CHAPTER XIV
A STROKE IN THE GAME
I was glad. As soon as I was alone and had time to think overMouraki's _coup_ I was glad. He had ended a false position into whichmy weakness had led me; he had rendered it possible for me to servePhroso in friendship pure and simple; he had decided a struggle whichI had failed to decide for myself. It would be easy now (so I toldmyself) for both of us to repose on that fiction of a good-natureddevice and leave our innermost feelings in decent obscurity while wecounter-mined the scheme which the Pasha had in hand. This scheme heproceeded to forward with all the patience and ability of which he wasmaster. For the next week or so matters seemed to stand still, but toa closer study they revealed slow, yet uninterrupted, movement. I wasleft almost entirely alone at the house; but I could not bring myselfto abandon my position and seek the society of my friends on theyacht. Though reduced to idleness and robbed of any part in the drama,I would not forsake the stage, but lagged a superfluous spectator ofan unpleasing piece. Mouraki was at work. He saw Phroso every day, andfor long interviews. I hardly set my eyes on her. The affairs of theisland afforded him a constant pretext for conferring with, ordictating to, its Lady; I had no excuse for forcing an intercoursewhich Phroso evidently was at pains to avoid. I could imagine thePasha's progress, not in favour or willing acceptance, for I knew herfear and hatred of him, but in beating down her courage and creating adespair which would serve him as well as love. Beyond doubt he wasserious in his design; his cool patience spoke settled purpose, hisobvious satisfaction declared a conviction of success. He acquiescedin Phroso's seclusion, save when he sent for her; he triumphed inwatching me spend weary hours in solitary pacing up and down beforethe house; he would look at me with a covert exultation and amusehimself by a renewal of sympathetic congratulations on my engagement.I do not think that he wished me away. I was the sauce to his dish,the garlic in the salad, the spice in the sweetmeat over which helicked appreciative lips. Thus passed eight or ten days, and I grewmore out of temper, more sour, and more determined with every settingsun. Denny ceased to pray my company; I was not to be moved from theneighbourhood of the house. I waited, the Pasha waited; he paved hisway, I lay in ambush by it; he was bent on conquering Phroso, I had nodesign, only a passionate resolve that he should try a fall with mefirst.
There came a dark stormy evening, when the clouds sent down a thickclose rain and the wind blew in mournful gusts. Having escaped fromMouraki's talk, I had watched him go upstairs, and myself had come outto pace again my useless beat. I strayed a few hundred yards from thehouse, and turned to look at the light in the Governor's window. Itshone bright and steady, seeming to typify his relentless unvaryingpurpose. A sudden oath escaped from the weary sickness of my heart;there came an unlooked-for answer at my elbow.
'He acts, you talk, my lord. He works, you are content to curse him.Which will win?' said a grave voice; and Kortes's handsome figure wasdimly visible in the darkness. 'He works, she weeps, you curse. Whowill win?' he asked again, folding his arms.
'Your question carries its own answer, doesn't it?' I retortedangrily.
'Yes, if I have put it right,' said he; there was a touch of scorn inhis voice that I did not care to hear. 'Yes, it carries its ownanswer, if you are content to leave it as I stated it.'
'Content! Good God!'
He drew nearer to me and whispered:
'This morning he told her his purpose; this evening again--yes, now,while we talk--he is forcing it on her. And what help has she?'
'She won't let me help her; she won't let me see her.'
'How can you help her, you who do nothing but curse?'
'Look here, Kortes,' said I, 'I know all that. I'm a fool and a wormand everything else you like to intimate; but your contempt doesn'tseem much more practical than my cursing. What's in your mind?'
'You must keep faith with this lady in your own land?'
'You know of her?'
'My sister has told me--she who waits on the Lady Euphrosyne.'
'Ah! Yes, I must keep faith with her.'
'And with Mouraki?' he asked.
My mind travelled with his. I caught him eagerly by the arm. I had hisidea in a moment.
'Why that?' I asked. 'Yes, Kortes, why that?'
'I thought you were so scrupulous, my lord.'
'I have no scruples in deceiving this Mouraki.'
