santa maria.
dr. fabos leaves the yacht “white wings.”
you should know that santa maria is an island of the azores group standing at the extreme south-east of the archipelago and being some thirty-eight square miles in extent. its harbour, if such it can be called, is at villa do porto, where there is a pleasant, if puny, town, and a little colony of prosperous portuguese merchants. of anchorage for ships of considerable burden there is none worth speaking of. those who ship goods to the island send them first to the neighbouring port of st. michaels, whence they are transferred in small boats to villa do porto. the land is spoken of as very fertile and rich in wheat-growing soil. so much i learnt from the books before i visited it. that which my own eyes showed me i will here set down.
now, we had always intended to make santa maria after sundown, and it was quite dark when we espied the island’s lights, shining over the water like the lanterns of a fishing fleet. a kindly breeze blew at that time from the south-west, and little sea was running. as we drew near to the land, the silence of an unspoken curiosity fell upon the men. some whisper of talk had gone about that the “master” would land at villa do porto, and that only the japanese, okyada, would accompany him. i knew that the good fellows were itching to speak out and to say that they believed me to be little less than a madman. so much had already been intimated by honest mcshanus, and had been answered in the cabin below.
“fabos, ye have more wits than the common, and i’ll believe no fool’s tale of ye,” he had said. “good god, if your own story is true, ye’d be safer in a lion’s den than in yon menagerie of thieves. what’s to forbid the men accompanying ye? ’tis my society that may be disagreeable to ye, perhaps. faith, i want no man to insult me twice, nor will i stop in the yacht of the one who does so, though it were as big as buckingham palace and the horse guards thrown in.”
i clapped him kindly on the shoulder and told him not to be a fool. if i asked him to remain on board the white wings, that was for my safety’s sake.
“timothy,” i said, “your coat is picturesque, but i refuse to tread upon the tail of it. don’t be a choleric ass. and understand, man, that as long as the yacht stands out to sea and has my good friends aboard, i am as safe as your maiden aunt in a four-wheeled cab. let any harm come to me, and you know what you are to do. this ship will carry you straight to gibraltar, where you will deliver my letters to admiral harris and act thereafter as he shall tell you. i do not suppose that there will be the slightest necessity for anything of the kind. these people are always cowards. i have a strong card to play, and it will be played directly i go ashore. be quite easy about me, timothy. i am in no hurry to get out of this world, and if i thought that by going ashore yonder my departure would be hastened, not all the men in europe would persuade me to the course.”
“and that’s to say nothing of the other sex,” he rejoined a little savagely. “now, don’t you know that joan fordibras is ashore there?”
“i think it very unlikely, timothy.”
“ah, to blazes with the pretty face of her! when shall we have the news of you?”
“every day at sundown. let the pinnace be at the mole. if not that, stand off for a signal. we will arrange it to-morrow night. you shall come ashore and dine with me when i know how the land lies. to-night i must go alone, old friend.”
he assented with great reluctance. the men had already manned the lifeboat and were waiting for me. we lay, perhaps, a full mile from the port, and had no pilot other than the admiralty chart; but the kindness of the night befriended us, and when the half of an hour had passed, i stood safe and well in the streets of villa do porto and my japanese servant was at my side. this would have been about the hour of nine o’clock. such life as the little place can show was then at its height, and i confess not without its charm. had i been asked to describe the scene, i would have said that it reminded me not a little of the italian lakes. shrubs and trees and flowers before the houses spoke in their turn of the tropics; the air was heavy with the perfume of a southern garden; the atmosphere moist and penetrating, but always warm. knowing absolutely nothing of the place, i turned to an officer of the customs for guidance. where was the best hotel, and how did one reach it? his answer astonished me beyond all expectation.
“the best hotel, se?or,” he said, “is the villa san jorge. am i wrong in supposing that you are the englishman for whom general fordibras is waiting?”
i concealed my amazement with what skill i could, and said that i was delighted to hear that general fordibras had returned from europe. if the intimation alarmed me, i would not admit as much to myself. these people, then, knew of my movements since i had quitted dieppe? they expected me to visit santa maria! and this was as much as to say that joan fordibras had been their instrument, though whether a willing or an unconscious instrument i could not yet determine. the night would show me—the night whose unknown fortunes i had resolved to confront, let the penalty be what it might.
“i will go up to the villa at once,” i said to the customs officer. “if a carriage is to be had, let them get it ready without loss of time.”
he replied that the villa san jorge lay five miles from the town, on the slope of the one inconsiderable mountain which is the pride of the island of santa maria. it would be necessary to ride, and the general had sent horses. he trusted that i would bring my servants, as they would be no embarrassment to his household. the cordiality of the message, indeed, betrayed an anxiety which carried its own warning. i was expected at the house and my host was in a hurry. nothing could be more ominous.
“does the general have many visitors from europe?” i asked the officer.
