She Painted her Face (7 page)

OUR SLIGHT preparations were made the following day. We bought some torches and knapsacks, and food for two days was put up. Madame Revoke was told that we were going to stay at some hunting lodge, to which her guests of the summer had two or three times repaired, and though she was some- what surprised that we should travel by night, instead of by day, Lady Caroline Virgil could do no wrong in her eyes.

For the search itself, I could not think what to take. I could hardly believe that we should have to use force; yet things which have lain undisturbed for a number of years are apt to get stiff or clogged as the case may be. In the end, after much reflection, I decided on a mallet and chisel, some oil and two measuring rules; if what we found were to show that this rather meagre equipment was not enough, we should have to withdraw-and return with the stuff we required.

That afternoon we rested, to save our energy for the work to come. And at half-past eleven that night Winter set us down at the mouth of the entrance-drive. He was not to return to Raven, but to berth the Rolls where he could In the country beyond the foothills which rose to the south of Brief; and then at dawn he would make his way over those foothills and down to the belvedere.

Half-an-hour later we saw the castle before us, a shadowy mass without form, charged on the sable field of the woods behind.

So dark was the night that had there been sentries posted about the house they could not have seen us moving five paces away, and since Caroline said that no watch was kept we followed her boldly up to the foot of the pile. Because we were shod with rubber, we made but the slightest sound, and as we came to the walls, I heard the lisp of water which might have been set playing to cover our steps.

Caroline skirted the walls, and we passed three staircase-turrets, to come to a fourth. And there she stopped before a door or postern set in its base.

I, who was next behind her, moved to her side.

"I want you to pass me," she breathed, "as soon as I've opened the door. Tum to your right up the steps, and wait till I come. I'll shut the door when you're in."

I passed the word to Brenda, who gave it to Herrick in tum. He was the last of our company.

Then Caroline used her key— but the door stayed shut.

In desperation she set her weight to the oak.

"My Heaven," she said. "It's bolted. What shall we do?"

"Somewhere close by," I whispered "Where we can talk."

She put a hand to her head. Then she nodded and made me a sign to come on.

She led us away from the turret and presently down some steps. These brought us into a garden, sunk In the slope of the ground, so that while its foot was level with the pastures to which it ran down, its head, where we stood, was twelve feet below the terrace on which the castle was built. We could here converse in safety, provided we spoke pretty low, for the sound of the water— which we could no longer hear— would absorb the hearing of anyone standing above.

"Listen," I said. There must be windows left open on a night like his. Isn't there one I can climb to?" Caroline shook her head.

"You'd break your neck," she said And if you could get in somewhere, you'd never find your way down to open to us."

"Then, what of the tower itself? Isn't there any way I can get into that? Once inside the tower, I couldn't go wrong and its door is in the courtyard, isn't it?"

Caroline shrugged her shoulders.

"There is a window," she said, "but it's heavily barred. It's on the northern side— not very high up. It's a chance In a million, but one of those bars might be loose. But why should my door be bolted? They've all spring-locks which no one could ever force."

"Your cousin's done that," said Herrick, "because he has reason to think that Max has your key. And I don't suppose be trusts Max—"

"Come," said I. "Let's go and have a look at this window. Somehow or other we've simply got to get in."

Caroline led us back to the castle wall. She turned left, and we followed her as we had come. Then she turned to the right, and we passed the mouth of the archway which led to the small courtyard; and after a little she turned to the right again.

Some thirteen feet up I made out what looked like a cage, sticking out of the wall. Straining my eyes, I counted four vertical bars, not flush with the wall, but projecting, which meant, of course, that the casement which they were guarding was made to open outwards into the air. This was so much to the good, for while a cage offers a foothold which an ordinary grating denies, its bars are more open to violence than such as pass directly from lintel to sill.

"Hopeless," said Caroline quietly. "I thought it was lower than that."

"I think I can make it," I said. "From Herrick's shoulders, of course. And if there's nothing doing, I've only to drop." I took off my knapsack and jacket and rolled up my sleeves. "Can I use a torch with safety, to look at the bars?"

Caroline nodded.

'But do be careful," she said.

Herrick spoke out of the darkness.

"I'm prepared to contribute," he said. "Be sure of that. But I'm not an acrobat. I'm willing to try and carry your fifteen stone, but as soon as you feel me going, you'd better jump. And how d'you propose to begin? Are you going to run up me or something?"

I made him take off his knapsack and stand to the wall, and I begged him to hold his peace, because if he made me laugh we might both come down. Then I turned again to my lady.

"Once I'm up there," I said, "we shan't be able to talk; yet there may be something I find that I want to say. In that case I'll drop my handkerchief. If I do that, will you climb on to Herrick's shoulders? And I'll lean down and tell you whatever it is."

"Yes, indeed. But, Richard, you will be careful? Supposing those bars aren't sound."

"I promise to test them," I said, "before I go up."

She was wearing the clothes in which I had seen her first, and she looked very slight and fragile against "the bulk of the stronghold by which we stood. I suddenly found it outrageous that she who was the Countess should be standing without her gates, hoping to force an entry like a thief in the night. And this, I think, made me determined that, somehow or other, I would break into that tower.

A moment later I was standing on Herrick's shoulders, with my chisel and a torch in my pockets and both of my hands on the bars.

These were in good condition, and when I had tried them once I drew myself up by inches until I had a foot in the cage.

Within this the window was open. If I could displace but one bar the trick would be done.

As I have said, the cage was made of four bars. All four were sunk in the stone above and below the window they were to protect, but the outer two were also tied by crossbars to the window's jambs. It was, of course, hopeless to try to move either of these, for each was held at six points; but the two middle bars were held at two points only, where top and bottom were bedded into the stone.

