She was seated at her early supper, alone, and looked round in surprise, which quickly deepened into dire3 bewilderment and dread4.
"Farish!" she whispered with pale lips, as he cast off the soiled and travel-worn white Arab cloak which had covered him, showing himself a big, bent5, white-bearded, fierce-looking, haggard-faced fellow, barefooted, almost in rags. He was glancing about him with the expression of a wild beast in a cage while the old housekeeper gazed at him, breathing over-quickly, her hands at her heart.
"Ay, it's Farish, Janet," said he at length, in a very bitter voice, and threw himself wearily into a chair. "None other than your ne'er-do-well brother, Farish, come home to die on your hands. I've been hiding in the woods all day, waiting a chance to creep in. I'm starving, too."
She turned, trembling sickly, to a full cupboard and set more food on the table in haste. He fell upon it like a famished6 wolf, and while he was devouring7 it they talked, in broken sentences.
"Where have you come from—in such a state?" the old woman asked, watching him with woe8 in her face.
"From hell," he mumbled9 hoarsely10, his mouth full, "to square accounts with another devil who seems to have made the Castle of Loquhariot his home too. What's Dove, as he calls himself, doing here, Janet?"
"He came with the Lady Josceline Justice," Mrs. M'Kissock made difficult answer.
"He came with the Lady Josceline Justice!" repeated her brother mechanically, and ceased eating for an instant to stare at her out of blank, disbelieving eyes. Then he went on with his ravenous11 feast and his questioning. "Who else is here?"
"Mr. Slyne," his sister told him meekly12, "and Mr. Jobling, her ladyship's London lawyer. The Duchess of Dawn and Lord Ingoldsby came across the Pass to call on her ladyship this afternoon. And there's Mr. Herries, too, ill in bed, as he's been since the night of her ladyship's coming."
"I know the man Slyne," muttered Farish M'Kissock. "But—what's Lady Josceline Justice like?"
He listened attentively13 to his sister's brief, fond description, and then pushed the plates from before him.
"Can you give me something to drink now?" he asked, in a strained, unsteady voice. She brought him a bottle of wine from the cupboard and he swallowed some, very sparingly. It brought a little colour back into his ashen14 face.
"I'll eat some more in a minute or two," he muttered, and sank back into his chair, and sighed. And there he sat, still and silent, while the big grandfather's clock in its corner ticked away an eternity15 of suspense16.
"And so it's—her!" he whispered to himself, and looked up at his sister again as if he had been unaware17 of her company.
"Listen, Janet," said he then, in a stronger voice, "and I'll tell you something of what I owe Dove.
"When I had to flee this country, at the time of Lord St. Just's death, I took to the sea for a while, and, knocking about the world, I chanced across Dove and his ship—the old Fer de Lance it was then. And I signed on with him—it was in San Thomé—for reasons that don't matter now. But he and I soon fell foul18 of each other—for reasons that don't matter either—and what d'ye think he did to get rid of me! He set me ashore19, on the African coast, alone—to die in the desert there."
A dangerous light was beginning to burn in his sunken eyes. He had set his two twitching20 hands on the table, was leaning forward.
"But—I didn't die, after all, you see," he said. "I didn't die then, Janet. I'm not dead yet.
"It would only weary you to hear all that happened to me before I came into my kingdom. For I was as good as a king there, Janet, and—
"No, I'm not mad, though I might well be after all I've suffered through—him. It was a kingdom I'd made for myself before he came my way again. From Tripoli to the Susa, my word was all but law, and there was scarcely a tribe but paid me tribute. The Sultan of Morocco himself would send me presents when I passed by. I've fought and beaten the French, time and again, in country they claim for their own. They knew the Emir El Farish, Janet, although you think that it's raving21 I am.
"But never mind that. What you'll understand better is that I had come to be a very rich man there. I had horses and camels by hundreds, and gold and jewels almost more than I had time to count, and an army of fine fighting men to keep them all safe. I had wealth as well as power, all but as much as I wanted of both, when Dove came slinking into my camp on the coast one dark night, like some dirty jackal.
