gertrude norcot stood under the morning light, in misery and suspense, for the appointed time had passed; all was in readiness; only her brother tarried. cecil stark had been closeted in the darkened library with relton norcot for half an hour; the man mason waited at the door; grace malherb, wild with impatience, and already frightened at the delay, asked a thousand questions, and was with difficulty prevented from leaving the drawing-room, where she waited with gertrude.
peter norcot's sister stood irresolute and fearful. that peter should be late on such a critical occasion was only to be explained by unlooked-for ill fortune. what to do she could not guess; possibility of action there was none; nor dared she speak to relton, for he had his hands full with the american. then, as she stood in the first clear sunshine of that day, came the sound of a galloping horse. it approached swiftly, and, not even waiting until the rider appeared, miss norcot, positive that her brother was close at hand, hastened into the house and bade grace malherb follow her as quickly as possible.
"at last peter has returned," she said. "he will come after us in a moment. without him we could not begin, for he is one of the witnesses of the marriage; but we may precede him now. already i hear him in the hall. hasten! and do not fear the dead darkness. it is vital to mr. cecil that no ray of light shall yet touch his eyes."
"thank god that peter is here, dear gertrude. i began to fear a thousand things. go in front and i will follow you close."
gertrude hastened behind the heavy curtains that led to the study. through successive folds of increasing gloom they appeared to penetrate; and then a door stayed their progress.
"hold my hand now," said miss norcot. "enter with me and let me shut the door quickly behind us. do not speak yet, or let him know that you are here."
"hark!" cried grace. "voices behind us—but not peter's voice! gertrude, it is father! no other man speaks so deep or roars so loud."
a great volume of sound echoed in the rear, and for a moment gertrude norcot lost her presence of mind.
"something has happened to my brother," she said. "i feel it—i know it. he would be here if he had power to be here. come quickly!"
she pushed grace into the darkened room, followed her and locked the door.
"peace," she said; "let no voice be lifted. we are in danger!"
meanwhile maurice malherb, followed by thomas putt and mark bickford, had appeared before the dwelling of peter norcot, and become witnesses to strange sights. upon one side of the building, standing at ease and evidently waiting for information from within, were sergeant bradridge and a dozen soldiers; while close at hand a barouche, with four horses and a postilion, drove slowly up and down.
sergeant bradridge saluted malherb, but received no answering compliment.
"there's devilry afoot here!" cried the master. "we'll not wait to ring bells, i only pray we're in time. 'twould match my usual fortune if the blessing that heaven sent at dawn was to be followed by a crushing catastrophe in this affair. follow close, my men, and use your weapons if occasion demands it."
he dismounted, while his blown horse, with outstretched legs, bent its head and panted hard. then, banishing ceremony, malherb entered the house, and his followers came close at his heels. gertrude norcot heard him bawl for peter as she locked the door of the study. but none answered, and for a moment norcot's sister regretted her action. she should have faced the furious father and, with an excuse, have led him from the house. she lacked her brother's intelligence and ready wit, however, and now the four waited in silence, while noises without approached and grew louder.
malherb was raving aloud and tramping through the silent house.
"i'll leave no room unsearched! the scoundrel lied to me when last i came here—or his sister and that white-faced worm her cousin, did so. come; be rough and ready. fiends and furies! what trap of curtain on curtain is this? the house is a spider's web! prime your pistols and fire 'em if any man stops you."
malherb began tearing down the black hangings that separated him from the study; bickford lent a hand. behind them came putt and his uncle, in hasty converse.
sergeant bradridge explained that he was here to capture cecil stark and take him back to the war prison; while thomas in few words told the news, and related how that peter norcot had stolen grace malherb from her home and was even now supposed to be wedding her against her will by special license.
"'tis him an' the lord archbishop against mr. malherb an' me an' bickford here; an' i'll back us," said putt; "an' if you want to make him a friend for evermore, you'd better lend a hand to catch this here peter norcot; for if i know him, the man will take a darned lot of catching. he may have scented john lee's work and be off a'ready."
