It is not distant now, but ominously near, as may be told by looking into the eyes of the man who sits opposite, and recalling the conversation late exchanged between him and Father Rogier. For in those dark orbs a fierce light scintillates, such as is seen in the eyes of the a.s.sa.s.sin contemplating a.s.sa.s.sination, or the jungle tiger when within springing distance of its prey.
Nothing of all this sees the sot, but lies unconscious, every now and then giving out a snore, regardless of danger, as though everything around were innocent as the pale moonbeams shimmering down upon his cadaverous cheeks.
Possibly he is dreaming, and if so, in all likelihood it is of a grand gas-lighted _salon_, with tables of _tapis vert_, carrying packs of playing cards, dice cubes, and ivory counters. Or the _mise en scene_ of his visionary vagaries may be a drinking saloon, where he carouses with boon companions, their gambling limited to a simple tossing of odd and even, "heads or tails."
But if dreaming at all, it is not of what is near him; else, far gone as he is, he would be aroused--instinctively--to make a last struggle for life. For the thing so near is death.
The fiend who sits regarding him in this helpless condition--as it were holding Lewin Murdock"s life, or the little left of it, in his hand--has unquestionably determined upon taking it. Why he does not do so at once is not because he is restrained by any motive of mercy, or reluctance to the spilling of blood. The heart of the _ci-devant_ poacher, counterfeiter, and cracksman, has been long ago steeled against such silly and sensitive scruples. The postponement of his h.e.l.lish purpose is due to a mere question of convenience. He dislikes the idea of having to trudge over miles of meadow in dripping garments!
True, he could drown the drunken man, and keep himself dry--every st.i.tch. But that would not do; for there will be another coroner"s inquest, at which he will have to be present. He has escaped the two preceding; but at this he will be surely called upon, and as princ.i.p.al witness. Therefore he must be able to say he was wet, and prove it as well. Into the river, then, will he go, along with his victim; though there is no need for his taking the plunge till he has got nearer to Llangorren.
So ingeniously contriving, he sits with arms mechanically working the oars; his eyes upon the doomed man, as those of a cat having a crippled mouse within easy reach of her claws, at any moment to be drawn in and destroyed!
Silently, but rapidly, he rows on, needing no steerer. Between Rugg"s Ferry and Llangorren Court he is as familiar with the river"s channel as a coachman with the carriage-drive to and from his master"s mansion; knows its every curve and crook, every purl and pool, having explored them while paddling his little "truckle." And now, sculling the larger craft, it is all the same. And he pulls on, without once looking over his shoulder; his eyes alone given to what is directly in front of him--Lewin Murdock lying motionless at his feet.
As if himself moved by a sudden impulse--impatience, or the thought it might be as well to have the dangerous work over--he ceases pulling, and acts as though he were about to unship the oars.
But again he seems suddenly to change his intention; on observing a white fleck by the river"s edge, which he knows to be the lime-washed walls of the widow Wingate"s cottage, at the same time remembering that the main road pa.s.ses by it.
What if there be some one on the road, or the river"s bank, and be seen in the act of capsizing his own boat? True, it is after midnight, and not likely any one abroad--even the latest wayfarer. But there might be; and in such clear moonlight his every movement could be made out.
That place will not do for the deed of darkness he is contemplating; and he trembles to think how near he has been to committing himself!
Thus warned to the taking of precautions. .h.i.therto not thought of, he proceeds onward, summoning up before his mind the different turns and reaches of the river, all the while mentally anathematising the moon.
For, besides convenience of place, time begins to press, even trouble him, as he recalls the proverb of the cup and the lip.
He is growing nervously impatient--almost apprehensive of failure, through fear of being seen--when, rounding a bend, he has before him the very thing he is in search of--the place itself. It is a short, straight reach, where the channel is narrow, with high banks on both sides, and trees overhanging, whose shadows, meeting across, shut off the hated light, shrouding the whole water surface in deep obscurity. It is but a little way above the lone farmhouse of Abergann, and the mouth of the brook which there runs in. But Coracle d.i.c.k is not thinking of either--only of the place being appropriate for his diabolical design.
And, becoming satisfied it is so, he delays no longer, but sets about its execution--carrying it out with an adroitness which should fairly ent.i.tle him to the double reward promised by the priest. Having unshipped the oars, he starts to his feet; and mounting upon the thwart, there for a second or two stands poised and balancing. Then, stepping to the side, he sets foot on the gunwale rail with his whole body"s weight borne upon it.
In an instant over goes the boat, careening bottom upwards, and spilling Lewin Murdock, as himself, into the mad, surging river!
The drunken man goes down like a lump of lead; possibly without pain, or the consciousness of being drowned; only supposing it the continuation of his dream!
Satisfied he has gone down, the a.s.sa.s.sin cares not how. He has enough to think of in saving himself, enough to do swimming in his clothes, even to the boots.
He reaches the bank, nevertheless, and climbs up it, exhausted; shivering like a water spaniel, for snow has fallen on Plinlimmon, and its thaw has to do with the freshet in the stream.
But the chill of the Wye"s water is nought compared with that sent through his flesh, to the very marrow of his bones, on discovering he has crawled out upon the spot--the self-same spot--where the waves gave back another body he had consigned to them--that of Mary Morgan!
For a moment he stands horror-struck, with hair on end, the blood curdling in his veins. Then, nerving himself to the effort, he hitches up his dripping trousers, and hurries away from the accursed place--by himself accursed--taking the direction of Llangorren, but giving a wide berth to Abergann.
He has no fear of approaching the former in wet garments; instead, knows that in this guise he will be all the more warmly welcomed--as he is!
Mrs. Murdock sits up late for Lewin--though with little expectation of his coming home. Looking out of the window, in the moonlight she sees a man, who comes striding across the carriage sweep, and up into the portico.
