CHAPTER III
THE FEVER OF NEOPALIA
I looked for a moment on the old man's pale, clean-cut, aristocraticface; then I shook his attendant by the arm vigorously. She awoke witha start.
'What does this mean?' I demanded. 'Who is he?'
'Heaven help us! Who are you?' she cried, leaping up in alarm. Indeedwe four, with our eager fierce faces, must have looked disquietingenough.
'I am Lord Wheatley; these are my friends,' I answered in brisk sharptones.
'What, it is you, then--?' A wondering gaze ended her question.
'Yes, yes, it is I. I have bought the island. We came out for a walkand--'
'But he will kill you if he finds you here.'
'He? Who?'
'Ah, pardon, my lord! They will kill you, they--the people--the men ofthe island.'
I gazed at her sternly. She shrank back in confusion. And I spoke at aventure, yet in a well-grounded hazard:
'You mean that Constantine Stefanopoulos will kill me?'
'Ah, hush,' she cried. 'He may be here, he may be anywhere.'
'He may thank his stars he's not here,' said I grimly, for my bloodwas up. 'Attend, woman. Who is this?'
'It is the lord of the island, my lord,' she answered. 'Alas, he iswounded, I fear, to death. And yet I fell asleep. But I was so weary.'
'Wounded? By whom?'
Her face suddenly became vacant and expressionless.
'I do not know, my lord. It happened in the crowd. It was a mistake.My dear lord had yielded what they asked. Yet some one--no, by heaven,my lord, I do not know who--stabbed him. And he cannot live.'
'Tell me the whole thing,' I commanded.
'They came up here, my lord, all of them, Vlacho and all, and withthem my Lord Constantine. The Lady Euphrosyne was away; she is oftenaway, down on the rocks by the sea, watching the waves. They came andsaid that a man had landed who claimed our island as his--a man ofyour name, my lord. And when my dear lord said he had sold the islandto save the honour of his house and race, they were furious; andVlacho raised the death chant that One-eyed Alexander the Bard wroteon the death of Stefan Stefanopoulos long ago. Then they came nearwith knives, demanding that my dear lord should send away thestranger; for the men of Neopalia were not to be bought and sold likebullocks or like pigs. At first my lord would not yield, and theyswore they would kill the stranger and my lord also. Then they pressedcloser; Vlacho was hard on him with drawn knife, and the LordConstantine stood by him, praying him to yield; and Constantine drewhis own knife, saying to Vlacho that he must fight him also before hekilled the old lord. But at that Vlacho smiled. And then--andthen--ah, my dear lord!'
For a moment her voice broke, and sobs supplanted words. But she drewherself up, and after a glance at the old man whom her vehement speechhad not availed to waken, she went on.
'And then those behind cried out that there was enough talk. Would heyield or would he die? And they rushed forward, pressing the nearestagainst him. And he, an old man, frail and feeble (yet once he was asbrave a man as any), cried in his weak tones, "Enough, friends, Iyield, I--" and they fell back. But my lord stood for an instant, thenhe set his hand to his side, and swayed and tottered and fell; theblood was running from his side. The Lord Constantine fell on hisknees beside him, crying, "Who stabbed him?" Vlacho smiled grimly, andthe others looked at one another. But I, who had run out from thedoorway whence I had seen it all, knelt by my lord and staunched theblood. Then Vlacho said, fixing his eyes straight and keen on the LordConstantine, "It was not I, my lord." "Nor I by heaven," cried theLord Constantine, and he rose to his feet, demanding, "Who struck theblow?" But none answered; and he went on, "Nay, if it were in error,if it were because he would not yield, speak. There shall be pardon."But Vlacho, hearing this, turned himself round and faced them all,saying, "Did he not sell us like oxen and like pigs?" and he brokeinto the death chant, and they all raised the chant, none caring anymore who had struck the blow. And the Lord Constantine--' Theimpetuous flow of the old woman's story was frozen to sudden silence.
