CHAPTER XIX.

THE CAPTAIN OF THE "NAIAD."

Burgo stood staring at the door without stirring for quite two minutes after the captain of the _Naiad_ had disappeared down the staircase, his brain in such a maze of stupefaction and bewilderment that more than once he caught himself saying aloud, "Yes, it is really a fact that I'm awake."

Hitherto he had only been half dressed, and he now proceeded in an automatic way to finish his toilet, after which he went on to cram and strap his portmanteau so that everything might be in readiness when the promised moment of his deliverance should have arrived.

"As my old nurse used to be so fond of remarking, it never rains but it pours," he said to himself with a philosophic shrug. "If I could only have foreseen what was going to happen, I might have spared myself all my drudgery with the file. And yet it has done me no harm. It has helped to divert my thoughts and to while away the time. Besides, had I not been seen from the yacht while at work at the window I should have been left to effect my escape alone as best I could. In any case, I shall regain my freedom twenty-four hours before I expected to do, which, circumstanced as I am, may prove an invaluable boon. As for this remarkable stranger--why he should be so eager to do me a service; why he and his fellows, if they are nothing more than peaceful yachtsmen, should be going about at midnight armed to the teeth, and why, by some means at present unknown to me, they should have forced their way into the tower for no apparent purpose except that their leader might be able to satisfy an apparently idle curiosity--are conundrums all which I should be no nearer solving at the end of a year than I am now. Let us hope that my friend with the cutlass will solve them satisfactorily before we part. He said he would be back in an hour. Will he keep his promise? Yes; I have faith in him."

When all was done that there was to do, Burgo sat down and lighted a cigarette. Now that he had nothing to distract his attention he became conscious of certain vague diffused sounds which had not obtruded them selves on him before. What he heard was like a low confused murmur of several voices, broken now and then by the clear imperative ring of one voice, as though some one were giving orders to the others. Then the murmur ceased, and he heard what seemed to him like the faint plash of muffled oars. Impelled by a vague curiosity he crossed to the window, but an unbroken pall of darkness was all that met his gaze. If the steam yacht were still at her moorings opposite the tower, she was apparently showing no light either fore or aft, which was a piece of highly culpable negligence on the part of those in command. Burgo went back to his chair more puzzled than before.

He now gave himself up to a consideration of what steps it behoved him to take first when he should have regained his liberty, and he had arrived at no clear decision on the point when he became once more aware of footsteps on the stairs. Then the captain of the _Naiad_ appeared, followed by a man carrying a mat-basket containing tools of various kinds. "I have not failed to keep my promise, Mr. Brabazon," said the captain with a nod and a smile. Then to the man, "I want you to force the lock of this door, and be as handy about it as you can."

He stood aside while the man went to work, and nothing more was said. In something less than five minutes the lock was forced, and the door flung open, whereupon the man took up his bag and went.

Then the captain strode forward into the room and grasped Burgo by the hand. "Let me be the first, Mr. Brabazon, to congratulate you on the recovery of your liberty," he said.

"It is you whom I have to thank for it. Will you not let me know to whom I am so greatly indebted?"

"To be sure I will. I was just on the point of introducing myself. My name is Felix Marchment, and, as I think I have already remarked, I am, among other things, both owner and captain of the _Naiad_. But even now that I have told you this I suppose you are still at a loss to comprehend why I should have expressed myself as being so especially glad to have met you, and still more gratified, as I undoubtedly am, that it has been in my power to render you some slight service."

"A very signal service, Mr. Marchment. But, as you observe, I am still awaiting enlightenment."

"Then you shall not wait a minute longer. But what I have to say must be said quickly, for to-night I have serious business on hand. Even now the _Naiad_ is getting up steam, and with the first streak of daylight we shall trip anchor and away."

He drew a chair up and seated himself astride it, while Burgo perched himself on a corner of the table.

