on his arrival in paris, his sensations were not far removed from bliss; but soon he was obliged to set about the tedious business of selling his diamonds, one by one, in a manner so unobtrusive and anonymous that no particular notice should be paid to the deals. he was somewhat disappointed to find that, in spite of his expert knowledge both of the stones and of the channels for their disposal, he failed to avoid a slight loss on the various transactions; but he was in no mood to bargain, and he was well content, at the end of the second day, to be rid of a quarter of his collection, and to feel the notes, which were to be the support of his future wanderings, pleasantly bulging out of his pocket-book.
from paris he proceeded to lyons, marseilles, and monte carlo, in which places he disposed of the remainder of his collection, this time at a small profit. during these business transactions he felt that he was generally regarded as a thief, and more than once his experiences were unpleasant; but he was so full of the idea of hiding his tracks, and of building up once more the old life of freedom beyond the range of dolly’s prying eyes, that he adopted, without any regard to his natural sensitiveness, all manner of subterfuges and variations of name.
at length, with quite an unwieldy packet of small[161] notes, he made his way along the coast, crossed the frontier, being still under his real name, and stopped at savona, genoa, and spezia, where he laboriously changed the money, little by little, into italian currency. he then proceeded by way of pisa to rome, where, with a sense of almost schoolboyish exultation, he deposited his vagrant’s fortune at a well-known bank, and opened an account in the name of “james easton.” this accomplished, he felt that he had taken the first firm step in his emancipation; for in future, whenever eversfield became unbearable, he could speed over to rome, even for but a month at a time, and, moving eastwards or southwards from this base, under the name by which he had formerly been known, he would always find money at his disposal, and complete freedom from domestic obligations.
he had now been gone from england some fourteen days, but rome was the first place at which he had assumed this other name, for he intended italy to be the western frontier of the vagrant’s life. the change of name meant far more to him than can easily be realized: it had a psychological effect upon his mind, such as, in a lesser degree, can sometimes be produced by a complete change of clothes. he almost hoped that he would be recognized and hailed by some acquaintance from england in order that he might look him deliberately in the face and say: “i am afraid you have made a mistake. my name is easton: i come from egypt.”
having assumed this alias his first object was to recapture the old beloved sense of liberty by resuming his wandering existence, and by turning his[162] back upon the elegances of life. under the name of easton, therefore, he at once selected a small inn in the democratic trastevere quarter, near the ponte sisto, which had been recommended to him as the resort of commercial travellers and the like who desired a little cleanliness in conjunction with moderate honesty and extreme low prices; and having here deposited his portmanteau and engaged a room for a fortnight hence, he went at once to the railway station with nothing but a knapsack and a walking-stick in his hand and took the long journey back to pisa, his intention being to wander southwards from that point along the beautiful coast, where the pine-woods came down to the seashore.
during the years at eversfield his emotions had dried up, and he had become barren of all exalted thoughts. he was, as he expressed it to himself, continuously “off the boil.” but now once more his brain was galvanized, and all his actions were intensified, speeded up, and ebullient. his power of enjoyment, lost so long, had come back to him, and now not infrequently he was blessed with that fine frenzy which had left his mind unvisited these many weary months. he was a different man to-day: again hot-blooded, again eager to listen to the lure of the unattained, again capable of soaring, as it were, to the sun and the stars.
two days later there befell him an adventure which changed the whole course of his life.
he had been walking all day through the pines and along the beach, and in the late afternoon he inquired of a passer-by whether there were any village in the neighbourhood where he might spend the[163] night. the man replied that the path by which jim was going led to a small fishermen’s inn, where a room and a meal were generally to be obtained, but that if he desired to reach the next little town he would have to retrace his steps and make a considerable detour, for, although it stood upon the seashore only three kilometres further along, it could not be approached by the beach, owing to the presence of a wide estuary. the day having been extremely hot, jim was tired, and he therefore decided to try his luck at this house, which, the man said, was distant but ten minutes’ walk.
he found it to be a high, square, drab-washed building, which like so many poorer houses in italy, gave the melancholy suggestion that it had seen better days. the red-tiled roof was in need of repair, the green shutters were falling to pieces, and there were innumerable cracks and small dilapidations upon its extensive areas of blank wall. the only indications that it was an inn were a long table and a bench upon one side of the narrow doorway, and a number of crude drawings in charcoal upon the lower part of the front wall.