Holding my torch in my teeth, I inspected the four beddings carefully, one by one. There was nothing to choose between them; all were apparently sound. I put my torch away end tested the bars themselves The first was not rock-steady; the second, however, might have been a part of the tower.

Clinging to the cage like some ape, I fought to loosen the first, and when I stopped to take breath I could move it an eighth of an inch

But for the cage I could never have done what I did. As it was, I could work with freedom, and when I was tired I could rest; and this without the dragging, deadly oppression of what I will call self-support. Never at any time was I holding my own weight up.

Without the mallet the chisel was of no use, and I could not have used them together because I had to hold on. But by working the bar to and fro I gradually crushed the cement which was lying within the sockets between the bar and the stone.

After nearly half-an-hour this bedding was gone, and I could move the bar sideways a full two inches each way; but wrench it out I could not, and after a little I knew that its ends had been purposely bent— to defeat the very object I had in view. I could loosen, but I could not displace it, unless I had the strength to pull a stone from the tower.

Now the bars had been set in the wall four inches apart. By holding my bar to one side I now had a space of six inches between that bar and the next. But that was not wide enough. After a moment or two I began to try to loosen the second bar.

As well to try to shake a statue or so it seemed. As I have said, the thing was a part of the tower. But after ten frantic minutes I felt it stir.

I stopped for a moment to rip off my tie and collar and let them drop. Then I fell upon that bar, like a man possessed.

Herrick told me later that the sweat of my body kept falling as rain-water falls from a tree. If it did, I never knew it. I only knew that the tower was loosing its grip on the second bar. It did so sullenly. Twenty-five minutes went by before I had the sockets clear of cement.

If I moved the two bars I had loosened as far apart as I could I now had a space of eight inches through which to pass; but, short of displacing a bar, I could have no more, for the iron of which they were wrought was not to be bent.

I have sometimes heard said that where a man's head will enter there his body can pass. On that exacting night I proved that saying untrue. I could put my head into the cage, but, do what I would, I could not pass my body between the bars.

Heaven knows I did my best to fight my way in. My shirt was in ribbons about me, my chest and my shoulders were bleeding before I rested for breath-for, now that their chance was come, the bars showed no mercy, as I had shown them none in the hour that was past.

Breathing hard and desperate, I shook the sweat from my eyes. To be beaten by a quarter of an inch after all I had done! Such a thing was unfair and monstrous, not to be borne. And the open window mocked me— my torch had shown me the lavatory basin within, all ready for me to bathe in; the thought of the cool, running water had helped me to launch my frantic attack on the bars. And then Caroline Virgil

Since I had gained the cage I had never looked down. She was there below, in the darkness, waiting for me to bring her into her home. I had sworn to myself to do it. I had sworn that I would not look down— until I looked out of the window I could not reach.

As I turned again to the battle I heard her voice.

"Richard, Richard, I beg you—"

I saw her upturned face. She was standing on Herrick's shoulders, leaning against the wall.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"Leave it, Richard. You must. No man could do any more, but it can't be done."

It was the phrase she used that opened my eyes.

"No man could do any more." Perhaps.

But a woman could.

"Listen;" I said, "you've come In the nick of time. Can you see these bars? The two middle ones are splayed; but I can't move them farther apart, and I'm too big to get through. But you can pass easily and the window is open beyond Very well. In a minute I'm going to lean down and pick you up, but not by your hands— by your belt. Put your hands above your head, as though you were going to dive, and when you come up to the bars just wriggle your way between them and get a knee on the sill."

Without a word, she put up her hands as I said, and I disposed myself as well as I could.

Had I stayed to reflect I might not have taken the risk, for if anything had gone wrong, she might have been badly hurt. But I think I was past reflection; to see any way was to take it without a thought.

Holding fast with my left to a cross-bar, I reached my right hand down till I touched the small of her back. Then I took her by the belt of her breeches and lifted her up.

She could not have played her part better if we had rehearsed the manoeuvre a score of times. As she came to the bars, she turned sideways, her back to me, and before I knew where I was she had taken her weight.

And then it was all over, and she was within the tower— standing, looking out of the window, with her delicate hands on the sill.

For a moment we regarded one another, she as unearthly fair as I was foul.

Then:

"What can't you do?" she said quietly.

I shall never forget that moment The iron bars were between us, the bars which I could not pass. Like some beast, I was peering between them at a beauty which was not of my world. Corruption surveyed in- corruption-and found it his heart's desire.

I think it was the bars between us that showed me the startling truth. Anyway, in that instant I knew that the service I had offered was worship, and that I had been in love with the Countess from the moment, four days before, when she had lain still in the bracken, with her wonderful eyes upon mine. And in that same instant I knew that she was not for me. I had no illusions at all. The gulf between us was so great that it could not he bridged. Tradition, lineage, standing, rose up about their mistress, to look me down. And decency tapped my shoulder.

I knew as well as did she that she could never repay me for all I had lone. I had succoured her father and I had saved her life. I wanted no repayment: but that was beside the point— which was that whatever I asked she was bound to give. I use the word "bound" deliberately. Caroline Virgil drew back. To discharge a debt of honour she would have sold her soul.

"What can't you do?" she repeated.

"When you talk like that," I said hoarsely, "you make me feel rich."

Caroline smiled.

"That was the idea." she said gently. "Be careful how you get down."

I SHALL not set down in detail the search we made for the "doorway which no " one would ever find," for, for one thing, we went about it as anyone else would have done, and for another, almost the whole of our labour was thrown away. But that. I suppose, was inevitable.

There was the winding stairway, scaling the wall of the tower, and within its coils were the chambers which made the suite. From top to bottom its walls and its steps were of stone, and the flight rose without interruption, except for four landings so slight as scarce to deserve hat name.