for some time he sat in his bedroom, overwhelmed by horror and pity at dolly’s death, and by the terrible menace of his own situation. mrs. darling would certainly denounce him to the police, for hardly could she think otherwise than that he was the murderer of her daughter, even though his open visit to her at her hotel would be difficult to reconcile with his guilt.
fate seemed to be playing with him, torturing him, hitting him from all sides. if only he had postponed his visit to mrs. darling he would now be free to slip away as unnoticed as he had come, resuming his life in the near east as jim easton, and being in no way suspected of the crime, for the silence of smiley-face could be relied on.
but now he was done for! true, he was to-day a widower, and was therefore in a position to marry the woman whom he loved with a passion which seemed only to grow stronger as the complications increased. but he would be obliged to lie to her daily, throughout his life: there would always be this pitiable barrier of deception between them. and, moreover, the tragedy of dolly’s death so filled his mind that any advantage it might have to himself was hardly able to be realized. he was profoundly shocked at her pitiable end, and its consequences were enveloped in gloom.
[252]
even though mrs. darling were to hold her tongue, the eversfield estate would none the less be wholly lost to him now, nor would his son ever reign there as a tundering-west; for were he to lay claim to the property, or reveal the fact that he, james tundering-west, was alive, monimé would think he had gone to england and had done dolly to death so as to be free to marry again. how could she think otherwise?
and, again, though he were for the time being to escape from the arm of the law, he could only marry monimé at the risk of dragging her into a possible scandal in the future.
he paced his bedroom in his despair, now cursing himself for his actions, now screwing up his eyes to shut out the pitiful picture of dolly, now laughing aloud, like a madman, at the nightmare of his own position. one thing was certain: he must leave england this very morning and make his way back to cyprus or egypt, or somewhere. already mrs. darling might have notified the police. fortunately she did not know his address, nor had she ever heard the name “easton,” but doubtless the ports would be watched, and were he to delay his departure he would be caught.
in sudden haste which bordered on frenzy he packed his portmanteau and rang for his bill; and soon he was driving to the station, a huddled figure with hat pulled down over his eyes. he was far too early for the train, and, during the long wait every pair of eyes which looked into his set his heart beating with apprehension.
he had always been an outlaw: he had never fully[253] understood the basis of society, nor were the habits of the community altogether intelligible to him. he had gone his own ways, and had left organized humanity to go theirs. they had not molested one another. but now the state had a grievance against him, and soon it would be feeling out for him with its millions of antenn?, searching over hill and dale, city and field, with waving, creeping tentacles. he would have to duck and dodge continuously to avoid being caught, and always there would be in his heart the terror of that cruel, relentless mouth waiting to suck the life out of him.
his relief was intense when at the end of the day he found himself, still unmolested, in paris. but he did not here stay his flight. all through the night he journeyed southwards, sitting with lolling head in the corner of a third-class compartment in a slow train—a mode of travelling which he had deemed the least conspicuous.
at length, upon the following evening, he reached marseilles, where he put up at a small hotel at which he had stayed more than once under the name of easton. he told the proprietor he had just come from italy, a remark which led him to a frenzied erasing of labels from his baggage in his bedroom.
the next morning he made inquiries as to the steamers sailing east, and was relieved to find that a french liner was leaving for alexandria in a few hours. he obtained a berth without difficulty and, after a period of horrible anxiety at the docks, found himself once more upon the high seas, the menace of the western world fading into the distance behind him, and the greater chances of the orient ahead.
