I’ve never been there and am looking forward to it so much. The Marchesa
Ruggeri, whom we met at Harrogate last summer, has a villa there,
and has invited us for Easter. But mother said this morning that she
preferred to remain here.”
“Why?”
“Oh! Somebody in the hotel has put her off. An old Englishwoman who
lives in Florence told her that there’s nothing to see beyond the
Galleries, and that the place is very catty.”
Hugh laughed and replied:
“All British colonies in Continental cities are catty, my dear Dorise.
They say that for scandal Florence takes the palm. I went there for two
seasons in succession before the war, and found the place delightful.”
“The Marchesa is a charming woman. Her husband was an attache at the
Italian Embassy in Paris. But he has been transferred to Washington, so
she has gone back to Florence. I like her immensely, and I do so want to
visit her.”
“Oh, you must persuade your mother to take you,” he said. “She’ll be
easily persuaded.”
“I don’t know. She doesn’t like travelling in Italy. She once had her
dressing-case stolen from the train between Milan and Genoa, so she’s
always horribly bitter against all Italians.”
“There are thieves also on English railways, Dorise,” Hugh remarked.
“People are far too prone to exaggerate the shortcomings of foreigners,
and close their eyes to the faults of the British.”
“But everybody is not so cosmopolitan as you are, Hugh,” the girl
laughed, raising her eyes to those of her lover.
“No,” he replied with a sigh.
“Why do you sigh?” asked the girl, having noticed a change in her
companion ever since they had met in the Rooms. He seemed strangely
thoughtful and preoccupied.
“Did I?” he asked, suddenly pulling himself together. “I didn’t know,”
he added with a forced laugh.
“You don’t look yourself to-day, Hugh,” she said.
“I’ve been told that once before,” he replied. “The weather--I think!
Are you going over to the _bal blanc_ at Nice to-night?”
“Of course. And you are coming also. Hasn’t mother asked you?” she
inquired in surprise.
“No.”
“How silly! She must have forgotten. She told me she intended to ask you
to have a seat in the car. The Comte d’Autun is coming with us.”
“Ah! He admires you, Dorise, hence I don’t like him,” Hugh blurted
forth.
“But, surely, you’re not jealous, you dear old thing!” laughed the girl,
tantalizing him. Perhaps she would not have uttered those words which
cut deeply into his heart had she known the truth concerning the tragedy
at the Villa Amette.
“I don’t like him because he seems to live by gambling,” Hugh declared.
“I know your mother likes him very much--of course!”
“And she likes you, too, dear.”
“She may like me, but I fear she begins to suspect that we love each
other, dearest,” he said in a hard tone. “If she does, she will take
care in future to keep us apart, and I--I shall lose you, Dorise!”
“No--no, you won’t.”
“Ah! But I shall! Your mother will never allow you to marry a man who
has only just sufficient to rub along with, and who is already in debt
to his tailor. What hope is there that we can ever marry?”
“My dear Hugh, you are awfully pessimistic to-day,” the girl cried.
“What is up with you? Have you lost heavily at the tables--or what?”
“No. I have been thinking of the future,” he said in a hard voice so
very unusual to him. “I am thinking of your mother’s choice of a husband
for you--George Sherrard.”
“I hate him--the egotistical puppy!” exclaimed the girl, her fine eyes
flashing with anger. “I’ll never marry him--_never_!”
But Hugh Henfrey made no reply, and they went on together in silence.
“Cannot you trust me, Hugh?” asked the girl at last in a low earnest
tone.
“Yes, dearest. I trust you, of course. But I feel certain that your
mother, when she knows our secret, will forbid your seeing me, and press
on your marriage with Sherrard. Remember, he’s a rich man, and your
mother adores the Golden Calf.”
“I know she does. If people have money she wants to know them. Her first
inquiry is whether they have money.”
It was on the tip of Hugh’s tongue to remark with sarcasm that such
ideals might well be expected of the wife of a jerry-builder in Golder’s
green. But he hesitated. Lady Ranscomb was always well disposed towards
him, and he had had many good times at her house and on the grouse
moor she rented in Scotland each year for the benefit of her intimate
friends. Though she had been the wife of a small builder and had
commenced her married life in an eight-roomed house on the fringe of
Hampstead Heath, yet she had picked up society manners marvellously
well, being a woman of quick intelligence and considerable wit.
