The Car of Destiny Part 49

"d.i.c.k!" I called through the close wooden lattice.

"Hurrah!" he answered; and the black marble bust became a full length statue of a man.

How he had found me, how he had come, I did not know; but there he was, and the gate of life had not closed upon me after all. d.i.c.k was out of the jagged hole in the basin, and half across the _patio_, when a door, which I had always seen shut, burst open to let out a stream of light, and the figure of the old man I knew so well, leaped on him.

I was weak, and for a moment I turned sick, the _patio_ with its broken fountain, and the forms of the men in a halo of yellow light, whirling before my eyes as if there were indeed an earthquake. Then the mist cleared, and like a rat in a cage I watched the fight which meant life or death for more than one of us.

There was no _capucha_ now to cover the grey-streaked head and venerable beard. Once I caught a glimpse of a profile sharp as a hawk's. The old man had come out of the house with a Toledo sword-stick, such as the King and his friend had used with the brigands, and as he saw the enemy he had to deal with, he had thrown away the bamboo stick. The long, thin blade glittered in the same light that showed me d.i.c.k, armed with an iron crowbar, formidable and threatening.

If it had been a scene in a play, and I in the audience, I should have applauded, for there was something in me which cried out that it was a fine picture. But d.i.c.k's life and mine were in the balance.

x.x.xIX

DAY AFTER TO-MORROW

The pair stood eyeing each other like two fencers, d.i.c.k with the crowbar raised, and pointing at his heart the blade which would pierce it when the Spaniard dared advance an inch.

I longed to shout "Fling the crowbar at his head!" But if d.i.c.k's eye released the eye of his opponent he was a dead man, I must not risk distracting him for the fraction of a second.

It seemed an hour, though it could not have been a minute when, as if my thought had winged to his brain, the thick iron bar whirled through the air, and struck the old man full upon the forehead. The Toledo blade dropped from his hand, and he fell back without a cry, his head inside the open door.

"Is he dead?" I called.

d.i.c.k bent over the limp body; but, after a long moment, he was up again, waving a big, old-fashioned key.

"No," he answered. "Heart beating. Bad penny. He'll be all right. This the key of spider's parlour?"

"I think so," I said. "d.i.c.k, you're just in time to keep me from giving in. I'm starved."

He stooped and picked up the crowbar.

"Old brute! I've a mind to finish him!" he exclaimed.

"You don't mean that," I said. "But look for something to tie him up with.

He may come to himself before we're off."

"I guess I'll just tote him along with me," said d.i.c.k. "Safe bind, safe find."

Gathering up the long body as if it had been the form of a sleeping child, d.i.c.k disappeared into the house. I knew that he was looking for the door of my cage, and presently-for the first time with pleasure-I heard the slipping back of the bolt and turning of the key.

Already I was at the door, opening it for d.i.c.k to come in with his heavy burden.

"Here's the bed," I said, and d.i.c.k laid his burden down, not too gently.

Then I think the next thing we did was to shake hands.

"Blessed old man!" exclaimed d.i.c.k, a little unsteadily. "What a beastly business."

"It's a mystery," I said. "And how you got to me-"

"Conduit," said d.i.c.k, "But I'll tell you all about that, and everything.

Got no electric light here?"

"Nothing but starlight. For Heaven's sake, tell me about Monica!"

"She's all right," said d.i.c.k. "Not a d.u.c.h.ess yet, if that's what worries you. Look here, if this place has been good enough to box you up in all this time, it's good enough to keep _him_ in-" (He nodded towards the alcove.) "He lives alone here, without servants; I've found out all that, with a lot more; and his master-guess you know who-is in Madrid; so when this chap comes to himself he can try how he likes your quarters. They seem rather nice ones, judging from what I can see; but Carmona always does himself well."

"Is this Carmona's house?" I asked.

"You bet it is. Little private sort of place he keeps ready when he wants to amuse himself in some way which his mother and Monica and other people mightn't approve of in Dukes. This old Johnny's a combination of caretaker and physician in ordinary to his grace. But let's get out of this. I can't give you a marble bath or Moorish decorations at my hotel, but I shouldn't wonder if you'd prefer the accommodation; and after that conduit business I need a 'wash and brush up' as much as you do. Why, old man, what's the matter? Not going to crack up, are you?"

"I'm all right," I said; "but I haven't had anything to eat since the day after I saw you off, except milk, and none of that for the last two days."

"Great Scott! you're joking. We parted five weeks ago!"

The words gave me a shock in spite of the stubble on my chin and the whiteness of my hands. d.i.c.k had his wet arm round my shoulders, and we were at the door, which he was about to lock, and I startled him by caving in a little at the knees.

"See here," he said, hanging on to my arm as if he were afraid I should vanish in thin air, "we won't wait to dine at my hotel. We'll nose round a bit in this old Johnny's larder. You must be bucked up before you go out into the street. Oh, it's safe enough. The old brute's a hermit-for his own reasons or Carmona's. n.o.body comes near the house, and we can take our own time. While you're eating you shall hear everything I've got to tell."

He locked and bolted the door, and helped me down the stairs, up which I must have been carried unconscious; perhaps by the gypsy, a.s.sisted by the master of the house.

