"And so shall I at the appointed time. That cloud of smoke was a fortune. I reached for it, and there was nothing but the air in my hand. It was a woman"s love. For five years I watched it curl and waver. In it I saw many castles and the castles were fair, indeed. I strove to grasp this love; smoke, smoke. Smoke is nothing, given a color. Thus it is with our dreams. If only we might not wake!"
Gretchen"s eyes were following the course of the languid river.
"Once there was a woman I thought I loved; but she would have none of it. She said that the love I gave her was not complete because she did not return it. She brought forth the subject of affinities, and ventured to say that some day I might meet mine. I scoffed inwardly.
I have now found what she said to be true. The love I gave her was the bud; the rose-- Gretchen," said I, rising, "I love you; I am not a hypocrite; I cannot parade my regard for you under the flimsy guise of friendship."
"Go and give the rose to her to whom you gave the bud," said Gretchen.
The half smile struck me as disdainful. "You are a strange wooer."
"I am an honest one." I began plucking at the bark of the tree. "No; I shall let the rose wither and die on the stem. I shall leave to-morrow, Gretchen. I shall feel as Adam did when he went forth from Eden. Whatever your place in this world is it is far above mine. I am, in truth, a penniless adventurer. The gulf between us cannot be bridged."
"No," said Gretchen, the smile leaving her lips, "the gulf cannot be bridged. You are a penniless adventurer, and I am a fugitive from--the law, the King, or what you will. You are a man; man forgets. You have just ill.u.s.trated the fact. His memory and his promises are like the smoke; they fade away but soon. I shall be sorry to have you go, but it is best so."
"Do you love any one else?"
"I do not; I love no one in the sense you mean. It was not written that I should love any man."
"Gretchen, who are you, and what have you done?"
"What have I done? Nothing! Who am I? n.o.body!"
"Is that the only answer you can give?"
"It is the only answer I will give."
There was something in Gretchen"s face which awed me. It was power and resolution, two things man seldom sees in a woman"s face.
"Supposing, Gretchen, that I should take you in my arms and kiss you?"
I was growing reckless because I felt awed, which seems rather a remarkable statement. "I know you only as a barmaid; why, not?"
She never moved to go away. There was no alarm in her eyes, though they narrowed.
"You would never forgive yourself, would you?"
I thought for a moment. "No, Gretchen, I should never forgive myself.
But I know that if I ask you to let me kiss your hand before I go, you will grant so small a favor."
"There," and her hand stretched toward me. "And what will your kiss mean?"
"That I love you, but also respect you, and that I shall go."
"I am sorry."
It was dismal packing. I swore a good deal, softly. Gretchen was not in the dining-room when I came down to supper. It was just as well. I wanted to be cool and collected when I made my final adieu. After supper I lit my pipe (I shall be buried with it!) and went for a jaunt up the road. There was a train at six the next morning. I would leave on that. Why hadn"t I taken Gretchen in my arms and kissed her? It would have been something to remember in the days to come. I was a man, and stronger; she would have been powerless. Perhaps it was the color of her eyes.
I had not gone up the highway more than 100 yards when I saw the lonely figure of a man tramping indirectly toward me and directly toward the inn. Even in the dusk of twilight there was something familiar about that stride. Presently the man lifted up his voice in song. The "second lead," as they say back of the scenes, was about to appear before the audience.
Evidently Hillars had found "Jericho" distasteful and had returned to protest.
CHAPTER XI
"h.e.l.lo, there!" he hailed, seeing but not recognizing me; "have you seen any cavalry pa.s.s this way?"
"No, I have not," I answered in English.
"Eh? What"s that?" not quite believing it was English he had heard.
"I said that no cavalry has pa.s.sed this way since this afternoon. Are they looking for you, you jail-bird in perspective?"
He was near enough now. "Well, I be dam"!" he cried. "What the devil are you doing here, of all places?"
"I was looking for you," said I, locking my arm in his.
"Everybody has been making that their occupation since I left Austria,"
cursing lowly. "I never saw such people."
"What have you been doing this time?"
"Nothing; but I want to do something right away. They have been hounding me all over the kingdom. What have I done? Nothing, absolutely nothing. It makes me hot under the collar. These German blockheads! Do they think to find the Princess Hildegarde by following me around? I"d give as much as they to find her."
"So you haven"t seen anything of her?"
"Not a sign. I came here first, but not a soul was at the castle.
n.o.body knows where she is. I came here this time to throw them off the track, but I failed. I had a close shave this noon. I"ll light out to-morrow. It isn"t safe in these parts. It would be of no use to tell them that I do not know where the princess is. They have connected me with her as they connect one link of a chain to another.
You can kill a German, but you can"t convince him. How long have you been here?"
I did not reply at once. "About ten days."
"Ten days!" he echoed. "What on earth has kept you in this ruin that long?"
"Rest," said I, glibly. "But I am going away to-morrow. We"ll go together. They will not know what to do with two of us."
"Yes, they will. You will be taken for my accomplice. . . . Hark!
What"s that?" holding his hand to his ear. "Horses. Come, I"m not going to take any risk."
So we made a run for the inn. In the twilight haze we could see two hors.e.m.e.n coming along the highway at a brisk gallop.
"By the Lord Harry!" Hillars cried excitedly; "the very men I have been dodging all day. Hurry! Can you put me somewhere for the time being?
The garret; anywhere."
"Come on; there"s a place in the garret where they"ll never find you."
I got him upstairs unseen. If no one but I knew him to be at the inn, so much the better.
"O, say! This"ll smother me," said Dan, as I pushed him into the little room.