章节正文
his knuckles into his eyes, gave one great gasp, and was himself again.
As the clock on the mantelpiece struck one he stamped his foot on the floor,
saying:
"They've got the King!"
"Yes," said I, ""all's well!" as Black Michael's despatch said.
What a moment it must have been for him when the royal salutes
fired at Strelsau this morning! I wonder when he got the message?"
"It must have been sent in the morning," said Sapt. "They must
have sent it before news of your arrival at Strelsau reached Zenda--
I suppose it came from Zenda."
"And he's carried it about all day!" I exclaimed. "Upon my honour,
I'm not the only man who's had a trying day! What did he think, Sapt?"
"What does that matter? What does he think, lad, now?"
I rose to my feet.
"We must get back," I said, "and rouse every soldier in Strelsau.
We ought to be in pursuit of Michael before midday."
Old Sapt pulled out his pipe and carefully lit it from the candle
which guttered on the table.
"The King may be murdered while we sit here!" I urged.
Sapt smoked on for a moment in silence.
"That cursed old woman!" he broke out. "She must have attracted
their attention somehow. I see the game. They came up to kidnap
the King, and--as I say--somehow they found him. If you hadn't gone
to Strelsau, you and I and Fritz had been in heaven by now!"
"And the King?"
"Who knows where the King is now?" he asked.
"Come, let's be off!" said I; but he sat still. And suddenly
he burst into one of his grating chuckles:
"By Jove, we've shaken up Black Michael!"
"Come, come!" I repeated impatiently.
"And we'll shake him up a bit more," he added, a cunning
smile broadening on his wrinkled, weather-beaten face, and his
teeth working on an end of his grizzled moustache. "Ay, lad,
we'll go back to Strelsau. The King shall be in his capital
again tomorrow."
"The King?"
"The crowned King!"
"You're mad!" I cried.
"If we go back and tell the trick we played, what would you
give for our lives?"
"Just what they're worth," said I.
"And for the King's throne? Do you think that the nobles
and the people will enjoy being fooled as you've fooled them?
Do you think they'll love a King who was too drunk to be crowned,
and sent a servant to personate him?"
"He was drugged--and I'm no servant."
"Mine will be Black Michael's version."
He rose, came to me, and laid his hand on my shoulder.
"Lad," he said, "if you play the man, you may save the King yet.
Go back and keep his throne warm for him."
"But the duke knows--the villains he has employed know--"
"Ay, but they can't speak!" roared Sapt in grim triumph.
"We've got 'em! How can they denounce you without
denouncing themselves? "This is not the King, because we
kidnapped the King and murdered his servant." Can they say that?"
The position flashed on me. Whether Michael knew me or not,
he could not speak. Unless he produced the King, what could he do?
And if he produced the King, where was he? For a moment I was carried away
headlong; but in an instant the difficulties came strong upon me.
"I must be found out," I urged.
"Perhaps; but every hour's something. Above all, we must have a King
in Strelsau, or the city will be Michael's in four-and-twenty hours,
and what would the King's life be worth then--or his throne?
Lad, you must do it!"
"Suppose they kill the King?"
"They'll kill him, if you don't."
"Sapt, suppose they have killed the King?"
"Then, by heaven, you're as good an Elphberg as Black Michael,
and you shall reign in Ruritania! But I don't believe they have;
nor will they kill him if you're on the throne. Will they kill him,
to put you in?"
It was a wild plan--wilder even and more hopeless than the trick
we had already carried through; but as I listened to Sapt
I saw the strong points in our game. And then I was a young man
and I loved action, and I was offered such a hand in such a game
as perhaps never man played yet.
"I shall be found out," I said.
"Perhaps," said Sapt. "Come! to Strelsau! We shall be caught like rats
in a trap if we stay here."
"Sapt," I cried, "I'll try it!"
"Well played!" said he. "I hope they've left us the horses.
I'll go and see."
"We must bury that poor fellow," said I.
"No time," said Sapt.
"I'll do it."
"Hang you!" he grinned. "I make you a King, and--Well, do it.
Go and fetch him, while I look to the horses. He can't lie very deep,
but I doubt if he'll care about that. Poor little Josef! He was
an honest bit of a man."
He went out, and I went to the cellar. I raised poor Josef in
my arms and bore him into the passage and thence towards the
door of the house. Just inside I laid him down, remembering
that I must find spades for our task. At this instant Sapt came up.
"The horses are all right; there's the own brother to the one
that brought you here. But you may save yourself that job."
