A Rent In A Cloud Part 13

"Well, I don't know. So long as I have known you, you've never been out of one sc.r.a.pe without being half way into another."

"And yet there are fellows who pay dearer for their successes than ever I have done for my failures."

"How so? What do they do?"

"They marry! Ay, Bob, they marry rich wives, but without any power to touch the money, just as a child gets a sovereign at Christmas under the condition he is never to change it."

"I must say you are a pleasant fellow to travel with."

"So I am generally reputed, and you're a lucky dog to catch me 'in the vein,' for I don't know when I was in better spirits than this morning."

CHAPTER X. A DAYBREAK BESIDE THE RHINE.

THE day was just breaking over that wide flat beside the Rhine at Basle, as two men, descending from a carriage on the high road, took one of the narrow paths which lead through the fields, walking slowly, and talking to each other in the careless tone of easy converse.

"We are early, Barnard, I should say; fully half an hour before our time," said Calvert, as he walked on first, for the path did not admit of two abreast. "What grand things these great plains are, traversed by a fine river, and spreading away to a far distant horizon. What a sense of freedom they inspire; how suggestive they are of liberty; don't you feel that?"

"I think I see them coming," said the other. "I saw a carriage descend the hill yonder. Is there nothing else you have to say--nothing that you think of, Harry?"

"Nothing. If it should be a question of a funeral, Bob, my funds will show how economically it must be done; but even if I had been richer, it is not an occasion I should like to make costly."

"It was not of that I was thinking. It was of friends or relations."

"My dear fellow, I have few relatives and no friends. No man's executors.h.i.+p will ever entail less trouble than mine. I have nothing to leave, nor any to leave it to."

"But these letters--the cause of the present meeting--don't you intend that in case of--in the event of--"

"My being killed. Go on."

"That they should be given up to your cousin?"

"Nothing of the kind ever occurred to me. In the first place, I don't mean to be shot; and in the second, I have not the very remotest intention of releasing the dear Sophy from those regrets and sorrows which she ought to feel for my death. Nay, I mean her to mourn me with a degree of affliction to which anxiety will add the poignancy."

"This is not generous, Calvert."

"I'm sure it's not. Why, my dear friend, were I to detect any such weakness in my character, I'd begin to fancy I might end by becoming a poltroon."

"Is that your man--he in the cloak--or the tall one behind him?" said Barnard, as he pointed to a group who came slowly along through a vineyard.

"I cannot say. I never saw Mr. Graham to my knowledge. Don't let them be long about the preliminaries, Bob; the morning is fresh and the ground here somewhat damp. Agree to all they ask, distance and everything, only secure that the word be given by you. Remember that, in the way I've told you."

As Calvert strolled listlessly along towards the river, Barnard advanced to meet the others, who, to the number of five, came now forward.

Colonel Rochefort, Mr. Graham's friend, and Barnard were slightly acquainted, and turned aside to talk to each other in confidence.

"It is scarcely the moment to hope for it, Mr. Barnard," said the other, "but I cannot go on without asking, at least, if there is any peaceful settlement possible?"

"I fear not. You told me last night that all retraction by your friend of his offensive letter was impossible."

"Utterly so."

"What, then, would you suggest?"

"Could not Mr. Calvert be brought to see that it was he who gave the first offence? That, in writing, as he did, to a man in my friend's position--"

"Mere waste of time, colonel, to discuss this; besides, I think we have each of us already said all that we could on this question, and Calvert is very far from being satisfied with me for having allowed myself to entertain it There is really nothing for it but a shot."

"Yes, Sir; but you seem to forget, if we proceed to this arbitrament, it is not a mere exchange of fire will satisfy my friend."

"We are, as regards that, completely at his service; and if your supply of ammunition be only in proportion to the number of your followers, you can scarcely be disappointed."

The colonel reddened deeply, and in a certain irritation replied: "One of these gentlemen is a travelling companion of my friend, whose health is too delicate to permit him to act for him; the other is a French officer of rank, who dined with us yesterday; the third is a surgeon."

"To us it is a matter of perfect indifference if you come accompanied by fifty, or five hundred; but let us lose no more time. I see how I am trying my friend's patience already. Ten paces, short paces, too," began Barnard as he took his friend's arm.

"And the word?"

"I am to give it."

"All right; and you remember how?"

"Yes! the word is, One--two; at the second you are to fire."

"Let me hear you say them."

"One--two."

"No, no; that's not it. One-two--sharp; don't dwell on the interval; make them like syllables of one word."

"One-two."

"Yes, that's it; and remember that you cough once before you begin.

There, don't let them see us talking together. Give me a shake hands, and leave me."

"That man is nervous, or I am much mistaken," said Graham's invalid friend to the colonel; and they both looked towards Calvert, who with his hat drawn down over his brows, walked lazily to his ground.

"It is not the reputation he has," whispered the colonel. "Be calm, Graham; be as cool as the other fellow."

The princ.i.p.als were now placed, and the others fell back on either side, and almost instantaneously, so instantaneously, indeed, that Colonel Rochefort had not yet ceased to walk, two shots rang out one distinctly before the other, and Graham fell.

All ran towards him but Calvert, who, throwing his pistol at his feet, stood calm and erect. For a few seconds they bent down over the wounded man, and then Barnard, hastening back to his friend, whispered, "Through the chest; it is all over."

"Dead?" said the other.

He nodded, and taking his arm, said, "Don't lose a moment; the Frenchman says you have not an instant to spare."