CHAPTER IX
THE ENEMY
"I"ve sighted the Enemy," exclaimed Bobby Browne, coming up from Neptune"s Pool--the largest of the fountains. His wife and Lady Deppingham were sitting in the cool retreat under the hanging garden.
"Would you care to have a peek at him?"
"I should think so," said his wife, jumping to her feet. "He"s been on the island three days, and we haven"t had a glimpse of him. Come along, Lady Deppingham."
Lady Deppingham arose reluctantly, stifling a yawn.
"I"m so frightfully lazy, my dear," she sighed. "But," with a slight acceleration of speech, "anything in the shape of diversion is worth the effort, I"m sure. Where is he?"
They had come to call the new American lawyer "The Enemy." No one knew his name, or cared to know it, for that matter. Bowles, in answer to the telephone inquiries of Saunders, said that the new solicitor had taken temporary quarters above the bank and was in hourly consultation with Von Blitz, Rasula and others. Much of his time was spent at the mines.
Later on, it was commonly reported, he was to take up his residence in Wyckholme"s deserted bungalow, far up on the mountain side, in plain view from the chateau.
Life at the chateau had not been allowed to drag. The Deppinghams and the Brownes confessed in the privacy of their chambers that there was scant diplomacy in their "carryings-on," but without these indulgences the days and nights would have been intolerable.
The white servants had become good friends, despite the natural disdain that the trained English expert feels for the unpolished American domestic. Antipathies were overlooked in the eager strife for companionship; the fact that one of Mrs. Browne"s maids was of Irish extraction and the other a rosy Swede may have had something to do with their admission into the exclusive set below stairs, but that is outside the question. If the Suffolk maids felt any hesitancy about accepting the hybrid combination as their equals, it was never manifested by word or deed. Even the astute Antoine, who had lived long in the boulevards of Paris, and who therefore knew an American when he saw one at any distance or at any price, evinced no uncertainty in proclaiming them Americans.
Miss Pelham, the stenographer from West Twenty-third Street, might have been included in the circle from the first had not her dignity stood in the way. For six days she held resolutely aloof from everything except her notebook and her machine, but her stock of novels beginning to run low, and the prospect of being bored to extinction for six months to come looming up before her, she concluded to wave the olive branch in the face of social ostracism, a.s.suming a genial att.i.tude of condescension, which was graciously overlooked by the others. As she afterward said, there is no telling how low she might have sunk, had it not entered her head one day to set her cap for the unsuspecting Mr.
Saunders. She had learned, in the wisdom of her s.e.x, that he was fancy free. Mr. Saunders, fully warned against the American typewriter girl as a cla.s.s, having read the most shocking jokes at her expense in the comic papers, was rather shy at the outset, but Britt gallantly came to Miss Pelham"s defence and ultimate rescue by emphatically a.s.suring Saunders that she was a perfect lady, guaranteed to cause uneasiness to no man"s wife.
"But I have no wife," quickly protested Saunders, turning a dull red.
"The devil!" exclaimed Britt, apparently much upset by the revelation.
But of this more anon.
Browne conducted the two young women across the drawbridge and to the sunlit edge of the terrace, where two servants awaited them with parasols.
"Isn"t it extraordinary, the trouble one is willing to take for the merest glimpse of a man?" sighed Lady Agnes. "At home we try to avoid them."
"Indeed?" said pretty Mrs. Browne, with a slight touch of irony. It was the first sign of the gentle warfare which their wits were to wage.
"There he is! See him?" almost whispered Browne, as if the solitary, motionless figure at the foot of the avenue was likely to hear his voice and be frightened away.
The Enemy was sitting serenely on one of the broad iron benches just inside the gates to the park, his arms stretched out along the back, his legs extended and crossed. The great stone wall behind him afforded shelter from the broiling sun; satinwood trees lent an appearance of coolness that did not exist, if one were to judge by the absence of hat and the fact that his soft shirt was open at the throat. He was not more than two hundred yards away from the clump of trees which screened his watchers from view. If he caught an occasional glimpse of dainty blue and white fabrics, he made no demonstration of interest or acknowledgment. It was quite apparent that he was lazily surveying the chateau, puffing with consistent ease at the cigarette which drooped from his lips. His long figure was attired in light grey flannels; one could not see the stripe at that distance, yet one could not help feeling that it existed--a slim black stripe, if any one should have asked.
"Quite at home," murmured her ladyship, which was enough to show that she excused the intruder on the ground that he was an American.