[254]
thus he arrived back one morning upon the soil of egypt, a fugitive from the terror of the law, all his nerves strained to breaking-point, his face pallid, his dark eyes wild. with aching heart he yearned for the serenity which monimé exuded like the perfume of incense around her; he longed to be able to go to her and to bare his soul of its secrets, and to lay his heavy head upon her complacent breast; he craved for the comfort of those caressing hands which seemed in their soothing touch to be endowed with the mother-craft of all the ages.
never before in his independent life had he felt so profound a desire for sympathy and companionship, yet now more than ever must he lock up his troubles in his own heart. he would write to her at mena house hotel, near cairo, where she was staying, and tell her ... tell her what? that he could not live without her, that he had come back to her after but a couple of days in england, that she held for him the keys of heaven, that away from her he was in outer darkness. he would await her answer here in alexandria, and by the time it arrived perhaps he would have recovered in some degree his equilibrium.
feeling that his safety lay in the unbroken continuity of his life as jim easton, he went to the little hotel des beaux-esprits, vaguely telling the proprietress that he had travelled over from cyprus. some london papers had just arrived and these, having come by a faster route, carried the news to the second morning after his departure from england. his hand shook as he searched the columns for the “eversfield murder,” and his excitement and relief[255] were altogether beyond description when he read that george merrivall’s housekeeper, jane potts, had been arrested and charged with the crime.
eagerly he turned to the recent copies of the local newspaper in which the english telegrams were published daily, and here he read that the evidence against the woman was of such damning character that she had been committed for trial. he recalled how smiley-face had spoken of this woman’s jealousy of dolly, and it seemed evident that she had followed george merrivall into the woods that day and had wreaked her vengeance on her rival.
mrs. darling, then, had not notified the police! doubtless she had heard of the guilt of jane potts in time to prevent the further scandal in regard to himself. she must have realized at once that since he was not the murderer there was no good purpose to be served in revealing the fact that he was still alive. possibly, indeed, she may have hoped to profit by dolly’s death—she was the next-of-kin—and had no wish to resuscitate the rightful lord of the manor from his supposed grave beneath the waves of pisa. he could quite imagine the pleasant, unscrupulous soul saying to him: “you remain dead, my lad, and make no claim to the estate, or i’ll force you also to stand your trial for the murder, whether you did it or not.”
he was free, then! he wanted to shout the tidings to the four corners of the world. he was free to go to monimé, and to ask her to marry him. for a short time longer he would have to hide his identity: he must wait until jane potts had paid the penalty of her jealousy. then he could pension off[256] mrs. darling, and, when all was settled and the estate once more in his possession, the opportune moment would have arrived for his clean breast to monimé. she would understand; she would forgive! with him she would rejoice that by bequest their son would be made heir to a comfortable income and home, while they themselves would have the means to procure that house of their dreams, somewhere beside the blue mediterranean, which should be their resting-place at desired intervals in their untrammelled wanderings over the face of the earth.
the sudden simplification of all his complexities, the disentangling of the web in which he had been struggling, had an immediate and palpable effect upon his appearance. his head was held high again, his eyes were no longer furtive, his step was buoyant. not for another hour could he delay his reunion with monimé, and to the astonished proprietress he announced a sudden change of plans, and was gone from the hotel within thirty minutes of his arrival.
he reached cairo at mid-afternoon upon one of those warm and brilliant days which are the glory of early winter in egypt, and was soon driving out in the mena house motor-omnibus along the straight avenue of majestic acacia-trees leading from the city to the pyramids, in the shadow of which the hotel stands at the foot of the glaring plateau of rock on the edge of the desert.
at the hotel he was told that monimé was probably to be found at a point about half a mile to the north-west, where she had caused a tent to be erected, and was engaged upon the painting of a desert subject. he was in no mood to wait for her return at[257] sundown; and, without visiting the bedroom which was assigned to him, he set out at once on foot to find her.
through the dusty palm-grove behind the hotel he hastened, and up the slope of the sandy hill beyond, from the summit of which he could see the tent standing in the distance amongst the rolling dunes. thereat he broke into a run, and went leaping down into the little valleys and scrambling up the low hills beyond, like a captive freed from the toils.
a few minutes later, mounting another eminence, he found himself immediately at the back of the tent, and here a native boy, who had been lying drowsing upon the warm sand, rose to his feet, and, in answer to a rapid question, told him that the lady was at work at the doorway of the tent.
jim hurried forward, his heart beating, and the next moment he was face to face with monimé.
“jim!” she exclaimed in astonishment, throwing down her palette and brushes. “my dear boy, i thought you were in england.”
