heard calling us to come upstairs. Northmour showed
me the way, and, when he had reached the landing,
knocked at the door of what used to be called My Un-
254
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
cle's Bedroom, as the founder of the pavilion had designed
it especially for himself.
"Come in, Northmour; come in, dear Mr. Cassilis,"
said a voice from within.
Pushing open the door, Northmour admitted me be-
fore him into the apartment. As I came in I could see
the daughter slipping out by the side door into the study,
which had been prepared as her bedroom. In the bed,
which was drawn back against the wall, instead of
standing, as I had last seen it, boldly across the win-
dow, sat Bernard Huddlestone, the defaulting banker.
Little as I had seen of him by the shifting light of the
lantern on the links, I had no difficulty in recognising
him for the same. He had a long and sallow counte-
nance, surrounded by a long red beard and side-whis-
kers. His broken nose and high cheek-bones gave him
somewhat the air of a Kalmuck, and his light eyes shone
with the excitement of a high fever. He wore a skull-
cap of black silk ; a huge Bible lay open before him on
the bed, with a pair of gold spectacles in the place, and
a pile of other books lay on the stand by his side. The
green curtains lent a cadaverous shade to his cheek ; and,
as he sat propped on pillows, his great stature was pain-
fully hunched, and his head protruded till it overhung
his knees. I believe if he had not died otherwise, he
must have fallen a victim to consumption in the course
of but a very few weeks.
He held out to me a hand, long, thin, and disagree-
ably hairy.
" Come in, come in, Mr. Cassilis," said he. "Another
protector ahem! another protector. Always wel-
come as a friend of my daughter's, Mr. Cassilis. How
255
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
they have rallied about me, my daughter's friends ! May
God in heaven bless and reward them for it! "
I gave him my hand, of course, because I could not
help it; but the sympathy I had been prepared to feel
for Clara's father was immediately soured by his ap-
pearance, and the wheedling, unreal tones in which he
spoke.
"Cassilis is a good man," said Northmour; "worth
ten."
"So I hear," cried Mr. Huddlestone eagerly; "so my
girl tells me. Ah, Mr. Cassilis, my sin has found me
out, you see! I am very low, very low; but I hope
equally penitent. We must all come to the throne of
grace at last, Mr. Cassilis. For my part, I come late
indeed; but with unfeigned humility, I trust."
"Fiddle-de-dee! " said Northmour roughly.
' ' No, no, dear Northmour ! " cried the banker. ' ' You
must not say that; you must not try to shake me. You
forget, my dear, good boy, you forget I may be called
this very night before my Maker."
His excitement was pitiful to behold ; and I felt my-
self grow indignant with Northmour, whose infidel
opinions I well knew, and heartily derided, as he con-
tinued to taunt the poor sinner out of his humour of re-
pentance.
" Pooh, my dear Huddlestone! " said he. " You do
yourself injustice. You are a man of the world inside
and out, and were up to all kinds of mischief before
I was born. Your conscience is tanned like South
American leather only you forgot to tan your liver,
and that, if you will believe me, is the seat of the an-
noyance."
256
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
"Rogue, rogue! bad boy!" said Mr. Huddlestone,
shaking his finger. "I am no precisian, if you come to
that; I always hated a precisian; but I never lost hold
of something better though it all. I have been a bad
boy, Mr. Cassilis; I do not seek to deny that; but it
was after my wife's death, and you know, with a wid-
ower, it's a different thing: sinful I won't say no,
but there is a gradation, we shall hope. And talking
of that Hark!" he broke out suddenly, his hand
raised, his fingers spread, his face racked with interest
and terror. "Only the rain, bless God!" he added,
after a pause, and with indescribable relief.
For some seconds he lay back among the pillows like
a man near to fainting; then he gathered himself to-
gether, and, in somewhat tremulous tones, began once
more to thank me for the share I was prepared to take
in his defence.
"One question, sir," said I, when he had paused.
" Is it true that you have money with you ? "
He seemed annoyed by the question, but admitted
with reluctance that he had a little.
"Well," I continued, " it is their money they are after,
is it not ? Why not give it up to them ? "
"Ah!" replied he, shaking his head, "I have tried
that already, Mr. Cassilis ; and alas ! that it should be so,
but it is blood they want."
