An Imperial Marriage

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  DRAGEN AGAIN

  I had made a pretty mess of things, and now that it was too late I beganto appreciate what a fool I had been.

  Von Felsen had outplayed me at every point, and chance and my own follyhad helped him to score a complete victory.

  The charge of murder was the merest bluff, and he had imposed upon Hagarfor the purpose very cleverly. He had probably found Althea unexpectedlyresolute not to yield to his wishes without some actual proof of myarrest, and had then vamped the charge, through Hagar, and planned thatAlthea should see me in the hands of men in police uniform.

  He had calculated that, relying upon my ability to clear myself of thecharge in Hagar's eyes, I should go at once to her to get her assistancein tracking Althea; and I had walked straight into the trap.

  I had of course been closely shadowed, and as soon as I had reachedHagar's house, he had been informed, and had brought Althea in the carto be a witness of the arrest.

  With one cunning stroke he had thus got rid of me, had convinced Altheaof my arrest, and probably freed himself from the embarrassment of Hagarat the same time. I did not doubt that the men he had taken to herhouse would see that she gave no sort of trouble.

  These thoughts flashed through my mind in the few seconds after I was inthe carriage, together with some exceedingly disquieting speculations onmy own plight. It was about as bad as it could be, but I was not goingto give up all hope without an effort.

  The men thrust me into a corner of the back seat, and one of them held arevolver close to my head, threatening to fire if I made any trouble.

  But this did not scare me as badly as they thought. I knew they wouldnot dare to shoot me in the street. Their own safety would beendangered, and the risk was too great for them to run it except in thelast resort.

  I affected to be very frightened, however, and waited for a chance totry and attract attention and bring help. The opportunity came as thecarriage had to stop when crossing one of the main streets.

  With a sudden kick I broke the glass of the window near me and gave ayell for help. The fellow opposite seized my legs while his companionthrust his hand over my mouth. But I wrestled violently, and in themidst of the struggle a policeman's head appeared at the window of thecarriage.

  "What's the matter there?" he asked.

  "I think you'd better get in and give us a hand," answered one of myguards very coolly. "He's a lunatic; just cut his wife's throat."

  The man's coolness and his uniform had the effect of quieting allsuspicion. "All right. Strap his legs and gag him, why don't you?Don't let him make that racket."

  I got my head free then. "I am an Englishman, these are not----" Ibegan when I was silenced again.

  "He's been yelling that all the time," was the reply, with an oath and alaugh. "I wish you'd lend a hand. We don't want to hurt him."

  "I can't come. Drive on there," he told the coachman; and on we went.

  As soon as the policeman's face disappeared from the window, the fellowat my side flung me heavily back into the corner of the carriage, andtogether they fastened a large handkerchief over my mouth, one of themtwisting his fingers into it so tightly behind my head that I waspowerless to open my lips. And he held me in this fashion for nearlyall the rest of the drive.

  Further resistance was now out of the question. I had made my effortand it had failed, and all I could do was to keep still and wait withsuch resignation as I could summon for what was to come to me.

  If I escaped with my life, I should have reason to be thankful. I hadalready had ample proof that the men whom von Felsen employed were quitecapable of going to any extreme. My life had been attempted more thanonce; and at the time of the previous abduction, when I had not beennearly so dangerous to him as now, I had only escaped death by thenarrowest of margins.

  Yet it was not for myself that I was mainly afraid now. Von Felsen hadso planned things that Althea had been persuaded of my arrest; and Icould not doubt for an instant that she would at once agree to doanything he demanded. That night she would certainly consent to themarriage; and the thought was like the sear of a hot iron on a nerve.

  Compared with the agony of that dread, nothing else seemed to matter. Iwould cheerfully have given my life to have saved her from such a fate;but even if I lost my life now, I should be powerless to help her.

  Maddened by this reflection, I made another and desperate struggle withmy captors. Wrenching myself free from the gag which held me like avice, I fought and kicked and writhed, yelling for help at the top of mylungs all the while in a furious effort to escape.

  But it was useless. Both were strong men, and they overpowered me andforced me down, this time on to the floor of the carriage, and held methere until we stopped. One point only did I gain by the effort. Oneof the handcuffs came unfastened and could not be relocked on my wrist.

  But this did not help me much. One of the brutes seized my arms andheld them behind my back, and twisted them till I thought the verysinews would break.