Rushing to the door to receive him, she exclaims, in counterfeit surprise,--
"You, Monsieur Richard! Not my husband!"
When Coracle d.i.c.k has told his sad tale, shaped to suit the circ.u.mstances, her half-hysterical e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n might be supposed a cry of distress. Instead, it is one of ecstatic delight she is unable to restrain at knowing herself now sole owner of the house over her head, and the land for miles around it!
CHAPTER LXVII.
A CHAPTER DIPLOMATIC.
Another day has dawned, another sun set upon Boulogne; and Major Mahon is again in his dining-room, with Captain Ryecroft, his sole guest.
The cloth has been removed, the Major"s favourite after-dinner beverage brought upon the table, and, with punches "brewed" and cigars set alight, they have commenced conversation upon the incidents of the day--those especially relating to Ryecroft"s business in Boulogne.
The Major has had another interview with his sister--a short one, s.n.a.t.c.hed while she was out with her school companions for afternoon promenade. It has added some further particulars to those they had already learnt, both about the English girl confined within the nunnery, and the priest who conveyed her thither. That the latter was Father Rogier is placed beyond a doubt by a minute description of his person given to Miss Mahon, well known to the individual who gave it. To the nuns within that convent the man"s name is familiar--even to his baptismal appellation, Gregoire; for although the Major has p.r.o.nounced all the sacerdotal fraternity alike, in being black, this particular member of it is of a shade deeper than common--a circ.u.mstance of itself going a good way towards his identification. Even within that sacred precinct where he is admitted, a taint attaches to him; though what its nature the young lady has not yet been able to ascertain.
The information thus obtained tallies with the estimate of the priest"s character, already formed; in correspondence, too, with the theory that he is capable of the crime Captain Ryecroft believes him to have abetted, if not actually committed. Nor is it contradicted by the fact of his being a frequent visitor to the nunnery, and a favourite with the administration thereof; indeed, an intimate friend of the Abbess herself. Something more, in a way accounting for all: that the new novice is not the first _agneau d"Angleterre_ he has brought over to Boulogne, and guided into that same fold, more than one of them having ample means, not only to provision themselves, but a surplus for the support of the general sisterhood.
There is no word about any of these English lambs having been other than voluntary additions to the French flock; but a whisper circulates within the convent walls, that Father Rogier"s latest contribution is a recusant, and if she ever becomes a nun, it will be a _forced_ one; that the thing is _contre coeur_--in short, she protests against it.
Jack Wingate can well believe that; still under full conviction that "Soeur Marie" is Mary Morgan; and, despite all its grotesque strangeness and wild improbability, Captain Ryecroft has pretty nearly come to the same conclusion; while the Major, with less knowledge of antecedent circ.u.mstances, but more of nunneries, never much doubted it.
"About the best way to get the girl out. What"s your idea, Mahon?"
Ryecroft asks the question in no careless or indifferent way; on the contrary, with a feeling earnestness. For, although the daughter of the Wyeside farmer is nought to him, the Wye waterman is; and he has determined on seeing the latter through--to the end of the mysterious affair. In difficulties Jack Wingate has stood by him, and he will stand by Jack, _coute-que-coute_. Besides, figuratively speaking, they are still in the same boat. For if Wingate"s dead sweetheart, so strangely returned to life, can be also restored to liberty, the chances are she may be the very one wanted to throw light on the other and, alas! surer death. Therefore, Captain Ryecroft is not all unselfish in backing up his boatman; nor, as he puts the question, being anxious about the answer.
"We"ll have to use strategy," returns the Major; not immediately, but after taking a grand gulp out of his tumbler, and a vigorous draw at his _regalia_.
"But why should we?" impatiently demands the Captain. "If the girl have been forced in there, and"s kept against her will--which, by all the probabilities, she is--surely she can be got out, on demand being made by her friends?"
"That"s just what isn"t sure--though the demand were made by her own mother, with the father to back it. You forget, old fellow, that you"re in France, not England."
"But there"s a British Consul in Boulogne."
"Ay, and a British Foreign Minister, who gives that Consul his instructions; with some queer ideas besides, neither creditable to himself nor his country. I"m speaking of that jaunty diplomat--the "judicious bottle-holder," who is accustomed to cajole the British public with his blarney about _civis Roma.n.u.s sum_."
"True; but does that bear upon our affair?"
"It does--almost directly."
"In what way? I do not comprehend."
"Because you"re not up to what"s pa.s.sing over here--I mean at headquarters--the Tuilleries, or St. Cloud, if you prefer it. There the man--if man he can be called--is ruled by the woman; she in her turn the devoted partisan of Pio Nono and the unprincipled Antonelli."
"I can understand all that; still, I don"t quite see its application, or how the English Foreign Minister can be interested in those you allude to!"
"I do. But for him, not one of the four worthies spoken of would be figuring as they are. In all probability France would still be a republic instead of an empire, wicked as the world ever saw; and Rome another republic--it may be all Italy--with either Mazzini or Garibaldi at its head. For, certain as you sit there, old boy, it was the judicious bottle-holder who hoisted Nap into an imperial throne, over that Presidential chair, so ungratefully spurned--scurvily kicked behind after it had served his purpose. A fact of which the English people appear to be yet in purblind ignorance! as they are of another, equally notable, and alike misunderstood: that it was this same _civis Roma.n.u.s sum_ who restored old Pio to his apostolic chair; those red-breeched ruffians, the Zouaves, being but so much dust thrown into people"s eyes--a bone to keep the British bull-dog quiet. He would have growled then, and will yet, when he comes to understand all these transactions; when the cloak of that scoundrelly diplomacy which screens them has rotted into shreds, letting the light of true history shine upon them."