"Gentlemen," said I, "let me warn you not to claim comradeship with Mr. Buckhurst. And I will show you one reason why."
I picked up from the table-drawer a little stick about five inches long and held it up.
"What is that, doctor? You don"t know? Oh, you think it might be some sample of fertilizer containing concentrated nitrogen? You are mistaken, it is not nitrogen, but nitro-glycerine."
Buckhurst"s face changed slightly.
"Is it not, Mr. Buckhurst?" I asked.
He was silent.
"Would you permit me to throw this bit of stuff at your feet?" And I made a gesture.
The superb nerve of the man was something to remember. He did not move, but over his face there crept a dreadful pallor, which even the others noticed, and they shrank away from him, shocked and amazed.
"Here, gentlemen," I continued, "is a box with a German label--"Oberlohe, Hanover." The silicious earth with which nitro-glycerine is mixed to make dynamite comes from Oberlohe, in Hanover."
I laid my pistol on the table, struck a match, and deliberately lighted my stick of dynamite. It burned quietly with a brilliant flame, and I laid it on the gra.s.s and let it burn out like a lump of Greek fire.
"Messieurs," I said, c.o.c.king and unc.o.c.king my pistol, "it is not because this man is a dangerous, political criminal and a maker of explosives that the government has sent me here to arrest him ... or kill him. It is because he is a common thief,... a thief who steals crucifixes,... like this one--"
I brushed aside a pile of papers in the drawer and drew out a big gold crucifix, marvellously chiselled from a lump of the solid metal....
"A thief," I continued, "who strips the diamonds from crucifixes,...
as this has been stripped,... and who sells a single stone to a Jew in Strasbourg, named Fishel Cohen,... now in prison to confront our friend Buckhurst."
In the dead silence I heard Dr. Delmont"s heavy breathing. Tavernier gave a dry sob and covered his face with his thin hands. The young Countess stood motionless, frightfully white, staring at Buckhurst, who had folded his arms.
Sylvia Elven touched her, but the Countess shook her off and walked straight to Buckhurst.
"Look at me," she said. "I have promised you my friendship, my faith and trust and support. And now I say to you, I believe in you. Tell them where that crucifix came from."
Buckhurst looked at me, long enough to see that the end of his rope had come. Then he slowly turned his deadly eyes on the girl before him.
Scarlet to the roots of her hair, she stood there, utterly stunned.
The white edges of Buckhurst"s teeth began to show again; for an instant I thought he meant to strike her. Then the sudden double beat of horses" hoofs broke out along the avenue below, and, through the red sunset I saw a dozen hors.e.m.e.n come scampering up the drive toward us.
"They"ve sent me lancers instead of gendarmes for your escort," I remarked to Dr. Delmont; at the same moment I stepped out into the driveway to signal the riders, raising my hand.
Instantly a pistol flashed--then another and another, and a dozen harsh voices shouted: "Hourra! Hourra! Preussen!"
"Mille tonnerre!" roared Delmont; "the Prussians are here!"
"Look out! Stand back there! Get the women back!" I cried, as an Uhlan wheeled his horse straight through a bed of geraniums and fired his horse-pistol at me.
Delmont dragged the young Countess to the shelter of an elm; Sylvia Elven and Tavernier followed; Buckhurst ran to the carriage and leaped in.
"No resistance!" bellowed Delmont, as Bazard s.n.a.t.c.hed up the pistol I had taken from Buckhurst. But the invalid had already fired at a horseman, and had gone down under the merciless hoofs with a lance through his face.
My first impulse was to shoot Buckhurst, and I started for him.
Then, in front of me, a horse galloped into the table and fell with a crash, hurling his rider at my feet. I can see him yet sprawling there on the lawn, a lank, red-faced fellow, his helmet smashed in, and his spurred boots sticking fast in the sod.
Helter-skelter through the trees came the rest of the Uhlans, shouting their hoa.r.s.e "Hourra! Hourra! Preussen!"--white-and-black pennons streaming from their lance-heads, pistols flashing in the early dusk.
I ran past Bazard"s trampled body and fired at an Uhlan who had seized the horses which were attached to the carriage where Buckhurst sat.
The Uhlan"s horse reared and plunged, carrying him away at a frightful pace, and I do not know whether I hit him or not, but he dropped his pistol, and I picked it up and fired at another cavalryman who shouted and put his horse straight at me.
Again I ran around the wagon, through a clump of syringa bushes, and up the stone steps to the terrace, and after me galloped one of those incomparable cossack riders--an Uhlan, lance in rest, setting his wiry little horse to the stone steps with a loud "Hourra!"
It was too steep a grade for the gallant horse. I flung my pistol in the animal"s face and the poor brute reared straight up and fell backward, rolling over and over with his unfortunate rider, and falling with a tremendous splash into the pool below.
"In G.o.d"s name stop that!" roared Delmont, from below. "Give up, Scarlett! They mean us no harm!"
I could see the good doctor on the lawn, waving his handkerchief frantically at me; in a group behind stood the Countess and Sylvia; Tavernier was kneeling beside Bazard"s body; two Uhlans were raising their stunned comrade from the wreck of the table; other Uhlans cantered toward the foot of the terrace above which I stood.
"Come down, hussar!" called an officer. "We respect your uniform."
"Will you parley?" I asked, listening intently for the gallop of my promised gendarmes. If I could only gain time and save Buckhurst. He was there in the carriage; I had seen him spring into it when the Germans burst in among the trees.
"Foulez-fous fous rendre? Oui ou non?" shouted the officer, in his terrible French.
"Eh bien,... non!" I cried, and ran for the chateau.
I heard the Uhlans dismount and run clattering and jingling up the stone steps. As I gained the doorway they shot at me, but I only fled the faster, springing up the stairway. Here I stood, sabre in hand, ready to stop the first man.
Up the stairs rushed three Uhlans, sabres shining in the dim light from the window behind me; I laid my forefinger flat on the blade of my sabre and shortened my arm for a thrust--then there came a blinding flash, a roar, and I was down, trying to rise, until a clinched fist struck me in the face and I fell flat on my back.
Without any emotion whatever I saw an Uhlan raise his sabre to finish me; also I saw a yellow-and-black sleeve interposed between death and myself.
"No butchery!" growled the big officer who had summoned me from the lawn. "Cursed pig, you"d sabre your own grandmother! Lift him, Sepp!
You, there, Loisel!--lift him up. Is he gone?"
"He is alive, Herr Rittmeister," said a soldier, "but his back is broken."
"It isn"t," I said.
"Herr Je!" muttered the Rittmeister; "an eel, and a Frenchman, and nine long lives! Here, you hussar, what"s the matter with you?"
"One of them shot me; I thought it was to be sabres," said I, weakly.
"And why the devil wasn"t it sabres!" roared the officer, turning on his men. "One to three--and six more below! Sepp, you disgust me.
Carry him out!"
I groaned as they lifted me. "Easy there!" growled the officer, "don"t pull him that way. Now, young h.e.l.l-cat, set your teeth; you have eight more lives yet."
They got me out to the terrace, and carried me to the lawn. One of the men brought a cup of water from the pool.
"Herr Rittmeister," I said, faintly, "I had a prisoner here; he should be in the carriage. Is he?"