At first I thought that my speech had given the aged Earl a stroke. He
writhed on his bed, and something appeared at his lips which was like
froth. His lovely daughter sprang to him with a cry of fear and woe.
But he was not dying; he was only mad with rage.
"How dare you? How dare you?" he gasped. "You whelp of Satan!"
"'Tis me that would not be fearing to dare anything," I rejoined
calmly. "I would not so. I came here with a mind for fair words, but
you have met me with insult and something worse. We cannot talk the
thing. We must act it. The papers are yours, but you took them from me
unfairly. You may destroy them. Otherwise I will have them back and
discover what turned you into a great rogue near the end of your
days."
"Hearken!" screamed the Earl. "Hearken! He threatens." The door into
the parlour flew open, and Lord Strepp and Colonel Royale appeared on
the threshold, their faces blank with wonder.
"Father," cried the young lord, stepping hastily forward, "whatever is
wrong?"
"That!" screamed the Earl, pointing a palsied finger at me. "That! He
comes here and threatens _me_,--a peer of England."
The Lady Mary spoke swiftly to her brother and the Colonel.
"'Tis a sick man's fancy," she said. "There have been no threats.
Father has had a bad day. He is not himself. He talks wildly. He--"
"Mary!" yelled the Earl as well as he was able. "Do you betray me? Do
you betray your own father? Oh, a woman Judas and my daughter!"
Lord Strepp and Colonel Royale looked as if their minds were coming
apart. They stared at Lady Mary, at the Earl, at me. For my part I
remained silent and stiff in a corner, keeping my eye upon the swords
of the other gentlemen. I had no doubt but that presently I would be
engaged in a desperate attempt to preserve my life. Lady Mary was
weeping. She had never once glanced in my direction. But I was
thrilling with happiness. She had flung me her feeble intercession
even as a lady may fling a bun to a bear in a pit, but I had the
remembrance to prize, to treasure, and if both gentlemen had set upon
me and the sick Earl had advanced with the warming-pan I believe my
new strength would have been able to beat them off.
In the meantime the Earl was screeching meaningless rubbish in which
my name, with epithets, occurred constantly. Lady Mary, still weeping,
was trying to calm him.
Young Lord Strepp at last seemed to make up his mind. He approached me
and remarked:
"An inexplicable situation, Mr. O'Ruddy."
"More to me than to you," I repeated suavely.
"How?" he asked, with less consideration in his manner. "I know nought
of this mummery."
"At least I know no more," I replied, still suave.
"How, Mr. O'Ruddy?" he asked, frowning. "I enter and find you
wrangling with my father in his sick chamber. Is there to be no word
for this?"
"I dare say you will get forty from your father; a hundred, it may
be," said I, always pleasant. "But from me you will get none."
He reflected for a moment. "I dare say you understand I will brook no
high-handed silence in a matter of this kind. I am accustomed to ask
for the reasons for certain kinds of conduct, and of course I am
somewhat prepared to see that the reasons are forthcoming."
"Well, in this case, my lord," said I with a smile, "you can accustom
yourself to not getting a reason for a certain kind of conduct,
because I do not intend to explain myself."
But at this moment our agreeable conversation was interrupted by the
old Earl who began to bay at his son. "Arthur, Arthur, fling the
rascal out; fling the rascal out! He is an impostor, a thief!" He
began to fume and sputter, and threw his arms wildly; he was in some
kind of convulsion; his pillows tossed, and suddenly a packet fell
from under them to the floor. As all eyes wheeled toward it, I stooped
swiftly and picked it up.
"My papers!" said I.
On their part there was a breathless moment of indecision. Then the
swords of Lord Strepp and the Colonel came wildly from their
scabbards. Mine was whipped out no less speedily, but I took it and
flung it on the floor at their feet, the hilt toward them. "No," said
I, my hands empty save for the papers, "'tis only that I would be
making a present to the fair Lady Mary, which I pray her to receive."
With my best Irish bow I extended to the young lady the papers, my
inheritance, which had caused her father so much foaming at the mouth.
She looked at me scornfully, she looked at her father, she looked at
me pathetically, she looked at her father, she looked at me piteously;
she took the papers.
