Adventure, June 1911 — page 75: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Sir John Hawkwood Jacques—the soldier whom you beat the morning of the mutiny “Ves,” I said. ‘Go on, Princess.” [I knew now that the matter was desperate, but if my wild life had done me no other good it had at least given me the power of meeting danger with coolness, and my voice was calm and unhurried. Bem SHE looked at me in amazement. “Doyou not understand?” she cried. “T have brought you to ruin! The man was eager for revenge. I bribed him with the jewels I wore and a promise of gold in the future, and he helped me.” “T understand,” I answered. ‘‘ What did he do? Tell mein as few words as may be.” .“He has taken off the stones from the mouth of the passage and left it free for my cousin’s men.” she answered. ‘‘He has done what you can not repair by hours of work—and at any instant we may hear the cries of my cousin’s men! They will kill you—they will cut you down before my eyes, or, worse, they will take you back to Verona and end your life by torture! Why do you not curse me, Sir John?” She had taken my wild look for anger, and small blame to her. My calm was gone. Jacques had made an entrance for An- tonio’s men, and had ruined my scheme for the saving of Antonio’s cousin. I could not hold the castle now; the Princess was doomed. “Curse you, child?” I said at last, and my voice had a strange hoarse note that I had never heard in it before, but which I had heard in the voices of men who turned cowards at the pinch. The sound shamed me, and yet I swear I felt no fear for myself and took no thought for my own life. All my mind was set on her. “Why should I curse you? I am trying to devise a way to save you. This is a terrible thing that you have done so innocently! It will bring you great trouble——” “To me?” the Princess cried, raising her face in a bewilderment that drowned her terror, ‘‘What harm can come tome? Are you mad, Sir John? I shall be safe among my own people; it is you that will be in the hands of your foes——”’ “You do not understand,” I said dully. “Can you not see that there were two plots woven about you? The day I carried you from the inn to the castle here, Gianni Po- trero was hard upon my heels. He had been 261 minded to do the same thing—and by the Prince’s orders.”’ — “The Prince’s orders! And why?” she cried, staring. “Because you would not wed him when he wooed you,” I muttered, not thinking of what I said, only wondering how I was to save her. “He planned that you should be carried off by Gianni Potrero, who was to make pretense at holding you for ransom. Later you were to be rescued by the Prince, and he fancied that you would feel much gratitude, and admiration for him and listen more willingly to his suit. I overheard the plot in the palace /oggia, and planned to save you by taking you to the Duke of Padua. Do you understand now?” She did not answer me, and I turned to look at her, struck by her silence. She could have turned no whiter than she was before, but all her strength seemed gone, and she swayed and fell limply into her chair. .She believed me—she took my statement with- out question, though it concerned her own cousin! Even in this desperate pass I felt a reckless triumph in the thought. “Yes,” she_ breathed, struggling hard for composure. “Yes, I understand at last. In an hour I shall be in Antonio della Scala’s hands and at his mercy in this wild, lonely place! What will become of me when he finds that I have no gratitude for him, that IT am not duped, that I fear-and loathe him? Oh, always I have known that he was an evil man, though for the sake of our com- mon blood I have struggled hard to think otherwise! And of late I have had a horror of him; when he wooed me the ghost of dead Bartolomeo rose between us; I fancied I saw blood upon his hands! He has sworn to wed me, and to-night I will be in his power!” She drew herself up with a gesture of des- perate pride. Oh, I am ashamed, Sir John —I have ruined you and brought you to your death, and now I am cold with fear. of my cousin and what may come to me when you are slain!” a Q) IW) SSS} BY THINK asI might, rack my brainsas XA) Vy) much as I chose, I could plan noth- | ' ing save to barricade the room into aM the secret passage opened, and hold it as best I could; and this would prove effica- cious only for a brief time. But now a new thought flashed into my head, and I wheeled to face the Princess with an exclamation of joy. SS F WY Go JOO AMG SoCO)