'That's better, my lord,' he answered with a grim smile. 'By heavens,I thought we were to dance together at the wedding!'
'The wedding?' I cried. 'I think not. Kortes, do you mean--?' I made agesture that indicated some violence to Mouraki; but I added, 'It mustbe open fight though.'
'You mustn't touch a hair of his head. The island would answerbitterly for that.'
We stood in silence for a moment. Then I gave a short laugh.
'My character is my own,' said I. 'I may blacken it if I like.'
'It is only in the eyes of Mouraki Pasha,' said Kortes with a smile.
'But will she understand? There must be no more--'
'She will understand. You shall see her.'
'You can contrive that?'
'Yes, with my sister's help. Will you tell Mouraki first?'
'No--her first. She may refuse.'
'She loathes him too much to refuse anything.'
'Good. When, then?'
'To-night. She will leave him soon.'
'But he watches her to her room.'
'Yes; but you, my lord, know that there is another way.'
'Yes, yes; by the roof. The ladder?'
'It shall be there for you in an hour.'
'And you, Kortes?'
'I'll wait at the foot of it. The Pasha himself should not mount italive.'
'Kortes, it is trusting me much.'
'I know, my lord. If you were not a man to be trusted you would dowhat you are going to pretend.'
'I hope you're right. Kortes, it sets me aflame now to be near her.'
'Can't I understand that, my lord?' said he, with a sad smile.
'By heaven, you're a good fellow!'
'I am a servant of the Stefanopouloi.'
'Your sister will tell her before I come? I couldn't tell her myself.'
'Yes; she shall be told before you come.'
'In an hour, then?'
'Yes.' And without another word, he strode by me. I caught his hand ashe went, and pressed it. Then I was alone in the darkness again, butwith a plan in my head and a weapon in my hand, and no more emptyuseless cursings in my mouth. Busily rehearsing the part I was toplay, I resumed my quick pacing. It was a hard part, but a good part.I would match Mouraki with his own weapons; my cynicism should beathis, my indifference to the claims of honour overtop his shamelessuse of terror or of force. The smiles should now be not all thePasha's. I would have a smile too, one that would, I trusted, compel ascowl even from his smooth inscrutable face.
I was walking quickly; on a sudden I came almost in contact with aman, who leapt on one side to avoid me. 'Who's there?' I cried,standing on my defence, as I had learnt was wise in Neopalia.
'It is I, Demetri,' answered a sullen voice.
'What are you doing here, Demetri? And with your gun!'
'I walk by night, like my lord.'
'Your walks by night have had a meaning before now.'
'They mean no harm to you now.'
'Harm to any one?'
A pause followed before his gruff voice answered:
'Harm to nobody. What harm can be done when my gracious lord theGovernor is on the island and watches over it?'
'True, Demetri. He has small mercy for wrongdoers and turbulentfellows such as some I know of.'
'I know him as well as you, my lord, and better,' said the fellow.His voice was charged with a passionate hate. 'Yes, there are many inNeopalia who know Mouraki.'
'So says Mouraki; and he says it as though it pleased him.'
'One day he shall have proof enough to satisfy him,' growled Demetri.
The savage rage of t
he fellow's tone had caught my attention, and Igazed intently into his face; not even the darkness quite hid theangry gleam of his deep-set eyes.
'Demetri, Demetri,' said I, 'aren't you on a dangerous path? I see along knife in your belt there, and that gun--isn't it loaded? Come, goback to your home.'
He seemed influenced by my remonstrances, but he denied the suggestionI made.
'I don't seek his life,' he said sullenly. 'If we were strong enoughto fight openly--well, I say nothing of that. He killed my brother, mylord.'
'I killed a brother of yours too, Demetri.'
'Yes, in honest fighting, when he sought to kill you. You didn't halfkill him with the lash, before his mother's eyes, and finish the workwith a rope.'
'Mouraki did?'
'Yes, my lord. But it is nothing, my lord. I mean no harm.'
'Look here, Demetri. I don't love Mouraki myself, and you did me agood turn a little while ago; but if I find you hanging about hereagain with your gun and your knife I'll tell Mouraki, as sure as I'malive. Where I come from we don't assassinate. Do you see?'