" Huddlestone, that's a little less than fair," said
Northmour. " You should mention that what you
offered them was upwards of two hundred thousand
short. The deficit is worth a reference ; it is for what
they call a cool sum, Frank. Then, you see, the fellows
reason in their clear Italian way ; and it seems to them,
257
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
as indeed it seems to me, that they may just as well
have both while they are about it money and blood
together, by George, and no more trouble for the extra
pleasure."
"Is it in the pavilion ? " I asked.
" It is; and I wish it was in the bottom of the sea in-
stead," said Northmour; and then suddenly "What
are you making faces at me for ? " he cried to Mr. Hud-
dlestone, on whom I had unconsciously turned my back.
"Do you think Cassilis would sell you ?"
Mr. Huddlestone protested that nothing had been fur-
ther from his mind.
"It is a good thing," retorted Northmour in his ug-
liest manner. "You might end by wearying us. What
were you going to say ?" he added, turning to me.
"I was going to propose an occupation for the after-
noon," said I. " Let us carry that money out, piece by
piece, and lay it down before the pavilion door. If the
carbonari come, why, it's theirs at any rate."
"No, no," cried Mr. Huddlestone; "it does not, it
cannot belong to them ! It should be distributed pro
rata among all my creditors."
"Come, now, Huddlestone," said Northmour, " none
of that."
"Well, but my daughter," moaned the wretched
man.
"Your daughter will do well enough. Here are two
suitors, Cassilis and I, neither of us beggars, between
whom she has to choose. And as for yourself, to make
an end of arguments, you have no right to a farthing,
and, unless I'm much mistaken, you are going to die."
It was certainly very cruelly said; but Mr. Huddle-
258
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
stone was a man who attracted little sympathy; and,
although I saw him wince and shudder, I mentally en-
dorsed the rebuke; nay, I added a contribution of my
own.
"Northmour and I," I said, "are willing enough to
help you to save your life, but not to escape with stolen
property."
He struggled for a while with himself, as though he
were on the point of giving way to anger, but prudence
had the best of the controversy.
" My dear boys," he said, " do with me or my money
what you will. I leave all in your hands. Let me com-
pose myself."
And so we left him, gladly enough I am sure. The
last that I saw, he had once more taken up his great
Bible, and with tremulous hands was adjusting his spec-
tacles to read.
259
CHAPTER VII
TELLS HOW A WORD WAS CRIED THROUGH THE
PAVILION WINDOW
THE recollection of that afternoon will always be
graven on my mind. Northmour and I were persuaded
that an attack was imminent ; and if it had been in our
power to alter in any way the order of events, that power
would have been used to precipitate rather than delay the
critical moment. The worst was to be anticipated ; yet
we could conceive no extremity so miserable as the sus-
pense we were now suffering. I have never been an
eager, though always a great, reader; but I never knew
books so insipid as those which I took up and cast aside
that afternoon in the pavilion. Even talk became impos-
sible, as the hours went on. One or other was always
listening for some sound, or peering from an upstairs
window over the links. And yet not a sign indicated
the presence of our foes.
We debated over and over again my proposal with
regard to the money; and had we been in complete
possession of our faculties, I am sure we should have
condemned it as unwise; but we were flustered with
alarm, grasped at a straw, and determined, although it
was as much as advertising Mr. Huddlestone's presence
in the pavilion, to carry my proposal into effect.
The sum was part in specie, part in bank paper, and
260
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
part in circular notes, payable to the name of James
Gregory. We took it out, counted it, enclosed it once
more in a despatch-box belonging to Northmour, and
prepared a letter in Italian which he tied to the handle.
It was signed by both of us under oath, and declared
that this was all the money which had escaped the fail-
ure of the house of Huddlestone. This was, perhaps,
the maddest action ever perpetrated by two persons pro-
fessing to be sane. Had the despatch-box fallen into
other hands than those for which it was intended, we
stood criminally convicted on our own written testi-
mony ; but, as I have said, we were neither of us in a
condition to judge soberly, and had a thirst for action
that drove us to do something, right or wrong, rather
than endure the agony of waiting. Moreover, as we
were both convinced that the hollows of the links were
alive with hidden spies upon our movements, we hoped
that our appearance with the box might lead to a parley,
and, perhaps, a compromise.
It was nearly three when we issued from the pavilion.
The rain had taken off; the sun shone quite cheerfully.
