Manasseh Part 18

"Do not betray to Blanka any anxiety on my account. If G.o.d be with me, who shall prevail against me?

"Your brother, "MANa.s.sEH."

CHAPTER XVI.

A DESPERATE HAZARD.

After finishing his letter, Mana.s.seh took a number of banknotes out of his pocketbook and put them into his waistcoat pocket, and then softly slipped the pocketbook itself, with his letter, under Aaron's pillow. On Blanka's pure brow, as she lay asleep, he gently pressed a parting kiss, after which he heaped fresh fuel on the fire, stole out of the cave, saddled his horse, and rode away into the darkness.

The signal-fire on Monastery Heights showed him where to find the Wallachian camp. No outposts challenged his progress, and he made his way unmolested to the ruined monastery which sheltered the insurgents.

Fastening his horse to a tree, he turned his steps toward the belfry tower that marked the position of the cloister and the chapel, which, as the only building on the mountain with a whole roof, served the Wallachian leader and his staff as headquarters.

Softly opening the door, Mana.s.seh found himself in a low but s.p.a.cious apartment. Twelve men were seated around a table on which stood a single tallow candle, whose feeble rays could hardly pierce the enveloping clouds of tobacco smoke. The company was engaged in that engrossing pursuit which, as is well known, claimed so much of the officers' time during the campaigns of the period,--they were playing cards.

One chair in the circle was empty. Perhaps its former occupant had gambled away his last kreutzer and left the room. At any rate, the newcomer advanced without hesitation and took the vacant seat. It may be that the players were too absorbed in their game to notice him; or possibly they had so recently come together that they were not yet sufficiently acquainted to detect a stranger's presence; or, again, the feeble light and the clouds of tobacco smoke may have rendered it impossible to distinguish one's neighbours very clearly. Whatever the reason, the stranger's advent elicited no comment. A pocketful of money furnished him all the language he needed to speak, and the cards were dealt to him as a matter of course. Opposite him sat the Wallachian leader.

The game proceeded and the stakes rose higher and higher. One after another the losers dropped out, until at last Mana.s.seh and the Wallachian commander were left pitted against each other, a heap of coins and banknotes between them. Fortune declared for Mana.s.seh, and he swept the acc.u.mulated stakes into his pocket. At this the others looked him more sharply in the face. "Who is he?" was asked by one and another.

"Why, you are Mana.s.seh Adorjan!" exclaimed the leader at length, in astonishment. "What do you mean by this rashness?"

The faces around him a.s.sumed threatening looks, and more than one muttered menace fell on his ear; but the hardy intruder betrayed no sign of uneasiness.

"I trust I am among gentlemen," he remarked, quietly, "who will not seek a base revenge on a player that has won their money from them."

The words failed not of their effect. Honour forbade that a hand should be raised against the fortunate winner.

"But, Adorjan," interposed the leader, in a tone of mingled wonder and vexation, "how did you come here and what is your purpose?"

"Time enough to talk about that when we have finished playing," was the careless rejoinder. "First I must win the rest of your money. So have the goodness to resume your seats."

The company began to laugh. Clenched fists relaxed, and the men clapped the intruder jovially on the shoulder, as they again took their places around the table.

"Haven't you a spare pipe to lend me?" Mana.s.seh asked his right-hand neighbour.

"Yes, yes, to be sure," was the ready reply.

Mana.s.seh filled the proffered pipe, drew from his pocket a banknote which he rolled into a lighter, thrust it into the candle-flame, and so kindled his pipe, after which he took up his cards and began to play.

A faint-hearted man, on finding his own and his brothers' lives thus at stake, would have sought to curry favour by allowing his opponents to win. But not so Mana.s.seh. He plundered the company without mercy, as before, and as before he and his _vis-a-vis_ were at last left sole antagonists, while the others rose from their places and gathered in groups about these two. Mana.s.seh still continued to win, and his opponent's supply of money ebbed lower and lower. The loser grew furious, and drank deeply to keep himself in countenance.

"Give me a swallow of your brandy," said Mana.s.seh, but he had no sooner tasted it than he pushed the bottle disdainfully away. "Fusel-oil!" he exclaimed, making a wry face. "To-morrow I will send you a cask of my plum brandy."

"No, you won't," returned his antagonist.

"Why not, pray?"

"Because to-morrow you shall hang."

"Oh, no," replied Mana.s.seh, lightly, "for that would require my personal presence, and I am needed elsewhere."