the house stood upon a mound facing the beach, and backed by the dark pines; and at one side there was a patch of cultivated ground in which a few vegetables were growing. a small rowing-boat, moored by a rope, floated upon the smooth surface of the sea, and upon a group of rocks near by two dark-skinned fishermen sat smoking cigarettes. one of these, upon seeing jim, put his hand to his mouth and called out to the innkeeper, who replied from some empty-sounding part of the ground-floor, and[164] presently came with clamorous footsteps along the stone-flagged passage to the door.
he was a tall, stout man, with a two-days’ growth of grey stubble covering the lower part of his tanned face, and an untidy mat of white hair upon his head. his forehead was deeply wrinkled, and his eyes were screwed up as though the light hurt him. had he changed his loose corduroy trousers and his collarless striped shirt for the garb of his ancestors, one would have said that the marble sulla of the vatican museum had come to life.
jim was in two minds as to whether to spend the night in this somewhat forbidding house, or to proceed upon his way; and he therefore asked only for a bottle of wine, at the same time inviting his host to drink a glass with him. the man accepted the invitation with alacrity, and, disappearing into the echoing house, soon returned with the bottle. he hesitated, however, before drawing the cork, and diffidently mentioned the price, whereupon jim put his hand in his pocket and drew forth his loose change. the wrinkles deepened on the man’s forehead as he gazed at the money, and an expression of disappointment passed over his face; for the coins did not amount to the sum named. jim, however, smilingly reassured him, and produced his roll of notes, from which he selected one, asking whether his host could change it. at this the man’s face showed his satisfaction, and he hastened to uncork the bottle, thereafter fetching the change and sitting down to enjoy the wine with every token of brotherly love.
for some time they talked, and it was very soon[165] apparent that the innkeeper was of the braggart type. he had once been in the army, and he described with great gusto his gallant exploits and feats of arms, relating also his affairs of the heart, and telling how once he fought a duel and killed his man for the sake of a girl who was in no wise worthy of him. jim listened with amusement, and presently, in answer to his host’s questions, he explained that he himself was merely a mild englishman, and that he was walking from village to village along the coast by way of a holiday. this statement was received with frank astonishment, and led to a further series of inquiries, to which jim replied with amused volubility, pointing out the delights of a wandering life, and speaking of the pleasures of a state of incognito, when hearth and home are temporarily abandoned, and nobody knows whither one has disappeared. the innkeeper listened with evident interest, looking at him searchingly from time to time as he talked, and forgetting to boast or even drink his wine, as he sat with folded arms and wrinkled brow, staring out to sea.
the sun was setting when at length jim rose to his feet to consider whether he should proceed or should stay the night where he was. his legs felt weary, however; and when his host presently made the suggestion that he should inspect the guest-chamber upstairs, jim was quickly persuaded to do so, and, finding it quite habitable, at once decided to remain until morning.
the innkeeper thereupon retired into the back premises to prepare a meal, and jim sauntered down to the beach to enjoy the cool of the dusk. climbing[166] over the promontory of smooth, rounded rocks, to one of which the rowing-boat was moored, he pulled the little craft towards him by its rope, and, scrambling into it, sat for some time handling the oars and gazing down into the water. it was very pleasant to ride here upon the gently moving swell, listening to the quiet surge of the waves upon the shore, and watching the fading colours of the sky; and when, in the dim light, he saw his host appear at the doorway of the house, looking about him for his guest, he stepped back on to the rocks with lazy reluctance.
the fare presently provided in the front room was rough but appetizing, and when the meal was finished he returned once more to the table outside, where he found his host seated with three other men, for whom, after a ceremonious introduction, jim called for another bottle of wine. the appearance of these other guests, however, was not pleasant: they looked, in fact, as disreputable a gang of cut-throats as ever sat round a guttering candle; and once or twice he thought he observed upon the innkeeper’s face an expression something like that of apology.
nevertheless, the party remained talking, and their host continued his bragging, far into the night, for it seemed that all of them were to sleep at the inn; and it was midnight before jim made his salutations and was lighted up to his room by the owner of the house.
as soon as he was alone he went to the open window, and stared out into the darkness. the sky was brilliant with stars which were reflected in the[167] sea, whose rhythmic sobbing came to his ears; but he could only dimly discern the rocks and the little rowing-boat, and the line of the beach was lost in the indigo of the night. for some time he stood deep in thought; but at length, of a sudden, a feeling of apprehension entered his mind, and, returning into the candlelight, he remained for a while irresolute in the middle of the room.
