Phroso Part 5

'Ah, pardon, my lord! They will kill you, they--the people--the men of the island.'

I gazed at her sternly. She shrank back in confusion. And I spoke at a venture, yet in a well-grounded hazard:

'You mean that Constantine Stefanopoulos will kill me?'

'Ah, hush,' she cried. 'He may be here, he may be anywhere.'

'He may thank his stars he's not here,' said I grimly, for my blood was up. 'Attend, woman. Who is this?'

'It is the lord of the island, my lord,' she answered. 'Alas, he is wounded, I fear, to death. And yet I fell asleep. But I was so weary.'

'Wounded? By whom?'

Her face suddenly became vacant and expressionless.

'I do not know, my lord. It happened in the crowd. It was a mistake.

My dear lord had yielded what they asked. Yet some one--no, by heaven, my lord, I do not know who--stabbed him. And he cannot live.'

'Tell me the whole thing,' I commanded.

'They came up here, my lord, all of them, Vlacho and all, and with them my Lord Constantine. The Lady Euphrosyne was away; she is often away, down on the rocks by the sea, watching the waves. They came and said that a man had landed who claimed our island as his--a man of your name, my lord. And when my dear lord said he had sold the island to save the honour of his house and race, they were furious; and Vlacho raised the death chant that One-eyed Alexander the Bard wrote on the death of Stefan Stefanopoulos long ago. Then they came near with knives, demanding that my dear lord should send away the stranger; for the men of Neopalia were not to be bought and sold like bullocks or like pigs. At first my lord would not yield, and they swore they would kill the stranger and my lord also. Then they pressed closer; Vlacho was hard on him with drawn knife, and the Lord Constantine stood by him, praying him to yield; and Constantine drew his own knife, saying to Vlacho that he must fight him also before he killed the old lord. But at that Vlacho smiled. And then--and then--ah, my dear lord!'

For a moment her voice broke, and sobs supplanted words. But she drew herself up, and after a glance at the old man whom her vehement speech had not availed to waken, she went on.

'And then those behind cried out that there was enough talk. Would he yield or would he die? And they rushed forward, pressing the nearest against him. And he, an old man, frail and feeble (yet once he was as brave a man as any), cried in his weak tones, "Enough, friends, I yield, I--" and they fell back. But my lord stood for an instant, then he set his hand to his side, and swayed and tottered and fell; the blood was running from his side. The Lord Constantine fell on his knees beside him, crying, "Who stabbed him?" Vlacho smiled grimly, and the others looked at one another. But I, who had run out from the doorway whence I had seen it all, knelt by my lord and staunched the blood. Then Vlacho said, fixing his eyes straight and keen on the Lord Constantine, "It was not I, my lord." "Nor I by heaven," cried the Lord Constantine, and he rose to his feet, demanding, "Who struck the blow?" But none answered; and he went on, "Nay, if it were in error, if it were because he would not yield, speak. There shall be pardon."

But Vlacho, hearing this, turned himself round and faced them all, saying, "Did he not sell us like oxen and like pigs?" and he broke into the death chant, and they all raised the chant, none caring any more who had struck the blow. And the Lord Constantine--' The impetuous flow of the old woman's story was frozen to sudden silence.

'Well, and the Lord Constantine?' said I, in low stern tones that quivered with excitement; and I felt Denny's hand, which was on my arm, jump up and down. 'And Constantine, woman?'

[Ill.u.s.tration: "WHO STABBED HIM?"]

'Nay, he did nothing,' said she. 'He talked with Vlacho awhile, and then they went away, and he bade me tend my lord, and went himself to seek the Lady Euphrosyne. Presently he came back with her; her eyes were red, and she wept afresh when she saw my poor lord; for she loved him. She sat by him till Constantine came and told her that you would not go, and that you and your friends would be killed if you did not go. Then, weeping to leave my lord, she went, praying heaven she might find him alive when she returned. "I must go," she said to me, "for though it is a shameful thing that the island should have been sold, yet these men must be persuaded to go away and not meet death. Kiss him for me if he awakes." Thus she went and left me with my lord, and I fear he will die.' She ended in a burst of sobbing.

