“I met your cousin first, whilst I was staying in the neighbourhood of Harrow Fell. There was a shooting party, and Dick Bracknell made himself very agreeable to me. You are to understand that I was rather lonely, and that I was new to English ways, having lived most of my life up here.”
She was silent for a moment, and Corporal Bracknell nodded.
“I think I understand how you must have felt, Miss Gargrave, and I know that Dick could make himself attractive.”
As he spoke his eyes looked in the direction of the bluff6 where the river turned. The small black figure which he had observed was moving again, and if he were not mistaken was coming down the[59] river. He kept an observant eye upon it, whilst his companion resumed.
“You are quite right. All the vacation, which I spent in Westmorland, your cousin was very attentive3 to me, and knowing that he was Sir James Bracknell’s heir, I was flattered by his attentions, and a little proud that he should find me attractive, when there were others who—who might have meant more to him.”
“You were too humble7, Miss Gargrave,” said the corporal.
“Perhaps I was,” replied the girl, smiling wanly8. “But that is how I felt at the time.... At the end of the autumn, just before I went back to Newnham for the Mich?lmas term, he proposed to me.”
Again for a moment she was silent, and the corporal glancing at her caught a pensive9 look upon her face, and guessed that she was reviewing that occasion in her mind. He waited for what seemed quite a long time, then he said encouragingly, “Yes?”
“I did not accept him then.”
“Why not?”
“For two reasons; the first because I was not quite sure that I loved him, and the second because I was not prepared to take such a step without first consulting my father.”
“They were both very excellent reasons.”
“So they seemed to me, but Lady Alcombe, under whose care I was whilst in England, did not agree with me.”
“You were under the care of Lady Alcombe?”
[60]
There was an accent of surprise in the young man’s voice, which the girl was quick to note.
“You know her?” she asked quickly. “You are surprised that I should have been under her chaperonage?”
“Yes,” he admitted frankly10. “I know Lady Alcombe, and I know her set. It is a fast and exclusive one. I am a little surprised that any one should have selected her to chaperone a young girl.”
“My father did not understand,” was the quick reply. “He had known Lady Alcombe before her marriage, and she was a distant relation of ours. He did not know the set to which she belonged, and it was perhaps natural that he should have looked to her to watch over me.... For myself, I was young, I had no experience, and though there were things that I did not understand, things that shocked me, I did not mention them to my father, or indeed to any one.”
“And Lady Alcombe approved of my cousin Dick?”
“She did. She laughed at my scruples11, and urged me to accept him, declaring that my father would be only too ready to see me the wife of a man who would some day be the Squire12 of Harrow Fell. But I did not yield—then. I knew there was plenty of time, and as my father was expecting to visit England a few months later, I said that I would wait until he arrived.”
“And afterwards?” asked the corporal.
“Afterwards!” A tragic13 look came on the girl’s face, and to his surprise she broke again into tears.
He waited patiently, and as he did so noted14 that[61] the figure up the river was certainly drawing nearer. After a little time the girl recovered her composure, and when she resumed there was a tragic note in her voice.
“I was very ignorant, and your cousin and Lady Alcombe presumed upon my ignorance. I was to stay with her at Alcombe Manor15 for the Christmas season, and towards the end of the term she sent word that she and Dick were going to fetch me by car, as the rail journey was rather an awkward one.... When the day came, your cousin showed up alone, explaining that Lady Alcombe had an attack of influenza16 which, of course, had made it impossible for her to accompany him. It was all so natural that I thought nothing of it until afterwards, and I set out on the journey accompanied only by your cousin.”
A stern look came on the corporal’s face, though the girl, looking straight ahead and absorbed in her thoughts, did not notice it.
“We missed the way, and went astray, I say missed the way, though now I am quite sure that it was done of deliberate purpose, and that your cousin knew our whereabouts all the time. It began to snow, and late in the evening we reached a little village in Wiltshire when something went wrong with the engine. I do not believe now that there was anything at all the matter with the car, but Dick said there was, and as it was impossible to proceed further, and there was no train service on the little local line five miles away, there was nothing for it but to stay the night at the little inn, half tavern17, half farm, which was all the accommodation[62] that the village afforded.... There was a motherly woman there who did her best to make me comfortable, and I shared a room with her two daughters, whilst your cousin was accommodated with a settle in the kitchen. Next morning, Dick tinkered at the car, and about noon we started afresh, and reached the Manor just before dinner time.... Lady Alcombe, who had apparently18 recovered from her influenza, was in a great state of perturbation, and when I entered the hall, where a number of guests were assembled, she rushed to me. ‘My dear Joy,’ she cried, ‘where have you been? I have been worried almost to death about you, and have been telegraphing and telephoning all over the place.’
“I laughingly explained, and whilst I was doing so, one of the men gave a whistle of surprise, and a girl whom I had never liked began to giggle19. Lady Alcombe allowed me to finish my explanation, there before all her guests, then she said icily—
“‘After so many adventures you must be tired. You had better go to your room. I will come to you.’
