countenance of 
 the man with the chin-beard. " * Black face and shining 
 eye ' — give me the letter," he panted in one gasp : 
 
 " Well," said Challoner, though still with some reluc- 
 
 S78
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 tance, " I suppose I must regard you as the proper recipient ; 
 and though I may justly complain of the spirit in which I 
 have been treated, I am only too glad to be done with all 
 responsibility. Here it is," and he produced the envelope. 
 
 The man leaped upon it like a beast, and with hands that 
 trembled in a manner painful to behold, tore it open and 
 unfolded the letter. As he read, terror seemed to mount 
 upon him to the pitch of nightmare. He struck one hand 
 upon his brow, while with the other, as if unconsciously, he 
 crumpled the paper to a ball. " My gracious powers ! " he 
 cried ; and then, dashing to the window, which stood open on 
 the garden, he clapped forth his head and shoulders, and 
 whistled long and shrill. Challoner fell back into a corner, 
 and resolutely grasping his staff, prepared for the most 
 desperate events ; but the thoughts of the man with the chin- 
 beard were far removed from violence. Turning again into 
 the room, and once more beholding his visitor, whom he 
 appeared to have forgotten, he fairly danced with trepida- 
 tion. " Impossible ! " he cried. " Oh, quite impossible ! 
 O Lord, I have lost my head." And then, once more striking 
 his hand upon his brow, " The money ! " he exclaimed. 
 " Give me the money." 
 
 " My good friend," replied Challoner, " this is a very 
 painful exhibition ; and until I see you reasonably master of 
 yourself, I decline to proceed with any business." 
 
 " You are quite right," said the man. " I am of a very 
 nervous habit; a long course of the dumb ague has under- 
 mined my constitution. But I know you have money ; it may 
 be still the saving of me; and oh, dear young gentleman, in 
 pity's name be expeditious ! " 
 
 Challoner, sincerely uneasy as he was, could scarce refrain 
 from laughter ; but he was himself in a hurry to be gone, 
 and without more delay produced the money. " You will 
 find the sum, I trusty correct," he observed ; " and let me ask 
 you to give me a receipt." 
 
 But the man heeded him not. He seized the monej', and 
 disregarding the sovereigns that rolled loose upon the floor, 
 thrust the bundle of notes into his pocket. 
 
 379
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " A receipt," repeated Challoner with some asperity, " I 
 insist on a receipt." 
 
 "Receipt?" repeated the man a httle wildly. "A re- 
 ceipt.? Immediately! Await me here." 
 
 Challoner, in reply, begged the gentleman to lose no un- 
 necessary time, as he was himself desirous of catching a par- 
 ticular train. 
 
 " Ah, by God, and so am I ! " exclaimed the man with 
 the chin-beard ; and with that he was gone out of the room, 
 and had rattled up stairs, four at a time, to the upper story 
 of the villa. 
 
 " This is certainly a most amazing business," thought 
 Challoner, " certainly a most disquieting affair ; and I can 
 not conceal from myself that I have become mixed up with 
 either lunatics or malefactors. I may truly thank my stars 
 that I am so nearly and so creditably done with it." Thus 
 thinking and perhaps remembering the episode of the whis- 
 tle, he turned to the open window. The garden was still 
 faintly clear; he could distinguish the stairs and terraces 
 with which the small domain had been adorned by former 
 owners, and the blackened bushes and dead trees that had 
 once afforded shelter to the country birds ; beyond these he 
 saw the strong retaining wall, some thirty feet in height, 
 Avhich inclosed the garden to the back; and again above 
 that, the pile of dingy buildings rearing its frontage high 
 into the night. A peculiar object lying stretched upon the 
 lawn for some time baffled his eyesight; but at length he 
 made it out to be a long ladder, or series of ladders bound 
 into one; he was still wondering of what service so great 
 an instrument could be in such a scant inclosure, when he 
 was recalled to himself by the noise of some one running 
 violently down the stairs. This was followed by the sudden, 
 clamorous banging of the house door, and that again, by 
 rapid and retreating footsteps in the street. 
 
 Challoner sprang into the passage. He ran from room 
 to room, up stairs and dov/n stairs ; and in that old dingy 
 and worm-eaten house, he found himself alone. Only in one 
 apartment looking to the front, were there any traces of 
 
 380
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 the late inhabitant : a bed that had been recently slept in 
 and not made, a chest of drawers disordered by a hasty 
 search, and on the floor a roll of crumpled paper. This he 
 picked up. The light in this upper story looking to the 
 front was considerably brighter than in the parlor; and he 
 was able to make out that the paper bore the mark of the 
 hotel at Euston, and even, by peering closely, to decipher the 
 following lines in a very elegant and careful female hand: 
 
 " Dear M'Guire, — It is certain your retreat is known. 
 We have just had another failure, clockwork thirty hours 
 too soon, with the usual humiliating result. Zero is quite 
 disheartened. We are all scattered, and I could find no one 
 but the ■solemn ass who brings you this and the money. I 
 would love to see your meeting. — Ever yours, 
 
 " Shining Eye." 
 
 Challoner was stricken to the heart. He perceived by 
 what facility, by what unmanly fear of ridicule, he had been 
 brought down to be the gull of this intriguer ; and his wrath 
 flowed forth in almost equal measure against himself, against 
 the woman, and against Somerset, whose idle counsels had 
 impelled him to embark on that adventure. 2\t the same time 
 a great and troubled curiosity, and a certain chill of fear, 
 possessed his spirit. The conduct of the man with the chin- 
 beard, the terms of the letter, and the explosion of the early 
 morning, fitted together like parts in some obscure and mis- 
 chievous imbroglio. Evil was certainly afoot ; evil, secrecy, 
 terror and falsehood were the conditions and the passions 
 of the people among whom he had begun to move, like a blind 
 puppet ; and he who began as a puppet, his experience told 
 him, was often doomed to perish as a victim. 
 
 From the stupor of deep thought into which he had 
 glided with the letter in his hand, he was awakened by the 
 clatter of the bell. He glanced from the window ; and, con- 
 ceive his horror and surprise when he beheld, clustered on 
 the steps, in the front garden and on the pavement of the 
 street, a fonnidable posse of police I He started to the full 
 
 381
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 possession of his powers and courage. Escape, and escape 
 at any cost, was the one idea that possessed him. Swiftly 
 and silently he redescended the creaking stairs ; he was al- 
 ready in the passage when a second and more imperious 
 summons from the door awoke the echoes of the empty house ; 
 nor had the bell ceased to jangle before he had bestridden 
 the window-sill of the parlor and was lowering himself into 
 the garden. His coat was hooked upon the iron flower 
 basket; for a moment he hung dependent, heels and head 
 below ; and then, with the noise of rending cloth and followed 
 by several pots, he dropped upon the sod. Once more the 
 bell was rung, and now with furious and repeated peals. 
 The desperate Challoner turned his eyes on every side. They 
 fell upon the ladder, and he ran to it, and with strenuous but 
 unavailing effort sought to raise it from the ground. Sud- 
 denly the weight, which was thus resisting his whole strength, 
 began to lighten in his hands ; the ladder, like a thing of 
 life, reared its bulk from off the sod ; and Challoner, leaping 
 back with a cry of almost superstitious terror, beheld the 
 whole structure mount, foot by foot, against the face of the 
 retaining wall. At the same time, two heads were dimly 
 visible above the parapet, and he was hailed by a guarded 
 whistle. Something in its modulation recalled, like an echo, 
 the whistle of the man with the chin-beard. 
 
 Had he chanced upon a means of escape prepared before- 
 hand by those very miscreants, whose messenger and gull he 
 had become.-^ Was this, indeed, a means of safety, or but 
 the starting-point of further complication and disaster .'^ 
 He paused not to reflect. Scarce was the ladder reared to 
 its full length than he had sprung already on the rounds ; 
 hand over hand, swift as an ape, he scaled the tottering 
 stairway. Strong arms received, embraced, and helped him ; 
 he was lifted and set once more upon the earth; and with 
 the spasm of his alarm yet unsubsided, found himself, in 
 the company of two rough-looking men, in the paved back 
 yard of one of the tall houses that crowned the summit of the 
 hill. Meanwhile, from below, the note of the bell had been 
 succeeded by the sound of vigorous and redoubling blows. 
 
 382 
 
 j|
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 ** Are you all out?" asked one of his companions; and 
 as soon as he had babbled an answer in the affirmative, the 
 rope was cut from the top round, and the ladder thrust 
 roughly back into the garden, where it fell and broke with 
 clattering reverberations. Its fall was hailed with many 
 broken cries ; for the whole of Richard Street was now in high 
 emotion, the people crowding to the windows or clambering 
 on the garden walls. The same man who had already ad- 
 dressed Challoner seized him by the arm; whisked him 
 through the basement of the house and across the street 
 upon the other side ; and before the unfortunate adventurer 
 had time to realize his situation a door was opened and he 
 was thrust into a low and dark compartment. 
 
 " Bedad," observed his guide, " there was no time to lose. 
 Is iM'Guire gone, or was it you that whistled.'' " 
 
 " M'Guire is gone," said Challoner. 
 
 The guide now struck a light. " Ah," said he, " this 
 will never do. You dare not go upon the streets in such a 
 figure. Wait quietly here and I will bring you something 
 decent." 
 
 With that the man was gone, and Challoner, his attention 
 thus rudely awakened, began ruefully to consider the havoc 
 that had been worked in his attire. His hat was gone ; his 
 trowsers were cruelly ripped; and the best part of one tail 
 of his very elegant frock-coat had been left hanging from 
 the iron crockets of the window. He had scarce had time 
 to measure these disasters when his host re-entered the apart- 
 ment and proceeded, without a word, to envelope the refined 
 and urbane Challoner in a long ulster of the cheapest ma- 
 terial and of a pattern so gross and vulgar that his spirit 
 sickened at the sight. This calumnious disguise was cro^vned 
 and completed by a soft felt hat of the Tyrolese design and 
 several sizes too small. At another moment Challoner would 
 simply have refused to issue forth upon the world thus trav- 
 estied ; but the desire to escape from Glasgow was now too 
 strongly and too exclusively impressed upon his mind. With 
 one haggard glance at the spotted tails of his new coat, he 
 inquired what was to pay for this accouterment. The man 
 
 383
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 assured him that the whole expense was easily met from 
 funds in his possession, and begged him, instead of wasting 
 time, to make his best speed out of the neighborhood. 
 
 The young man was not loath to take the hint: True to 
 his usual courtesy, he thanked the speaker and complimented 
 him upon his taste in greatcoats ; and leaving the man some- 
 what abashed by these remarks and the manner of their de- 
 liver}^, he hurried forth into the lamp-lighted city. The last 
 train was gone ere, after many deviations, he had reached 
 the terminus. Attired as he was he dared not present himself 
 at any reputable inn ; and he felt keenly that the unassum- 
 ing dignity of his demeanor would serve to attract atten- 
 tion, perhaps mirth, and possibly suspicion, in any humbler 
 hostelry. He was thus condemned to pass the solemn and 
 uneventful hours of a whole night in pacing the streets of 
 Glasgow ; supperless ; a figure of fun for all beholders ; wait- 
 ing the dawn, with hope indeed, but with unconquerable 
 shrinkings ; and above all things, filled with a profound sense 
 of the folly and weakness of his conduct. It may be con- 
 ceived with what curses he assailed the memory of the fair 
 narrator of Hyde Park ; her parting laughter rang in his 
 ears all night with damning mockery and iteration; and 
 when he could spare a thought from this chief artificer of 
 his confusion, it was to expend his wrath on Somerset and 
 the career of the amateur detective. With the coming of 
 day, he found in a shy milk-shop the means to appease hi= 
 hunger. 
 
 There were still many hours to wait before the depart- 
 ure of the south express ; these he passed wandering with 
 indescribable fatigue in the obscurer by-streets of the city ; 
 and at length slipped quietly into the station and took 
 his place in the darkest corner of a third-class carriage. 
 Here, all day long, he jolted on the bare boards, distressed 
 by heat and continually re-awakened from uneasy slumbers. 
 By the half return ticket in his purse, he was entitled to 
 make the journey on the easy cushions and with the ample 
 space of the first-class ; but alas ! in his absurd attire he 
 durst not for decency commingle with his equals ; and this 
 
 384 
 
 J
 
 THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 
 
 small annoyance, coming last in such a series of disasters, 
 cut him to the heart. 
 
 That night, when, in his Putney lodging, he reviewed the 
 expense, anxiety, and weariness of his adventure; when he 
 beheld the ruins of his last good trowsers and his last pre- 
 sentable coat ; and above all, when his eye by any chance 
 alighted on the Tyrolese hat or the degrading vilster, his 
 heart would overflow with bitterness, and it was only by a 
 serious call on his pliilosophy that he maintained the dignity 
 of his demeanor. 
 
 
 §83
 
 fOMERSET's adventure: THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 MR. PAUL SOMERSET was a young gentleman of a 
 lively and fiery imagination, with very small capacity 
 for action. He was one who lived exclusively in dreams and 
 in the future: the creature of his own theories, and an actor 
 in his own romances. From the cigar divan he proceeded 
 to parade the streets, still heated with the fire of his elo- 
 quence, and scouting upon every side for the offer of some 
 fortunate adventure. In the continual stream of passers-by, 
 on the sealed fronts of houses, on the posters that covered 
 the hoardings, and in every lineament and throb of the great 
 city he saw a mysterious and hopeful hieroglyph. But al- 
 though the elements of adventure were streaming by him as 
 thick as drops of water in the Thames, it was in vain that, 
 now with a beseeching, now with something of a bragga- 
 docio air, he courted and provoked the notice of the pas- 
 sengers ; in vain that, putting fortune to the touch, he even 
 thrust himself into the way and came into direct collision 
 with those of the more promising demeanor. Persons brim- 
 ful of secre'i;s, persons pining for aff^ection, persons perish- 
 ing for lack of help or counsel, he was sure he could perceive 
 on every side; but by some contrariety of fortune, each 
 passed upon his way without remarking the young gentle- 
 man, and went further (surely to fare worse!) in quest of 
 the confidant, the friend, or the adviser. To thousands he 
 must have turned an appealing countenance, and yet not 
 one regarded him. 
 
 A light dinner, eaten to the accompaniment of his im- 
 petuous aspirations, broke in upon the series of his attempts 
 on fortune ; and when he returned to the task, the lamps 
 were already lighted, and the nocturnal crowd was dense 
 upon the pavement. Before a certain restaurant, whose 
 name will readily occur to any student of our Babylonj 
 
 386 
 
 I
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 people were already packed so closely that passage had 
 grown difficult; and Somerset, standing in the kennel, 
 watched, with a hope that was beginning to grow somewhat 
 weary, the faces and the manners of the crowd. Suddenly 
 he was startled by a gentle touch upon the shoulder, and 
 facing about, he was aware of a very plain and elegant 
 brougham, drawn by a pair of powerful horses, and driven 
 by a man in sober livery. There were no arms upon the 
 panel; the window was open, but the interior was obscure; 
 the driver yawned behind his palm ; and the young man was 
 already beginning to suppose himself the dupe of his own 
 fancy, when a hand, no larger than a child's and smoothly 
 gloved in white, appeared in a corner of the window and 
 privily beckoned him to approach. He did so, and looked 
 in. The carriage was occupied by a single small and dainty 
 figure, swathed head and shoulders in impenetrable folds of 
 white lace ; and a voice, speaking low and silvery, addressed 
 him in these words : 
 
 " Open the door and get in." 
 
 " It must be," thought the young man with an almost 
 unbearable thrill, " it must be that duchess at last ! " Yet, 
 although the moment was one to which he had long looked 
 forward, it was with a certain share of alarm that he opened 
 the door, and, mounting into the brougham, took his seat 
 beside the lady of the lace. Whether or no she had touched 
 a spring, or given some other signal, the young man had 
 hardly closed the door before the carriage, with consider- 
 able swiftness, and with a very luxurious and easy movement 
 on its springs, turned and began to drive toward the west. 
 
 Somerset, as I have written, was not unprepared; it had 
 long been his particular pleasure to rehearse his conduct in 
 the most unlikely situations ; and this, among others, of the 
 patrician ravisher, was one he had familiarly studied. 
 Strange as it may seem, however, he could find no apposite 
 remark; and as the lady, on her side, vouchsafed no further 
 sign, they continued to drive in silence through the streets. 
 Except for alternate flashes from the passing lamps, the 
 carriage was plunged in obscurity; and beyond the fact 
 
 387
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 that the fittings were luxurious, and that the lady was 
 singularly small and slender in person, and, all but one 
 gloved hand, still swathed in her costly veil, the young man 
 could decipher no detail of an inspiring nature. The sus- 
 pense began to grow unbearable. Twice he cleared his throat, 
 and twice the whole resources of the language failed him. 
 In similar scenes, when he had forecast them on the theater 
 of fancy, his presence of mind had always been complete, 
 his eloquence remarkable; and at tliis disparity between the 
 rehearsal and the performance, he began to be seized with a 
 panic of apprehension. Here, on the very threshold of ad- 
 venture, suppose him ignominiously to fail ; suppose that 
 after ten, twenty, or sixty seconds of still uninterrupted 
 silence, the lady should touch the check-string and re-de- 
 posit him, weighed and found wanting, on the common 
 street ! Thousands of persons of no mind at all, he reasoned, 
 would be found more equal to the part ; could, that very 
 instant, by some decisive step, prove the lady's choice to 
 have been well inspired, and put a stop to this intolerable 
 silence. 
 
 His eye at this point lighted on the hand. It was better 
 to fall by desperate councils than to continue as he was ; and 
 with one tremulous swoop he pounced on the gloved fingers 
 and drew them to liimself. One overt step, it had appeared 
 to him, would dissolve the spell of his embarrassment; in 
 act, he found it otherwise : he found liimself no less incapable 
 of speech or further progress ; and with the lady's hand in 
 his, sat helpless. But worse was in store. A peculiar 
 quivering began to agitate the form of his companion; the 
 hand that lay unresistingly in Somerset's trembled as with 
 ague; and presently there broke forth, in the shadow of the 
 carriage, the bubbling and musical sound of laughter, re- 
 sisted but triumphant. The young man dropped his prize; 
 had it been possible, he would have bounded from the car- 
 riage. The lady, meanwhile, lying back upon the cushions, 
 passed on from trill to trill of the most heartfelt, liigh- 
 pitched, clear and fairy-sounding merriment. 
 
 " You must not be offended," she said at last, catching 
 
 388
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 an opportunity between two paroxysms. " If you have been 
 mistaken in the warmth of your attentions, the fault is 
 solely mine; it does not flow from your presumption, but 
 from my eccentric manner of recruiting friends ; and, be- 
 lieve me, I am the last person in the world to think the 
 worse of a young man for showing spirit. As for to-night, 
 it is my intention to entertain you to a little supper; and if 
 I shall continue to be as much pleased with your manners 
 as I was taken with your face, I may perhaps end by making 
 you an advantageous offer." 
 
 Somerset sought in vain to find some form of answer, but 
 his discomfiture had been too recent and complete. 
 
 " Come," returned the lady, " we must have no display 
 of temper ; that is for me the one disqualifying fault ; and as 
 I perceive we are drawing near our destination, I shall ask 
 you to descend and offer me your arm." 
 
 Indeed, at that very moment the carriage drew up before 
 a stately and severe mansion in a spacious square; and 
 Somerset, who was possessed of an excellent temper, with 
 the best grace in the world assisted the lady to alight. The 
 door was opened by an old woman of a grim appearance, 
 who ushered the pair into a dining-room somewhat dimly 
 lighted, but already laid for supper, and occupied by a 
 prodigious company of large and valuable cats. Here, as 
 soon as they were alone, the lady divested herself of the 
 lace in which she was infolded ; and Somerset was reheved to 
 find, that although still bearing the traces of great beauty, 
 and still distinguished by the fire and color of her e3'e, her 
 hair was of a silvery whiteness and her face lined with 
 years. 
 
 " And now, mon 'preux," said the old lady, nodding at 
 him with a quaint gayety, " you perceive that I am no longer 
 in my first youth. You will soon find that I am all the 
 better company for that." 
 
 As she spoke, the maid re-entered the apartment 
 with a hght but tasteful supper. They sat down, ac- 
 cordingly, to table, the cats with savage pantomime sur- 
 rounding the old lady's chair, and what with the excellence 
 
 389 
 
 k
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 of the meal and the gayety of his entertainer, Somerset was 
 soon completely at his ease. When they had well eaten and 
 drunk, the old lady leaned back in her chair, and taking a 
 cat upon her lap, subjected her guest to a prolonged but 
 evidently mirthful scrutiny. 
 
 " I fear, madam," said Somerset, " that my manners have 
 not risen to the height of your preconceived opinion." 
 
 " My dear young man," she replied, " you were never 
 more mistaken in your life. I find you charming, and you 
 may very well have lighted on a fairy godmother. I am 
 not one of those who are given to change their opinions, 
 and short of substantial demerit, those who have once gained 
 my favor continue to enjoy it; but I have a singular swift- 
 ness of decision, read my fellow men and women with a 
 glance, and have acted throughout life on first impressions. 
 Yours, as I tell you, has been favorable: and if, as I sup- 
 pose, you are a young fellow of somewhat idle habits, I 
 think it not improbable that we may strike a bargain." 
 
 " Ah, madam," returned Somerset, " you have divined 
 my situation. I am a man of birth, parts and breeding; 
 excellent company, or at least so I find myself; but by a 
 peculiar iniquity of fate, destitute alike of trade or money. 
 I was, indeed, this evening upon the quest of an adventure, 
 resolved to close with any offer of interest, emolument or 
 pleasure; and your summons, Avhich I profess I am still at 
 some loss to understand, jumped naturally with the inclina- 
 tion of my mind. Call it, if you will, impudence ; I am hercj, 
 at least, prepared for any proposition you can find it in your 
 heart to make, and resolutely determined to accept." 
 
 " You express yourself very well," replied the old lady, 
 " and are certainly a droll and curious young man. I 
 should not care to affirm that you were sane, for I have never 
 found any one entirely so besides myself; but at least the 
 nature of your madness entertains me, and I will reward you 
 with some description of my character and life." 
 
 Thereupon the old lady, still fondling the cat upon her 
 lap, proceeded to narrate the following particulars. 
 
 S90 
 
 i
 
 NAKRATIVE OF THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 I WAS the eldest daughter of the Reverend Bernard 
 Fanshawe, who held a valuable living in the diocese of 
 Bath and Wells. Our family, a very large one, was noted 
 for a sprightly and incisive wit, and came of a good old 
 stock where beauty was an heirloom. In Christian grace 
 of character we were unhappily deficient. From my earliest 
 years I saw and deplored the defects of those relatives whose 
 age and position should have enabled them to conquer my 
 esteem; and while I was yet a child, my father married a 
 second wife, in whom (strange to say) the Fanshawe fail- 
 ings were exaggerated to a monstrous and almost laughable 
 degree. Whatever may be said against me, it can not be 
 denied I was a pattern daughter ; but it was in vain that, 
 with the most touching patience, I submitted to my step- 
 mother's demands ; and from the hour she entered my 
 father's house, I may say that I met with notliing but in- 
 justice and ingratitude. 
 
 I stood not alone, however, in the sweetness of my dispo- 
 sition ; for one other of the family besides myself was free 
 from any violence of character. Before I had reached the 
 age of sixteen, this cousin, Jolin by name, had conceived for 
 me a sincere but silent passion ; and although the poor lad 
 was too timid to hint at the nature of his feelings, I had 
 soon divined and begun to share them. For some days I 
 pondered on the odd situation created for me by the bash- 
 fulness of my admirer: and at length, perceiving that he 
 began, in his distress, rather to avoid than seek my com- 
 pany, I determined to take the matter into my own hands. 
 Finding him alone in a retired part of the rectory garden, 
 I told him that I had divined his amiable secret ; that I knew 
 with what disfavor our union was sure to be regarded; and 
 
 391
 
 THE DYNAMITEE 
 
 that, under the circumstances, 1 was prepared to flee with 
 him at once. Poor John was Hterally paralyzed with joy; 
 such was the force of his emotions, that he could find no 
 words in which to thank me; and that I, seeing him thus 
 helpless, was obliged to arrange, myself, the details of our 
 flight, and of the stolen marriage which was immediately 
 to crown it. John had been at that time projecting a visit 
 to the metropolis. In this I bade him persevere, and prom- 
 ised on the following day to join him at the Tavistock 
 Hotel. 
 
 True, on my side, to every detail of our arrangement, I 
 arose, on the day in question, before the servants, packed a 
 few necessaries in a bag, took with me the little money I pos- 
 sessed, and bade farewell forever to the rectory. I walked 
 with good spirits to a town some thirty miles from home, 
 and was set down the next morning in this great city of 
 London. As I walked from the coach-office to the hotel, I 
 could not help exulting in the pleasant change that had 
 befallen me ; beholding, meanwhile, with innocent delight, 
 the traffic of the streets, and depicting, in all the colors of 
 fancy, the reception that awaited me from John. But alas ! 
 when I inquired for Mr. Fanshawe, the porter assured me 
 there was no such gentleman among the guests. By what 
 channel our secret had leaked out, or what pressure had 
 been brought to bear on the too facile John, I could never 
 fathom. Enough that my family had triumphed; that I 
 found myself alone in London, tender in years, smarting 
 under the most sensible mortification, and by every senti- 
 ment of pride and self-respect debarred forever from my 
 father's house. 
 
 I rose under the blow, and found lodgings in the neigh- 
 borhood of Euston Road, where, for the first time in my life, 
 I tasted the joys of independence. Three days afterwards, 
 an advertisement in The Times directed me to the office of 
 a solicitor whom I knew to be in my father's confidence. 
 There I was given the promise of a very moderate allow- 
 ance, and a distinct intimation that I must never look to 
 be received at home. I could not but resent so cruel a 
 
 392 
 
 I
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 desertion, and I told the lawyer it was a meeting I desired 
 as little as themselves. He smiled at my courageous spirit, 
 paid me the first quarter of my income, and gave me the 
 remainder of my personal effects, which had been sent to 
 me under his care, in a couple of rather ponderous boxes. 
 With these I returned in triumph to my lodgings, more con- 
 tent with my position than I should have thought possible 
 a week before, and fully determined to make the best of tha 
 future. 
 
 All went well for several months ; and, indeed, it was my 
 own fault alone that ended this pleasant and secluded 
 episode of life. I have, I must confess, the fatal trick of 
 spoiling my inferiors. My landlady, to whom I had as 
 usual been overkind, impertinently called me in fault for 
 some particular too small to mention ; and I, annoyed that 
 I had allowed her the freedom upon which she thus presumed, 
 ordered her to leave my presence. She stood a moment 
 dumb, and then, recalling her self-possession, " Your bill,'* 
 said she, " shall be ready this evening, and to-morrow, 
 madam, you shall leave my house. See," she added, " that 
 you are able to pay what you owe me ; for if I do not receive 
 the uttermost fartliing, no box of yours shall pass my 
 threshold." 
 
 I was confounded at her audacity, but as a whole quar- 
 ter's income was due to mo, not otherwise affected by the 
 threat. That afternoon, as I left the solicitor's dooi', carry- 
 ing in one hand, and done up in a paper parcel, the whole 
 amount of my fortune, there befell me one of those decisive 
 incidents that sometimes shape a life. The lawyer's office 
 was situate in a street that opened at the upper end upon 
 the Strand and was closed at the lower, at the time of which 
 I speak, by a row of iron railings looking on the Thames. 
 Down this street, then, I beheld my stepmother advancing 
 to meet me, and doubtless bound to the very house I had 
 just left. She was attended by a maid whose face was new 
 to me; but her own was too clearly printed on my memory; 
 and the sight of it, even from a distance, filled me with gen- 
 erous indignation. Flight was impossible. There was noth-
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 ing left but to retreat against the railing, and with my back 
 turned to the street, pretend to be admiring the barges on 
 the river or the chimneys of transpontine London. 
 
 I was still standing, and had not yet fully mastered the 
 turbulence of my emotions, when a voice at my elbow ad* 
 dressed me with a trivial question. It was the maid whom 
 my stepmother, with characteristic hardness, had left to 
 await her on the street, while she transacted her business 
 with the family solicitor. The girl did not know who I was ; 
 the opportunity too golden to be lost; and I was soon hear- 
 ing the latest news of my father's rectory and parish. It 
 did not surprise me to find that she detested her employers ; 
 and yet the terms in which she spoke of them were hard 
 to bear, hard to let pass unchallenged. I heard them, how- 
 ever, without dissent, for my self-command is wonderful; 
 and we might have parted as we met had she not proceeded, 
 in an evil hour, to criticise the rector's missing daughter, 
 and with the most shocking perversions, to narrate the story 
 of her flight. My nature is so essentially generous that I 
 can never pause to reason. I flung up my hand sharply, by 
 way, as well as I remember, of indignant protest; and, in 
 the act, the packet slipped from my fingers, glanced between 
 the railings, and fell and sunk in the river. I stood for a 
 moment petrified, and then, struck by the drollery of the 
 incident, gave way to peals of laughter. I was still laugh- 
 ing when my stepmother reappeared, and the maid, who 
 doubtless considered me insane, ran off^ to join her; nor had 
 I yet recovered my gravity when I presented myself before 
 the lawyer to solicit a fresh advance. His answer made me 
 serious enough, for it was a flat refusal ; and it was not until 
 I had besought him even with tears, that he consented to lend 
 me ten pounds from his own pocket. " I am a poor man," 
 said he, " and you must look for nothing further at my 
 hands." 
 
 The landlady met me at the door. " Here, madam," said 
 she, with a courtesy insolently low, " here is my bill. Would 
 it inconvenience you to settle it at once.'' " 
 
 " You shall be paid, madam," said I, " in the morning, 
 
 S94i
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 in the proper course." And I took the paper with a very 
 high air, but inwardly quaking. 
 
 I had no sooner looked at it than I perceived myself to 
 be lost. I had been short of money and had allowed my 
 debt to mount; and it had now reached the sum, which I 
 shall never forget, of twelve pounds thirteen shillings and 
 fourpence halfpenny. All evening I sat by the fire consid- 
 ering my situation. I could not pay the bill ; my landlady 
 would not suffer me to remove my boxes ; and without either 
 baggage or money, how was I to find another lodging.'' For 
 three months, unless I could invent some remedy, I was con- 
 demned to be without a roof and without a penny. It can 
 surprise no one that I decided on immediate flight ; but even 
 here I was confronted by a difficulty, for I had no sooner 
 packed my boxes than I found I was not strong enough to 
 move, far less to carry them. 
 
 In this strait I did not hesitate a moment, but throwing 
 on a shawl and bonnet, and covering my face with a thick 
 veil, I betook myself to that great bazaar of dangerous and 
 smIHng chances, the pavement of the city. It was already 
 late at night, and the weather being wet and windy, there 
 were few abroad besides policemen. These, on my present 
 mission, I had wit enough to know for enemies ; and wher- 
 ever I perceived their moving lanterns, I made haste to turn 
 aside and choose another thoroughfare. A few miserable 
 women still walked the pavement ; here and there were young 
 fellows returning drunk, or ruffians of the lowest class lurk- 
 ing in the mouths of alleys ; but of any one to whom I might 
 appeal in my distress, I began almost to despair. 
 
 At last, at the corner of a street, I ran into the arms of 
 one who was evidently a gentleman, and who, in all his ap- 
 pointments, from his furred great-coat to the fine cigar 
 which he was smoking, comfortably breathed of wealth. 
 Much as my face has changed from its original beauty, I 
 still retain (or so I tell myself) some traces of the youthful 
 lightness of my figure. Even veiled as I then was, I could 
 perceive the gentleman was struck by my appearance; and 
 this emboldened me for my adventure. 
 
 Sp5
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Sir,'' said I with a quickly beating heart, " are you 
 one in whom a lady can confide ? " 
 
 " Why, my dear," said he, removing his cigar, " that de- 
 pends on circumstances. If you will raise your veil " 
 
 " Sir," I interrupted, " let there be no mistake. I ask 
 you, as a gentleman, to serve me, but I offer no reward." 
 
 " That is frank," said he, " but hardly tempting. And 
 what, may I inquire, is the nature of the service .f* " 
 
 But I knew well enough it was not my interest to tell him 
 on so short an interview. " If you will accompany me," said 
 I, " to a house not far from here, you can see for yourself." 
 
 He looked at me awliile with hesitating eyes; and then, 
 tossing away his cigar, which was not yet a quarter smoked, 
 " Here goes ! " said he, and with perfect politeness offered 
 me his arm. I was wise enough to take it; to prolong our 
 walk as far as possible, by more than one excursion from the 
 shortest line ; and to beguile the way with that sort of con- 
 versation which should prove to him indubitably from what 
 station in society I sprang. By the time we reached the 
 door of my lodging I felt sure I had confirmed his interest, 
 and might venture, before I turned the pass-key, to be- 
 seech him to moderate his voice and to tread softly. He 
 promised to obey me; and I admitted him into the passage 
 and thence into my sitting-room, which was fortunately 
 next the door. 
 
 " And now," said he, A^hen with trembling fingers I had 
 lighted a candle, " wh vt is the meaning of all this.^^ " 
 
 " I wish you," said I, speaking Avith great difficulty, " to 
 help me out with these boxes — and I wish nobody to know.'* 
 
 He took up the candle. " And I wish to see your face," 
 he said. 
 
 I turned back my veil without a word, and looked at him 
 with every appearance of resolve that I could summon up. 
 For some time he gazed into my face, still holding up the 
 candle. " Well," said he at last, " and where do you wish 
 them taken? " 
 
 I knew that I had gained my point ; and it was with 
 a tremor in my voice that I replied, " I had thought we 
 
 396
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 might carry them between us to the corner of Euston Road," 
 said I, " where, even at this late hour, we may still find a 
 cab." 
 
 " Very good," was his reply ; and he immediately hoisted 
 the heavier of my trunks upon his shoulder, and taking one 
 handle of the second, signed to me to help him at the other 
 end. In this order we made good our retreat from the 
 house, and without the least adventure, drew pretty near to 
 the comer of Euston Road. Before a house, where there 
 was a light still burning, my companion paused, " Let us 
 here," said he, " set down our boxes, while we go forward 
 to the end of the street in quest of a cab. By doing so, 
 we can still keep an eye upon their safety ; and we avoid the 
 very extraordinary figure we should otherwise present — a 
 young man, a young lady, and a mass of baggage, standing 
 castaway at midnight on the streets of London." So it was 
 done, and the event proved him to be wise; for long before 
 there was any word of a cab, a policeman appeared upon 
 the scene, turned upon us the full glare of his lantern, and 
 hung suspiciously behind us in a doorway. 
 
 " There seem to be no cabs about, policeman," said my 
 champion, with affected cheerfulness. But the constable's 
 answer was ungracious ; and as for the offer of a cigar, 
 with which this rebuff was most unwisely followed up, he 
 refused it point-blank, and without the least civility. The 
 young gentleman looked at me with a warning grimace, 
 and there we continued to stand, on the edge of the pave- 
 ment, in the beating rain, and with the policeman still 
 silently watching our movements from the doorway. 
 
 At last, and after a delay that seemed interminable, a 
 four-wheeler appeared lumbering along in the mud, and was 
 instantly hailed by my companion. " Just pull up here, will 
 you?" he cried. "We have some baggage up the street." 
 
 And now came the hitch of our adventure; for when the 
 policeman, still closely following us, beheld my two boxes 
 lying in the rain, he arose from mere suspicion to a kind of 
 certitude of something evil. The light in the house had 
 been extinguished; the whole frontage of the street was 
 
 397 
 
 k
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 dar"k; there was nothing to explain the presence of these 
 unguarded trunks ; and no two innocent people were ever, 
 I believe, detected in such questionable circumstances. 
 
 " Where have these things come from? " asked the police- 
 man, flashing his light full into my companion's face. 
 
 " Why, from that house, of course," replied the young 
 gentleman, hastily shouldering a trunk. 
 
 The policeman whistled and turned to look at the dark 
 windows ; he then took a step toward the door, as though to 
 knock, a course which had infallibly proved our ruin ; but 
 seeing us already hurrying down the street under our double 
 burden, thought better or worse of it, and followed in our 
 wake. 
 
 " For God's sake," whispered my companion, " tell me 
 where to drive to." 
 
 " Anywhere," I replied, with anguish. " I have no idea. 
 Anywhere you like." 
 
