A Fascinating Traitor Part 24

But when Simpson entered his master's room he was followed by a wild-eyed returning emissary, who waited till the old soldier had left the room. Hugh Johnstone suddenly lost all interest in the breakfast tray, the letters and his morning toilet, when the Hindu fearfully said: "They are all gone--the Mem-Sahib, the two foreign devils, and all their belongings!"

Johnstone was on his feet with a single bound. "Gone! What do you tell me, you fool?" He was shaking the slim-boned native as if he were a man of straw.

"They went to the railroad at two o'clock at night, the coachman told me. We only began our watch by your orders at daybreak. She had been then gone four hours." Johnstone foamed in an impotent rage.

"Who is left in the house?" he roared.

"n.o.body, Sahib." tersely said the Hindu.

"Get out and send me Simpson!" the old man sternly said. "Go back and watch that house till I have you relieved. Tell me everyone who goes in or out!"

And then the horrible fear that Willoughby or Abercromby had deceived him, began to dawn upon his excited mind. "Simpson," he cried, "there's a good fellow! Take the first trap and get over to Major Hawke. Tell him that I must see him here, at once, on the most important business. He must come. Then get to Ram Lal, and bring him yourself to your own room.

Let me know, privately, when he is there. Never mind my dressing. Send me a couple of the others. Is the General awake?"

"Just coming down for his ride! Horses ordered in half an hour!"

Simpson fled away, muttering, "Hardwicke must know of this!"

Hugh Johnstone fancied that he was dreaming when he met his official guest, refreshed and jovial, but still under the spell of Venus.

"See here, Hugh!" said the gallant Abercromby. "I want you to present me to that stunning woman over there, at the Silver Bungalow, you know.

They tell me she's the Queen of Delhi. You old rascal, I'm bound to know her! Can't we have a little breakfast there, under the rose?" A last desperate expedient occurred to Johnstone. His baronetcy was in danger now.

"There's but one man in Delhi can bring you within the fairy circle.

That's Hawke--a devilish good officer too, by the way! Ought to be back on the 'Temporary Staff,' at least! He comes here to breakfast! I'll turn you over to him. He manages all the lady's private affairs. He is your man."

General Abercromby turned a stony eye upon his host. "Does Willoughby go there?" he huskily whispered.

"Never crossed the line! Hawke is far too shy. You see, Willoughby has not recognized Major Hawke's rank and past services!"

"Ah!" said the jealous warrior. "If Hawke is the man you say he is, I can get the Viceroy to give him a local rank, in two weeks! Send him down with me to Calcutta!" and the gay old would-be lover jingled away on his morning ride.

"This may be my one anchor of safety!" gasped the wondering Johnstone, as Alan Hawke came dashing into the grounds. In half an hour, the broken entente cordiale was restored, and Johnstone had slipped away and questioned the wary Ram Lal.

"All I know is that the lady hired the house temporarily from me, I am agent for Runjeet Hoy, who owns it now. She went without a word, and gave me three hundred pounds yesternight, for her rent and supplies. I asked the Mem-Sahib no questions. She went away all by herself, in the middle of the night."

"Ah! You know nothing more?" sharply queried Johnstone.

"Of course not! I thought you, or Hawke Sahib, or General Wilhoughby, was a secret friend." Slyly said Ram Lal.

"She owes you nothing? You do not expect her to return?" the nabob cried.

"I think she has gone to Calcutta! She came from there."

"Come to-night, privately, Ram Lal. I'll show you how to get in. Just tap at my bedroom window three times. Come secretly, at eleven o'clock, and find out all you can. Wait in the garden till the house is dark.

I'll pay you well," continued Johnstone, leading the old jeweler to his bedroom. "I will leave this one window unfastened. So you can come in!

The room will be dark!"

"The Sahib shall be obeyed!" said Ram Lal, salaaming to the ground, and he was happy at heart as he glided out of the garden. A ferocious smile of coming triumph gleamed in his dark face. "I have him now! He will never slip away in the night! But I must please him, and lie to him!" It was the chance for which he had vainly waited there many years, and Ram Lal prayed to great Bowaaee to aid him.

"Hawke!" said Johnstone, when his astounded listener heard all of Johnstone's proposed infamy. "I have telegraphed to Allahabad and Calcutta. This strange woman has gone down there. Now, I want you to fall in with Abercromby. He will go down in a few days. Bring them together in any way you can. The General and the beauty. No fool like an old fool!" he grinned. "Watch them and post me! Abercromby is already well disposed to you. Make a play on him. He will get you a temporary rank from the Viceroy.

"Your matchless knowledge of the Himalayas and the whole northern frontier will earn you a regular rank. Coddle Anstruther, too, and cling to the Vice-roy! I'll back you with any money you need. It's the one chance of a life!"

"And what am I to do for you, Johnstone?" quietly said the delighted Hawke.

"Just stand by me about this baronetcy, and bamboozle this d.a.m.ned foolish woman, while I slip quietly away to Europe! She is mercurial and vain. Abercromby will get her into the fast Calcutta set, after one necessary appearance at the Viceroy's! She is, after all, only a woman.

You can catch them with a feather, if you can catch them at all! Once properly launched by Abercromby, you are a made man for life! He will not dare to 'go back on you!' as our Yankee cousins have it. The Viceroy will do anything for him!"

"By G.o.d! Johnstone! I'm your man! Count on me in life and death!" warmly cried Hawke. The two men clasped hands.

There was a clatter and a jingle. The old warrior was on his return.

"Here he comes now! Fall in with his humor, and success to you at Calcutta," whispered Johnstone. There was the very jolliest breakfast imaginable at the marble house that day, and that same afternoon Major.

