Complete weird tales of.., p.818
Complete Weird Tales of Robert W Chambers, page 818
“Mother,” said the girl, “I think I’ll look at his shin again.”
“Nonsense!” protested Darrel, struggling to sit up, and being checked by a soft but firm little hand flat against his chest.
“I don’t want to have my shin looked at,” he repeated helplessly.
“Mother, I am going to change the dressing. Will you help?”
“For the love of Mike — —”
“Be quiet, Harry!”
“Then make Guild go out of the room! He’s laughing at me now!”
Karen was laughing, too, and now she turned to Guild: “Come,” she said, smilingly; “we are not welcome here. Also I do want you to see the rose garden by star-light.” And to Mrs. Courland, naïvely: “May we please be excused to see your lovely garden?”
The pretty young matron smiled and nodded, busy with the box of first-aid bandages for which Valentine was now waiting.
So Karen and Guild went out together into the star-light, across the terrace and lawns and down along a dim avenue of beeches.
The night was aromatic with the clean sweet odour of the forest; a few leaves had fallen, merely a tracery of delicate burnt-gold under foot.
Karen turned to the right between tall clipped hedges.
Mossy steps of stone terminated the alley and led down into an old sunken garden with wall and pool and ghostly benches of stone, and its thousands of roses perfuming the still air.
They were all there, the heavenly company, dimly tinted in crimson, pink, and gold — Rose de Provence, Gloire de Dijon, Damask, Turkish, Cloth of Gold — exquisite ghosts of their ardent selves — immobile phantoms, mystic, celestial, under the high lustre of the stars.
Mirror-dark, the round pool’s glass reflected a silvery inlay of the constellations; tall trees bordered the wall, solemn, unstirring, as though ranged there for some midnight rite. The thin and throbbing repetition of hidden insects were the only sounds in that still and scented place.
They leaned upon the balustrade of stone and looked down into the garden for a while. She stirred first, turning a little way toward him. And together they descended the steps and walked to the pool’s rim.
Once, while they stood there, she moved away from his side and strolled away among the roses, roaming at random, pausing here and there to bend and touch with her face some newly opened bud.
Slender and shadowy she lingered among the unclosing miracles of rose and gold, straying, loitering, wandering on, until again she found herself beside the pool of mirror black — and beside her lover.
“Your magic garden is all you promised,” he said in a low voice— “very wonderful, very youthful in its ancient setting of tree and silvered stone. And now the young enchantress is here among her own; and the spell of her fills all the world.”
“Do you mean me?”
“You, Karen, matchless enchantress, sorceress incomparable who has touched with her wand the old-familiar world and made of it a paradise.”
“Because I said I loved you — a little — has it become a paradise? You know I only said ‘a little.’”
“I remember.”
“Of course,” she added with a slight sigh, “it has become more, now, since I first said that to you. I shouldn’t call it ‘a little,’ now; I should call it — —” She hesitated.
“Much?”
She seemed doubtful. “Yes, I think it is becoming ‘much’ — little by little.”
“May I kiss — your hand?”
“Yes, please.”
“And clasp your waist — very lightly — this way?”
“In sign of betrothal?”
“Yes.”
She looked up at him out of the stillest, purest eyes he had ever beheld.
“You know best, Kervyn, what we may do.”
“I know,” he said, drawing her nearer.
After a moment she rested her cheek against his shoulder.
Standing so beside the pool, breathing the incense of the roses, she thought of the dream, and the gay challenge, “Who goes there?” She was beginning to suspect the answer, now. It was Love who had halted her on that flower-set frontier; the password, which she had not known then, was “Love.” Love had laughed at her but had granted her right of way across that border into the Land of Dreams. And now, unchallenged, save by her own heart, she had come once more to the borderland of flowers.
“Standing so beside the pool, breathing the incense of the roses, she thought of the dream”
“Halt!” said her heart, alert; “who goes there?”