 Thus it befell that, when the boxes had been stowed and 
 I had already entered the cab, my deliverer called out in 
 clear tones the address of the house in which we are now 
 seated. The policeman, I could see, was staggered. This 
 neighborhood, so retired, so aristocratic, was far from what 
 he had expected. For all that, he took the number, and 
 spoke for a few seconds and with a decided manner, in the 
 cabman's ear. 
 
 "What can he have said.f^ " I gasped, as soon as the cab 
 had rolled away. 
 
 " I can very well imagine," replied my champion ; " and 
 I can assure you that you are now condemned to go where 
 I have said; for, should we attempt to change our destina- 
 tion by the way, the jarvey will drive us straight to a pohce 
 office. Let me compliment you on your nerves," he added. 
 " I have had, I believe, the most horrible fright of my 
 existence." 
 
 But my nerves, which he so much misjudged, were in so 
 strange a disarray that speech was now become impossible ; 
 and we made the drive thenceforward in unbroken silence. 
 When we arrived before the door of our destination, tJsv* 
 
 398
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 young gentleman alighted, opened it with a pass-key like 
 one who was at home, bade the driver carry the trunks into 
 the hall, and dismissed him with a handsome fee. He then 
 led me into this dining-room, looking nearly as you behold 
 it, but with certain marks of bachelor occupancy, and has- 
 tened to pour out a glass of wine, which he insisted on my 
 drinking. As soon as I could find my voice, " In God's 
 name," I cried, " where am I.'' " 
 
 He then told me I was in his house, where I was very 
 welcome, and had no more urgent business than to rest 
 myself and recover my spirits. As he spoke he offered me 
 another glass of wine, of which, indeed, I stood in great 
 want, for I was faint, and inclined to be hysterical. Then 
 he sat down beside the fireside, lighted another cigar, and for 
 some time observed me curiously and in silence. 
 
 " And now," said he, " that you have somewhat restored 
 yourself, will you be kind enough to tell me in what sort 
 of crime I have become a partner.'' Are you murderess, 
 smuggler, thief, or only the harmless and domestic moon- 
 hght flitter.?" 
 
 I had been already shocked by his lighting a cigar with- 
 out permission, for I had not forgotten the one he threw 
 away on our first meeting ; and now, at these explicit insults, 
 I resolved at once to reconquer his esteem. The judgment 
 of the world I have consistently despised, but I had already 
 begun to set a certain value on the good opinion of my 
 entertainer. Beginning with a note of pathos, but soon 
 brightening into my habitual vivacity and humor, I rapidly 
 narrated the circumstances of my birth, my flight, and sub- 
 sequent misfortunes. He heard me to an end in silence, 
 gravely smoking. " Miss Fanshawe," said he, when I had 
 done, " you are a very comical and most enchanting crea- 
 ture; and I see nothing for it but that I should return to- 
 morrow morning and satisfy your landlady's demands." 
 
 " You strangely misinterpret my confidence," was my 
 reply ; " and if you had at all appreciated my character, 
 you would understand that I can take no money at your 
 hands." 
 
 399
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Your landlady will doubtless not be so particular," he 
 returned ; " neither do I at all despair of persuading even 
 your unconquerable self. I desire you to examine me with 
 critical indulgence. My name is Henry Luxmore, Lord 
 Southwark's second son. I possess nine thousand a year, 
 the house in which we are now sitting and seven others in 
 the best neighborhoods in town. I do not believe I am 
 repulsive to the eye, and as for my character, you have seen 
 me under trial. I think you simply the most original of 
 created beings ; I need not tell you what you know very well, 
 that you are ravishingly pretty ; and I have nothing more to 
 add, except that, foolish as it may appear, I am already 
 head over heels in love with you." 
 
 "Sir," said I, "I am prepared to be misjudged; but 
 while I continue to accept your hospitality that fact alone 
 should be enough to protect me from insult." 
 
 " Pardon me," said he ; "I offer you marriage." And 
 leaning back in his chair he replaced his cigar between his 
 lips. 
 
 I own I was confounded by an offer, not only so un- 
 prepared, but couched in terms so singular. But he knew 
 very well how to obtain his purposes, for he was not only 
 handsome in person, but Ills very coolness had a charm ; and 
 to make a long story short, a fortnight later I became the 
 wife of the Honorable Henry Luxmore. 
 
 For nearly twenty j^ears I now led a life of almost perfect 
 quiet. My Henry had his weaknesses ; I was twice driven 
 to flee from his roof, but not for long; for though he was 
 easily overexcited, his nature was placable below the sur- 
 face, and with all his faults, I loved him tenderly. At last 
 he was taken from me; and such is the power of self-decep- 
 tion, and so strange are the whims of the dying, he actually 
 assured me, with his latest breath, that he forgave the 
 violence of my temper ! 
 
 There was but one pledge of the marriage, my daughter 
 Clara. She had, indeed, inherited a shadow of her father's 
 failing; but in all things else, unless my partial eyes de- 
 ceived me, she derived her quahties from me, and might 
 
 400
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 be called my moral image. On my side, whatever else I may 
 have done amiss, as a mother I was above reproach. Here, 
 then, was surely every promise for the future; here, at last, 
 was a relation in which I might hope to taste repose. But 
 it was not to be. You will hardly credit me Avhen I inform 
 you that she ran away from home ; yet such was the case. 
 Some whim about oppressed nationaHties — Ireland, Poland, 
 and the hke — has turned her brain ; and if you should any- 
 where encounter a young lady (I must say, of remarkable 
 attractions) answering to the name of Luxmore, Lake, or 
 Fonblanque (for I am told she uses these indifferently, as 
 well as many others), tell her for me, that I forgive her 
 cruelty, and though I will never more behold her face, I am 
 at any time prepared to make her a liberal allowance. 
 
 On the death of Mr. Luxmore, I sought obhvion in the 
 details of business. I believe I have mentioned that seven 
 mansions, besides this, formed part of ]Mr. Luxmore's prop- 
 erty: I have found them seven Avhite elephants. The greed 
 of tenants, the dishonesty of solicitors, and the incapacity 
 that sits upon the bench, have combined together to make 
 these houses the burden of my life. I had no sooner, indeed, 
 begun to look into these matters for myself, than I dis- 
 covered so many injustices and met with so much studied 
 incivility, that I was plunged into a long series of law suits, 
 some of which are pending to this day. You must have 
 heard my name already ; I am the Mrs. Luxmore of the Law 
 Reports: a strange destiny, indeed, for one born with an 
 almost cowardly desire for peace! But I am of the stamp 
 of those who, when they have once begun a task, will rather 
 die than leave their duty unfulfilled. I have mot with every 
 obstacle : insolence and ingratitude from my own lawyers ; 
 in my adversaries, that fault of obstinacy which is to me 
 perhaps the most distasteful in the calendar; from the 
 bench, civility indeed — always, I must allow, civility — but 
 never a spark of independence, never that knowledge of the 
 law and love of justice which we have a right to look for 
 in a judge, the most august of human officers. And still, 
 against all these odds, I have undissuadably persevered. 
 
 401
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 It was after the loss of one of my innumerable cases (a 
 subject on which I will not dwell) that it occurred to me to 
 make a melancholy pilgrimage to my various houses. Four 
 were at that time tenantlcss and closed, like pillars of salt, 
 commemorating the corruption of the age and the decline 
 of private virtue. Three were occupied by persons who 
 had wearied me by every conceivable unjust demand and 
 legal subterfuge — persons whom, at that very hour, I was 
 moving heaven and earth to turn into the street. This was 
 perhaps the sadder spectacle of the two ; and my heart grew 
 hot within me to behold them occupying, in my very teeth, 
 and with an insolent ostentation, these handsome structures 
 which were as much mine as the flesh upon my body. 
 
 One more house remained for me to visit, that in which 
 we now are. I had let it (for at that period I lodged in a 
 hotel, the life that I have always preferred) to a Colonel 
 Geraldine, a gentleman attached to Prince Florizel of 
 Bohemia, whom you must certainly have heard of; and I 
 had supposed, from the character and position of my tenant, 
 that here, at least, I was safe against annoyance. What 
 was my surprise to find this house also shuttered and appar- 
 ently deserted ! I will not deny that I was offended ; I con- 
 ceived that a house, like a yacht, was better to be kept in 
 commission; and I promised myself to bring the matter be- 
 fore my solicitor the following morning. Meanwhile the 
 sight recalled my fancy naturally to the past; and yielding' 
 to the tender influence of sentiment, I sat down opposite the 
 door upon the garden parapet. It was August, and a sultry 
 afternoon, but that spot is sheltered, as you may observe by 
 daylight, under the branches of a spreading chestnut; the 
 square, too, was deserted ; there was a sound of distant music 
 in the air; and all combined to plunge me into that most 
 agreeable of states, which is neither happiness nor sorrow, 
 but shares the poignancy of both. 
 
 From this I was recalled by the arrival of a large van, 
 very handsomely appointed, drawn by valuable horses, 
 mounted by several men of an appearance more than decent, 
 and bearing on its panels, instead of a trader's name, a 
 
 402
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 coat-of-arms too modest to be deciphered from where I sat. 
 It drew up before my house, the door of which was imme- 
 diately opened by one of the men. His companions — I 
 counted seven of them in all — proceeded, with disciplined 
 activity, to take from the van and carry into the house a 
 variety of hampers, bottle-baskets, and boxes, such as are 
 designed for plate and napery. The windows of the dining- 
 room were thrown widely open, as though to air it ; and I 
 saw some of those within laying the table for a meal. 
 Plainly, I concluded, my tenant was about to return ; and 
 while still determined to submit to no aggression on my 
 rights, I was gratified by the number and discipline of his 
 attendants, and the quiet profusion that appeared to reign 
 in his establishment. I was still so thinking when, to my 
 extreme surprise, the windows and shutters of the dining- 
 room were once more closed ; the men began to reappear 
 from the interior and resume their stations on the van; the 
 last closed the door behind his exit ; the van drove away ; 
 and the house was once more left to itself, looking blindly 
 on the square with shuttered windows, as though the whole 
 affair had been a vision. 
 
 It was no vision, however; for, as I rose to my feet and 
 thus brought my eyes a httle nearer to the level of the fan- 
 light over the door, I saw that, though the day had still 
 some hours to run, the hall lamps had been lighted and left 
 burning. Plainly, then, guests were expected, and not ex- 
 pected before night. For whom, I asked myself with indig- 
 nation, were such secret preparations likely to be made? 
 Although no prude, I am a woman of decided views upon 
 morality; if my house, to which my husband had brought 
 me, was to serve in the character of a petite maison, I saw 
 myself forced, however unwillingly, into a new course of 
 litigation ; and, determined to return and know the worst, 
 I hastened to my hotel for dinner. 
 
 I was at my post by ten. The night was clear and quiet ; 
 the moon rode very high and put the lamps to shame; and 
 the shadow below the chestnut was black as ink. Here, then, 
 I ensconced myself on the low parapet, with my back against 
 
 403
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 the railings, face to face with the moonlit front of my old 
 home, and ruminating gently on the past. Time fled ; eleven 
 struck on all the city clocks; and presently after I was 
 aware of the approach of a gentleman of stately and agree- 
 able demeanor. He was smoking as he walked; his light 
 paletot, which was open, did not conceal his evening clothes ; 
 and he bore himself with a serious grace that immediately 
 awakened my attention. Before the door of this house he 
 took a pass-key from his pocket, quietly admitted himself, 
 and disappeared into the lamplighted hall. 
 
 He was scarcely gone when I observed another and a 
 much younger man approaching hastily from the opposite 
 side of the square. Considering the season of the year and 
 the genial mildness of the night, he was somewhat closely 
 muffled up ; and as he came, for all his hurry, he kept look- 
 ing nervously behind him. Arrived before my door, he 
 halted and set one foot upon the step, as though about to 
 enter; then, with a sudden change, he turned and began to 
 hurry away ; halted a second time, as if in painful indecision ; 
 and lastly, with a violent gesture, wheeled about, returned 
 straight to the door, and rapped upon the knocker. He 
 was almost immediately admitted by the first arrival. 
 
 My curiosity was now broad awake. I made myself as 
 small as I could in the very densest of the shadow, and 
 waited for the sequel. Nor had I long to wait. From the 
 same side of the square a second 3'^oung man made his ap- 
 pearance, walking slowly and softly, and like the first, muf- 
 fled to the nose. Before the house he paused; looked all 
 about him with a swift and comprehensive glance; and see- 
 ing the square lie empty in the moon and lamplight, leaned 
 far across the area railings and appeared to listen to what 
 was passing in the house. From the dining-room there came 
 the report of a champagne cork, and following upon thatc 
 the sound of rich and manly laughter. The listener took 
 heart of grace, produced a key, unlocked the area gate, 
 shut it noiselessly behind him, and descended the stair. Just 
 when his head had reached the level of the pavement, he 
 turned half round and once more raked the square with a 
 
 40.]*
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 suspicious ej'eshot. The mufflings had fallen lower round 
 his neck; the moon shone full upon him; and I was startled 
 to observe the pallor and passionate agitation of his face. 
 
 I could remain no longer passive. Persuaded that some- 
 thing deadly was afoot, I crossed the roadway and drew 
 near the area railings. There was no one below ; the man 
 must therefore have entered the house, with what purpose 
 I dreaded to imagine. I have at no part of my career 
 lacked courage; and now, finding the area gate was merely 
 laid to, I pushed it gently open and descended the stairs. 
 The kitchen door of the house, like the area gate, was 
 closed but not fastened. It flashed upon me that the crim- 
 inal was thus preparing his escape; and the thought, as it 
 confirmed the worst of my suspicions, lent me new resolve. 
 I entered the house; and being now quite reckless of my 
 life, I shut and locked the door. 
 
 From the dining-room above I could hear the pleasant 
 tones of a voice in easy conversation. On the ground floor 
 all was not only profoundly silent, but the darkness seemed 
 to weigh upon my eyes. Here, then, I stood for some time, 
 having thrust myself uncalled into the utmost peril, and 
 being destitute of any power to help or interfere. Nor will 
 I deny that fear had begun already to assail me, when I 
 became aware, all at once and as though by some immediate 
 but silent incandescence, of a certain ghmmering of light 
 upon the passage floor. Toward tliis I groped my way with 
 infinite precaution ; and having come at length as far as the 
 angle of the corridor, beheld the door of the butler's pantry 
 standing just ajar and a narrow thread of brightness fall- 
 ing from the chink. Creeping still closer, I put my eyes to 
 the aperture. The man sat witliin upon a chair, listening, I 
 could see, with the most rapt attention. On a table before 
 him he had laid a watch, a pair of steel revolvers, and a 
 bull's-eye lantern. For one second many contradictory 
 theories and projects whirled together in my head; the next, 
 I had slammed the door and turned the key upon the male- 
 factor. Surprised at my own decision, I stood and panted, 
 leaning on the walL Frora within the pautrv not a sound 
 
 4^
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 was to be heard ; the man, whatever he was, had accepted his 
 fate without a struggle, and now, as I hugged myself to 
 fancy, sat frozen with terror and looking for the worst to 
 follow. I promised myself that he should not be disap- 
 pointed; and the better to complete my task, I turned to 
 ascend the stairs. 
 
 The situation, as I groped my way to the first floor, 
 appealed to me suddenly by my strong sense of humor. 
 Here was I, the owner of the house, burglariously present 
 in its walls ; and there, in the dining-room, were two gentle- 
 men, unknown to me, seated complacently at supper, and 
 only saved by my promptitude from some surprising or 
 deadly interruption. It were strange if I could not manage 
 to extract the matter of amusement from so unusual a 
 situation. 
 
 Behind this dining-room, there Is a small apartment in- 
 tended for a library. It was to this that I cautiously groped 
 my way; and you will see how fortune had exactly served 
 me. The weather, I have said, was sultry: in order to ven- 
 tilate the dining-room and yet preserve the uninhabited ap- 
 pearance of the mansion to the front, the window of the 
 library had been widely opened and the door of communica- 
 tion between the two apartments left ajar. To this interval 
 I now applied my eye. 
 
 Wax tapers, set in silver candlesticks, shed their chastened 
 brightness on the damask of the tablecloth and the remains 
 of a cold collation of the rarest delicacy. The two gentle- 
 men had finished supper, and were now trifling with cigars 
 and maraschino; while in a silver spirit lamp, coff^ee of the 
 most captivating fragrance was preparing in the fashion 
 of the East. The elder of the two, he who had first arrived, 
 was placed directly facing me; the other was set on his left 
 hand. Both, like the man in the butler's pantry, seemed to 
 be intently listening ; and on the face of the second I thought 
 I could perceive the marks of fear. Oddly enough, however, 
 when they came to speak, the parts were found to be 
 reversed. 
 
 *' I assure you," said the elder gentleman, " I not only 
 
 406
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 heard the slamming of a door, but the sound of very 
 guarded foot-steps." 
 
 " Your highness was certainly deceived," replied the 
 other. " I am endowed with the acutest hearing, and I can 
 swear that not a mouse has rustled." Yet the pallor and 
 contraction of his features were in total discord with the 
 tenor of his words. 
 
 His highness (whom, of course, I readily divined to be 
 Prince Florizel) looked at his companion for the least frac- 
 tion of a second; and though notliing shook the easy quiet 
 of his attitude, I could see that he was far from being duped. 
 " It is well," said he ; " let us dismiss the topic. And now, 
 sir, that I have very freely explained the sentiments by 
 which I am directed, let me ask 3'ou, according to your 
 promise, to imitate my frankness." 
 
 " I have heard you," replied the other, " with great 
 interest." 
 
 " With singular patience," said the prince politely. 
 
 " Ay, your highness, and with unlooked-for sympathy," 
 returned the young man. " I know not how to tell the 
 change that has befallen me. You have, I must suppose, a 
 charm, to which even your enemies are subject." He looked 
 at the clock on the mantel-piece and visibly blanched. " So 
 late ! " he cried. " Your highness — God knows I am 
 speaking from the heart — before it be too late, leave this 
 house ! " 
 
 The prince glanced once more at his companion, and 
 then very deliberately shook the ash from his cigar. " That 
 is a strange remark," said he ; " and a propos de bottes, I 
 never continue a cigar when once the ash is fallen ; the spell 
 breaks, the soul of the flavor flies away, and there remains 
 but the dead body of tobacco ; and I make it a rule to throw 
 away that husk and choose another." He suited the action 
 to the words. 
 
 " Do not trifle with my appeal," resumed the young man 
 in tones that trembled with emotion. " It is made at the 
 price of my honor and to the peril of my life. Go — go 
 now ! lose not a moment ; and if you have any kindness for 
 
 407
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 a young man, miserably deceived indeed, but not devoid of 
 better sentiments, look not behind you as you leave." 
 
 " Sir," said the prince, " I am here upon your honor ; I 
 assure you upon mine that I shall continue to rely upon 
 that safeguard. The coffee is ready; I must again trouble 
 you, I fear." And with a courteous movement of the hand, 
 he seemed to invite his companion to pour out the coffee. 
 
 The unhappy young man rose from his seat. " I appeal 
 to you," he cried, " by every holy sentiment, in mercy to me, 
 if not in pity to yourself, begone before it is too late." 
 
 " Sir," replied the prince, " I am not readily accessible to 
 fear ; and if there is one defect to which I must plead guilty, 
 it is that of a curious disposition. You go the wrong way 
 about to make me leave this house, in which I play the part 
 of your entertainer; and, suffer me to add, young man, if 
 any peril threaten us, it was of your contriving, not of 
 mine." 
 
 " Alas, you do not know to what you condemn me," cried 
 the other. " But I at least will have no hand in it." With 
 these words he carried his hand to his pocket, hastily swal- 
 lowed the contents of a phial, and, with the very act, reeled 
 back and fell across his chair upon the floor. The prince 
 left his place and came and stood above him, where he lay 
 convulsed upon the carpet. " Poor moth ! " I heard his 
 highness murmur. " Alas, poor moth ! must we again in- 
 quire which is the more fatal — weakness or wickedness? 
 And can a sympathy with ideas, surely not ignoble in them- 
 selves, conduct a man to this dishonorable death .'^ " 
 
 By this time I had pushed the door open and walked into 
 the room. " Your highness," said I, " this is no time for 
 moralizing; with a little promptness we may save this 
 creature's life; and as for the other, he need cause you no 
 concern, for I have him safely under lock and key." 
 
 The prince had turned about upon my entrance, and re- 
 garded me certainly with no alarm, but with a profundity 
 of wonder which almost robbed me of my self-possession. 
 " My dear madam," he cried at last, " and who the devil 
 are you.'' " 
 
 408
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 I was already on the floor beside the dying man. I had, 
 of course, no idea with what drug he had attempted his 
 life, and I was forced to try him with a variety of antidotes. 
 Here were both oil and vinegar, for the prince had done the 
 young man the honor of compounding for him one of his 
 celebrated salads ; and of each of these I administered from 
 a quarter to half a pint, with no apparent efficacy. I next 
 plied him with the hot coffee, of which there may have been 
 near upon a quart. 
 
 " Have you no milk? " I inquired. 
 
 " I fear, madam, that milk has been omitted," returned 
 the prince. 
 
 " Salt, then," said I ; " salt is a revulsive. Pass the 
 salt." 
 
 "And possibly the mustard?" asked his higliness, as he 
 offered me the contents of the various salt-cellars poured 
 together on a plate, 
 
 " Ah," cried I, " the thought is excellent ! Mix me about 
 half a pint of mustard, drinkably dilute." 
 
 Whether it was the salt or the mustard, or the mere com- 
 bination of so many subversive agents, as soon as the last 
 had been poured over his throat, the young sufferer obtained 
 relief. 
 
 " There ! " I exclaimed, with natural triumph, " I have 
 saved a Hf e ! " 
 
 " And yet, madam," returned the prince, " j^our mercy 
 may be cruelty disguised. Where the honor is lost, it is, at 
 least, superfluous to prolong the life." 
 
 " If you had led a life as changeable as mine, your high- 
 ness," I replied, " you would hold a very different opinion. 
 For my part, and after whatever extremity of misfor- 
 tune or disgrace, I should still count to-morrow worth a 
 trial." 
 
 " You speak as a lady, madam," said the prince ; " and 
 for such you speak the truth. But to men there is permitted 
 such a field of license, and the good behavior asked of them 
 is at once so easy and so little, that to fail in that is to fall 
 beyond the reach of pardon. But wiU you suffer me to 
 
 409
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 repeat a question, put to you at first, I am afraid, with 
 some defect of courtesy ; and to ask you once more, who you 
 are and how I have the honor of your company? " 
 
 '• I am the proprietor of the house in which we stand," 
 said I. 
 
 " And still I am at fault," returned the prince. 
 
 But at that moment the timepiece on the mantel-shelf 
 began to strike the hour of twelve; and the young man, 
 raising himself upon one elbow, with an expression of 
 despair and horror that I have never seen excelled, cried 
 lamentably: "Midnight? O just God." We stood frozen 
 to our places, while the tingling hammer of the timepiece 
 measured the remaining strokes ; nor had we yet stirred, so 
 tragic had been the tones of the young man, when the 
 various bells of London began in turn to declare the hour. 
 The timepiece was inaudible beyond the walls of the chamber 
 where we stood; but the second pulsation of Big Ben had 
 scarcely throbbed into the night, before a sharp detonation 
 rang about the house. The prince sprang for the door by 
 which I had entered ; but quick as he was, I yet contrived to 
 intetjXiept him. 
 
 " Are you armed? " I cried. 
 
 " No, madam," replied he. " You remind me appositely ; 
 I will take the poker." 
 
 " The man below," said I, " has two revolvers. Would 
 you confront him at such odds ? " 
 
 He paused, as though staggered in his purpose. " And 
 yet, madam," said he, " we can not continue to remain in 
 ignorance of what has passed." 
 
 " No! " cried I. " And who proposes it? I am as curious 
 as yourself, but let us rather send for the police; or, if 
 3'our highness dreads a scandal, for some of your own 
 sem^ants." 
 
 " Nay, madam," he replied, smiling, " for so brave a lady, 
 you surprise me. Would you have me, then, send others 
 where I fear to go myself? " 
 
 " You are perfectly right," said I, " and I was entirely 
 wrong. Go, in God's name, and I will hold the candle 1 " 
 
 410
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 Together, therefore, we descended to the lower story, he 
 carrying the poker, I the light ; and together we approached 
 and opened the door of the butler's pantry. In some sort, 
 I beheve, I was prepared for the spectacle that met our 
 eyes; I was prepared, that is, to find the villain dead, but 
 the rude details of such a violent suicide I was unable to 
 endure. The prince, unshaken by horror as he had remained 
 unshaken by alarm, assisted me with the most respectful gal- 
 lantry to regain the dining-room. 
 
 There we found our patient, still, indeed, deadly pale, 
 but vastly recovered and already seated on a chair. He 
 held out both his hands with a most pitiful gesture of inter- 
 rogation. 
 
 " He is dead," said the prince. 
 
 " Alas ! " cried the young man, " and it should be I ! 
 What do I do, thus lingering on the stage I have disgraced, 
 while he, my sure comrade, blameworthy indeed for much, 
 but yet the soul of fidelity, has judged and slain himself for 
 an involuntary fault? Ah, sir," said he, " and you too, 
 madam, without whose cruel help I should be now beyond 
 the reach of my accusing conscience, you behold in me the 
 victim equally of my o^\ti faults and virtues. I was born a 
 hater of injustice; from my most tender years my blood 
 boiled against heaven when I beheld the sick, and against 
 men when I witnessed the sorrows of the poor ; the pauper's 
 crust stuck in my throat when I sat down to eat my dainties, 
 and the crippled child has set me weeping. What was there 
 in that, but what was noble? and yet observe to what a fall 
 these thoughts have led me ! Year after year this passion 
 for the lost besieged me closer. What hope was there in 
 kings? what hope in these well-feathered classes that now 
 roll in money? I had observed the course of history ; I knew 
 the burgess, our ruler of to-day, to be base, cowardly and 
 dull; I saw him, in every age, combine to pull down that 
 which was immediately above and to prey upon those that 
 were below; his dullness, I knew, would ultimately bring 
 about his ruin ; I knew his days were numbered, and yet how 
 was I to wait? how was I to let the poor cliild shiver in the 
 
 411
 
 THE DYNAIVIITER 
 
 rain? Tlie better days, indeed, were coming, but the child 
 would die before that. Alas, your highness, in surely no 
 ungenerous impatience I enrolled myself among the enemies 
 of this unjust and doomed society; in surely no unnatural 
 desire to keep the fires of my philanthropy alight, I bound 
 myself by an irrevocable oath. 
 
 " That oath is all my history. To give freedom to pos- 
 terity, I have forsworn my own. I must attend upon every 
 signal; and soon my father complained of my irregular 
 hours and turned me from his house. I was engaged in 
 betrothal to an honest girl ; from her also I had to part, for 
 she was too shrewd to credit my inventions and too innocent 
 to be intrusted with the truth. Behold me, then, alone with 
 conspirators ! Alas ! as the years went on, my illusions left 
 me. Surrounded as I was by the fervent disciples and 
 apologists of revolution, I beheld them daily advance in 
 confidence and desperation ; I beheld myself, upon the other 
 hand, and with an almost equal regularity, decline in faith. 
 I had sacrificed all to further that cause in which I still 
 beheved; and daily I began to grow in doubts if we were 
 advancing it indeed. Horrible was the society with which 
 we warred, but our own means were not less horrible. 
 
 " I will not dwell upon my sufferings ; I will not pause to 
 tell you how, when I beheld young men still free and happy, 
 married, fathers of children, cheerfully toiling at their 
 work, my heart reproached me with the greatness and vanity 
 of my unhappy sacrifice. I will not describe to you how, 
 worn by poverty, poor lodging, scanty food, and an unquiet 
 conscience, my health began to fail, and in the long nights, 
 as I wandered bedless in the rainy streets, the most ci'uel 
 suflTerings of the body were added to the tortures of the 
 mind. These things are not personal to me ; they are com- 
 mon to all unfortunates in my position. An oath, so light 
 a thing to swear, so grave a thing to break: an oath, taken 
 in the heat of youth, repented with what sobbings of the 
 heart, but yet in vain repented, as the years go on : an oath, 
 that was once the very utterance of the truth of God, but 
 that falls to be the symbol of a meaningless and empty 
 
 4,13
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 slavery; such is the yoke that many young men joyfully 
 assume, and under whose dead weight they live to suffer 
 worse than death. 
 
 " It is not that I was patient. I have begged to be re- 
 leased; but I knew too much, and was still refused. I have 
 fled; ay, and for the time successfully. I reached Paris. I 
 found a lodging in the Rue St. Jacques, almost opposite 
 the Val de Grace. My room was mean and bare, but the 
 sun looked into it toward evening: it commanded a peep of 
 a green garden; a bird hung by a neighbor's window and 
 made the morning beautiful; and I, who was sick, might 
 lie in bed and rest myself: I who was in full revolt against 
 the principles that I had served, and was no longer at the 
 beck of the council, and was no longer charged with shame- 
 ful and revolting tasks. Oh! what an interval of peace was 
 that! I still dream at times that I can hear the note of my 
 neighbor's bird. 
 
 " My money was running out, and it became necessary 
 that I should find employment. Scarcely had I been three 
 days upon the search, ere I thought that I was being fol- 
 lowed. I made certain of the features of the man, which 
 were quite strange to me, and turned into a small cafe, 
 where I whiled away an hour, pretending to read the papers, 
 but inwardly convulsed with terror. When I came forth 
 into the street, it was quite empty, and I breathed again ; 
 but alas, I had not turned three corners, when I once more 
 observed the human hound pursuing me. Not an hour was 
 to be lost; timely submission might yet preserve a life which 
 otherwise was forfeited and dishonored ; and I fled with 
 what speed you may conceive, to the Paris agency of the 
 society I served. 
 
 " My submission was accepted. I took up once more 
 the hated burden of that life ; once more I was at the call of 
 men whom I despised and hated, while yet I envied and ad- 
 mired them. They were whole-hearted in the things they 
 proposed ; but I, who had once been such as they, had fallen 
 from the brightness of my faith, and now labored, like a 
 hireling, for the wages of a loathed existence. Ay, sir, to 
 
 413
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 that I was condemned; I obeyed to continue to live, and 
 lived but to obey. 
 
 " The last charge that was laid upon me was the one 
 which has to-night so tragically ended. Boldly telling who 
 I was, I was to request from your highness, on behalf of my 
 society, a private audience, where it was designed to murder 
 you. If one thing remained to me of my old convictions, it 
 was the hate of kings ; and when this task was offered me, 
 I took it gladly. Alas, sir, you triumphed. As we supped, 
 you gained upon my heart. Your character, your talents, 
 your designs for our unhappy country, all had been mis- 
 represented. I began to forget you were a prince ; I began, 
 all too feelingly, to remember that you were a man. As I 
 saw the hour approach, I suffered agonies untold ; and when, 
 at last, we heard the slamming of the door which announced 
 in my unwilling ears the arrival of the partner of my crime, 
 you will bear me out with what instancy I besought you to 
 depart. You would not, alas; and what could I.'' Kill you, 
 I could not ; my heart revolted, my hand turned back from 
 such a deed. Yet it was impossible that I should suffer you 
 to stay ; for when the hour struck and my companion came, 
 true to appointment, and he, at least true to design, I could 
 neither suffer you to be killed nor yet him to be arrested. 
 From such a tragic passage, death, and death alone could 
 save me ; and it is no fault of mine if I continue to exist. 
 
 " But you, madam," continued the young man, address- 
 ing himself more directly to myself, " were doubtless born 
 to save the prince and to confound our purposes. My hfe 
 you have prolonged; and by turning the key on my com- 
 panion, you have made me the author of his death. He 
 heard the hour strike ; he was impotent to help ; and think- 
 ing himself forfeit to honor, thinking that I should fall 
 alone upon his highness and perish for lack of his support, 
 he has turned his pistol on himself." 
 
 " You are right," said Prince Florizel : " it was in no 
 ungenerous spirit that you brought these burdens on your- 
 self; and when I see you so nobly to blame, so tragically 
 punished, I stand like one reproved. For is it not strange, 
 
 414
 
 THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 
 
 madam, that jou and I, by practicing accepted and incon- 
 siderable virtues, and commonplace but still unpardonable 
 faults, should stand here, in the sight of God, with what we 
 call clean hands and quiet consciences ; while this poor youth, 
 for an error that I could almost envy him, should be sunk 
 beyond the reach of hope? 
 
 " Sir," resumed the prince, turning to the young man, 
 " I can not help you ; my help would but unchain the thun- 
 derbolt that overhangs you; and I can but leave you free." 
 
 " And, sir," said I, " as this house belongs to me, I will 
 ask you to have the kindness to remove the body. You and 
 your conspirators, it appears to me, can hardly in civility 
 do less." 
 
 " It shall be done," said the young man, with a dismal 
 accent. 
 
 " And you, dear madam," said the prince, " you, to whom 
 I owe my life, how can I serve you? " 
 
 " Your highness," I said, " to be very plain, this is my 
 favorite house, being not only a valuable property, but 
 endeared to me by various associations. I have endless 
 troubles with tenants of the ordinary class ; and at first 
 applauded my good fortune when I found one of the station 
 of your Master of the Horse. I now begin to think other- 
 wise : dangers set a siege about great personages ; and I do 
 not wish my tenement to share these risks. Procure me the 
 resiliation of the lease, and I shall feel myself your debtor." 
 
 " I must tell you, madam," replied his highness, " that 
 Colonel Geraldine is but a cloak for myself; and I should 
 be sorry indeed to think myself so unacceptable a tenant." 
 
 " Your highness," said I, " I have conceived a sincere ad- 
 miration for your character; but on the subject of house 
 property, I can not allow the interference of my feelings. 
 I will, however, to prove to you that there is nothing per- 
 sonal In my request, here solemnly engage my word that I 
 will never put another tenant in this house." 
 
 " Madam," said Florizel, " you plead your cause too 
 charmingly to be refused." 
 
 Thereupon we all three withdrew. The young man, still 
 
 41d
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 reeling in his walk, departed by himself to seek the assist- 
 ance of his fellow conspirators ; and the prince, with the 
 most attentive gallantry, lent me his escort to the door of 
 my hotel. The next day, the lease was canceled; nor from 
 that hour to this, though sometimes regretting my engage- 
 ment, have I suffered a tenant in this house.
 
 THE suPEarLuous MANSION {contmued') 
 
 AS soon as the old lady had finished her relation, Somer- 
 . set made haste to offer her his compliments. 
 
 " Madam," said he, " your story is not only entertaining, 
 but instructive; and you have told it with infinite vivacity. 
 I was much affected toward the end, as I held at one time 
 very hberal opinions, and should certainly have joined a 
 secret society if I had been able to find one. But the whole 
 tale came home to me; and I was the better able to feel for 
 you in your various perplexities, as I am myself of some- 
 what hasty temper." 
 
 " I do not understand you," said Mrs. Luxmore, in a 
 very high key. " You must have strangely misinterpreted 
 what I have told you. You must be a singularly dense 
 young man." 
 
 Somerset, seeing no probable termination to the lady's 
 anger, hurried to recant. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Luxmore," said he, " you certainly miscon- 
 strue my remark. As a man of somewhat fiery humor, my 
 conscience repeatedly pricked me when I heard what you 
 had suffered at the hands of persons similarly constituted." 
 
 " Oh, very well indeed," replied the old lady ; " and a \cvy 
 proper spirit. I regret that I have met with it so rarely." 
 
 " But in all this," resumed the young man, " I perceive 
 notliing that concerns myself," 
 
 " I am about to come to that," she returned. " And you 
 have already before you, in the pledge I gave Prince Flor- 
 izel, one of the elements of the affair. I am a woman of the 
 nomadic sort, and when I have no case before the courts I 
 make it a habit to visit continental spas: not that I have 
 ever been ill, but then I am no longer young, and I am 
 alwa^ happy in a crowd. Well, to come more shortly to 
 
 417
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 the point, I am now on the wing for Evian ; this incubus of 
 a house, which I must leave behind and dare not let, hangs 
 heavily upon my hands ; and I propose to rid myself of that 
 concern, and do you a very good turn into the bargain, by 
 lending you the mansion, with all its fittings, as it stands. 
 The idea was sudden ; it appealed to me as humorous ; and 
 I am sure it will cause my relatives, if they should ever hear 
 of it, the keenest possible chagrin. Here, then, is the key, 
 and when you return at two to-morrow afternoon, you will 
 find neither me nor my cats to disturb you in your new 
 possession." 
 
