A Modern Mercenary

  CHAPTER XXI.

  LOVE'S BEGGAR.

  A threat from Count Simon of Sagan was not to be lightly regarded at anytime, but within the boundaries of his own estates it appreciablydiscounted the chances of life. Therefore Rallywood, instead ofreturning to the Castle, headed for the block-house by the Ford. Theincident which had just taken place probably meant the closing of hiscareer in the army of Maasau. Personal power survived in its fullplenitude in the little state, which had never made any pretence ofsetting up a representative government; the Maasaun people were as muteas they had been in the dark ages and appeared content to remain so.

  The future which lay before Rallywood on that winter evening was notenlivening. Less than three months ago he would have been half amused atsuch a conclusion to his military life as offering an answer to aperplexed question. But since then much had happened. That ill-luckshould overtake him when hope was at its keenest, and when his relationsboth with the Guard and the Duke had reached a promising point, struckhim hard. If he left the Guard he must also leave Maasau. He had toldhimself a hundred times that the daughter of the Chancellor was farbeyond his winning, yet the certainty of losing her, which this lastdevelopment of events involved, was the worst blow of all. To stare anempty future in the face is like looking into expressionless eyes whereno soul can ever come.

  He little guessed how close upon him were the critical moments of life,or how much of emotion and difficulty and strenuous decision were to becrowded into the next few days. A whirlpool of events was drawing him toits raging centre. The death and the burial of Colendorp, Sagan'sresentment and his ruthless scheming were all eddies of circumstancecircling inward and carrying him with them to a definite issue.

  As he rode on the weather grew rapidly worse, and it soon becameimpossible to see more than a few yards ahead. The night was settlingdown thick with falling snow, so that Rallywood could only pull up andlisten when a faint noise, that might have been a woman's scream, cameto him through the storm. He shouted in return but there was no answer.Then out of the gray curtain a sleigh with two maddened horses dashedacross his path and was as suddenly lost to sight. Rallywood had onlytime to see a woman clinging to the driver's empty seat and clutchingdesperately at the dangling reins.

  They passed like a vision, noiseless, swift, and dim, and althoughRallywood followed quickly, he could not find them. The gloom and thesnow had obliterated all trace of the sleigh, and at last Rallywoodhimself, well as he knew the country, became bewildered; but luckily thehorse he rode was a charger he had had with him on the Frontier. He leftit to choose its own direction, yet it was long before a blur of lightwhich he knew to be the open doorway of the block-house grew out on theshifting darkness.

  Within, the men of the patrol were standing in a group talking eagerly.Flinging himself from his horse, Rallywood entered the house just as ayoung cavalry officer came out from the inner room, and, recognisingRallywood, advanced hurriedly to meet him.

  'I say, who do you think we have in there?' he said excitedly.

  'Tell me afterwards,' interrupted Rallywood; 'I met a runawaysleigh----'

  'They were the horses from the Castle,' interrupted the young man with anervous laugh. 'Mademoiselle Selpdorf managed to get hold of the reinsafter a bit, otherwise----' he snapped his fingers significantly.

  'Then she--the lady is safe?'

  'Two of them, my dear friend! One is the handsomest girl in Maasau, andthe other is Madame de Sagan herself! And, by Jove! she's an infernallypretty woman too. We're in luck, Rallywood! Have you come to look forthem?'

  Rallywood hesitated before he replied.

  'No, thanks. I must get back to Revonde by the first train, so I willride on with the next patrol to the station. Are they hurt?' he noddedtowards the inner room.

  'No, but how they escaped the deuce only knows! Madame de Sagan wasinsensible when we found them.' He dropped his voice. 'By the way, shehas been saying some queer things! She declares the driver lashed up thehorses and purposely threw himself off the sleigh when they were on theslope of the pine wood just above the Ingern precipice. She swears hemeant to kill them!'

  'She was frightened. That's all.'

  'It was about a certainty they'd be dashed to pieces. And look here----'the young fellow looked oddly at Rallywood, 'she hinted that theCount----'

  'Nonsense!' Rallywood forced a laugh. 'She was badly frightened, I tellyou.'

  'I'll take my oath there's something in it though! She refuses to let ustake her back to the Castle to-night.'

  'What have you given them--tea or anything?'

  'Faith, no! I made them each take a nip of _bizutte_--far better, too.But we'll have some tea made now if you think they would like it.'

  'Of course. It will give them something to do. By the way, you might aswell ask them if they would see me.'

  On second thought and in view of the Countess's refusal to go back toSagan, he felt he must offer his assistance.

