The Breath of the Gods Part 58

"The very paper I helped to sign, this day!" said Todd, wondering.

"What, in the name of Beelzebub, are you doing with it? Hagane was to guard it with his life! There's something queer in this. I smell foul play! Did Yuki,--could Yuki have--?" He checked himself, reddening at the baseness of his quick suspicion. Yuki, facing him, gave no answering flush. She was white,--white beyond belief in a thing that lived at all.

Her low voice gave each syllable full measure. "I was partly--to blame--that Monsieur Le Beau secured that paper. I shall pay his price."

Todd's eyes still hung on her, fascinated, incredulous. He could not believe her capable of vileness. He knew that no depth of personal degradation could begin to compare, in the j.a.panese mind, with an offence against loyalty. It was to them, truly, the sin against the Holy Ghost. Yet, by her own words, Yuki was condemned. His stung thought flashed to Pierre, and fastened on him. "Then, man, it is a double wrong! I do not know yet how you got the thing; but if she is implicated, you owe it to her, far more than yourself, to be decent! In the name of morality,--of honor,--do not sell the thing; give it back without condition! Your proposition is d.a.m.nable!"

"His Excellency Mr. Todd was one who signed the paper; he pleads for its return," murmured Ronsard to the air.

"Never mind that!" flashed Todd. "The paper doesn't trouble me a little bit! I am thinking of Yuki!"

"But--Mr. Todd--Yuki, she wish to pay that price. She wish to be given--so--to Monsieur!" said the Princess Hagane.

Pierre flashed a look of triumph into Todd's dazed eyes. Defiantly he went to Yuki, caught her hand, and kissed it. "You see and hear her for yourself!" vaunted Pierre. Todd appealed dumbly to Hagane for extrication from this amazing skein of tangled interests. Hagane brooded on his wife with tenderness,--with the ache of love,--as over a dying child. Yuki drew her hand from Pierre and went to the minister. "Don't try to understand," she urged him, piteously, "don't defend me! You cannot understand,--not even Gwendolen could understand!" She caught her breath sharply, with a new and untried pang, "Oh, Gwendolen, my dear one!" she moaned, "I had forgotten you. Gwendolen--Gwendolen!"

"If I might be allowed to say a word in behalf of France," ventured Ronsard, hesitatingly.

"Your Excellency," interrupted Pierre, "let us have no further discussion. I cannot be interfered with, even by you. The thing is done!

I have agreed! Prince Hagane protects us all! All are satisfied. Cela!"

"Yes, yes," echoed Yuki. "Everything is settled!"

"Here's one thing that isn't!" flared out Todd. "I say to you men, French and j.a.panese alike, d.a.m.n you for a set of cold-blooded, fanatical politicians! Out of the bunch I respect--no, I despise a little less, Le Beau, for though an egoist and a fool, he is at least on fire with love. As for you two statesmen, there's something rotten in your refrigerators! I know what Le Beau has to sell, of course; and it is not worth the sacrifice of this poor s.h.i.+vering child! Ronsard, speak up for France, without permission or apology. Where is your honor, where that little cross with the red ribbon, that you stand by and see this wedge of opportunity driven by a boy's l.u.s.t into sand!"

"Your Excellency!" thundered Hagane. "Though you signed the paper, it is not yours. I claim it--for Nippon! I alone am responsible!"

Yuki cowered an instant, pressing both hands against her ears, then she rallied, and crying, "Do not interfere,--it is Hagane's concern and mine," went up to Todd, and seized his arm for emphasis. He pushed her off. "It may be Hagane's business, but I make it mine! G.o.d! These are not the Dark Ages. I'm not the man to stand aside and have a woman burned at the stake of political exigency. I'll turn traitor myself!

I'll tell the purport of the paper! I'll wire my resignation to Was.h.i.+ngton next day! But I won't keep still!" His lean figure flashed with indignation like a gleam that plays along an unsheathed sword.

Yuki, wheeling back to him with incredible swiftness, caught down the upraised hand, and strained it to her breast. She threw herself against him, praying, it would seem, for eternal life. "Oh, my friend, you are n.o.ble, but you make the terrible mistake! You will kill my soul, which has but just come alive. Let me go to Pierre, as is now planned. You think, maybe, that I do some great sacrifice for my country, like that good girl, Jeanne d'Arc. But you think too high. I am bad! I am the cat!

I have no love for Nippon or for Hagane! No, I have the one wish now,--to go to Pierre--to Pierre! I was close to him a moment, and now you come to drag me away. Keep me not from Pierre!"

Todd scrutinized her from between stiffening, half-closed eyelids. The gathering corner-wrinkles had the effect of sparks. "It's no good, Yuki!" he said quietly. "It don't work a little bit! I've known you too long!"

"Oh, but I _is_ bad, very bad! You didn't know, of course not! I was sly to hide everythings. Pierre and I have arrange so that, in spite of cruel father, and Prince Hagane and all, we comes together at last! Ah, push me off again!" she cried convulsively. "That is right!

I care not if I lose you, and Mrs. Todd, and Gwendolen, and my good name,--everything! if only I can go to Pierre this night! Just let me do what I wish, as all have agree but you. Try not to prevent!"

At the wild light in her eyes, the impa.s.sioned ring of her voice, Todd, his faith for the moment quailing, had pushed her off a few shuddering inches. She clung still to his hand. By this he drew her near again, and probed. Before his first word, she must have surmised the change, for she swayed in his hold, shuddered violently, closed her lids, and let her lips form a few dumb words of prayer.

"Yuki!" Todd began, in a voice so low that the others scarcely heard.

