"Bother!"
"Nay," said the persistent robber, "if you will not hear me speak, hear me sing."
And then, being an admirable mimic, he imitated her strut before the looking-gla.s.s, and general coquettish behaviour in the dressing-room at the villa, while he sang in a falsetto voice--
"Sweet Marietta, Rarely has been A sweeter or better Face or form seen.
Dear Marietta!"
"Hah!" cried the girl, starting back as if she had been shot.
Her first impulse was to faint.
But as soon as she gained the cooler air without, she recovered, and collecting her senses a little, she gave a pretty shrewd guess at the truth.
She was silly, yet not a bad-natured girl.
She saw her duty plainly enough.
She must make herself known at once to her master.
Harkaway was close at hand, discussing the robbery still with Jefferson.
The whole of this party were of course known to Marietta; so she made straight up to Harkaway, and said hurriedly--
"Have that man seized, sir--see, that one who is following me. I am Marietta. He has just said something to me which convinces me that he was hiding in the villa to-night."
"Hullo!" exclaimed Harkaway, not a little startled at this sudden address; "why, what in Heaven"s name--"
"Lose no time," interrupted Marietta eagerly, "or he will go--see, he has taken the alarm."
"The girl"s right," said Jefferson, striding off after Mathias.
The latter now began to perceive that he had made a false step, and he hurried through the crowded room towards the door, and was just pa.s.sing out, when a dwarfed and ugly figure leaped upon him.
So sudden was the attack that Mathias was capsized, and together they rolled upon the floor.
"Let go!" said the Greek fiercely, "or I"ll--"
"Not me!" exclaimed Magog Brand--for he was the Greek"s a.s.sailant. "I know you, my yellow-feathered devil, even though you have shed your skin!"
"Let go," hissed the Greek brigand, with compressed lips, "or I"ll have your life!"
"I"ll not let go," cried the brave little Brand. "I have got you, villain, and will hold you. Ah!"
Mathias scrambled up, and tried to fly, but he was met with a blow from Jefferson"s fist which might have felled an ox in the shambles.
He dropped lifeless on the ground beside Magog,
And then a sudden outcry arose, for it was found that in that brief struggle poor Magog Brand had been cruelly used.
A long-bladed poignard was buried up to the hilt in his side.
Poor Brand.
Death must have been almost instantaneous.
They tore the mask from Mathias" face, and thereupon an agent of the secret police stepped forward and made known who it was.
"This is the notorious Mathias," he said. "One of the most daring of the brigands hereabouts; we have been wanting him badly for some time past"
"You have got him," said Harkaway, "but oh!" he added, glancing at the lifeless form of Magog Brand, "at what a price for us!"
At this juncture Harvey reached the spot, and taking in the whole scene at a glance, he dropped on his knees beside the body of Magog Brand, where Jefferson was already kneeling, seemingly half stupefied by the catastrophe.
"He has fainted," said he to Harvey.
Harvey shook his head mournfully.
"He"ll never faint again, Jefferson."
"What?"
"Never."
"You surely--no, no, Brand, dear old boy, look up."
He faltered and broke down.
"Yes, Jefferson," said Harvey in deep emotion. "Poor Magog Brand is at the end of his troubles and pleasures alike--he is dead!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""MURDER! ABDUCTION! SHOUTED MOLE HUNSTON IS HERE"--ADV IN GREECE VOL II PAGE 39.]
CHAPTER V.
THE PURSUIT OF THE BRIGANDS--THE BATTLE--VARYING FORTUNES--HOW HUNSTON AND TORO WERE LAID BY THE HEELS.
Consternation was upon every face.
The catastrophe was so sudden and unlocked for, that the people about were half stupefied with fear.
On one side lay poor Magog Brand, lately so full of life and animation.
On the other was his a.s.sa.s.sin, felled by the dead man"s best friend, the doughty Jefferson, and with scarcely more life in him than his victim.
And while the people were staring hopelessly at each other thus, a voice was heard giving the alarm hard by.