The Prince of Graustark Part 45

"Impossible!" cried Mrs. Gaston. "Don't be silly. To-morrow will be time enough. Calm yourself, my dear."

"To-morrow at sunrise," cried Bedelia enthusiastically. "It is already planned, Mr. Schmidt. I have engaged an automobile in antic.i.p.ation of this very emergency. The trains are not safe. To- morrow I fly again. This letter is from the little stenographer in Paris. I bribed her--yes, I bribed her with many francs. She is in the offices of the great detective agency-'the Eye that never Sleeps!' I shall give her a great many more of those excellent francs, my friends. She is an honest girl. She did not fail me."

"I don't see how you can say she is honest if she accepted a bribe,"

said Mrs. Gaston severely.

"Pooh!" was Miss Guile's sufficient answer to this. "We cross the Brunig Pa.s.s by motor. That really is like flying, isn't it?"

"To Lucerne?" demanded Robin, still hazily.

"No, no! That would be madness. We shall avoid Lucerne. Miles and miles to the north we will find a safe retreat for a day or two. Then there will be a journey by rail to--to your own city of Vienna, Mr.

Schmidt. You--"

"See here," said Robin flatly, "I don't understand the necessity for all this rus.h.i.+ng about by motor and--"

"Of course you don't," she cried. "You are not being sought by a cruel, inhuman monster of a father who would consign you to a most shudderable fate! You don't have to marry a man whose very name you have hated. You can pick and choose for yourself. And so shall I, for that matter. You--"

"You _adore_ your father," cut in Mrs. Gaston sharply. "I don't think you should speak of him in that--"

"Of course I adore him! He is a dear old bear. But he is a monster, an ogre, a tyrant, a--oh, well, he is everything that's dreadful! You look dreadfully serious, Mr. Schmidt. Do you think that I should submit to my father's demands and marry the man he has chosen for me?"

"I do," said Robin, abruptly and so emphatically that both of his hearers jumped in their seats. He made haste to dissemble. "Of course, I'd much rather have you do that than to break your neck rolling over a precipice or something of the sort in a crazy automobile dash."

Miss Guile recovered her poise with admirable promptness. Her smile was a trifle uncertain, but she had a dependable wit. "If that is all that you are afraid of, I'll promise to save my neck at all costs,"

she said. "I could have many husbands but only one poor little neck."

"You can have only one husband," said he, almost savagely. "By the way, why don't you read the other letter?" He was regarding it with jealous eyes, for she had slipped it, face downward, under the edge of her plate.

"It isn't important," she said, with a quick look into his eyes. She convicted herself in that glance, and knew it on the instant.

Angry with herself, she s.n.a.t.c.hed up the letter and tore it open. Her cheeks were flushed. She read however without betraying any additional evidence of uneasiness or embarra.s.sment. When she had finished, she deliberately folded the sheets and stuck them back into the envelope without comment. One looking over her shoulder as she read, however, might have caught s.n.a.t.c.hes of sentences here and there on the heavily scrawled page. They were such as these: "You had led me to hope,"..."for years I have been your faithful admirer,"... "Nor have I wavered for an instant despite your whimsical att.i.tude,"...

"therefore I felt justified in believing that you were sincere in your determination to defy your father." And others of an even more caustic nature: "You are going to marry this prince after all,"..."

not that you have ever by word or deed bound yourself to me, yet I had every reason to hope,"..." Your father will be pleased to find that you are obedient," ..."I am not mean enough to wish you anything but happiness, although I know you will never achieve it through this sickening surrender to vanity,"... "if I were a prince with a crown and a debt that I couldn't pay,"..."admit that I have had no real chance to win out against such odds," etc.

She faced Robin coolly. "It will be necessary to abandon our little luncheon for to-morrow. I am sorry. Still Mr. Totten informs me that he will be in Vienna shortly. The pleasure is merely postponed."

"Are you in earnest about this trip by motor to-morrow morning?"

demanded Robin darkly. "You surely cannot be--"

"I am very much in earnest," she said decisively. He looked to Mrs.

Gaston for help. That lady placidly shook her head. In fact, she appeared to be rather in favour of the preposterous plan, if one were to judge by the rapt expression on her countenance. "I had the supposedly honest word of these crafty gentlemen that I was not to be interfered with again. They gave me their promise. I shall now give them all the trouble possible."