'I hear, my lord. Indeed I had no such purpose.'
'You know your purpose best; and now you know what I shall do. Come,be off with you, and don't shew yourself here again.'
He cringed before me with renewed protestations; but his inventionprovided no excuse for his presence. He swore to me that I wrongedhim. I contented myself with ordering him off, and at last he wentoff, striking back towards the village. 'Upon my word,' said I, 'it'sa nuisance to be honourably brought up.' For it would have beenmarvellously convenient to let Demetri have a shot at the Pasha withthat gun of his, or a stab with the long knife he had fingered soaffectionately.
This encounter had passed the time of waiting, and now I strolled backto the house. It was hard on midnight. The light in Mouraki's windowwas extinguished. Two soldiers stood sentry by the closed door. Theylet me in and locked the door behind me. This watch was not kept onme; Mouraki knew very well that I had no desire to leave the island.Phroso was the prisoner and the prize that the Pasha guarded; perhaps,also, he had an inkling that he was not popular in Neopalia, and thathe would not be wise to trust to the loyalty of its inhabitants.
Soon I found myself in the compound at the back of the house. Theladder was placed ready; Kortes stood beside it. There seemed to benobody else about. The rain still fell, and the wind had risen till itwhistled wildly in the wood.
'She's waiting for you,' whispered Kortes. 'She knows and she willsecond the plan.'
'Where is she?'
'On the roof. She's wrapped in my cloak; she will take no hurt.'
'And Mouraki?'
'He's gone to bed. She was with him two hours.'
I mounted the ladder and found myself on the flat roof, where oncePhroso had stood gazing up towards the cottage on the hill. We werefighting Constantine then; Mouraki was our foe now. Constantine lay aprisoner, harmless, as it seemed, and helpless. I prayed for a likegood fortune in the new enterprise. An instant later I found Phroso'shand in mine. I carried it to my lips, as I murmured my greeting in ahushed voice. The first answer was a nervous sob, but Phroso followedit with a pleading apology.
'I'm so tired,' she said, 'so tired. I have fought him for two hoursto-night. Forgive me. I will be brave, my lord.'
I had determined on a cold business-like manner. I went as straight tothe point as a busy man in his city office.
'You know the plan? You consent to it?' I asked.
'Yes. I think I understand it. It is good of you, my lord. For you mayrun great danger through me.'
That was indeed true, and in more senses than one.
'I do for you what you did not hesitate to do for me,' said I.
'Yes,' said Phroso in a very low whisper.
'You pretended; well then, now I pretend.' My voice sounded not onlycold, but bitter and unpleasant. 'I think it may succeed,' Icontinued. 'He won't dare to take any extreme steps against me. Idon't see how he can prevent our going.'
'He will let us go, you think?'
'I don't know how he can refuse. And where will you go?'
'I have some friends at Athens, people who knew my father.'
'Good. I'll take you there and--' I paused. 'I'll--I'll take you thereand--' Again I paused; I could not help it. 'And leave you there insafety,' I ended at last in a gruff harsh whisper.
'Yes, my lord. And then you will go home in safety?'
'Perhaps. That doesn't matter.'
'Yes, it does matter,' said she, softly. 'For I would not be in safetyunless you were.'
'Ah, Phroso, don't do that,' I groaned inwardly.
'Yes, you will go back in safety, back to your own land, back to thelady--'
'Never mind--' I began.
'Back to the lady whom my lord loves,' whispered Phroso. 'Then youwill forget this troublesome island and the troublesome--thetroublesome people on it.'
Her face was no more than a foot from mine--pale, with sad eyes and asmile that quivered on trembling lips; the fairest face in the worldthat I had seen or believed any man to have seen; and her hand restedin mine. There may live men who would have looked over her head andnot in those eyes--saints or dolts; I was neither; not I. I looked. Ilooked as though I should never look elsewhere again, nor cared tolive if I could not look. But Phroso's hand was drawn from mine andher eyes fell. I had to end the silence.
