great simplicity and solitude, and devoted much of his time evening, when he went as usual to inspect Madame to study. Mr. Scuddamore had made his acquaintance, and Zephyrine’s movements, he was astonished to find the ap-the pair would now and then dine together frugally in a erture obscured in an odd manner on the other side, and restaurant across the street.
still more abashed when the obstacle was suddenly with-Silas Q. Scuddamore had many little vices of the more drawn and a titter of laughter reached his ears. Some of respectable order, and was not restrained by delicacy from the plaster had evidently betrayed the secret of his spy-indulging them in many rather doubtful ways. Chief among hole, and his neighbour had been returning the compliment his foibles stood curiosity. He was a born gossip; and life, in kind. Mr. Scuddamore was moved to a very acute feel-and especially those parts of it in which he had no experi-ing of annoyance; he condemned Madame Zephyrine un-ence, interested him to the degree of passion. He was a mercifully; he even blamed himself; but when he found, pert, invincible questioner, pushing his inquiries with equal next day, that she had taken no means to baulk him of his pertinacity and indiscretion; he had been observed, when favourite pastime, he continued to profit by her careless-he took a letter to the post, to weigh it in his hand, to turn ness, and gratify his idle curiosity.
it over and over, and to study the address with care; and That next day Madame Zephyrine received a long visit when he found a flaw in the partition between his room from a tall, loosely-built man of fifty or upwards, whom and Madame Zephyrine’s, instead of filling it up, he en-Silas had not hitherto seen. His tweed suit and coloured larged and improved the opening, and made use of it as a shirt, no less than his shaggy side-whiskers, identified him spy-hole on his neighbour’s affairs.
as a Britisher, and his dull grey eye affected Silas with a One day, in the end of March, his curiosity growing as it sense of cold. He kept screwing his mouth from side to was indulged, he enlarged the hole a little further, so that side and round and round during the whole colloquy, which he might command another corner of the room. That was carried on in whispers. More than once it seemed to 33
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the young New Englander as if their gestures indicated his times he was all virtue, sometimes all fire and daring; and own apartment; but the only thing definite he could gather the result of it was that, long before ten, Mr. Silas Q.
by the most scrupulous attention was this remark made by Scuddamore presented himself in unimpeachable attire at the Englishman in a somewhat higher key, as if in answer the door of the Bullier Ball Rooms, and paid his entry to some reluctance or opposition.
money with a sense of reckless devilry that was not with-
“I have studied his taste to a nicety, and I tell you again out its charm.
and again you are the only woman of the sort that I can lay It was Carnival time, and the Ball was very full and noisy.
my hands on.”
The lights and the crowd at first rather abashed our young In answer to this, Madame Zephyrine sighed, and ap-adventurer, and then, mounting to his brain with a sort of peared by a gesture to resign herself, like one yielding to intoxication, put him in possession of more than his own unqualified authority.
share of manhood. He felt ready to face the devil, and strut-That afternoon the observatory was finally blinded, a ted in the ballroom with the swagger of a cavalier. While wardrobe having been drawn in front of it upon the other he was thus parading, he became aware of Madame side; and while Silas was still lamenting over this misfor-Zephyrine and her Britisher in conference behind a pillar.
tune, which he attributed to the Britisher’s malign sugges-The cat-like spirit of eaves-dropping overcame him at once.
tion, the concierge brought him up a letter in a female hand-He stole nearer and nearer on the couple from behind, un-writing. It was conceived in French of no very rigorous til he was within earshot.
orthography, bore no signature, and in the most encourag-
“That is the man,” the Britisher was saying; “there – with ing terms invited the young American to be present in a the long blond hair – speaking to a girl in green.” certain part of the Bullier Ball at eleven o’clock that night.
Silas identified a very handsome young fellow of small Curiosity and timidity fought a long battle in his heart; some-stature, who was plainly the object of this designation.
