5
TREASON
On their return to camp after her rescue Virginia talked a great dealto von Horn about the young giant who had rescued her, until the manfeared that she was more interested in him than seemed good for his ownplans.
He had now cast from him the last vestige of his loyalty for hisemployer, and thus freed had determined to use every means within hispower to win Professor Maxon's daughter, and with her the heritage ofwealth which he knew would be hers should her father, through someunforeseen mishap, meet death before he could return to civilizationand alter his will, a contingency which von Horn knew he might have toconsider should he marry the girl against her father's wishes, and thusthwart the crazed man's mad, but no less dear project.
He realized that first he must let the girl fully understand the graveperil in which she stood, and turn her hope of protection from herfather to himself. He imagined that the initial step in underminingVirginia's confidence in her father would be to narrate every detail ofthe weird experiments which Professor Maxon had brought to suchsuccessful issues during their residence upon the island.
The girl's own questioning gave him the lead he needed.
"Where could that horrid creature have come from that set upon me inthe jungle and nearly killed poor Sing?" she asked.
For a moment von Horn was silent, in well simulated hesitancy to replyto her query.
"I cannot tell you, Miss Maxon," he said sadly, "how much I should hateto be the one to ignore your father's commands, and enlighten you uponthis and other subjects which lie nearer to your personal welfare thanyou can possibly guess; but I feel that after the horrors of this dayduty demands that I must lay all before you--you cannot again beexposed to the horrors from which you were rescued only by a miracle."
"I cannot imagine what you hint at, Dr. von Horn," said Virginia, "butif to explain to me will necessitate betraying my father's confidence Iprefer that you remain silent."
"You do not understand," broke in the man, "you cannot guess thehorrors that I have seen upon this island, or the worse horrors thatare to come. Could you dream of what lies in store for you, you wouldseek death rather than face the future. I have been loyal to yourfather, Virginia, but were you not blind, or indifferent, you wouldlong since have seen that your welfare means more to me than my loyaltyto him--more to me than my life or my honor.
"You asked where the creature came from that attacked you today. Ishall tell you. It is one of a dozen similarly hideous things thatyour father has created in his mad desire to solve the problem of life.He has solved it; but, God, at what a price in misshapen, soulless,hideous monsters!"
The girl looked up at him, horror stricken.
"Do you mean to say that my father in a mad attempt to usurp thefunctions of God created that awful thing?" she asked in a low, faintvoice, "and that there are others like it upon the island?"
"In the campong next to yours there are a dozen others," replied vonHorn, "nor would it be easy to say which is the most hideous andrepulsive. They are grotesque caricatures of humanity--without souland almost without brain."
"God!" murmured the girl, burying her face in her hands, "he has gonemad; he has gone mad."
"I truly believe that he is mad," said von Horn, "nor could you doubtit for a moment were I to tell you the worst."
"The worst!" exclaimed the girl. "What could be worse than that whichyou already have divulged? Oh, how could you have permitted it?"
"There is much worse than I have told you, Virginia. So much worsethat I can scarce force my lips to frame the words, but you must betold. I would be more criminally liable than your father were I tokeep it from you, for my brain, at least, is not crazed. Virginia, youhave in your mind a picture of the hideous thing that carried you offinto the jungle?"
"Yes," and as the girl replied a convulsive shudder racked her frame.
Von Horn grasped her arm gently as he went on, as though to support andprotect her during the shock that he was about to administer.
"Virginia," he said in a very low voice, "it is your father's intentionto wed you to one of his creatures."
The girl broke from him with an angry cry.
"It is not true!" she exclaimed. "It is not true. Oh, Dr. von Hornhow could you tell me such a cruel and terrible untruth."
"As God is my judge, Virginia," and the man reverently uncovered as hespoke, "it is the truth. Your father told me it in so many words whenI asked his permission to pay court to you myself--you are to marryNumber Thirteen when his education is complete."
"I shall die first!" she cried.
"Why not accept me instead?" suggested the man.
For a moment Virginia looked straight into his eyes as though to readhis inmost soul.