 So saying, the old lady arose, as if to dismiss her visitor, 
 but Somerset, looking somewhat blankly on the key, began 
 to protest. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Luxmore," said he, " this is a most unusual 
 proposal. You know nothing of me, beyond the fact that I 
 displayed both impudence and timidity. I may be the worst 
 kind of scoundrel ; I may sell your furniture ^" 
 
 " You may blow up the house with gunpowder for what I 
 care ! " cried Mrs. Luxmore. " It is in vain to reason. 
 Such is the force of my character that, when I have one idea 
 clearly in my head, I do not care two straws for any side 
 consideration. It amuses me to do it, and let that suffice. 
 On your side, you may do what you please — let apartments, 
 or keep a private hotel; on my part, I promise you a full 
 month's warning before I return, and I never fail religiously 
 to keep my promises." 
 
 The young man was about to renew his protest, when he 
 observed a sudden and significant change in the old lady's 
 countenance. 
 
 " If I thought you capable of disrespect ! " she cried. 
 
 " Madam," said Somerset, with the extreme fervor of 
 asseveration, " madam, I accept. I beg you to understand 
 that I accept with joy and gratitude." 
 
 " Ah, well," returned Mrs. Luxmore, " if I am mistaken, 
 let it pass. And now, since all is comfortably settled, Jewish 
 you a good-night." 
 
 Thereupon, as if to leave him no room for repentance she 
 
 41$ 
 
 I
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 hurried Somerset out of the front door, and left him stand- 
 ing, key in hand, upon the pavement. 
 
 The next day, about the hour appointed, the young man 
 found his way to the Square, which I will here call Golden 
 Square, though that was not its name. What to expect, he 
 knew not ; for a man may live in dreams, and yet be unpre- 
 pared for their realization. It was already with a certain 
 pang of surprise that he beheld the mansion, standing in the 
 eye of day, a solid among solids. The key, upon trial, 
 readily opened the front door; he entered that great house, 
 a privileged burglar; and escorted by the echoes of deser- 
 tion, rapidly reviewed the empty chambers. Cats, servant, 
 old lady, the very marks of habitation, Hke writing on a 
 slate, had been in these few hours obliterated. He wandered 
 from floor to floor ; and found the house of great extent ; 
 the kitchen offices commodious and well-appointed ; the rooms 
 many and large ; and the drawing-room, in particular, an 
 apartment of princely size and tasteful decoration. Al- 
 though the day without was warm, genial and sunny, with a 
 ruffling wind from the quarter of Torquay, a chill, as it 
 were, of suspended animation, inhabited the house. Dust 
 and shadows met the eye ; and but for the ominous proces- 
 sion of the echoes, and the rumor of the wind among the 
 garden trees, the ear of the young man was stretched in 
 vain. 
 
 Behind the dining-room, that pleasant library, referred 
 to by the old lady in her tale, looked upon the flat roofs and 
 netted cupolas of the kitchen quarters, and on a second 
 visit this room appeared to greet him with a smiling counte- 
 nance. He might as well, he thought, avoid the expense of 
 lodging: the library, fitted with an iron bedstead which he 
 had remarked in one of the upper chambers, would serve his 
 purpose for the night; while in the dining-room, which was 
 large, airy and lightsome, looking on the square and garden, 
 he might very agreeably pass his days, cook his meals, and 
 study to bring himself to some proficiency in that art of 
 painting which he had recently determined to adopt. It did 
 not take him long to make the change ; he had soon returned 
 
 419
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 to the mansion with his modest kit, and the cabman who 
 brought him was readily induced, by the young man's pleas- 
 ant manner and a small gratuity, to assist him in the in- 
 stallation of the iron bed. By six in the evening, when 
 Somerset went forth to dine, he was able to look back upon 
 the mansion with a sense of pride and property. Four- 
 square it stood, of an imposing frontage, and flanked on 
 cither side by family hatchments. His eye, from where he 
 stood whistling in the key, with his back to the garden rail- 
 ings, reposed on every feature of reahty, and yet his own 
 possession seemed as flimsy as a dream. 
 
 In the course of a few days the genteel inhabitants of the 
 square began to remark the customs of their neighbor. The 
 sight of a young gentleman discussing a clay pipe about 
 four o'clock in the afternoon in the drawing-room balcony 
 of so discreet a mansion, and perhaps still more, his 
 periodical excursion to a decent tavern in the neighborhood, 
 and his unabashed return, nursing the full tankard: had 
 presently raised to a high pitch the interest and indignation 
 of the Hveried servants of the square. The disfavor of some 
 of these gentlemen at first proceeded to the length of insult ; 
 but Somerset knew how to be affable with any class of men ; 
 and a few rude words merrily accepted and a few glasses 
 amicably shared, gained for him the right of toleration. 
 
 The young man had embraced the art of Raphael, partly 
 from a notion of its ease, partly from an inborn distrust of 
 offices. He scorned to bear the yoke of any regular school- 
 ing, and proceeded to turn one half of the dining-room into 
 a studio for the reproduction of still Hfe. There he amassed 
 a variety of objects, indiscriminately chosen from the 
 kitchen, the drawing-room, and the back garden, and there 
 spent his days in smiling assiduity. Meantime, the great 
 bulk of empty building overhead lay hke a load upon his 
 imagination. To hold so great a stake and to do nothing, 
 argued some defect of energy, and he at length {determined 
 to act upon the hint given by Mrs. Luxmore herself, and to 
 stick with wafers in the window of the dining-room a small 
 handbill announcing furnished lodgings. At half-past six 
 
 420
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 of a fine July morning he affixed the bill and went forth into 
 the square to study the result. It seemed, to his eye, prom- 
 ising and unpretentious, and he returned to the drawing- 
 room balcony to consider over a studious pipe the knotty 
 problem of how much he was to charge. 
 
 Thereupon he somewhat relaxed in his devotion to the art 
 of painting. Indeed, from that time forth, he would spend 
 the best part of the day in the front balcony, like the atten- 
 tive angler poring on his float ; and the better to support the 
 tedium, he would frequently console himself with liis clay 
 pipe. On several occasions passers-by appeared to be ar- 
 rested by the ticket, and on several others ladies and gentle- 
 men drove to the very doorstep by the carriageful; but it 
 appeared there was something repulsive in the appearance 
 of the house, for with one accord, they would cast but one 
 look upward and hastily resume their onward progress or 
 direct the driver to proceed. Somerset had thus the mor- 
 tification of actually meeting the eye of a large number of 
 lodging-seekers ; and though he hastened to withdraw his 
 pipe and to compose his features to an air of invitation, he 
 was never rewarded by so much as an inquiry. " Can 
 there," he thought, "be any thing repellent in myself?" 
 But a candid examination in one of the pier-glasses of the 
 drawing-room led him to dismiss the fear. 
 
 Something, however, was amiss. His vast and accurate 
 calculations on the fly-leaves of books, or on the backs of 
 playbills, appeared to have been an idle sacrifice of time. 
 By these, he had variously computed the weekly takings of 
 the house, from sums as modest as five-and-twenty shillings, 
 up to the more majestic figure of a hundred pounds; and 
 yet, in despite of the very elements of arithmetic, here he 
 was making literally nothing. 
 
 This incongruity impressed him deeply and occupied his 
 thoughtful leisure on the balcony ; and at last it seemed to 
 him that he had detected the error of his method. " This," 
 he reflected, " is an age of generous display : the age of the 
 sandwich-man, of Griffiths, of Pears' legendary soap, and 
 of Eno's fruit salt, which, by sheer brass and notoriety, 
 
 421
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 and the most disgusting pictures I ever remember to have 
 seen, has overlaid that comforter of my childhood, Lam- 
 plough's pyretic saline. Lamplough was genteel, Eno was 
 omnipresent; Lamplough was trite, Eno original and 
 abominably vulgar; and here have I, a man of some preten- 
 sions to knowledge of the world, contented myself with half 
 a sheet of note-paper, a few cold words which do not directly 
 address the imagination, and the adornment (if adornment 
 it may be called) of four red wafers ! Am I, then, to sink 
 with Lamplough, or to soar with Eno? Am I to adopt that 
 modesty which is doubtless becoming in a duke? or to take 
 hold of the red facts of life with the emphasis of the trades- 
 man and the poet? " 
 
 Pursuant upon these meditations, he procured several 
 sheets of the very largest size of drawing-paper ; and laying 
 forth his paints, proceeded to compose an ensign that might 
 attract the eye and at the same time, in his own phrase, 
 directly address the imagination of the passenger. Some- 
 thing taking in the way of color, a good, savory choice of 
 words, and a realistic design setting forth the life a lodger 
 might expect to lead within the walls of that palace of 
 delight: these, he perceived, must be the elements of his 
 advertisement. It was possible, upon the one hand, to 
 depict the sober pleasures of domestic life, the evening fire, 
 blonde-headed urchins and the hissing urn ; but on the other, 
 it was possible (and he almost felt as if it were more suited 
 to his muse) to set forth the charms of an existence some- 
 what wider in its range, or, boldly say, the paradise of the 
 Mohammedan. So long did the artist waver between these 
 two views, that, before he arrived at a conclusion, he had 
 finally conceived and completed both designs. With the 
 proverbially tender heart of the parent, he found himself 
 unable to sacrifice either of these offsprings of his art; and 
 decided to expose them on alternate days. " In this way," 
 he thought, " I shall address myself indifferently to all 
 classes of the world." 
 
 The tossing of a penny decided the only remaining point ; 
 and the more imaginative canvas received the suffrages of 
 
 422
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 fortune and appeared first In the window of the mansion. 
 It was of a high fancy, the legend eloquently writ, the 
 scheme of color taking and bold ; and but for the imperfec- 
 tion of the artist's drawing, it might have been taken for a 
 model of its kind. As it was, however, when viewed from 
 his favorite point against the garden railings, and with 
 some touch of distance. It caused a pleasurable rising of the 
 artist's heart. " I have thrown away," he ejaculated, " an 
 invaluable motive; and this shall be the subject of my first 
 academy picture." 
 
 The fate of neither of these works was equal to Its merit. 
 A crowd would certainly, from time to time, collect before 
 the area-ralllngs ; but they came to jeer and to speculate; 
 and those who pushed their inquiries further, were too 
 plainly animated by the spirit of derision. The racier of 
 the two cartoons displayed. Indeed, no symptom of attract- 
 ive merit; and though It had a certain share of that suc- 
 cess called scandalous, failed utterly of Its effect. On the 
 day, however, of the second appearance of the companion 
 work, a real Inquirer did actually present himself before the 
 eyes of Somerset. 
 
 This was a gentlemanly man, with some marks of recent 
 merriment, and his voice under Inadequate control. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said he, " but what Is the meaning 
 of your extraordinary bill.'' " 
 
 " I beg yours," returned Somerset hotly. " Its meaning 
 Is sufficiently explicit." And being now, from dire experi- 
 ence, fearful of ridicule, he was preparing to close the door, 
 when the gentleman thrust his cane Into the aperture. 
 
 " Not so fast, I beg of you,'" said he. " If you really let 
 apartments, here Is a possible tenant at your door; and 
 nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see the 
 accommodation and to learn your terms." 
 
 His heart joyously beating, Somerset admitted the 
 visitor, showed him over the various apartments, and with 
 some return of his persuasive eloquence, expounded their 
 attractions. The gentleman was particularly pleased by 
 the elegant proportions of the drawing-room. 
 
 423
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " This," he said, " would suit me very well. What, may 
 I ask, would be your terms a week for this floor and the one 
 above it? " 
 
 " I was thinking," returned Somerset, " of a hundred 
 pounds." 
 
 " Surely not," exclaimed the gentleman. 
 
 " Well, then," returned Somerset, " fifty." 
 
 The gentleman regarded him with an air of some amaze- 
 ment. " You seem to be strangely elastic in your demands," 
 said he. " What if I were to proceed on your own principle 
 of division, and offer you twenty -five.? " 
 
 " Done ! " cried Somerset ; and then, overcome by a sud- 
 den embarrassment, " You see," he added, apologetically, 
 *' it is all found money for me." 
 
 " Really," said the stranger, looking at him all the while 
 with growing wonder. " Without extras, then ? " 
 
 " I — I suppose so," stammered the keeper of the lodging- 
 house. 
 
 "Service included?" pursued the gentleman. 
 
 "Service?" cried Somerset. "Do you mean that you 
 expect me to empty your slops? " 
 
 The gentleman regarded him with a very friendly in- 
 terest. " My dear fellow," said he, " if you take my advice, 
 you will give up this business." And thereupon he resumed 
 his hat and took himself away. 
 
 This smarting disappointment produced a strong effect 
 on the artist of the cartoons ; and he began with shame to 
 eat up his rosier illusions. First one and then the other of 
 his great works was condemned, withdrawn from exhibition, 
 and relegated, as a mere wall-picture, to the decoration of 
 the dining-room. Their place was taken by a replica of the 
 original wafered announcement, to which, in particularly 
 large letters, he had added the pithy rubric : " No service." 
 Meanwhile he had fallen into something as nearly bordering 
 on low spirits as was consistent with his disposition; de- 
 pressed, at once by the failure of his scheme, the laughable 
 turn of his late interview, and the judicial blindness of the 
 public to the merit of the twin cartoons. 
 
 424
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 Perhaps a week had passed before he was again startled 
 by the note of the knocker. A gentleman of a somewhat 
 foreign and somewhat mihtary air, yet closely shaven and 
 wearing a soft hat, desired in the politest terms to visit the 
 apartments. He had (he explained) a friend, a gentleman 
 in tender health, desirous of a sedate and solitary life, apart 
 from interruption and the noises of the common lodging- 
 house. The unusual clause," he continued, " in your an« 
 nouncement, particularly struck me. ' This,' I said, * is 
 the place for Mr. Jones.' You are yourself, sir, a profes- 
 sional gentleman ? " concluded the visitor, looking keenly in 
 Somerset's face. 
 
 " I am an artist," replied the young man lightly 
 
 " And these," observed the other, taking a side glance 
 through the open door of the dining-room, which they were 
 then passing, " these are some of your works. Very re- 
 markable." And he again and still more sharply peered 
 into the countenance of the young man. 
 
 Somerset, unable to suppress a blush, made the more 
 haste to lead his visitor up stairs and to display the apart- 
 ments. 
 
 *' Excellent," observed the stranger, as he looked from 
 one of the back windows. "Is that a mews behind, sir? 
 Very good. Well, sir, see here. My friend will take your 
 drawing-room floor; he will sleep in the back drawing-room; 
 his nurse, an excellent Irish widow, will attend on all his 
 wants and occupy a garret; he will pay you the round sum 
 of ten dollars a week ; and you, on your part, will engage to 
 receive no other lodger.'* I think that fair." 
 
 Somerset had scarcely words in which to clothe his grati-' 
 tude and joy. 
 
 " Agreed," said the other ; " and to spare you trou- 
 ble, my friend will bring some men with him to make 
 the changes. You will find him a retiring inmate, sir; 
 receives but few, and rarely leaves the house except at 
 night." 
 
 " Since I have been in this house," returned Somerset, " I 
 have myself, unless it were to fetch beer, rarely gone abroad 
 
 425
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 except in the evening. But a man," he added, " must have 
 some amusement." 
 
 An hour was then agreed on ; the gentleman departed ; 
 and Somerset sat down to compute in Enghsh money the 
 value of the figure named. The result of this investigation 
 filled him with amazement and disgust ; but it was now too 
 late; nothing remained but to endure; and he awaited the 
 arrival of his tenant, still trying, by various arithmetical 
 expedients, to obtain a more favorable quotation for the 
 dollar. With the approach of dusk, however, his impatience 
 drove him once more to the front balcony. The night fell, 
 mild and airless; the lamps shone around the central dark- 
 ness of the garden ; and through the tall grove of trees that 
 intervened, many warmly illuminated windows on the further 
 side of the square told their tale of white napery, choice 
 wine, and genial hospitality. The stars were already thick- 
 ening overhead, when the young man's eyes ahghted on a 
 procession of three four-wheelers, coasting round the gar- 
 den railing and bound for the Superfluous Mansion. They 
 were laden with formidable boxes ; moving in a military 
 order, one following another ; and, by th^ extreme slowness 
 of their advance, inspired Somerset with the most serious 
 ideas of his tenant's malady. 
 
 By the time he had the door open, the cabs had drawn up 
 beside the pavement; and from the two first, there had 
 alighted the military gentleman of the morning and two 
 very stalwart porters. These proceeded instantly to take 
 possession of the house; with their own hands, and firmly 
 rejecting Somerset's assistance, they carried in the various 
 crates and boxes; with their own hands dismounted and 
 transferred to the back drawing-room the bed in which the 
 tenant was to sleep ; and it was not until the bustle of arrival 
 had subsided, and the arrangements were complete, that 
 there descended, from the third of the three vehicles, a gen- 
 tleman of great stature and broad shoulders, leaning on the 
 shoulder of a woman in a widow's dress, and himself covered 
 by a long cloak and muffled in a colored comforter. 
 
 Somerset had but a glimpse of him in passing; he was 
 
 426
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 soon shut into the back drawing-room ; the other men de- 
 parted ; silence redescended on the house ; and had not the 
 nurse appeared a little before half-past ten, and, with a 
 strong brogue, asked if there were a decent public-house in 
 the neighborhood, Somerset might have still supposed him- 
 self to be alone in the Superfluous Mansion. 
 
 Day followed day: and still the young man had never 
 come by speech or sight of his mysterious lodger. The 
 doors of the drawing-room flat were never open ; and 
 although Somerset could hear him moving to and fro, the 
 tall man never quitted the privacy of his apartments. 
 Visitors, indeed, arrived; sometimes in the dusk, sometimes 
 at intempestuous hours of night or morning; men, for the 
 most part ; some meanly attired, some decently ; some loud, 
 some cringing; and yet all, in the eyes of Somerset, dis- 
 pleasing. A certain air of fear and secrecy was common to 
 them all ; they were all voluble, he thought, and ill at ease ; 
 even the military gentleman proved, on a closer inspection, 
 to be no gentleman at all; and as for the doctor who at- 
 tended the sick man, his manners were not suggestive of a 
 university career. The nurse, again, was scarcely a desir- 
 able house-fellow. Since her arrival, the fall of whisky in 
 the young man's private bottle was much accelerated; and 
 though never communicative, she was at times unpleasantly 
 familiar. When asked about the patient's health, she would 
 dolorously shake her head, and declare that the poor gen- 
 tleman was in a pitiful condition. 
 
 Yet somehow Somerset had early begun to entertain the 
 notion that his complaint was other than bodily. The ill- 
 looking birds that gathered to the house, the strange noises 
 that sounded from the drawing-room in the dead hours of 
 night, the careless attendance and intemperate habits of 
 the nurse, the entire absence of correspondence, the entire 
 seclusion of Mr. Jones himself, whose face, up to that hour, 
 he could not have sworn to in a court of justice — all weighed 
 unpleasantly upon the young man's mind. A sense of some- 
 thing evil, irregular and underhand, haunted and depressed 
 him; and this uneasy sentiment was the more firmly rooted 
 
 427
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 in his mind, when, in the fullness of time, he had an oppor- 
 tunity of observing the features of his tenant. It fell in 
 this way. The young landlord was awakened about four in 
 the morning by a noise in the hall. Leaping to his feet, 
 and opening the door of the Hbrary, he saw the tall man, 
 candle in hand, in earnest conversation with the gentleman 
 who had taken the rooms. The faces of both were strongly 
 illuminated; and in that of his tenant Somerset could per- 
 ceive none of the marks of disease, but every sign of health, 
 energy and resolution. While he was still looking, the 
 visitor took his departure; and the invalid, having carefully 
 fastened the front door, sprang up stairs without a trace of 
 lassitude. 
 
 That night upon his pillow, Somerset began to kindle 
 once more into the hot fit of the detective fever ; and the 
 next morning resumed the practice of his art with careless 
 hand and an abstracted mind. The day was destined to be 
 fertile in surprises ; nor had he long been seated at the easel 
 ere the first of these occurred. A cab laden with baggage 
 drew up before the door; and Mrs. Luxmore in person rap- 
 idly mounted the steps and began to pound upon the knocker. 
 Somerset hastened to attend the summons. 
 
 " My dear fellow," she said, with the utmost gayety, 
 *' here I come dropping from the moon. I am delighted to 
 find you faithful; and I have no doubt you will be equally 
 pleased to be restored to Hberty." 
 
 Somerset could find no words, whether of protest or wel- 
 come; and the spirited old lady pushed briskly by him and 
 paused on the threshold of the dining-room. The sight that 
 met her eyes was one well calculated to inspire astonishment. 
 The mantel-piece was arrayed with sauce-pans and empty 
 bottles ; on the fire some chops were frying ; the floor was 
 littered from end to end with books, clothes, walking-canes 
 and the materials of the painter's craft; but what far out- 
 stripped the other wonders of the place was the corner which 
 had been arranged for the study of still-hfe. This formed 
 a sort of rockery ; conspicuous upon which, according to the 
 principles of the art of composition, a cabbage was relieved 
 
 428
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 against a copper kettle, and both contrasted with the mail 
 of a boiled lobster. 
 
 " My gracious goodness ! " cried the lady of the house ; 
 and then, turning in wrath on the young man, " From what 
 rank in life are you sprung?" she demanded. "You have 
 the exterior of a gentleman ; but from the astonishing evi- 
 dences before me, I should say you can only be a green- 
 grocer's man. Pray, gather up your vegetables, and let me 
 see no more of you." 
 
 " Madam," babbled Somerset, " you promised me a 
 month's warning." 
 
 " That was under a misapprehension," returned the old 
 lady, " I now give you warning to leave at once." 
 
 "Madam," said the young man, "I wish I could; and 
 indeed, as far as I am concerned, it might be done. But 
 then, my lodger ! " 
 
 "Your lodger .f^ " echoed Mrs. Luxmore. 
 
 "My lodger; why should I deny it.f* " returned Somerset. 
 " He is only here by the week." 
 
 The old lady sat down upon a chair. " You have a 
 lodger.? — you.'^ " she cried. " And pray, how did you get 
 him.?" 
 
 " By advertisement," replied the young man. " Oh, 
 madam, I have not lived unobservantly. I adopted " — his 
 eyes involuntarily shifted to the cartoons — " I adopted 
 every method." 
 
 Her eyes had followed his ; for the first time in Somerset's 
 experience, she produced a double eyeglass ; and as soon as 
 the full merit of the works flashed upon her, she gave way 
 to peal after peal of her trilling and soprano laughter. 
 
 " Oh, I think you are perfectly delicious ! " she cried. " I 
 do hope you had them in the window. M'Pherson," she 
 continued, crying to her maid, who had been all this time 
 grimly waiting in the hall, " I lunch with Mr. Somerset. 
 Take the cellar key and bring some wine." 
 
 In this gay humor, she continued throughout the 
 luncheon; presented Somerset with a couple of dozen of 
 wine, which she made INI'Pherson bring up from the cellar — • 
 
 429
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 ^' as a present, my dear," she said, with another burst of 
 tearful merriment, " for your charming pictures, which you 
 must be sure to leave me when you go " ; and finally, pro- 
 testing that she dared not spoil the absurdest houseful of 
 madmen in the whole of London, departed (as she vaguely 
 phrased it) for the continent of Europe. 
 
 She was no sooner gone, than Somerset encountered in the 
 corridor the Irish nurse ; sober, to all appearance, and yet 
 a prey to singularly strong emotion. It was made to ap- 
 pear, from her account, that Mr. Jones had already suffered 
 acutely in his health from Mrs. Luxmore's visit, and that 
 nothing short of a full explanation could allay the invalid's 
 uneasiness. Somerset, somewhat staring, told what he 
 thought fit of the affair. 
 
 "Is that all.'*" cried the woman. "As God sees you, is 
 that all.? " 
 
 " My good woman," said the young man, " I have no 
 idea what you can be driving at. Suppose the lady were 
 my friend's wife, suppose she were my fairy godmother, 
 suppose she were the Queen of Portugal; and how should 
 that affect yourself or Mr. Jones ? " 
 
 f " Blessed Mary ! " cried the nurse, " it's he that will be 
 glad to hear it ! " 
 
 And immediately she fled up stairs. 
 
 Somerset, on his part, returned to the dining-room, and 
 with a very thoughtful brow and ruminating many theories, 
 disposed of the remainder of the bottle. It was port ; and 
 port is a wine, sole among its equals and superiors, that can 
 in some degree support the competition of tobacco. Sip- 
 ping, smoking, and theorizing, Somerset moved on from sus- 
 picion to suspicion, from resolve to resolve, still growing 
 braver and rosier as the bottle ebbed. He was a skeptic, 
 none prouder of the name; he had no horror at command, 
 whether for crimes or vices, but beheld and embraced the 
 world, with an immoral approbation, the frequent conse- 
 quence of youth and health. At the same time he felt 
 convinced that he dwelt under the same roof with secret 
 malefactors ; and the unregenerate instinct of the chase im- 
 
 430
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 pelled him to severity. The bottle had run low ; the summer 
 sun had finally withdrawn ; and at the same moment, night 
 and the pangs of hunger recalled him from his dreams. 
 
 He went forth, and dined in the Criterion: a dinner in 
 consonance, not so much with his purse, as with the ad- 
 mirable wine he had discussed. What with one thing and 
 another, it was long past midnight when he returned home. 
 A cab was at the door; and entering the hall, Somerset 
 found himself face to face with one of the most regular of 
 the few who visited Mr. Jones: a man of powerful figure, 
 strong lineaments, and a chin-beard in the American fashion. 
 This person was carrying on one shoulder a black port- 
 manteau, seemingly of considerable weight. That he should 
 find a visitor removing baggage In the dead of night, recalled 
 some odd stories to the young man's memory ; he had heard 
 of lodgers who thus gradually drained away, not only their 
 own effects, but the very furniture and fittings of the house 
 that sheltered them ; and now, in a mood between pleasantry 
 and suspicion, and aping the manner of a drunkard, he 
 roughly bumped against the man with the chin-beard and 
 knocked the portmanteau from his shoulder to the floor. 
 With a face struck suddenly as white as paper, the man with 
 the chin-beard called lamentably on the name of his maker, 
 and fell In a mere heap on the mat at the foot of the stairs. 
 At the same time, though only for a single Instant, the heads 
 of the sick lodger and the Irish nurse popped out like rab- 
 bits over the banisters of the first floor ; and on both the 
 same scare and pallor were apparent. 
 
 The sight of this incredible emotion turned Somerset to 
 stone, and he continued speechless, while the man gathered 
 himself together, and with the help of the handrail and 
 audibly thanking God, scrambled once more upon his 
 feet. 
 
 "What In Heaven's name ails you.'^ " gasped the young 
 man as soon as he could find words and utterance. 
 
 " Have you a drop of brandy.'' " returned the other. " I 
 am sick." 
 
 Somerset administered two drams, one after the other, 
 
 431
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 to the man with the chin-beard; who then, somewhat re- 
 stored, began to confound himself in apologies for what he 
 called his miserable nervousness, the result, he said, of a long 
 course of dumb ague; and having taken leave with a hand 
 that still sweated and trembled, he gingerly resumed his 
 burden and departed. 
 
 Somerset retired to bed but not to sleep. What, he asked 
 himself, had been the contents of the black portmanteau? 
 Stolen goods.'' the carcase of one murdered.'' or — and at the 
 thought he sat upright in bed — an infernal machine? He 
 took a solemn vow that he would set these doubts at rest; 
 and with the next morning, installed himself beside the 
 dining-room window, vigilant with eye and ear, to await and 
 profit by the earliest opportunity. 
 
 The hours went heavily by. Within the house there was 
 no circumstance of novelty ; unless it might be that the nurse 
 more frequently made little journeys round the corner of 
 the square, and before afternoon was somewhat loose of 
 speech and gait. A little after six, however, there came 
 round the corner of the gardens a very handsome and ele- 
 gantly dressed young woman, who paused a little way off, 
 and for some time, and with frequent sighs, contemplated 
 the front of the Superfluous Mansion. It was not the first 
 time that she had thus stood afar and looked upon it, like 
 our common parents at the gates of Eden ; and the young 
 man had already had occasion to remark the lively sHmness 
 of her carriage, and had already been the butt of a chance 
 arrow from her eye. He hailed her coming, .then, with 
 pleasant feelings, and moved a httle nearer tp the window to 
 enjoy the sight. What was his surprise, however, when, as 
 if with a sensible effort, she drew near, mounted the steps 
 and tapped discreetly at the door ! He made haste to get 
 before the Irish nurse, who was not improbably asleep, and 
 had the satisfaction to receive this gracious visitor in 
 person. 
 
 She inquired for Mr. Jones ; and then, without transition, 
 asked the young man if he were the person of the house (and 
 at the words, he thought he could perceive her to be smil- 
 
 433
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 ing) , " because," she added, " if jou are, I should like to 
 see some of the other rooms," 
 
 Somerset told her he was under an engagement to receive 
 no lodgers ; but she assured him that would be no matter, 
 as these were friends of Mr. Jones's. " And," she con- 
 tinued, moving suddenly to the dining-room door, " let us 
 begin here." Somerset was too late to prevent her entering, 
 and perhaps he lacked the courage to essay. " Ah ! " she 
 cried, " how changed it is ! " 
 
 " INIadam," cried the young man, " since your entrance, 
 it is I who have the right to say so." 
 
 She received this inane compliment with a demure and 
 conscious droop of the eyelids, and gracefully steering her 
 dress among the mingled litter, now with a smile, now with 
 a sigh, reviewed the wonders of the two apartments. She 
 gazed upon the cartoons with sparkling eyes, and a height- 
 ened color, and in a somewhat breathless voice expressed a 
 high opinion of their merits. She praised the effective dis- 
 position of the rockery, and in the bedroom, of which 
 Somerset had vainly endeavored to defend the entry, she 
 fairly broke forth in admiration. *' Plow simple and 
 manly ! " she cried : " none of that cfFeminac}'- of neatness, 
 which is so detestable in a man ! " Hard upon this, telling 
 him, before he had time to reply, that she very well knew 
 her way, and would trouble him no further, she took her 
 leave with an engaging smile, and ascended the staircase 
 alone. 
 
 For more than an hour, the young lady remained closeted 
 with INIr. Jones ; and at the end of that time, the night being 
 now come completely, they left the house in company. This 
 was the first time since the arrival of his lodger, that 
 Somerset had found himself alone with the Irish widow; 
 and without the loss of any more time than was required by 
 decency, he stepped to the foot of the stairs and hailed her 
 by her name. She came instantly, wreathed in weak smiles 
 and with a nodding head; and when the young man politely 
 offered to introduce her to the treasures of his art, she swore 
 that nothing could afford her greater pleasure, for, though 
 
 433
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 she had never crossed the threshold, she had frequently ob- 
 served his beautiful pictures through the door. On entering 
 the dining-room, the sight of a bottle and two glasses pre- 
 pared her to be a gentle critic; and as soon as the pictures 
 had been viewed and praised, she was easily persuaded to 
 join the painter in a single glass. " Here," she said, " are 
 my respects ; and a pleasure it is, in this horrible house, to 
 see a gentleman like yourself, so affable and free, and a very 
 nice painter, I am sure." One glass so agreeably prefaced, 
 was sure to lead to the acceptance of a second ; at the third, 
 Somerset was free to cease from the affectation of keeping 
 her company ; and as for the fourth, she asked it of her 
 own accord. " For indeed," said she, " what with all these 
 clocks and chemicals, without a drop of the creature hfe 
 would be impossible entirely. And you seen yourself that 
 even M'Guire was glad to beg for it. And even liimself, 
 when he is downhearted with all these cruel disappointments, 
 though as temperate a man as any child, will be sometimes 
 crying for a glass of it. And I'll thank you for a thimble- 
 ful to settle what I got." Soon after, she began with tears 
 to narrate the deathbed dispositions and lament the trifling 
 assets of her husband. Then she declared she heard " the 
 master " calling her, rose to her feet, made but one lurch 
 of it into the still-hfe rockery, and with her head upon the 
 lobster, fell into stertorous slumbers. 
 
 Somerset mounted at once to the first story, and opened 
 the door of the drawing-room, which was brilhantly hghted 
 by several lamps. It was a great apartment ; looking on 
 the square with three tall windows, and joined by a pair 
 of ample folding-doors to the next room; elegant in propor- 
 tion, papered in sea-green, furnished in velvet of a dehcate 
 blue, and adorned with a majestic mantel-piece of variously 
 tinted marbles. Such was the room that Somerset remem- 
 bered; that which he now beheld was changed in almost 
 every feature : the furniture covered with a figured chintz ; 
 the walls hung with a rhubarb colored paper, and diversified 
 by the curtained recesses for no less than seven windows. 
 It seemed to himself that he must have entered, without ob- 
 
 434
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MAXSIOX 
 
 serving the transition, into the adjoining house. Presently 
 from these more specious changes, his eye condescended to 
 the many curious objects with which the floor was httered. 
 Here were the locks of dismounted pistols ; clocks and clock- 
 work in every stage of demolition, some still busily ticking, 
 some reduced to their dainty elements ; a great company of 
 carboys, jars and bottles, a carpenter's bench and a labor- 
 atory-table. 
 
 The back drawing-room, to which Somerset proceeded, 
 had likewise undergone a change. It was transformed to 
 the exact appearance of a common lodging-house bedroom ; 
 a bed with green curtains occupied one corner ; and the 
 window was blocked by the regulation table and mirror. 
 The door of a small closet here attracted the young man's 
 attention ; and striking a vesta, he opened it and entered. 
 On a table several wigs and beards were lying spread ; about 
 the walls hung an incongruous display of suits and over- 
 coats ; and conspicuous among the last the young man ob- 
 served a large over-all of the most costly sealskin. In a 
 flash his mind reverted to the advertisement in the Standard 
 newspaper. The great height of his lodger, the dispropor- 
 tionate breadth of his shoulders, and the strange particulars 
 of his installment, all pointed to the same conclusion. 
 
 The vesta had now burned to his fingers ; and taking 
 the coat upon his arm, Somerset hastily returned to the 
 lighted drawing-room. There, with a mixture of fear and 
 admiration, he pored upon its goodly proportions and the 
 regularity and softness of the pile. The sight of a large 
 pier-glass put another fancy in his head. He donned the 
 fur-coat; and standing before the mirror in an attitude 
 suggestive of a Russian prince, he thrust liis hands into the 
 ample pockets. There his fingers encountered a folded 
 journal. He drew it out, and recognized the type and paper 
 of the Standard; and at the same instant, his eyes alighted 
 on the offer of two hundred pounds. Plainly then, his 
 lodger, now no longer mysterious, had laid aside his coat 
 on the very day of the appearance of the advertisement. 
 
 He was thus standing, the tell-tale coat upon his back, 
 
 4:25
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 the incrlmmating paper in his hand, when the door opened 
 and the tall lodger, with a firm but somewhat pallid face, 
 stepped into the room and closed the door behind ^im. For 
 some time, the two looked upon each other in perfect silence ; 
 then Mr. Jones moved forward to the table, took a seat, and, 
 still without once changing the direction of his eyes, ad- 
 dressed the young man. 
 
 " You are right," he said. *' It is for me the blood- 
 money is offered. " And now what will you do ? " 
 
 It was a question to which Somerset was far from being 
 able to reply. Taken as he was at unawares, masquerad- 
 ing in the man's own coat, and surrounded by a whole 
 arsenal of diabolical explosives, the keeper of the lodging- 
 house was silenced. 
 
 " Yes," resumed the other, " I am he. I am that man, 
 whom with impotent hate and fear, they still hunt from den 
 to den, from disguise to disguise. Yes, my landlord, you 
 have it in your power, if you be poor, to lay the basis of 
 your fortune; if you be unknowTi, to capture honor at one 
 snatch. You have hocussed an innocent widow; and I find 
 you here in ray apartment, for whose use I pay you in 
 stamped money, searching my wardrobe, and your hand — 
 shame, sir ! — your hand in my very pocket. You can now 
 complete the cycle of your ignominious acts, by what will 
 be at once the simplest, the safest and most remunerative." 
 The speaker paused as if to emphasize his words ; and then, 
 with a great change of tone and manner, thus resumed: 
 " And yet, sir, when I look upon your face, I feel certain 
 that I can not be deceived: certain that in spite of all, I 
 have the honor and pleasure of speaking to a gentleman. 
 Take off my coat, sir — which but cumbers you. Divest 
 yourself of this confusion : that which is but thought upon, 
 thank God, need be no burden to the conscience; we have all 
 harbored guilty thoughts ; and if it flashed into your mind 
 to sell my flesh and blood, my anguish in the dock, and the 
 sweat of my death agony — it was a thought, dear sir, you 
 were as incapable of acting on, as I of any further question 
 of your honor." At these words, the speaker, with a very 
 
 436
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 open, smiling countenance, like a forgiving father, offered 
 Somerset his hand. 
 
