Fire Below (18 page)

Lelia crossed her ankles and threw me a dazzling smile.

‘Is this how her Highness sits? Or does she crouch on the floor?’

‘She does as I tell her,’ I said.

With that, I shut the door and hoped for the best. Then I put down the half of the bonnet which I had left raised, and a moment later we were flying along the road.

Five minutes later we were clear of the Sabre estate.

Now if I had used my wits, I should have known that Lelia, to whom roads meant nothing, would have to see about her if she was to tell me the way. Cooped in the car, she could not get her bearings, and four times I had to stop and let her run to some shoulder or even stand still in the roadway and look around.

It was a sight to see her pick up her line in this way, for the country was blind as could be, but I think she could read the tokens which speak to the birds and beasts, for after a moment she would come back quite confident to say that we stood in some parish of which I had never heard.

Once we ran through a village and we brushed against several farms, but the peasants we passed showed no undue excitement and only stared or cursed me, as peasants will.

At last we dropped down a hill and into a sunken road that seemed familiar, and then in a moment I knew I was close to Vardar and was taking the way I had taken when Rowley and I made for Gola the night before.

The spot seeming lonely, I brought the car to rest.

‘Lelia,’ I said, looking round, ‘I know that I am not to thank you, but you have done the trick. I used this road this morning, and I know where I am. Vardar lies over that ridge, a mile away.’

‘That is quite right,’ says she; ‘but you will not go through the town.’

‘Oh, no. I shall go very wide. I have plenty of time. But I must not take you further. As it is, you will not be home till long after dark. It must be six miles to Merring from where we stand.’

With that, I alighted and opened the door of the car.

The dog leaped out, delighted, but Lelia followed slowly, finger to lip.

Before I could shut the door, she had set a hand on my arm.

‘Take me with you,’ she said.

‘No, my dear,’ said I. ‘It’s not to be thought of. For one thing only, this is a one-man show.’

Lelia shrugged her shoulders and turned away.

‘I think it is a one-woman show.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘That you do not want me tonight. That you do not want me to see her. You think you will have to present me and that I am not fit to–’

‘Lelia, Lelia, how can you say such things? When Leonie hears about you she will not rest till she has seen you and taken your hands in hers.’

She was round in a flash, and her hands were upon my shoulders, and her face three inches from mine.

‘Then take me with you,’ she breathed.

‘Listen,’ I lied. ‘I would not even take Rowley if he were here. I am not going to fight; I am going to stop my wife from walking into a trap. Everything depends upon my not being seen, and one can escape notice where two cannot.’

Lelia glanced at the sky.

‘It will be a dark night,’ she said.

‘So much the better,’ said I. ‘And now you must go to your home. Soon after dawn tomorrow I shall be back at the mill.’

‘If you are alive,’ said Lelia. ‘You cannot answer for that. What shall I do with myself if you do not come back?’

‘You must go about your business,’ said I; ‘Revisit the mill, if you will, and when the Countess comes, do what you can for her. She is very troubled and I know she would like you with her – as anyone would.’

‘Except yourself,’ said Lelia. ‘And what do you think I am made of that you tell me to go about my business if you do not come back? I will bid you goodbye tomorrow and make up my mind that I never shall see you again. And I will not cry, I promise. But I am not ready to bid you goodbye today.’

‘Why should you?’ said I. ‘If I do not come in the morning, be sure I shall come at dusk.’

‘Suppose you are taken,’ says she, with her eyes upon mine.

‘Suppose it,’ said I. ‘Then I will come when I am free. I am not ready, either, to bid you goodbye today.’

‘You will come, if her Highness can spare you.’

‘Leonie and I are one, Lelia.’

‘Do you love her so very much?’

I nodded.

‘She is in my heart – I told you.’

‘But not in your eyes,’ she breathed. ‘Not now. I am here. I can see myself. Why – why are you not ready to bid me goodbye today?’