“As I went, I knew there was something wrong somewhere. One or two of the men looked at me in an unpleasant way, and the girl whom I have mentioned was giggling21 hatefully.... Lady Alcombe came to me before I had changed, and ordered the maid out of the room, then she said, ‘My dear Joy, you have behaved most indiscreetly.... I do not know what to say ... what to think. And to tell a story like that before all those[63] people not one of whom will believe it! It is dreadful, positively22 dreadful!’
“I was bewildered. I did not know what was wrong, and I said so, adding that I had only told the simple truth.
“‘They will not believe it,’ she said. ‘You and Dick will be the talk of the place. I really do not know what to say. I am surprised at Dick Bracknell, and at you for being so simple as to tell.... That Jolivet girl was openly laughing at you.’
“Her tone and manner told me better than her words the vile23 thing she was hinting at, and when I realized it, I broke down and cried.”
She paused, and as the corporal recalled what Lady Alcombe was, and visioned that scene between the fast woman of the world and the innocent girl in her care, he ground his teeth, and looked away from the beautiful face which was working with emotion.
“... When I did that Lady Alcombe changed her tone. ‘There’s only one thing to do,’ she said, ‘and that is to make the best of it. Thank goodness! Dick is over head and ears in love with you, and, as you know, he is only too anxious to marry you. You will have to take him now—to save your good name, Joy. It is the only way, for no one will believe your story, however true it may be, and so I advise you to make up your mind to the inevitable24.... Things might be a great deal worse. Dick will be a baronet some day, and his wife will have a position that no one will challenge. Just think it over, my dear, and you will see that I am altogether right.’
[64]
“I did think it over,” said the girl slowly, “and in the end I agreed to marry Dick privately25, making up my mind to explain the matter to my father, later. What else was there that I could do? I had no suspicion of anything at the time. Dick wanted me, and I liked him, whilst there were people at Alcombe who did not fail to let me see what they thought, and Lady Alcombe did not stint26 persuasion27.”
“When did you find out that the delay in arriving at Alcombe was anything but an accident?” asked the corporal thoughtfully.
“On the very morning I was married. We had returned from the church, just Dick and myself and Lady Alcombe, and I was in the library writing a note to a friend at Newnham, when I heard two people enter. The library is a little draughty, and a footman had placed a screen for me, and this completely hid me from any one entering at the door. The two who entered were Lady Alcombe and Dick. I heard her laugh and say—
“‘You owe me five thousand pounds, Dick. I hope you won’t be very long in paying, for the truth is, I am beastly hard up, and I daren’t ask Sir Alfred for a penny at the present time.’
“Dick laughed also, and I caught his answer. ‘As soon as that old duffer in the Klondyke makes his settlements I’ll pay you, Mary. You deserve it. That was a pretty little scheme of yours, and it has gone like clockwork....’
“It came on me like a flash then. I saw how everything had been arranged, and how I had been trapped and hustled28 into marrying your cousin.[65] In that moment I hated him, and I have done so ever since.... I sat there too startled to make my presence known, and after a little time they went out, without learning that I had overheard them. I continued to sit there thinking. I scarcely knew what to do. It was arranged that we were to go to Paris for the honeymoon29; and I was afraid that they would somehow make me accept that arrangement, and bewildered though I was, I was determined30 that I would not do so, that I would never allow Dick Bracknell to be in fact what he was in name.... I went to my room, secured my travelling coat and some money, and fled from the house, without leaving so much as a note to indicate where I was going—I went to Cambridge to the friend to whom I had been writing, and who was staying there reading through the vacation. I told her everything, and on her advice wrote to Lady Alcombe, explaining the situation, and averring31 that I would never live with Dick Bracknell. In reply I got a telegram from him saying that he would be down to see me the next day, and praying me to grant him an interview. He never came. Something happened and he had to leave England. Do you know what it was? I have never heard.”
“Yes,” answered the corporal slowly. “I know, and I think it is only right that you should know. You knew perhaps that Dick was in the Artillery32?”
“Yes!” answered the girl.
“He was interested in his job. He was a good officer. It is the one thing to his credit that I know. There was a new gun, and he had access to the plans. He stole a copy, and sold them to the agent[66] of a foreign government. The theft was discovered and traced, but a friend dropped Dick a telegram which was forwarded to Alcombe Manor—and he ran for it, and got clear away. I imagine that explains why he did not visit you at Cambridge. Of course, the affair was hushed up, as such affairs are, and it is nearly forgotten now, though England would not be a safe place for him. Did you ever hear from him afterwards?”
“Not until last night,” was the reply. “When his note came to me, it was a great shock.”
The corporal nodded. “I can readily imagine that it would be.... Did your father ever know of your marriage?”
“No, thank God! I wrote to him, but before he received the letter the accident occurred by which he lost his life. I found the letter here unopened, when I came here to comply with the terms of his will. I was glad to get here. I was so overborne by the deceit and vileness33 of those I had thought were my friends in England!”
“They were not all deceitful, surely?” expostulated the young man.
