CHAPTER XXVI
IN SIGHT OF VICTORY
INEZ’ face as she said this was full of excellently simulated solicitude for me; but had she been aware of all I knew about Sampayo’s movements, she would certainly have chosen some other fairy tale with which to fool me.
“I am afraid some one has been misleading you,” I said drily; “unless, of course, you were present at the wedding?”
Her own instinct or my manner warned her that she had blundered. “I was—not present, Mr. Donnington.” She began the reply quickly, and the slight pause in the sentence came when she suddenly changed her mind; and the last words were spoken in a very different tone.
“When is the marriage said to have occurred? I don’t wish to question you in the dark, and will tell you that I know precisely all Major Sampayo’s recent movements. Let me suggest, therefore, that it is quite useless to fence with my questions.”
She fixed her eyes on me with a steady searching look. “Are you threatening me, Mr. Donnington?”
“I am asking you to let me see Mademoiselle Dominguez at once, madame.”
“I have told you she is with Major Sampayo’s friends.”
“You are one of those friends. Mademoiselle Dominguez is here,” I said as positively as if I knew it for a fact.
For a moment I thought she was going to give in; but her features set and she threw her head back with a toss of defiance. “You must have seen a yacht in the river for the last two days, the Rampallo. It is Major Sampayo’s; and Miralda joined him there last night.”
“The Rampallo belongs to Captain Gompez, and I passed last night on board her.”
She sat bolt upright and stared at me, every muscle and nerve strained and set, her face as white as her lace and the pupils of her weird eyes dilated with sudden fear and wonder. For several seconds she was unable to utter a word, as she realized all that must lie behind my words.
“You will now, perhaps, deem it prudent not to refuse any longer to bring Mademoiselle Dominguez here to me,” I said very meaningly.
She lowered her head with a deep sigh and sat thinking, then rose with a little shiver of fear. “I will fetch her,” she murmured and went out of the room.
I breathed a sigh of satisfaction at my victory. It was a telling proof of the strength of my hold over her and all who were leagued with her in this persecution of Miralda.
I had to wait about a quarter of an hour before she returned, bringing Miralda, who was pale and worn and nervous.
Inez did not enter the room, but closed the door, leaving us alone, as I took Miralda’s hand.
“Oh, why have you come here, Mr. Donnington?”
“To take you away. I have come straight here from your mother and am going to take you back to her.”
“I—I cannot go,” she replied, shaking her head.
“Why not?”
“If I attempt to leave here, I shall be arrested.”
“Is that the tale they have told you to keep you here?”
“It is true. Do you know what happened last night?”
“Yes, indeed; a great deal better than you or any one else in this house. I urge you to come away at once with me; and I will tell you everything that occurred.”
“I—I dare not,” she said, shrinking away from me.
“But I tell you that you have absolutely nothing to fear. You can trust me?”
“Oh yes, yes. You know that; but I—dare not go.”
It was evident that by some means they had succeeded in breaking down her nerve. “Let me urge you to come at once—just as you are.”
“Do you know that a mad attempt was made to make the king a prisoner; that it failed and has been discovered; and that all concerned in it are now in danger of their lives? I had no idea of such a shameful plot, or I would never have done what I have. There is no hope for any of us but flight; and Dr. Barosa is arranging for us to fly secretly this afternoon.”
“I know much more than that. I know why it failed. I have every reason to know, because I myself prevented the attempt.”
“You?” she cried in amazement.
“Yes, I. No one else.”
“And you knew this terrible thing and did not warn me? And yet you knew I was implicated! Oh, how could you?”
This was a point of view which had not occurred to me. She had good reason to blame me; and for the moment I was silent.
“You have no answer? If you had told me, do you think I would not have given a warning of it even at the risk of my life?” and with a despondent sigh she dropped into a chair and sat staring helplessly at the floor.
“You are forgetting that I myself prevented it.”
“Yes, but my life is now in danger. You do not understand what it is you have done. You did what you deemed best, of course; but you do not understand. They are hunting the city for us all now.”
“These people have merely told you that to frighten you. No one has been even to your house.”