I walked to the lowering and abashed points of the other men's swords,
and picked my blade from the floor. I paid no heed to the glittering
points which flashed near my eyes. I strode to the door; I turned and
bowed; as I did so, I believe I saw something in Lady Mary's eyes
which I wished to see there. I closed the door behind me.
But immediately there was a great clamour in the room I had left, and
the door was thrown violently open again. Colonel Royale appeared in a
high passion:
"No, no, O'Ruddy," he shouted, "you are a gallant gentleman. I would
stake my life that you are in the right. Say the word, and I will back
you to the end against ten thousand fiends."
And after him came tempestuously young Lord Strepp, white on the lips
with pure rage. But he spoke with a sudden steadiness.
"Colonel Royale, it appears," he said, "thinks he has to protect my
friend The O'Ruddy from some wrong of my family or of mine?"
The Colonel drew in his breath for a dangerous reply, but I quickly
broke in:
"Come, come, gentlemen," said I sharply. "Are swords to flash between
friends when there are so many damned scoundrels in the world to parry
and pink? 'Tis wrong; 'tis very wrong. Now, mark you, let us be men of
peace at least until to-morrow morning, when, by the way, I have to
fight your friend Forister."
"Forister!" they cried together. Their jaws fell; their eyes bulged;
they forgot everything; there was a silence.
"Well," said I, wishing to reassure them, "it may not be to-morrow
morning. He only told me that he would kill me as soon as he came to
Bristol, and I expect him to-night or in the morning. I would of
course be expecting him to show here as quickly as possible after his
grand speech; but he would not be entirely unwelcome, I am thinking,
for I have a mind to see if the sword of an honest man, but no
fighter, would be able to put this rogue to shame, and him with all
his high talk about killing people who have never done a thing in life
to him but kick him some number of feet out into the inn yard, and
this need never to have happened if he had known enough to have kept
his sense of humour to himself, which often happens in this world."
Reflectively, Colonel Royale murmured:
"One of the finest swordsmen in England."
For this I cared nothing.
Reflectively, Lord Strepp murmured: "My father's partner in the
shipping trade."
This last made me open my eyes. "Your father's partner in the shipping
trade, Lord Strepp? That little black rascal?"
The young nobleman looked sheepish.
"Aye, I doubt not he may well be called a little black rascal,
O'Ruddy," he answered; "but in fact he is my father's partner in
certain large--fairly large, you know--shipping interests. Of course
that is a matter of no consequence to me personally--but--I believe my
father likes him, and my mother and my sister are quite fond of him, I
think. I, myself, have never been able to quite--quite understand him
in certain ways. He seems a trifle odd at moments. But he certainly is
a friend of the family."
"Then," said I, "you will not be able to have the felicity of seeing
him kill me, Lord Strepp."
"On the contrary," he rejoined considerately, "I would regard it as
usual if he asked me to accompany him to the scene of the fight."
His remark, incidentally, that his sister was fond of Forister, filled
me with a sudden insolent madness.
"I would hesitate to disturb any shipping trade," I said with dignity.
"It is far from me to wish that the commerce of Great Britain should
be hampered by sword-thrust of mine. If it would please young Lord
Strepp, I could hand my apologies to Forister all tied up in blue-silk
ribbon."
But the youthful nobleman only looked at me long with a sad and
reproachful gaze.
"O'Ruddy," he said mournfully, "I have seen you do two fine things.
You have never seen me do anything. But, know you now, once and for
all, that you may not quarrel with me."
This was too much for an Irish heart. I was moved to throw myself on
this lad's neck. I wished to swear to him that I was a brother in
blood, I wished to cut a vein to give him everlasting strength--but
perhaps his sister Mary had something to do with this feeling.
Colonel Royale had been fidgeting. Now he said suddenly:
"Strepp, I wronged you. Your pardon, Mr. O'Ruddy; but, damme, Strepp,
if I didn't think you had gone wrong for the moment."
Lord Strepp took the offered hand. "You are a stupid old firebrain,"
he said affectionately to the Colonel.
"Well," said the Colonel jubilantly, "now everything is clear. If Mr.
