style="font-size:15px;"> Again the Princess smiled. She looked searchingly into Tchigorsky’s face, as if she would fain read his very soul. But she saw nothing there but the dull eyes of a man who keeps his feelings behind a mask. Then, with a flirt of her fan and a more careless mocking curtsey, she turned to go.
“You are a fine antagonist,” she said; “but I do not admit yet that you are check to my king. I shall find a way. Good-night!”
She turned and plunged into the glittering crowd, and was seen no more. A strange fit of trembling came over Ravenspur as Tchigorsky led him out.
“That woman stifles me,” he said. “If she had only guessed who had been seated so near to her! Tchigorsky, you played your cards well.”
Tchigorsky smiled.
“I was glad of that opportunity,” he said. “She meant to have me murdered; but she will hesitate for a time. We have one great advantage—we know what we have to face, and she does not. The men are on the board, the cards are on the table. It is you and I against Princess Zara and the two priests of the temple of Lassa. And we play for the lives of a good and innocent family.”
“We do,” Ralph said grimly. “But why—why does this fascinating Asiatic come all those miles to destroy one by one a race that she can scarcely have heard of? Why does she do it, Tchigorsky?”
“You have not guessed who the Princess is, then?”
Tchigorsky bent down and whispered three words in Ralph’s ear. And not until Brant-street was reached had Ralph come back from his amazement to the land of speech.
IX - APRIL DAYS
The terror never lifted now from the old house. There were days and weeks when nothing happened, but the garrison did not permit itself to believe that the unseen enemy had abandoned the unequal contest.
The old people were prepared for the end which they believed to be inevitable. A settled melancholy was upon them, and it was only when they were together that anything like a sense of security prevailed. For the moment they were safe—there was always safety in numbers.
But when they parted for the night they parted as comrades on the eve of a bloody battle. They might meet again, but the chances were strong against it. For themselves they cared nothing; for the younger people, everything.
It was fortunate that the fine constitutions and strong nerves of Geoffrey and Vera and Marion kept them going. A really imaginative man or woman would have been driven mad by the awful suspense. But Geoffrey was bright and sunny; he always felt that the truth would come to light some day. And his buoyant sanguine nature reacted on the others.
Nearly a month had elapsed since the weird attempt on the life of Rupert Ravenspur; four weeks since Geoffrey’s strange experience on the cliffs; and nothing had happened. The family had lapsed once more into their ordinary mode of living; blind Ralph was back again, feeling his way about the castle as usual, silent, moody, in the habit of gliding in upon people as a snake comes through the grass.
Ralph came in to breakfast, creeping to his chair without touching anything, dropping into it as if he had fallen from the clouds. Marion, next to him, shuddered. They were quite good friends, these two, but Marion was slightly afraid of her uncle. His secret ways repelled her; he had a way of talking with his sightless eyes upturned; he seemed to understand the unspoken thoughts of others.
“What is the matter?” he asked.
Marion laughed. None of the others had come down yet.
“What should be the matter?” she replied.
“Well, you shuddered. You should be sorry for me, my dear. Some of these days I mean to tell you the story of my life. Oh, yes, it will be a story—what a story! And you will never forget it as long as you live.”
There was something uncanny in the words—a veiled threat, the suggestion of one who had waited for a full revenge, with the knowledge that the time would come. Yet the scarred face was without expression: the eyes were vacant.
“Will you not tell me now?” Marion asked softly. “I am so sorry for you.”
The sweet, thrilling sympathy would have moved a stone, but it had no effect upon Ralph. He merely caressed Marion’s slim fingers and smiled. It was significant of his extraordinary power that he found Marion’s hand without feeling for it. He was given to touch those slim fingers. And yet he never allowed Marion to kiss him.
“All in good time,” he said; “but not yet, not yet.”
Before Marion could reply, Mrs. Gordon Ravenspur came into the room. Marion seemed to divine more than see that something had happened. She jumped to her feet and crossed the room.
“Dear aunt,” she said quickly. “What is it?”
“Vera,” Mrs. Gordon replied. “She called me into her room just now saying she was feeling far from well. I had hardly got into her room before she fainted. I have never known Vera do such a thing before.”
Ralph was sitting and drumming his fingers on the table as if the subject had not the slightest interest for him. But, with the swiftness of lightning, a strange, hard, cunning expression flashed across his face and was gone. When Marion turned to him he had vanished also. It almost seemed as if he had the gift of fernseed.
“A mere passing weakness,” Marion said soothingly.
“I should like to think so,” Mrs. Gordon replied. “In normal circumstances I should think so. But not now; not now, Marion.”
Marion sighed deeply. There were times when even she was oppressed.
“I’ll go and see Vera,” she said. “I am sure there is no cause for alarm.”
Marion slipped rapidly away up the stone stairs and along the echoing corridor towards Vera’s room. She was smiling now, and she kissed her hand to the dead and gone Ravenspurs frowning upon her from the walls. Then she burst gaily into Vera’s room.
“My dear child,” she cried, “you really must not alarm us by—”
She paused suddenly. Vera, fully dressed, was seated in a chair, whilst Ralph was by her side. He seemed more alive than usual; he had been saying something to Vera that had brought the color to her face. As Marion entered he grew grave and self-contained; like a snail retreating into its shell, Marion thought. He sat down, and tattooed with his fingers on the dressing-table.
“I had no idea you had company,” Marion smiled.
“I intruded,” Ralph said gravely. There was a sardonic inflection in his voice. “Yet I flatter myself that Vera is the better for my attention.”
Marion looked swiftly from one to the other. She was puzzled. Almost flawless as she was, she had her minor weaknesses, or she had been less charming than she was, and she hated to be puzzled. Vera was no longer pale and all signs of languor had departed, yet she looked confused, and there was the trace of a blush on her cheeks.
“Sometimes