"But it will be a simple matter for them to find out how and when you left this hotel and to trace you perfectly."

"Don't be too sure of that," she said, exultantly. "I have a trick or two up my sleeve that will baffle them properly, Mr. Schmidt."

"My dear," interposed Mrs. Gaston severely, "do not forget yourself.

It isn't necessary to resort to slang in order--"

"Slang is always necessary," avowed Bedelia, undisturbed. "Goodness, I know I shall not sleep a wink to-night."

"Nor I," said Robin gloomily. Suddenly his face lightened. A wild, reckless gleam shot into his eyes and, to their amazement, he banged the table with his fist. "By Jove, I know what I shall do. I'll go with you!"

"No!" cried Bedelia, aghast. "I--I cannot permit it, Mr. Schmidt.

Can't you understand? You--_you_ are the man with whom I am supposed to be carrying on atrociously. What could be more convicting than to be discovered racing over a mountain-pa.s.s--Oh, it is not to be considered--not for an instant."

"Well, I can tell you flatly just what I intend to do," said he, setting his jaws. "I shall hire another car and keep you in sight every foot of the way. You may be able to elude the greatest detective agency in Europe, but you can't get away from me. I intend to keep you now that I've got you, Bedelia. You can't shake me off.

Where you go, I go."

"Do you mean it?" she cried, a new thrill in her voice. He looked deep into her eyes and read there a message that invited him to perform vast though fool-hardy deeds. Her eyes were suddenly sweet with the love she had never expected to know; her lips trembled with the longing for kisses. "I shall travel far," she murmured. "You may find the task an arduous one--keeping up with me, I mean."

"I am young and strong," he said, "and, if G.o.d is good to me, I shall live for fifty years to come, or even longer. I tingle with joy, Bedelia, when I think of being near you for fifty years or more.

Have--have you thought of it in that light? Have you looked ahead and said to yourself: fifty years have I to live and all of them with--"

"Hus.h.!.+ I was speaking of a week's journey, not of a life's voyage, Mr. Schmidt," she said, her face suffused.

"I was speaking of a honeymoon," said he, and then remembered Mrs.

Gaston. She was leaning back in her chair, smiling benignly. He had an uncomfortable thought: was he walking into a trap set for him by this clever woman? Had she an ulterior motive in advancing his cause?

"But it would be perfectly silly of you to follow me in a car," said Bedelia, trying to regain her lost composure. "Perfectly silly, wouldn't it, Mrs. Gas-ton?"

"Perfectly," said Mrs. Gaston.

"I will promise to see you in Vienna--"

"I intend to see you every day," he declared, "from now till the end of time."

"Really, Mr. Schmidt, you--"

"If there is one thing I despise beyond all reason, Bedelia, it is the name of 'Schmidt'! I wish you wouldn't call me by that name."

"I can't just call you 'Mister,'" she demurred.

"Call me Rex for the present," said he. "I will supply you with a better one later on."

"May I call him Rex?" she inquired of her companion.

"In moderation," said Mrs. Gaston.

"Very well, then, Rex, I have changed my mind. I shall not cross the Brunig by motor since you insist upon risking your neck in pursuit of me. I shall go by train in the morning,--calmly, complacently, stupidly by train. Instead of a thrilling dash for liberty over rocky heights and through perilous gorges, I shall travel like any bourgeoise in a second--or third cla.s.s carriage, and the only thrill I shall have will be when we stop for Baker's chocolate at the top of the Pa.s.s. By that time I expect to be sufficiently hungry to be thrilled even by the sight of a cake of chocolate. Will you travel in the carriage behind me? I fancy it will be safe and convenient and you can't possibly be far from my heels."

"That's a sensible idea," he cried. "And we may be able to accommodate your other pursuers on the same train. What's the sense of leaving them behind? They'd only catch us up in the end, so we might just as well take them along with us."

"No. We will keep well ahead of them. I insist on that. They can't get here before to-morrow afternoon, so we will be far in the lead.

We will be in Vienna in two days. There I shall say good-bye to you, for I am going on beyond. I am going to Graustark, the new Blithers estate. Surely you will not follow me there."

"You are very much mistaken. I shall be there as soon as you and I shall stay just as long, provided Mr. Blithers has no objections,"

said Robin, with more calmness than he had hoped to display in the face of her sudden thrust.