“It is I, Karen, wearing the strange, new name of Love — —”
She lifted her head, drew one hand swiftly across her eyes as though to clear them, then stepped free from the arm that encircled her.
“Karen — —”
“Yes, I — I do love you,” she stammered— “with all — all my heart — —”
“Halt!” rang out a voice like a pistol shot from the darkness.
The girl stood rigid; Guild sprang to her side. “Qui vive!” cried the voice.
“Belgium!” said Guild coolly.
“Then who goes there! — you! — below there in that garden?”
“Friends to Belgium,” replied Guild in a quiet and very grave voice. “Don’t move, dearest,” he whispered.
“What is happening?”
“I don’t know, yet.”
Presently, nearer the balustrade above them, the voice came again: “Is it Monsieur Guild?”
“Yes. Who are you?”
“Pardon. Will Monsieur come up to the terrace? I am watching the wall beyond the pool.”
They ascended the stone steps; Karen moving lightly beside him. In the shadow of the clipped yews a dark form stirred.
“Pardon. I did not recognize Monsieur Guild nor Mademoiselle. There is trouble.”
It was Schultz the herdsman; his rifle was in his hand and he wore two cartridge-belts crossed over his smock en bandoulière.
He touched his hat to Karen, but turned immediately toward the star-lit sky-line where the dark coping of the wall cut it.
“What is the trouble?” asked Guild with a sinking heart.
“God knows how it happened, Monsieur Guild — but there was bad blood tonight and hot heads full of it. Then, very far in the forest, a shot was fired.”
“I heard it. What happened?”
“Listen, Monsieur! The Moresnet man and the boy, Jean Pascal, put their heads together. I don’t know how it was, but even after what you said to us, and after Michaud told us to remain prudent and calm, somehow after we heard that shot we all, one by one, took down our guns; and after a little while we found ourselves together in the carrefour.
“And from there we went, without saying a word, to the Calvary on the hill pasture road. It was as though each of us understood without telling each other — without even hinting at a plan.
“And by and by we went down by the rivulet at the foot of the hill pastures, and there, as we expected, were two of the Yslemont refugees. They had their guns. And one of them had a spiked helmet.”
“Go on,” said Guild, compressing his lips.
“He had taken it near Trois Fontaines, not below the hill. We all examined it. We saw red, Monsieur. Then a calf which had escaped the Grey Wolves moved in the bushes near us. The Moresnet man caught it, and he and the shepherd, little Jean Pascal, took the dumb beast and tied it to a sapling near the road. On our side of the boundary! But we all knew what might happen.”
There was a silence; then Schultz said in a low, hoarse voice: “It was fated to be. We took both sides of the road in the long grasses of the ditches. And the calf bawled for company.
“The company came after a while — two Grey Wolves. First we heard the clink-clink of their horses’ feet; then we saw their lances against the sky.
“They came on, picking their way. And of a sudden the electric breast-torch on one of them breaks out like a blinding star, plays over the road, then lights up the calf which is terrified and backs into the hedge.
“He drives his lance-butt into the sod and gets out of his saddle. His comrade sits the other horse, pistol lifted, elbow on thigh. And there comes then another Uhlan, walking and leading his horse — three of the dirty brigands, Monsieur, across the border and on our side!”
“Go on.”
“Eh bien — we bled them!”
“You killed them?”
“Yes, Monsieur — two there by the hedge in the grassy ditch; the other hung to his horse for a while — but came off sideways. One spur caught and his horse took him back that way — across the border.”
“Go on.”
“We took their schapskas. Jean Pascal wished to go across the border after more Wolves. He was crazy. And the blood made us all a little drunk. And then we found that the Moresnet man had gone. That chilled us.”
He wiped his face with his sleeve, never taking his eyes from the wall across the garden.
“After that,” he said, “we lay very still, watching. And in a little while an Uhlan crossed the hill pasture walking his horse slowly against the stars. Then there were others moving across the sky up there, and we also heard others on the road. So we have been quietly falling back into the forest where, if they follow, they shall not go back, please God!”
