The Flaming Jewel - Robert W. Chambers (popular romance novels .txt) 📗

mutual agreement. _Now_ do you get me, Ralph?"

"Sure, Hal. Go on; spit it out!"

They both grinned.

"You're a hootch runner," said Darragh. "This is your shack. The hatchery is only a blind. That's all you have to know, Ralph. So put that girl into my room and let her sleep till she wakes of her own accord.

"Stormont and I will take two of the guest-bunks in the _L._ And for heaven's sake make us some coffee when you make your own. But first come out and take the horse."

They went out together. Stormont lifted Eve out of the saddle. She did not wake. Darragh led the way into the log house and along a corridor to his own room.

"Turn down the sheets," whispered Stormont. And, when the bed was ready: "Can you get a bath towel, Jim?"

Darragh fetched one from the connecting bath-room.

"Wrap it around her wet hair," whispered Stormont. "Good heavens, I wish there were a woman here."

"I wish so too," said Darragh; "she's chilled to the bone. You'll have to wake her. She can't sleep in what she's wearing; it's almost as damp as her hair----"

He went to the closet and returned with a man's morning robe, as soft as fleece.

"Somehow or other she's got to get into that," he said.

There was a silence.

"Very well," said Stormont, reddening.... "If you'll step out I'll--manage...." He looked Darragh straight in the eyes: "I have asked her to marry me," he said.

* * * * *


When Stormont came out a great fire of birch-logs was blazing in the living-room, and Darragh stood there, his elbow on the rough stone mantel-shelf.

Stormont came straight to the fire and set one spurred boot on the fender.

"She's warm and dry and sound asleep," he said. "I'll wake her again if you think she ought to swallow something hot."

At that moment the fish-culturist came in with a pot of steaming coffee.

"This is my friend, Ralph Wier," said Darragh. "I think you'd better give Eve a cup of coffee." And, to Wier, "Fill a couple of hot water bags, old chap. We don't want any pneumonia in this house."

When breakfast was ready Eve once more lay asleep with a slight dew of perspiration on her brow.

Darragh was half starved: Stormont ate little. Neither spoke at all until, satisfied, they rose, ready for sleep.

At the door of his room Stormont took Darragh's offered hand, understanding what it implied:

"Thanks, Jim.... Hers is the loveliest character I have ever known.... If I weren't as poor as a homeless dog I'd marry her to-morrow.... I'll do it anyway, I think.... I _can't_ let her go back to Clinch's Dump!"

"After all," said Darragh, smiling, "if it's only money that worries you, why not talk about a job to _me_!"

Stormont flushed heavily: "That's rather wonderful of you, Jim----"

"Why? You're the best officer I had. Why the devil did you go into the Constabulary without talking to me?"

Stormont's upper lip seemed inclined to twitch but he controlled it and scowled at space.

"Go to bed, you darned fool," said Darragh, carelessly. "You'll find dry things ready. Ralph will take care of your uniform and boots."

Then he went into his own quarters to read two letters which, conforming to arrangements made with Mrs. Ray the day he had robbed Emanuel Sard, were to be sent to Trout Lodge to await his arrival.

Both, written from the Ritz, bore the date of the day before: the first he opened was from the Countess Orloff-Strelwitz:

"Dear Captain Darragh,

"--You are so wonderful! Your messenger, with the _ten_ thousand
dollars which you say you already have recovered from those
miscreants who robbed Ricca, came aboard our ship before we
landed. It was a godsend; we were nearly penniless,--and oh,
_so_ shabby!

"Instantly, my friend, we shopped, Ricca and I. Fifth Avenue
enchanted us. All misery was forgotten in the magic of that
paradise for women.

"Yet, spendthrifts that we naturally are, we were not silly
enough to be extravagant. Ricca was wild for American
sport-clothes. I, also. Yet--only _two_ gowns apiece, excepting
our sport clothes. And other necessaries. Don't you think we
were economical?"

"Furthermore, dear Captain Darragh, we are hastening to follow
your instructions. We are leaving to-day for your chateau in the
wonderful forest, of which you told us that
never-to-be-forgotten day in Riga.

