A STRANGE MEETING
The peace of the night knocked vainly at the heart of the man as he
moved along over the grass-grown cart track, which skirted those fields
abutting on the pathway marking the broken line of the lofty Yorkshire
cliffs.
The warmth of the July air left him utterly forgetful of the light
evening clothes in which he was clad, just as the grass-grown track
failed to remind him that the shoes he wore had never been intended for
country rambles. The soft sea breeze fanned his cheeks, and the bracing
air added vigor of body if it left his mental feelings wholly
uninspired.
For the time, at least, Ruxton Farlow was living within himself. His
mental digestion was devouring hungrily of that force which had come to
make his contemporaries realize that here was a man of that unusual
calibre which must ultimately make him a leader of men in whatever walk
of life he chose for that strenuous journey.
The full moon, shedding a ghostly glory on every hand, yielded him the
necessary guidance for his footsteps. It served his purpose, but its
beauty for once left him unimpressed. The diamond-studded sky suggested
no jewel-bedecked cloak of mysterious night as at other times it was
wont to appeal. All romance was dead for the time, as though the
shutter of his mental camera had been closed with a slam for the
development of the plates within which held those living, grim pictures
of the life he felt himself surrounded by on every hand.
He passed the last stile and faced the open sea. That smooth limitless
expanse, sighing and restless, as it gently rocked its bosom like some
aged crone nursing the infant she was too old to bear herself. He flung
himself full length upon a rustling bed of heather. His head was
towards the sea, and craning over the very edge of the dizzy cliff.
There was no thought in his mind of the dangerous proximity. He had
known these cliffs almost from his birth up. They were the friends of
his whole life, and their possible latent treachery was unthinkable to
him. He propped his face between his two hands and sank his elbows deep
into the heather. Then, like some schoolboy, his feet were raised
behind him, and crossed, while his eyes searched that mysterious
horizon lost in the shadows of a perfect night.
It has been said that Ruxton Farlow was an idealist. But let there be
no misapprehension about it. His idealism was practical and full of
sanity. He was no visionary. His mind was ever groping for the material
welfare of his country. The moral welfare, he felt, should be in hands
far more capable in that direction than his life and learning had made
his. It had been his habit of life to feed his mind upon hard and
incontrovertible facts which bore upon the goal of his ideals. He
accepted nothing which was merely backed by academic logic. He demanded
the logic of practice. Theory was impossible to him, unless that theory
was demonstrated in practice. Thus it was he kept his mind alert for
facts--and again facts.
The facts which concerned him at the moment were many, and he found in
them all, when arranged in due order, one stream like some rushing
river which raced on its tempestuous way to the wide sea of disaster
beyond.
The starting-point of his facts was the truth that no modern
combination of force, however superlative its effort, could crush out
of international existence the power of two peoples with aggregate
populations of virile strength of some hundred and odd million souls.
The war had proved that. And the only possible peace resulting from it
had added the conviction that, from a peace point of view, the war had
proved utterly useless and damaging. Besides the enormous expenditure
of treasure and the vast sacrifices of human life, it had given the
world a nominal peace backed by an aggravation of international hatred
and spleen a thousand times greater than had ever been known in history
since the days of bare-limbed savagery.
What then was the outlook? The man stirred with that nervous suggestion
of a disturbed mind. War--war! On every hand war--again. Once again all
the moral development of the human race towards those higher planes of
light, learning, and religious ideals was shadowed by the spectre which
during the last three years had flung men back to the shadows of an
ancient savagery and barbarism.
The savage mind of the Teuton had broken out into a fierce
conflagration of barbarism. Again it would smoulder, like some
slumbering volcano, only to break out again when the arrogance of the
German heart told it that the time was ripe to avenge the indignity of
its earlier failure.
Ruxton Farlow accepted this as his basis of fact, and followed the
river down its turbulent course towards that sea of disaster which he
already saw looming ahead. It required no imagination. The course was a
straight one, straight as the crow flies. For that passion of hatred
which inspired the flood brooked no obstruction to its course. It
clamored for its goal and swept all side issues out of its path. Great
Britain lay in that sea beyond. Great Britain, who, in German eyes,
owned the earth, and incidentally had snatched even those inadequate
colonies from her bosom, which, through long years of diplomatic
trickery, she had contrived to acquire. The Prussian passion for
conquest had been changed through the late war to the passionate
national hatred of the German people against Great Britain. This was
clear. So clear that the light which shone upon it was painful to his
mental vision.