“Oh, how little you understand. They are waiting because it is known that I have left there. The instant I leave here I shall be arrested.”
“Then how could you escape this afternoon?”
“Inez and Dr. Barosa have arranged that. We shall go in disguise, of course.”
“Who told you that the plot had been discovered?”
“Do you think they do not know that? M. Dagara sent them warning last night, and told them the names of those who are to be arrested.”
“Everything you tell me only confirms what I say to you—that these lies have been coined in order to frighten you. M. Dagara is not in Lisbon. He left yesterday evening. I gave him money to take him and his wife to Paris. He did not even know that the abduction had been planned; and he left the city before he could hear of its failure.”
She shook her head. “I know you think that—but I have the list of names.”
“Will you show it me?”
She took it out of the bosom of her dress and handed it me.
“The trick is obvious,” I said with a smile. “It is not his handwriting.”
“Inez made a copy for me.”
“But did not show you the original. It is a lie—the whole thing. Do try to understand it all by the light of what I tell you. Why, here on the very face of it is a proof of its falsehood. Your mother’s name is mentioned.”
“Do you think I have not seen it?” she cried, intensely moved.
“Yes, but I have come straight from her to you. If she had been listed for arrest, should I have found her at home?”
“She is left at liberty because they expect me to return to her, when we should both be arrested. That is why I have not gone home.”
“But surely you can see that that is inconsistent with the other thing they told you—that you would be taken the moment you left this house? They have put your mother’s name on this concocted list in order to frighten you, and vamped this utterly false explanation. If the police are watching your home, you can safely leave here; if, on the other hand, they know how to find you without your going home, why is not your mother already arrested?”
This made some impression. “I do not know what to think,” she murmured.
“There is another thing. If you are to run into danger the instant you leave here, it means that the police know where you are. Do you suppose that, in such a case, they would not have raided this house?”
“Inez is not on the list.”
“Another proof that the whole thing is a fabrication. If the police had such intimate knowledge of the plot that they knew of your slight connexion with it, would they not know of the leaders?”
She considered a moment. “But you yourself knew that the visconte and all of us were suspected. You told him.”
“I ascertained afterwards that I was wrong. Dagara told me.”
“But why should Inez be so false as you suggest?”
“She is instigated by Dr. Barosa.”
“And what is his motive, then?”
It was an awkward question. “I know the motive; but you may doubt the truth. Let me tell you first what has occurred. When I learnt the truth as to the abduction plot——”
“When did you learn it, and how?”
“I was present on the Rampallo when they all met there, and I overheard the whole matter discussed and settled. I then planned matters so that I should be mistaken for the king and carried off in his stead. That was done last night. I was taken to the Rampallo and was on her all the night. My own yacht followed; and this morning my people boarded the Rampallo, released me and made prisoners of every man on the yacht. Under the charge of my friend, Mr. Burroughs, the Rampallo has been sent off with the men and I came back to free you.”
“But how could that free me?”
“In one of two ways. Either by forcing Dr. Barosa to free you from all connexion with the conspiracy; or by making your pardon a condition of my handing over these men to the authorities with a full statement of what had occurred. Now, except myself and those in my confidence on the Stella, there is not a man in Lisbon, outside those in the plot, who knows the facts.”
She listened in rapt attention, sat thinking a few moments, and then put out her hand. “Can you forgive me for hesitating to go with you? I have been distracted with fear.”
“There is nothing to forgive. All I ask is that you come with me at once. You would be safer in the hands of the police than here.”
“Tell me why? And you have not explained Dr. Barosa’s object. He has been kindness itself in all this trouble.”
“He stopped you from leaving with the visconte,” I reminded her.
“There was a reason. My presence was still necessary to get the information from M. Dagara. But Dr. Barosa and Inez are going to take my mother and myself away to-day to join the visconte in Paris.”
“They will do nothing of the kind. They are false to you right through. The contesse herself is being deceived by Barosa. Sampayo is among the men on the Rampallo; and I got from him to-day the real truth why you were compelled to betroth yourself to him. It is not a pretty story, but you must hear it. He——” I stopped abruptly as Inez entered.