I have never seen the gulls fly so close about the house
or approach so fearlessly to human beings. On the very
doorstep one flapped heavily past our heads, and uttered
its wild cry in my very ear.
"There is an omen for you," said Northmour, who
like all freethinkers was much under the influence of
superstition. "They think we are already dead."
I made some light rejoinder, but it was with half my
heart; for the circumstance had impressed me.
A yard or two before the gate, on a patch of smooth
turf, we set down the despatch-box; and Northmour
261
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
waved a white handkerchief over his head. Nothing
replied. We raised our voices, and cried aloud in Italian
that we were there as ambassadors to arrange the quar-
rel; but the stillness remained unbroken save by the
sea-gulls and the surf. I had a weight at my heart
when we desisted, and I saw that even Northmour was
unusually pale. He looked over his shoulder nervously,
as though he feared that some one had crept between
him and the pavilion door.
"By God," he said in a whisper, "this is too much
forme!"
I replied in the same key: " Suppose there should be
none, after all ! "
"Look there," he returned, nodding with his head,
as though he had been afraid to point.
I glanced in the direction indicated ; and there, from
the northern corner of the Sea-Wood, beheld a thin col-
umn of smoke rising steadily against the now cloudless
sky.
"Northmour," I said (we still continued to talk in
whispers), "it is not possible to endure this suspense.
I prefer death fifty times over. Stay you here to watch
the pavilion ; I will go forward and make sure, if I have
to walk right into their camp."
He looked once again all around him with puckered
eyes, and then nodded assentingly to my proposal.
My heart beat like a sledge-hammer as I set out walk-
ing rapidly in the direction of the smoke; and though
up to that moment I had felt chill and shivering, I was
suddenly conscious of a glow of heat over all my body.
The ground in this direction was very uneven ; a hun-
dred men might have lain hidden in as many square
362
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
yards about my path. But I had not practised the busi-
ness in vain, chose such routes as cut at the very root
of concealment, and, by keeping along the most con-
venient ridges, commanded several hollows at a time.
It was not long before I was rewarded for my caution.
Coming suddenly on to a mound somewhat more elevated
than the surrounding hummocks I saw, not thirty yards
away, a man bent almost double, and running as fast as
his attitude permitted, along the bottom of a gully. I
had dislodged one of the spies from his ambush. As
soon as I sighted him, I called loudly both in English
and Italian ; and he, seeing concealment was no longer
possible, straightened himself out, leaped from the gully,
and made off as straight as an arrow for the borders of
the wood.
It was none of my business to pursue ; I had learned
what I wanted that we were beleaguered and watched
in the pavilion ; and I returned at once, and walking as
nearly as possible in my old footsteps, to where North-
mour awaited me beside the despatch-box. He was
even paler than when I had left him, and his voice
shook a little.
"Could you see what he was like ? " he asked.
"He kept his back turned," I replied.
" Let us go into the house, Frank. I don't think I'm
a coward, but I can stand no more of this," he whis-
pered.
All was still and sunshiny about the pavilion as we
turned to re-enter it; even the gulls had flown in a wider
circuit, and were seen flickering along the beach and
sand-hills; and this loneliness terrified me more than a
regiment under arms. It was not until the door was
263
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
barricaded that I could draw a full inspiration and relieve
the weight that lay upon my bosom. Northmour and
I exchanged a steady glance ; and I suppose each made
his own reflections on the white and startled aspect of
the other.
"You were right," I said. " All is over. Shake hands,
old man, for the last time."
' ' Yes, " replied he, "I will shake hands ; for, as sure as I
am here, I bear no malice. But, remember, if, by some im-
possible accident, we should give the slip to these black-
guards, I'll take the upper hand of you by fair or foul."
"Oh," said I, "you weary me."
He seemed hurt, and walked away in silence to the
foot of the stairs, where he paused.
" You do not understand me," said he, "I am not a
swindler, and I guard myself ; that is all. It may weary
you or not, Mr. Cassilis, I do not care a rush ; I speak for
my own satisfaction, and not for your amusement.
You had better go upstairs and court the girl; for my
part, I stay here."
" And I stay with you," I returned. " Do you think
I would steal a march, even with your permission ?"