“Where is Michaud?”
“He was very angry, but, since the affair has really begun, he is with us, of course.”
“Where is he?”
“He went to the house to find you an hour ago.”
Guild bit his lip in silence. The stupidity of what had been done, the utter hopelessness of the situation sickened him.
The slow, groping peasant mind, occupied always with the moment’s problem only, solving it by impulse and instinct alone — what could be done with such a mind — what could be hoped from it except under patiently inculcated military discipline.
Loosened from that, and defending its property from actual or threatened aggression, it became a furtive, fierce and quickened mind, alternately cunning and patiently ferocious. But of reason, or of logic, it reckons nothing, knows nothing.
Trouble had begun — trouble was abroad already in the star-light — moving, menacing.
“What is your word?” he asked bluntly.
“Yslemont.”
He turned to Karen, who stood quietly beside him: “The ladies must leave this house tonight. There is no time at all to waste. There is going to be real trouble here by morning. And I am going to ask you if you will give these American ladies shelter tonight at Quellenheim. Will you, Karen?”
“Of course.”
“From there they can go to the city of Luxembourg tomorrow, and so into Holland. But they ought to go now.”
“And you, Kervyn?”
“I shall be very busy,” he said. “Come back to the house, now.”
They walked away together, moving quickly along the beech-woods; she with that youthful, buoyant step as lithe as a young boy’s; he beside her with grave, preoccupied face and ears alert for the slightest sound.
“Kervyn?”
“Yes.”
“Will you come back to Quellenheim, too?”
“I can’t do that, dearest.”
“May I ask you what you are going to do?”
“Dear, I don’t know yet. I haven’t formed any plan at all.”
“Is it not very dangerous for you to remain here?”
“No, I think not.... That is — I shall see how this matter threatens to develop.”
He felt her hand lightly on his arm, looked around, halted. She came to him, laid her cheek against his breast in silence.
“You must not be afraid for me, Karen.”
“I shall try — to remember.”
He lifted one of her hands. It was cold and delicately fragrant. He kissed it.
“The Bank at Diekirch is my address. I shall try to write you. I shall come back some day and marry you. Do you love me, Karen?”
“With all — all my — soul.”
“And you will marry me?”
“Yes, Kervyn.”
She looked up, her eyes brilliant as wet stars. And very gently, almost timidly, they exchanged their betrothal, lip to lip.
He drew her to him a little closer — held her so a moment, scarcely in contact. Then they turned again to the grassy ride and moved swiftly forward toward the drive.
Every light in the house had been lit, apparently. The automobile stood before the door; three forest waggons with their big fine horses were in line behind; and servants were loading them with American trunks, suitcases, and luggage of every description, under the active direction of Darrel.
When he saw Guild and Karen coming he called out: “Your luggage is packed! Mrs. Courland and Valentine and their two maids are filling hampers with bed linen and knick-knacks. You’ve heard what’s happened, of course?”
“Yes,” said Guild. “I don’t think you had better waste any more time packing. Let the ladies get into the car and start. Michaud and I can gather up what’s left of their effects and send it after them in the last waggon! Where is Michaud?”
“Talking to Mrs. Courland inside. Here he comes, now! — —”
The white-haired forester came out behind Mrs. Courland, caught sight of Guild, and made a slight gesture expressing infinite despair.
“I know,” said Guild. “I’ll talk it over with you after the household leaves.” And to Mrs. Courland, who appeared calm but a trifle dazed: “Miss Girard offers you Quellenheim for the night, and for longer if you desire.”
“Please,” said Karen, coming forward— “it would be very gracious of you to come. Will you, Mrs. Courland?”
“Thank you, dear — yes — it will be the greatest convenience. I don’t know when we should arrive at Luxembourg if we started now.” She took one of Karen’s hands and turned to Guild: “What a terrible thing our people have done! Michaud came to tell us; Harry started everybody packing up. You will come with us, of course?”