'Well, and the Lord Constantine?' said I, in low stern tones thatquivered with excitement; and I felt Denny's hand, which was on myarm, jump up and down. 'And Constantine, woman?'
"WHO STABBED HIM?"]
'Nay, he did nothing,' said she. 'He talked with Vlacho awhile, andthen they went away, and he bade me tend my lord, and went himself toseek the Lady Euphrosyne. Presently he came back with her; her eyeswere red, and she wept afresh when she saw my poor lord; for she lovedhim. She sat by him till Constantine came and told her that you wouldnot go, and that you and your friends would be killed if you did notgo. Then, weeping to leave my lord, she went, praying heaven she mightfind him alive when she returned. "I must go," she said to me, "forthough it is a shameful thing that the island should have been sold,yet these men must be persuaded to go away and not meet death. Kisshim for me if he awakes." Thus she went and left me with my lord, andI fear he will die.' She ended in a burst of sobbing.
For a moment there was silence. Then I said again:
'Who struck the blow, woman? Who struck the blow?'
She shrank from me as though I had struck her.
'I do not know; I do not know,' she moaned.
But the question she dared not answer was to find an answer.
The stricken man opened his eyes, his lips moved, and he groaned,'Constantine! You, Constantine!' The old woman's eyes met mine for amoment and fell to the ground again.
'Why, why, Constantine?' moaned the wounded man. 'I had yielded, I hadyielded, Constantine. I would have sent them--'
His words ceased, his eyes closed, his lips met again, but met only topart. A moment later his jaw dropped. The old lord of Neopalia wasdead.
Then I, carried away by anger and by hatred of the man who, for areason I did not yet understand, had struck so foul a blow against hiskinsman and an old man, did a thing so rash that it seems to me now,when I consider it in the cold light of memory, a mad deed. Yet then Icould do nothing else; and Denny's face, ay, and the eyes of theothers too told me that they were with me.
'Compose this old man's body,' I said, 'and we will watch it. But doyou go and tell this Constantine Stefanopoulos that I know his crime,that I know who struck that blow, that what I know all men shall know,and that I will not rest day or night until he has paid the penalty ofthis murder. Tell him I swore this on the honour of an Englishgentleman.'
'And say I swore it too!' cried Denny; and Hogvardt and Watkins, notmaking bold to speak, ranged up close to me; I knew that they alsomeant what I meant.
The old woman looked at me with searching eyes.
'You are a bold man, my lord,' said she.
'I see nothing to be afraid of up to now,' said I. 'Such courage as isneeded to tell a scoundrel what I think of him I believe I can claim.'
'But he will never let you go now. You would go to Rhodes, and tellhis--tell what you say of him.'
'Yes, and further than Rhodes, if need be. He shall die for it as sureas I live.'
A thousand men might have tried in vain to persuade me; the treacheryof Constantine had fired my heart and driven out all opposing motives.
'Do as I bid you,' said I sternly, 'and waste no time on it. We willwatch here by the old man till you return.'
'My lord,' she replied, 'you run on your own death. And you areyoung; and the youth by you is yet younger.'
'We are not dead yet,' said Denny; I had never seen him look as he didthen; for the gaiety was out of his face, and his lips had grown setand hard.
She raised her hands towards heaven, whether in prayer or inlamentation I do not know. We turned away and left her to her sadwork; going back to our places, we waited there till dawn began tobreak and from the narrow windows we saw the grey crests of the wavesdancing and frolicking in the early dawn. As I watched them, the oldwoman was by my elbow.
'It is done, my lord,' said she. 'Are you still of the same mind?'
'Still of the same,' said I.
/> 'It is death, death for you all,' she said, and without more she wentto the great door. Hogvardt opened it for her, and she walked awaydown the road, between the high rocks that bounded the path on eitherside. Then we went and carried the old man to a room that opened offthe hall, and, returning, stood in the doorway, cooling our brows inthe fresh early air. While we stood there, Hogvardt said suddenly,
'It is five o'clock.'
