It really was the strangest thing that Virginia should want this adventuress on the yacht, Kate indignantly remarked to Mrs.
Maitland-Fox. The girl had refused to take a maid because there would not be room, yet now she dragged this creature on board to flirt with George Trent and perhaps inveigle him into a marriage under the impression that he was as rich as he was handsome.
But with Virginia herself, after the first few moments of surprise, Lady Gardiner had been circ.u.mspect. She had not even dared to ask the question burning on her lips--whether the Countess would have the locked stateroom, or what arrangement would be made for her accommodation?
Obliged to wait for this information until the hour of going on board again, once the Countess de Mattos"s presence was to be expected without hope of change, Kate began to be impatient to start.
The party, counting quiet, keen-eyed little Dr. Grayle, was now increased to six, an equal number of men and women, for the Countess had readily given up her maid. They all travelled to Alexandria together one morning, and, boarding the yacht, Kate eagerly watched for the new guest to be taken to her stateroom. Would the locked door be opened? No; Virginia led her past that mysterious, closed door, to the cabin formerly occupied by George Trent, and Kate saw that the young man"s belongings, just brought back from Cairo, had been set down inside the stateroom once sacred to the doctor alone. In this there were two berths, and evidently George and the medical man would "chum" together for the rest of the voyage. The discovery did not add to Lady Gardiner"s love for the Portuguese woman, for, half forgetting her uneasiness concerning Madeleine Dalahaide, she was now jealous of the new beauty, and it was gall and wormwood to Kate that George Trent, lost to her, should be making gallant sacrifices of his personal comfort for another woman.
She had written to the Marchese Loria on the first night of their arrival in Cairo, before the acquaintance with the Countess had begun, and, as she could learn nothing of the future programme for the voyage, it had not seemed worth while to write again. As for the invitation to the Portuguese woman, Kate did not see that it could be of personal interest to Loria, and she never wrote unless she had something to say which was of importance to him; therefore the Italian remained in ignorance that the Countess de Mattos was a member of the little party on the _Bella Cuba_.
So far as the trip had gone, there was nothing to excite his anxiety save that the girl he coveted for her beauty and her money was going farther and farther from him. But one day a telegram came for him to the Cap Martin Hotel, where he still remained. It was dated from Port Said.
"Bound for Australia," were the three words the message contained; and they were words of heavy import to Loria.
Australia! There was no reason why Virginia Beverly should not visit Australia. He had heard her say that she would not be satisfied until she had seen all the world. But if she had thought of going to Australia before she left Mentone, she had carefully refrained from saying so. It was more the fact that she had concealed such an intention than that she was now carrying it out, which seemed ominous to Loria. Sydney was the nearest place of departure for New Caledonia. In a Messageries mail boat it took ten days to reach Noumea from Sydney; it would perhaps take longer in a yacht like the _Bella Cuba_. And the sensible question to ask would be, Was it likely that a bright, erratic, b.u.t.terfly being like beautiful Virginia Beverly would go so far simply for the pleasure of seeing the prison which contained a stranger, a convicted a.s.sa.s.sin for whom she had conceived a girlishly romantic interest?
It was not as if she could hope to meet and talk with Maxime Dalahaide himself, have the pleasure of carrying him messages from his sister, or perhaps even bring Madeleine to him (for the Chateau de la Roche was empty now, in the hands of workmen, and no one, not even Loria, had been able to learn where Mademoiselle Dalahaide and her aunt had gone). The Italian was not unlearned in such lore of the far-away French prison-land as could be obtained, and he had read that, though strangers were allowed to land at Noumea, and a few had been enabled through influence to penetrate inside the prison walls, all personal intercourse with the convicts was strictly interdicted. Since the one almost miraculous escape, over thirty years ago, of Henri Rochefort and Humbert, watch and ward had been more strictly kept than ever; besides, they had escaped from Ducos, on the Isle of Pines, which in those days had been sacred to political prisoners, and discipline there had been, even then, lax compared to that of the Ile Nou, the very heart of prison-land, where Maxime Dalahaide was dragging out the weary years of his lost life.
Yet what if Virginia should have formed the extraordinary resolve of going to Noumea? What was it to him--Loria--since she could accomplish nothing there? Suppose, even, that among other miserable convicts she saw Maxime--pallid, thin, sullen and hopeless, his good looks and his brilliant audacity crushed and gone--would not the romantic feeling she had conceived for him be instantly turned into horror and disgust? When such a chill had withered a girl"s fancy for a man, there could be no future blossoming, and her heart might be caught in the rebound. Once, Loria had thought that Virginia had been on the point of caring for him.
Perhaps when they met she would turn to him again, remorseful for the pain she had caused, grateful for his unwavering loyalty; and, telling himself these things, he was almost persuaded that it would do him more good than harm if Virginia did go to Noumea. But he was never wholly persuaded. A strange fear knocked at his heart, a fear that had no name.