"close up!" ordered malherb. "here's a locked door; but i heard voices behind it. stand by while i break it down, and help me to take him if he shows fight."
he fired his pistol into the lock of the door, blew it out, and then dashed into the pitchy darkness beyond.
he felt a woman against him, and gertrude norcot's voice was lifted.
"stand back, maurice malherb; you are doing a wicked and a dangerous thing. my brother——"
"where is he?—let him answer for himself. who are here in this egyptian darkness? grace—grace—speak! it is your father."
"dear father—oh, listen, i pray you, and try to understand. all is well—all will be well. peter has been most good and generous. he——"
"light!" shouted malherb. "who can breathe in this inky air? hold the door, putt. let no man escape while i make for the window and let in day."
"her eyes, sir!" cried cecil stark. "for heaven's sake have caution! it may mean eternal blindness for her!"
"not my eyes, dear cecil—yours, yours! oh, father, his eyes!"
"damn everybody's eyes!" roared the master. "there are foul things wriggling here—as we find under the upturned stone. but see 'em we must, to crush 'em!"
stark interposed fiercely, and the men closed in the dark.
"you shall not, sir; you know not that grace's eyes depend upon it for their recovery."
"who the deuce are you? not peter——?"
"cecil stark. i am here to marry your daughter at norcot's wish and hope."
"that yankee again! light, i say, or i shall go mad!"
the men reeled and crashed against the window.
stark lost his adversary for a moment, and malherb, feeling the curtains, tore them down, got to the shutter behind them, and by main force dragged it off its hinges and broke the bolt.
a great flood of light burst upon the room, and every eye was dazzled by the morning sunshine. cowering in one corner, clad in his black robe and bands, sat relton norcot; stark stood against malherb and turned with a cry of horror to grace as the daylight streamed upon her; while she in her turn hastened to him. the brown eyes fell upon the grey, and each saw that the other's were unharmed.
gertrude norcot spoke to malherb.
"my brother alone can solve this apparent mystery," she said. "i pray you to withhold your judgment and your passion, maurice malherb, until peter is here to speak and explain all for himself."
"i'm waiting for him. i've nothing to do with anybody else. where is he? how comes it that he is not here to marry my daughter as he intended, the knave?"
"'twas for me that he had plotted this romance," said stark. "i cannot hear his name abused. the fault is all mine. i——"
"i'll hark to you later. for the present your business is with bradridge here. this was what your admirable friend, peter norcot, had planned for you: a quick return to prince town. nothing could be better, i trow. and now, my clerk——"
he turned to where relton norcot had been sitting, but the clergyman was gone. unobserved he had slipped behind the curtains, got out of a window and disappeared.
"he's wise," said malherb. "he feels that fresh air and daylight will best serve his purpose now. we shall find him anon."
then he approached grace and took her into his arms.
"come what may, i'm in time. this is the greatest day of all my life. you shall hear about that. i could forgive the world—i could pardon all my enemies! but let those who know where norcot bides hasten to him and bring him hither. he must answer for much. and answer to me he shall before i break bread. that he should prove a knave!"
"if evil has been done," said gertrude norcot, "remember that my brother is still absent. do not wrong the absent, maurice malherb. wait until he can speak for himself. yet ill has without doubt overtaken him. nothing but sudden tribulation can have kept him from us."
her prophecy was scarcely uttered when the man mason ran past putt and entered the room without ceremony.
"come," he said; "'tis all over with 'em—both. one be dead an' t'other dying. they'm bringing 'em 'pon hurdles. keeper rowe heard gun-fire, and at last, after searching in the spinneys above an hour, he found what had failed out there. oh, my god!—all up with poor master! dead as a nail, an' drowned in his own blood by the looks of it."
they hastened out upon the terrace, there to find the soldiers and a dozen working-men crowding round two hurdles. with a bitter cry gertrude flung herself upon one, and pressed her arms about her brother. in the bosom of death he reposed; his features were ash-coloured; peace marked his countenance. upon each of his eyes the labouring men had set a penny to hide them, but the coins fell off as his sister flung herself upon norcot's corpse, and underneath, filmed with death, yet reflecting something of the vanished man himself, his blue eyeballs stared upwards through a glaze. they altered his expression and brought back to it a shadow of norcot's eternal smile.