"I'll not go before he's buried."
"Yes, you will."
"Not I, Colonel Sapt; not for all Ruritania."
"You fool!" said he. "Come here."
He drew me to the door. The moon was sinking, but about
three hundred yards away, coming along the road from Zenda,
I made out a party of men. There were seven or eight of them;
four were on horseback and the rest were walking, and I saw
that they carried long implements, which I guessed to be
spades and mattocks, on their shoulders.
"They'll save you the trouble," said Sapt. "Come along."
He was right. The approaching party must, beyond doubt,
be Duke Michael's men, come to remove the traces of their evil work.
I hesitated no longer, but an irresistible desire seized me.
Pointing to the corpse of poor little Josef, I said to Sapt:
"Colonel, we ought to strike a blow for him!"
"You'd like to give him some company, eh! But it's too
risky work, your Majesty."
"I must have a slap at 'em," said I.
Sapt wavered.
"Well," said he, "it's not business, you know; but you've been
good boy--and if we come to grief, why, hang me, it'll save us
lot of thinking! I'll show you how to touch them."
He cautiously closed the open chink of the door.
Then we retreated through the house and made our way to
the back entrance. Here our horses were standing.
A carriage- drive swept all round the lodge.
"Revolver ready?" asked Sapt.
"No; steel for me," said I.
"Gad, you're thirsty tonight," chuckled Sapt. "So be it."
We mounted, drawing our swords, and waited silently for a
minute or two. Then we heard the tramp of men on the drive
the other side of the house. They came to a stand, and one cried:
"Now then, fetch him out!"
"Now!" whispered Sapt.
Driving the spurs into our horses, we rushed at a gallop
round the house, and in a moment we were among the ruffians.
Sapt told me afterwards that he killed a man, and I believe him;
but I saw no more of him. With a cut, I split the head of a fellow
on a brown horse, and he fell to the ground. Then I found myself
opposite a big man, and I was half conscious of another to my right.
It was too warm to stay, and with a simultaneous action
I drove my spurs into my horse again and my sword full into
the big man's breast. His bullet whizzed past my ear--
I could almost swear it touched it. I wrenched at the sword,
but it would not come, and I dropped it and galloped after Sapt,
whom I now saw about twenty yards ahead. I waved my hand
in farewell, and dropped it a second later with a yell,
for a bullet had grazed my finger and I felt the blood.
Old Sapt turned round in the saddle. Someone fired again,
but they had no rifles, and we were out of range. Sapt fell to laughing.
"That's one to me and two to you, with decent luck," said he.
"Little Josef will have company."
"Ay, they'll be a partie carree," said I. My blood was up,
and I rejoiced to have killed them.
"Well, a pleasant night's work to the rest!" said he.
"I wonder if they noticed you?"
"The big fellow did; as I stuck him I heard him cry, "The King!""
"Good! good! Oh, we'll give Black Michael some work before we've done!"
Pausing an instant, we made a bandage for my wounded finger,
which was bleeding freely and ached severely, the bone being much bruised.
Then we rode on, asking of our good horses all that was in them.
The excitement of the fight and of our great resolve died away,
and we rode in gloomy silence. Day broke clear and cold.
We found a farmer just up, and made him give us sustenance
for ourselves and our horses. I, feigning a toothache,
muffled my face closely. Then ahead again, till Strelsau
lay before us. It was eight o'clock or nearing nine,
and the gates were all open, as they always were save when
the duke's caprice or intrigues shut them. We rode in by
the same way as we had come out the evening before, all four of us--
the men and the horses--wearied and jaded. The streets were even
quieter than when we had gone: everyone was sleeping off last
night's revelry, and we met hardly a soul till we reached the
little gate of the Palace. There Sapt's old groom was waiting for us.
"Is all well, sir?" he asked.
"All's well," said Sapt, and the man, coming to me,
took my hand to kiss.
"The King's hurt!" he cried.
"It's nothing," said I, as I dismounted; "I caught my finger
in the door."
"Remember--silence!" said Sapt. "Ah! but, my good Freyler,
I do not need to tell you that!"
The old fellow shrugged his shoulders.
"All young men like to ride abroad now and again, why not the King?"
said he; and Sapt's laugh left his opinion of my motives undisturbed.
"You should always trust a man," observed Sapt, fitting the
key in the lock, "just as far as you must."