What then was the resulting position of the country he loved? The
lessons of the war were many--so many. Yet preeminently outstanding was
one fact which smothered all others in its significance, and reduced
them all almost to nothingness. His father had dwelt upon the lack of
national spirit when war broke out. That had been remedied. The country
had changed during those three years of suffering and sacrifice. No,
his father had missed the great lesson. Yet it was so simple--so simple.
The man raised his head higher, and folded his arms under him as a
support. He gazed down at the calm summer moonlit sea. So calm, so
peaceful, so--seductive to the straining mind.
He began to realize the yearning of the suicide for the peace beyond
life. How easy to solve all problems. How easy to rid oneself of the
duties, the harassing, cruel duties imposed by the Creator of all life.
The soft murmur of the breaking swell upon the beach below. One plunge
beneath that shimmering surface and--nothing. In that instant there
flashed through his mind a memory of just such another sea. The perfect
summer sea. The great ship, one of the wonders of the age. A stealing
trail of foam across the glass-like surface. An explosion. Then fifteen
hundred souls solve the problem of that--nothing! Ah, that was it. That
was the Danger. He knew. Every thinking human being knew that if
Germany had begun war with a fleet of some three or four hundred
submarines, three weeks would have terminated the war so far as Britain
was concerned.
He moved over on to his side, and his movement was a further expression
of nervous tension. He propped his head upon one hand with his eyes
fixed on the vague horizon beyond which the Teutonic giant was
peacefully slumbering, and his thought was spoken aloud.
"Is he slumbering?" he asked of the sea. "Is he? Will he ever sleep
again? No, I think not. Not at least while there is a chance that his
intelligence behind the machine can render an island home untenable."
"Night claims from the overburdened soul the truth which daylight is
denied."
Ruxton Farlow sat up with a jolt. His dark, searching eyes were turned
from the sea. They were turned in the direction whence the voice, which
had answered him, had proceeded. In the brilliant moonlight he saw the
outline of a figure standing upon the footpath which ran parallel to
the coast-line. The figure was not quite distinct, but it was clearly a
woman's, which corroborated the conviction he had received at the sound
of the voice.
"But for once she has betrayed her--trust," he said, and a feeling of
irritation swept over him that he had permitted himself to respond to
the challenge of this stranger, who was probably something in the
nature of one of life's vagrants, wandering homeless over the deserted
ways of the countryside.
Then he discovered to his further annoyance that his response had
brought forth its logical result. The figure was moving towards him,
and as it drew near he became aware of that delightful feminine rustle
which no man ever yet found unseductive.
The woman made no verbal reply until she was standing before him.
Ruxton was still sitting on the heather, but his eyes were wide with
astonished admiration, and his clean-shaven lips were parted, which
added to his whole expression of incredulous amazement.
The woman standing before him was no vagrant, unless a vagrant could
possess a queenly presence, and an attire which suggested the best
efforts of London or Paris. He stared, stared as might some schoolboy
budding into manhood at the sight of a perfect womanhood. Then, in a
moment, questions raced through his head. Who was she, and where--where
did she come from? What freak of fortune had set her wandering those
cliffs alone--and at night?
She was beautifully tall and crowned with a royal wealth of hair which
remained hatless. Its color was not certain in the moonlight, but
Ruxton felt that it must be red-gold. He could think of no other color
which could match such a presence. Her figure, sharply outlined in the
moonlight, was superb. It suggested all he had ever seen in those
ardent dreams of youth. Her face possessed something of the reflected
glory of the moon lit by eyes whose color was hidden from him, but
which shone like great dull jewels full of a living fire.
All these things he realized in one swift comprehensive glance. But in
another moment his whole attention was absorbed by the rich voice, the
tones of which were like the softest music of some foreign southern
land.
"It is scarcely fair to blame the night," she said, in smiling protest.
All unprepared for the encounter Ruxton had nothing but a stupid
monosyllable to offer.
"No," he said, and a sigh somehow escaped him.
Then, in a moment, the blood was set swiftly pulsating through his
veins.
"May I sit down?" the woman enquired. "I have had a long walk, and am a
little tired," she added in explanation.