Below stairs the place was dark save for the light which had streamed out into the _patio_ with the opening door. It came from a good-sized room evidently intended for a kitchen, but also used by the solitary tenant as a dining-room. It had a window opening on the court; this, however, was not only covered with heavy shutters, but protected by a curtain as well, and ventilation came through an adjoining room from a window that looked on another small court.

Evidently my gaoler had been interrupted in the midst of his supper, and hearing a noise in the _patio_ had stopped only long enough to s.n.a.t.c.h up a sword-stick. On the table was a simple meal of cold meat, salad, goats'-milk cheese, and fresh fruit; but to my starved eyes it seemed a feast. There was also a bottle half-full of red Spanish wine; and I did not wait for d.i.c.k's suggestion to sit down. I must get back my strength if I were to be of any use to Monica or myself, and I hardly listened to d.i.c.k's warning that a starved man must not satisfy his first hunger.

"Eat slowly, and not too much," he said, with anxious eyes on my face, which must have been frightful, though he was too tactful to make comments. As I obeyed, he told me his story, briefly and disjointedly, as the points came back to him.

"Didn't hear from you," he said, "and began wondering what was up. Wired twice; no answer; was a bit taken up with my own affairs just then, I'm afraid. Yes, I mean Pilar. After five days, wired the landlord. He answered you'd left with a friend. I thought that queer, and set out for Granada by next train, Ropes with me. At the Washington Irving I found both my telegrams to you and a letter. Landlord said he got a note from you, dated Motril, telling him you'd met a friend and gone off unexpectedly in his automobile. You enclosed more than enough money to pay bill and tips, and asked him to have your luggage packed and kept till your return, which might be in a few days or not for some time. Naturally, he hadn't worried; and as he'd destroyed the letter, I couldn't tell if it was your handwriting.

"Well, I thought you _might_ have rushed off suddenly on account of some lark of Carmona's; but I soon found out he was still in Granada, slowly getting better; and the guests hadn't gone. By the way, I called, but n.o.body in the house was seeing visitors. Ropes discovered that your car was in a stable down in the town, where you'd left it, without saying for how long. He and I were getting scared, and I went to the police, but didn't dare give your real name without your permission, especially as the authorities had a kind of prejudice against it. Fired off my best Spanish, though, and insinuated that Carmona wasn't very fond of you; but when I began hinting that it might be convenient for his plans that you should disappear, they wouldn't take me seriously, were polite, and all that, promised to look you up, as if you were a stray kitten, but intimated that most people who vanished had private reasons for doing so.

"After that, I didn't expect them to find out anything, and they did their best not to disappoint me. I saw that if anybody was going to do the Sherlock Holmes' act, it must be Ropes and me. We sat tight at the Washington Irving, and looked around; but at the end of a fortnight no one was any wiser than at the beginning. Then what should happen but the dear old Colonel and Pilar popped down to see if they could help. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that meanwhile the people at Carmona's palace had cleared out. They'd gone back to Seville again by train; and what should happen but the Colonel and Pilar met Carmona face to face in the station."

"Not Monica?" I broke in.

"No. I suppose the others had got into a carriage; he was lingering behind to give a valet directions about luggage. And then there was a scene.

Pilar told me all about it. Carmona bowed; and before the Cherub could pull the little girl away, as he tried, seeing danger in her eye, she gave the Duke a piece of her mind. Said he was a villain, or some kind words of that sort. He retorted by saying to her father that he could make a lot of trouble for Cristobal if they didn't take care. Pilar said they could accuse him of worse things than he could them; and somehow or other, in an evil moment, the subject of Corcito, a grey bull Carmona was once nasty about, came up. Then, before she knew what she was doing, Pilar flashed out the name of Vivillo, the beast she wanted to buy, you know. And from that minute the fat was in the fire as far as she was concerned. But about that later. What with you and the bull, she was in a dreadful state of mind when she got here, poor child. However, she put on her thinking cap, and said she, 'Try the gypsies. See if they don't know something.'

"That was enough for me. I took a sudden fancy to Captain Pepe, the chief of the gypsies, and went every night to see a dance in his cave. But I soon saw he was straight; and they weren't a bad lot of people in the colony. The nasty ones he kicked out, and they had to hustle for themselves. Captain Pepe told me about one fellow, Juan Castello, who'd got himself disliked, though he was a nailer with the guitar; and when he said the chap had a sister who had a fine position in the house of a t.i.tled person, because she was the best seamstress in the country, I p.r.i.c.ked up my ears. You can bet, after I'd heard the t.i.tled person was Carmona, I turned my attention to Mr. Castello, dropped in on him one day, named a big price, and asked him to give me lessons on the guitar. He didn't mind if he did, and we got quite friendly. I spent several evenings in his cave, where one night I heard a dog howling, as if it was mighty sick, behind a red curtain."

"That red curtain!" I exclaimed. "I shouldn't be where I am now, or have a scar on the back of my head, if I'd looked behind it."

"By Jove! Well, I got some idea of that sort. Castello said the dog belonged to a gentleman in Granada, who lived all alone in the Albaicin, and kept this beast as a watch-dog; but he was afraid it was going mad, and told Castello to shoot it. However, it was a valuable animal, and Castello was undertaking to cure it for his own benefit. Already it was better, and the owner talked of buying it back if it recovered. The old gentleman was coming up to see the dog that very evening, perhaps, Castello said; and being evidently proud of a respectable acquaintance, he went on talking about him, I encouraging him all I could, because any friend of his might prove interesting to me.