'Then we have only an hour to live,' said I, smiling, 'if we don'tmake for the yacht.'
'You're not going back to the yacht, my lord?'
'I'm puzzled,' I admitted. 'If we go this ruffian will escape. And ifwe don't go--'
'Why, we,' Hogvardt ended for me, 'may not escape.'
I saw that Hogvardt's sense of responsibility was heavy; he alwaysregarded himself as the shepherd, his employers as the sheep. Ibelieve this attitude of his confirmed my obstinacy, for I said,without further hesitation:
'Oh, we'll chance that. When they know what a villain the fellow is,they'll turn against him. Besides, we said we'd wait here.'
Denny seized on my last words with alacrity. When you are determinedto do a rash thing, there is a great comfort in feeling that you arealready committed to it by some previous act or promise.
'So we did,' he cried. 'Then that settles it, Hogvardt'
'His lordship certainly expressed that intention,' observed Watkins,appearing at this moment with a big loaf of bread and a great pitcherof milk. I eyed these viands.
'I bought the house and its contents,' said I; 'come along.'
Watkins' further researches produced a large lump of native cheese;when he had set this down he remarked:
'In a pen behind the house, close to the kitchen windows, there aretwo goats; and your lordship sees there, on the right of the frontdoor, two cows tethered.'
I began to laugh, Watkins was so wise and solemn.
'We can stand a siege, you mean?' I asked. 'Well, I hope it won't cometo that.'
Hogvardt rose and began to move round the hall, examining the weaponsthat decorated the walls. From time to time he grunted disapprovingly;the guns were useless, rusted, out of date; and there was noammunition for them. But when he had almost completed his circuit, hegave an exclamation of satisfaction and came to me holding anexcellent modern rifle and a large cartridge-case.
'See!' he grunted in huge delight. '"C. S." on the stock. I expect youcan guess whose it is, my lord.'
'This is very thoughtful of Constantine,' observed Denny, who wasemploying himself in cutting imaginary lemons in two with a finedamascened scimitar that he had taken from the wall.
'As for the cows,' said I, 'perhaps they will carry them off.'
'I think not,' said Hogvardt, taking an aim with the rifle through thewindow.
I looked at my watch. It was five minutes past six.
'Well, we can't go now,' said I. 'It's settled. What a comfort!' Iwonder whether I had ever in my heart meant to go!
The next hour passed very quietly. We sat smoking pipes or cigars andtalking in subdued tones. The recollection of the dead man in theadjoining room sobered the excitement to which our position mightotherwise have given occasion. Indeed I suppose that I at least, whothrough my whim had led the rest into this quandary, should have beenutterly overwhelmed by the burden on me. But I was not. PerhapsHogvardt's assumption of responsibility relieved me; perhaps I was toofull of anger against Constantine to think of the risks we ourselvesran; and I was more than half-persuaded that the revelation of what hehad done would rob him of his power to hurt us. Moreover, if I mightjudge from the words I heard on the road, we had on our side an allyof uncertain, but probably considerable, power in the sweet-voicedgirl whom the old woman called the Lady Euphrosyne; she would notsupport her uncle's murderer, even though he were her cousin.
Presently Watkins carried me off to view his pen of goats, and havingpassed through the lofty flagged kitchen, I found myself in a sort ofcompound formed by the rocks. The ground had been levelled for a fewyards, and the rocks rose straight to the height of ten or twelvefeet; from the top of this artificial bank they ran again in woodedslopes towards the peak of the mountain. I followed their course withmy eye, and three hundred or more feet above us, just beneath thesummit, I perceived a little wooden _chalet_ or bungalow. Blue smokeissued from the chimneys; and, even while we looked, a figure came outof the door and stood still in front of it, apparently gazing downtowards the house.
'It's a woman,' I pronounced.
'Yes, my lord. A peasant's wife, I suppose.'