‘Because you are very charming. Because you have meant a great deal to me today.’

‘Yet she has meant more.’ She took my face in her hands which were very cool. ‘Do you wish that I did not love you?’

‘Only for your sake, Lelia.’

‘And you do not mind when I touch you? Or try to pretend that it is she?’

‘No,’ said I, smiling. ‘Your ways are as gentle as hers.’

‘And she is beyond the mountains, but I am here.’

‘She is here, too, Lelia,’ said I.

With her face two inches from mine, Lelia took a deep breath.

‘Mother of God,’ she said, ‘but you are a trusty man.’

‘My dear,’ said I, ‘when you see her, you’ll understand.’

Lelia lowered her eyes.

‘I do not need to see her,’ she said.

The least I could do was to kiss her, and that I did. Then I took my seat in the car and she stood back, smiling, with one hand on the wolf-hound’s collar and the other up to her breast.

And that, I think, is how I shall always see her, standing so well and truly, her fine head raised and her beautiful eyes alight, with the setting sun behind her, and the dog looking up to her face.

I picked my way to the farther side of Gola, left the car in a meadow behind a byre and walked into Ramon’s forge as the sun went down.

Ten minutes later the smith was climbing the slopes at the back of his forge, and I was following after, two hundred yards behind.

Lest the frontier-guards should see me, I was afraid to make use of the bridle-path. Therefore, I had sought Ramon and asked him to tell me how I could reach the fall without going by that way. At once he had said he would guide me, and when I demurred, had declared that, unless I made him my pilot, I might as well stay where I was, ‘for,’ said he, ‘there is not the ghost of a path, and, going this way, you will not hear the roar of the water until you are almost there.’

If my drive had refreshed me, the evening air of the mountains did me more good than wine; but the thought that, in spite of my troubles, I was yet to forestall the men that were to watch for my wife set the blood running in my veins like some elixir. Now I hoped she would come with all my heart, for I was wild to see her and kiss her lips, and I hoped Grieg would try to take her, for that would both force the issue and seal his doom. So far as I was concerned, the hairs of her head were numbered, and the thought of her suffering violence made me ‘see red’.

When I was come to the crest of the nearest hill, I turned to look back at Gola and the landscape beyond. This was now very dim, and lights were fast appearing to hasten the rearguard of day. I could see the lamp of the level-crossing at Vardar and the lights of some train which was crawling away to my left, and far to the north a fire was blazing like a beacon high up on some mountain-side.

As I stood there, I must confess that I wished I was looking my last upon Riechtenburg and I came very near to cursing the day that we had set out; for the Prince could not have confined Marya to the country for ever, and all we had done was to drag her into the pit which had been digged for ourselves. Then I remembered Lelia, and I felt ashamed of wishing that I could go over the border and never come back; for, though she made too much of her fancy, she had used me with a fearless devotion which, had she been repulsive, must have touched any man; but since she was so lovely and charming, I think that I should have been no creature of flesh and blood, if, though I could not love her, I had not had respect to the gentle light in her eyes.

I now came up with the smith, for, once we were among the hill-tops, there seemed to be no reason why we should stay apart, and whilst we went on together, I told him our present plight and heard for the first time how Marya Dresden had come to fall in with Grieg.

‘All was well,’ said Ramon. ‘I had found Carol work in the fields, and my lady was quite recovered and full of hope. By day she stayed within doors, and when it was dark I would take her to walk in the meadows which lie below the village and slope to the brink of the water that comes down from Vogue. From there we could count the camp-fires along the base of the hills, but I knew that the night would soon come when we saw them no more. So for two days and nights.

‘Now we had in the house a puppy my wife had found. He was very small and bold, as puppies will be, and I think he thought my lady a beautiful child. From the moment he woke to find her beneath our roof, she was his mistress, and he was her little dog, and very soon, such is the way of these things, she was as pleased with him as he was with her. She bathed his small body and groomed him with one of the beautiful brushes out of her case, and when we went out of an evening, she must take him with her to let him frisk in the fields.