  I did not give in until my strength was utterly exhausted and my headreeled dizzily; and in this condition, with no power left forresistance, I was hauled out and carried rapidly into a house.

  There I was gagged again, my arms and legs were tied, and I was flungdown on the floor of an empty room, the door of which was locked uponme.

  Bruised and sore from head to foot although I was, and aching in everymuscle of my body, I thought nothing of my hurts. I was on fire withimpotent rage and belated repentance for my stupidity. Only an hour ortwo before I had had the upper hand. There was apparently nothing toprevent my gaining a complete victory. If I had only gone straight toFeldermann or Herr Borsen, von Felsen would now have been grovelling atmy feet begging for mercy.

  What a credulous fool I had been to believe for an instant that thatridiculous charge of murder had really been made! What would I not havegiven to have been able to set the clock back for those few hours!

  Gnashing my teeth at my idiotic blundering, I passed hours of torture.I was left alone, except that now and again the door was opened and someone came in with a lantern to see that I was still securely fastened.

  I abandoned all hope, and each time I heard the key turned in the lock,I made up my mind that some one was coming to take my life. I grewutterly reckless also, and slowly a fresh thought began to take shape inmy mind.

  Save my life I could not, but if a chance came I would at least send oneof the scoundrels who had taken a hand in the business to his lastaccount. It was just a wild impulse to have revenge; but I hugged itclose to my heart until it became my one cherished object, the one thingI could do before they took my life.

  That thirst for revenge, that lust for blood, if you like, put strengthinto me, gave tone to my nerves and purpose to my thoughts when all elsein that hour of black despair had failed.

  I began to test the strength of the bonds which held me, and graduallyto loosen them slightly, as I tugged at the cords which bound my armsand strove with frantic struggles to ease the pressure of those on mylegs.

  The exertion brought the sweat of effort and pain to my brow; but I wasnearly what they had termed me, a madman, in my furious desire forrevenge; and although every movement racked and tortured me, I did notcease until I had so far succeeded that the blood began to flow freelyonce more in my veins.

  Faint and exhausted at last with the struggle, I was lying quiet, toregain strength for a further effort, when the key was turned in thelock once more. This time two men entered; the gag was taken from mymouth, and I was ordered roughly to sit up.

  I took no notice of this. It was my cue to affect to be helpless. Oneof them dragged me to the wall and propped me up in a sitting posture,while the other held the lantern close to my face.

  A movement of the light enabled me to see his face, and I recognizedhim. He was Dragen, the man who had carried me off before.

  "Ah,
you know me, I see," he said with a chuckle. "That will savetrouble perhaps, as you'll know I'm not likely to let you fool me asecond time."

  The wild desire to take life which had so possessed me before nowfocussed into a set purpose that his should be the life; and I loweredmy eyes quickly lest he should read something of the thought in my mind.

  "You know what we want, Mr. Englishman, and what we mean to have. Thosepapers. Where are they?"

  I made no reply, and he thrust his hands into all my pockets to searchfor them. A bitter oath showed his disappointment. I smiled intriumph; and this so exasperated him that he struck me in the face.

  Then I understood why I was still alive. Until those papers wereregained, von Felsen knew that he would be in danger of losingeverything despite his present victory over me.

  "You are a brave fellow, Dragen, to strike a helpless man."

  He raised his hand to repeat the blow, but his companion stopped him."What's the good of that?" he said gruffly. "You know what we weretold."

  "Hold your tongue, curse you," cried Dragen. "I mean to get them, andshall go my own way to do it. Where are they?" he demanded of me.

  "What papers do you mean?"

  "To hell with your questioning me. You know what I mean. Where arethey?"

  "You think you can make me tell you?"

  "I'm sure I can," he retorted with an oath.

  "Try then;" and I looked up and met his angry eyes firmly.

  "Give them up and no harm shall come to you."

  "This looks like it, doesn't it?"

  "Don't you anger me, or it'll be the worse for you."

  "You can only take my life, but even then you can't save youremployer's; nor your own, for the police know all about that otheraffair."

  "You'll be short of breath long before you get a chance of saying anymore about that or this."

  "That's only what I know already. If I were to tell you where thepapers are, I might whistle for a chance of getting out of this. ButI'll tell you one thing. They are in the hands of those who will knowhow to use them, whether I am alive or dead, by this time to-morrowmorning. Do what you will."

