The Adventures of Hiram Holliday (33 page)

He was startled when his name was called, and called again. He arose. A figure was coming down the winding path. He knew it at once. He said: 'Yes, Heidi
...
I am here.'

The Princess Furstenhof came and sat beside him. She was dressed simply in white. Her face was quite pale and in the light that filtered through from above she looked unearthly and inhumanly lovely.
At
last she said, her voice low and earnest: 'Hiram, my dear, dear friend. Why are you doing
this ? Why ? Mario told me. Why ? Is it worth it ? Have you reflected ? To die. For what ? Because men are proud, romantic fools ?'

Something had Hiram
at
the throat, something brutal and savage, and when he spoke it was in a voice that Heidi had never heard from him before.

'Heidi! What right had you to come here ?'

Presently she answered. 'The
right of our friendship and
the things we have been through together. Is not that enough ? And because there are not many like you on this earth, because I will not see you wasted, Hiram. Is it your pride driving you to this ? Can you face me and tell my why
?'

'Yes,' said Holliday,
'I
can. Because I must. I know why
now. Because I hate these Fascist
s and their brutality and their
anti-human philosophy. I ha
ve lived in Europe seven months
now, and I have seen what they have d
one to human beings, in
Berlin, in Vienna, in Prague and
here, fear in every soul, every
decency of human liberty abolis
hed. I have been in their trial
rooms and prisons, Heidi, I'
ve talked to the frightened men
and women whose families have disappeared, a
nd seen the
men who have been beaten and broken until they were better
dead. And this is the rule they wan
t to stretch to the ends of the
earth, to my own country.
By God, Heidi, I can strike one
blow against it. This is my protest, the protest that is gro
aning
in me to be released. To stand ju
st once with a naked sword, and
strike, and strike and strike, and g
et it out of me, this rage that
I feel. And then maybe I can be
at
peace again
'

He was standing now in the glimmering darkness with his arm upraised as though his weapon were already in his fist. And as suddenly he checked himself with a groan, and sank back on to the bench. 'Oh, my God, Heidi, will I never quit posturing and posing
?'
He paused for a moment and then said: 'No, Heidi, no. This isn't a pose. No, not this time. I feel it. I'm hungry for it, to strike one blow against this thing that is false, vicious and tyrannical. They've put forth their champion, and they're going to let me meet him. Don't you understand that, Heidi ? Even if we are only symbols. You must see it, Heidi. And if
...
if you are the kind of person I have carried in my heart and my mind for so long, you won't try to stop me. You wouldn't. You'd
...'

'Send you out to die, Hiram? No. But stand in your
way?
No, not that either. I have learned to know you, Hiram. In you there is all the beauty that man has attained and can put forward against the eternal forces of darkness, all the strength, the love, the gentleness and chivalry of the good.

There are so few
of you left, Hiram, and like you, just like you, there are none. Nothing could stop you, nothing I feel or could say or do, because you are a man. And men must listen to those things that are within them, and follow them, and not pause, or stop for
...'
she paused, and then with her head dropped, whispered so that he hardly heard the words, 'for anything.'

Hiram took first her hand and kissed the fingers, and then he took her head between his own two hands and kissed her lips. He said: 'Princess,' and it was the first time that he had not called her Heidi, 'Princess, help me. I do not trust in moments. I'm not ready yet. First I must do. Strange things have happened to me in Rome. It is as though I have at last isolated the emotion of ambition and tapped the reservoir of strength to drive it. I feel I must rip and tear through this world, Heidi, and by the force and urge of my mind and body, carve out a piece of it that will be mine because I have won it. I have been asleep for twenty years. I must go alone, Heidi, until I have done these things that I must do, used what I have now, tearing at me inside, the thing that gives me no rest.'

He went on, speaking as though all was plain between them.
'I
mistrust words, Heidi, and night enchantment. Life is lived in daylight, and things undone leave one bitter. We both have still much to do. And if I am a fool to start now to do what should have been done long ago, I won't admit it. I won't believe it. The power is there, Heidi. I've found it. I understand it. It lives up here right in my
throat....'

He said: 'When I have used it, Heidi, when I have made a life that can be lived
...'
he stopped because there were no words, but his arms were lifted again, and his hands seemed to be groping for the patch of night sky seen through the trees, and its freight of distant stars.

Heidi finished the sentence for him:'
...
high on the mountain-tops.
...
When you are ready, my
dear....
When you are ready, Hiram
...'

She said no more, but took his face this time and kissed him. They arose and stood for a moment held together tightly, less by the pressure of their arms about one another than by the power of their deep understanding of one another. Then she turned, and without looking back went down the winding path and out of his sight.

Hiram went up to his room where he found d'Aquila waiting for him. The sleek little Count looked at
him
curiously.

'Well?
'
he said.

'Hello,' said Hiram Holliday. 'All set. I have left a call for four-thirty in the morning, but we'd better double check on it.'

D'Aquila nodded. 'By all means. It is necessary to be punctual in affairs of this kind.' He stopped and was quiet for a moment. Hiram said nothing. The Count finally broke the silence:

'Ah
...
I hope you are not offended with me, my friend.'
'Eh?'
said Hiram, 'offended?'

The Count was examining his smoking-case and taking a long time to select a cigarette. He said:
'I
...
ah
...
took the liberty, unpardonable, I am afraid, of -
ah - informing the Princess Fü
rstenhof of the
...
the affair of tomorrow morning. I beg of you to forgive me, Hiram.'