"Frank," he said, smiling, "it's a pity you are an
ass, for you have the makings of a man. I think I must
be fey to-day ; you cannot irritate me, even when you
try. Do you know," he continued softly, " I think we
are the two most miserable men in England, you and I ?
we have got on to thirty without wife or child, or so
much as a shop to look after poor, pitiful, lost devils,
both ! And now we clash about a girl ! As if there
were not several millions in the United Kingdom ! Ah,
Frank, Frank, the one who loses his throw, be it you
264
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
or me, he has my pity ! It were better for him how
does the Bible say? that a millstone were hanged
about his neck and he were cast into the depth of the
sea. Let us take a drink," he concluded suddenly, but
without any levity of tone.
I was touched by his words, and consented. He sat
down on the table in the dining-room, and held up the
glass of sherry to his eye.
" If you beat me, Frank," he said, "I shall take to
drink. What will you do, if it goes the other way ? "
"God knows," I returned.
"Well," said he, "here is a toast in the meantime:
' Italia irredenta ! ' '
The remainder of the day was passed in the same
dreadful tedium and suspense. I laid the table for din-
ner, while Northmour and Clara prepared the meal to-
gether in the kitchen. I could hear their talk as I went
to and fro, and was surprised to find it ran all the time
upon myself. Northmour again bracketed us together,
and rallied Clara on a choice of husbands; but he con-
tinued to speak of me with some feeling, and uttered
nothing to my prejudice unless he included himself in
the condemnation. This awakened a sense of gratitude
in my heart, which combined with the immediateness
of our peril to fill my eyes with tears. After all, I
thought and perhaps the thought was laughably vain
we were here three very noble human beings to per-
ish in defence of a thieving banker.
Before we sat down to table, I looked forth from an
upstairs window. The day was beginning to decline;
the links were utterly deserted ; the despatch-box still
lay untouched where we had left it hours before.
265
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
Mr. Huddlestone, in a long yellow dressing-gown,
took one end of the table, Clara the other; while North-
mour and I faced each other from the sides. The lamp
was brightly trimmed ; the wine was good; the viands,
although mostly cold, excellent of their sort. We seemed
to have agreed tacitly; all reference to the impending
catastrophe was carefully avoided ; and, considering our
tragic circumstances, we made a merrier party than
could have been expected. From time to time, it is true,
Northmour or I would rise from the table and make a
round of the defences ; and, on each of these occasions
Mr. Huddlestone was recalled to a sense of his tragic
predicament, glanced up with ghastly eyes, and bore
for an instant on his countenance the stamp of terror.
But he hastened to empty his glass, wiped his fore-
head with his handkerchief, and joined again in the con-
versation.
I was astonished at the wit and information he dis-
played. Mr. Huddlestone's was certainly no ordinary
character; he had read and observed for himself; his
gifts were sound; and, though I could never have
learned to love the man, I began to understand his suc-
cess in business, and the great respect in which he had
been held before his failure. He had, above all, the
talent of society ; and though I never heard him speak
but on this one and most unfavourable occasion, I set
him down among the most brilliant conversationalists I
ever met.
He was relating with great gusto, and seemingly no
feeling of shame, the manoeuvres of a scoundrelly com-
mission merchant whom he had known and studied in
his youth, and we were all listening with an odd mix-
266
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
ture of mirth and embarrassment, when our little party
was brought abruptly to an end in the most startling
manner.
A noise like that of a wet finger on the window-pane
interrupted Mr. Huddlestone's tale; and in an instant
we were all four as white as paper, and sat tongue-tied
and motionless round the table.
"A snail," I said at last; for I had heard that these
animals make a noise somewhat similar in character.
"Snail be dd!" said Northmour. "Hush!"
The same sound was repeated twice at regular inter-
vals; and then a formidable voice shouted through the
shutters the Italian word " Traditore!"
Mr. Huddlestone threw his head in the air; his eye-
lids quivered ; next moment he fell insensible below the
table. Northmour and I had each run to the armoury
and seized a gun. Clara was on her feet with her hand
at her throat.
So we stood waiting, for we thought the hour of at-
tack was certainly come; but second passed after second,
and all but the surf remained silent in the neighbourhood
of the pavilion.
"Quick," said Northmour; "upstairs with him be-
fore they come."
367
CHAPTER VIII
TELLS THE LAST OF THE TALL MAN
SOMEHOW or other, by hook and crook, and between
the three of us, we got Bernard Huddlestone bundled
upstairs and laid upon the bed in My Uncle's Room.