Nevertheless, she had no soul above money, and gaiety was as life to
her. She could not live without it. Dorise had been given an excellent
education, and after three years at Versailles was now voted one of the
prettiest and most charming girls in London society. Hence mother and
daughter were sought after everywhere, and their doings were constantly
being chronicled in the newspapers.
“Yes,” he said. “Your mother has not asked me over to Nice to-night
because she believes you and I have been too much together of late.”
“No,” declared Dorise. “I’m sure it’s not that, Hugh--I’m quite sure!
It’s simply an oversight. I’ll see about it when we get back. We leave
the hotel at half-past nine. It is the great White Ball of the Nice
season.”
“Please don’t mention it to her on any account, Dorise,” Hugh urged. “If
you did it would at once show her that you preferred my company to that
of the Count. Go with him. I shan’t be jealous! Besides, in view of
my financial circumstances, what right have I to be jealous? You can’t
marry a fellow like myself, Dorise. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”
The girl halted. In her eyes shone the light of unshed tears.
“Hugh! What do you mean? What are you saying?” she asked in a low,
faltering voice. “Have I not told you that whatever happens I shall
never love another man but yourself?”
He drew a long breath, and without replying placed his strong arms
around her and, drawing her to him, kissed her passionately upon the
lips.
“Thank you, my darling,” he murmured. “Thank you for those words. They
put into me a fresh hope, a fresh determination, and a fearlessness--oh!
you--you don’t know!” he added in a low, earnest voice.
“All I know, Hugh, is that you love me,” was the simple response as she
reciprocated his fierce caress.
“Love you, darling!” he cried. “Yes. You are mine--mine!”
“True, Hugh. I love no other man. I hate that tailor’s dummy, George
Sherrard, and as for the Count--well, he’s an idiotic Frenchman--the
‘hardy annual of Monte Carlo’ I heard him called the other day. No,
Hugh, I assure you that you have no cause for jealousy.”
And she smiled sweetly into his eyes.
They were standing together beneath a twisted old olive tree through the
dark foliage of which the sun shone in patches, while by their feet the
mountain torrent from the high, snow-clad Alps rippled and splashed over
the great grey boulders towards the sea.
“I know it, darling! I know it,” Hugh said in a stifled voice. He was
thinking of the tragedy of that night, but dare not disclose to her his
connexion with it, because he knew the police suspected him of making
that murderous attack upon the famous “Mademoiselle.”
“Forgive me, Hugh,” exclaimed the girl, still clasped in her lover’s
arms. “But somehow you don’t seem your old self to-day. What is the
matter? Can’t you tell me?”
He drew a long breath.
“No, darling. Excuse me. I--I’m a bit upset that’s all.”
“Why?”
“I’m upset because for the last day or two I have begun to realize that
our secret must very soon come out, and then--well, your mother will
forbid me the house because I have no money. You know that she worships
Mammon always--just as your father did--forgive me for my words.”
“I do forgive you because you speak the truth,” Dorise replied. “I know
that mother wants me to marry a rich man, and--”
“And she will compel you to do so, darling. I am convinced of that.”
“She won’t!” cried the girl. “I will never marry a man I do not love!”
“Your mother, if she doesn’t suspect our compact, will soon do so,” he
said. “She’s a clever woman. She is on the alert, because she intends
you to marry soon, and to marry a rich man.”
“Mother is far too fond of society, I admit. She lives only for her gay
friends now that father is dead. She spends lavishly upon luncheons and
dinners at the Ritz, the Carlton, and Claridge’s; and by doing so we get
to know all the best people. But what does it matter to me? I hate it
all because----”
And she looked straight into his eyes as she broke off.
“Because,” she whispered, “because--because I love you, Hugh!”
“Ah! darling! You have never been so frank with me before,” he said
softly. “You do not know how much those words of yours mean to me! You
do not know how all my life, all my hopes, all my future, is centred
in your own dear self!” and clasping her again tightly in his arms he
pressed his lips fondly to hers in a long passionate embrace.
Yet within the stout heart of Hugh Henfrey, who was so straight, honest
and upright a young fellow as ever trod the Broad at Oxford, lay that
ghastly secret--indeed, a double secret--that of his revered father’s
mysterious end and the inexplicable attack upon Yvonne Ferad at the very
moment when he had been about to learn the truth.
They lingered there beside the mountain stream for a long time, until
the sun sank and the light began to fail. Again and again he told her of
his great love for her, but he said nothing of the strange clause in his
father’s will. She knew Louise Lambert, having met her once walking in
the park with her lover. Hugh had introduced them, and had afterwards
explained that the girl was the adopted daughter of a great friend of
his father.
