A QUESTION OF TWO MORALITIES.
The road towards the block-house ran along the river bank past the Kofn
Ford. They went slowly on together through the starry windy night,
Rallywood with his hand on the bridle and the wounded man holding limply
to the saddle.
The _tsa_ raved and rocked in the pine trees, through the pauses of the
storm a wolf barked, and the black, tumbled water was still swelling and
gulping under the low stars. But the tumult of noises only served to
accentuate the hideous loneliness which is the salient characteristic of
the Frontier.
Counsellor, with an unaccustomed warfare in his heart--rage and the pity
of it working together--stared into space across the leaping river.
As the two men drew near the ford, they saw the dim figure of a horseman
riding down the bank on the opposite side, with the evident intention of
crossing. The approaches to the ford were flooded, for the angry water
fretted out its banks at such times and deepened into dangerous swirls
over the crossing-place.
Rallywood checked the horse to shout and signal to the man that the ford
was impassable, but his voice was drowned by the harsh throated noises
of the night. Weak as was the starlight, something of the loose reckless
swing in the saddle told Rallywood that the rider was Anthony Unziar.
Unziar galloped down the stones of the incline and plunged into the
torrent. It was clear from where he took the water that he intended to
make for the little beach below the block-house. His course was marked
by a whitish rise in the water; now and then the watchers on the bank
lost sight of the struggling figure as a tree-trunk whirled past and hid
him, or he seemed to sink in some tormented eddy, but he came into view
again and always nearer. At the last moment, whether horse and man were
exhausted or whether a furious tangle of cross-currents caught them,
they were swung round and away from the landing-point.
It was now evident that Unziar saw Rallywood, for in answer to the
latter's signs that he must make for the shallows lower down, Unziar
waved some object over his head as if to call attention to it. The suck
of the current was fast drawing him away, but with another strong effort
he got the horse's head round; they heard his faint shout upon the wind
then the words came more clearly:
'Carry them on--Selpdorf!' He flung something forwards; the gale caught
and hurled it on to the rocks at Rallywood's feet.
When they looked again Unziar had disappeared.
Hurrying up to the block-house, Rallywood sent off some troopers to
Unziar's assistance; then with some difficulty got his prisoner, who was
stiff and dizzy, on his feet and supported him to the room where Madame
de Sagan and Valerie had rested on the night of the snow-storm.
Rallywood did all that could be done for Counsellor, then he sat down at
the narrow table to face his position. The _tsa_ battered at the little
window, and the camp-bed creaked under Counsellor's weight as he turned
and groaned upon it, while Rallywood sat with soul and body absorbed in
the consciousness that at last the time of which Counsellor had warned
him was come, the time when he should find his enemies dressed in red.
Under almost any other circumstances it would have been possible to
retire from the position with honour. Had war been declared between
England and Maäsau, he could have resigned his commission. But to-night
he found himself without any such means of escape, fast in the jaws of
the cleverly-contrived trap set for him by Selpdorf.
But he scarcely yet knew the worst. Presently Counsellor spoke.
'This thing has gone beyond a joke,' he said, 'What does it mean?' The
glance from under the overhanging gray brows had regained its fire.
'My orders are simple enough. I am to keep you here until to-morrow
afternoon at three o'clock.'
'By doing so you will ruin Maäsau as a free State and bring a most
serious defeat upon the British policy.' Counsellor's voice was
rasping. 'Are you prepared for that?'
Both men were strenuous, and bred deep into the bone of each were the
same dominant qualities.
'I am prepared to carry out my orders,' answered Rallywood; 'I had them
practically from the Duke himself.'
'The Duke is of the same mind in which I found him at the Castle, though
he may be forced to dissemble,' asserted Counsellor; then with a twist
he sat up as his glance fell upon the square dark object lying on the
table between them. 'John Rallywood, do you know what that is?'
'The despatches thrown to me by Unziar.'
'That case is mine; it contains my private instructions; you can guess
something of their importance from the fact that I have been robbed of
them. You must give them back to me! As an Englishman and an honest man,
I call upon you to give them back to me.'
Rallywood's long nervous fingers closed over the packet.
'It is impossible!' he said. 'As an Englishman, yes, but as an honest
man, well, it--it is hard to say.'