She was smiling, but far less collectedly than usual. “Well, have you persuaded Mr. Donnington that you must remain here, Miralda?”
“No; I am going with him, Inez.”
“You must do as you please, of course, but you know the danger.”
“I am going home.”
“You do not think we can take care of her, Mr. Donnington? What have you told her to cause this change of plan?”
“I will gladly tell you all I have said if you will accompany us. Miralda is naturally anxious to reassure her mother as soon as possible.”
“I do not wish to do so, thank you; but we shall have a minute or two while Miralda gets ready. And I wish to have a word with you privately, Mr. Donnington, after what you told me.”
“I shall be ready in a minute,” said Miralda with a smile as she went away.
“What are you going to do, Mr. Donnington?” asked Inez. “There can, of course, be only one meaning to your statement—that you were on the Rampallo last night. Are you going to betray us?” She was greatly agitated and made little attempt to conceal it.
“Not necessarily. I have no concern with your politics or plots.”
“Yet you have interfered in this?”
“For the sole purpose of making sure of Miralda’s liberty. When she has left the city, and if she is not implicated any further, and a full explanation is made in writing of the means adopted to force her to do what she has done—a statement which must also include the persecution of the rest of her family—there may be no reason why I should not keep silent.”
“May be?”
“Will be—if you prefer it put more definitely. But that statement, signed by both yourself and Dr. Barosa, must be in my hands within an hour.”
“And Major Sampayo?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I care for nothing but Miralda’s welfare in this.”
“You are a generous enemy, Mr. Donnington. There will be no difficulty in doing all you ask. May I—may I thank you?” and she held out her hand. “I have not forgotten that you saved my life, and only regret that I have been powerless to help you with Miralda until you have forced me. I hope you will bear me no malice.”
“It is not my way, I assure you.”
“Will you tell me how you learnt of last night’s plot?”
“I would rather you did not ask me.”
“Some one betrayed it to you?”
“No. But you must not press me to give you any more details.”
“But you cannot have done it alone; and you will see that for Miralda’s sake we ought to know if any traitor is amongst us. He might carry information in the future to others, and then all this would come out.”
“I repeat I do not know of any traitor in your ranks. I cannot say any more.”
“But who knows beside yourself?” she persisted.
“No one on whose silence I cannot rely as surely as you may rely upon me.”
“But, Mr. Donnington——”
“I can say no more. And now Miralda should be back.”
“I am agitated and had actually forgotten her. I will go and see what is keeping her;” and she went away.
I was now very impatient to be out of the house. I had gained all I had striven for so desperately; and there was really no solid reason why I should turn informer. If this abduction scheme was not discovered by the Government, no suspicion in any future plot would fall upon Miralda.
Her flight from the city would not be connected with any trouble of the sort; and when we reached Paris, it would be my fault if in a few hours she was not my wife.
The Sampayo complication was ended; and he would never dare to cross my path or hers again. If he did, the means of getting rid of him would still be available, so long as Prelot’s thirst for vengeance lasted.
There was Vasco. I could not see at once what to do in regard to him. But Miralda and I could discuss his future with the viscontesse. Probably the best thing would be for him to throw up his commission and join us. He had been a fool and must pay for his folly.
There was also Barosa. If Sampayo had spoken the truth about his love for Miralda, he would be mad with Inez for letting her go. It was all for the best, therefore, that he was not in the house. I might have found much more difficulty in getting Miralda away.
Yet he could not have prevented me. The weapon I held was too strong. Not only his liberty and even his life were in my hands, but those of Inez and of every one associated with him in the plot. My silence was worth infinitely more than the price I asked. At the same time I was more than glad that I had had to deal with Inez instead of him.
While I was occupied in these thoughts several minutes passed, and my impatience at Miralda’s delay in returning mounted fast and I began to grow uneasy. She had promised to be back almost at once; and had now been absent more than a quarter of as hour.
I recalled the former suspicion which had led to my remaining in the hall, and reflected that it might be best to go down there again.
Then the door opened and with a sigh of relief I turned to meet her.
But instead of Miralda, it was Dr. Barosa who entered.