"How else could I interpret it?" I questioned coolly, determined to taunt him to action. "I waited where you told me till I was tired. Perhaps you will oblige me by explaining your purpose."
He muttered something, but without comprehending its purport I went on threateningly:
"And I think you made use of the word _spy_ just now. Did you mistake me for another?"
"Mistake you? No; I"d know you in h.e.l.l," he burst forth, anger making his voice tremble. "I called you a spy, and you are one, you sneaking night rat. You never waited for me in the parlor; if you had you"d now be under arrest."
"Oh, so that was the plan?"
"Yes, that was it, Mister Lieutenant Fortesque."
"Well, Grant," I said sternly, "I"ve got just one answer to make you. You can call your guard, or you can fight it out with me here. Whichever you choose will depend upon whether you are a man, or a cur." I took a step nearer, watching him as best I could in the dark. "You are an unmitigated liar, sir," and with sudden sweep of the arm I struck him with open hand.
"Probably you will realize what that means."
For an instant he remained so still I doubted him, even held him cheap; then the breath surged through his clinched teeth in a mad oath. He surged toward me, but my sword was out, the steel blocking his advance.
"You--you actually mean fight?"
"Why not? Isn"t that cause enough? If not I will furnish more."
"I do not fight spies--"
"Stop! That silly charge is merely an excuse. You do not believe it yourself. You wanted a quarrel yonder in the ball-room. The expression of your eyes was an insult. Don"t evade now. I am here, wearing the uniform of the British army. I have every right of a gentleman, and you will cross swords, or I"ll brand you coward wherever there is an English garrison."
The fellow was certainly not afraid, yet he hesitated, not quite clear in his own mind what he had better do. I might be a spy, and I might not; he possessed no doubt a moment before, yet the very boldness of my words had already half convinced him there might be some mistake. Should he call to the men on the steps yonder, denounce me, and turn me over to the guard?
That was the easiest way for him, the greater disgrace to me. Yet if, by any chance, I proved later innocent of the charge, then he would become the laughingstock of the army. I heard his teeth grate savagely as he realized his dilemma, and laughed outright.
"You do not seem altogether pleased, my friend; what are you, a toy soldier?"
"h.e.l.l"s acre! I"ll show you what I am."
I saw the sudden flash of his drawn blade, and flung up my own in guard.
"Wait; not here, Captain," I insisted quickly. "We"re far too near your watchful friends yonder; besides the light is poor. Let"s try our fortunes beyond the pavilion, where it can be simply man to man."
He turned without a word, and I followed, eager enough to have done with the business. The stars gleamed on the naked weapons held in our hands, but we exchanged no words until we had rounded the corner, and come forth into the open s.p.a.ce beyond.
CHAPTER VII
THE ONE HOPE
As he stopped and faced about, I as instantly halted.
"Perhaps this spot may satisfy your requirements," he said sarcastically.
""Tis far enough away at least, and the light is not so bad."
"It will do," I replied, and threw my scarlet jacket on the gra.s.s. "Strip to the white, sir, and then we can see fairly well where to strike.
That"s better. On guard!"
Neither of us had mentioned the lady, preferring to base our quarrel on other grounds, yet I fully comprehended that some unreasonable jealousy on his part had led up to all this. Whatever the relations between them might be, his desires were clear enough, as well as his methods for keeping others away. This knowledge merely nerved me to steadiness; she would hear of it all later and understand. The fellow"s right to resent the small attentions I had shown to Mistress Mortimer I questioned greatly--she had plainly enough denied the existence of any relationship between them other than family friendship,--and I meant to teach this loyalist bully that I was not the sort to be driven away by loud words, or the flash of a sword.
He came at me fiercely enough, confident of his mastery of the weapon, and, no doubt, expecting me to prove an easy victim of his skill. His first onslaught, a trick thrust under my guard, caused me to give back a step or two, and this small success yielded him the over-confidence I always prefer that an opponent have. I was young, agile, cool-headed, instructed since early boyhood by my father, a rather famous swordsman, in the mysteries of the game, yet I preferred that Grant should deem me a novice. With this in mind, and in order that I might better study the man"s style, I remained strictly on defence, giving way slightly before the confident play of his steel, content with barely turning aside the gleaming point before it p.r.i.c.ked me. At first he mistook this for weakness, sneering at my parries, as he bore in with increasing recklessness.
"A club would be more in your line, I take it, Mr. Lieutenant Fortesque,"
he commented sarcastically, "but I"ll play with you a while for practice--ah! that was a lucky turn of the wrist! So you do know a trick or two? Perhaps you have a parry for that thrust as well! Ah! an inch more and I"d have p.r.i.c.ked you--your defence is not bad for a boy! By all the G.o.ds, I tasted blood then--now I"ll give you a harder nut to crack!"
I was fighting silently, with lips closed, husbanding my breath, scarcely hearing his comments. Every stroke, every thrust, gave me insight of his school, and instinctively my blade leaped forth to turn aside his point.