  'Yes, ask them if they will see me now,' he continued, looking at hiswatch; 'I have not much time to spare.'

  The next moment Isolde's high sweet voice could be heard distinctlythrough the open door.

  'Captain Rallywood! Pray tell him we should like to see him.'

  Madame de Sagan was lying on a narrow camp bed supported by wraps andpillows, a brilliant red spot on each cheek, and her eyes darker thanordinary under the influence of the alternate fright and stimulation ofthe last two hours. She waited till the door was shut, then she put outboth hands to Rallywood.

  'Thank Heaven, we are safe and together again, Jack! Come here! I wantto know that you are alive and this is not all a dream,' she beganimpulsively, yet behind the impulse lay a calculated design. She owedher life to Valerie's courage, but that weighed as nothing in comparisonwith the knowledge that in some indefinite manner the girl stood betweenRallywood and herself, that Rallywood for some reason held Valerie inspecial regard.

  Rallywood bowed, still standing by the door.

  'Thank Heaven you are safe, Madame,' he said. 'I saw you somewhere thisside of the pine woods, but lost you in the mist.'

  'Oh, I did not see you! I saw nothing after that murderer leaped off. Ihad a horrible instant during which I imagined myself swinging betweenthe gorge and the sky--after that I knew no more!' exclaimed Isolde, asort of complacency mixing with her agitation. 'They tell me thatValerie was very brave and that she saved our lives, but for me theseheroisms are impossible!'

  She glanced at Rallywood, secure in his approval, but he had turned toValerie, who was sitting in a low wooden chair by the stove with herback to the room.

  'It was magnificent, Mademoiselle!' he exclaimed.

  Valerie shivered.

  'There was nothing at all magnificent about it,' she said coldly.'Self-preservation drives one to do what one can; it is only by chancethat one happens to do the right thing.'

  Isolde shrugged her shoulders and made a little grimace at Rallywood.

  'Do not heed her, Jack. People are always very pleased with themselvesfor doing what other people call magnificent. Valerie is cross. Takethis chair by me; I have a very serious quarrel with you.'

  All the terror and peril of that dreadful drive had passed from Madamede Sagan's facile mind. The little rivalries and coquetries of everydaylife occupied her as fully as if her lot contained no troublous outlook.In this conjunction vanity will often do for a woman what work does fora man. As for Isolde, the small promptings of a wounded vanity at onceabsorbed her.

  Very unwillingly Rallywood obeyed. Between those narrow walls one waswithin hand-reach of everything in the room, so that although he wasbeside the Countess he was not a yard from Mademoiselle Selpdorf.

  'So you would not come to me last night?' began Isolde abruptly. 'Youcannot be made to understand that we Maasauns hold human life of verylittle account. It is stupid of you, Jack, but you will be forced tobelieve it now. Do you know that the driver of the sleigh----'

  The attempt at assassination was horrible eno
ugh in itself, but from herlips wearing their strange innocent smile he felt he could not endurethe story.

  'I have heard of it,' he interposed hastily; 'the Lieutenant told me.But----'

  Isolde leant upon her elbow to look into his face.

  'What! You don't believe even now that Simon is trying to rid himself ofme? Valerie, speak! You too refused to believe me last night. What doyou say now?'

  'It may have been an accident,' replied Valerie with a tired movement.

  'Absurd! But whatever you choose to say, I will not go back to theCastle! Revonde is perhaps safe----'

  'My father is there, and you will be safe,' said Valerie in a tone ofquiet certainty.

  Isolde laughed scornfully. 'I don't know that; for after all Sagan isthe most powerful man in the state!' she cried, with that perverse pridein her husband that his daring personality seemed to develop in all hisdependents.

  As Valerie made no reply, she harked back to her former subject. 'I wasin danger last night, Jack, yet you would not come to my help. Whatexcuse can a man offer for such a thing?' her voice and lips had growntender in addressing him.

  'The Duke, Madame.'

  'That for the old Duke!' with a charming gesture of emptying both herlittle hands. 'What is he in comparison with me? Jack, you are but apoor lover after all!'

  Rallywood began to see that some motive underlay Isolde's wild talk. Thekind eyes with which he had been watching her changed.

  'It is very true,' he said.

  'Jack, Jack, how am I to forgive you?' she swept on. 'Yet you rememberwhen I was a firefly at the palace ball, I told you that like a fireflymy life would be short and merry. My prophecy is coming true.'

  An almost imperceptible alteration in the pose of the quiet figure bythe open stove was not lost upon Madame de Sagan.

