CHAPTER XVIIIA TERRIBLE REVELATION
“We must wait until Franklin comes on board,” said Leonidas Force, the next morning, as he stood beside Mr. Force, on the deck of theArgente, looking off toward the navy yard, where a boat had already been sent to bring out the young midshipman.
“Will he be punctual?” inquired Mr. Force, who was almost as impatient as his companion to be off to keep their appointment to breakfast with the ladies of their family at the hotel that morning.
“‘Punctual!’” echoed Le. “His orders are to report on board at seven this morning, and he will be here on time.”
Mr. Force took out his watch and looked at it.
“It wants twelve minutes to seven now!” he exclaimed.
“And here comes Franklin!” replied Le, as the young midshipman was seen running across the yard down to the water’s edge, where the boat waited.
As he jumped on board, the boat was seen to turn and head for the ship.
In a few minutes it had crossed the water and come up alongside.
Young Franklin sprang out and climbed up on deck.
“Two minutes to seven! You are prompt, midshipman,” said Le, smiling.
“I would rather be an hour too soon than a second too late, lieutenant,” replied the young officer, saluting.
“Quite right! Tell the coxswain to wait. He is to take this gentleman and myself ashore,” said Le.
Then he went down into his cabin, followed by Mr. Force, to make a few final preparations.
Soon they returned to the deck, went down into the boat, and headed for the shore.
When they landed, and were walking across the yard, Le asked:
“I may at last marry Odalite without let or hindrance?”
“I have told you so, lad!”
“Yes, bless you, uncle! But how soon? How soon?”
“This very day, if Odalite and her mother agree.”
“Let us walk faster, uncle! Please!” pleaded the impatient lover.
“My dear Le! Consider—consider my rheumatism! Besides, look! There is no car near the gate, and we shall pass through before one comes up.”
Le saw at once that fast walking would not bring him any sooner to the side of his sweetheart, and so he moderated his haste.
They reached the gate just as a car came up, and they entered it while the horses were being unharnessed and turned around.
“If one had but wings!” said Le.
“You would find them inconvenient on most occasions,” replied Mr. Force.
Several other passengers now entered the car, and it started on its uptown trip.
Passengers from the sidewalks, however, continued to stop the car and crowd in until it was more than full, for every seat was occupied, and all the standing room between the rows, as well as both platforms before and behind.
This was always the condition of the street cars in war times, when authorities were as careless of the lives of horses as they were of those of men.
All private conversation was rendered impossible, and Mr. Force rode on in perfect silence, half suffocated by the close air and heavily pressed upon by a crowd of men standing up in the middle, hanging on by the straps and swaying to and fro against the forms of their fellow passengers.
At last—“long last”—the ordeal was over. The toiling horses reached the corner of the street on which their hotel was situated, and Mr. Force pulled the strap to stop the car, and with his companion slowly pushed, elbowed and worked his way out of the “black hole” in the open air.
“There is one comfort in this difficulty in getting out—though our clothes are often torn and our flesh scratched or bruised in the trial—yet it gives the wretched horses a minute’s rest,” said the squire, as, followedby Le, he made his way across the pavement to the ladies’ entrance of the house.
Here a great shock met him.
The earl, pale and grave, stood in the hall waiting for him.
He bowed to Le, and then took the arm of his brother-in-law, and said:
“Come with me, Force—lieutenant, you will find the young ladies in the parlor.”
Le, surprised and vaguely uneasy, hesitated for a moment, and then ran upstairs.
“What is the meaning of this, Enderby? What has happened?” anxiously inquired the squire.
“Your wife is not well. She——”
“She is ill! She is dangerously ill! Let me go to her! Let me go to her at once!” exclaimed the terrified husband, breaking from the earl’s hold.
“No, no, I beg of you! It would be useless! She is—sleeping! Two physicians and a nurse watch beside her, and they forbid all approach for the present. Come in here with me!” said the earl, drawing his brother-in-law into the nearest room, which happened to be a temporarily untenanted private parlor.
“When did this happen? Why was I not sent for at once? What is the nature of her illness? Oh, my dear wife!” exclaimed the squire, as he fell rather than sat down upon the nearest chair.
The earl closed the door and turned the key, and then answered:
“Not an hour ago! They—Elfrida and her daughter, with Miss Hedge and myself—were in the drawing room waiting for your arrival before ordering breakfast. A servant brought in the morning paper, and Wynnette took it to read aloud for the benefit of the party. She turned first to the report of the examination of the two prisoners, Silver and Cloud, alias Stukely and Bayard,and of the demand of the British Government for their extradition upon charge of piracy and slave dealing.”
“Good Heaven!”
“The demand was said to have come through the British consul at New York, who had been on the watch for the possible capture by our ships of this same pirate ship.”
“Then old Grandiere’s word will come true!”
“Probably! But as Wynnette read I happened to look at my sister. She had grown deadly pale. I arose to go to her, but she raised her hand with a gesture of command that stopped me, and she listened to the end of the reading, and then, with her wonderful self-control—deadly pale as she was—arose to leave the room. Wynnette had not observed the change in her mother; but Odalite and Elva had done so, and both of them sprang to her side. Her attack was so sudden and unaccountable.”
“I understand! I understand!” muttered Mr. Force to himself.
“But she waved the girls back in the most peremptory manner, and went alone to her room. The children came back to me, and gazed in my face for an explanation. I could give them none. They once more started to follow their mother. But I called them back, and told them to be patient. Then the condition of little Rosemary Hedge claimed attention. She was sobbing violently on the sofa. I told my nieces to respect their mother’s wish to be left alone; that she was probably overcome by the ill news of one whom she had known from his boyhood, and that she would best recover her composure in solitude.”
“I understand! I understand!” again murmured the poor squire to himself.
“I went to Rosemary, and sought to soothe her. While I was so engaged little Elva slipped away and went upto her mother’s room, and instantly came shrieking back, telling us, in wild and incoherent exclamations, that her mother lay unconscious on the floor of her chamber.
“Gracious! Gracious heavens!” groaned the squire.
“We hurried to her assistance, all of us, even Rosemary, who forgot her own grief at this crisis. We found her on the carpet in a deep swoon.
“She lay face downward, and dressed as if for a journey. By her side lay a traveling bag, which seemed to have dropped from her hand as she fell.”
“I understand! Oh, I understand too well! too well!” muttered the squire to himself.
“We got her on the bed, and sent for a doctor. There was one in the house, who heard of the event, and came first. Then the doctor whom we had sent for arrived. They are with her now. One of them procured a professional nurse. And they are all three agreed upon one point—that no one but the doctor or nurse be allowed to enter the room.”
“But I must go to her door. I will not make the least noise; but I must go to the door and see one of the physicians,” said Mr. Force, rising.
“I will go with you,” said the earl.
The two gentlemen left the room together, and went up two flights of stairs to the floor on which was the suit of rooms occupied by the Forces.
They paused before the door of the chamber of illness, or it might be of death, and Mr. Force tapped very gently.
It was the nurse, a wholesome-looking, middle-aged woman, who answered the summons.
“I wish to see one of the physicians,” whispered Abel Force, in a voice that trembled with emotion.
The woman stepped noiselessly back into the room, and was presently succeeded by Dr. Bolten, a large, fair, bald-headed man, of about sixty years of age. Hestepped out into the passage noiselessly, closing the door behind him. Then, in a whisper, he greeted Mr. Force, with whom he had been acquainted.
“How is my wife?” he inquired, in breathless anxiety.