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“It is well,” said Madame Zephyrine. “I shall do my utmost.
tion is madness. Yourself (I am glad to remember it) chose But, remember, the best of us may fail in such a matter.” your brother for this perilous service, and you are bound in
“Tut!” returned her companion; “I answer for the result.
duty to have a guard upon his conduct. He has consented Have I not chosen you from thirty? Go; but be wary of the to delay so many days in Paris; that was already an impru-Prince. I cannot think what cursed accident has brought dence, considering the character of the man he has to deal him here to-night. As if there were not a dozen balls in with; but now, when he is within eight-and-forty hours of Paris better worth his notice than this riot of students and his departure, when he is within two or three days of the counter-jumpers! See him where he sits, more like a reign-decisive trial, I ask you, is this a place for him to spend his ing Emperor at home than a Prince upon his holidays!” time? He should be in a gallery at practice; he should be Silas was again lucky. He observed a person of rather a sleeping long hours and taking moderate exercise on foot; full build, strikingly handsome, and of a very stately and cour-he should be on a rigorous diet, without white wines or teous demeanour, seated at table with another handsome brandy. Does the dog imagine we are all playing comedy?
young man, several years his junior, who addressed him with The thing is deadly earnest, Geraldine.” conspicuous deference. The name of Prince struck grate-
“I know the lad too well to interfere,” replied Colonel fully on Silas’s Republican hearing, and the aspect of the Geraldine, “and well enough not to be alarmed. He is person to whom that name was applied exercised its usual more cautious than you fancy, and of an indomitable charm upon his mind. He left Madame Zephyrine and her spirit. If it had been a woman I should not say so much, Englishman to take care of each other, and threading his but I trust the President to him and the two valets with-way through the assembly, approached the table which the out an instant’s apprehension.”
Prince and his confidant had honoured with their choice.
“I am gratified to hear you say so,” replied the Prince;
“I tell you, Geraldine,” the former was saying, “the ac-
“but my mind is not at rest. These servants are well-trained 35
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spies, and already has not this miscreant succeeded three it to carry him away without resistance. The eddy stranded times in eluding their observation and spending several him in a corner under the gallery, where his ear was imme-hours on end in private, and most likely dangerous, af-diately struck with the voice of Madame Zephyrine. She fairs? An amateur might have lost him by accident, but if was speaking in French with the young man of the blond Rudolph and Jerome were thrown off the scent, it must locks who had been pointed out by the strange Britisher have been done on purpose, and by a man who had a co-not half-an-hour before.
gent reason and exceptional resources.”
“I have a character at stake,” she said, “or I would put
“I believe the question is now one between my brother no other condition than my heart recommends. But you and myself,” replied Geraldine, with a shade of offence in have only to say so much to the porter, and he will let you his tone.
go by without a word.”
“I permit it to be so, Colonel Geraldine,” returned Prince
“But why this talk of debt?” objected her companion.
Florizel. “Perhaps, for that very reason, you should be all
“Heavens!” said she, “do you think I do not understand the more ready to accept my counsels. But enough. That my own hotel?”
girl in yellow dances well.”
And she went by, clinging affectionately to her And the talk veered into the ordinary topics of a Paris companion’s arm.
ballroom in the Carnival.
This put Silas in mind of his billet.
Silas remembered where he was, and that the hour was
“Ten minutes hence,” thought he, “and I may be walking already near at hand when he ought to be upon the scene with as beautiful a woman as that, and even better dressed of his assignation. The more he reflected the less he liked
– perhaps a real lady, possibly a woman or title.” the prospect, and as at that moment an eddy in the crowd And then he remembered the spelling, and was a little began to draw him in the direction of the door, he suffered downcast.
