A Queen's Error Part 24

"I may as well tell you," he said, "that you have never been left unwatched since you left Bath."

"You seem to know my movements pretty well yourself," I said, in an astonished tone.

"Pretty well," he answered, with another smile.

I had no sooner drawn the packet from my pocket than he s.n.a.t.c.hed it unceremoniously from my hands and walked with it towards the window.

"Don't move," he cried to me, "until I tell you _or_ I shall fire. I must verify the contents before I leave you."

He still held the pistol in my direction and I have no doubt would have fired had I made the slightest move towards him, which I could not have done without making some noise, for about six paces divided us.

I stood still and regarded him as he tore off the covering with his teeth.

He was so thoroughly engrossed with the task that he did not hear a slight rustling sound which caused me to turn my head towards the door which led to the long range of what appeared to be gla.s.s houses, and which was just open a little. What I saw there made me turn cold from head to foot.

Gliding through the slightly open door, and pus.h.i.+ng it farther open as it came with its immense bulk, was a huge black and yellow snake!

It was moving in the direction of the robber, who, entirely engrossed with the packet from which he had torn the wrapper, was totally oblivious of his position. The snake had possibly been attracted by the tearing noise which he had made as he rent the linen envelope with his teeth.

I had almost cried aloud to warn him, when, I checked myself. The man had come to murder me; he must take his chance. He had turned to me, satisfied with his scrutiny of the casket which he now held in his hand, the box which contained it having been thrown on the floor, when I saw the snake draw itself into a great coil and raise its head; then, just as his lips were opening to speak to me, the great reptile made a spring, and in an instant coiled itself tight round him, the tail whipping close like a steel wire. He gave a great cry and dropped the casket and the revolver immediately. Within a second or two I had them in my hands, and at the same moment the door opened and Don Juan d'Alta entered.

He rapped out a great Spanish oath, and a good many more words in the same language; then he turned to me.

"Who is this man?" he asked.

"That is one of the men," I answered at once, "who attacked the train.

He entered this room a few minutes after you left me with the intention of robbing or murdering me."

"Then he seems to have got his deserts," replied my host, laughing. He came quite close to me and whispered in my ear, "The snake is quite harmless, but it will give him a fright and maybe break a rib or two if it squeezes hard."

The old man appeared to regard it as a huge joke, but kept a solemn face.

It appeared to be going beyond a joke to break his ribs, and I said so in a whisper.

"He deserves it," was the reply.

Meanwhile, the robber was becoming absolutely livid with fear, and began to supplicate Don Juan in Spanish.

Finding this of no avail, he turned to me.

"Have mercy, Senor," he cried piteously, "and help me to free myself from this reptile. It is crus.h.i.+ng me to death."

The horrible thing with wide-open jaws was breathing in his face, and its fetid breath seemed turning him sick.

Don Juan laughed aloud, rather heartlessly it seemed to me, but the Spanish nature is a cruel one to its enemies.

"I know the man," he said, "and I cannot understand what has brought him into this _galere_. Let us question him?"

I could not quite see that a man enveloped in the embrace of a boa-constrictor, even though the reptile might be tame and harmless, would be a person likely to give either correct or coherent answers to questions, but I acquiesced in Don Juan d'Alta's suggestion that we should try and get some information out of him.

He commenced at once; speaking in English for my benefit.

"What induced you and your band to attack the train yesterday?" was his first question.

"I don't know," was the answer.

"That is a lie," responded Don Juan, speaking quite coolly. "If you wish to get out of the coils of that snake, you must speak the truth.

"Now come, I know of course who you are, I know everybody in Valoro, and especially the members of the Carlotta Society, which is avowedly Royalist and opposed to the present Government like myself. You are a member of that Society; you are one of its leaders. I suggest to you that the so-called band of robbers who attacked the train last night were simply members of the Carlotta Society?"

"I admit," gasped the man, trying with all his force to keep the boa-constrictor's head away from his face, "that I am a leader of the Carlotta Society, but I cannot disclose its secrets even to you."

"You must speak, Lopes," Don Juan said, "or you will not get free.

Remember that I am a member of the Carlotta Society myself, though an honorary one on account of my age. You will never get back to your desk in the bank of Valoro if you don't speak."

"It is inhuman!" cried the man desperately, "it is vile torture!"

"It is also inhuman," added Don Juan sententiously, "to raid trains, and to threaten murder as you have done in this room. Your band too was none too scrupulous in hanging Jimenez the half-breed, though he was an informer. Tell me now, why did you hold up the train? why did you try to rob this English gentleman?"

"It was done," answered the man stertorously, for he was becoming weak, "it was done on urgent orders from Europe from our head."

Don Juan started, and going close whispered a name in his ear.

"Yes," replied Lopes faintly, but I heard the words, "from the Duke himself."

As Don Juan turned from him with a perplexed look, his eye caught the casket which I still held in my hand; he lost colour and became very agitated as he saw it.

"Where did you get that from?" he asked abruptly, seizing my hand.

I opened my hand and placed the casket in his.

"From the Baroness d'Altenberg," I replied. "I made the journey from Europe to give it to you. My task is accomplished."

The casket had reached its destination.

CHAPTER XIV

THE CASKET

"Now there are two favours I wish to ask you, Don Juan," I said, as he stood with the precious casket in his hands, "the first is to put that casket in a place of safety; the second to release this poor wretch from the snake."

He awoke from a fit of deep meditation with a start.