Читать книгу A Gilded Serpent - James Edward Muddock - Страница 10

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IT was clear to those who were most interested in and most intimate with Jim Spedwick that his attachment to Mr. Lacey's daughter, and his assault upon his rival, had involved him in a situation of extreme difficulty. How he was going to find his way out of it was by no means clear. He was as much in a tangle as was Pym himself; but unlike Pym he was a fair fighter, and not the man to avail himself of any mean advantage. He would checkmate his rival if he could, but he would checkmate him fairly. Necessarily his parents were painfully anxious about him, and urged with the eloquence of affection the advisability of his immediate return to Jamaica. But the lad could not make up his mind to do that. If he went away he gave the enemy a fair field. And though he had Norah's assurance that she would remain faithful to him, it would be expecting too much of human nature to suppose that, unsupported by his presence, she would be strong enough to resist the forces arrayed against her. Besides, if he left the country there was little hope of his being able to return for a longtime. That was self-evident, unless he chose to mortally offended his uncle. So far his uncle has shown him much kindness, but it would be unwise to tax his patience too far.

As Jim studied his position the more desperate did he become. The mere thought of giving up his claim to Norah was maddening. The only course open to him, therefore, was to take a bold plunge and clandestinely marry the girl. It would of necessity have to be a runaway match. The chances of his success would depend upon many things, though with Norah's hearty co-operation he might succeed. But having to regard the way in which she was watched her flight would not be easy. With his father he discussed the plan, and Spedwick senior was so anxious to outwit his old enemy Lacey that he encouraged his son, promising to place the sum of fifty guineas at his disposal; and as it was highly probable, he suggested, that Nora herself would be able to furnish something towards the sinews of war, the financial problem was practically solved. The next step was to arrange the details of the elopement. The vigilant enemy would have to be circumvented—not an easy matter, but not impossible of accomplishment. There was a traitor in the camp, however, but quite unsuspected by Jim. This traitor was Ralph Tinker. The two young men had been acquainted for many years, for they were both natives of the town. In Jim's emergency and trouble Tinker tendered his sympathy, and made a fine pretence of friendship, but as the reader will already have gathered he had sold himself to the enemy, and with diabolical wickedness was plotting Spedwick's doom. The unprincipled rascal had an esurient desire for riches, and he was prepared to go to great lengths, to stoop to any means almost, so long as he could gratify his greed without openly compromising himself.

At length the challenge from Randolph Pym reached Jim, and Tinker, being in the confidence of each party, had so arranged matters that he was with Jim at the Half Moon inn when the challenge was brought. The emissary who was charged the important duty of conveying the challenge was a haughty youth named Charles Lachemal, whose father was a small landed proprietor in a neighbouring county. Charles and Randolph were bosom friends.

Charles Lachemal made known that his dear friend, the Hon. Randolph Pym, had come to the conclusion that the gross insult to which he had been subjected and the blow to his pride and dignity could only be atoned for with blood. He therefore condescended to fight his plebeian rival with pistols. The place of meeting to be the north side of the Black Lake in the Black Lake Copse, as there would be no danger of their being disturbed there. It was private property and very secluded. The details of the meeting could be arranged by the seconds.

As Jim had horsewhipped Pym because he had denied him the satisfaction which a gentleman had the right to demand, when he considered that his honour had been insulted, he could not refuse the challenge. In accordance with the wicked scheme he had devised Ralph Tinker offered his services to Jim, who promptly sent back word to his opponent that he would meet him when and where he desired. Jim did not attempt to minimize the gravity of his position. It wasn't that he had the slightest fear of Pym. It was war to the knife, he knew that. The circumstances which had set him and his antagonist in opposition were of a nature to create the bitterest hatred. Rivalry on the part of two men for the hand of one woman has the most potent power for evil; it is capable of rendering men absolutely pitiless, and indifferent alike to honour and justice. It has been so since man came into the world. It will continue to the end of time, for though the world changes, human nature remains the same. Pym knew that as long as Jim remained in Ministerfield he had a rival whose influence was very great, and who might, unless he was rendered powerless, outwit him. Therefore it was obvious to Jim that when he faced his rival, each with a lethal weapon in hand, it would truly be a matter of life and death. If he succeeded in wounding his enemy there would be after trouble, and if he killed him he would have to face the terrors of the law. The law winked at duelling unless a combatant was killed. But if the slayer was rich and had influence he could get off with a fine.

In discussing the matter with Tinker, whose treachery he never once suspected, he said incidentally—

"You know all this trouble and ill-feeling is due to the obstinacy and obtuseness of Mr. Lacey, who cannot or will not see that he is trying to force his daughter into an odious marriage."

"Why don't you talk with the old man and try and overcome his prejudices?" suggested Jim insidiously.

"Pooh!" exclaimed Jim. "I might as well try to prevail upon the wind to cease blowing at my bidding. In this matter Mr. Lacey is adamant."

"But why?"

"My good fellow, need you ask? I am poor and without influence. Pym is the son of a baronet, and has excellent prospects."

"Then if Pym is the only obstacle between you and the lady you covet, you must kill him—or lose your bride."

"Yes, it will be a serious question of one or the other being killed, and I shall take precious good care that I am not the one if I can possibly help it, but even if I annihilate my enemy Pym, I have still got Mr. Lacey to reckon with."