"Let me have time to consider it, Doctor," she replied. "I do not knowthat I care for you in that way at all."
"Think of Number Thirteen," he suggested. "It should not be difficultto decide."
"I could not marry you simply to escape a worse fate," replied thegirl. "I am not that cowardly--but let me think it over. There can beno immediate danger, I am sure."
"One can never tell," replied von Horn, "what strange, new vagaries mayenter a crazed mind to dictate this moment's action or the next."
"Where could we wed?" asked Virginia.
"The Ithaca would bear us to Singapore, and when we returned you wouldbe under my legal protection and safe."
"I shall think about it from every angle," she answered sadly, "and nowgood night, my dear friend," and with a wan smile she entered herquarters.
For the next month Professor Maxon was busy educating Number Thirteen.He found the young man intelligent far beyond his most sanguine hopes,so that the progress made was little short of uncanny.
Von Horn during this time continued to urge upon Virginia the necessityfor a prompt and favorable decision in the matter of his proposal; butwhen it came time to face the issue squarely the girl found itimpossible to accede to his request--she thought that she loved him,but somehow she dared not say the word that would make her his for life.
Bududreen, the Malay mate was equally harassed by conflicting desires,though of a different nature, for he had his eye upon the main chancethat was represented to him by the great chest, and also upon thelesser reward which awaited him upon delivery of the girl to Rajah MudaSaffir. The fact that he could find no safe means for accomplishingboth these ends simultaneously was all that had protected either fromhis machinations.
The presence of the uncanny creatures of the court of mystery hadbecome known to the Malay and he used this knowledge as an argument tofoment discord and mutiny in the ignorant and superstitious crew underhis command. By boring a hole in the partition wall separating theircampong from the inner one he had disclosed to the horrified view ofhis men the fearsome brutes harbored so close to them. The mate, ofcourse, had no suspicion of the true origin of these monsters, but hisknowledge of the fact that they had not been upon the island when theIthaca arrived and that it would have been impossible for them to havelanded and reached the camp without having been seen by himself or somemember of his company, was sufficient evidence to warrant him inattributing their presence to some supernatural and malignant power.
This explanation the crew embraced willingly, and with it Bududreen'ssuggestion that Professor Maxon had power to transform them all intosimilar atrocities. The ball once started gained size and momentum asit progressed. The professor's ofttimes strange expression wasattributed to an evil eye, and every ailment suffered by any member ofthe crew was blamed upon their employer's Satanic influence. There wasbut one escape from the horrors of such a curse--the death of itsauthor; and when Bududreen discovered that they had reached this point,and were even discussing the method of procedure, he added all that wasneeded to the dangerously smouldering embers of bloody mutiny byexplaining that should anything happen to the white men he would becomesole owner of their belongings, including the heavy chest, and that thereward of each m
ember of the crew would be generous.
Von Horn was really the only stumbling block in Bududreen's path. Withthe natural cowardice of the Malay he feared this masterful Americanwho never moved without a brace of guns slung about his hips; and itwas at just this psychological moment that the doctor played into thehands of his subordinate, much to the latter's inward elation.
Von Horn had finally despaired of winning Virginia by peaceful court,and had about decided to resort to force when he was precipitatelyconfirmed in his decision by a conversation with the girl's father.
He and the professor were talking in the workshop of the remarkableprogress of Number Thirteen toward a complete mastery of English andthe ways and manners of society, in which von Horn had been assistinghis employer to train the young giant. The breach between the latterand von Horn had been patched over by Professor Maxon's explanations toNumber Thirteen as soon as the young man was able to comprehend--in themeantime it had been necessary to keep von Horn out of the workshopexcept when the giant was confined in his own room off the larger one.
Von Horn had been particularly anxious, for the furtherance of certainplans he had in mind, to effect a reconciliation with Number Thirteen,to reach a basis of friendship with the young man, and had left nostone unturned to accomplish this result. To this end he had spentconsiderable time with Number Thirteen, coaching him in English and inthe ethics of human association.