But she waited for no permission. And somehow Ruxton felt that her
expression of weariness was far below the mark. She appeared quite
exhausted.
"You are more than a _little_ tired," he said, with urgent solicitude.
Now that her face was nearer to his level he could see that she was
indeed very, very beautiful. Her eyes were large and almost oriental in
their shape. Her cheeks were as delicate as the petals of a lily. The
contour of her whole face was a perfect oval with just sufficient
lengthening to give it character.
She did not deny him. But a smile lit her eyes.
"This is delicious," she said, with a sigh of content, turning her face
towards the sea, and drinking in deep draughts of fresh, salt air.
Ruxton endeavored to gather his faculties, which had been completely
scattered by the thrilling shock of the encounter. He felt himself to
be like a callow youth of seventeen rather than a man of over
thirty-five, a man whose public life had made intercourse with women of
society a matter of every day.
"You have had a long walk?" he enquired wonderingly. "But at night? On
these cliffs? You are ten miles from Dorby, and there is no habitation
between--except Dorby Towers. Beyond this there is a village or two,
but no railway for miles." He had made up his mind that she did not
belong to this district. Her costume was still in his thoughts.
"I did not come from Dorby. Nor from any of those villages. Still, I
have had a long walk. I have been on my feet nearly three hours."
As she offered no further explanation Ruxton urged her.
"Will you not explain--more?"
"Is it needed?"
The woman faced round, and her Eastern eyes were smiling frankly into
his.
Ruxton had no alternative. He desired none. The situation had suddenly
gripped him. He was caught in its toils, and delighted that it was so.
This woman's beauty, her frank unconventionality, were wholly charming.
He asked nothing better than that she should satisfy her whim, and sit
there, beside him, talking--talking of what she pleased so long as he
listened to the rich music in her voice, and could watch the play of
her beautiful, mobile features.
"No," he said deliberately. "There is no need." Then he made a
comprehensive gesture with one hand. "The night is beautiful, it is a
night of romance and adventure. Let us forget there are such things as
conventionality, and just--talk. Let us talk as this silver night
prompts. Let us try and forget that painful thought which daylight
brings us all. As you say, the night is the time of truth, while
daylight demands the subterfuge which conceals it."
But the woman did not respond to his invitation. A little pucker of
sudden distress marred her brows.
"Conventionality. I had forgotten," she said. Then her manner became
suddenly earnest. She leant slightly forward, and her shining eyes
warned Ruxton of the genuineness of their appeal. "Yes, I had truly
forgotten," she went on. "Will you--will you forget for the moment
there is the difference of sex between us? Will you forget that I am a
woman who has wilfully thrust her presence upon a man, a stranger, and
laid herself open to a dreadful interpretation of her actions? Will you
simply regard me as some one who is striving to unravel those tangled
skeins, which, just now, seem to be enveloping a helpless humanity,
and, in her effort, has sought out the only man whom she feels can help
her--Mr. Ruxton Farlow, the man who will one day rise to be a great
ruler in his country?"
"You sought me out?" enquired Ruxton, ignoring the tribute so frankly
spoken.
"That is why I have been on my feet for three hours. Will you do as I
have asked?"
The charm of this beautiful creature was greater than the man knew. The
situation, as she put it, was wholly impossible. Yet her fascination
was such that he was impelled to hold out his hand.
"For the time, at least, we are comrades in a common cause," he said,
smiling. "My hand on it."
The woman laid a white-gloved hand in his, and the thought in the man's
mind was regret at the necessity for gloves.
Ruxton stretched himself out on the heather again. This time he was on
his side, supporting his head upon his hand and facing her. The moon
was shining full down upon her uncovered hair, and illuminating the
perfect features which held the man's gaze.
"And now for the tangled skein," he said with attempted lightness,
while his eyes lit whimsically.
"Ruxton Farlow doesn't need a woman to point the dreadful tangle in
which humanity is involved--just now. He knows more of the threads than
perhaps any man of his country. He was thinking of them when he was run
to earth here upon this scented waste of Nature's riot. He was probably
pulling apart the wretched threads himself, seeking hope in his
endeavor, hope for the future, hope for the future of this land we both
love, and for its people. Doubtless he, as others, has found the task
something more than arduous, and no doubt he has searched the scene
that lies below him, yearning for that peace of mind which oblivion has
yielded in recent days to so many souls which have passed beneath the
shining surface which encircles this iron-bound coast."