"Remove him then," muttered Tinker.

"How?"

"Kill him," replied Tinker with a laugh, as though he wished to imply that his suggestion must not be taken seriously; that it was a joke, a grim joke truly, but nevertheless a joke.

"You shouldn't make such a suggestion as that, even in joke," said Jim reprovingly and severely. "Mr. Lacey is a decided obstacle to my marriage with his daughter, but I have not sunk so low as to become an assassin. God forbid that I should entertain such a thought for a moment."

"Why, of course you wouldn't. You don't suppose that I meant what I said, do you?" replied Tinker, with an assumption of indignation. "You take me too seriously."

Jim had not attached any serious importance to the remark, and so he let the subject drop and discussed the details of the coming duel with his supposed friend; and leaving him to settle all the preliminaries he resolved in his own mind to have an interview with Norah if it were at all possible, but that thought he wisely kept to himself. The difficulties and risks were great that he knew, but he taxed his powers of invention to discover some way of overcoming them, though after long pondering he could arrive at no other conclusion than that old Betty was was the most reliable medium of communication. She was in full sympathy with him, and that was a great deal. So he entrusted her with a brief note in which he asked Norah to try and see him, and he also furnished Betty with a guinea which was to be used as a bribe if she deemed it necessary.

Betty started on her mission and conducted it to a successful issue, though probably she would have failed but for a lucky chance. She fell in with a farmer's wife with whom she had a casual acquaintance. The woman was on her way to Runnell Hall with a large basket of new-laid eggs. She visited the Hall once a week to convey eggs and poultry, and as she made a long journey she was invariably invited to partake of some refreshment in the kitchen. The farmer's wife, after being moved by a pathetic story of young lovers cruelly kept apart by a stern father, was induced to undertake the delivery of the note, and in the event of her success and bringing back a reply she was to receive a guinea. The rewards was so liberal that the woman vowed she would gain it. That afternoon as she was on her way back from the Hall she met Betty at an appointed spot and placed a note for Jim in her hand. She had managed to get Jim's letter conveyed to Norah and there was the reply. So she received her reward and was happy. In the note Norah gave Jim a rendezvous on the morrow, the place being a fernery in a secluded part of Runnell Hall grounds, which he could reach by roundabout way through some meadows and by climbing a fence.

The tryst was duly kept. The meeting was a very pathetic one, and necessarily it had to be very brief. Jim felt it to be his duty to tell Norah that on the following day he was to fight a duel with his rival. The poor girl was overcome with horror at the bare thought of it, and pleaded to him to refuse to meet Pym. She renewed her vows to be faithful to him, and declared that she was ready to elope with him at any moment.

"I will escape from the house to-night," she said, "and fly with you to Scotland if you like. Flight is our only hope, for my father is inflexible. He seems to think I am a mere child and have no right to any views of my own. But, Jim dear, I will die rather than marry Mr. Pym. I positively loathe him."

Spedwick was on the horns of a dilemma. For one thing there was hardly time enough to make the necessary preparations for flight that night, and the plan might be frustrated, in which case he was sure his chance would be gone for ever. For another thing, if he failed to meet Pym in accordance with the challenge he would be branded as a coward. That thought had a very weighty influence with him; he was not a coward, and shrank with peculiar sensitiveness at the bare idea of anything calculated to render him liable to a charge of cowardice. He made this clear to Norah, and he pointed out the difficulties that lay in the way of immediate flight. Her distress was pitiable. She felt that it was not her place to urge flight if he did not approve of it. She knew that it was a step beset with difficulties. Her absence at night would be sure to be known, and pursuit would follow immediately. It was a far cry to Gretna Green, and it was hardly to be hoped that she and her lover could reach there without being overtaken, unless they had a very long start. The poor girl was broken-hearted, and with plaintive appeal she exclaimed—

"Jim, can nothing be done? It does seem to me so hard, so cruel and unnatural that I should be kept from the man I love, and compelled to accept the addresses of a man I hate. Both my mother and father tell me I don't know my own mind. They say all sorts of dreadful things about you and your people, and warn me against you, as if you desired to destroy me body and soul."

Jim was no less depressed, no less sorrow-stricken than she was. He saw things at that moment "through a glass darkly," and difficulties were exaggerated and distorted. In human affairs a single word, a trifling act often changes the whole current of one's life. It was to be so in his case. His fate trembled in the balance, and the shadows were closing around him.

"Norah, my darling," he answered, in a tone which too surely betrayed his emotion, "the die is cast, and I must abide by it. I cannot avoid meeting Pym—"

"Oh, yes you can," she said, as shudderingly she threw her arms round his neck. "You must not, you shall not fight him. For my sake, don't."

"For your sake, Norah, I would sacrifice my life; but in this instance I must give Pym the satisfaction he demands. He insulted me. I challenged him. He refused to meet me because, as he urged, my social position was inferior to his. I then horsewhipped him publicly, and now that he challenged me I dare not refuse him."

"So be it," said Norah with a bitterness she never before shown. "It is horrible to contemplate what the consequences may be. My feelings are not worth taking into consideration. Do as you will, and God pity me. Farewell."

Before he could move a hand or utter a word she had fled, leaving him standing there dumbfounded.