“so i was,” he laughed. “i was there just two days, and then ... i gave it up.”
he could restrain himself no further. “oh, monimé,” he cried, and flung his arms about her, kissing her throat and her cheeks and her mouth. she made a momentary show of protest, but her face was smiling; and soon he felt that droop of the limbs and heard that inhalation of the breath, and saw that closing of the eyes which, the world over, are the signs of a woman’s capitulation. no further words then were spoken; but, each enfolded in the arms of the other, with lips pressed to lips, they[258] hung as it were suspended between matter and spirit, while the sun tumbled from the skies, the hills of the desert were shattered, the valleys were cleft in twain, and there came into being for them a new earth and a new heaven.
when at length they stood back from one another, bewildered and spellbound, their whole existence had undergone an irreparable change; and each gazed at the other with unveiled eyes which revealed a naked soul. now at last, as by an instantaneous flash of the miraculous hand of nature, she was become blood of his blood, bone of his bone, and they two were for ever merged into one flesh.
quietly, automatically, she put away her brushes and paints; then, coming back to him as he stood staring at her with a dazed expression upon his swarthy face, she put her arms about his neck and laid her lips upon his mouth.
“i never knew,” she whispered, “until you had gone that i belonged to you body and soul.”
he threw his head back and laughed in his exaltation. “to-morrow,” he said, “i shall go to the consulate, and notify them that we are going to be married.”
she nodded her head calmly. “yes,” she smiled, “i suppose it’s too late to do it to-day.”
the sun was going down behind the pyramids as they returned with linked arms to the hotel; and for a moment that sense of foreboding which is so often felt at sunset in the desert, intruded itself upon his dream of happiness. there were banks of menacing cloud gathered upon the horizon; and from the village of el kafr, at the foot of the great[259] pyramid, there came the far-off throbbing of a drum, a sound which always has in it an element of alarm.
jim turned to monimé. “tell me,” he urged, “that you have no doubts left in your mind.”
“no, i have no doubts,” she answered. “you and i and ian—we are bound together now right to the end. it is destiny.”
the period of three weeks which, by consular law, had to elapse before the ceremony of their marriage could be performed, was a time of blissful happiness to jim. the open desert with its wind-swept spaces of glistening sand, and its ranges of low hills which carried the eye ever forward into its mysterious depths, enthralled him like an endless tale of adventure, or like a native flute-song that rises and falls in continuous changing melody. with monimé he left the hotel each morning, and, having conducted her to her tent, he would wander over the untrodden wastes until the luncheon hour brought him back to her to share their picnic meal. he would come to her again at sundown, and together they would stroll back to civilization in time to see the last flush fade from the domes and minarets of the distant city. or, when the painter’s inspiration failed her, they would mount their camels and go careering into the wilderness, riding through silent valleys and over breezy hills, talking eagerly as they went, and sending their laughter echoing amongst the rocks.
for him it was a lazy, sun-bathed existence, rich in the abundance of their love, and unmarred by any cares. he read in the papers that the trial of jane potts would not take place before march; and with[260] that assurance he returned to his earlier habit of detachment from the world’s doings, and did not again trouble even to glance at the news. life was a new thing to him: it had begun again; and the tragic events of the past were, for the present, able to be forgotten.
even a favourable letter from the publishers to whom he had sent his poems hardly aroused his excitement, so deeply was he in love. it was a somewhat patronizing letter, in which no great consideration for his artistic sensibilities was manifest. the manuscript was accepted for publication some time in the spring, on moderately satisfactory terms; but it was stated that the firm’s discretion must be admitted, and, owing to his inaccessibility, it might be necessary to rely on their own “readers” in the correction of the proofs. he was told, in fact, to leave the matter in their hands, and not to assert himself further than to cable his consent to this agreement; and this he did, without giving two thoughts to the matter. some ten days later a contract arrived, which he was requested to sign; and having done so, he mailed it back to london, and went his joyous way.