'Are you mad?' cried Counsellor.
'I have not had long to think it out, and it is a tangled question,'
replied Rallywood wearily.
'A tangled question? I take it you are first of all an Englishman?'
'In my private capacity, and that deals with my private honour; but I
have undertaken another responsibility from which I cannot withdraw at
pleasure. I am a sworn soldier of Maäsau, and as such my public honour
has first claim.'
It was a simple rendering of a tremendous problem, but it served for
Rallywood.
'Then----' said Counsellor.
There was a rush and a scuffle, but Rallywood was young and strong and
more active than the Major.
'Confound you!' Counsellor fell back a step or two, breathing hard.
There are some situations which by their elemental force destroy all
other emotions. The situation at Kofn guard-house was one of these. The
point at issue between these two men pierced to the bed-rock of national
loyalty. Perhaps Blivinski was right. Love of country was part of their
physical equipment, yet by the irony of circumstances they were pitted
against each other.
'Will you give me your parole?' asked Rallywood with his back to the
door.
Counsellor drew out a big watch.
'For fifteen minutes,' he said. 'It is now half-past nine; at forty-five
minutes past I shall hold myself once more free to do what I can. You
understand? In the meantime we will talk.'
Rallywood motioned Counsellor back to the camp bed while he himself sat
down on the table.
'I fancy, John, we are both rather in the dark about all this,' began
Counsellor. 'Tell me your story, and I'll tell you mine.'
'My orders were clear enough,' Rallywood said. 'I was to take charge of
a prisoner, to be brought to me by the incoming mail at the spot where I
met you. You arrived queerly, I admit, rolling along the down line, but
you are undoubtedly the person of whom I was instructed to take charge.'
'Ah--I begin to see. There may be many men in Maäsau who would rob me,
but there is only one man who could do it so clumsily.'
'Count Sagan?'
'Naturally. But to return, I left you at the Castle looking for
Colendorp; whether you found him or not does not come into this affair.
Perhaps he was in Sagan's way and he removed him----'
'With a knife.'
'That is quite in the Count's manner. Well, I got safely to England,
where my business took a day and a half longer than I expected. I
received my despatches, and five hundred miles from here I took the
precaution of removing them from my despatch-box. After we left the
Frontier station I noticed that our train had lost half its length, and
that I was in the last carriage. I didn't like it. It is never healthy
for a despatch-box to travel in an end compartment. That is tempting of
Fate.'
Counsellor stopped as if to collect his thoughts again.
'After a little the pace slackened and I felt a sharp jolt. They were
switching me on to the down line, an improvement upon the original plan
so like the Count's manner that it almost proves he must have been on
the spot superintending operations. Next it was a face at the window. I
used my revolver, but they stunned me and robbed me and left it to the
night mail to close my mouth for good. Now you know where you are, John
Rallywood; you are abetting a crime, and a crime against your own
country, against England!'
Rallywood laughed, but a laugh against oneself has a bad sound with it.
'It seems the day has come when I find my enemies dressed in red!' he
said.
'Why, yes, if you choose to put it so. If you either carry these
despatches on for Unziar or remain to keep me prisoner, you play
Germany's game for her.'
'Perhaps not,' suggested Rallywood. 'The Chancellor sent me here.'
Counsellor's short angry grunt of derision surprised him.
'Mademoiselle Valerie may be loyal, but Selpdorf is at the bottom of the
whole plot. Does he guess there is any bond of liking or interest
between you and his daughter? If so, he sent you here to break you! He
knew that between the conflicting claims of a man's public and private
honour lie shame and often death. Do you not see that amongst them they
are bent on ruining you? Just now, when I hoped all might be yours that
a man can ask for! Your Chicago cousin at Queen's Fain is dying and you
are his heir. Yet you are to be ruined--ruined by the hate of Elmur and
Sagan, and what are you to Selpdorf but a fly to be crushed whose
presence annoys him?'
'Are you sure of this? His sending me to be witness of your
assassination fits in badly with the theory of his collusion.'