"He is progressing splendidly, Doctor," Professor Maxon had said. "Itwill be but a matter of a day or so when I can introduce him toVirginia, but we must be careful that she has no inkling of his originuntil mutual affection has gained a sure foothold between them."
"And if that should not occur?" questioned von Horn.
"I should prefer that they mated voluntarily," replied the professor,the strange gleam leaping to his eyes at the suggestion of possibleantagonism to his cherished plan, "but if not, then they shall becompelled by the force of my authority--they both belong to me, bodyand soul."
"You will wait for the final consummation of your desires until youreturn with them to civilization, I presume," said von Horn.
"And why?" returned the professor. "I can wed them here myself--itwould be the surer way--yes, that is what I shall do."
It was this determination on the part of Professor Maxon that decidedvon Horn to act at once. Further, it lent a reasonable justificationfor his purposed act.
Shortly after their talk the older man left the workshop, and von Horntook the opportunity to inaugurate the second move of his campaign.Number Thirteen was sitting near a window which let upon the innercourt, busy with the rudiments of written English. Von Horn approachedhim.
"You are getting along nicely, Jack," he said kindly, looking over theother's shoulder and using the name which had been adopted at hissuggestion to lend a more human tone to their relations with thenameless man.
"Yes," replied the other, looking up with a smile. "Professor Maxonsays that in another day or two I may come and live in his own house,and again meet his beautiful daughter. It seems almost too good to betrue that I shall actually live under the same roof with her and seeher every day--sit at the same table with her--and walk with her amongthe beautiful trees and flowers that witnessed our first meeting. Iwonder if she will remember me. I wonder if she will be as glad to seeme again as I shall be to see her."
"Jack," said von Horn, sadly, "I am afraid there is a terrible anddisappointing awakening for you. It grieves me that it should be so,but it seems only fair to tell you, what Professor Maxon either doesnot know or has forgotten, that his daughter will not look withpleasure upon you when she learns your origin.
"You are not as other men. You are but the accident of a laboratoryexperiment. You have no soul, and the soul is all that raises manabove the beasts. Jack, poor boy, you are not a human being--you arenot even a beast. The world, and Miss Maxon is of the world, will lookupon you as a terrible creature to be shunned--a horrible monstrosityfar lower in the scale of creation than the lowest order of brutes.
"Look," and the man pointed through the window toward the group ofhideous things that wandered aimlessly about the court of mystery."You are of the same breed as those, you differ from them only in thesymmetry of your face and features, and the superior development ofyour brain. There is no place in the world for them, nor for you.
"I am sorry that it is so. I am sorry that I should have to be the oneto tell you; but it is better that you know it now from a friend thanthat you meet the bitter truth when you least expected it, and possiblyfrom the lips of one like Miss Maxon for whom you might have formed ahopeless affection."
As von Horn spoke the expression on the young man's face became moreand more hopeless, and when he had ceased he dropped his head into hisopen palms, sitting quiet and motionless as a carven statue. No sobshook his great frame, there was no outward indication of the terriblegrief that racked him inwardly--only in the pose was utter dejectionand hopelessness.
The older man could not repress a cold smile--it had had more effectthan he had hoped.
"Don't take it too hard, my boy," he continued. "The world is wide.It would be easy to find a thousand places where your antecedents wouldbe neither known nor questioned. You might be very happy elsewhere andthere are a hundred thousand girls as beautiful and sweet as VirginiaMaxon--remember that you have never seen another, so you can scarcelyjudge."
"Why did he ever bring me into the world?" exclaimed the young mansuddenly. "It was wicked--wicked--terribly cruel and wicked."
"I agree with you," said von Horn quickly, seeing another possibilitythat would make his future plans immeasurably easier. "It was wicked,and it is still more wicked to continue the work and bring still otherunfortunate creatures into the world to be the butt and plaything ofcruel fate."
"He intends to do that?" asked the youth.
"Unless he is stopped," replied von Horn.
"He must be stopped," cried the other. "Even if it were necessary tokill him."