  This infuriated him, and he seized and shook me violently in anuncontrollable frenzy of rage, and then flung me down violently on thefloor. He caused me severe pain; but except for this, the roughhandling benefited me rather than him. He had seized me by the arms,and the cords on my wrists were perceptibly slacker for the severeshaking.

  My head struck the floor heavily when he threw me down, and I lay stillas a corpse, letting all my muscles relax and breathing as slightly aspossible, that he should think I was on the verge of unconsciousness.

  He questioned me again about the papers, but I gave no sign that I evenheard him; and when he kicked me and then tugged at my arms and liftedmy head in the effort to rouse me, I made no sign of life.

  The second man was scared at this. "You've done for him now," hemuttered.

  "Serve him right," growled Dragen, with a savage oath. "He tricked mebefore."

  "But what about serving me? What's the good of this to me? How are wegoing to earn the money, with him in this state?"

  Dragen swore again and was aiming a vicious kick at my head when hiscompanion stopped him so suddenly that he overbalanced and fell to theground close to me. In the fall something dropped from his pocket androlled near me. It was a small sheath knife, and to my infinite delightneither man saw it.

  Dragen rose in a rage and a fierce quarrel broke out between the two.This enabled me to shift my position unobserved, so that I first lay onthe knife and then rolled forward until my hands could reach it, when Itucked it up underneath the back of my waistcoat.

  The quarrel ended without blows; and presently they drew aside andtalked together in low muttered tones, the purport of which I could nothear. After a time they crossed and looked at me, and the fellow whohad been protecting me from Dragen's violence knelt down and tried tofeel my pulse. He was clumsy at the business, however, and could notfind it. "I believe you've finished him," he muttered and laid me downgently at full length and loosened the cords on both wrists and legs,and began to chafe my limbs to restore circulation.

  "That's better," he said at length, feeling again for my pulse andfinding it this time. "Get him some brandy or something. But you'dbetter do what I said, Dragen," he added, rising. "If those papers arein safe hands, as he said, we'd better know what to do next."

  The man's evident alarm infected Dragen. "Curse the whole business," hegrowled uneasily.

  "That won't help us far. If you hadn't been in such a devil of a rage,this wouldn't have happened." Then he knelt down by me again. "Can youhear me?" he asked anxiously. "No harm will come to you. Can you hearme?"

  My reply was the faintest of faint moans.

  "He's coming round all right. Get him some brandy and don't let him seeyou, and we'll have him round all right," he said in a tone of greatrelief, as he rose once more. "I'm for fetching him; let's see what theothers say," he declared as he picked up the lantern. "We must know whatto do next."

  There was another conference, and then they went away together, leavingthe door unfastened.

  In another moment I had slipped my hands out of the cords which had beenso considerately loosened and with the knife I cut those which bound mylegs. Then I kicked off my boots and stole out of the room in mystockinged feet, resolved to make a fight for my freedom.

  The passage outside the room was in darkness; but I knew in whichdirection I had been carried into the room, and crept noiselessly towardthe front door of the house.

  But there was a room between, the door of which stood open. I heard thevoices of the men there, and one of them was standing close to the door.To pass this meant a great risk of being either seen or heard, and as Ihesitated whether to take the chance I caught fragments of the talk.

  They were discussing the advisability of fetching some one or of goingto some one for further instructions in view of my statement about thepapers being in the hands of those who would use them.

  Presently the man by the door, interested in the discussion, went alittle way into the room, and I seized that moment to creep past.

  The house had double doors, and the inner one was pressed back againstthe wall. I ran my fingers lightly up and down the outer one searchingfor the fastenings, when a general scuffling of feet in the roomannounced that the men were moving, having apparently come to adecision.

  I slipped back and hid behind the inner door and held my breath as theycame out into the passage, talking excitedly.

  The suspense of those few moments was more trying than words candescribe.

  I had failed to find the means of opening the front door; and if theywent back into the room where I had been lying, I should be caught likea rabbit in a snare. The instant I was discovered my life would not beworth a spent match.

  They stood wrangling in the passage for a time that seemed an age to mein my excited suspense; and every second I expected one or other of themto go back to the room and then announce my flight.

  "Well, let's have a look at the beggar first and see if we can't drag itout of him," said one, whose voice I recognized as that of the man whohad been standing by the door.

  They moved in a body toward the room.

  My heart sank and I gave myself up for lost. My only chance, and thatthe faintest and feeblest, was that I might seize the moment of respiteto get the door of the house open.