"Your agent is politeness, consideration and kindness itself. We
have our accommodations. We leave New York at midnight.

"Ricca is so excited that it is difficult for her to restrain
her happiness. God knows the child has seen enough unhappiness
to quench the gaiety of anybody!

"Well, all things end. Even tears. Even the Red Terror shall
pass from our beloved Russia. For, after all, Monsieur, God
still lives.

"VALENTINE."

"P. S. Ricca has written to you. I have read the letter. I have
let it go uncensored."

Darragh went to the door of his room:

"Ralph! Ralph!" he called. And, when Wier hurriedly appeared:

"What time does the midnight train from New York get into Five Lakes?"

"A little before nine----"

"You can make it in the flivver, can't you?"

"Yes, if I start _now_."

"All right. Two ladies. You're to bring them to the _house_, not _here_. Mrs. Ray knows about them. And--get back here as soon as you can."

He closed his door again, sat down on the bed and opened the other letter. His hand shook as he unfolded it. He was so scared and excited that he could scarcely decipher the angular, girlish penmanship:

"To dear Captain Darragh, our champion and friend--

"It is difficult for me, Monsieur, to express my happiness and
my deep gratitude in the so cold formality of the written page.

"Alas, sir, it will be still more difficult to find words for it
when again I have the happiness of greeting you in proper
person.

"Valentine has told you everything, she warns me, and I am,
therefore, somewhat at a loss to know what I should write to
you.

"Yet, I know very well what I would write if I dare. It is this:
that I wish you to know--although it may not pass the
censor--that I am most impatient to see you, Monsieur. _Not_
because of kindness past, nor with an unworthy expectation of
benefits to come. But because of friendship,--_the deepest,
sincerest of my_ WHOLE LIFE.

"Is it not modest of a young girl to say this? Yes, surely all
the world which was once _en regle_, formal, artificial, has
been burnt out of our hearts by this so frightful calamity which
has overwhelmed the world with fire and blood.

"If ever on earth there was a time when we might venture to
express with candour what is hidden within our minds and hearts,
it would seem, Monsieur, that the time is now.

"True, I have known you only for one day and one evening. Yet,
what happened to the world in that brief space of time--and to
us, Monsieur--brought _us_ together as though our meeting were
but a blessed reunion after the happy intimacy of many years....
I speak, Monsieur, for myself. May I hope that I speak, also,
for you?

"With a heart too full to thank you, and with expectations
indescribable--but with courage, always, for any event,--I take
my leave of you at the foot of this page. Like death--I
trust--my adieu is not the end, but the beginning. It is not
farewell; it is a greeting to him whom I most honour in all the
world.... And would willingly obey if he shall command. And
otherwise--_all_ else that in his mind--and heart--he might
desire.

"THEODORICA."

It was the most beautiful love-letter any man ever received in all the history of love.

And it had passed the censor.


III

It was afternoon when Darragh awoke in his bunk, stiff, sore, confused in mind and battered in body.

However, when he recollected where he was he got out of bed in a hurry and jerked aside the window curtains.

The day was magnificent; a sky of royal azure overhead, and everywhere the silver pillars of the birches supporting their splendid canopy of ochre, orange, and burnt-gold.

Wier, hearing him astir, came in.

"How long have you been back! Did you meet the ladies with your flivver?" demanded Darragh, impatiently.

"I got to Five Lakes station just as the train came in. The young ladies were the only passengers who got out. I waited to get their two steamer trunks and then I drove them to Harrod Place----"

"How did they seem, Ralph--worn-out--worried--ill?"

Wier laughed: "No, sir, they looked very pretty and lively to me. They seemed delighted to get here. They talked to each other in some foreign tongue--Russian, I should say--at least, it sounded like what we heard over in Siberia, Captain----"

"It _was_ Russian.... You go on and tell me while I take another hot bath!----"

Wier followed him into the bath-room and vaulted to a seat on the deep set window-sill:

"--When they weren't talking Russian and laughing they talked to me and admired the woods and mountains. I had to tell them everything--they wanted to see buffalo and Indians. And when I told them there weren't any, enquired for bears and panthers.

"We saw two