He never quite saw its face. Like a haunting ghost, it was always behind him, and he could hear the swish of its garments, the stealthy sound of its footfalls; but when he turned upon it the thing was gone, leaving only the impression of a black shadow with a veiled face inexpressibly awful.
Loria could not sleep by night, and by day he was restless. He began to dread an illness, and was constantly troubled with headache, which gave him an excuse for believing that the vague, nervous apprehension he suffered was largely the result of physical causes.
What else, indeed, could it be? He had absolutely nothing to fear. Of this he was still continually reminding himself, when another telegram came from Lady Gardiner, dated Sydney. "Leaving here to-morrow," she said. "Destination unknown."
The _Bella Cuba_ was ten days out from Sydney Heads. Her pa.s.sengers rose early, for in the morning it was good to be alive. Virginia, fresh from her cold, salt bath, came on deck, and saw the Countess de Mattos there, with George Trent. Far away lay a strip of land, turning slowly from violet to emerald as the yacht steamed nearer. Virginia saw it and flushed. She knew what it must be, and quickly she glanced at George, with an eager question in her eyes.
It was tacitly understood that the task of informing the Countess de Mattos what her destination was to be must be left to Virginia; she coveted it, while the two men did not. Still, the Portuguese might have guessed, on seeing that strip of violet; or George might inadvertently have given her a clue, and she would be on her guard.
But George"s blue eyes met his sister"s; and with the faintest shake of his head he contrived to convey to her the intelligence that the secret still remained a secret.
Virginia"s heart was beating fast as she joined her brother and the Countess, and her hand was not quite steady as she offered her field-gla.s.s to the beautiful Portuguese, who had long ago begged the two ladies on board to call her "Manuela."
"What a large island!" exclaimed the Countess. "And we seem to be making for it. What can it be? Mr. Trent says perhaps it is a mirage. But I think that is his joke. He likes teasing."
"I think," replied Virginia calmly, though her eyes were on the face of Manuela, "that we must be coming in sight of New Caledonia."
As she gave this answer, Roger Broom came up the companionway, and heard the last words, which rang out, distinctly. Instantly he knew that the moment for which Virginia had been waiting was at hand, and he, too, watched the Countess.
She had taken Virginia"s field-gla.s.s, and was gazing through it at the far-off land which with each moment seemed to grow more distinct. Only the delicate, aquiline profile could be seen by the eager eyes that looked for a sign of weakness. She did not speak at first, but a visible shiver ran through her body. The field-gla.s.s came down rather suddenly, and her fingers gripped it tightly as they rested on the rail. But she did not turn her face, and continued gazing landward as at last she echoed the words, "New Caledonia!"
"Is not that a prison for the French _forcats_?" she slowly asked.
Tacitly, the two men left the answer to Virginia. "Yes," said the girl.
"Noumea is a penal settlement. They say it is very interesting to see. We thought that we might stop for a day or two in the harbour there."
This time the Countess turned. "Oh, but that would be terrible!" she exclaimed. "We--they might rob and murder us, these convicts. You did not say that we were coming to Noumea."
"It was to be one of our surprises," replied Virginia. "I thought that you would like it."
"No, no!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Manuela. "I do not like it at all. I have a horror of such places and such people. This is a pleasure trip, is it not? There is no pleasure in visiting a prison-land. Dear Virginia, dear Mr. Trent and Sir Roger, do let us turn our faces another way and go somewhere else."
Virginia had not lost a single changing shade of expression on the Countess de Mattos"s darkly beautiful face; but if she had been questioned, she would have had to confess that she was disappointed in the great effect toward which she had so long been working up. She had half expected to see this wicked woman who, in some deadly and mysterious way, had plotted to destroy Maxime Dalahaide, turn livid under the brown stain which she (Virginia) suspected, gasp, totter, and perhaps fall fainting when she heard those fatal names--"New Caledonia, Noumea." But Manuela gave none of these evidences of distress. If she paled, the dusky stain in whose existence Virginia so tenaciously believed hid the sign of her emotion. It allowed a deep flush to be seen; even Virginia could not deny that, but pallor was difficult to trace where complexion and even lips were tinted brown and red; and the slight quivering of the body, the dropping of the hand with the field-gla.s.s, were not so marked that they might not be due to an ordinary, disagreeable surprise.
"I"m sorry you feel so about the place," said Virginia. "That"s the worst of planning surprises, isn"t it? One can"t always be sure of bringing off a success. Now, I"m afraid we must make the best of it, for as we arranged to come here, our stores won"t last long enough to avoid New Caledonia and go farther. We must buy b.u.t.ter and milk and vegetables, and chickens and lots of things, to say nothing of coaling. But you needn"t see anything of the prison and the prisoners unless you like. The harbour is said to be glorious, and you can stop on board and read novels, while the rest of us do our sight-seeing, which won"t take us very long."
