HOW THE NIGHT ENDED
One year ago my path was green,
My footstep light, my brow serene;
Alas! and could it have been so
One year ago?
There is a love that is to last
When the hot days of youth are past:
Such love did a sweet maid bestow
One year ago.
I took a leaflet from her braid
And gave it to another maid.
Love, broken should have been thy how,
One year ago.
--_Landor_.
As my horse whinnied and I turned into the wood a man walked boldly
toward me.
"My dear Donovan, I have been consoling your horse during your absence.
It's a sad habit we have fallen into of wandering about at night. I
liked your dinner, but you were rather too anxious to get rid of me. I
came by boat myself!"
Gillespie knocked the ashes from his pipe and thrust it into his
pocket. I was in no frame of mind for talk with him, a fact which he
seemed to surmise.
"It's late, for a fact," he continued; "and we both ought to be in bed;
but our various affairs require diligence."
"What are you doing over here?" I demanded. I was too weary and too
perplexed for his nonsense, and in no mood for confidences. I needed
time for reflection and I had no intention of seeking or of imparting
information at this juncture.
"Well, to tell the truth--"
"You'd better!"
"To tell the truth, my dear Donovan, since I left your hospitable board
I have been deeply perplexed over some important questions of human
conduct. Are you interested in human types? Have you ever noticed the
man who summons all porters and waiters by the pleasing name of George?
The name in itself is respectable enough; nor is its generic use
pernicious--a matter of taste only. But the same man may be identified
otherwise by his proneness to consume the cabinet pudding, the
chocolate ice-cream and the fruit in season from the chastening
American bill of fare, after partaking impartially of the preliminary
fish, flesh and fowl. He is confidential with hotel clerks,
affectionate with chambermaids and all telephone girls are Nellie to
him. Types, my dear Donovan--"
"That's enough! I want to know what you are doing!" and in my anger I
shook him by the shoulders.
"Well, if you must have it, after I started to the village I changed my
mind about going, and I was anxious to see whether Holbrook was really
here; so I got a launch and came over. I stopped at the island but saw
no one there, and I came up the creek until I grounded; then I struck
inland, looking for the road. It might save us both embarrassment,
Irishman, if we give notice of each other's intentions, particularly at
night. I hung about, thinking you might appear, and--"
"You are a poor liar, Buttons. You didn't come here alone!"--and I
drove my weary wits hard in an effort to account for his unexpected
appearance.
"All is lost; I am discovered," he mocked.
He had himself freed my horse; I now took the rein and refastened it to
the tree.
"Well, inexplicable Donovan!"
I laughed, pleased to find that my delay annoyed him. I was confident
that he was not abroad at this hour for nothing, and it again occurred
to me that we were on different sides of the matter. My weariness fell
from me like a cloak, as the events of the past hour flashed fresh in
my mind.
"Now," I said, dropping the rein and patting the horse's nose for a
moment, "you may go with me or you may sit here; but if you would avoid
trouble don't try to interfere with me."
I did not doubt that he had been sent to watch me; and his immediate
purpose seemed to be to detain me.
"I had hoped you would sit down and talk over the Monroe Doctrine, or
the partition of Africa, or something equally interesting," he
remarked. "You disappoint me, my dear benefactor."
"And you make me very tired at the end of a tiresome day, Gillespie.
Please continue to watch my horse; I'm off."
He kept at my elbow, as I expected he would, babbling away with his
usual volubility in an effort, now frank enough, to hold me back; but I
ignored his talk and plunged on through the wood toward the creek.
Henry Holbrook must, I argued, have had time enough to get out of the
creek and back to the island; but what mischief Gillespie was
furthering in his behalf I could not imagine.
There was a gradual rise toward the creek and we were obliged to cling
to the bushes in making our ascent. Suddenly, as I paused for breath,
Gillespie grasped my arm.
"For God's sake, stop! This is no affair of yours. On my honor
there's nothing that affects you here."
"I will see whether there is or not!" I exclaimed, throwing him off,
but he kept close beside me.
We gained the trail that ran along the creek, and I paused to listen.
"Where's your launch?"
"Find it," he replied succinctly.
I had my bearings pretty well, and set off toward the lake, Gillespie
trudging behind in the narrow path. When we had gone about twenty
yards a lantern glimmered below and I heard voices raised in excited
colloquy. Gillespie started forward at a run.
"Keep back! This is my affair!"
"I'm making it mine," I replied, and flung in ahead of him.
I ran forward rapidly, the voices growing louder, and soon heard men
stumbling and falling about in conflict. A woman's voice now rose in a
sharp cry:
"Let go of him! Let go of him!"
Gillespie flashed by me down the bank to the water's edge, where the
struggle ended abruptly. I was not far behind, and I saw Henry
Holbrook in the grasp of the Italian, who was explaining to the woman,
who held the lantern high above her head, that he was only protecting
himself. Gillespie had caught hold of the sailor, who continued to
protest his innocence of any wish to injure Holbrook; and for a moment
we peered through the dark, taking account of one another.
"So it's you, is it?" said Henry Holbrook as the Italian freed him and
his eyes fell on me. "I should like to know what you mean by meddling
in my affairs. By God, I've enough to do with my own flesh and blood
without dealing with outsiders."
Helen Holbrook turned swiftly and held the lantern toward me, and when
she saw me shrugged her shoulders.
"You really give yourself a great deal of unnecessary concern, Mr.
Donovan."
"You are a damned impudent meddler!" blurted Henry Holbrook. "I have
had you watched. You--you--"
He darted toward me, but the Italian again caught and held him, and
another altercation began between them. Holbrook was wrought to a high
pitch of excitement and cursed everybody who had in any way interfered
with him.
"Come, Helen," said Gillespie, stepping to the girl's side; and at this
Henry Holbrook turned upon him viciously.
"You are another meddlesome outsider. Your father was a pig--a pig, do
you understand? If it hadn't been for him I shouldn't be here
to-night, camping out like an outlaw. And you've got to stop annoying
my daughter!"
Helen turned to the Italian and spoke to him rapidly in his own tongue.
"You must take him away. He is not himself. Tell him I have done the
best I could. Tell him--"
She lowered her voice so that I heard no more. Holbrook was still
heaping abuse upon Gillespie, who stood submissively by; but Helen ran
up the bank, the lantern light flashing eerily about her. She paused
at the top, waiting for Gillespie, who, it was patent, had brought her
to this rendezvous and who kept protectingly at her heels.
The Italian drew Holbrook toward the boat that lay at the edge of the
lake. He seemed to forget me in his anger against Gillespie, and he
kept turning toward the path down which the girl's lantern faintly
twinkled. Gillespie kept on after the girl, the lantern flashing more
rarely through the turn in the path, until I caught the threshing of
his launch as it swung out into the lake.
I drew back, seeing nothing to gain by appealing to Holbrook in his
present overwrought state. The Italian had his hands full, and was
glad, I judged, to let me alone. A moment later he had pushed off his
boat, and I heard the sound of oars receding toward the island.
I found my horse, led him deeper into the wood and threw off the
saddle. Then I walked down the road until I found a barn, and crawled
into the loft and slept.