'I shall go straight to Mouraki to-morrow morning,' said I, 'and tellhim you have agreed to be my wife; that you will come with me underthe care of Kortes and his sister, and that we shall be married on thefirst opportunity.'
'But he knows about--about the lady you love.'
'It won't surprise Mouraki to hear that I am going to break my faithwith--the lady I love,' said I.
'No,' said Phroso, refusing resolutely to look at me again. 'It won'tsurprise Mouraki.'
'Perhaps it wouldn't surprise any one.'
Phroso made no comment on this; and the moment I had said it I heard avoice below, a voice I knew very well.
'What's the ladder here for, my friend?' it asked.
'It enables one to ascend or descend, my lord,' answered Kortes'sgrave voice, without the least touch of irony.
'It's Mouraki,' whispered Phroso; at the time of danger her frightenedeyes came back to mine, and she drew nearer to me. 'It's Mouraki, mylord.'
'I know it is,' said I; 'so much the better.'
'That seems probable,' observed Mouraki. 'But to enable whom to ascendand descend, friend Kortes?'
'Anyone who desires, my lord.'
'Then I will ascend,' said Mouraki.
'A thousand pardons, my lord!'
'Stand aside, sir. What, you dare--'
'Run back to your room,' I whispered. 'Quick. Good-night.' I caughther hand and pressed it. She turned and disappeared swiftly throughthe door which gave access to the inside of the house and thence toher room; and I--glad that the interview had been interrupted, for Icould have borne little more of it--walked to the battlements andlooked over. Kortes stood like a wall between the astonished Mourakiand the ladder.
'Kortes, Kortes,'I cried in a tone of grieved surprise, 'is itpossible that you don't recognise his Excellency?'
'Why, Wheatley!' cried Mouraki.
'Who else should it be, my dear Pasha? Will you come up, or shall Icome down and join you? Out of the way, Kortes.'
Kortes, who would not obey Mouraki, obeyed me. Mouraki seemed tohesitate about mounting. I solved the difficulty by descendingrapidly. I was smiling, and I took the Pasha by the arm, saying with alaugh:
"A THOUSAND PARDONS, MY LORD!"]
'Caught that time, I'm afraid, eh? Well, I meant to tell you soon.'
I had certainly succeeded in astonishing Mouraki this time. Kortesadded to his wonder by springing nimbly up the ladder, and pulling itup after him.
'I thought you were in bed,' said I. 'And when the cat's away the micewill play, you know. Well, we're caught!'
'We?' asked the Pasha.
'Well, do you suppose I was alone? Is it the sort of night a manchooses to spend alone on a roof?'
'Who was with you then?' he asked, suspicion alive in his crafty eyes.
I took him by the arm and led him into the house, through the kitchen,till we reached the hall, when I said:
'Am I not a man of taste? Who should it be?'
He sat down in the great armchair, and a heavy frown gathered on hisbrow. I cannot quite explain why, but I was radiant. The spirit of thegame had entered into me; I forgot the reality that was so full ofpain; I was as merry as though what I told him had been the happytruth, instead of a tantalising impossible vision.
'Oh, don't misunderstand me,' I laughed, standing opposite to him,swaying on my feet, and burying my hands in my pockets. 'Don't wrongme, my dear Pasha. It's all just as it should be. There's nothinggoing on that should not go on under your Excellency's roof. It is allon the most honourable footing.'
'I don't understand your riddles or your mirth,' said Mouraki.
'Ah! Now once I didn't quite appreciate yours. The wheel goes round,my dear Pasha. Every dog has his day. Forgive me, I am naturallyelated. I meant to tell you at breakfast to-morrow, but since yousurprised our tender meeting, why, I'll tell you now. Congratulate me.That charming girl has owned that her avowal of love for me wasnothing but bare truth, and has consented to make me happy.'
'To marry you?'
'My dear Pasha! What else could I mean?' I took my hands out of mypockets, lit a cigarette and puffed the smoke luxuriously. Mouraki satmotionless in his chair, his eyes cold and sharp on me, his browpuckered. At last he spoke.
'And Miss Hipgrave?' he asked sneeringly.
