BY THE LOCH.
"It is you who have been the thief, then?"
The question was uttered in tones of withering contempt. The criminal,
standing before his judge with downcast face and nervously-twitching
fingers, found not a word to reply.
"Answer me," said Richard Luttrell, imperatively. "Tell me the
truth--or, by Heaven, I'll thrash you within an inch of your life, and
make you speak! Did you, or did you not, take this money out of my
strong-box?"
"I meant to put it back," faltered the culprit. He was a slender lad of
twenty, with the olive skin, the curling jet-black hair, the
liquid-brown eyes, which marked his descent from a southern race. The
face was one of singular beauty. The curved lips, the broad brow on
which the dusky hair grew low, the oval cheek and rounded chin might
well have served for the impersonation of some Spanish beggar-boy or
Neapolitan fisher-lad. They were of the subtilely sensuous type,
expressive of passion rather than of intellect or will. At present, with
the usual rich, ripe colour vanished from cheek and lips, with eyes
downcast, and trembling hands dropped to his sides, he was a picture of
embodied shame and fear which his cousin and guardian, Richard Luttrell,
regarded with unmitigated disgust.
Luttrell himself was a man of very different fibre. Tall, strong,
fiercely indignant, he towered over the youth as if he could willingly
have smitten him to the earth. He was a fine-looking, broad-shouldered
man of twenty-eight, with strongly-marked features, browned by exposure
to the sun and wind. The lower part of his face was almost hidden by a
crisp chestnut beard and moustache, whilst his eyes were of the reddish
hazel tint which often denotes heat of temper. The fire which now shot
from beneath the severely knitted brows might indeed have dismayed a
person of stouter heart than Hugo Luttrell. The youth showed no signs of
penitence; he was thoroughly dismayed and alarmed by the position in
which he found himself, but that was all.
The scene of their interview was hardly in accordance with its painful
character. The three men--for there was another whom we have not
attempted to describe--stood on the border of a small loch, the tranquil
waters of which came lapping almost to their feet as they spoke
together. The grassy shores were fringed with alder and rowan-trees.
Above the heads of the speakers waved the branches of a great Scotch
fir, the outpost and sentinel, as it were, of an army of its brethren,
standing discreetly a few yards away from the banks of the loch. Richard
Luttrell's house, though not far distant, was out of sight; and the one
little, grey-stone cottage which could be seen had no windows fronting
the water. It was a spot, therefore, in which a prolonged conversation
could be carried on without much fear of disturbance. Beyond the trees,
and on each side of the loch, were ranged the silent hills; their higher
crags purple in the sunlight, brown and violet in shadow. The tints of
the heather were beginning to glow upon the moors; on the lower-lying
slopes a mass of foliage showed its first autumnal colouring; here and
there a field of yellow stubble gave a dash of almost dazzling
brightness to the landscape, under the cloudless azure of a September
sky. Hills, woods, and firmament were alike reflected with mirror-like
distinctness in the smooth bosom of the loch, where little, brown ducks
swam placidly amongst the weeds, and swallows skimmed and dipped and
flew in happy ignorance of the ruin that guilt and misery can work in
the lives of men.
Richard Luttrell stood with his back towards the open door of a large
wooden shed used as a boat-house, the interior of which looked densely
black by contrast with the brilliant sunlight on the green grass and
trees outside it. An open box or two, a heap, of fishing tackle, a
broken oar, could be seen but dimly from without. It was in one of these
boxes that Richard Luttrell had made, early in the day, a startling
discovery. He had come across a pocket-book which had been abstracted
from his strong-box in a most mysterious way about a week before. On
opening it, he found, not only certain bank-notes which he had missed,
but some marked coins and a cornelian seal which had disappeared on
previous occasions, proving that a system of robbery had been carried on
by one and the same person--evidently a member of the Luttrell
household. The spoil was concealed with great care in a locked box on a
shelf, and but for an accidental stumble by which Luttrell had brought
down the whole shelf and broken the box itself, it would probably have
remained there undisturbed. No one would ever have dreamt of seeking for
Luttrell's pocket-book in a box in the boat-house.
"How did this get here? Who keeps the second key of the boat-house?"
demanded Richard in the first moment of his discovery.
And Brian, his younger brother, answered carelessly--
"Hugo has had it for the last week or two."
Then, disturbed by his brother's tone, he came to Richard's side and
looked at the fragments of the box by which Richard was still kneeling.
