"No," said Gordon, "you"ll stay where you are and shade her with her umbrella. She"ll be all right in a minute."
The girl opened her eyes, and looking up saw Gordon bending over her.
She regarded him for a moment and made an effort to rise, and in her endeavor to do so her eyes met those of the Frenchman, and with a sharp moan she shut them again and threw herself from Gordon"s knee to the sand.
"Give me that umbrella," said Gordon, "and go stand over there out of the way."
The man rose from his knee without showing any resentment and walked some little distance away, where he stood with his arms folded, looking out to sea. He seemed much too occupied with something of personal interest to concern himself with a woman"s fainting-spell. The girl lifted herself slowly to her elbow, and then, before Gordon could a.s.sist her, rose with a quick, graceful movement and stood erect upon her feet. She placed a detaining hand for an instant on the American"s arm.
"Thank you very much," she said. "I am afraid I have been imprudent in going out into the sun." Her eyes were fixed upon the Frenchman, who stood moodily staring at the sea and tearing one of his finger-nails with his teeth. He seemed utterly oblivious of their presence. The girl held out her hand for the parasol she had dropped and took it from Gordon with a bow.
"May I walk back with you to your hotel?" he asked. "Unless this gentleman----"
"Thank you," the girl said, in tones which the Frenchman could have easily overheard had he been listening. "I am quite able to go alone now; it is only a step."
She was still regarding the Frenchman closely; but as he was obviously unconscious of them she moved so that Gordon hid her from him, and in an entirely different voice she said, speaking rapidly,--
"You are Mr. Gordon, the American who joined us last night. That man is a spy from Messina. He is Renauld, the Commander-in-Chief of their army. He must be gotten away from here at once. It is a matter for a man to attend to. Will you do it?"
"How do you know this?" Gordon asked. "How do you know he is General Renauld? I want to be certain."
The girl tossed her head impatiently.
"He was pointed out to me at Messina. I saw him there in command at a review. He has just spoken to me--that was what frightened me into that fainting-spell. I didn"t think I was so weak," she said, shaking her head. "He offered me a bribe to inform him of our plans. I tell you he is a spy."
"That"s all right," said Gordon, rea.s.suringly; "you go back to the hotel now and send those guards here on a run. I"ll make a charge against him and have him locked up until after we sail to-night.
Hurry, please; I"ll stay here."
Gordon felt a pleasurable glow of excitement. It was his nature to throw himself into everything he did and to at once become a partisan.
It was a quality which made his writings attractive to the reader, and an object of concern to his editor. At the very word "spy," and at this first hint of opposition to the cause in which he had but just enlisted, he thrilled as though it had always been his own, and he regarded the Frenchman with a personal dislike as sudden as it was unfounded.
The Frenchman had turned and was walking in the direction of the city gate. His eyes were bent on the sandy beach which stretched before him, and he made his way utterly unmindful of the waves that stole up to his feet and left little pools of water in his path. Gordon beckoned impatiently to the two soldiers who came running toward him at the hotel, and moved forward to meet them the sooner. He took one of them by the wrist and pointed with his other hand at the retreating figure of the Frenchman.
"That man," he said, "is one of the King"s enemies. The King is in danger while that man is here. Your duty is to protect the King, so he gives this foreigner into your charge."
The soldier nodded his head in a.s.sent. "The King himself sent us," he replied.
"You will place him in the Civil Prison," Gordon continued, "until the King is safe on his yacht, and you will not allow him to send for the French Consul-General. If he sees the Consul-General he will tell him a great many lies about you, and a great war-ship will come and your Bashaw will be forced to pay the foreigners much money. I will go with you and tell this man in his own tongue what you are going to do with him."
They walked hurriedly after the Frenchman, and when they had overtaken him Gordon halted and bowed.
"One moment, please," he said. "These soldiers have an order for your arrest. I speak the language, and if you have anything to say to them I will interpret for you."
The Frenchman stared from Gordon to the guards and then laughed incredulously but with no great confidence. He had much to say, but he demanded to know first why he should be arrested.
"The lady you insulted," Gordon answered, gravely, "happened, unfortunately for you, to be one of the King"s guests. She has complained to him, and he has sent these soldiers to put you where you cannot trouble her again. You see, sir, you cannot annoy women with impunity even in this barbarous country."