  The sweet treble voice resumed:

  'You took a firefly from my fan and told me that one always wanted thebeautiful things to live for ever. Jack, you promised to be my friendthat night. You have not forgotten?'

  'I have not forgotten.'

  'And the firefly? Have you kept that as carelessly as you have kept yourpromise? Where is your cigarette-case? Ah!' a pause, then a cry ofpleasure. 'Valerie, come here! He dropped it into his cigarette-case andit is here still! If you had only reminded him of that----'

  Valerie stood up cold and proud, and exceedingly pale.

  'I forgot.'

  'It does not matter now,' Isolde replied, taking the glittering atomfrom its hiding-place and holding it up on her slender finger to catchthe light, 'since we have met after all. You meant to fail, Valerie!Were you not ashamed to deceive me last night--even last night when yousaw I was desperate, and oh, so horribly afraid?'

  Rallywood, absorbed in other thoughts, gathered very little of what wasbeing said. After avoiding Isolde of Sagan with more or less success onthe Frontier, he had, since his stay in Revonde, yielded in an oddreserved way to her infatuation for him, partly out of a desire tosecure meetings with Mademoiselle Selpdorf, partly from a man's stupidhelplessness under such circumstances. The more chivalrous the man themore helpless very often. But all this was entirely and for everunexplainable to Mademoiselle Selpdorf. He drew a deep breath. There wasnothing for it but to accept the situation.

  'We both owe a debt to Mademoiselle Selpdorf for carrying the message,'he said.

  'You are mistaken,' said Valerie, and he winced under the contempt ofher voice. 'I should never have stooped to carry it had I not had a fardifferent object in view.'

  Isolde laughed to a shrill echo. Valerie Selpdorf's haughty spirit wasabout to be humbled. She dimly felt why Rallywood held the girl to befar above the level of ordinary womanhood--a cold and unattainable star.But she should be dragged down from the heights before his eyes.

  'I was not so blind as you supposed,' Isolde said aloud, pointing anaccusing finger at Valerie. 'I knew why you went. Shall I tell you,Jack?'

  Rallywood looked up quickly. Colendorp naturally recurred to his mind.

  'You could not have known,' Valerie answered.

  'But I did, though!' Isolde went on. 'Listen to me, Jack. Do you knowwhy she undertook my message, and why she forgot its most importantpoint? My life has come to-night to a crisis; I will not spare those whohave been cruel to me!' Isolde was trembling with excitement as sheleant forward, one hand holding by the table that stood between her andValerie, the other clenched in the soft fur of the rug on her knees.'Why? Oh, men are so simple! They believe a woman to be pure and trueif she but knows how to temper her coquetries with a pretence ofreserve. Jack, Valerie has been false to me and to you because she isjealous of me, and--because she herself loves you!'

  Rallywood rose slowly. 'Hush, Madame!'

  Valerie stood for one instant scarlet from neck to brow, then the bloodebbed and left her of a curious deadly pallor like one who has a mortalwound, but she still faced them.

  'Wait, Jack. You shall hear the end now that we have gone so far.'Isolde laughed again. She was so sure of her lover. 'It is well for thetruth to come out sometimes, you know. Yes, Valerie Selpdorf, the proud,unapproachable Valerie, loves a captain of the Guard, who----'

  Rallywood strode across in front of her. After such words of outrage,his very nearness to Mademoiselle Selpdorf seemed in itself an insult.With his back to the door he stopped and took up the last unfinishedsentence.

  'You have made a strange mistake, Madame,' he said in a low voice butvery clearly. 'On the contrary, it is the captain of the Guard who hasloved Mademoiselle Selpdorf, and even dared to tell her so, although shehad shown him that she regarded him with scorn and dislike. I hope I maybe forgiven for acknowledging this now, Mademoiselle. And let me say onething more, that though I have no hope, though I am one of Love'sbeggars, the greatest honour of my life will be that I have loved sucha woman!'

  The door closed behind him. Isolde sat stupified at the result of herstratagem, the stratagem by which she had intended to humble Valerie inthe most cruel way a woman can be humbled.

  Valerie, sinking down into her chair, burst into an uncontrollable floodof tears. The secret of her heart, which she had denied to herself,sprang up at Isolde's words and confronted her, filling her world'shorizon.

  'Well,' said Isolde after a long pause, '"We love but while we may." Iwish you joy of his constancy. He loved me yesterday.'

  Valerie raised her head with the old haughty gesture.

  'As for him, Isolde, you compelled him to say it! But he does not--loveme!' Her voice gathered strength. 'As for me, you shall know the wholetruth; you are right--I love him, for he is a most noble gentleman!'