"What is it, sir? A rug?"
"Rug! Great Scott, man, don"t you know a woman"s hair when you see it?"
"I"ve never--er--never seen it--you might say--just like that. Is it _hair_?"
"It is. You _do_ see it, don"t you?"
"How did it get there?"
"Good! Now I know I"m not dreaming. Come! There"s no time to be lost.
We may be able to get up there before she hears us!"
I was through the window and half way across the room before his well-meant protest checked me.
"For heaven"s sake, Mr. Smart, don"t be too hasty. We can"t rush in upon a woman unexpectedly like this. Who knows? She may be entirely--"
He caught himself up sharply, blinked, and then rounded out his sentence in safety with the word "deshabille."
I was not to be turned aside by drivel of that sort; so, with a scornful laugh, I hurried on and was soon in the courtyard, surrounded by at least a score of persons who madly inquired where the fire was, and wanted to help me to put it out. At last we managed to get them back at their work, and I instructed old Conrad to have the tallest ladder brought to me at once.
"There is no such thing about the castle," he announced blandly, puffing away at his enormous pipe. His wife shook her head in perfect serenity.
Somewhat dashed, I looked about me in quest of proof that they were lying to me. There was no sign of anything that even resembled a ladder.
"Where are your sons?" I demanded.
The old couple held up their hands in great distress.
"Herr Britton has them working their souls out, turning a windla.s.s outside the gates--ach, that terrible invention of his!" groaned old Conrad. "My poor sons are faint with fatigue, mein herr. You should see them perspire,--and hear them pant for breath."
"It is like the blowing of the forge bellows," cried his wife. "My poor little boys!"
"Fetch them at once Conrad," said I, cudgelling my brain for a means to surmount a present difficulty, and but very slightly interested in Britton"s n.o.ble contraption.
The brothers soon appeared and, as if to give the lie to their fond parents, puffed complacently at their pipes and yawned as if but recently aroused from a nap. Their sleeves were rolled up and I marvelled at the size of their arms.
"Is Britton dead?" I cried, suddenly cold with the fear that they had mutinied against this brusque English overlord.
They smiled. "He is waiting to be pulled up again, sir," said Max. "We left him at the bottom when you sent for us. It is for us to obey."
Of course, everything had to wait while my obedient va.s.sals went forth and reeled the discomforted Britton to the top of the steep. He sputtered considerably until he saw me laughing at him. Instantly he was a valet once more, no longer a crabbed genius.
I had thought of a plan, only to discard it on measuring with my eye the distance from the ground to the lowest window in the east wing, second floor back. Even by standing on the shoulders of Rudolph, who was six feet five, I would still find myself at least ten feet short of the window ledge. Happily a new idea struck me almost at once.
In a jiffy, half a dozen carpenters were at work constructing a substantial ladder out of scantlings, while I stood over them in serene command of the situation.
The Schmicks segregated themselves and looked on, regarding the window with sly, furtive glances in which there was a distinct note of uneasiness.
At last the ladder was complete. Resolutely I mounted to the top and peered through the sashless window. It was quite black and repelling beyond. Instructing Britton and the two brothers to follow me in turn, I clambered over the wide stone sill and lowered myself gingerly to the floor.
I will not take up the time or the s.p.a.ce to relate my experiences on this first fruitless visit to the east wing of my abiding place. Suffice to say, we got as far as the top of the stairs in the vast middle corridor after stumbling through a series of dim, damp rooms, and then found our way effectually blocked by a stout door which was not only locked and bolted, but bore a most startling admonition to would-be trespa.s.sers.
Pinned to one of the panels there was a dainty bit of white note-paper, with these satiric words written across its surface in a bold, feminine hand:
"_Please keep out. This is private property._"
Most property owners no doubt would have been incensed by this calm defiance on the part of a squatter, either male or female, but not I.
The very impudence of the usurper appealed to me. What could be more delicious than her serene courage in dispossessing me, with the stroke of a pen, of at least two-thirds of my domicile, and what more exciting than the thought of waging war against her in the effort to regain possession of it? Really it was quite glorious! Here was a happy, enchanting bit of feudalism that stirred my romantic soul to its very depths. I was being defied by a woman--an amazon! Even my grasping imagination could not have asked for more substantial returns than this. To put her to rout! To storm the castle! To make her captive and chuck her into my dungeon! Splendid!