We went in and reached the dressing-room. Flinging open
the door, we saw Fritz von Tarlenheim stretched, fully dressed,
on the sofa. He seemed to have been sleeping, but our entry
woke him. He leapt to his feet, gave one glance at me, and with
a joyful cry, threw himself on his knees before me.
"Thank God, sire! thank God, you're safe!" he cried,
stretching his hand up to catch hold of mine.
I confess that I was moved. This King, whatever his faults,
made people love him. For a moment I could not bear to speak
or break the poor fellow's illusion. But tough old Sapt had
no such feeling. He slapped his hand on his thigh delightedly.
"Bravo, lad!" cried he. "We shall do!"
Fritz looked up in bewilderment. I held out my hand.
"You're wounded, sire!" he exclaimed.
"It's only a scratch," said I, "but--" I paused.
He rose to his feet with a bewildered air. Holding my hand,
he looked me up and down, and down and up. Then suddenly
he dropped my hand and reeled back.
As the clock on the mantelpiece struck one he stamped his foot on the floor,
saying:
"They've got the King!"
"Yes," said I, ""all's well!" as Black Michael's despatch said.
What a moment it must have been for him when the royal salutes
fired at Strelsau this morning! I wonder when he got the message?"
"It must have been sent in the morning," said Sapt. "They must
have sent it before news of your arrival at Strelsau reached Zenda--
I suppose it came from Zenda."
"And he's carried it about all day!" I exclaimed. "Upon my honour,
I'm not the only man who's had a trying day! What did he think, Sapt?"
"What does that matter? What does he think, lad, now?"
I rose to my feet.
"We must get back," I said, "and rouse every soldier in Strelsau.
We ought to be in pursuit of Michael before midday."
Old Sapt pulled out his pipe and carefully lit it from the candle
which guttered on the table.
"The King may be murdered while we sit here!" I urged.
Sapt smoked on for a moment in silence.
"That cursed old woman!" he broke out. "She must have attracted
their attention somehow. I see the game. They came up to kidnap
the King, and--as I say--somehow they found him. If you hadn't gone
to Strelsau, you and I and Fritz had been in heaven by now!"
"And the King?"
"Who knows where the King is now?" he asked.
"Come, let's be off!" said I; but he sat still. And suddenly
he burst into one of his grating chuckles:
"By Jove, we've shaken up Black Michael!"
"Come, come!" I repeated impatiently.
"And we'll shake him up a bit more," he added, a cunning
smile broadening on his wrinkled, weather-beaten face, and his
teeth working on an end of his grizzled moustache. "Ay, lad,
we'll go back to Strelsau. The King shall be in his capital
again tomorrow."
"The King?"
"The crowned King!"
"You're mad!" I cried.
"If we go back and tell the trick we played, what would you
give for our lives?"
"Just what they're worth," said I.
"And for the King's throne? Do you think that the nobles
and the people will enjoy being fooled as you've fooled them?
Do you think they'll love a King who was too drunk to be crowned,
and sent a servant to personate him?"
"He was drugged--and I'm no servant."
"Mine will be Black Michael's version."
He rose, came to me, and laid his hand on my shoulder.
"Lad," he said, "if you play the man, you may save the King yet.
Go back and keep his throne warm for him."
"But the duke knows--the villains he has employed know--"
"Ay, but they can't speak!" roared Sapt in grim triumph.
"We've got 'em! How can they denounce you without
denouncing themselves? "This is not the King, because we
kidnapped the King and murdered his servant." Can they say that?"
The position flashed on me. Whether Michael knew me or not,
he could not speak. Unless he produced the King, what could he do?
And if he produced the King, where was he? For a moment I was carried away
headlong; but in an instant the difficulties came strong upon me.
"I must be found out," I urged.
"Perhaps; but every hour's something. Above all, we must have a King
in Strelsau, or the city will be Michael's in four-and-twenty hours,
and what would the King's life be worth then--or his throne?
Lad, you must do it!"
"Suppose they kill the King?"
"They'll kill him, if you don't."
"Sapt, suppose they have killed the King?"
"Then, by heaven, you're as good an Elphberg as Black Michael,
and you shall reign in Ruritania! But I don't believe they have;
nor will they kill him if you're on the throne. Will they kill him,
to put you in?"
It was a wild plan--wilder even and more hopeless than the trick
we had already carried through; but as I listened to Sapt
I saw the strong points in our game. And then I was a young man
and I loved action, and I was offered such a hand in such a game
as perhaps never man played yet.
"I shall be found out," I said.
"Perhaps," said Sapt. "Come! to Strelsau! We shall be caught like rats
in a trap if we stay here."