"Mr. Britt was right," said Mrs. Browne irrelevantly. She was peering at the stranger through the binoculars. "He is _very_ good-looking."
"And you from Boston, too," scoffed Lady Deppingham. Mrs. Browne flushed, and smiled deprecatingly.
"Wonder what he"s doing here in the grounds?" puzzled Browne.
"It"s plain to me that he is resting his audacious bones," said her ladyship, glancing brightly at her co-legatee. The latter"s wife, in a sudden huff, deliberately left them, crossing the macadam driveway in plain view of the stranger.
"She"s not above an affair with him," was her hot, inward lament. She was mightily relieved, however, when the others tranquilly followed her across the road, and took up a new position under the subst.i.tute clump of trees.
The Enemy gave no sign of interest in these proceedings. If he was conscious of being watched by these curious exiles, he was not in the least annoyed. He did not change his position of indolence, nor did he puff any more fretfully at his cigarette. Instead, his eyes were bent lazily upon the white avenue, his thoughts apparently far away from the view ahead. He came out of his la.s.situde long enough to roll and light a fresh cigarette and to don his wide madras helmet.
Suddenly he looked to the right and then arose with some show of alacrity. Three men were approaching by the path which led down from the far-away stables. Browne recognised the dark-skinned men as servants in the chateau--the major-domo, the chef, and the master of the stables.
"Lord Deppingham must have sent them down to pitch him over the wall,"
he said, with an excited grin.
"Impossible! My husband is hunting for sapphires in the ravine back of--" She did not complete the sentence.
The Enemy was greeting the statuesque natives with a friendliness that upset all calculations. It was evident that the meeting was prearranged.
There was no attempt at secrecy; the conference, whatever its portent, had the merit of being quite above-board. In the end, the tall solicitor, lifting his helmet with a gesture so significant that it left no room for speculation, turned and sauntered through the broad gateway and out into the forest road. The three servants returned as they had come, by way of the bridle path along the wall.
"The nerve of him!" exclaimed Browne. "That graceful attention was meant for us."
"He is like the polite robber who first beats you to death and then says thank you for the purse," said Lady Deppingham. "What a strange proceeding, Mr. Browne. Can you imagine what it means?"
"Mischief of some sort, I"ll be bound. I admire his nerve in holding the confab under our very noses. I"ll have Britt interview those fellows at once. Our kitchen, our stable and our domestic discipline are threatened."
They hastened to the chateau, and regaled the resourceful Britt with the disquieting news.
"I"ll have it out of "em in a minute," he said confidently. "Where"s Saunders? Where"s Miss Pelham? Confound the girl, she"s never around when I want her these days. Hay, you!" to a servant. "Send Miss Pelham to me. The one in pink, understand? Golden-haired one. Yes, yes, that"s right: the one who jiggles her fingers. Tell her to hurry."
But Miss Pelham was off in the wood, self-charged with the arousing of Mr. Saunders; an hour pa.s.sed before she could be found and brought into the light of Mr. Britt"s reflections. If her pert nose was capable of elevating itself in silent disdain, Mr. Saunders was not able to emulate its example. He was not so dazzled by the sunshine of her sprightly recitals but that he could look sheep-faced in the afterglow of Britt"s scorn.
Britt, with all his clever bl.u.s.tering, could elicit no information from the crafty head-servants. All they would say was that the strange sahib had intercepted them on their way to the town, to ask if there were any rooms to rent in the chateau.
"That"s what he told you to say, isn"t it?" demanded Britt angrily.
"Confounded his impudence! Rooms to rent!"
That evening he dragged the reluctant Saunders into the privacy of the hanging garden, and deliberately interrupted the game of bridge which was going on. If Deppingham had any intention to resent the intrusion of the solicitors, he was forestalled by the startling announcement of Mr.
Britt, who seldom stood on ceremony where duty was concerned.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Britt, calmly dropping into a chair near by, "this place is full of spies."
"Spies!" cried four voices in unison. Mr. Saunders nodded a plaintive apology.
"Yes, sir, every native servant here is a spy. That"s what the Enemy was here for to-day. I"ve a.n.a.lysed the situation and I"m right. Ain"t I, Mr.
Saunders? Of course, I am. He came here to tell "em what to do and how to report our affairs to him. See? Well, there you are. We"ve simply got to be careful what we do and say in their presence. Leave "em to me.
Just be careful, that"s all."
"I don"t intend to be watched by a band of sneaks--" began Lord Deppingham loftily.
"You can"t help yourself," interrupted Britt.
"I"ll discharge every demmed one of them, that"s--"