‘On Saturday morning, a little before midday I was shoeing a mare, when a car came through the village, travelling fast. As it passed the forge, I heard the shriek of a dog. In that instant the damage was done. The mare was restive, and, guessing that I would release her, she started to kick, and, since I had hold of her leg, I could not let go. As soon as I could get free, I ran to the door. There was my lady, with the dying dog in her arms, and by her side was a big, broad-shouldered man, with his hat in his hand.

‘“There’s a veterinary surgeon at Vardar”, I heard him say.

‘In a flash she was in his car which had stopped a few paces away, and then it was gone, and I was left, like a zany, watching its dust.

‘That night it returned, with a note from my lady to Carol, bidding him take up her things and leave at once. I think that she sent me no message to save my face.

‘That, my lord, is the story; and when I went out that night – for I could not sleep – behold, the camp-fires were gone.’

There was nothing to be said, but I could not help thinking that Fortune had made up her mind to show us but little favour and to make us work out our salvation in the sweat of our brow.

By now night had almost come in, but, though we had gone some way, I could hear no sound of the fall, but only the gush and scuttle of very much lesser fountains on either side. This made me anxious, for I had learned my lesson of arriving too late, and I was about to tell Ramon that we must quicken our steps, when we started to round a buttress which the mountain above us thrust out. In that instant the thunder of the fall began to make itself heard and ere we were clear of the spur, we could not hear ourselves speak.

Had I not proved it, I never would have believed that so mighty a sound could be so completely arrested by a bulwark of rock and soil, and the change from peace to uproar was so abrupt that I think if two men were to stand a fair ten paces apart, the one would not hear the water, and the other would hear nothing else.

A moment later I saw the great sheaf of foam…

I touched the smith’s arm, and we turned back the way we had come.

When it was quiet, I took the good man by the hand; but before I could speak—

‘My lord,’ he said, ‘I will stay and watch with you.’

I shook my head.

‘No,’ I said. ‘I am armed and have nothing to fear. See me up to the fall, if you will, and once I have found the ledge, make your way back to Gola the way we have come. I cannot be sure, but I think perhaps I shall ask you to give me some breakfast at break of day.’

‘We shall await you, my lord,’ said Ramon faithfully.

Then we turned again and went back towards the fall. It was now very dark and promised to grow still darker, as Lelia had foretold; but since the noise was deafening, we had only our eyes to help us, in case we were not alone. This I found most unlikely. Night was but a few moments old, and if the police were at hand, they were almost certainly keeping the bridle-path.

After two or three minutes we reached the side of the cliff.

All speech was now out of the question, so I shook the smith’s hand again and hoisted myself to the ledge.

An instant later I was passing beneath the water with my face to the wall.

I have not dwelt upon this passage, because for the whole of that day I sought to put it out of my mind. There was little danger about it, but much to make it more frightful than death itself. Could Ramon have helped me, I would in a moment have begged him to see me across, but there was no room for one man to help another, though two might have aided a third by making him walk between them and holding him up with a rope. Though the ledge was so rough and narrow, I cannot pretend that it was easy to fall, but the penalty of falling was so monstrous that it obsessed the mind, and I seemed to be bearding Nature in her very own lair, and she to be in a passion at my audacity.

Still, if the passage was shocking, it was not long – no more, I should say, than twelve paces from end to end: and of these I had covered half, when my hand encountered something which made me jump as though I had touched a snake. In a word, I touched the arm of another man. What was worse, I knew in a flash to whom it belonged, so long and so thick was the hair which covered the limb, like a close-fitting sleeve.

I cannot described my horror at meeting such a man in such a place, and even whilst I stood shaking and clinging like any madman to the dripping face of the cliff, the meaning of his presence fell like some blazing thunderbolt into my mind.