 It was not in the young man's nature to refuse forgive- 
 ness or dissect generosity. He instantly, and almost with- 
 out thought, accepted the proffered grasp. 
 
 " And now," resumed the lodger, " noAV that I hold in 
 mine your loyal hand, I lay by my apprehensions, I dismiss 
 suspicion, I go further — by an effort of will, I banish the 
 memory of what is past. How you came here, I care not: 
 enough that you are here — as my guest. Sit ye down ; and 
 let us, with your good permission, improve acquaintance 
 over a glass of excellent whisky." 
 
 So speaking, he produced glasses and a bottle; and the 
 pair pledged each other in silence. 
 
 " Confess," observed the smiling host, " you were sur- 
 prised at the appearance of the room." 
 
 " I was indeed," said Somerset ; " nor can I imagine the 
 purpose of these changes." 
 
 " These," replied the conspirator, " are the devices by 
 which I continue to exist. Conceive me now, accused before 
 one of your unjust tribunals; conceive the various witnesses 
 appearing, and the singular variety of their reports ! One 
 will have visited me in this drawing-room as it originally 
 stood ; a second finds it as it is to-night ; and to-morrow or 
 next day, all may have been changed. If you love romance 
 (as artists do), few lives are more romantic than that 
 of the obscure individual now addressing you. Obscure yet 
 famous. Mine is an anonymous, infernal glory. By in- 
 famous means, I work toward my bright purpose. I found 
 the liberty and peace of a poor country desperately abused ; 
 the future smiles upon that land; yet, in the meantime, I 
 lead the existence of a hunted brute, work toward appalling 
 ends, and practice hell's dexterities." 
 
 Somerset, glass in hand, contemplated the strange fanatic 
 before him, and listened to his heated rhapsody with inde- 
 scribable bewilderment. He looked him in the face with 
 curious particularity ; saw there the marks of education ; 
 and wondered the more profoundly. 
 
 437
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 *' Sir," he said — " for I know not whether I should still 
 address you as Mr. Jones " 
 
 " Jones, Breitman, Higginbotham, Pumpernickel, Daviot, 
 Henderland, by all or any of these you may address me," 
 said the plotter ; " for all I have at some time borne. Yet 
 that which I most price, that which is most feared, hated and 
 obeyed, is not a name to be found in your directories ; it is 
 not a name current in post-offices or banks ; and indeed, like 
 the celebrated clan M'Gregor, I may justly describe myself 
 as being nameless by day. But," he continued, rising to his 
 feet, " by night, and among my desperate followers, I am 
 the redoubted Zero." 
 
 Somerset was unacquainted with the name ; but he politely 
 expressed surprise and gratification. " I am to und.er- 
 stand," he continued, " that, under this alias, you follow the 
 profession of a dynamiter? " ^ 
 
 The plotter had resumed his seat and now replenished the 
 glasses. 
 
 " I do," he said. " In this dark period of time, a star — 
 the star of dynamite — ^has risen for the oppressed; and 
 among those who practice its use, so thick beset with dan- 
 gers and attended by such incredible difficulties and dis- 
 appointments, few have been more assiduous, and not 
 many " He paused, and a shade of embarrassment ap- 
 peared upon his face — " not many have been more success- 
 ful than myself." 
 
 " I can imagine," observed Somerset, " that, from the 
 sweeping consequences looked for, the career is not devoid 
 of interest. You have, besides, some of the entertainment 
 of the game of hide and seek. But it would still seem to 
 me — I speak as a layman — that nothing could be simpler or 
 
 1 The Arabian author of the original has here a long passage con- 
 ceived in a style too oriental for the English reader. We subjoin 
 a specimen, and it seems doubtful whether it should be printed as 
 prose or verse: "Any writard who writes dynamitard shall find in 
 me a never-resting fightard"; and he goes on (if we correctly gather 
 his meaning) to object to such elegance and obviously correct spelling 
 as lamp-lightard, corn-dealard, apple-filchard (clearly justified by the 
 parallel — pilchard) and opera dancard. " Dynamitist," he adds, " I 
 could understand." 
 
 438
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 safer than to deposit an infernal machine and retire to an 
 adjacent county to await the painful consequences." 
 
 " You speak, indeed," returned the plotter, with some 
 evidence of warmth, " you speak, indeed, most ignorantly. 
 Do you make nothing, then, of such a peril as we share this 
 moment. Do you think it nothing to occupy a house like 
 this one, mined, menaced, and, in a word, literally tottering 
 to its fall.? " 
 
 "Good God!" ejaculated Somerset. 
 
 " And when you speak of ease," pursued Zero, " in this 
 age of scientific studies, you fill me with surprise. Are you 
 not aware that chemicals are proverbially as fickle as woman, 
 and clockwork as capricious as the very devil.'' Do you see 
 on my brow these furrows of anxiety.'' do you observe the 
 silver threads that mingle with my hair,'* Clockwork, clock- 
 work has stamped them on my brow — chemicals have 
 sprinkled them upon my locks ! No, Mr. Somerset," he re- 
 sumed, after a moment's pause, his voice still quivering with 
 sensibility, " you must not suppose the dynamiter's life to 
 be all gold. On the contrary : you can not picture to your- 
 self the bloodshot vigils and the staggering disappoint- 
 ments of a life like mine. I have toiled (let us say) for 
 months, up early and down late; my bag is ready, my clock 
 set ; a daring agent has hurried with white face to deposit 
 the instrument of ruin ; we await the fall of England, the 
 massacre of thousands, the yell of fear and execration ; and 
 lo ! a snap like that of a child's pistol, an offensive smell, 
 and the entire loss of so much time and plant ! If," he con- 
 tinued, musingly, " we had been merely able to recover the 
 lost bags, I believe with but a touch or two, I could have 
 remedied the peccant engine. But what with, the loss of 
 plant and the almost insuperable scientific difficulties of the 
 task, our friends in France are almost ready to desert the 
 chosen medium. They propose, instead, to break up the 
 drainage system of cities and sweep off whole populations 
 with the devastating typhoid pestilence: a tempting and a 
 scientific project: a process, indiscriminate indeed, but of 
 idylical simplicity. I recognize its elegance ; but, sir, I 
 
 439
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 have something of the poet in my nature; something, pos- 
 sibly, of the tribune. And, for my small part, I shall 
 remain devoted to that more emphatic, more striking, and 
 (if you please) more popular method, of the explosive bomb. 
 Yes," he cried, with unshaken hope, " I will still continue, 
 and I feel it in my bosom I shall yet succeed." 
 
 " Two things I remark," said Somerset. " The first some- 
 what staggers me. Have you, then — in all this course of 
 life, which you have sketched so vividly — have you not once 
 succeeded? " 
 
 " Pardon me," said Zero. " I have had one success. You 
 behold in me the author of the outrage of Red, Lion Court." 
 
 " But if I remember right," objected Somerset, " the 
 thing was a fiasco. A scavenger's barrow and some copies 
 of the ' Weekly Budget ' — these were the only victims." 
 
 " You will pardon me again," returned Zero with posi- 
 tive asperity; " a child was injured." 
 
 " And that fitly brings me to my second point," said 
 Somerset. " For I observed you to employ the word * in- 
 discriminate.' Now, surely, a scavenger's barrow and a 
 child (if child there was) represent the very acme and top 
 pin-point of indiscriminate, and, pardon me, of ineffectual 
 reprisal." 
 
 "Did I employ the word.?" asked Zero. "Well, I will 
 not defend it. But for efficiency, you touch on graver mat- 
 ters; and before entering upon so vast a subject, permit me 
 once more to fill our glasses. Disputation is dry work/' 
 he added, with a charming gayety of manner. 
 
 Once more accordingly the pair pledged each other in a 
 stalwart grog; and Zero, leaning back with an air of some 
 complacency, proceeded more largely to develop his opin- 
 ions. 
 
 " The indiscriminate," he began. " War, my dear sir, 
 is indiscriminate. War spares not the child; it spares not 
 the barrow of the harmless scavenger. No more," he con- 
 cluded, beaming, " no more do I. Whatever may strike fear, 
 whatever may confound or paralyze the activities of the 
 guilty nation, barrow or child, imperial Parliament or ex- 
 
 440
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 cursion steamer, is welcome to my simple plans. You are 
 not," he inquired, with a shade of sympathetic interest, 
 "you are not, I trust, a believer? " 
 
 " Sir, I believe in nothing," said the young man. 
 
 " You are then," replied Zero, " in position to grasp my 
 argument. We agree that humanity is the object, the 
 glorious triumph of humanity ; and being pledged to labor 
 for that end, and face to face with the banded opposition 
 of kings, parliaments, churches, and the members of the 
 force, who am I — who are we, dear sir — to affect a nicety 
 about the tools employed.'' You might perhaps, expect us 
 to attack the Queen, the sinister Gladstone, the rigid Derby, 
 or the dexterous Granville ; but there you would be in error. 
 Our appeal is to the body of the people ; it is these that we 
 would touch and interest. Now, sir, have you observed the 
 English housemaid.'' " 
 
 " I should think I had," cried Somerset. 
 
 " From a man of taste and a votary of art, I had expected 
 it," returned the conspirator politely. " A type apart ; a 
 very charming figure ; and thoroughly adapted to our ends. 
 The neat cap, the clean print, the comely person, the en- 
 gaging manner; her position between classes, parents in 
 one, emplo^'^ers in another ; the probability that she will have 
 at least one sweetheart, whose feelings we shall address: — • 
 yes, I have a leaning — call it, if you will, a Aveakness — for 
 the housemaid. Not that I would be understood to despise 
 the nurse. For the child is a very interesting feature : I 
 have long since marked out the child as the sensitive point 
 in society." He wagged his head, with a wise, pensive smile. 
 " And talking, sir, of children and of the perils of our 
 trade, let me now narrate to you a little incident of an 
 explosive bomb, that fell out some weeks ago under my own 
 observation. It fell out thus." 
 
 And Zero, leaning back in his chair, narrated the follow- 
 ing simple tale. 
 
 441
 
 ZERO S TALE OF THE EXPLOSIVE BOMB ' 
 
 I DINED by appointment with one of our most trusted 
 agents, in a private chamber at St. James's Hall. You 
 have seen the man: it was M'Guire, the most chivalrous of 
 creatures, but not himself expert in our contrivances. 
 Hence the necessity of our meeting; for I need not remind 
 you what enormous issues depend upon the nice adjustment 
 of the engine. I set our little petard for half an hour, the 
 scene of action being hard by; and the better to avert 
 miscarriage, employed a device, a recent invention of my 
 own, by which the opening of the Gladstone bag in which 
 the bomb was carried, should instantly determine the explo- 
 sion. M'Guire was somewhat dashed by this arrangement, 
 which was new to him ; and pointed out, with excellent, clear 
 good sense that should he be arrested, it would probably 
 involve him in the fall of our opponents. But I was not to 
 be moved, made a strong appeal to his patriotism, gave him 
 a good glass of whisky, and dispatched him on his glorious 
 errand. 
 
 Our objective was the efBgy of Shakespeare in Leicester 
 Square: a spot, I think, admirably chosen; not only for the 
 sake of the dramatist, still very foolishly claimed as a glory 
 by the English race, in spite of his disgusting political 
 opinions ; but from the fact that the seats in the immediate 
 neighborhood are often thronged by children, errand-boys, 
 unfortunate young ladies of the poorer class and infirm old 
 men — all classes making a direct appeal to public pity, and 
 therefore suitable with our designs. As M'Guire drew near 
 his heart was inflamed by the most noble sentiment of tri- 
 
 1 The Arabian author, with that quaint particularity of touch which 
 our translation usually preetermits, here registers a somewhat inter- 
 esting detail. Zero pronounced the word " boom " ; and the reader, if 
 but for the nonce, wiU possibly consent to follow him. 
 
 M2i
 
 THE EXPLOSIVE BOMB 
 
 umph. Never had he seen the garden so crowded; children, 
 still stumbling in the impotence of youth, ran to and fro, 
 shouting and playing, round the pedestal ; an old, sick 
 pensioner sat upon the nearest bench, a medal on his breast, 
 a stick with which he walked (for he was disabled by wounds) 
 reclining on his knee. Guilty England would thus be 
 stabbed in the most delicate quarters; the moment had, in- 
 deed, been well selected; and M'Guire, with a radiant previ- 
 sion of the event, drew merrily nearer. Suddenly his eye 
 alighted on the burly form of a policeman, standing hard 
 by the effigy In an attitude of watch. My bold companion 
 paused ; he looked about him closely ; here and there, at 
 different points of the inclosure, other men stood or loitered, 
 affecting an abstraction, feigning to gaze upon the shrubs, 
 feigning to talk, feigning to be weary and to rest upon the 
 benches. M'Guire was no child In these affairs ; he Instantly 
 divined one of the plots of the Machiavellian Gladstone. 
 
 A chief difficulty with which we have to deal is a certain 
 nervousness In the subaltern branches of the corps ; as the 
 hour of some design draws near, these chlcken-souled con- 
 spirators appear to suffer some revulsion of Intent: and 
 frequently dispatch to the authorities, not indeed specific 
 denunciations, but vague anonymous warnings. But for 
 this purely accidental circumstance, England had long ago 
 been an historical expression. On the receipt of such a let- 
 ter, the Government lay a trap for their adversaries, and 
 surround the threatened spot with hirehngs. My blood 
 sometimes boils in my veins, when I consider tlie case of those 
 who sell themselves for money in such a cause. True, thanks 
 to the generosity of our supporters, we patriots receive a 
 very comfortable stipend; I, myself, of course, touch a 
 salary which puts me quite beyond the reach of any ped- 
 dling, mercenary thoughts; M'Guire, again, ere he joined 
 our ranks, was on the brink of starving, and now, thank 
 God! receives a decent income. That is as it should be; the 
 patriot must not be diverted from his task by any base 
 consideration; and the distinction between our position and 
 that of the police Is too obvious to be stated. 
 
 443
 
 THE DYNAMITER] 
 
 Plainly, however, our Leicester Square design liad been 
 divulged; the Government had craftily filled the place with 
 minions ; even the pensioner was not improbably a hireling 
 in disguise; and our emissary, Avithout other aid or protec- 
 tion than the simple apparatus in his bag, found himself 
 confronted by force; brutal force; that strong hand which 
 was a character of the ages of oppression. Should he 
 venture to deposit the machine. It was almost certain that 
 he would be observed and arrested; a cry would arise; and 
 there was just a fear that the police might not be present 
 in sufficient force, to protect him from the savagery of the 
 mob. The scheme must be delayed. He stood with his bag 
 on his arm, pretending to survey the front of the Alhambra, 
 when there flashed Into his mind a thought to appall the 
 bravest. The machine was set; at the appointed hour it 
 must explode; and how, in the interval, was he to be rid 
 of it.? 
 
 Put yourself, I beseech you, into the body of that 
 patriot. There he was, friendless and helpless ; a man In the 
 very flower of life, for he is not yet forty ; with long years 
 of happiness before him; and now condemned, in one mo- 
 ment, to a cruel and revolting death by dynamite! The 
 square, he said, went round him hke a thaumatrope; he saw 
 the Alhambra leap into the air like a balloon; and reeled 
 against the railing. It is probable he fainted. 
 
 When he came to himself, a constable had him by the arm. 
 " My God ! " he cried. 
 
 " You seem to be unwell, sir," said the hireling. 
 " I feel better now," cried poor M'Guire ; and with un- 
 even steps, for the pavement of the square seemed to lurch 
 and reel under his footing, he fled from the scene of this 
 disaster. Fled? Alas, from what was he fleeing? Did he 
 not carry that from which he fled, along with him? and 
 had he the wings of the eagle, had he the swiftness of the 
 ocean winds, could he have been rapt into the uttermost 
 quarters of the earth, how should he escape the ruin that 
 he carried? We have heard of living men who have been 
 fettered to the dead; the grievance, soberly considered, is 
 
 444
 
 THE EXPLOSIVE BOMB 
 
 no more than sentimental; the case is but a flea-bite to that 
 of him who was Hnked, hke poor M'Guire, to an explosive 
 bomb. 
 
 A thought struck him in Green Street, like a dart through 
 his liver; suppose it were the hour already. He stopped 
 as though he had been shot, and plucked his watch out. 
 There was a howling in his ears, as loud as a winter tempest ; 
 his sight was now obscured as if by a cloud, now, as by a 
 lightning flash, would show him the very dust upon the 
 street. But so brief were these intervals of vision, and so 
 violently did the watch vibrate in his hands, that it was 
 Impossible to distinguish the numbers on the dial. He cov- 
 ered his eyes for a few seconds ; and in that space, it seemed 
 to him that he had fallen to be a man of ninety. When he 
 looked again, the watch-plate had grown legible: he had 
 twenty minutes. Twenty minutes, and no plan ! 
 
 Green Street at that time was very empty; and he now 
 observed a httle girl of about six drawing near to him and, 
 as she came, kicking in front of her, as children will, a piece 
 of wood. She sang, too ; and something in her accent re- 
 calling him to the past, produced a sudden clearness in his 
 mind. Here was a God-sent opportunity ! 
 
 " My dear," said he, " would you Hke a present of a 
 pretty bag.^ " 
 
 The child cried aloud with joy and put out her hands 
 to take it. She had looked first at the bag, like a true cliild ; 
 but most unfortunately, before she had yet received the fatal 
 gift, her eyes fell directly on M'Guire; and no sooner had 
 she seen the poor gentleman's face, than she screamed out 
 and leaped backward, as though she had seen the devil. 
 Almost at the same moment, a woman appeared upon the 
 threshold of a neighboring shop, and called upon the child 
 in anger. " Come here, colleen," she said, " and don't be 
 plaguing the poor old gentleman ! " With that she re- 
 entered the house, and the child followed her, sobbing aloud. 
 
 With the loss of this hope M'Guire's reason swooned 
 witliin him. When next he awoke to consciousness, he was 
 standing before St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, wavering like a 
 
 445
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 4. 
 
 drunken man; the passers-by regarding him with eyes in 
 which he read, as in a glass, an image of the terror and 
 horror that dwelt within his own. 
 
 " I am afraid you are very ill, sir," observed a woman, 
 stopping and gazing hard in his face. " Can I do anything 
 to help you.'' " 
 
 " 111.? " said M'Guire. " O God! " And then, recovering 
 some shadow of his self-command, " Chronic, madam," said 
 he ; " a long course of the dumb ague. But since you are so ' 
 compassionate — an errand that I lack the strength to carry * 
 out," he gasped — " this bag to Portman Square. O com- 
 passionate woman, as you hope to be saved, as you are a 
 mother, in the name of your babies that wait to welcome you 
 at home, oh, take this bag to Portman Square! I have a 
 mother, too," he added, with a broken voice. " Number 19, 
 Portman Square." 
 
 I suppose he had expressed himself with too much energy 
 of voice ; for the woman was plainly taken with a certain 
 fear of him. " Poor gentleman ! " said she. " If I were you, 
 I would go home." And she left him standing there in 
 his distress. 
 
 " Home ! " thought M'Guire, " what a derision ! " What 
 home was there for him, the victim of philanthropy? He 
 thought of his old mother, of his happy youth; of the 
 hideous, rending pang of the explosion ; of the possibility 
 that he might not be killed, that he might be cruelly man- 
 gled, crippled for life, condemned to hfe-long pains, bhnded 
 perhaps, and almost surely deafened. Ah, you spoke lightly 
 of the dynamiter's peril; but even waiving death, have you 
 realized what it is for a fine, brave young man of forty, to 
 be smitten suddenly with deafness, cut off from all the music 
 of hfe, and from the voice of friendship and love.f* How 
 little do we realize the sufferings of others ! Even your 
 brutal Government, in the heyday of its lust for cruelty, 
 though it scruples not to hound the patriot with spies, to 
 pack the corrupt jury, to bribe the hangman, and to erect 
 the infamous gallows, would hesitate to inflict so horrible 
 a doom : not, I am well aware, from virtue, not from philan- 
 
 446
 
 THE EXPLOSIVE BOMB 
 
 thropy, but with the fear before it of the withering scorn 
 of the good. 
 
 But I wander from M'Guire. From this dread glance 
 into the past and future, his thoughts returned at a bound 
 upon the present. How had he wandered there? and how 
 long — O heavens ! how long had he been about it ? He pulled 
 out his watch ; and found that but three minutes had elapsed. 
 It seemed too bright a tiling to be believed. He glanced at 
 the church clock; and sure enough, it marked an hour four 
 minutes faster than the watch. 
 
 Of all that he endured, M'Guire declares that pang was 
 the most desolate. Till then he had had one friend, one 
 counselor, in whom he plenarily trusted; by whose adver- 
 tisement, he numbered the minutes that remained to him of 
 life; on whose sure testimony, he could tell when the time 
 was come to risk the last adventure, to cast the bag away 
 from him, and take to flight. And now in what was he to 
 place reliance.'* His watch was slow; it might be losing 
 time; if so, in what degree? What hmit could he set to its 
 derangement? and how much was it possible for a watch to 
 lose in thirty minutes? Five? ten'? fifteen? It might be 
 so ; already it seemed years since he had left St. James's 
 Hall on this so promising enterprise; at any moment, then, 
 the blow was to be looked for. 
 
 In the face of this new distress, the wild disorder of his 
 pulses settled down; and a broken weariness succeeded, as 
 though he had Hved for centuries, and for centuries been 
 dead. The buildings and the people in the street became 
 incredibly small, and far-away, and bright ; London sounded 
 in his ears stilly, like a whisper; and the rattle of the cab 
 that nearly charged him down, was like a sound from Africa. 
 Meanwhile, he was conscious of a strange abstraction from 
 himself; and heard and felt his footfalls on the ground, as 
 those of a very old, small, debile and tragically fortuned 
 man, whom he sincerely pitied. 
 
 As he was thus moving forward past the National Gal- 
 lery, in a medium, it seemed, of greater rarity and quiet 
 than ordinary air, there slipped into his mind the recollec- 
 
 447
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 tion of a certain entry in Whitcomb Street hard by, where 
 he might perhaps lay down his tragic cargo unremarked. 
 Thither, then, he bent his steps, seeming, as he went, to float 
 above the pavement; and there, in the mouth of the 
 entry, he found a man in a sleeved waistcoat, gravely 
 chewing a straw. He passed him by, and twice patroled the 
 entry, scouting for the barest chance; but the man had 
 faced about and continued to observe him curiously. 
 
 Another hope was gone. M'Guire reissued from the entry, 
 still followed by the wondering eyes of the man in the sleeved 
 waistcoat. He once more consulted his watch : there was but 
 fourteen minutes left to him. At that, it seemed as if a 
 sudden, genial heat were spread about his brain ; for a sec- 
 ond or two, he saw the world as red as blood ; and thereafter 
 entered into a complete possession of himself, with an in- 
 credible cheerfulness of spirits, prompting him to sing and 
 chuckle as he walked. And j^et this mirth seemed to belong 
 to things external ; and within like a black and leaden-heavy 
 kernel, he was conscious of the weight upon his soul. 
 
 I care for nobody, no, not I, 
 And nobody cares for me, 
 
 he sang, and laughed at the appropriate burden, so that 
 the passengers stared upon him on the street. And still 
 the warmth seemed to increase and to become more genial. 
 What was life.? he considered, and what he, M'Guire? What 
 even Erin, our green Erin? All seemed so incalculably little 
 that he smiled as he looked upon it. He would have given 
 years, had he possessed them, for a glass of spirits; but 
 time failed, and he must deny himself this last indulgence. 
 At the corner of the Haymarket, he very jauntily hailed 
 a hansom cab; jumped in; bade the fellow drive liim to a 
 part of the Embankment, which he named; and as soon as 
 the vehicle was in motion, concealed the bag as completely 
 as he could under the vantage of the apron, and once more 
 drew out his watch. So he rode for five interminable min- 
 utes, his heart in his mouth at every jolt, scarce able to 
 possess his terrors, yet fearing to wake the attention of the 
 
 448
 
 ,THE EXPLOSIVE BOMB 
 
 3rlver by too obvious a change of plan, and willing, if pos- 
 sible, to leave him time to forget the Gladstone bag. 
 
 At length, at the head of some stairs on the Embankment, 
 he hailed; the cab was stopped, and he alighted — with how 
 glad a heart ! He thrust his hand into his pocket. All was 
 now over; he had saved liis life; nor that alone, but he had 
 engineered a striking act of d3Tiaraite; for what could be 
 more pictorial, what more effective, than the explosion of a 
 hansom cab as it sped rapidly along the streets of London. 
 He felt in one pocket, then in another. The most crushing 
 seizure of despair descended on his soul, and struck into 
 abject dumbness, he stared upon the driver. He had not 
 one penny. 
 
 " Hillo," said the driver ; " don't seem well." 
 
 " Lost my money," said M'Guire, in tones so faint and 
 strange that they surprised liis hearing. 
 
 The man looked through the trap. " I dessay," said he; 
 ** you've left your bag." 
 
 M'Guire half unconsciously fetched it out, and looking 
 on that black continent at arm's length, withered inwardly 
 and felt his features sharpen as with mortal sickness. 
 
 " This is not mine," said he. " Your last fare must have 
 left it. You had better take it to the station." 
 
 " Now look here," returned the cabman, " are you off 
 your chump .^ or am I? " 
 
 " Well, then, I'll tell you what," exclaimed M'Guire, " you 
 take it for your fare." 
 
 "Oh, I dessay," replied the driver. "Anything else.^ 
 what's in your bag? Open it and let me see." 
 
 "No, no," returned M'Guire. "Oh, no, not that. It's 
 a surprise ; it's prepared expressly ; a surprise for honest 
 cabmen." 
 
 " No, you don't," said the man, alighting from his perch, 
 and coming very close to the unhappy patriot. " You're 
 either going to pay my fare, or get in again and drive to 
 the office." 
 
 It was at this supreme hour of his distress that ]M'Guire 
 spied the stout figure of one Godall, a tobacconist of Rupei't 
 
 4t9
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 Street, drawing near along the Embankment. The man 
 was not unknown to him ; he had bought of his wares, and 
 heard him . quoted for the soul of liberality ; and such was 
 now the nearness of his peril that even at such a straw of 
 hope he clutched with gratitude. 
 
 " Thank God ! " he cried. " Here comes a friend of mine. 
 I'll borrow." And he dashed to meet the tradesman. " Sir," 
 said he, " Mr. Godall, I have dealt with you — you doubtless 
 know my face — calamities for which I can not blame my- 
 self have overwhelmed me. Oh, sir, for the love of inno- 
 cence, for the sake of the bonds of humanity, and as you 
 hope for mercy at the throne of grace, lend me two-and- 
 six!" 
 
 " I do not recognize your face," replied Mr. Godall ; 
 " but I remember the cut of your beard, which I have the 
 misfortune to dislike. Here, sir, is a sovereign, which I 
 very willingly advance to you on the single condition that 
 you shave your chin." 
 
 M'Guire grasped the coin without a word, cast it to the 
 cabman, calling out to him to keep the change; bounded 
 down the steps, flung the bag far forth into the river, and 
 fell headlong after it. He was plucked from a watery 
 grave, it is believed, by the hands of Mr. Godall. Even 
 as he was being hoisted, dripping, to the shore, a dull and 
 choked explosion shook the solid masonry of the Embank- 
 ment, and far out in the river a momentary fountain rose 
 and disappeared. 
 
 450
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION (cOTlUnUed) 
 
 SOMERSET in vain strove to attach a meaning to these 
 words. He had in the meanwhile appHed himself as- 
 siduously to the flagon ; the plotter began to melt in twain, 
 and seemed to expand and hover on his seat, and with a 
 vague sense of nightmare, the young man rose unsteadily 
 to his feet, and, refusing the proffer of a third grog, in- 
 sisted that the hour was late and he must positively go to 
 bed. 
 
 " Dear me," observed Zero, " I find you very temperate. 
 But I will not be oppressive. Suffice it that we are now fast 
 friends ; and, my dear landlord, au revoir! " 
 
 So saying the plotter once more shook hands ; and with 
 the poKtest ceremonies, and some necessary guidance, con- 
 ducted the bewildered young gentleman to the top of the 
 stair. 
 
 Precisely how he got to bed was a point on which Somer- 
 set remained in utter darkness ; but the next morning when, 
 at a blow, he started broad awake, there fell upon his mind 
 a perfect hurricane of horror and wonder. That he should 
 have suff^ered himself to be led into the semblance of inti- 
 macy with such a man as his abominable lodger, appeared, 
 in the cold light of day, a mystery of human weakness. 
 True, he was caught in a situation that might have tested 
 the aplomb of Talleyrand. That was perhaps a palliation ; 
 but it was no excuse. For so wholesale a capitulation of 
 principle, for such a fall into criminal familiarity, no ex- 
 cuse indeed was possible; nor any remedy, but to withdraw 
 at once from the relation. 
 
 As soon as he was dressed, he hurried up stairs, determined 
 on a rupture. Zero hailed him with the warmth of an old 
 friend. 
 
 451
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Come in," he cried, " dear Mr. Somerset ! Come in, sit 
 down, and without ceremony, join me at my morning 
 meal." 
 
 *' Sir," said Somerset, " you must permit me first to 
 disengage my honor. Last night I was surprised into a 
 certain appearance of complicity; but once for all, let me 
 inform you that I regard you and your machinations with 
 unmiriglcd horror and disgust, and I will leave no stone 
 unturned to crush your vile conspiracy." 
 
 " My dear fellow," replied Zero, with an air of some 
 complacency, " I am well accustomed to these human weak- 
 nesses. Disgust? I have felt it myself; it speedily wears 
 off. I think none the worse, I think the more of you for this 
 engaging frankness. And in the meanwhile, what are you 
 to do.'* You find yourself, if I interpret rightly, in very 
 much the same situation as Charles the Second (possiblj'^ 
 the least degraded of your British sovereigns) when he was 
 taken into the confidence of the thief. To denounce me, is 
 out of the question; and what else can you attempt? No, 
 dear Mr. Somerset, your hands are tied; and you find your- 
 self condemned, under pain of behaving like a cad, to be that 
 same charming and intellectual companion who delighted me 
 last night." 
 
 " At least," cried Somerset, " I can and do order you to 
 leave this house." 
 
 "Ah!" cried the plotter, "but there I fail to follow 
 you. You may, if you choose, enact the part of Judas ; 
 but if, as I suppose, you recoil from that extremity of mean- 
 ness, I am, on my side, far too intelligent to leave these 
 lodgings, in which I please myself exceedingly, and from 
 which you lack the power to drive me. No, no, dear sir; 
 here I am, and here I propose to stay." 
 
 " I repeat," cried Somerset, beside himself with a sense 
 of his own weakness, " I repeat that I give you warning. 
 I am master of this house; and I emphatically give you 
 warning." 
 
 " A week's warning? " said the imperturbable conspirator. 
 " Very well ; we will talk of it a week from now. That is 
 
 452
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 arranged; and in the meanwhile, I observe my breakfast 
 growing cold. Do, dear Mr. Somerset, since you find your- 
 self condemned, for a week at least, to the society of a very 
 interesting character, display some of that open favor, 
 some of that interest in life's obscurer sides, which stamp 
 the character of the true artist. Hang me, if you will, 
 to-morrow ; but to-day show yourself divested of the scruples 
 of the burgess, and sit down pleasantly to share my meal." 
 
 " Man ! " cried Somerset, " do you understand my senti- 
 ments ? " 
 
 " Certainly," replied Zero ; " and I respect them ! Would 
 you be outdone in such a contest.'' will you alone be partial? 
 and in this nineteenth century, can not two gentlemen of 
 education agree to differ on a point of politics? Come, sir; 
 all your hard words have left me smiling; judge then, which 
 of us is the philosopher!" 
 
 Somerset was a young man of a very tolerant disposition 
 and by nature easily amenable to sophistry. He threw up 
 his hands with a gesture of despair, and took the seat to 
 which the conspirator invited him. The meal was excellent; 
 the host not only affable, but primed with curious informa- 
 tion. He seemed, indeed, like one who had too long endured 
 the torture of silence, to exult in the most wholesale dis- 
 closures. The interest of what he had to tell, was great; 
 his character, besides, developed step by step ; and Somerset, 
 as the time fled, not only outgrew some of the discomfort 
 of his false position, but began to regard the conspirator 
 with a familiarity that verged upon contempt. In any cir- 
 cumstances, he had a singular inability to leave the society 
 in which he found himself; company, even if distasteful, 
 held him captive like a limed sparrow; and on this occasion, 
 he suffered hour to follow hour, was easily persuaded to 
 sit down once more to table, and did not even attempt to 
 withdraw, till, on the approach of evening. Zero, with many 
 apologies, dismissed his guest. His fellow-conspirators, the 
 dynamiter handsomely explained, as they were unacquainted 
 with the sterling qualities of the young man, would be 
 alarmed at the sight of a strange face. 
 
 453
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 As soon as he was alone, Somerset fell back upon the 
 humor of the morning. He raged at the thought of his 
 facihty; he paced the dining-room, forming the sternest 
 resolutions for the future; he wrung the hand which had 
 been dishonored by the touch of an assassin; and among all 
 these whirling thoughts, there flashed in, from time to time, 
 and ever with a chill of fear, the thought of the confounded 
 ingredients with which the house was stored. A powder- 
 magazine seemed a secure smoking-room alongside of the 
 Superfluous Mansion. 
 
 He sought refuge in flight, in locomotion, in the flowing 
 bowl. As long as the bars were open, he traveled from one 
 to another, seeking light, safety and the companionship of 
 human faces ; when these resources failed him, he fell back 
 on the belated baked-potato man ; and at length, still pacing 
 the streets, he was goaded to fraternize with the police. 
 Alas, with what a sense of guilt he conversed with these 
 guardians of the law; how gladly had he wept upon their 
 ample bosoms ; and how the secret fluttered to his lips and 
 was still denied an exit! Fatigue began at last to triumph 
 over remorse; and about the hour of the first milkman, he 
 returned to the door of the mansion; looked at it with a 
 horrid expectation, as though it should have burst that in- 
 stant into flames ; drew out his key, and when his foot 
 already rested on the steps, once more lost heart and fled 
 for repose to the grisly shelter of a coffee-shop. 
 
 It was on the stroke of noon when he awoke. Dismally 
 searching in his pockets, he found himself reduced to half- 
 a-crown; and when he had paid the price of his distasteful 
 couch, saw himself obliged to return to the Superfluous 
 Mansion. He sneaked into the hall, and stole on tiptoe to 
 the cupboard where he kept his money. Yet half a minute, 
 he told himself, and he would be free for days from his 
 obsessing lodger, and might decide at lesiure on the course 
 he should pursue. But fate had otherwise designed; there 
 came a tap at the door and Zero entered. 
 
 " Have I caught you.'' " he cried, with innocent gayety. 
 ** Dear fellow, I was growing quite impatient." And on 
 
 454
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MAXSIOX 
 
 the speaker's somewhat stolid face, there came a glow of 
 genuine affection. " I am so long unused to have a friend," 
 he continued, " that I begin to be afraid I may prove jeal- 
 ous." And he wrung the hand of his landlord. 
 
 Somerset was, of all men, least fit to deal with such a 
 greeting. To reject these kind advances was beyond his 
 strength. That he could not return cordiality for cor- 
 diality, was already almost more than he could carry. That 
 inequality between kind sentiments, which, to generous char- 
 acters, will always seem to be a sort of guilt, oppressed him 
 to the ground ; and he stammered vague and lying words. 
 
 " That is all right," cried Zero — " that is as It should be 
 — say no more! I had a vague alarm; I feared you had 
 deserted me ; but I now own that fear to have been un- 
 worthy, and apologize. To doubt of your forgiveness were 
 to repeat my sin. Come, then; dinner waits; join me again 
 and tell me your adventures of the night." 
 
