I confess that my malicious joy sank somewhat.
"You are a gentleman," he continued, "and that presupposes a delicate sense of honor. I know how you feel toward her--yet would you have her remain with you if she one day regretted it? Great things rest on her return, I a.s.sure you. Let us start even! You have had two days to persuade her your way; let me have two days to persuade her mine! After that, we fight in the open--you and I!"
There was something straightforward in his appeal that impressed me. I had had two days, and it would be giving her destiny, those great things he spoke of, a square deal to comply. I had misgivings, of course, but these were overruled by--why deny it?--the masculine conceit that becomes a.s.sertive after a few feminine favors. At any rate, it was a fair sporting proposition, and I said:
"All right, for two days--provided I explain to her how we made this bargain."
He smiled and hugged me as of yore, crying:
"Almost you would make me sorry when I win! So we fight to the last ditch, eh?"
"To the last ditch," I smiled, shaking hands with him.
But hardly had the agreement been sealed before I regretted it. Tommy"s dissertation on sacrifice worried me. And yet, what man with red blood and two wide-open eyes in his heart would have refused to play the cards Monsieur thus honestly laid out? It would be unfair to Doloria"s future if I pugnaciously held to the advantage these few days had brought; for it is one thing to start in an open race with men, and run and burst your heart to be first across the goal which means a woman"s arms, but quite another to take her unawares in a wilderness and, upon the spot, claim her before she knows what the surrender may involve. In years to follow a time might come when she would look at me through shadows--shadows that grow dark with perplexity over some irrevocable step--and I did not want to sow a seed to ripen into one of these. It is distracting enough for a man to bury his existing ghosts, but sheer madness deliberately to raise a crop of new ones.
In this case I did not so much fear a race with other men in forms of rivals. I had reached my goal, her arms, and nothing could undo that.
But her conscience--who dares claim the conscience of another! For two days, then, Monsieur could fight it out alone with her, and if his arguments prevailed--well, I would set about destroying them.
After luncheon, with a brevity that she must have understood meant torture, I explained the compact, saying that I could ask for no more promises until two days had pa.s.sed; and when she would have replied that her promise had been given I warned her that Monsieur had not even begun to show his power. She seemed a little frightened at this and, but for the sterling mark indubitably pressed upon her sense of right, I think she might have consented to fly from him.
"For two days, then, I"m not to see you," she said simply.
"No," I cried. "But for two days I can"t tell you how I love you; how you"re the very breath of my life, the control of my brain and body and soul, how I"ll finally win you against everything! I"ll see you, and be with you, but for two long, weary, interminable days I can"t tell you that!"
"Mightn"t you," she smiled, a wee bit naughtily, "remind me each morning of those things you must not tell me during the two long, weary, interminable days? Then you wouldn"t be so likely to forget, and break your contract."
"Temptress! I wish we"d walked to the fort!" For, while we stood out of hearing, we were still in sight of the others.
"So do I," she laughed now, her eyes expressive of a most fascinating wickedness, a daredeviltry born of the knowledge that the proximity of outsiders made her safe. Tommy says that girls often take this unfair advantage of a fellow. Then Monsieur, believing the time for explanations should be up, came toward us.
At three o"clock our cavalcade started across the prairie for Efaw Kotee"s settlement. Tommy and Monsieur were keen to see it, and especially was the latter keyed up to ransack the place for proofs and information. Smilax led, keeping away from the graves. Doloria had made no reference to casualties, accepting them as an unfortunate necessity, and only once asked about the old chief"s fate.
I looked back at the Oasis growing small behind us and a great sorrow came over me. It was not easy to leave the place where I had found such happiness, the place sacred to our vows, our first dwelling together beneath G.o.d"s tent! It lay green and peaceful, but now upon a blackened sea. And, like that flame-swept land, so was my flame-swept heart; the fire of a resistless pa.s.sion had pa.s.sed over it, leaving amid the ashes one spot of beauty. She, also, had stopped to look at it and, as she turned away, our eyes met.
When we approached the islands I went forward with Tommy and Smilax, leaving Gates to command the rear guard composed of his two sailors, Bilkins and Monsieur. Echochee, supremely content to have found Doloria, remained at her side.
Four of the attacking party had escaped and might well have returned to their houses. We favored the theory, too, that Efaw Kotee had remained there, expecting his band to capture us; so, if the fugitives were with him, they could by now have prepared a formidable resistance. We therefore went warily up to a certain point and waited while Smilax crawled forward to reconnoiter.
He returned saying that three punts were on our side, from which he believed the men had not come back but were still putting as much distance between themselves and us as possible. Tommy thought the punts might mean a trap and, although Smilax shook his head in doubt at this, we brought up one of the sailors to cover our crossing in case of an attack. Then, scrambling down the steep bank, in less than a minute we stood upon the island stronghold. No shot had been fired, no sign of life existed anywhere. Running to the nearest cabin we hastily searched it, and ran to the next, and in this way came finally to the old chief"s bungalow. Here we halted, as if some horrible magic had turned us to stone.
Efaw Kotee, naked to the waist, a few dried smears of blood around his mouth, was there to meet us. His lips munched the air, as a very old man who interminably chews on nothing, and his chest rose convulsively, then rested several seconds before renewing its struggle for breath. He was repulsive beyond all human description; for, stretched as an animal skin to dry, legs and arms pulled wide apart with buckskin thongs, he had been fastened head down on the wall beside his door. Yet this was not all. Hanging at the end of a string--in fact, now resting inertly against his cheek--was the scarlet, black and yellow ringed body of a coral snake, the deadly elaps. Its head had been severed and lay upon the floor directly underneath.
