ROSAMUNDA AND THE IRON DOORS
We had no notion that the doctor had come by any serious hurt, and when
he fell in a dead faint we stood as men struck by an unseen hand. Light
we still had, for the rolling lantern continued to burn; but the wits
of us, save the wits of one, were completely gone, and three sillier
fellows never gaped about an ailing man. Dolly Venn alone--trained
ashore to aid the wounded--kept his head through the trouble and made
use of his learning. The half of a minute was not to be counted before
he had bared an ugly wound and showed us, not only a sucker still
adhering to the crimson flesh, but a great, gaping cut which the
doctor's own knife had made when he severed the fish's tentacle.
"You, Seth Barker, hold up that lantern," says he to the carpenter, as
bold as brass and as ready as a crack physician at a guinea a peep;
"give me some linen, one of you--and please be quick about it. I'll
trouble you for a knife, Mister Peter, and a slice of your shirt, if
you don't mind!"
Now, he had only to say this and I do believe that all four of us began
to tear up our linen and to make ourselves as naked as Adam when they
discharged him from Eden; but Peter Bligh, he was first with it, and he
had out his clasp-knife and cut a length of his Belfast shift before
you could say "Jack Robinson."
"'Tis unlikely that I'll match it in these parts, and I've worn it to
my mother's memory," says he while he did it; "but 'tis yours, Dolly,
lad, and welcome. And what now?" asks he.
"Be quiet, Mister Peter," says Dolly, sharply; "that's what next. Be
quiet and nurse the doctor's leg, and do please keep that lantern
steady."
Well, big men as we were, we kept quiet for the asking, as ignorance
always will when skill is at the helm. Very prettily, I must say, and
very neatly did Dolly begin to bind the wound, and to cut the suckers
from their hold. The rest of us stood about and looked on and made
believe we were very useful. It was an odd thing to tell ourselves that
a man, who had been hale and hearty five minutes before, might now be
going out on the floor of that hovel. I knew little of Duncan Gray, but
what little I did know I liked beyond the ordinary; and every time that
Dolly took a twist on his bandage or fingered the wound with the
tenderness of a woman, I said, "Well done, lad, well done; we'll save
him yet." And this the boy himself believed.
"It's only a cut," said he, "and if there's no poison, he'll be well
enough in a week. But he won't be able to stand, that's certain. I'd
give ten pounds for an antiseptic, I really would!"
I knew what he meant all right; but the others didn't, and Peter Bligh,
he must come in with his foolishness.
"They're mortal rare in these parts," said he; "I've come across many
things in the Pacific, but anyskeptics isn't one of 'em. May-be he'll
not need 'em, Dolly. We was twenty-four men down on the Ohio with
yellow-jack, and not an ounce of anyskeptics did I swallow! And here I
am, hale and hearty, as you'll admit."
"And talking loud," said Seth Barker, "talking very loud, gentlemen!"
It was wisdom, upon my word, for not one of us, I swear (until Seth
Barker spoke), had remembered where we were or what was like to come
afterwards. Voices we had heard, human voices above us, when first we
entered the cellar; and now, when the warning was uttered, we stood
dumb for some minutes and heard them again.
"Douse the glim--douse it," cries Peter, in a big whisper; "they're
coming down, or I'm a Dutchman!"
He turned the lantern and blew it out as he spoke. The rest of us
crouched down and held our breath. For ten seconds, perhaps, we heard
the deep, rough voices of men in the rooms above us. Then the trap-door
opened suddenly, and a beam of light fell upon the pavement not five
yards from where we stood. At the same moment a shaggy head peered
through the aperture, and a man cast a quick glance downward to the
cellar.
"No," said the man, as though speaking to some one behind him, "it's
been took, as I told you."
To which the other voice answered:
"Well more blarmed fool you for not corking good rum when you see it!"
They closed the trap upon the words, and we breathed once more. The
lesson they had taught us could not be forgotten. We were sobered men
when we lighted the lantern with one of Seth Barker's matches, and
turned it again on the doctor's face.
"In whispers, if you please," said I, "as few as you like. We are in a
tight place, my lads, and talk won't get us out of it. It's the doctor
first and ourselves afterwards, remember."
Dr. Gray, truly, was a little better by this time, and sitting up like
a dazed man, he looked first at Dolly Venn and then at his foot, and
last of all at the strange place in which he lay.
"Why, yes," he exclaimed at last, "I remember; a cut and a fool who
walked on it. It serves me right, and the end is better than the
beginning."
"The lad did it," said I; "he was always a wonder with linen and the
scissors, was Dolly Venn."
"To say nothing of a square foot of my shirt," put in Peter Bligh,
obstinately. "'Tis worth while getting a bit of a cut, doctor, just to
see Dolly Venn sew it up again."
