JUST IN TIME.
Beatrix stood staring blankly into the old man's excited face, with a
strange feeling of sickening terror creeping over her heart. Was he
mad? In Heaven's name, what did he mean? Was she shut up alone in this
dreary old house with a raving madman? She stood there, trembling like
a leaf, quailing before the steady stare of his wild, dark eyes burning
into hers with a look of awful meaning.
"Oh, Uncle Bernard!" she faltered at length, striving hard to steady
her tremulous voice, "surely you do not mean that? You are only
jesting, of course. You surely could not mean for me to do such a
thing--such an unheard-of thing? Why, think of the suffering I would
endure--the pain and torture, and don't ask me to do such a mad thing,
Uncle Bernard! And--for what purpose?"
His bloodshot eyes gleamed with a curious light.
"For what purpose? That is for me to know, Miss Beatrix Dane. I have
already told you that this is a test. A test of _what_, you will
ask, with all a woman's curiosity. But that question I shall not now
answer. Should the test _fail_, then I shall be at liberty to tell you
all, and you will have cause to be grateful, Beatrix. But there is no
other way to prove the truth only by this, which seems so absurd to
you. You must try and be brave, and obey me, Beatrix. You must thrust
your right hand into the flames; that was the advice of the physician
whom I consulted. 'If you can induce the young lady to put her hand
in the fire,' so Doctor De Trobriand informed me, 'you will soon know
the worst. If the thing you suspect should prove to be true, then--'
But there, Beatrix, I must not reveal to you the rest of the doctor's
opinion. That is a professional secret. Do you still refuse?"
"I do."
Beatrix's voice was stern, and her eyes full of a resolute light.
Surely the man before her was a lunatic, and she must not allow him to
intimidate her.
"I _do_ refuse--absolutely!" she repeated, bravely. "Your command
is not reasonable, and I shall not obey it. You must be mad, Uncle
Bernard, to expect obedience to such a command!"
"You refuse, eh?"
He started to his feet, white with anger.
"Remember that _I_ know best, and this is best for you, a necessary
test, I say. But since you refuse, I shall be compelled to use force."
He seized her hands and dragged her forcibly to the fireside, the poor
girl writhing and struggling in his grasp.
"Uncle Bernard--for the love of Heaven, stop!" she pleaded; "stop
and think what you are doing! You are about to inflict the most
terrible torture upon me; you will doubtless maim me for life. Uncle
Bernard--Uncle Bernard, for the love of Heaven--I beg of you to
stop--to spare me! Please--please--_please_!"
The sweet voice grew weaker and fainter as the old man forced her
nearer the burning coals within the grate; in his eyes the fire of a
fiendish purpose, his face as white as marble.
"I am obliged to do it, Beatrix," he said in a low, ominous voice. "If
the result proves satisfactory, I shall be at liberty to explain the
mystery to you, and then you will know the unutterable horror that
you have escaped. If the fire burns you--_pray_ that the fire will
burn you, Beatrix," he broke off, wildly--"pray that your little hand
may be scarred for all time, rather than have that awful curse to
fall upon you. Oh, yes, I know you think me a madman! but listen to
me, child"--his voice softening a little: "You think me a madman--a
brute--a fiend; but when you have heard the truth you will think
differently. I have sought vengeance all my life, but somehow your
piteous eyes and helpless loneliness have made me feel a little kinder,
and if it were not for Keith Kenyon, and the debt of vengeance that I
owe--" He stopped short, checking himself with a strange, half-angry
gesture, as though he regretted having spoken so freely. "This much I
can tell you, Beatrix"--his voice had fallen almost to a whisper. There
was no sound to break the awful silence of the room, save old Bernard
Dane's heavy breathing and the dropping of a coal in the grate. Beatrix
stood there, her hands crushed in his iron grasp--one would never
have dreamed that the old man was so strong--and listened eagerly,
breathlessly, to his next words.
"This much I will tell you," he went on, slowly; "and after you have
heard it, I think you will agree with me. Yours is a fearful heritage,
Beatrix--an heritage of woe. I will not put it into words, for if you
were to know it--to know the secret of your own dark inheritance--it
would kill you as you stand there before me. Beatrix, there is poison
in your very life-blood--an awful taint suspected, which can only be
proved by this crucial test. Beatrix, obey me; place your hand in
yonder fire, as I bid you. If it comes forth burned and disfigured--a
mass of horrible burns and unsightly scars, your body racked with
suffering, then thank your God upon bended knee that you have escaped
the doom of your race. If, on the other hand, contact with the fire
should have no effect upon you, I advise you, young and fair though you
are, _to take your own life_! Will you place your hand in the flame?"
She shrank back, paling and shivering.
"I--can not!" she faltered. "I--"
"Hush! _You shall--you must_!"
With a swift movement he dragged her close to the fire, and bending
her slight form forward, was about to lay the little white hand upon
the bed of live coals, when all at once there was a loud peal at the
gate-bell. A moment later, before old Dane could carry out his horrible
intention, the door of the room was thrown open, and a tall form
bounded over the threshold.
One swift glance, and the newcomer sprang to the fireside, and seizing
the old man by the shoulder, forced him into the nearest seat; then,
before Bernard Dane could recover from the shock of the surprise, the
intruder turned and faced the half-fainting girl.
"Beatrix!"
"Keith!"
Keith Kenyon's face was pale and stern, and his dark eyes flashed fire.
"So!" he cried, indignantly. "I come home in answer to a telegram which
declares you to be at the point of death, Bernard Dane, and I find you
in usual health, and in the very midst of an act of inhuman torture.
Simons told me what was going on as soon as he opened the door to me. I
rushed up here at once--just in time, it seems. Bernard Dane, I demand
to know what you mean by such inhuman conduct? Understand me: if ever
I find you attempting a repetition of this torture, I shall leave you
forever, and I shall take Beatrix with me. She shall not remain here to
be murdered. Keep your money, Bernard Dane; I do not want it. I will
have nothing to do with a wicked wretch like you!"
"But--Keith"--the old man quavered the name forth in a broken
voice--"you do not know. It is for her good--for your good. If she
escapes the awful doom of her race, she--No, no, Keith; I must not tell
you."
The old man broke down and buried his face in his shaking hands--a
pitiable sight.
"Keith!" starting up suddenly and gazing into the handsome face with
horror-dilated eyes, "I had planned a marriage between you two;
but--but it must never be. It would be sacrilege--a crime!"
Keith Kenyon turned, and his dark eyes met the frightened gaze of
Beatrix.
What was that which he read in those timid, trusting eyes lifted to his
face with a shy look? Was it love?
With a low cry of rapture, he sprang to her side and caught the girl's
slight form in his arms.
"Beatrix! Beatrix!" he whispered, passionately, "we have not long known
each other, but I love you! I think I have loved you ever since our
first meeting, when you risked your precious life to save mine--long
before I suspected the truth--that you were the young girl whom I was
sent to escort to this place--this cursed place where I wish you had
never come. I love you, darling--love you with all my heart. Be my wife
at once, Beatrix, and we will leave this place. Let Bernard Dane keep
his money; we do not want it. I am strong, and can work for us both.
Say yes, Beatrix, darling--say yes! For surely no man ever loved a
woman as I love you."
And then he stopped short, and his heart grew faint and cold within his
breast.
He had forgotten that he was Serena Lynne's promised husband, that he
was bound in honor to make Serena Lynne his wife.