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“But it may have been written by her maid,” he imag-powerful that it kept head against all other motives; and ined.
although it could not decide him to advance, prevented The clock was only a few minutes from the hour, and him from definitely running away. At last the clock indi-this immediate proximity set his heart beating at a curious cated ten minutes past the hour. Young Scuddamore’s spirit and rather disagreeable speed. He reflected with relief that began to rise; he peered round the corner and saw no one he was in no way bound to put in an appearance. Virtue at the place of meeting; doubtless his unknown correspon-and cowardice were together, and he made once more for dent had wearied and gone away. He became as bold as he the door, but this time of his own accord, and battling had formerly been timid. It seemed to him that if he came against the stream of people which was now moving in a at all to the appointment, however late, he was clear from contrary direction. Perhaps this prolonged resistance weathe charge of cowardice. Nay, now he began to suspect a ried him, or perhaps he was in that frame of mind when hoax, and actually complimented himself on his shrewd-merely to continue in the same determination for a certain ness in having suspected and outmanoeuvred his mystifiers.
number of minutes produces a reaction and a different pur-So very idle a thing is a boy’s mind!
pose. Certainly, at least, he wheeled about for a third time, Armed with these reflections, he advanced boldly from and did not stop until he had found a place of concealment his corner; but he had not taken above a couple of steps within a few yards of the appointed place.
before a hand was laid upon his arm. He turned and beheld Here he went through an agony of spirit, in which he a lady cast in a very large mould and with somewhat stately several times prayed to God for help, for Silas had been features, but bearing no mark of severity in her looks.
devoutly educated. He had now not the least inclination
“I see that you are a very self-confident lady-killer,” said for the meeting; nothing kept him from flight but a silly she; “for you make yourself expected. But I was deter-fear lest he should be thought unmanly; but this was so mined to meet you. When a woman has once so far forgot-37
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ten herself as to make the first advance, she has long ago the street and number.
left behind her all considerations of petty pride.” She seemed to reflect for some minutes, with an effort of Silas was overwhelmed by the size and attractions of his mind.
correspondent and the suddenness with which she had fallen
“I see,” she said at last. “You will be faithful and obedi-upon him. But she soon set him at his ease. She was very ent, will you not?”
towardly and lenient in her behaviour; she led him on to Silas assured her eagerly of his fidelity.
make pleasantries, and then applauded him to the echo;
“To-morrow night, then,” she continued, with an encour-and in a very short time, between blandishments and a lib-aging smile, “you must remain at home all the evening; and eral exhibition of warm brandy, she had not only induced if any friends should visit you, dismiss them at once on any him to fancy himself in love, but to declare his passion with pretext that most readily presents itself. Your door is prob-the greatest vehemence.
ably shut by ten?” she asked.
“Alas!” she said; “I do not know whether I ought not to
“By eleven,” answered Silas.
deplore this moment, great as is the pleasure you give me by
“At a quarter past eleven,” pursued the lady, “leave the your words. Hitherto I was alone to suffer; now, poor boy, house. Merely cry for the door to be opened, and be sure there will be two. I am not my own mistress. I dare not ask you fall into no talk with the porter, as that might ruin you to visit me at my own house, for I am watched by jeal-everything. Go straight to the corner where the Luxem-ous eyes. Let me see,” she added; “I am older than you, bourg Gardens join the Boulevard; there you will find me although so much weaker; and while I trust in your courage waiting you. I trust you to follow my advice from point to and determination, I must employ my own knowledge of point: and remember, if you fail me in only one particular, the world for our mutual benefit. Where do you live?” you will bring the sharpest trouble on a woman whose only He told her that he lodged in a furnished hotel, and named fault is to have seen and loved you.” 38
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“I cannot see the use of all these instructions,” said Silas.
“Above all,” she added, “do not speak to the porter as
“I believe you are already beginning to treat me as a mas-you come out.”
ter,” she cried, tapping him with her fan upon the arm.