"You must know, then," resumed Marchment, "that your father and mine were midshipmen together on board the _Arcturus_, and that it was young Mr. Brabazon's good fortune to save my dad's life, or my dad's good fortune to have his life saved by him; put it which way you like. Anyhow, it was a very heroic action. My dad, who couldn't swim a stroke, had fallen overboard while carrying out some orders aloft, and your dad at once plunged after him, although the water was known to be swarming with sharks, and succeeded in keeping him afloat till a boat's crew picked them both up. A few months afterwards, when the ship was paid off, the two middies parted, never to meet again. But my father, sir, was a man who never forgot an obligation--in that respect, I am sorry to say, hardly resembling the majority of his fellows--and I have often heard him express his regret that in the chances and changes of life he should have so wholly lost sight of his preserver."

"My father, Mr. Marchment, died while still quite a young man."

Marchment bowed gravely. "In that case one can understand how it was they never met again. But even when on his deathbed my father did not forget what he owed to Lieutenant Brabazon (as he had become when he last heard of him), and he laid it on me as a sacred charge that, should I ever find myself face to face with him, or any of his kin, and should it be in my power to do him, or them, a service of any kind, no matter at what cost to myself, I should not fail to do it. His words have lived in my memory, and to-day, by rare good luck, I have been enabled to repay to the son some small portion of the debt originally owing to the father."

He paused for a moment while he looked at his watch.

"And now, Mr. Brabazon, I have said my say. The door is open, and you are a free man. But before we part, tell me frankly whether there is anything more I can do for you. If there is, you may command me to the full extent of my ability. The circumstances under which I find you here are exceptional, to say the least"--this with a frank smile--"consequently, without the slightest hankering to pry into matters which do not concern me, I may perhaps be allowed to say _Me voici à votre service, cher monsieur!_"

Few people could have helped being touched by an offer so frankly and spontaneously tendered, and Burgo was not one of those few.

"Mr. Marchment, for what you have already done for me I thank you from the bottom of my heart," he said in a tone which carried conviction with it. "But whether you can help me further is another matter, and one which it will rest with yourself to determine when you have been told to what circumstances I owe my enforced detention in this place. I don't forget that your time is precious, and three or four minutes will suffice for what I have to say."

"My best attention is yours, Mr. Brabazon."

"Again, thanks. In the first place, then, you must know that Sir Everard Clinton, the owner of this tower and of the house known as Garion Keep, which stands some threescore yards away from it, and between which and it there is an underground communication, is my uncle. He came from London to the Keep several weeks ago--he and his wife, the latter being an Italian by birth and a woman half his own age. Unknown to either, I followed them, somewhat later, and took up my quarters in the village. I had very cogent reasons for believing that my uncle was being slowly done to death, and my object was to rescue him from the hands of those in whose power he was. Only by stratagem could this be effected, because the evidence in my possession was not of a kind which admitted of my invoking the aid of the law. But before I could do anything my presence in the village was discovered, and one night I was murderously set upon, struck down, and brought here in a state of unconsciousness. Here I have been ever since, and no doubt the intention was to keep me under lock and key till the last act of the tragedy should have been consummated. But a certain person came to my help, who supplied me with a couple of files and a length of rope to enable me to effect my escape by way of the window; while, by means of a stratagem, Lady Clinton was temporarily got rid of. My hope was that to-morrow night would see me at liberty, when I should at once make my way to my uncle, explain to him for what purpose I was there, and induce him to leave the Keep with me before his wife's return. That once accomplished, I felt sure we should be able to set Lady Clinton at defiance, and--and in short, my dear old uncle would have been rescued from the jaws of death."

"And you had planned to carry this out in the course of to-morrow night?"

"I had."

"Well, and now that you find yourself at liberty twenty-four hours before you expected----?"

"I shall do--or attempt to do--to-night what I should otherwise have been obliged to defer till to-morrow night."

"Can I assist you in any way to carry out your scheme?--although, as I have already remarked, the time at my command is limited."

