THE ARMENIAN DOG!
The death-cry that Mouraki Pasha uttered under Demetri’s avenging
knife seemed to touch a spring and set us all a-moving. The sound of
it turned the soldiers’ idle lassitude into an amazed wonder, which
again passed in an instant to fierce excitement. Phroso leapt, with a
shriek, to her feet. I hurled myself across the space between me and
the rope, knife in hand. The soldiers, neglecting their unarmed
prisoner, turned with a shout of rage, and rushed wildly up the slope
to where Demetri stood, holding his blade towards heaven. The rope
parted under my impetuous assault. Phroso was by my side, in an
instant we were in the boat; I pushed off. I seized the sculls; but
then I hesitated. Was this man my friend, my ally, my accomplice, what
you will? I looked up the slope. Demetri stood by the body of Mouraki.
The four soldiers rushed towards him. I could not approve his deed;
but I had suffered it to be done. I must not run away now. I pushed
the sculls into Phroso’s hands. But she had caught my purpose, and
threw herself upon me, twining her arms about me and crying, ‘No, no,
my lord! My lord, no, no!’ Her love gave her strength; for a moment I
could not disengage myself, but stood fast bound in her embrace.
The moment was enough. It was the end, the end of that brief fierce
drama on the rocky slope, the end of any power I might have had to aid
Demetri; for he did not try to defend himself. He stood still as a
statue where he was, holding the knife up to heaven, the smile which
his loud laugh left still on his lips. Phroso’s head sank on my
shoulder. She would not look; but the sight drew my eyes with an
irresistible attraction. The bayonets flashed in the air and buried
themselves in Demetri’s body. He sank with a groan. Again the blades,
drawn back, were driven into him, and again and again. He was a
mangled corpse, but in hot revenge for their leader they thrust and
thrust. It turned me sick to look; yet I looked till at last they
ceased, and stood for an instant over the two bodies, regarding them.
Then I loosed Phroso’s arms off me; she sank back in the stern. Again
I took the sculls and laid to with a will. Where we were to go, or
what help we could look for, I did not know; but a fever to be away
from the place had come on me, and I pulled, thinking less of life
and safety than of putting distance between me and that hideous scene.
‘They don’t move,’ whispered Phroso, whose eyes were now turned away
from me and fixed on the beach. ‘They stand still. Row, my lord, row!’
A moment passed. I pulled with all my strength. She was between me and
the land; I could see nothing. Her voice came again, low but urgent:
‘Now they move, they’re coming down to the shore. Ah, my lord, they’re
taking aim!’
‘God help us!’ said I between my teeth. ‘Crouch in the boat. Low down,
get right down. Lower down, Phroso, lower down!’
‘Ah, one has knocked up the barrels! They’re talking again. Why don’t
they fire?’
‘Do they look like hesitating?’
‘Yes. No, they’re aiming again. No, they’ve stopped. Row, my lord,
row!’
I was pulling as I had not pulled since I rowed in my college boat at
Oxford nine years before. I thought of the race at that moment with a
sort of amusement. But all the while Phroso kept watch for me; by
design or chance she did not move from between me and the shore.
‘They’re running to the boat now. They’re getting in. Are they coming
after us, my lord?’
‘Heaven knows! I suppose so.’
I was wondering why they had not used their rifles; they had evidently
thought of firing at first, but something had held their hands.
Perhaps they, mere humble soldiers, shrank from the responsibility.
Their leader, whose protection would have held them harmless and whose
favour rewarded them, lay dead. They might well hesitate to fire on a
man whom they knew to be a person of some position and who had taken
no part in Mouraki’s death.
‘They’re launching the boat. They’re in now,’ came in Phroso’s
breathless whisper.
‘How far off are we?’
‘I don’t know; two hundred yards, perhaps. They’ve started now.’
‘Do they move well?’
‘Yes, they’re rowing hard. Oh, my dear lord, can you row harder?’ She
turned to me for an instant, clasping her hands in entreaty.
‘No, I can’t, Phroso,’ said I, and I believe I smiled. Did the dear
girl think I should choose that moment for paddling?
‘They’re gaining,’ she cried. ‘Oh, they’re gaining! On, my lord, on!’
‘How many are rowing?’
‘Three, my lord, each with two oars.’
‘Oh, the deuce! It’s no good, Phroso.’
‘No good, my lord? But if they catch us?’