With an exclamation of surprise he took up the lid of the box and
examined it carefully. The name of its owner had been printed in ink on
the smooth, brown surface--Hugo Luttrell. And the stolen property was
hidden in that little wooden box.
The exclamations of the two brothers were characteristic. Richard raised
himself with the pocket-book in his hand, and said vehemently--
"The young scoundrel! He shall rue it!"
While Brian, looking shocked and grieved, sat down on the stump of a
tree and muttered, "Poor lad!" between his teeth, as he contemplated the
miserable fragments on the ground.
The sound of a bell came faintly to their ears through the clear morning
air. Richard spoke sharply.
"We must leave the matter for the present. Don't say anything about it.
Lock up the boat-house, Brian, and keep the key. We'll have Hugo down
here after breakfast, and see whether he'll make a clean breast of it."
"He may know nothing at all about it," suggested Brian, rising from his
seat.
"It is to be hoped so," said Luttrell, curtly. He walked out of the
boat-house with frowning brows and sparkling eyes. "I know one thing--my
roof won't shelter him any longer if he is guilty." And then he marched
away to the house, leaving Brian to lock the door and follow at his
ease.
That morning's breakfast was long remembered in the Luttrells' house as
a period of vague and curious discomfort. The reddish light in Richard's
eyes was well known for a danger signal; a storm was in the air when he
wore that expression of suppressed emotion. Brian, a good deal disturbed
by what had occurred, scarcely spoke at all; he sat with his eyes fixed
on the table, forgetting to eat, and glancing only from time to time at
Hugo's young, beautiful, laughing face, as the lad talked gaily to a
visitor, or fed the dogs--privileged inmates of the dining-room--with
morsels from his own plate. It was impossible to think that this
handsome boy, just entering on the world, fresh from a military college,
with a commission in the Lancers, should have chosen to rob the very man
who had been his benefactor and friend, whose house had sheltered him
for the last ten years of his life. What could he have wanted with this
money? Luttrell made him a handsome allowance, had paid his bills more
than once, provided his outfit, put all the resources of his home at
Hugo's disposal, as if he had been a son of the house instead of a
penniless dependent--had, in short, behaved to him with a generosity
which Brian might have resented had he been of a resentful disposition,
seeing that he himself had been much less liberally treated. But Brian
never concerned himself about that view of the matter; only now, when he
suspected Hugo of dishonesty and ingratitude, did he run over in his
mind a list of the benefits which the boy had received for many years
from the master of the house, and grow indignant at the enumeration. Was
it possible that Hugo could be guilty? He had not been truthful as a
schoolboy, Brian remembered; once or twice he had narrowly escaped
public disgrace for some dishonourable act--dishonourable in the eyes of
his companions, as well as of his masters--a fact which was not to
Hugo's credit. Perhaps, however, there was now some mistake--perhaps the
matter might be cleared up. Appearances were against him, but Hugo might
yet vindicate his integrity----
Brian's meditations were interrupted at this point. His brother had
risen from the breakfast-table and was addressing Hugo, with a great
show of courtesy, but with the stern light in his eyes which always made
those who knew him best be on their guard with Richard Luttrell. "If you
are at liberty," he said, "I want you down at the boat-house. I am going
there now."
Brian, who was watching his cousin, saw a sudden change in his face. His
lips turned white, his eyes moved uneasily in their sockets. It seemed
almost as if he glanced backwards and forwards in order to look for a
way of escape. But no escape was possible. Richard stood waiting,
severe, inflexible, with that ominous gleam in his eyes. Hugo rose and
followed like a dog at his master's call. From the moment that Brian
marked his sullen, hang-dog expression and drooping head, he gave up his
hope of proving Hugo's innocence. He would gladly have absented himself
from the interview, but Richard summoned him in a voice that admitted of
no delay.
The lad's own face and words betrayed him when he was shown the
pocket-book and the broken box. He stammered out excuses, prevaricated,
lied; until at last Luttrell lost all patience, and insisted upon a
definite reply to his question. And then Hugo muttered his last
desperate self-justification--that he had "meant to put it back!"
Richard's stalwart figure, the darkness of his brow, the strong hand in
which he was swinging a heavy hunting-crop--caught up, as he left the
house, for no decided purpose, but disagreeably significant in Hugo's
eyes--became doubly terrible to the lad during the interval of silence
that followed his avowal. He glanced supplicatingly at Brian; but Brian
had no aid to give him now. And, when Brian's help failed him, Hugo felt
that all was lost.