“a great many sometimes,” was the reply; “but he is not always here, se?or. there are months together when we do not see him—so much the worse for us.”
“ah! a benefactor to the town, i see.”
“a generous, princely gentleman, excellency—and his daughter quite a little queen amongst us.”
“is she now at the villa san jorge?”
“she arrived from europe three days ago, excellency.”
i had nothing more to ask, and without the loss of a moment i delivered my dressing-bag to the negro servant who approached me in the general’s name, and mounted the horse which a smart french groom led up to me. okyada, my servant, being equally well cared for, we set off presently from the town, a little company, it may be, of a dozen men, and began to ride upward toward the mountains. a less suspicious man, one less given to remark every circumstance, however trivial, would have found the scene entirely delightful. the wild, tortuous mountain path, the clear sky above, the glittering rocks becoming peaks and domes of gold in the moonbeams, the waving torches carried by negroes, portuguese, mulattoes, men of many nationalities who sang a haunting native chant as they went—here, truly, was the mask of romance if not its true circumstance. but i had eyes rather for the men themselves, for the arms they carried, the ugly knives, the revolvers that i detected in the holsters. against what perils of that simple island life were these weapons intended? should i say that these men were assassins, and that i had been decoyed to the island to be the subject of a vulgar and grotesquely imprudent crime? i did not believe it. the anchor light of the white wings, shining across the water, stood for my salvation. these men dare not murder me, i said. i could have laughed aloud at their display of impotent force.
i say that we followed a dangerous path up the hillside; but anon this opened out somewhat, and having crossed a modern bridge of iron above a considerable chasm, the forbidding walls of which the torches showed me very plainly—having passed thereby, we found ourselves upon a plateau, the third of a mile across, perhaps, and having for its background the great peak of the mountain itself. how the land went upon the seaward side i could not make out in the darkness; but no sooner had we passed the gates than i observed the lights of a house shining very pleasantly across the park; and from the cries the men raised, the hastening paces of the horses, and the ensuing hubbub, i knew that we had reached our destination, and that this was the home of general fordibras.
five minutes later, the barking of hounds, the sudden flash of light from an open door, and a figure in the shadows gave us welcome to the villa san jorge. i dismounted from my horse and found myself face to face, not with hubert fordibras, but with his daughter joan.
she was prettily dressed in a young girl’s gown of white, but one that evidently had been built in paris. i observed that she wore no jewellery, and that her manner was as natural and simple as i might have hoped it to be. a little shyly, she told me that her father had been called to the neighbouring island of st. michaels, and might not return for three days.
“and isn’t it just awful?” she said, the american phrase coming prettily enough from her young lips. “isn’t it awful to think that i shall have to entertain you all that long while?”
i answered her that if my visit were an embarrassment, i could return to the yacht immediately—that i had come to see her father, and that my time was my own. to all of which she replied with one of those expressive and girlish gestures which had first attracted me toward her—just an imperceptible shrug of the shoulders and a pretty pout of protest.
“why, if you would like to go back, dr. fabos?——”
“don’t say so. i am only thinking of your troubles.”
“then, you do want to stay?”
“frankly, i want to stay.”
“then come right in. and pity our poor cook, who expected you an hour ago.”
“really, you should not——”
“what! starve a man who has come all the way from europe to see us?”
“well, i’ll confess to a mountain appetite, then. you can tell the general how obedient you found me.”
“you shall tell him for yourself. oh, don’t think you are going away from him in a hurry. people never do who come to the villa san jorge. they stop weeks and months. it’s just like heaven, you know—if you know what heaven is like. we have given you ‘bluebeard’s room,’ because of the cupboard in it—but you may look inside if you like. let general washington show you the way up this minute.”
“and my servant? i hope he won’t give any trouble. he’s a jap, and he lives on rice puddings. if he is in your way, don’t hesitate to say so.”
“how could he be in the way? besides, my father quite expected him.”
“he said so?”
“yes, and an irish gentleman—what was his name? the one who made love to miss aston at dieppe. she’s upstairs now, reading about the kings of ireland. the irish gentleman told her of the book. why, dr. fabos, as if you didn’t know! of course, he made love to her.”
“in an irish way, i hope. perhaps we’ll have him ashore to-morrow—though i fear he will be a disappointment. his lovemaking consists largely of quotations from his stories in pretty bits. i have heard him so often. there are at least two hundred women in the world who are the only women he has ever loved. put not your faith in timothy—at least, beg of miss aston to remember that he comes of a chivalrous but susceptible race.”
“how dare i intrude upon her dream of happiness? she has already furnished the drawing-room—in imagination, you know.”