O'Ruddy will have me, I will go with him to meet this Forister; and
you, Strepp, will accompany Forister; and we all will meet in a
friendly way--ahem!"
"The situation is intimately involved," said Lord Strepp dejectedly.
"It will be a ridiculous business--watching each blade lunge toward
the breast of a friend. I don't know that it is proper. Royale, let us
set ourselves to part these duellists. It is indecent."
"Did you note the manner in which he kicked him out of the inn?" asked
the Colonel. "Do you think a few soothing words would calm the mind of
one of the finest swordsmen in England?"
I began to do some profound thinking.
"Look you, Colonel," said I. "Do you mean that this wretched little
liar and coward is a fine swordsman?"
"I haven't heard what you call him," said the Colonel, "but his
sword-play is regular firelight on the wall. However," he added
hopefully, "we may find some way to keep him from killing you. I have
seen some of the greatest swordsmen lose by chance to a novice. It is
something like cards. And yet you are not an ignorant player. That, I,
Clarence Royale, know full well. Let us try to beat him."
I remembered Forister's parting sentence. Could it be true that a man
I had kicked with such enthusiasm and success was now about to take
revenge by killing me? I was really disturbed. I was a very brave
youth, but I had the most advanced ideas about being killed. On
occasion of great danger I could easily and tranquilly develop a
philosophy of avoidance and retirement. I had no antiquated notions
about going out and getting myself killed through sheer bull-headed
scorn of the other fellow's hurting me. My father had taught me this
discretion. As a soldier he claimed that he had run away from nine
battles, and he would have run away from more, he said, only that all
the others had turned out to be victories for his side. He was
admittedly a brave man, but, more than this, he had a great deal of
sense. I was the child of my father. It did not seem to me profitable
to be killed for the sake of a sentiment which seemed weak and
dispensable. This little villain! Should I allow him to gratify a
furious revenge because I was afraid to take to my heels? I resolved
to have the courage of my emotions. I would run away.
But of all this I said nothing. It passed through my mind like light
and left me still smiling gayly at Colonel Royale's observations upon
the situation.
"Wounds in the body from Forister," quoth he academically, "are almost
certain to be fatal, for his wrist has a magnificent twist which
reminds one of a top. I do not know where he learned this wrist
movement, but almost invariably it leads him to kill his man. Last
year I saw him--I digress. I must look to it that O'Ruddy has quiet,
rest, and peace of mind until the morning."
Yes; I would have great peace of mind until the morning! I saw that
clearly.
"Well," said I, "at any rate we will know more to-morrow. A good day
to you, Lord Strepp, and I hope your principal has no more harm come
to him than I care to have come to me, which is precious little, and
in which case the two of us will be little hurted."
"Good-bye, O'Ruddy," said the young man.
In the corridor the Colonel slapped my shoulder in a sudden exuberant
outburst.
"O'Ruddy," he cried, "the chance of your life! Probably the best-known
swordsman in all England! 'Pon my word, if you should even graze him,
it would almost make you a peer. If you truly pinked him, you could
marry a duchess. My eye, what an opportunity for a young and ambitious
man."
"And what right has he to be such a fine swordsman?" I demanded
fretfully. "Damn him! 'Tis no right of a little tadpole like him to be
a great cut-throat. One could never have told from the look of him,
and yet it simply teaches one to be always cautious with men."
The Colonel was bubbling over with good nature, his mind full of the
prospective event.
"I saw Ponsonby kill Stewart in their great fight several years
agone," he cried, rubbing his hands, "but Ponsonby was no such
swordsman as Forister, and I misdoubt me that Stewart was much better
than you yourself."
Here was a cheerful butcher. I eyed him coldly.
"And out of this," said I slowly, "comes a vast deal of entertainment
for you, and a hole between two ribs for me. I think I need a drink."
"By all means, my boy," he answered, heartily. "Come to my chamber. A
quart of port under your waistcoat will cure a certain bilious desire
in you to see the worst of things, which I have detected lately in
your manner. With grand sport before us, how could you be otherwise
than jolly? Ha, Ha!"
So saying, he affectionately took my arm and led me along the
corridor.