 Kindness still sealed the lips of Somerset ; and he suffered 
 himself once more to be set down to table with his Innocent 
 and criminal acquaintance. Once more, the plotter plunged 
 up to the neck In damaging disclosures : now It would be the 
 name and biography of an Individual, now the address of 
 some Important center, that rose, as If by accident, upon 
 his lips ; and each word was like another turn of the thumb- 
 screw to his unhappy guest. Finally, the course of Zero's 
 bland monologue led him to the young lady of two days 
 ago: that young lady, who had flashed on Somerset for so 
 brief a while but with so conquering a charm; and whose 
 engaging grace, communicative eyes, and admirable con- 
 duct of the sweeping skirt, remained imprinted on his 
 memory. 
 
 "You saw her.?"' said Zero. "Beautiful, is she not? 
 She, too, is one of ours : a true enthusiast : nervous, perhaps, 
 in presence of the chemicals ; but In matters of Intrigue, the 
 very soul of skill and daring. Lake, Fonblanque, de JNIarly, 
 Valdevia, such are some of the names that she employs ; 
 her true name — but there, perhaps, I go too far. Suffice It, 
 that it Is to her I owe my present lodging and, dear Somer- 
 
 455
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 set, the pleasure of your acquaintance. It appears she 
 knew the house. You see, dear fellow, I make no conceal- 
 ment: all that you can care to hear, I tell you openly." 
 
 " For God's sake," cried the wretched Somerset, " hold 
 your tongue ! You cannot imagine how you torture 
 me ! " 
 
 A shade of serious discomposure crossed the open coun- 
 tenance of Zero. 
 
 " There are times," he said, " when I begin to fancy that 
 you do not like me. Why, why, dear Somerset, this lack of 
 cordiality ? I am depressed ; the touchstone of my life draws 
 near ; and if I fail " — he gloomily nodded — " from all the 
 height of my ambitious scliemes, I fall, dear boy, into con- 
 tempt. These are grave thoughts, and you may judge my 
 need of your delightful company. Innocent prattler, you 
 relieve the weight of my concerns. And yet . . . and 
 yet . . ." The speaker pushed away his plate, and rose 
 from table. " Follow me," said he, " follow me. My 
 mood is on ; I must have air, I must behold the plain of 
 battle." 
 
 So saying, he led the way hurriedly to the top flat of the 
 mansion, and thence, by ladder and trap, to a certain leaded 
 platform, sheltered at one end by a great stalk of chimneys 
 and occupying the actual summit of the roof. On both 
 sides, it bordered, without parapet or rail, on the incline 
 of slates ; and, northward above all, commanded an extensive 
 view of housetops, and rising through the smoke, the distant 
 spires of churches. 
 
 " Here," cried Zero, " you behold this field of city, rich, 
 crowded, laughing with the spoil of continents ; but soon, 
 how soon, to be laid low! Some day, some night, from this 
 coign of vantage, you shall perhaps be startled by the 
 detonation of the judgment gun — not sharp and empty like 
 the crack of cannon, but deep-mouthed and unctuously sol- 
 emn. Instantly thereafter, you shall behold the flames break 
 forth. Ay," he cried, stretching forth his hand, " ay, that 
 will be a day of retribution. Then shall the pallid constable 
 flee side by side with the detected thief. Blaze ! " he cried, 
 
 456
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 *' blaze, derided city ! Fall, flatulent monarchy, fall like 
 Dagon ! " 
 
 With these words his foot slipped upon the lead ; and 
 but for Somerset's quickness, he had been instantly precipi- 
 tated into space. Pale as a sheet, and limp as a pocket- 
 handkerchief, he was dragged from the edge of downfall by 
 one arm; helped, or rather carried, down the ladder; and 
 deposited in safety on the attic landing. Here he began to 
 come to himself, wiped his brow, and at length, seizing 
 Somerset's hand in both of his, began to utter his acknowl- 
 edgments. 
 
 " This seals it," said he. " Ours is a life and death con- 
 nection. You have plucked me from the jaws of death; 
 and if I were before attracted by your character, judge now 
 of the ardor of my gratitude and love? But I perceive I 
 am still greatly shaken. Lend me, I beseech you, lend me 
 your arm as far as my apartment." 
 
 A dram of spirits restored the plotter to something of 
 his customary self-possession ; and he was standing, glass 
 in hand and genially convalescent, when his eye was at- 
 tracted by the dejection of the unfortunate young man. 
 
 " Good heavens, dear Somerset," he cried, " what ails 
 you.? Let me offer you a touch of spirits." 
 
 But Somerset had fallen below the reach of this material 
 comfort. 
 
 " Let me be," he said, " I am lost ; you have caught me 
 in the toils. Up to this moment I have lived all my life in 
 the most reckless manner, and done exactly what I pleased, 
 with the most perfect innocence. And now — what am I.'* 
 Are you so blind and wooden that you do not see the loathing 
 you inspire me with? Is it possible you can suppose me 
 willing to continue to exist upon such terms? To think," 
 he cried, " that a young man, guilty of no fault on earth 
 but amiability, should find himself involved in such a damned 
 imbroglio ! " And placing his knuckles in his eyes, Somer- 
 set rolled upon the sofa. 
 
 " My God," said Zero, " is this possible? And I so filled 
 with tenderness and interest! Can it be, dear Somerset, 
 
 457
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 that you are under the emph'e of these outworn scruples? 
 or that you judge a patriot by the morality of the religious 
 tract? I thought you were a good agnostic." 
 
 " Mr. Jones," said Somerset, " it is in vain to argue. I 
 boast myself a total disbeliever not only in revealed religion, 
 but in the data, method and conclusions of the whole of 
 ethics. Well! what matters it? what signifies a form of 
 words? I regard you as a reptile, whom I would rejoice, 
 whom I long, to stamp under my heel. You would blow up 
 others? Well then, understand: I want, with every circum- 
 stance of infamy and agony, to blow up you ! " 
 
 " Somerset, Somerset ! " said Zero, turning very pale, 
 " this is wrong ; this is very wrong. You pain, you wound 
 me, Somerset." 
 
 " Give me a match ! " cried Somerset wildly. " Let me 
 set fire to this incomparable monster! Let me perish with 
 him in his fall ! " 
 
 " For God's sake," cried Zero, clutching hold of the 
 young man, " for God's sake command yourself! We stand 
 upon the brink ; death yawns around us ; a man — a stranger 
 in this foreign land — one whom you have called your 
 friend " 
 
 " Silence ! " cried Somerset, " you are no friend, no friend 
 of mine. I look on you with loathing, like a toad: my 
 flesh creeps with physical repulsion ; my soul revolts against 
 the sight of you." 
 
 Zero burst Into tears. " Alas ! " he sobbed, " this snaps 
 the last link that bound me to humanity. My friend dis- 
 owns — he insults me. I am Indeed accursed." 
 
 Somerset stood for an instant staggered by this sudden 
 change of front. The next moment, with a despair- 
 ing gesture, he fled from the room and from the house. 
 The first dash of his escape carried him hard upon half- 
 way to the next police-office ; but presently he began to 
 droop ; and before he reached the house of lawful interven- 
 tion, he fell once more among doubtful counsels. Was he 
 an agnostic? had he a right to act? Away with such non- 
 sense, and let Zero perish! ran his thoughts. And then 
 
 45S.
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 again: had he not promised, had he not shaken hands and 
 broken bread? and that with open eyes? and if so how could 
 he take action, and not forfeit honor? But honor! what 
 was honor? A figment, which, in the hot pursuit of crime 
 he ought to dash aside. Ay, but crime? A figment, too, 
 which his enfranchised intellect discarded. All day he wan- 
 dered in the parks, a prey to whirling thoughts ; all night, 
 patrolled the city ; and at the peep of day he sat down by 
 the wayside in the neighborhood of Peckham and bitterly 
 wept. His gods had fallen. He who had chosen the broad, 
 daylighted, unencumbered paths of universal skepticism, 
 found himself still the bondslave of honor. He who had 
 accepted life from a point of view as lofty as the predatory 
 eagle's, though with no design to prey ; he who had clearly 
 recognized the common moral basis of war, of commercial 
 competition, and of crime; he who was prepared to help the 
 escaping murderer or to embrace the impenitent thief, found, 
 to the overthrow of all his logic, that he objected to the use 
 of dynamite. The dawn crept among the sleeping villas and 
 over the smokeless fields of city ; and still the unfortunate 
 skeptic sobbed over his fall from consistency. 
 
 At length, he rose and took the rising sun to witness. 
 " There is no question as to fact," he cried ; " right and 
 wrong are but figments and the shadow of a word ; but for 
 all that, there are certain things that I can not do, and there 
 are certain others that I will not stand." Thereupon he 
 decided to return, to make one last effort of persuasion, and, 
 if he could not prevail on Zero to desist from his infernal 
 trade, throw delicacy to the winds, give the plotter an hour's 
 start, and denounce him to the police. Fast as he went, 
 being winged by this resolution, it was already well on in 
 the morning, when he came in sight of the Superfluous Man- 
 sion. Tripping down the steps, was the young lady of the 
 various aliases ; and he was surprised to see upon her coun- 
 tenance the marks of anger and concern. 
 
 " Madam," he began, yielding to impulse and with no 
 clear knowledge of what he was to add. 
 
 But at the sound of his voice she seemed to experience a 
 
 459
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 shock of fear or horror; started back; lowered her veil 
 with a sudden movement; and fled, without turning, from 
 the square. 
 
 Here then, we step aside a moment from following the 
 fortunes of Somerset, and proceed to relate the strange and 
 romantic episode of The Brown Box. 
 
 460
 
 M 
 
 DESBOROUGH S ADVENTURE: THE BROWN BOX 
 
 R. HARRY DESBOROUGH lodged in the fine and 
 grave old quarter of Bloomsbury, roared about on 
 every side by the high tides of London, but itself rejoicing 
 in romantic silences and city peace. It was in Queen Square 
 that he had pitched his tent, next door to the Children's 
 Hospital, on your left hand as you go north : Queen Square, 
 sacred to humane and liberal arts, whence homes were made 
 beautiful, where the poor were taught, where the sparrows 
 were plentiful and loud, and where groups of patient little 
 ones would hover all day long before the hospital, if by 
 chance they might kiss their hand or speak a word to their 
 sick brother at the window. Desborough's room was on the 
 first floor and fronted to the square; but he enjoyed besides, 
 a right by which he often profited, to sit and smoke upon a 
 terrace at the back, which looked down upon a fine forest of 
 back gardens, and was in turn commanded by the windows 
 of an empty room. 
 
 On the afternoon of a warm day, Desborough sauntered 
 forth upon this terrace, somewhat out of hope and heart, 
 for he had been now some weeks on the vain quest of situa- 
 tions, and prepared for melancholy and tobacco. Here, at 
 least, he told himself that he would be alone; for, hke most 
 youths, who are neither rich, nor witty, nor successful, he 
 rather shunned than courted the society of other men. Even 
 as he expressed the thought his eye alighted on the window 
 of the room that looked upon the terrace; and to his sur- 
 prise and annoyance, he beheld it curtained with a silken 
 hanging. It was like his luck, he thought; his privacy was 
 gone, he could no longer brood and sigh unwatched, he could 
 no longer suff"er his discouragement to find a vent in words 
 or soothe himself with sentimental Avhistling; and in the 
 irritation of the moment he struck his pipe upon the rail 
 
 461
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 with unnecessary force. It was an old, sweet, seasoned brier- 
 root, glossy and dark with long employment and justly 
 dear to his fancy. What, then, was his chagrin, when the 
 head snapped from the stem, leaped airily in space, and 
 fell and disappeared among the lilacs of the garden? 
 
 He threw himself savagely into the garden chair, pulled 
 out the story-paper which he had brought with him to read, 
 tore off a fragment of the last sheet, which contains only 
 the answers to correspondents, and set himself to roll a 
 cigarette. He was no master of the art; again and again, 
 the paper broke between his fingers and the tobacco show- 
 ered upon the ground ; and he was already on the point of 
 angry resignation, when the window swung slowly inward 
 the silken curtain was thrust aside, and a lady, somewhat 
 strangely attired, stepped forth upon the terrace. 
 
 " Senorito," said she, and there was a rich thrill in her 
 voice, like an organ note, " Senorito, you are in difficulties. 
 Suffer me to come to your assistance." 
 
 With the words, she took the paper and tobacco from his 
 unresisting hands ; and with a facility that, in Desborough's 
 eyes, seemed magical, rolled and presented him a cigarette. 
 He took it, still without a word; staring with all his eyes 
 upon that apparition. Her face was warm and rich in 
 color ; in shape, it was the kitten face, that piquant triangle, 
 so mysterious, so pleasingly attractive, so rare in our more 
 northern climates ; her eyes were large, starry and visited by 
 changing lights ; her hair was partly covered by a lace man- 
 tilla, through which her arms, bare to the shoulder, gleamed 
 white; her figure, full an^i soft in all the womanly contours, 
 was yet alive and active, light with excess of life, and slen- 
 der by grace of some divine proportion. 
 
 " You do not like my cigarrito, Senor? " she asked. " Yet 
 it is better made than yours." At that she laughed, and 
 her laughter trilled in his ear like music; but the next mo- 
 ment her face fell. " I see," she cried. " It is my manner 
 that repels you. I am too constrained, too cold. I am 
 not," she added, with a more engaging air, " I am not the 
 simple EngHsh maiden I appear."
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 " Oh ! " murmured Harry, filled with inexpressible 
 thoughts. 
 
 " In my own dear land," she pursued, " things are differ- 
 ently ordered. There, I must own, a girl is bound by many 
 and rigorous restrictions ; little is permitted her ; she learns 
 to be distant, she learns to appear forbidding. But here, 
 in free England — O glorious liberty," she cried, and threw 
 up her arms with a gesture of inimitable grace — " here there 
 are no fetters ; here the woman may dare to be herself en- 
 tirely, and the men, the chivalrous men — is it not written on 
 the very shield of your nation, honi soit? Ah, it is hard for 
 me to leani, hard for me to dare to be myself. You must 
 not judge me yet awhile; I shall end by conquering this stiff- 
 ness, I shall end by growing English. Do I speak the lan- 
 guage well? " 
 
 " Perfectly — oh, perfectly ! " said Harry, with a fervency 
 of conviction worthy of a graver subject. 
 
 " Ah, then," she said, " I shall soon learn ; English blood 
 ran in my father's veins ; and I have had the advantage of 
 some training in your expressive tongue. If I speak already 
 without accent, with my thorough English appearance, there 
 is nothing left to change except my manners." 
 
 " Oh, no," said Desborough. " Oh, pray not ! I — 
 madam " 
 
 " I am," interrupted the lady, " the Seilorita Teresa Val- 
 devia. The evening air grows chill. Adios, Seilorito." And 
 before Harry could stammer out a word, she had disap- 
 peared into her room. 
 
 He stood transfixed, the cigarette still unlighted in his 
 hand. His thoughts had soared above tobacco, and still 
 recalled and beautified the image of his new acquaintance. 
 Her voice re-echoed in his memory; her eyes, of which he 
 could not tell the color, haunted his soul. The clouds had 
 risen at her coming, and he beheld a new-created world. 
 What she was, he could not fancy, but he adored her. Her 
 age, he durst not estimate ; fearing to find her older than 
 himself, and thinking sacrilege to couple that fair favor with 
 the thought of mortal changes. As for her character, 
 
 463
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 beauty lo the young is always good. So the poor lad lin- 
 gered late upon the terrace, stealing timid glances at the 
 curtained window, sighing to the gold laburnums, rapt into 
 the country of romance ; and when at length he entered and 
 sat down to dine, on cold boiled mutton and a pint of ale, 
 he feasted on the food of gods. 
 
 Next day when he returned to the terrace, the window 
 was a little ajar and he enjoyed a view of the lady's shoul- 
 der, as she sat patiently sewing and all unconscious of his 
 presence. On the next, he had scarce appeared when the 
 window opened, and the Senorita tripped forth into the 
 sunlight, in a morning disorder, delicately neat, and yet 
 somehow foreign, tropical and strange. In one hand she 
 held a packet. 
 
 " Will you try," she said, " some of my father's tobacco 
 — from dear Cuba? There, as I suppose you know, all 
 smoke, ladies as well as gentlemen. So you need not fear 
 to annoy me. The fragrance will remind me of home. My 
 home, Senor, was by the sea." And as she uttered these 
 few words, Desborough, for the first time in his life, real- 
 ized the poetry of the great deep. " Awake or asleep, I 
 dream of it ; dear home, dear Cuba ! " 
 
 " But some day," said Desborough, with an inward pang, 
 " some day you will return ? " 
 
 " Never ! " she cried ; " ah, never, in Heaven's name ! " 
 
 ** Are you then resident for life in England ? " he in- 
 quired, with a strange lightening of spirit? 
 
 " You ask too much, for you ask more than I know," 
 she answered, sadly ; and then, resuming her gayety of man- 
 ner : " But you have not tried my Cuban tobacco," she 
 said. 
 
 " Senorita," said he, shyly, abashed by some shadow of 
 coquetry in her manner, " whatever comes to me — you — I 
 mean," he concluded, deeply flushing, " that I have no doubt 
 the tobacco is delightful." 
 
 " Ah, Senor," she said, with almost mournful gravity, 
 " you seemed so simple and good, and already you are try- 
 ing to pay compliments — and besides," she added, brighten- 
 
 464)
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 ing, with a quick, upward glance, into a smile, " you do 
 it, oh, so badly ! English gentlemen, I used to hear, could 
 be fast friends, respectful, honest friends ; could be com- 
 panions, comforters, if the need arose, or champions, and 
 yet never encroach. Do not seek to please me by copying 
 the graces of my countrymen. Be yourself; the frank, 
 kindly, honest English gentleman that I have heard of since 
 my childhood and still long to meet." 
 
 Harry, much bewildered, and far from clear as to the 
 manners of the Cuban gentleman, strenuously disclaimed the 
 thought of plagiarism. 
 
 " Your national seriousness of bearing best becomes you, 
 Senor," said the lady. " See ! " marking a line with her 
 dainty, slippered foot, " thus far it shall be common ground ; 
 there, at my window-sill, begins the scientific frontier. If 
 you choose, you may drive me to my forts ; but if, on the 
 other hand, we are to be real English friends, I may join 
 you here when I am not too sad; or, when I am yet more 
 graciously inclined, you may draw your chair beside the 
 window and teach me English customs, while I work. You 
 will find me an apt scholar, for my heart is in the task." 
 She laid her hand lightly upon Harry's arm, and looked into 
 his eyes. " Do you know," said she, " I am emboldened to 
 believe that I have already caught something of your 
 English aplomb? Do you not perceive a change, Senor? 
 Slight, perhaps, but still a change? Is my deportment not 
 more open, more free, more like that of the dear ' British 
 Miss,' than when you saw me first? " She gave a radiant 
 smile ; withdrew her hand from Harry's arm ; and before 
 the young man could formulate in words the eloquent emo- 
 tions that ran riot through his brain — ^with an " Adios, 
 Senor: good-night, my English friend," she vanished from 
 his sight behind the curtain. 
 
 The next day, Harry consumed an ounce of tobacco in 
 vain upon the neutral terrace ; neither sight nor sound re- 
 warded him, and the dinner-hour summoned him at length 
 from the scene of disappointment. On the next, it rained ; 
 but nothing, neither business nor weather, neither pros- 
 
 4>65
 
 THE DYNAJNIITER 
 
 pective poverty nor present hardship, could now divert the 
 young man from the service of his lady; and wrapped in a 
 long ulster, with the collar raised, he took his stand against 
 the balustrade, awaiting fortune, the picture of damp and 
 discomfort to the eye, but glowing inwardly with tender and 
 delightful ardors. Presently the window opened; and the 
 fair Cuban, with a smile imperfectly dissembled, appeared 
 upon the sill. 
 
 " Come here," she said, " here, beside my window. The 
 small veranda gives a belt of shelter." And she graciously 
 handed him a folding-chair. 
 
 As he sat down, visibly aglow with shyness and delight, a 
 certain bulkiness in his pocket reminded him that he was not 
 come empty-handed. 
 
 " I have taken the liberty," said he, " of bringing you a 
 little book. I thought of you, when I observed it on the 
 stall, because I saw it was in Spanish. The man assured me 
 it was by one of the best authors, and quite proper." As 
 he spoke, he placed the little volume in her hand. Her 
 eyes fell as she turned the pages, and a flush rose and 
 died again upon her cheeks, as deep as it was fleeting. 
 " You are angry," he cried in agony. " I have pre- 
 sumed ! " 
 
 " No, Senor, it is not that,"" returned the lady. " I " — 
 and a flood of color once more mounted to her brow — " I am 
 confused and ashamed because I have deceived you. Span- 
 ish," she began, and paused — " Spanish is of course my 
 native tongue," she resumed, as though suddenly taking 
 courage ; " and this should certainly put the highest value 
 on your thoughtful present; but alas, sir, of what use is it 
 to me? And how shall I confess to you the truth — the 
 humiliating truth — that I can not read? " 
 
 As Harry's eyes met hers in undisguised amazement, the 
 fair Cuban seemed to shrink before his gaze. " Read? " 
 repeated Harry. " You ? " 
 
 She pushed the window still more widely open with a large 
 and noble gesture. " Enter, Senor," said she. " The time 
 has come to which I have long looked forward, not without 
 
 4(56
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 alarm; when I must either fear to lose your friendship, or 
 tell you without disguise the story of my life." 
 
 It was with a sentiment bordering on devotion that 
 Harry passed the window. A semi-barbarous delight in 
 form and color had presided over the studied disorder of the 
 room in which he found himself. It was filled with dainty 
 stuffs, furs and rugs and scarves of brilliant hues, and set 
 with elegant and curious trifles — fans on the mantel-shelf, 
 an antique lamp upon a bracket, and on the table a silver- 
 mounted bowl of cocoa-nut about half full of unset jewels. 
 The fair Cuban, herself a gem of color and the fit master- 
 piece for that rich frame, motioned Harry to a seat, and 
 sinking herself into another, thus began her history. 
 
 'm
 
 STORY OF THE FAIR CUBAN" 
 
 I Am not what I seem. My father drew his descent, on the 
 one hand, from grandees of Spain, and on the other, 
 through the maternal Hne, from the patriot Bruce. My 
 mother, too, was the descendant of a hne of kings ; but, alas ! 
 these kings were African. She was fair as the day: fairer 
 than I, for I inherited a darker strain of blood from the 
 veins of my European father ; her mind was noble, her man- 
 ners queenly and accomplished; and seeing her more than 
 the equal of her neighbors and surrounded by the most con- 
 siderate affection and respect, I grew up to adore her, and 
 when the time came, received her last sigh upon my lips, still 
 ignorant that she was a slave and alas ! my father's mistress. 
 Her death, which befell me in my sixteenth year, was the 
 first sorrow I had known : it left our home bereaved of its 
 attractions, cast a shade of melancholy on my youth, and 
 wrought in my father a tragic and durable change. Months 
 went by ; with the elasticity of my years, I regained some of 
 the simple mirth that had before distinguished me; the 
 plantation smiled with fresh crops ; the negroes on the estate 
 had already forgotten my mother and transferred their sim- 
 ple obedience to myself; but still the cloud only darkened on 
 the brows of Seilor Valdevia. His absences from home had 
 been frequent even in the old days, for he did business in 
 precious gems in the city of Havana; they now became 
 almost continuous ; and when he returned, it was but for the 
 night and with the manner of a man crushed down by adverse 
 fortune. 
 
 The place where I was bom and passed my days was an 
 isle set in the Caribbean Sea, some half-hour's rowing from 
 the coast of Cuba. It was steep, rugged, and, except for 
 my father's familj'^ and plantation, uninhabited and left to 
 
 469
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 nature. The house, a low building surrounded by spacious 
 verandas, stood upon a rise of ground and looked across the 
 sea to Cuba. The breezes blew about it gratefully, fanned 
 us as we lay swinging in our silken hammocks, and tossed 
 the boughs and flowers of the magnolia. Behind and to the 
 left, the quarter of the negroes and the waving fields of the 
 plantation covered an eighth part of the surface of the 
 isle. 
 
 On the right and closely bordering on the garden lay a 
 vast and deadly swamp, densely covered with wood, breathing 
 fever, dotted with profound sloughs, and inhabited by 
 poisonous oysters, man-eating crabs, snakes, alligators and 
 sickly fishes. In the recesses of that jungle none could pene- 
 trate but those of African descent ; an invisible, Unconquer- 
 able foe lay there in wait for the European ; and the air was 
 death. 
 
 One morning (from which I must date the beginning of 
 my ruinous misfortune) I left my room a little after day, 
 for in that warm climate all are early risers, and found not 
 a servant to attend upon my wants. I made the circuit of 
 the house, still calling: and my surprise had almost changed 
 into alarm, when coming at last into a large verandaed court, 
 I found it thronged with negroes. Even then, even when 
 I was amongst them, not one turned or paid the least regard 
 to my arrival. They had eyes and ears for but one person: 
 a woman richly and tastefully attired; of elegant carriage, 
 and a musical speech ; not so much old in years, as worn 
 and marred by self-indulgence: her face, which was still 
 attractive, stamped with the most cruel passions, her eye 
 burning with the greed of evil. It was not from her appear- 
 ance, I believe, but from some emanation of her soul, that I 
 recoiled in a kind of fainting terror; as we hear of plants 
 that bhght and snakes that fascinate, the woman shocked 
 and daunted me. But I was of a brave nature; trod the 
 weakness down ; and forcing my way through the slaves, 
 who fell back before me in embarrassment, as though in the 
 presence of rival mistresses, I asked, in imperious tones: 
 ** Who is this person? " 
 
 469
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 A girl slave, to whom I had been kind, whispered in my 
 ear to have a care, for that was Madam Mendizabal; but 
 the name was new to me. 
 
 In the meanwhile the woman, applying a pair of glasses 
 to her eyes, studied me with insolent particularly from head 
 to foot. 
 
 " Young woman," said she, at last, " I have had a great 
 experience in refractory servants, and take a pride in break- 
 ing them. You really tempt me; and if I had not other 
 affairs, and these of more importance, on my hand, I should 
 certainly buy you at your father's sale." 
 
 " Madam " I began, but my voice failed me. 
 
 " Is it possible that you do not know your position? " she 
 returned with a hateful laugh. " How comical ! Positively, 
 I must buy her. Accomplishments, I suppose .f^ " she added, 
 turning to the servants. 
 
 Several assured her that the young mistress had been 
 brought up like any lady, for so it seemed in their inex- 
 perience. 
 
 " She would do very well for my place of business In 
 Havana," said the Senora Mendizabal, once more studying 
 me through her glasses ; " and I should take a pleasure," 
 she pursued, more directly addressing myself, " in bringing 
 you acquainted with a whip." And she smiled at me with a 
 savory lust of cruelty upon her face. 
 
 At this I found expression. Calling by name upon the 
 servants, I bade them turn this woman from the house, fetch 
 her to the boat, and set her back upon the mainland. But 
 with one voice, they protested that they durst not obey, 
 coming close about me, pleading and beseeching me to be 
 more wise; and when I insisted, rising higher in passion and 
 speaking of this foul intruder in the terms she had deserved, 
 they fell back from me as from one who had blasphemed. A 
 superstitious reverence plainly encircled the stranger ; I could 
 read it in their changed demeanor, and in the paleness that 
 prevailed upon the natural color of their faces ; and their 
 fear perhaps reacted on myself. I looked again at Madam 
 Mendizabal. She stood perfectly composed, watching my 
 
 470
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 face through her glasses with a smile of scorn ; and at the 
 sight of her assured superiority to all my threats, a cry 
 broke from my lips, a cry of rage, fear and despair, and I 
 fled from the veranda and the house. 
 
 I ran I knew not where, but it was toward the beach. As 
 I went, my head whirled; so strange, so sudden, were these 
 events and insults. Who was she? what in Heaven's name 
 was the power she wielded over my obedient negroes? Why 
 had she addressed me as a slave? Why spoken of my father's 
 sale? To all these tumultuary questions I could find no 
 answer ; and in the turmoil of my mind, nothing was plain 
 except the hateful, leering image of the woman. 
 
 I was still running, mad with fear and anger, when I saw 
 my father coming to meet me from the landing-place ; and 
 with a cry that I thought would have killed me, leaped into 
 his arms and broke into a passion of sobs and tears upon his 
 bosom. He made me sit down below a tall palmetto that 
 grew not far off, comforted me, but with some abstraction 
 in his voice, and as soon as I regained the least conunand 
 upon my feelings, asked me, not without harshness, what this 
 grief betokened. I was surprised by his tone into a still 
 greater measure of composure; and in firm tones, though 
 still interrupted by sobs, I told him there was a stranger in 
 the island, at which I thought he started and turned pale; 
 that the servants would not obey me; that the stranger's 
 name was Madam Mendizabal, and at that he seemed to me 
 both troubled and relieved; that she had insulted me, treated 
 me as a slave (and here my father's brow began to darken), 
 threatened to buy me at a sale, and questioned my own 
 servants before my face; and that, at last, finding myself 
 quite helpless and exposed to these intolerable liberties, I 
 had fled from the house in terror, indignation and amaze- 
 ment. 
 
 " Teresa," said my father, with singular gravity of 
 voice, " I must make to-day a call upon your courage ; much 
 must be told you, there is much that you must do to help me ; 
 and my daughter must prove herself a woman by her spirit. 
 As for this Mendizabal, what shall I say? or how am I to 
 
 471!
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 tell jou what she is? Twenty years ago, she was the love- 
 liest of slaves ; to-day she is what you see her — prematurely' 
 old, disgraced by the practice of every vice and every nefari- 
 ous industry, but free, rich, married, they say, to some 
 reputable man, whom may Heaven assist ! and exercising 
 among her ancient mates, the slaves of Cuba, an influence 
 as unbounded as its reason is mysterious. Horrible rites, it 
 is supposed, cement her empire: the rites of Hoodoo. Be 
 that as it may, I would have you dismiss the thought of this 
 incomparable witch ; it is not from her that danger threatens 
 us, and into her hands, I make bold to promise, you shall 
 never fall." 
 
 " Father! " I cried. " Fall? Was there any truth, then, 
 in her words? Am I — oh father, tell me plain; I can bear 
 anything but this suspense." 
 
 " I will tell you," he replied, " with merciful bluntness. 
 Your mother was a slave; it was my design, so soon as I 
 had saved a competence, to sail to the free land of Britain, 
 where the law would suffer me to marry her: a design too 
 long procrastinated; for death at the last moment inter- 
 vened. You will now understand the heaviness with which 
 your mother's memory hangs about my neck." 
 
 I cried out aloud, in pity for my parents ; and in seeking 
 to console the survivor, I forgot myself. 
 
 " It matters not," resumed my father. " What I have 
 left undone can never be repaired, and I must bear the 
 penalty of my remorse. But, Teresa, with so cutting a re- 
 minder of the evils of delay, I set myself at once to do what 
 was still possible: to liberate yourself." 
 
 I began to break forth in thanks, but he checked me with 
 a somber roughness. 
 
 " Your mother's illness," he resumed, " had engaged too 
 great a portion of my time ; my business in the city had lain 
 too long at the mercy of ignorant underlings ; my head, my 
 taste, my unequaled knowledge of the more precious stones, 
 that art by which I can distinguish, even on the darkest 
 night, a sapphire from a ruby, and tell at a glance in what 
 quarter of the earth a gem was disinterred — all these had 
 
 4.72
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 been too long absent from the conduct of affairs. Teresa, 
 I was insolvent." 
 
 "What matters that.^" I cried. ""What matters poverty, 
 if we be left together with our love and sacred mem- 
 ories ? " 
 
 " You do not comprehend," he said gloomily. " Slave, 
 as 3^ou are, young — alas ! scarce more than child ! — accom- 
 plished, beautiful with the most touching beauty, innocent 
 as an angel — all these qualities that should disarm the very 
 wolves and crocodiles, are, in the eyes of those to whom I 
 stand indebted, commodities to buy and sell. You are a 
 chattel ; a marketable thing ; and worth — heavens, that I 
 should say such words ! — worth money. Do you begin to 
 see.'' If I were to give you freedom, I should defraud my 
 creditors ; the manumission would be certainly annulled ; you 
 would be still a slave, and I a criminal." 
 
 I caught his hand in mine, kissed it, and moaned In pity 
 for myself, in sympathy for my father. 
 
 " How I have toiled," he continued, " how I have dared 
 and striven to repair my losses, Heaven has beheld and will 
 remember. Its blessing was denied to my endeavors, or, as 
 I please myself by thinking, but delayed to descend upon my 
 daughter's head. At length, all hope was at an end; I was 
 ruined beyond retrieve; a heavy debt fell due upon the mor- 
 row, which I could not meet ; I should be declared a bank- 
 rupt, and my goods, my lands, my jewels that I so much 
 loved, my slaves whom I have spoiled and rendered happy, 
 and oh! ten-fold worse, you, my beloved daughter, would be 
 sold and pass into the hands of ignorant and greedy traf- 
 fickers. Too long, I saw, had I accepted and profited by 
 this great crime of slavery ; but was my daughter, my inno^ 
 cent, unsullied daughter, was she to pay the price.'* I cried 
 out — no ! — I took Heaven to witness my temptation ; I 
 caught up this bag and fled. Close upon my track are tliQ 
 pursuers ; perhaps to-morrow, they will land upon this isle, 
 sacred to the memory of the dear soul that bore you, to 
 consign your father to an ignominious prison, and yourself 
 to slavery and dishonor. We have not many hours before 
 
 473
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 us. Dff the north coast of our isle, by strange good fortune, 
 an English yacht has for some days been hovering. It be- 
 longs to Sir George Greville, whom I slightly know, to whom 
 ere now I have rendered unusual services, and who will not 
 refuse to help in our escape. Or if he did, if his gratitude 
 were in default, I have the power to force him. For what 
 does it mean, my child — what means this Englishman, who 
 hangs for years upon the shores of Cuba, and returns from 
 every trip with new and valuable gems ! " 
 
 " He may have found a mine," I hazarded. 
 
 " So he declares," returned my father ; " but the strange 
 gift I have received from nature, easily transpierced the 
 fable. He brought me diamonds only, which I bought, at 
 first, in innocence ; at a second glance, I started ; for of these 
 stones, my child, some had first seen the day in Africa, some 
 in Brazil; Avhile others, from their peculiar water and rude 
 workmanship, I divined to be the spoil of ancient temples. 
 Thus put upon the scent, I made inquiries : oh, he is cunning, 
 but I was cunninger than he. He visited, I found, the shop 
 of every jeweler in town; to one he came with rubies, to one 
 with emeralds, to one with precious beryl; to all, with this 
 same story of the mine. But in what mine, what rich epitome 
 of the earth's surface, were there conjoined the rubies of 
 Ispahan, the pearls of Coromandel and the diamonds of 
 Golconda? No, child, that man, for all his yacht and title, 
 that man must fear and must obey me. To-night, then, as 
 soon as it is dark, we must take our way through the swamp 
 by the path which I shall presently show you ; thence, across 
 the highlands of the isle a track is blazed, which shall con- 
 duct us to the haven on the north; and close by the yacht is 
 riding. Should my pursuers come before the hour at which 
 I look to see them, they will still arrive too late; a trusty 
 man attends on the mainland; as soon as they appear, we 
 shall behold, if it be dark, the redness of a fire, if it be day, 
 a pillar of smoke, on the opposing headland; and thus 
 warned, we shall have time to put the swamp between our- 
 selves and danger. Meantime, I would conceal this bag; I 
 would, before all things, be seen to arrive at the house with 
 
 474
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 empty hands ; a blabbing slave might else undo us. For 
 see ! " he added ; and holding up the bag, which he had al- 
 ready shown me, he poured into my lap a shower of un- 
 mounted jewels, brighter than flowers, of every size and 
 color, and catching, as they fell, upon a million dainty 
 facets, the ardor of the sun. 
 
 I could not restrain a cry of admiration. 
 
 " Even in your ignorant eyes," pursued my father, " they 
 command respect. Yet what are they but pebbles, passive 
 to the tool, cold as death? Ingrate! " he cried. " Each one 
 of these — miracles of nature's patience, conceived out of the 
 dust in centuries of microscopical activity, each one is, for 
 you and me, a year of life, liberty and mutual affection. 
 How, then, should I cherish them.'' and why do I delay to 
 place them beyond reach.'' Teresa, follow me." 
 
 He rose to his feet and led me to the borders of the great 
 jungle, where they overhung, in a wall of poisonous and 
 dusky foliage, the declivity of the hill on which my father's 
 house stood planted. For some while he skirted, with atten- 
 tive eyes, the miargin of the thicket. Then, seeming to 
 recognize some mark, for his countenance became immedi- 
 ately lightened of thought, he paused and addressed me. 
 