"shot, your honour," said the keeper to mr. malherb. "the rights of it be hid, unless yonder man have got enough wind in him to tell it. us found mr. norcot wi' a hole blowed through his poor back by one of them damned spring-guns; an' t'other be shot too—through the side. doctor's coming, for i sent a lad after un; but how it all fell out us'll never know, onless this poor blid can say."
while he spoke, grace knelt by john lee, and he saw her and smiled. her arms enfolded him. he had lived to rest his head upon her breast and feel her tears flow.
"john, john—dear john; you must not die! all is well—you must live. there was something hidden. we shall never know. he said that i was blind, and he told me that my love was blind. and you knew what the mystery was. oh, if you could speak! but you mustn't try till you are strong again. rest—shut your eyes—god will never let you die, dear john."
the man spoke faintly.
"is mr. stark there?"
"here; here's my hand holding yours, lee. i know now that you were right. he is dead—but you were in the right. forgive me for doubting. your love guided you, mine only blinded me."
"i didn't kill him," whispered john. "i meant to do it; but he killed me. he was dragging me away because he thought me dead. but i had strength left—and he fell back. then a gun fired and he died. i can't tell who shot him. be you there, miss grace?"
"my arms are round you, dear john."
"he meant to wed you in the darkness. he told me so after i'd fetched the master. he told me all. now norcot's dead, for i saw him die. you're safe—quite safe."
malherb and a physician were hanging over lee, but his eyes had already grown dim and he did not perceive them. the medical man shook his head.
"only a matter of minutes," he said. "'tis wonderful that he's lived so long."
"john lee," said malherb. "you're dying, lad; you're going the road we all must go. but know that you were in time. my daughter is safe, as you say. all's out. you've done your duty, and, though the hand of god killed this man, 'twas you who were the instrument."
"you've died for us, john!" sobbed grace. her cheek sank down to his and she kissed him.
"a good way to die—some use—some use. 'tis better'n i deserve—above my highest hopes. yet often i dreamed i'd die for 'e. mr. stark?"
"i'm holding your hand, john."
"love her—love her while your heart beats."
"god knows that i will."
there was a silence, then a sigh; then malherb lowered john lee's head.
"he's gone—a truer malherb than many who bear the name. let every honest man mourn him, for his life was a pure life and his end noble. he has saved our honour; he——"
the speaker broke off and stared where grace was weeping in cecil stark's arms.
"what right have you——?" he asked.
"the right that man died for, sir. his love makes mine but pale, yet, for grace's sake and for mine, he laid down his life. i would perish for him if i could bring him back to the living; but that cannot be. therefore i will live to bless his name. i will strive to be worthy of his sacrifice."
"and you, daughter grace?"
"i was stolen from you, my darling father; and i should have been stolen for evermore but for what has happened. i love cecil and have loved him since i first saw him, so pale and weary from his struggle with the storm. you saved his life for me, father. and dear john died for us; his last gentle words——"
"i heard them as well as you," said maurice malherb slowly. "i understood them. who could not understand them? there is a solemn obligation that attaches to the last wish of any good man. i am in his debt for ever. god forgive me, for i used him ill. come hither, stark. to-day the lightning of heaven would strike me if i spoke one harsh word, or brought one pang to any human spirit. the almighty has blessed me; yet his ways are past our understanding. that you who are an american—yet—yet of english blood. and there are closer bonds even than those of country. how simple were the last words he spoke! here you stand—you two. so be it. take my girl's hand, cecil stark. and before heaven, remember what that dead man, with his last breath, said to you—'love her—love her while your heart beats.'"