the sensation, however, presently passed; but in order to occupy his thoughts he drew from his pocket an unused picture-postcard, which he had purchased on the previous day, and performed the much postponed duty of writing a line to his wife, telling her shortly that he was well. he addressed the card to her and laid it aside, with the intention of posting it at some obscure village whose name upon the postmark would convey nothing to dolly. then, seating himself upon the side of the bed, he prepared to undress.
as he stooped to unlace his boots the tremor of apprehension returned to him, and for some moments he sat perfectly still, looking at the candle, and wondering at his unfamiliar nervousness. “i suppose,” he thought to himself, “i have been too long in the shelter of eversfield, and have grown unaccustomed to the ordinary circumstances of the wanderer’s life.”
then, like a sudden flash, the recollection came to him that the innkeeper had seen his roll of notes, and that the man knew him to be an unattached wayfarer, and consequently fair game for robbery or even murder. the thought set his heart beating in a manner which shamed him; and, though he[168] fought against it resolutely, he permitted himself, nevertheless, to creep over to the door and to slide the clumsy bolt into its socket. he then felt in his pocket to assure himself that his matches were at hand; and, having placed the candle by his bedside, he blew out the light and prepared himself for an uncomfortable night.
for some time he lay quietly upon the bed, fully dressed, his eyes turned to the open window, through which the brilliant stars were visible; but at length sleep began to overcome his forebodings, so that he dozed, and at last passed into unconsciousness.
he awoke with an instant conviction that some sound had disturbed him; and for a moment he felt his pulses hammering as he listened intently. the stars had moved across the heavens during his slumbers, and their position now suggested that dawn was not far off, a fact of which he was profoundly glad, for his mind was filled with a very definite kind of dread, and he was eager to be up and away. something, he was convinced, had been going on while he slept: he could feel it, as it were, in his bones.
he was about to light the candle when, to his extreme horror, he caught sight of a man’s head slowly rising above the level of the window-sill and blotting out the stars. jim lay absolutely still, desperately concentrating his brains to meet the situation; and as he did so the figure outside the window, like a menacing black shadow, stealthily raised itself until the arms and shoulders were visible, and he was able to recognize the large proportions of the innkeeper.
[169]
the room was in complete darkness, and, realizing that he himself could not be seen, jim silently extended his hand until his fingers clasped themselves around the brass candlestick at his side. his agitation gave place to the thrill of battle, and, with a bound like that of a wild animal, he sprang to his feet and dashed at the intruder. at the same moment the man clambered into the room; and, an instant later, the two were in contact.
a frenzied blow with the heavy candlestick struck the innkeeper’s uplifted arm, and the knife which he had been carrying fell to the floor. the man darted to recover it, whereat jim aimed a second blow as he stooped; but, before he could strike, the innkeeper’s left hand crashed into his face, so that he staggered back across the room with the blood pouring from his nose. regaining his balance, he again rushed forward; and before the other could raise his recovered knife the candlestick descended upon his head, with a most satisfactory thud, and, without a sound, the man fell in a heap upon the floor.
for a moment jim stood over him, his improvised weapon raised to strike again. he felt the blood streaming from his nose, and, pulling his handkerchief from his pocket, he attempted in vain to arrest the flow, at the same time wondering what next he should do. he could just discern the dark outline of the figure at his feet, but there was no sign of movement, and he wondered whether the man were dead. at the moment he certainly hoped so.
then, sniffing and panting, he felt for his matches[170] and struck a light. the candle, which had fallen from its socket, lay on the floor before him; and this he now lit, replacing it in the brass holder which had served him so well. next, he glanced out of the window, and saw, as he had expected, a ladder leaning against the wall; but, though he could now hear voices in the house, there seemed to be no one at the foot of the ladder, so far as the darkness permitted him to discern.
this appeared, therefore, to be the best means of escape, and, snatching up his hat and slinging his knapsack across his shoulder, he hastened towards the window. as he did so the figure upon the floor showed signs of returning life, and jim hastily stooped and picked up the man’s ugly-looking knife, while the blood from his nose steadily dripped upon it, upon the clothes of his unconscious assailant, and upon the bare boards.