Meanwhile, Brian himself, a little in the back ground, leaned against
the trunk of a tree which grew close to the shallow water's edge, bent
his eyes upon the ground and tried to see the boy's face as little as
possible. His affection for Hugo had given him an influence over the lad
which Richard had certainly never possessed. For, generous as Richard
might be, he was not fond of his young cousin; and Hugo, being aware of
this fact, regarded him with instinctive aversion. In his own fashion he
did love Brian--a little bit!
Brian Luttrell was at this time barely three-and-twenty. He had rooms in
London, where he was supposed to be reading for the bar, but his tastes
were musical and literary, and he had not yet made much progress in his
legal studies. He had a handsome, intellectual face of a very refined
type, thoughtful dark eyes, a long, brown moustache, and small pointed
beard of the same colour. He was slighter, less muscular, than Richard;
and the comment often made upon him was that he had the look of a
dreamer, perhaps of an artist--not of a very practical man--and that he
was extremely unlike his brother. There was, indeed, a touch of unusual
and almost morbid sensitiveness in Brian's nature, which, betraying
itself, as it did, from time to time, only by a look, a word, a gesture,
yet proved his unlikeness to Richard Luttrell more than any
dissimilarity of feature could have done.
"You meant to put it back, sir!" thundered Richard, after that moment's
pause, which seemed like an eternity to Hugo. "And where did you mean to
get the money from? Steal it from some one else? Folly! lies! And for
what disgraceful reason did you take it at all? You are in debt, I
presume?"
Hugo's white lips signified assent.
"You have been gambling again?"
He bowed his head.
"I thought so. I told you three months ago that I had paid your gambling
debts for the last time. I make one exception. I will pay them once
again--with the money you have stolen, which you may keep. Much good may
it do you!" He flung the pocket-book on the turf at Hugo's feet as he
spoke. "Take it. You have paid dearly enough for it, God knows. For the
future, sir, manage your own affairs; my house is no longer open to
you."
"Don't be hard on him, Richard," said Brian, in a voice too low to reach
Hugo's ears. "Forgive him this time; he is only a boy, after all--and a
boy with a bad training."
"Will you be so good as to mind your own business, Brian?" said the
elder brother, peremptorily. The severity of his tone increased as he
addressed himself again to Hugo. "You will leave Netherglen to-day. Your
luggage can be sent after you; give your own directions about it. I
suppose you will rejoin your regiment? I neither know nor care what you
mean to do. If we meet again, we meet as strangers."
"Willingly," said Hugo, lifting his eyes for one instant to his cousin's
face, with an expression so full of brooding hatred and defiance that
even Richard Luttrell was amazed.
"For Heaven's sake don't say that, Hugo," began the second brother, with
a hasty desire to pave the way for reconciliation.
"Why not?" said Hugo.
The look of abject fear was dying out of his face. The worst, he
thought, was over. He drew himself up, crossed his arms, and tried to
meet Brian's reproachful eyes with confidence, but in this attempt he
was not successful. In spite of himself, the eyelids dropped until the
long, black lashes almost touched the smooth, olive cheek, across which
passed a transient flush of shame. This sign of feeling touched Brian;
the lad was surely not hopelessly bad if he could blush for his sins.
But Richard went on ruthlessly.
"You need expect no further help from me. I own you as a relation no
longer. You have disgraced the name you bear. Don't let me see you again
in my house." He was too indignant, too much excited, to speak in
anything but short, sharp sentences, each of which seemed more bitter
than the last. Richard Luttrell was little concerned for Hugo's welfare,
much for the honour of the family. "Go," he said, "at once, and I will
not publish your shameful conduct to the world. If you return to my
house, if you seek to establish any communication with members of my
family, I shall not keep your secret."
"Speak for yourself, Richard," said his brother, warmly, "not for me. I
hope that Hugo will do better in time; and I don't mean to give him up.
You must make an exception for me when you speak of separating him from
the family."
"I make no exception," said Richard.
Brian drew nearer to his brother, and uttered his next words in a lower
tone.
"Think what you are doing," he said. "You will drive him to desperation,
and, after all, he is only a boy of nineteen. Quite young enough to
repent and reform, if we are not too hard upon him now. Do as you think
fit for yourself and your own household, but you must not stand in the
way of what I can do for him, little though that may be."
