The Strange Story of Rab Ráby

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  It was horribly hot and depressing at the "White Wolf" at Pesth, whereRaby had elected to stay. The atmosphere was mephitic and close, and inthe dusty inn parlour the flies swarmed uncomfortably, while outside itwas horribly dusty, as it is even to-day.

  No wonder Raby was glad to get out of it, and elected to take a strollin the direction of the wood outside the city, his head full of manyconflicting thoughts.

  Certainly, his plans for bettering the people were prospering. TheEmperor had recalled the easy-going district commissioner in consequenceof Raby's representations, and had appointed to the post an able andstrenuous, yet cold and reserved man, a wealthy landlord, who undertookthe office on account of the honour it conferred on its holder. Perhapswhat best qualified him for the post was, that he was not on intimateterms with anyone in the neighbourhood.

  His first care was, in view of Mathias Raby's complaints, to suspend themagistrate of Szent-Endre and his satellites, and to order a freshelection of such representatives in that town, which meant a completeclearing out of the old gang. Then the deposed notary would be eithercompelled to show the new officials the bricked-up passage to thetreasure chamber, or, if he refused, the "pope" would reveal the secretof the other entrance; this promise Raby had succeeded in extorting fromthe new authorities.

  Once the treasure-chest was unearthed, the oppressed townspeople, whosemoney had been wrung from them to fill that coffer, could be compensatedfor their wrongs. What rejoicing would there not be when the poorstarving husbandman could receive back the four or five hundred guldenunjustly extorted from him, and one could tell him that though it hadbeen reft from him unjustly, now his wrongs were redressed. What asplendid mission for him who undertook it!

  Raby's soul revelled in the very thought of it: no sordid considerationsof selfish interest poisoned his joy, for he had renounced all personalreward and only taken the work upon himself on the condition that he hadno share in the treasure when it was discovered. Legally, indeed, he wasentitled to such a share, but how much greater claim had he to be heardif he was empty-handed in this affair!

  And if he rejoiced at the fulfilment of his aims, he, it must also beadmitted, felt a distinct satisfaction in the thought of revenge. Thegreat coffer held not only the secret treasure, but also the privateaccounts which would make it clear which of the powerful officials wereconcerned in the affair. The whole shameful story must then be broughtto light, and all, who up till now had pursued him with their malice andmocked him to his face, must then stand as prisoners at the bar, howeverhigh they had held their heads.

  Obsessed by these and the like reflections, our hero came to the edge ofthe wood and there found stretched out before him the great waste plotof land bordered with willows, which some hours before he had pointedout from the window of the palace to his Excellency. The surveyors werealready working on it, taking measurements, and staking out the groundwhere the first foundations for the new building should be laid.

  All at once Raby's reverie was disturbed by someone addressing him. Hehad not observed how the man who spoke to him had come up, but then hehad of course as much right as Raby to walk there. The stranger appearedto be a worthy Pesth citizen; he wore the Magyar dress and had theconsequential air of a man who cannot learn anything from other people,however wise they be. His short curling moustachios lent his face agenuine Magyar expression, but of Hungarian he apparently understood nota word, but expressed himself in bad German. Raby answered the "Guntag"of the stranger politely.

  "Does the gentleman happen to know what the surveyors are planninghere?" asked the new-comer.

  Raby was naturally ready to satisfy worthy curiosity.

  "That," he answered, "is a great hospital the Emperor is erecting. Abuilding we much need," he added.

  And they talked of various other things, in the course of which it cameout that the new-comer was a pork-dealer in Pesth, whereupon Raby opinedthat he had the honour of speaking to a member of the famous "Guild ofpork merchants." But this new friend talked of many things beside hisown trade.

  They had now come to the winding path which led along the side of thewood, but the stranger's fund of conversation continued to be apparentlyinexhaustible. He mentioned, among other things, that he preferred thiswalk because the road was not yet made. Since it had been the fashion tohave the roads in the city paved, he said, he no longer cared to walk inthe streets. The whole paving scheme had been a hobby of the presentburgomaster, who, as everyone knew, had been a German shoemaker, and hadonly introduced paving-stones so as to give the German shoemakerspreference over the Hungarian bootmakers, for since they had hadpavements to walk on, people naturally wore fewer boots, for you onlyneed shoes for the paving stones.

  It was not long before the two reached the little inn, which stood thereeven then for the refreshment of travellers.

  "What do you say to turning in for a glass of beer?" asked hiscompanion, "you get a capital brand here."

  Raby answered that he did not drink beer, whereupon the pork-dealerpressed him to touch glasses with him, and promptly drew out his purseas a proof of his readiness to pay the reckoning. But Raby insisted thathe only drank water.

  "Well, if that is the case," returned his fellow-wayfarer, "you cannotdo better than have a glass; the water here is of unusual excellence.Just wait here, and I will go in and get some beer for myself, and sendyou out a glass of water. It comes from the famous Elias spring; thereis no such water in the world."

  Raby gladly assented; tired and thirsty as he was with his walk, helonged for just such a refreshing draught.

  So into the inn the good man hurried, but he soon reappeared, followedby a neat little waitress bearing a wooden tray with a large pewter mugof water on it. The girl looked at him while he drank, with her innocentblue eyes, so that Raby hardly noticed, as he returned her scrutiny,that the water left a curiously bitter after-taste in his mouth. When heset the mug down, he observed that there was a white sediment at thebottom of it.

  Rather scared in spite of himself, he asked the girl if there wasanything in the water.

  "I don't know," she answered, "if so, the gentleman who has just gone,put it in."

  "Has he gone?"

  "Yes, he went out by the back door. He did not even wait to take thechange which I brought him."

  The man was no pork-dealer, but a hired assassin. Raby had beenpoisoned, that was clear. The trees already had begun to dance beforehis eyes, the blue sky became blood-red, and his feet refused to carryhim, while his head was so heavy, it felt as if it would burst. He hadnot even the strength to stagger as far as a sedan-chair, but bade theinn people carry him back to the "White Wolf," which they promptly didin terror.

  * * * * *

  Had not poor Boske been there, Mathias Raby's history would have come toan untimely end with that glass of water.

  The servant-girl was the only one who had the presence of mind to givethe patient some warm milk, and then tickled his throat with a feather,so as to induce violent vomiting, while she applied hot fomentations.

  But in spite of her care it was needful to send for a doctor. Yet it wasnot so easy to find one, for physicians in those days were few and farbetween, and there were, as a matter of fact, but two in the whole city,the municipal doctor and the town leech, and neither would come whensent for. The municipal practitioner maintained that the law did notallow of him seeing patients out of their own houses. The townphysician again found his excuse in the plea that he could not interferein cases which had already been referred to his municipal colleague.

  So there was no one to look after Raby, since neither doctors would cometo him, even though his life was in danger. Thus for fullyfour-and-twenty hours the poisoned man had no other assistance than thatrendered by a poor servant-maid. For only on the evening of thefollowing day, when it was getting dark, did a surgeon from Pilisappear, who, it had fortunately occurred to Raby, was likely to answerthe summons.

  He set
about curing his patient immediately, but he bound Raby on hishonour not to say a word as to who was treating him, otherwise it wouldbe ruinous to his professional career in the town. It was only throughthe urgent prayers and tears, he said, of a good woman, that he had cometo do what he could for the sick man.

  As a matter of fact, the kind-hearted surgeon had to leave the city inconsequence of having succoured Raby in this way. But it was ten weeksbefore the patient fully recovered.