"His ship was lying in the bight, and—I had business on board with him. I went off in a boat, with no more than two of my men, blind fool that I was!
"I might have known better," he mused22 very bitterly, "but—
"He struck me down from behind. He turned me and my men adrift, insensible, in an open boat.
"It blew out to sea. I lived, without food or water, for nearly a week before I was picked up by a passing steamer that took me to Spain, but the other two died.
"I was as good as a king in Africa, and—Look at me now! I've lost all—all but these rags, and I'm spent, as the Spaniards say. I can't go back to reclaim23 what was mine. And what will have happened among my people without me, I can scarcely bear to think. For I was fond of them, Janet, in my own way.
"But, after all, it's enough for me now that I've found him again—and in time. I could scarcely believe that it was really him I saw by the hut."
He was speaking in a strange, far-away voice, almost contemplatively; and, while he spoke24, he was fingering the hilt of the long sheath-knife at his frayed25 black belt.
"Would you do murder here again, Farish!" whispered his sister, her clasped hands still tight at her heart. She had heard him out in tense silence, without a word. "Was not once enough! Must I be the one to betray you now—lest you do murder here again!"
Her brother's gaunt features twisted slowly into a horrible grin, and relaxed again into an expression of some concern as he observed her evident stress of mind.
"It was no murder, but justice, that I did on Torquil St. Just," said he. "He would have killed me if he could. But I suppose they will always blame me for his death, Janet; and it would no doubt go hard with me, even after all these years, if any but you knew my whereabouts.
"But—I'm safe with you, Janet. And I'll do no murder, I give you my word. I have other means—
"I'm safe with you, Janet," he repeated, glancing about the quiet, lamp-lit room.
"None will enter without my leave," she hastened to reassure26 him. "You can stay safe here, Farish, till we can come at some plan to help each other, for I cannot bide27 in the castle for long either, now you've come back.
"But—you must work no more harm in the house whose bread I have eaten so long. Whatever hurt Torquil St. Just did you, he has long gone to his account, and you have surely no ill will to her ladyship. She has suffered sorely too, poor thing! in her time, or I'm much mistaken."
"When did she come to Loquhariot?" Farish demanded.
"Not much more than a fortnight ago—and just in time. For before her had come, from America, a far cousin, one Mr. Justin Carthew, to claim the rights that are hers, thinking, as I did indeed, that she must be dead."
"You can't mean yon whistling, limber fellow that walks with a limp? I saw him too at the hut," said the wreck28 in the chair at the table with a sudden, fierce, eager light in his lack-lustre eyes. "But—I took him for a ghost. How came he here? My men told me—"
His sister had nodded silently. She sat staring at him in abject29 suspense, hope and despair alternately flitting across her wrinkled face.
But he said nothing more for some time. That last unaccountable twist of fate had almost stupefied him.
A telephone bell rang behind his sister, and startled him out of his reverie.
"Mr. Slyne says her ladyship wishes rooms prepared for the duchess and Lord Ingoldsby," she told him as she turned back from the instrument. "And dinner's to be served in the banquet-hall. I must be off about my business now, Farish. Will you wait here till I come again—and promise to work no more harm?"
"I'll find a quieter corner to hide in," he answered indifferently. And, in response to her harassed30 glance, "You must just trust me to take care of myself and not trouble you more than need be," he told her. "I know this old vulture's-nest well enough not to be discovered in it. And—I'll do Dove no violence, Janet; you have my pledged word for that."
She lingered still, almost distracted, not knowing what to do for the best. But she did know, of old and sad experience, how little heed31 he was likely to pay to any advice or direction of hers, and at last had to hurry away to her duties leaving him, safe enough there, to his own devices till she could return.
As soon as she had gone, he swallowed a little more of the food and wine on the table, put on his dirty white robe again, pulling its baggy32 hood33 well over his features, and, having assured himself that the long passage down which she had disappeared was empty, set out with soundless but steadier steps to secrete34 himself in some more remote recess35 of the spacious36 castle.