Dorise little dreamed that if her lover married her he would inherit the
remainder of old Mr. Henfrey’s fortune.
“Do come over to the ball at Nice to-night,” the girl urged presently as
they stood with hands clasped gazing into each other’s eyes. “It will be
nothing without you.”
“Ah! darling, that’s very nice of you to say so, but I think we ought to
be discreet. Your mother has invited the Count to go with you.”
“I hate him!” Dorise declared. “He’s all elegance, bows and flattery. He
bores me to death.”
“I can quite understand that. But your mother is fond of his society.
She declares that he is so amusing, and in Paris he knows everyone worth
knowing.”
“Oh, yes. He gave us an awfully good time in Paris last season--took us
to Longchamps, and we afterwards went to Deauville with him. He wins and
loses big sums on the turf.”
“A born gambler. Everyone knows that. I heard a lot about him in the
Travellers’ Club, in Paris.”
“But if mother telephones to you, you’ll come with us--won’t you?”
entreated the girl again.
The young man hesitated. His mind was full of the tragic affair of
the previous night. He was wondering whether the end had come--whether
Mademoiselle’s lips were already sealed by Death.
He gave an evasive reply, whereupon Dorise, taking his hand in hers,
said:
“What is your objection to going out with us to-night, Hugh? Do tell me.
If you don’t wish me to go, I’ll make an excuse to mother and she can
take the Count.”
“I have not the slightest objection,” he declared at once. “Go,
dearest--only leave me out of it. The _bal blanc_ is always good fun.”
“I shall not go if you refuse to go,” she said with a pout.
Therefore in order to please her he consented--providing Lady Ranscomb
invited him.
They had wandered a long way up the narrow, secluded valley, but had met
not a soul. All was delightful and picturesque, the profusion of wild
flowers, the huge grey moss-grown boulders, the overhanging ilexes and
olives, and the music of the tumbling current through a crooked course
worn deep by the waters of primeval ages.
It was seldom that in the whirl of society the pair could get a couple
of hours together without interruption. And under the blue Riviera sky
they were indeed fraught with bliss to both.
When they returned to the town the dusk was already falling, and the
great arc lamps along the terrace in front of the Casino were already
lit. Hugh took her as far as the entrance to the Metropole and then,
after wishing her au revoir and promising to go with her to Nice if
invited, he hastily retraced his steps to the Palmiers. Five minutes
later he was speaking to the old Italian at the Villa Amette.
“Mademoiselle is still unconscious, m’sieur,” was the servant’s reply to
his eager inquiry. “The doctors have been several times this afternoon,
but they hold out no hope.”
“I wonder if I can be of any assistance?” Hugh asked in French.
“I think not, m’sieur. What assistance can any of us give poor
Mademoiselle?”
Ah, what indeed, Hugh thought as he put down the receiver.
Yet while she lived, there was still a faint hope that he would be
able to learn the secret which he anticipated would place him in such a
position that he might defy those who had raised their hands against his
father and himself.
His marriage with Dorise, indeed his whole future, depended upon the
disclosure of the clever plot whereby Louise Lambert was to become his
wife.
His friend Brock was not in the hotel, so he went to his room to
dress for dinner. Ten minutes later a page brought a message from Lady
Ranscomb inviting him to go over to Nice to the ball.
He drew a long breath. He was in no mood for dancing that night, for he
was far too perturbed regarding the critical condition of the notorious
woman who had turned his friend.
On every hand there were whispers and wild reports concerning the
tragedy at the Villa Amette. He had heard about it from a dozen people,
though not a word was in the papers. Yet nobody dreamed that he, of all
men, had been present when the mysterious shot was fired, or that he
was, indeed, the cause of the secret attack.
He dressed slowly, and having done so, descended to the _salle a
manger_. The big white room was filled with a gay, reckless cosmopolitan
crowd--the crowd of well-dressed moths of both sexes which eternally
flutters at night at Monte Carlo, attracted by the candle held by the
great god Hazard.
Brock was not there, and he seated himself alone at their table near
the long-curtained window. He was surprised at his friend’s absence.
Perhaps, however, he had met friends and gone over to Beaulieu, Nice, or
Mentone with them.