“Perhaps later, thank you.” He turned to Valentine who was coming out in hat and coat, followed by a pale-faced maid carrying both arms full of wraps.
“Please don’t lose any time,” said Guild, selecting wraps for Mrs. Courland and for Karen. “Are your servants ready?”
“Nobody is ready,” said Valentine, “but everybody is here or in the hall, I think.”
Guild gave his arm to Mrs. Courland and helped that active young matron spring into the touring car. Karen went next. Valentine and two maids followed; Guild slammed the door.
“All right!” he said curtly to the chauffeur, then, hat in hand, he said gaily: “Au revoir! A happy reunion for us all!”
As the car rolled out into the shining path of its own lamps Karen turned and looked back at him. And as long as he could see her she was looking back.
After the car followed two of the forest waggons, one filled with servants, the other loaded with luggage. Darrel came out of the house with the last odds and ends of property belonging to the Courlands and flung it pell-mell into the last waggon.
“Come on,” he said briskly to Guild.
“No, go ahead, Harry. I’m stopping to talk with Michaud — —”
“Well how are you going to get to Quellenheim?”
“When I’m ready to go I’ll get there.”
“You’re not coming?”
“Not now.”
Darrel came over and said, dropping his voice: “After this murdering business it won’t do for you to be caught here.”
“I don’t mean to be caught here. Don’t worry — and get a move on!”
“What are you intending to do?”
“I don’t know yet. Come, Harry, start that waggon!”
Darrel shrugged his shoulders, mounted the seat beside the driver, and the forest waggon rolled away into the darkness.
Guild was still looking after it, listening to Michaud’s report of the sniping affair near Trois Fontaines, when he saw the figure of a man walking back from the direction the waggon had taken. The man walked with a visible limp.
“You idiot!” said Guild sharply as Darrel strolled up, his features blandly defiant.
“Go on with what you were saying to Michaud,” insisted Darrel, unruffled by his reception.
“Come, Harry — this is downright damn foolishness. If you’ve let the waggon go on, you’ll have to foot it to Quellenheim. You can’t stay here!”
“Why?”
“Because, you infernal butter-in, you’ll get mixed up in a particularly nasty mess. And it doesn’t concern Yankees, this mess we’re in, Michaud and I.”
“Oh hell!” said Darrel; “go on and talk, Michaud!”
“Are you going to poke your nose into this?” demanded Guild.
“It’s in now.”
“See here, Harry! Your sticking by me is gratuitously silly and it annoys me. You don’t have to. This isn’t any of your business, this mess.”
Darrel lighted a cigarette and sat down on the terrace steps. Guild glared at him.
“Will you go to the devil!” he snapped out.
“No, I won’t.”
Michaud, perplexed, had remained silent.
“If things go wrong they’ll make a clean sweep of us all, I tell you,” said Guild. “Once more, Harry, will you mind your own business?”
“No,” said Darrel, blandly.
Guild turned to Michaud: “What were you saying?”
The forester, controlling his anger and emotion, continued the story of the sniper near Trois Fontaines. Then he outlined the miserable affair of the hill pasture.
“There remains for us now only two courses,” he ended. “Either we turn franc-tireur and make our bivouac yonder in the forest, or we gather our people at The Pulpit, lie there tonight, and at daylight strike out for the Dutch frontier.”
Guild nodded.
“There is a little hole in the rocks at The Pulpit — scarce large enough to be called a cave. Since the war came upon us, foreseeing necessity, my men have carried arms and provisions to The Pulpit — well hidden, Monsieur. I think, now, that it is a better refuge than this house.”
The three men looked up at the house. Michaud made a hopeless gesture: “I suppose they will destroy it, now. God knows. But if Monsieur Paillard be truly dead as we now believe, and his poor body lies rotting under the ruins of Wiltz-la-Vallée, then there is nobody to mourn this house excepting the old forester, Michaud.... And I think he has lived on earth too long.”