The doctor laughed with us, for he knew a seaman's manner and the light
talk which follows even the gravest mishap aboard a ship. That our men
meant well towards him he could not doubt; and his next duty was to
tell us as much.
"You are good fellows," said he, "and I'm much obliged to you, Master
Dolly. If you will put your hand inside my coat, you will find a
brandy-flask there, and I'll drink your health. Don't worry your heads
about me, but think of yourselves. One of you, remember, must go and
see Czerny now; I think it had better be you, captain."
I said yes, I would go willingly; and added, "when the right time
comes." The time was not yet, I knew--when men walked above our heads
and were waking. But when it came I would not hold back for my
shipmates' sake.
We had a few biscuits among us, which prudent men had put in their
pockets after last night's meal; and, my own flask being full of water,
we sat down in the darkness of the cellar and made such a meal as we
could. Minute by minute now it became more plain to me that I must do
as Duncan Gray said, and go up to find Czerny himself. Food we had
none, save the few biscuits in our hands; salt was the water in the
crimson pool behind us. Beyond that were the caverns and the fog. It
was just all or nothing; the plain challenge to the master of this
place, "Give us shelter and food" or the sleep which knows no waking.
Do you wonder that I made up my mind to risk all on a journey which,
were it for life or death, would carry us, at last, beyond the doubt
and uncertainty?
We passed the afternoon sleeping and dozing, as tired men might. Voices
we heard from time to time; the moan of the sea was always with us--a
strange, wild song, long-drawn and rolling, as though the water played
above our very heads in the gentle sport of a Pacific calm. At a
dwelling more remarkable than the one we were about to enter no man has
knocked or will knock in all the years to come. We were like human
animals which burrow in a rocky bank a mile from any land. There were
mysteries and wonders above, I made sure; and there was always the
doubt, such doubt as comes to men who go to a merciless enemy and say,
"Give us bread."
Now, I left my comrades at ten o'clock that night, when all sounds had
died away above and the voice of the sea growing angrier told me that
my steps would not be heard.
"I shall go to Czerny, lads," said I, at the moment of leaving them,
"and he will hear the story. I'll do my best for good shipmates, trust
me; and if I do not come back--well, you'll know that I cannot. Good
night, old comrades. We've sailed many a sea together and we'll sail
many another yet, God willing."
They all cried "Aye, aye, sir!" and pressed my hand with that affection
I knew they bore me. Little Dolly Venn, indeed, pleaded hard to
accompany me; but it seemed plain that, if life were to be risked, one
alone should risk it; and, putting him off kindly, I mounted the ladder
and raised the trap.
I was in Edmond Czerny's house, and I was alone.
* * *
Now, I had opened the trap, half believing I might find myself in some
room, perhaps in the kitchen of the house. Men would be there, I said,
and Czerny's watch-dogs ready with their questions. But this was not a
true picture; and while there were arc lamps everywhere, the place was
not a room at all, but a circular cavern, with rude apertures in the
wall and curtains hung across in lieu of doors. This was not a little
perplexing, as you will see; and my path was not made more straight
when I heard voices in some room near by, but could not locate them nor
tell which of the doors to avoid.
For a long time I stood, uncertain how to act. In the end I put my head
round the first curtain at a venture, and drew it back as quickly.
There were men in that place, half-naked men, grouped about the door of
a furnace whose red light flashed dazzlingly upon walls and ceiling and
gave its tenants the aspect of crimson devils. What the furnace meant
or why it was built, I was soon to learn; for presently one of the men
gave an order, and upon this an engine started, and a whirr of fans and
the sucking of a distant pump answered to the signal. "Air," said I to
myself; "they are pumping air from above."
The men had not seen me, so quick was I, and so soft with the leather
curtain; and going tiptoe across the cave I stumbled at hazard upon a
door I had not observed before. It was nothing more than a big and
jagged opening in the rock, but it showed me a flight of stairs beyond
it, and twinkling lamps beyond that again. This, I said, must surely be
the road to the sea, for the stairs led upward, and Czerny, as common
sense put it, would occupy the higher rooms. So I did not hesitate any
more about it, but treading the stairway with a cat's foot I went
straight on, and presently struck so fine a corridor that at any other
time I might well have spent an hour in wonder. Lamps were here--scores
of them, in wrought-iron chandeliers. Doors you saw with almost every
step you took--aye, and more than doors--for there were figures in the
light and shadow; men passing to and fro; glimpses of open rooms and
tables spread for cards, and bottles by them; and wild men of all
countries, some sleeping, some quarrelling, some singing, some busy in
kitchen and workshop. By here and there, these men met me in the
corridor, and I drew back into the dark places and let them go by. They
did not remark my presence, or if they did, made nothing of it. After
all, I was a seaman, dressed as other seamen were. Why should they
notice me when there were a hundred such in Czerny's house? I began to
see that a man might go with less risk because of their numbers than if
they had been but a handful.