"I stand to what I have said," answered Richard, harshly. "I will have
no communication between him and you." Then, folding his arms, he looked
grimly and sardonically into Brian's face. "I trust neither of you," he
said. "We all know that you are only too easily led by those whom you
like to be led by, and he is a young reprobate. Choose for yourself, of
course; I have no claim to control you, only, if you choose to be
friendly with him, I shall cut off the supplies to you as well as to
him, and I shall expose him publicly."
Brian took away the hand which, in the ardour of his pleading, he had
laid upon Richard's arm. Had it not been for Hugo's sake, he would have
quitted the spot in dudgeon. He knew in his heart that it was useless to
argue with Richard in his present state of passion. But for Hugo's sake
he swallowed his resentment, and made one more trial.
"If he repents----" he began doubtfully, and never finished the
sentence.
"I don't repent," said Hugo.
His voice was hoarse and broken, but insolently defiant. By a great
effort of will he fixed his haggard eyes full on Richard Luttrell's face
as he spoke. Richard shrugged his shoulders.
"You hear?" he said, briefly to his brother.
"I hear," Brian answered, in a low, pained tone.
With an air of bravado Hugo stooped and picked up the pocket-book which
still lay at his feet. He weighed it in his hand, and then laughed
aloud, though not very steadily.
"It is full still," he said. "It will be useful, no doubt. I am much
obliged to you, Cousin Richard."
The action, and the words accompanying it, shocked even Richard, who
professed to think nothing too bad for Hugo's powers. He tossed his head
back and turned away with a contemptuous "Good Heavens!" Brian walked
for a few paces distance, and then stood still, with his back to his
cousin. Hugo glanced from one to the other with uneasiness, which he
tried to veil by an assumption of disdain, and dropped the purse
furtively into his pocket. He was ill-pleased to see Richard turn back
with lowered eyebrows, and a look of stern determination upon his
bearded face.
"Brian," said Luttrell, more quietly than he had yet spoken, "I think I
see mother coming down the road. Will you meet her and lead her away
from the loch, without telling her the reason? I don't wish her to meet
this--this gentleman--again."
The intonation of his voice, the look that he bestowed upon Hugo at the
words that he emphasised, made the lad quiver from head to foot with
rage. Brian walked away without turning to bestow another glance or word
on Hugo. It was a significant action, and one which the young fellow
felt, with a throb of mingled shame and hatred, that he could
understand. He clenched his hands until the dent of the nails brought
blood, without knowing what he did; then made a step or two in another
direction, as if to leave the place. Richard's commanding voice made him
pause.
"Stop!" said Luttrell. "Wait until I give you leave to go."
Hugo waited, with his face turned towards the shining waters of the
loch. The purple mist amongst the distant hills, the golden light upon
the rippling water, the reddening foliage of the trees, had never been
more beautiful than they were that morning. But their beauty was lost
upon Hugo, whose mind was filled with hard and angry protests against
the treatment that he was receiving, and a great dread of the somewhat
desolate future.
Richard Luttrell moved about restlessly, stopping short, now and then,
to watch the figure in black which he had discerned upon the road near
the house. He saw Brian meet it; the two stood and spoke together for a
few minutes; then Brian gave his arm to his mother and led her back to
the house. When they were quite out of sight, Luttrell turned back to
his cousin and spoke again.
"Now that I have got Brian out of the way," he said, as he laid an iron
hand on Hugo's arm, "I am free to punish you as I choose. Mind, I would
have spared you this if you had not had the insufferable insolence to
pick up that pocket-book in my presence. Since you were shameless enough
for that, it is plain what sort of chastisement you deserve. Take
that--and that--and that!"
He lifted his hunting-crop as he spoke, and brought it down heavily on
the lad's shoulders. Hugo uttered a cry like that of a wild animal in
pain, and fought with hands, feet, teeth even, against the infliction of
the stinging blows; but he fought in vain. His cousin's superior
strength mastered him from the beginning; he felt like an infant in
Richard's powerful grasp. Not until the storm of furious imprecations in
which the lad at first vented his impotent rage had died away into
stifled moans and sobs of pain, did Richard's vengeance come to an end.
He flung the boy from him, broke the whip between his strong hands, and
hurled the fragments far into the water, then walked away to the house,
leaving Hugo to sob his heart out, like a passionate child, with face
down in the short, green grass.