He had but little appetite. He ate a small portion of langouste with an
exquisite salad, and drank a single glass of chablis. Then he rose
and quitted the chattering, laughing crowd of diners, whose gossip was
mainly upon a sensational run on the red at five o’clock that evening.
One woman, stout and of Hebrew type, sitting with three men, was wildly
merry, for she had won the equivalent to sixty thousand pounds.
All that recklessness jarred upon the young man’s nerves. He tried to
close his ears to it all, and ascended again to his room, where he
sat in silent despondency till it was time for him to go round to the
Metropole to join Lady Ranscomb and Dorise.
He had brushed his hair and rearranged his tie, and was about to put on
the pierrot’s costume of white satin with big buttons of black velvet
which he had worn at the _bal blanc_ at Mentone about a week before,
when the page handed him another note.
Written in a distinctly foreign hand, it read:
“Instantly you receive this get into a travelling-suit and put what
money and valuables you have into your pockets. Then go to a dark-green
car which will await you by the reservoir in the Boulevard du Midi.
Trust the driver. You must get over the frontier into Italy at the
earliest moment. Every second’s delay is dangerous to you. Do not
trouble to find out who sends you this warning! _Bon voyage!_”
Hugh Henfrey read it and re-read it. The truth was plain. The police
of Monaco suspected him, and intended that he should be arrested on
suspicion of having committed the crime.
But who was his unknown friend?
He stood at the window reflecting. If he did not keep his appointment
with Dorise she would reproach him for breaking his word to her. On the
other hand, if he motored to Nice he would no doubt be arrested on the
French frontier a few miles along the Corniche road.
Inspector Ogier suspected him, hence discretion was the better part of
valour. So, after brief consideration, he threw off his dress clothes
and assumed a suit of dark tweed. He put his money and a few articles of
jewellry in his pockets, and getting into his overcoat he slipped out of
the hotel by the back entrance used by the staff.
Outside, he walked in the darkness along the Boulevard du Nord, past the
Turbie station, until he came to the long blank wall behind which lay
the reservoir.
At the kerb he saw the dim red rear-light of a car, and almost at the
same moment a rough-looking Italian chauffeur approached him.
“Quick, signore!” he whispered excitedly. “Every moment is full of
danger. There is a warrant out for your arrest! The police know that
you intended to go to Nice and they are watching for you on the Corniche
road. But we will try to get into Italy. You are an invalid, remember!
You’ll find in the car a few things with which you can make up to look
the part. You are an American subject and a cripple, who cannot leave
the car when the customs officers search it. Now, signore, let’s be off
and trust to our good fortune in getting away. I will tell the officers
of the _dogana_ at Ventimiglia a good story--trust me! I haven’t been
smuggling backwards and forwards for ten years without knowing the
ropes!”
“But where are we going?” asked Hugh bewildered.
“You, signore, are going to prison if we fail on this venture, I fear,”
was the rough-looking driver’s reply.
So urged by him Hugh got into the car, and then they drove swiftly along
the sea-road of the littoral towards the rugged Italian frontier.
Hugh Henfrey was going forth to face the unknown.
SEVENTH CHAPTER
FROM DARK TO DAWN
In the darkness the car went swiftly through Mentone and along the steep
winding road which leads around the rugged coast close to the sea--the
road over the yellow rocks which Napoleon made into Italy.
Presently they began to ascend a hill, a lonely, wind-swept highway with
the sea plashing deep below, when, after a sudden bend, some lights came
into view. It was the wayside Italian Customs House.
They had arrived at the frontier.
Hugh, by the aid of a flash-lamp, had put on a grey moustache and
changed his clothes, putting his own into the suit case wherein he had
found the suit already prepared for him. He had wrapped himself up in
a heavy travelling-rug, and by his side reposed a pair of crutches, so
that when they drew up before the little roadside office of the Italian
_dogana_ he was reclining upon a cushion presenting quite a pathetic
figure.
But who had made all these preparations for his flight?
He held his breath as the chauffeur sounded his horn to announce his
arrival. Then the door opened, shedding a long ray of light across the
white dusty road.
“_Buona sera, signore_!” cried the chauffeur merrily, as a Customs
officer in uniform came forward. “Here’s my driving licence and papers
for the car. And our two passports.”
The man took them, examined them by the light of his electric torch, and
told the chauffeur to go into the office for the visas.
“Have you anything to declare?” he added in Italian.
“Half a dozen very bad cigarettes,” replied the other, laughing.
“They’re French! And also I’ve got a very bad cold! No duty on that, I
suppose?”
