Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated) (424 page)

‘I must be going crazy,’ he thought.  ‘Poor Marjory and her heliotropes!’

And with that he raised his eyes towards the window that had once been hers.  If he had been bewildered before, he was now almost terrified; for there was a light in the room; the window was an orange oblong as of yore; and the corner of the blind was lifted and let fall as on the night when he stood and shouted to the stars in his perplexity.  The illusion only endured an instant; but it left him somewhat unmanned, rubbing his eyes and staring at the outline of the house and the black night behind it.  While he thus stood, and it seemed as if he must have stood there quite a long time, there came a renewal of the noises on the road: and he turned in time to meet a stranger, who was advancing to meet him across the court.  There was something like the outline of a great carriage discernible on the road behind the stranger, and, above that, a few black pine-tops, like so many plumes.

‘Master Will?’ asked the new-comer, in brief military fashion.

‘That same, sir,’ answered Will.  ‘Can I do anything to serve you?’

‘I have heard you much spoken of, Master Will,’ returned the other; ‘much spoken of, and well.  And though I have both hands full of business, I wish to drink a bottle of wine with you in your arbour.  Before I go, I shall introduce myself.’

Will led the way to the trellis, and got a lamp lighted and a bottle uncorked.  He was not altogether unused to such complimentary interviews, and hoped little enough from this one, being schooled by many disappointments.  A sort of cloud had settled on his wits and prevented him from remembering the strangeness of the hour.  He moved like a person in his sleep; and it seemed as if the lamp caught fire and the bottle came uncorked with the facility of thought.  Still, he had some curiosity about the appearance of his visitor, and tried in vain to turn the light into his face; either he handled the lamp clumsily, or there was a dimness over his eyes; but he could make out little more than a shadow at table with him.  He stared and stared at this shadow, as he wiped out the glasses, and began to feel cold and strange about the heart.  The silence weighed upon him, for he could hear nothing now, not even the river, but the drumming of his own arteries in his ears.

‘Here’s to you,’ said the stranger, roughly.

‘Here is my service, sir,’ replied Will, sipping his wine, which somehow tasted oddly.

‘I understand you are a very positive fellow,’ pursued the stranger.

Will made answer with a smile of some satisfaction and a little nod.

‘So am I,’ continued the other; ‘and it is the delight of my heart to tramp on people’s corns.  I will have nobody positive but myself; not one.  I have crossed the whims, in my time, of kings and generals and great artists.  And what would you say,’ he went on, ‘if I had come up here on purpose to cross yours?’

Will had it on his tongue to make a sharp rejoinder; but the politeness of an old innkeeper prevailed; and he held his peace and made answer with a civil gesture of the hand.

‘I have,’ said the stranger.  ‘And if I did not hold you in a particular esteem, I should make no words about the matter.  It appears you pride yourself on staying where you are.  You mean to stick by your inn.  Now I mean you shall come for a turn with me in my barouche; and before this bottle’s empty, so you shall.’

‘That would be an odd thing, to be sure,’ replied Will, with a chuckle.  ‘Why, sir, I have grown here like an old oak-tree; the Devil himself could hardly root me up: and for all I perceive you are a very entertaining old gentleman, I would wager you another bottle you lose your pains with me.’

The dimness of Will’s eyesight had been increasing all this while; but he was somehow conscious of a sharp and chilling scrutiny which irritated and yet overmastered him.

‘You need not think,’ he broke out suddenly, in an explosive, febrile manner that startled and alarmed himself, ‘that I am a stay-at-home, because I fear anything under God.  God knows I am tired enough of it all; and when the time comes for a longer journey than ever you dream of, I reckon I shall find myself prepared.’

The stranger emptied his glass and pushed it away from him.  He looked down for a little, and then, leaning over the table, tapped Will three times upon the forearm with a single finger.  ‘The time has come!’ he said solemnly.

An ugly thrill spread from the spot he touched.  The tones of his voice were dull and startling, and echoed strangely in Will’s heart.

‘I beg your pardon,’ he said, with some discomposure.  ‘What do you mean?’

‘Look at me, and you will find your eyesight swim.  Raise your hand; it is dead-heavy.  This is your last bottle of wine, Master Will, and your last night upon the earth.’

‘You are a doctor?’ quavered Will.