"Sapt," I cried, "I'll try it!"
"Well played!" said he. "I hope they've left us the horses.
I'll go and see."
"We must bury that poor fellow," said I.
"No time," said Sapt.
"I'll do it."
"Hang you!" he grinned. "I make you a King, and--Well, do it.
Go and fetch him, while I look to the horses. He can't lie very deep,
but I doubt if he'll care about that. Poor little Josef! He was
an honest bit of a man."
He went out, and I went to the cellar. I raised poor Josef in
my arms and bore him into the passage and thence towards the
door of the house. Just inside I laid him down, remembering
that I must find spades for our task. At this instant Sapt came up.
"The horses are all right; there's the own brother to the one
that brought you here. But you may save yourself that job."
"I'll not go before he's buried."
"Yes, you will."
"Not I, Colonel Sapt; not for all Ruritania."
"You fool!" said he. "Come here."
He drew me to the door. The moon was sinking, but about
three hundred yards away, coming along the road from Zenda,
I made out a party of men. There were seven or eight of them;
four were on horseback and the rest were walking, and I saw
that they carried long implements, which I guessed to be
spades and mattocks, on their shoulders.
"They'll save you the trouble," said Sapt. "Come along."
He was right. The approaching party must, beyond doubt,
be Duke Michael's men, come to remove the traces of their evil work.
I hesitated no longer, but an irresistible desire seized me.
Pointing to the corpse of poor little Josef, I said to Sapt:
"Colonel, we ought to strike a blow for him!"
"You'd like to give him some company, eh! But it's too
risky work, your Majesty."
"I must have a slap at 'em," said I.
Sapt wavered.
"Well," said he, "it's not business, you know; but you've been
good boy--and if we come to grief, why, hang me, it'll save us
lot of thinking! I'll show you how to touch them."
He cautiously closed the open chink of the door.
Then we retreated through the house and made our way to
the back entrance. Here our horses were standing.
A carriage- drive swept all round the lodge.
"Revolver ready?" asked Sapt.
"No; steel for me," said I.
"Gad, you're thirsty tonight," chuckled Sapt. "So be it."
We mounted, drawing our swords, and waited silently for a
minute or two. Then we heard the tramp of men on the drive
the other side of the house. They came to a stand, and one cried:
"Now then, fetch him out!"
"Now!" whispered Sapt.
Driving the spurs into our horses, we rushed at a gallop
round the house, and in a moment we were among the ruffians.
Sapt told me afterwards that he killed a man, and I believe him;
but I saw no more of him. With a cut, I split the head of a fellow
on a brown horse, and he fell to the ground. Then I found myself
opposite a big man, and I was half conscious of another to my right.
It was too warm to stay, and with a simultaneous action
I drove my spurs into my horse again and my sword full into
the big man's breast. His bullet whizzed past my ear--
I could almost swear it touched it. I wrenched at the sword,
but it would not come, and I dropped it and galloped after Sapt,
whom I now saw about twenty yards ahead. I waved my hand
in farewell, and dropped it a second later with a yell,
for a bullet had grazed my finger and I felt the blood.
Old Sapt turned round in the saddle. Someone fired again,
but they had no rifles, and we were out of range. Sapt fell to laughing.
"That's one to me and two to you, with decent luck," said he.
"Little Josef will have company."
"Ay, they'll be a partie carree," said I. My blood was up,
and I rejoiced to have killed them.
"Well, a pleasant night's work to the rest!" said he.
"I wonder if they noticed you?"
"The big fellow did; as I stuck him I heard him cry, "The King!""
"Good! good! Oh, we'll give Black Michael some work before we've done!"
Pausing an instant, we made a bandage for my wounded finger,
which was bleeding freely and ached severely, the bone being much bruised.
Then we rode on, asking of our good horses all that was in them.
The excitement of the fight and of our great resolve died away,
and we rode in gloomy silence. Day broke clear and cold.
We found a farmer just up, and made him give us sustenance
for ourselves and our horses. I, feigning a toothache,
muffled my face closely. Then ahead again, till Strelsau
lay before us. It was eight o'clock or nearing nine,
and the gates were all open, as they always were save when
the duke's caprice or intrigues shut them. We rode in by
the same way as we had come out the evening before, all four of us--
the men and the horses--wearied and jaded. The streets were even
quieter than when we had gone: everyone was sleeping off last
night's revelry, and we met hardly a soul till we reached the
little gate of the Palace. There Sapt's old groom was waiting for us.