For a moment there was silence. Then I said again:

'Who struck the blow, woman? Who struck the blow?'

She shrank from me as though I had struck her.

'I do not know; I do not know,' she moaned.

But the question she dared not answer was to find an answer.

The stricken man opened his eyes, his lips moved, and he groaned, 'Constantine! You, Constantine!' The old woman's eyes met mine for a moment and fell to the ground again.

'Why, why, Constantine?' moaned the wounded man. 'I had yielded, I had yielded, Constantine. I would have sent them--'

His words ceased, his eyes closed, his lips met again, but met only to part. A moment later his jaw dropped. The old lord of Neopalia was dead.

Then I, carried away by anger and by hatred of the man who, for a reason I did not yet understand, had struck so foul a blow against his kinsman and an old man, did a thing so rash that it seems to me now, when I consider it in the cold light of memory, a mad deed. Yet then I could do nothing else; and Denny's face, ay, and the eyes of the others too told me that they were with me.

'Compose this old man's body,' I said, 'and we will watch it. But do you go and tell this Constantine Stefanopoulos that I know his crime, that I know who struck that blow, that what I know all men shall know, and that I will not rest day or night until he has paid the penalty of this murder. Tell him I swore this on the honour of an English gentleman.'

'And say I swore it too!' cried Denny; and Hogvardt and Watkins, not making bold to speak, ranged up close to me; I knew that they also meant what I meant.

The old woman looked at me with searching eyes.

'You are a bold man, my lord,' said she.

'I see nothing to be afraid of up to now,' said I. 'Such courage as is needed to tell a scoundrel what I think of him I believe I can claim.'

'But he will never let you go now. You would go to Rhodes, and tell his--tell what you say of him.'

'Yes, and further than Rhodes, if need be. He shall die for it as sure as I live.'

A thousand men might have tried in vain to persuade me; the treachery of Constantine had fired my heart and driven out all opposing motives.

'Do as I bid you,' said I sternly, 'and waste no time on it. We will watch here by the old man till you return.'

'My lord,' she replied, 'you run on your own death. And you are young; and the youth by you is yet younger.'

'We are not dead yet,' said Denny; I had never seen him look as he did then; for the gaiety was out of his face, and his lips had grown set and hard.

She raised her hands towards heaven, whether in prayer or in lamentation I do not know. We turned away and left her to her sad work; going back to our places, we waited there till dawn began to break and from the narrow windows we saw the grey crests of the waves dancing and frolicking in the early dawn. As I watched them, the old woman was by my elbow.

'It is done, my lord,' said she. 'Are you still of the same mind?'

'Still of the same,' said I.

'It is death, death for you all,' she said, and without more she went to the great door. Hogvardt opened it for her, and she walked away down the road, between the high rocks that bounded the path on either side. Then we went and carried the old man to a room that opened off the hall, and, returning, stood in the doorway, cooling our brows in the fresh early air. While we stood there, Hogvardt said suddenly,

'It is five o'clock.'

'Then we have only an hour to live,' said I, smiling, 'if we don't make for the yacht.'

'You're not going back to the yacht, my lord?'

'I'm puzzled,' I admitted. 'If we go this ruffian will escape. And if we don't go--'

'Why, we,' Hogvardt ended for me, 'may not escape.'

I saw that Hogvardt's sense of responsibility was heavy; he always regarded himself as the shepherd, his employers as the sheep. I believe this att.i.tude of his confirmed my obstinacy, for I said, without further hesitation:

'Oh, we'll chance that. When they know what a villain the fellow is, they'll turn against him. Besides, we said we'd wait here.'

Denny seized on my last words with alacrity. When you are determined to do a rash thing, there is a great comfort in feeling that you are already committed to it by some previous act or promise.

'So we did,' he cried. 'Then that settles it, Hogvardt'