“No! Some are my friends still. I am going to England very shortly, and I shall stay with one of them in Westmorland.”
“Will you ever return here?”
“Most certainly. North Star is my home—I love it, and I have always felt myself safe here—until last night.”
Bracknell understood that she meant that she had felt that in this lodge34 in the wilderness35 she was safe from his cousin, and nodded his head.
[67]
“I understand,” he said, but forbore to add what was in his mind; namely, that if Dick Bracknell had not died on the previous night, North Star would be no longer the sanctuary36 it had been.
They walked forward for a moment without speaking. A rise in the ground covered with snow-laden saskatoon bushes hid the river from them for a little time, and as they breasted it, and the river came into view again, they surprised a pedestrian climbing up the bank. It was Mr. Rayner.
He was obviously a little startled by the meeting, but a moment later recovered himself.
“Been out for a constitutional,” he explained, “as far as the bend of the river, and I’ve had quite sufficient. Are you ready to return?”
The girl nodded, but the corporal, whose eyes were surveying the empty landscape in front, shook his head.
“I shall walk on a little,” he said, “I may be going up stream tomorrow. The Elkhorn falls in somewhere about here, doesn’t it?”
“Just beyond the bluff there,” answered Joy.
“Then I’ll take a look at it, and see what the trail is like.”
He nodded and walked on leaving Joy Gargrave to return with Rayner. He waited until they were out of sight and then descended37 to the frozen surface of the river, where the going was easier, the trail having been packed by prospectors38 moving up and down. He reached the bluff in a short time, but did not go round it. His gaze was arrested by the trail of a sled which had come down the bank to the river at a point just below the bluff, and by[68] recent footmarks. He remembered the figure he had seen whilst walking with Joy Gargrave, unquestionably that of Rayner, for there were his footmarks turning south from the bluff. A thought struck him, and examining the snow carefully, he found no tracks running northward39. A little puzzled he looked at the sled trail again, and there made the discovery that the single footmarks that ran side by side with the sled-trail, had been made not by one pair of feet but by two, some one having quite recently adapted his stride to the tracks already made. Puzzled and interested he followed the sled trail up the bank and began to trace it through the wood at the top.
An hour later, still following the sled-trail he struck the river again, and found himself exactly opposite the landing which led to North Star Lodge. As he realized this he nodded thoughtfully. The sled trail he had been following, when he had encountered Joy Gargrave, led directly across the river. But whose sled was it? And why had Rayner traced it so carefully, at the same time endeavouring to cover his own trail? The first question was one for which he had no answer, and the second was an equal puzzle. Clearly Rayner had been interested in the sled-trail since he had followed it for two miles; and plainly he was anxious to conceal40 his interest, since he had walked so carefully in the footsteps of the unknown driver, and had made no reference to the matter whatever. Did he know something—something that he did not wish to make known?
[69]
The corporal thought that very likely he did, but could not even conjecture41 what the secret knowledge might be. There was a puzzled frown on his face, as he turned in the direction of the Lodge, and when he came in sight of the house he became aware of a considerable bustle42. In the open space in front two sleds were drawn43 up, and a considerable number of dogs were lying about or nosing in the snow for lost fragments of food. Two Indians and a half-breed were standing44 near the sleds smoking and talking. Bracknell recognized the half-breed for a man who had been in the service of the police as a driver.
“Hallo, Jacques,” he asked, “what brings you to North Star?”
Jacques grinned responsively. “I bring a letter—I and dese, Co’pral. Yees two dog teams to deleever one petite lettre. But we take sometings else back weeth us, I tink.”
“Indeed!” laughed the corporal. “What may that be?”
“I tink we take a lady, de lady of North Star!” The corporal gave vent20 to a whistle of surprise, and after a few more words passed into the house. There he met Mr. Rayner, who smiled at him.
“We have news for you, Corporal. We start for England tomorrow. A message has just reached us from my father, and Miss Gargrave’s presence is urgently required on a matter of business.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, and I think we shall all be glad to get[70] away. That mysterious affair of last night would be rather a disturbing thing to reflect upon in a lonely place like this.”
The corporal nodded, made some casual remark, and passed to his own room, where he sat for quite a long time, smoking, with a very thoughtful look upon his face.
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1
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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2
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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3
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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4
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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5
speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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6
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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7
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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8
wanly
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| adv.虚弱地；苍白地，无血色地 | |
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9
pensive
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| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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10
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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11
scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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12
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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13
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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14
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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15
manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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influenza
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| n.流行性感冒，流感 | |
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17
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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18
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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19
giggle
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| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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21
giggling
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 ) | |
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22
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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23
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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24
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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26
stint
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| v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
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27
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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28
hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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31
averring
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| v.断言( aver的现在分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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32
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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33
vileness
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| n.讨厌，卑劣 | |
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34
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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35
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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36
sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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37
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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38
prospectors
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| n.勘探者，探矿者( prospector的名词复数 ) | |
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39
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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40
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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41
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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42
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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43
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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44
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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