“And why?” said he. “Of all your instructions, that seems
“Patience, patience! that should come in time. A woman to me the least important.”
loves to be obeyed at first, although afterwards she finds
“You at first doubted the wisdom of some of the others, her pleasure in obeying. Do as I ask you, for Heaven’s which you now see to be very necessary,” she replied. “Be-sake, or I will answer for nothing. Indeed, now I think of lieve me, this also has its uses; in time you will see them; it,” she added, with the manner of one who has just seen and what am I to think of your affection, if you refuse me further into a difficulty, “I find a better plan of keeping such trifles at our first interview?” importunate visitors away. Tell the porter to admit no one Silas confounded himself in explanations and apologies; for you, except a person who may come that night to claim in the middle of these she looked up at the clock and clapped a debt; and speak with some feeling, as though you feared her hands together with a suppressed scream.
the interview, so that he may take your words in earnest.”
“Heavens!” she cried, “is it so late? I have not an instant
“I think you may trust me to protect myself against in-to lose. Alas, we poor women, what slaves we are! What truders,” he said, not without a little pique.
have I not risked for you already?”
“That is how I should prefer the thing arranged,” she And after repeating her directions, which she artfully com-answered coldly. “I know you men; you think nothing of a bined with caresses and the most abandoned looks, she woman’s reputation.”
bade him farewell and disappeared among the crowd.
Silas blushed and somewhat hung his head; for the scheme The whole of the next day Silas was filled with a sense of he had in view had involved a little vain-glorying before great importance; he was now sure she was a countess; his acquaintances.
and when evening came he minutely obeyed her orders and 39
Robert Louis Stevenson
was at the corner of the Luxembourg Gardens by the hour
“What the devil do you mean?” demanded Silas rudely.
appointed. No one was there. He waited nearly half-an-
“I cannot understand a word of this farrago.” hour, looking in the face of every one who passed or loi-
“The short blond young man who came for his debt,” tered near the spot; he even visited the neighbouring cor-returned the other. “Him it is I mean. Who else should it ners of the Boulevard and made a complete circuit of the be, when I had your orders to admit no one else?” garden railings; but there was no beautiful countess to throw
“Why, good God, of course he never came,” retorted herself into his arms. At last, and most reluctantly, he be-Silas.
gan to retrace his steps towards his hotel. On the way he
“I believe what I believe,” returned the porter, putting remembered the words he had heard pass between Ma-his tongue into his cheek with a most roguish air.
dame Zephyrine and the blond young man, and they gave
“You are an insolent scoundrel,” cried Silas, and, feeling him an indefinite uneasiness.
that he had made a ridiculous exhibition of asperity, and at
“It appears,” he reflected, “that every one has to tell lies the same time bewildered by a dozen alarms, he turned and to our porter.”
began to run upstairs.
He rang the bell, the door opened before him, and the
“Do you not want a light then?” cried the porter.
porter in his bed-clothes came to offer him a light.
But Silas only hurried the faster, and did not pause until
“Has he gone?” inquired the porter.
he had reached the seventh landing and stood in front of
“He? Whom do you mean?” asked Silas, somewhat his own door. There he waited a moment to recover his sharply, for he was irritated by his disappointment.
breath, assailed by the worst forebodings and almost dread-
“I did not notice him go out,” continued the porter, “but ing to enter the room.
I trust you paid him. We do not care, in this house, to have When at last he did so he was relieved to find it dark, and lodgers who cannot meet their liabilities.” to all appearance, untenanted. He drew a long breath. Here 40
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he was, home again in safety, and this should be his last It was some seconds before he could move. Then, guided folly as certainly as it had been his first. The matches stood by an instinct, he fell straight upon the matches, and keep-on a little table by the bed, and he began to grope his way ing his back towards the bed lighted a candle. As soon as in that direction. As he moved, his apprehensions grew the flame had kindled, he turned slowly round and looked upon him once more, and he was pleased, when his foot for what he feared to see. Sure enough, there was the worst encountered an obstacle, to find it nothing more alarming of his imaginations realised. The coverlid was drawn care-than a chair. At last he touched curtains. From the position fully up over the pillow, but it moulded the outline of a of the window, which was faintly visible, he knew he must human body lying motionless; and when he dashed for-be at the foot of the bed, and had only to feel his way along ward and flung aside the sheets, he beheld the blond young it in order to reach the table in question.