“then let her dream that timothy has upset the lamp, and that the house is on fire.”
we laughed together at the absurdity of it, and then i followed a huge mulatto, whom she called general washington, upstairs to a room they had prepared for me. the house, as much as i could see of it, appeared to be a bungalow of considerable size, but a bungalow which splayed out at its rear into a more substantial building carrying an upper storey and many bedrooms there. my own room was furnished in excellent taste, but without display. the american fashion of a bathroom adjoining the bedroom had been followed, and not a bathroom alone, but a delightful little sitting-room completed a luxurious suite. particularly did i admire the dainty painting of the walls (little paper being used at santa maria by reason of the damp), the old english chintz curtains, and the provision of books both in the sitting and bedroom. very welcome also were the many portable electric lamps cunningly placed by the bedside and upon dainty louis xv. tables; while the fire reminded me of an english country house and of the comfort looked for there.
in such a pretty bedroom i made a hasty change, and hearing musical bells below announcing that supper was ready, i returned to the hall where joan fordibras awaited me. the dining-room of the villa san jorge had the modern characteristics which distinguished the upper chambers. there were well-known pictures here, and old sheffield plate upon the buffet. the chairs were american, and a little out of harmony with some fine spanish mahogany and a heavy persian carpet over the parquet. this jarring note, however, did not detract from the general air of comfort pervading the apartment, nor from its appearance of being the daily living room of a homely family. indeed, had one chosen to name the straight-backed miss aston for its mistress and joan fordibras for the daughter of the house, then the delusion was complete and to be welcomed. none the less could i tell myself that it might harbour at that very moment some of the greatest villains that europe had known, and that the morrow might report my own conversation to them. never for one instant could i put this thought from me. it went with me from the hall to the table. it embarrassed me while i discussed new york and paris and vienna with the “learned woman” basely called the chaperone; it touched the shoulder of my mind when joan fordibras’s eyes—those eastern languorous eyes—were turned upon me, and her child’s voice whispered some nonsense in my ears. a house of criminals and the greatest receiver in the story of crime for one of its masters! so i believed then. so, to-day, i know that the truth stood.
our talk at the table was altogether of frivolous things. not by so much as a look did mistress joan recall to me the conversation, intimate and outspoken, which had passed between us at dieppe. i might have been the veriest dreamer to remember it all—the half-expressed plea for pity on her part, the doubt upon mine. how could one believe it of this little coquette, prattling of the theatres of paris, the shops of vienna, or the famous sherry’s of new york. had we been a supper party at the savoy, the occasion could not have been celebrated with greater levity. of the people’s history, i learned absolutely nothing at all that i did not know already. they had a house on the banks of the hudson river, an apartment in paris; in london they always stayed at hotels. general fordibras was devoted to his yacht. miss aston adored jane austen, and considered the imperial theatre to be the mecca of all good american ladies. nonsense, i say, and chiefly immaterial nonsense. but two facts came to me which i cared to make a note of. the first of them dealt with joan fordibras’s departure from dieppe and her arrival at santa maria.
“my, i was cross,” she exclaimed à propos, “just to think that one might have gone on to aix!”
“then you left dieppe in a hurry?” i commented.
she replied quite unsuspectingly:
“they shot us into the yacht like an expressed trunk. i was in such a temper that i tore my lace dress all to pieces on the something or other. miss aston, she looked daggers. i don’t know just how daggers look, but she looked them. the captain said he wouldn’t have to blow the siren if she would only speak up.”
“my dear joan, whatever are you saying? captain doubleday would never so forget himself. he sent roses to my cabin directly i went on board.”
“because he wanted you to help navigate the ship, cousin. he said you were a born seaman. now, when i go back to london?——”
“are you returning this winter?” i asked with as much indifference as i could command. she shook her head sadly.
“we never know where my father is going. it’s always rush and hurry except when we are here at santa maria. and there’s no one but the parish priest to flirt with. i tried so hard when we first came here—such a funny little yellow man, just like a monkey. my heart was half broken when cousin emma cut me out.”
“cousin emma”—by whom she indicated the masculine miss aston—protested loudly for the second time, and again the talk reverted to europe. i, however, had two facts which i entered in my notebook directly i went upstairs. and this is the entry that i made:
“(1) joan fordibras left dieppe at a moment’s notice. ergo, her departure was the direct issue of my own.
“(2) the general’s yacht put out to sea, but returned when i had left. ergo, his was not the yacht which i had followed to south africa.”
these facts, i say, were entered in my book when i had said good-night to joan, and left her at the stair’s foot—a merry, childish figure, with mischief in her eyes and goodwill toward me in her words. whatever purpose had been in the general’s mind when he brought her to santa maria, she, i was convinced, knew nothing of it. to me, however, the story was as clear as though it had been written in a master book.
“they hope that i will fall in love with her and become one of them,” i said. such an idea was worthy of the men and their undertaking. i foresaw ripe fruit of it, and chiefly my own salvation and safety for some days at least.
willingly would i play a lover’s part if need be. “it should not be difficult,” i said, “to call joan fordibras my own, or to tell her those eternal stories of love and homage of which no woman has yet grown weary!”
