The Passenger from Calais Part 27

"At him! Give it him! Throw him out!" cried Ralph pa.s.sionately. But even as he spoke his voice weakened, he halted abruptly; his hands went up into the air, his body swayed to and fro, his strength left him completely, and he fell to the ground in sudden and complete collapse. When they picked him up, there was froth mixed with blood upon his lips, he breathed once or twice heavily, stertorously, and then with one long-drawn gasp died in the arms of his two men.

It was an apoplectic seizure, the doctors told us later, brought on by excessive nervous irritation of the brain.

Here was a sudden and unexpected _denouement_, a terribly dramatic end to our troubles if we could but clear up the horrible uncertainty remaining.

What had become of my sister and little Ralph?

While the servants of the hotel attended to the stricken man, Basil Annesley plied the detectives with eager questions. He urged them to tell all they knew; it should be made worth their while; they no longer owed allegiance to their late employer. He entreated them to withhold nothing. Where and how had Lord Blackadder met Henriette?

What had he done with her? Where was she now?

We could get nothing out of these men; they refused to answer our questions from sheer mulish obstinacy, as we thought at first, but we saw at length that they did not understand us. What were we driving at? They a.s.sured us they had seen no lady, nor had the unfortunate peer accosted any one, or interfered with any one on his way between the two hotels. He had come straight from the Villa Shereef to the Hotel Atlas, racing down at a run, pausing nowhere, addressing no one on the road.

If not Lord Blackadder, what then? What could have happened to Henriette? Tangier was a wild place enough, but who would interfere with an English woman in broad daylight accompanied by her servant, by an escort, her attendant Moorish guide? Full of anxiety, Basil called for a horse, and was about to ride off to inst.i.tute a hue and cry, when my sister appeared in person upon the scene.

"Getting anxious about me?" she asked, with careless, almost childish gaiety. "I am awfully late, but I have had such an extraordinary adventure. Why, how serious you look! Not on my account, surely?"

I took her aside, and in a few words told her of the terrible catastrophe that had just occurred, and for a time she was silent and seemed quite overcome.

"It's too shocking, of course, to happen in this awful way. But really, I cannot be very sorry except for one thing--that now he will never know."

"Know what, Henriette? Have you taken leave of your senses?"

"Know that I have discovered the whole plot of which I was the victim. My dear, I have found Susan Bruel, and she has made a full confession. They were bribed to go away, and they have been here hiding in Tangier."

"Go on, go on. Tell me, please, all about it."

"You must know we went out, the three of us, on our donkeys, and the fancy seized me to explore some of the dark, narrow streets where the houses all but join overhead. I got quite frightened at last. I was nearly suffocated for want of air. I could not even see the sky, and at last desired Achmet to get me out into the open, anywhere. After one or two sharp turns, we emerged upon a sort of plateau or terrace high above the sea, and in full view of it.

"There was a small hotel in front of it, and above the door was the name of the proprietor, would you believe it, Domenico Bruel!

"It was the name of Susan's husband, and no doubt Susan was there. I could not quite make up my mind how I should act. I thought of sending Achmet back for you or the Colonel, but I could not bear parting with him. Then, while I was still hesitating, Susan herself came out and rushed across to where I was, with her hands outstretched and fairly beside herself, laughing and crying by turns.

"'Oh, my lady! It _is_ you, then? What shall I say to you? How can I tell you?' she began, quite hysterically. 'We behaved most disgracefully, most wickedly, but indeed it was Domenico's doing. He insisted they offered us such a large sum, enough to make us rich for life, and so we consented to come away here. I have never had one happy moment since. Can you forgive me?'

"All this she poured forth, and much more of the same sort. I could see she was truly sorry, and that it had not been entirely her fault.

Besides, I began to hope already that, how we had found her, we might get the case reopened, and that wicked order reversed. It will be put right now, now that Ralph can no longer oppose it."

I bowed my head silently, thankful and deeply impressed with the strange turn taken by events and the sudden light let in upon the darkness that had surrounded us.

The rest of the adventures that began in the sleeping-car between Calais and Basle, and came abruptly to an end on the North African sh.o.r.e, may soon be told. Our first act was to return to England at the very earliest opportunity, and we embarked that evening on a Forwood steamer direct for London, which port we reached in less than five days.

Town was empty, and we did not linger there. Nothing could be done in the Courts, as it was the legal vacation, but Henriette's solicitors arranged to send out a commission to take the Bruels' evidence at Tangier, and to bring the matter before The President at the earliest opportunity.

As for ourselves, I persuaded Henriette to take a cottage at Marlow on the Upper Thames, where Colonel Annesley was a constant guest, and Charlie Forrester. We four pa.s.sed many idle halcyon days on the quiet river, far from the noise of trains, and content to leave Bradshaw in the bottom of the travelling-bag, where it had been thrown at the end of our feverish wanderings.

Once again we had recourse to it, however, when we started on our honeymoon, Basil and I. Once more we found ourselves at Calais with Philpotts, but no enc.u.mbrances, bound on a second, a far happier, and much less eventful journey by the Engadine express.

THE END.