This was the man who had betrayed us
. No doubt he had been found by the guards before he had recovered from the buffet with which I had laid him low; and no doubt he had told them of the strangers who had used him so ill. The guards had reported the matter, and Grieg had known in an instant that we were the strangers of whom the smuggler spoke. This was the man who had taught him the trick of the bypass,
and now he was in Grieg’s service
, only too ready and willing to help to gain his revenge.

Had he cared to take it then, I must have lost my race. Had he known that it was I that had touched him, I have no doubt that in a twinkling his knife would have been in my back. To him our surroundings were nothing, but I could no more have given battle than a fly that is mired.

Hardly knowing what I did, I began to drag myself back the way I had come, but my knees were loose and my steps were so uncertain that no progress was ever so laboured or deadly slow. Every instant I was expecting to feel the man’s hand upon me, for since I had retired before him, there was no sort of reason why he should not come on, and when at last I staggered down from the ledge, I felt as though I was emerging from the very closet of Death.

I lay back against the rock, still shaking like any leaf, too thankful for my escape to give any thought to this new development, but after a little I pulled myself together and sought to consider how I should meet this very serious turn.

This new ally of Grieg’s was as formidable as Grieg himself. He was violent and ruthless and bore me a bitter grudge; but, what was worst of all,
here and by night a smuggler was cock of the walk
. His eye was trained to pierce the darkness, his foot not to slip or stumble, his body to move like any shadow; and I had little doubt that he knew this neighbourhood as the palm of his hand.

If his presence was disconcerting, the thought that he was now standing on Leonie’s side of the water made the hair rise upon my head.

He had plainly retired, as I had, because he could not tell who I was, but my failure to follow him over must have shown him that I was no friend, and I had no doubt that he was now waiting, as I was, at the other end of the ledge.

If Leonie came, she and Bell would walk clean into his arms. And I could do nothing to stop them,
because he was waiting for me
.

Had I been more familiar with the passage beneath the fall, I would have crept across and made my attack; but, as it was, for me to attempt such a movement would have been to court destruction with my hat in my hand.

I sought to take comfort in reflecting that if Leonie was coming indeed, she would not arrive for at least two hours and a half; but I knew in my heart that if by that time the smuggler had not come across, I must myself go over and take my chance.

And now came a period of waiting which I can only hope that the wretch beyond the water found as distasteful as I, for though by the mercy of heaven I was not plagued by an inclination to sleep, all vigilance was so much embarrassed by the darkness and the roar of the fall as to seem utterly useless and a waste of time. Indeed, I had early perceived that my only chance of becoming aware of some presence was to watch the great sheaf of foam, for that would act as a screen against which any body that passed between it and my eyes was bound to appear. To this end, I drew back a little against the rock, so that at least no one could leave or approach the ledge without my seeing their movement against the white of the fall.

So for two mortal hours, in a distracting uproar as changeless as silence itself and a darkness so thick and oppressive that the earth seemed wrapped in some garment against the virtue of light.

I had just determined that if five more minutes went by, but my man did not come, I must essay the passage come what might, when I saw a definite movement three paces away.

The next instant a figure was outlined against the foam.

It was not that of the smuggler, for whosoever it was was approaching the ledge, and it seemed less thickset than Grieg’s, though I could hardly believe that he had sent one of the police. Still, I cared not whose it was, if only they mounted the ledge, for once they were there, I would instantly follow them up and let them serve as my buffer and meet the smuggler’s knife.

To that end, I made ready to move.

Arrived at the base of the cliff, whoever it was seemed uncertain whether or no to go on, and I must confess that they had my sympathy, for to find such a path by hearsay must have been the devil and all. Indeed, I now surmised that when I encountered the smuggler, the latter was crossing the water to keep some appointment with Grieg and that Grieg, grown tired of waiting, had sent to find his ally and learn why he had not come. What I could not understand was why Grieg had sent another, instead of coming himself. Upon further consideration, I decided that the figure was Grieg’s. His bulk was not apparent, but nothing was apparent this night, and his figure seemed to be dancing against the rush of the fall. And Grieg would have trusted no one with such an enterprise.