Hiram suddenly felt a very great love for this dapper little man, because again he was being permitted a glimpse behind the glossy hair, the absurd dab of moustache, the dress of a dandy, to the man that lay beneath. And because he loved him, it made him inarticulate and powerless to move. He would have liked to put his arms about him in friendship.

But d'Aquila had Italian intuition. He said:
'I
thank you for your silence.' He lit his cigarette and sent the blue smoke towards the ceiling. Then he looked over the top of Hiram's head to a copy of Raphael's Madonna that hung on the wall and spoke again.

' Strange,' he
said,'
I feel as though it were I, instead of you, who goes to duel tomorrow. I might almost wish that it were so. This is a curious time in which we live, trapped, as it were, between the old order and the new.' He seemed now to be talking not to Hiram, but to himself, or to the picture. 'When I was a young boy, a marriage was arranged for me as was still done in Europe. The Princess and I were associated much as children. We grew up together. It was always understood that we were to be married. That is the way great houses are strengthened. And if love should come -
Bene,
then they say the marriage is doubly blessed,
eh?'

He chewed upon his lip for a moment. 'And when the great houses are no more? When they are shattered by the new order and seized by the usurpers, and there are left only the men and women who inhabited them and escaped from the fall ?
E vero!
Then there remains but man and woman, and it is the woman who chooses. And freed from her duty she chooses where her heart lies.
Basta!
...
I believe, my friend, when this is over, that I must see whether Ara-Pesca is not inclined to continue our little discussion of this morning with me
at
some suitable spot.'

Now Hiram understood what d'Aquila had told him, and he followed his bent and went over to him and put both arms about him for a moment, and then held him off by the shoulders, and looked down at him and said:
'I
...
I wish I were a man like you, Mario.'

The little Count grinned, all his white teeth showing. Then he gripped Hiram by the hand. 'Until the morning, eh ?'

That night Hiram Holliday slept next to the sword of Marcus Severix, one-time Legionary of Augustus Caesar and the Empire.

How Hiram Holliday Duelled with the Forces of Evil and Learned that there are still Honourable Men

Five miles out of Rome from the Porta St Sebastiano, along the Appian Way, and a short distance past the Tomb of Seneca are the ruins of an old tower known as Fort Appia Antica. Behind it and to the left there is a thick grove of Roman pine and cypress. In the centre of this grove the trees mysteriously stop growing about a circle some thirty yards in diameter where there is an open space with a slight rise at one end.

Archaeologists know that it was a ceremonial grove, and that beneath it probably lies an altar, but it has not yet been excavated. The ground is even and well turfed. A cone of light cuts down through the opening of
the tree, ill
uminating it like an amphitheatre.

And it was here at six o'clock of a morning late in April, a group of men gathered for the strangest duel fought in modern times. The two parties arrived simultaneously, and entered the grove from opposite sides, where they bowed to one another and began the arrangements for the combat.

With Hiram came Count d'Aquila, and a friend of his, Rafael Campanare, to act as the other second. Colonel del Tevere's party was larger. In addition to Lieutenant di Cavazzo an
d Commendatore Ara
Pesca, it included two doctors, Rezzi and Tagliafone, and the dignified, white-haired old General, the Conte di Brabazon, who had been agreed upon by both d'Aquila and Del Tevere to act as referee.

Holliday had his first look at his opponent. Colonel del Tevere was a fine-looking man of about Hiram's height, but slightly younger. He had a strong nose, dark hair and shining black eyes. When he stripped to the waist even as Hiram was engaged in doing, he showed a barrel chest and finely muscled arms.

Hiram found himself amazed
at
the speed with which matters went. There was no unnecessary talk or delay. D'Aquila and Di Cavazzo busied themselves inspecting the weapons. The two doctors had removed their coats and, opening their bags, laid out instruments, sutures, dressings, a minature first aid station. Hiram, bared to the waist, bent over to tighten his shoelaces. He was wearing rubber-soled oxfords. He noted in a most detached manner that his legs were trembling slightly. He wondered if they would go on doing that during the fight. D'Aquila carried Hiram's sword, and a small round shield, the
clipeu
s
of the Roman Legionary. It was of tough, hard, iron-like leather with a bronze facing. On the inside were affixed two straps, one through which the left forearm was slipped, and another near the edge for a hand grasp.

General di Brabazon called out in English: 'Ready, gentlemen?'

Hiram ran his left arm into the shield and had a momentary thrill of appreciation. It was light and well-balanced. The two parties moved towards the centre of the enclosure where Del Tevere halted, and he and his adherents gave the Fascist salute which D'Aquila and Campanare returned. Hiram bowed briefly.

Del Tevere spoke. He said: 'Before we begin, I wish to tender my apologies to Signor Holliday for any - ah - delay shown by my seconds during the negotiations. I wish to state that his choice of weapons does him and me the greatest honour. I am proud to wield th
e arms of our illustrious ances
tors in their irresistible march to the glory of the Roman Empire.'

All the seconds and the two doctors cried: 'Bravo, bravo!' Hiram found that his legs were no longer trembling and that he was saying to himself: 'That is a very pretty speech, my friend, but I wonder how you are going to like the business end of it when you get
it....'