‘I wish I could answer you. How near now?’
‘Half as near as they were before.’
‘Look round the sea. Are there any boats anywhere? Look all round.’
‘There’s nothing anywhere, my lord.’
‘Then the game’s up,’ said I; and I rested on my oars and began to
pant. I was not in training for a race.
The boat containing the soldiers drew near. Our boat, now motionless,
awaited their coming. Phroso sank on the seat and sat with a
despairing look in her eyes. But my mood was not the same. Mouraki was
dead. I knew the change his death made was great. Mouraki was dead. I
did not believe that there was another man in Neopalia who would dare
to take any extreme step against me. For why had they not fired? They
did not fire now, when they could have shot me through the head
without difficulty and without danger.
Their boat came alongside of ours. I leant forward and touched
Phroso’s hand; she looked up.
‘Courage,’ said I. ‘The braver we look the better we shall come off.’
Then I turned to the pursuers and regarded them steadily, waiting for
them to speak. The first communication was in dumb show. The man who
was steering--he appeared to be a subordinate officer--covered me with
his barrel.
‘I’m absolutely unarmed,’ I said. ‘You know that. You took my revolver
away from me.’
‘You’re trying to escape,’ said he, not shifting his aim.
‘Where’s your warrant for stopping me?’ I demanded.
‘The Pasha--’
‘The Pasha’s dead. Be careful what you do. I am an Englishman, and in
my country I am as great a man as your Pasha was.’ This assertion
perhaps was on, or beyond, the confines of strict truth; it had
considerable effect, however.
‘You were our prisoner, my lord,’ said the officer more civilly. ‘We
cannot allow you to escape. And this lady was a prisoner also. She is
not English; she is of the island. And one of the islanders has slain
the Pasha. She must answer for it.’
‘What can she have had to do with it?’
‘It may have been planned between her and the assassin.’
‘Oh, and between me and the assassin too, perhaps?’
‘Perhaps, my lord. It is not my place to inquire into that.’
I shrugged my shoulders with an appearance of mingled carelessness and
impatience.
‘Well, what do you want of us?’ I asked.
‘You must accompany us back to Neopalia.’
‘Well, where did you suppose I was going? Is this a boat to go for a
voyage in? Can I row a hundred miles to Rhodes? Come, you’re a silly
fellow!’
He was rather embarrassed by my tone. He did not know whether to
believe in my sincerity or not. Phroso caught the cue well enough to
keep her tongue between her pretty lips, and her lids low over her
wondering eyes.
‘But,’ I pursued in a tone of ironical remonstrance, ‘are you going to
leave the Pasha there? The other is a rogue and a murderer’ (it rather
went to my heart to describe the useful, if unscrupulous, Demetri in
these terms); ‘let him be. But does it suit the dignity of Mouraki
Pasha to lie untended on the shore, while his men row off to the
harbour? It will look as though you had loved him little. You, four of
you, allow one man to kill him, and then you leave his body as if it
were the body of a dog!’
I had no definite reason for wishing them to return and take up
Mouraki’s body; but every moment gained was something. Neopalia had
bred in me a constant hope of new chances, of fresh turns, of a smile
from fortune following quick on a frown. So I urged on them anything
which would give a respite. My appeal was not wasted. The officer held
a hurried whispered consultation with the soldier who sat on the seat
next to him. Then he said:
‘It is true, my lord. It is more fitting that we should carry the body
back; but you must return with us.’
‘With all my heart,’ said I, taking up my sculls with alacrity.
The officer responded to this move of mine by laying his rifle in
readiness across his knees; both boats turned, and we set out again
for the beach. As soon as we reached it three of them went up the
slope. I saw them kick Demetri’s body out of the way; for he had
fallen so that his arm was over the breast of his victim. Then they
raised Mouraki and began to carry him down. Phroso hid her face in her
hands. My eyes were on Mouraki’s face; I watched him carried down to
the boat, meditating on the strange toss-up which had allotted to him
the fate which he had with such ruthless cunning prepared for me.