 " Here," said he, " is the entrance of the secret path that 
 I have mentioned, and here you shall await me. I but pass 
 some hundreds of yards into the swamp to bury my poor 
 treasure ; as soon as that is safe, I will return." 
 
 It was in vain that I sought to dissuade him, urging the 
 dangers of the place; in vain that I begged to be allowed to 
 follow, pleading the black blood that I now knew to circulate 
 in my veins. To all my appeals he turned a deaf ear, and, 
 bending back a portion of the screen of bushes, disappeared 
 into the pestilential silence of the swamp. 
 
 At the end of a full hour the bushes were once more thrust 
 aside, and my father stepped from out the thicket and 
 paused and almost staggered in the first shock of the blind- 
 ing sunlight. His face was of a singular dusky red ; and yet 
 for all the heat of the tropical noon, he did not seem to 
 sweat. 
 
 475
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " You are tired," I cried, springing to meet him. ** You 
 are ill." 
 
 "I am tired," he replied; "the air in that jungle stifles 
 one; my eyes, besides, have grown accustomed to its gloom, 
 and the strong sunshine pierces them like knives. A moment, 
 Teresa, give me but a moment. All shall yet be well. I 
 have buried the hoard under a cypress, immediately beyond 
 the bayou, on the left hand margin of the path; beautiful, 
 bright things, they now lie whelmed in slime; you shall find 
 them there, if needfuL But come, let us to the house; it 
 is time to eat against our journey of the night; to eat and 
 then to sleep, my poor Teresa; then to sleep." And he 
 looked upon me out of bloodshot eyes, shaking his head as 
 if in pity. 
 
 We went hurriedly, for he kept murmuring that he had 
 been gone too long and that the servants might suspect; 
 passed through the airy stretch of the veranda, and came 
 at length into the grateful twilight of the shuttered house. 
 The meal was spread; the house servants, already informed 
 by the boatmen of the master's return, were all back at their 
 posts, and terrified, as I could see, to face me. My father 
 still murmuring of haste with weary and feverish perti- 
 nacity, I hurried at once to ta.ke my place at table ; but I 
 had no sooner left his arm than he paused and thrust forth 
 both his hands with a strange gesture of groping. " How 
 is this.?" he cried, in a sharp, inhuman voice. "Am I 
 blind.?" I ran to him and tried to lead him to the table; 
 but he resisted and stood stiffly where he was, opening and 
 shutting his jaws, as if in a painful effort after breath. 
 Then suddenly he raised both hands to his temples, cried 
 out, " My head, my head ! " and reeled and fell against the 
 wall. 
 
 I knew too well what it must be. I turned and begged the 
 servants to relieve him. But they, with one accord, denied 
 the possibility of hope ; the master had gone into the swamp, 
 they said, the master must die; all help was idle. Why 
 should I dwell upon his sufferings.? I had him carried to a 
 bed, and watched beside him. He lay still, and at times 
 
 476
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 ground his teeth, and talked at times unintelligibly, only 
 that one word of hurry, hurry, coming distinctly to my ears, 
 and telling me that, even in the last struggle with the powers 
 of death, his mind was still tortured by his daughter's peril. 
 The sun had gone down, the darkness had fallen, when I per- 
 ceived that I was alone on this unhappy earth. What 
 thought had I of flight, of safety, of the impending dangers 
 of my situation? Beside the body of my last friend, I had 
 forgotten all except the natural pangs of my bereavement. 
 
 The sun was some four hours above the eastern line, 
 when I was called to a knowledge of things of earth, by 
 the entrance of the slave-girl to whom I have already re- 
 ferred. The poor soul was indeed devotedly attached to 
 me; and it was with streaming tears that she broke to me 
 the import of her coming. With the first light of dawn a 
 boat had reached our landing-place, and set on shore upon 
 our isle (till now so fortunate) a party of officers bearing 
 a warrant to arrest my father's person, and a man of a 
 gross body and low manners, who declared the island, the 
 plantation and all its human chattels, to be now his own. 
 " I think," said my slave girl, " he must be a politician or 
 some very powerful sorcerer; for JMadam Mendizabal had 
 no sooner seen them coming, than she took to the woods." 
 
 " Fool," said I, " it was the officers she feared ; and at any 
 rate why does that beldam still dare to pollute the island 
 with her presence.'' And oh, Cora," I exclaimed, remember- 
 ing my grief, " what matter all these troubles to an 
 orphan.? " 
 
 " INIistress," said she, " I must remind 3'ou of two things. 
 Never speak as you do now of Madam Mendizabal ; or never 
 to a person of color; for she is the most powerful woman 
 in this world, and her real name even, if one durst pronounce 
 it, were a spell to raise the dead. And whatever jou do, 
 speak no more of her to your unhappy Cora ; for though it 
 is possible she may be afraid of the police (and indeed I 
 think that I have heard that she is in hiding) and though I 
 know that 3'ou will laugh and not believe, 3'et it is true, and 
 proved, and known that she hears every word that people 
 
 477
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 utter in this whole, vast world ; and your poor Cora is 
 already deep enough in her black books. She looks at me, 
 mistress, till my blood turns ice. That is the first I had to 
 say; and now for the second: do, pray, for Heaven's sake, 
 bear in mind that you are no longer the poor Senor's daugh- 
 ter. He is gone, dear gentleman ; and now you are no 
 more than a common slave-girl like myself. The man to 
 whom you belong calls for you; oh, my dear mistress, go 
 at once! With your youth and beauty, you may still, if 
 you are winning and obedient, secure yourself an easy 
 life." 
 
 For a moment I looked on the creature with the indigna- 
 tion you may conceive; the next it was gone: she did but 
 speak after her kind, as the bird sings or cattle bellow. 
 " Go," said I. " Go, Cora." I thank you for your kind 
 intentions. Leave me alone one moment with my dead 
 father; and tell this man that I will come at once." 
 
 She went; and I, turning to the bed of death, addressed 
 to those deaf ears the last appeal and defence of my be- 
 leaguered innocence. " Father," I said, " it was your last 
 thought, even in the pangs of dissolution, that your daugh- 
 ter should escape disgrace. Here, at your side, I swear to 
 you that purpose shall be carried out; by what means, I 
 know not ; by crime, if need be ; and Heaven forgive both you 
 and me and our oppressors, and Heaven help my helpless- 
 ness ! " Thereupon I felt strengthened as by long repose ; 
 stepped to the mirror, ay, even in that chamber of the dead ; 
 hastily arranged my hair, refreshed my tear-worn eyes, 
 breathed a dumb farewell to the originator of my days and 
 sorrows; and composing my features to a smile, went forth 
 to meet my master. 
 
 He was in a great, hot bustle, reviewing that house, once 
 ours, to which he had but now succeeded; a corpulent, san- 
 guine man of middle age, sensual, vulgar, humorous, and, 
 if I judged rightly, not ill-disposed by nature. But the 
 sparkle that came into his eye as he observed me enter, 
 warned me to expect the worst. 
 
 " Is this youff late mistress .'' " he inquired of the slaves ; 
 
 478
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 and when he had learned it was so, instantly dismissed them. 
 " Now, my dear," said he, " I am a plain man : none of j^our 
 damned Spaniards, but a true blue, hard-working, honest 
 Enghshman. My name is Caulder." 
 
 " Thank you, sir," said I, and courtesied very smartly 
 as I had seen the servants. 
 
 " Come," said he, " this is better than I had expected ; 
 and if you choose to be dutiful in the station to which it has 
 pleased God to call you, you will find me a very kind old fel- 
 low. I like your looks," he added, calling me by my name, 
 which he scandalously mispronounced. " Is your hair all 
 your own? " he then inquired with a certain sharpness, and 
 coming up to me, as though I were a horse, he grossly satis- 
 fied his doubts. I was all one flame from head to foot, but 
 I contained my righteous anger and submitted. " That is 
 very well," he continued, chucking me good-humoredly under 
 the chin. " You will have no cause to regret coming to old 
 Caulder, eh.'' But that is by the way. What is more to 
 the point is this: your late master was a most dishonest 
 rogue and levanted with some valuable property that be- 
 longed of rights to me. Now, considering your relation to 
 him, I regard you as the likeliest person to know what has 
 become of it ; and I warn you, before you answer, that my 
 whole future kindness will depend upon your honesty. I 
 am an honest man myself, and expect the same in my serv- 
 ants." 
 
 " Do you mean the jewels? " said I, sinking my voice into 
 a whisper. 
 
 " That is just precisely what I do," said he, and chuckled. 
 
 "HWi!" said I. 
 
 "Hush?" he repeated, "And why hush? I am on my 
 own place, I would have you to know, and surrounded by my 
 own lawful servants." 
 
 " Are the officers gone? " I asked; and oh, how my hopes 
 hung upon the answer! 
 
 " They are," said he, looking somewhat disconcerted. 
 " Why do you ask? " 
 
 " I wish you had kept them," I answered, solemnly enough, 
 
 479
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 although my heart at that same moment leaped with exulta- 
 tion. " Master, I must not conceal from you the truth. 
 The servants on this estate are in a dangerous condition, 
 and mutiny has long been brewing." 
 
 " Why," he cried, " I never saw a milder-looking" lot of 
 niggers in my life." But for all that he turned somewhat 
 pale. 
 
 " Did they tell you," I continued, " that Madam Mendi- 
 zabal is on the island? that, since her coming, they obey none 
 but her.? that if, this morning, they have received you with 
 even decent civility, it was only by her orders — issued with 
 what after-thought I leave you to consider "^ " 
 
 "Madam Jezebel?" said he. "Well, she is a dangerous 
 devil; the police arc after her, besides, for a whole series 
 of murders ; but after all, Avhat then ? To be sure, she has 
 a great influence with you colored folk. But what in for- 
 tune's name can be her errand here? " 
 
 " The jewels," I replied. " Ah, sir, had you seen that 
 treasure, sapphire and emerald and opal, and the golden 
 topaz, and rubies, red as the sunset — of what incalculable 
 worth, of what unequaled beauty to the eye ! — had you seen 
 it, as I have, and alas ! as slie has — ^you would understand 
 and tremble at your danger." 
 
 " She has seen them ! " he cried, and I could see by his 
 face, that my audacity was justified by its success. 
 
 I caught his hand in mine. " My master," said I, " I 
 am now yours ; it is my duty, it should be my pleasure, to 
 defend your interests and life. Hear my advice then ; and I 
 conjure you, be guided by prudence. Follow me privily ; 
 let none see where we are going ; I will lead you to the place 
 where the treasure has been buried ; that once disinterred, let 
 us make straight for the boat, escape to the mainland, and 
 not return to this dangerous isle without the countenance 
 of soldiers." 
 
 What free man in a free land, would have credited so 
 sudden a devotion? But this oppressor, through the very 
 arts and sophistries he had abused, to quiet the rebellion of 
 his conscience and to convince himself that slavery was natu- 
 
 480
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 ral, fell like a child into the trap I laid for him. He praised 
 and thanked me; told me I had all the qualities he valued 
 in a servant ; and when he had questioned me further as to 
 the nature and value of the treasure, and I had once more 
 artfully inflamed his greed, bade me without delay proceed 
 to carry out my plan of action. 
 
 From a shed in the garden, I took a pick and a shovel; 
 and thence, by devious paths among the magnolias, led my 
 master to the entrance of the swamp. I walked first, car- 
 rying, as I was now in duty bound, the tools, and glancing 
 continually behind me, lest we should be spied upon and 
 followed. When we were come as far as the beginning of 
 the path, it flashed into my mind I had forgotten meat ; 
 and leaving Mr. Caulder in the shadow of a tree, I returned 
 alone to the house for a basket of provisions. Were they 
 for him? I asked myself. And a voice within me answered, 
 No. While we were face to face, while I still saw before my 
 eyes the man to whom I belonged as the hand belongs to the 
 body, my indignation held me bravely up. But now that I 
 was alone, I conceived a sickness at myself and my designs 
 that I could scarce endure; I longed to throw myself at his 
 feet, avow my intended treachery, and warn him from that 
 pestilential swamp, to which I Avas decoying him to die; but 
 my vow to my dead father, my duty to my innocent youth, 
 prevailed against these scruples ; and though my face was 
 pale and must have reflected the horror that oppressed my 
 spirits, it was with a firm step that I returned to the borders 
 of the swamp, and with smiling hps bade liim rise and fol- 
 low me. 
 
 The path on which we now entered was cut like a tunnel, 
 through the living jungle. On either hand and overhead, 
 the mass of foliage was continuously joined; the da}^ spar- 
 ingly filtered through the depth of super-impending wood; 
 and the air was hot like steam, and heavy with vegetable 
 odors, and lay hke a load upon the lungs and brain. Under 
 foot, a great depth of mold received our silent footprints ; 
 on each side mimosas, as tall as a man, shrank from my pass- 
 ing skirts with a continuous hissing rustle ; and but for these 
 
 481
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 sentient vegetables, all in that den of pestilence was motion* 
 less and noiseless. 
 
 We had gone but a little way in, when Mr. Caulder was 
 seized with sudden nausea, and must sit down a moment on 
 the path. My heart yearned, as I beheld him; and I seri- 
 ously begged the doomed mortal to return upon his steps. 
 What were a few jewels in the scales with life? I asked. But 
 no, he said ; that witch Madam Jezebel would find them out ; 
 he was an honest man, and would not stand to be defrauded, 
 and so forth, panting, the while, like a sick dog. Presently 
 he got to his feet again, protesting he had conquered his 
 uneasiness ; but as we again began to go forward, I saw in 
 liis changed countenance the first approach of death. 
 
 " Master," said I, " you look pale, deathly pale ; your 
 pallor fills me with dread. Your eyes are bloodshot; they 
 are red like the rubies that we seek." 
 
 " Wench," he cried, " look before you ; look at your steps. 
 I declare to Heaven, if you annoy me once again by look- 
 ing back, I shall remind you of the change in your position." 
 
 A little after, I observed a worm upon the ground, and 
 told, in a whisper, that its touch was death. Presently a 
 great green serpent, vivid as the grass in spring, wound 
 rapidly across the path ; and once again I paused and looked 
 back at my companion with a horror in my eyes. " The 
 coffin snake," said I, " the snake that dogs its victim like a 
 hound." 
 
 But he was not to be dissuaded. " I am an old traveler," 
 said he. "This is a foul jungle indeed; but we shall soon 
 be at an end." 
 
 " Ay," said I, looking at him with a strange smile, " what 
 end.?" 
 
 Thereupon he laughed again and again, but not very 
 heartily ; and then, perceiving that the path began to widen 
 and grow higher, " There ! " said he. " What did I tell you.? 
 We are past the worst." 
 
 Indeed, we had now come to the bayou, which was in that 
 place very narrow and bridged across by a fallen trunk; 
 but on either hand we could see it broaden out, under a cav- 
 
 482
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 cm of great arms of trees and hanging creepers ; sluggish, 
 putrid, of a horrible and sickly stench, floated on by the flat 
 heads of alligators, and its banks alive with scarlet crabs. 
 
 " If we fall from that unsteady bridge," said I, " see, 
 where the cayman lies ready to devour us ! If, by the least 
 divergence from the path, we should be snared in a morass^ 
 see, where those myriads of scarlet vermin scour the border 
 of the thicket! Once helpless, how they would swarm to- 
 gether to the assault ! What could a man do against a 
 thousand of such mailed assailants? And what a death were 
 that, to perish alive under their claws ! " 
 
 " Are you mad, girl? " he cried. " I bid you be silent and 
 lead on." 
 
 Again I looked upon him, half relenting; and at that he 
 raised the stick that was in his hand and cruelly struck me 
 on the face. " Lead on ! " he cried again. " Must I be all 
 day, catching my death in this vile slough, and all for a 
 prating slave-girl? " 
 
 I took the blow in silence, I took it smiling ; but the blood 
 welled back upon my heart. Something, I know not what, 
 fell at that moment with a dull plunge in the waters of the 
 lagoon, and I told myself that it was my pity that had 
 fallen. 
 
 On the further side, to which we now hastily scrambled, 
 the wood was not so dense, the web of creepers not so solidly 
 convolved. It was possible, here and there, to mark a patch 
 of somewhat brighter daylight, or to distinguish, through 
 the hghter web of parasites, the proportions of some soaring 
 tree. The cypress on the left stood very visibly forth upon 
 the edge of such a clearing; the path in that place widened 
 broadly ; and there was a patch of open ground, beset with 
 horrible ant-heaps, thick with their artificers. I laid down 
 the tools and basket by the cypress root, where they were 
 instantly blackened over with the crawling ants ; and looked 
 once more in the face of my unconscious victim. Mosquitoes 
 and foul flies wove so close a veil between us that his features 
 were obscured; and the sound of their flight was like the 
 turning of a mighty wheel. 
 
 48S
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Here," I said, " Is the spot. I cannot dig, for I have 
 not learned to use such instruments ; but, for your own sake, 
 I beseech jou to be swift in what you do." 
 
 He had sunk once more upon the ground, panting hke a 
 fish ; and I saw rising in his face the same dusky flush that 
 had mantled on my father's. " I feel ill," he gasped, " hor- 
 ribly ill ; the swamp turns around me ; the drone of these 
 carrion flies confounds me. Have you not wine? " 
 
 I gave him a glass, and he drank greedily. " It is for 
 you to think," said I, " if you should further persevere. 
 The swamp has an ill name." And at the word I ominously 
 nodded. 
 
 "Give me the pick," said he. "Where are the jewels 
 buried? " 
 
 I told him vaguely; and in the sweltering heat and close- 
 ness, and dim twilight of the jungle, he began to wield the 
 pickax, swinging it overhead with the vigor of a healthy man. 
 At first, there broke forth upon him a strong sweat, that 
 made his face to shine, and in which the greedy insects 
 settled thickly. " To sweat in such a place," said I. " " Oh, 
 master, is this wise? Fever is drunk in through open pores." 
 
 "What do you mean?" he screamed, pausing with the 
 pick buried in the soil. "Do you seek to drive me mad? 
 Do you think I do not understand the danger that I run? " 
 
 " That is all I want," said I ; " I only wish you to be 
 swift." And then, my mind flitting to my father's death- 
 bed, I began to murmur, scarce above my breath, the same 
 vain repetition of words, Hurry, hurry, hurry. 
 
 Presently, to my surprise, the treasure-seeker took them 
 up ; and while he still wielded the pick, but now with stag- 
 gering and uncei'tain blows, repeated to liimself, as it were 
 the burden of a song, " Hurry, hurry, hurry ; " and then 
 again, " There is no time to lose ; the marsh has an ill name, 
 ill name ; " and then back to " Hurry, hurry, hurry," with 
 a dreadful, mechanical, hurried and yet wearied utterance, 
 as a sick man rolls upon liis pillow. The sweat had dis- 
 appeared ; he was now dry, but all that I could see of him, 
 of the same dull brick red. Presently his pick unearthed the 
 
 484!
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 bag of j ewels ; but he did not observe It, and continued 
 hewing the soil. 
 
 " Master," said I, " there is the treasure." 
 
 He seemed to waken from a dream. " Where ? " he cried ; 
 and then, seeing it before his eyes, " Can this be possible? " 
 he added. " I must be light-headed. Girl," he cried sud- 
 denly, with the same screaming tone of voice that I had once 
 before observed, "what is wrong? is this swamp accursed? " 
 
 " It Is a grave," I answered. " You will not go out alive ; 
 and as for me, my life is in God's hands." 
 
 He fell upon the ground like a man struck by a blow, 
 but whether from the effect of my words, or from sudden 
 seizure of the malady, I can not tell. Pretty soon, he 
 raised his head. " You have brought me here to die," he 
 said ; " at the risk of your own days, you have condemned 
 me. Why?" 
 
 " To save my honor," I replied. " Bear me out that I 
 have warned you. Greed of these pebbles, and not I, has 
 been your undoer." 
 
 He took out his revolver and handed it to me. " You 
 see," he said, " I could have killed you even yet. But I am 
 dying, as you say ; nothing could save me ; and my bill Is 
 long enough already. Dear me, dear me," he said, looking 
 In my face with a curious, puzzled and pathetic look, like 
 a dull child at school, " if there be a judgment afterwards, 
 my bill is long enough." 
 
 At that, I broke into a passion of weeping, crawled at his 
 feet, kissed his hands, begged his forgiveness, put the pis- 
 tol back into his grasp and besought him to avenge his 
 death; for indeed, if with my life I could have brought 
 back his, I had not balanced at the cost. But he was de- 
 termined, the poor soul, that I should yet more bitterly re- 
 gret my act. 
 
 " I have nothing to forgive," said he. " Dear heaven, 
 what a thing is an old fool ! I thought, upon my word, you 
 had taken quite a fancy to me." 
 
 He was seized, at the same time, with a dreadful, swim- 
 ming dizziness, clung to me like a child, and called upon the 
 
 485
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 name of some woman. Presently this spasm, which I watched 
 with choking tears, lessened and died away; and he came 
 again to the full possession of his mind. " I must write 
 my will," he said. " Get out my pocket-book." I did so, and 
 he wrote hurriedly on one page with a pencil. " Do not 
 let my son know," he said, " he is a cruel dog, is my son 
 Philip ; do not let him know how you have paid me out ; " 
 and then all of a sudden, " God," he cried, " I am blind," 
 and clapped both hands before his eyes; and then again, 
 and in a groaning whisper, " Don't leave me to the crabs ! " 
 I swore I would be true to him so long as a pulse stirred; 
 and I redeemed my promise. I sat there and watched him, 
 as I had watched my father, but with what different, with 
 what appalling thoughts! Through the long afternoon he 
 gradually sank. All that while, I fought an uphill battle 
 to shield him from the swarms of ants and the cloud of 
 mosquitoes: the prisoner of my crime. The night fell, the 
 roar of insects instantly redoubled in the dark arcades of 
 the swamp ; and still I was not sure that he had breathed his 
 last. At length, the flesh of his hand, which I yet held in 
 mine, grew chill between my fingers, and I knew that I was 
 free. 
 
 I took his pocket-book and the revolver, being resolved 
 rather to die than to be captured, and laden besides with the 
 basket and the bag of gems, set forward towards the north. 
 The swamp, at that hour of the night, was filled with a 
 continuous din: animals and insects of all kinds, and all 
 inimical to hfe, contributing their parts. Yet in the midst 
 of this turmoil of sound, I walked as though my eyes were 
 bandaged, beholding nothing. The soil sank under my foot, 
 with a horrid, slippery consistence, as though I were walk- 
 ing among toads ; the touch of the thick wall of foliage, by 
 which alone I guided myself, affrighted me like the touch 
 of serpents; the darkness checked my breathing like a gag; 
 indeed, I have never suffered such extremes of fear as dur- 
 ing that nocturnal walk, nor have I ever known a more 
 sensible relief than when I found the path beginning to 
 mount and to grow firmer under foot, and saw, although 
 
 486
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 still some way in front of me, the silver brightness of the 
 moon. 
 
 Presently, I had crossed the last of the jungle, and come 
 forth amongst noble and lofty woods, clean rock, the clean, 
 dry dust, the aromatic smell of mountain plants that had 
 been baked all day in sunlight, and the expressive silence of 
 the night. My negro blood had carried me unhurt across 
 that reeking and pestiferous morass ; by mere good fortune, 
 I had escaped the crawling and stinging vermin with which 
 it was alive; and I had now before me the easier portion of 
 my enterprise, to cross the isle and to make good my arrival 
 at the haven and my acceptance on the English yacht. It 
 was impossible by night to follow such a track as my father 
 had described; and I was casting about for any landmark, 
 and, in my ignorance, vainly consulting the disposition of 
 the stars, when there fell upon my ear, from somewhere far 
 in front, the sound of many voices hurriedly singing. 
 
 I scarce knew upon what grounds I acted; but I shaped 
 my steps in the direction of that sound ; and in a quarter of 
 an hour's walking, came unperceived to the margin of an 
 open glade. It was lighted by the strong moon and by the 
 flames of a fire. In the midst, there stood a little low and 
 rude building, surmounted by a cross: a chapel, as I then 
 remembered to have heard, long since desecrated and given 
 over to the rites of Hoodoo. Hard by the steps of entrance 
 was a black mass, continually agitated and stirring to and 
 fro as if with inarticulate hfe; and this I presently per- 
 ceived to be a heap of cocks, hares, dogs and other birds 
 and animals, still struggling, but helplessly tethered and 
 cruelly tossed one upon another. Both the fire and the 
 chapel were surrounded by a ring of kneeling Africans, both 
 men and women. Now they would raise their palms half- 
 closed to heaven, with a peculiar, passionate gesture of 
 supplication ; now they would bow their heads and spread 
 their hands before them on the ground. As the double move- 
 ment passed and repassed along the line, the heads kept 
 rising and falling, like waves upon the sea ; and still, as if 
 in time to these gesticulations, the hurried chant continued.
 
 THE DYNi^IITER 
 
 I stood spell-boimd, knowing that my life depended by a 
 hair, knowing that I had stumbled on a celebration of the 
 rites of Hoodoo. 
 
 Presently, the door of the chapel opened and there came 
 forth a tall negro, entirely nude, and bearing in his hand the 
 sacrificial knife. He was followed by an apparition still 
 more strange and shocking : Madam Mendizabal, naked also, 
 and carrying in both hands and raised to the level of her 
 face, an open basket of wicker. It was filled with coiling 
 snakes ; and these, as she stood there with the uplifted basket, 
 shot through the osier grating and curled about her arms. 
 At the sight of this, the fervor of the crowd seemed to swell 
 suddenly higher; and the chant rose in pitch and grew more 
 irregular in time and accent. Then, at a sign from the tall 
 negro, where he stood, motionless and smiling, in the moon 
 and firelight, the singing died away, and there began the 
 second stage of this barbarous and bloody celebration. From 
 different parts of the ring, one after another, man or 
 woman, ran forth into the midst, ducked, with that same 
 gesture of the thrown-up hand before the priestess and her 
 snakes; and with various adjurations, uttered aloud the 
 blackest wishes of the heart. Death and disease were the 
 favors usually invoked: the death or the disease of enemies 
 or rivals ; some calHng down these plagues upon the nearest 
 of their own blood, and one, to whom I swear I had been 
 never less than kind, invoking them upon myself. At each 
 petition, the tall negro, still smiling, picked up some bird 
 or animal from the heaving mass upon his left, slew it with 
 the knife, and tossed its body on the ground. At length, it 
 seemed, it reached the turn of the high-priestess. She set 
 down the basket on the steps, moved into the center of the 
 ring, groveled in the dust before the reptiles, and still grovel- 
 ing lifted up her voice, between speech and singing, and with 
 so great, with so insane fervor of excitement, as struck a 
 sort of horror through my blood. 
 
 " Power," she began, " whose name we do not utter ; 
 power that is neither good nor evil, but below them both; 
 stronger than good, greater than evil — all my life long I 
 
 488
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 have adored and served thee. Who has shed blood upon 
 thine altars? whose voice is broken with the singing of thy 
 praises? whose limbs are faint before their age with leaping 
 in thy revels? Who has slain the child of her body? I," 
 she cried, " I, Metamnbogu ! By my own name, I name 
 myself. I tear away the veil. I would be served or perish. 
 Hear me, slime of the fat swamp, blackness of the thunder, 
 venom of the serpent's udder — hear or slay me! I would 
 have two things, O shapeless one, O horror of emptiness — 
 two things, or die! The blood of my white- faced husband; 
 oh ! give me that ; he Is the enemy of Hoodoo ; give me his 
 blood ! And yet another, O racer of the blind winds, O 
 germinator In the ruins of the dead, O root of life, root 
 of corruption ! I grow old, I grow hideous ; I am known, I 
 am hunted for my life: let thy servant then lay by this out- 
 worn body ; let thy chief priestess turn again to the blossom 
 of her days, and be a girl once more, and the desired of all 
 men, even as in the past ! And, O lord and master, as I 
 here ask a marvel not yet wrought since we were torn from 
 the old land, have I not prepared the sacrifice In wliich thy 
 soul delighteth — the kid without the horns? " 
 
 Even as she uttered the words, there was a great rumor 
 of joy through all the circle of the worshipers; it rose, and 
 fell, and rose again ; and swelled at last Into rapture, when 
 the tall negro, who had stepped an Instant Into the chapel, 
 reappeared before the door, carrying in his arms the body 
 of the slave-girl, Cora. I know not if I saw what followed. 
 When next my mind awoke to a clear knowledge, Cora was 
 laid upon the steps before the serpents ; tlxe negro with the 
 knife stood over her; the knife rose, and at tliis I screamed 
 out in my great horror, bidding them, in God's name, to 
 pause. 
 
 A stillness fell upon the mob of cannibals. A moment 
 more, and they must have throAVTi off this stupor, and I 
 infallibly have perished. But heaven had designed to save 
 me. The silence of these wretched men was not yet broken, 
 when there arose. In the empty niglit, a sound louder than the 
 roar of any European tempest, swifter to travel than the 
 
 489
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 wings of any Eastern wind. Blackness ingulfed the world: 
 blackness, stabbed across from every side by intricate and 
 blinding lightning. Almost in the same second, at one world- 
 swallowing stride, the heart of the tornado reached the 
 clearing. I heard an agonizing crash, and the light of my 
 reason was overwhelmed. 
 
 When I recovered consciousness, the day was come. I 
 was unhurt; the trees close about me had not lost a bough; 
 and I might have thought at first that the tornado was a 
 feature in a dream. It was otherwise indeed; for when I 
 looked abroad, I perceived I had escaped destruction by a 
 hand's-breadth. Right through the forest, which here cov- 
 ered hill and dale, the storm had plowed a lane of ruin. On 
 either hand, the trees waved uninjured in the air of the 
 morning; but in the forthright course of its advance, the 
 hurricane had left no trophy standing. Every thing, in 
 that line, tree, man or animal, the desecrated chapel and the 
 votaries of Hoodoo, had been subverted and destroyed in 
 that brief spasm of anger of the powers of air. Every 
 thing, but a yard or two beyond the line of its passage, 
 humble flower, lofty tree, and the poor vulnerable maid 
 who now kneeled to pay her gratitude to heaven, awoke 
 unharmed in the crystal purity and peace of the new day. 
 
 To move by the path of the tornado was a thing impos- 
 sible to man, so wildly were the wrecks of the tall forest 
 piled together by that fugitive convulsion. I crossed it 
 indeed ; with such labor and patience, with so many dan- 
 gerous slips and falls, as left me, at the further side, bank- 
 rupt alike of strength and courage. There I sat down 
 awhile to recruit my forces ; and as I ate (how should I 
 bless the kindliness of heaven!) my eyes, flitting to and fro 
 in the colonnade of the great trees, alighted on a trunk that 
 had been blazed. Yes, by the directing hand of providence, 
 I had been conducted to the very track I was to follow. 
 With what a light heart I now set forth, and walking with 
 how glad a step, traversed the uplands of the isle ! 
 
 It was hard upon the hour of noon when I came, all 
 tattered and wayworn, to the summit of a steep descent, and 
 
 490
 
 THE FAIR Cuban; 
 
 looked below me on the sea. About all the coast, the surf, 
 roused by the tornado of the night, beat with a particular 
 fury and made a fringe of snow. Close at my feet, I saw 
 a haven, set in precipitous and palm-crowned bluffs of rock. 
 Just outside, a ship was heaving on the surge, so trimly 
 sparred, so glossily painted, so elegant and point-device in 
 every feature, that my heart was seized with admiration. 
 The English colors blew from her masthead; and from my 
 high station, I caught glimpses of her snowy planking, as 
 she rolled on the uneven deep, and saw the sun glitter on 
 the brass of her deck furniture. There, then, was my ship 
 of refuge; and of all my difficulties only one remained: to 
 get on board of her. 
 
 Half an hour later, I issued at last out of the woods on 
 the margin of a cove, into whose jaws the tossing and blue 
 billows entered, and along whose shores they broke with a 
 surprising loudness. A wooded promontory hid the yacht; 
 and I had walked some distance round the beach, in what 
 appeared to be a virgin solitude, when my eye fell on a boat, 
 drawn into a natural harbor, where it rocked in safety, but 
 deserted. I looked about for those who should have manned 
 her; and presently, in the immediate entrance of the wood, 
 spied the red embers of a fire and, stretched around in 
 various attitudes, a party of slumbering mariners. To 
 these I drew near: most were black, a few white; but all 
 were dressed with the conspicuous decency of yachtsmen; 
 and one, from his peaked cap and gHttering buttons, I 
 rightly divined to be an officer. Him, then, I touched upon 
 the shoulder. He started up ; the sharpness of his move- 
 ment woke the rest ; and they all stared upon me in surprise. 
 
 " What do you want ? " inquired the officer. 
 
 *' To go on board the yacht," I answered. 
 
 I thought they all seemed disconcerted at this ; and the 
 officer, with something of sharpness asked me who I was. 
 Now I had determined to conceal my name until I met Sir 
 George ; and the first name that rose to my lips was that of 
 Senora Mendizabal. At the word, there went a shock about 
 the Kttle party of seamen; the negroes stared at me with 
 
 491
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 indescribable eagerness, the whites themselves with some- 
 thing of a scared surprise; and instantly the spirit of mis- 
 chief prompted me to add : " And if the name is new to your 
 ears, call me Metamnbogu." 
 
 I had never seen an effect so wonderful. The negroes 
 threw their hands into the air, with the same gesture I 
 remarked the night before about the Hoodoo camp-fire; 
 first one, and then another, ran forward and kneeled down 
 and kissed the skirts of my torn dress ; and when the white 
 officer broke out swearing and calling to know if they were 
 mad, the colored seamen took him by the shoulders, dragged 
 him on one side till they were out of hearing, and sur- 
 rounded him with open mouths and extravagant pantomime. 
 The officer seemed to struggle hard ; he laughed aloud, and 
 I saw him make gestures of dissent and protest; but in the 
 end, whether overcome by reason or simply weary of re- 
 sistance, he gave in — approached me civilly enough, but 
 with something of a sneering manner underneath — and 
 touching his cap, " My lady," said he, " if that is what you 
 are, the boat is ready." 
 
 My reception on board of the " Nemorosa " (for so the 
 yacht was named) partook of the same mingled nature. 
 We were scarcely within hail of that great and elegant fab- 
 ric, where she lay rolling gunwale under and churning the 
 blue sea to snow, before the bulwarks were lined with the 
 heads of a great crowd of seamen, black, white and yellow; 
 and these and the few who manned the boat began exchang- 
 ing shouts in some lingua franca incomprehensible to me. 
 All eyes were directed on the passenger, and once more I 
 saw the negroes toss up their hands to heaven, but now as 
 if with passionate wonder and delight. 
 
 At the head of the gangway I was received by another 
 officer, a gentlemanly man with blonde and bushy whiskers, 
 and to whom I addressed my demand to see Sir George. 
 
 " But this is not " he cried, and paused. 
 
 " I know it," returned the other officer, who had brought 
 me from the shore. " But what the devil can we do.'' Look 
 at all the niggers ! " 
 
 492
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 I followed his direction ; and as my eye lighted upon each, 
 the poor ignorant Africans ducked and bowed and threw: 
 their hands into the air, as though in the presence of a 
 creature half divine. Apparently the officer with the whis- 
 kers had instantly come round to the opinion of his subal- 
 tern, for he now addressed me with every signal of respect. 
 
 " Sir George is at the island, my lady," said he, " for 
 which, with your ladyship's permission, I shall immediately 
 make all sail. The cabins are prepared. Steward, take 
 Lady Greville below. 
 
 Under this new name, then, and so captivated by surprise 
 that I could neither think nor speak, I was ushered into a 
 spacious and airy cabin, hung about with weapons and sur- 
 rounded by divans. The steward asked for my commands, 
 but I was by this time so wearied, bewildered and disturbed 
 that I could only wave him to leave me to myself and sink 
 upon a pile of cushions. Presentl}'^, by the changed motion 
 of the ship, I knew her to be under way ; my thoughts, so 
 far from clarifying, grew the more distracted and con- 
 fused ; dreams began to mingle and confound them, and 
 at length, by insensible transition, I sank into a dreamless 
 slumber. 
 
 When I awoke the day and night had passed, and it was 
 once more morning. The world on which I reopened my 
 eyes swam strangely up and down; the jewels in the bag 
 that lay beside me chinked together ceaselessly ; the clock 
 and the barometer wagged to and fro like pendulums, and 
 overhead seamen were singing out at their Avork, and coils 
 of rope clattering and thumping on the deck. Yet it was 
 long before I had divined that I was at sea ; long before I 
 had recalled, one after another, the tragical, m^'sterious and 
 inexplicable events that had brought me where I was. 
 