Von Horn was quite satisfied with the turn events had taken. Heshrugged his shoulders and turned on his heel toward the outer campong.
"If he had wronged me as he has you, and those others," with a gesturetoward the court of mystery, "I should not be long in reaching adecision." And with that he passed out, leaving the door unlatched.
Von Horn went straight to the south campong and sought out Bududreen.Motioning the Malay to follow him they walked across the clearing andentered the jungle out of sight and hearing of the camp. Sing, hangingclothes in the north end of the clearing saw them depart, and wondereda little.
"Bududreen," said von Horn, when the two had reached a safe distancefrom the enclosures, "there is no need of mincing matters--somethingmust be done at once. I do not know how much you know of the work thatProfessor Maxon has been engaged in since we reached this island; butit has been hellish enough and it must go no further. You have seenthe creatures in the campong next to yours?"
"I have seen," replied Bududreen, with a shudder.
"Professor Maxon intends to wed one of these to his daughter," von Horncontinued. "She loves me and we wish to escape--can I rely on you andyour men to aid us? There is a chest in the workshop which we musttake along too, and I can assure you that you all will be well rewardedfor your work. We intend merely to leave Professor Maxon here with thecreatures he has created."
Bududreen could scarce repress a smile--it was indeed too splendid tobe true.
"It will be perilous work, Captain," he answered. "We should all behanged were we caught."
"There will be no danger of that, Bududreen, for there will be no oneto divulge our secret."
"There will be the Professor Maxon," urged the Malay. "Some day hewill escape from the island, and then we shall all hang."
"He will never escape," replied von Horn, "his own creatures will seeto that. They are already commencing to realize the horrible crime hehas committed against them, and when once they are fully aroused t
herewill be no safety for any of us. If you wish to leave the island atall it will be best for you to accept my proposal and leave while yourhead yet remains upon your shoulders. Were we to suggest to theprofessor that he leave now he would not only refuse but he would takesteps to make it impossible for any of us to leave, even to sinking theIthaca. The man is mad--quite mad--Bududreen, and we cannot longerjeopardize our own throats merely to humor his crazy and criminalwhims."
The Malay was thinking fast, and could von Horn have guessed whatthoughts raced through the tortuous channels of that semi-barbarousbrain he would have wished himself safely housed in the American prisonwhere he belonged.
"When do you wish to sail?" asked the Malay.
"Tonight," replied von Horn, and together they matured their plans. Anhour later the second mate with six men disappeared into the jungletoward the harbor. They, with the three on watch, were to get thevessel in readiness for immediate departure.
After the evening meal von Horn sat on the verandah with Virginia Maxonuntil the Professor came from the workshop to retire for the night. Ashe passed them he stopped for a word with von Horn, taking him asideout of the girl's hearing.
"Have you noticed anything peculiar in the actions of Thirteen?" askedthe older man. "He was sullen and morose this evening, and at timesthere was a strange, wild light in his eyes as he looked at me. Can itbe possible that, after all, his brain is defective? It would beterrible. My work would have gone for naught, for I can see no way inwhich I can improve upon him."
"I will go and have a talk with him later," said von Horn, "so if youhear us moving about in the workshop, or even out here in the campongthink nothing of it. I may take him for a long walk. It is possiblethat the hard study and close confinement to that little building havebeen too severe upon his brain and nerves. A long walk each eveningmay bring him around all right."
"Splendid--splendid," replied the professor. "You may be quite right.Do it by all means, my dear doctor," and there was a touch of the old,friendly, sane tone which had been so long missing, that almost causedvon Horn to feel a trace of compunction for the hideous act ofdisloyalty that he was on the verge of perpetrating.
As Professor Maxon entered the house von Horn returned to Virginia andsuggested that they take a short walk outside the campong beforeretiring. The girl readily acquiesced to the plan, and a moment laterfound them strolling through the clearing toward the southern end ofthe camp. In the dark shadows of the gateway leading to the men'senclosure a figure crouched. The girl did not see it, but as they cameopposite it von Horn coughed twice, and then the two passed on towardthe edge of the jungle.