"Sight-seeing in a prison!" exclaimed the Countess. "You English and Americans are strange. We Latins, we never give ourselves pain that can be avoided. There is enough that is unpleasant in life without that. Ugh!
I would rather do without b.u.t.ter and milk than buy it of convicts, who may poison us in sheer spite because we are more fortunate than they.
Could we not turn round, and get back to Sydney without starving?"
"No, it couldn"t be managed," said Virginia.
Manuela turned pleading eyes upon Roger and George. They were men; they knew more about such things than women; besides she could usually make men do what she wished. But for once she found creatures of the opposite s.e.x who were not to be melted by her pleading. They agreed with Virginia that it was impossible now to avoid New Caledonia.
"And how long shall we stay?" plaintively inquired the Countess, when she had been obliged to resign herself to the inevitable, which, to her credit, she did with a very pretty grace. "Shall we leave again to-night, with our poisoned food?"
"Wait till you have seen the rocks in the harbour," answered George. "If they"re as bad as the book says, they must be something to see. Anyhow, it"s only possible to get in or out between sunrise and sunset. I"m afraid, Countess, you"ll have to put up with it till to-morrow."
"Oh!" Manuela sighed a long sigh. She asked no more questions, she made no more protests. She turned her back upon New Caledonia, and appeared to dismiss the land of lost souls from her mind.
"Well," said Roger, when he and Virginia had walked away, leaving the Countess and George Trent to the flirtation which was so embittering the daily life of Lady Gardiner. "Well, was I right or wrong about this woman?"
"Wrong," firmly answered Virginia.
"You say that still, after the way she took your _grand coup_? But this is only because you hate giving up, beaten."
"I"m not beaten yet," the girl returned doggedly. "I hoped for something different--yes, I admit that. But her game means as much to her as ours does to us. She"s playing it for all it"s worth. If she weren"t such a wretch, I should have admired her pluck. How she held her ground! Taken by surprise as she was, almost her first thought was whether we had purposely caught her in this trap, or whether she had only an avenging fate to thank for such a terrible and startling coincidence. I saw that, at least, in her eyes and her face, Roger, though I didn"t see all I had been looking for. Think what she must have been feeling! She helped to send an innocent man who had loved and trusted her into this exile, worse than death. She thought herself free from him forever, because he was at the other end of the world, dead-alive, in the grave where she buried him. Suddenly she finds herself looking at that grave, unable to escape.
At any moment it may open, and the dead appear to accuse her. What a situation!"
"What an imagination!" exclaimed Roger. "Dear child, you have let it carry you away as far from the truth as you"ve carried this woman from her home--this woman whom you"ve so audaciously kidnapped."
"Wait," said Virginia, her voice trembling. "I haven"t done with her.
This is only the first turn of the thumbscrew. She doesn"t dream yet of the ordeal she"ll have to go through."
"May have to go through," quietly amended Roger Broom.
"You mean--oh, Roger, don"t you think we"ll succeed in what we"ve come for so far, so very far?"
Virginia, with tears sparkling in uplifted eyes, was irresistible.
"I hope it, dear," the man who loved and wanted her said, gravely. "I never thought it, you know. But the way hasn"t seemed far to me, because I have been with you and the time will not have been wasted for me if we fail, because it has kept me by your side. I shall think, "I have done what I could, and it has pleased Virginia.""
"It has made Virginia grateful for all her life long," said the girl softly, "and whatever happens she will never forget. You have done so much already! Disapproving my plan, still you loyally did all you could to forward it. You used your influence to get us the one chance here, without which we could hope to do nothing. You wrote to the French Amba.s.sador in London, the English Amba.s.sador in France, and finally, when our interests were so twisted up in ma.s.ses of official red-tape that it seemed they could never get disentangled, you ran on to Paris yourself to call on the Minister of the Colonies. If it had not been for the permit you got from him, we might as well have given up coming here, for all the prison doors would have been shut to us. Now, through him, and through you, they will be open, and our first step is clear. All this made me feel hopeful, when we were far away; I felt sure that we should succeed.
But now that we have come these thousands of miles in our poor little boat; now that we have arrived at the end of the world and our real work is still before us, my heart suddenly sinks down--down. I"m frightened--I"m almost ill: and your words and your face are so grave, Roger! Your very tenderness and kindness make it worse, for somehow, it"s as if you thought there might be a good-bye. It makes me realize that, after all, the greatest danger is to be run by you and George. You have both come for my sake; and--you are going to risk your lives."
"Risk your lives!" repeated a voice; and turning quickly, Virginia and her cousin saw Lady Gardiner, who had lately developed a rather stealthy way of creeping noiselessly behind her friends.
Virginia"s mood was not one to promote presence of mind. She was speechless; but Roger stepped in to the breach.