In a flash I read the story: a duel of teeth between this captive reptile and the semi-crucified man; the one in anger wounding, the other snapping in his frenzy to sever that venomous head--his only means of escape from it. From the way the thongs had cut into his wrists and ankles I knew the struggle had been wild, yet much of this may have come from the insanity later kindled by the poison. But that period of torment now had pa.s.sed. Strength was exhausted, and life dangled by the merest thread.
I heard Tommy draw in his breath. With a shiver Smilax turned away.
Better than we he understood what the old man had endured. Together we cut the pitiable victim down, carried him inside and laid him on a kind of divan.
"Who did this?" Tommy kneeled and called in a loud voice close to his ear, hoping to reach a consciousness that had receded far into the shadows.
"I know who did it," I interrupted. "Quick! While there"s time let me ask something we"re not so sure about!" And, taking Tommy"s place, I called: "Is Doloria the princess of Azuria?"
It was so obviously my duty to see that she learned the truth from one who knew, that I may be forgiven this apparent disregard for the sufferer in our hands. But he showed no sign of having heard, although I called again and again in a more commanding voice. His mouth had not munched the air since we put him down, and Tommy, listening for a heart beat, looked up quietly, saying:
"Must have died on the way in."
"If we"d only come an hour ago," I exclaimed.
"No," Smilax shook his head, "him only squeal ve"y bad for last twelve hour. Me reckon some men come back last night; say he plan Lady run-"way; tie him up; tie on snake. No, him no talk hour ago. Coral snake bite make him ve"y crazy bad."
Tommy had arisen and was walking softly back and forth across the room.
Finally he stopped, saying over his shoulder:
"I"ll give odds there"s more in this old desk than he could have told in a week! Here"s a safe, too, stuck back in an alcove, that looks like it might hold a ton! You won"t have any trouble finding out things!"
I had not yet noticed the room, but now looked with interest at these places that promised to reveal so much. The room itself was large and expressive of luxury, without being luxuriously furnished. The fireplace, mantel, and furniture were of a good, home-made mission type, constructed from gyminda, Florida"s nearest approach to ebony; but the floor was covered with really beautiful rugs. Around the walls were built-in book shelves, mantel high, filled with the volumes Doloria had told me of. The piano was there, not an up-right as we had found on the _Orchid_, but a handsome grand, bearing one of the best names. A violin case lay upon it, while near by was a music stand. Altogether, these living quarters of Efaw Kotee showed a taste I would have expected.
Instinctively I crossed to the desk, but Tommy stopped me, saying:
"Not while that"s in here, old fellow," he jerked his head toward the divan. "In no other circ.u.mstances would he take it from us lying down, and it"s kind of rubbing it in, don"t you think so?"
"If you feel that way about it," I agreed. "But to rob a girl of seventeen years or so of life isn"t a crime that merits much sympathy."
"I reckon he pretty well paid up for it during last night and to-day,"
he said softly.
"Whether he did or not, I don"t owe him anything," I retorted, in no charitable vein, that I hope was caused by our excitement and excessive strain.
"You owe him a dog-gone lot," Tommy emphatically replied. "Look at those books, at that piano, at what is suggested by the violin case, at the refinement of this room--and then picture what might have been here!
Take another view, and consider what a fine chance you"d have had to meet her if that old codger hadn"t turned scamp off there in Azuria!
Anyway, we"ve got to clean up the signs of this butchery before she comes."
In an adjoining room we laid Efaw Kotee upon his own bed. The sheet that Tommy got out of a press to spread over him was, I noticed, of beautiful linen, and I felt softened toward the uncouth frame which, in this wilderness, had still demanded the refinements of life.
Locking the door, we pa.s.sed back to the living room and thence to the landing where, at our direction, the sailor signaled Gates to bring up his waiting party. As Doloria once more stepped upon the island I saw her eyes grow moist with tears.
We told her that the chief had been found dying, that now he was dead and the place deserted; but after she and Echochee had been rowed across to their own home and the two sailors posted to guard against a possible return of the outlaws, Monsieur and Gates accompanied us to the place of awful murder where we explained what we had found.
Monsieur pa.s.sed into the smaller room, but came out shaking his head and murmuring:
"The face is much changed, yet I recognize enough to feel reasonably sure it is he."
More positive proofs came when, with breathless interest, we went through the contents of the desk, taking things out in order and putting them aside after minute examination. The first of these was a seal, and the professor, bending over it, uttered a cry of surprise:
"The royal seal of Azuria! What deviltry could he have been contemplating when he stole this!"
Then came a blank sheet of note paper, stamped with a gold peak, surmounted by a gold crown and three lavender ostrich plumes--the Azurian royal crest. These two things alone were strong pieces of evidence for the professor"s sanguine expectation. There was nothing further of importance, so we turned to the safe which seemed impa.s.sively challenging us to get at its secrets, for the door stood fastened and the combination was unknown.
Monsieur kneeled, placed his ear against it, and began slowly to turn the k.n.o.b, listening intently for the little metal hammers, or tumblers, of the lock to fall clicking into place.