During the whole process, which was rough enough,
he gave no sign of consciousness, and he remained, as
we had thrown him, without changing the position of
a finger. His daughter opened his shirt and began to
wet his head and bosom ; while Northmour and I ran to
the window. The weather continued clear; the moon,
which was now about full, had risen and shed a very
clear light upon the links; yet, strain our eyes as we
might, we could distinguish nothing moving. A few
dark spots, more or less, on the uneven expanse were
not to be identified; they might be crouching men,
they might be shadows; it was impossible to be sure.
"Thank God," said Northmour, "Aggie is not com-
ing to-night."
Aggie was the name of the old nurse; he had not
thought of her till now ; but that he should think of her
at all, was a trait that surprised me in the man.
We were again reduced to waiting. Northmour went
to the fireplace and spread his hands before the red em-
bers, as if he were cold. I followed him mechanically
268
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
with my eyes, and in so doing turned my back upon the
window. At that moment a very faint report was audi-
ble from without, and a ball shivered a pane of glass, and
buried itself in the shutter two inches from my head. I
heard Clara scream ; and though I whipped instantly out
of range and into a corner, she was there, so to speak,
before me, beseeching to know if I were hurt. I felt that
I could stand to be shot at every day and all day long,
with such marks of solicitude for a reward ; and I con-
tinued to reassure her, with the tenderest caresses and
in complete forgetfulness of our situation, till the voice
of Northmour recalled me to myself.
"An air-gun," he said. "They wish to make no
noise."
I put Clara aside, and looked at him. He was stand-
ing with his back to the fire and his hands clasped be-
hind him ; and I knew by the black look on his face, that
passion was boiling within. I had seen just such a look
before he attacked me, that March night, in the adjoin-
ing chamber; and, though I could make every allowance
for his anger, I confess I trembled for the consequences.
He gazed straight before him ; but he could see us with
the tail of his eye, and his temper kept rising like a gale
of wind. With regular battle awaiting us outside, this
prospect of an internecine strife within the walls began
to daunt me.
Suddenly, as I was thus closely watching his expres-
sion and prepared against the worst, I saw a change, a
flash, a look of relief, upon his face. He took up the
lamp which stood beside him on the table, and turned
to us with an air of some excitement.
"There is one point that we must know," said he.
260
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
"Are they going to butcher the lot of .us, or only Hud-
dlestone ? Did they take you for him, or fire at you for
your own beaux yeux? "
" They took me for him, for certain," I replied. " 1
am near as tall, and my head is fair."
' ' I am going to make sure, " returned Northmour ; and
he stepped up to the window, holding the lamp above
his head, and stood there, quietly affronting death, for
half a minute.
Clara sought to rush forward and pull him from the
place of danger ; but I had the pardonable selfishness to
hold her back by force.
"Yes," said Northmour, turning coolly from the win-
dow ; "it 's only Huddlestone they want."
"Oh, Mr. Northmour!" cried Clara ; but found no
more to add; the temerity she had just witnessed seem-
ing beyond the reach of words.
He, on his part, looked at me, cocking his head, with
a fire of triumph in his eyes ; and I understood at once
that he had thus hazarded his life, merely to attract
Clara's notice, and depose me from my position as the
hero of the hour. He snapped his fingers.
"The fire is only beginning," he said. "When they
warm up to their work, they won't be so particular."
A voice was now heard hailing us from the entrance.
From the window we could see the figure of a man in
the moonlight; he stood motionless, his face uplifted to
ours, and a rag of something white on his extended arm ;
and as we looked right down upon him, though he was
a good many yards distant on the links, we could see
the moonlight glitter on his eyes.
He opened his lips again, and spoke for some minutes
270
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
on end, in a key so loud that he might have been heard
in every corner of the pavilion, and as far away as the
borders of the wood. It was the same voice that had
already shouted "Tradtiore !" through the shutters of
the dining-room ; this time it made a complete and clear
statement. If the traitor " Oddlestone " were given up,
all others should be spared; if not, no one should escape
to tell the tale.
"Well, Huddlestone, what do you say to that?"
asked Northmour, turning to the bed.
Up to that moment the banker had given no sign of
life, and I, at least, had supposed him to be still lying in