monimé had been commissioned to paint some pictures of the great rock-temple of abu simbel, in lower nubia, far up the nile; and it was therefore decided that they should go there immediately after their marriage, by which time her work in the neighbourhood of the pyramids would be completed. to this jim looked forward eagerly; for there was something akin to rapture in the thought of faring forth, alone with his beloved, into distant places,[261] where they would be undisturbed by the proximity of their entirely superfluous fellow-creatures.
at length the great day arrived, and, driving into cairo, they were married in ten minutes at the consulate, and thence they sped across to the english church, where the religious ceremony was quietly performed. that night, as in a dream, they travelled by sleeping-car to luxor, and, next day, continued their ecstatic way to the nubian frontier. here the railroad terminates, and the remainder of the journey, therefore, had to be made by river.
the dahabiyeh which they had chartered awaited them at shallal, over against phil?, just above the first cataract; and their settling in was much simplified by the fact that the local police officer, sauntering on the wharf, recognized jim, and at once put himself at their service. he had been in charge of the camel patrol which used to visit the gold mines; and jim had shown him some kindness, which now he endeavoured to return by a noisy but effective show of his authority and patronage.
the vessel was not large, the interior accommodation consisting of a white-painted saloon, a narrow passage, from which a small cabin and a bathroom led off, and a fair-sized bedroom at the stern. above their apartments was the deck, across which awnings of richly-coloured arab tenting were drawn when the ship was not under sail. in the prow were the kitchen and quarters of the native sailors.
abu simbel is a hundred and seventy miles up stream from shallal; and, sailing from silver dawn to golden sunset, and mooring each night under the jewelled indigo of the skies, the journey occupied[262] some five enchanted days. the beauty of the rugged country and their own hearts’ happiness, caused the hours to pass with the rapidity of a dream. even the heat of the powerful sun seemed to be mitigated for them by the prevalent north-west wind, which bellied out the great sail and drove the heavy prow forward so that it divided the waters into two singing waves.
now they sailed past dense and silent groves of palms backed by precipitous rocks; now they shattered the reflections of glacier-like slopes of yellow sand marked by no footprints; and now they glided into the shadow of dark and towering cliffs. sometimes a ruined and lonely temple of the days of the pharaohs would drift across the theatre of their vision; sometimes the huts of a village, built upon the shelving sides of a hill, would pass before their eyes and slide away into the distance; and sometimes across the water there would come to their ears the dreamy creaking of a sakiyeh, or water-wheel, and the song of the naked boy who drove the blindfolded oxen round and round its rickety platform.
at length in the darkness of early night they moored under the terrace of the great temple of abu simbel, and awoke at daybreak to see from the window of their cabin the four colossal statues of rameses gazing high across their little vessel towards the dawn.
these mighty figures, sixty feet and more in height, carved out of the face of the cliff, sit in a solemn row, two on each side of the doorway which leads into the vast halls excavated in the living rock. their serene eyes are fixed upon the eastern horizon,[263] their lips are a little smiling, their hands rest placidly upon their knees; and now, in the first light of morning, they loomed out of the fading shadow like cold, calm figures of destiny, knowing all that the day would bring forth and finding in that knowledge no cause for vexation.
with a simultaneous impulse jim and monimé rose from their bed, and, quickly dressing, hastened up the sandy path to the terrace of the temple, that they might see the first rays of the sun strike upon those great, unblinking eyes.
they had not long to wait. suddenly a warm flush suffused the pale, rigid faces, a flush that did not seem to be thrown from the sunrise. it was as though some internal flame of vitality had transmuted the hard rock into living flesh; it was as though the blood were coursing through the solid stone, and miraculous, monstrous life were come into being at the touch of the god of the sun. the eyes seemed to open wider, the lips to be about to open, the nostrils to dilate....
monimé clasped hold of jim’s hand. “they are going to speak,” she exclaimed. “they are going to rise up from their four thrones.”
in awe they stood, a little hop o’ my thumb and his wife, staring up out of the blue shadows of the terrace to the huge, flushed faces above them. but the miracle was quickly ended. the sun ascended from behind the eastern hills, and in its full radiance the colossal figures were once more turned to inanimate stone, to wait until to-morrow’s recurrence of that one supreme moment in which the pulse of life is vouchsafed to them.