So I stood waiting and watching for him to take the path.

Though now and again he stopped, he did not advance, and the better to observe his outline, I fell on one knee. As I did so, he turned to the ledge, and I saw that he was not alone. Somebody – something was with him. Crouching upon the ground. He had gone on and left it, and it was coming my way.

The next instant Lelia’s wolf-hound was licking my face.

I was just in time to catch hold of her slim, bare leg. Even so she did her utmost to shake me off, till I put up my other hand and let her feel the steel ring which still was about my wrist. At once she ceased to struggle, and when I put up my arms she let me lift her down.

As I drew her back to the rock, she set her lips to my ear.

‘I came to seek you. Listen. I have overheard the police by the side of the bridle-path.
Her Highness came in by Elsa an hour ago
.’

Had Lelia been able to hear me, I do not know what I should have said. Her tidings were electric, but for that moment the messenger had my thoughts. She had come alone with her wolf-hound into this mouth of hell, to share my dangerous vigil, because she had liked my face. She had passed the police and had started that nightmare passage, to bring me news of my wife. Here was no sense of duty. Rowley or Bell would have done it, because they would have deemed it ‘their job’. But Lelia had done it, because she cared for me. When I thought of her hesitation to mount that ledge which she could not so much as see, and how she had bent to the wolf-hound and what it must have cost her to leave the dog – as like as not to follow and lose his life, I had no words that were equal to the occasion and was thankful for an excuse to hold my peace. But I found her small hand and held it in both of mine and then bent down and kissed it, in the hope and belief that she would know what I meant. After a little, I put my lips to her ear.

‘We will go now,’ I said, ‘but not by the bridle-path. There is another way. It is so dark you must keep your hand in mine.’

Lelia nodded her head…

Now when Ramon and I had arrived, it was not pitch dark, and we had the fall to guide us up to the ledge. But now there was nothing to help me retrace my steps, and I could not see my own hand when I stretched out an arm.

Whilst I stood peering and trying to remember the angle at which we had made for the fall, Lelia started slightly and stooped to the dog. The next moment she drew down my head.

‘He is growling,’ she said. ‘I think there is someone beside us we cannot see.’

I was round in an instant with my eyes on the screen of foam, but I could see no movement and nobody’s shape. If the smuggler had crossed the water, by now he was out of my ken. The obvious thing to do was to make ourselves scarce.

I found Lelia’s hand again, and we started off.

Now whether we moved in a circle, I cannot tell, but I know that the place seemed bewitched, and I as confounded and helpless as any blind man. Though the spur lay but three minutes’ walk, a quarter of an hour went by before I was touching its flank – and then I could not be certain that I had found it at last, until to my great relief the deafening roar of the water began to fade. A moment later the blessed miracle of silence was an accomplished fact.

A step or so further I stumbled upon a tussock, and there, after standing so long, I was glad to sit down.

‘And now, my dear,’ I whispered, ‘please tell me your tale.’

‘I was afraid,’ breathed Lelia. ‘And so, as you would not take me, I walked to the bridle-path. By the time I was there it was dark, and at first I could not find it, though I knew where it was. I went very slowly, because I was afraid of the police. But they are not country bred, and I presently heard them moving, though they did not hear me. Grieg is there – I saw him. He was giving them some orders, when some other policeman arrived. It was he that brought the news about her Highness. Grieg asked if he had seen her, but he said “No”. He said he had been sent from Vigil to bring the news. Grieg was very angry and swore that it was not true, but his way was not the way of a man that believes what he says. At last, “Let her go to the devil”, he said. “If she comes, we’re ready. If she stays, we’ll have the others, sure as fate.” He was in a very bad temper and seemed to be waiting for someone who did not come. Then I left them behind, and at once I heard the sound of the fall. After that it was easy. But when you caught hold of my ankle, I thought it was Grieg.’