Ruxton's eyes devoured the entrancing animation which accompanied the
words. An added amazement had leapt within him. She had fathomed his
secret feelings as his eyes had searched the surface of the shimmering
summer sea. Her understanding was even more uncanny than had been her
sudden apparition. Who was she? he kept reiterating to himself. Who?
And where did she come from?
"I felt all that," he found himself saying.
"I know. I have felt it all, too. But your feeling had no inspiration
in cowardice. It is the mind of the imaginative that sees an
exaggeration in all that offends the sensibilities. It is the mind that
distorts with painful fancy the threat which has not yet fallen. It is
the mind which is inspired by a heart strong with hope, which in its
turn owes its inspiration to a spirit possessed of a great power to do.
Of such spirit are the leaders of men. Their mental agony is theirs
alone, they suffer and do for those others who do not possess power to
do for themselves."
The woman's eyes were turned upon the distant horizon again. Their gaze
was introspective, and she talked as she thought, regardless for the
time of the man beside her.
But he was more mindful. No word of hers was lost upon him. He was
marvelling at her depth of understanding, he was marvelling at her
simplicity of expression. And, through it all, he was noting and
endeavoring to place that suggestion of foreign intonation in her
perfect English accent. More and more was this splendid creature
becoming an enigma. More and more was he becoming absorbed in her, and
more surely was his promise of simple comradeship becoming an
impossibility.
"And the threat--which inspires these phantasms?" he said, as the
musical tones ceased, and the murmur of the sea came up to them in
their eyrie.
"It is a reality."
Ruxton stirred. He sat up once more, and his gaze, for the moment, left
the beautiful profile, and wandered towards the eastern horizon.
"I know," he said simply.
"I have seen," came the impressive rejoinder.
Ruxton's eyes came back to the woman's face.
"Will you tell me?"
His request was made without a shadow of excitement. That was his way
when confronted with a crisis. Now he understood why she had worn
herself to weariness for three hours on her feet. But for all the
interest of the moment his mind was still questioning--Who?
"The telling would be worthless. It would convey simply--words. There
is better than telling."
"But the world is at peace now," Ruxton suggested.
"It was at peace before, when--the telling came from all ends of the
world."
"And no one listened."
"Those who could have helped refused to hear. And those who heard were
powerless."
"So now you come----?"
"To one who, eschewing all that his wealth and position could give him
of life's leisure and delight, has dedicated his whole future to the
land I--have learned to love."
"And what would you have me do?" Ruxton was smiling, but behind his
smile was a brain searching and hungry.
"Do? Ah, that is it." The woman turned swiftly. All her calm had been
caught up in a hot emotion. Her eyes were wide and shining as she leant
towards him and searched his fair face and dark eyes. "There is peace
as you said. But it is only words written upon paper with ink that is
manufactured, and by a pen also manufactured. The whole peace is only
manufactured. There is no peace in the hearts of the leaders of
nations, only hate, which has inspired a passionate yearning for
revenge, a passion which has intensified a thousandfold all effort
towards the destruction of the hated. Need I tell you of the Teuton
feelings? Ruined, blasted as has been that great machine, both military
and industrial, there is still the Teuton mind ready and yearning for
such a revenge as will stagger all conscious life. Well may the
sensitive imagination distort and magnify the threat that cannot yet be
grasped. Well may the straining mind contemplate with ecstasy the
oblivion gained by those poor creatures on the _Lusitania_. But for
those who would learn, and know, and see, there is a better, braver
death to die than the bosom of the ocean can offer. I tell you there is
work for every true Briton, man and woman. Work that can offer little
else than the reward of a conscience that, maybe, is rendered easy in
death. The men who would lead Britain must be men with eyes, and ears,
and mind wide open. The time has gone by when England's politicians may
sit down in luxurious offices and enjoy the liberal salaries this
country so generously dispenses. They must learn first hand of the
dangers which threaten these impregnable shores. Impregnable? That has
been the fetish which has been the ruin of Britain's national spirit.
But I tell you, as surely as the sun will rise to-morrow I can prove to
you that impregnability can never again be applied to these splendid
shores. Remember, these are the days when victories and destruction are
wrought by thought in peace time. The days of simple brute strength
have died for all time. And that is why I have travelled far to seek
Ruxton Farlow."