Alan Hawke rode all over Delhi as volunteer aide to General Abercromby.

Two nights later General Abercromby whispered to Hugh Johnstone, at a Grand Ball at Willoughby's Headquarters: "I've just had a telegram from the Viceroy to return at once. Your matter is now all right. I leave the property with Willoughby here. I'll go down in the morning, if you'll fix me up." And then, Johnstone signing to Major Alan Hawke, who had been the cynosure of all eyes, as he gracefully led Madame la Generate Willoughby through a lanciers, took the favorite of fortune aside.

"Make your adieux! Get out of here! Settle all your little affairs! Send all your traps over to my house! General Abercromby wants to slip away quietly in the morning! No one is to know! And you go with him, at his urgent request."

And that very evening at Calcutta, Alixe Delavigne would have laughed in triumph to know of Hugh Johnstone's strange eagerness to dispatch his amorous guest. For the lady--in the safe haven of the great banker's home--had just returned from a captivated Viceroy, who had instantly recalled Abercrornby by a dispatch to be "obeyed forthwith."

"You, Madame, have laid me under an obligation which I can never forget," said the graceful statesman. The list of Ram Lal was in his hands now! And so Hugh Johnstone was highly pleased, and Madame Berthe Louison, still in her masquerade, was happy, and the watchful Commanding-General Willoughby was more than pleased; and the now doubly hopeful Major Alan Hawke rejoiced, while General Abercromby knew that the "little party" was waiting him in Calcutta. But most of all pleased was Ram Lal Singh, clutching in his dreams at the dagger of Mirzah Shah, lying there by his bedside. "He will be left alone, and he knows my signal--his own device--THREE TAPS AT HIS WINDOW! In Delhi there only lingered, sad and lonely, Major Harry Hardwicke, whose sighs were echoed back from afar by a starry-eyed girl watching the sandy sh.o.r.es of the Suez Ca.n.a.l.

"I dare not telegraph to him till we reach Brindisi," mused the loving girl. "After that our path will be plain, and Justine MUST help me! Then he can follow me--if he loves me!" She faltered, hiding her blushing face. The only comforter of the lonely Hardwicke was "Rattler Murray."

Red Eric, of the Eighth Lancers, had just fallen into a pot of money.

"Take your long leave, my boy!" he cried. "I've been nine long years a Lieutenant! I'll have my troop before my leave is out! And there's a loving la.s.s awaiting me! One I love--one who loves me--one you must know, for you must be the 'best man'!"

"Wait, only wait a couple of weeks, Eric!" said the Major, whose eyes were now turned daily to Simpson. "Then I'll put in my own application, and we'll go home together."

This bright hope was duly pledged in many a loving cup.

General Abercromby was far away on the road to Calcutta when Major-General Willoughby sent, posthaste, for Major Harry Hardwicke of the Corps of Engineers. The puzzled Commanding General was racking his brains to find out if his old friend Abercromby had committed any fatal error during his somewhat baccha.n.a.lian visit on "special duty."

"I'm glad he is gone" mused the stout-hearted, thick-headed old Commander, as he read, over and over, the Viceroy's cipher dispatch to the departed General.

"Do nothing further! Turn over all property, on invoice, to General Willoughby, and report here forthwith. Hold no communication with Johnstone, and guard an absolute silence. Report in person, instantly on your arrival."

"Something has surely gone wrong!" at last decided Willoughby. "Old Hugh Fraser Johnstone may have been too much for him. Strange, the Viceroy says nothing of him!" And then he read a second dispatch, with the Viceroy's orders to himself. "Notify Major Harry Hardwicke, Royal Engineers, to report in person, to the Viceroy for special duty, prepared to go in a week to England on duty. Absolute secrecy required.

His leave application will be approved for any period, to take effect on his completion of duties a.s.signed, in London. Special cipher orders will be sent to him this A.M. Deliver them and furnish him the code No. 2.

No copies to be retained. Furnish Major Hardwicke with a captain and ten picked men to escort the property received by General Abercromby to Calcutta. Invoices to you to be signed by him. Property to be sent down in sealed pay-chests, with your seal and Major Hardwicke's. Report compliance, and telegraph in cipher No. 2 Hardwicke's departure for Calcutta. Special transportation has been ordered."

"There, my boy, you have your orders!" an hour later said General Willoughby when Major Hardwicke reported. "I am glad to have the whole thing off my hands. Here is the double-ciphered code. You are to translate for yourself, and, remember, then destroy your translation.

Remember, also, one single whisper of your destination, and you are a ruined man! Evidently the Viceroy is bent on trapping old Hugh Johnstone. d.a.m.n him, for a sneaking civilian! I never trusted him!" And the old General rolled away for his family tiffin. "I'll see you when you have translated the private orders. Thank G.o.d, the Viceroy keeps me out of this dirty muddle! You see, I have no power over Johnstone--he is a blasted civilian." Two hours later, the grateful old General found Hardwicke pacing up and down impatiently. "I ought only to tell Murray,"

he murmured, "if I could! He is going home to be married, and I am to stand up with him."

"Just the thing!" gayly cried Willoughby. "Murray's captaincy is in the Gazette of to-day's mail. I will order him down with you, in command of the guard, and, at Calcutta, the Viceroy will release you from your promise, so as to let him know that you can meet him in London. His Excellency evidently wants to hoodwink all the gossips here, and, above all, to blind old Johnstone. Now, Harry, I feel like a brute to let you go without a poor send-off, but, by Heaven, the whole Willoughby clan will follow you in London, and pay off a part of our debt for that 'run-under fire' with my wounded boy. Name anything you want. Do you want any help to watch Johnstone?" The old General was eager.