"At the same time," asked the Prince, "if I were to refuse to
follow you?"

"I will not conceal from your Highness that a considerable
discretion has been granted me," replied the detective with a bow.

"Upon my word," cried Florizel, "your effrontery astounds 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 unconstitutional 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 presumption 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 honour a subaltern as to
declare his ignorance of the matter even to myself, I should ask
permission to retire upon the spot."

Florizel, up to the last moment, had regarded his adventure 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 honour.  What was
he to say?  What was he to do?  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.

His hesitation had not lasted a second.

"Be it so," said he, "let us walk together to the Prefecture."

The man once more bowed, and proceeded to follow Florizel at a
respectful distance in the rear.

"Approach," said the Prince.  "I am in a humour 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 honour," 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 Florizel, "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 honourable 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 condescension."

"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 honour 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 alone," he
added, "that you and I can walk this town together 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 complications 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 extraordinary for size and beauty that from that
instant he had only one desire in life:  honour, 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-barbarian potentate as Jacob served Laban; he falsified
frontiers, he connived at murders, he unjustly condemned and
executed a brother-officer who had the misfortune to displease the
Rajah 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 massacred by thousands.  In the
end, he had amassed a magnificent 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 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 foreign country.  The officer has a
brother, an astute, daring, unscrupulous man, who learns the
clergyman's secret.  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!"

"God pardon me!" cried the detective.  "What have you done?  I am a
ruined man."

"I think," returned the Prince with a smile, "that many well-to-do
people in this city might envy you your ruin."

"Alas! your Highness!" said the officer, "and you corrupt 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 groomsman.  The two Vandeleurs surprised some
rumour 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 through 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 consequence 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.




THE PAVILION ON 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 entertainment; and I may say that
I had neither friends nor acquaintances until I met that friend who
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 intimacy, we were so
nearly of a humour 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 unsociability.  Northmour's exceptional
violence of temper made it no easy affair for him to keep the peace
with any one 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 acquainted 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 large 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 within and half ruinous without.
It was impossible 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 sand-hills, and between a
plantation and the sea, a small Pavilion or Belvidere, of modern
design, which was exactly suited to our wants; and in this
hermitage, speaking little, 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 neighbourhood.  I
travelled at that time with a tilt cart, a tent, and a cooking-
stove, tramping all day beside the waggon, 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 solicitors, from whom I drew my
income twice a year.  It was a life in which I delighted; and I
fully thought to have grown 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 suddenly 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 the sea.  The beach, which was the natural approach, was full
of quicksands.  Indeed I may say there is hardly a better place of
concealment in the United Kingdom.  I determined 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 drifting 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-line between two shallow bays; and just beyond the tides, the
rock again cropped out and formed an islet of small dimensions 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 promontory, it was said 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 disaster.  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 storeys 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.  Northmour was plainly from home; whether, as
usual, sulking in 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, elders 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 winter tempests; and even in early spring, the
leaves were already 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
sheltered 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 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
wind and the 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 some one were reviewing 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 deserted; 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 supplied.  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 another.  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 more 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 him as short a visit as I chose.

But when morning came, I thought the situation so diverting that I
forgot my shyness.  Northmour was at my mercy; I arranged a good
practical jest, though I knew well that my neighbour 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
habitable 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 go 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 affected 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 external 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, therefore, had entered by the back; this was
the natural and, indeed, 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 storey, 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, getting 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 north-east.  Then I threw up
the window and climbed in.

I went over the house, and nothing can express my mystification.
There was no sign of disorder, but, on the contrary, 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.



CHAPTER II - TELLS OF THE NOCTURNAL LANDING FROM 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, apparently 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 Northmour 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 battery 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 associates 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 communication between the pavilion 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
newcomer's advance.  It proved to be a woman; and, as she passed
within half a rod of my ambush, I was able to recognise 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 and hollows, concealed by the darkness, and
favoured not only by the nurse's deafness, but by the uproar of the
wind and surf.  She entered the pavilion, and, going at once to the
upper storey, 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 shutters 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 recognising
the arrivals, and, if they should prove to be acquaintances,
greeting them as soon as they had landed.

Some time before eleven, while the tide was still dangerously 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 second 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 portmanteau, 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 travelling 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 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 beautiful 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 labouring under the
deadliest terror; I have never heard another 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 handsome and so repulsive as
Northmour.  He had the appearance 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 slaver captain.  I never knew a character that 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 complexion very dark; his features handsomely
designed, but spoiled by a menacing expression.

At that moment he was somewhat paler than by nature; he wore a
heavy frown; and his lips worked, and he looked sharply round him
as he walked, like a man besieged with apprehensions.  And yet I
thought he had a look of triumph underlying 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 acquaintance, 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 pavilion, 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 pavilion secretly
prepared?  Why had Northmour 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 recognised my voice?  I
wondered.  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 gentleman landing
from his yacht on the shore of his own estate, even although it was
at night and with some mysterious circumstances, does not usually,
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 mystery, 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 stabbing 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 Graden.  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 continued 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 made my way to the den.  For greater security, I
trod out the embers of the fire, and lit my 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
against Northmour and his mystery.  I am not an angry man by
nature, and I believe 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 neighbourhood; and long before dawn I was leading
it over the links in the direction of the fisher village.



CHAPTER III - 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 darkness for my enthralling, but perhaps
dishonourable, 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 promenade 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 accidented of the sand-hills
immediately adjoined; and from these, lying flat in a hollow, I
could overlook 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 remembered 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 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,
almost 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
between them.  Northmour kept sidling closer; and, as the girl
retired from his advance, their course lay at a sort of diagonal
across the beach, and would have landed them in the surf had it
been long enough continued.  But, when this was imminent, 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 vigour in the air, that,
contrary to custom, she was tempted forth a second time to walk.
On this occasion she was accompanied 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
position; but, ere I had taken a step, I saw Northmour bareheaded
and bowing very low, as if to apologise; and dropped again at once
into my ambush.  A few words were interchanged; and then, with
another bow, he left the beach to return to the pavilion.  He
passed not far from me, and I could see him, flushed and lowering,
and cutting savagely with his cane among the grass.  It was not
without satisfaction that I recognised my own handiwork in a great
cut under his right eye, and a considerable discolouration 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-way forward, called to her to stop.

She did so, and turned round.  There was not a tremor of fear in
her behaviour, 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
wife kept an old-fashioned precision of manner through all her
admirable life - an excellent 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 right to that name," said I, "although in this
disguise."

But her woman's eye had already detected the sash.  "Oh!" she said;
"your sash betrays you."

"You have said the word BETRAY," 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 speaking?"

"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 like 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 interruption, "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 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 another 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 a 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 me.)  "Do not," she went, on swiftly, "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 Northmour?"

"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, and 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 honour 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 perhaps remain here at
some risk."

She only looked at me reproachfully.

"You and your father - " I resumed; but she interrupted me almost
with a gasp.

"My father!  How do you know that?" she cried.

"I saw you 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 any one 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 honourable 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."

"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 danger 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 conscious 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.  Many 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 lingering at Graden,
and, when she found I was still obdurate, 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
murderous attack.  As to the former, I fear I was disingenuous, and
led her to regard herself as having been an attraction 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, although it often pricked my conscience,
I had never the hardihood to undeceive her.  Even a little secret,
in such a married life as ours, is like the rose-leaf which kept
the Princess from her sleep.