I told her of my brush with the smuggler and how it was I that had put a spoke in his wheel and had made him break the appointment he had with Grieg.

‘Ah,’ says she. ‘Then it was he that was beside us when the dog growled.’

‘I think so.’

‘Let us hope that he did not see us,’ said Lelia thoughtfully.

‘If he did he must have lost us again.’

‘For all that,’ said she, rising, ‘I think we had better get on.’

This was easier said than done.

Had it been daylight, I could have found the way; had there been stars to steer by, I could have brought us to Gola by a circuitous route; but, as I have said, the darkness was like a black fog, and before we had taken ten paces I did not know which way I was facing – and that is the truth.

‘Lelia,’ said I, ‘I am useless. Where is the north?’

‘I cannot tell you,’ she whispered. ‘I have never seen such a night.’

I stifled an oath.

‘What brings this cursed darkness?’ I said.

‘There is cloud above us,’ she breathed. ‘They come up at night at this season and lie like a pall until dawn. If only the wind would arise…’

There was nothing to do but move forward and take our chance, but almost at once, to my dismay, I heard the sound of the fall. Be sure we recoiled and started the opposite way, and after a dreadful progress I was just beginning to think that Fortune had shown us pity to guide our feet, when to my inexpressible horror I heard it again.

Again we drew back, to meet, I was sure, the same spur which Ramon and I had rounded three hours before. Three hasty steps to the right proved my persuasion sound for I heard the thunder beginning before I had taken the fourth.

I turned back, sick at heart.

‘Lelia,’ I said wearily, ‘we can do nothing but wait. We are back where we started from nearly twenty minutes ago.’

She seemed to put a hand to her head.

‘I do not like it,’ she murmured. ‘If the smuggler saw us, I fear he may go and fetch Grieg.’

Instinctively I lowered my voice.

‘He must have lost us,’ I said. ‘We have doubled upon our tracks a dozen times.’

‘These men of the mountains,’ she said, ‘have eyes like cats. I would to God I could take you the way I came, but the police may have moved and I dare not try to find it on such a night.’

‘God knows,’ said I, ‘you have done your part. It is I that am failing you, Lelia. I said that I knew the way.’

‘It is not your fault, my dear. There is no way tonight. I have never seen such darkness. And – and I am glad to be with you.’

I drew her on to the tussock on which we had rested before.

‘I am very glad to have you,’ I said.

‘Tell me,’ she said. ‘What is this her Highness has done?’

‘I know no more than you, Lelia. But for my sake I do not think she would come in openly unless she held a strong hand.’

‘She has always held that,’ said Lelia. ‘If the Prince were to hurt her finger, the country would rise.’

‘I do not think she knows that,’ said I. ‘And there is the rub. If we could only make Gola, I have the car hidden there, and I would drive you to Vigil and you should tell her yourself.’

‘You are very sweet to me,’ said Lelia gently. She laid her head against my shoulder. ‘I have taken her place tonight. You came to meet her, and then I came in her stead.’

‘I am very proud of her deputy,’ said I. ‘I know no other woman of whom I would say that.’

‘Have I been – her deputy – today?’

‘Yes, Lelia.’

With a sudden movement she put her arms round my neck.

‘I am very happy,’ she said. ‘And I shall never forget. Please kiss – her deputy.’

I kissed her lips.

Lelia lifted her head and looked to the west.

‘The cloud is moving,’ she said. ‘See? Far in the distance the stars are beginning to show. And the moon is not down yet, and in a little while we shall be able to see.’

With her words, I heard the dog growl.

I was on my feet in an instant, and had my pistol out; but I could see nothing to fire at, and after a little Lelia touched my arm.

She did not speak, but urged me to move with her, and a moment later we had our backs to some rock.

When I would have put her behind me, she would not go, so I slid my left arm about her and held her up to my side.