"Yuki, this is a part you are playing. Eternity is your stage, and tragedy your curtain. The room smells of it. You are not bad. You harbor now a heroic design. I cannot understand, but I believe it to be supreme! Before G.o.d, look into my eyes, and tell me the truth. I will not betray you!"

She lifted calmly, now, the great, dark orbs. He gazed down into them, to the thought that lay, like a white rock, in the clear depths. In absolute moments the human soul has a speech of its own and an ear to listen. Her lips moved no more. She was not conscious of further effort to make him see. Without grosser statement, knowledge came to him. This life of earth already had lost its hold on her,--Pierre was less than a shadow on a stream. Todd knew that she was to die,--that the discarded sh.e.l.l of the thing he loved would be Pierre's prize. By the same ghostly prescience Hagane knew that certainty had laid her cold touch upon the American. He averted quickly his dark face from the sight. Ronsard, who was nearest, saw a mighty shudder blow upon him; then the face, now twitching, lifted toward the light. His lips moved. Ronsard could not surmise the trend of the broken, muttered words; but Yuki, who had neither heard nor seen, knew that he was praying.

Todd loosed the girl's hand now, not in rebuke, but as one incapable of sustaining longer the fragile burden. The alertness, the eagerness went from him. All at once he was a middle-aged man. "And I must stand by and do--nothing!" he whispered, half to himself, half to her.

"Oh, you can still do much. You can believe in me,--and Gwendolen will not need to scorn me. I will thank you always, if only for what you have just understood."

"Come!" said Hagane, sharply. "A woman's endurance has a limit. The paper, please, Monsieur Le Beau."

Ronsard touched Pierre's arm. "Not until you have received your price."

"When Yuki comes to me to-night, and not before," said Pierre, valiantly. He was pleased with the sound of his own bravado.

Yuki threw a piteous glance toward her husband. "Then shall I accompany, now? I think I can do all, alone."

Hagane did not answer her. He held Pierre in a hard gaze. "To-night?" he questioned. "How can I be sure that the seal will be intact?"

"Sir!" said Pierre, indignantly, "your suggestion is an insult!"

"Ah! do thieves who enter other men's homes to rob them still wave the flag of honor?" Pierre drew back, flushed and scowling, with a muttered curse. Todd gave a great start. It was the first time he had heard the specific charge. How then, if Pierre were a mere common thief, could Yuki be involved? Again he was baffled. He shook his head sadly, and kept silence. Hagane had begun to speak again. "I am willing to refer the matter to arbitration, but shall not consent to the doc.u.ment remaining here. Let it be put into the hands of a third party, until to-night."

"Yes," said Yuki, eagerly. "Mr. Todd will keep it. All trust him!"

Pierre and Ronsard exchanged apprehensive glances. To refuse was impossible. "An--an--excellent plan," said Ronsard, with a watery beam.

"But, since Russia is our ally--"

"Utterly unofficial, you know. A purely personal misunderstanding,"

reminded Todd, not without a gleam of malice. "In your present att.i.tude, Count Ronsard, you can scarcely claim anything further. France's honor hardly rests on--felony! I am willing to hold it; and, if the prince should fail to drive in the sacrificial lamb, otherwise Yuki, France gets the paper, I presume."

"Exactly," said Hagane, and Ronsard in a breath.

"Only," interpolated Yuki, in her low, clear voice, "no sacrificial lamb is to be driven, your Excellency,--only a woman gaining her soul's desire."

Pierre triumphed in glances about the room. Couldn't the fool American see that Yuki was simply dying to get away from old Hagane and come to him! Why this continued talk of sacrifice? It sounded like the j.a.panese themselves. Pierre sent an ardent, encouraging look to the girl. To his surprise, her face was set steadily upon Hagane, and in his answering gaze was the same embarra.s.sing rapture.

"Well," said Todd, sharply, "am I to keep the paper or not?"

"My dear colleague," stuttered Ronsard, paddling the air with gestures of concession, "of course, in your keeping it is as safe as--say--in my private desk. Pierre!--" There was a sharp tang to the name.

The young man reluctantly handed the envelope to Todd. He took it with a crooked smile. Hagane and Yuki remained calm as statues.

"Madame," the host said, with fict.i.tious gayety, "perhaps, as a matter of delicacy, congratulations are not in order; yet allow me to a.s.sure you of my good-will and homage!"

Yuki met his look. Her face was still expressionless, like a j.a.panese painting of a high-born lady where repose is the desired essential.

Something underlying the white calm disturbed him. After her few gentle words, "I thank your Excellency," he was glad to turn away.

"To-night at eight," said Hagane, moving toward the door. "Can all be present at eight?"

The three men bowed gravely. Ronsard for once had forgotten etiquette.

He was allowing his visitors to leave alone. Yuki, with no further look for Pierre, prepared to follow her husband, but Todd came to himself with a queer, choking little sound. In two long strides he overtook her.

"Yuki,--how can. I stand it? You are like my other child! I am in a bed of nettles, and you have tied my hands! I have agreed to take this paper chiefly on the hope that I may stir Le Beau to a n.o.bler issue. You must agree,--you _must_--to a less awful price."

Yuki's lifted face was whiter now than any death, but somehow, under the icy surface a flower was frozen. "Pierre will not agree, because I have said I wish to go to him. You have understood the j.a.panese heart strangely; but even yet,--there are s.p.a.ces you have not dreamed. I pray G.o.d for you to fail, dear Mr. Todd, but I ask his blessing on your kindness. Give to those dear ones at your home, my Sayonara, and my undying love!"

Todd writhed as if stung by an unseen serpent. "And yet, within my bounds of confidence and honor, I must reason with Pierre, must speak more fully with Ronsard!"

"I trust you utterly," said Yuki, as she faded through the doorway.