We returned to the courtyard and held a counsel of war. I put all of the Schmicks on the grill, but they stubbornly disclaimed all interest in or knowledge of the extraordinary occupant of the east wing.
"We can smoke her out, sir," said Britton.
I could scarcely believe my ears.
"Britton," said I severely, "you are a brute. I am surprised. You forget there is an innocent babe--maybe a collection of them--over there. And a dog. We shan"t do anything heathenish, Britton. Please bear that in mind. There is but one way: we must storm the place. I will not be defied to my very nose."
I felt it to see if it was not a little out of joint. "It is a good nose."
"It is, sir," said Britton, and p.o.o.pend.y.k.e, in a perfect ecstasy of loyalty, shouted: "Long live your nose, sir!"
My German va.s.sals waved their hats, perceiving that a demonstration was required without in the least knowing what it was about.
"To-night we"ll plan our campaign," said I, and then returned in some haste to my balcony. The mists of the waning day were rising from the valley below. The smell of rain was in the air. I looked in vain for the lady"s tresses. They were gone. The sun was also gone. His work for the day was done. I wondered whether she was putting up her hair with her own fair hands or was there a lady"s maid in her menage.
p.o.o.pend.y.k.e and I dined in solemn grandeur in the great banquet hall, attended by the clumsy Max.
"Mr. p.o.o.pend.y.k.e," said I, after Max had pa.s.sed me the fish for the second time on my right side--and both times across my shoulder,--"we must engage a butler and a footman to-morrow. Likewise a chef. This is too much."
"Might I suggest that we also engage a chambermaid? The beds are very poorly--"
I held up my hand, smiling confidently.
"We may capture a very competent chambermaid before the beds are made up again," I said, with meaning.
"She doesn"t write like a chambermaid," he reminded me. Whereupon we fell to studying the very aristocratic chirography employed by my neighbour in barring me from my own possessions.
After the very worst meal that Frau Schmick had ever cooked, and the last one that Max under any circ.u.mstance would be permitted to serve, I took myself off once more to the enchanted balcony. I was full of the fever of romance. A perfect avalanche of situations had been tumbling through my brain for hours, and, being a provident sort of chap in my own way, I decided to jot them down on a pad of paper before they quite escaped me or were submerged by others.
The night was very black and tragic, swift storm clouds having raced up to cover the moon and stars. With a radiant lanthorn in the window behind me, I sat down with my pad and my pipe and my pencil. The storm was not far away. I saw that it would soon be booming about my stronghold, and realised that my fancy would have to work faster than it had ever worked before if half that I had in mind was to be accomplished. Why I should have courted a broken evening on the exposed balcony, instead of beginning my labours in my study, remains an unrevealed mystery unless we charge it to the account of a much-abused eccentricity attributed to genius and which usually turns out to be arrant stupidity.
I have no patience with the so-called eccentricity of genius. It is merely an excuse for unkempt hair, dirty finger-nails, unpolished boots, open placquets, bad manners and a tendency to forget pecuniary obligations, to say nothing of such trifles as besottednesss, vulgarity and the superior knack of knowing how to avoid making suitable provision for one"s wife and children. All the shabby short-comings in the character of an author, artist or actor are blithely charged to genius, and we are content to let it go at that for fear that other people may think we don"t know any better. As for myself, I may be foolish and inconsequential, but heaven will bear witness that I am not mean enough to call myself a genius.
So we will call it stupidity that put me where I might be rained upon at any moment, or permanently interrupted by a bolt of lightning.
(There were low mutterings of thunder behind the hills, and faint flashes as if a monstrous giant had paused to light his pipe on the evil, wind-swept peaks of the Caucasus mountains.)
I was scribbling away in serene contempt for the physical world, when there came to my ears a sound that gave me a greater shock than any streak of lightning could have produced and yet left sufficient life in me to appreciate the sensation of being electrified.
A woman"s voice, speaking to me out of the darkness and from some point quite near at hand! Indeed, I could have sworn it was almost at my elbow; she might have been peering over my shoulder to read my thoughts.