man whom he had seen in the Bullier Ball the night before, He lowered his hand, but what it touched was not simply his eyes open and without speculation, his face swollen a counterpane – it was a counterpane with something un-and blackened, and a thin stream of blood trickling from derneath it like the outline of a human leg. Silas withdrew his nostrils.
his arm and stood a moment petrified.
Silas uttered a long, tremulous wail, dropped the candle,
“What, what,” he thought, “can this betoken?” and fell on his knees beside the bed.
He listened intently, but there was no sound of breath-Silas was awakened from the stupor into which his tering. Once more, with a great effort, he reached out the end rible discovery had plunged him by a prolonged but dis-of his finger to the spot he had already touched; but this creet tapping at the door. It took him some seconds to time he leaped back half a yard, and stood shivering and remember his position; and when he hastened to prevent fixed with terror. There was something in his bed. What it anyone from entering it was already too late. Dr. Noel, in a was he knew not, but there was something there.
tall night-cap, carrying a lamp which lighted up his long 41
Robert Louis Stevenson
white countenance, sidling in his gait, and peering and cockAs soon as Dr. Noel perceived the dead man in the bed ing his head like some sort of bird, pushed the door slowly his face darkened; and hurrying back to the door which he open, and advanced into the middle of the room.
had left ajar, he hastily closed and double-locked it.
“I thought I heard a cry,” began the Doctor, “and fear-
“Up!” he cried, addressing Silas in strident tones; “this is ing you might be unwell I did not hesitate to offer this no time for weeping. What have you done? How came this intrusion.”
body in your room? Speak freely to one who may be help-Silas, with a flushed face and a fearful beating heart, ful. Do you imagine I would ruin you? Do you think this kept between the Doctor and the bed; but he found no piece of dead flesh on your pillow can alter in any degree voice to answer.
the sympathy with which you have inspired me? Credulous
“You are in the dark,” pursued the Doctor; “and yet you youth, the horror with which blind and unjust law regards have not even begun to prepare for rest. You will not easan action never attaches to the doer in the eyes of those ily persuade me against my own eyesight; and your face who love him; and if I saw the friend of my heart return to declares most eloquently that you require either a friend or me out of seas of blood he would be in no way changed in a physician – which is it to be? Let me feel your pulse, for my affection. Raise yourself,” he said; “good and ill are a that is often a just reporter of the heart.” chimera; there is nought in life except destiny, and how-He advanced to Silas, who still retreated before him back-ever you may be circumstanced there is one at your side wards, and sought to take him by the wrist; but the strain who will help you to the last.”
on the young American’s nerves had become too great for Thus encouraged, Silas gathered himself together, and endurance. He avoided the Doctor with a febrile move-in a broken voice, and helped out by the Doctor’s interro-ment, and, throwing himself upon the floor, burst into a gations, contrived at last to put him in possession of the flood of weeping.
facts. But the conversation between the Prince and 42
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Geraldine he altogether omitted, as he had understood little for me except the gallows?”
of its purport, and had no idea that it was in any way re-
“Youth is but a cowardly season,” returned the Doctor; lated to his own misadventure.
“and a man’s own troubles look blacker than they are. I am
“Alas!” cried Dr. Noel, “I am much abused, or you have old, and yet I never despair.”
fallen innocently into the most dangerous hands in Europe.
“Can I tell such a story to the police?” demanded Silas.