Suddenly I sprang up, leapt out of the boat, and began to walk up the
slope. I passed the soldiers who bore Mouraki. They paused in surprise
and uneasiness. I walked briskly by, taking no notice of them, and
came where Demetri’s body lay. I knelt for a moment by him, and closed
his eyes with my hand. Then I took off the silk scarf I was wearing
and spread it over his face, and I rose to my feet again. Somehow I
felt that I owed to Demetri some such small office of friendship as
this that I was paying; and I found myself hoping that there had been
good in the man, and that He who sees all of the heart would see good
even in the wild desperate soul of Demetri of Neopalia. So I arranged
the scarf carefully, and, turning, walked down the slope to the boats
again, glad to be able to tell the girl Panayiota that somebody had
closed her lover’s eyes. Thus I left the friend that I knew not of.
Looking into my own heart, I did not judge him harshly. I had let the
thing be done.
When I reached the beach, the soldiers were about to lay Mouraki’s
body in the larger of the two boats; but having nothing to cover his
body with they proceeded to remove his undress frock coat and left it
lying for an instant on the shingle while they lifted him in. Seeing
that they were ready, I picked up the coat and handed it to them. They
took it and arranged it over the trunk and head. Two of them got into
the boat in which Phroso sat and signed to me to jump in. I was about
to obey when I perceived a pocket-book lying on the shingle. It was
not mine. Neither Demetri nor any of the soldiers was likely to carry
a handsome morocco-leather case; it must have belonged to Mouraki and
have fallen from his coat as I lifted it. It lay opened now, face
upwards. I stooped for it, intending to give it to the officer. But an
instant later it was in my pocket; and I, under the screen of a most
innocent expression, was covertly watching my guards, to see whether
they had detected my action. The two who rowed Mouraki had already
started; the others had been taking their seats in the boat and had
not perceived the swift motion with which I picked up the book. I
walked past them and sat down behind them in the bows. Phroso was in
the stern. One of them asked her, with a considerable show of respect,
if she would steer. She assented with a nod. I crouched down low in
the bows behind the backs of the soldiers; there I took out Mouraki’s
pocket-book and opened it. My action seemed, no doubt, not far removed
from theft. But as the book lay open on the shore, I had seen in it
something which belonged to me, something which was inalienably mine,
of which no schemes or violence could deprive me: this was nothing
else than my name.
Very quietly and stealthily I drew out a slip of paper; behind that
was another slip, and again a third. They were cuttings from a Greek
newspaper. Neither the name of the paper, nor the dates, nor the
place of publication, appeared: the extracts were merely three short
paragraphs. My name headed each of them. I had not been aware that any
chronicle of my somewhat unexpected fortunes had reached the outer
world; and I set myself to read with much interest. Great men may
become indifferent as to what the papers say about them; I had never
attained to this exalted state of mind.
‘Let’s have a look,’ said I to myself, after a cautious glance over my
shoulder at the other boat, which was several yards ahead.
The first paragraph ran thus: ‘We regret to hear that Lord Wheatley,
the English nobleman who has recently purchased the island of Neopalia
and taken up his residence there, is suffering from a severe attack of
the fever which is at the present time prevalent in the island.’
‘Now that’s very curious,’ I thought, for I had never enjoyed better
health than during my sojourn in Neopalia. I turned with increased
interest to the second cutting. I wanted to see what progress I had
made in my serious sickness. Naturally I was interested.
‘We greatly regret to announce that Lord Wheatley’s condition is
critical. The fever has abated, but the patient is dangerously
prostrate.’
‘It would be even more interesting if one had the dates,’ thought I.
The last paragraph was extremely brief. ‘Lord Wheatley died at seven
o’clock yesterday morning.’
I lay back in the bows of the boat, holding these remarkable little
slips of paper in my hand. They gave occasion for some thought. Then I
replaced them in the pocket-book, and I had, I regret to say, the
curiosity to explore further. I lifted the outer flap of leather and
looked in the inner compartment. It held only a single piece of paper.
On the paper were four or five lines, not in print this time but in
handwriting, and the handwriting looked very much like what I had seen
over Mouraki’s name.
‘Report of Lord Wheatley’s death unfounded. Reason to suspect intended
foul play on the part of the islanders. The Governor is making
inquiries. Lord Wheatley is carefully guarded, as attempts on his life
are feared. Feeling in the island is much exasperated, the sale to
Lord Wheatley being very unpopular.’
‘There’s another compartment yet,’ said I to myself, and I turned to
it eagerly. Alas, I was disappointed! There was a sheet of paper in
it, but the paper was a blank. Yet I looked at the blank piece of
paper with even greater interest; for I had little doubt that it had
been intended to carry another message, a message which was true and
no lie, which was to have been written this very morning by the dagger
of Demetri. Something like this it would have run, would it not, in
the terse style of my friend Mouraki Pasha? ‘Lord Wheatley
assassinated this morning. Assassin killed by Governor’s guards.