"You have sought me to tell me all this that I have thought for months.
That I have felt. That in my heart I have known as surely as that night
follows day. You have sought _me_," he added reflectively.
The stranger leant still further towards him, and the man thrilled at
the contiguity. So close was she that her breath fanned his cheek, and
he found himself gazing into the eager, beautiful eyes.
"And have I not done right? Have I not done right to come to you, who
have felt, and thought, and known these things for months--if I can
show you even more than in your worst moments you have ever dreamed of?"
It was an intense moment. Its intensity for the man was well-nigh
overpowering. Was this wonderful creature some brilliant siren luring
him to destruction for very wantonness, or in the interest of others?
Was she just as she represented, just an ardent patriot, to whom chance
had revealed some damaging secret of his country's enemies, or was she
merely a woman endowed with superlative beauty exercising her
attraction in those enemies' interests? These things flashed through
his brain, even as those feelings of sex stirred his blood and made for
denial. For a moment the mental side of him rose dominant.
"You are a foreigner," he challenged, in a voice he hardly recognized
as his own.
"I am a Pole."
The admission came promptly.
"You speak English--perfectly," he persisted in the same voice.
"I am--glad."
"Where were you--during the war?"
"In England."
The questions and answers flew back and forth without a semblance of
hesitation.
"Yes, yes." Then the man mused. "There were thousands of foreigners at
large in England--then."
"But not all were--spies."
The man lowered his eyes. A flush stole up to his brow. It was a flush
of shame.
"I--I beg your pardon," he said. The mind had yielded to the man.
"Why should you? Your country should be first in your thoughts. You
have not hurt me."
Ruxton passed one hand across his broad, fair forehead.
"But you--a Pole. It seems----"
"It seems that I must have some motive other than I have stated. I
have." A bitter laugh accompanied the admission. Quite suddenly she
threw her arms wide in a dramatic gesture. "Look at me," she cried.
"You see a Pole, but before all things you see a woman. Give riot to
your heart, and leave your head for other things. Then you will
understand my motives. I have lived through centuries of horror during
that terrible war. A horror that even you, who know the horrors
committed, will never be able to understand. The innocent women and
children in Belgium and France, and my own country, on your own shores,
on the high seas. O God," she buried her face in her hands. Then, in a
moment, she looked up. "Think--think, if at some future time the Teuton
demons overrun this beautiful land I love. The past, those horrors of
which I have spoken are nothing to that which will be committed here in
England. Now do you understand? Now--will you let me show you what--I
can show you?"
"I think I understand--now."
"And you will grant my request?" The urgency was intense. But in a
moment the woman went on in a changed tone. A soft smile accompanied
her next words. "But no. Don't answer now. It would not be fair to
yourself. It would not be fair to your country. It would even deny all
that I believe of you. Keep your answer. You will give it to me--later.
I will not let you forget. Now I must go."
She rose to her feet, and Ruxton watched her with stirring feelings as
she occupied herself with that truly feminine process of smoothing out
the creases of the costume which had suffered by contact with the
heather.
At last she held out her white-gloved hand, and Ruxton sprang to his
feet. He realized that she was about to vanish out of his life as
swiftly and mysteriously as she had entered it.
"You are going?" he said quickly.
"Yes. But you will be reminded."
The man held the gloved hand a shade longer than was necessary.
"But on these cliffs? Alone?" Somehow her going had become impossible
to him.
But the woman laughed easily.
"It will be only a few moments on these cliffs. It is nothing. Remember
I have been wandering about for three hours--alone."
"But--Good-bye!"
The man made his farewell regretfully. He had been about to ask her
how, with ten miles to Dorby, and a considerable distance to other
villages, she would only be on the cliffs a few moments. But he felt
that her coming and her going were her secret, and he had no right to
pry into it--yet.
"Good-bye."
The woman turned away, but was promptly arrested by a swift question.
"May I not know your name?"
The stranger faced him once more, and her smile lit up her radiant
features till Ruxton felt that never in his life had he seen anything
to equal her beauty.
"My name? Yes--why not? It is Vladimir. Vita Vladimir."
Then, in a moment, the man stood gazing after her, as the brilliant
moonlight outlined the perfect symmetry of her receding figure.