'I daresay,' said I. But I soon doubted Watkins' opinion; in the firstplace, because the woman's dress did not look like that of a peasantwoman; and secondly, because she went into the house, appeared again,and levelled at us what was, if I mistook not, a large pair ofbinocular glasses. Now such things were not likely to be in thepossession of the peasants of Neopalia. Then she suddenly retreated,and through the silence of those still slopes we heard the door of thecottage closed with violence.
'She doesn't seem to like the looks of us,' said I.
'Possibly,' suggested Watkins with deference, 'she did not expect tosee your lordship here.'
'I should think that's very likely, Watkins,' said I.
I was recalled from the survey of my new domains--my satisfaction inthe thought that they were mine survived all the disturbing featuresof the situation--by a call from Denny. In response to it I hurriedback to the hall and found him at the window, with Constantine's riflerested on the sill.
'I could pick him off pat,' said Denny laughingly, and he pointed to afigure which was approaching the house. It was a man riding a stoutpony; when he came within about two hundred yards of the house, hestopped, took a leisurely look, and then waved a white handkerchief.
'The laws of war must be observed,' said I, smiling. 'This is a flagof truce.' I opened the door, stepped out, and waved my handkerchiefin return. The man, reassured, began to mop his brow with the flag oftruce, and put his pony to a trot. I now perceived him to be theinnkeeper Vlacho, and a moment later he reined up beside me, givingan angry jerk at his pony's bridle.
'I have searched the island for you,' he cried. 'I am weary and hot!How came you here?'
I explained to him briefly how I had chanced to take possession of myhouse, and added significantly:
'But has no message come to you from me?'
He smiled with equal meaning, as he answered:
'No; an old woman came to speak to a gentleman who is in thevillage--'
'Yes, to Constantine Stefanopoulos,' said I with a nod.
'Well then, if you will, to the Lord Constantine,' he admitted with acareless shrug, 'but her message was for his ear only; he took heraside and they talked alone.'
'You know what she said, though?'
'That is between my Lord Constantine and me.'
'And the young lady knows it, I hope--the Lady Euphrosyne?'
Vlacho smiled broadly.
'We could not distress her with such a silly tale,' he answered; andhe leant down towards me. 'Nobody has heard the message but the LordConstantine and one man he told it to. And nobody will. If that oldwoman spoke, she--well, she knows and will not speak.'
'And you back up this murderer?' I cried.
'Murderer?' he repeated questioningly. 'Indeed, sir, it was anaccident done in hot blood. It was the old man's fault, because hetried to sell the island.'
'He did sell the island,' I corrected; 'and a good many other peoplewill hear of what happened to him.'
He looked at me again, smiling.
'If you shouted it in the hearing of every man in Neopalia, what wouldthey do?' he asked scornfully.
'Well, I should hope,' I returned, 'that they'd hang Constantine tothe tallest tree you've got here.'
'They would do this,' he said with a nod; and he began to sing softlythe chant I had heard the night before.
I was disgusted at his savagery, but I said coolly:
'And the Lady?'
'The
Lady believes what she is told, and will do as her cousin bidsher. Is she not his affianced wife?'
'The deuce she is!' I cried in amazement, fixing a keen scrutiny onVlacho's face. The face told me nothing.
'Certainly,' he said gently. 'And they will rule the island together.'
'Will they, though?' said I. I was becoming rather annoyed. 'There areone or two obstacles in the way of that. First, it's my island.'
He shrugged his shoulders again. 'That,' he seemed to say, 'is notworth answering.' But I had a second shot in the locker for him, and Ilet him have it for what it was worth. I knew it might be worthnothing, but I tried it.
'And secondly,' I went on, 'how many wives does Constantine propose tohave?'
A hit! A hit! A palpable hit! I could have sung in glee. The fellowwas dumbfoundered. He turned red, bit his lip, scowled fiercely.
'What do you mean?' he blurted out, with an attempt at blusteringdefiance.