He was a swordsman, stronger than I, and of longer reach, yet his tricks were old, and he relied more on strength than subtlety of fence. Our swords gleamed against each other in the glitter of the stars, both content with thrust and parry, as we circled, watchful for some opening.
Then, confident I had gauged my man, I began to drive in upon him, returning thrust for thrust, and trying a trick or two of my own. He countered with skill, laughing and taunting me, until his jeers made me fight grimly, with fresh determination to end the affair.
"By G.o.d! you have a right pretty thrust from the shoulder," he exclaimed.
"Been out before, I take it. But I"ll show you something you never learned. Odds, I"ll call your boy"s play!"
"Better hold your breath, for you"ll need it now," I replied shortly.
"The boy"s play is over with."
Step by step I began sternly to force the fighting, driving my point against him so relentlessly as to hush his speech. Twice we circled, striking, countering, fighting, our blades glittering ominously in the starlight, our breathing labored with the fierceness of the fighting.
Both our swords tasted blood, he slicing my forearm, I piercing his shoulder, yet neither wound sufficed to bring any cessation of effort. We were mad now with the fever of it, and struggling to kill, panting fiercely, our faces flushed, the perspiration dripping from our bodies, our swords darting swiftly back and forth. He was my match, and more, and, had we been permitted to go on to the end, would have worn me down by sheer strength. Suddenly, above the clash of steel, came the sound of voices; our blades were struck up, and the dark forms of men pressed in between us.
"Stop it, you hotheads!" some one commanded gruffly. "Hold your man, Tolston, until I get at the reason for this fighting. Who are you? Oh, Grant! What"s the trouble now? The old thing, eh?"
I had no desire to wait his answer, confident that Grant was sufficiently angry to blurt out everything he knew. They were all facing his way, actuated by the recognition. Breathless still, yet quick to seize the one and only chance left, I grabbed up my jacket from the gra.s.s, and sprang into the darkness. I had gained a hundred feet before those behind grasped the meaning of my unexpected flight, and then the tumult of voices only sent me flying faster, realizing the pursuit. The only open pa.s.sage led directly toward the river, and I raced through the black night down the slope as though all the fiends of h.e.l.l were after me. I heard shouts, oaths, but there was no firing, and was far enough ahead to be invisible by the time I attained the bank. An open barge lay there, a mere black smudge, and I stumbled blindly across this, dropping silently over its side into the water. It was not thought, but breathless inability to attempt more, which kept me there, clinging to a slat on the side of the barge, so completely submerged in the river, as to be invisible from above. Swearing fiercely, my pursuers stormed over the barge, swinging their swords along the edges to be sure I was not there.
One blade p.r.i.c.ked me slightly, but I held on, sinking yet deeper into the stream. I could see the dim outline of heads peering over, but was not discovered. The same gruff voice which had interrupted the duel broke through the noise:
"I tell you he turned to the left; I saw him plainly enough. What did you say the fellow"s name was, Grant?"
"How do I know? He called himself Fortesque."
"Sure; the same one Carter was sent out hunting after. Well, he dodged down there among those coal sheds. That is the only way he could have disappeared so suddenly. Come on, all of you, except Moore and Cartaret, and we"ll beat the sh.o.r.e."
I heard them scramble across to the bank, but there were sounds also proving the guards left behind were still on the deck above me. Then one of the fellows sat down on the edge of the barge, his feet dangling within a few inches of my head.
"Might as well take it easy, Bill," he said lazily. "They "re like to be an hour layin" hands on the lad, an" all we got to do is see he don"t fox back this way. Got any tobacco, mate?"
The other must have produced the necessary weed, for there was a sc.r.a.ping of flint and steel, a gleam of fire glinting on the water, and then the pungent odor wafted to me in puff of smoke. With one hand, I unbuckled my sword belt, letting it, sword and all, sink silently into the river. I must cross to the opposite bank somehow, and would have to dispense with the weapon. Inch by inch, my fingers gripping the narrow slat to which I clung, I worked slowly toward the stern of the barge, making not so much as a ripple in the water, and keeping well hidden below the bulge of the side. The voices above droned along in conversation, of which I caught a few words.
"Who was he? You mean the lad they"re after down yonder? Oh, I mind now, you came up late after we"d started the chase. Holy Mother, I don"t know much myself, now I come to think of it. He looked like a Britisher, what I saw of him, an" he was fightin" with a Captain of Rangers--Grant was the name; maybe you know the man?--behind one of the stands. Old Hollis heard the clash of the steel; an" he called to us, an" the whole bunch started on a run. It was too dark to see much, but we jumped in an"
pulled "em apart, never once thinkin" it was more than two young hotheads doin" a little blood-lettin". Then this chap turned an" run for it, trippin" up Sandy McPherson to get clear, and we after him. Somebody said he was a spy, an" that"s the whole I know about it."
"They"ll never get him," returned the other solemnly.
"An" why do you think that, man? Sure, an" they"re searchin" the sh.o.r.e both ways, an" Carter has got his fellers ridin" the outposts. To my mind he hasn"t the chance of a rat in a trap, the poor devil."
Bill blew a cloud of smoke into the air, which a puff of wind swept down into my face.