Somehow or other, by hook and crook, and between the three of us, we got
Bernard Huddlestone bundled upstairs and laid upon the bed in My Uncle's
Room. During the whole process, which was rough enough, he gave no sign of
consciousness, and he remained, as we had thrown him, without changing the
position of a finger. His daughter opened his shirt and began to wet his
head and bosom; while Northmour and I ran to the window. The weather
continued clear; the moon, which was now about full, had risen and shed a
very clear light upon the links; yet, strain our eyes as we might, we
could distinguish nothing moving. A few dark spots, more or less, on the
uneven expanse were not to be identified; they might be crouching men,
they might be shadows; it was impossible to be sure.
"Thank God," said Northmour, "Aggie is not coming to-night."
Aggie was the name of the old nurse; he had not thought of her until now;
but that he should think of her at all was a trait that surprised me in
the man.
We were again reduced to waiting. Northmour went to the fireplace and
spread his hands before the red embers, as if he were cold. I followed him
mechanically with my eyes, and in so doing turned my back upon the window.
At that moment a very faint report was audible from without, and a ball
shivered a pane of glass, and buried itself in the shutter two inches from
my head. I heard Clara scream; and though I whipped instantly out of range
and into a corner, she was there, so to speak, before me, beseeching to
know if I were hurt. I felt that I could stand to be shot at every day and
all day long, with such remarks of solicitude for a reward; and I
continued to reassure her, with, the tenderest caresses and in complete
forgetfulness of our situation, till the voice of Northmour recalled me to
myself.
"An air gun," he said. "They wish to make no noise."
I put Clara aside, and looked at him. He was standing with his back to the
fire and his hands clasped behind him; and I knew by the black look on his
face, that passion was boiling within. I had seen just such a look before
he attacked me, that March night, in the adjoining chamber; and, though I
could make every allowance for his anger, I confess I trembled for the
consequences. He gazed straight before him; but he could see us with the
tail of his eye, and his temper kept rising like a gale of wind. With
regular battle awaiting us outside, this prospect of an internecine strife
within the walls began to daunt me.
Suddenly, as I was thus closely watching his expression and prepared
against the worst, I saw a change, a flash, a look of relief, upon his
face. He took up the lamp which stood beside him on the table, and turned
to us with an air of some excitement.
"There is one point that we must know," said he. "Are they going to
butcher the lot of us, or only Huddlestone? Did they take you for him, or
fire at you for your own _beaux yeux_?"
"They took me for him, for certain," I replied. "I am near as tall, and my
head is fair."
"I am going to make sure," returned Northmour; and he stepped up to the
window, holding the lamp above his head, and stood there, quietly
affronting death, for half a minute.
Clara sought to rush forward and pull him from the place of danger; but I
had the pardonable selfishness to hold her back by force.
"Yes," said Northmour, turning coolly from the window, "it's only
Huddlestone they want."
"Oh, Mr. Northmour!" cried Clara; but found no more to add; the temerity
she had just witnessed seeming beyond, the reach of words.
He, on his part, looked at me, cocking his head, with a fire of triumph in
his eyes; and I understood at once that he had thus hazarded his life,
merely to attract Clara's notice, and depose me from my position as the
hero of the hour. He snapped his fingers.
"The fire is only beginning," said he. "When they warm up to their work,
they won't be so particular."
A voice was now heard hailing us from the entrance. From the window we
could see the figure of a man in the moonlight; he stood motionless, his
face uplifted to ours, and a rag of something white on his extended arm;
and as we looked right down upon him, though he was a good many yards
distant on the links, we could see the moonlight glitter on his eyes.
He opened his lips again, and spoke for some minutes on end, in a key so
loud that he might have been heard in every corner of the pavilion, and as
far away as the borders of the wood. It was the same voice that had
already shouted, _"Traditore!"_ through the shutters of the dining-room;
this time it made a complete and clear statement. If the traitor
"Oddlestone" were given up, all others should be spared; if not, no one
should escape to tell the tale.
"Well, Huddlestone, what do you say to that?" asked Northmour, turning to
the bed.
Up to that moment the banker had given no sign of life, and I, at least,
had supposed him to be still lying in a faint; but he replied at once, and
in such tones as I have never heard elsewhere, save from a delirious
patient, adjured and besought us not to desert him. It was the most
hideous and abject performance that my imagination can conceive.
"Enough," cried Northmour; and then he threw open the window, leaned out
into the night, and in a tone of exultation, and with a total
forgetfulness of what was due to the presence of a lady, poured out upon
the ambassador a string of the most abominable raillery both in English
and Italian, and bade him be gone where he had come from. I believe that
nothing so delighted Northmour at that moment as the thought that we must
all infallibly perish before the night was out.
Meantime, the Italian put his flag of truce into his pocket, and
disappeared, at a leisurely pace, among the sand hills.
"They make honorable war," said Northmour. "They are all gentlemen and
soldiers. For the credit of the thing, I wish we could change sides--you
and I, Frank, and you, too, missy, my darling--and leave that being on the
bed to some one else. Tut! Don't look shocked! We are all going post to
what they call eternity, and may as well be above board while there's
time. As far as I am concerned, if I could first strangle Huddlestone and
then get Clara in my arms, I could die with some pride and satisfaction.
And as it is, by God, I'll have a kiss!"
Before I could do anything to interfere, he had rudely embraced and
repeatedly kissed the resisting girl. Next moment I had pulled him away
with fury, and flung him heavily against the wall. He laughed loud and
long, and I feared his wits had given way under the strain; for even in
the best of days he had been a sparing and a quiet laugher.
"Now, Frank," said he, when his mirth was somewhat appeased, "it's your
turn. Here's my hand. Good-bye, farewell!" Then, seeing me stand rigid and
indignant, and holding Clara to my side--"Man!" he broke out, "are you
angry? Did you think we were going to die with all the airs and graces of
society? I took a kiss; I'm glad I did it; and now you can take another if
you like, and square accounts."
I turned from him with a feeling of contempt which I did not seek to
dissemble.
"As you please," said he. "You've been a prig in life; a prig you'll die."
And with that he sat down in a chair, a rifle over his knee, and amused
himself with snapping the lock; but I could see that his ebullition of
light spirits (the only one I ever knew him to display) had already come
to an end, and was succeeded by a sullen, scowling humor.
All this time our assailants might have been entering the house, and we
been none the wiser; we had in truth almost forgotten the danger that so
imminently overhung our days. But just then Mr. Huddlestone uttered a cry,
and leaped from the bed.