"I shall find Czerny, after all," said I to myself, "and have it out
with him. When he has spoken it will be time enough to ask, What next?"
It was a little consoling to say this, and I went on with more
confidence. Passing down the whole length of the corridor, I reached a
pair of iron doors at last, and found them fast shut and bolted against
me. There was no branch road that I could make out, nor any indication
of the way in which I must open the doors. A man cannot walk through
sheer iron for the asking, nor blow it open with a wish; and there I
stood in the passage like a messenger who has struck upon an empty
house, but is not willing to leave it. See Czerny that night I must,
even if it came to declaring myself to the rogues who occupied the
rooms near by, and whose voices I could still hear. I had no mind to
knock at the door; and, truth to tell, such a thing never came into my
head, so full it was of other schemes. Indeed, I was just telling
myself that it was neck or nothing, when what should happen but that
the great iron door swung open, and the little French girl, Rosamunda,
herself stepped out. Staggered at the sight of me, as well she might be
(for the electric lamp will hide no face), she just piped one pretty
little cry and then fell to saying:
"Oh, Captain Begg, Captain Begg, what do you want in this house?"
"My dear," says I, speaking to her with a seaman's liberty, "I want a
good many things, as most sailors do in this world. What's behind that
door, now, and where may you have come from? Tell me as much, and
you'll be doing me a bigger kindness than you think."
She didn't reply to this at once, but asked a question, as little girls
will when they are thinking of somebody.
"Where are the others?" cried she; "why do you come alone? Where is the
little one, Mister--Mister----"
"Dolly Venn," said I; "ah, that's the boy! Well, he's all right, my
dear, and if he'd known that we were meeting, he'd have sent his love.
You'll find him down yonder, in the cellar beyond the engine-house.
Show me the way to Mister Czerny's door, and we'll soon have him out of
there. He's come a long way, and it's all for the pleasure of seeing
you--of course it is." The talk pleased her, but giving her no time to
think about it, I went on:
"Mister Czerny, now, he would be living by here, I suppose?"
She said, "Yes, yes." His rooms were through the great hall which lay
beyond the doors; but she looked so startled at the idea of my going
there, and she listened so plainly for the sound of any voices, that I
read up her apprehensions at a glance and saw that she did not wish me
to go on because she was afraid.
"Where is your old friend, the Frenchman?" I asked her on an impulse;
"what part of this queer house does he sling his hammock in?"
She changed colour at this, and plainly showed her trouble.
"Oh, Mister Begg," says she, "Clair-de-Lune has been punished for
helping you on Ken's Island. He is not allowed to leave his room now.
Mister Czerny is very angry, and will not see him. How can you think of
coming here--oh, how can you do it?"
"It's easy enough," said I, lightly, "if you don't miss the turning and
go straight on. Never fear for me, young lady; I shall pull through all
right; and when I do your friend goes with me, be sure of it. I won't
forget old Clair-de-Lune, not I! Now, just show me the road to the
governor's door, and then run away and tell Dolly Venn. He'll be
precious glad to see you, as true as Scripture."
Well, she stood for a little while, hesitating about it, and then she
said, as though she had just remembered it:
"Benno Regnarte is the guard, but he has gone away to have his supper.
I borrowed the key and came through. If you go in, he will not question
you. The governor may be on his yacht, or he may be in his room. I do
not know. How foolish it all is--how foolish, Captain Begg! They may
never let you go away again!"
"Being so fond of my company," cried I, gaily. "Well, we'll see about
it, my dear. Just you run off to Dolly Venn and leave me to do the
rest. Sailors get out where other people stick, you know. We'll have a
try, for the luck's sake."
I held her little hand in mine for a minute and gave it a hearty
squeeze. She was the picture of prettiness in a print gown and a big
Spanish shawl wrapped about her baby face. That she was truly alarmed,
and rightly so, I knew well; but what could I do? It was Czerny or the
pit. I chose Czerny.
Now, she had opened the iron door for me to pass by, and without
another word to her I crossed the threshold and stood in Czerny's very
dwelling-house. Thereafter, I was in a vast hall, in a beautiful place
for all the world like a temple; with a gallery running round about it,
and lamps swinging from the gallery, and an organ built high up in a
niche above the far end, and doors of teak giving off all round, and a
great oak fire-place such as you see in English houses; and all round
the dome of this wonderful room great brass-bound windows, upon which
the sea thundered and the foam sprayed. Softly lighted, carpeted with
mats of rare straw, furnished as any mansion of the rich, it seemed to
me, I do confess, a very wonder of the earth that such a place should
lie beneath the breakers of the Pacific Ocean. And yet there it was
before my eyes, and I could hear the sea-song high above me, and the
lamps shone upon my face; and, as though to tell me truly that here my
journey ended, whom should I espy at the door of one of the rooms but
little Ruth Bellenden herself, the woman I had crossed the world to
serve.