The officer laughed, and then turned his attention to the petrol tank,
into which he put his measuring iron to see how much it contained, while
the facetious chauffeur stood by.
During this operation two other men came out of the building, one an
Italian carabineer in epaulettes and cocked hat, while the other, tall
and shrewd-faced, was in mufti. The latter was the agent of French
police who inspects all travellers leaving France by road.
The chauffeur realized that the moment was a critical one.
He was rolling a cigarette unconcernedly, but bending to the Customs
officer, he said in a low voice:
“My _padrone_ is an _Americano_. An invalid, and a bit eccentric. Lots
of money. A long time ago he injured his spine and can hardly move.
He fell down a few days ago, and now I’ve got to take him to Professor
Landrini, in Turin. He’s pretty bad. We’ve come from Hyeres. His doctor
ordered me to take him to Turin at once. We don’t want any delay. He
told me to give you this,” and he slipped a note for a hundred lire into
the man’s hand.
The officer expressed surprise, but the merry chauffeur of the rich
American exclaimed:
“Don’t worry. The _Americano_ is very rich; I only wish there were more
of his sort about. He’s the great Headon, the meat-canner of Chicago.
You see his name on the tins.”
The man recognized the name, and at once desisted in his examination.
Then to the two police officers who came to his side, he explained:
“The American gentleman inside is an invalid, going to Turin to
Professor Landrini. He wants to get off at once, for he has a long
journey over the Alps.”
The French agent of police grunted suspiciously. Both the French and
Italian police are very astute, but money always talks. It is the same
at a far-remote frontier station as in any circle of society.
Here was a well-known American--the Customs officer had mentioned the
name of Headon, which both police officers recognized--an invalid sent
with all haste to the famous surgeon in Turin. It was not likely that he
would be carrying contraband, or be an escaping criminal.
Besides, the chauffeur, in full view of the two police agents, slipped a
second note into the hand of the Customs officer, and said:
“So all is well, isn’t it, signori? Just visa my papers, and we’ll get
along. It looks as though we’re to have a bad thunderstorm, and, if so,
we shall catch it up on the Col di Tenda!”
Thus impelled, the quartette went back to the well-lit little building,
where the beetle-browed driver again chaffed the police-agents, while
the Customs officer placed his rubber stamp upon the paper, scribbled
his initials and charged three-lire-twenty as fee.
All this was being watched with breathless anxiety by the supposed
invalid reclining against the cushion with his crutches at his side.
Again the mysterious chauffeur reappeared, and with him the French
police officer in plain clothes.
“We are keeping watch for a young Englishman from Monte Carlo who has
shot a woman,” remarked the latter.
“Oh! But they arrested him to-night in Mentone,” replied the driver. “I
heard it half an hour ago as I came through.”
“Are you sure?”
“Well, they told me so at the Garage Grimaldi. He shot a woman known as
Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo--didn’t he?”
“Yes, that’s the man! But they have not informed us yet. I’ll telephone
to Mentone.” Then he added: “As a formality I’ll just have a peep at
your master.”
The chauffeur held his breath.
“He’s pretty bad, I think. I hope we shall be in Turin early in the
morning.”
Advancing to the car, the police officer opened the door and flashed his
torch upon the occupant.
He saw a pale, elderly man, with a grey moustache, wearing a golf cape
and reclining uneasily upon the pillow, with his leg propped up and
wrapped with a heavy travelling-rug. Upon the white countenance was an
expression of pain as he turned wearily, his eyes dazzled by the sudden
light.
“Where are we?” he asked faintly in English.
“At the Italian _douane_, m’sieur,” was the police officer’s reply, as
for a few seconds he gazed upon the invalid’s face, seconds that seemed
hours to Hugh. He was, of course, unaware of the cock-and-bull story
which his strange chauffeur had told, and feared that at any moment he
might find himself under arrest.
While the door remained open there was danger. At last, however, the man
reclosed it.
Hugh’s heart gave a great bound. The chauffeur had restarted the engine,
and mounting to the wheel shouted a merry:
“_Buona notte, signori_!”
Then the car moved away along the winding road and Hugh knew that he was
on Italian soil--that he had happily escaped from France.
But why had he escaped, he reflected? He was innocent. Would not his
flight lend colour to the theory that Yvonne Ferad had been shot by his
hand?
Again, who was his unknown friend who had warned him of his peril and
made those elaborate arrangements for his escape? Besides, where was
Walter?