"Is all well, sir?" he asked.
"All's well," said Sapt, and the man, coming to me,
took my hand to kiss.
"The King's hurt!" he cried.
"It's nothing," said I, as I dismounted; "I caught my finger
in the door."
"Remember--silence!" said Sapt. "Ah! but, my good Freyler,
I do not need to tell you that!"
The old fellow shrugged his shoulders.
"All young men like to ride abroad now and again, why not the King?"
said he; and Sapt's laugh left his opinion of my motives undisturbed.
"You should always trust a man," observed Sapt, fitting the
key in the lock, "just as far as you must."
We went in and reached the dressing-room. Flinging open
the door, we saw Fritz von Tarlenheim stretched, fully dressed,
on the sofa. He seemed to have been sleeping, but our entry
woke him. He leapt to his feet, gave one glance at me, and with
a joyful cry, threw himself on his knees before me.
"Thank God, sire! thank God, you're safe!" he cried,
stretching his hand up to catch hold of mine.
I confess that I was moved. This King, whatever his faults,
made people love him. For a moment I could not bear to speak
or break the poor fellow's illusion. But tough old Sapt had
no such feeling. He slapped his hand on his thigh delightedly.
"Bravo, lad!" cried he. "We shall do!"
Fritz looked up in bewilderment. I held out my hand.
"You're wounded, sire!" he exclaimed.
"It's only a scratch," said I, "but--" I paused.
He rose to his feet with a bewildered air. Holding my hand,
he looked me up and down, and down and up. Then suddenly
he dropped my hand and reeled back.
- arrival [ə´raivəl]
n.到达；到达的人(物) (初中英语单词) - pursuit [pə´sju:t] n.追踪；追击；事务 (初中英语单词)
- shaken [´ʃeikən] shake的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
- instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词)
- cellar [´selə] n.地窑，地下室 (初中英语单词)
- thence [ðens] ad.从那里；因此 (初中英语单词)
- silently [´sailəntli] ad.寂静地；沉默地 (初中英语单词)
- conscious [´kɔnʃəs] a.意识的；自觉的 (初中英语单词)
- bullet [´bulit] n.子弹 (初中英语单词)
- farewell [feə´wel] int.再见 n.&a.告别 (初中英语单词)
- saddle [´sædl] n.鞍子 v.装鞍(于) (初中英语单词)
- freely [´fri:li] ad.自由地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
- excitement [ik´saitmənt] n.兴奋；骚动；煽动 (初中英语单词)
- resolve [ri´zɔlv] v.决心 n.决心；刚毅 (初中英语单词)
- everyone [´evriwʌn] pron.=everybody 每人 (初中英语单词)
- sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- abroad [ə´brɔ:d] ad.海外；到处；广泛 (初中英语单词)
- confess [kən´fes] vt.供认；坦白；承认 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- despatch [di´spætʃ] n.&v.发送；派遣；调度 (高中英语单词)
- repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
- throne [θrəun] n.宝座；王位 (高中英语单词)
- denounce [di´nauns] vt.指责；告发；揭发 (高中英语单词)
- hopeless [´həupləs] a.无望的，无可救药的 (高中英语单词)
- colonel [´kə:nəl] n.海(陆)军上校 (高中英语单词)
- horseback [´hɔ:sbæk] n.马背 (高中英语单词)
- cautiously [´kɔ:ʃəsli] ad.小心地；谨慎地 (高中英语单词)
- decent [´di:sənt] a.体面的，正派的 (高中英语单词)
- bandage [´bændidʒ] n.绷带 vt.用绷带包扎 (高中英语单词)
- severely [si´viəli] ad.剧烈地；严格地 (高中英语单词)
- gloomy [´glu:mi] a.昏暗的；忧郁的 (高中英语单词)
- joyful [´dʒɔifəl] a.高兴的，充满快乐的 (高中英语单词)
- illusion [i´lu:ʒən] n.幻觉；幻影；错觉 (高中英语单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- grating [´greitiŋ] n.格栅 a.刺耳的 (英语四级单词)
- irresistible [,iri´zistəbəl] a.不可抵抗的 (英语四级单词)
- corpse [kɔ:ps] n.尸体 (英语四级单词)
- drawing [´drɔ:iŋ] n.画图；制图；图样 (英语四级单词)
- fitting [´fitiŋ] a.适当的 n.试衣 (英语六级单词)
- bewilderment [bi´wildəmənt] n.为难；狼狈；迷惑 (英语六级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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