The Traitors Part 61

She galloped off, never noticing that her pony's feet were shod with felt. She looked neither to the right nor the left, and she saw nothing of the strange restlessness which seemed to pervade the camp.

Everywhere the shadows of men were moving noiselessly about. Spectral guns were surrounded by little groups of whispering soldiers. There was no bivouacing, the camp-fires burned low. Every now and then, when challenged, she mechanically repeated the countersign. All the while her lips were moving in one ceaseless, pa.s.sionate prayer.

They took her pony at the summit, and a silent sentry pointed to where a single dark figure stood out against the empty background. A few yards to his left was the great beacon, and a row of torches burned in a stand, ever ready for the signal. She called to him softly, and even to herself her voice seemed to come from a long way off.

"Nicholas! Nicholas!"

He turned towards her, and she saw that his face was livid. He was horrified to see her.

"Marie! The good G.o.d! What has happened?"

"I have deceived you, Nicholas," she whispered, hoa.r.s.ely. "The writing was not the writing of the King. It was Domiloff's plot, and I wanted to see you King. The King has saved my life. Forever, Nicholas, you and I must be his faithful subjects. I have given my word. I have pledged your honour."

Then into the face of Nicholas of Reist there came a transfiguring and almost holy joy. He uttered no word of reproach. The glory of life was once more hot in his pulses. He drew her to him.

"Thank G.o.d!" he sobbed. "This way, Marie! Now listen!"

She stooped with him over that awful chaos. From below came a sound like the falling of autumn rains upon dead leaves. He held her to him.

"It is the Turks," he whispered.

She sprang away in horror, but he laughed softly.

"Marie," he said, "that is well. Instead of a sleeping camp our guns will rake the Pa.s.s, our men await only the signal. Up here, where one is near G.o.d, one sees clearly. I am the faithful servant of Theos, even though the King had been my enemy. See!"

He listened for a moment, and then crossing the hill, took a torch from the stand and plunged it into the heart of the great beacon.

Tongues of fire leaped up to the sky, and a hoa.r.s.e murmur pa.s.sed like a wind through the camp. Then the ground beneath them shook with the roar of artillery. Nicholas took her by the arm.

"Ride for Theos at once," he directed. "You will be quite safe, for no Turk will pa.s.s alive through the Pa.s.s. Tell the King that I am his faithful servant."

About halfway to Theos, Brand, galloping furiously out from the city, came face to face with Marie riding leisurely home on a small pony. He leaped from his horse in amazement.

"Marie," he exclaimed, "what is happening at the Pa.s.s? How came you here?"

She was very tired, but she smiled at him rea.s.suringly.

"Nicholas has over ten thousand Turks in the defile," she said. "They must either surrender or be killed."

"Thank G.o.d!" he exclaimed.

She got off her pony and sat on a bank.

"I am very tired," she said, and, swaying suddenly towards him, fainted in his arms.

Brand was a man of resource, and in a few minutes she reopened her eyes. He poured some brandy between her lips, and she sat up.

"I am very sorry," she said. "I rode last night from Theos to Althea, and I have had no rest."

He made her drink some milk. They sat hand in hand, a wonderful dawn breaking in the east. By and by a horseman from Theos pa.s.sed them at full gallop.

"The war is over," he cried. "The English fleet is at Constantinople!

The Turks have sued for peace. Long live the King."

He vanished in a cloud of dust, riding furiously for the Pa.s.s. Brand took Marie into his arms and kissed her.

"Dear," he said, "I haven't much money, and I'm only an ordinary man."

She laughed softly.

"I think in Theos," she said, "we have clung a little too closely to the old ideals. Rank is very well, and money I know little about. But on the whole, I am glad that you are an ordinary man."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "'THE WAR IS OVER,' HE CRIED."]

They rode into Theos as the King arrived from Solika. The Cathedral bells clanged out a welcome, the people lined the streets, everywhere breathless excitement prevailed. Old Baron Doxis met the King on the palace steps. He held out both hands, but his eyes were wet with tears.

"Your Majesty," he said, "this is your day of triumph, and yours alone. May G.o.d send you in the future wiser and better councillors."

But Ughtred pa.s.sed his arm through the old man's, and led him into the palace.

"I am young and I was unproven," he said. "I shall be quite satisfied if G.o.d will preserve for many years my present ones."

Theos won for herself, as the fruits of that brief campaign, a wonderful military reputation, and every prospect of unbroken peace.

She entered indeed upon that golden age which comes once in the world's history to every nation, great or small. Mr. Van Decht built a palace within the city, and invested all his vast capital in the country. Brand, whose services no one realized more thoroughly than the King, accepted a Government appointment and entered the House of Laws a naturalized Thetian. And when they asked the King what gift a grateful nation could offer him, he answered them promptly but in very few words.

"The right to depart from a const.i.tutional principle. The right to share my throne with the woman I love."

There was no hesitation, no break in the thunderous applause which greeted his answer, and which Nicholas of Reist himself led. The marriage of Ughtred of Tyrnaus and Sara Van Decht under such conditions touched the imagination of Europe. Every capital was anxious to _fete_ them, the Society papers lived upon their doings for years. But even they did not know that during that famous visit to London, where they were received with a consideration rarely accorded even to royalty, they stole away one evening and dined together _tete-a-tete_ at a famous London restaurant. They were unrecognized, and they enjoyed themselves like children. Afterwards they found out a certain seat in a certain corner of the palm lounge, and spent a very delightful hour there. When at last they rose to go he took her hand for a moment softly in his.

"Tell me," he whispered, "you find it possible to be happy, although you are a queen?"

"I am your wife, dear," she answered, with a little squeeze of his hand, which seemed to satisfy him.

An amazing whisper suddenly pa.s.sed from group to group of the brilliantly-dressed men and women who sat about in the Court. The band broke off in the middle of a selection and played the National air of Theos. Every one rose respectfully. He pa.s.sed her hand through his arm with a little grimace.

"They have found us out, dear," he whispered.

The people gazed with breathless but well-bred interest. They saw a tall, distinguished-looking man, with the mark of a recent scar slightly disfiguring his left temple, and upon his arm the most beautiful woman in the room, her eyes wonderfully soft and brilliant, a delicate flush upon her cheeks. The King and Queen of Theos pa.s.sed out to their carriage.