'Perfectly; Sagan stultified the scheme, that was all. Selpdorf forgot
that Sagan is a wild beast who can only be fed with blood!' Counsellor
paused. 'The highway robbery with violence to which I have been
subjected is Sagan's bull-headed translation of Selpdorf's hint to
detain me. Thus, according to their calculations, before I can get to
Révonde the Duke will have been induced to lend himself to some other
course. It is not hard to read their tactics. They run on old lines. So
you see there is only one way out of it--you must help me, John.'
What advice he might have offered to Rallywood as simple man to man
occupied no place in Counsellor's intentions. He was England's envoy as
opposed to her antagonists, and into the scale in her favour he meant to
throw the whole of his personal influence with Rallywood.
Rallywood made a sign of dissent.
'But surely you will not side with Sagan's party as against the Duke?'
urged Counsellor.
'The Duke has been known to change his mind before now.'
Counsellor bit savagely at his moustache. The minutes were flying.
'I wonder if old Gustave has allowed himself to be humbugged yet once
more!' he said to himself. 'John, on which side do you suppose Valerie
Selpdorf would wish to see you?'
'We need not mention her,' answered Rallywood stiffly.
'What? Have you not spoken? Does she not know?'
'She knows--yes, and others know too that I love her. But it is ended.
There is nothing more; there never can be now.'
Counsellor put his hand to his head.
'Will you help me? That after all is the question.'
Rallywood looked down at him, and Counsellor fancied there was a shadow
of reproach in the glance.
'For you that is the question, but for me there is another,' Rallywood
said deliberately. 'Until I can resign my oath to Maäsau, honour holds
me her sworn soldier.'
'Of all things in the world what is so arbitrary as honour?' cried
Counsellor. 'Honour is a wild flower; God plants it, but man prunes it,
and the devil only can be responsible for the sports one sometimes meets
with. Well, go your own and the devil's way!' The Major turned
irritably round. 'In my creed a man's first duty is to his country.'
'I wish I could see it so,' said Rallywood sadly. Then the hush of the
mighty battle fell upon the little room. The air was stifling to both,
for Counsellor knew what was in his companion's heart and even felt a
far-off pity for him, but no relenting. Rallywood's handsome brown face
had grown suddenly sharp and aged, and his gray eyes contracted to dark
points under their frowning lids. The man was looking on the wreck of
his life, and slowly coming to the conclusion that he must choose that
course which would add the defeat of the land he loved to his own ruin.
He would have died for England, happy in the sacrifice, but to lose all
in her despite was a bitter thing.
'Time's up,' said the Major. 'You have one minute to give me your
decision.'
'A soldier should see no further than the point of his sword,' replied
Rallywood. 'An oath stands between me and my desires. These despatches
may be yours, but you know how they have come into my charge. As long as
I am a soldier of Maäsau, my duty to her comes first of all. I cannot
let you go nor can I give up these despatches! Curse you!' a strong
flash of emotion breaking in upon the restraint of his speech, 'why have
you no sword? If you had killed me----'
Counsellor put his watch back into his pocket.
'A man's country should be his conscience,' said the old diplomatist,
as one who pronounces a definite and unassailable truth. Then he waited.
Rallywood stood up.
'I cannot argue,' he said, 'but Major, you will believe me when I say
that I see my duty plainly. I refuse!'
'I have had a great regard for you,' replied Counsellor slowly, 'but if
you were my own son, by Heaven, I'd blow your brains out to-night! Give
me those despatches.'
There was a rapid movement and the gleam of a pistol barrel in his hand.
'Thank God!' It was not more than the faintest whisper from Rallywood as
he sprang at his companion.
But there was no report, only an ominous click as Counsellor flung the
unloaded revolver in Rallywood's face with a bitter word.
'It was not loaded.'
Hardly had they closed when the door was opened and a couple of men
supported Unziar into the room. The water ran in streams from his
clothes to the floor, while he stood and stared at the two combatants
who had fallen apart.
'I suppose they sent you to meet me, Rallywood,' he said in English; 'it
is lucky, for I'm done! You must carry those despatches on without
delay, for they must reach the Chancellor at the earliest possible
moment. Go; there is no time to lose!'
Rallywood pointed to Counsellor.
'This gentleman is my prisoner. You will keep him here until further
orders. Meantime I will ride on with these to Révonde.'
Counsellor and Unziar remained together, but no word passed between them
till out in the windy night they heard the beat of hoofs as Rallywood
rode away on his mission.