He knew his way about every turn of the back-corridors intimately. He was passing the gun-room pantry when he heard from within a voice that he recognised at once, shouting, "Hold your row!" He paused. Distant footfalls in the passage prompted him to a swift decision. The pantry door was ajar. He pushed it a little further open, stepped inside, and closed it behind him.
The place was practically in darkness, but he soon found the service-wicket, and, having first made sure that he would not be intruded37 upon, slipped the blade of his knife under its wooden shutter38, raised it, without sound, sufficiently39 to hear and see all that was going on in the gun-room.
His eyes began to gleam balefully as he looked through at its unsuspecting inmates40. The old man Dove and the London lawyer were evidently at loggerheads, but presently calmed down again, and grew almost confidential41 together. And afterwards Slyne came in to them with his contemptuous story of the White Lady—at which the lurking42 listener frowned anxiously, since it went to show that he must have been seen notwithstanding all his precautions. And then the lawyer got up to go.
To Slyne's subsequent conversation with Captain Dove the ex-Emir listened no less greedily, licking his lips. And after that he pushed noiselessly past the swing-door of the pantry, into their company. He thought he could see his way quite clearly by then.
Slyne drew back in speechless alarm at sight of the gaunt, hooded43 figure coming forward on soundless feet. Captain Dove had made an attempt to rise, but apparently44 could not; he sat still, staring over one shoulder, aghast, at that grey ghost of a man he had never expected to see again.
Farish M'Kissock threw back his hood and mutely held out his two empty hands. Slyne let one of his own fall from a hip-pocket. Captain Dove was evidently striving to speak. The silent intruder stood waiting to hear whatever he might have to say.
"How can it be!" Captain Dove said at length, in the difficult voice of one amazed almost beyond words, and got to his feet with an effort, to scan the intruder still more searchingly, to stare transfixed at the tangled45 grey locks which had formerly46 been of a flaming red.
"It is—Farish!" he whispered fearfully, as if at last convinced in spite of himself. And the man before him nodded slowly, three times.
"None but me, Captain Brown—or Captain Dove—or whatever you care to call yourself," said Farish M'Kissock, and tried to moisten his dry lips with a dry tongue. "None but the man you have twice betrayed and turned adrift to die like a dog; once in the desert and yet again in a boat on the open sea."
"Didn't you get ashore?" Slyne asked softly, as if he thought that the mysterious new-comer must be mad, and did not desire to anger him.
"Sit down, both of you," said Farish M'Kissock, "and we'll talk together. 'Tis no more than meet that you should both know the why and the wherefore of what's to come. I will not seek to harm you," he said, and so sat down himself.
Slyne seated himself on the table and Captain Dove was content with an arm of the chair in which he had been ensconced; both were obviously prepared to spring up again instantly. And Farish M'Kissock looked at his leisure from one to the other of them before he said anything more. Captain Dove's unusual attire47 seemed to hold his attention.
"You've changed your coat since you saw me last," he at length remarked in an even, almost indifferent voice. "And you've come to a very snug48 anchorage. You're both going to settle down here and be gentlemen now, I suppose."
Captain Dove glared at him, but could not overmaster his steady glance and at last was compelled to seek shelter behind his smoked glasses, at which added disguise his enemy gazed with no less offensive interest.
"You have both done very well for yourselves," said Farish M'Kissock, and turned toward Slyne.
"You're going to marry the Lady Josceline Justice," said he. "And so—you'll be master here—of her and her millions. You'll be a rich man then—but not so rich, surely, as I'd have been if you two had kept your bargain with me; for I was not bankrupt when Captain Dove promised her to me—though I'm bankrupt now."
His slow speech stung, but they both heard him out in hang-dog silence.
"I'm bankrupt now," he repeated, looking over at Captain Dove. "All I won for myself in this world I've lost, thanks to you. And so—I've made my way home, to die. They told me in the hospital that I hadn't long to live then, and I reckon my tramp across the mountains will help to finish me. But—first, there's our account to be squared; all I have lost."