he was in the act of climbing over the sill when he heard voices at the bedroom door, and saw the bolt rattle. at this he slid down the ladder at break-neck speed, and raced through the darkness as fast as his legs would carry him towards the beach. for a moment he hesitated upon the soft sand, recollecting that in the one direction—the way he had come yesterday—there was no habitation for many miles, while in the other the estuary, of which he had been told, cut him off from the neighbouring town.
behind him he heard a considerable commotion in the house, and at the lighted window of his abandoned bedroom he saw a figure appear for a moment. the other men, then, had burst into the[171] room, and in a few moments they would doubtless be after him.
suddenly he thought of the rowing-boat, and, with a gasp of relief, he ran out on to the rocks. here he slipped and fell, thereby losing the innkeeper’s knife; but, with hands wet with the blood from his nose, he clutched at the boulders, and clambered forward. a few minutes later he had lifted the boat’s mooring-rope from the rock around which it was fastened, and had pushed out to sea.
for some minutes he rowed at his best speed away from the land, but presently he rested on his oars to listen to the cries and curses which came over the water to his ears out of the darkness. his mood was now exultant, for he had observed on the previous evening that there was no other craft of any kind within sight, and a pull of two or three kilometres would bring him to the neighbouring town. he was now enjoying the adventure, for he felt that it marked the breaking of the long monotony of his days at eversfield and the beginning of a new and more vivid existence, far removed from the petty incidents of english village life. he could not resist the temptation to shout out some bantering remark to the men upon the beach whom he could not see, and soon his voice was sounding across the dark water, bearing impolite messages to the innkeeper and a few choice words for themselves. their oaths returned to him out of the night, and set him laughing; and presently he resumed his rowing now with a less frenzied stroke, heading towards the three or four solitary lights which marked his destination.
and thus, as the first light of dawn appeared[172] in the eastern sky, he quietly beached the little boat upon the deserted shore in front of the houses, and stepped out on to the sand. the current had been running strongly against him, and the journey had taken him longer than he had expected; but in the cool night air, under the glorious stars, he had found himself thoroughly happy, and his excitement seemed but to have added zest to his life.
a troublesome question, however, now arose in his mind as to whether he should go at once to the police, or whether it would be wiser to keep silent in regard to his adventure. if he reported the matter and subsequently had to appear in the courts, the pleasant secret of his double identity would have to be revealed. that would be the end of james easton, for, in the limelight which would be turned upon him, he would be obliged to admit to his real name. on the other hand, he would dearly like to bring the innkeeper and his confederates to justice.
he now, therefore, sat down upon the beach in the dim light of daybreak and carefully thought the matter out in all its aspects; the result being that at length he very reluctantly decided to hold his tongue, and, with the first rays of the sun, to proceed upon his way.
taking off his boots and socks, and rolling up his trousers, he went back to the boat, and, wading into the water, pushed it out to sea with all his strength, thereafter watching it as it slowly floated back towards the estuary, in which direction the current was travelling. he then went over to a cluster of rocks, behind which he would be unobserved, and there he opened his knapsack and made his toilet,[173] washing the crusted blood from his face and hands and the front of his coat.
when he emerged at length, the sun had risen; and he walked into the little town in an entirely inconspicuous manner. here he presently ascertained that there was a railway-station, and he observed that a number of people were already making their way thither to catch the early market-train. nobody took any notice of him as he bought his ticket and entered the compartment, for in appearance he differed little from an ordinary italian, and he was not called upon to speak at sufficient length to reveal any faults in his accent. this was all to the good, since his sole object now was to leave the neighbourhood of his adventure in order to preserve the secret of his double life. thus half an hour later he was jogging along back to pisa, and by mid-morning he was on his way to florence, none the worse for his adventure, and having suffered no loss with the exception of his walking-stick, his handkerchief, a great deal of blood, and much of his confidence in the italian peasant.
arrived at florence, he engaged a room, in the name of easton, at a small and quiet hotel, and here he decided to remain for the next few days, and to forget his growing indignation against the murderous innkeeper, since no redress was possible without exposure of his carefully laid plans. his amazement and agitation may thus be imagined when, on the following morning, he read in his newspaper that he was believed to have been murdered.