Governor is taking severe measures.’
Mouraki, Mouraki, in your life you loved irony, and in your death you
were not divided from it! For while you lay a corpse in the stern of
your boat, I lived to read those unwritten words on the blank paper in
your pocket-book. At first Constantine had killed me--so I interpreted
the matter--by fever; but later on that story would not serve, since
Denny and Hogvardt and faithful Watkins knew that it was a lie.
Therefore the lie was declared a lie and you set yourself to prove
again that truth is better than a lie--especially when a man can
manufacture it to his own order. Yet, surely, Mouraki, if you can look
now into this world, your smile will be a wry one! For, cunning as you
were and full of twists, more cunning still and richer in expedients
is the thing called fate; and the dagger of Demetri wrote another
message to fill the blank sheet that your provident notebook carried!
Thinking thus, I put the book in my pocket, and looked round with a
smile on my lips. I wished the man were alive that I might mock him. I
grudged him the sudden death which fenced him from my triumphant
raillery.
Suddenly, there in the bows of the boat, I laughed aloud, so that the
soldiers turned startled faces over their shoulders and Phroso looked
at me in wonder.
‘It’s nothing,’ said I. ‘Since I’m alive I may laugh, I suppose?’
Mouraki Pasha was not alive.
My reading and my meditation had passed the time. Now we were round
the point which had lain between us and the harbour, and were heading
straight for the gunboat that was anchored just across the head of the
jetty. Phroso’s eyes met mine in an appeal. I could give her no hope
of escape. There was nothing for it: we must go on, we and Mouraki
together. But my heart was buoyant within me and I exulted in the
favours of fortune as a lover in his mistress’s smiles. Was not
Mouraki lying dead in the stern of the boat and was not I alive?
We drew near to the gunboat. Now I perceived that her steam launch lay
by her side and smoke poured from its funnel. Evidently the launch was
ready for a voyage. Whither? Could it be to Rhodes? And did the
pocket-book that I felt against my ribs by any chance contain the
cargo which was to have been speeded on its way to-day? I laughed
again as our boat came alongside, and a movement of excitement and
interest rose from the deck of gunboat and launch alike.
The officer went on board the gunboat; for an hour or more we sat
where we were, sheltered by the side of the vessel from the heat of
the sun, for it was now noon. What was happening on board I could not
tell, but there was stir and bustle. The excitement seemed to grow.
Presently it spread from the vessel to the shore and groups of
islanders began to collect. I saw men point at Phroso, at me, at the
stiffened figure under the coat. They spoke also, and freely; more
boldly than I had heard them since Mouraki had landed and his presence
turned their fierce pride to meekness. It was as though a weight had
been lifted off them. I knew, from my own mind, the relief that came
to them by the death of the hard man and the removal of the ruthless
arm. Presently a boat put off and began to pull round the promontory.
The soldiers did not interfere, but watched it go in idle toleration.
I guessed its errand: it went to take up the corpse of Demetri, and (I
was much afraid) to give it a patriot’s funeral.
At last Mouraki’s body was carried on to the gunboat; then a summons
came to me. With a glance of encouragement at Phroso, who sat in a
sort of stupor, I rose and obeyed. I was conducted on to the deck and
found myself face to face with the captain. He was a Turk, a young man
of dignified and pleasant appearance. He bowed to me courteously,
although slightly. I supposed that Mouraki’s death left him the
supreme authority in Neopalia and I made him the obeisance proper to
his new position.
‘This is a terrible, a startling event, my lord,’ said he.
‘It’s the loss of a very eminent and distinguished man,’ I observed.
‘Ah, yes, and in a very fearful manner,’ he answered. ‘I am not
prejudging your position, but you must see that it puts you in a
rather serious situation.’
There were two or three of his officers standing near. I took a step
towards him. I liked his looks; and somehow his grief at Mouraki’s end
did not seem intense. I determined to play the bold game.
‘Nothing, I assure you, to what I should have been in if it had not
occurred,’ said I composedly.
A start and a murmur ran round the group. The captain looked
uncomfortable.
‘With his Excellency’s plans we have nothing to do--’ he began.