'Is there a breach of promise of marriage law in Neopalia?' said I.'In truth, my dear Pasha, I am a little to blame there; but youmustn't be hard on me. I had a moment of conscientious qualms. Iconfess it. But she's too lovely, she really is. And she's so fond ofme--oh, I couldn't resist it!' I was simpering like any affected younglady-killer.
Mouraki was a clever fellow, but the blow had been a sudden one. Itstrains the control even of clever fellows when a formidable obstaclesprings up, at a moment's notice, on a path that they have carefullyprepared and levelled for their steps. The Pasha's rage mastered him.
'You've changed your mind rapidly, Lord Wheatley,' said he.
'I know nothing,' I rejoined, 'that does change a man's mind soquickly as a pretty girl.'
'Yet some men hold to their promises,' said he with a savage sneer.
'Oh, a few, perhaps; very few in these days.'
'And you don't aspire to be one?'
'Oh, I aspired,' said I with a laugh; 'but my aspirations have notstood out against Phroso's charms.'
Then I took a step nearer to him, and, veiling impertinence under athin show of sympathy, I said:
'I hope you're not really annoyed? You weren't serious in the hint yougave of your own intentions? I thought you were only joking, youknow. If you were serious, believe me I am grieved. But it must beevery man for himself in these little matters, mustn't it?'
He had borne as much as he could. He rose suddenly to his feet and anoath escaped from between his teeth.
'You sha'n't have her!' said he. 'You think you can laugh at me: menwho think that find out their mistake.'
I laughed again. I did not shrink from exasperating him to theuttermost. He would be no more dangerous; he might be less discreet.
'Pardon me,' said I, 'but I don't perceive how we need yourpermission, glad as we should, of course, be of your felicitations.'
'I have some power in Neopalia,' he reminded me, with a threateninggleam in his eye.
'No doubt, but the power has to be carefully exercised when Britishsubjects are in question--men, if I may add so much, of some position.I can't be considered an islander of Neopalia for all purposes, mydear Pasha.'
He seemed not to hear or not to heed what I said; but he both heardand heeded, or I mistook my man.
'I don't give up what I have resolved upon,' said he.
'You describe my own temper to a nicety,' said I. 'Now I have resolvedto marry Phroso.'
'No,' said Mouraki. I greeted the word with a scornful shrug.
'You understand?' he continued. 'It shall not be.'
'We shall see,' said I.
'You don't know the risk you're running.'
'Come, come, isn't this rather near boasting?' I asked contemptuously.'Your Excellency is a great man, no doubt, but you can't afford tocarry out these dark designs against a man of my position.' Then Ichanged to a more friendly tone, saying, 'My dear Pasha, had youdefeated me I should have taken it quietly. Won't you best consultyour dignity by doing the same?'
A long silence followed. I watched his face. Very gradually his browcleared, his lips relaxed into a smile. He, in his turn, shrugged hisshoulders. He took a step towards me; he held out his hand.
'Wheatley,' said he, 'it is true, I am a fool. A man is a fool in suchmatters. You must make allowances for me. I was honestly in love withher. I thought myself safe from you. I allowed my temper to get thebetter of me. Will you shake hands?'
'Ah, now you're like yourself, my dear friend,' said I, grasping hishand.
'We'll speak again about it to-morrow. But my anger is over. Fearnothing. I will be reasonable.'
I murmured grateful thanks and appreciation of his generosity.
'Good-night, good-night,' said he. 'I wish I hadn't found youto-night. I should not have lost my composure like this at any othertime. You're sure you forgive my hasty words?'
'From the bottom of my heart,' said I earnestly; and we pressed oneanother's hands. Mouraki passed on to the stairs and began to mountthem slowly. He turned his head over his shoulders and said:
'How will you settle with Miss Hipgrave?'
'I must beg her forgiveness, as I must yours,' said I.
'I hope you'll be equally successful,' said he, and his smile was inworking order by now. It was the last I saw of him as he disappearedup the stairs.
'Now,' said I, sitting down, 'he's gone to think how he can get mythroat cut without a scandal.'
In fact, Mouraki and I were beginning to understand one another.