'Never mind what I mean. Something, perhaps, that the Lady Euphrosynemight care to know. And now, my man, what do you want of me?'
He recovered his composure, and stated his errand with his old coolassurance; but the cloud of vexation still hung heavy on his brow.
'On behalf of the Lady of the island--' he began.
'Or shall we say her cousin?' I interrupted.
'Which you will,' he answered, as though it were not worth while towear the mask any longer. 'On behalf, then, of my Lord Constantine, Iam to offer you safe passage to your boat, and a return of the moneyyou have paid--'
'How's he going to pay that?'
'He will pay it in a year, and give you security meanwhile.'
'And the condition is that I give up the island?' I asked; I began tothink that perhaps I owed it to my companions to acquiesce in thisproposal however distasteful it might be to me.
'Yes,' said Vlacho, 'and there is one other small condition, whichwill not trouble you.'
'What's that? You're rich in conditions.'
'You're lucky to be offered any. It is that you mind your ownbusiness.'
'I came here for the purpose,' I observed.
'And that you undertake, for yourself and your companions, on yourword of honour, to speak to nobody of what has passed on the island orof the affairs of the Lord Constantine.'
'And if I won't give this promise?'
'The yacht is in our hands; Demetri and Spiro are our men; there willbe no ship here for two months.' The fellow paused, smiling at me. Itook the liberty of ending his period for him.
'And there is,' I said, returning his smile, 'as we know by now, aparticularly sudden and fatal form of fever in the island.'
'Certainly you may chance to find that out,' said he.
'But is there no antidote?' I asked, and I showed him the butt of myrevolver in the pocket of my coat.
'It may keep it off for a day or two--not longer. You have the bottlethere, but most of the drug is with your luggage at the inn.'
His parable was true enough; we had only two or three dozen cartridgesapiece.
'But there's plenty of food for Constantine's rifle,' said I, pointingto the muzzle of it, which protruded from the window.
He suddenly became impatient.
'Your answer, sir?' he demanded peremptorily.
'Here it is,' said I. 'I'll keep the island and I'll see Constantinehanged.'
'So be it, so be it,' he cried. 'You are warned; so be it!' Withoutanother word he turned his pony and trotted rapidly off down the road.And I went back to the house feeling, I must confess, not in the bestof spirits. But when my friends heard all that had passed, theyapplauded me, and we made up our minds to 'see it through,' as Dennysaid.
The day passed quietly. At noon we carried the old lord out of hishouse, having wrapped him in a sheet; we dug for him as good a graveas we could in a little patch of ground that lay outside the windowsof his own chapel, a small erection at the west end of the house.There he must lie for the present. This sad work done, we came backand--so swift are life's changes--killed a goat for dinner, andwatched Watkins dress it. Thus the afternoon wore away, and whenevening came we ate our goat-flesh and Hogvardt milked our cows; thenwe sat down to consider the position of the garrison.
But the evening was hot and we adjourned out of doors, groupingourselves on the broad marble pavement in front of the door. Hogvardthad just begun to expound a very elaborate scheme of escape,depending, so far as I could make out, on our reaching the other sideof the island and finding there a boat which we had no reason tosuppose would be there, when Denny raised his hand, saying 'Hark!'
From the direction of the village and the harbour came the sound of ahorn, blowing long and shrill and echoed back in strange protractedshrieks and groans from the hillside behind us. And following on theblast we heard, low in the distance and indistinct, yet rising andfalling and rising again in savage defiance and exultation, thedeath-chant that One-Eyed Alexander the Bard had made on the death ofStefan Stefanopoulos two hundred years ago. For a few minutes we satlistening; I do not think that any of us felt very comfortable. Then Irose to my feet, saying:
'Hogvardt, old fellow, I fancy that scheme of yours must wait alittle. Unless I'm very much mistaken, we're going to have a livelyevening.'
Well, then we shook hands all round, and went in and bolted the door,and sat down to wait. We heard the death-chant through the walls now;it was coming nearer.