‘Aye, but I have,’ said I. ‘And when I tell you--’
‘Gentlemen,’ said the captain hastily, ‘leave us alone for a little
while.’
I saw at once that I had made an impression. It seemed not difficult
to create an impression adverse to Mouraki now that he was dead,
though it had not been wise to display one when he was alive.
‘I don’t know,’ said I, when we were left alone together, ‘whether you
knew the relations between the late Pasha and myself?’
‘No,’ said he in a steady voice, looking me full in the face.
‘It was not, perhaps, within the sphere of your duty to know them?’ I
hazarded.
‘It was not,’ said he. I thought I saw the slightest of smiles
glimmering between beard and moustache.
‘But now that you’re in command, it’s different?’
‘It is undoubtedly different now,’ he admitted.
‘Shall we talk in your cabin?’
‘By all means;’ and he led the way.
When we reached the cabin, I gave him a short sketch of what had
happened since Mouraki’s arrival. He was already informed as to the
events before that date. He heard me with unmoved face. At last I
came to my attempted escape with Phroso by the secret passage and to
Constantine’s attack.
‘That fellow was a villain,’ he observed.
‘Yes,’ said I. ‘Read those.’ And I handed him the printed slips,
adding, ‘I suppose he sent these by fishing-boats to Rhodes, first to
pave the way, and finally to account for my disappearance.’
‘I must congratulate you on a lucky escape, my lord.’
‘You have more than that to congratulate me on, captain. Your launch
seems ready for a voyage.’
‘Yes; but I have countermanded the orders.’
‘What were they?’
‘I beg your pardon, my lord, but what concern is it--?’
‘For a trip to Rhodes, perhaps?’
‘I shall not deny it if you guess it.’
‘By the order of the Pasha?’
‘Undoubtedly.’
‘On what errand?’
‘His Excellency did not inform me.’
‘To carry this perhaps?’ I flung the paper which bore Mouraki’s
handwriting on the table that stood between us.
He took it up and read it; while he read, I took my pencil from my
pocket and wrote on the blank slip of paper, which I had found in the
pocket-book, the message that Mouraki’s brain had surely conceived,
though his fingers had grown stiff in death before they could write
it.
‘What does all this mean?’ asked the captain, looking up as he
finished reading.
‘And to-morrow,’ said I, ‘I think another message would have gone to
Rhodes--’
‘I had orders to be ready to go myself to-morrow.’
‘You had?’ I cried. ‘And what would you have carried?’
‘That I don’t know.’
‘Aye, but I do. There’s your cargo!’ And I flung down what I had
written.
He read it once and again, and looked across the table at me,
fingering the slip of paper.
‘He did not write this?’ he said.
‘As you saw, I wrote it. If he had lived, then, as surely as I live,
he would have written it. Captain, it was for me that dagger was
meant. Else why did he take the man Demetri with him? Had Demetri
cause to love him, or he cause to trust Demetri?’
The captain stood holding the paper. I walked round the table and laid
my hand on his shoulder.
‘You didn’t know his schemes,’ said I. ‘They weren’t schemes that he
could tell to a Turkish gentleman.’
At this instant the door opened and the officer who had been with us
in the morning entered.
‘I have laid his Excellency’s body in his cabin,’ he said.
‘Come,’ said the captain, ‘we will go and see it, my lord.’
I followed him to where Mouraki lay. The Pasha’s face was composed and
there was even the shadow of a smile on his pale lips.
‘Do you believe what I tell you?’ I asked. ‘I tried to save the girl
from him and in return he meant to kill me. Do you believe me? If not,
hang me for his murder; if you do, why am I a prisoner? What have I
done? Where is my offence?’
The captain looked down on Mouraki’s face, tugged his beard, smiled,
was silent an instant. Then he shrugged his shoulders, and he said--he
who had not dared, a day before, to lift his voice or raise his finger
unbidden in Mouraki’s presence:
‘Faugh, the Armenian dog!’
There was, I fear, race prejudice in that exclamation, but I did not
contradict it. I stood looking down on Mouraki’s face, and to my
fancy, stirred by the events of the past hours and twisted from
sobriety to strange excesses of delusion, the lips seemed once again
to curl in their old bitter smile, as he lay still and heard himself
spurned, and could not move to exact the vengeance which in his life
he had never missed.
So we left him--the Armenian dog!