"I'll make that up to you, Farish," said Captain Dove, finding his tongue again, and evidently anxious to be very diplomatic since he could by no means outface his former accomplice49. "I'll do the right thing by you now. I hadn't any idea, you know, but that you'd get safely ashore and back to your camp—"
"It was a long chance you took, with the wind offshore," the other broke in, without raising his voice, in the same implacable monotone. "It was almost too long. But the boat you set me adrift in was picked up far out at sea, with two dead men in it, and one who was minded to live long enough to repay what he owes you.
"What has happened among my folks there, God alone knows. But they would fare ill without me, I fear, and—I had some liking50 for them."
"You've always been far too soft-hearted, Farish. That's your only fault," said Captain Dove encouragingly. "Forget them—and I'll make all the rest up to you."
"But how did you come here?" Slyne demanded with more spirit than he had at first shown.
He had to wait some time for an answer, but Captain Dove did not interrupt again, and presently the other proceeded to make that also more clear.
"You don't know yet who I am now," he muttered. "I had forgotten—
"I'm Farish M'Kissock, own brother to old Janet, the housekeeper here. And I was born at Loquhariot, after my father came from Kilmarnock to be head-keeper to the old earl. That's why I call it home, though it's no home of mine.
"I left the last half of my name behind me when I fled the country, long years ago, at the time of Lord St. Just's death. I had a hand in that, although I did not murder him as some said. He had done me a foul wrong, the foulest51 one man may do another. It cost him his life, but—I did not murder him. That would have been but a poor revenge in my eyes. I would fain he had lived till this day."
"And what do you propose to do now?" Slyne asked, somewhat impatiently. He had evidently got over his first confusion.
The ex-Emir regarded him meditatively52 for a moment or two, and then broke into a low, mirthless laugh.
"You're going to marry the Lady Josceline Justice," said he, "and you're in a hurry. You've no time to waste on me—or on my memories of old wrongs. Well, I don't blame you. I once had a fancy for her myself, and—I was in just such a hurry; when my wife died in my arms as we carried her out from my camp, to suit your convenience, Captain Dove, and I hadn't even the time to bury my own dead wife decently before I put off to your ship in search of—the other. If I had been in less haste about it, I'd maybe have made better speed.
"But you've managed very well for yourself, so far, Mr. Slyne. Though you've robbed me of one who should have been mine, just as did Torquil St. Just.
"And now—if you'll wait for a minute more—I'll even matters among us; and you'll understand the drift of my story better. You've managed very well for yourself, so far, and you've very nearly won all you wanted. But—here I am, just in time.
"Did it ever come out how the Countess of Jura, the dancer that was, met her death?"
Slyne, listening with strained attention now, nodded swift assent53. Captain Dove, crouched54 low on his perch55, was gazing at Farish M'Kissock as if fascinated.
"She shot herself," said the ex-Emir, with the calm certainty of one who can vouch56 for his facts, "rather than fall into the hands of my men. We had raided a camp of fool tourists who had come too far afield, to find out what the real desert was like, and she was among them. She saw me before she pulled trigger, and knew me, and cried on me to save her child.
"All the rest were—wiped out. But—I spared the child, because—it had the Jura blood in its veins57. It was the Lady Josceline Justice, and she grew up among our tents until she died in my arms the same night I made my unlucky bargain with you, Captain Dove; and I hadn't even the time to bury her ladyship, my dead wife, decently before I put off to your ship!"
He drew a skeleton-like hand across his sunken eyes and blinked at the blazing logs on the hearth58 before him.
"And now you know where the real Lady Josceline Justice is," said he.
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1
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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ravenous
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| adj.极饿的，贪婪的 | |
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meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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14
ashen
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| adj.灰的 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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raving
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| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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reclaim
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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baggy
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| adj.膨胀如袋的，宽松下垂的 | |
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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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secrete
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| vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘 | |
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recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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intruded
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| n.侵入的，推进的v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的过去式和过去分词 )；把…强加于 | |
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shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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50
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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51
foulest
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| adj.恶劣的( foul的最高级 )；邪恶的；难闻的；下流的 | |
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52
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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53
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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54
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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56
vouch
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| v.担保；断定；n.被担保者 | |
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57
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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58
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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