Poor boy, what a pit has been dug for your simplicity! into
“Assuredly not,” replied the Doctor. “From what I see what a deadly peril have your unwary feet been conducted!
already of the machination in which you have been involved, This man,” he said, “this Englishman, whom you twice saw, your case is desperate upon that side; and for the narrow and whom I suspect to be the soul of the contrivance, can eye of the authorities you are infallibly the guilty person.
you describe him? Was he young or old? tall or short?” And remember that we only know a portion of the plot; But Silas, who, for all his curiosity, had not a seeing eye and the same infamous contrivers have doubtless arranged in his head, was able to supply nothing but meagre gener-many other circumstances which would be elicited by a alities, which it was impossible to recognise.
police inquiry, and help to fix the guilt more certainly upon
“I would have it a piece of education in all schools!” your innocence.”
cried the Doctor angrily. “Where is the use of eyesight and
“I am then lost, indeed!” cried Silas.
articulate speech if a man cannot observe and recollect the
“I have not said so,” answered Dr. Noel “for I am a cau-features of his enemy? I, who know all the gangs of Eutious man.”
rope, might have identified him, and gained new weapons
“But look at this!” objected Silas, pointing to the body.
for your defence. Cultivate this art in future, my poor boy;
“Here is this object in my bed; not to be explained, not to you may find it of momentous service.” be disposed of, not to be regarded without horror.”
“The future!” repeated Silas. “What future is there left
“Horror?” replied the Doctor. “No. When this sort of 43
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clock has run down, it is no more to me than an ingenious addressed the young American with a smile.
piece of mechanism, to be investigated with the bistoury.
“Since I came into your room,” said he, “although my When blood is once cold and stagnant, it is no longer hu-ears and my tongue have been so busy, I have not suffered man blood; when flesh is once dead, it is no longer that my eyes to remain idle. I noted a little while ago that you flesh which we desire in our lovers and respect in our have there, in the corner, one of those monstrous construc-friends. The grace, the attraction, the terror, have all gone tions which your fellow-countrymen carry with them into from it with the animating spirit. Accustom yourself to look all quarters of the globe – in a word, a Saratoga trunk.
upon it with composure; for if my scheme is practicable Until this moment I have never been able to conceive the you will have to live some days in constant proximity to utility of these erections; but then I began to have a glim-that which now so greatly horrifies you.” mer. Whether it was for convenience in the slave trade, or
“Your scheme?” cried Silas. “What is that? Tell me speed-to obviate the results of too ready an employment of the ily, Doctor; for I have scarcely courage enough to con-bowie-knife, I cannot bring myself to decide. But one thing tinue to exist.”
I see plainly – the object of such a box is to contain a hu-Without replying, Doctor Noel turned towards the bed, man body.
and proceeded to examine the corpse.
“Surely,” cried Silas, “surely this is not a time for jesting.”
“Quite dead,” he murmured. “Yes, as I had supposed,
“Although I may express myself with some degree of pleas-the pockets empty. Yes, and the name cut off the shirt.
antry,” replied the Doctor, “the purport of my words is en-Their work has been done thoroughly and well. Fortunately, tirely serious. And the first thing we have to do, my young he is of small stature.”
friend, is to empty your coffer of all that it contains.” Silas followed these words with an extreme anxiety. At Silas, obeying the authority of Doctor Noel, put himself last the Doctor, his autopsy completed, took a chair and at his disposition. The Saratoga trunk was soon gutted of 44
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its contents, which made a considerable litter on the floor; tions were now returned upon him in kind; for the obser-and then – Silas taking the heels and the Doctor support-vatory had been once more opened, and he was conscious ing the shoulders – the body of the murdered man was of an almost continual study from Madame Zephyrine’s carried from the bed, and, after some difficulty, doubled up apartment. So distressing did this become, that he was at and inserted whole into the empty box. With an effort on last obliged to block up the spy-hole from his own side; the part of both, the lid was forced down upon this unusual and when he was thus secured from observation he spent a baggage, and the trunk was locked and corded by the considerable portion of his time in contrite tears and prayer.
Doctor’s own hand, while Silas disposed of