‘The best that ever was,’ replied the other; ‘for I cure both mind and body with the same prescription.  I take away all plain and I forgive all sins; and where my patients have gone wrong in life, I smooth out all complications and set them free again upon their feet.’

‘I have no need of you,’ said Will.

‘A time comes for all men, Master Will,’ replied the doctor, ‘when the helm is taken out of their hands.  For you, because you were prudent and quiet, it has been long of coming, and you have had long to discipline yourself for its reception.  You have seen what is to be seen about your mill; you have sat close all your days like a hare in its form; but now that is at an end; and,’ added the doctor, getting on his feet, ‘you must arise and come with me.’

‘You are a strange physician,’ said Will, looking steadfastly upon his guest.

‘I am a natural law,’ he replied, ‘and people call me Death.’

‘Why did you not tell me so at first?’ cried Will.  ‘I have been waiting for you these many years.  Give me your hand, and welcome.’

‘Lean upon my arm,’ said the stranger, ‘for already your strength abates.  Lean on me as heavily as you need; for though I am old, I am very strong.  It is but three steps to my carriage, and there all your trouble ends.  Why, Will,’ he added, ‘I have been yearning for you as if you were my own son; and of all the men that ever I came for in my long days, I have come for you most gladly.  I am caustic, and sometimes offend people at first sight; but I am a good friend at heart to such as you.’

‘Since Marjory was taken,’ returned Will, ‘I declare before God you were the only friend I had to look for.’  So the pair went arm-in-arm across the courtyard.

One of the servants awoke about this time and heard the noise of horses pawing before he dropped asleep again; all down the valley that night there was a rushing as of a smooth and steady wind descending towards the plain; and when the world rose next morning, sure enough Will o’ the Mill had gone at last upon his travels.

MARKHEIM

‘Yes,’ said the dealer, ‘our windfalls are of various kinds.  Some customers are ignorant, and then I touch a dividend on my superior knowledge.  Some are dishonest,’ and here he held up the candle, so that the light fell strongly on his visitor, ‘and in that case,’ he continued, ‘I profit by my virtue.’

Markheim had but just entered from the daylight streets, and his eyes had not yet grown familiar with the mingled shine and darkness in the shop.  At these pointed words, and before the near presence of the flame, he blinked painfully and looked aside.

The dealer chuckled.  ‘You come to me on Christmas Day,’ he resumed, ‘when you know that I am alone in my house, put up my shutters, and make a point of refusing business.  Well, you will have to pay for that; you will have to pay for my loss of time, when I should be balancing my books; you will have to pay, besides, for a kind of manner that I remark in you to-day very strongly.  I am the essence of discretion, and ask no awkward questions; but when a customer cannot look me in the eye, he has to pay for it.’  The dealer once more chuckled; and then, changing to his usual business voice, though still with a note of irony, ‘You can give, as usual, a clear account of how you came into the possession of the object?’ he continued.  ‘Still your uncle’s cabinet?  A remarkable collector, sir!’

And the little pale, round-shouldered dealer stood almost on tip-toe, looking over the top of his gold spectacles, and nodding his head with every mark of disbelief.  Markheim returned his gaze with one of infinite pity, and a touch of horror.

‘This time,’ said he, ‘you are in error.  I have not come to sell, but to buy.  I have no curios to dispose of; my uncle’s cabinet is bare to the wainscot; even were it still intact, I have done well on the Stock Exchange, and should more likely add to it than otherwise, and my errand to-day is simplicity itself.  I seek a Christmas present for a lady,’ he continued, waxing more fluent as he struck into the speech he had prepared; ‘and certainly I owe you every excuse for thus disturbing you upon so small a matter.  But the thing was neglected yesterday; I must produce my little compliment at dinner; and, as you very well know, a rich marriage is not a thing to be neglected.’

There followed a pause, during which the dealer seemed to weigh this statement incredulously.  The ticking of many clocks among the curious lumber of the shop, and the faint rushing of the cabs in a near thoroughfare, filled up the interval of silence.

‘Well, sir,’ said the dealer, ‘be it so.  You are an old customer after all; and if, as you say, you have the chance of a good marriage, far be it from me to be an obstacle.  Here is a nice thing for a lady now,’ he went on, ‘this hand glass — fifteenth century, warranted; comes from a good collection, too; but I reserve the name, in the interests of my customer, who was just like yourself, my dear sir, the nephew and sole heir of a remarkable collector.’