"Insult her! I did not insult her," the man retorted. "That is not the reason I am arrested."
"You annoyed her so much that she fainted. I saw you," said Gordon, backing away with the evident purpose of abandoning the foreigner to his guards.
"She has lied," the man cried, "either to the King or to me. I do not know which, but I am here to find out. That is why I came to Tangier, and I intend to learn the truth."
"You"ve begun rather badly," Gordon answered, as he still retreated.
"In the Civil Prison your field of investigation will be limited."
The Frenchman took a hasty step toward him, shrugging off the hand one of the soldiers had placed on his shoulder.
"Are you the Prince Kalonay, sir?" he demanded. "But surely not," he added.
"No, I am not the Prince," Gordon answered. "I bid you good-morning, sir."
"Then you are on the other side," the man called after him eagerly, with a tone of great relief. "I have been right from the very first.
I see it plainly. It is a double plot, and you are one of that woman"s dupes. Listen to me--I beg of you, listen to me--I have a story to tell."
Gordon paused and looked back at the man over his shoulder, doubtfully.
"It"s like the Arabian Nights," he said, with a puzzled smile. "There was once a rich merchant of Bagdad and the Sultan was going to execute him, but they put off the execution until he could tell them the story of the Beautiful Countess and the French Envoy. I am sorry," he added, shaking his head, "but I cannot listen now. I must not be seen talking to you at all, and everyone can see us here."
They were as conspicuous figures on the flat surface of the beach as two palms in a desert, and Gordon was most anxious to escape, for he was conscious that he could be observed from every point in the town.
A hundred yards away, on the terrace of the hotel, he saw the King, Madame Zara, Barrat, and Erhaupt standing together watching them.
"If the American leaves him now, we are safe," the King was saying. He spoke in a whisper, as though he feared that even at that distance Gordon and the Frenchman could overhear his words. "But if he remains with him he will find out the truth, and that means ruin. He will ruin us."
"Look, he is coming this way," Zara answered. "He is leaving him. The danger is past."
The Frenchman raised his eyes and saw the four figures grouped closely together on the terrace.
"See, what did I tell you?" he cried. "She is with the King now. It is a plot within a plot, and I believe you know it," he added, furiously. "You are one of these brave blackmailers yourself--that is why you will not let me speak."
"Blackmailers!" said Gordon. "Confound your impudence, what the devil do you mean by that?"
But the Frenchman was staring angrily at the distant group on the terrace, and Gordon turned his eyes in the same direction. Something he saw in the strained and eager att.i.tude of the four conspirators moved him to a sudden determination.
"That will do, you must go," he commanded, pointing with his arm toward the city gate; and before the Frenchman could reply, he gave an order to the guards, and they seized the foreigner roughly by either arm and hurried him away.
"Thank G.o.d!" exclaimed the King, piously. "They have separated, and the boy thinks he is rendering us great service. Well, and so he is, the young fool."
The group on the piazza remained motionless, watching Gordon as he leisurely lit a cigar and stood looking out at the harbor until the Frenchman had disappeared inside the city wall. Then he turned and walked slowly after him.
"I do not like that. I do not like his following him," said Barrat, suspiciously.
"That is nothing," answered the King. "He is going to play the spy and see that the man is safely in jail. Then he will return and report to us. We must congratulate him warmly. He follows at a discreet distance, you observe, and keeps himself well out of sight. The boy knows better than to compromise himself by being seen in conversation with the man. Of course, if Renauld is set free we must say we had no part in his arrest, that the American made the arrest on his own authority. What a convenient tool the young man is. Why, his coming really frightened us at first, and now--now we make a cat"s-paw of him." The King laughed merrily. "We undervalue ourselves sometimes, do we not?"
"He is a nice boy," said Zara. "I feel rather sorry for him. He looked so anxious and distressed when I was so silly as to faint on the beach just now. He handled me as tenderly as a woman would have done--not that women have generally handled me tenderly," she added.
"I was thinking the simile was rather misplaced," said the King.
Gordon pa.s.sed the city wall and heard the gates swing to behind him.