 When I had done so, I thrust the jewels, which I was 
 surprised to find had been respected, into the bosom of my 
 dress, and seeing a silver bell hard b}'^ upon a table, rang it 
 loudly. The steward instantly appeared; I asked for food, 
 and he proceeded to lay the table, regarding me the while 
 with a disquieting and pertinacious scrutin3^ To relieve 
 
 493
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 myself of my embarrassment, I asked him, with as fair a 
 show of ease as I could muster, if it were usual for yachts 
 to carry so numerous a crew? 
 
 " Madam," said he, " I know not who you are, nor what 
 mad fancy has induced you to usurp a name and an appall- 
 ing destiny that are not yours. I warn you from the soul. 
 No sooner arrived at the island " 
 
 At this moment he was interrupted by the whiskered 
 officer, who had entered unperceived behind him, and now 
 laid a hand upon his shoulder. The sudden pallor, the 
 deadly and sick fear that was imprinted on the steward's 
 face, formed a startling addition to his words. 
 
 " Parker ! '* said the officer, and pointed towards the 
 door. 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Kentish," said the steward. *' For God's sake, 
 Mr. Kentish ! " and vanished with a white face from the 
 cabin. 
 
 Thereupon the officer bade me sit down, and began to 
 help me, and join in the meal. " I fill your ladyship's glass," 
 said he, and handed me a tumbler of neat rum. 
 
 " Sir," cried I, " do you expect me to drink this.? " 
 
 He laughed heartily. " Your ladyship is so much 
 changed," said he, " that I no longer expect any one thing 
 more than any other." 
 
 Immediately after, a white seaman entered the cabin, 
 saluted both Mr. Kentish and myself, and informed the 
 officer there was a sail in sight, which was bound to pass us 
 very close, and that Mr. Harland was in doubt about the 
 colors. 
 
 " Being so near the island ? " asked Mr. Kentish. 
 
 " That was what Mr. Harland said, sir," returned the 
 sailor, with a scrape. 
 
 " Better not, I think," said Mr. Kentish. " My compli- 
 ments to Mr. Harland; and if she seem a lively boat, give 
 her the stars and stripes; but if she be dull, and we can 
 easily outsail her, show John Dutchman. That is always 
 another word for incivility at sea ; so we can disregard a hail 
 or a flag of distress, without attracting notice." 
 
 494
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 As soon as the sailor had gone on deck, I turned to the 
 officer in wonder. " Mr. Kentish, if that be your name," 
 said I, " are you ashamed of your own colors.'' " 
 
 " Your ladyship refers to the * Jolly Roger ' ? " he in- 
 quired, with perfect gravity; and immediately after, went 
 into peals of laughter. " Pardon me," said he ; " but here 
 for the first time, I recognize your ladyship's impetuosity." 
 Nor, try as I pleased, could I extract from him any expla- 
 nation of this mystery, but only oily and commonplace 
 evasion. 
 
 While we were thus occupied, the movement of the 
 " Nemorosa " gradually became less violent ; its speed at the 
 same time diminished; and presently after, with a sullen 
 plunge, the anchor was discharged into the sea. Kentish 
 immediately rose, offered his arm and conducted me on deck ; 
 where I found we were lying in a roadstead among many low 
 and rocky islets, hovered about by an innumerable cloud of 
 sea-fowl. Immediately under our board, a somewhat larger 
 isle was green with trees, set with a few low buildings and 
 approached by a pier of very crazy workmanship ; and a 
 little inshore of us, a smaller vessel lay at anchor. 
 
 I had scarce time to glance to the four quarters, ere a 
 boat was lowered. I was handed in, Kentish took place 
 beside me, and we pulled briskly to the pier. A crowd of 
 villainous, armed loiterers, both black and white, looked on 
 upon our landing; and again the word passed about among 
 the negroes, and again I was received with prostrations and 
 the same gesture of the flung-up hand. By this, what with 
 the appearance of these men and the lawless, sea-girt spot 
 in which I found myself, my courage began a little to de- 
 cline, and clinging to the arm of ]Mr. Kentish, I begged him 
 to tell me what it meant? 
 
 " Nay, madam," he continued, " you know," And leading 
 me smartly through the crowd, which continued to follow 
 at a considerable distance, and at which he still kept looking 
 back, I thought, with apprehension, he brought me to a 
 low house that stood alone in an encumbered yard, opened 
 the door, and begged me to enter. 
 
 495
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " But why? '* said I. " I demanded to see Sir George." 
 
 " Madam," returned Mr. Kentish, looking suddenly as 
 black as thunder, " to drop all fence, I know neither who 
 nor what you are; beyond the fact that you are not the 
 person whose name you have assumed. But be what you 
 please, spy, ghost, devil or most ill-judging jester, if you do 
 not immediately enter that house, I will cut you to the 
 earth." And even as he spoke, he threw an uneasy glance 
 behind him at the following crowd of blacks. 
 
 I did not wait to be twice threatened; I obeyed at once 
 and with a palpitating heart ; and the next moment, the door 
 was locked from outside and the key withdrawn. The in- 
 terior was long, low and quite unfurnished, but filled, almost 
 from end to end, with sugar-cane, tar barrels, old tarry 
 rope, and other incongruous and highly inflammable mate- 
 rial; and not only was the door locked, but the solitary 
 window barred with iron. 
 
 I was by this time so exceedingly bewildered and afraid, 
 that I would have given years of my life to be once more 
 the slave of Mr. Caulder. I still stood, with my hands 
 clasped, the image of despair, looking about me on the lum- 
 ber room or raising my eyes to Heaven ; when there ap- 
 peared outside the window bars, the face of a very black 
 negro, who signed to me imperiously to draw near. I did 
 so, and he instantly, and with every mark of fervor, ad- 
 dressed me a long speech in some unknown and barbarous 
 tongue. 
 
 " I declare," I cried, clasping my brow, " I do not under- 
 stand one syllable." 
 
 "Not.?" he said in Spanish. "Great, great, are the 
 powers of Hoodoo ! Her very mind is changed ! But, O 
 chief priestess, why have you suffered yourself to be shut 
 into this cage? why did you not call your slaves at once to 
 your defense? Do you not see that all has been prepared 
 to murder you? at a spark, this flimsy house will go in 
 flames ; and alas ! who shall then be the chief priestess ? and 
 what shall be the profit of the miracle? " 
 
 " Heavens ! " cried I, " can I not see Sir George ! I must, 
 
 496
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 I must, come by speech of him. Oh, bring me to Sir 
 George ! " And, my terror fairly mastering my courage, 
 I fell upon my knees and began to pray to all the saints. 
 
 " Lordy ! " cried the negro, " here they come ! " And 
 his black head was instantly withdrawn from the window. 
 
 " I never heard such nonsense in my life," exclaimed a 
 voice. 
 
 " Why, so we all say. Sir George," replied the voice of 
 Mr. Kentish. " But put yourself in our place. The niggers 
 were two to one. And upon my word, if you'll excuse me, 
 sir, considering the notion they have taken in their heads, I 
 regard it as precious fortunate for all of us that the mistake 
 occurred." 
 
 " This is no question of fortune, sir," returned Sir 
 George. " It is a question of my orders, and you may 
 take my word for it, Kentish, either Harland, or yourself, 
 or Parker — or, by George, all three of you ! — shall swing 
 for this affair. These are my sentiments. Give me the key 
 and be off," 
 
 Immediately after, the key turned in the lock; and there 
 appeared upon the threshold a gentleman, between forty 
 and fifty, with a very open countenance and of a stout and 
 personable figure. 
 
 " My dear young lady," said he, " who the devil may 
 you he? " 
 
 I told him my story In a rush of words. He heard me, 
 from the first, with an amazement you can scarcely picture, 
 but Avhen I came to the death of the Sefiora Mendizabal in 
 the tornado, he fairl}'^ leaped into the air. 
 
 " My dear child," he cried, clasping me in his arms, " ex- 
 cuse a man who might be your father! This is the best 
 news I have heard since I was born ; for that hag of a 
 mulatto was no less a person than my wife." He sat down 
 upon a tar-barrel, as if unmanned by joy. "Dear me," 
 said he, " I declare this tempts me to believe in Providence. 
 And what," he added, " can I do for you.'' " 
 
 " Sir George," said I, " I am already rich: all that I ask 
 is your protection." 
 
 497
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Understand one thing," he said, with great energy : " I 
 will never marry." 
 
 " I had not ventured to propose it," I exclaimed, unable 
 to restrain my mirth ; " I only seek to be conveyed to Eng- 
 land, the natural home of the escaped slave." 
 
 " Well," returned Sir George, " frankly I owe you one 
 for this exhilarating news ; besides, your father was of use 
 to me. Now, I have made up a small competence in business 
 — a jewel mine, a sort of naval agency, et caetera, and I am 
 on the point of breaking up my company, and retiring to 
 my place in Devonshire to pass a plain old age, unmarried. 
 One good turn deserves another: if you swear to hold your 
 tongue about this island, these little bonfire arrangements, 
 and the whole episode of my unfortunate marriage, why, 
 I'll carry you home aboard the ' Nemorosa.' " 
 
 I eagerly accepted his conditions. 
 
 " One tiling more," said he. " My late wife was some 
 sort of a sorceress among the blacks ; and they are all per- 
 suaded she has come alive again in your agreeable person. 
 Now, you will have the goodness to keep up that fancy, if 
 you please ; and to swear to them, on the authority of 
 Hoodoo or whatever his name may be, that I am from this 
 moment quite a sacred character." 
 
 " I swear it," said I, " by my father's memory ; and that 
 is a vow that I will never break." 
 
 " I have considerably better hold on you than any oath," 
 returned Sir George, with a chuckle ; " for you are not only 
 an escaped slave, but have, by your own account, a consider- 
 able amount of stolen property." 
 
 I was struck dumb ; I saw it was too true ; in a glance, I 
 recognized that these jewels were no longer mine; with 
 similar quickness, I decided they should be restored, ay, if 
 it cost me the liberty that I had just regained. Forgetful 
 of all else, forgetful of Sir George, who sat and watched me 
 with a smile, I drew out Mr. Caulder's pocket-book and 
 turned to the page on which the dying man had scrawled his 
 testament. How shall I describe the agony of happiness 
 and remorse, with which I read it! for my victim had not 
 
 498 
 
 I
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 jonly set me free, but bequeathed to me the bag of jewels. 
 My plain tale draws towards a close. Sir George and I, 
 in my character of his rejuvenated wife, displayed ourselves 
 arm-in-arm among the negroes, and were cheered and fol- 
 lowed to the place of embarkation. There, Sir George, 
 turning about, made a speech to his old companions, in 
 which he thanked and bade them farewell with a very manly 
 spirit ; and toward the end of which, he fell on some expres- 
 sions which I still remember. " If any of you gentry lose 
 your money," he said, " take care you do not come to me ; 
 for in the first place, I shall do my best to have you mur- 
 dered ; and if that fails, I hand you over to the law. Black- 
 mail won't do for me. I'll rather risk all upon a cast, than 
 be pulled to pieces by degrees. I'll rather be found out and 
 hang, than give a doit to one man- jack of you." That 
 same night we got under way and crossed to the port of New 
 Orleans, whence, as a sacred trust, I sent the pocket-book to 
 Mr. Caulder's son. In a week's time, the men were all paid 
 off ; new hands were shipped ; and the " Nemorosa " weighed 
 her anchor for Old England. 
 
 A more delightful voyage it were hard to fancy. Sir 
 George, of course, was not a conscientious man ; but he had 
 an unaffected gayety of character that naturally endeared 
 him to the young ; and it was interesting to hear him lay out 
 his projects for the future, when he should be returned to 
 parHament, and place at the service of the nation, his ex- 
 perience of marine affairs. I asked him, if his notion of 
 piracy upon a private yacht were not original. But he told 
 me, no. " A yacht. Miss Valdevia," he observed, " is a char- 
 tered nuisance. Who smuggles.'' Who robs the salmon 
 rivers of the west of Scotland? Who cruelly beats the 
 keepers if they dare to intervene? The crews and the pro- 
 prietors of yachts. All I have done is to extend the line a 
 trifle; and if you ask me for my unbiased opinion, I do not 
 suppose that I am in the least alone." 
 
 In short we were the best of friends, and lived like father 
 and daughter; though I still withheld from him, of course, 
 that respect which is only due to moral excellence. 
 
 499
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 We were still some days' sail from England, when Sir 
 George obtained, from an outward-bound ship, a packet of 
 newspapers ; and from that fatal hour my misfortunes re- 
 commenced. He sat, the same evening, in the cabin, reading 
 the news, and making savory comments on the decline of 
 England and the poor condition of the navy ; when I sud- 
 denly observed him to change countenance. 
 
 " Hullo ! " said he, " this is bad ; this is deuced bad. Miss 
 Valdevia. You would not listen to sound sense, you would 
 send that pocket-book to that man Caulder's son." 
 
 " Sir George," said I, " it was my duty." 
 
 " You are prettily paid for it, at least," says he ; " and 
 much as I regret it, I, for one, am done with you. This 
 fellow Caulder demands your extradition." 
 
 " But a slave," I returned, " is safe in England." 
 
 " Yes, b}"^ George ! " replied the baronet ; " but it's not a 
 slave. Miss Valdevia, it's a thief that he demands. He has 
 quietly destroyed the will; and now accuses you of robbing 
 your father's bankrupt estate of jewels to the value of a 
 hundred thousand pounds." 
 
 I was so much overcome by indignation at this hateful 
 charge and concern for my unhappy fate that the genial 
 baronet made haste to put me more at ease. 
 
 " Do not be cast down," said he. " Of course, I wash my 
 hands of you, myself. A man in my position — baronet, old 
 family, and all that — can not possibly be too particular 
 about the company he keeps. But I am a deuced good- 
 humored old boy, let me tell you, when not ruffled, and I 
 will do the best I can to put you right. I will lend you a 
 trifle of ready money, give you the address of an excellent 
 lawyer In London, and find a way to set you on shore 
 unsuspected." 
 
 He was in every particular as good as his word. Four 
 days later, the " Nemorosa " sounded her way, under the 
 cloak of a dark night. Into a certain haven of the coast of 
 England ; and a boat, rowing with muffled oars, set me 
 ashore upon the beach within a stone's throw of a railway 
 station. Thither, guided by Sir George's directions, I 
 
 500
 
 THE FAIR CUBAN 
 
 groped a devious way; and finding a bench upon clie plat- 
 form, sat me down, wrapped in a man's fur great-coat, to 
 await the coming of the day. It was still dark when a light 
 was struck behind one of the windows of the building ; nor 
 had the east begun to kindle to the warmer colors of the 
 da^wTi, before a porter, carrying a lantern, issued from the 
 door and found himself face to face with the unfortunate 
 Teresa. He looked all about him ; in the gray twilight of 
 the dawn, the haven was seen to lie deserted, and the yacht 
 had long since disappeared. 
 
 "Who are you.^*" he cried. 
 
 *' I am a traveler," said I. 
 
 " And where do you come from? " he asked. 
 
 " I am going by the first train to London," I replied. 
 
 In such manner, like a ghost or a new creation, was 
 Teresa with her bag of jewels landed on the shores of Eng- 
 land; in this silent fashion, without history or name, she 
 took her place among the millions of a new country. 
 
 Since then, I have lived by the expedients of my lawyer, 
 lying concealed in quiet lodgings, dogged by the spies of 
 Cuba, and not knowing at what hour my liberty and honor 
 may be lost. 
 
 501
 
 THE BROWN BOX (cOUCluded). < 
 
 THE effect of this tale on the mind of Harry Desborough 
 was instant and convincing. The Fair Cuban had been 
 already the loveliest, she now became in his eyes, the most 
 romantic, the most innocent and the most unhappy of her 
 sex. He was bereft of words to utter what he felt: what 
 pity, what admiration, what youthful envy of a career so 
 vivid and adventurous. " Oh, madam ! " he began ; and find- 
 ing no language adequate to that apostrophe, caught up 
 her hand and wrung it in his own. " Count upon me," he 
 added, with bewildered fervor ; and getting somehow or other 
 out of the apartment and from the circle of that radiant 
 sorceress, he found himself in the strange out-of-doors, be- 
 holding dull houses, wondering at dull passers-by, a fallen 
 angel. She had smiled upon him as he left, and with how 
 significant, how beautiful a smile! The memory lingered in 
 his heart ; and when he found his way to a certain restaurant 
 where music was performed, flutes (as it were of Paradise) 
 accompanied his meal. The strings went to the melody of 
 that parting smile; they paraphrased and glossed it in the 
 sense that he desired; and for the first time in his plain and 
 somewhat dreary life, he perceived himself to have a taste 
 for music. 
 
 The next day, and the next, his meditations moved to that 
 delectable air. Now he saw her and was favored; now saw 
 her not at all ; now saw her and was put by. The fall of her 
 foot upon the stair entranced him ; the books that he sought 
 out and read, were books on Cuba and spoke of her indi- 
 rectly ; nay, and in the very landlady's parlor, he found one 
 that told of precisely such a hurricane, and, down to the 
 smallest detail, confirmed (had confirmation been required) 
 the truth of her recital. Presently he began to fall into that 
 
 50^
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 prettiest mood of a young lovo, in which the lover scorns 
 himself for his presumption. Who was he, the dull one, the 
 commonplace unemployed, the man without adventure, the 
 impure, the untruthful, to aspire to such a creature made 
 of fire and air, and hallowed and adorned by such incom- 
 parable passages of life? What should he do to be more 
 worthy? By what devotion call down the notice of these 
 ej^es to so terrene a being as himself? 
 
 He betook himself, thereupon, to the rural privacy of the 
 square, where, being a lad of a kind heart, he had made him- 
 self a circle of acquaintances among its shy frequenters, the 
 half-domestic cats and the visitors that hung before the 
 windows of the Children's Hospital. There he walked, con- 
 sidering the depth of his demerit and the height of the 
 adored one's super-excellence; now lighting upon earth to 
 say a pleasant word to the brother of some infant invalid; 
 now, with a great heave of breath, remembering the queen 
 of women, and the sunshine of his life. 
 
 What was he to do? Teresa, he had observed, was in the 
 habit of leaving the house toward afternoon ; she might, 
 perchance, run danger from some Cuban emissary, when 
 the presence of a friend might turn the balance in her favor : 
 how, then, if he should follow her? To offer his company 
 would seem like an intrusion ; to dog her openly were a man- 
 ifest impertinence ; he saw himself reduced to a more stealthy 
 part, which, though in some ways distasteful to his mind, he 
 did not doubt that he could practice with the skill of a 
 detective. 
 
 The next day he proceeded to put his plan in action. At 
 the corner of Tottenham Court Road, however, the Senorlta 
 suddenly turned back, and met him face to face, with every 
 mark of pleasure and surprise. 
 
 " Ah, Senor, I am sometimes fortunate ! " she cried. " I 
 was looking for a messenger ;" and with the sweetest of 
 smiles, she dispatched him to the East end of London, to an 
 address which he was unable to find. This was a bitter pill 
 to the knight-errant; but when he returned at night, worn 
 out with fruitless wandering and dismayed by liis fiasco, the 
 
 503
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 lady received him with a friendly gayety, protesting that all 
 was for the best, since she had changed her mind and long 
 since repented of her message. 
 
 Next day he resumed his labors, glowing with pity and 
 courage, and determined to protect Teresa with his hfe. 
 But a painful shock awaited him. In the narrow and silent 
 Hanway Street, she turned suddenly about and addressed 
 him with a manner and a light in her eyes, that were new 
 to the young man's experience. 
 
 " Do I understand that you follow me, Senor? " she cried. 
 " Are these the manners of the English gentleman.? " 
 
 Harry confounded himself in the most abject apologies 
 and prayers to be forgiven, vowed to offend no more, and 
 was at length dismissed, crestfallen and heavy of heart. 
 The check was final; he gave up that road to service; and 
 began once more to hang about the square or on the terrace, 
 filled with remorse and love, admirable and idiotic, a fit 
 object for the scorn and envy of older men. In these idle 
 hours, while he was courting fortune for a sight of the be- 
 loved, it fell out naturally that he should observe the man- 
 ners and appearance of such as came about the house. One 
 person alone was the occasional visitor of the young lady ; a 
 man of considerable stature and distinguished only by the 
 doubtful ornament of a chin-beard in the style of an Amer- 
 ican deacon. Something in his appearance grated upon 
 Harry ; this distaste grew upon him in the course of days ; 
 and when at length he mustered courage to inquire of the 
 Fair Cuban who this was, he was yet more dismayed by her 
 reply. 
 
 " That gentleman," said she, a smile struggling to her 
 face, " that gentleman, I will not attempt to conceal from 
 you, desires my hand in marriage, and presses me with the 
 most respectful ardor. Alas, what am I to say.? I, the 
 forlorn Teresa, how shall I refuse or accept such protesta- 
 tions.? " 
 
 Harry feared to say more; a horrid pang of jealousy 
 transfixed him; and he had scarce the strength of mind to 
 take his leave with decency. In the solitude of his o^vn 
 
 504.
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 chamber, he gave way to every manifestation of despair. 
 He passionately adored the Senorlta ; but it was not only 
 the thought of her possible union with another that dis- 
 tressed his soul, It was the Indefeasible conviction that her 
 suitor was unworthy. To a duke, a bishop, a victorious 
 general, or any man adorned with obvious qualities, he had 
 resigned her with a sort of bitter joy; he saw himself follow 
 the wedding party from a great way off; he saw himself 
 return to the poor house, then robbed of Its jewel; and 
 while he could have wept for his despair, he felt he could 
 support It nobly. But this affair looked otherwise. The 
 man was patently no gentleman ; he had a startled, skulking, 
 guilty bearing; his nails were black, his eyes evasive; his 
 love perhaps was a pretext ; he was, perhaps, under this deep 
 disguise, a Cuban emissary! Harry swore that he would 
 satisfy these doubts ; and the next evening about the hour 
 of the usual visit, he posted himself at a spot whence his 
 eye commanded the three issues of the square. 
 
 Presently after, a four-wheeler rumbled to the door ; and 
 the man with the chin-beard alighted, paid off the cabman, 
 and was seen by Harry to enter the house with a brown box 
 hoisted on his back. Half an hour later, he came forth 
 again without the box, and struck eastward at a rapid walk ; 
 and Desborough, with the same skill and caution that he had 
 dlsplaj^ed In follov/Ing Teresa, proceeded to dog the steps 
 of her admirer. The man began to loiter, stud3'mg with 
 apparent Interest the wares of the small fruiterer or tobac- 
 conist ; twice he returned hurriedly upon his former course ; 
 and then, as though he had suddenly conquered a moment's 
 hesitation, once more set forth with resolute and swift steps 
 in the direction of Lincoln's Inn. At length, In a deserted 
 by-street, he turned ; and coming up to Harry Avith a counte- 
 nance which seemed to have become older and whiter. In- 
 quired with some severity of speech if he had not had the 
 pleasure of seeing the gentleman before. 
 
 " You have, sir," said Harry, somewhat abashed, but 
 with a good show of stoutness ; " and I will not deny that I 
 was following you on purpose. Doubtless," he added, for 
 
 505
 
 .THE DYNAMITER 
 
 he supposed that all men's minds must still be running on 
 Teresa, " you can divine my reason." 
 
 At these words, the man with the chin-beard was seized 
 with a palsied tremor. He seemed, for some seconds, to 
 seek the utterance which his fear denied him ; and then whip- 
 ping sharply about, he took to his heels at the most furious 
 speed of running. 
 
 Harry was at first so taken aback that he neglected to 
 pursue; and by the time he had recovered his wits, his best 
 expedition was only rewarded by a glimpse of the man with 
 the chin-beard mounting into a hansom, which imme- 
 diately after disappeared into the moving crowds of 
 Holborn. 
 
 Puzzled and dismayed by this unusual behavior, Harry 
 returned to the house in Queen Square, and ventured for 
 the first time to knock at the fair Cuban's door. She bade 
 him enter, and he found her kneeling with rather a discon- 
 solate air beside a brown wooden trunk. 
 
 " Senorita," he broke out, " I doubt whether that man's 
 character is what he wishes you to believe. His manner, 
 when he found, and indeed when I admitted that I was fol' 
 lowing him, was not the manner of an honest man." 
 
 " Oh ! " she cried, throwing up her hands as in despera- 
 tion, " Don Quixote, Don Quixote, have you again been 
 tilting against windmills ? " And then, with a laugh, " Poor 
 soul ! " she added, " how you must have terrified him ! For 
 know that the Cuban authorities are here, and your poor 
 Teresa may soon be hunted down. Even yon humble clerk 
 from my solicitor's office, may find himself at any moment 
 the quarry of armed spies." 
 
 " A humble clerk ! " cried Harry, " why you told me your- 
 self that he wished to marry you ! " 
 
 " I thought you English like what you call a joke," re- 
 plied the lady, calmly. " As a matter of fact he is my 
 lawyer's clerk, and has been here to-night charged with dis- 
 astrous news. I am in sore straits, Sefior Harry. Will you 
 help me ? " 
 
 At this most welcomed word, the young man's heart 
 
 £06.
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 exulted ; and in the hope, pride and self-esteem, that kindled 
 with the very thought of service, he forgot to dwell upon 
 the lady's jest. " Can you ask? " he cried. " What is there 
 that I can do? Only tell me that." 
 
 With signs of an emotion that was certainly unfeigned, 
 the fair Cuban laid her hand upon the box. " This box," 
 she said, "contains my jewels, papers and clothes; all, in a 
 word, that still connects me with Cuba and my dreadful 
 past. They must now be smuggled out of England; or, by 
 the opinion of my lawyer, I am lost beyond remedy. To- 
 morrow, on board the Irish packet, a sure hand awaits the 
 box ; the problem still unsolved, is to find some one to carry 
 it as far as Holyhead, to see it placed on board the steamer, 
 and instantly return to town. Will you be he? Will you 
 leave to-morrow by the first train, punctually obey orders, 
 bear still in mind that you are surrounded by Cuban spies; 
 and without so much as a look behind you, or a single move- 
 ment to betray your interest, leave the box where you have 
 put it and come straight on shore? Will you do this, and 
 so save your friend? " 
 
 " I do not clearly understand . . ." began Harry. 
 
 " No more do I," replied the Cuban. " It is not necessary 
 that we should, so long as we obey the lawyer's orders." 
 
 " Senorita," returned Harry, gravely, " I think this, of 
 course, a very little thing to do for you, when I would will- 
 ingly do all. But suffer me to say one word. If London is 
 unsafe for your treasures, it can not long be safe for you; 
 and indeed, if I at all fathom the plan of your solicitor, I 
 fear I may find you already fled on my return. I am not 
 considered clever, and can only speak out plainly what is 
 in my heart: that I love you, and that I can not bear to 
 lose all knowledge of you. I hope no more than to be your 
 servant; I ask no more than just that I shall hear of you. 
 Oh, promise me so much ! " 
 
 " You shall," she said, after a pause. " I promise you, 
 you shall." But though she spoke with earnestness, the 
 marks of great embarrassment and a strong conflict of 
 emotions appeared upon her face. 
 
 507
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " I wish to tell you," resumed Desborough, " in case of 
 accidents. . . .'* 
 
 " Accidents ! " she cried; " why do you say that? '* 
 
 " I do not know," said he, " you may be gone before my 
 return, and we may not meet again for long. And so I 
 wished you to know this: That since the day you gave me 
 the cigarette, you have never once, not once, been absent 
 from my mind ; and if it will in any way serve you, you may 
 crumple me up like that piece of paper, and throw me on 
 the fire. I would love to die for you." 
 
 " Go ! " she said. " Go now at once ! My brain is in a 
 whirl. I scarce know what we are talking. Go ; and good- 
 night ; and oh, may you come safe ! " 
 
 Once back in his own room a fearful joy possessed the 
 young man's mand ; and as he recalled her face struck sud- 
 denly white and the broken utterance of her last words, his 
 heart at once exulted and misgave him. Love had indeed 
 looked upon him with a tragic mask ; and yet what mattered, 
 since at least it was love — since at least she was commoved 
 at their division.? He got to bed with these parti-colored 
 thoughts ; passed from one dream to another all night long, 
 the white face of Teresa still haunting him, wrung with un- 
 spoken thoughts ; and in the gray of the dawn, leaped sud- 
 denly out of bed, in a kind of horror. It was already time 
 for him to rise. He dressed, made his breakfast on cold 
 food that had been laid for him the night before; and went 
 down to the room of his idol for the box. The door was 
 open ; a strange disorder reigned within ; the furniture all 
 pushed aside, and the center of the room left bare of im- 
 pediment, as though for the pacing of a creature with a 
 tortured mind. There lay the box, however, and upon the 
 lid a paper with these words : " Harry, I hope to be back 
 before you go. Teresa." 
 
 He sat down to wait, laying his watch before him on the 
 table. She had called him Harry: that should be enough, 
 he thought, to fill the day with sunshine; and yet somehow 
 the sight of that disordered room still poisoned his enjo}^- 
 ment. The door of the bedchamber stood gaping open; 
 
 508
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 and though he turned aside his eyes as from a sacrilege, he 
 could not but observe the bed had not been slept in. He 
 was still pondering what this should mean, still trying to 
 convince himself that all was well, when the moving needle 
 of his watch summoned him to set forth without delay. He 
 was before all tilings a man of his word ; ran round to 
 Southampton Row to fetch a cab ; and taking the box on 
 the front seat, drove off toward the terminus. 
 
 The streets were scarcely awake; there was little to amuse 
 the eye; and the young man's attention centered on the 
 dumb companion of his drive. A card was nailed upon one 
 side, bearing the superscription : " Miss Doolan, passenger 
 to Dublin. Glass. With care." He thought with a senti- 
 mental shock that the fair idol of his heart M'as perhaps 
 driven to adopt the name of Doolan ; and as he still studied 
 the card, he was aware of a deadly, black depression settling 
 steadily upon his spirits. It was in vain for him to contend 
 against the tide; in vain that he shook himself or tried to 
 whistk: the sense of some impending blow was not to be 
 averted. He looked out ; in the long, empty streets, the cab 
 pursued its way without a trace of any follower. He gave 
 ear; and over and above the jolting of the wheels upon the 
 road, he was conscious of a certain regular and quiet sound 
 that seemed to issue from the box. He put his ear to the 
 cover; at one moment, he seemed to perceive a delicate tick- 
 ing: the next, the sound was gone, nor could his closest 
 hearkening recapture it. He laughed at himself; but still 
 the gloom continued ; and it was with more than the com- 
 mon relief of an arrival that he leaped from the cab before 
 the station. 
 
 Probably enough on purpose, Teresa had named an hour 
 some thirty minutes earlier than needful ; and when Harry 
 had given the box into the charge of a porter, who sat it on 
 a truck, he proceeded briskly to pace the platform. Pres- 
 ently the bookstall opened; and the young man was looking 
 at the books when he was seized by the arm. He turned, and, 
 though she was closely veiled, at once recognized the Fair 
 Cuban. 
 
 509
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Where Is it ? " she asked ; and the sound of her voice 
 surprised him. 
 
 "It? "he said. "What?" 
 
 " The box. Have it put on a cab instantly. I am in 
 fearful haste." 
 
 He hurried to obey, marveling at these changes but not 
 daring to trouble her with questions; and when the cab had 
 been brought round, and the box mounted on the front, she 
 passed a little way off upon the pavement and beckoned him 
 to follow. 
 
 " Now," said she, still in those mechanical and hushed 
 tones that had at first affected him, " you must go on to 
 Holyhead alone; go on board the steamer; and if you see a 
 man in tartan trowsers and a pink scarf, say to him that 
 all has been put off: if not," she added, with a sobbing sigh, 
 " it does not matter. So, good-by." 
 
 " Teresa," said Harry, " get into your cab, and I will 
 go along with you. You are in some distress, perhaps some 
 danger; and till I know the whole, not even you can make 
 me leave you." 
 
 " You will not ? " she asked. " Oh, Harry, it were 
 better ! " 
 
 " I will not," said Harry, stoutly. 
 
 She looked at him for a moment through her veil; took 
 his hand suddenly and sharply, but more as if in fear than 
 tenderness ; and still holding him, walked to the cab-door. 
 
 " Where are we to drive ? " asked Harry. 
 
 '* Home, quickly," she answered ; " double fare ! " And 
 as soon as they had both mounted to their places, the vehicle 
 crazily trundled from the station. 
 
 Teresa leaned back in a corner. The whole way Harry 
 could perceive her tears to flow under her veil ; but she vouch- 
 safed no explanation. At the door of the house in Queen 
 Square both alighted; and the cabman lowered the box, 
 which Harry, glad to display his strength, received upon his 
 shoulders. 
 
 " Let the man take it," she whispered. " Let the man 
 take it." 
 
 510
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 " I will do no such thing," said Harry cheerfully ; and 
 having paid the fare, he followed Teresa through the door 
 which she had opened with her key. The landlady and 
 maid were gone upon their morning ei'rands ; the house was 
 empty and still; and as the rattling of the cab died away 
 down Gloucester Street, and Harry continued to ascend the 
 stair with his burden, he heard close against his shoulders 
 the same faint and muffled ticking as before. The lady, still 
 preceding him, opened the door of her room, and helped him 
 to lower the box tenderly in the corner by the window. 
 
 " And now," said Harry, " what is wrong.'* " 
 
 " You will not go away .'' " she cried, with a sudden break 
 in her voice and beating her hands together in the very 
 agony of impatience. " Oh ! Harry, Harry, go away ! Oh 1 
 go, and leave me to the fate that I deserve ! " 
 
 " The fate.? " repeated Harry. " What is this.? " 
 
 " No fate," she resumed. " I do not know what I am say- 
 ing. But I wish to be alone. You may come back this even- 
 ing, Harry ; come again when you like ; but leave me now, 
 only leave me now ! " And then suddenly, " I have an 
 errand," she exclaimed ; " you can not refuse me that ! " 
 
 " No," replied Harry, " you have no errand. You 
 are in grief or danger. Lift your veil and tell me what 
 it is." 
 
 " Then," she said, with a sudden composure, " you leave 
 but one course open to me." And raising the veil, she 
 showed him a countenance from which every trace of color 
 had fled, eyes marred with weeping, and a brow on which 
 resolve had conquered fear. " Harry," she began, " I am 
 not what I seem." 
 
 " You have told me that before," said Harry, " several 
 times." 
 
 " Oh ! Harry, Harry," she cried, " how you shame me ! 
 But this is the God's truth. I am a dangerous and wicked 
 girl. My name is Clara Luxmore. I was never nearer Cuba 
 than Penzance. From first to last I have cheated and played 
 with you. And what I am I dare not even name to you in 
 words. Indeed, until to-day, until the sleepless watches of 
 
 511
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 last night, I never grasped the depth and fouhiess of my 
 guilt." 
 
 The young man looked upon her aghast. Then a gener- 
 ous current poured along his veins. " That is all one," he 
 said. " If you be all you say, you have the greater need 
 of me." 
 
 " Is it possible," she exclaimed, " that I have schemed in 
 vain? And will nothing drive you from this house of 
 death ! " 
 
 "Of death?" he echoed. 
 
 " Death ! " she cried ; " death ! In that box that you have 
 dragged about London and carried on your defenseless 
 shoulders, sleeps, at the trigger's mercy, the destroying 
 energies of dynamite." 
 
 " My God ! " cried Harry. 
 
 " Ah! " she continued wildly, " will you flee now? At any 
 moment you may hear the click that sounds the ruin of this 
 building. I was sure M'Guire was wrong; this morning, 
 before day, I flew to Zero ; he confirmed my fears ; I beheld 
 you, my beloved Harry, fall a victim to my own con- 
 trivances. I knew then I loved you — Harry, will you go 
 now? Will you not spare me this unwilling crime? " 
 
 Harry remained speechless, his eyes fixed upon the box: 
 . at last he turned to her. 
 
 "Is it," he asked hoarsely, "an infernal machine?" 
 
 Her lips formed the word " yes " ; which her voice refused 
 to utter. 
 
 With fearful curiosity, he drew near and bent above the 
 box : in that still chamber, the ticking was distinctly audible ; 
 and at the measured sound, the blood flowed back upon his 
 heart. 
 
 " For whom ? " he asked. 
 