The dealer, while he thus ran on in his dry and biting voice, had stooped to take the object from its place; and, as he had done so, a shock had passed through Markheim, a start both of hand and foot, a sudden leap of many tumultuous passions to the face.  It passed as swiftly as it came, and left no trace beyond a certain trembling of the hand that now received the glass.

‘A glass,’ he said hoarsely, and then paused, and repeated it more clearly.  ‘A glass?  For Christmas?  Surely not?’

‘And why not?’ cried the dealer.  ‘Why not a glass?’

Markheim was looking upon him with an indefinable expression.  ‘You ask me why not?’ he said.  ‘Why, look here — look in it — look at yourself!  Do you like to see it?  No! nor I — nor any man.’

The little man had jumped back when Markheim had so suddenly confronted him with the mirror; but now, perceiving there was nothing worse on hand, he chuckled.  ‘Your future lady, sir, must be pretty hard favoured,’ said he.

‘I ask you,’ said Markheim, ‘for a Christmas present, and you give me this — this damned reminder of years, and sins and follies — this hand-conscience!  Did you mean it?  Had you a thought in your mind?  Tell me.  It will be better for you if you do.  Come, tell me about yourself.  I hazard a guess now, that you are in secret a very charitable man?’

The dealer looked closely at his companion.  It was very odd, Markheim did not appear to be laughing; there was something in his face like an eager sparkle of hope, but nothing of mirth.

‘What are you driving at?’ the dealer asked.

‘Not charitable?’ returned the other, gloomily.  Not charitable; not pious; not scrupulous; unloving, unbeloved; a hand to get money, a safe to keep it.  Is that all?  Dear God, man, is that all?’

‘I will tell you what it is,’ began the dealer, with some sharpness, and then broke off again into a chuckle.  ‘But I see this is a love match of yours, and you have been drinking the lady’s health.’

‘Ah!’ cried Markheim, with a strange curiosity.  ‘Ah, have you been in love?  Tell me about that.’

‘I,’ cried the dealer.  ‘I in love!  I never had the time, nor have I the time to-day for all this nonsense.  Will you take the glass?’

‘Where is the hurry?’ returned Markheim.  ‘It is very pleasant to stand here talking; and life is so short and insecure that I would not hurry away from any pleasure — no, not even from so mild a one as this.  We should rather cling, cling to what little we can get, like a man at a cliff’s edge.  Every second is a cliff, if you think upon it — a cliff a mile high — high enough, if we fall, to dash us out of every feature of humanity.  Hence it is best to talk pleasantly.  Let us talk of each other: why should we wear this mask?  Let us be confidential.  Who knows, we might become friends?’

‘I have just one word to say to you,’ said the dealer.  ‘Either make your purchase, or walk out of my shop!’

‘True true,’ said Markheim.  ‘Enough, fooling.  To business.  Show me something else.’

The dealer stooped once more, this time to replace the glass upon the shelf, his thin blond hair falling over his eyes as he did so.  Markheim moved a little nearer, with one hand in the pocket of his greatcoat; he drew himself up and filled his lungs; at the same time many different emotions were depicted together on his face — terror, horror, and resolve, fascination and a physical repulsion; and through a haggard lift of his upper lip, his teeth looked out.

‘This, perhaps, may suit,’ observed the dealer: and then, as he began to re-arise, Markheim bounded from behind upon his victim.  The long, skewerlike dagger flashed and fell.  The dealer struggled like a hen, striking his temple on the shelf, and then tumbled on the floor in a heap.

Time had some score of small voices in that shop, some stately and slow as was becoming to their great age; others garrulous and hurried.  All these told out the seconds in an intricate, chorus of tickings.  Then the passage of a lad’s feet, heavily running on the pavement, broke in upon these smaller voices and startled Markheim into the consciousness of his surroundings.  He looked about him awfully.  The candle stood on the counter, its flame solemnly wagging in a draught; and by that inconsiderable movement, the whole room was filled with noiseless bustle and kept heaving like a sea: the tall shadows nodding, the gross blots of darkness swelling and dwindling as with respiration, the faces of the portraits and the china gods changing and wavering like images in water.  The inner door stood ajar, and peered into that leaguer of shadows with a long slit of daylight like a pointing finger.