"If you can let me have a couple of your fellows to help me while I get my uncle out of the house, I shall be grateful. There is a truculent fellow there, Lady Clinton's brother, who will be pretty sure to give some trouble, and he has a couple of ferocious brutes of dogs. Then there is Vallance, my uncle's valet, who----"

"My dear Brabazon, not another word. I will go with you myself and take four of my men, all well armed. _Allons_. We have no time to lose." He stepped to the door, and was in the act of putting a whistle to his lips when an exclamation on Burgo's part arrested him.

"Good heavens!" cried the latter as he smote his forehead with his open palm; "what can I have been thinking of? My uncle is an all but helpless invalid. Even when I shall have succeeded in getting him out of the house, what then? He is unable to walk more than a dozen yards, and at this hour of the morning, and in this lonely corner of the world there will be no possibility of obtaining a conveyance of any kind. Had it been to-morrow night I should have had my arrangements made beforehand."

His intention had been to let himself down from the window of the tower as soon as his supper had been brought him, to make his way to Crag End, enlist the services of Tyson, and through him obtain the loan of a vehicle of some kind; hurry back to the Keep, and, a little later, drive away in triumph with his uncle, with, perchance (oh, blissful possibility!), Dacia Roylance to make up a happy trio. But to-night, without any vehicle to which to transfer the sick man, with Dacia unadvised of what had happened within the last couple of hours, and with the Keep shut up back and front, and all its inmates abed, it was a wholly different matter. Burgo was utterly nonplussed.

"Then I seem to have done you an ill turn rather than a good one," said Mr. Marchment, but still quite pleasantly. "Is there no way in which I can remedy it? You can't very well stay here till to-morrow night, because my rascals have broken open the door, and been guilty of some further trifling damage downstairs, which cannot fail to be discovered in the course of the next few hours."

"No, most certainly I will stay here no longer than I can help," answered Burgo. "Instead of waiting till to-morrow night before attempting to see my uncle--when some one would have been prepared to admit me to the house unknown to the rest of the inmates--I will make a bold dash about breakfast-time to-morrow or rather, to-day, for we are now in the small hours--and try whether I can't effect my purpose by a coup de main."

Somehow, he was unable to divest himself of an uncomfortable notion that Lady Clinton might return unexpectedly at any moment, and he was determined, now the opportunity had come to him, to lose no time before making his grand attempt.

Marchment took a turn across the floor and back.

Then taking Burgo by the lapel of his coat, and looking him straight between the eyes, he said: "I suppose that neither you nor your uncle would object to a short voyage in my yacht if you and I together could succeed in getting Sir Everard clear away?"

The question almost took Burgo's breath. He stared, but for the moment words refused to come.

"I can read in your face that I have found a way out of the difficulty," laughed Marchment. "And now every minute is precious."

This time he blew his whistle, but by no means shrilly. It was responded to so promptly that Burgo could only conclude the man had been in waiting at the foot of the stairs.

"Take this portmanteau and have it put into the boat," said Marchment. Then turning to Burgo: "One last word, my dear Brabazon," he went on, with a sudden added gravity of tone and manner. "You will probably have gathered from what I have let fall already that my errand here is of a somewhat peculiar kind; indeed, I may add that it is of a very serious kind, and not without a spice of danger. But when I have told you that, I have told you as much as it is good for you to know, and as much as I am at liberty to reveal. Anything out of the ordinary which may come under your notice while you and I are together, I must ask you to see, as the children say, with your eyes shut, and to forget as quickly as possible. In acting as I have decided to do, I feel assured that I am running no risk whatever, because I am trusting myself into the hands of a man of honour, and not myself alone, but interests which are dearer to me than life. And now that we understand each other, no more need be said."

Burgo held out his hand, which the other gripped.

"My dear Marchment, you have my word of honour that whatever I may chance to see or hear while with you will be as sacred as if it were confided to the dead."

"I feel sure of it. Let us go."

As Burgo glanced for the last time round the room which had been his prison for so many days and nights, a sigh sprang involuntarily to his lips. He felt that for long to come he should revisit it in his dreams. For him it would ever be haunted with memories--some of them unspeakably precious, others very much the reverse.