 " What matters it ? " she cried, seizing him by the arm. 
 " If you may still be saved, what matters questions ? " 
 
 " God in Heaven ! " cried Harry. " And the children's 
 hospital! At whatever cost, this damned contrivance must 
 be stopped ! " 
 
 " It can not," she gasped. " The power of man can not 
 
 512
 
 THE BROWN BOX 
 
 avert the blow. But you, Harry — you, my beloved — you 
 may still " 
 
 And then from the box that lay so quietly in the corner, 
 a sudden catch was audible, like the catch of a clock before 
 it strikes the hour. For one second, the two stared at each 
 other with lifted brows and stony eyes. Then .Harry, throw- 
 ing one arm over his face, with the other clutched the girl 
 to his breast and staggered against the wall. 
 
 A dull and startling thud resounded through the room; 
 their eyes blinked against the coming horror ; and still cling- 
 ing together like drowning people, they fell to the floor. 
 Then followed a prolonged and strident hissing as from the 
 indignant pit ; an offensive stench seized them by the throat ; 
 the room was filled with dense and choking fumes. 
 
 Presently these began a little to disperse; and when at 
 length they drew themselves, all limp and shaken, to a sitting 
 posture, the first object that greeted their vision was the box 
 reposing uninjured in its corner, but still leaking little 
 wi'eaths of vapor round the lid. 
 
 " Oh, poor Zero ! " cried the girl with a strange sobbing 
 laugh. " Alas, poor Zero! This will break his heart! " 
 
 518
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION (cOUcluded) 
 
 Sf>MERSET ran straight up stairs; the door of the 
 irawing-room, contrary to all custom, was unlocked; 
 and bursting in, the young man found Zero seated on a 
 soff. in an attitude of singular dejection. Close beside him 
 stood an untasted grog, the mark of strong preoccupation. 
 The room besides was in confusion ; boxes had been tumbled 
 to and fro ; the floor was strewn with keys and other 
 implements ; and in the midst of this disorder, lay a lady's 
 glove. 
 
 " I have come," cried Somerset, " to make an end of this. 
 Either you will instantly abandon all your schemes, or (cost 
 what it may) I will denounce you to the police." 
 
 " Ah ! " replied Zero, slowly shaking his head. " You are 
 too late, dear fellow ! I am already at the end of all my 
 hopes and fallen to be a laughing-stock and mockery. My 
 reading," he added, with a gentle despondency of manner, 
 " has not been much among romances ; yet I recall from one 
 a phrase that depicts my present state with critical exacti- 
 tude ; and you behold me sitting here ' like a burst drum.' " 
 
 "What has befallen you?" cried Somerset. 
 
 " My last batch," returned the plotter, wearily, " like 
 all the others, is a hollow mockery and a fraud. In vain do 
 I combine the elements; in vain adjust the springs; and I 
 have now arrived at such a pitch of disconsideration that 
 (except yourself, dear fellow) I do not know a soul that I 
 can face. My subordinates themselves have turned upon 
 me. What language have I heard to-day, what ilhberality 
 of sentiment, what pungency of expression ! She came once ; 
 1 could have pardoned that, for she was moved; but she 
 returned, returned to announce to me this crushing blow; 
 and, Somerset, she was very inhumane. Yes, dear fellow, 
 
 514
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 I have drunk a bitter cup ; the speech of females Is remarlc- 
 able for . . . well, well ! Denounce me, if you will, you but 
 denounce the dead. I am extinct. It is strange how, at this 
 supreme crisis of my life, I should be haunted by quotations 
 from works of an inexact and even fanciful description ; but 
 here," he added, " is another : ' Othello's occupation's gone.' 
 Yes, dear Somerset, it is gone; I am no more a dynamiter; 
 and how, I ask you, after having tasted of these joys, am I 
 to condescend to a less glorious life? " 
 
 " I can not describe how you relieve me," returned Som- 
 erset, sitting down on one of the several boxes that had been 
 drawn out into the middle of the floor. " I had conceived 
 a sort of maudlin toleration for your character; I have a 
 great distaste, besides, for any thing in the nature of a 
 duty; and upon both grounds, your news delights me. But 
 I seem to perceive," he added, " a certain sound of ticking in 
 this box." 
 
 " Yes," replied Zero, with the same slow weariness of 
 manner, " I have set several of them going." 
 
 " My God ! " cried Somerset, bounding to his feet. 
 " Machines ? " 
 
 " Machines ! " returned the plotter, bitterly. " Machines 
 indeed ! I blush to be their author. Alas ! " he said, bury- 
 ing his face in his hands, " that I should live to say it ! " 
 
 " Madman ! " cried Somerset, shaking him by the arm. 
 *' What am I to understand.'' Have you, indeed, set these 
 diabolical contrivances in motion, and do we stay here to be 
 blown up .f* " 
 
 " * Hoist with his own petard ' ? " returned the plotter 
 musingly. " One more quotation : strange ! But Indeed my 
 brain is struck with numbness. Yes, dear boy, I have, as 
 you say, put my contrivance in motion. The one on which 
 you are sitting, I have timed for half an hour. Yon 
 other " 
 
 " Half an hour ! " echoed Somerset, dancing with trepida- 
 tion. " Merciful Heavens, in half an hour ! " 
 
 "Dear fellow, why so much excitement.''" inquired Zero. 
 *' My dynamite is not more dangerous than toffy ; had I an 
 
 515
 
 -THE DYNAMITER 
 
 only child I would give it him to play with. You see this 
 brick? " he continued, lifting a cake of the infernal com- 
 pound from the laboratory table ; " at a touch it should ex- 
 plode, and that with such unconquerable energy as should 
 bestrew the square with ruins. Well, now, behold ! I dash it 
 on the floor." 
 
 Somerset sprang forward, and with the strength of the 
 very ecstasy of terror, wrested the brick from his posses- 
 sion. " Heavens ! " he cried, wiping his brow, and then with 
 more care than ever mother handled her firstborn withal, 
 gingerly transported the explosive to the far end of the 
 apartment, the plotter, his arms once more fallen to his 
 side, dispiritedly watching him. 
 
 " It was entirely harmless," he sighed. " They describe 
 it as burning like tobacco." 
 
 " In the name of fortune," cried Somerset, " what have 
 I done to you, or what have you done to yourself, that you 
 should persist in this insane behavior.'' If not for your own 
 sake, then for mine, let us depart from this doomed house, 
 where I profess I have not the heart to leave you; and then, 
 if you will take my advice, and if your determination be 
 sincere, you will instantly quit this city, where no further 
 occupation can detain you." 
 
 " Such, dear fellow, was my own design," replied the plot- 
 ter. " I have, as you observe, no further business here, and 
 once I have packed a little bag I shall ask you to share a 
 frugal meal, to go with me as far as to the station and see 
 the last of a broken-hearted man. And yet," he added, look- 
 ing on the boxes with a lingering regret, " I should have 
 liked to make quite certain. I can not but suspect my 
 underlings of some mismanagement ; it may be fond, but yet 
 I cherish that idea : it may be the weakness of a man of 
 science, but yet," he cried, rising into some energy, " I 
 will never, I can not if I try, believe that my poor dynamite 
 has had fair usage ! " 
 
 " Five minutes ! " said Somerset, glancing with horror at 
 the timepiece. " If you do not instantly buckle to your 
 bag, I leave you." 
 
 '516
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 " A few necessaries," returned Zero, " only a few neces- 
 saries, dear Somerset, and j'ou behold me ready." 
 
 He passed into the bedroom, and after an interval which 
 seemed to draw out into eternity for his unfortunate com- 
 panion, he returned, bearing in his hand an open Gladstone 
 bag. His movements were still horribly deliberate, and his 
 eyes lingered gloatingly on his dear boxes, as he moved to 
 and fro about the drawing-room, gathering a few small 
 trifles. Last of all, he lifted one of the squares of dynamite. 
 
 " Put that down ! " cried Somerset. " If what you say 
 be true, you have no call to load yourself with that ungodly 
 contraband." 
 
 " Merely a curiosity, dear boy," he said persuasively, and 
 slipped the brick into his bag ; " merely a memento of the 
 past — ah, happy past, bright past! You will not take a 
 touch of spirits? no? I find you very abstemious. Well," 
 he added, '* if you have really no curiosity to await the 
 event " 
 
 " I ! " cried Somerset. " My blood boils to get away." 
 
 " Well, then," said Zero, " I am ready ; I would I could 
 say, willing; but thus to leave the scene of my sublime 
 endeavors " 
 
 Without further parley, Somerset seized him by the arm, 
 and dragged him down stairs ; the hall-door shut with a 
 clang on the deserted mansion ; and still towing his lag- 
 gardly companion, the young man sped across the square 
 in the Oxford Street direction. They had not yet passed 
 the corner of the garden, when they were arrested by a dull 
 thud of an extraordinary amplitude of sound, accompanied 
 and followed by a shattering fracas. Somerset turned in 
 time to see the mansion rend in twain, vomit forth flames and 
 smoke, and instantly collapse into its cellars. At the same 
 moment, he was thrown violently to the ground. His first 
 glance was towards Zero. The plotter had but reeled against 
 the garden rail ; he stood there, the Gladstone bag clasped 
 tight upon his heart, his whole face radiant with relief and 
 gratitude; and the young man heard him murrr'^r to him- 
 self: " Nunc dimittis, nunc dimittis! " 
 
 517
 
 ,THE DYNAMITER 
 
 The consternation of the populace was indescribable; the 
 whole of Golden Square was alive with men, women and chil- 
 dren, running wildly to and fro, and like rabbits in a warren, 
 dashing in and out of the house doors. And under favor 
 of this confusion, Somerset dragged away the lingering 
 plotter. 
 
 " It was grand," he continued to murmur : " it was inde- 
 scribably grand. Ah, green Erin, green Erin, what a day 
 of glory; and oh, my calumniated dynamite, how trium- 
 phantly hast thou prevailed ! " 
 
 Suddenly a shade crossed his face; and pausing in the 
 middle of the footway, he consulted the dial of his watch. 
 
 " Good God ! " he cried, " how mortifying ! seven minutes 
 too early ! The dynamite surpassed my hopes ; but the clock- 
 work, fickle clockwork, has once more betrayed me. Alas, 
 can there be no success unmixed with failure? and must even 
 this red-letter-day be checkered by a shadow.? " 
 
 " Incomparable ass ! " said Somerset, " what have you 
 done? Blown up the house of an unoffending old lady, and 
 the whole property of the only person who is fool enough to 
 befriend you ! " 
 
 " You do not understand these matters," replied Zero, 
 with an air of great dignity. " This will shake England to 
 the heart. Gladstone the truculent old man, will quail before 
 the pointing finger of revenge. And now that my dynamite 
 is proved effective " 
 
 " Heavens, you remind me! " ejaculated Somerset. " That 
 brick in your bag must be instantly disposed of. But how? 
 If we could throw it in the river " 
 
 " A torpedo," cried Zero, brightening, " a torpedo in the 
 Thames ! Superb, dear fellow ! I recognize in you the 
 marks of an accomplished anarch." 
 
 " True ! " returned Somerset. " It can not so be done ; 
 and there is no help but you must carry it away with 
 you. Come on, then, and let me at once consign you to 
 a train." 
 
 " Nay, nay, dear boy," protested Zero. " There is now 
 no call for me to leave. My character is now reinstated; 
 
 518
 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 my fame brightens ; this is the best thing I have done yet ; 
 and I see from here the ovations that await the author of 
 the Golden Square Atrocity." 
 
 " My young friend," returned the other, " I give you 
 your choice. I will either see you safe on board a train or 
 safe in gaol." 
 
 " Somerset, this is unlike you ! " said the chymist. *' You 
 surprise me, Somerset." 
 
 " I shall considerably more surprise you at the next police 
 office," returned Somerset, with something bordering on 
 rage. " For on one point my mind Is settled : either I see 
 you packed off to America, brick and all, or else you dine 
 in prison." 
 
 " You have perhaps neglected one point," returned the 
 unofFended Zero : " for, speaking as a philosopher, I fail to 
 see what means you can employ to force me. The will, my 
 dear fellow " 
 
 " Now, see here," interrupted Somerset. " You are Igno- 
 rant of any thing but science, which I can never regard as 
 being truly knowledge ; I, sir, have studied life ; and allow 
 me to Inform you that I have but to raise my hand and 
 voice — here in this street — and the mob " 
 
 " Good God in heaven, Somerset ! " cried Zero, turning 
 deadly white and stopping In his walk, " great God in 
 heaven, what words are these! Oh not In jest, not even in 
 jest, should they be used! The brutal mob, the savage pas- 
 sions .... Somerset, for God's sake, a public- 
 house ! " 
 
 Somerset considered him with freshly awakened curiosity. 
 " This Is very interesting," said he. " You recoil from such 
 a death.?" 
 
 " Who would not.? " asked the plotter. 
 
 " And to be blown up by dynamite," inquired the young 
 man, " doubtless strikes you as a form of euthanasia? " 
 
 " Pardon me," returned Zero : " I own, and since I have 
 braved it daily in my professional career, I own it even with 
 pride: it is a death unusually distasteful to the mind of 
 man." 
 
 519
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 "One more question," said Somerset: "you object to 
 Lynch Law? why? " 
 
 " It is assassination," said the plotter calmly ; but with 
 eyebrows a little lifted, as in wonder at the question. 
 
 " Shake hands with me," cried Somerset. " Thank God, I 
 have now no ill-feeling left and though you can not conceive 
 how I burn to see you on the gallows, I can quite content- 
 edly assist at your departure." 
 
 " I do not very clearly take your meaning," said Zero, 
 " but I am sure you mean kindly. As to my departure, 
 there is another point to be considered. I have neglected 
 to supply myself with funds ; my little all has perished in 
 what history will love to relate under the name of the Golden 
 Square Atrocity ; and without what is coarsely if vigorouslj^ 
 called stamps, you must be well aware it is impossible for 
 me to pass the ocean." 
 
 " For me," said Somerset, " you have now ceased to be a 
 man. You have no more claim upon me than a door scraper ; 
 but the touching confusion of your mind disarms me from 
 extremities. Until to-day, I always thought stupidity was 
 funny; I now know otherwise; and when I look upon your 
 idiot face, laughter rises within me like a deadly sickness, 
 and the tears spring up into my eyes as bitter as blood. 
 What should this portend? I begin to doubt; I am losing 
 faith in skepticism. Is it possible," he cried, in a kind of 
 horror of himself — " is it conceivable that I believe in right 
 and wrong? Already I have found myself, with incredulous 
 surprise, to be the victim of a prejudice of personal honor. 
 And must this change proceed? Have you robbed me of 
 my youth? Must I fall, at my time of life, into the Com- 
 mon Banker? But why should I address that head of wood? 
 Let this suffice. I dare not let you stay among women and 
 children ; I lack the courage to denounce you, if by any 
 means I may avoid it; you have no money: well then, take 
 mine, and go ; and if ever I behold your face after to-day, 
 that day will be your last." 
 
 " Under the circumstances," replied Zero, " I scarce see 
 my way to refuse your offer. Your expressions may pain, 
 
 520 

 
 THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 
 
 they can not surprise me ; I am aware our point of view 
 requires a little training, a little moral hygiene, if I may so 
 express it ; and one of the points that has always charmed 
 me in your character, is this delightful frankness. As for 
 the small advance, it shall be remitted you from Philadel- 
 phia." 
 
 " It shall not," said Somerset. 
 
 " Dear fellow, you do not understand," returned the plot- 
 ter. " I shall now be received with fresh confidence by my 
 superiors ; and my experiments will be no longer hampered 
 by pitiful conditions of the purse." 
 
 " What I am now^ about, sir, is a crime," replied Somer- 
 set ; " and were you to roll in wealth like Vanderbilt, I should 
 scorn to be reimbursed of money I had so scandalously mis- 
 applied. Take it, and keep it. By George, sir, three days 
 of you have transformed me to an ancient Roman." 
 
 With these words, Somerset hailed a passing hansom ; 
 and the pair were driven rapidly to the railway terminus. 
 There, an oath having been exacted, the money changed 
 hands. 
 
 " And now," said Somerset, " I have bought back my 
 honor with every penny I possess. And I thank God, though 
 there is nothing before me but starvation, I am free from all 
 entanglement with Mr. Zero Pumpernickel Jones." 
 
 " To starve ! " cried Zero. " Dear fellow, I can not 
 endure the thought." 
 
 " Take your ticket ! " returned Somerset. 
 
 " I think you display temper," said Zero. 
 
 " Take j^our ticket," reiterated the young man. 
 
 " Well," said the plotter, as he returned, ticket in hand, 
 *' your attitude is so strange and painful, that I scarce know 
 if I should ask you to shake hands." 
 
 " As a man, no," replied Somerset ; " but I have no ob- 
 jection to shake hands with you, as I might with a pump-well 
 that ran poison or hell-fire." 
 
 " This is a very cold parting," sighed the dynamiter ; and 
 still followed by Somerset, he began to descend the platform. 
 This was now bustling with passengers ; the train for Liver- 
 
 521
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 pool was just about to start, another had but recently ar- 
 rived; and the double tide made movement difficult. As the 
 pair reached the neighborhood of the bookstall, however, they 
 came into an open space; and here the attention of the 
 plotter was attracted by a Standard broadside bearing the 
 words : " Second Edition : Explosion in Golden Square." 
 His eye lighted; groping in his pocket for the necessary 
 coin, he sprang forward — his bag knocked sharply on the 
 corner of the stall — and instantly, with a formidable report, 
 the dynamite exploded. When the smoke cleared away the 
 stall was seen much shattered, and the stall-keeper running 
 forth in terror from the ruins ; but of the Irish patriot or 
 the Gladstone bag no adequate remains were to be found. 
 
 In the first scramble of the alarm, Somerset made good 
 his escape, and came out upon the Euston Road, his head 
 spinning, his body sick with hunger, and his pockets desti- 
 tute of coin. Yet as he continued to walk the pavements, 
 he wondered to find in his heart a sort of peaceful exultation, 
 a great content, a sense, as it were, of divine presence and 
 the kindliness of fate; and he was able to tell himself that 
 even if the worst befell, he could now starve with a certain 
 comfort since Zero was expunged. 
 
 Late in the afternoon, he found himself at the door of 
 Mr. Godall's shop ; and being quite unmanned by his long 
 fast, and scarce considering what he did, he opened the glass 
 door and entered. 
 
 "Ha!" said Mr. Godall, « Mr. Somerset! WeU, have 
 you met with an adventure.'' Have you the promised story.'* 
 Sit down, if you please ; suffer me to choose you a cigar of 
 my own special brand, and reward me with a narrative in 
 your best style." 
 
 " I must not take a cigar," said Somerset. 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Mr. Godall. " But now I come to look 
 at you more closely, I perceive that you are changed. My 
 poor boy, I hope there is nothing wrong? " 
 
 Somerset burst into tears. 
 
 Sisa
 
 EPILOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN 
 
 ON a certain day of lashing rain in the December of last 
 year, and between the hours of nine and ten in the 
 morning, Mr. Edward Challoner pioneered himself under an 
 umbrella to the door of the Cigar Divan in Rupert Street. 
 It was a place he had visited but once before : the memory of 
 what had followed on that visit and the fear of Somerset, 
 having prevented his return. Even now, he looked in before 
 he entered ; but the shop was free of customers. 
 
 The young man behind the counter was so intently writing 
 In a penny-version book, that he paid no heed to Challoner's 
 arrival. On a second glance, it seemed to the latter that he 
 recognized him. 
 
 *' By Jove," he thought, " unquestionably Somerset ! " 
 
 And though this was the very man he had been so sedu- 
 lously careful to avoid, his unexplained position at the 
 receipt of custom changed distaste to curiosity. 
 
 " ' Or opulent rotunda strike the sky,' " said the shopman 
 to himself, in the tone of one considering a verse. " I sup- 
 pose it would be too much to say ' orotunda,' and yet how 
 noble it were ! ' Or opulent orotunda strike the sky. But 
 that is the bitterness of arts ; you see a good effect, and 
 some nonsense about sense continually intervenes." 
 
 " Somerset, my dear fellow," said Challoner, " is this a 
 masquerade.'' " 
 
 "What.? Challoner!" cried the shopman. "I am de- 
 lighted to see you. One moment, till I finish the octave of 
 my sonnet: only the octave." And with a friendly waggle 
 of the hand, he once more buried himself in the commerce 
 of the Muses. " I say," he said presently, looking up, " you 
 seem in wonderful preservation : how about the hundred 
 pounds ? " 
 
 523
 
 ,THE dyna:miter 
 
 " I have made a small inheritance from a great-aunt in 
 Wales," replied Challoner modestly. 
 
 " Ah," said Somerset, " I very much doubt the legitimacy 
 of inheritance. The State, in my view, should collar it. I 
 am now going through a stage of socialism and poetry," 
 he added apologetically, as one who spoke of a course of 
 medicinal waters. 
 
 " And are you really the person of the — establishment? " 
 inquired Challoner, deftly evading the word " shop." 
 
 " A vendor, sir, a vendor," returned the other, pocketing 
 his poesy. " I help old Happy and Glorious. Can I offer 
 you a weed? " 
 
 " Well, I scarcely like ..." began Challoner. 
 
 " Nonsense, my dear fellow," cried the shopman. " We 
 are very proud of the business ; and the old man, let me 
 inform you, besides being the most egregious of created 
 beings from the point of view of ethics, is literally sprung 
 from the loins of kings. ' De Godall je suis le fervent.' 
 There is only one Godall. — By the way," he added, as Chal- 
 loner lit his cigar, " how did you get on with the detective 
 trade? " 
 
 " I did not try," said Challoner curtly. 
 
 " Ah, well, I did," returned Somerset, " and made the 
 most incomparable mess of it: lost all my money and fairly 
 covered myself with odium and ridicule. There is more in 
 that business, Challoner, than meets the eye; there is more, 
 in fact, in all businesses. You must believe in them, or get 
 up the belief that you believe. Hence," he added, " the 
 recognized inferiority of the plumber, for no one could 
 believe in plumbing." 
 
 " A propos" asked Challoner, " do you still paint? " 
 
 " Not now," replied Paul ; " but I think of taking up 
 the violin." 
 
 Challoner's eye, which had been somewhat restless since 
 the trade of the detective had been named, now rested for a 
 moment on the columns of the morning paper, where it lay 
 spread upon the counter. 
 
 " By Jove," he cried, " that's odd ! *'
 
 EPILOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN 
 
 " What is odd? " asked Paul. 
 
 " Oh, nothing," returned the other : " only I once met a 
 person called M'Guire." 
 
 " So did I ! " cried Somerset. " Is there any thing about 
 him.?" 
 
 Challoner read as follows: ** Mysterious death in Step- 
 ney. An inquest was held yesterday on the body of Patrick 
 M'Guire, described as a carpenter. Doctor Dovering stated 
 that he had for some time treated the deceased as a dis- 
 pensary patient, for sleeplessness, loss of appetite and nerv- 
 ous depression. There was no cause of death to be found 
 He would say the deceased had sunk. Deceased was not a 
 temperate man, which doubtless accelerated death. Deceased 
 complained of dumb ague, but witness had never been able 
 to detect any positive disease. He did not know that he had 
 any family. He regarded him as a person of unsound intel- 
 lect, who believed himself a member and the victim of some 
 secret society. If he were to hazard an opinion, he would 
 say deceased had died of fear." 
 
 " And the doctor would be right," cried Somerset ; " and 
 my dear Challoner, I am so relieved to hear of his demise, 
 
 that I will Well after all/' he added, " poor devil, he 
 
 was well served." 
 
 The door at this moment opened, and Desborough ap- 
 peared upon the threshold. He was wrapped in a long 
 waterproof, imperfectly supplied with buttons ; his boots 
 were full of water, his hat greasy with service; and yet he 
 wore the air of one exceedingly well content with life. He 
 was hailed by the two others with exclamations of surprise 
 and welcome. 
 
 " And did you try the detective business.? " inquired Paul. 
 
 " No," returned Harry. " Oh yes, by the way, I did 
 though; twice, and got caught out both times. But I 
 thought I should find my — my wife here ! " he added, with 
 a kind of proud confusion. 
 
 "What! are you married.? " cried Somerset. 
 
 " Oh yes," said Harry, " quite a long time : a month at 
 least." 
 
 525
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 " Money ? " asked Challoner. 
 
 " That's the worst of it," Desborough admitted. " We 
 are deadly hard up. But the Pri — Mr. Godall is going to 
 do something for us. That is what brings us here." 
 
 " Who was Mrs. Desborough.'* " said Challoner, in the 
 tone of a man of society. 
 
 " She was a Miss Luxmore," returned Harry. " You fel- 
 lows will be sure to like her, for she is much cleverer than I. 
 She tells wonderful stories, too ; better than a book." 
 
 And just then the door opened, and Mrs. Desborough 
 entered. Somerset cried out aloud to recognize the young 
 lady of the Superfluous Mansion, and Challoner fell back 
 a step and dropped his cigar as he beheld the sorceress of 
 Chelsea. 
 
 "What!" cried Harry, "do you both know my wife?" 
 
 " I believe I have seen her," said Somerset, a little wildly. 
 
 " I think I have met the gentlemen," said Mrs. Desbor- 
 ough, sweetly ; " but I can not imagine where it was." 
 
 " Oh no," cried Somerset fervently : " I have no notion — 
 I can not conceive — ^where it could have been. Indeed," he 
 continued, growing in emphasis, " I think it highly prob- 
 able that it's a mistake." 
 
 "And you, Challoner.?" asked Harry, "you seemed to 
 recognize her, too." 
 
 " These are both friends of yours, Harry.? " said the lady. 
 " Delighted, I am sure. I do not remember to have met Mr. 
 Challoner." 
 
 Challoner was very red in the face, perhaps from having 
 groped after his cigar. " I do not remember to have had 
 the pleasure," he responded huskily. 
 
 "Well, and Mr. Godall?" asked Mrs. Desborough. 
 
 " Are you the lady that has an appointment with 
 old . . . ." began Somerset, and paused blushing. 
 " Because if so," he resumed, " I was to announce you at 
 once." 
 
 And the shopman raised a curtain, opened a door, and 
 passed into a small pavilion which had been added to the 
 back of the house. On the roof, the rain resounded mu- 
 
 526
 
 ' EPILOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN 
 
 sicallj. The walls were lined with maps and prints and a 
 few works of reference. Upon a table was a large-scale map 
 of Egypt and the Soudan, and another of Tonkin, on which, 
 by the aid of colored pins, the progress of the different wars 
 was being followed day by day. A light, refreshing odor 
 of the most delicate tobacco hung upon the air; and a fire, 
 not of foul coal, but of clear-flaming resinous billets, chat- 
 tered upon silver dogs. In this elegant and plain apart- 
 ment, Mr. Godall sat in a morning muse, placidly gazing 
 at the fire and hearkening to the rain upon the roof. 
 
 " Ha, my dear Mr. Somerset," said he, " and have you 
 since last night adopted any fresh political principle? " 
 
 " The lady, sir," said Somerset, with another blush. 
 
 "You have seen her, I believe.''" returned Mr. Godall; 
 and on Somerset's replying in the affirmative : " You will 
 excuse me, my dear sir," he resumed, " if I offer you a hint. 
 I think it not improbable this lady may desire entirely to 
 forget the past. From one gentleman to another, no more 
 words are necessary." 
 
 A moment after, he had received Mrs. Desborough with 
 that grave and touching urbanity that so well became 
 him. 
 
 " I am pleased, madam, to welcome you to my poor 
 house," he said; " and shall be still more so, if what were 
 else a barren courtesy and a pleasure personal to myself, 
 shall prove to be of serious benefit to you and Mr. Des- 
 borough." 
 
 " Your Highness," replied Clara, " I must begin with 
 thanks ; it is like what I have heard of you, that you should 
 thus take up the case of the unfortunate ; and as for my 
 Harry, he is worthy of all that you can do." She paused. 
 
 " But for yourself? " suggested Mr. Godall — " it was 
 thus you were about to continue, I believe." 
 
 " You take the words out of my mouth," she said. " For 
 myself it is different." 
 
 " I am not here to be a judge of men," replied the Prince ; 
 *' still less of women. I am now a private person like your- 
 self and many million others ; but I am one who still fights 
 
 527
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 upon the side of quiet. Now, madam, you know better than 
 I, and God better than you, what you have done to mankind 
 in the past; I pause not to inquire; it is with the future I 
 concern myself, it is for the future I demand security. I 
 would not wiHingly put arms into the hands of a disloyal 
 combatant ; and I dare not restore to wealth one of the 
 levyers of a private and a barbarous war. I speak with 
 some severity, and yet I pick my terms. I tell myself con- 
 tinually that you are a woman; and a voice continually 
 reminds me of the children whose lives and limbs you have 
 endangered. A woman," he repeated solemnly — " and chil- 
 dren. Possibly, madam, when you are yourself a mother, 
 you will feel the bite of that antithesis: possibly when you 
 kneel at night beside a cradle, a fear will fall upon you, 
 heavier than any shame ; and when your child lies in the pain 
 and danger of disease, you shall hesitate to kneel before 
 your Maker." 
 
 " You look at the fault," she said, " and not at the ex- 
 cuse. Has your own heart never leaped witliin you at some 
 story of oppression.'' But, alas, no! for you were born 
 upon a throne." 
 
 " I was born of woman," said the Prince ; " I came forth 
 from my mother's agony, helpless as a wren, like other 
 nurslings. This which you forgot, I have still faithfully 
 remembered. Is it not one of your English poets, that 
 looked abroad upon the earth and saw vast circumvallations, 
 innumerable troops maneuvering, war-ships at sea and a 
 great dust of battles on shore; and casting anxiously about 
 for what should be the cause of so many and painful prepar- 
 ations, spied at last, in the center of all, a mother and 
 her babe.? These, madam, are my politics; and the verses, 
 which are by Mr. Coventry Patmore, I have caused to be 
 translated into the Bohemian tongue. Yes, these are my 
 politics : to change what we can ; to better what we can ; but 
 still to bear in mind that man is but a devil weakly fettered 
 by some generous beliefs and impositions ; and for no word 
 however nobly sounding, and no cause however just and 
 pious, to relax the stricture of these bonds." 
 
 528
 
 EPILOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN 
 
 There was a silence of a moment. 
 
 *' I fear, madam," resumed the Prince, ** that I but weary 
 you. My views are formal like myself, and like myself, they 
 also begin to grow old. But I must still trouble you for 
 some reply." 
 
 " I can say but one thing," said Mrs. Desborough : " I 
 love my husband." 
 
 " It is a good answer," returned the Prince ; " and you 
 name a good influence, but one that need not be conterminous 
 with Hfe." 
 
 " I will not play at pride with such a man as you," she 
 answered. "What do you ask of me? not protestations, I 
 am sure. WTiat shall I say.'' I have done much that I can 
 not defend and that I would not do again. Can I say more.'' 
 Yes: I can say this: I never abused myself with the muddle- 
 headed fairy tales of politics. I was at least prepared to 
 meet reprisals. While I was levying war myself — or levying 
 murder if you choose the plainer term — I never accused my 
 adversaries of assassination. I never felt or feigned a 
 righteous horror, when a price was put upon ni}' Hfe by those 
 whom I attacked. I never called the policeman a hireling. 
 I may have been a criminal, in short ; but never was a 
 fool." 
 
 " Enough, madam," returned the Prince : " more than 
 enough ! Your words are most reviving to my spirits ; for 
 in this age, when even the assassin is a sentimentalist, there 
 is no virtue greater In my eyes than intellectual clarity. 
 Suffer me then to ask you to retire ; for by the signal of 
 that bell, I perceive my old friend, your mother, to be 
 close at hand. With her I promise you to do my utmost." 
 
 And as Mrs. Desborough returned to the Divan, the 
 Prince, opening a door upon the other side, admitted Mrs. 
 Luxmore. 
 
 " Madam and my very good friend," said he, *' is my 
 face so much changed that you no longer recognize Prince 
 Florizel in Mr. Godall?" 
 
 " To be sure ! " she cried, looking at him through her 
 glasses. " I have always regarded your Higlmess as a per- 
 
 529
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 feet man; and in your altered circumstances, of which I 
 have already heard with deep regret, I will beg you to con- 
 sider my respect increased instead of lessened." 
 
 " I have found it so," returned the Prince, " with every 
 class of my acquaintance. But, madam, I pray you to be 
 seated. My business is of a delicate order and regards your 
 daughter." 
 
 " In that case," said Mrs. Luxmore, " you may save your- 
 self the trouble of speaking, for I have fully made up my 
 mind to have nothing to do with her. I will not hear one 
 word in her defense ; but as I value nothing so particularly 
 as the virtue of justice, I think it my duty to explain to 
 you the grounds of my complaint. She deserted me, her 
 natural protector ; for years, she has consorted with the 
 most disreputable persons ; and to fill the cup of her offense, 
 she has recently married. I refuse to see her, or the being 
 to whom she has linked herself. One hundred and twenty 
 pounds a year, I have always offered her: I offer it again. 
 It is what I had myself when I was her age." 
 
 *' Very well, madam," said the Prince ; " and be that so ! 
 But to touch upon another: what was the income of the 
 Reverend Bernard Fanshawe? " 
 
 "My father.?" asked the spirited old lady. "I believe 
 he had seven hundred pounds in the year." 
 
 " You were one, I think, of several .? " pursued the Prince. 
 
 " Of four," was the reply. " We were four daughters ; 
 and painful as the admission is to make, a more detestable 
 family could scarce be found in England." 
 
 " Dear me ! " said the Prince. " And you, madam, have 
 an income of eight thousand.'"' 
 
 " Not more than five," returned the old lady ; " but where 
 on earth are you conducting me? " 
 
 " To an allowance of one thousand pounds a year," re- 
 plied Florizel, smiling. " For I must not suffer you to take 
 your father for a rule. He was poor, you are rich. He 
 had many calls upon his poverty : there are none upon your 
 wealth. And, indeed, madam, if you will let me touch this 
 matter with a needle, there is but one point in common to 
 
 5S0
 
 EPILOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN 
 
 your two positions: that each had a daughter more remark- 
 able for livehness than duty." 
 
 " I have been entrapped into this house," said the old 
 lady, getting to her feet. " But it shall not avail. Not all 
 the tobacconists in Europe . . ." 
 
 " Ah, madam," interrupted Florizel, " before what is re- 
 ferred to as my fall, you had not used such language ! And 
 since you so much object to the simple industry by which I 
 live, let me give you a friendly hint. If you will not con- 
 sent to support your daughter, I shall be constrained to 
 place that lady behind my counter, where I doubt not she 
 would prove a great attraction ; and your son-in-law shall 
 have a livery and run the errands. With such young blood my 
 business might be doubled, and I might be bound in common 
 gratitude, to place the name of Luxmore beside that of 
 Godall." 
 
 " Your Highness," said the old lady, " I have been very 
 rude, and you are very cunning. I suppose the minx is on 
 the premises. Produce her." 
 
 " Let us rather observe them unperceived," said the 
 Prince; and so saying he rose and quietly drew back the 
 curtain. 
 
 Mrs. Desborough sat with her back to them on a chair; 
 Somerset and Harry were hanging on her words with ex- 
 traordinary interest; Challoner, alleging some affair, had 
 long ago withdrawn from the detested neighborhood of the 
 enchantress. 
 
 " At that moment," Mrs. Desborough was saying, " Mr. 
 Gladstone detected the features of his cowardly assailant. 
 A cry rose to his lips: a cry of mingled triumph . . ." 
 
 " That Is Mr. Somerset ! " Interrupted the spirited old 
 lady, in the highest note of her register. " Mr. Somerset, 
 what have you done with my house-property? " 
 
 " Madam," said the Prince, " let it be mine to give the 
 explanation ; and in the meanwhile, welcome your daughter." 
 
 " Well, Clara, how do you do ? " said Mrs. Luxmore. " It 
 appears I am to give you an allowance. So much the better 
 for you. As for Mr. Somerset, I am very ready to have 
 
 531
 
 THE DYNAMITER 
 
 an explanation ; for the whole affair, though costly, was 
 eminently humorous. And at any rate," she added, nodding 
 to Paul, " he is a young gentleman for whom I have a great 
 affection, and his pictures were the funniest I ever saw." 
 
 " I have ordered a collation," said the Prince. " Mr. 
 Somerset, as these are all your friends, I propose, if you 
 please, that you should join them at table. I will take the 
 shop." 
 
 THE TTND

 
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