The Wallachian continued to lose. Finally, in his fury, he staked his last penny--"and your brothers' heads into the bargain!" he added, in desperation.

The other took him up and staked his own head in addition to the bundle of notes which he threw down nonchalantly before him.

They played, and again Mana.s.seh won. A man less bold of temperament might have thought to gain his enemies' good-will by leaving his winnings on the table. But Mana.s.seh knew better. His opponents, angered by their losses, called him a robber, but still respected him. Had he, however, been so timid as to leave the money lying there, they would have regarded his action as such an insult that he would have been compelled to fight the entire company, one after another, in single combat.

"Now, then," said the leader, "we have time to talk. Why are you here--to persuade us to release your two brothers and leave Toroczko in peace?"

"A man of your discernment can fathom my motives without asking any questions," replied Mana.s.seh, with a courteous bow.

"Well, let us see how you are going to work to bring this about. Your brother David, like the simple rustic he is, thought to talk me over with Bible quotations. He preached me a sermon on the love of one's neighbour, Christ's commandments, the almighty power of Jehovah, and a lot more of the same sort, until at last I grew tired of it and had him locked up to keep him quiet. Your brother Simon is a shrewder man; he has been to school at Kolozsvar. He came to me with threats in his mouth, delivered a long harangue on the const.i.tution, the powers of the government, our past history, and kept up such a din in my ears that finally I had to shut him up, too. But you are the cleverest of the three; you have been trained as a diplomat, and have taken lessons in Vienna from Metternich himself. Let us hear what you have to say."

"Set my brothers free," returned Mana.s.seh, boldly, "and promise me not to attack Toroczko; then I will give you sixteen fat oxen and twenty casks of plum brandy."

The Wallachian sprang to his feet and clapped his hand to his sword. "If you were only armed," he exclaimed wrathfully, "you should pay for your insolence by fighting me. Do you take me for an Armenian peddler to be chaffered with in that fashion?"

Mana.s.seh kept his seat on the edge of the table, swinging one foot carelessly to and fro. "If you were an Armenian peddler," was his cool retort, "you would be far more sensibly employed than at present. But why so angry? I offer you what you most need, food and drink; and I ask in return what we most desire, peace."

"But what you offer us we can come and take in spite of you. You three brothers are now in our hands, and we have only to send word to the people of Toroczko that, unless they lay down their arms and surrender the town, we shall hang you from the turret of St. George Castle."

"There are five more of us brothers at home, and, furthermore, in order to reach St. George Castle you must push through the Gap or make your way over the Szekler Stone, and you know well enough that the men of Toroczko have held this valley in times past against the whole invading army of the Tartars."

"You forget that there is still another way to reach Toroczko."

"No, I do not forget it. You mean the bridge over the Aranyos. But our iron cannon guard that bridge, and your bushrangers are hardly the troops to take it."

"Well, then, look out of yonder window toward the west. Do you see that signal-fire, and do you know its meaning? It means that a division of regular troops, with artillery and cavalry, is on the way hither from Szent-Laszlo."

Mana.s.seh burst into a laugh. "It means that a merry company of picnickers took their lunch this noon at the Wonder Spring, at the foot of the great beech-tree. The wasps came out and plagued them, so they stuck burning gra.s.s into the hollow trunk, and consequently the whole tree was soon in flames. That is what you see burning now."

"Mana.s.seh, if you are lying to me!"

"You know me. You know I never lie. What I say is true. When I choose not to tell the truth, I hold my tongue. Last night I slept at Ciprianu's. There are no imperial troops to be seen for miles around.

What is more, the Hungarian forces have left Kolozsvar. Whither have they gone? I do not know; but it might befall you, while counting on meeting with help, to stumble upon an enemy. After the first three Adorjans, you will encounter a fourth, Jonathan, and he will give you something beside Bible quotations and Metternichian diplomacy."

The Wallachian was visibly affected by this speech, but he sought to hide his concern, and cried out, in a harsh tone: "If you are trifling with me, Adorjan, you'll find you have trifled with your own life. If you have told me a lie, G.o.d in heaven shall not save you."

"But as I have not told you a lie, G.o.d in heaven will save me, and I beg you to tell me where I may lie down and sleep, for I am very tired."

"Shut him up in the bell-tower," commanded the Wallachian.

"Good!" cried Mana.s.seh, with a laugh. "At least I shall be able to ring you up early in the morning."

"Inasmuch as you have offered us a supply of brandy and eighteen oxen,"