the account was circumstantial. a police patrol, riding along the beach an hour before dawn, had[174] come upon two men acting in what was described as a suspicious manner outside the inn. questions were being put to them when the innkeeper appeared at a window and shouted out, asking whether their victim had been “finished off.” this led to a search of the house, and to the examination of the disordered and bloodstained bedroom, and to the discovery of a walking-stick bearing the name “j. tundering-west” upon the silver band, a blood-soaked handkerchief marked j. t.-w., and a postcard addressed by the victim to mrs. tundering-west. thereupon the dazed innkeeper and his friends were arrested, and it was observed that there were spots of blood upon the clothes of the former. a further search, after the sun had risen, had revealed bloodstains leading down to and upon the rocks, whither the body had evidently been carried; while a bloodstained knife, thrown aside at the edge of the water, and marks of a struggle, indicated that the unfortunate man had here been “finished off” before being dropped into the sea.
the arrested men had confessed to being associated with an attempted act of violence, but swore that the intended victim had escaped in the boat, and that one of their number, who was the only guilty party, had fled. this, however, was a palpable lie, for the boat was later found beached at the mouth of the estuary a short distance away, and if it had been used at all, which was not at all certain, it must have been utilized as a means of escape by that one of their number who had bolted.
meanwhile, the police had ascertained that mr. tundering-west had been staying at genoa three[175] days previously; and that an englishman, whose name did not appear in the hotel register, but was probably identical, had stopped at the little hotel giovanni in pisa on the nights previous to the crime. during the day a police-launch had scoured the sea in the neighbourhood, but the body had not been found.
jim was dazed as he read the amazing words, and for some time thereafter he sat staring in front of him, lost in a maze of speculation. two thoughts, however, stood out clearly in the confusion of his mind. in the first place he must not allow the innkeeper to suffer the extreme penalty for a crime which fortunately had not been committed; and in the second place he would have to notify dolly that he was safe.
presently, therefore, he made his way towards a telegraph office, and then, changing his mind, enquired his way to the police-station. he was feverishly anxious to preserve the secret of his identity with jim easton, for that name seemed to represent his freedom, and he was filled with disappointment that all his schemes for his periodical liberty should thus fall to pieces; yet he could not devise a means of preserving his secret, and he hovered, irresolute, between the scylla of the telegram and the charybdis of this devastating notification to the police.
he was standing at a street corner, near the telegraph office, racking his brains, when a newspaper boy passed him, selling an evening paper; and he bought a copy in order to read the latest news in regard to his own murder. great developments, he found, had taken place during the day. acting upon[176] an anonymous communication, the police had dug up the flagstones of one of the basement rooms of the inn, and there they had found the decomposing body of a certain italian gentleman who had disappeared some months previously; and, following upon this, the innkeeper had made a dramatic confession. it was true, he declared, that both murders were the work of his hands. in the case of the italian, the victim had insulted a woman of his acquaintance and a duel had followed; and in the case of the englishman, the motive had been revenge for an insult to his beloved italy. he had offered to fight this foreigner like a gentleman, but the stranger had taken a mean advantage of him and had struck him with a candlestick. thereupon he had stabbed him deeply, as the blood indicated, but not fatally, for there had followed a pretty fight; and at last he had lifted his opponent from the ground and had hurled him straight through the window. then, contemptuously handing his knife to that one of his friends who had cravenly fled, he had told him to finish the work, and to throw the body to the fishes.
at this jim’s heart leapt within him, and he laughed aloud. it was now totally unnecessary for him to save the braggart’s neck by revealing the fact that he was alive and unhurt. indeed, he smiled, he had not the heart to spoil the man’s boastful story. the innkeeper was a proven murderer or manslaughterer, and there was no need to speak up in his defence. the finding of the first victim’s body, and the consequent confession, had completely ended the matter; and now the law could take its course. and upon the heels of this conclusion[177] there came rushing forward another thought—a thought which had been lurking in the back of his mind ever since he had read the first news of the crime.
“james tundering-west is dead,” he muttered; “the squire of eversfield is dead! but jim easton, the vagrant, is alive!”
he struck his breast with his fist, and set off walking aimlessly along the street, away from the telegraph office. of a sudden, it seemed to him, an incubus had been removed. that fat, leering figure in its tight black coat, which, in his imagination, had come to represent domestic life and village society, had collapsed like a pricked balloon. it had leered at him for the last time, and, with a whistle of escaping air, had shrunk into a little heap, over which he was even now leaping to freedom.
“jim easton, the free man, is alive,” sang his heart, “but dolly’s husband is at the bottom of the sea!”
